Page 121 of Deadfall

He was so close the heat radiated off him, and I found it hard not to be suffocated by the intoxicating scent of him fresh from the shower. I shook my head to clear the surprisingly dirty thoughts that shot through my mind when I pictured him under the water.

Down girl.

“I can’t believe you two came here without a plan,” I muttered.

Seven shrugged. “We couldn’t risk losing you again.”

“And we do have a plan,” Griffin said. “If Rune doesn’t contact us by tonight, we’ll use the party as a distraction and steal a plane.”

“You know how to fly?” I asked skeptically.

Griffin shrugged. “My sister is a pilot. I know enough to get us off the ground.”

“I’m more worried about landing,” I said dryly.

“I can do that too,” Griffin smirked. “But, let’s hope Rune comes through and has a team on the way. I’d rather exfil by boat.”

He took a few bites of food, but I could tell he wanted to ask me something.

I sighed. “What?”

“You knew Octavius’ name,” he said. “You recognized it when Brooks mentioned it, and you weren’t surprised to find out you might be used as leverage. How?”

I continued to poke at my eggs. I didn’t want to get into all of that, but I also knew they needed to have the information. I pushed the nearly empty plate aside and sat back in the chair.

“He was our primary target.”

“Our?” Griffin asked. “You had a team?”

I nodded. “I formed a team to go after him—Vetticus and Albatron too, but Octavius ended up being who we focused on.”

They both stared. “For how long?”

I pursed my lips. “Five years.”

I could tell I’d shocked them. Seven stood with the spatula comically forgotten in his hand, while Griffin simply stared expressionlessly, as though he was trying to decide which question to ask next.

“What happened to your team?”

“Three years ago we moved on a location our intel said Octavius would be, but ultimately my team walked into a trap—” I kept my face carefully closed off. “Everyone was killed except me. I was thrown into the trafficking rings.”

Griffin’s eyes darkened and the tension radiating from him was dangerous. He leaned forward over the table.

“Vetticus and Albatron, I already know why you’d go after them,” he said. “What did Octavius do?”

The silence in the room was oppressive. Based on the look on both of their faces, they already had a pretty good guess.

“He drugged me,” I stated. “When I was a child and still with Vetticus.”

Griffin looked absolutely murderous, and the humorous edge Seven always had was gone. I didn’t care to elaborate and thankfully they didn’t ask me to.

“I see,” Griffin’s words were rough with rage. “And you’re going to try and kill him tonight.”

I met his stare. “I am going to kill him tonight,” I stated firmly.

“No,” Griffin said.

“No?” I echoed.