Page 30 of Jonas

Thankfully, Kira took the lead. “Our first op with Z Corps was a rescue mission. During the op, Zane and Kevin were captured. By the time the rest of the team had found them, Zane had rescued himself. Let’s just say it was messy. As in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter messy, complete with Zane breaking a tooth.”

That was putting it mildly.

“I’ve heard of clawing your way free, but…chewing?”

Derrika’s blue eyes went comically wide. It was cute, but it was the way she bit the corner of her bottom lip that kept me transfixed. The way her straight, white teeth rolled her plump lip inward, drawing attention to her mouth—a mouth I had no business being mesmerized by.

“Zane’s…” Kira trailed off and smiled. “Well, he’s Zane.” She finished with a shrug refocusing on me. “Layla texted; her and Nebraska are looking deeper into Delcon’s board of directors.”

I understood why KK had directed her comment to me. Layla was at work, and feeling better. The sentiment was appreciated, but Derrika looked put off.

“I ran background checks on the board.”

“Oh no.” Kira waved a hand at Derrika. “That’s no disrespect. It’s just Garrett can and has accessed phone records and personal email accounts.”

“I’m gonna go help Coop.”

I left the women to talk tech and hacking. Neither was it my forte nor did I find it interesting. I much preferred actionable intel. But that wasn’t what had me fleeing the room like a scared doe. I still couldn’t shake my reaction to Derrika. Physically I got the attraction—she was a beautiful woman with a great smile and eyes like gemstones. But this strange need to drop to my knees and worship her bravery I didn’t understand. It was her allegiance to a stranger I couldn’t fathom. Or maybe I could, it was just I’d never been on the receiving end. My team had my back. Before he died, my brother. A woman who was not Layla or Kira? Never. Not even the woman who’d pushed me out of her womb had shown an ounce of loyalty or protection.

By the time I made my way outside, Cooper was rounding the corner with his phone up to his ear, eyes on me.

“Yeah, copy that,” he said. “I’ll run that by Jonas and Derrika, let you know.”

Jonas and Derrika.

Why did those three words together make my heart jump?

Coop wrapped up his call and launched in, “That was Linc.”

Lincoln Parker was Zane’s brother. He helped Z with the day to day operations of Z Corps. But more importantly, he kept Zane’s scorch-the-earth tactics in check.

I nodded, and Coop went on, “He thinks our best play is to stay the course.”

In other words, have Derrika go to work at Delcon tomorrow like nothing happened. I had a feeling Derrika would be on board with that plan. I, on the other hand, felt acid churning in my gut.

“Kira’s supposed to start work tomorrow,” I noted.

Cooper’s scowl was a clear indication he didn’t appreciate the reminder of that part of the plan now that we’d been shot at on the street and Derrika and I had been taken.

“They called her Miss Hart,” I went on. “Until the team breaks⁠—”

The sliding glass door opening stopped the rest of my thought. But the look of concern coming from Kira made my pulse jump.

“What’s wrong?” Cooper beat me to asking.

“You need to come inside and see.”

With that ominous direction, she left the door open but didn’t wait for us to follow.

Cooper rushed to trail his wife. I was on his heels, and only paused to shut and lock the door. When I made it into the living room, the TV was on, a ‘breaking news’ banner scrolling at the bottom of the live broadcast.

“Fuck,” Cooper murmured.

Fuck didn’t begin to cover the footage of a bridge collapse in the Baltimore Harbor.

“Please tell me there was an issue with the structural integrity.”

The video panned wide to show live video of a cargo ship’s bow under a pile of mangled bridge truss.