Page 14 of Fighting for Valor
The sound of chimes wakes me from a deep sleep. Next to me, Evianna calls out on a yawn, “Alfie, show the front door.”
Her home security system—the one she designed, built, and launched just a few days ago—lights up, but all I can see through my damaged eyes is a dull glow. A second later, she sits up, and her fingers curl around my arm. “Dax. It’s Ryker and Wren. They’re outside. Here.”
For a moment, her words don’t register. And then, it’s like someone shot electricity through my entire body. I’m on my feet, fumbling around for my pajama pants, until I remember I’m not at my apartment. I’m at Evianna’s house—where we’ve been living for the past ten days—and I’m still a little iffy about where everything is.
“Dax. Stop.” Her footsteps make the wood floors creak as she rounds the bed, and I still. “Pants,” she says softly as she drapes the material over my hands. “And a black t-shirt. I’ll let them in. Your cane’s downstairs, and I’ll bring it up—”
“I can make it to the living room,” I grit out.
With a little huff, she heads for the bedroom door. “If you fall down the stairs, I’m going to be really pissed off.”
“Darlin’, wait.” Regret roughens my tone, and I pull on the pants and shirt, then hold out my hand. “You’re right. I need…help.” I’m not steady. Neither is she. With her holding my elbow, I can feel the slight tremble in her fingers. “What time is it?”
“Six-thirty-three. It’s barely light out.” At the bottom of the stairs, she guides me to the right, enters a ten-digit code, then flips the locks.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as soon as Ry and Wren’s diffuse, hazy forms are silhouetted in the pre-dawn glow from the street lights.
“Snackcakes,” Wren mutters. “You didn’t call him, did you?” Ryker grunts what might be a no, and I think Wren elbows him as she huffs. “Dax, I’m sorry. I should have…I don’t know. Fudgsicles. Can we…uh…come in?”
Manners, Holloway. Remember ‘em.
“Yeah. It’s fine…I mean…don’t apologize.” Though I dislike being touched, I reach out, and she wraps her arms around me for a quick hug. Ry’s stiffer, sidling past me without so much as a ‘morning.
The women embrace as I shut the door, exchanging apologies for the early hour and not being dressed flowing between the two as Evianna leads us all into the kitchen. “Just let me start the coffee, okay?” she asks with a squeeze to my fingers.
Whatever Ry’s doing here, it’s bad. I just talked to the man a little over a day ago. Ford and Joey got back last night, so I know they’re safe. I need something to do, but it’s not that big of a kitchen. I can at least find the mugs, and I carry four to the table, setting them down with only a hint of a clatter.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I try to think. “We have…uh…”
“Nothing,” Evianna answers. The coffee starts to percolate, and she slides into the chair next to me and links our fingers. “Unless you consider Honey Nut Cheerios suitable for guests?”
“Coffee’s fine,” Ryker says.
No one says a word for several minutes, but Wren pulls out her laptop, and I can hear her typing furiously. When the drip, drip, drip of the coffee slows, Evianna brings the pot to the table and fills the mugs.
“Do you have any honey?” Wren asks.
I can feel the tension rolling off Ryker, and after Evianna slides the bottle of honey in front of Wren, he rubs his hand over his bald head, then clears his throat. “We found something in Abdul Faruk’s finances.”
“Something important enough to show up at Evi—our—house before sunrise?” I asked her to marry me a week ago, and though we haven’t talked about a wedding yet, if things work out, we’ll get married next to Ry and Wren at the end of the year. But it still feels odd to refer to this as our place.
“Yeah. How much did Ford tell you?” Ry leans forward, his massive presence dominating the room. I’m tall, but he’s the biggest motherfucker I’ve ever seen…or had ever seen before I lost my sight.
“I got a text message from him when he got in last night. He and Joey are at his place, safe. Trevor’s back too. Nomar, the spook he knows who worked the Uzbeck theater, is stuck in a hospital in Turkey for another couple of days.”
Where’s this going?
I find Evianna’s hand under the table and run my thumb over her engagement ring. She calms me. Centers me. Helps quiet my demons. And at the moment, those demons are trying to bring down the entire fucking house.
“They had help escaping Faruk’s compound,” Wren says. “Trevor sent me all of the footage from his and Nomar’s bodycams, and I spent yesterday afternoon digging into Faruk’s finances. He has dozens of offshore accounts, and untangling all the transactions, sources and destinations…it was driving me bonkers.”
“You?” Wren’s the best hacker I’ve ever met, and she routinely has to delve into complex financial data for our clients. Bonkers is extreme for her.
“There was this code…”
Ry finishes her sentence, “At the end of every transaction. A code that didn’t need to be there.”
“Are you going to get to the fucking point?” My headache’s already started, and it’s not even 7:00 a.m. “Or is this just a really long-winded story so I won’t kick your ass for waking us up—”
