“He’s being disrespectful,” Kane said.
“For your information, and it’s none of your business, I seduced him, not the other way around. You’re pointing your guns at the wrong person.”
The men looked at one another.
“Is that true, boss?” Lucas asked.
“It f**king doesn’t matter. You all made one hell of a mistake tonight.” Mack’s voice was ice-cold. “You pulled your weapons with Jaimie in the line of fire. You want a piece of me, come get it, but before you do, holster your weapons, and you can all consider that a f**king order.”
His low tone carried throughout the warehouse, a lethal intent none of them could mistake. Silence fell. Guns disappeared.
Jaimie shivered and laid a hand on Mack’s arm, looking up at his face. His jaw was set, his eyes frozen, glittering chips. He wasn’t joking. There was no humor or amusement. The level of tension in the room went up several notches.
He moved so fast he was nearly a blur, without warning, launching into action. He went vertical, lashing out with powerful legs in a left, right leg kick, dropping the two men closest to him. Lucas and Marc went down hard, the sound sickening, indicating Mack wasn’t holding much back.
They’d all seen him like this before, usually over Jaimie, and the remaining men tried to scramble out of harm’s way. Mack was already in motion, coming back to the floor and running two steps up the wall and flipping off it, clearing a ten-foot distance, driving Kane, who had been farthest from him, to the floor.
“Mack, back off,” Javier yelled, crouching low, hands up to face the threat coming from up above. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Mack was moving across the ceiling like a spider, his speed incredible, dropping into the center of Ethan, Jacob, and Javier, his leg sweeping out in a spin, knocking them all on their butts. Javier stood up slowly, facing him, palm out as if in appeasement, but he was in a good offensive position.
“I’m going to say we deserved that, Mack, but I’m not good at this kind of discipline. Let’s go eat and call it good.”
“Apologize to Jaimie and we’ll call it good,” Mack said.
“I don’t need . . .” Jaimie trailed off when Mack shot her a look.
“Mack’s right, Jaimie,” Kane said, from the floor. “It was a dumb joke. If one of us had stumbled, you could have been hurt.”
“Killed,” Mack said. “What the hell have I been teaching you all these years?”
“How to kick the crap out of people?” Ethan muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER 11
“What did you say?” Mack demanded.
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing, boss. Nothing at all.”
The men turned and started up the stairs, some walking a little gingerly. Jaimie started after them, but Mack caught her arm, preventing her from moving.
“Where’s Paul?” he asked Kane.
“First floor with Brian.” Kane looked closer. “You’re still itching for a fight. We thought you’d be all mellow after . . .” He broke off when Mack shot him a look.
“You thought wrong.”
Kane sighed. “Brian has Paul under guard and Javier brought his computer as ordered. You want to fill me in?”
There was a small silence. Mack’s thumb slid over the inside of Jaimie’s wrist, but he didn’t look at her, simply brushed soothing strokes back and forth across sensitive skin. She wasn’t certain if he was soothing her—or him.
“Jaimie discovered a pattern with a couple of the missions you’ve been running lately, Kane. The last three you’ve been asked for by name—you and Brian.” He waited for the significance to sink in. When Kane didn’t display any reaction Mack continued. “All three missions went south. If I hadn’t had a bad feeling and sent backup, you and Brian would have been killed.”
“You think Sergeant Major buried the report we gave on Whitney.”
“And all the evidence you’d gathered,” Mack added.
Kane rolled his shoulders. “I thought we’d been targeted. That’s why I stayed away from you and didn’t talk about it. We had orders not to. You knew we were sending our reports on Whitney up the chain of command, but Brian and I talked it over after the first mission where we were ambushed and we decided to try to distance ourselves from all of you just to try to keep from dragging you into our mess.”
“That was a bullshit decision,” Mack said. “That’s not how it works.”
“For anyone but you? Everyone I care about is on this team, Mack. Same with Brian. We’re not about to put any of you in jeopardy.”
Mack sighed and threw another glance at Jaimie. “So everyone is protecting everyone else and putting themselves in the line of fire in the name of love. Great thing to do. You’re all a bunch of boneheads.”
“What would you do?”
“Exactly what we’re going to do. Remove the threat. I won’t have you or Brian sent out on a suicide mission. If Sergeant Major is protecting Whitney, then we’ll take him out.” He made the statement coldly, without passion. “He’s a dead man if he deliberately put you in harm’s way, but we’ll do it smart.”
Kane half turned.
“Kane.” Mack’s voice was low but carried a thread of menace, a wealth of command. “Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes, Top.”
The tension in the room eased. Beside her, Jaimie felt Mack’s body relax a bit, his fingers still stroking her skin. “Is Gideon keeping an eye on our terrorists?”
Kane nodded. “But he’s hungry. He said to eat fast and relieve him. I didn’t tell him Jaimie didn’t make the lasagna.” He grinned. “I didn’t want to destroy his good mood.”
“I made the sauce. You couldn’t have messed it up,” Jaimie pointed out.
“Don’t count on it, little sister. Javier had ideas.”
“You didn’t let that man touch the sauce, did you?”
“I tried to stop him,” Kane said piously. “I did, Jaimie. He whipped out that big knife of his and started cleaning his fingernails. I had to let him do whatever he wanted.”
“He wasn’t in my kitchen when he was cleaning his fingernails, was he?”
Kane leaned close, lowering his voice. “I don’t think sex works for either of you.
You should be relaxed and feeling great, not hostile and tense. Maybe you need to have a little talk with me, boss. I could give you a couple of pointers.”