Doubling Down by Cari Z. & L.A. Witt

Author:Cari Z. & L.A. Witt
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781082204999
Publisher: Independently published
Published: 2019-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Rich

I couldn’t remember ever feeling this much tension with my Marines. Sitting around Smitty’s game room, exchanging unreadable looks, we may as well have been an alley full of cats waiting for one to hiss so we could all start spitting and yowling again.

At least the arguing had stopped for the moment. We’d come back from checking the property’s perimeter, and for the last hour, we’d been balls deep in one of the biggest shouting matches we’d ever had as a team. Everyone was freaked out over the Grimaldis knowing where we were, pissed off that Leo had made contact with Gianna, and livid over now having Gianna—an unknown we all instinctively distrusted—in the silo with us. And there was that tiny detail about the money someone had moved in what appeared to be paying off a bribe, because that didn’t make us all paranoid. Maybe it was unrelated to our situation. There was no way to tell at this point, and none of us liked unknowns. We were cornered, outnumbered, possibly outgunned (though with this bunch, that would be a hell of a feat), and really, really fucking tired of surprises.

Predictably, the end result was some incredibly cranky Marines.

We’d run out of steam a few minutes ago. My throat was raw from trying to shout over Sarge before JD and Dallas had stepped in between us. Then JD and Sarge had gone at it, and Smitty and Dallas had gotten involved, and then I’d jumped back in, and… At some point, everyone had stepped back and let the dust settle. This wasn’t over by any means, but maybe we’d gotten enough out of our system that we could start talking strategy.

It was Bleeder who finally broke the standoff, his voice calm as he said, “Guys, I think we’re missing a pretty big point here.”

Everyone turned to him, and his eyes flicked from one of us to the next.

“Yeah?” Sarge’s patience was hanging by a thread. “What point is that?”

Bleeder inhaled slowly. “Gianna’s story lines up with Leo’s. Maybe they had a cover story. I don’t know. But we need to consider that they didn’t, and that they’re not lying.” He put up a hand before I’d even realized Sarge was about to cut him off. “I’m not done.”

Sarge closed his mouth, and his jaw worked as he waited for Bleeder to go on.

“If,” Bleeder went on, “those two are telling the truth, then how the fuck did the Grimaldis find us?”

“Exactly the point,” Sarge snapped. “They couldn’t have found us, so—”

“But they did,” Smitty said. “Don’t get me wrong—I ain’t ready to let Leo off the hook, but we need to consider all angles. And until we’re absolutely sure Leo gave us away by contacting Gianna, we need to consider that Gianna did find us by following Grimaldi’s men. If she did, then that means Grimaldi’s men knew where to find us.”

“And that they still do,” I said. “Whether they paid someone for that information or not, they obviously have it now.

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