Soldier For Hire. Kimberly Van Meter

shit about that day—and they’d lock him up tight.

      The people wanted a head on a spike for what’d happened in Tulsa.

      And someone had already prepared Xander’s skull for the presentation.

      His eyelids started to drag, his head to bob.

      First thing tomorrow, he’d...

      And he was out.

      The team stared, some frowning, some bewildered.

      Zak was the first to break the stunned silence. “No. You’re not going alone. We’re coming with you.”

      Scarlett hadn’t slept at all last night. She knew what she needed to do, and she didn’t want anyone else to end up as collateral damage if things went south.

      She’d spent the night trying to talk her way out of this one decision but by morning, she’d known there was only one way this situation could go down.

      “Look, here’s the situation. I can move faster without a detail slowing me down. Xander is on a ticking clock. If we don’t bring him in, the FBI will take over and any chance Xander has of beating this will disappear.”

      Zak narrowed his gaze. “You believe he’s innocent.”

      “I don’t know that,” Scarlett said, shaking her head. “But there are questions that I can’t answer and my gut is saying... Hell, I don’t know but I can’t let someone else bring Xander in. If he’s guilty, I need to be the one who brings him in. He’s one of our own.”

      “All the more reason why we should help.”

      “I need you back at headquarters being my eyes and ears. You’re going to need to run interference if too much attention swivels Xander’s way. Trust me, this is going to be a bitch for everyone involved but I can’t deny that something doesn’t feel right.”

      It took a lot to admit that to her team when she’d been the most adamant that they weren’t there to uncover any hidden truths about the case.

      She’d learned a long time ago that ignoring her gut was a bad idea, which meant she was about to do something either really stupid or really dangerous—either one would probably kill her career or put her in the ground but she knew it was the right decision.

      However, she wasn’t going to put her team at risk. “I don’t need any of you in the direct line of fire. If Xander is right and someone is framing him, that means we could have a snake in our home. If Xander is lying and he’s just trying to save his ass, I need to be the one to bring him down.”

      “That’s what I’m talking about, let’s shake out the traitor,” CJ said with a gleeful smile because CJ was a little crazy. “Holyyy shit, I’m ready.”

      Zak cast CJ a warning look before returning to Scarlett. “We need a timeframe. How long?”

      “FBI is going to start sniffing around after a week. If I haven’t found him by then, there’s nothing else we can do. But until then, you’ve got my six here at HQ. No communication through our regular phones. We’ll use burners for any intel on this mission. Any questions?”

      Laird piped in. “Yeah, what happens if he’s actually guilty?”

      Scarlett allowed a grim smile. “Then, I’ll do what I do best... Bring the asshole down.”

      “Simmer down. He’s not guilty,” Zak said to Laird, then to Scarlett, “I don’t like it. You need backup. Anything could go wrong.”

      “Xander isn’t going to hurt me.”

      “Well, he did nearly crush your skull,” CJ pointed out with a shrug. “I mean, that was pretty savage.”

      “He didn’t nearly crush my skull, CJ. He knocked me out to gain time to get away. It was my stupid mistake to let him get the tactical advantage. I swear, I’ll never live this down.”

      The team chuckled in spite of the serious situation but that was their MO. Make jokes before heading into a screwed-up situation.

      “Fine. I don’t like it but I see your plan,” Zak said, sighing as he straightened. “We’ll get burners and hold down the fort, make it look like business as usual.”

      “Good.” Scarlett released a pent-up breath, relieved. With Zak on board, he’d get the rest of the team in line. “So, from now on, this mission is locked down, eyes only. Code name Double Down.”

      CJ grinned. “Yeah baby, ’cuz it’s all or nothing in this game.”

      “Exactly,” Scarlett said, nodding. “Any questions?”

      “Yeah, are you sure you can handle Xander if he’s guilty? I mean, I’m the last person to even want to think that it’s possible, but we’ve all seen people we trust go bad for whatever reasons. I love the guy, I do. But Xander has always been a wild card,” Laird said.

      Laird was right. They’d all seen the ugly side of humanity at one point or another because combat situations were hell and greed was an insidious evil. But there was something in her gut that told her Xander wouldn’t hurt her.

      Even if he was guilty. “I can handle Xander,” she assured Laird but she hoped to God her intuition wasn’t wrong. She was putting her career and her life on the line for the dipshit and he’d better be straight about the facts or she’d happily throat punch him.

      Plan in place, they broke off like a well-oiled machine. Scarlett had been the TL for this team for three years. She knew them well and trusted them more.

      Even Xander.

      Trust was a funny thing, though. Either it was strong as steel or fragile as glass, but you never knew how well it was going to hold up until tested.

      Well, she was about to find out if she was standing on steel or falling through glass.

       Time to double down, baby.

       Chapter 4

      Xander knew concussion protocol would require Scarlett go through bureaucratic hoops to ensure her brain was okay after he’d knocked her out, which meant he had a finite amount of time to put some distance between them.

      He had to get to Tulsa, back to the scene of the crime, to see if anything jogged his memory about that day. Thank God, he had a duffel of cash; otherwise, he’d be driving nineteen hours instead of taking a four-hour flight.

      Admittedly, he was taking a risk flying, even with a fake ID, mostly because Scarlett knew his aliases and once she was cleared for duty she’d find his destination pretty quick, but he didn’t have the luxury of taking things safe.

      He had to hope that Scarlett didn’t tell those bureaucrats to shove it and hop back on his tail like the maniac she was.

      God, that woman... If she weren’t so damn hot, he’d say she was crazier than him.

      Not his kind of crazy—no, Scarlett was more controlled—but still, you couldn’t lead a Red Wolf team without being a little left of center. None of them were right in the head, which was how they were able to do the jobs they were assigned without batting an eye.

      But it also made believing that he could blow up a bunch of civilians to get to one politician totally plausible.

      Hell, no one was looking twice at that story.

      Messed up vet with a checkered past and a previously unknown prescription drug addiction—yeah, he knew just how perfect he was for this frame job but it pissed him off that Scarlett was playing into the game.

      She knew him.

      She, of all people, should’ve been able to see through that smoke screen and then he wouldn’t have had to knock her lights out.

      Although,