Hell Bent (13 page)

“I apologize for yelling, but I
am
tired,” Cade admitted in an even tone.  “I just can’t sleep upstairs because that would leave this floor unprotected.  Just go back to bed, and I’m going to make calls to get some help.  I’ll sleep when they get here.”

“You calling Dave?” Veronica asked, instead of moving.

“That was the plan,” Cade replied tiredly. “But I don’t know who he has to spare either.”

“Tell him we need three men since I know you’re going to insist on coming with Allison and me to Austin…but I need a woman too.  Ask Cecelia to come with them.  With the women we’ve added, there’s no way Lou Ellen can handle them alone while we’re gone.”

Cade tensed—that was the last person he wanted in this mix.  And considering Cecelia’s lack of skill at the range, she’d probably just be another head he had to watch out for rather than any help whatsoever.  Just aggravation—for him.

“Try and find someone else,” he said gruffly.  “Once I tell Logan about the shooting at the shelter and the threats against you and Allison, I doubt he’ll let her come here.”

“I don’t have
time
to find anyone, Cade.  We’re leaving first thing Tuesday morning to go to Austin to do some rallying ahead of time to make sure it passes.”  Ronnie huffed a frustrated breath then turned toward the stairs. “Tell him he
has
to send her to help Lou Ellen.”

“You sure are bossy for a woman who isn’t
paying
him to send anyone.  Dave cares about you so he’ll probably agree to help some—but I highly doubt he will agree to send
three
agents
and
his team secretary out here for free.” 

In fact, Cade knew he wouldn’t, considering he had a hundred thousand dollars of the man’s money in his pocket and he was the one asking.  But Veronica’s order was pretty close to the mark of the number of men Cade thought they needed here too.  He’d like to leave two guys here to take care of these women and take one with him to guard Allison and Ronnie in Austin. That’s where he thought they’d have more problems.

“I’m in
very
deep in this non-profit shelter but I’ll pay him to send the help we need,” Allison said, stepping up beside him.  “I  need to know they’re safe while we’re gone.”

Lou Ellen sighed and her shoulders slumped.  “Allison, if you cash in any more of your stock you’ll need a shelter
yourself
.”

Allison pinned her with a hot glare.  “You’re my stock broker and best friend, Lou, not my keeper—don’t tell me how to spend my money.”

“Well, don’t blame me if you’re still working when you’re eighty,” Lou Ellen shot back.

“Y’all,
please
stop the damned bickering,” Cade barked and the women’s eyebrows shot up.  He shoved a hand through his hair and pulled his phone from his pocket.  “Just let me make the call and see what can be worked out.” 

But he knew the only thing that would be worked out was him offering to give Logan his money back.  Especially since he was calling the man at zero dark thirty in the morning.

Cade was the one who was in deep now—
too deep
—and getting deeper into this situation by the second.  Now, he had to make this happen or these stubborn women would.  Even if it meant bankrupting themselves evidently.

“I’ll call Phil tomorrow too and pry another donation out of him to help, Allison,” Ronnie said as she headed up the stairs. 

In shock, Cade stopped dialing to stare behind her.  Their father was helping fund the shelter?  Philanthropic was the last word he’d use to describe his skin flint father, unless it served him somehow.  How in the hell could a trafficked woman’s repatriation shelter benefit him? 

He and Ronnie would have three hours in the truck tomorrow on the way to Austin and Cade was going to find out, if he couldn’t find out before. 

Something was smelly in Dallas.

Before Cade shelled out the kind of money on security they were talking about here, he wanted to make damned sure that his father was in no way involved in the admin of this shelter, or he would call Jolly and go right back to Columbia.  He needed to get a SITREP on the situation there anyway.  See if there was any chatter about Domingo Blanco in connection with Tovar’s assassination.  Find out if his cover was blown to hell so he couldn’t go back.

But right now he needed to call Dave Logan and ask him for help.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The early morning sun peeked just above the east building which blocked the downtown street from direct sunlight when, heart pounding in her ears, Cee Cee’s feet made the last lick on the sidewalk to end her run at the front door of the Deep Six office building.  She stopped and put two fingers to her throat to count her heart rate while she punched in the security code. 

It was still dark inside the building, but she was used to getting here before everyone else and liked it that way.  It gave her a few minutes to change and get her head together for the day. 

This morning, she had it together before she got there. 

She’d had all weekend to think about what happened with Cade, what he’d said to her, since sleep hadn’t been on her list of options.  It had been a hard thing to do, but she looked at herself from the outside in—on his side of the fence—and came to some eye-opening conclusions about herself, the adult version.  Some were great, others not so pretty.

What she finally decided was—Cade was right—she was an adult and didn’t need her brother’s approval of her life choices.  She was wasting her time here, spinning her wheels, and needed to come up with a new game plan for her life.

Cecelia also admitted she
had
become hard and needed to try to change that, a little at least.  After working around nothing but battle-hardened spec ops soldiers for six years, she’d become one of them.  Jaded, tough and hard-talking.  She’d been proud of that while enlisted, thought it was an asset and so did her COs, but in civilian life it probably wasn’t.

That could be why she’d avoided talking to her parents too—because she knew they’d see the same thing and be even more disappointed in her.  The closest she’d come to talking to them was at her brother’s wedding where they’d only spoken for a minute, hugged and sat next to each other during the ceremony.  But for some reason they didn’t go to the reception. 

Cecelia drove out to the farm the next day with the purpose of talking to them in mind, but she’d been so nervous she parked on the side of the road and went for a run first.  Then Slade called to offer her the job and she left before she ever made it to their doorstep, which she was embarrassed to say had been a relief.

If she stayed here around
these
battle-hardened former spec ops soldiers who worked for Deep Six, even though they were a little more laid back and socially correct in the private sector because they’d had time to transition, could that ever change?

She’d also replayed what happened at her apartment with Cade, and she still hadn’t figured why he left her apartment angry.  A man usually didn’t get angry because a woman wanted to have sex with him, or if they had sex.  His whole mercurial attitude while he’d been at her apartment was confusing.

They’d talked, but had they resolved their differences?  Were they okay again?

As far as she was concerned they were. 

At least, they were talking civilly again.  He’d softened up toward her, and she toward him.  

Cade’s seemingly sincere apology to her, punctuated by that softening and her admitting her part in their breakup, was what she’d needed to finally forgive him.  God, she hadn’t realized how damned much she missed talking to him—how much she’d missed
him
.

Yes, it had been a tough, but eye-opening weekend.  Her insides felt like ground meat this morning after sending Keegan away and dealing with Cade and their issues.  It hadn’t been easy, but it was long overdue.  Now all she felt was exhausted relief as she walked inside the building and through the vacant lobby to the elevator.

After riding the elevator to the seventh floor, Cecelia walked down the hallway to the office door and stopped there to stare at the engraved brass plate that identified the office as Deep Six Security.  That plate would be there a lot longer than she would, she thought, with a long sigh as she punched her code into the keypad and the tumbler released. 

The next phase of her transformation back to Cecelia Logan would be deciding exactly what she wanted to do now that she was grown up and not running away from her problems.  She’d wanted to work here for so long it had been her sole focus, so she’d never really considered anything else.  When she flicked on the light switch, her eyes fell on her cluttered desk and she shook her head. 

That was definitely not her idea of a dream job. 

As she walked to the desk, she slid the straps of her knapsack off her shoulders, but stopped when she saw lights down the hallway, heard voices.  Her heart kicked into overdrive, she grabbed for the phone, but then realized if it was intruders, they wouldn’t be talking that loud.  With a huffed breath, she dropped her backpack down by her desk and walked down the hallway toward the conference room where the voices were originating.

When she stood in the doorway, the conversation stopped and three sets of eyes raked over her, but only one lip curled. 

“Is that the way you come to work dressed, Cecelia?” Dave asked gruffly.

“I
ran
to work, and was just about to go change.  I do this every morning,” she replied with a lifted brow and a curl of her own lips.  “What are y’all doing here so early?”

“Working?” he replied with a snort.  Dex and Gray rolled their eyes, and Cee Cee fought the urge to do the same.

“Well, I’m going to change,” she said turning to walk away, but his voice stopped her so she turned back.

“Meet me in my office when you’re done.”  He looked down at his empty cup and shoved it across the table toward her.  “And bring me a cup of coffee.”

“Get your own damned coffee,” she growled and heard chuckles as she turned and stomped down the hallway. 

She grabbed her knapsack to angrily unzip it and snatched out her jeans and shirt before dropping it to go into his office.  Yes, she was using
his
private bathroom today, and he better not have a word to say about it.  Cee Cee was tired of kowtowing to Dave Logan, and she was about to tell him that.  As of today, she was going to demand respect, because she deserved it.

By the time she dressed and walked out of the bathroom, Cee Cee was wound up to give him a piece of her mind, but she stopped when she saw him nursing a cup of coffee as he waited in his chair behind his desk, and a second cup sitting on the corner.  He waved his hand at it then nodded toward the chair across from his desk.  Cee Cee picked it up and closed the door, before she took the chair.

“It seems I’ve had a
special
request for your assistance,” Dave said, before taking a sip of his coffee and Cee Cee’s hands tightened around her cup.

“If it involves doing more bookkeeping for Gray you can fire me now,” she said shortly.

“This has nothing to do with numbers, and Gray has informed me he no longer
wants
your help. It’s taken him twice as long to fix what you did for him than it would’ve taken him to do it himself.”

“I told Slade when he hired me—” she grated, but Logan cut her off.

“I know you did, and I’m sorry we’ve been dumping on you.  I’m sure it’s obvious that we’ve been short-staffed on an administrative level.  It seems that’s the hardest job I’ve had to fill, because nobody wants it.”

“You certainly have enough idle agents, but you keep hiring more.   Maybe you should just hire a
bookkeeper
if that’s what you need,” she grumped, then took a sip of her coffee.  But she would never be one of them.  No, she had plenty to do trying to keep their timecards straight.

“I have fewer than I had yesterday and as of this morning, they’re not idle anymore.  Slade and Taylor are supposedly going to meet with someone who wants to hire us for a job, but I know it’s just a vacation again because we are slow.  It might become permanent if he doesn’t stop this lovesick bullshit honeymooning before the wedding soon.  He’s put me in a tough position financially while I was on
my
honeymoon, and he’s not billable if he isn’t here.”

“Slade is the best damned man you’ve got, and the only one who can really put up with you,” she replied with a snort.  “You know as well as I do, you’re not going to fire him.”

“No, I’m not going to fire him.  But I am going to hire
you
to fill in while he’s gone.”

Cee Cee sat up in her chair so fast, her coffee sloshed over the rim of the cup to stain the knee of her jeans.  She sat the cup down beside the chair and rubbed at the spot, but not for long. 

“What do you mean hire me?” she asked, her heart pounding in her chest.  “The last time I checked I was already hired.”

“As an agent—
for now
.  I need your help on a job.”

“Why?  Slade isn’t the only available agent and you said you’d never use me in that capacity.” The change in her brother’s attitude was awfully suspicious.

“Because you’re a woman and assigning you to this job helps me recover the money that Slade tossed into the wind while I was gone.  I’m sending Levi, Caleb and Jaxson with you to make sure nothing happens.”

Cecelia frowned.  “What kind of job is it?”

“For you?  Mostly babysitting is what I was told.”  Dave laughed as he sat forward in his chair and eased his cup down on the desk.  “For them?  Close protection detail to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“You were
told
?  Told by
whom
?” Cee Cee scooted to the edge of the chair, because she was seriously contemplating walking out that door, grabbing her backpack and running right back home.  Like bookkeeping,
babysitting
was not something she was willing to add to her list of job duties here.

“Cade Winters hired us to help him protect the women at the Rooks Repatriation Center, but only if you were one of the agents assigned.”  Dave’s lips twitched.  “Looks like you’re my golden goose, sis.”

From his delivery, her brother evidently thought it was funny that Cade wanted her to be involved in this job.  It was also obvious from his summation of the operation, and the fact he was sending
three
men to provide the actual protection services, David thought babysitting was all she was qualified for.  Insult fueled the anger inside of her, the likes of which she’d never known, as she pushed up from the chair to slam her hands on his desk and glare at him.

“While I appreciate the
oh-so-tempting
offer—no, thank you.” Standing again, she fisted her hands at her sides.  “You’ll have to find yourself another
golden goose
, because mine is cooked, Dave Logan.”  Cee Cee turned on her heel, grabbed the doorknob and twisted it.  “Find yourself another secretary too, because I quit.”

Pulling the door open, she glided across the office to her desk with her chin held high.  She picked up her backpack, shoved her workout clothes inside and zipped it shut.  She also zipped shut any desire she had to ever work for this company again.  Her relationship with her brother may be zipped up in there too and at this point, she just didn’t care. 

Cecelia had more self-respect that to stay here and beg for crumbs of approval from a man who was so stingy tossing them her way.  And she didn’t need them. 

Thank you, Cade.

At the office door, her cell phone rang in the outer pocket of her knapsack, at the same time Dave flew out of his office. 

“Ce
celia
, wait a damned minute!” he roared.

She let the phone ring and grabbed the knob to open the door because she had nothing left to say to her brother.  The phone finally stopped ringing when she reached the elevator, but she didn’t stop to see who it was until the door closed—in Dave’s angry face. 

With a smug smile, she unzipped the pocket and pulled out her phone and the number wasn’t one she recognized, but she pushed redial anyway.  It rang until the door opened on the first floor, so she disconnected.  She started across the lobby, as a loud metal clank echoed off of the marble floors. 

She was at the front door when someone grabbed her arm and jerked her up short and spun her around.  Dave, glared at her, but he didn’t say a word because he was obviously breathing too hard to talk.  He’d must’ve run down seven flights of stairs to catch her and that tickled her, but she maintained her even expression.  It served the bastard right.

“You should probably take the stairs more often
old
man.  You’re out of shape,” Cecelia said as she pried his fingers from her arm.

“And you should probably—” He heaved two more breaths. “Let me finish what I had to say before you decide to run away like a
child
.”

“Maybe when you learn to speak to me with respect like an adult, I’ll stick around to listen,” she fired back.

Slinging her backpack over one shoulder, Cecelia turned and pushed through the front door then took off like a shot down the sidewalk.  With the throng of business people walking to their offices lining the street, she couldn’t run.  She had to pause several times to push her way through the crowd so somehow David managed to catch up with her again.

“
Dammit
, Cecelia—
stop
! he shouted, pulling her to a stop when he grabbed her arm, earning him a frown from several passersby.  “I need to talk to you!”