“You know you can stay with me as long as you like,” Cathy added quietly.
“Thank you for being a friend,” P.J. said, a knot growing in her throat. “It means a lot.”
Cathy glanced over at her. “Just as long as you realize that you do have friends, P.J. And that you can lean on them from time to time. It’s in the friend’s codebook. Scout’s honor.”
P.J. smiled. “I’ll remember that.”
“Okay, well let’s get you to that airport. You got money?”
“I have my ID and a credit card. That’ll get me where I’m going.”
“All right then. Let’s hit the road.”
CHAPTER 15
THE war room on the KGI compound was filled with a large group of very pissed-off men. Steele stood to one side with his team—minus one. Noticeably absent P.J. Cole stood shoulder to shoulder with his team leader as he surveyed the other occupants of the room.
Rio and his team, consisting of Terrence, Diego, Decker and Alton, stood looking haggard and tired. They too were down one man. Browning, who’d betrayed Rio’s trust in a previous mission. Rio was a hard, unforgiving bastard and you only got one chance to f**k him over. Browning was lucky Rio hadn’t killed him, but he’d cut him loose and walked away from him.
And then there were the Kellys: Sam, Garrett, Donovan, Ethan, Nathan and Joe. And Swanny, the newest recruit to KGI.
The room bristled with rage and testosterone overload. The silence was heavy but the undercurrents were electric. Cole knew what was on the minds of every single member of KGI.
Revenge.
Vengeance for one of their own.
“What happened, Steele?” Garrett asked, first to break the silence. “And I don’t want any of that I failed my team bullshit. Just the facts.”
“Why the f**k was she left alone?” Rio demanded.
His temper was on edge and he simmered with anger. Cole could see the fear in his eyes and knew he was thinking of Grace, and that once, Grace had been as helpless as P.J. had been.
He also knew that Rio and P.J. were friends of sorts. As much as P.J. allowed anyone to get close to her. She and Rio had hung out in that dive P.J. frequented. It had pissed him off that she’d made it obvious he wasn’t welcome when apparently she and Rio had thrown back a few drinks together.
Sam held up his hands. “Enough. We need to figure out what the f**k went wrong so it never happens again.”
“I should have stayed closer to her in the ballroom,” Donovan said tightly. “I wanted her to get close to Nelson, but he took her out the back, and before I could get over to keep an eye on her, he’d gotten her into a car.”
“It was the f**king traffic,” Dolphin seethed. “We would have been able to intercept her at the hotel. They were there long enough that he took off her bracelet. If we hadn’t gotten caught in the wreck, we would have tagged her leaving the hotel and we would have been in the house as soon as we knew Brumley was there.”
Garrett frowned. “Do you think he made her? Is that why Nelson took the bracelet?”
Steele shook his head. “No, I think this was just routine. If it weren’t for Brumley, Nelson would have just taken P.J. back to the hotel thinking he was going to get some action and we would have been there the whole time. But Brumley saw her and decided he wanted her. He’s a cagey, paranoid bastard and he wanted Nelson to make sure she was clean before he brought her to Brumley’s house.”
“So what now?” Ethan asked, his tone somber.
His jaw was tight as well. His wife, Rachel, had been a victim and had undergone an entire year of captivity in South America before Ethan was tipped off that she wasn’t dead, like the entire family had thought.
They were all on edge. Nerves were frayed. The women that had married into the Kelly family, and the woman who’d married Rio, were all resilient women who’d all experienced tragedy in one shape or another.
Rachel, Sophie, Sarah, Shea and Grace were weighing heavily on all their minds. And now violence—violation—had touched P.J. Their teammate. Partner. A woman that had Cole’s insides so twisted up that his stomach was one giant ball of anxiety.
“We go after those f**kers,” Cole seethed. “That’s what’s now.”
Dolphin, Renshaw and Baker nodded grimly. Even Steele looked like he was in total agreement.
Sam and Garrett exchanged uneasy glances.
Donovan’s cell phone went off, breaking the awkward silence. He glanced down, frowned and then put it to his ear.
Cole didn’t tune in until Donovan swore and said, “She did what? And you just let her walk out of there? What the hell happened? How did this happen? I want some damn answers.”
Everyone focused intently on Donovan as he listened to the person on the other end of the line. Then he cursed again and shoved the phone back into the clip at his side.
“What the f**k is going on?” Cole demanded.
Donovan blew out his breath. “I don’t even know how to say this. P.J. checked out. Or rather she didn’t check out. She just walked out.”
There was an explosion of what-the-fucks that echoed around the room.
“Where?” Cole bit out. He didn’t care about the details. He just wanted to know where to find her.
Donovan looked like he’d just swallowed barbed wire. “No idea. She didn’t exactly inform the on-duty people that she was planning to take off.”
“Son of a bitch,” Steele swore.