Jesus.
I was too tired to listen to Zane rant and he could go on and on for hours.
“You’re the king of something, Zane Lewis,” Ivy snapped.
“If you bring home one more cat, I’m gonna be the King of the Pussies,” Zane returned. “No more damn cats. I’m buying my son a dog. A big one.”
“Sorry Z, that nickname’s taken,” Gabe put in.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
“Just the three of us. We’re in Zane’s office,” Gabe told me. “Evette’s downstairs. She wanted to come in just in case there was more word on Delilah.”
A few months ago, a miracle had happened. Gabe Harris grew a heart. Or, more accurately, he found the woman who would force him to open it to the possibility of love. The poor idiot didn’t stand a chance. Evette London had walked into Z Corps needing help, and before Gabe knew what hit him, she had him wrapped around her finger.
“Delilah wants to talk to her.”
“Have I lost all control?” Zane growled.
“Did he ever have control?” Ivy snarked.
“The answer is no.” Then Zane went on to underline his verdict. “Not until we get a handle on Tamir and the situation. I have a deal in place with Abrams ensuring Evette’s safety. Now that we have Delilah in custody, Aviv will rightly assume I’ve broken that deal. Myles is alone in Mexico with a woman we don’t know and haven’t vetted. I’m not taking any chances. Delilah and Evette can bond or do whatever it is women do after we’ve neutralized Tamir and Aviv.”
I didn’t get a chance to question Zane about what he meant by we have Delilah in custody before Ivy cut in.
“I don’t understand what the harm is in allowing Delilah to talk to Evette. It will help build trust.”
Without missing a beat, Zane slipped back into his normal sarcastic self.
“Woman, you get I’m a smart man, yeah?”
“No, I get you’re bossy, stubborn, and untrusting, and it’s worth the repeat, bossy. A smart man who wasn’t exasperating would understand that allowing Delilah to speak to Evette would help us. The more Delilah trusts us, the more she’ll tell us about Abrams.”
“Something I’ve learned over the years. Something I should’ve done way back when Leo brought Olivia into the family—keep the women separated. This is a divide-and-conquer situation. You women, you’re dangerous. All of you in your own right, but together, you all are scary as fuck. Together, you all can manipulate and plot. Together, you can plan your world domination. No way in hell am I allowing Evette and Delilah to scheme to take down an Israeli defense contractor who has millions of dollars tied up in projects. Millions of dollars that Aviv Abrams doesn’t want to lose. Money and contracts he’ll protect by unleashing his security team, which consists of some of the best commandos in the world.
“If Evette is involved, Anaya will jump on board, and Kyle will lose his mind. Anaya gets in on the action Tatiana, Emerson, and Eva will take her back and I’ll have three more men pissed as fuck. Then there’s you, my wife, and I know you. You’ll sink your teeth into this and rope in Violet, Olivia, Erin, and Jasmin. Once that happens, we have war. So to contain the situation before there’s bloodshed, there’s a moratorium on communication. Myles will get the intel we need from Delilah and Gabe will keep Evette far away from Delilah.”
Zane was spot-on with his assessment. The women would rally and there’d be trouble. Especially once Jasmin Parker got involved. Jasmin was the only female Z Corps employee who was part of a squad. Long before Jasmin joined the Red Team or married Zane’s brother Lincoln she and Zane had history. An ugly history that included being captured by a group of Russians and tortured. Out of that came deep respect and loyalty. Jasmin would absolutely want in on the action and once that happened, all hell would break loose.
“I won’t—”
“You’re right, Ivy, you won’t,” Zane cut his wife off.
“Don’t be an asshole,” Ivy warned softly.
“You know I love you. From the bottom of my soul, I love you. You get I’m trying to keep my men from going rogue. Their women get involved there will be war. You get caught in the middle of this I will scorch the earth. Told you once, told you thousands of times over the years my life ends without you in it. Aviv Abrams gets a wild hair up his ass and even looks at you or my son, I will burn him and everyone around him to the ground. There will be no more Abrams, but also, there will be no more Z Corps. I will call in every marker, spend every last penny I have, I will use my men to do horrific things, and you know they’ll blacken their souls for me. So, please, Ivy, do me this one favor—stand down.”
“Okay, Zane, I’ll stand down.”
At Ivy’s soft and immediate acquiesce something clicked inside of me. It wasn’t Ivy’s swift agreement to her husband’s demand. It was that Ivy knew Zane—knew him in a way that none of us would ever know him. It was instinctual and deep-rooted. Ivy was strong enough to take on a man like Zane; she knew when to push him and stand her ground, and when something was truly important to Zane when to give him what he needed.
I hadn’t felt a touch of jealousy when my teammates found women and fell in love. I hadn’t been envious when my friends on the Gold Team had introduced me to their wives. Actually, I hadn’t given much thought to relationships in general. If it happens, it happens had always been my general thought about finding a wife. I wasn’t opposed but I knew myself well enough to know I would never settle.
But right then, hearing the interaction between Zane and Ivy—their connection as strong as it was that even over the phone thousands of miles away, I could feel the love my boss had for his wife—I was envious as fuck.
That was what I wanted.
That was why I refused to settle.
It was all or nothing.
“What’s your next step?” Gabe asked, pulling me back to the conversation.
“Get Delilah to trust me.”
“That shouldn’t be hard,” he incorrectly surmised.
“It’s gonna be damn near impossible,” I told him. “The company she worked for is involved in some shady shit. They employed a man who snatched her and held her hostage for two months. Then I come in, scare the shit out of her, snatch her up, and now I’m essentially holding her hostage.”
“That’s not what you’re doing,” Gabe argued.
I glanced down at Delilah’s teeth marks that said that was exactly what I’d done.
“Believe me, Gabe. That’s how she sees it. The woman has been stripped of her power. Tamir didn’t hurt her physically but he knew what he was doing treating her to two months of silence. I think that scared her worse than if he would’ve threatened her every day. She doesn’t trust me and the little pieces she has given me aren’t gonna get us what we need.”
“You can work her around,” my friend said confidently.
But the thing was I didn’t want to work Delilah. I wanted her to trust me because I’d earned it, not because I was bullshitting or lying to get intel.
“I need to order food before Delilah’s done with her shower. I’ll be in touch.”