He waved her apology away before she could finish. “It’s not your fault. Not any of this. And Edict is ballsy as fuck for taking action here. There has been tension between the two organizations ever since they cherry-picked a couple of our resources, but this took it to a whole new level. Trust me. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been a different contract and a different altercation.”
“How are you and Harte different, Caleb?” She’d wondered before, and maybe it was a stupid question now. But she wanted to know. Isabelle and Victoria had nicknames, but most of the men had been addressed by last name.
Caleb blinked. “Different?”
“Everyone calls you and Harte by your first names.”
“Oh.” He might have been blushing. Maybe. Hard to tell, but he did look sheepish. “I was an officer when I was active with the US military. So was Harte. I’m in training now, but I have special subject matter expertise in intelligence and other things. So I guess since we don’t use rank in the Centurion Corporation, being private sector and all, the first name usage is our version of addressing someone who is the equivalent of an officer. Sort of a gentleman’s agreement. It’s not quite that simple, but that’s the high-level version of it.”
“So you have authority.” She kept her gaze steady on his. No dodging on this one.
“Yes.” He said it slowly, like he was realizing she’d maneuvered him and was deciding whether he should slip out of whatever she had in mind.
“So you can take me to Gabe and the others.”
“Not exactly.” Caleb studied her. “They’re not on premises and there’s no way I’d take you to where they are. Besides, we’d only be in the way. The operation is planned and in progress. If we want them to succeed then we trust them to do what they need to do.”
“There’s got to be a way to know what they’re doing though. You don’t just wait in the dark for them to come home.” Even as she said it, she watched his expression go pleasantly blank. Wow.
“This time. No. We aren’t waiting in the dark.” Caleb met her gaze with his own and it was inscrutable. “If you and Diaz are a thing, it’s important you accept who he is and what he does. Most of the time, not sometimes, you will have to wait with no word until he comes back. Decide if you can handle that.”
Not a light matter.
“I won’t answer that right away, because what you’ve said deserves time to really absorb.” Maybe other people said something different. But she wanted to give it serious consideration, because it was another truth, a reality of who Gabe was. “But this time, you said you weren’t waiting in the dark, and you didn’t say I had to.”
Caleb chuckled, the seriousness evaporating. “Promise you’ll eat something first. The operation won’t start for a while yet, not until 0200 hours. When it does, I also need your word that you’ll stay in the back of the room with me. You have questions, you ask me. Don’t interrupt anyone else no matter what you hear.”
She pressed her lips together. Despite his levity, she got the impression he’d take her right back out of whatever room this was going to be if she couldn’t follow his instructions. If he was taking the time to make this clear to her in advance, it was almost certain there’d be something going on she’d want to question. Could she watch and not ask questions? Not attempt to interfere? A hundred possibilities ran through her head. It was that or sit here waiting.
She wanted to know what was happening. “I promise.”
Caleb dragged his hand through his short cropped hair, rubbing his scalp with his palm. Abruptly, she wondered if he’d stayed the entire time watching over her.
He chuckled. “I’d have never done this before, but I figure you should be there as our good luck charm. You’re the bird dog that flushed up all of this trouble in the first place.”
Chapter Twenty
“One Alpha, in position.” Gabe kept an eye on the corridor, scanning left, then right, and back again as his team crouched around the access to the old air ducts. Literally one eye open since his team had invested in the better-quality night vision gear that covered only one side, allowing the men to retain depth perception and leaving them free to open the other eye in case of a quick change in lighting. It took some getting used to, but allowed for faster reaction time.
It was the edge needed for survival and success, in that order.
“Roger that, One Alpha.” Harte’s voice came low through the comm in Gabe’s ear. “Squad Two in place, maintaining surveillance. You are clear to proceed. Unless you need a minute to recover from the run. It was a long way through those tunnels.”
Gabe grinned in the dark. Sometimes he wondered if he missed the more strict communications practices of active military duty, especially during operations like this one. But then, their frequency was secure and Harte had a good sense of when there was time for banter versus times every word mattered. “A mile or two underground? Didn’t break a sweat.”