Page 53 of Over the Edge

Nolan winked. “And by anyone, you mean Shepherd?”

Oh, God.

I glanced around the table. Flynn looked like he wanted to punch something. Trent took a sudden interest in his coffee cup, twisting it in slow circles. Alistair studied the ceiling as if it might hold vital intelligence. Even Nolan seemed to realize he’d stepped in something, his grin faltering.

They knew. Of course they knew. A team like this didn’t miss anything.

I wanted to melt into the floor.

Thankfully, Ozzy saved me from having to respond by bursting into the room just then, juggling a laptop, at least three tablets, and a travel mug of coffee the size of a small bucket. His dark eyes were bloodshot, and the scowl on his face could have curdled milk. “You motherfucker,” he said to Flynn. “You stole my tech.”

Flynn’s mouth twitched. “Borrowed.”

“Borrowing implies returning it intact,” Ozzy muttered, dropping into a chair and lifting the coffee bucket—it really couldn’t be called a mug—to his mouth. Printed on the bottom was a hand throwing up a middle finger. “That EMP grenade was one of a kind.”

“And it worked beautifully,” Flynn replied, unrepentant. “Consider it field testing.”

Before Ozzy could retort, the door swung open again with enough force to rattle the hinges. Ethan strode in, every line of his body rigid with barely contained fury. The room went silent.

“Would someone like to explain why half of Monte Carlo is on fire?”

I kept my expression neutral, but my pulse kicked up a notch. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.

Flynn lounged deeper in his chair, appearing completely unfazed by Ethan’s temper. “Technically, it’s more like point-zero-five percent. One block. Not even the whole block. And you did tell us to sabotage what we could.”

“Not helping,” I muttered under my breath.

Ethan’s gaze snapped to mine. “Did I tell you to detonate a thermite compound in the middle of the city?” His voice had gone deceptively calm, but the muscle jumping in his jaw told a different story. “Or was I hallucinating when I specifically ordered you to gather intel, sabotage what you could, and exfil without drawing attention?”

I held his stare. “The truck was moving some of the technology. We couldn’t let it reach its destination.”

“So you blew it up.” It wasn’t a question.

“We neutralized the threat,” I corrected.

“It took Maya years to establish this cover.” Ethan’s voice broke on her name, and something twisted in my chest.

It was common knowledge that Ethan and Maya had been lovers, but it wasn’t until this moment that I realized he had actually been in love with her.

I glanced over at Flynn. He was watching Ethan with sympathy in his eyes. Then his gaze met mine, and the depth of feeling, the vulnerability, I saw there made my stomach flip. I tore my eyes away, focusing back on Ethan.

“Years,” Ethan repeated. “And you nearly burned it to the ground in one night.” He slammed a tablet down on the table. News footage filled the screen—flames licking the night sky, emergency vehicles with flashing lights, reporters gesturing dramatically at the wreckage. “This isn’t how Edge operates.”

Flynn snorted, and my gaze snapped back to him. I couldn’t seem to keep it off him. The vulnerability was gone, and he was back to his usual cocky self. “Now that’s a load of bullshit. Every operative in this room has done something that left a smoking crater at one point or another. Hell, that’s Nolan’s favorite pastime.”

“Ah, he’s not wrong,” Nolan said.

Flynn continued, his casual tone contradicting the dangerous glint in his eyes: “Just last month, Trent tanked two years of undercover work to save a woman from that doomsday cult, and then the earthquake device they had practically ripped California off the map. But you didn’t ride his ass about it.”

“There were extenuating circumstances,” Trent said coldly.

“Ah, but what about that time Alistair and Rafe accidentally burned down an entire warehouse in Budapest? No extenuating circumstances there,” Nolan said, all innocence. “And the time Leo punched a tank-sized hole through that villa in Odessa just because the Russian who owned it was a right gobshite.” He ticked off each example on his fingers, clearly enjoying himself. “And let’s not forget Oz hijacked a Chinese defense satellite, crashed it, and nearly started World War Three.”

“That was justified,” Ozzy muttered into his coffee.

Ethan’s jaw clenched. “Enough.”

“No, I don’t think it is,” Flynn said, his gaze locked on Ethan. “What about when Maya blew up a yacht in Singapore last year? Thirty-foot fireball visible from the mainland. Made international news, and I don’t recall you giving her any kind of grief about it.”

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