Irished (The Invincibles Book 7) by Heather Slade (the top 100 crime novels of all time txt) 📕

you blown to bits? I sure as hell would.”

“Where’s Cope?”

I opened my eyes again and looked at Decker. “Undisclosed location, just like you.”

“You just told me where I am.”

Deck laughed. “You’re the only one who knows.”

“Other than you.”

“Right. I can be forgetful when I need to be.”

“How long have I been here?”

“About ten days.”

“About?”

Decker laughed again. “Hell, when I’m on the ranch, I don’t keep that good a track. One day isn’t much different than another. Wake up, do chores, eat, do more chores, eat again, go to bed, sleep, and do it all over again.”

“What about the rest of the guys? Ink, Rage, Kanga, and Easy?”

When Decker lowered his head, I knew the news was bad. “Rage got hit, but nothing life-threatening. Ink and Kanga stayed out of the line of fire.”

“And Easy?”

“He didn’t make it, Irish.”

I closed my eyes and turned my head away. Another agent lost. I felt responsible for them all, but none more than Easy. He died protecting me. The man left behind a family, too.

“Irish?”

“Give me a minute, Decker.”

“He did his job. He made sure you stayed alive. Although, for quite a while, we weren’t sure you would pull through.”

“How bad a shape am I in?”

“You’ve made good progress in your recovery.”

I tried to shift my body, but it hurt too damn bad. “You been nursing me yourself?”

“Nah, I’ve got a team here ’round the clock tending to you. I try to come and give ’em a break every so often so they can take a walk outside, stretch their legs.”

“I thought you said no one knows I’m here.”

“No one knows Paxon Warrick is here. Your medical team knows you as Charley Weaver.”

“You’re kidding.”

“You must be older than I thought if you know who that is. So far, I haven’t seen the slightest indication anyone else does.”

I turned my head toward the window, trying to remember the show my grandmother used to watch reruns of.

“F Troop.”

“That’s what it was,” I said, turning back to him. “Would’ve driven me crazy all day. How’d you know I was trying to think of it?”

“Clairvoyant.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Here’s your nurse now,” said Deck, getting up from the chair. “We’ll talk more later.” He patted the end of the hospital bed when he walked by.

“Hey, Deck?”

He stuck his head back in the room. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for all this.”

He was more jovial than I’d ever seen him, but his expression changed to one I was more familiar with. “We’re close, Irish, and all because of your bravery. I know this has been damned hard on you. There will come a day when everyone knows the hero you are. I promise you that.”

He turned around and walked away. A few seconds later, a woman dressed in scrubs came in. “You’re awake!”

“I am.”

“I’m surprised your brother didn’t tell me.”

“My brother?” I almost told her I didn’t have one.

“Well, he said you were half brothers, but he’d never thought of you that way. Anyway, would you like something to eat?”

“What’ve you got?”

“A cook on standby, ready to make anything that sounds good.”

Everything sounded good. I wondered how long it had been since I last ate.

“How about some eggs, bacon, and toast?”

It took another ten days before I was up and around enough that I felt alive. When I finally talked Decker into telling me the extent of my injuries, I wished I hadn’t.

“You ready to talk business?” he asked when I came out of the bedroom, showered and dressed in clothes that weren’t mine but fit me.

“Sure,” I said, pouring myself a cup of coffee which I turned right around and spit out in the sink. “What is this shit?”

“That’s cowboy coffee. It’ll put hair on your chest.”

“I don’t need more hair on my chest; I need something drinkable.” The coffee the nurses brought me tasted nothing like what I’d just poured into a cup.

Decker motioned with his thumb to one of those pod coffeemakers. “We keep that around for the pussies.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask. Aren’t you married?”

“If that segue had anything to do with my wife, know that once you’re healed, I’ll beat the crap out of you.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Nothing of the sort. I was just wondering since I haven’t met her.”

“That’s because she doesn’t live here. Neither do I, for that matter. We own the ranch adjacent to King-Alexander. Name’s Brandywine. I just come here every day to see how you’re doing.”

“Wow, Decker, I’m touched.”

“Yeah, whatever. You wanna work or lie on your ass in that bed every day?”

“What’ve you got?”

Two hours later, my head was pounding and I wanted nothing more than to take a nap. But I couldn’t. I still had pages of information to sort through, but the bottom line was, Decker had enough on Ed Fisk to take him down along with several of the handlers and operatives who made up a vast network of double agents. China was behind most of it, but not all. Just like Cope and I thought.

“This is the second dirty director in a row,” I muttered, reading over the evidence Decker had compiled on Fisk.

“Not exactly a coincidence, Irish.”

“Right. I just hope the next guy has nothing to do with Flatly, Fisk, Montgomery—anyone associated with that bunch.”

“Let’s just say I am only one of a few who intend to have some say in who they give the job to next.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Decker stood and stretched. “While I’d like to say I’m the one who found most of this, I have to give credit where it’s due. Senator Copeland put the full force of the intelligence committee behind this one. McTiernan too.”

“What happens next?”

“Carefully choreographed arrests around the world.”

“When?”

“Two weeks from today.”

I got up and walked through the front door and out onto the stone patio that went all the way around the house. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this was it. Seven years of work would culminate in bringing down the Director of the CIA, plus a worldwide network of double agents.

So why