“True, but it would take a whole lot more than Nicco to bring it down,” Grant added.
“Yes, but if Nicco was feeding information to all the people we’re keeping tabs on, he’d move up the ladder from slime-ball slum lord, to someone with enough drug cartel and mafia backing that he’d be a force to be reckoned with. We don’t need that. He needs to stick his nose in someone else’s business and leave Cole Enterprise alone,” Flint said hotly.
“Is what happened to Trent related to Nicco?” Oliver asked.
“We think so, but we can’t prove it because Trent is in ICU at Chicago General. Whatever he found out when he was out in the field got him shot. It was bad enough that Cole had to reboot him and let him go,” Grant answered.
“Reboot him?” Aiden asked the same thing I wondered. “How the hell do you reboot someone? People aren’t damn computers.”
“That’s a long and complicated story. For now, let’s just figure out who the leak is,” Nadia answered.
Grant followed that up by saying, “We can’t let on that we’re actively looking for the leak or it will stop.” He turned to Flint, speaking directly to him. “Do what you can with it. Gather as much intel as possible and keep us updated. We might find out that Tent just ran into foul play, and it’s not related to Nicco.”
When he was done talking, he looked to Nadia. “Anything else?”
“Be vigilant. Keep your ears open and your mouths shut. Everyone’s safety, their identity… everything could be blown if we can’t figure out who’s hacking into our files. If you hear anything, report it directly to Flint behind closed doors.”
“Say we contain the information leak… that still leaves the person who’s leaking the information. What happens to that person?” I asked.
“They will be detained and handed over to Cole,” Nadia answered.
“And then?” That didn’t make me feel any better. Whoever it was still had our names.
“And then Cole will handle it. That’s all you need to know right now,” Grant butted in.
“I don’t know what you’re so worried about, Ace. You’re the only one of us who’s officially dead anyway,” Aiden said, chuckling.
Riley stiffened beside me.
“Maybe we should change your name from Ace to Ghost,” Eli added.
“All right… all right. Knock it off,” Grant said, shaking his head. “Let’s just focus on getting the intel leak contained and finding out what Nicco is up to.”
“What happened to Ace’s helicopter?” Jared asked, changing the subject.
A stretch of silence followed before Grant cleared his throat and answered. “Initial reports indicate that it was catastrophic engine failure. We’re having a few other things analyzed in the lab, but for now, it seems it wasn’t intentional.”
Jared snorted. “Are we supposed to believe that? Or did you forget that someone showed up on Riley’s doorstep to tell her he’d died?”
Grants eyes narrowed on Jared. “While Jake didn’t die, two of our other operatives did. I don’t expect you to understand how everything works. Why things are done and to what purpose they’re done for are something you will learn. What I do expect from you is for you to accept that everything we do, everything we have to do, is for the safety of all of you.”
Jared blanched, fists balled at his sides as he asked, “It was you? You sent someone to Riley’s house?”
Riley wavered beside me. I put my arm around her, pulling her into my side and giving her the only support I could at the moment.
Nadia stepped forward. “No, it was me. I sent someone to Riley’s house when I realized I needed to seal Jake’s file, which is also when I was flagged that there was a leak in the system. I had no other choice. With Jake marked deceased, the government can’t request we turn him back over to them. If you’re angry, be angry with me, but I won’t apologize for whatever lengths I have to go to in order to keep all of you safe.”
Jared was a pot boiling over. “I can’t believe you! Why? Why did you have to put Riley through that? Thinking he was dead… Do you even understand the pain you caused? Do you…?”
“Jared…” Riley said, moving from my side and grabbing his hand.
He stilled. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “You know how fucked up this is, Riley. You have every right to be as mad as I am.”
“It doesn’t change anything though. We’re here together. Everyone is safe. I won’t be mad about it. I refuse to grieve over a false situation.” She let go of his hand and turned to Nadia. “While I understand your reasons, or at least I’m trying to understand them… in the future, when it concerns the Six, you should probably refrain from killing one of them off, even if it’s just on paper. While you watched them grow up and love them, you will never understand the depth of their friendship. Cut one, and they all bleed.”
Nadia crossed her arms. “And what I want all of you to understand is that there is no point I won’t go to in order to keep you safe. While I’ll remember your advice, it will do you well to remember mine.”
“Sounds like we’re all on the same page then,” Grant said, breaking the tension. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, there are a few things we need to take care of before we leave for Scotland.”
The sealed door to the secret room opened and Grant and Nadia hurried out.
“Don’t forget to check the schedule for our meetings,” Flint said over his shoulder as he left the rest of us to process the impromptu secret meeting.
Chapter 6
Roman Flint would be a good leader. He wasn’t ready to start barking out orders and preening his feathers. In fact, he seemed more like the kind of guy who would rather go out on the missions himself than to send a team to do it.
He also wasn’t one to step around what he wanted either. His cut and dry facts made it easy to follow along with what he expected. Not to mention it seemed like he’d been plucked from the military just as I had. There was a certain way a soldier held himself even when he was at ease.
His close-cropped hair screamed Marine, along with the brick shithouse structure of his body.
We sat across from each other at a rather worn-looking desk that had seen better days. The office we were crammed inside of was probably once a storage closet. Catching Flint up hadn’t taken long. The files for Robert de Fleur sat on his desk, and he made notes as we spoke.
He’d drummed his fingers against a legal-sized notepad as we discussed how our intel would be recorded until we found our source leak. “Until we know who’s hacking the system, we’ll have to do this old school. Once we catch whoever it is, we’ll be able to enter it all in. I don’t want to take any chances, especially with Nicco sniffing around Cole’s heels. He’s a pain in the ass, but a dangerous pain in the ass.”
His fingers stilled on the lined paper as he leaned forward. “Grant and Nadia will be handling Robert de Fleur. We’re going to focus on Nicco and watch his movements. Oliver’s already started, but I’ll need you to team up with him. The more information we have on his movements, the better. I’ve placed Licks and Retro in the intel room to keep tabs on everyone.”
I cleared my throat. “Won’t they kind of stick out being the new guys on the floor?”
“They would have had I not gone in and made it seem like I’d brought them in from the field.”
That didn’t sit right with me. It wasn’t as if they were just random people. They’d just slid off the grid of playing concerts. “Yeah, but you’re talking about the bass player and lead guitarist of Destroying Doubt. They aren’t just random people no one’s ever seen before.”
Flint’s eyebrow rose and he smirked at me. “That’s the beauty of it. I played that up while I was introducing both of them. As far as everyone in intel knows, they’ve been undercover for several years. What better place to be undercover for our narcotics division than traveling around in a band?”
I had a hard time believing that. “And everyone bought it?”
Flint pushed
his chair back and stood. “Hook, line, and sinker. As for everyone else, Jared and Murphy will be working on running a tracing program to search employee computers. That may give us an idea of who the informant is. Then again, whoever it is could have used someone else’s computer. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Lars is moving into the prototype room. He’ll be assisting one of the lead scientists. Having him there will give us eyes and ears on that level. I don’t think our leak is there, but you never know.”
Standing, I moved towards the door to leave. “What about Aiden and Eli?”
Flint crossed his arms and leaned against the desk. “They’re going with Grant and Nadia.” Before I could question him, he added. “They need people they can trust in order to get the Scotland location going. You can’t get more trustworthy men than those two. They were going to take you too, but I asked them to leave you here with me.”
I nodded sharply. Even if I wanted to put up a stink about it, it wouldn’t matter. Orders were orders. Hopefully, once Robert de Fleur was handled and our intel leak was outed, they’d be able to come back to Chicago. Or maybe we’d be able to transfer to Scotland. “What about Riley? She’ll stay here?” With me, I silently added.
Flint smirked. “Riley will stay with us for a while. With so many new faces coming into play, the people upstairs would notice. Having Murphy, Lars, Retro, and Licks come in together works because of the band connection. If we brought Riley in too soon, it might look suspicious. Cole wants to wait a few weeks before placing her in an office position upstairs.”
By upstairs, he meant an office job. My stomach bottomed out. Riley would hate that. She’d never been one to be cooped up for too long. I couldn’t help but feel a sick sense of doom hanging over me. Surely, she’d end up resenting me for it. After all, it was my fault she’d been sucked into the underground world of Cole Enterprise.
My face must have shown how I felt.
“It’ll all work out. We just have to blend her in. Maybe even move her around a bit before figuring out where to place her.”
I changed the subject, trying not to put too much emphasis on where Riley would be placed. If I pushed too hard, they might move her away from me to keep me from getting distracted. “So, for now, I’m to report to Oliver?”
Flint uncrossed his arms and pushed away from the desk. “Yes.”
Before I could get out the door, Flint added one final thing. “Nicco is dangerous, Ace. I don’t say that because I don’t trust your ability. I say it because I don’t want to lose another good operative in the field.”
I left with a sharp nod and set out to find Oliver. Whoever Nicco was, he had Flint concerned. And it didn’t seem to me that Flint worried about very much, which made me even more leery about Nicco.
With any luck, Nicco would slip up soon and we’d take him off our list of suspects. My stomach clenched. It never went away, that feeling in my gut when I held someone’s life in the palm of my hand.
Dwelling on it didn’t help either. It was all part of the job I’d agreed to do. The toughest part for me was realizing that some men were more monster than human. One life for many. Sometimes, that decision was made for the greater good of mankind. I could only hope thinking that way would help get me through it, or somewhat through it.
“Hey, Ace! Wait up,” Aiden called out.
I turned around, seeing him jog to catch up with me. “What’s up? I thought you were headed out to Scotland?” I asked when he walked the last few feet to stand in front of me.
He shifted from one foot to the other. “I am, or well, I will be in an hour or so, but I wanted to talk to you before we left. Do you have a minute?”
“I was just on my way to look for Oliver, but it can wait,” I said, noticing his eyes shift from mine to the floor. “Is everything all right?”
He sighed heavily and met my eyes. “I was so sure of what I was gonna say up until now. I, uh… I thought I’d done the right thing and all, but now, I’m not so sure. I hope you don’t get mad at me for it, but…”
Aiden wasn’t one to be at a total loss for words. “Jesus, Aiden. Spit it out, man.”
“I talked to your mom,” he blurted over top of what I’d said.
Shocked, I backed up and leaned against the wall. Running my hands down my face, I absorbed what he’d said like a blow.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Ace. I probably shouldn’t have, but damn… ya know, it has to be hell not knowing what’s going on with your kid.” He clasped the back of his head and closed his eyes, pinching them tight as he continued. “I felt like she deserved more than that. I mean, she’s your mom and you’re my friend. I wouldn’t want my mom not knowing what happened to me. I felt like I owed it to her.” His shoulders bunched as his head bowed.
My heart split right there and then in my chest. Aiden had thought of my mom when I hadn’t. I’d been so worried about Jared and seeing Riley again, I’d forgotten about her. Her own son had forgotten about her.
My momma deserved so much better from me, and I’d failed her. My back slid down the wall, and I pulled my knees to my chest. Wrapping my arms around them, I lowered my head.
The solid presence of Aiden pushed against my side when he sat down, bumping his elbow against mine as he settled in. He didn’t fill the silence with empty, meaningless chatter. He let me own the moment and find a way to cope with what he’d said. The need to know what he’d told her burned at the back of my thoughts. Enough so that I forced myself to ask him and not completely shut down until I’d gotten a handle on my emotions.
“What did you tell her, Aiden?” My voice sounded hollow in my ears.
Aiden’s head fell back against the wall as he clutched his knees. “I told her as much of the truth as I could.” He bumped his shoulder into mine.
My stomach knotted hearing him say that. “What did she say?”
He blew out a breath as his throat made a rumbling noise. “She cried, a lot, but by the time I got off the phone with her, she promised me she’d keep everything we talked about to herself and that she’d stay with your aunt.”
“I should have been the one to call her.” What the hell had I been thinking? How could I have put her to the back of my mind and not given her another thought?
“Ace, I know you’re kicking yourself pretty hard over this, but I want you to remember something. You’ve gone from a helicopter explosion to hiding out until we could get you out of Haiti. There hasn’t been much time to sit down and think about anything else. The rest of us have had over a week to do nothing but think. It’s understandable that your thoughts haven’t wandered to anything except survival. And I didn’t tell you I called her to rub it in or make you feel like an asshole. If anything, I did it for my own sanity. Besides, I knew you’d keep everything personal locked up tight until all of this was handled, and then beat yourself up when you’d realized you done it.”
“She’s my mom. I should have thought of it. I remembered Riley. I should have thought about her too.” My head banged against my knee as I admitted it out loud. My thoughts had gone right to Riley when I made it back to the compound. Never once had I thought about my mom.
Aiden stood, and then put his hand out to help me up. “I didn’t tell you this to upset you. I told you so you’d know she’s okay and that she understands. Maybe once the intel leak is handled, you can call her yourself.”
I nodded. He was right. I’d call her as soon as I could.
“On the bright side of things, you won’t have to file taxes anymore, and you make a damn fine ghost.”
“That’s not funny,” I said, yanking my hand from his.
Aiden chuckled. “Oh, come on, man. It could be worse.”
Disbelief ran through me. I knew my face clearly showed it as well because of the sympathetic look Aiden gave me as he clamped his hand on my shoulder.
“Look, I know it’s a lot to wrap your head around, but think of it this way. You have no more ties to the government. Nadia had to have had a reaso
n to terminate your file. She wouldn’t have done it without one.”
I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. “Yeah, well, it’s still fucked up.”
“Yes. It is.” The faint trace of Nadia’s Russian accent made me stiffen. “Aiden, Grant would like to go over some things with you before he leaves.”
Aiden straightened himself up and gave her a curt nod. “Take care, Ace. I’ll be in touch when I can.”
I turned to watch him go as Nadia kept her eyes on me. “What is it about you Alabama boys that’s so…” Her hands moved in front of her as if she could mold the word she wanted out of thin air.
“Why, Nadia?” I asked, not giving her a chance to move away from the subject.
She dropped her hands to her sides and turned to face me. With shoulders straight and her head high, she was still almost four inches shorter than I was. Seeing her pull herself together at her fullest height might have been comical in a different situation, but at that moment, it made my insides wrench knowing she had news I wouldn’t like.
“Let’s just cut to the chase. Shall we?” Her eyebrow winged up to accentuate her question as she continued, not wanting a reply. “I did what I had to do to keep you off the grid. Had I left you listed as alive, the government would have requested we turn you back over to Fort Benning. From there, you would have been placed back into the main stream of the military and our contract would have been eradicated.”
I forced my clenched hands to relax. She’d terminated me in the system in order to keep me. “And what happens when they find out I’m alive?”
The corner of her mouth kicked up in a secretive smile. “They won’t.”
A deep sigh slipped from me as I said, “You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“Not me. You. I’m sure of you.”
The snort that followed what she said ripped through the air between us. She stuffed her hands in her back pockets, rocking back on her heels. It was a move I’d seen Jared do a million times, but I never knew he got it from her.
“If I didn’t think you—any of you—were capable of doing what needs to be done, you wouldn’t be here. Tell me, Ace. Do you want me to go back and change your status to alive? And before you answer that, think of this. Once you’re reactivated, you would no longer have any contact with us. That seems like a lot to give up for one word. Your call.”
Relevance (The Six Series, book 2.5) Page 7
