Abigail scratches her forehead, laughing to herself. “I guess I should be glad that you’re on our side.”
Anders kisses Omar on the lips, nailing him with a sparkle-eyed look, and I force myself not to look at Ronan. With a smile, Anders turns his attention back to Abigail. “I’ll never wear a white hat, but I try to be a net positive.”
Omar whispers again in Arabic, and this time I decide that I won’t make any assumptions as to the translation.
Redirecting everyone’s attention to the subject at hand, I point to a map on the TV, which I share to the interactive screen on the table in front of everyone.
“Silas thought of himself as some sort of land developer, but all of the legal proceedings put a damper on his planned neighborhood. So now there’s a random field with a single street that ends in a cul-de-sac with two fucking enormous houses. One of the houses is abandoned and the other is where the law enforcement officers went to do the wellness check.”
Everett shakes his head. “So they’re completely isolated out there with a horrible person. I wonder what he’s holding over her head to make her too afraid to press charges.”
I scratch at my beard, looking over the reports for anything that might indicate a reason she’d hold back. “Nothing jumps out at me, but people like this will often threaten the families of the people they’ve captured.”
“I can’t wait to fucking murder this guy,” Anders growls. Odd holds out his fist, which Anders bumps without missing a beat.
The same human-trafficking ring where Parker played a reverse pick pocket produced dozens of young-adult victims. Several were alone in the world and needed significant support to start a new life, but most had families who never knew what happened to them. And sure, it was satisfying to reunite people with their families, but these families had been decimated by what happened.
And this asshole had made it happen to hundreds of families.
“The only real challenge with this op is that we’ve got cold, rainy weather predicted on and off throughout the next week. But that possibly gives us the element of surprise to work with. Any objections to going in next Wednesday afternoon?”
“Only if it isn’t going to cut into Bear Night at the gym,” Rafi says, smirking.
Shit, that’s right. The guys usually rely on me to hold a class then.
Everett shifts in his chair, glaring at Rafi. “And why do you care about Bear Night?”
Rafi raises a shoulder. “I like the scenery. And Roly goes with Heath, and they’re a lot of fun.”
Ronan turns when Rafi mentions his brother’s name, and Everett’s disgruntled look causes a ripple of laughter around the table. Even Abigail chuckles to herself. Ronan’s eyes flit over my body as he steadfastly avoids my eyes.
My attention is drawn back to DB when he raps his knuckles on the table. “Then I assume Tuesday is okay with everyone.”
We get unanimous agreement around the table, and he continues. “Excellent. Thane will be lead in the field, and I’ll leave it up to him to give assignments. Jake, you mind manning the PTN with Parker while I link in from Dallas?”
“Not at all, boss.”
Parker gives the thumbs-up. “From what I can tell, he usually deals in Russian, so I’ll keep an ear out in case you need on-the-fly translations.”
Fuck, it’s so nice to have someone who can speak fluent Russian. “Sounds good.”
We spend the next few minutes going over the specifics, wanting to avoid the clusterfuck of the last two operations. Ronan adds a couple of excellent additions to our usual operation checklists and suggests that we shouldnotgo in lean on this one. DB agrees and makes it an all-hands op. I should be pleased that Ro is no longer stuttering or nervous around me. It should make me proud, or at least relieved, that he’s professional and smart and seemingly unaffected by what has been going on between us.
Should.
In reality, my heart feels like it’s being crushed in a vice and my arms ache from their emptiness.
Parker pipes up, shaking me out of my melancholy. “Guys, please don’t forget to clean your equipment before putting it away. I nearly got gun powder on my favorite white blazer, and now Rafi owes me several lattes to make up for it.”
He snorts. “You just say that because you’re hiding from the baristas—plural—that you slept with in our building and you need someone to run interference.”
Omar waves his hand dismissively. “We got two new baristas a couple of weeks ago.”
Parker sips her Starbucks and averts her eyes while Rafi claps his hands.
“Parker.Again?” Omar genuinely looks miffed.
She grins and arranges some folders in front of her.
