Striker steps into the room with a sealed bag in his hand. He jerks his chin at Jasper. “I got your message, Prez.” He holds up a clear baggie with Christina’s flash drive inside. “I wiped it clean of prints and DNA. There should be nothing that traces it back to us.” He sets it on the table in front of us.
“This is the key,” Jasper says. “And Christina risked her life to get it.”
I stare at the flash drive. Rage, duty, and fear collide inside me as I realize how critically important the work my woman was doing in Afghanistan turned out to be. As much as I hate to admit it, this is the kind of shit worth someone risking their life to bring to light.
Jasper looks around the table. “We bring a cop we trust with us. Morgan is hungry for a win. We go in with badges behind us. We keep control of ourselves and do what needs to be done under the shield of law. Hydro Relief will not walk away from this.”
Rock nods. “You bring her home. She belongs with us. And we dismantle every inch of this company’s operation.”
Jasper has a side conversation with my dad while the rest of us process what we just learned. I can practically feel my brother’s fury. This is the kind of betrayal that only soldiers understand, the kind that comes from learning a company paid to support the war effort was selling us out for cold hard cash. They were taking money from us and our enemies. We call companies like that war profiteers.
“I’m gonna make the call,” Jasper says decisively. “If REACH is involved in keeping Christina against her will, that’s kidnapping. We also got them for evidence tampering, makingillegal international weapons deals during wartime and a dozen other charges. We just need a badge in the room to make it stick.”
Rock gestures with his chin. “Call him. Let’s see what he says.”
Jasper hits the number for Detective Morgan, a sharp, ambitious bastard who’s worked with us before. The phone barely rings before he picks up.
“Morgan here,” he says.
Jasper leans back in his chair, his voice calm. “You interested in a career-making case?”
Morgan huffs out a quick laugh that carries too much eagerness. “Always. What do you have?”
“Weapons trafficking. Financial crimes. A multinational contractor tied to deals with insurgents who killed American soldiers. And as of the last hour, a kidnapped civilian inside one of their affiliate sites.”
The line goes silent for a full beat. Then Morgan speaks again, his voice excited. “Repeat that.”
“You heard me.”
Morgan’s tone shifts. “Where is this?”
“Hydro Relief. Greer County.”
“That’s out of my district.”
Jasper gives him the truth without hesitation. “We don’t care. We need someone with verified authority to stand on-sitewhen we breach. You bring your badge. Bring two uniforms if you can. We’ll say it was a spur of the moment emergency and make sure you have everything you need to make the case stick. You be sure to cover the chain of custody for any evidence you find and you’re golden.”
Morgan doesn’t hesitate this time. “I’m in. Sending the call through dispatch now. Don’t go in until we’re there.”
“We’ll be ready and waiting,” Jasper says, “but don’t dawdle.” Then he ends the call without goodbye.
We have a good plan. It’s all going to come down to execution. Christina is inside that building right now. Maybe even at the mercy of men tied to the same chain of corruption that put a price on her head. Rivera is waiting for us to back him up, buying us time in the only way he can.
Rock looks at me. “You leadin’ the breach?”
I nod. “Christina is my old lady. There ain’t no version of this where anyone gets through those doors before me.”
Striker steps closer to the table, tapping on his screen as he enlarges the building schematics. “I just scraped this from their internal network. There are two viable entry points. The main lobby and the east wing side access. There appears to be a restricted wing that sits on the west side. Most of the security cams are routed through a hub. I can’t hack it without tripping an alert. That means angles could be blind.” He locks eyes with me. “Be prepared for anything.”
Onyx pulls the schematic up on his phone. “We take the lobby with Morgan and his men. That puts us in prime position to cause a distraction if local law enforcement tries to takecontrol of the scene and throw us out before we find her. Slate leads the side entry with us. If we don’t find her anywhere else, we converge at the restricted wing.”
Jinx cracks his neck. “I’ll handle the interior doors.”
Mica hits the table with his palm eagerly. “I’ll take perimeter. I’ll make sure nobody gets out through the garage or the loading docks.”
Rock rises slowly to his feet. “I’m riding on this one, too.”
Jasper gives our dad a long look. He hasn’t ridden on a mission in months. He’s old-school and always ready to fight for his family. Christina’s family now. So, there’ll be no talking him out of it.
