The dude winced but only nodded in response, waiting for Jeep to continue, just as training would have taught him to do.
“Why did you bring extra weapons to HQ?”
“I’d just come from the range,” he said. “You can check the cameras and my login times. I should have dropped them at the cage, but I was in a rush, and I forgot.”
“‘I forgot’ gets people killed,” Logan added. “Nemesis doesn’t hire people who get people killed. Tell me why the fuck we shouldn’t fire your ass right now?”
“I made a fuck up.” The guy’s face said he was finally realizing the error of his ways. He straightened in the chair. “It won’t happen again.”
“Who do you work for?” Jeep asked.
The FNG looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I work for Nemesis the same way you do. You know that.”
Jeep just quirked up one eyebrow and asked, “Does the name June Pezzullo mean anything to you?”
Caleb stiffened and exchanged a glance with Dalton when FNG’s shoulders tensed. Clearly, he did know that name. Caleb leaned a little toward the glass, eager to know how he knew it.
“How did you hear that name?” Jeep pressed.
For a second, Caleb thought the operator wasn’t going to answer, but his cheeks inflated as he blew out a breath. “Her family wants her back?—"
Jeep cut him off with a slash of his hand and growled, “Don’t bullshit me. She doesn’t have any family.”
He looks confused. Interesting.
“Her husband wants her back.”
Husband? My ass.
Both Tex and Trev had done a deep dive into Rose’s background. She’d never married the jerk. Was he lying in an attempt at sympathy?
Jeep changed the track of his questioning. “So, how did you know she was here?”
Again, it looked as if FNG was reluctant to answer; this time, it was Logan who pushed the issue. “Answer the question.”
“There’s a job on the dark web,” FNG said slowly. “You know my persona. We discussed it during the interview process.” He waited for Jeep to give him a short nod. “It got tagged for it. I was about to turn it down and stepped away to think about it.” His hands moved as he talked. “Then I saw her walk into the mess last night. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I was in for some easy bucks.”
Both Logan and Jeep snorted, and Caleb understood why. In their world, easy usually came with a side of ‘fuck me,’ and ‘why the hell didn’t I see that one coming?’
“Did you happen to notice who she walked into the mess with?”
Caleb smirked at Logan’s question, because if the asshole hadn’t known before, he was about to find out exactly who he’d pissed off by even contemplating going after a job that involved Rose.
“The guy who went into HQ before me this morning. I just wanted to ask him where to find her.”
“That is her man,” Jeep said mildly. “She doesn’t have a husband…”
“Two million dollars says otherwise?—"
Jeep kept talking as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “…like the job description you looked at said. But do you know what she does have? She’s got Caleb Hunt, that’s who.”
FNG’s fingers, which had been rubbing at the corner of the table, stilled, and his eyes dropped closed briefly. “Hunt? Are you shitting me?”
“Nope.” Logan popped the end on the word. “Just in case you think he’s about to let this go,” he pointed to the one-way glass almost directly to Caleb’s chest as if he could see him. “he is behind the glass right now, watching your every move.”
“He’s probably sizing you up for a hole in the ground, too,” Jeep added for good measure.
“He can’t do anything to me from behind the glass.” FNG had either found his balls or lost his sanity. “I’m still tempted; two million is a lot of money.”
