There’s no guarantee Saint wouldn’t try to slit his throat while he slept.
“How did my father find you?” I ask, curling my hands around my beer.
“Through my brother Lincoln.”
I sit up straighter. “Lincoln from the law firm is your brother?” He nods. “Huh. You look nothing alike.”
“We were both adopted,” he confirms, drinking from his mug.
“Lincoln never mentioned a word.”
“He wouldn’t. He’s been sworn to secrecy. Anyone who knows the identity of my employer is at risk, so I tend to limit the people I tell.”
I’m guessing it’s a lonely lifestyle and not one conducive to marriage and family life. My heart aches for Diesel for all he’s missing out on.
“How did you end up working for VERO?” Theo asks, idly threading his fingers through my hair. Saint is on the other side of me on the couch while Caz and Galen share the smaller couch and Diesel occupies the chair.
“I was recruited by the FBI straight from college. Spent a few years working for them, but the regimented structure went against my nature, so I quit. A couple months after I left, I was approached to join VERO. It sounded a better fit, so I took the job, and here I am.”
“How did Lincoln convince you to train Lo?” Saint asks, and I’m pleased he’s behaving himself now. When we first got back here, I thought he was going to put a bullet in Diesel’s skull.
“I only signed up for a few weeks. No offense, Lo,” he says, smiling at me. “But training a feisty thirteen-year-old wasn’t exactly on my bucket list.”
“What changed?” Galen asks.
“I met her,” he softly says, and all the guys stare at him.
My heart thumps behind my rib cage.
He turns to me. “You were so lost, but you had this fiery determination and this inner strength, and I’d never seen anything like it before. I knew you were special, and I also knew you were vulnerable. Your father was a shrewd player. He knew as soon as I met you I would change my mind, and he told me what’d happened and explained about the continuous threat, and that was all it took to confirm my commitment to a more permanent arrangement.”
“I’m taking it your employer doesn’t know.”
His jaw clenches. “They didn’t at first. But they found out.”
I shift uncomfortably, and the guys turn rigidly still.
“Explain that,” Saint grits out.
“I kept Lo a secret, fitting training sessions around my missions. I called in favors and built up a small, loyal team I could call on to go head to head in combat, but otherwise, I kept it on the down low. But one of the guys in the team ratted me out to my superiors a year ago. I expected a couple of potential outcomes, but the one they presented me with was not on my list.”
“What went down?” I ask, chewing on the corner of my nail.
“I’m guessing you weren’t able to dig up much intel on the VERO board of directors,” he says to Theo.
Theo shakes his head. “It’s all sealed, but there is a lot of speculation on the darknet.”
“About it being government funded and led?” Diesel asks.
“Yeah.”
“And it is, but it’s way bigger than that. The board is made up of powerful figures in business and government. All these guys stand to lose everything should their involvement in VERO ever come out.”
I notice he hasn’t mentioned what his missions entail, and I’ve no desire to pry. I know this is dangerous for him, and the less we know, the better. I want to keep our questions focused on how this impacts us.
“How is this connected to Lo and us?” Galen asks.
“When my superiors pulled me in, they told me I could continue training Lo and they’d let my disobedience slide provided Trey worked with the FBI to take down The Sainthood.”
