“I’ve been tracking someone inside the DEA,” he began, his voice low but steady.
“For how long?”Bateman asked, eyebrow raised.
“Three years, give or take.”Kai answered, and shot Hogan a look.“Since just before you were sent to Chechnya.”
Dev crossed his arms.“Why is it that I am guessing that you using that Pathfinder mission as a time frame is significant?”
Kai nodded.“Because it is.Just before that Pathfinder had been systematically dismantling the Bratya’s networks and revenue streams.”
Dale stepped forward frowning.“We were, we hadn’t completed it, but we had certainly made a huge fuck off dent in it all.A pretty fucking significant one from memory.”
“Yep, and it did not go unnoticed,” Kai shot a look at Surge who nodded.“I had been with the DEA for about four years by then, and had started to notice that not everything was adding up.Jobs were being tailored, agents and teams being sent in to do things for the highest bidder.”
Hogan stepped forward.“And you figured out that it was someone higher up within the agency making those calls, didn’t you, Rip?”
He didn’t imagine the ripple of surprise that flickered throughout the room at his use of the nickname he remembered for Kai.Mostly from the Black Tide group, but a few in the Pathfinders recognized it as well.
“Yeah, I did.And whoever it is, they are not just a crooked agent.They’re tied to the Bratya.”A pause, his jaw tightening.“They’re the one who lined up Chechnya.He sent you all in knowing or at least planning for it to be a one-way trip.”
The room erupted.Chairs scraped, voices rose, the fury sharp enough to rattle the rafters.Dale stepped forward, eyes blazing.“And you knew?You knew this and didn’t tell us?”His voice cracked like a whip.“We bled out there.We nearly lost Bateman, Ricky, and, Jesus, we lost a piece of Hogan in that place.We nearly lost all of us.”
Hogan’s fists clenched, the echo of that ambush burning hot.He opened his mouth to join in—then caught Kai’s eyes.Not guilt, not shame.Sadness.He looked at Hogan like he already knew he’d lost him.And it damn near gutted him.
Hogan worked it through in a breath.Then he moved.He caught his teammate by the shoulder and spun him back.
“Back the fuck up,” Hogan growled, low and lethal.“You don’t talk to him like that.Not again.You do and you’ll regret it.I’ll make sure of it.”
The silence that followed was sharp.Surge straightened, a flicker of approval in his gaze.Dev gave a slow nod.Bateman’s mouth curved in grim agreement.Kai just stared, shocked, like Hogan had flipped the script on him.
Hogan turned back, voice iron.“Continue the debrief, Rip.There’s more here, and we need all of it.”
Kai swallowed, nodded once, and squared his shoulders.The dread didn’t leave his eyes, but there was something steadier under it now.Something Hogan wasn’t about to let break.
****
Kai stood with theweight of every set of eyes in the room pressing down on him.His throat felt raw, but he forced the words out.“You want to know what he’s been doing since Chechnya?Feeding intel.Selling out operations to the Bratya, manipulating missions so that the DEA became their personal blunt instrument.Profiting off every move you made.”
Marsh muttered something vicious under his breath.Luca leaned forward, jaw set.“That explains the gaps,” he said.“The intel that didn’t line up.We thought it was our own mistakes.”
Dale’s fists clenched, as both Ty and Oren stepped closer, offering him silent support, or potentially to step in if he started throwing hands.“You’re saying the whole fucking mission was compromised before we even set foot on the ground?”
The reaction rippled through the room—anger, betrayal, disbelief.Ricky spat, “And you kept that to yourself?For years?”
Kai’s jaw tightened.He opened his mouth, but Hogan cut across the building storm.“Let him finish.”His tone left no room for argument.“You want answers, you shut up and listen.”
“Listen?”Dale snapped, shoulders braced.“We almost lost you on that fucking mission, Hogan.Hell, we practically watched Bateman bleed out in the dirt.And he knew?”
Kai forced himself to hold Dale’s glare.“I didn’t know all of it.Not then.I only knew enough to realize it was a setup.”
Marsh’s voice was sharp.“And you didn’t warn us?”
“I couldn’t,” Kai said.“If I had, the DEA would’ve pinned me as the leak, and the Bratya would’ve had your coordinates anyway.I had one shot to make a difference, keep my cover and hopefully live long enough to find this fucker and make him pay.”
The room seethed.Black Tide bristled in the corner—Keanu’s arms crossed, Niko muttering low in Hawaiian.Luca’s dark eyes cut to Kai.“And you didn’t call us in?We would have had your back.”
“Tell them, bruddah,” Surge said, voice tense.“Tell them all of it.”
The tension held, thick as smoke, until Kai dropped the rest.“Surge and I—we came to Chechnya.We weren’t supposed to be there, but we knew what it was, and we couldn’t sit back and watch good men,” Kai let his gaze slide to and linger on Hogan, “my man, die.We took out as many of their men in the forest as we could.”
