She loved doing ops and shutting down bad guys, but she was tired. Tired of her life being one lie after another.
“I know what you mean. I ran reconnaissance in the army before my injury.” Zoe’s eyes drifted to his leg. It didn’t seem to bother him having a prosthetic. He moved around so fluidly that she would never have known it was fake. “When I joined this group, it felt different being in the mix instead of watching from afar. I’ve had so many aliases over the past five years that I’m surprised I know my real name.”
“And it’s Greg?” She couldn’t help but tease.
He rolled his head over to look down at her with a droll look. “Yes, it’s Greg.”
“Just checking.” She didn’t need any more surprises at the moment.
“Is Zoe really yours?”
“Yeah, unlike you, I’m terrible with remembering my fake names, so I always kept my first and just changed my last. Not many ask what my last name is. So what do we do now?” Zoe questioned after they laid there for a few minutes in silence.
“Keep up the charade of you as the head of operations and me the driver. Hopefully, we can end things when Diego meets with Viktor. If they somehow manage to join forces—” He let his sentence drop off.
Zoe shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it. The three of them will control the drug market through more than half of the US. We can’t allow that to happen.”
“How are you planning on busting him?”
“You’re not going to take over?” she asked, shocked he was letting her take point. It wasn’t a sexist thing, but two agencies working together, she figured he would try to pull rank on her.
Greg shook his head. “This is your op. I’ll help of course, but you know these guys far better than I do.”
Which brought up another question. “How did you end up on this op? I wasn’t even aware of another team.”
“We hadn’t intended to, but when bodies started showing up in the desert from heart attacks, we became suspicious. I had contacts look into it and traced it to a drug coming from your club.”
“They’ve been experimenting with something. I managed to get a sample to my team, but so far no one can trace what it is.” As quickly as the stuff was being sold, Zoe felt a sense of urgency before more people died from it. She knew it wasn’t from Maxim. He dealt with other drugs, not experimental ones. This had Leo written all over it, but she couldn’t track from where.
Zoe had searched throughout the mansion and made soft inquiries to the clubs she dealt with, and no one seemed to know where the new drug was coming from. Neither did they seem to care since they were making a profit. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
“It’s not showing up in autopsy reports.”
“So it’s not from common drugs. We need to find the lab that’s creating it.”
“It’s not at the mansion?”
Zoe shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of. I’ve never seen anyone coming in or out of the mansion with it. It’s only at the clubs.”
“We need to spread out and search places where it could be getting made.”
“We only have a small team. Four guys. Not enough to go searching everywhere.”
“There are seven of us. I think between our two teams, we can make a plan and do a process of elimination.”
“I’m going to have to tell my boss about you and your team.”
Greg didn’t look happy about it but slowly nodded. “I understand. All I ask is that you leave out that we are a secret military group. The fewer that know of our existence, the better.”
That she could agree to. “I will. I need to get back to the mansion before I’m missed.” As nice as this interlude had been, it was time to get back to reality and take down the drug pin.
“I’ll take you back.”
“No, I should go alone. Maxim’s already doubled the guards. It’s going to be hard sneaking back as one person. I can’t imagine two. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon when you come to the mansion for another drive.”
“I don’t think I can’t wait that long to see you.” He kissed her, and it was like she forgot her own name.
“I suppose in the morning will do. I’ll think of a reason for Maxim to request you. Maybe go over new routes for pickups and drop offs. I really should go before I’m missed.” She wasn’t ready to leave yet though. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could trust him. Only time would tell, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t trust him with her body.
