“Zoe is working on the details. Then we’ll be coordinating with her superiors.”
Luke raised an eyebrow in question. “And you trust her to be truthful about who she is?”
Greg wasn’t offended by Luke’s tone. He was being cautious. “I overheard her on the phone. She didn’t know I was there. She said she was an agent.”
“You’re sure she didn’t know you were there and is just playing with you? Seeing if you’ll rat her out to Maxim to test your mettle?”
Greg remembered the look of shock and fear on Zoe’s face when she’d seen him in her apartment. “She’s an agent, Luke. I’m willing to bet on it.”
Luke sat back in his seat. His face had a look of consternation. “I’m going to have to speak to the colonel about this. This was supposed to be our mission to shut down Maxim, and now with DEA involved and other drug leaders, this is about to get messy. The fewer people who know about us, the better.”
Greg knew where Luke was going with this, and he didn’t like it. “You want to pull.”
“It’s the smart choice.”
“But not the right one. Luke, she only has a small team to back her. There are seven of us.”
“It will take more than that to take down three drug leaders. The firepower alone at this meeting we’ll be hard pressed to beat.”
“We can call in local police.”
Luke snorted. “And involve more people to know about us? In a city we operate out of?”
Greg clenched his fists and pushed from his seat, unable to sit idle. He felt like gunpowder in a cannon ready to explode. Luke wasn’t telling him anything he hadn’t thought about before, but by saying it out loud, he knew their team was being pushed into a corner. How to operate in secrecy and shut down one of the largest drug leader busts in history. “I can’t just walk away and do nothing.”
“Maybe you don’t have to,” Shay said. It was the first time she’d spoken since her shock of the car chase.
“What do you mean?” Luke turned and looked at her.
“What if we control where the meet is? Pick the location? Your team can surround it or booby trap it, whatever it is you guys do, and that way you’ll have the advantage.”
Luke smiled warmly at Shay and placed his hand over hers. “That’s great, babe, but that still doesn’t change the fact we’d be heavily outnumbered. These drug leaders are some of the biggest right now. Maxim controls much of the Midwest. Viktor the North and Diego the South.” Luke looked back at Greg with resignation in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Greg. We can’t risk our team on this.”
“A meeting shouldn’t require an army,” Shay spoke up again. “It’s about trust or as close to it as these men can get. They should only allow the big hitters inside and the army out.”
Greg liked where she was going with this. If Shay wasn’t spoken for and it would get him killed and he wasn’t in lust with Zoe, he’d kiss her for her genius. “If we can pick the right building, the armies stay outside and we can seal the building inside, we’d only have to contend with the three bosses and their seconds. DEA could handle the army, and our team and Zoe could handle the inside. Minimal people would know about us. Or Zoe could say she’s got inside help, and our team could still stay dark.”
“A lot could go wrong with this,” Luke pointed out. “We’d have to pick the right building. Make reinforcements to keep armies out, and her people have to agree on this.”
“I know it’s a risk, Luke, but our mission was to stop Maxim and his drug ring.”
“I know what the mission is,” Luke said flatly as if he needed to be reminded what the mission was. “How much do you trust this Zoe person?”
“With my life,” Greg replied without hesitation.
“You’re going to be trusting her with all of our lives. You need to be damn sure before I give the green light on this. You’ve only known her for a day.”
“Luke, you know me.” Luke knew him as well as he knew himself. They were all as close as brothers. Greg would never jeopardize any of them, no matter if a woman was involved.
“I do, but women complicate things. No offense, love,” he quickly apologized to Shay and took her hand in his then kissed the back of her knuckles. She hadn’t been part of their mission and yet, Luke had taken her under his wing and they’d fallen in love.
“None taken. It didn’t all turn out so bad,” she teased him. Luke’s lips curled into a smile. The only time Greg ever saw him smile was around her. She was good for him. Kept him grounded. Luke was always so serious. Shay helped liven him up.
“I would never risk our team. You all are my family. That comes before any woman. No offense, Shay.”
“Why do you both keep saying no offense, Shay?” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “I’m not offended.” She pointed at herself. “I get I’m the first girl thrown in with your boy band; I’m okay with it because I know I am the first of many.” She leaned back in her chair with a smug grin on her face as if she knew something they both didn’t.
“Boy band?” Luke and Greg said at the same time.
