Mortis’s jaw ticked. Was this guy for real? “Because the place is crawling with people. Unless you wanted me to drop him in broad daylight with hundreds of witnesses.”
The silence that followed made Mortis assume that Talon had gotten the message.
“Well, now that you know he’s here, take care of him sooner rather than later,” Talon snapped back.
Mortis let out a soft laugh. “Careful, Talon. You sound like you’re forgetting who is really in the driver's seat here.”
“I hired you.”
“You hired a result,” Mortis said, his voice dropping. “Don’t mistake that for loyalty.”
With those final words, Mortis cut the call.
For a moment, he sat there in the silence, phone in one hand, binoculars in the other. Mortis couldn’t stand that fucker. The only reason he tolerated his arrogance was that he paid well. Butone of these days, he was going to piss Mortis off to the point that Talon might end up paying for his own life.
Mortis scanned the grounds once more, searching out another individual. Once he found her, he focused his binoculars on her.
Charley Taylor. She was a stunning creature. He watched as she walked into the building with two men and another woman.
“I hope you’re not involved, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You’re too damn pretty to end up in my crosshairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Pierce kept one hand at the small of Charley’s back as they headed inside, more out of instinct than thought. The crowd in the lobby had thinned out a little, but there were still enough people milling around, and nobody needed to hear the conversation they were about to have. So, they all headed upstairs to Charley’s office, where they could have some privacy.
Charley seemed to be holding herself together better than most would have with a strange colonel showing up out of nowhere and flashing around a photo of the same man who had approached her outside the building and presumably had sent her mysterious notes. But Pierce could feel the tension in her all the same.
A short time after all of the speeches had wrapped, Ray had gotten the call from his contact. He and Pierce had stepped far enough away from the crowd to hear, and what little the man gave them had been enough to deepen the mystery.
Ace and Alex had been close by when the call came in, and once the call ended, Pierce filled them in on the situation. Of course, Alex’s whole expression had changed as she was more concerned for Charley.
Now, as they made their way up the stairs, Pierce’s thoughts circled back to the moment Ray had recognized the man who had been speaking with Charley. Colonel Reed was the same man whom the three men had reported to during Operation Storm Current. The pieces lined up fast enough to make the hair on the back of Pierce’s neck rise. Pierce didn’t like coincidence on his best day, and this didn’t feel like a coincidence. Not withReed showing up here and flashing that photo around. He just hated that Charley found herself in the middle of whatever this situation was.
By the time they reached her office, Pierce’s protective instincts had honed in.
Charley stepped inside first and set the colonel’s business card on her desk before turning to face them. Ray closed the door behind them, and Jessica took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Charley’s desk. Pierce stayed close to Charley without crowding her.
She looked between all three of them and let out a breath. “Okay,” she said, folding her arms lightly across her chest. “There’s something you guys know that I don’t.”
Pierce exchanged a glance with Ray, then looked back at her. “Ray got a call from his contact.”
Charley’s attention sharpened. “And?”
“And the contact confirmed the three names are tied to Operation Storm Current,” Pierce said. “He didn’t have much more than that, not yet, at least. He said that their files are locked down tight and harder to get into than he expected. But he also said he’s going to keep digging because something about all of it feels off.”
Ray pushed away from the door and took a few steps closer. “Whatever details are in those files are buried deep. It’s almost like they don’t even exist anymore.”
Charley frowned. “That’s comforting.”
“Tell me about it,” Jessica muttered.
Pierce almost smiled, but it didn’t quite make it all the way there. “There’s more. Ray’s contact also mentioned the three men had reported to a Lieutenant Colonel Reed during that operation.”
Her eyes widened. “The sameColonelReed that I was just talking to?”
“Yeah. He and I ran in the same circles back in the day. That’s how I recognized him,” Ray said.
For a second, Charley just stared at him. “You’re telling me the man who showed up here with a picture of the guy who approached me also had a connection to the operation mentioned in the second note?”
