Castello closed the door to the bedroom as quietly as possible. His phone vibrating on the counter had summoned him to the war room.
“We have intel,” Zack straightened from where he leaned against the wall and handed over the travel mug of coffee he carried. Glancing at the door, he raised an eyebrow in query.
“He’s sleeping.”
“Okay,” Zack waved Castello in the direction of the war room. “Krystal Shaw is DEA.”
“No fucking way?”
“Shocked the shit out of me too,” Zack muttered. “Marc Colgan sent me an email to an old drop box we used to use in teams.”
“You believe him?” Castello tapped in the four-digit code to the lock and pulled open the door.
“Yeah,” Zack grabbed the door to stop it swinging shut and followed Castello onto the metal catwalk. “I’ve had Sage verify it. Once we knew where to look, we found the information.”
They clattered down the steps to the war room floor, where all his team, along with the Panthers and Ghosts were waiting. Castello nodded hello before looking to his go to intel guy, “SITREP, Sage?”
“Krystal Shaw,” Sage put an image of Axel’s sister on the screen, “Went undercover with the Diamond mob during an investigation into weapons coming through the port of Florida. Her job was to get close to him.” Sage nodded in Zeke’s direction.
“I didn’t even know you then,” Zeke nudged Malik in the ribs when his man muttered something the others couldn’t hear under his breath.
“When Zeke disappeared, word on the street was that he had been killed.” Steele informed them. “I figured it was better that way rather than having every asshole in Miami with a grudge showing up at home in Texas.”
He grinned, “Matt Garrett’s momma is one scary lady when she is pissed.”
“When Zeke disappeared,” Sage continued, “Krystal was called back to DEA HQ before having the baby and once her maternity leave was up, was reassigned to Mexico.”
“Why not tell Axel?” Castello didn’t get it, or rather he did in a way. He never told his family about the missions he went on. None of them did, but if he was going undercover he would be fucking telling them he was deploying
for a year or for however long the undercover role was expected to last.
“What I mean is, why not tell him she worked with the DEA.”
“They grew up with me,” Grif supplied the reason, “Our club is very anti-cops. It was beaten into them from the time they were kids that you did not talk to the cops. Ever.”
“Okay.” Then how the fuck did Krystal come to work for the DEA?
Castello shook his head to clear it, that bit didn’t matter so much right now.
“Go on.”
“Krystal’s handler reported that she hadn’t made a check in for the last four months.” Sage pulled up some reports with sections highlighted in red.
“He went to Mexico to meet her at a certain shopping mall each time. It says right here that she didn’t arrive.” Sage switched on a laser and used it to highlight the passages he wanted Castello to read. “Kalon?”
“We located the security footage from that shopping mall,” Kalon sent images to the viewing wall, “all of these are time stamped at the times Krystal was meant to report to her handler.”
“She’s right there.” Castello frowned at the screen, “That is her, right?”
“Yup.”
“So why the fuck did her handler report that she didn’t show?”
“That we don’t know,” Cade spoke up. “She sent two communications out, requesting that she be extracted and got no response that we could find.”
“Where is the handler now?”
“He disappeared.” Zack told him, “He’s the dude Colgan is after, or at least that’s what he says in his email.”
