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“Other than that, there’s no new intel,” Lucas assured him. “Ian says stay on course and he’ll be in touch if anything changes.”
“Poppy’s friends, other than Ms. Crossfield, seemed to take to us while we were there. I hadn’t expected that,” Hank pointed out.
Yeah, Jack had seen Lilith Preston sneaking little looks at Hank several times. Whatever had been in that bag, the present must have impressed her. And he had a feeling it wasn’t an erotic toy.
“Saige Dawson’s an interesting little thing,” Hayes stated. “Smart, wary.”
“They all are,” Hank murmured. “A little too wary for what’s natural.”
“Same with Erika Boone.” Lucas nodded in agreement.
“Crossfield’s sister wasn’t interested at all,” Hayes stated.
“She’s too busy keeping River Dawson from claiming her,” Jack pointed out. “I get the feeling he’s straining at the bit where revealing that relationship is involved. And he’s not too happy with the lingering secrecy.”
“Yeah, that would suck.” Lucas nodded seriously. “Lot of tangled webs here, boss. And they’re all connected to Crossfield-Dawson. We”—he nodded toward the other two men—“learned last night that even Erika Boone and Lilith Preston work in some capacity for the company, mostly in a cleaning service capacity. Both of them work several hours on the weekends cleaning the offices. They’ve also been called in to clean residences or commercial suites before a showing.”
That hadn’t been in Ian’s report.
“It’s not unheard of.” Jack rubbed at the back of his neck and stood. “I expected it.”
Jack laid out four large paper plates for the desserts. As he unwrapped them, each man rose and approached him cautiously.
Jack cut a large square of cake and pie, placed each on a plate, and wrapped them and set them aside. Then he sliced another large piece of each to eat.
“Make yourselves at home.” There was more than enough.
The little boys made another appearance as they dug into the decadent chocolate first, then the apple-and-cinnamon perfection.
Jack almost grinned at the delight in the faces of men whom the military had deemed to have antisocial personality disorder and to be borderline sociopaths.
They were just men, he thought. Too hardened and scarred, too distrusting and uncertain where anything good was concerned. Too certain they didn’t want to risk losing anything that could become important to them. They’d been destroyed too many times to want to chance that destruction again.
Or at least, he had been.
But he’d walked into this with his eyes wide open, he thought, thinking of Poppy and his certainty of how she believed she felt about him. It was going to break him to walk away from her, but until then, he was going to relish it. Store every memory. Make certain they were as clear as possible.
It was all the comfort he’d have when he had to leave.
Still, it was a hell of a lot more than he’d had in his life to this point. He’d make it be enough.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Poppy admitted she wasn’t one to follow local news. She kept up with the international scene, just because it wasn’t as upsetting for some reason. But when she entered the office that evening to turn over the leases and checks from that day to Sasha, it was the local news that caught her attention.
The four men found “slaughtered,” as the news anchor put it, in a local deserted farmhouse were identified as a team of international mercenaries wanted for questioning in several nations for a variety of crimes.
An American, a Colombian, and two South Africans.
According to the anchor, a local had reported having spoken to one of the men and giving him directions to a hardware store in town. In this age of Google Maps and online navigation, the local had scoffed over someone asking for directions, it was reported.
No one had mentioned Poppy, though, and the fact that the slain man had approached her and caused her to nearly be hit by said local. Thank God.
She recognized another man in the picture as well: Chet Rollins, the commander of the group. She’d barely glimpsed his face when he’d nearly run into her at the end of the alley as she was pulling out, but there was no doubt it was him.
The reporter said local law enforcement revealed it looked like the men had faced off against more than one person. No gunshots had been fired; each man had taken a knife blow to the heart or the neck.
Guns, ammunition, and drugs had been found in the house, and nothing more. It was suspected the deaths were the result of a drug deal gone bad, but there were no suspects at present.
