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He paused, relieving the body at his feet of a substantial amount of cash as Lucas did the same with another man.
“I’m kind of busy right now,” he told her, turning to begin a search of the small confines of the camper. “Is that all you needed?”
She gave a low, amused laugh. “He needs a report,” she told him, speaking of Ian. “Did you find them?”
“Found. Taken care of. Searching the camper they were pulling now. So far nothing, but enough cash to keep them comfortable for a while and more guns than they needed.”
Silence filled the other end of the conversation for long minutes.
“One of us will contact you later. He says you need to meet. New intel has come in as well.”
Jack grimaced, his jaw tightening at the order.
He’d known when Ian caught chatter that another team was in the area for reasons unknown. Jack had a feeling he knew the reason. Someone wanted him either out of the way, too busy to get involved in what was coming, or too dead to care. And someone thought it was okay to use Poppy to achieve that.
Stepping aside, he nodded at Lucas, a silent signal to load the weapons and ammo.
“These two were paid more, or they came prepared to stay awhile and live extravagantly,” he told her.
“Cash, guns, and ammo are yours and your men’s,” she assured him. “He said burn the rest.”
“Will do.”
He stepped outside as Lucas carried out the last of the haul.
“He says burn the evidence,” he relayed the order, nodding to Hayes and Hank. “Take care of it.”
They lifted the jugs of accelerant that had been placed at a pickup point earlier. Hayes went into the camper, Hank opened the doors of the truck. The accelerant Ian had provided burned fast and hot and would ensure the two men inside wouldn’t show signs of the blades that had swiped across their necks. There would be nothing but teeth left.
No more than a minute later, the two men were dropping the fuses to the flares placed inside the camper and the truck. Once it was lit, the team would have sixty seconds to clear out of the small spot next to the river where they’d found the men camping.
At exactly seventy-five seconds, the truck exploded, then the camper. It would take a while for LEOs to be called in, considering the deserted area where the team had found the men.
“Second team, heavily armed and filled with cash,” Lucas said from the passenger seat, his tone suspicious. “What the fuck is going on?”
“No doubt something that’s going to piss us off,” Jack grunted. “Ian has intel, though; let’s hope it’s something that will clue us in, because I’m going to get sick of this fast and question Crossfield myself. He needs to choose teams that aren’t the dregs of an already rotten lot to offer jobs to. I’m getting tired of killing cockroaches.”
He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that this had been another team called in to grab Poppy, or something worse. He knew Rollins’s crew; if they’d gotten their hands on her, she wouldn’t have survived it.
He wasn’t as familiar with the two-man team they’d just taken out, but he knew their reputations, and they weren’t any gentler than Rollins and his men.
They were muscle, nothing more. And according to the answers they’d given Lucas when he questioned them, they were there on a rumor that a job was coming up. A big one. One with a high dollar payout and a guarantee to throw the United States into complete chaos.
When asked if part of their job was acquiring a redhead, they’d both smiled. That was all the answer Jack had needed.
There was always the chance the next team that made it to town would get lucky. These two had arrived in the area before Jack and his team had taken Rollins out, and they’d been looking to contact Rollins.
He was going to have to figure out what the hell to do about Poppy in all this. She was a way into the circle of friends she had, to ensure that Crossfield and Dawson had easy access to him and knew exactly how dangerous he could be.
As he and the team hit the Barboursville city limits, the smartphone he’d anchored on the bike lit up, showing a text message from Poppy.
He knew that woman could cook, but she was rarely home for dinner. How could she stomach the bar’s food over her own? Hell, he was close to begging her to cook for him.
He’d join her at the bar after a shower and change of clothes. Not that any DNA stained him this time, but he didn’t want to go to her with the stink of death in his nostrils, either.
Activating a call to Lucas, he used the sensitive Bluetooth communications set in his helmet.
“Yeah?” Lucas answered.
