Dee and Caleb agreed, then followed Agent Betts out of the room and down the hallway toward the conference room.
Sunny pulled Julian toward Reggie’s office. “Something is off. Reggie’s likely going to stall, claiming classified intelligence for his information. But we need to get something, anything to start our own search for Mena. I’ve already texted Enzo. He and Glaze are back at TIDES trying to reconstruct everything we know and analyze where Mena could be.”
Stepping into Reggie’s office, Julian closed the door behind him and walked to the chairs in front of Reggie’s desk.
Reggie stiffened, his hands clenching into fists as he leaned against the towering bookcases lining the wall.
“How did your guys miss this?” Sunny asked. “Do you know how much time has been wasted because your team failed to do a proper ID?”
“Why is he in here? Shouldn’t you go and console Mena’s parents while Sunny and I strategize?” Reggie asked, looking over Julian at Sunny.
“He loves Mena! He deserves to be in here more than I do,” Sunny said.
“When did you start caring about a man loving a woman?” Reggie asked, shaking his head in disgust. “It’s bad enough the Irungus are wielding their power and forcing my team of highly trained special operatives to deal with your little band of military rejects, but now you are parading your ex-lover in my face? He’s making a fool of you, getting you to help him find the woman he really wants to be with. News flash—it’s not you.”
Julian stood and walked over to Reggie.
“You don’t know the first fucking thing about my relationship with Sunny. You don’t know the things we’ve been through, the pain we’ve shared and the losses we’ve endured. I’m not going to sit here while you disrespect her. We are here for one reason. To find Mena. So act like a big boy and put your emotions to the side, okay,” Julian said.
The force of the blow to his face stunned Julian, the ache emanating across his left jaw. The metallic taste of blood on the tip of his tongue. Another one-two punch slamming into Julian’s gut sent him stumbling across the desk. Reggie connected with two more blows to his head, sending lights popping behind his eyes.
“Stop it!” Sunny screamed, rushing over to the desk. “We don’t have time for this!”
Julian pushed Reggie off him and rolled onto the floor, sucking in breaths. He turned back to Reggie. “Feel better now? Feel like a man?”
Reggie stalked behind his desk and slumped into his chair, anger wafting from him.
Sunny leaned over and helped Julian stand.
“Are you okay?”
“Trust me, I’ve gotten my ass kicked worse than this and you know it,” Julian said.
Sunny gave him a small smile, no doubt remembering the beat down Julian had suffered when their secret had come out all those long years ago.
“I’m going to say this one time, Reggie, and then you need to get past this. The problems in our relationship have nothing to do with Julian. He isn’t the reason why I can’t marry you. Now can we get back to what’s important here?” Sunny asked.
“ASF has been unable to recover the files on the ODPP server that incriminated Kipsang Rono. It’s like they never existed. Now Tubeec is walking around with the only copy of that evidence and President Thairu has ordered that we find it,” Reggie said.
Julian’s blood boiled. He banged his fists against Reggie’s desk. “What does this have to do with Mena?”
“It means that I don’t have enough resources to track Tubeec Hirad and try to find your girlfriend. The President has made our directive clear. I believe Tubeec may have Mena and if that is the case, we will rescue her when we capture him.”
“And what if she isn’t?” Julian asked.
Reggie shrugged. “We have a bigger threat to deal with. Finding Mena is no longer a priority for the ASF.”
Chapter Forty-One
“Motherfucking bastard! How the hell did you ever fuck around with him for so long?” Enzo pushed away from the table and stalked to the corner of the conference room inside TIDES HQ.
Julian and Sunny had finished debriefing the team about restarting the search for Mena after the ASF botched the rescue mission, misidentifying another woman found near Wajir as the love of Julian’s life.
“My love life, or lack thereof, is irrelevant right now,” Sunny said, slipping into the leather chair at the head of the conference room table.
Julian stood near the door, his mind calculating the best way to make up the valuable time they’d lost. Glaze and Enzo flanked Sunny, while Zale, Simon, and Taye sat towards the opposite end. There were two empty seats.
“Where’s Hakeem and Shiloh?” Julian asked. They would need the entire team searching for Mena.
