Page 25 of Brooks

She stared at me for a moment, clearly surprised by my lack of verbal communication skills.

“Do you mind if we go in so I only have to explain this once?”

“Sure.”

“Are you okay?”

“Not even fucking close,” I told her honestly. “Let’s go in.”

She had nothing to say after that, simply looked at me liked I’d grown a few extra heads and went inside.

Yeah, Doll, I know. I’ve lost my ever-loving mind.

The guys were already in the dining room. In addition to the maps that had been laid out, the intel she’d left in the folder was, too. She’d done a good job connecting the dots.

“I’m former CIA,” she blurted out. “I now work for an off-the-books black ops organization called The Company.”

“Never heard of it,” Declan said with his brows pulled together.

“No. You wouldn’t’ve. As I said, it’s off the books. As in, all of the operatives hold down legitimate employment from various different companies. I am truthfully employed by the UN.”

“Who owns it?” That came from Kyle.

“No clue.”

“How do you not know who owns The Company? Who hired you?” I asked.

“I was told about it by one of my colleagues at the CIA. He asked me if I was interested in a career move. When I told him I was, he passed my information on, and a week later I was offered a job. No interview. A man named Leon Brown called me, made the offer, explained everything to me, and gave me my first assignment.”

“So you’re rogue,” Declan declared.

“I’m sure the US government would agree with you.”

“What’s your assignment?”

“Exactly what I told you. Win the auction on the tablets. Once the payment is transferred, we track the money. The Company will see where it’s funneled to. Mostly it goes to fund small extremist groups. The up and comers. They are stopped before they can gain traction. Some of the money goes to warlords, the conflicts are good for the smuggling business. Those are typically untouched, those keep the flow of goods.”

“But only four tablets remain,” I reminded her.

“I’ve been thinking about that.” She started pacing. “I think the Bitoos double-crossed the Lucre and were trying to sell the tablets outside of the auction. I’m not asking for mission specifics, but who sent in the SEALs to recover the artifacts?”

My mind was still spinning on the fact she’d been CIA. And now I was struggling with how much to trust her with, considering she was a good actress. All the bullshit with an off-the-books group, we’d have no way to verify her story. I wondered if Tex knew, or Zane. Tex could find anything on anyone. The Company she supposedly worked for was not in her dossier, neither was her previous employment at the CIA. Those records didn’t just vanish. Even if she’d been scrubbed from their database, Tex would’ve been able to dig and find them. Unless the intel was purposely withheld from us, but why would they do that?

“Special assignment. No other information was given,” Declan told her.

“What do you think?” Tatiana turned and asked me.

What did I think? I thought the whole situation was fucked-up. I much preferred a clear and clean cut mission. Black and white. I knew my target and executed my orders. I didn’t like this double-cross, who-done-it bullshit. The gray murky area where you had to wade through layers of deceit to get to the truth.

“Given what we know, I’d agree with you,” I answered.

Her dark eyes held mine, waiting for me to expand on my curt reply. She’d be waiting a long time. I had nothing to add.

“We found the money trail. So, after tonight we’re done?” I asked Declan.

“Not exactly. Mission scope has expanded.”

“Expanded?”