Page 3 of Redeeming Violet

“Unfortunately, they’re not. They’ll have company as soon as they land,” I told him.

“Tell him to clear our path. They’ll be at least three hours ahead of us, but Wolf is smart. He’ll sniff this shit out, quick. We’ll be right behind them for back up,” Zane said. “Ask him to run a full work up on Violet Myers. I want everything. Tex knows how I like it, crawl up her ass. She’s a turncoat – no lube necessary.”

“I heard him,” Tex chuckled. “I’ll have what you need within the hour.”

He disconnected and for the first time Violet looked nervous. There was something in her background she didn’t want us to know.

“Why’d you do it?” I asked.

“Do what? Bring you my intel? Innocent men are getting ready to die.”

“That wasn’t a problem for you before,” I reminded her.

“Innocent?” she screeched. “Timothy Clark, the agent who sold state secrets? The Bolivian drug lord slash arms dealer, Siles? Gomez? Who of them were innocent? I sent you everything you needed to save Olivia Newton. The only thing more I could’ve done was draw the map myself.”

“You still haven’t answered. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter why. I did it. I’m prepared to turn myself in and suffer the consequences right after we get to Wolf.”

“We’re not doing anything. I’m hauling your ass to the Director personally and handing you over,” Zane put in.

“No, you won’t. I haven’t told you who else is involved.”

Violet and Zane locked eyes and it was a toss-up who was going to cave. I almost had the tiniest bit of respect for her. Not many people had the balls to go toe-to-toe with the former Navy SEAL – especially a woman.

Chapter One

Violet

What the hell had I been thinking hauling ass to Annapolis and barging in on Zane Lewis, owner of the most sought after private security firm in the US? Everyone in the government knew about Z Corps and his Red Team. His tier-one team was handpicked by Zane himself, comprised of former spec ops soldiers, and one woman – Jasmin Parker, Zane’s sister-in-law. Jasmin was known throughout the community as being a hardass. She’d have to be to keep up with her male counterparts.

Now I was sitting across from her, and the rest of the Red Team in an old barn that Zane had converted to an off-site covert headquarters. When I’d suggested we go to his downtown office he’d laughed at me and accused me of wanting intel on his inner sanctum. Then he said he didn’t trust me not to blow it up or sell his security protocol to one of the many foreign agencies that would love to see him dead.

He wasn’t wrong about half of the foreign governments wanting him gone and buried. Zane seemed to know, and have in his back pocket, information brokers around the world. He had the instincts of a predator, and the best intuition in the business. Both made him dangerous to those who went against him. He was also known to hold a grudge. I’d done my research on him and his team before I’d made my approach. I had thought when Timothy Clark died I would be free. I wasn’t. The information Timothy had used to blackmail me had been sold. Now someone much worse held my future in their hands. I had one shot at freeing myself once and for all, and Zane Lewis held the key.

“We don’t need her, Z and I don’t trust her, she’ll only slow us down,” Jasmin argued.

Zane had just finished explaining we were headed to Africa. As expected, his team wasn’t happy to see me. He hadn’t sugar coated my felonies and told them all the information I had given the Bolivians. Not that they needed a recap. The team had been the ones to save Olivia from her captors. The information he had provided was correct; I had hacked into the White House to get information on Pamela Cox. I had also deleted call logs from the prison server in Iceland where witnesses or prisoners were held in rendition. What Zane failed to understand, and I wouldn’t correct, was I did not sell anything. And the call logs and recordings were not deleted, I still had copies of all conversations between Siles and his men. Siles had been planning a coup. He wanted to take over a drug lord’s, Gomez, territory, and thought the easiest way was to set up the kidnapping of Olivia Cox Newton, the Attorney General’s daughter, and pin it on Gomez. The US government would go after Gomez and kill him, freeing Siles to take over without having a war with Gomez. It was a good plan and may have worked if someone hadn’t sent the recordings to Gomez, prompting him to reach out to Zane and clear his name. Once the team knew who was truly behind the kidnapping, Siles was taken out.

Jasmin Parker was trying her best to get Zane to hand me over to the Director of the CIA and head to South Sudan without me. I couldn’t let that happen. I needed information Wolf and his team had; it was the only way for me to end the shitstorm that had become my life. A simple trade.

“That’s not an option,” I said, hoping my voice didn’t give away how nervous I was.

“Why is that?” Jasmin asked, and narrowed her eyes on me.

“Because I have information Zane needs.”

“Information? We don’t need jack shit from you. There’s nothing you have that we can’t get,” she returned.

“Is that right? I believe I’m the one that brought this intel to you. No one in the government knew the platoon was walking into a trap. And the longer we sit here and argue, the more danger they’re in. So, cut the shit and let’s go.”

“You probably set it up. And while we’re on the topic, why the fuck are we trusting her anyway. How do we know she’s not setting us up to walk into an ambush, too?” Jasmin asked Zane.

“Tex has vetted her intel. I don’t have a choice, not with the guys lives on the line, we have to go in. And she’s coming with us, if nothing else I’ll use her ass as a human shield. When bullets start flying, just hide behind her,” Zane snorted at his comment.

Dick.

I’d take his nasty comments until I didn’t need him anymore. He was a means to an end. They all were.