Page 65 of Maximus

Harry Landry was a scumbag of the highest order. He trafficked most anything of value but his favorite was the human market, and he’d been extremely successful until Anaya and Emerson took him down. Even thinking about it now, pride hit my chest. Those two fierce women had done what we couldn’t—find and capture one of the major players in the Omni organization.

Declan’s gaze turned dark when he continued, “He didn’t give Zane specifics, just an update. Landry’s started to talk. We should have something to work with soon.”

“You know as well as I do, intel collected under duress isn’t always reliable.”

“Duress?” Declan barked out a harsh laugh. “You mean torture. Everyone is well-aware Landry could be fucking with us. Apparently, Ashaki Maloof has confirmed—”

“Seriously? Ashaki Maloof? Who knows if that bitch is on the up and up?”

Ashaki was supposedly undercover CIA agent. When we first met the woman she was allegedly posing as the daughter of an antiquity dealer, Tatiana, Brooks’ wife, was tracking. Ashaki’s cover was solid until Tatiana and Brooks saw the agent in a compromising position with her “father”. And in the time since then, Ashaki Maloof hadn’t done a damn thing that made me trust her or the intel she’d supplied. Either the woman was seriously committed to the cause and she had no issues with terrorists, traffickers, and dirt bags fucking her or she’d turned. I couldn’t figure the woman out therefore I didn’t trust a fucking word that came out of her CIA-trained mouth.

“She got Emilio Ruiz to talk,” Declan informed me.

It would seem a lot had happened while I’d been out of the office, so to speak. Ruiz was a member of Omni, however his daughter had been the target of a kidnapping plot and he was no longer feeling the love for the organization he was once balls deep in.

“Oh, yeah? And what did Ruiz give up?”

“He confirmed Icon Fashions was a major player in the Omni organization. The way Ruiz explains it, Icon is the upper echelon.”

“So Garrett was right?”

Our in-house intel specialist, Garrett, had been adamant Icon Fashions was involved with Omni. I trusted Garrett’s information the same as I trusted Tex’s—that was to say explicitly. Neither man had ever led us astray. However, Garrett had been working on a hunch, which wasn’t unusual; we’d all learned to listen to our instincts. But Garrett nor Tex had been able to find a link.

“Yes. Zane gave him the green light to start digging.”

“Like Garrett wasn’t already tunneling his way through Icon.”

“Yeah, well, now it seems the CIA boys are feeling generous. They have an agent in Icon and kicked some intel Garrett’s way.”

“Never gets any easier dealing with those dicks,” I mumbled. “No offense.”

“None taken. One of the many reasons I walked away.”

There was a story there, one Declan had never fully shared. We knew he’d been undercover for the CIA in Brazil and shit had gone sideways. Enough that it tweaked Declan and he left but other than that, he’d never shared. Or at least, he’d never shared with me. And if Zane Lewis knew what happened, he’d never tell.

“First things first,” Dec continued. “Zane was clear that Eva’s top priority. Omni’s not going anywhere. We’ll handle Eva’s situation for Tex, get the three of them safe and set up somewhere new then we’ll finish off Omni.”

Safe and set up somewhere new. Why did the ‘somewhere new’ in that statement make my gut clench?

“Surprised Zane’s setting aside Omni for Eva,” I noted.

We were at war with Omni. The operation had started with clear and concise parameters; that was, until things turned personal. Emerson, Thad’s wife, had been kidnapped and all the women attached to a man who worked for Zane Lewis had been threatened, and that included the president’s daughter, Erin Anderson-Doyle.

Now Zane, Tom Anderson, and every member of Z Corps wanted a piece of the men in charge of Omni.

“It shouldn’t surprise you. After everything Tex has done for Zane over the years—never asking for anything in return. No way the first time Tex asks for a favor, Zane’s not gonna drop everything and give it his full attention.”

“That’s not the surprising part. You know what Eva did to Bubba. Zane’s loyalty to the brotherhood is unshakable. It doesn’t matter to Zane he never served beside Bubba—brotherhood is brotherhood.”

“And you’re a part of that same community. Once a SEAL, always a SEAL and all that shit.” Declan paused and narrowed his eyes. “You have a problem with this mission?”

“Nope.”

“Then why’d you bring that shit up? We all know who Eva is and what she did. We’ve all also read the reports so we know why she did it. Bubba and Zoey agreed with Tex that she needed help. You don’t have to trust her to protect her.”

“Come again?”

“Don’t bite my head off, brother. I know you and that’s to say you don’t trust anyone but Brooks, Thad, and Kyle. You don’t—”