Page 30 of Declan

“Hey, Tex. You’re on speaker,” Brooks answered.

“I got a time for you,” Tex cut right to it. “Strotherby will be at the women’s clinic at noon.”

“Any word on her guards?” I asked.

“Her normal four personal sentries. She doesn’t leave home without them. German commandos, I can send you what I have on them. Only one I see as a potential problem. He’s crazy as fuck. When I say that, I mean he’s crazy, psychologically not right. My advice would be to take him out first.”

“Only four? How can that be right? How many did we take out at the hotel? I counted six.” I glanced at Autumn and she nodded her agreement.

“Those weren’t Strotherby’s men. They were Ahmad Khan’s soldiers,” Tex corrected.

“Who’s that?” Thad inquired irately.

“Local dealer. Mid-level.”

“Why’d he want Autumn?”

“He doesn’t want Autumn. He wants the pretty white woman with long blonde hair. Same reason every dealer, traffickers, and scumbag in a fifty-mile radius wants her. She was clocked the minute she stepped foot off the plane. Then she traipsed around without a cover and let every bad guy in the area get a good look at her. My guess, you got less than forty-eight hours before that city’s in an all-out manhunt for her. What she didn’t accomplish was hitting Strotherby’s radar. Which will make the mission easier.”

My gaze sliced to her and she looked unrepentant. Her brows raised and I narrowed my eyes.

“What?” she sassed.

“You don’t leave this house without a cover.”

“Dec—”

“Swear to God, woman, I will handcuff you to the bed if you try.” Autumn’s eyes flashed and I didn’t give the first fuck.

“What about her room?” Thankfully, Autumn gave up her attempt of shooting laser beams out of her eyes as she waited for Tex to answer Kyle’s question.

“No clue. All I know is the men were Khan’s, not Strotherby’s. And as I said, the best I can tell, no one in her detail knows Autumn’s in Afghanistan.”

That was good news even if it disappointed Autumn. She wanted to be noticed.

This was better.

“Tomorrow we’ll get a lock on Strotherby and follow her caravan away from the clinic.” I started to formulate a plan. “We can’t do it there with the media in attendance. And Autumn says that the clinic is filled with pregnant women. I don’t want any collateral damage.”

“Agreed.” Brooks looked at his phone sitting on the coffee table. “Before we let you go, you got anything we need to know about Ashaki Maloof?”

“I’m still on the fence about her, she’s got a stack of reprimands an inch thick. Maloof doesn’t like to play by the rules and she’s not well-liked at the agency. They keep her around because she’ll take assignments no one will touch, she’ll get her hands dirty doing those jobs, and her success rate is one hundred percent. Likely because she will do anything to bring down her mark.”

“Like playing the role of dutiful daughter in public and fucking daddy and brother in private,” Brooks muttered.

“Correct. That’s all I got. Keep in touch.”

Tex disconnected and Brooks nabbed his phone and shoved it in his pocket.

“Did Ash really do that?” Autumn asked.

“Indeed she did. Saw it with my own two eyes. Which I have to tell you—at the time, the intel we had was Maloof was the man’s daughter. So watching him stick his tongue in her mouth, then later watching her fucking that man’s son, who at the time I thought was her actual brother, was vomit-inducing. When I found out she was CIA and not who I thought she was, I was relieved as fuck I hadn’t actually witnessed some sort of sick, incest shit.”

After all this time, the look on Brooks’ face was still funny as hell. At the time, he and Tatiana had both look harassed and sickened when they’d come back from that particular assignment.

“I already told you Ash doesn’t like rules. But she’s smart and committed.”

“She ever tell you why?” Max stood from the arm of the couch and waited for Autumn’s response. When it didn’t come, he continued, “What about Barny Pollaski? She ever give you a reason why she wanted you to take him out?”