Page 57 of Declan

There was nothing Zane could say that would make me feel any better. Lieutenant Nelson was missing in action, being held by a known terrorist group. Tex had declined Zane’s offer to send us or the Blue Team to Afghanistan to assist Rocco, Gumby, Ace, Bubba, Phantom, and Rex in their search for the lieutenant which only further pissed me off.

“Dec, you know Z’s right,” Thad added. “There were six of us there, we all agreed. Not making light of what’s happened to Lieutenant Nelson, but we had a priority one mission. Strotherby had to be put down.”

My jaw clenched for a variety of reasons. One being that while no one had spoken to me about Autumn outright, they’d all taken potshots. Prying without asking. Hinting that they knew something was wrong but didn’t want to question me.

This was Thad’s latest attempt, reminding me there were six of us in Afghanistan but only five us were in this room discussing our next move.

“Ashaki has gone off the grid.” Zane brought the conversation back around.

“Still don’t like her,” Jasmin put in.

“Autumn vouched for her,” Max returned, shocking the hell out of me. “She trusts Ash.”

“Since when do you trust anyone?” Brooks asked.

Max had a love affair with suspicion, his trust issues were legendary. That was, until Eva came along. It seemed the woman wrought miracles.

“Since I’ve been wrong the last five times I accused women of being liars.”

“Five?” I questioned.

There were only four that I knew of—Tatiana, Anaya, Emerson, and Eva.

“I trust Autumn. If she says Ash is on the up and up, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.”

My jaw clenched, Thad sputtered then coughed, and Zane grunted, “Christ.”

“We all have our reasons for being here,” Max started. “We all had our reasons for joining the military. Autumn has her reasons for doing the things she’s done. I respect those reasons and I appreciate her honesty.”

We needed to move off the topic of Autumn, just hearing her name made me sick with worry. Where the fuck was she? Why’d she sneak out of her house without so much as a fuck off? And why in the actual hell did I physically ache because she was gone? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her?

“Tom’s put together a task force.” Zane’s announcement pulled me from my thoughts. “With the election around the corner, he wants this taken care of before he’s out of office.”

“I met with the president and Kline Mathias yesterday. He’s up to speed and ready,” Colin added.

The president, Tom Anderson, was Colin’s father-in-law. He was also one of Zane Lewis’s closest friends. Jasmin Parker also had family ties to the POTUS—Tom was her uncle, making Colin’s wife Erin and Jasmin cousins. It was just enough to make you dizzy. But being on a first-name basis with the President of the United States had its perks. And with Tom’s second term coming to an end, I could see how Tom wanted Omni finished before he lost control.

Thankfully, when an intrusive intelligence program called Angel was outed Tom had gone public about millions of Americans being spied on. When he revealed the vice president’s involvement, the VP had stepped down and withdrawn his bid for the White House. Which was a good thing—the man was a snake. When the dust had finally settled, Tom nominated his Secretary of State to fill the vacancy. Trent Graham was a good guy, and by his polling numbers, it looked like he was going to win the election.

“Kline Mathias, the Director of U.S. Marshals Service?” Brooks inquired.

“Yeah. Tom and him go way back, he trusts Kline and wanted to keep the operation away from the CIA.”

I didn’t know Kline personally but I’d heard good things about him, and Tom not involving the CIA was a good thing, too. There’d been too many leaks in the past, and until those plugs were filled, Kline was probably the best option.

“There’s not much left to do. A little housekeeping and this will all be behind us,” Jaxon noted.

“What about Emilio Ruiz?” I asked.

“Gone,” Zane told me.

“Gone? As in dead?”

“No. Gone as in he and his family have disappeared to an undisclosed location. Tom’s call.”

Emilio Ruiz had been neck-deep in Omni until the organization he’d sworn his loyalty to turned on him and tried to kidnap his daughter. Then Ruiz had turned on them. Whoever said there was honor among thieves was incorrect. There was no honor among scum. The almighty dollar spoke louder than loyalty.

“So that leaves Harry Landry.” The tightness in Brooks’ voice conveyed just how much he disliked the man.