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“They could be harvested for organs too,” I said with a grimace.
“Girls die all the time, right?” At my disgust, she continued, “Might as well not let the meat go to waste. Those fucking asswipes.
“What corrupt millionaire wouldn’t pay a small fortune to arrange an illegal organ donation for their sick child?” That made my grimace deepen but she forged ahead. “This just doesn’t make any sense. They’ve been doing this for decades.” She sucked in a breath. “It’s a circle that feeds itself.”
Why did that bring back the image of Jorgmundgander?
“Do you know what else doesn’t make sense?” I asked as a thought occurred to me. “Something that you should ask your grandfather.”
“What?”
“How his Pauks and Bear got on the same team.”
“Huh. You’re right. That is weird. What put him on their radar and vice versa—” Her cell rang and when she saw the Caller ID, a frown flashed across her brow as she put the call on speaker. “Maverick?”
“Dost Mohamet Khan.”
When Star blanched—her features immediately turning pinched and pale—I settled a hand on her shoulder and curved my arm around her to support her.
“How do you know that name?” she rasped.
“You’ve heard of it?”
“How do you know it, Maverick?” she barked.
He heaved a tired sigh. “I had a flashback.”
“To when?”
I didn’t know much about Maverick’s condition, but I knew that his PTSD and CTE had him flashing back to periods of his life that were doused in trauma.
“That day in Kembesh.” His swallow was audible. “But Nic told me to ask Eagle Eyes about Dost Mohamet Khan. I don’t remember that conversation. I genuinely don’t. But it was so fucking real, Star. Nic was there—right goddamn there.”
“Who’s Nic?” I asked her softly.
“Maverick’s CO, also his partner at the time. He died in Kembesh. It was a minor battle but a disaster all round. The US covered up what happened to the battalion that defended an outpost there.
“They had to deal with an ambush on their own and had no military or medical support.”
“Jesus.”
She pulled a face in agreement. “I was at the battle, so was Eoghan. But not in the middle of it all. Most of the fighting was around the outpost, but there were skirmishes along the border.
“We probably wouldn’t have survived if we had been in the thick of it. Maverick was one of the lucky ones.”
“Yeah,” Maverick choked out. “I feel fucking lucky.”
“Hey,” she argued. “You made it out to see another day. That’s more than Nic did.”
Maverick fell silent, whether that was because he was chastened or because he was speechless—I had no way of knowing.
Star pierced the silence with, “Eagle Eyes is a sniper, Maverick.”
“Yeah, he’s with the Hell’s Rebels’ MC down in Texas.”
“Why would he know anything about what happened in Kembesh? Why would Nic put you on his radar?”
“He was in Kembesh too,” Maverick clipped.
