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“Nice to meet you, boys. Casey, we have an issue in the kitchen.”
“I’ll be right there,” she smiled. She watched Otto retreat to the kitchen, then turned back to the men.
“He your bodyguard?” laughed Alex. Casey just tilted her head inquisitively.
“No. He’s in food prep.” The brothers cleared their throats, nodding at her. “I’ll be in touch.”
“See you at the market,” smirked Martin. Casey watched the men leave, then locked the front door. She leaned her head against the door, then turned to see Otto, Luc, and Gabe staring at her.
“What now?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Nine and the seniors took the remaining food with them back to the compound to be analyzed by their own labs. When they present this to the FDA and other government authorities, they wanted everything buttoned up.
“What about the sisters?” asked Ian.
“What about them?”
“Well, we might have a chance to get them on our side,” he said. “They seemed pretty pissed at their brothers and stormed out. If we can convince them they’ll get their money back, they might actually help us.”
“We need to find them first,” said Gaspar. “Send Trak and Dex. They should be able to figure it out. Peg and Tonia Keogh, unless they’re married, is who they’re looking for.” Ian nodded, sending a text to Dex and Trak. Both men had tremendous experience in tracking humans and animals.
“Guys? Chip Aucoin is here to see you. Something about his ranch,” said Code.
“Send him in,” said Gaspar.
A few minutes later, a weathered, hunched-over man came through the conference room door. He looked twenty years older than the men around the table, but the truth was, he was twenty years younger. Hard labor makes a man old before his time, and the Aucoin ranch had been through some hard times.
“Chip, nice to see you. How’s the family?” asked Gaspar.
“We’re good, Gaspar. Listen, I don’t mean to be short, but I gotta get back. Meg and the boys are watching the ranch right now. I wanted to thank you for the heads-up about potential trouble. Someone tried to get at my cattle last night.”
“Did they get to them?” asked Nine.
“Naw. The dogs alerted my boys, and they went out with shotguns. As far as they could tell, it was three men, but they weren’t armed. They had sacks of something on their back. One of the boys fired and hit the sack, so we collected the stuff that fell out of it.” He held up a small, sealed plastic bag.
“I figured you boys could maybe find out what this is,” he said.
“We’ll definitely send it to our labs,” said Ian. “Do you need extra help, Chip?”
“No. I appreciate it. A bunch of us have decided to pool efforts. The Bourgeois family has seven boys and more than two dozen hands. I’ve got a dozen, so we’re running routes and watching out for one another.”
“Let us know what we can do,” said Gaspar.
“You can let me know that this shit is done,” he said, shaking his head. “Ranchin’ is hard enough. I don’t need this shit too.” He nodded at the men, leaving the room. By that time, Trak and Dex walked in and got their orders.
“Let’s take this out to G.R.I.P. labs and see what they can find for us.”
The four-man senior team took a small craft out to the island where G.R.I.P. was located. The fortified building looked like a medieval fortress, but inside was the lifeblood of their entire family’s business. Teams of engineers, scientists, tech experts, and more developed some of the most advanced weapons systems and technology in the world.
Everything they created was desired by governments around the world and backed by the stellar reputation of the men and women around them.
“Morning,” said Doug, walking toward the team. “Is this ‘take your dads to work’ day?”
“Oh, you’re funny, old man,” laughed Nine. “No. We have a little project that I hope your nerds can help us with.”
“Calling us nerds, Uncle Nine, doesn’t make us want to work any harder for you,” said Paige, kissing his cheek.
