“Yes?”
“I am sending you the contact for the detective working yesterday’s break in. Save it, make it a speed dial, and get off this call,” Zain said.
“O-okay. Good luck, everyone.”
Erin glanced at Riley and mouthed, What?
“Plausible deniability,” he said.
“Erin? Do you have any idea why Thomas or Allied would target you after this long?” Zain asked.
Riley unmuted the phone for her.
“I—I can really only guess. A few months ago, another one of the PMs, Osman Elahi, died, and I inherited a stack of files I haven’t gone through. I was wondering if the reason for all this was in there.” She glanced at Riley. That was where they’d been headed last night when they left.
“Where are those files?” Zain asked
“My office.”
“We’re going to catch this motherfucker—sorry. We’re going to catch him.” Zain’s steely tone was an indicator they were throwing the full weight of their resources behind this.
Thomas and his Allied connections weren’t going to know what hit them.
SUNDAY, BEST INN, ERBIL, Kurdistan.
Thomas eyed his cards and then the pile of money sitting in the middle of the table. It wasn’t much, mostly some coins and a few bills, but it was the biggest pot they’d had all morning.
“Come on, you guys aren’t really going to let me take this?” Vaughn thumbed at the pot of money.
“You don’t have shit,” Nolan said without missing a beat.
“You don’t know that.” Vaughn grinned.
Thomas was ready to put a bullet in both men’s skulls. Their constant banter grated on his nerves. They wouldn’t stop talking, and yet they never said anything useful. Nothing at all about what they were doing to find Erin Lopez or what their next move was beyond lying low at the hotel.
For all he knew, the fifth team member had absconded with Erin and was out of the country already, which would mean they knew where Thomas’ loyalty lay and what he’d been doing here all along.
He eased back in his chair, slouching a bit, as though he could fall under their radar.
There was no fucking way they knew anything. His Allied connections were ancient history. Besides, plenty of guys like him made the rounds, working for different companies depending on which way the wind blew. Everyone knew that whoever got the contracts got the best manpower.
He swiped his hand back through his hair. Sweat dampened his scalp.
“Come on, make a choice already, Nolan,” Vaughn said.
“Fuck you.” Nolan tossed out another bill.
Thomas grimaced and matched the current bid. This was chump change, nothing serious, and he needed the distraction. Ever since the two in charge had excused themselves to the room across the hall Thomas had begun sweating it. He found out everything too damn late.
The door opened and the woman, Melody, stepped in.
“Who’s winning?” she asked.
“You know the answer.” Vaughn grinned. The guy had a flare for bravado that Thomas couldn’t stand.
“Oh, then that means you’re losing?” Melody smiled.
Nolan howled a laugh and slapped his thigh as though it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
God, Thomas couldn’t wait to be done with this job and back to his regular work.
“What’d the boss say?” Brenden, the quiet one, of the bunch asked.
“The boss?” Melody did a slow blink.
The table went quiet for a moment.
“Shit.” Brenden folded his cards and grimaced. “Grant said he was going to talk to Zain, I just thought that would include you...”
“I guess I’ll have to call Zain on my own.” Melody’s lips spread into a sweet smile.
She was really too nice for a job like this. Thomas actually felt sorry for her. This world was going to chew her up and leave her with nothing. She just didn’t belong.
The door opened again and Grant entered.
“Riley called,” he announced.
“About damn time.” Nolan tossed his cards down on the table.
That was the best thing Thomas had heard in hours.
“Is Erin still with him?” Melody asked.
“Yeah, yeah. They went to Erin’s house. We’re going to pack up our stuff, drop Thomas off, get them, and head to the airport.” Grant glanced around the room. “Whenever you guys get your shit together, we can go.”
“And then twenty-four hours on a plane home.” Vaughn groaned.
“Tell me about it.” Nolan tapped the table. “Let’s finish this hand and get packing. Thomas?”
“I’m out.” Thomas folded his cards. They were crap anyway.
“First one bites the dust.” Vaughn grinned.
“Grant, can I talk to you, please?” Melody’s sugar sweet tone spelled disaster for the other man.
“Sure.” Grant nodded and followed Melody from the room.
“You had to open your mouth?” Vaughn sighed and spared Brenden with a look.
The other man merely shrugged.
Thomas pushed to his feet and stretched.
After last night’s fuck up, Thomas had to be careful. Mark could no doubt get to Erin’s house before the team, but what if they got there at the same time? They couldn’t afford a mistake. There’d been too many already.
This whole episode proved why they had to be more careful about their clients. One unhappy customer forwarding their proof of completion video to someone and look where they were.
The customer was dead and rotting in the desert where no one would find him.
It’d taken more finesse to handle the man at NexGen their customer had reported them to.
And now they were back to dealing with Erin fucking Lopez.
This was a shit show, and if they didn’t plug all the holes, this boat would sink. America would want to take them to task, and no one in the Middle East would hire them again. Thomas and the others would have to get work in Africa or Asia, somewhere that couldn’t pay for shit or provide any kind of comfort. The only reason Thomas had gotten into this line of work was to make a fat stack of cash, quick, and get out. He had plans
