“Everything’s fine on our end,” Tiberius said. “I’m keeping everyone close to the motel, but we’ve got good coverage without tipping our hand. No one’s going to surprise us here. Did you find out anything useful?”
“Useful? Maybe. Irregularities? Definitely.” Maximus furrowed his brow. “The informant was on to something. I ran into a woman at the permit office who was having some sudden unexpected trouble. There’s someone obviously trying to keep people away from a certain part of the forest, and they’ve got enough money or power to influence the local government or bribe some low-level employees, even at the risk of drawing unwanted attention to themselves.”
CJ folded his arms over his chest. “It’s got to be the Corps. If it’s something short-term, they might not care about the attention. They probably figured they kill whoever comes sniffing around and be gone before the Feds show up… or us.”
“We don’t know that,” Cornelius said with a shake of the head. “It’s assuming way too much off not a lot of evidence. Not every weird thing is the Corps. Not even most illegal things. There are a lot of shitty humans out there. We’re not here to stop human criminals. We’re here to finish off Quinen and the Phoenix Corps.”
“That’s true,” Maximus said. “But we’ve got a lot of coincidences piling up in a place we only came to because of intel. That makes me willing to place my bets on the Corps being involved. It’s like we assumed. They’re wounded and operating with reduced personnel and resources, which means they can’t spend a lot of time infiltrating the local government.”
“We should use the drones then,” CJ said. “If you’ve got a general idea of the place they’re trying to hide, we can get decent coverage if we’ve got most of the squad piloting drones.”
Cornelius nodded. “The quicker we smoke them out, the quicker we finish them off.”
“No,” said Maximus, his brow furrowed in concentration. “If we’ve got a dozen drones flying all over the forest, and it is the Corps, they’ll notice, and we’ll have tipped our hand too soon. Same thing if we send in the entire squad on foot. Too many large armed men in one place screams hybrid invasion. They’ll either be ready for us, or they’ll burrow so deep, we miss them.”
“Then what do we do?” Tiberius asked with a shrug. “We’ve got to follow up on the lead. No way we should just sit around on our asses. I’m doubting we’ll get so lucky they’ll walk up to us and dare us to find them.”
Maximus scratched his beard. “I’ve got an idea, a way to check out the forest that won’t come off as a hybrid invasion.”
“We’re all ears, Maximus,” Cornelius said.
“The woman at the permit office,” Maximus said uneasily. “I talked to her a little bit. She mentioned she’s going to check out that area anyway because she’s convinced the office is jerking her around. She suspects something’s off, but she must not think it’s that dangerous if she’s planning to go check it out herself.”
“You planning to ask her what she saw?” Cornelius asked.
“No, I was planning to tag along when she goes.”
The other three hybrids eyed Maximus with a mix of surprise and concern.
“Why?” Cornelius asked.
Maximus stood with a frown. “Because I’m thinking this woman is trying to save her job, but her troubles probably have to do with our problem. If she goes stumbling around herself, she might get hurt, and her being there helps from my perspective.”
He wasn’t doing it just because he couldn’t get her face out of his mind. He wouldn’t lie to himself and pretend that wasn’t influencing him, but it was so much more than raw attraction. It also was the best way to handle the situation. Sometimes the universe cut a man a break.
CJ snapped his fingers. “Twelve huge guys stumbling around is going to scream hybrid, but one guy and a woman just looks like a couple trying to find a romantic spot to check off some boxes on their Exotic Places to Bang List.”
Tiberius snickered. Cornelius frowned.
Maximus bit back a growl. He wasn’t annoyed. If anything, the problem was the opposite. The idea of finding a nice comfortable place in the forest where he was alone with Selena and they ripped each other’s clothes off was too appealing. CJ’s suggestion brought the image to life in Maximus’s head.
What the hell was he even thinking? There was still some small chance Rachel or someone else could reverse what had been done to Alpha Squad. His Vestal was still out there. He didn’t have time to worry about other women. Desperation was leading him to follow his dick, not his brain.
“I get that having the whole squad might be too much,” Cornelius said, “but what about a smaller group? If just the three of us shadow you at a distance, it might not look so bad. We can slap on some of the leather jackets, keep it to pistols in holsters. We can do the fake biker play, just like in Texas, and if we’re far back, they might not even notice us.”
Maximus stopped himself from barking out a no. If he wanted to help Selena, he needed to do it for his hybrid brothers, not because of some weird complex caused by worrying about Vestals. The woman presented possible recon cover. She was nothing more than that, and having the other three nearby would only reinforce that in his mind. A good leader made sacrifices.
“That sounds like a good plan,” he said, his voice straining. “It was a good plan in Texas, and it’ll be a good plan here.”
“I don’t think they really have bikers in Hawaii,” Tiberius said with a laugh.
“I’m sure there are plenty of wannabes,” Maximus replied. “It’s not like they’ll expect us to be riding through the forest on hogs. Do your best to stay out of sight, but if you are spotted, they might think
