Page 36 of CJ

“Honey, we’ve tried to find that information,” said CJ. Jill pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.

“Colonel Masters, it’s Captain Jill Morgan. Yes, sir. I’m doing well, sir. Sir, I need a favor.” She walked away from the conference room and down the hallway, speaking softly.

“You guys really know how to screw shit up, don’t you? Did you not think for one moment that woman might be near?” frowned Kate.

“Honey, we didn’t know you were coming back to the offices. We’re sorry. We would have told her everything,” said Cam.

“Would you?” said Ajei. “My experience with you guys is that you don’t tell us everything. You hide shit until you can’t hide it any longer. Do not do that to this woman. She’s tough, experienced, and she knows the kind of people that you’re dealing with.”

Jill returned to the conference room, still talking to the colonel.

“I’m not sure I’m understanding you correctly.” They frowned at her as she listened carefully. “I see. Nothing. Got it. Thank you, colonel. Yes, sir, I owe you one. Yes, I think I could get you one of Mama Irene’s coconut cakes. I will.”

“Well?” asked CJ.

“The group of Americans weren’t civilians as you originally thought. They are DOD employees negotiating the trade of G.R.I.P. materials to the military of Cyprus.”

“We didn’t authorize that,” said Kate. “They were doing that illegally!”

“We’ll get to that. The colonel said he was unaware of it as well. He’s trying to get the names of the DOD group to find out who authorized their visit. The Ranger commander, William Wildman, authorized the team as security.”

“Bill Wildman?” frowned Hex.

“I think so,” nodded Jill.

“Bill Wildman has been a loose cannon in the Army for thirty years. I’m surprised he’s not dead yet. If he had anything to do with this, it’s dirty, it’s illegal, and it’s going to kill some people.”

“More people,” said Jill. “It’s going to kill more people. William Wildman died of an apparent heart attack two weeks ago. Since it was deemed natural causes, no one thought anything of it. They are going to kill more people.”

Luke shook his head.

“Not if we stop it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Why did you kill Alana?” asked her sister, Irena. Mikella looked up at her and grinned.

“You know as well as I do that she was becoming distracted. Alana has always preferred sex to just about anything else, except money. That woman did love money and things. She had a purse and shoe collection that made me envious, but she was putting us at risk.”

“She was our sister,” said Irena.

“She was a liability, Irena. We had to remove her. She was too close to those two Rangers and those men that came with the girlfriend, what’s her name, Jill. They weren’t just ordinary men. She said too much.”

“Still. She was our sister, Mikella. We are in this together.”

“We are in this for the money and a piece of the massive pie happening in the Middle East,” said Mikella.

Older by four years to Alana and two years to Irena, she was always the leader of their little band. Although none of the girls had spent any real time with their father or had positive memories of him, they all lived a good life thanks to the money he’d put aside for them.

Unlike many of his peers, he was loyal to his common-law wife, providing a beautiful home and funds to raise their children. They’d had a younger brother who died tragically in a drowning accident, leaving just the girls to carry on their father’s name.

They’d heard stories over the years, growing up in the Czech Republic. They knew what their father did for a living based on the fear in the faces of those who knew them. It was a powerful dose of reality for the girls. But they were three very different women.

Alana, as the youngest, seemed to get away with much more than the two older girls. As hard as their mother tried to give them a normal life, living amongst their father’s criminal friends wasn’t normal. Alana discovered early on that her sexuality would get her whatever she wanted.

At fifteen, she was already enjoying time with the security guards for extra cash. She had her first plastic surgery at eighteen and never looked back. Mikella, as the oldest, tried to keep her sister straight, but in the end, realized that she might be helping them to become as powerful as their late father.

Always the planner, Mikella had a plan that would give them an army of men at their disposal and millions in the bank to do as they wished. The outlier, always the outlier, was Irena. More like their mother, she was quieter, following her sisters because they were her sisters, not because she bought into their plans.

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