Page 46 of Soldier, Tailor, Spy
“Everyone, this is Luca,” Asher said. “Some of you know him and some of you don’t.” He gave Jake a pointed stare. “He’s also going to be helping us.”
“It’s a pleasure,” Luca said, hanging back. “Please continue.”
“I’m not exactly sure who received those files or who sent them to the people you have in the holding cells at your base, but Oscar was good. He knew everything about all of you. Oscar had all of your social media information, bank statements, personal addresses. Asshole even knew what you bought at the grocery store. I’d say he knew about pregnancy tests too, but not sure that’s appropriate to talk about.” Tex shrugged.
Asher snorted while the men in the room grunted, and AJ never looked up at any of them. The same could be said for Bexley. “Rae’s pregnant. We know what he did to Ginger from her statements and Rae’s investigation into what could have happened. Who else are we talking about?”
Tex sighed. “Are you sure you want to go into this?” He glanced at Bexley and AJ.
“They’re part of the team. We should know so we can protect them.” Asher had a point. If any of the wives were pregnant besides Rae, they’d have to circle their wagons a little tighter.
Tex blew out a breath. “All right.”
“I went to the clinic,” AJ said. “I was late. Not pregnant, though.”
“C-Can’t get pregnant,” Bexley said, and Jake noted the sadness in her tone. “I’ve been sterilized—Hysterectomy.”
Which left Jaqueline, Maggie, Bella—Duncan’s wife—Jake had heard about but never met, and Paisley. Couldn’t be Ginger. They’d only had sex one afternoon a few days ago. Besides, Rae put her back on birth control, which had eased his mind a little more when he found out.
The air in the room grew tense. If Oscar knew which of the women were pregnant, especially after everything they learned from Ethan, they could each have a bigger target on their backs, which made the fiasco of a couple of weeks ago even worse, in Jake’s estimates.
“Paisley is pregnant,” Drew said. “Not far along, hence why we said nothing. I’m not sure Oscar would have known about it. Though she took a few tests over the last year.”
“Maggie and I aren’t having kids,” Alex grumbled. “You all have enough rugrats to form a basketball team or worse, a Spec Ops team.”
Jake coughed to cover his chuckle.
“Jaqueline is pregnant,” Murray said, pipped in through a conference call. “Four months along. We hadn’t said anything because we’re trying to find Hannah.”
“What about Bronx, Bex?” Asher hedged. “Have you three discussed her and Alé having kids?”
The girl’s cheeks were tinged in pink as she shook her head. “N-Not yet. She has an im-p-plant.”
“Bella is due soon,” Duncan added. “Rae is watching over her.”
“From the fragments of information, I still haven’t completely unfucked yet,” Tex said, staring a hole in Jake. “it appears he was trying to get your ex-wife pregnant again, too.”
Now everything Ethan said made sense. “Son of a bitch.”
“Something you want to tell the class,” Asher deadpanned.
“When I interviewed Ethan, he said that Oscar told him he would be out of town for a while for work, but when he returned, they would have their baby.” Jake’s hands balled into fists as he tried to control the anger building within him. “I thought he meant Oscar was going to take Declan from Ginger, not get her pregnant again.”
“Rae says she isn’t pregnant from the notes she sent me to add to this investigation,” Asher stated.
“Wouldn’t have happened, anyway. After the last incident, she hadn’t had sex with Oscar,” Jake snarled. “But if he attempted to do the same again, and she had gotten pregnant, I wouldn’t have given Ethan her kid.”
“That’s some fucked up shit,” Drew drawled. “How the fuck does this happen, Asher? How did he get all this info on us?”
“Anonymously, of course,” Luca said, pulling a folder from his jacket pocket. “I received this communication a couple of days before I left Mexico to come here to help Asher.” He handed it to Asher, then stepped back. “It was sent via dark web to a specific address I monitor. This intel is on a Duane Silver. It has his known location, his daughter’s name, and his granddaughter’s name.”
“What the fuck?” Drew stormed over to where Asher was standing. “What the fuck is this, Asher? How did anyone know? I thought getting him out meantgettinghim out.”
“I thought so too,” Asher muttered, looking over the paperwork.
From the bits and pieces Jake had learned—fuck, he was tired of not knowing anything about his team anymore—Duane had been undercover in a cartel, moving women across the border to Mexico. Somehow, Thomas had pulled Duane from his mission. If Jake had to guess, the new guy, Luca, had helped.
“Well,” Jake grunted, “who knew about the operation?”
