Page 101 of Leading Conviction
“Shut the fuck up, Olsen,” Jaybird’s guy snapped.
“That was us,” Hawk replied. “I’m betting we were peddled the same shit as you guys were. Stop me if none of this rings a bell.”
Hawk slowly stepped forward as he spoke. The leader in front of him didn’t stir other than his blue eyes narrowing a fraction.
“General Smithers called a meeting. Claimed you would eradicate human trafficking all over the world. A new, Special Forces unit. Off the books… right? You know, to make sure the bigwigs at the top could be caught, too? Because these things are so rarely ruled by the pimp on the corner. It starts at the top. Am I right?”
With every inch forward and every word, the leader in front of Hawk lowered his gun by a millimeter. When Hawk had finished, the man no longer aimed at his head and Hawk was mere feet away from him.
“Close,” the guy in the back answered. “Drug trafficking.”
“Olsen, what the—”
“Quiet,” the leader rasped low, his lips barely moving the black fabric of his balaclava.
Hawk nodded. “Let me guess. Take out the drug kingpin, deliver the drugs to the rightful authorities. That miracle drug he insisted we take was amazing, right? Too bad it only worked if the wounds weren’t life-threatening. We’d still be seven men, too, if it could, you know, actually save lives. Instead it only kept his own private militia healthy for his every beck and call.”
“You’re that team that went rogue and became traffickers yourselves,” the leader accused coolly. “The ones who blew up his security firm so you wouldn’t be caught.”
Someone behind him snorted. “Wow, did we sound that naive?” Phoenix asked. “Is that seriously what he’s telling people? I guess you think we kidnapped his daughter and grandson, then, too.”
At the mention of Hannah and Tommy, Hawk’s chest tightened and he prayed he could get through to these guys soon. He needed to check on them before it was too late.
The leader frowned. “If that’snotwhat happened, then whatdidhappen? What went wrong?”
Hawk let his arms rest at his sides before answering. “Our team leader realizedwewere wrong. We’d been taken advantage of and MF7’s purpose wasn’t what we thought it was. Then he got killed in Yemen after we were ambushed by the locals… under the General’s own orders.”
That got the man’s attention. Whether it was the lack of fear in Hawk’s posture or his message, Hawk wasn’t sure, but the leader finally lowered his gun all the way. He could still easily raise it to shoot, but the guy would at least have to move more muscles than just the ones in his trigger finger to kill him.
At the gesture, the teams followed suit, each man surrendering his upper hand in unison. If Hawk hadn’t known they were all trained similarly before, that act alone—the exact same motions at the exact same time—would’ve tipped him off.
“Your seventh man… you said he realized your team’s purpose wasn’t what you thought it was,” Eagle’s counterpart began. “If your purpose wasn’t to end human trafficking, then what was it?”
Hawk released an aching breath slowly from his chest. As his stress eased, he studied the trust already forming in the leader’s gaze. Their team’s willingness to listen made Hawk wonder if he was only telling them what they’d already begun to suspect on their own.
He nodded once, resolving to trust them, too.
“We’ve got a lot of shit to talk about. But right now? My family needs help.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
The percussive explosion from above left Hannah’s ears ringing. When the dust settled, she looked up to see the trapdoor that had previously taken up a rectangular slab of ceiling was now wide open to the war room. Terrified goose bumps tingled her skin, raising the hair on her arms. The only thing she found solace in was the fact Tommy was as safe as he could be at the moment.
She, Callie, and Nora had talked about all of them hiding in the jail cells and waiting until the guys came to save them. That idea lasted all of two seconds once they realized the steel doors only locked—andunlocked—from the outside. Not only that, but they couldn’t count on the guys arriving in time. BlackStone’s mission was to catch the General, and yet, the General was now at the facility and the guys were nowhere to be found.
There were thousands of possibilities that could’ve led to that outcome, very few of which were ones Hannah had the stomach to think about, and honestly, she didn’t have the time to entertain any of them. The women had seconds to act and this crappy plan was the outcome.
Nora and Tommy would hide in the cell farthest down the hall.
Callie would sneak behind the door of the first cell to ambush the General once he made it downstairs.
Hannah would be the bait.
And as she stood there, watching his bootsthumpdown that steep staircase one by one, every single flaw in their poorly thought-out plan flashed across her mind like a giant warning sign.
I should’ve hidden in one of the cells and forced him to find me.
But no, then he could’ve just shot me on sight.
