Page 30 of Rett

“Let’s back this train up. Where the fuck did one of us supposedly see something that we shouldn’t have?” asked Rett.

“Venezuela,” said Whitten.

“Good, good, that narrows it down. To all three of us. Where in Venezuela?” asked East.

“Somewhere near Boca de Aroa. That’s all we know.”

“Well, that won’t help you stay alive,” said Eazee. “See, you stupid fuck, we were all near Boca de Aroa. What else did Barber say? What did he want?”

“He said nothing other than you needed to die, and we needed to send proof of your death. If not, he would send more men to get the job done.”

“Are you assigned to his unit?” asked Dan. The three men nodded, knowing they’d just sealed the nail in their coffin. “So, does he use his rejects often to do his dirty work?”

Silence met them once again as the men looked down, unable to look the team in the eyes.

“You’re going to tell us what he’s doing,” said Luke, gripping the man’s throat. “If you don’t, I kill you. If you do, I tell the Army that you were very cooperative.”

“He’ll kill us,” said Blunderbuss.

“I’m going to kill you,” said Rett. “What is he doing?”

“You know how this works,” said Ruiz. “We’re nothing but low-level help that had the bad luck of being assigned to his unit. He wants a piece of it all, and I do mean all. The drugs, the women, contacts with arms dealers, traffickers, all of it. He and Ryder are working together, riding the wave to the top.”

“Is everyone in the unit dirty?” asked East.

“We’re not dirty!” said Whitten.

“Brother, from where I’m standing, you’re as dirty as they come. You decided to sell out your country with these two assholes, chase down at least one Green Beret, maybe three, and kill them. You just admitted that you knew he was involved in drugs, trafficking, and all kinds of assorted shit.”

He frowned, shaking his head, then leaning back with a big sigh. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were supposed to be able to kill this one man. One fucking man. Then, they would all get promotions and a cash payout.

“What is happening in Boca de Aroa?” asked East.

“I don’t know,” said Whitten. “We were with the rest of the unit in Caracas. I don’t think we were even supposed to hear that you saw something in Boca. They didn’t give us any details, I swear.”

While they waited for the NOPD to arrive, Luke took Whitten’s phone, snapping a photo of Rett face down with ‘blood’ oozing from the back of his head. Whitten sent it with a simple ‘Done’ attached, knowing he was a dead man. He didn’t know how true that statement would be until three men tapped on the front door. They were so large they could barely fit inside.

“Holy shit,” muttered Ruiz.

“That’s right, little man. I’m the big sasquatch, and your ass is mine,” said Tailor. Luke could only chuckle, seeing the fear on the men’s faces.

“Take it easy on them. They tried to be helpful,” he said.

“What about our phones?” asked Ruiz.

“Sorry, you’ve lost your phone privileges. We’ll be keeping those while our friends take you to Fort Bragg, where you’re going to meet with an old friend of ours, General Bankston.” All three men paled, shaking their heads. Noah nudged Alec, seeing something below the shelving unit. As he knelt down, their prisoners gasped.

“What the fuck?” muttered Eazee.

“Recording device,” said Noah. “It is free-standing, so it is not transmitting back to anyone. They were recording anything that happened in here. Maybe to protect themselves or have something to prove their own innocence. Why? Why were you recording conversations?”

Again, the three men remained stoic, knowing it might be their last stand at saving their skin. Ordered to do what they did, they weren’t even sure why they were doing it any longer. They wouldn’t have hurt the girl, but they needed to find the man, or men, or one of the men. They were all confused again.

“Do not make me ask again,” said Noah, taking a step forward. He and the others were used to using their size for intimidation. Tailor and Alec crowded the men, watching them sweat with fear.

“He knew you would find us,” said Ruiz. “He wanted to hear you admit to where you were and what you saw. Once we had that conversation recorded, we were to download the recordings every night and send them to him. We were ordered to not return until we had that piece of evidence.” Luke nodded, staring at the others.

“Take them. They’ve just lost their get-out-of-jail-free cards.”

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