Thrill Ride (Black Knights Inc. #4)(3)
The two columns matched perfectly.
Boss let loose with a string of curses that would do any sailor proud. “Okay, so there’s obviously a link between these men and Rock’s other job.”
The job that they’d all thought revolved around some shadowy government entity. The job that, according to these recent revelations, obviously wasn’t related to the government at all.
Holy shitburgers! Vanessa was going to pass out. The room was no longer tilting; it was spinning like a merry-go-round. She lowered her head to the table and tried to slow her breathing as happy little stars pranced on the backs of her eyelids—so much for that whole hardhearted operator facade.
Is it possible? Could he have done it? Just contemplating the thought made her temples pound in rhythm to her racing heart.
“What?” She heard Becky ask, confusion evident in the woman’s voice. “Why does everyone look like they’ve just seen a ghost?”
“Our government isn’t allowed to assassinate its citizens,” Boss answered, his voice so rough it sounded like he’d scoured his vocal cords with steel wool. “And each of these guys, down to a man, was an American, born and bred.”
A tense silence once more settled over the group, and Vanessa raised her thousand-pound head from the table. “Really? We’re really sitting here contemplating the fact that he’s guilty? Rock Babineaux? Ex–Navy SEAL? Founding member of BKI and ragin’ Cajun who’s more patriotic than the whole lot of us put together?”
Rock Babineaux, the man who was witty and courageous and, surprisingly—given his testosterone-laced occupation and training—incredibly self-effacing and modest? Rock Babineaux, the man who’d made her want to throw her rule about not dating operators right out the window?
Her pleading gaze landed on Boss. Please don’t lead us down this path. Please tell me you know Rock wouldn’t have done this.
Boss’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and for a moment she held her breath. Then she heaved a shaky sigh of relief when he adamantly shook his head. “Hell, no. It’s been my experience that when everything is as neat and tidy as this report is,” he flicked a scarred finger at the document in question, “then something is way the hell off. Nothing is ever this black and white.”
She clung to the certainty she heard in his voice because, yes, for a second there she’d actually begun to have her doubts.
“I agree, Boss,” Ozzie said, closing the lids on his laptops so he could place his forearms on the conference table and lean forward. “And here’s something else I don’t get: if Rock’s second job wasn’t government sanctioned and no one in the government save for El Jefe and his JCs knows about the true status of our organization”—the Black Knights had been run autonomously by the president and his Joint Chiefs for over four years. In fact, their direct report was the head of the Joint Chiefs himself, General Pete Fuller—“then how the hell can the DOD list him as a rogue operator? As far as they know, he’s just an ex–Navy SEAL turned motorcycle mechanic. So, what gives?”
Boss whispered a quick profanity that questioned the legitimacy of the births of everyone working in the DOD. And, uh-oh, his I’m-gonna-kill-somebody expression all but screamed that what he had to tell them wasn’t going to fall under the happy little banner of Good News.
Great, Vanessa thought. I knew I should’ve just gone back to bed this morning.
When she’d stubbed her pinkie toe on the way to the restroom, run out of conditioner in the shower, and nearly electrocuted herself when her blow-dryer decided to spontaneously combust, she’d had a feeling it was going to be one hellaciously craptastic day.
She hadn’t had a clue…
“If you’ll look at your dossiers,” Boss began, leafing through his own packet, “you’ll see the last man Rock supposedly killed was one Fred Billingsworth. Now, Fred was a super high-tech and super-secret private investigator. Which means he didn’t spend his time trying to catch cheating spouses or insurance scammers but, instead, was hired out exclusively to major corporations. As far as anyone can tell, his last job was working for some Democratic Party support group. He was supposed to dig up what dirt he could on all the potential candidates for the presidency next election season. As you can imagine, given the tenuous and sensitive nature of his investigations, when he died, the case was quickly taken over from local law enforcement by the FBI. Somehow, and I don’t know how, they got a bead on Rock and that PO box which, along with all these other guys, contained a file on Billingsworth. When General Fuller found out, he had to come clean to the powers that be in the Intelligence community about the true nature of our business here or risk having the investigation fall on all our heads.”
That got everyone’s attention. One of the main reasons the Black Knights had been so effective since they’d opened their doors was the fact that only those few elite men in the highest tier of government knew what they really were.
“What does that mean for our operation?” Ozzie asked.
“According to the general,” Boss replied with a heavy dose of skepticism, “it doesn’t mean a damn thing. He says it’ll be business as usual.”
Those seated around the table made varying noises of disbelief.
“What’s done is done,” Boss muttered, shaking his head. “For now, all we can do is take Fuller at his word.”