Jax (Titan #9)(89)

"True."

"I need to figure out what happened to Deacon, but if you say you didn't kill him, you didn't kill him."

His jaw tightened as he tried to ignore the flicker of hope his job wasn't lost. "I didn't."

"If you say you want Titan to be loyal and you'll be loyal to Titan, consider it done."

Jax nodded.

Jared took a step closer. "If you want back on this job, Jax, I need you with us, man. I didn't follow my own standard operating procedure, and there are consequences for that failure. But I hope that it doesn't mean I'm a man down. Stay on, would ya?"

Of course Jared Westin could apologize like a badass pro. There's nothing the guy couldn't do like a boss. "I don't want to leave Titan. Ever."

"Good." Jared threw out his hand, and Jax shook it.

"One more thing," Boss Man said. "In the process of pulling my head out of my asshole, I heard that you figured out the situation with the notes. We decoded Leyva and you saved us from a bloodbath."

His brows arched. "Yeah?"

"If we'd tracked Seven there anyway and gone in blind? We'd be fucked. I called in extra hands, Mayhem's dropping in. Whole new approach. Appreciate you looking out."

Maybe that was why Ryder wasn't answering his phone, and Jax wasn't going to get upset that Titan likely tapped into his phone to learn what he knew. "No prob."

"You good?"

"All's good with me as long as Johnny Miller isn't involved."

Jared smirked as he nodded his agreement. "Why don't you go in with me and tell them you're back? I think Johnny will particularly like that little bomb that he's staying home."

Jax followed Jared out of the small room, feeling one hundred percent different than he'd thought he would when he walked in. As they entered the main conference room, Hawke stood up as Jared acknowledged him, and Sugar watched intently.

He cast an eye to Jared. "As most of you know, Boss Man called in all of our teams and asked for men from Mayhem. Except for…" Jax turned to face Johnny. "You. You're staying home. I don't trust you. And you cause more problems than you've helped since the day I met you. You hurt my wife. And you put her kids in danger. Your ass is staying home."





CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN


The ins and outs of the rescue operation were catalogued in Jax's brain, but his mind was on Seven. He heard every word that Boss Man and Brock shared in his earpiece.

This was the primary residence for Hernán and Esmeralda Suarez. It was the main place of business for the Suarez cartel. There was a larger presence of Suarez militiamen located on and near this property than anywhere else on earth. There were two classes within the militia: the trained militants and the hand-picked inner guard recruited from special ops teams across South and Central America.

This was the largest offensive maneuver on a drug cartel that Jax had ever taken part in with the Titan Group. The Titan and Delta teams, plus there was an additional team that Jax had only heard about in passing and still didn't know the actual name of. They only went by ACES.

ACES knew Parker well, but who didn't know Parker? From what Jax could tell, the team was based out of Titan's Abu Dhabi offices. There was also a large contingency from Mayhem. They were mostly gunners. Many were veterans. All were loyal to bringing Seven and her kids—their kids, they called them—home and willing to take command from Titan, no questions asked.

"You ever heard of ACES?" Locke asked no one in particular as they sat in the belly of the Black Hawk, hovering low and fast toward their drop zone.

"Nope," Bishop said. "I heard Roman mention the asses a couple times."

"Beth and Caterina talk about the asses," Locke added. "I just assumed they were talking about Jax."

The team laughed. He even laughed.

"We're a whole team of assholes," a female voice cracked from the third Black Hawk.

Jax had a feeling they didn't have a clue of the total expanse of Titan Group, and short of tapping into Boss Man's brain, no one ever would.

"Focus," Jared barked. "All teams. All assholes."

Jax smiled but needed to concentrate. Titan worked with many organizations on operations of all scale, but the large ones took the most strategic and tactical breadth. There was a hand-to-hand combat and assault offensive; and snipers nested in trees like birds ready to pick off tangos. Jax and most of Titan, Delta, and ACES were sitting in the bellies of stealth copters, ready to be fast rope-dropped over the tall brick walls of the Suarez compound outside of Leyva. Mayhem and some key Titan Group players had stationed themselves in tactical positions earlier.

"ETA is a minute-thirty," Parker called through their headsets. "Calling time at the thirty, then the twenty, ten to countdown."

Jax worked through the final checklist before they got the kids and his woman. Adrenaline pumped, and his mind hyperfocused. He could picture the maps, where Colby Winters would detonate charges, the blueprints, and assumptions of where the kids would be and how they would be guarded.

Best case scenario and most likely was that Hernán and Esmeralda would be swiftly evacuated by the inner guard. Worst case was that Esmeralda had taken to the kids and would fight to stay with them. Psych-ops reported she was likely a sociopath, and children were likely a hobby. That was about the only good thing Titan had going for them.