Into the Mist (Falcon Mercenary Group #1)(48)

“Why here?”

“Why not?”

“I figured you and your team for true blue. Red, white and blue, that is. Solid patriots. All formerly employed by Uncle Sam. Yet as far as I can tell, none of you have set foot back in the States since the deal went down in Adharji.”

He stared straight ahead, darkness falling over his face.

“We still don’t know who set us up in Adharji. You say it was Esteban. First I’ve heard of that. And interestingly enough, after that incident, all our channels were cut off. All our contacts fizzled. No one was interested in giving us the time of day. A network we’d built for over five years was gone. We were forgotten. We no longer existed. According to the U.S. government, we all died in action.”

“Ouch.”

“So maybe you’ll see why we’re not exactly knocking ourselves out to get back to the good ole U.S. of A. It’s my guess Uncle Sam will continue to ignore us as long as we stay dead. As much as we believed in what we did, I don’t think any of us are kidding ourselves that we have a future.”

“So you’ll no longer recover hostages?”

He glanced sideways at her. “We’re in a bit of a holding pattern, you know? It’s hard to think about reorganizing our business when we have two guys who turn into pissed-off kitties at a moment’s notice. Not to mention we have no resources, no contacts, no way to advertise when we’re technically supposed to be dead. Right now our priority has to be finding a way to help Ian and Braden.”

She nodded. She understood that motivation well. Falcon hadn’t taken more than a handful of assignments since Damiano’s condition deteriorated. They only accepted smaller ones that required two members of the Falcon team and any of their secondary network. Someone always stayed behind with D.

As though reading her mind, Eli reached over and took her hand again.

“I’m sorry about Damiano, Tyana. I wouldn’t have left him behind. Things went to shit fast where we were being held, and we barely escaped with our lives. But if I had known he was still alive, I wouldn’t have left without him.”

She locked gazes with him and could see the sincerity reflected in his dark eyes.

“I believe you,” she said softly.

“And,” he added as he turned his attention back to the road, “If I had the means to help him—you—I would. But I don’t have answers for you.”

Disappointment made her chest ache. She’d been so sure Eli’s stability was a sign that something could be done to help Damiano. That it was just another unexplained occurrence in a line of them heightened her despair.

She turned her gaze out her window, determined not to allow Eli to see the tears stinging her eyelids. His grip on her hand tightened as he squeezed comfortingly. But he didn’t say anything further, and for that she was grateful.

“So what do we know about Esteban?” he asked several minutes later. “Apart from the fact that we were all his little experiment.”

“He said he owns the largest pharmaceutical company in Europe and that for the last few years he’s branched into other projects, namely human experimentation. He wanted warriors. My guess is he wanted an army of shifters. The instability was an unfortunate side effect. Which also explains why he wants you so badly.”

He frowned and loosened his hold on her hand before slipping it away to grip the steering wheel. White showed around his knuckles as he navigated down the bumpy road.

“So he wants to know why I work, and the others are just collateral damage,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, exactly. He offered to be benevolent and leave Damiano off his hit list, but again, I don’t trust the piece of shit as far as I can throw him. It’s obvious he doesn’t want his failures floating around. Think of what it could do to him were it to get out that A. he was experimenting on humans, and B. that he unleashed a bunch of unstable shifters on the general populace.”

Eli nodded. “We can’t kill him. Not yet.”

“What do you suggest then?”

He glanced over at her before returning his gaze to the road. “We hunt him down and extract information from him using any means necessary. If he created this bullshit, then he might well have an idea of how to fix it. If nothing else we might get the original formula of whatever the f**k chemical agent he used on us so we can break it down and have it analyzed.”

Anticipation and, for the first time, a sense of hope crept over Tyana. She’d feel better if they had the resources of Falcon to back them, but Jonah wouldn’t be doing her any special favors for a while. Tits on the other hand…

“I have a guy who can help us,” she said.

“Thought you said Falcon was pissed at you.”

She made a face then sighed. “My position with Falcon is probably tenuous at best. Jonah…well, he runs things and he gave me a direct order not to go after you. Besides, the guy who can help us lives to annoy the piss out of Jonah. He’s the one who helped me get off the island and to Paris to my meeting with Esteban.”

“I’m listening.”

“His name is Tits. He does his own thing. Works for no one. Provides a lot of intel, backup, support, technology, you name it. Solo mercenary. Falcon’s used him a lot.”

“And what do you propose he do for us?”

She thought for a minute as she braced herself over a particularly rough patch of road. “He could gather intel on Esteban, monitor his movements so we know exactly where and what we’re looking at. Do you and your team have passports? Alternate identities?”