Page 17 of Unlocking Hope

“I told you I would call once I talked to your brother.” Brock’s Southern drawl came over the line.

“Brock, what the hell is going on?” Cole asked.

Zoey could hear the sound of Brock typing on the keyboard; each stroke echoed through the phone. “Since you finally let me start to dig into your background, I connected some dots. Let’s say my contacts at the CIA had a lot of information about your brother.”

“What do you two have to do with the CIA? If you are here for help, I’m out of the military.”

“Ohh, brother, we aren’t here for help. We’re here to help you.” Nathan’s smile disappeared and was replaced with a deadly expression. “See? You weren’t the only one to serve your country, but I never left my family or brother to deal with the hell alone.”

“It wasn’t like?—”

“Doesn’t matter what it was. We need the thumb drive Zoey has.”

She reached in her pocket and clutched the thumb drive harder. “Why do you think I have the thumb drive?”

“I have a man working on Clyde’s team, and they have a video of you downloading something. Do you?”

“Maybe.”

Brock’s voice came through the phone. “Zoey, these men might be assholes, but I’ve looked into them, and they aren’t going to go against us. Do you trust me?”

She trusted Cole the most, and if Cole was on board, she would give them the information, but she wanted a copy first. “Cole, do you have an extra thumb drive and computer?”

“Yes,” Cole stood and handed her his gun. “If they try anything, shoot.”

Zoey looked at the gun he handed her. God, she hoped she didn’t have to fire the weapon. It hadn’t worked out for her so well the last time. Cole had helped her putty the bullet hole in the wall—she had missed him by three feet. Now, she was glad the bullet had gone very wide, but she wasn’t confident in her ability to take anyone out.

Cole

He practically ranto his office to grab the USB. He felt like his world was being turned upside down. When Cole left his childhood home, Nathan was a goofy teenager. Bryson had always been serious. The verbal abuse was directed mostly at Bryson, and Cole received some, but not as much. Their father seemed to leave Nathan alone.

From the deep lines under Bryson’s eyes, nothing seemed to have changed.Why would Brock say they’re trying to help?Hegrabbed the drive and headed back to the kitchen. Cole planned to demand some answers before Zoey handed over what she had. He placed his computer and thumb drive in front of Zoey and sat down next to her.

“While Zoey does what she needs, I want some answers before we show you what she has.”

Zoey fired up the computer.

“It’s been so many years. You’ve missed a lot of what happened,” Nathan said.

“Well, I’m listening and want to know,” Cole said.

Bryson smiled sadly. Cole knew he wasn’t going to like what his brother had to say. He recalled the incident with his dad that had made him decide to leave. Typically, a father would take his son to a sporting event for fun, but Marcus had taken him to Vegas and used him to get intel on a competitor. When he couldn’t find what he needed, Marcus had beaten the guy until he signed over part of his business. That was the moment Cole knew he wanted nothing to do with his father.

“My first year at Harvard, I was approached by the CIA to help take down Samuel Highmore. It was easy for me to get into any event around the world. When Nathan turned eighteen, they brought him on too. The two of us used our connections to help take down some evil in the world.”

Samuel Highmore had run a pyramid scheme that stole millions from his clients over the years. Cole knew about the story because his friend Antonio Ross had lost money to Highmore. Antonio also came from a wealthy family, but he’d still gone into the Navy. He owned a mercenary company in Fort Lauderdale. The always-grumpy guy settled down with his wife. Cole chuckled inwardly thinking about the last time he talked to Antonio he complained she wouldn’t stop feeding her kills to the gators. She was a retired assassin for the CIA. But Cole knew the story, and Mr. Ross took down Samuel Highmore.

Cole leaned back in his chair, “Why would the CIA take on a case on US soil, and furthermore I know Mr. Ross was the one to take him down.”

Bryson nodded, but before he could answer, Brock’s voice came through the phone. “Come on, Cole, you know the CIA works on US soil all the time. Mr. Highmore did go down because of your brothers, but they couldn’t admit to the public what they’d done. Mr. Ross worked with the CIA to make it look like it was him.”

“Okay, you work for the CIA,” Cole announced, more for himself than anyone else in the room. “What are you doing here now? You could’ve come to me years ago, but why now? And what do you want on the USB?” Zoey hadn’t told him what she had yet, but he assumed it was terrible, especially if the CIA wanted to get their hands on the information. Every muscle in his body was tense as he waited for the answer.

“We’ve watched you for years, and you’ve made a good life for yourself. Neither one of us wanted to bring you into the issues at home. The government hasn’t let us bring our family down, because they worry it will draw too much attention to us. So instead, we work to keep Father under control and in the background, which is easier now since he is getting close to retiring.”

“This is why I hate the CIA. Sometimes I think they are as corrupt as Dad.”

Bryson narrowed his eyes. “Our father will pay for what he did. You can count on that.” Something flashed across his older brother’s face. If Cole weren’t watching every move, he would’ve missed it.

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