Page 141 of Burn Bag

“Five members,” Lock muttered. “Out of how many?” His eyes flicked to Knight. “Any ideas?”

He shrugged. “Not everyone was there that night.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because they wouldn’t have brought everyone to the same location for something as simple as whether or not to bring Cash into the fold,” he explained. “We need the location where they meet for the vote. That’s the only way to bring them down.”

“The vote,” Lock scoffed. “We don’t even know when they vote or how often! And since your brother went rogue and decided killing you and joining this elite squad of assholes was more important than anything else, we have zero communication and even less intel.”

“He went rogue long before he shot me,” Knight pointed out.

“Yeah, he shot me,” I pointed out. “I knew the fucker was pissed at me, but I never thought he would actually try to kill me.”

“You stood between him and his goal,” Knight muttered.

“You’re forgetting,” Jack said, slamming his fist on the table. “Cash is no longer the man you all once respected. He’s so fucking far out of his mind over pulling that trigger on Rafe that he’s never going to be the man you knew. If you thought you knew him before, throw that fucking script out the window. He made the decision to leave his morals at the table along with Betty.”

He was right about that. The moment we saw Betty sitting on her box, we all knew the Cash we knew and loved was gone. There was most likely no bringing him back, not that any of us would ever admit defeat.

“So, what’s the plan, then?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Lock sighed. “We can’t move forward without the proper information, and I will not send anyone on a suicide mission for something that could turn out to be a setup.”

“I don’t believe I asked for your permission,” Johnny snarled.

“You work for this company,” Lock argued.

“We were brought in here for Rafe. As far as I’m concerned, that arrangement still stands.”

“I thought you walked away,” Lock snarled. “I thought you dropped him when he put your family at risk. Have you forgotten how you almost lost your brother? Or how he set up Tahlia?”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Johnny snapped. “But there was once a time I would have followed Rafe anywhere. I made a fucking promise to him, to always follow him. Rafe is gone, and that promise transfers to his brother as far as I’m concerned.”

Lock eyed Jack and Jason. “And you feel the same way?”

A look passed between the two of them before they nodded.

Lock sighed heavily, shaking his head. “I can’t stop you, but I can’t back you either. If you do this, you’re on your own.”

Jack nodded, glancing at Johnny and Jason before storming out of the room. All of us would follow them if we knew there was a chance, but as it was pointed out, it was a suicide mission. Even if we had all the manpower in the world, there was no way we’d get in and out in one piece. And that was a lot to ask when there was very little guarantee that we’d even glean any intel from the op.

After the door shut, Lock turned to Knight. “Anything to add?”

Slowly, he shoved to his feet. You could see the tension in his body, how he was still recovering from the shot to the chest. How he could sit here after his own brother shot him at point-blank range was beyond me.

“I have some work to do.”

He walked out, leaving us with that cryptic message that left us all a little baffled. Sighing, Lock tossed down the ballpoint pen and shoved his hands on his hips.

“Anyone else want to say something mysterious as shit and then leave the room?”

I raised my hand, to which he rolled his eyes. “I might need to see a man about a mummy.”

He rolled his eyes and turned off the screen. “That concludes the meeting.”

Everyone got up and started to leave, but I was confused. “I’m serious.”

Eli snorted. “Sure. You want to find a mummy.”

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