Page 10 of Engaging his Enemy
Moto shook his head. “So you know that anonymous real estate transactions can be used as a cover for money laundering, but you didn’t suspect anything was wrong until the federal government knocked on your door?”
“That’s right.”
“Jesus, Ben.” Moto pushed out from the table and stood. “Who the hell do you think you’re fooling here? Is it me, or is it yourself?”
Ben sat back, his jaw set. “I looked into the company. Researched it on the internet, including their corporate officers. Everything I found made it look like they were on the up-and-up.”
“Except they weren’t. You had to know the whole damn time.” He shook his head and gestured to the computer screen. “This is just like you. You haven’t changed a bit. You’re complicit. Even if you had nothing to do with that agent’s actual death, you were up to your ankles in illegal activity and chose to turn a blind eye.”
Ben stood up. “I did not. I asked questions, wanting more details about the transactions and exactly what the properties were being used for. Then the president of the company came to see me. He told me I had potential, that I just needed to trust them on some things, and my loyalty would be rewarded.”
“So, he bribed you to shut up.”
“What do you want from me, Zach? I fucked up, okay? I trusted some guys I shouldn’t have trusted, and they fucked me over. I thought this was the chance I’d been waiting for.”
“You have to take some responsibility!”
“I thought DeRegina was the real deal. You should look him up yourself just to see—”
Zach’s head jerked back. “Who?”
“Archie DeRegina. He’s a real big shot in Germany, owns a whole conglomerate with government contracts and stuff.”
“Archie DeRegina is the president of the company you work for?”
“Yeah.”
“Ben, DeRegina is famous in crime circles. He’s a drug dealer, responsible for importing more than half the heroin that comes into the US from Afghanistan. The government’s been trying to pin him with something for years.” DeRegina was as big as they got, and the small potatoes in front of them didn’t make any sense. “Why the hell would a guy like DeRegina be interested in small-time real estate deals in this neck of the woods? Even with all the property he bought, it’s only a fraction of a percent of his business, and he’s exposing himself to risk by including you in his scheme. I need to call HERO Force.” He pulled out his phone, the digital clock on his home screen reading just after ten p.m.
“Fuck.” He ran a hand through his hair. He’d lost track of time, knee-deep in computer code. “I’m late to meet Davina. I’ll call HERO Force from the car.”
“What should I do?”
Moto closed the computer and tucked it beneath his arm. “Just hang tight. I’ll see you tomorrow morning with the lawyer.”
6
Mac O’Brady carried an empty box down the shiny corridor of HERO Force New York and headed toward his office. His leg was sore where it met his prosthesis, too much time spent standing up today, but he had a lot to do.
Two years ago, he’d been drunk off his ass in a three-hundred-year-old house in France, hoping—when he was sober enough to hope—that his wife and kids would find their way back to him. Hawk picked him up out of the dirt, brought him back to the States, and put him in charge of the motley crew of men who became Mac’s shattered SEALs.
He’d only agreed because he thought the move would help him find Ellie, and it had. When he discovered a serial killer in Mobile, Alabama, had murdered Ellie’s cousin, he used HERO Force’s resources to track down her extended family—a task far easier than locating Ellie herself. The cousin’s husband had helped Ellie get back on her feet after the murder and had several clues as to her whereabouts since then—clues Mac needed to investigate in person.
But that wasn’t the only thing HERO Force had done for Mac. Helping these men become useful again had helped him regain his inner strength, the core of who he was as a person, which had become muddled and lost the moment he lost the lower part of his leg in battle. He understood now why Ellie left, understood exactly what it was she’d been missing.
The whole time he’d been nurturing these men, he’d been nursing himself back to health. He was ready now to take the next step and do what needed to be done to locate his wife and family, to complete his own journey, no matter the ending. Much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he was strong enough to make it if she refused to take him back.
Most of the guys were in town tonight, which made this a good time for the announcement he’d been waiting almost three weeks to make. Moto was dealing with his own family shit, and Mac would have to talk to him privately after the fact. There was no reason to put this off any longer.
He put the box on the floor beside his desk and began emptying drawers. The office supplies he’d leave for Razorback. Only the personal shit was coming home. He found an empty bottle of whiskey in the bottom drawer behind some file folders, shame filling him as he remembered the transgression. It had to be almost a year ago, so that, at least, was good.
There was only so much you could expect from an old drunk like him.
He picked up a picture from the top of his desk, Ellie’s laughing eyes winking back at him, and he smiled. While it was hard to leave a job he’d come to love, the reason he was leaving made it easy. This was the right decision and the right time for it, time to focus on the only thing that mattered and put all his attention back where it belonged.
The kids were nearly grown now, the memories of his son and daughters piercing in their clarity, and his eyes stung with unshed tears. A stronger man would have hated Ellie for taking them away, but he knew all too well why she’d done it.
Self-hatred was a funny thing. It didn’t stay contained in a little box inside your chest, affecting only you. It spilled out through your pores, emanating from your soul like a contagious disease. He’d been terrible to those kids, with a fuse so short it was all but missing, anger and aggravation his dominant emotions. That wasn’t what a father should be, and he prayed he’d have the chance to make it up to his children.
