The Problem with Peace (Greenstone Security 3)

“We did a background on him. Found nothing two years ago,” he reminded Heath.

“I don’t care. She needs a team.”

“Okay, I’ll put Duke on it,” Keltan relented. He would admit he’d be at ease knowing someone was keeping an eye on Polly.

He worried for her.

“No fuckin’ way. I’m on it,” Heath clipped.

Keltan raised his brow. “Didn’t think you’d want to be anywhere near her.”

Heath gave him a hard look. “You want to be near Lucy?”

“Every fuckin’ second.”

“Then I’m on her.”

And that was it.

He kept it quiet when Polly assumed he was responsible for the detail. Better to let things happen organically.

And they had happened, last night, if this morning’s conversation was anything to go by.

And the timing could not have been fucking worse.

“We found something on Craig.”

Heath froze.

He didn’t speak since he knew Keltan wasn’t done.

“Still waitin’ for more info, but there’s intel to tell us he’s been seen with The Sixth Street Gang. Who had been low-level assholes until recently. Now, they’re connected to Fernandez.”

Heath’s eyes turned to granite. “The human trafficker Rosie tried to bring down?”

Keltan nodded. “The one that we’re working with the Sons to end. Smartly.”

Smartly meant patiently. Meant they had to play a long fucking game. Which frustrated the fuck out of them, Luke most of all, since the fucker had kidnapped his wife. And it fucked with all of them since the fucker was responsible for trafficking women all over the world.

Taking him down was on top of their list.

But he was smart. He knew that people would want to end him. He had all sorts of fail-safes in place in order to destroy anyone who tried. So they couldn’t try. They had to succeed.

They would.

But while they were playing their game, Fernandez was playing his.

“How in the fuck did we not catch this earlier?” Heath demanded.

“’Cause we thought that he was clean, and we looked deep. But didn’t know to look for this kind of shit,” Keltan said. “Encrypted shit that Wire is only now trying to decipher. Craig never did face to face shit. All his money came legal.” He clenched his fists. “Or places that appeared legal. Convincingly so. Enough to hold up against an FBI investigation. Didn’t think to look in places Wire is finding now he knows where to look. And by chance I had a man on him, he snapped the photo. Caught the connection.”

Heath’s fists were clenched against his sides. The only sign of him losing control. But that sign meant a fuck of a lot. Keltan knew this because it was the last point before he stopped clenching his fists and started using them. “Okay, we’ll end him, make sure Polly doesn’t find out, of course,” he said evenly. “But I don’t think this qualifies as a reason to take me away from the one good morning I’ve had in years.”

Keltan sucked in a breath. “There’s more.”

Luke and Duke took now as the moment to enter the room. Good thing too, since they might need all three of them to lock him down.

Heath’s eyes didn’t move from Keltan’s. “More enough to think you need Luke and Duke to lock me down,” he said, reading Keltan like he always did. Fucker noticed everything. Came to every conclusion.

“They’re here because we need the team on this,” Keltan said. They hadn’t been briefed yet, but both of them looked grim. Keltan focused on Heath. “Need you to make sure you handle this. First, I’m guessing Polly is at your place?”

Heath nodded once.

Keltan exhaled. “I’ll get Lance over there.”

Heath stiffened further. He knew what it meant if Keltan was sending Lance right now. Lance was relatively new, but he was good. Quiet. Ruthless. And would protect any of their women with his life. Mostly because he didn’t seem to value it that much.

They’d all been through shit.

But Lance had been through shit.

“You need to tell me what’s goin’ on right now so I can get my ass over there,” Heath clipped.

“My man didn’t just see Craig talking to this guy,” Keltan said, speaking slowly, carefully. But then how careful could you be when you were tearing through a man’s world? “Saw him handing him something. And it just so happens he’s got a good camera and was curious why he was handing him something physical when everything is done virtually now.” Keltan sucked in a breath hoping that Heath didn’t break the furniture. Not that he blamed him. “It was a photo of Polly.”

Duke sucked in a harsh breath.

Luke swore.

Heath had no response whatsoever.

“You’re tellin’ me that Polly’s ex-husband—who you fuckin’ told me wasn’t a threat—handed over a photo of Polly to someone connected to the biggest human trafficker in the world?” Heath asked, voice mild.

“Brother—”

“Where is he now?” he asked, voice still mild.

“Got my man on him,” Keltan replied, the rest of his response drowned out by the ringing of his phone he glanced down. “That’s him.”