Brogan stiffened, his gaze going between the three men as suspicion rose inside him.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he demanded, suddenly certain these three men were the exact reason he’d never been able to break the ice where the club was concerned.
Brogan had known there was far more to that club than he’d ever been able to figure out. Just as he’d known that many of the tours they’d taken came far too close to the known locations of small militia groups rumored to be operating from those areas.
“Not without that compensation package,” Dawg growled.
Brogan shook his head. “Fuck Doogan. He’ll come to you; I promise you that. I don’t need Doogan to do my job or to protect Eve any more than you need him to tell me what I need to know.”
Dawg glanced at his cousins, each man meeting his gaze, communicating as only men as close as they were, who had fought together and worked together in the operations that they had been conducting in the county, as long as they had, could communicate.
Finally Dawg nodded before turning to him. “Your thieves aren’t in the motorcycle club, Brogan. And the files that have been stolen don’t have a damned thing in them that tie them together. What they do have, though, is the ability to draw three men out of hiding who were working with Chandler and Dayle Mackay in the Freedom League. Twenty years ago, Chandler was stationed at Fort Knox when a transport hauling more than six million in gold bullion was hijacked. Rumor in the Freedom League was that the gold was hidden by one man and the location of it supposedly encoded in a set of files at Fort Knox in case something happened to him before it could be recovered and used to fund the League. Timothy managed to acquire the files and we found the gold. What we don’t have are the three high-ranking military officers Chandler was working with.”
Brogan stiffened in sudden outrage. “You mean I’ve been busting my ass for two and a half years for nothing?”
Dawg grinned. “Well, you did get Doogan here. And you obviously drew the attention of the three we’re looking for. Unfortunately, now Eve’s drawn their attention as well.” He glared at Brogan for that. “It was suggested to Doogan that he pull us into this, because we’re the only chance he has of recovering the gold or arresting the traitors involved in it. When Doogan refused to come to us, and decided to find the answers without us, then we let him. Don’t doubt that you’ve done your part, despite his machinations. You’ve done exactly what we would have wanted you to do if we had been working together. But when Eve became involved, I had to adjust the plan a bit to ensure she was protected.”
“You’re the bastard Donny said has the information Doogan wants and will help only if Eve was involved with me?” Son of a bitch, and they called Timothy and Doogan game players?
“Not quite.” Dawg rubbed at the back of his neck as he grimaced in irritation before propping his hands on his waist and blowing out a hard breath. “We didn’t know who that was until last night, after Eve went missing from the restaurant. He came to us then.”
Brogan looked between the three men, more amazed that they had been able to accomplish drawing that contact out without raising red flags with Doogan, or with him.
“Who is he?” Brogan demanded.
Dawg shook his head. “You have enough. Get Doogan on board with the program. We want those packages. Full immunity, no matter what we have to do from here on out, no matter the investigation or the agent conducting it. Because I’m telling you, we’re getting damned sick of being pulled into the agency’s bullshit, threatened, our families endangered, and our freedom placed on the line beca
use the agents in charge are too damned arrogant to accept defeat, or to acknowledge that they don’t know what the hell they’re doing once they get in these mountains.”
He was right, and the fact was that Doogan wasn’t the only agent with the opinion that just because a man was from the backwoods Kentucky mountains, then he was somehow not as smart, as quick, or as capable as one born and raised in the city. Or in Doogan’s case, the boardrooms and drawing rooms of the ultrarich.
Brogan shook his head. “Delaying risks Eve,” he protested. “Wrap the case up; then play games with Doogan.”
Dawg shook his head in the negative, his expression as well as Rowdy’s and Natches’s turning grim as they watched him.
“I have Eve covered, but that won’t last forever,” Dawg informed him, his voice tight. “Get those packages in place, Brogan; then we’ll finish it.”
“And if Eve gets hurt while we’re fucking around with Doogan?” he snarled furiously. “What then, Dawg?”
“What if she gets hurt because our hands are fucking tied, or later one of the others is hurt because our hands were fucking tied or we didn’t know they were pulling an operation beneath our noses?” Natches sneered, his eyes, so like Eve’s, glittering in fury. “I don’t think so, Brogan. We’ve told you enough; get it fucking taken care of; then we can finish this.”
“If Doogan doesn’t cooperate? What then?” Brogan questioned harshly, beginning to see exactly where this was going.
“If he doesn’t want to play ball, then you have other connections,” Dawg stated knowingly. “Use them.
“My father,” Brogan surmised mockingly. “This is where it’s been going all along. You want me to go to JD and have it taken care of.” Brogan rarely called his father by anything other than “JD.” “John David” if he was pissed with him.
Son of a bitch, just what he needed.
“I want you to do whatever it takes for me to see to my family’s fucking protection. And if you care anything about Eve, then that’s all you should want, too,” Dawg retorted heatedly. “As long as DHS is using this county and the Mackays to do their dirty work, then we’re all at risk. And that includes Eve, her sisters, and her mother. And trust me, you think she’s pissed at me?” he warned with dark emphasis. “Then how will she feel if one of her baby sisters, or God forbid, her mother, who nearly died of a chemical infection trying to feed Eve and her sisters, or her brother and cousins who all but got on their knees and begged for your help.” Dawg grinned mockingly. “If any of us end up hurt because you didn’t go to daddy to ensure we were all protected, then how do you think she’s going to feel?”
Brogan stepped into the truck, slammed the door, and started the engine.
Throwing the three men one last bitter, furious look, he reversed the truck and whipped it to the side of the parking lot before pushing it into drive and hitting the gas. Gravel spewed as the tires bit into the unfinished parking area and the truck shot forward and sped from the cabin.
Folding his arms over his chest, Dawg frowned before sliding his dark sunglasses over his eyes and turning back to his cousins. They, too, were watching the truck speed away, their expressions brooding.
“Are we doing the right thing?” Natches murmured.