She starts sniffling and nods with a sigh before hugging me closer and kissing my cheek.
“Whatever you boys are wrapped up in is dangerous. I can feel it, and as your mother, I forbid you to do things that are dangerous, Jason Lane.” She sniffles, kissing me one more time for good measure before swiping her lipstick from my cheek and pulling away.
“Go and get your brother, Jace, and tell him I want him and Melissa at my dinner table in an hour or I’ll come fetch them myself.”
“Sure, Ma, sure.”
Great.
I wait till I’m in the car and peeling out before whipping my phone free and hitting Jared’s speed dial.
“Yo.”
“Where the fuck is Roman and why is Melissa Dobson calling the house going hysterical about our boy?”
“Christ, that stupid asshole! I told him to stop poking around and trying to dig too fast, but does he ever listen to me? Hell no. All you fools do around here is ignore me and do whatever it is you want to. Now I have to—”
“Jared, brother, calm down and tell me what’s going on,” I bark, hitting the gas as soon as I clear the driveway.
“He called me this afternoon and said something about going in with some of the idiots in his unit. Miah isn’t staying with the department, so he’s basically out already and Dobson isn’t looking too eager to get rid of Roman after what his kid said about that uncle of hers. Anyway, Roman was talking about getting in with the extremists faster than Dobson was willing to introduce him.”
“Christ.”
That means that Roman is either at this very moment headed towards the enemy or he’s already in some serious trouble. The thing about this op is that it’s been a cluster fuck from day one. With a mole in the SEAL unit and what’s shaping up to be some very big players high up in the government, chances are they knew we were coming for them from day one.
I’d bet good money they know that Roman is a plant—hell, we all agreed just days ago that they know and we decided to leave him there to provide a distraction while we work behind the scenes on this thing.
The only reason we left Roman in to begin with was because Dobson looked scared shitless by Melissa’s threats to tell his brother about his illegal activities.
It also pays to always have a man on the mole we have gathering intel on Dobson’s end of the operation, so Roman decided that sticking close to Melissa would be a good idea. That way she can’t betray us without us knowing what she’s up to.
Well, it seems little Mel Dobson is no narc, and if that’s true and she’s going crazy about Roman disappearing, then I guess we better take this shit seriously and start looking into it.
At the very least I need to discover whether or not my brother needs me right now. We stick together. Always.
“Where was he last?”
“At work. He called me from his car just before he wanted to head out. Wait, let me just…his cell phone isn’t moving, Jace. I’ve tracked it to the south end of the county on that little dirt road down by that creek we used to play in…Goddammit. You moving?”
“On my way there now. Hang tight and call the others. I’ll call when I get there.”
I break every speeding record in the county and get to the little dirt track in under three minutes, praying the entire way as I fishtail my way onto the road and put my foot down.
Nothing. Goddammit.
“You got anything?” Jared barks into the phone when I call him back.
“Nothing.”
“Wait, you should be right on top of him.”
The car skids to a stop and I hop out, almost falling to my knees when all I find is his phone, covered in blood and cracked to hell and back. This is a crime scene, I know it the minute I see that phone just lying there as if placed there to taunt us.
“I got his phone. And what looks to be blood, Jared.”
“Jesus. Miah! Roman is MIA. Jace recovered his phone and what looks like blood down on Farmer’s Road. Get your ass in here, Miah. No man, I fucking have no clue. Melissa called. Yes, Miah—Jace, get the hell out—”
His warning comes too late and I hear the blast of a rifle seconds before a bullet tears through my shoulder and sends me sprawling to the dirt. I hear Jared yelling and cursing into the phone that I’m still gripping, but I ignore it and drop into a roll, coming up behind my car just as the next round blasts through the air and hits the left rear door.
“High-powered rifle coming from the east. Armor-piercing bullets. Whoever this is…”
I duck and dive into the driver’s seat, thankful as hell when I see that I haven’t turned the car off and the ignition is still running. The tires squeal and fight for traction when I hit the gas and peel out of there, keeping low as more fire comes my way.