Chapter 28

"Zane needs to move the office to a warehouse."

I glanced up from the mess I'd made on Easton's desk, which included colored Post-It notes I'd borrowed from Kira, to Lincoln standing in the doorway.

"Or you can just take over Easton's office since he's never in here." He paused again, smiled—no dimples like his brother's but still sinful. "Bet if he shared it with you he'd be in here more."

I had no idea what he was talking about other than he was correct; for the last three days I had taken over Easton's office. His desk now had papers strewn all over it. The wall to my left had sticky notes that to the untrained eye (meaning anyone but mine) would look haphazard. And I'd asked Cash to bring in a rolling whiteboard.

There was a method to my madness.

Sticky notes on the wall: stuff to research.

Sticky notes on the desk: Patricia's husband's associates before he died.

Whiteboard: Maddon's movements.

Easton had not cared I'd commandeered his office.

Maybe Lincoln did.

"I could move to the conference room," I offered.

His smile fled and his green eyes narrowed.

It made him no less handsome in a badass sort of way that screamed he wasn't pleased.

"Seriously? You got ‘move to the conference room' from what I said?"

"Well, your brother having to pick up and move shop would be a pain in the ass and cost a whack. I'm taking up an office that's meant to be used by one of his employees. So…"

I let that hang and Lincoln Parker pounced.

"And you're not an employee? Have you checked your bank balance today? Paychecks hit last night. I think you'll find you're no exception. What I meant was, the team's growing. Has been growing since Patheon became Silver and we got KK and Layla. I was joking but I'm not wrong. My brother's grown out of this space but his sentimental ass doesn't want to admit it. This is where Red started. This was the start of him building his family. This is the home he gave me when I came back. So he won't give it up. But again, I was joking. Though not about Easton never being in here. He's allergic to paperwork and hates sitting behind a desk."

I knew about the desk part. The last three days during the team briefs in the conference room he'd stood, leaning against the wall. Close to me, but not sitting. That saying, the other times before when we'd been in there, he sat next to me because he was giving me that—Easton within reaching distance in case I needed him.

"I was fired—"

My change of subject was cut off.

"Do you know how many people Zane's fired over the years? Everyone. That's his way of saying, job well done."

That was crazy.

"He's crazy."

"Not going to get any arguments from me. I wish I could tell you my brother was a complicated man but he's not. What you see is what you get. But when you understand what you're getting is when you see who he truly is."

In my opinion that was complicated.

But I didn't get a chance to inform Lincoln of that.

Without leaving the doorway, he somehow managed to make it feel like his presence was invading the space as his gaze turned intense.

"All of this. Everything you see. Everything you've heard. The reputation he works hard to keep, is to give us something to hold on to. He built this to make a home. He'll lie and tell you he did it because we grew up dirt poor and he never wanted to feel that kind of poverty again. He'll come up with ten more bullshit reasons why he's built Z Corps to what it is and they'll be totally false. He built this for you. For me. For my wife. For Leo, Colin, Jax, Garrett, Brooks, Kyle, Thad. Max, Gabe, Owen, Kevin, Myles, Coop. For Drew, Eric, Declan, and Theo. For Easton, Smith, Jonas, Cash, Kira, and Layla. All of this for us. For us to have a family. There's no firing family, Nebraska. Drew left us to give his wife something she hadn't had a lot of while he was serving—his time. Eric died protecting this family. Declan left and took Autumn with him because after the life they endured they fucking deserved nothing touching the peace he was going to give her. Those three left but didn't leave the family. All of that to say this—you need an office, if you're good taking Easton's, have it. If you want something different, speak up and it's yours. But don't ever mistake family looking after family as anything but that."

Whoa.

I think that was the most I'd heard Lincoln say at one time. At least to me. And it was to chastise me for not taking my place in the family.

That felt so good I had to take a moment to savor the feel of it as it soothed some of the fresh wounds my parents had inflicted.

When the balm settled, I gave back the only way I knew would mean something to a man like Lincoln.

The truth.

That didn't mean I didn't infuse a healthy dose of smartass.

"Easton's office works for me. But it might not work for him when I paint the walls and bring in a plant. And his desk is fine but not near big enough so I hope Zane's office furniture budget is generous. With the mental torment I'll have to suffer through, I plan on breaking the bank. So heads up with that. And since I'm new to this whole family thing you can expect me to screw up here and again. You're going to have to deal with that, then deal with my attitude after since I'm not well-versed when it comes to graciously accepting anything that remotely shows kindness and consideration for my wellbeing."

"We'll see to that," he told me and I felt my breath catch. "But I suspect Easton will get in there before any of the rest have a chance."

"You're being kind, again," I noted.

"Get used to it."

"I'm not sure that's possible seeing as I've been told too many stories about the infamous Ghost."

Lincoln's mouth quirked and that was so far from the Ghost stories I'd heard about the man it wasn't funny. The one story that never changed was, the man didn't smile. The rest of the tales varied, some more brutal than others. But it was widely known Lincoln Ghost Parker was dead inside. And dead men didn't smile.

I'd seen him with his sons and his wife so I knew that was bullshit.

But I now understood the difference—what you gave the world and what you gave your family. It was possible to be two different people and still be whole.

Ghost was proof of that.

So was Viper.

So maybe that could be me, too.

We both had to get back to work, but before we did I had one last thing to tell Lincoln.

"I'm sorry about Eric Wheeler. I never met him. But I didn't have to, to know he was a good man."

"He was the best of us."

With that, Lincoln turned and left.

I pushed aside thoughts of a good man gone too soon. His protection and sacrifice the ultimate act of love. He died so his brothers could live.

That was the family Zane had built.

That was now my family.

Gotcha, asshole.

It was right there in front of my face the whole fucking time and I'd missed it.

I snatched my cell off the desk, texted Easton to ask him to get everyone into the conference room. Then I shuffled the papers into a stack, pulled some sticky notes off the desk, and ran out of Easton's…my…our office, not caring I looked like a crazy person. Garrett's huge glass enclosure in the middle of the main space was clouded so I knew he was working on something that was more sensitive than the normal sensitive stuff Z Corps worked with, and made it into the conference room just as Kira was walking in.

"You look—"

I interrupted her to say, "You're a genius."

"Well… I am called Kid Genius and not for nothing, but what did I do?"

"You found what I'd missed for years."

"What'd you miss?" Jonas asked as he entered the room with the rest of the team on his heels.

"I don't know how I didn't put it together," I blurted out. "It was all right there in front of me."

"Baby, what was?"

I looked at Easton, tossed the reports on the table, and tapped the stack.

"The connection. Maddon and Patricia."

The men took their seats, Lincoln, Zane, and Layla coming in last, and when everyone was settled I filled them in.

"Kira dug into Patricia," I started. "But more importantly, she looked into her husband Yasseen Sawiris' associates. His business is distribution of large construction equipment. I followed up on the contracts Kira got. He did a lot of business with a land developer. On the outside it looked legit. This developer did a lot of projects around Cairo. Not unusual, there's always construction going on. But the contracts didn't add up. I cross referenced the dates and looked up what buildings were being built or renovated. About fifty percent of those contracts to rent equipment were bogus. I went on to other construction companies and found the same thing."

I pushed the folders to the middle of the table but no one made a move to take them. Not even Easton who was sitting, yes sitting, with his full attention on me, and damn that felt good.

"That could be anything from money laundering, buying protection, basic corruption. But there was a name listed on one of the corporations that was familiar. Austin Wentworth. Wealthy Brit. Not unheard of for there to be foreign investors. When I looked into him, I realized why that name was familiar. Years ago Charlie and I were discussing wine, namely my palate for cheap wine, and he told me a story about him and Maddon being in Italy and staying at a villa Wentworth owned and his wine collection. Charlie told me Wentworth had a cellar that was worth millions and collected rare bottles of Changyu. Changyu is a Chinese wine manufactured in Yantai. Those bottles were gifts. Why would a Brit who invested in real estate development in Cairo, Nairobi, and Durban, all in Africa, come to be on the receiving end of very expensive, rare Chinese wine that is not exported, and bottled exclusively for state dinners?"

I didn't let anyone answer. I was too jazzed at what I'd found.

I took a breath and forged ahead.

"I'll tell you why. Bolin Chen, Wentworth's university roommate. I looked into Chen. His brother Jun De Chen works for the Ministry of State Security. And there's Maddon's connection. I've tracked the locations of Wentworth and Maddon's meetings, and get this—Wentworth is scheduled to arrive in DC in three days."

"Holy shit," Theo muttered, reaching for the files.

"I don't have the access or I would've emailed—"

"Crap, sister, I forgot to give you your credentials." Kira grabbed a pad of paper and a pen off the table and started scribbling. "Username and temporary password. When you log in you can change it."

I had a username and password.

Me.

I had a username and password to access Z Corps' computer system. Their highly encrypted, unhackable system.

The pad went sailing across the wood surface. I barely pulled myself out of my stupor to stop the pad before it went off the edge.

I looked down at the pad. In Kira's very girl handwriting was proof I was trusted.

No, that I was family.

Password: IloveEastonSpears4ever

My eyes flicked to Kira.

Her smirk said enough but the added, "Don't take the semen, if you're in season" was the best welcome to the family any of them could give me.

Crazy, I know.

"Still needs work, Mini-Me." Zane chuckled.

"Listen up, Dimples. This is harder than you think when you don't have internet memes to guide you."

"You should start with vagina and see what rhythms with that."

"China," I tossed out on a shrug.

"That sucked, you're fired," Zane announced. "Read up on Nebraska's intel. I want a mission plan by…" He stopped and looked over at Layla then restarted, "Layla wants a mission plan by ten A.M. tomorrow morning, then Silver's rolling out."

"What he said." Layla rolled her eyes. "And great work, Nebraska."

Damn.

That felt good coming from Layla.

But the pride that was shining in Easton's eyes felt better.