“You’ve got a way with words, Harte.” And he wasn’t particularly wrong either. Gabe just had a specific lady in mind and a mission to complete first.
Harte was one of those men who could head into a bar and walk out with his choice of women. He wasn’t pretty, per se. He oozed charm, though, and cleaned up good. He could also carry off the day-old-scruff look and still have women hanging all over him. That said, Harte’s advantage was his brown hair, brown eyes, slightly taller than average height stats. Anyone taking a description of him would get very little in the way of distinctive details to go on if they were trying to track the man down.
People instantly liked and trusted Harte when they met him, then couldn’t quite remember a day later. A very nice talent in their line of work. Besides, Harte actually enjoyed speaking to people. It was why he coordinated what major contracts they took and negotiated the terms, most of the time.
“How’s the missing girl job going?” Harte dropped into one of two armchairs arranged in a conversational grouping with a leather couch to one side of his office.
Gabe sat on the edge of the other, leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees, and threaded his fingers together. “Good news and bad news.”
“Always the way. Gimme the bad news first.”
“We’re going to have to go through Edict to get to the missing girl. And since it’s Edict, they’ve got deep pockets funding them.” Gabe watched Harte closely to gauge his reaction.
Harte didn’t move but his expression darkened. “Professionally speaking, they get things done.”
“True.”
And private military contractors like Edict made the term mercenaries an insult to the rest of them. A big part of the reason Gabe had joined Centurion Corporation after he’d been discharged had been the ethics the Centurions held higher than money. Maybe not as noble as the US military branches, but simple and humble: do the right thing.
“It’s how and what they choose to do.” Harte stood and headed for the small bar setup. “You need anything?”
“Nah.” It wasn’t that Gabe didn’t drink. He just didn’t need one right now.
“Here’s some rocks in a glass so I didn’t feel like an asshole drinking by myself.” Harte returned holding the promised tumbler out. “What the hell is their acronym again? It’s some long ass thing.”
Gabe took the tumbler. “Edict is an acronym?”
Well, shit, he’d have to do some digging. Never occurred to him to look.
“Not officially. One of the boys came up with it one night after a particularly irritating scrape with them. I think we’d need to be shit-faced drunk to remember it.” Harte took a sip of his scotch. “It was funny as hell at the time.”
Not much humor in the current situation, though. “The added bad news is Jewel is working for Edict now and directly involved in this situation.”
Harte stared at Gabe, took another drink, and stared at Gabe again. “Didn’t she shoot you?”
“Yeah. But I got better.” And he didn’t plan to give Jewel the opportunity to do it again.
“She’s not carrying around her AK, is she?”
Gabe shook his head. “Not unless she’s got a creative way to hide it.”
Jewel hadn’t been dressed to seduce when she’d approached Maylin, but the mercenary had still been wearing a sleek power suit emphasizing all things female. Maybe it’d been intended to intimidate Maylin, but as far as Gabe could tell Jewel hadn’t phased her. His girl had tread with a healthy dose of wariness once he’d arrived, but only because she’d been sensitive to his tension. When it came to self-confidence, Maylin was very comfortable in her own skin, and it’d take more than Jewel to shake that.
He liked it. A lot. Even if it would be safer if Maylin backed down when it came to confronting Jewel one-on-one.
“I’ll have Caleb update the file on her and run a search on any additional info we might not have from her recent adventures.” Harte leaned back in the chair. “With Edict involved, this is a bigger job than one or two fire teams can take. Especially with your members in recovery, you included.”
It was important for a person to know his own limits. So far, this mission had been well within his. If they had to go head-to-head with Edict in a serious engagement, he might be more of a liability than a leader. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
“It’s somewhat more complicated than what I had in mind when I recommended we take on a few smaller domestic jobs before heading back overseas.” Gabe tried to keep neutral. Take his time. Harte was taking his temperature on the situation every bit as much as Gabe was assessing Harte.
“I liked the initial recommendation.” Harte chuckled. “There’s an email sitting in your inbox regarding the idea in general, by the way.”