Sean shook his head and McKay quieted. “What was your mission?”
Finally, a question he could answer. Every word made his chest ache, but he forced himself to speak. “I was supposed to infiltrate Evans’s organization. My superior believed that St. Augustine was the most vulnerable of the eight clubs. He liked smaller cities. Said the law enforcement was lighter in smaller cities. I was supposed to get close to Chazz so I could report back on the group’s activities. I figured out early on that they were trying to get an infrastructure in place to move drugs. They were also laundering money for cartels. I got word a couple of days ago that Evans was coming in. I called it in to my superior.”
“Let me guess,” McKay said. “He told you to wait and watch.”
“Yeah. I was surprised. I thought bringing him in was the whole point.”
McKay frowned. “And you never thought to look into the case yourself? You would have known my name if you had looked into the case. I was the original arresting officer.”
“Hey, give him a break,” Sean said.
“Why the fuck should I? As to that, why the hell are you treating him with kid gloves?”
“Because I was in the Army for years, man. You did your time and ran. Me and Jake know what it’s like,” Sean replied.
“You don’t ask questions,” the man who must be named Jake added. “You follow orders. It’s possible that he thought he was doing the right thing. Petty took advantage of his training. He knew this kid wouldn’t delve too deep. He would just follow orders.”
God, that made him sound like an idiot, but it was true.
“Why you?” McKay asked. “There must be hundreds of ex-soldiers without jobs out there. Why pick you?”
Shame filled him. “Because Evans has ties to jihadists.”
“And they all think you turned.” McKay ran a hand over his head. “Fuck it, Petty always was smart. Where is my wife?”
He fucking wished he knew. “I told you he took her.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.” He searched his memory. He’d heard Petty say something to her as he’d fallen to the ground. “He said he had a debt to pay and she would do. Something about it hanging over his head for a long time. He was working with Evans, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah.” McKay took a step back, his cell in his hand. He turned away. “Adam, I need you to find every private airfield within fifty miles of this town. Look for anything you can find. Evans is coming in tonight.”
He’d fucked up so badly. “Can I help?”
The big blond shook his head. “No. Not unless you have a tracking system on the fucker. How bad you hit? You wearing a vest?”
Jesse nodded. He couldn’t be sure the other man wasn’t just trying to gain info so he could shoot him, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing fucking mattered.
He groaned as Sean and the guy who had been with Chazz a couple of nights back tried to help him out of his vest. Pain shot through him.
“That vest did its job. That’s a heart shot,” Sean said.
Jesse looked down. There was a tiny puncture wound right over his heart. His chest had a streak of blood from where the bullet had pierced his vest. If he hadn’t become a paranoid freak, he would be dead. Like Kris.
Another woman he needed to atone for.
“Are you going to kill me or call the cops?” Jesse didn’t really care. He just wanted to know what the next five minutes of his life would be like. “I’ll confess about Kris.”
“She’s in surgery,” Sean said. “Adam is monitoring the situation. And we’re not going to kill you. Believe it or not, I really do know what it means to be used by a superior. And Jake here was totally just a grunt. Adam’s the brains of that operation. Jake would have shot first and asked questions never before Ian trained him.”
“Fuck you, Sean. What he’s not telling you is that he was my goddamn CO.”
They were bitching at each other, but it was so easy to see that they were friends. All of his friends were dead or they’d turned away from him.
Kris was still alive. Thank god.
McKay came back, his face haggard. “There are nine potentials.”
“Fuck,” Sean said. “That’s a lot. We need to split up.”
Jesse forced his brain to work. He had to know something. What had Chazz talked about? Not all of it had made sense. He’d talked about going to the farm to pick up the big boss. “Is there anything about a farm?”
McKay checked his list. “Bartwell Farms has a private landing strip.”
“That’s it.” It had to be.