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“Y’all gonna order food?”
Nathan flashed a broad smile, and Lachlan could almost see the waitress’s knickers melt. “I’ll have my usual, darlin’, and so will my friend here.”
“Sure thing, sugar.”
After the waitress left, Lachlan asked, “What, exactly, am I being served?”
“Ribeye, medium rare, baked potato, and whatever veggie they’re serving today.” Nathan grinned. “Bikers like their meat and potatoes.”
Lachlan took another glance around the poorly lit, smoky room. Like many pubs he’d been to in the UK, good food often came from the unlikeliest establishments.
Nathan’s laptop dinged. “Ryder’s coming online.”
Lachlan scooted his chair closer to Nathan so he could see the monitor. Ryder’s face appeared onscreen a moment later, his gaze focusing on Lachlan. “Mate, good to see you. That was a bloody close call.”
“Aye, too close. You’ve kept it to yourself?”
“Everyone here thinks you’re dead. Even Gilly and our SAS mates got wind of it.” Ryder’s lips turned down. “I felt like a tosser, not telling them, or my team, the truth. They’ve heard rumors. It stung a bit that they would even think you could be involved with Khan. Many of those men served with us.”
Nathan swore.
Lachlan’s snort had a caustic ring to it. “They’ve had to bribe, cajole, and threaten to get any scrap of actionable intelligence from the locals. If you spend too long in a place where corruption is as natural as breathing, it rubs off.” He scowled into his beer. “I’ll clear my name soon. Did you get what I asked for?”
Ryder held up a flash drive. “It took some doing. I didn’t find anything connecting Burkette to Roshan Haider. However, he and Landry communicated a fair bit.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Lachlan growled. “Anything interesting in those conversations?”
“Plenty of cryptic messages referencing an unnamed client. I wish I’d—“ Ryder stopped mid-sentence when Nathan’s forearm lifted from the table, his hand fisted in a modified tactical signal for stop.
Nathan lowered the lid on his laptop as the waitress approached the table with their food. Lachlan pulled on the brim of his cap and kept his head down.
“There you go. You boys let me know if y’all need another beer or something.” After setting their plates in front of them, she trudged to the bikers at the billiards tables.
Nathan re-opened his laptop, and Lachlan gestured for Ryder to continue.
“Right, I wish I’d had access to Josh’s phone earlier. The locational data we’ve collected is limited to the past several days, but if Nathan can decipher those messages and establish Khan as the client, and Josh’s phone history shows he’s been to Jalalabad….” Ryder’s lips thinned.
Lachlan finished his team leader’s sentence. “We may be able to prove Burkette delivered the weapons to Khan and took his orders directly from Jared Landry.”Shite.He tilted his chair on its back legs until it met the wall behind him. “And given that it appears I authorized the shipments, Landry has a scapegoat if it all falls apart. Bastard.”
He rubbed his chest absently. “Roshan Haider arrived in Afghanistan around the same time as the last shipment of weapons. Then he shows up and stalks Sophia. It’s too much of a coincidence. I’m not ready to write off his involvement.”
Nathan swallowed the piece of steak in his mouth and took another gulp of his beer. “How would Landry and Haider know each other?”
“I know Jared spent time in both Bagram and Kandahar like us. I asked him if he knew Nadia. He didn’t seem familiar with her, so I’m not sure what his connection would be to Haider.”
“If Jared’s team ever used Nadia in the field, he would have remembered her.” Ryder’s gaze lost focus. “She was memorable.”
Lachlan’s front chair legs hit the floor with a loud thud, his response fast and furious. “She was a traitor who refused to surrender and almost killed you.”
Ryder’s brilliant blue eyes flashed with old pain even as his jaw hardened. “I remember.”
One of the bikers peered over his pool cue in their direction as he lined up his shot. Lachlan stared back until the other man looked away. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Silence hung as heavy in the air as tobacco smoke.
“I don’t think I ever thanked you,” Ryder said.
“For what?” Lachlan knew for what. He picked up his knife and fork and began sawing at his steak.
“She had me point-blank.”