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“It isn’t related to the current issue.”
“Everything’s related to the current issue, but I’ll let Dawson have the floor.”
Dawson shifted in his seat, accepting a coffee from someone off-screen before sighing. “Foster. I thought you retired to that blip of a town to get away from all this tangos-on-your-ass crap?”
Foster shrugged. “I can’t help it if the crap finds me.”
“Right. Well, neither of you are going to like what I have to say.”
Mac scoffed. “Not to belittle anything, but why won’t I like this other than because it involves people I care about?”
Dawson looked at Foster then back to her. “Because it also involves your brother, Josh.”
Mac straightened, teetering on the edge of the stool. “What?”
“Just, do me a favor and let me get through this before either of you lose your shit.”
Foster placed his hand on top of Mac’s, nodding when she snapped her attention to him before focusing on Dawson. “No promises, but we’ll try.”
“Good enough.” Dawson took another swig, looking as if he was settling in to be court marshaled rather than to discuss some intel. “It turns out Greer was right to question the Carrington angle because this all revolves around him and his drug, Vexarin.”
Foster grunted. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Well, you’d better buckle up, because it’s far worse than anyone thought. But before I start, you need to know that Greer’s ‘friend’ in the Bureau she reached out to happens to be a mutual one. And since Chloe’s still an active special agent and this could get her fired?—”
“Everything’s hush hush and doesn’t leave this room.” Foster crossed his arms. “We know the score, Dawson.”
“Wow, you Air Force guys are always so impatient.”
“That’s because we worked for a living instead of sitting on our asses for weeks on end waiting for the Navy to give us the green light.”
“And yet, you still need our help.”
Foster chuckled. “Point noted. Do you need me to grovel a bit or…”
“Save it for the next favor you’ll undoubtedly need.” Dawson rested his elbows on the table. “Back to your drug problem. As you know, Carrington and his company, GeneTide, were denied FDA approval of Vexarin due to its extreme side effects. But instead of destroying the remaining stock, Carrington vanished with it, only to have it pop up a few months later on the black market. Turns out all those undesirable traits are extremely useful if you’re a cartel looking for a performance-enhancing drug for your enforcers. However, even Carrington knew it was way too hot for him to be directly involved in the distribution, so he outsourced it. Want to guess who his distributors were?”
Foster inhaled, praying he was wrong, and it wasn’t the two men who’d been accused of killing Mackenzie’s brother. But that was the only way he envisioned this linking back to Josh Parker. “Please don’t say it was Daniel Shaw and Brad Newport.”
“Not saying their names doesn’t make it any less true.”
“Well, crap.”
“Greer and Chloe’s contact was able to acquire a list of all the soldiers involved in Carrington’s trials, and they were two of the first to take the drug. Which makes sense. Ex-Army Rangers with impressive records, no one would have considered they’d turn. But being addicted to Vexarin obviously changed them.”
“This is crazy. I can wrap my head around them switching sides but how did they even know about Raven’s Cliff?”
“Oh my god. My dad.” Mac scrubbed her hand down her face as her skin blanched white. “He was searching for ex-military personnel to work for Raven’s Watch. He figured they’d be the most trustworthy. Called a bunch of buddies and organizations. He practically handed them the perfect location to run their operation.”
Foster gave her shoulder a squeeze. “They should have been trustworthy. And there’s no way Atticus could have known. Their medical records were sealed, and even with his rank and connections, that’s not a line he would have crossed.”
“We can’t tell him any of this. If he thinks that he’s in any way responsible?—”
“The only people responsible for Josh’s death are the men who killed him. Period.” Though, Foster doubted that would stop either Mac or Atticus from bearing the guilt. All those undiscriminating ghosts she’d talked about.
“That’s not how he’ll interpret this intel.”
“Then, I guess it’s a good thing it can’t leave this room.” Foster shuffled closer, then focused on Dawson. “None of this makes any sense. Why kill Josh? And why are mercenary assholes nosing around my place a year later unless…” The pieces started falling together, the obvious answer screaming inside his head. “Crap. You seriously don’t think they used this house to store their drugs, do you?”