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“You know where it is?”
“Of course. Small country close to Monaco. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“It’s where I grew up.”
Even from thousands of miles away, Gideon heard the condemnation in Ash’s silence. He had known revealing his secrets wouldn’t be easy. He, Ash, and the other men of OZ had been through so much together, and keeping secrets from each other, especially something that seemed so basic, would not be received well. He’d had his reasons, but if Ash or any of the others had done the same thing, he would’ve had some hard questions for them.
“All right. Not going to ask you to explain right now, but you know we’ll want some answers.”
He owed the team an explanation, but more than that, he specifically owed his OZ brothers some answers.
“You’ll get them. I promise. What’s happening with the team? Everyone still off-grid?”
“Yeah. We’ll be that way for a few more weeks.”
“And the family?”
“Good.”
Gideon didn’t take offense at Ash’s short answer. This line was secure, but unless they were face-to-face, Ash wouldn’t talk about his wife, Jules, or their newborn, Joshua. They were too precious to him to discuss over any airwaves. Gideon totally understood.
“Sean? Any news on him?”
“No change there. Not sure there will be one.”
“Do you know where that’s coming from? I know he’s pissed about not being told that Hawke was alive, but a lot of us were in the dark about it and we got over it. His reaction is kind of bizarre.”
“I agree. There’s something there. Of course, secrets seem to have become our MO these days.”
Gideon heard the criticism, but he also heard the guilt behind it. Ash had kept a huge secret about Hawke from all of them except Serena, who’d discovered the truth accidentally. And that seemed to be Sean’s sticking point. His wife knew and hadn’t told him, but still, something seemed off about this whole damn thing.
“When we all get back together, maybe we can clear the air.”
“My thoughts exactly. Is Eve around? I’d like to talk with her.”
“She’s at another location. I’m in my apartment.”
“You’re not staying together?”
“Let’s just say another secret was revealed, and she needs space to deal with some things.”
Ash gave a half laugh, half grunt. “Hell, we’re a messed-up bunch of shitheads.”
“Can’t argue with you there.”
“So what are you going to do while she’s healing?”
“I have time on my hands. I can do some digging.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”
They’d been on the hunt for over two years now for a shadow organization they now believed was called the Wren Project. On paper, it was an actual organization, but it had a dark shadow of evil beneath its façade of goodness.
They’d recently learned the organization was responsible for some of the most corrupt and dangerous events of the twenty-first century. The people who ran it were so powerful that they had some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world at their beck and call. They had killed innocents and manipulated world events. The reasons were still up in the air.