Page 79 of Covert Mission

“Definitely. According to Teagan, Richardson trains the enforcers himself. He wasn’t happy to be shown up by us.”

“Don’t care. Maybe we’ll find what we need and get out faster this way.”

“Or maybe get a bullet in the back,” Bowen said. “Teagan, you okay?”

“Not a scratch on me.”

Wouldn’t last, Seth knew. He feared all of them would carry the marks of their passage through the compound before this mission was finished.

“Good. Orders, Seth?”

“Stick with the plan and stay alert. If Peters takes me up on the offer of acting as their personal team of enforcers, we might get lucky but I’m not counting on it. Nothing ever comes that easily on missions.”

“Isn’t that the truth. Knight out.”

He called Noah.

“Yeah?”

“What’s your take?”

“We’ll be lucky not to get a knife or bullet in the back. You?”

“Same. Had to be done, though. I didn’t want the protection detail to pick us off if this meeting was a trap.”

“Good call having Knight and the others recon the area.”

“Richardson and Peters only know us by reputation and not a good one at that. No way would they take us at face value without protecting themselves. That would be the ultimate foolishness. Violet, observations?”

“There’s a power struggle between Richardson and Peters. Although their power is supposed to be equal, it’s more a 60/40 split than equal.”

Huh. Interesting. “What else?”

“Richardson wants control. He’s biding his time but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an attempted overthrow down the line or a split from the original group.”

“Hopefully he’ll wait until we’re out of the line of fire before he tries to take over. I don’t want us caught in the crossfire.”

Great. Not only were they having to figure out The Brotherhood’s agenda, now they also had to stay clear of internal political struggles inside the group.

“If I had to guess, I’d say there’s probably a group of people who are quietly lining up behind Richardson.”

“Not what I wanted to hear but we’ll find out soon enough. Good insight, Violet.”

“Nice work persuading Richardson and Peters to let us keep our phones,” Noah said. “I figured they’d turn us down.”

“My gut says they want our team for a particular mission and they need the team under their control fast. We’re the perfect pigeons for their plan. Having to locate and persuade another Special Forces team to join the cause would take too much time if they’re on a short mission clock.”

“I think you’re right,” Noah agreed. “Not only that, we’ve already been painted as being dirty. Another team wouldn’t be as amenable to joining the other side.”

“I don’t know, buddy. Money talks and Richardson and Peters are throwing money around like it grows on trees.”

“Money doesn’t talk loud enough to sell your soul to the devil.”

“Not our group,” Seth agreed. “But we’ve seen people do anything for a lot less than what we’re being offered.”

“Makes me wonder what they want from us.”

“Nothing good,” Teagan said.