Page 27 of Secrets in the Dark


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“Forcing?”

“They were threatening Dominick’s career in the Army. Threatening to either kill him or make him the fall guy in some scheme, therefore putting him in prison.” Pratt answered Ian’s question, continuing to stare at Gene in shame.

“Okay”

“Gene found out through some of his contacts that even after I married Jon, they were still going to go after Dominick.”

“Were you guys married yet?” Alvarez asked softly, sitting across from Pratt.

Pratt nodded. “We’d already been married five years at this time. I was pregnant with my second child. I was six months pregnant with my daughter when I found out.”

“Then?” Diesel prompted, leading Pratt to continue.

“After a huge fight, Jon and my father put me in the hospital, I lost the baby. A few days after I had been in the hospital, I called Uncle Gene, telling him Jon had hit me and I left. That’s when I found out that the Senator had renewed his threat against Dom. I talked Uncle Gene into refreshing some of my training so I could save Dom. He brought in two other female agents in his organization, Raechal Montgomery and Harley Blackwell.”

“These three were the best of the best. They had skills no one else did. Even though they were training to go after a CIA trained ghost, these three redefined what it meant to go ghost. None of the movies that Tom Cruise did in Mission Impossible could closely hit the surface of what these three could accomplishment.”

“I don’t get it, Roulston confirmed the hit. He said it was a confirmed head shot!” Pratt mumbled to no one in particular.

“Fuck!” Alvarez, Carter and Gene all said together, clearly upset.

“What?”

“Roulson defected ten years ago in Afghanistan. Killed several agents and a couple of soldiers when he did it.”

Pratt looked at Carter like he’d grown an extra head somewhere out of his body. After several minutes, she turned her confused stare to Gene.

“Okay, ummm, Brody, I honestly don’t know your skill level, so, knowing that Wilson is really Carlton Harris and he is, well was, a ghost, is there any way for you to track his digital footprints with his phone and whatever Carter gave you?”

“I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be some heavy digging involved, but between Nathan and I, we should be able to get some good information.”

Pratt looked over at Cortez, “Call Oz, see if we can get him to come to Tampa. I’ll cave and use the blood money to pay him whatever he wants to fly to Tampa and help these two.”

“Blood Money?” Gene, Larry, Ian, Cater, Alpha Squad and Highlander’s team all stared at Pratt until she looked up from her phone after Highlander questioned her about the term.

Pratt let out a breath before she leaned forward, placing her elbows on the conference table next to her phone. “After Jonathan beat the hell out of me, causing the miscarriage, the Senator paid me a visit shortly after he found out about the call to Larry and Gene. He wired thirty million dollars to my account. When Carlton was taken out, he knew it was me. For the last twelve years, he’s been wiring five million to that same account, claiming it was for Cody. I got a separate account so I wouldn’t touch that money.”

“Holy fucking shit, you’re fucking rich as hell and you’re slumming with us?” Diesel yelled out in shock.

“How the hell did he know…” Larry started to ask before he stopped.

“Roulson” Pratt, Gene and Carter all answered at the same time.

“Had to have been. What I don’t get, why keep paying the money each year?” Alvarez asked the question on everyone’s mind.

Pratt shrugged, taking her ponytail down and scratching her head as she leaned back in the seat looking up at the ceiling before answering. “Because, he was told if he ever tried for custody of Cody or even thought of going after Dominick, I would expose his whole fucking life. Ruin, not only his career, but Jon’s career as well.”

“Okay, but if he’s all so powerful as everyone claims he is, why wouldn’t he have had you taken out?” Diesel questioned as she stared between everyone in the room.

Pratt smirked as she shared a glance with Gene and Larry. “Red on the head here let it be known if anything happened to her, Raechal, Harley, Dominick, myself, or Larry, she had safe guards in place that would expose everything from his time in the Corps to present day. The fact he was part of a secret society that condoned the abuse and rape of their wives and daughters to ‘train’ them for their new masters if they ever pissed them off.”

“New masters?” Ian asked, upset by the term.

“I’m sure…” Pratt stopped, eyes getting wide as she looked around the room.

“What?” Gene asked, moving towards Pratt in concern.

“Oh my God! Okay, the Senator is part of a secret society. It’s basically old money type of deal. Jon’s family has always done four years or more in the military, then moved on to the political ring. He used to brag how he could trace his family’s political history all the way back to England before they came to the ‘New World’.”