Billionaire Undercover - J. S. Scott Page 0,23

he’d been born. I knew at one time, the company had mined just about everything profitable, but had become pretty focused on gems and minerals over the years, and the cutting-edge technology to do it without creating an environmental disaster. If his father, and possibly generations before him, had already been outrageously wealthy, hadn’t Hudson been born with a solid gold spoon in his mouth?

I waited patiently for him to answer, but judging by the troubled look on his face, I wasn’t quite certain that he actually would.

Hudson

I struggled with how much to tell Taylor.

The reason she knew nothing about Last Hope is because we all worked hard to make damn sure nobody knew we existed.

Marshall was a master at bullshit, and all of the other guys who were actively involved were required to be previous Special Forces for several reasons.

One, because they had the skills needed.

Two, because they were mentally tough, and physically capable.

Three, because they knew how to keep their mouths shut about covert missions because they knew lives could depend on their silence.

Eventually, we’d have the talk with both Taylor and Harlow, and try to make sure they knew how important it was for them to keep our existence a secret.

No doubt Marshall had already spoken to Harlow. He made that a priority before anyone who was not a member of Last Hope could get the chance to expose us. Marshall had probably pounced on Harlow about it right after I’d been obligated to mention it.

I knew that the Montgomery Mining security team that had picked Harlow up in Lania had asked her not to talk about any of her experiences in Lania, for reasons of national security…blah, blah, blah.

But it was our responsibility to make sure that Last Hope’s involvement never came out when a non-member had to know what we were doing.

Last Hope worked on a need to know basis, and we didn’t say any more than absolutely necessary. Yeah, we had to tell victims enough for them to trust us, but not so much that it jeopardized future missions.

We’d walked that fine line for years now.

And I’d never had a problem with that…

Until now.

Taylor was my goddamn employee, and after what she’d been through, she deserved to know whatever the hell she wanted to know.

In fact, because she was an employee, she already knew much more than she should know.

Okay, so maybe we could have the talk…right now.

I raked a frustrated hand through my hair as I started to talk. “Here’s the thing, Taylor. If everyone knew about us, it could very well compromise future missions,” I explained. “We try extremely hard to avoid any type of news media and general public knowledge about what we do so we can keep helping future victims. We ask every single hostage we rescue not to out us, and so far, we’ve been lucky enough to get their promise that they won’t. Usually, they don’t have enough information to completely blow the whistle anyway. No last names, no personal info on their rescuers. No one has outed our group yet, and I hope they don’t. It could destroy the entire organization, and the work that we do. Our best weapon is ignorance about the fact that we even exist. Do you understand?”

My cousin Mason’s brother, Jett, had once been part of an operation similar to Last Hope, but on a smaller scale. When Jett’s helicopter had crashed during an attempted mission, one single leak had demolished the entire organization.

Now, since PRO had gone down, our group was the last of its kind, and we had to stay covert. If we didn’t, hostages would die because we were all they had in some instances.

Taylor shot me earnest look. “Of course I understand. I’m not an idiot. Maybe I’ve never been in the military, but I totally get how important it is for Last Hope to stay a secret, and why. But if you saved someone’s life, why wouldn’t they keep your secret?” she asked. “That’s definitely not much to ask after you’ve risked your own butt to save theirs. I’ll never tell a soul about anything regarding Last Hope or how you rescued me. I promise, Hudson. I’d never do anything that could jeopardize you, your teams, or someone in trouble like I was.”

I nodded. “Some people will at least have to know about the kidnapping, and what you went through. Most of our previous victims simply say they were taken out of their situation by a private