Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“SAC Ken Walker tried to kill Rodriguez,” I clarify. “Better?”
“Yes.”
“SAC …” Iris says.
Dylan steps up next to me. “Special agent in charge.”
Iris is about to say something stupid. I’ve known him too long. “So, what you’re saying is, Dylan’s sac is causing him trouble, and you offered to help … with his … sac.”
I turn to Dylan. “Feel free to ignore that guy. We do.”
“Okay, but this Walker guy is going after your boyfriend?” Iris asks. “He must have a sac of steel.”
Dylan’s mouth drops, and it takes all of my energy not to smile.
“Not my boyfriend,” I say.
“Definitely not,” Dylan agrees.
Thanks to Domino, Kevlar, and Alphabet, the entire team knows my history with Dylan. They rib me about it whenever our work gets mixed up with Dylan’s. I always fight it, which I think only encourages them, but I like to keep my real thoughts on Dylan to myself.
Out of all the men I’ve been with, and there have been a lot, Dylan’s the only one I’ve been interested in past one date. Though, I can’t exactly call our bathroom stall hookup a date.
Maybe it’s that he has rebuffed me ever since. He challenges me. I might taunt him, and he might snark at me, but there’s no doubt that we work well together.
We’ve helped each other out, even if it has been reluctantly on his part.
For so long, we’ve done this dance, and I’ve been patient. I haven’t saved myself for him or any of that shit, but I’ve all but convinced myself that we belong together because I’ve never met someone as fiery as Dylan Rodriguez.
“What do you need us to do?” Saint asks.
He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite recruits. He’s the newest, and he has some baggage, but he’s here to work … even when he’s being inappropriate with Iris on my time. That’s totally Iris’s influence, though. I still haven’t decided if letting them be together while working for me was a good or bad idea.
“I’m taking Rodriguez somewhere safe where Walker can’t find him. Saint, I need you to track down all CCTV you can in the area of …” I turn to Dylan in question.
“Oh. Uh, the abandoned warehouses on Sanford in Wilmington.”
“Scan that whole area, and do it now before any of it can be tampered with.”
“On it,” Saint says and leaves the room to go to his tech den.
“The rest of you, I need information. I know this is generally Saint’s or Ghost’s area of expertise, but while Saint’s busy with CCTV, I need you guys to do some digging. I need everything there is to know about Ken Walker, his associates, his family. I need everything. It would also help if we could track down his current location.”
The front gate buzzes with someone’s arrival.
All the guys I’ve called in are already here, and if it was any of my guys, they don’t have to alert us. They let themselves in.
“Or maybe he’ll find us,” I say and turn to Dylan. “I told you they’d know you’d come to me. Stay here until I come back.”
“Because you’re boyfriends,” Iris calls out as I walk away.
I ignore him and tell Domino to open the gate.
By the time I’ve gone to the front of the house, cars are pulling up the gravel driveway.
I fold my arms and tuck my hands in my armpits to stop me from wrapping my fingers around Walker’s throat as soon as I see him.
There are two SUVs, full of DEA agents. They all get out, but only SAC Walker and SA Evans approach me as I wait for them by the door.
“Some big drug lords escape from prison or something?” I quip. “Need a team of bounty hunters on their ass? Not that we take on those jobs often. They’re fun, but it doesn’t pay well. It would have to be someone with a million-dollar bounty on their head for me to even bother.”
Walker’s lips pull into a tight line, and then he assesses me with calculating eyes. He might not believe my performance, but I’m fucking good at it. There’s no way he would be able to tell if I’m lying or not.
“I take it from your lack of knowledge about the situation that you haven’t seen Agent Rodriguez?”
I pretend to think. “Not recently.” What? Two minutes ago isn’t recent.
“If you do see him, call me.” He takes out a card.
“He’s missing?”
“Not … quite. He’s a suspect in a very heinous crime, and we need to bring him in.”
I force a frown. “He’s a suspect? As in Dylan Rodriguez? Are you sure you have the right guy? Mr. Uptight Goody Two-Shoes? Really?”
“We thought the same,” Evans says. “But SAC Walker was there when it happened.”
“Damn.” I turn to Walker. “What did he do?”
“We want to handle this internally. You understand.”