Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Why’d we get a file in on Raven?” I asked, starting to pace our small office.
“I can answer that,” a deep voice that I didn’t recognize said from the door that led to Mig’s part of the office.
My head snapped around and a gun was suddenly in my hand, pointing at the chest of the stranger who I’d seen standing at Agent Josh Fry’s side earlier in the day.
A man I’d just gotten a dossier on from Travis.
“What the fuck?” Griffin barked.
I chanced a glance over at him to see that he too had his firearm out and pointed at the newcomer.
The newcomer, however, wasn’t fazed by having five guns pointed at him.
Hell, even Alison had hers out.
“I had the file sent over to you, but I had no clue that it was going to work against my favor, rather than with it,” the man said dryly. “I was hoping to give you her information and entice you back to her, not cause her to run away from you.”
My brows rose.
“What do you happen to know about all of this, Raphael?” I asked, showing him a little bit of my hand, letting him know I wasn’t completely clueless.
Raphael’s grin flashed before he walked further into the room.
“I have a vested interest in the well-being of my sister.” Raphael took a seat at my desk and waited.
It didn’t take long.
Alison and I both exploded at once.
But it was Griffin’s outburst that surprised me the most.
“What the fuck do you mean, sister?” Griffin asked. “From what I’ve seen, Raven was alone. She didn’t have one single person at her back other than this fucking club. So, where have you been, motherfucker?”
My sentiments exactly.
“I’m too far undercover – and have been since I found out about her – that I could only do so much. Basically, just watch and try to take care of her from afar,” Raphael said, sounding strained and a little bit sad.
I shook my head.
“Well, right now I’m worried about finding Raven before she gets hurt,” I said, my hands fisting.
“She’s fine,” Alison and Raphael said at the same time.
My brows rose.
“How?” I asked.
“I have Core on her,” Alison said at the same time that Raphael said, “I have a man on her.”
“And what exactly is your role in all this?” I asked, stopping at the corner of the room to lean one shoulder on the wall.
My stance said ‘calm’ but I was feeling anything but. I was feeling all kinds of things right then.
Anger that Raven left. Disappointment that she didn’t talk to me before she left.
I thought I’d shared my feelings with her. I thought she understood the connection.
Now I come to find out that the connection we were feeling wasn’t as tight as I thought it was.
The final emotion I was feeling was fear.
Fear that this whole thing was going to blow up in my face. Fear that something would happen to Raven. Fear that my son would lose a father for the second time in his tiny life.
“My role is to investigate Agent Fry,” Raphael said immediately. “I learned that he seems to have a little unhealthy obsession with my sister, and I don’t really like it.”
“So you wormed yourself into this investigation?” Griffin challenged him.
Peek snorted.
“Precisely.”
I sighed.
“How about you tell us what the fuck is going on, and why Agent Fry has a hard on for us, and we’ll figure something out from there,” I offered through clenched teeth, already fucking tired of all of the bullshit.
Raphael leaned his shoulder against the door and scrubbed a hand down his face.
“I started this internal investigation into Fry about eight months ago when there were only hunches on my bosses’ parts that there was something more going on than what was on the surface,” he explained. “Eight fucking months later, and I’m still stuck in this hellhole trying to drag myself out. Every time I get close to getting out and nailing the bastard, he miraculously shrugs off all possible charges or evidence is lost, and I’m pulled back in. Of course, learning that they had my sister didn’t help; there was no way I was getting out while she was still in. Found out they had her in the first place by accident. They didn’t know that I was undercover or her brother, but they knew I didn’t like that whole kidnapping situation and what was going on with July and Raven. To put the cherry on the cake, they had her under Jensen mother fucking Gordon’s thumb. Pretty much forcing my hand and making me work alone on trying to free them both.”
“I found out what he was doing to her and was only hours from getting her out myself. Y’all found her faster than I could,” he paused. “Been watching you ever since. Took leave from my job when they told me that the budget for this investigation had been depleted and wasn’t being replenished, to drop the investigation.”