The revenge would be so sweet.
* * *
JEREMY STOOD BEHIND Joel’s chair, leaning against a small table. With his injured side, he couldn’t hold his body up without help. They’d set the chair in the dead center of the vacant garage. Davis said they hadn’t had cars there in over a year, but the smell of gasoline permeated the walls and fell around them.
There wasn’t a big spotlight shining on Joel or handcuffs locking him to the chair. They’d abandoned the dramatics because they’d all had enough for one day. Possibly for a lifetime.
From the way Davis and Pax kept to the side, the goal was clear. They were all going to sit there until they were satisfied Joel was clean...or not.
They’d been at it for an hour already. Swearing and grumbling, Joel had handed over his phone and weapons for standard checks. He’d answered questions and his story never changed.
After the hours of constant exertion, they were all tired. No one had the heart for this, even though it had to be done. So, when Garrett started in for another round, Pax shook his head and began walking around the edge of the garage.
Jeremy glanced over at his brother where he sat in a chair across from Joel. Jeremy knew the situation was eating away at Garrett. He gave his team all the tools to get the jobs done and never hid behind a desk. He’d only send his men out if he went along. If they ran into danger, so would he. They were all in it together. Always.
He required loyalty in return. Having someone so close to him, someone he hand-selected, betray him would cause weeks, maybe months, of reassessing what he’d missed. It would eat Garrett alive.
Especially if the culprit was Joel. Like all new hires, he’d gotten through the questions and drug tests and background check. He took his polygraph, but that part always came after the job started.
Jeremy knew Garrett had taken the extra step and fought to rush through Joel’s DIA security clearance. That made the potential blow even bigger. Ego mixed with an emotional upheaval. They were wrapped up in this to the point they couldn’t be separated again.
Garrett’s chair scraped against the cement floor as he leaned forward with his elbows balanced on his knees. His mouth opened then closed again. “I hate this.”
Instead of his usual cool detachment, Garrett met this challenge with defeat showing in his eyes. Jeremy stepped up. “Our attackers like fire. Is that your specialty?”
Joel flopped back. “I can’t believe this.”
“Me either,” Pax said while Davis mumbled in agreement.
“You two can leave if you can’t take it,” Garrett yelled over his shoulder.
“No way,” Davis and Pax said at the same time.
Garrett didn’t let up. “Tell me why I’m wrong.”
“How am I supposed to prove a negative?”
Joel had a decent point. They were asking him to do the impossible—convince them he didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do. They didn’t have any evidence of wrongdoing. Just a set of odd coincidences. It was a shame neither he nor Garrett believed in those.
“You’re the newest guy. Maybe you thought you could earn some money on the side, get in with Darren.” If so, he wouldn’t be the first guy to double-dip. The first on Garrett’s team, yeah, but it wouldn’t be the first time a federal agent collected an extra paycheck on the side.
Joel crossed his arms over his stomach and his legs at his heels. “I’m not selling information.”
“Are we sure this is about Darren?” Davis asked.
Garrett continued to stare down at his hands. “Who else could be at the bottom of this?”
Davis moved back into the tight circle. “How about any one of the hundred people Jeremy has taken down? We have a list of enemies. It could be any one of hundreds of people.”
Garrett finally lifted his head. “This isn’t an attack on the team. It’s on me. My house. My people. I’m the one who set Darren up.”
“With my help.” Joel sat up straight, staring at Garrett with renewed intensity. “So, why would I have done that only to double-cross you now?”
“Deep cover.”
Joel shook his head. “You’ve lost your mind. Both of you. Whatever is in your gene pool is messed up.”
Not the first time Jeremy had heard that. He’d actually thought the same thing once or twice. “Let’s run through the night at the motel one more time.”
Garrett’s phone rang and he opened it before the second ring. They all sat in silence, including Garrett. He never said a word until he hung up. “We have company.”
“More attackers?” Davis’s voice carried a faraway quality of disbelief. “This proves it can’t be Joel. He’s been right here, with all of us watching the whole time.”
“This visitor doesn’t carry a gun. At least I don’t think he does.” Garrett stood up. “Ellis is here.”
The information didn’t make any sense. Jeremy tried to figure out what it meant. “Your boss?”
“Why is he in town?” Pax asked.
“Let’s find out.” Garrett nodded toward the door, pointing to Davis. “Go get him. He’ll likely have his Secret Service detail with him, but double-check any guy who comes in with him.”
“Wait, you mean he’s actually here? In San Diego instead of D.C.?” Joel asked. His eyes were as wide as the rest of the team’s.
“Gentlemen.” Ellis walked in, his expensive shoes tapping against the hard floor. A younger man raced behind him with his arms loaded down while Ellis carried nothing.
Jeremy had met the department head before, during an awards ceremony for Garrett after a particularly difficult case. Ellis looked more like a political appointee than a career bureaucrat who spent his day sitting behind a desk. He wore a perfectly tailored gray suit and everything from his tie to his hair stayed in place as he moved.
And the man could work a room. He’d already shaken the hand of every team member, including Joel, and worked his way back around to Jeremy.
Ellis held out his hand. “Good to see you again.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“This is Andrew.” Before anyone could even glance in the young man’s direction or ask his last name, Ellis started talking again. “I hear we have a problem.”
“More than one,” Jeremy pointed out.
Garrett didn’t try to hide his frustration. “Why are you here?”
Not the most politically smart question, but an honest one. Ellis didn’t appear to mind. He took in Garrett’s mood and the pulsing anger in the room and ignored it all.
“Fires, explosions, missing agents. I figured I had better come out here and see what was happening.” Ellis reached a hand out and Andrew shoved a file in it.
After all the doubts and pacing, Pax stepped up. “We think Darren is going after Garrett.”
Ellis nodded in Joel’s direction. “And this is about what? Doesn’t exactly look like a team meeting and from the urgent request for background information, I assume this is deeper than Aunt Susie having financial trouble and threatening his clearance.”
To his credit, Garrett didn’t let anyone speak for him this time. He shifted until he stood directly in front of his boss. “There was some suspicious behavior, and since we seem to have a mole, we investigated.”
“Suspicious?”
“Nothing we need to discuss.”
“I see.” Ellis shut the file with a clap. “You picked Joel for your team. Convinced me he was right for these assignments without more hours in the field on less dangerous assignments.”
Joel’s eyes widened as if he were hearing the information for the very first time.
Garrett ignored the stunned silence. “And I still believe in him.”
Ellis’s eyebrow lifted. “Really?”
“I had no choice but to put him through the gauntlet and I think he knows that.”
Joel nodded, even though the doubt was clear on every line of his face. “Yes.”
“Find anything interesting? Do I need to contact o
ur security experts for an assessment?” Ellis paged through his file as he talked.
“No.” Jeremy suspected his brother’s one-word answer satisfied Ellis. Jeremy also got the distinct impression Ellis wasn’t reading. That this whole production was for show and that whatever he intended to say would hit like a bomb.
“Well, I have more bad news.” He closed the file and put it under his arm. “This, all the firepower and destruction, is not coming from Darren.”
Garrett’s mouth dropped open. “It has to be.”
They all shuffled their feet as they got the news they dreaded to hear. To Jeremy, the confirmation shattered the fragile sense of confidence brewing inside him.
Knowing the enemy made fighting him possible. Hard but doable. But some random attacker with a grudge among many took fighting to a new and dangerous level.
Garrett could die. Meredith and Sara were in the crosshairs, as well. The sudden pounding in Jeremy’s head wiped out the pain in his side.
“I ran everything on him. Have checked every angle and had him watched every second. It’s someone else.” Ellis drilled Joel with a scowl. “You know anything about that?”
“No, sir.”
Andrew stayed behind Ellis, moving as he moved, juggling files and a phone and what looked like a travel coffee cup. He’d put the laptop on the floor. One more turn and he’d trip over the thing and be on top of Jeremy.
He saw it coming and started to issue a warning when Andrew kicked the computer over and careened right into him. Jeremy held out a hand to steady the younger man, but the crash happened anyway.
The phone bounced against the hard ground. Coffee sloshed over the cup and folders scattered across the floor in a swoosh.
“Sorry,” Andrew mumbled as he moved away.
Jeremy didn’t make a big deal of the bumbling because Ellis’s frown said enough. He didn’t move until his assistant picked up everything and stood up straight again.
“Are you done?” he said, his voice dripping with disdain.
“Sorry, sir,” Andrew mumbled without looking up.
Ellis waited one more second then addressed the team. “I think we need to regroup and rethink suspects.”
From the space of one sentence to another, Jeremy made a firm decision. “I’ll be out, but available by phone for a few hours.”
Ellis’s expression turned deadly cold. “You have somewhere better to be?”
Jeremy ignored him and looked at Garrett. “I need to get Meredith out of here. As soon as I know she’s set up and safe, I’ll be back. Sara?”
Garrett shook his head. “She stays with me.”
Jeremy wished he could say the same thing, have the same conviction about Meredith. Leaving her in a safe spot was the right thing, but it would kill him. The idea of her being hurt because of him, because of knowing his family, pushed bile up his throat. He’d battled through fear and danger his entire life, but this threatened to freeze him.
He didn’t even know where to hide her. He lived like a nomad and his one decent place had been torched. That limited his options, especially since the place would have to be secure. Not many of those around. He didn’t want a traditional safe house because as far as he could tell they weren’t all that safe.
Any place seemed like a risk, but Garrett needed him, too. Jeremy couldn’t tolerate the thought of letting either of them down, so he would leave and come back, even if it meant walking back into fire.
Loyalties battled inside him. His body ached and his brain screamed for him to take Meredith to bed and not crawl out again for a week.
“You need to stay.” Ellis waved his hand in the air as if saying the words made them so. “Andrew can take care of Ms. Samms.”
Not a surprise Ellis knew Meredith’s name. He likely knew a lot more. She’d hate that. It felt like an invasion of privacy even though it was standard policy. She’d lived in Garrett’s house. That meant Ellis would have a file on her just like he did on every one of them.
Despite all Ellis’s power and the certain way he spoke, Jeremy’s answer was the same. All that power, Ellis practically glowed from it, and Jeremy had to defy it.
“No, I won’t be staying.”
“Jeremy.” Garrett said his name as a warning.
Understandable but Jeremy had to go with his gut on this one. The attacks kept coming. Meredith refused to stay out of sight. So long as she was determined to pick up a gun, he was equally set on keeping her safe.
For now that meant getting her out of there. When Davis nodded and Garrett didn’t put up much of a verbal fight, Jeremy knew his instincts were right on this one.
Ellis, however, was not convinced. He was a man accustomed to having his orders followed, and balked when the acquiescence wasn’t automatic.
His eyes narrowed as he ran a finger over his mustache. “I’m not sure you heard me.”
Heard and ignored. “With all due respect, I don’t work for you.”
“That’s a good thing since I don’t tolerate insubordination. People who work for me listen and obey, or they don’t work for me for very long.”
“Which is probably why it’s good I picked Border Patrol.” Jeremy matched Ellis’s battle stance with one of his own. “And I’m on mandatory leave from that job at the moment.”
“Ah, yes. The injury.”
Just the mention of it made the skin around it itch and the scar thump in pain. “It’s healing.”
Garrett stepped up. “Sir, if I may—”
“No.” After a moment of silence, a smile broke across Ellis’s face. “It would appear the family resemblance goes deeper than looks. Your stubborn streak certainly feels familiar.”
Jeremy nodded. “We are twins.”
“One of you is enough for DIA. I’m not sure the agency could handle both.”
A wave of relief swept the room. The tension choking the room snapped with the amusement in Ellis’s voice.
Jeremy felt his shoulders fall. He didn’t even know he was holding his body stiff until the wind rushed out of him.
Pax slipped his keys out of his pocket and caught everyone’s attention with the jingling. “Davis and I will drive.”
“Thanks, but no. You’re needed here.” Jeremy didn’t want to take the crowd with him. The goal was to remove Meredith from the danger, not drag it along behind them.
“Someone could be waiting outside and you need to throw them off your trail,” Pax said, and Davis nodded in agreement.
“What are you suggesting?” Garrett asked.
“Pax and I drive the cars. Meredith and Jeremy will be in the back of one. When it’s clear, Jeremy will get in the driver’s seat and go wherever he’s going. Pax and I will come home.”
“My detail came in matching black SUVs. You are free to use them so long as you bring them both back.” Ellis snapped his fingers at Andrew. “We need to talk to the detail.”
Andrew frowned. “Your guards won’t agree.”
“They don’t get a say.”
Not about to refuse help, Jeremy jumped to agree. “I’ll be out of here within the next fifteen minutes.”
Ellis shot him a level stare. “Where are you going?”
If there was a mole, Jeremy wasn’t taking a chance. “I’ll know when I get there.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ducked down on the floor of an SUV, balancing on the balls of her feet with a loaded weapon sitting just inches from her face, Meredith marveled at what her life had become. She battled little kids on a weekly basis. Tried to get them to quiet down, take their fingers out of their noses and stop slapping each other. Most days her biggest challenge consisted of a stray peanut and an allergy emergency.
Hiding with Jeremy as they raced along the roads southeast of San Diego in a vehicle driven by a man she barely knew was well out of her comfort zone. Then again, so was Jeremy. The accountant who took her to dinner two weeks ago couldn’t carry a conversation let alone a gun. A little boredom sounded good right about now.
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Jeremy tapped his finger on her arm. “You okay?”
She glanced up into serious eyes that didn’t quite go with the amused voice. The determination was there, but so was concern.
Yeah, forget the accountant.
She decided to go with humor as a way of taking some of Jeremy’s tension away. “Your second date choice isn’t much better than the first. You should think about dinner and a movie. Heck, fast food and a DVD would be a huge improvement.”
“Next time we’ll do anything you want.”
Her heart hiccuped. “Will there be a next time?”
“I’ll make sure there is.” His fingers circled her wrist, light and so smooth that her pulse jumped at his touch.
“You do that.”
“You guys know I’m here, right?” Pax looked up. When his gaze went past them in the backseat, his smile disappeared and he jerked the wheel hard to the right.
Her equilibrium abandoned her as he skidded around a corner and she fell on her butt for the second time. The tires squealed and her head bounced off the door handle. “Ouch.”
She rubbed the newest bruise and was grateful she’d stopped counting them. She’d acquired more in the last two days than she had in the previous twelve years.
The only thing keeping her from whining was the knowledge of the huge gash in Jeremy’s side. Every time he replaced a bandage, he removed a red scrap of material that had started out white. Much more of this and he’d have a raging infection. It might only slow him down for two seconds, but the idea of him in more pain touched off a buzzing in her ears.
“That was rough.” He put his gun on the seat and helped her back up. “I’m thinking you’re missing your center of gravity.”
“It sure seems that way.” She did seem to bounce around much more than he did. Score one for being bigger. Sara was so tiny she’d probably sail through a window.
“Pax?” Jeremy knocked his fist against the back of the driver’s seat in front of him. “You want to slow down before we throw up back here?”
“Can’t.”
Jeremy’s head tilted to the side. “Why?”
“I think we have a tail.” Tension vibrated in Pax’s voice and in the way he kept clenching and unclenching the steering wheel.
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