David crossed his arms over his chest. "You were there?"
"Nearby."
"Why didn't you jump in and help?"
"Ash looked like he had it under control."
Kirkland snorted. Again, I had no idea what was going on.
Silence fell around the table. Clint looked over at Sutherland, once again his interest in her intense. I squeezed his hand and he squeezed back before letting go. He sat up a little straighter, wiping his hands on the top of his jeans.
"I was moved to Miami where I've been for the last five years, working to take out the Mahoney drug trade down there. The agency, however, kept an eye on Ash and Gray Wolf Security for more than a year, convinced he had every intention of taking over Bazarov's territory."
"Bullshit!" David cried, getting up out of his chair so violently the thing turned over. "Ash is the straightest arrow in the damn quiver!"
"Yes, well, you have to look at it the way they saw it." Clint rested his elbows on the table, watching David. "His father was a well-loved, well-known politician. He ran a business that lived on the line between right and wrong, expanding it over state lines. He had power, had access. He could have easily used that to give the Mahoneys what they were looking for with the Russians."
"You forget he didn't have contacts in the Russian government."
"No. But he could have gotten them if he wanted it bad enough. A lot of people stood up and took notice when he wiped out the Bazarovs in one fell swoop." Clint hesitated for a second. "And he managed to locate a CIA agent who'd disappeared. That raised a lot of eyebrows, too."
"That was personal," David spit out.
Clint inclined his head in agreement. "But the agency doesn't look at things with emotion. They are very clinical, very analytical. It doesn't look good on paper."
"But they never did anything," Kirkland said.
"They dropped it after a year. But then last year, Ash began checking into the Mahoneys, contacting people he never should have known existed, let alone knew how to find. He was acting like a man hoping to begin a business relationship with the Mahoneys. Or compete against them. Either way, the agency wanted to know what he was up to."
"He was protecting his son," Sutherland said, speaking for the first time. "It's about family with Ash. Everything is about family."
Their eyes met. There was something there, something that made my stomach heavy with something like jealousy. I touched his hand and he immediately slipped his fingers between mine, but that was hardly reassuring.
"It doesn't matter what his reasons were. He was suddenly researching the Mahoneys in a huge way and then he aligned himself with the FBI, becoming a one-man army trying to take them down. It raised a lot of eyebrows. My superiors... some of them are convinced that Ashford Grayson has gone rogue, that he's planning to take Jack Mahoney out and take over his organization."
"That's just fucking stupid!" David announced.
Kirkland leaned against the table and studied Clint.
"Why are you telling us all of this?"
Clint’s gaze fell on Sutherland for a moment, but then he focused solely on Kirkland.
"I've been working to take down Jack Mahoney my entire career. I'm so close... I was convinced I'd be the one to take him out. When we learned he'd come to Wyoming to set up his weapons trade here, I volunteered to go undercover with the CPD. I want to take him down."
"But?"
Clint sat back, tugging my hand into his lap, rubbing his fingers over the back of it.
"I think the agency is wrong. I think Ash is our best chance of getting close to Mahoney because he's got Jack Mahoney nervous."
"How's that?" David wanted to know.
"I think this ambush, this botched operation, was designed with the goal of taking Ash out. I think Mahoney wanted to meet him, wanted to talk to this man who was the only one to get close enough to force him up against the ropes. I think Mahoney admires Ash, but they are enemies and Mahoney will take him out when he doesn't need him anymore."
David paled, moving back into his pacing pattern. Kirkland sat back, looking like he'd just eaten a spoiled piece of fish. Sutherland just stared at her hands.
"I think you have a mole. I think someone is feeding Mahoney information from this office. But I also think you people, Gray Wolf Security, is best equipped to not only get Ash back, but to take Mahoney down once and for all."
It was a dramatic statement. Everyone was lost in thought, including me. I'd thought we'd simply come here because Clint needed help proving himself honest to the agency he'd just betrayed. But this... clearly all of this was so much bigger than any of us had believed just a few days before.
If he was right, we might just be in way too far over our heads.
Chapter 21
At the Ranch
"Do you believe him?" Kirkland demanded of no one in particular.
David looked as though he was on the verge of popping a few blood vessels. Kirkland sat rock still, almost as if he was afraid to move.
Sutherland dragged her fingers through her hair, her mind working information that had nothing to do with any of this. She couldn't stop hearing that man speak his name, the syllables running through her mind over and over again.
ClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButlerClintonButler
Butler was a common name. So was Clinton, for that matter. But for this man to walk into her domain and speak that name, his eyes beseeching hers like he was hoping she would recognize something... it was nagging at her.
Did she know him? Was there something familiar about him?
There was an affection in his eyes that haunted her. What was it about him?
"He's in the secure room with Ryan," David said. "She refused to leave him."
"I think they're..." Sutherland waved her hand to indicate what she was not saying. "Stressful situations will do that."
No one cared, really.
Kirkland fell into a chair and lifted his feet onto the edge of the table.
"He's the best we've got right now."
David glanced at him. "What do you mean?"
"He knows things about the Mahoneys we can use."
David shook his head. "I don't trust him. I think he has his own motivations and they don't necessarily fit with ours."
"There's got to be some law against him telling us all that stuff he said," Sutherland said. "He's clearly putting himself on a limb for this."
"But you heard Ryan. He's on the run from his own agency right now."
David had a point, but Sutherland's instincts told her to trust him.
They were still sitting in silence several minutes later when one of the analysts on David's team came rushing through the room.
"You have to see this!"
She rushed over to the computer system set up at the front of the room and turned the large monitor at the other end of the room on. Seconds later, a video filled the screen, a light sheet hung over a window the only thing they could see for a long moment. But then a man escorted a familiar face in front of the camera.
Ash.
"You've probably already put together the fact that there is a mole in our organization. Don't waste your time trying to find him or her," Ash said, clearly reading from some off-camera source. "You need to realize that this is a game you cannot win. The Mahoneys are bigger and stronger than anyone you've ever faced before. You must concede this game and give them what they want.
"Tomorrow at noon, you will deliver Vivian Kennedy, also known as Becky Kay, and Special Agent Clinton Butler to an address that will be provided to you by telephone tomorrow at 11:15. When Kennedy and Butler have been turned over, you will be given directions to a location where you will be allowed to recover the body of Agent Kelsey Beatrice."
Sutherland pressed a hand to he
r mouth. "No," she whispered softly.
"You will receive further instructions. You will follow them precisely and the Mahoneys will consider returning me to you, free from serious injury."
That appeared to be the end of the message.
Sutherland fell into a chair, trying to process what he'd just said. What a choice. Choose between her friend and her oldest, closest friend.
What were they supposed to do?
And then Ash spoke again.
"Family is everything," he said, a choke in his voice. "Don't get dead."
Someone hit Ash on the back of the head and the screen went dark.
David was absolutely pale. So was Kirkland.
"What?"
"He's telling us not to do it," Kirkland said. "He's saying that he knows what's on the line, but he doesn't want us to do it."
***
They did everything to the video they could, trying to find some clue to its origins, to the location being filmed, but there was nothing obvious. They showed it to the others, to Mina, Joss, Donovan, and Mabel. There were a lot of tears, but none of them argued with Kirkland's assessment.
Sutherland was supposed to be sleeping, but when she got out of the shower, she couldn't shut her head off. They'd pulled Becky aside and told her what was happening, warned her that things were moving down a dark road they weren't sure they could control. And then they sent the girls into town to stay with Jonnie, Hank's girl, at a safe house in Casper. It was the best they could do for them, the best they could do for any of them.
Sutherland paced in front of the window, thinking a thousand thoughts all at once. She thought about Ash, about the conversation they'd had the night before the operation. She thought about Bodhi, thought of how desperately she would have liked to have his strong arms around her right now. And she thought of Clinton Butler.
They hadn't told Butler or Ryan about the demands on the video. Kirkland didn't think he needed to know, and David was too wrapped up in finding a way to save his brother. Everyone was a mess.
But there was something... Sutherland couldn't shake the way the man had looked at her, the way he'd said his name like he expected her to recognize it. And she couldn't help this feeling at the back of her head, like a tickle, that told her she really should know the name if not the man himself.
None of it made sense.
She dressed quickly and made her way back over to the bunkhouse, slipping in through a back door that now had an alarm code pad attached to it. The secure room was in the basement, tucked in the back like the shameful thing it was. Lance was stretched out in a chair beside the door, reading a magazine.
"Hey," he said softly. "I think he's sleeping. He talked Ryan into going upstairs to bed an hour or so ago."
She nodded. "I need to talk to him."
"About the case?"
She looked at him, but she didn't know how to answer.
"Becky's a mess, but she wouldn't let me stay with her tonight. She said she needed to think things through, whatever that means."
"She's carrying around a lot of guilt over this."
He nodded. "I wish she wouldn't. It's not like it's her fault."
Sutherland touched his arm. "Could you let me inside?"
"Oh, of course."
Sutherland watched as Lance punched another code into another code pad. Her whole life was becoming about passcodes and passwords and pass... pass whatever. She took a deep breath when the door was opened, almost afraid to take that first step inside.
He was lying on his back on a couch. The room was actually fairly cozy, a couch and a television on the wall. It didn't resemble a prison cell at all.
Clint looked up at her, his expression almost joyful when he realized it was her. He stood, tugging at the hem of his shirt like he wanted to look presentable for her.
"I'm glad you came down."
"I thought someone should tell you what's been happening."
"Oh." Disappointment filled his eyes. "This is about the case?"
"What else?"
He shrugged, gesturing for her to take a seat on the straight-backed chair next to the couch. "I got the impression something big had happened, but no one would say."
"Kirkland thought it would be best if we kept you in the dark until a decision was made. But I think you have a right to know." She sat on the edge of the chair and clasped her hands between her knees. "They sent a video of Ash."
"Proof of life. That's a good sign."
"Yes, well, they asked that we turn you and one of our people over to them. They asked for you by name."
Clint cocked his head, a little confusion dancing in his eyes. "Someone must have recognized me."
"Do you have any idea who?"
He shook his head. "The agency is very careful with their agent's identities. Every time I went undercover, my identity was well concealed. And they are careful so that I would never encounter a familiar face within the organization. I was always dealing with low level people Jack Mahoney likely never knew the names of."
"Could that mean our mole has dealings with Homeland Security, too?"
He shrugged. "I have no idea. But it would almost guarantee that they have some sort of source within the agency."
She nodded.
"Are you going to do it?"
She chewed on her bottom lip. "I don't know. Ash was able to get across a message telling us not to. It was clear he understood what the consequences to him would be."
"Brave man."
For some reason, that brought a storm of tears to Sutherland's eyes. She stood and turned her back, not wanting him to see that fact.
"You've done an amazing job here, Sutherland. No one can blame you for this mess."
She dragged her fingers through her hair, the act becoming a nervous habit.
"This is my family," she said softly. "I've let them all down."
"You haven't. The Mahoneys are just that smart, that resourceful."
She sighed. "Well, I'll let you get some sleep."
"Sutherland," he said, a strain to his voice. "Do you know me?"
She stopped, turning to study him through her shock. How could he ask such a question?
"Should I?"
"I know you. You were Sutherland Butler before you married Mitchell Knight. You grew up in Houston and the various suburbs around it before they moved you up to San Antonio. They thought you'd have a better chance of being adopted there, but you never were."
She tilted her head, backing up slowly like she thought she was in some sort of danger.
"Is that part of your job? Learning everyone's secrets?"
"They call you Sutherland because you were abandoned in a Sutherland's Hardware." He made a step toward her, his hands held out. "How many people know that?"
"No one," she breathed.
"You know me, Sutherland."
She shook her head hard, hard enough that her hair flew around her face, that her tears scattered around her.
"I don't," she said in a low, little girl's voice.
"You do." He approached her slowly, his hands still outstretched, like she was a wild animal about to attack. "You know me, Rainy."
Rainy.
"How do you know that name?" she demanded.
"Because it's me, Rainy. I'm your brother."
The room suddenly went dark and she felt herself fall. But as she did... was it really possible?
Chapter 22
Ash
They dragged me out into the yard and told me to wash my face. They said Mr. Mahoney wanted to speak to me, but he didn't like seeing blood. It was a nervous system thing.
I knelt in front of the facet, my thoughts hundreds of miles away. I hoped that Mina had left the kids with Rose, not that babysitter she liked so much. And I hoped that Joss had come, that she was there to support her. I believed that her relationship with Joss was stronger than the one we shared. Sometimes it was a little threatening, but not often.
I hoped that I put the life insuranc
e policy in a place David could easily find it. I knew he'd be broken by this, but he had Ricki and the kids now, his team in Austin and the others, Donovan and Joss and Kirkland, would be there for him.
I was worried about Sutherland. I knew she would blame herself. I wished I could tell her not to do that, but I also knew that even if I had the chance to speak to her before the end, it wouldn't make much difference. She blamed herself for Mitchell and she was thousands of miles away when he died.
I hoped I had taught my team well enough. I hoped they would survive this, that they would go on and keep up the work we'd done so far. It was good, what we'd done. We provided a good service, a valuable service.
Mostly, I thought about Ford. He was a good boy. My boy. I did this for him. I hoped he'd understand that one day.
"Let's go," one of the men said, grabbing my shoulder.
I stood and allowed them to walk me inside, not scared. I'd always thought I would be beyond scared at this moment, but I wasn't. I was content with my life, content with all the choices I'd made in my life. I loved my wife, loved my children. I had no regrets.
They walked me down a long corridor to a set of double doors. We walked inside and...
This I had not expected.
Chapter 23
He stood near the fence and watched as the fire burned pasture that had been a precious resource to the cattle on this ranch. It would be a disaster, the loss of this land. The other two fires hadn't been enough. This one would be.
Just wait until those fools came out here and saw how much was disappearing under his match. He couldn't wait. He wanted to be there, wanted to see their faces. He wished he was brave enough to simply stand there and let them see that it was him. He wanted to see the shock on their faces, wanted to see the disappointment and the frustration. He wanted to see the understanding dawn.
He knew the developers were about to make an offer. He knew she would figure it out soon enough. He knew it was almost over. He was a smart guy, there was so much he knew about this place. For example: he knew their bottom line was getting thinner and thinner every day. He knew they couldn't afford to replace lost cattle, that they couldn't afford to buy the hay necessary to replace this prime grazing land. They'd have to sell eventually and then they'd be just like the rest of them. Cold and poor and lost without their family legacy.
Gray Wolf Security: Wyoming Page 59
