“It’s always personal with you.” Before he could object, she continued, “It’s because you care. That’s why you’re such a good marshal. You understand the value of family, and you needed one. This team needed a patriarch, and that’s you.”
“Family doesn’t lie to each other.”
Dakota said, “What’s he talking about?”
Victoria ignored her. “Friends always need love and support from each other. This could be more like a family who gets together on the holidays, right?”
“So you can send a card with a hundred dollars in it instead of showing up?”
“I’d only not be showing up because you wouldn’t want me there.”
Dakota glanced between them. “What is she talking about?”
Victoria shook her head. “Allyson Sanchez is really your choice?”
“My choice is just that,” he said. “My choice. Like going back to my mountain and actually having a life. Being with a woman I respect and who I’m already in love with.”
The door opened again and three additional people spilled in. Haley, Josh, and Talia.
“I just got a notification.” Talia held up her phone. “The task force is being implicated in a huge weapons sale. It makes it look like we’re the ones who took those guns and set the whole thing up—that we were just trying to incriminate Kennowich to throw everyone off.”
“How?”
“That’s the information coming in from the people who were picked up at the house raid. They’re all pointing at us as the ones behind it all.”
And Allyson’s phone had been left in that rental van. Which meant she would be accused along with the rest of them.
Talia’s face paled. “The FBI is about to show up here and at the office. They’ve already got a warrant to go through everything, and they’re looking for us. We’re going to be arrested.”
Chapter 21
Allyson kicked the door to her apartment shut behind her and dumped her backpack on the floor of the hall. It felt like days since she’d been here, even though it was just hours ago.
She got some water at the sink, guzzled the whole glass and set it down. She warmed up leftovers from days ago that was probably ready to be thrown out.
While it heated in the microwave, she reached for her phone in her back pocket, remembering almost instantly it was not hers.
It was the phone Talia had given her.
She hadn’t even looked at it since leaving their office. Would it be weird if she used it to call now and ask if Sal was all right? It wasn’t like the hospital was going to give out that information.
Allyson got the phone from her backpack and dialed Talia’s number.
No answer.
She set the phone down and ate standing up. No point sitting, a single diner in the quiet. Usually she put a podcast on her stereo just for background noise.
Tonight she didn’t feel much like doing that. All she could think about was…fork halfway to her mouth, Allyson stopped. She set the plate down and moved to the sink, where she spat out the little that was in there. Then she rinsed and spat again.
He could have bled out on the concrete. The knife might have nicked something vital, and even while being cared for in the hospital, he could have died. He could be dead now, but it’s not like anybody would even think to tell her. Allyson was kept totally in the dark because of his dumb team that he cared about so much. And if he was dead, where did that leave her? Not on a mountain, living some fairytale dream life that wasn’t going to happen anyway, that was for sure.
Was he dead?
Figure out what you want.
Ugh, that sounded suspiciously like something her ex had said to her a couple of years ago, right before he walked out. He’d dropped her off after a particularly excruciating date where they’d tried to talk about all those things that seemed to come so naturally to her and Sal.
So now that she had figured out what she wanted, what was she supposed to do about it? He was all she could think about. Worry for him was what consumed her, along with the headache she still had from hitting her head on that rock.
She looked at her phone.
Would one of them call?
The doorbell rang then. Allyson moved to the end of the kitchen counter and stood there. It wasn’t like it was a friend. No one just “stopped by” these days. That wasn’t a thing anymore, even though she recalled people stopping by like that when she was a kid. Neighbors, parishioners. Widows bringing dinner.
She stared at the closed door long enough that whoever was on the other side got impatient and rang the bell again.
Were they here to tell her that he had died?
Allyson set the phone down, walked over to the door, and looked out the peep hole. Standing in the hall were at least three FBI agents, one of them was Miller—the older agent who had interviewed her—and one was a female. The third she didn’t know.
If she hadn’t recognized one of them, she would wonder if they were even real agents—more fake cops. She had learned long ago that you couldn’t trust just anyone, and she was versed to check credentials if necessary.
Before, she’d had someone with her. At the hospital, she’d been the one to defend Vanessa from those fake FBI agents from Salt Lake City. At the house, they might have been real but she didn’t know for sure. The agent who had given her the most pause had been Miller. But that guy had taken her statement at the office.
Now no one was here with her. She’d have to stand up to them alone when she didn’t feel it. Facing off with feds was the last thing she wanted to do right now.
Allyson opened the door. “Can I help you?”
The woman stood in front. One agent alone was disarming, or at least less intimidating to most people. Behind her were the two men, a younger guy—probably a rookie—and Miller. The only people who thought a female FBI agent was “less intimidating” didn’t know squat about female law enforcement agents.
Miller nodded. “Special Agent Sanchez. May we come in?”
The female smiled politely. “We’d like to talk to you about the recent developments.”
“The raid, or the gun store robberies?”
“All of it.” Her smile remained, like her face just got stuck that way and she couldn’t turn it off. “We’re also looking more closely at the task force and their part in this.”
“I’m not with that team.”
“No, but you are involved.” The words were spoken with a distinct tone. What exactly was this woman trying to insinuate by saying it like that?
Allyson wondered if she’d been sent here for an attempt at girl talk. She almost laughed, considering she was about as good at that as she figured Dakota probably was.
She looked at Miller. “I’ve already given the FBI my statement about the phone in the van. I have no idea what their intention was of leaving it in the rental van, aside from connecting my abduction to the thefts in a serious way.” She shrugged. “Whoever is doing this pretty much shot themselves in the foot with that move. They wound up putting more suspicion on them than on me.”
The smile turned brittle. Female FBI lady said, “We’d like you to come down to our office and talk it through with us.”
“Again?”
“We would like to know everything you know about the task force. That’s all, just an unofficial request for any information you can provide that might help us.”
“You’re investigating the task force.” And she was being forced to help? “I’ll have to call my group supervisor. Make sure he’s up to speed on what I’m doing.”
“I’m sure Special Agent Daulton will authorize your assisting us. After all, it’s all very informal.”
She knew Allyson’s boss?
“If you could come with us right now, we would very much appreciate it. This is a time-sensitive matter.”
Apparently she wasn’t going to get to finish her dinner. Not that she probably would have anyway.
Allyson grabbed her backpack, an
d they walked her to their car. The two men got in front, the younger one driving and the female agent in the back. She buckled up next to the agent, stuffing her belongings between her feet.
She shot the female agent a smile, but the woman didn’t return it. She only sat straight in the seat and didn’t make eye contact with Allyson.
She figured an attempt at conversation might be good. So Allyson said, “If you have my phone from the gun store robbery, then you know I’m not connected to Kennowich.”
No one said anything, or moved.
Finally Miller said, “We’ll make that determination for ourselves.”
Were they looking at her as well as the task force? Sure, she’d hung around them the past few days. But it wasn’t like she would ever actually work alongside them.
The driver didn’t signal. He pulled onto the freeway on-ramp, headed in the opposite direction from the FBI office.
What was along this road…aside from everything east of Seattle? Which was ninety percent of the country.
All she knew was that they weren’t headed where they’d told her they were going.
Allyson tried to formulate a plan. She was going to play it cool. Not let on that she was suspicious. What was going on?
She glanced over and shot the woman a smile like everything was fine.
When they turned into the airport, Allyson got ready to finally make her move. She twisted to find Miller holding a gun on her. “Hand over your weapon. Slowly.”
Allyson swallowed.
It really was too bad she’d left her phone on the counter in her kitchen.
. . .
“We have to assume Allyson is a target as well.” Sal glanced at Talia. “Can you find her?”
She nodded. “I’ll call her back, see where she is.”
“Probably at home,” Haley said, “worrying about you.”
“You didn’t bring her here?” Dakota straightened from tying Sal’s boot laces.
Haley shook her head. “She needed to rest, and I told her we’d let her know when Sal was ready for visitors.”
He stood, grabbing his jacket from the chair as he headed toward the door. “I’ll go to her house.”
Talia glanced at Victoria.
Sal said, “We’ve already had this conversation. Allyson is where I’m going. She’s what the future looks like for me, and you all can either get on board or this isn’t going to be fun for any of us.”
Talia shifted, her gold purse held tight against her side. “That’s it? Just put up or shut up?”
Sal figured he would get a call from Mason later, one where the Secret Service agent explained to him that he needed to speak to Talia with more respect. “I’m not putting up with any of you picking on her, or blaming her for anything. Not anymore.”
Talia pressed her lips together. “Fine. We’ll try and be nice.”
Because she spoke for all of them? He’d always figured if anyone was the ring leader, it was Dakota. But here it was. Talia, the heart and soul. The one they gathered around and protected. He’d been part of that group, but now his focus was shifting. And he hoped Allyson’s focus was going in the same direction. That they were moving toward a future where they were happy and settled.
Victoria cleared her throat. “It’s time for me to go down to the FBI office and talk to them. See if I can’t straighten this whole thing out.” She paused. “Find out why we’re being targeted now and maybe even get the heat off us.”
Haley gasped. Dakota said, “Wait just one second—”
“My mind is made up.”
Talia said, “It can’t be. They’ll arrest you.”
“We all know you have pull,” Sal said. “But no one has that much pull. You’ll be walking into handcuffs and we know it.”
Would she really take the heat for them? She would allow herself to be arrested and likely charged with something?
He could hardly believe Victoria was really okay going to jail for the task force so that the rest of them could go free.
“It’s a shame Welvern isn’t there to vouch for us.” Josh scratched at the scruff on his jaw. “But that might be exactly why Kennowich is going ahead with this play right now.”
And Victoria was going to turn herself in.
Why did that seem so out of character? If he was honest, he half expected her to have split already. Saved herself. Why did he keep thinking the worst about her?
“I know what you think of me.” Her gaze remained on him. “And I know it’s not much.”
“That’s not what this is.” He knew what she was capable of, and he had huge professional respect for her. Why she’d met with Kennowich was her business. And he figured there was at least an adequate explanation. She didn’t do anything without a reason.
“But I have—”
“They’re on their way,” Talia said, looking at her phone. “We have less than fifteen minutes.”
Victoria turned to Talia. “I need you to get me proof that we’re being targeted, because we’re going to take Kennowich down.”
Getting that, specifically, wasn’t going to be easy.
“And I want to know who was behind the drone attack.”
Talia nodded at the boss. “I’ll go to Mason’s office. He’ll be able to hold off the FBI long enough for me to at least try to do that.”
“I’ll go with her.” Dakota strode to Talia. “We’ll keep each other safe and make sure she gets where she needs to go.”
“Thank you.” Sal figured if he couldn’t protect Talia, he would feel better knowing Josh and Dakota were going to do it.
Even Victoria looked relieved.
Haley pushed off the wall where she’d been leaning. “I’ll go to the office and purge everything sensitive. Hopefully before the FBI show up with their warrant.”
“I’ll make sure you get there.” Josh shared a look with Dakota. She nodded and he walked to stand beside Haley. Niall was still in California, looking into Kennowich.
“My emergency protocol is already running,” Talia said. “You’ll just have to do physical documents. The program will get rid of anything Kennowich might have planted when he tried to hack the system with that drone—or since then.”
They nodded to each other, and all headed out.
Sal needed to find Allyson. But he also didn’t want the team getting arrested. Once suspicion was directed at them, the hit to their reputation would never heal. In the federal community they would always be looked at with doubt. Case numbers would go down. Assistance from other agencies, and local law enforcement, would dwindle.
Was this really going to be the end? Or could they fight to get the black mark removed before it even settled on them?
But how was he supposed to stop it? Previously he would just go rogue and got close to the bad guy. Kennowich would see that coming a mile away, and he couldn’t help but think there were multiple aspects to this that he wasn’t aware of.
Still, what Sal needed was to get them all out from under FBI suspicion. And he had to do that before Kennowich’s plan could drag them down.
Alternatively, if he could just get all the suspicion on him, then he could take the fall. But they’d have to help him do that, and no one on their team would agree to do so.
Besides, it almost seemed like Victoria might already be planning that move.
After he got to Allyson and made sure she was okay, he could figure this out. If Haley had just brought her here, instead of excluding her, then he wouldn’t have to now find her. He sighed.
“You’ll find her.” Victoria moved to the door. “Not that I even want to talk about Allyson. This all started because of that woman. Kennowich would never have targeted us without her connection to that friend of hers.”
“You have to know that’s not true.” He faced her. “He had us in his sights before that. Just as we did on him.”
“She was the weak point. His way in.”
So this was all Allyson’s fault, at least in Victoria’s mind? �
�Don’t you show up at the FBI and tell them that this is all on Allyson.” That wasn’t her play, was it? “You do that, and I’ll bury you.”
Victoria flashed teeth at him, not in the least a smile. “Now the truth comes out. We see how shallow your loyalty has been. One woman, and you falter.”
“And that little meeting you had with Kennowich last night?” He folded his arms across his chest. “You wanna talk about loyalty, you’re gonna have to answer some uncomfortable questions.”
“Let’s walk.”
She moved to the elevator. After the doors slid shut and they began their descent, she turned to him. “The choices I make don’t require explanations. This is bigger than you realize.”
“That doesn’t fly with me.” He’d have said a week ago that he knew who she was. The woman had secrets, yes. But she worked on doing the right thing, and he often saw the war in her when she failed to hide it. “I know you want what’s best for the team, but it’s not going to be throwing Allyson in the line of fire.”
“Seems to me like she put herself in the middle of this.”
“You can’t pick and choose. You’ll ruin someone’s life.”
“Lives get ruined every day.” Victoria shrugged one shoulder. “It’s just a question of adequately managing the fallout.”
The doors slid open. “Was that what the meeting was last night? Managing fallout?”
“An attempt at a solution.” Victoria led the way. “It didn’t work, but I have more options now than I had to work with before.”
Across the parking lot he saw three black SUVs pull into the lot. The FBI was here.
Victoria twisted and pulled a weapon from the back of her waistband. “Go. I’ll hold them off.”
The vehicles screeched to a halt. Multiple doors slammed and agents took cover behind open doors.
“Put your weapons down and surrender!”
Victoria stood there, as though waiting for something.
A split second later, someone opened fire.
Chapter 22
The gun poked Allyson in the back. “Take a seat.”
She moved down the slim hallway to the main body of the aircraft and scanned the interior. It was fancy. Not like any airplane she’d ever ridden in before. It really was too bad the reason she was in this one today.
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