by LENA DIAZ,
He finished the call and put his phone away. A moment later, the house’s side door opened and Cord stepped outside. The grim look on his face told Kade the answer even before he asked the question.
“No luck?”
Cord stopped next to him. “Oh sure. Plenty. I got a gazillion camera shots of the guy. But he never once looked up and his ball cap hid his features. I can’t tell you what color his hair is, or even if he’s white, purple, or green. He had long sleeves and the collar of his shirt was flipped up. Plus, it was raining pretty heavily at the time, which screws with the footage.”
“In other words we have nothing.”
“Pretty much. All we know is that some guy in black clothes helped our Enforcer escape.”
“You’re the best video guy on the team. If you couldn’t get a good frame out of that footage, I don’t expect anyone else could.”
Cord nodded as if the praise was no big deal. But he seemed to be standing a little straighter, a little taller. Which reminded Kade yet again that he needed to stroke these kids’ egos more often.
It was hard to remember just how tough it could be when first starting out, how fragile his own confidence had been when he was just a few months out of the academy. He might not always approve of his team’s lack of decorum. But he couldn’t complain about their work ethic, or their enthusiasm. They just needed more guidance.
His gaze slid to Dominic and Jack who were standing apart from the others near the SUV’s bumper, deep in conversation. Now those were two newbies who never seemed to need a word of encouragement. And they seemed a bit older than he’d expect recent Quantico graduates to be. Of course, this could be a second career for them, which would explain the age. Still, they seemed too confident to just be starting out as new agents. And it was time for Kade to find out why.
He started toward them. His bum leg chose that moment to finally give out. He fell against the Caddy, barely catching himself before he could slide to the ground.
Cord grabbed his arm, his eyes wide with alarm. “You okay, boss?”
Great. Twice in one night, the same agent had seen him at his very worst. Kade shook Cord’s hand off, mumbling a thank-you as he glanced around. Thankfully, the others didn’t seem to have noticed his disgrace. Then again, they’d all seen him fall to his knees on the back porch earlier.
Tonight was not his finest hour.
When he started toward the SUV again, he was more deliberate and slow. It almost killed him to make that concession to his weakness. But it was better than ending up sprawled on the concrete again.
The conversation stopped as soon as he drew close to the back bumper.
Dominic’s dark eyes met his and he tapped Jack’s shoulder to get him to turn around.
“Something we can do for you, sir?” Dom asked.
“You can explain why you were both so trigger-happy tonight. You do remember our objective is to bring Enforcers in alive?”
They exchanged a glance with each other before Dom spoke again.
“Permission to speak freely, sir?”
“Of course.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. The tail end of a serpent tattoo on his biceps peeked out from under his shirtsleeve. Why hadn’t Kade noticed that tattoo before?
“Jack and I were just talking about how we both screwed up. Adrenaline rush, I guess. After losing our target at her hideout and then receiving your call that she’d stowed away in your car, well, I think we were both a bit too . . . anxious, excited, and wanted to turn a failed mission into a successful one. My apologies that we got carried away in the heat of the moment.”
Jack nodded. “It won’t happen again, sir. Lesson learned.”
They’d said all the right things. If they were Nichols, or Alice or any of the others, Kade would probably give them some advice on how to handle the nerves and stress that came with a tense mission. But he’d never met two men less likely to cave under pressure. Anxious? These two? He wasn’t buying it.
Trying a different approach, he said, “Thought about getting a tattoo when I was younger.” He smiled and gestured toward the snake on Dominic’s arm. “But they would have kicked my butt out of the academy for something like that. I didn’t know they’d relaxed those rules.”
Dom exchanged another silent glance with Jack before answering.
“Got this the day I graduated. As a celebration.”
“Ah, I see.”
He was about to ask another question when the replacement Suburban pulled up in front of the house with a flatbed tow truck behind it. Warning beeps sounded as the truck shifted into reverse and began backing up the driveway. Kade glanced toward the nearest houses, worried that the noise would wake his neighbors. A block full of curious onlookers was the last thing they needed right now.
“Guess we should get our gear.” Dominic urged Jack forward. They circled around Kade to grab the duffel bags piled next to the house.
In a few short minutes, all of the agents were settled in the replacement Suburban. They’d be taken to the usual rendezvous point and from there would transfer into their personal vehicles and go their separate ways. The sabotaged SUV had already been loaded onto the tow truck and was on its way back to town.
Kade stood in the open doorway behind the driver, exchanging a few last words with the team.
“What about your ride?” Nichols asked. “They’re not bringing you another car?”
“Believe it or not, the bureau doesn’t keep any backup Cadillacs on standby.” He smiled. “No worries. They’re rounding up some tires to bring out. The car will be ready by the time I need it.”
He noticed that Dom and Jack were sitting in the very back, quietly watching him. He was tempted to yank them out and haul them into the house for a full interrogation. But he’d already decided the direct approach wouldn’t work. They’d have a canned answer ready for anything he asked. He nodded at them, then looked at each of the others in turn—Alice, Cord, Nichols.
“You all worked hard tonight. Did a damn good job regardless of the outcome. You should be proud of yourselves.” His words garnered a few weak smiles. “You may not feel that way right now. But I’ve been pushing you relentlessly for weeks, with precious little downtime. And you’ve still managed to capture ninety-nine percent of the targets I gave you, with no casualties. You’ve done better than agents with twice your experience could have done.”
Okay, that was a stretch, a big stretch. But he was getting through to them now. The dejected looks had faded and been replaced with more genuine smiles.
“I want you to take some time off. Catch up on your sleep, visit your loved ones, go see a ball game. Live a little. I don’t want to see your sorry faces again until Wednesday at the lazy hour of thirteen hundred—that’s one p.m. for those of you who already forgot everything you learned at Quantico.” He smiled to make sure they knew he was teasing. “That’s four days off, men, and woman.” He nodded at Alice. “When you get back, we’ll plan the last leg of this mission and head into the homestretch.”
A cheer went up from everyone . . . everyone except the two sitting in the very back.
Kade shut the door and rapped on the roof to let the driver know he was out of the way.
As soon as the Suburban disappeared from sight, he pressed down hard on his left thigh, kneading the cramping muscles. By the time he’d hobbled into the front room, another ten minutes had passed.
He eased into his desk chair and grabbed a bottle of Ibuprofen from the top drawer. After dry-swallowing six of them, he clicked on the computer monitor. He was exhausted, the physical strain on his leg taking a toll on his nerves. But he couldn’t sleep. Not until he got the answers to a few glaring questions.
Like who Amber and Sebastian were, and whether they were dead or alive.
It didn’t take long to find them in the EXIT database once he connected to the mainframe files. Both were Enforcers who’d been captured before Kade was brought in to take over the mission. So why did
Bailey think they were dead?
He checked his watch. It was going on four in the morning. He seriously doubted that his boss, Faegan, would be up this late. But Faegan was an early riser. Kade could expect to hear from him in a few hours at most if he left him a message.
He tapped out an email asking his boss to call him as soon as he got up. He was just about to push himself to his feet when his cell phone rang. Sure enough, the caller ID revealed it was Faegan. Kade brought him up to speed about the evening’s events.
“I’d like to go to the retraining facility,” Kade said. “Today, if possible. After I get a few hours’ sleep.”
“The retraining facility? Why?”
“Bailey Stark seems to think that her friends—Amber Braithwaite and Sebastian Lachlan—were killed after a team took them into custody. I told her that’s not how we operate, that Enforcers are being evaluated and retrained so they can re-enter society without being a threat to anyone, including themselves. I think if I can speak to her friends, maybe even snap their pictures on my cell phone, that when we catch up to her again I can reassure her that they’re okay and she has nothing to fear from us. It could make the difference between a potentially violent takedown and an uneventful surrender.”
Silence stretched out for a good half minute before Faegan responded. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. It’s your job to use your computer and investigative skills to track down where each Enforcer is hiding and then direct your teams to capture them. It’s my job to take the Enforcers from your team and induct them into the retraining facility. And when they’re deemed rehabilitated, another agent sets them up with a new identity or whatever is needed to ensure their success without the structure of EXIT guiding them anymore. No ‘one man’ can ever be allowed to have the power that Cyprian Cardenas had as CEO of EXIT. That’s the whole point behind this separation of power and duties. Which is why I can’t tell you where the retraining facility is located. You know that.”
He did know that, and had never questioned the setup before. So what was he supposed to say, that he believed Bailey’s claims over those of his own boss? Yeah, that would go over well. Especially since he had no corroborating evidence to back up anything she’d said. Not to mention, she’d done everything she could to mislead him. So why should he believe her about what may or may not have happened to her friends? She’d probably made up the story about the funerals to throw him off, hoping to distract him. He had been distracted. She had escaped.
“Can you give me an update on Sebastian and Amber? Have they been released back into society yet?”
“I’ll have to check. I’ve noted their names to follow up. Anything else?”
“Yeah, I’ve given my team some time off to get their heads straight. I’ve been pushing them pretty hard. As soon as my other teams check in, I’ll give them some time off, too.”
“You think that what happened with Stark is because they need a break?”
“They’re young, inexperienced. This is their third attempt to capture the same Enforcer, without success. A break can only do them good. Besides, I need more time to track her down again anyway. Might as well give all the teams some downtime. We’ll hit it hard after that, wrap this up.”
“All right. Keep me posted. The longer this mission drags on, the more we risk exposure. I don’t think I need to remind you about the harm it would cause if the public finds out what EXIT really did, and that the government sanctioned most of their activities. Heads would roll—including yours now that you’re part of damage control. Understood?”
Kade stiffened. Had Faegan just threatened him?
“Special Agent Quinn, is that understood?”
“Understood,” he bit out. “Sir, I have some concerns about the performance of two of the agents you assigned to me—Dominic and Jack. I’d like you to provide me a background report—”
“I don’t have time or patience for gripes. You knew when you took this assignment that you were getting greenhorns. That’s what makes these missions work. It’s all on a need-to-know basis. Feed them a few lies and they think they’re a trusted part of an inner circle. They know just enough to make them eager and are so intent on making a good impression that they don’t rock the boat, they don’t demand more information. More seasoned agents would drastically increase the risk. They’d connect the dots, learn enough to become a liability. That’s not what either of us wants. Now, unless there’s something else that actually requires my attention, we’re done. Are we done, Special Agent Quinn?”
“Yes, sir. We’re done.”
The line clicked.
Kade clenched his cell phone so hard he was surprised the case didn’t shatter. Cursing, he pitched it onto the desk. Once again he found himself wondering how he’d gotten to this point. Twelve years of glowing reviews, coveted assignments, awards. He’d been the envy of agents twice his age. Hell, even his best friend had been jealous. Now he was reduced to taking orders more often than he gave them. Faegan hadn’t even given him a chance to explain his reservations about Dominic and Jack.
He tapped his hand on his desk. Life would be so much easier if he let this go, if he could ignore the doubts that Bailey Stark had raised. Was he overthinking? Was he too tired and in too much pain to look at this logically?
Everything had seemed fine until he’d stared into those disturbingly bleak, incredibly beautiful green eyes, and listened to her accusations about what was really happening to the Enforcers his team captured. Could she be right? That would mean a conspiracy, that his boss was keeping the truth from him.
The way Kade kept the truth from his teams?
Feed them a few lies and they think they’re a trusted part of an inner circle. They know just enough to make them eager and are so intent on making a good impression that they don’t rock the boat, they don’t demand more information.
He froze. Was that what he was doing? God knew he was desperate to make a good impression on Faegan. This assignment was make it or break it for him, his chance to turn his career around. Or destroy it once and for all. Were Bailey’s accusations really that compelling? Or were they just an echo of the doubts that he’d had all along but had chosen to ignore?
That thought shook him to the core.
Whatever the reason for his doubts, he had to figure out what was fact and what was fiction. To do that, he needed more information. And he needed to get that information without doing anything that might raise a red flag—like performing searches in the FBI’s databases for things his boss wouldn’t want him to look into.
Kade was well aware that the so-called checks and balances that Faegan had mentioned extended to him as well, for good reason. He was on probation. He’d been given a short leash when his boss had grudgingly agreed to let him start a new assignment. What Kade needed was the help of someone not in the FBI, someone who used to be in the FBI and understood how they operated. A person who was now working for another alphabet agency. He needed to call Robert Gannon—his former best friend.
If he gave himself time to mull it over, or waited until a decent hour to make the call, he’d talk himself out of it. He extracted a wrinkled, yellowed business card from his wallet—a card that he’d been given only because he was standing with several other people at an FBI, Homeland Security business function. It would have looked impolite if the issuer hadn’t handed him a card, too. Neither of them had ever expected that he’d actually use it.
Two minutes later, he was on the phone with his former best friend from high school, a friend whom he hadn’t spoken to socially since a woman had come between them—over five years ago.
“Did hell suddenly freeze over?” the sleepy voice rasped on the other end of the line.
“Hey, Gannon. Sorry for the obscene hour. How’s Kendall these days? I haven’t spoken to our former boss’s boss since you two left the bureau.”
A cough, then the clearing of a throat. “Has the President been assassinated?”
“Not that I know of,
” Kade said.
“World War three started, someone blew up the Statue of Liberty? No, wait, you called to tell me you’re a bastard and grovel for my forgiveness.”
“Already did that and it didn’t make a difference.”
“Maybe you should try again. If nothing else, it’ll give me something to chuckle over, right before I tell you to kiss my ass.”
Kade blew out a deep breath. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“Why should I?”
Kade clenched his fist on top of the desk. “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t urgent. I need your help.”
This time, Gannon did chuckle. “The great Kade Quinn needs me? You really think I care?”
“You cared enough to convince Faegan to give me another chance.”
“Yeah, well. That was different. You got sympathy votes for being in a freaking coma. It won’t happen again.”
He stared at the far wall, bile rising in his throat at the thought of what he was about to say. “Please.”
The silence lasted so long that he pulled the phone back to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped. “Gannon?” No answer. “Robert? You still there?”
“Stick with Gannon, Quinn. We start using first names after all this time and my world’s going to tilt on its axis. Seriously, man. What the hell are you calling me for? Aside from the early hour, it’s been five years. Give me one reason not to hang up right now.”
“I think Faegan’s passing off mercenaries as federal agents.”
This time the pause lasted a full minute. “Start talking.”
Ten minutes later, Kade shoved himself out of his chair. A few curses and some leg massages after that and he was able to stiffly hobble toward the archway.
Gannon had been more accommodating than expected. Kade had flat-out told him that he couldn’t reveal any details about his current mission. But that didn’t bother Gannon. He respected the need for secrecy. He’d simply listened to Kade talk about the inconsistencies with Dominic and Jack, and then he’d promised to call tomorrow afternoon, Monday at the latest, with a full background report.