Lara followed Nick out of the office, shutting the door a little harder than she meant to. Or, maybe, shutting it exactly how she wanted.
Have fun?
One glance at Nick’s furrowed brow and she doubted that word would be applicable here.
This time it was Lara who pulled him into a supply closet. He didn’t fight her and even shut the door behind him while she found the light.
“What the hell?” was all she could start with once they were bathed in florescent light. “Competing to see who’s better?”
Nick didn’t look happy but he didn’t seem to have the same height of flames that had been lit under her backside. When he answered his tone sounded nonchalant.
“At least they aren’t outsourcing the job to someone else,” he said, making a good point. That didn’t mean Lara was any less flustered about it all.
“Twenty-four hours ago Victoria was in that office. And now it’s ours?” Lara ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath. “But I guess none of that is important right now. Only catching the Whisperer is.”
Nick nodded. “Also telling the team,” he reminded her.
She sighed. “How do you think they’ll react?”
Nick pondered that for a moment and shook his head. “I don’t know, to be honest,” he answered. “James and Jennifer joined the team way after we were established. I can’t imagine they’d be upset that two senior agents got the promotion. They shouldn’t feel overlooked, at least.”
“But Xander and Ty—” she started.
“But Xander and Ty have been around longer and have a valid point to be angry at Mercer’s decision,” he finished.
Lara hated the possibility that they might be about to make a tough week even more tough for Xander and Ty. She hoped the news wouldn’t create a rift between them. They needed each other. Now more than ever.
“And what about you?” Lara had to ask before they left the pretend safety of the closet. “How do you feel about his decision?”
“I don’t think either one of us is better than the other, if that’s what you’re getting at. We have our strengths and weaknesses like everyone else. But I won’t lie, I’m excited for the opportunity, though I wish it would have presented itself under different circumstances.” Lara had to concede to that. Nick’s stare turned sharp. “We just need to do our best and worry about the case, not the job.”
Lara dipped her chin low. “You’re right,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
“I can tell them, if you want,” Nick offered as they exited what was becoming their private conference room.
“Already trying to get above me, huh?”
She glanced at him in time to see him wink.
“I’ve already been there.”
Lara didn’t have time to respond before Nick was rounding everyone up. She slipped ahead of them into the conference room. Instead of going to her usual seat she found her feet taking her to the head of the table. She’d been upset to see Mercer there the day before, but now? When it was she at its head? Was that what she wanted? Hadn’t that been what she was working toward before the bomber had struck?
Like Nick said, she wished the promotion—even temporary—had come at a different cost. Hard work, Victoria transferring to a different job or retiring from the FBI altogether, or a new opening that held promise for Lara.
Lara realized with a sinking of her gut that she found the idea of her being head of the CMU team was indeed on a list of things in the future she’d thought about before.
But now?
She didn’t have time to delve into the core of her thoughts about her life and career, together or separate. The team began to funnel in. She noted that Xander was already back and changed while Ty had just arrived. James seemed to have had better luck than his partner at the coffeemaker. Before he sat down he handed Lara a fresh cup.
He didn’t say anything and she didn’t, either. He knew something was up. They all did.
“So, as per Mercer’s direction, we have an announcement,” Lara began when Nick was at her side. She nodded for him to start. While she could have handled it, she couldn’t get around the feeling that she was somehow betraying Victoria. That thought—that emotion—might bleed into her tone. She didn’t want that. Not when Mr. Robot next to her could deliver the news without any emotional inflections.
Lara didn’t know if that made her a bad team lead or made Nick a great one. She didn’t have the time or energy to waste on thinking about it. Nick had been right. They needed to just focus on the current case. Not the politics of promotions.
“Mercer is going back to Washington and has promoted Lara and me to coheads of the CMU,” Nick dove in, no hesitation. “This is only temporary for the remainder of the case. After that only one of us will get the job.” This time he paused a second. He looked at each of them. “Is everyone okay with that?”
Xander was first to speak up. He laughed. “Better you two than me,” he said. “I hate paperwork.”
Lara was relieved to hear that, though if she was being honest she’d already had the idea that Xander wasn’t a man who wanted to deal with the bureaucratic bullshit that came with the job of being the head of the task force. James and Jennifer seemed to be on the same page, too. Or, at least, not aggrieved at Mercer’s decision. However, one look at Ty, and Lara knew he had an issue with it. She caught his eye. His expression said he clearly knew she’d seen his disapproval.
“Okay then,” Nick continued, when no one said anything more. “Let’s get to work then.”
The team got up and started to funnel out. Lara kept her gaze on Ty. He stayed at his spot, his stare on his cup of coffee.
“Congrats, boss,” James whispered as he walked by. She gave him a fleeting smile. “Can you shut the door?” she whispered back.
James glanced back at Ty. He nodded and soon Lara and Ty were alone.
“I’ve been passed over,” he said as she took a seat across from him. “And I don’t like that.”
Lara leaned back in her chair and sized up the man. He’d been through a lot when Moretti had invaded their lives, including losing his partner. While Lara hadn’t known Mei long, she did know she’d been a wonderful woman. Even now Lara caught herself missing her. So she understood the change in him through the last year because of Mei’s death. He’d hardened when he should have tried to move on. Though who was Lara to talk about moving on?
She pushed the image of her mother’s murder board out of her head and decided to be frank with the man opposite her.
“You’re a great agent,” she began. “Smart, determined, strong.”
Ty snorted. “But?”
Lara leaned forward. “But you’ve been a shit partner.” Ty’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that. “And you’re not subtle about it, either.”
“Is that why I didn’t get picked to be the boss?”
Lara shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I can’t imagine it helped your case.”
Ty’s brow furrowed. He looked tired and miserable. Had no one gotten a good night’s sleep?
“Listen, Ty, Nick and I are only interim coheads. You could still have a shot at it when this case is done. Let’s just keep doing our best to get the Whisperer off the street first, okay?”
Lara thought that would end their conversation but Ty didn’t move. He dropped his gaze to his coffee again.
“I just—I’m having a hard time with trust right now,” he finally said. His voice had dropped low. “We worked hard to get the groove we had before as a team and now? Now it just feels like we’re losing our cohesion. One minute we’re fine and the next Victoria’s gone, you and Nick are head-to-head for her job, and we’re all expected to just be okay with everything that’s happening? All the secrets? The lies? Doesn’t it get to you?
”
Lara was surprised at how fast her answer left her lips. “I trust my team. Every single one of you,” she said. “And pretending we don’t have secrets doesn’t make us any less trustworthy. It makes us that much more human. Something this job—these cases—can take from us if we’re not careful.” Ty raised his eyebrow in question at that. There she went again. Getting too emotional when she should have just stopped at “I trust my team.”
“Sometimes it’s harder to hold on to ourselves when the worst of humanity seems to be trying to claw us down,” she explained. “Sometimes the only way it feels like we can do that is to keep secrets or lie. But does that mean we’re untrustworthy?” Lara leaned in closer. She looked Ty right in the eye. “I have a secret that I’m not telling you. Got it?”
He nodded, unsure.
“But do you trust me?” she asked, serious.
“What?”
“Do you trust me? Right here and right now.”
Lara waited for what felt like minutes though she’d realize later it was only seconds.
“Yes,” Ty answered. “I trust you.”
Lara stood and motioned to the wall behind her and their team outside of it, unaware of their conversation. “And those people out there,” she said. “The ones who have sworn to always have your back no matter what... Do you trust them?”
There was no hesitation this time. “Yes.”
“Good,” she said. “Because we trust you, too, and it would have been really awkward if you would have said no.” Ty finally cracked a smile. It encouraged Lara to keep going. “Now, let’s get our asses out there and find ourselves a madman.”
Ty, still smiling, saluted her. “Yes, boss.”
Chapter Twelve
The day had turned into a gray hole. One the CMU couldn’t seem to get out of fast enough.
Nick itched for a cigarette, though he wasn’t a smoker. He just felt like it was something he should have been doing sitting outside on the steps. He’d been interviewing rejected employees for hours, like the rest of the team, and had determined they all needed a small break.
Lara hadn’t liked the idea but, then again, Lara was a dog with a bone. If Mercer hadn’t been the one to tell them to leave the night before, she’d probably still be at her computer half-asleep, James supplying her coffee until she eventually was swimming in it.
But a ten-minute break was something they all needed.
Nick even suggested they come outside with him—get away from the computer screens and phones for a moment—but no one bit.
So that’s why he was alone on the steps of 26 Federal Plaza when Trevor Dunbar showed up.
Hair slicked back, suit on point, and more gut than compassion, Dunbar was a bastard of an attorney who only defended celebrities and high-profile cases. The ones that got him the fame and the money, his moral compass perpetually off. Nick had seen him on the news a handful of times, the small man who thinks he’s big, hustling out in front of his clients and waving his suitcase around like he was some kind of lion tamer. However, Nick recognized him first as one of his father’s closest friends. Dunbar reminded Nick of Francis Thomas Delano.
Nick watched as the man began up the steps and then stopped. From where Nick sat he could see Dunbar looked distracted. His usually high-held chin was tucked, his face was pinched and he kept tapping on the side of his slacks with his free hand. Nick sat up straighter.
Dunbar was nervous. But why?
And why was he here?
The man nodded to himself and began forward again. He walked past Nick without even acknowledging him. Nick stood and watched as Dunbar hesitated a few feet from the front doors. Then, just as quickly, he turned and started to walk away. Once again he passed Nick without a word. Two steps past him, however, and Dunbar stopped again.
He stood still for a moment, head drooped downward. When he turned back toward the building and began to walk up the stairs again, Nick saw his expression up close.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Nick threw his prejudices aside and held out a hand to stop the man.
“Trevor,” Nick said. Dunbar looked as if he was coming out of a dream, or maybe a nightmare. His eyes took a moment to swim up to Nick’s. “It’s Nick Delano, FBI agent,” he explained, tacking on the agent part even though Dunbar should already know him. Then again, the man was clearly freaked out. “What are you doing here, Trevor? What’s going on?”
Dunbar’s eyes, black like his soul as Nick had once described them, were on him but didn’t seem to be seeing him. Still he answered. “I—I’ve done some awful things in my life—my career,” he said, almost whispering. “Some things just happen and you can either go along with them or fight them and fighting is sometimes too hard especially when you have—”
“Trevor,” Nick interrupted. He brought his hand up and snapped his fingers to pull the man’s straying attention back in. Dunbar seemed to be trying to collect himself. “Why are you here?”
Even before he answered, Nick was already prepared for an answer he wasn’t going to like. Still, it took him a second to process the man’s answer.
“I might be a bad man but I won’t be responsible for a bomb.” Dunbar lifted his hand and opened his palm. In it was a flash drive. “We run this town. These people are ours. And despite popular belief I have a moral code, too. It might be messy but it’s there.” Nick took the flash drive from his hand.
“The bomber contacted you,” he guessed.
Dunbar nodded. Up this close Nick could see the beads of sweat along his brow and upper lip.
“That was in an envelope tucked into my morning paper.”
Nick was already turning the two of them around to go inside.
“Wait, your morning paper?” Nick looked at his watch and paused. “It’s just after three now.”
Dunbar’s face seemed to pinch even further. Like he was in physical pain.
“I was in court this morning and didn’t see it until an hour ago.”
“And you’re just now coming here with it?” Nick asked, anger outweighing the need to be polite. They didn’t have time for it. Not that he would have wasted any courtesy on Dunbar in the first place. He realized then why the man had delayed coming to the FBI. “You were thinking about keeping your secret instead of exposing it.” It wasn’t a question and Dunbar didn’t try to deny it.
“If you knew my secret, you’d understand.”
* * *
Nick called from the lobby. “Get the team together, we have a new deadline.”
Lara, who had been sitting in the break room with James and Jennifer, sat up straight.
“What?”
“I’m getting clearance to bring up our latest target,” was all Nick answered. He ended the call.
“What is it?” James asked.
Lara stood and James and Jennifer stood with her. “We have a new target. Nick is bringing them up now.”
Rage and anxiety and frustration seemed to run the gambit across James’s expression. Lara felt for him. Every target—every secret—was his brother. This case wouldn’t get better for him. It would only end.
“I’ll go grab Xander and Ty,” he offered. They are picking up the surveillance package on Selfie Guy. Lara nodded and James was off.
“I’ll go wake up Christina,” Jennifer said. They were already out of the break room.
“Thanks.”
Lara’s heartbeat picked up as she hurried to the elevator doors. She gave a nod to James as they closed and he went down into the building. Mercer had already left for Washington earlier that day and Lara realized she felt added pressure because of it. Now it was she and Nick. They were the leaders.
The case—and the new deadline—was their responsibility. Instead of it being in their hands only, it was
now on their shoulders and she could feel the weight of it all.
But that didn’t change her focus.
New target. New deadline. New bomb they had to find before it could harm anyone.
The elevator started its ascent to her and beeped as the doors finally slid open. Nick’s anger is what she saw first and then her attention found the man at his side. To put it simply, he looked awful. Sweaty and small and swollen with fear. Without knowing who he was, her first impression was lawyer. One who had a very, very bad secret.
“Is everyone in the conference room?” Nick greeted, leading the man out. He didn’t meet Lara’s eyes.
“Getting there.”
She followed them to the doors that led to the conference room.
“Give it to me,” Nick said, stopping just inside the room. The man opened his briefcase and handed over what appeared to be a newspaper with a note scrawled on the paper. He must have read her surprise.
“It has my prints on it but I thought it might have his, too,” he explained. Nick took it.
“Go sit,” he told the man. Then to Lara, “I’m going to get someone to send this to the lab really quickly. I’ll send over the USB that was with it after but I think the sooner we check that out the better. Though, I can’t imagine our guy would be that stupid to get caught leaving prints on this thing but who knows.”
“Is that a note on it?” Lara asked, starting to get impatient with her lack of information.
“Look.” The note had been written with a Sharpie on the front page of this morning’s newspaper.
“This was in it,” he said, showing her a flash drive. She took it, careful.
Nick was already walking away but he called over his shoulder.
“He wouldn’t tell me what’s on it. Said we need to see it for ourselves.”
Lara looked down at the flash drive like it would answer her questions.
Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set Page 27