When this was over they would be, too.
But part of her wanted to believe. “Yes?”
“We’ll figure it out then.” With one last kiss on her forehead, he got up and went back into the garage.
A long time later her heart returned to its regular steady beat. But not before it swelled and thumped and reminded her what it felt like to care for a man.
Turned out Sara was right. Falling for a Hill brother was far too easy.
Chapter Fourteen
Bruce lounged on his bunk with his arm folded under his head. In the other hand he twirled the piece of wadded-up paper the guard had dropped between the bars of his cell on his regular walk down the corridor.
He’d been to the courthouse and back first thing that morning. No bail. The white-haired bitch of a judge with the fake nails and caked-on lipstick called him a flight risk. She talked about previous allegations and the severity of the charges against him.
She had no idea what a danger he could be.
The judge’s finding served as another setback but not a death knell. She’d left the door open for bail review. More importantly, he got out in the fresh air for more than an hour. Breaking free felt good, but passing a note to the guard who escorted him up the elevator from the small court jail had been the real goal. Bruce knew the courier had been successful because his fingers wrapped around the paper that held his answer.
Pass some cash. Make a promise. Have a guy on the outside collect on a debt or deliver a message with his fists to someone who needed the pressure before he could perform. Gathering intel came easy when you knew what people needed and how to get it for them. Gaining loyalty took time, but being a man others could depend on for payment sped the process.
And the supposed upstanding members of society were even easier to handle than the criminal element. Dig for a nasty secret held by someone in an official capacity—those little bits of information they didn’t want anyone to know. Feed the habit, no matter what it was, then take a few photos and deliver them at the right time.
Bruce’s favorite trick involved sending a messenger to the house while the wife was home. Amazing how a man snapped into line when he hovered on the brink of having his depravity unmasked on his own turf.
And it sure paid to have sources everywhere. Bruce’s prearranged signals consisted of a few words and came as each step in the plan hatched. Stephen could sneak in the important information relative to those points.
But that wasn’t why Bruce used Stephen. Bruce did it to exert control. To remind Stephen he was on the payroll. It was a way of keeping him in line.
The guards picked up the rest of the slack. Even now Bruce twirled the paper ball through his fingers. After torturing himself with the waiting, he took his reward.
Sitting up, he unwrapped the paper from his guy inside Hill’s team and stared at the message typed there.
Close proximity. Will proceed.
There was only one answer: move in and destroy him. Bruce smiled at the thought.
Oh, how he wished he could be there to watch Jeremy Hill, the man Bruce once knew by another name and trusted with the intricate details of his operation, bleed out in a dirty alley on a forgotten street somewhere. Bruce hoped it would take long, hot days to find him. Jeremy deserved a slow, terrifying death.
Closing his eyes, Bruce inhaled, blocking out the smell of stale air and urine that filled every inch of the filthy prison, and imagined an endless supply of free air. Soon Jeremy would be dead. Burned, beaten, shot, and if there was any justice, broken after seeing his woman and brother ripped to pieces.
All Bruce had to do now was wait for the confirmation of the end. Then he’d give the okay for Stephen to try another bail hearing. After that, Bruce would never enter a cell again.
Knowing it was about to happen had to be enough.
The revenge would be so sweet.
* * *
J
EREMY 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 our 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?”