Cort found his ass stuck in his chair and a lump stuck in his throat. The words had hit him like a sucker punch, even though he’d been expectingthem.
“Sean,ifI were to break the rules, it would be to help someone who didn’t have the power to help himself,” Cort said quietly. If this was the last moment Sean would be his boss, it was somehow important that Sean not think of him as anasshole.
Sostupid.
Sean shook his head in disgust. “You think I don’t know that? Christ, Cort. That’s not the issue. Not forme, anyway. You see this piece of crap?” he demanded, pointing at the framed inspirational poster that had been hanging on his wall for as long as Cort could remember, the word Teamwork emblazoned over a sunset skyline. “You think I keep this here because the freaking scenery inspires me? I’ve been preaching this to you idiots for years, but you just won’t get it. There’s no ‘U’ in teamwork. You don’t close cases on your own, you don’t go into a sketchy situation without backup, and you don’t go off half-cocked just because,for reasons I can’t fathom, you hate rich people in general and Sebastian Seaver in particular.” Sean shook his head sadly. “Until you learn to trust someone, Cort, until you can really believe other people have your back, you’re gonna be shark bait for guys like Porter…andguys likeSeaver.”
Cort ground his teeth together to keep silent. Sean Cook didn’t know a single thing about his life beyond the black-and-white statistics of his personnel file - the number of foster homes he’d been in and out of, the number of schools he’d attended, the number of jobs he’d worked to get himself through college. Nobody knew what went on in those homes behind closed doors, or what it was like to grow up in the poorest, sketchiest neighborhood of an affluent town. They didn’t understand the loyalty a man earned when he stood in front of a closed fist to protect hisbrother.
Men like Porter existed only to serve fat cats like Sebastian Seaver, and Cort would be damned if he’d play that game, even if it meant surrendering hisbadge.
He took his FBI cell phone out of his pocket, but before he could set it on the desk, Sean shook his head. “Keep it. We’ll need to contactyou.”
Cort nodded robotically, his stomach churning. The worst had happened, professionally-speaking, but he reminded himself that now he could focus more fully on finding Damon.Another thing to blame Cam and Sebastian Seaverfor.
A knock at the door signaled Porter’s return. He’d found another agent and was ready to escort Cort out of the building. Cort stood and mechanically removed his gun from its holster, placing it on Sean’s desk. It wasweirdsetting his badge next to the gun. He felt a flash of panic, followed by an unsettling weightlessness, like the gravity holding him in place had somehow reversed itself. Who was he without hisbadge?
It was time to findout.
He nodded once at Sean. “Thank you,” he said, and he knew Sean would understood those thanks had nothing to do with the bullshit he’d just spewed, but with the years he’d spent teaching Cort how to be a goodagent.
Seannodded.
Cort turned and shouldered his way through the doorway, pushing himself between Porter and the other agent. Porter put a hand on his shoulder to stophim.
“Just a second,Cortland.”
“What?” Cort sputtered as the agent gestured for Cort to put his hands in the air. “You can’t dothat.”
“Oh, you’ll find we can,” Porter said pleasantly, patting himdown.
Porter removed Cort’s phone, keys, and wallet, then came upon the thumb drive Cort had stuck in hispocket.
Porter smiled. “Well, now. Look at that. You weren’t taking information out of the building, wereyou?”
“Hey!” Cort protested. “That’spersonal!”
“This is an FBI-issued thumb drive,” Porter corrected him. “I’m afraid whatever’s on here is going to have to remain in evidence. You can be sure I’m going to go over it with a fine-toothed comb,myself.”
Cort let his anger rise to the surface. “Good luck with that!” hespat.
He grabbed his belongings from Porter’s hand, then strode down the hall toward the elevator with the two escorts hot on hisheels.
Cort powered through the revolving door and out onto the rain-swept Boston street before he allowed himself to take a deep breath. If he wanted to help his brother, he needed to play by a different set of rules than Sean Cook did - rules that involved using Cam Seaver to findDamon.
