“Yeah, I get it. I just wish you’d come to me sooner. Maybe we wouldn’t be here.” I tried not to sound bitter, but I failed. I could have helped them. Could have taken this fucker down by now.
“It’s been hard. He knew about Milo’s… talents. But it sounded as if he didn’t know about the team, and he thought Milo was working alone when he caught him poking around. Milo said he had files on people who could help the organization if needed. People he would force to help, and then dispose of when they aren’t useful anymore. With the way it feels like we are barely making a dent in their organization, I just wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was.”
“What can I do? How can we find him? How can I help end this and clear my name?”
“Maybe you know who kidnapped Milo…” Reed said, sounding hopeful but also not at the same time. “Milo said he was mid to late fifties. Dull brown hair turning gray and thinning on top.” A hum of uncertainty floated through the speaker. “He said the man had a normal enough face, but there was something in his eyes that wasn’t right.”
Could have been anyone, truthfully. My mind flipped through images of people I’d worked with or even ones I might have passed in federal buildings. If this guy was super high up, there was a chance that I didn’t have a clue who he was. Even with my short stint as Deputy Director, there were still a lot of divisions I wasn’t aware of.
“Yeah, not really much to go on, is it?” Reed said, sounding defeated.
“Can I talk to Milo?” I asked, eyes on Austin, gauging his reaction. His eyes narrowed as if he were trying to see into my head, searching for what I had to ask his team member.
Reed told me to hold on, then he looped in another call. I took a deep breath and sat back down, focusing all my energy on calming down. My fingers massaged the bridge of my nose. When that didn’t help the tension, I shoved my glasses back on, but it did nothing to ease the headache blooming between my eyes.
“You know I prefer text.” A younger voice rang out as Milo joined the call. His words would suggest someone who was severely irritated, but his tone was only mildly so.
Milo Reins. Hacker. Once taken in by the FBI for ruining an investigation that had been years in the making. That was all I knew about him.
“I have Ford Priestley on the line,” Reed said.
Silence followed.
“Milo, hi,” I started smoothly and calmly.
“Please don’t do that with me,” he said flatly. “I understand you’re brainwashed into treating everyone with interrogation tactics disguised as pleasantries, but I don’t respond well to that.”
My brows went up in surprise.
I think I liked this kid. Shame I hadn’t gotten to work with him like I had most of the rest of the team.
“The man who kidnapped you—”
“Had me kidnapped,” Milo said.
“What?” I asked, losing my train of thought for a second as I tried to figure out why he’d cut in.
“He didn’t actually do the act,” Milo clarified. “He had two lackeys do it.”
Austin snorted, leaving me to think that this was just how Milo’s brain worked.
“The man who had you kidnapped,” I rephrased, “was there anything he said or did that stuck out to you? Any scars or marks or tattoos? Or did he use his hands excessively? Any little detail could help me find who it is. Why did he kidnap you? What was the purpose?”
There was a silence that followed.
I kept my eyes glued to the darkened phone screen as I waited for Milo to respond. I was also been holding my breath.
“He killed Ken,” Milo said, a slight tightness in his voice that gave away how it affected him. “He wanted me tofixthe gaps in his security. Then he shot Ken. When I refused to help him, he told me I was replaceable. He made it clear that there are always more like me. And he could replace me with another one of me, as in another person that has my skills.” He paused. “Which is not true. I’m better than a lot of people, especially the ones the FBI has files on.”
I didn’t dare point out how the FBI had a file on him.
“He threatened me by saying he knew who my family was, eluding to the fact that he’d hurt them,” Milo went on. “Then he told me I had an hour to decide before he left.”
Something tickled in the back of my mind.
My gaze snapped to Austin’s. He sat there, body looking relaxed as if he were on the couch for a night of watching TV, but his face was all tense lines and calculating eyes as he watched me.
“An hour to decide.”
