Now I just had to find somewhere to hunker down until I made my next move. Not that I had a clue what that next move was.
Cold, defeated, and a little scared, I realized that I was really only left with one option. One person I trusted.
As much as I didn’t want to drag him into this, I knew he’d be able to help me. He wouldn’t only be able to, but he’d want to. His team would likely be able to dig up the evidence I needed to save my ass and find the real person behind this.
I felt a little hesitant as I reached for the burner I had tucked in the pocket of my go bag.
Reed Willis and I weren’t exactly friends. We worked together and occasionally had friendly conversations that didn’t involve work talk. I always felt that he was on my side. Not the FBI or the off-the-books division I ran, butmyside.
Even as I thought that, I had to admit that he’d seemed distant lately. And by lately, I meant the past year. While he still called to check on me and answered when I did the same to him, there was this sense of him taking a few steps back. More like holding himself at a distance when it came to the work side of things. Actually, he hadn’t asked for my help at all in the last few months. I hadn’t gotten a call for a cleanup or cover-up from him in a while. The relationship that we’d had for years now was not the same.
Funny, it wasn’t until now— when I was desperate and stranded— that I realized how Reed had all but separated himself from me and my division.
So maybe I didn’t have him to call on.
I let my hand slip out of the pocket, leaving the phone tucked safely right where it was.
Perhaps it was best if I found a place to hide before I made a decision on whether I should call Reed or not.
A heavy sigh deflated my lungs. I dipped my chin to my chest and faced the wind head-on as I made my way to the other side of the road. The flicker of oncoming headlights had me scurrying into the thick tree line faster than my shoes could handle. I slipped but regained my composure quick enough to curtain myself in the shadows.
I wasn’t made for being on the run. I could do it. I knew how to, and had the skills to get by. But in reality, even with years of constantly dealing with stress while on the job, I wasn’t prepared for this level of my-life-is-in-danger stress.
“No time for that now, Ford,” I muttered under my breath, thinking of my mother and how she used to say it when things were hard and we had to press on, “dust off your knees and get moving.”
2
Austin
“I’m here. We can get started,” I joked as my ass hit the seat at the far end of the long table in the conference room.
Not a single thing about this was funny, but I was me… and, therefore, always had to be the one to break the tension and be the least liked in the room with my cocky attitude. However, the way no one reacted to my antics made me think that either I was losing my touch or everyone saw through me now.
The table was full with everyone here. A few people were standing. Like Dune, but I suspected that was more his preference than the lack of seating. Reed was also on his feet., up at the front, no surprise there, looking ready to go off on some sort of speech or something. Milo sat closest to Reed with his tablet ready, likely having graphics to show along with Reed’s story.
Reed took a deep breath, sharing a look with his best friend, Cade, that didn’t set me at ease.
“The FBI is after Ford,” Reed said, face somber. “They found a bunch of files connecting him to The Sons of the Holy Fire.”
His jaw clenched. I looked around the room to gauge everyone’s reaction to this news. Even though we’d agreed to distance ourselves from Agent Ford Priestley and his team months ago, the vibe I was getting from nearly everyone’s was that they couldn’t believe what was happening.
I think I was with the majority.
While I did tend to make myself scarce when the off-the-books FBI team was called to come around, it wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. Agent Priestley had never given me bad vibes. He seemed to want the same thing Reed wanted, what we all wanted. So, none of this made sense to me.
“I believe it’s a setup,” Reed said, and Cade nodded in agreement.
I wouldn’t put it past those Holy Fire fuckers. We already knew they had someone high up in the FBI. This person admitted to Milo when they kidnapped him that they used the files the FBI had on hackers and such. That was how they found Milo, how they knew about his skills. How they knew he was the one looking into their stuff or whatever it was he was doing. Add in the files that Milo found on assassins and other seedy individuals who had connections to the group, and we had a pretty good idea that FBI resources were being used more often than not.
“I don’t think Agent Priestley is part of it,” Kyle said. His gaze was on the table in front of him, expression grim.
Kyle was the reason we were even aware of The Sons of the Holy Fire. He’d once been used by people connected to the group, and he had been a big part of finding them and taking them down. We never knew it would turn out to be such a huge connected group. Never knew the undertaking it would be to go after them. That said, even if we had known what we were getting ourselves into, we still would have done it.
It was easy to see that Kyle felt guilty for shit, though I didn’t think he should. It was a shit situation, and he did what he had to do to survive. The way I saw it, between the brainwashing and the drugs they had him on, he didn’t have a choice.
I turned my attention back to Reed, giving Kyle a little bit of a break from the intense eyes of the room.
The lines around Reed’s eyes told of the strain and heartache he was feeling from this situation. I suppose I understood it to some degree. One of Reed’s partners’ was Kyle’s twin. Kyle hadn’t had it easy, like most of us on this team. Though, I didn’t think any of us would argue over Kyle having had the shit end of the stick compared to the rest of us. Not that this fucked up shit was a competition.
