“Doesn’t matter. The woman’s name is Lafferty. She’s—”
“UACT. She’s one of us,” Cas growls down the line. “Fucking traitorous bitch! She bunks with Ashlyn.”
My head’s spinning. Lafferty. Was that why she asked so many questions about where I was staying? Or is this a direct result of my fucking with her job that day?
Ben rolls straight into command mode. “Send in a team to detain Kellan. Get his phone immediately. He made a call to an accomplice that I doubt is either of the two at the car. Send a second team to collect them. Make sure team two go out before you grab Kellan. I don’t want to risk his warning them.”
I can’t help but think Cas’s call will already have put the jitters up Kellan. He’s likely already warning them. Turner will probably get away but at least Lafferty has nowhere to hide.
Ben continues, his voice unwavering. “Notify Aiden, but not Dax.”
Cas grunts a sound of agreement. “I’ll not reach him up there, anyway. Reception is spotty at best.”
“Actually, don’t report this officially until we’re sure. Jules and I will come and confirm he’s the man we heard in the apartment.”
“He got that close?” Cas’s question climbs in pitch like he can’t believe what he’s hearing. If not for Ben, they’d have grabbed me.
How many times have I already said that? How many more before this is done?
“He was an inch and a half away from finding us,” Ben admits but doesn’t offer details.
“Give it an hour or so. I’ll call when we have him in lock-up,” Cas confirms.
“Thanks, man. Be safe,” Ben replies. I tap the end call button and put the phone beside his laptop. I look at this man. He is no mouse. That is as much a front as anything. The way he just took charge tells me he’s so much more, to Trevainne and to Dax. He spoke with the voice of a man born to lead. The question is, does he know, or is he fooling himself into believing he’s less?
Ben offers me his bed, but there’s no way I’ll be able to sleep now.
Tucker. Lafferty. Kellan. Their names roll around in my head, only to be followed by the names of everyone I’ve come into contact with since that night in the Tower. Who can I trust? Who will rat me out? A shopping list ofwhysandwhy notsform under each name. If we discount me from the problem, then surely, we have to discount Dax and Aiden? If they wanted me captured or handed over, they had so many better opportunities. The idea of it being them is ludicrous. Ben too, for that matter. Why would he show up repeatedly to save me if he only planned on handing me over himself?
Tonight was Franz’s most opportune chance of grabbing me. Alone in the compound, if Kellan had come into my room and said there was an emergency, I’d have believed him the same way I believe Cas or Aiden. These men are part of a team. I’d have just assumed their loyalty to Aiden and UACT.
Which leaves Tom, Frank, and Sylvie as the mole’s informant. Damn. Not just an informant—a co-conspirator.
Tom is a wildcard. I don’t know him beyond his flirty front. He’s also pretty much incapacitated. The question that lingers with him is, why was he there in the Tower that night? Why did he bring an envelope full of names to the Vale? Was he handing it over to someone or collecting it? If he collected it, then was it from whoever extracted the information from the Secret Keeper and killed him or from the Secret Keeper himself? Did that make him the one who killed the Secret Keeper? If he was handing it over, then to whom? Franz? Is that who shot him? One of Franz’s people? Or did Franz just find out about the envelope by chance? That seems unlikely. He knew it was in the Tower that night, and he knew there was a chance I had it. He was as much a part of that night as Tom. Which puts Tom high up in thecould-bepile, and from the conversation Ben was having with him on the stairs thatnight, he was in on it, too.
My grandmother would warn me to be careful of whom I trust.Arsenic and flour look the same until you taste it, and by then it is already too late.I seem to be learning that regularly around here, and yet my gut tells me Ben is safe.
I slide my gaze down from the ceiling beams and find Ben watching me.
“What conclusion have you come to?” he asks, exhaustion dragging the words from his mouth. I see resignation mixed right alongside curiosity.
“You and Tom both knew what was in that envelope. You argued about it. Whether it was a good or bad idea to do what you were doing.”
Ben sighs but nods.
“Were you there to hand it over to Franz?”
Ben stares at me for longer than is polite. Within the intensity of his gaze is a question I know well.Can I trust her?I await both answers without flinching.
He sinks into his seat. “We were there to see who would come to pick it up. We knew what was in the envelope. We knew people wanted it.” His answers remain blunt and somewhat cagey. He is protecting someone or something.
“Did you or Tom take it from the Secret Keeper?”
Ben raises a brow at my question, whether because I asked so directly or because he didn’t know I knew so much about the origins of that envelope.
“No.”
“Then how did you come across it?”
