“I’m not going to report this.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Bird scampered off the ottoman with a startled meow, surprised by his owner’s outburst. It was enough to break their stare-down and poke a hole in the rising tension. Taking Cam’s hand, Nic sat on the edge of the ottoman and tugged Cam back down to the couch. He wasn’t the enemy—Cam could be an ally—if Nic explained why he’d taken the steps he had. Why he’d kept things quiet, beyond merely wanting to protect him.
“I’m not going to report this because I still think they were just threats, not actual attempts on my life.”
“Bull—”
“And because the FBI is already investigating. I don’t want to fuck up that case, and I don’t want to be walled off any more than I already am.”
Cam pressed his lips together, stewing. “We’re walled off too,” he said after a moment. “I can’t access the files on Vaughn or Curtis.”
“All of us are, including Aidan. Conflicts of interest.” Which was putting it mildly. Aidan Talley, Cam’s partner, was the San Francisco Special Agent in Charge. He was also Cam’s best friend’s husband, Mel’s brother-in-law, and the man Nic had once dated. The Irish ex-pat was the center of the wheel that held them all together. “Assistant Director Moore has the files. He keeps them on flash drives in a safe in his private residence. He’s the only one who can grant access.”
It took Cam less than a second to draw the same conclusion Nic had earlier. “Shit, the same flash drives I stole that one time?” Cam, undercover with a wanted heist crew, had had to steal flash drives out of the AD’s personal safe to prove himself. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Becca said they were for another client. Vaughn?”
Nic nodded. “I’d put my money on it.”
“But we gave them back.”
Nic shook his head this time. “I’m pretty sure I saw Lauren copying them after the bust, before we gave them back.”
“That’s what she’s been working on all these months. She can’t crack ’em. It’s driving her nuts.” Slumping into the cushions, Cam ran a hand down his face and over his stubbled jaw. Nic wished for this conversation to be over so he could run his fingers over it. “I can talk to AD Moore,” Cam said.
And then he was right back in it. “No!” The word came out harsher than Nic intended, and Bird skittered on his nails the rest of the way out of the room. “Shit, I’m sorry, that came out wrong.” He spread his legs on either side of Cam’s knees and laid his hands on his thighs. Containment with a side of contrition. “I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. Hell, I haven’t really slept well in over a month.”
Cam’s hands landed on top of his. “In five weeks?”
Nic smirked as irony reared its head. The very house he’d run from was now his refuge. He was here now; he wasn’t going anywhere. No use denying how much he’d missed it. “Yeah, Boston, since I left your bed. That what you want to hear?”
“That’s exactly what I want to hear,” Cam said, voice practically a purr, but when Nic tried to slide his hands higher, Cam stopped them. “First, though, I want to hear why you think we can’t talk to Elton Moore about this.”
He should have known Cam wouldn’t let it go. Groaning, he tipped from the ottoman onto the opposite end of the couch. “I already told you.”
Cam shifted to face him, bending a leg and planting a foot in the cushion, arm resting on his knee. “The real reason, Dominic.”
“The first sniper, who had my picture, struck mid-operation. The car that hit me, mid-op. And the second sniper was waiting when we pulled into Gravity that night, after we left the Federal Building.”
“Vaughn has someone on the inside,” Cam said, tying it all together. “Someone who knows when and where we’ll be.”
“On our operations, no less.”
“Perfect cover. We thought they were connected to the case at first.”
Nic nodded. “Which is why the only people I trust at the Bureau right now are you, Aidan, and Lauren.”
“It could also be someone in your office.”
Cam’s someone sounded a lot like Bowers to Nic’s ears, and given how far up their asses his boss had been on that case—how he’d been clued in to every one of those events where Vaughn had simultaneously struck—Bowers was at the top of Nic’s suspect list too. “Oh, I know. It could be more than one person in both offices. Vaughn’s spent a lifetime accruing favors and leverage.”
“We’ll get Lauren to run financials.”
“I was going to do that, but then the threats quieted and I didn’t want to tip Vaughn or his sources off.”
“The threats died off because your dad mortgaged the house.”
And they were back to that unfortunate turn of events. “Count on Curtis to make the wrong decision.”
