“Hold that thought.” She snatches my pinging phone, reads the text, and frowns. “Drac sent coordinates. We’re to pick up gear, go to a warehouse, and meet up with the FBI.”
Soon, we pass theWelcome to Middletownsign. In the distance, four huge cement towers loom in the distance, as if standing guard over the town.
Pointing, she thumbs her phone for a moment, then hisses. “Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant. Do you think it’s a coincidence?”
“With the ORA, who knows.” I drive in silence for a few more miles until the map app announces we have arrived.
After texting Drac. I park outside an automatic gate. A few minutes later the doors roll open.
“Ready?” I look to Sky who nods and holds forth the Geiger counter.
After I circle the mile long chain-link fence around the huge warehouse, she shows me the output. “Is the meter broken?”
I shake my head, no. “Fucking Tommy. He lied. The nukes aren’t here.”
Chapter 18
Sky
Inside the hangar gates, Dean paces by his SUV and talks on the phone. According to his brother, the FBI is near.
Before I can steal the keys and make a quick escape, a SWAT truck roars up the drive. The tank-like vehicle screeches to a stop, the back doors slam open, and a dozen armed men in hazmat suits file out.
When a black sedan stops behind them, and an unknown man hops out, Dean’s gaze softens on me. “Ready?”
No other choice, I swallow hard, and nod. “Let’s do this.”
“Don’t worry.” Hand to my lower back, my lover walks me toward a US Federal Agent who takes this moment to remove his sunglasses.
The stranger sticks his shades in his pocket and I half-expect him to retrieve a silver stick. Instead of erasing my memories, piercing blue eyes study me, as if I were some alien dressed in human skin.
Done with me, he smiles at my sidekick, slaps him on the back, and pumps his outstretched arm. “Fucking Brennans. Always in trouble.”
No heads up, Dean pushes me in front of him. “Special Agent Colin O’Brien? Meet Ophelia, the bodyguard I told you about.”
“It’s Sky.” Scowling, I shake hands and greet the stranger’s steely stare with one of my own.
The pissing contest might never have ended, if not for our mutual friend raising the Geiger counter. “We circled the whole hangar and not a blip.”
“What?” Mr. Blue-Eyes presses his comm unit deeper into his ear, and frowns at us. “You’re right. My team found no sign of radiation. Miss Lipanski, I’m sorry, but I need to take you in for questioning.”
“You can’t. I told you. She’s working undercover.” My cop slides an arm around my waist as the other officer raises his brows.
“Actually, she’s not.”
Ah crap.A part of me has known something was off since the lantern tour. “What about Agent Brownstone?”
“He worked for your boss, Tommy O’Malley.” His words strike home and as my heart races, my brain tries to catch up.
What the actual fuck? “But he showed me his FBI credentials and insisted I join his investigation or else.” While my reality pivots on its axis, the G-man softens his tone.
“ID’s are easy enough to fake.” After he shares a pitying glance at Dean, I sense he’s telling the truth, and my head explodes.
“Oh my God. Why would he do that?”
“Well, it’s only a working theory, but we think Tommy set you up for Brownstone’s murder, so you’d have no options but to work for him permanently. You’re a top notch bodyguard and you could be his daughter’s twin. He didn’t want to let you go.”
“I swear, I had no idea.” Knees weak, I lean back against the warm metal of the SUV.
