Sloane
Sloane and the rest of his team had been in a meeting all morning and right before they’d gone in, Kit had told him she wanted to talk to him afterwards. He hoped that meant she was going to be setting his mind at ease about Jack. He’d spoken to her and the others about his concerns over what Jack had said to Ray when she’d told him she didn’t want to see him anymore. Sloane hadn’t been overly concerned about it, because it had just sounded like sour grapes, but he had thought it best to do a little checking into Jack’s background to ensure there was no real concern. He wasn’t about to take any chances with his mate’s safety.
The trouble was, Sloane couldn’t use FBI resources to look into his girlfriend’s ex. If he’d have been found out, he could have lost his job, so he’d been at a loss as to where to begin. The team had sympathized with him and Kit had approached him in private after and said she could get her brother to do some checking into Jack for him. Apparently, her brother was a whiz with computers and quite the hacker. She said he didn’t do it much anymore because he had a great job now with a big tech company, but he would do it as a favor to her.
Sloane had pounced on the offer, promising to pay Kit back with whatever she needed. Much as it went against his nature to entrust any aspect of Ray’s safety to anyone else, he was smart enough to know he needed to use the resources at his disposal. Besides, Ray’s safety was more important than his ego. He’d deal with it. So long as he didn’t think about it too much.
Sitting in the meeting that morning had been torture, and it seemed like Flint’d had an unholy amount of figures and data to go through with them, until Sloane had started to wonder if he was just inventing them to impress the higher ups. It had taken an inhuman amount of effort to sit through it all, but luckily, Sloane wasn’t human.
Now, finally, they were out, and Kit wasted no time taking him into one of the empty interview rooms to talk to him privately.
Sloane scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin as Kit closed the door, then turned to him.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” he asked.
Kit shook her head. “I’m afraid not. At first, Cody had a bit of trouble finding anything on Jack Mallory. No mortgage, phone records, anything. He said the guy is a ghost, so naturally, that aroused my brother’s suspicion and made him all the more determined to find out what secrets this guy was hiding. You know how he feels about a challenge.”
Sloane’s heart began beating faster and his bear began to pace—the news distressing his animal, who wanted to be set free so that it could protect his mate. Sloane had been right. He didn’t like what he was hearing or where this was heading one little bit. There weren’t many reasons that someone would have no financial records, and none of them were good.
“So, what did he find?”
Kit sighed. “It appears Jack is an alias for Thomas Cartwright. He’s bad news, Ice. The guy is a criminal who has spent time in prison for theft and assault. He’s dangerous. My brother has got a list of last known addresses, but he can’t find anything current. He’s trying to find out more, but I thought you’d want to know sooner rather than later. I’ll let you know as soon as he has anything.”
“Shit. Thanks, Kit.”
It was worse than Sloane had feared. He pulled out his cellphone, found his mate’s number, then called it. He put the phone to his ear then waited. It rang a handful of times before voicemail kicked in.
“Fuck.” He waited for the beep then left a message. “Ray. Call me back as soon as you get this. It’s urgent. If you see Jack, do not go anywhere near him, okay? He’s dangerous. Call me, babe.”
He hung up the call, fear knotting inside his stomach. Ray had told him she was going to some woman’s house that morning to give her a quote, but she should have been done with that already. Why hadn’t she picked up the call? Maybe she was driving, or the phone was in her purse and she hadn’t heard it ring. He’d give it ten minutes then try again.
“Fuck! I knew I should have kicked his ass when I had the chance.”
“It’ll be all right, Ice,” Kit said. “But I think it’s time to talk to Flint and the rest of the team about this.”
“Yeah, yeah I will.”
Sloane nodded but his mind was a breeding ground for anxiety and tension and he couldn’t focus on anything but the need to talk to his mate to reassure himself that she was safe. His bear was beside itself and no amount of talking to the animal would have done any good. What it needed—what they both needed—was to be with Ray. And he didn’t know how long either of them could wait.
