There were only so many paperclip chains you could make sitting at your desk.
This place was distracting as hell, and not in a good way—the kind of distraction that kept a person from wanting to do their job.
First, the windows were open, and it was warm in the office. They were definitely not accustomed to the climate. Already, he was sweating.
And he didn’t like it.
Pass.
Gene was more a winter kind of a guy, and would rather be inside when the snow fell on a couch with his man. No one liked a bear sweating in the summer.
NO.
ONE.
Well, then again, Ethan liked him musky and giving off those pheromones, and he did too, so maybe sweating wasn’t so bad.
It got them both laid all of the time.
Now, as they were in the conference room, they were talking to the three agents who were on duty. They needed to get some information and the lay of the land.
“Thank you for helping us, Gentlemen,” Gene said to the agents who worked there, as Ethan and Greyson were sitting nearby at the massive conference room table.
The first agent spoke.
“No, thank you for coming off of your vacation to help,” Special Agent Angel Ramirez offered. “Gabe said you were flying in,” he said, glancing over at the two men sitting.
Greyson covered.
“We don’t mind. Ethan can head back to Utah, once we all close this,” he said, trying to make it seem like he was working this case.
He wasn’t.
If anything, he’d learned a valuable lesson with Gabe. He would stoop to all kinds of levels when it came to spying on his agents.
For all he knew, any or all of these men were spies for the big man. Call him paranoid, but he was being careful.
His job was well-defined.
He was there to see why Gabe said this office was a shitshow.
So far, it wasn’t too bad.
Oh, it was understaffed, but what office wasn’t at that point?
That was the million-dollar question—thanks to Director Moore.
AKA—the douchebag.
“We want to help figure out what happened to the agent who worked here. What can you tell us about Agent Jarod Shand?” Gene asked. “Your insights will help us cut down on some legwork. We already talked to Agent Mayfield last night on the scene.”
While he wished he could fill in the blanks himself, Gene couldn’t. It had been a while since he’d seen him, and like he’dtold Ethan and Greyson, he’d only known him when he first was brought on by the FBI in training.
Another agent shared.
“He worked the homicides, mostly, but he would jump in and help any of us with other cases. We work four guys during the day, and two guys at night. Weekends, we rotate, and are on call. Jarod liked the night shift,” Agent Noe Cragen admitted.
Ethan was making notes, and so was Greyson, but just for different reasons. On the paper in front of Ethan, he had a list of agents that he’d pulled from the personnel files.
