Emmitt’s mind exploded. His jaw clenched tight.
His fists clinched next as Sloane continued at a hurried pace, urgently explaining the details of the case. Wren Brandler, who was still following the leads he’d gotten in his cash-for-leads campaign, claimed he’d been robbed before the disappearance. According to Wren, a large sum of money had been pulled from one of his accounts and a family heirloom worth over a million dollars had gone missing along with Anna.
Sloane had arrived on a mission, and she’d been slowly gathering intel during her time with Emmitt. A fact she admitted with a sad, apologetic look in his direction. Emmitt couldn’t get the stone-cold glare off his face. Of all the times to finally let go. Of all the women to finally give his heart to. He vowed there and then to never let anyone in again.
“Thanks for putting yourself out there and telling us all of this,” Andie said after the terrible truths were told. “The fact that you were willing to look into Ava’s side of the story…” She shook her head.
Emmitt could hardly believe how easily his sister accepted Sloane’s apology. She wasthankingher?
Richard picked up where she left off. “I second that motion.”
This could not be happening. Where was ornery old Richard with all of his rage? How was he not blowing his lid?
“This isn’t what we expected to hear tonight,” Richard continued as he came to a stand, “but if someone was coming for us, I’m glad it was someone who was willing to—like Andie said—look into Ava’s side of the story. I never imagined he’d make something like that up.”
“I did,” Ava admitted. “This is just like him. I’m just…unbelievably grateful that you were willing to risk your job and come clean with this so you could give us a heads up.”
Emmitt scratched his head as he took in the impossible scene before him. Yes, Sloane had—according to her—activated some sort of plan to retract the data she’d sent, but that didn’t make her the hero of the day.
“What’s this solution you have in motion?” Richard asked while breaking into a pace. “And what steps do we need to take now?”
Sloane’s lips were poised in response when Richard spoke up again. “Wait,” he blurted, turning to pin a look right on him. “Emmitt?”
Emmitt was too shocked and frankly pissed off to even lock eyes with him. “What?”he snapped.
“I think it’s best that we tell Sloane about our story too. We can get her people connected with Detective Lingley if necessary. Pool our assets, if you will.”
That was it. Emmitt had officially reached his limit. “Do whatever you want,” he said, keeping his eyes decidedly off Sloane. He pushed past the group, headed for the front door, and yanked the thing open. He was prepared to leave without another word, but his temper—or maybe it was his thundering heart—wouldn’t allow it.
He spun to look at the group over his shoulder. “While you guys are busy applaudingtheenemyamong us” —He cast one hardened look in her direction— “I’m going to get as far away from her as possible. Let me know when she’s gone.”
With that, Emmitt stepped into the night and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter 20
One could only circle a sandpit for so long before they lost their footing and got sucked in. Sloane’s metaphorical sandpit was the emotional breakdown in store for her. Because as much as she wanted to tell herself otherwise, Emmitt was out of her life.
Of course, his family assured her she wouldn’t lose him. Memphis said that Emmitt merely needed to blow off some steam. He’d be back soon enough and ready to talk things out. The others agreed, each adding insights of their own, unique to their relationship with Emmitt.
Maverick, who insisted he knew Emmitt better than any of them, said he had a forgiving nature and rarely held a grudge. “And since I’ve never seen him fall this hard for anyone,” he went on to say, “I doubt he’d be willing to give you up so quickly.”
She could hardly believe they could spare a thought in her direction, what with everything going on. And it wasn’t over yet.
Even now, as it reached two in the morning, the group was gathered around the dining table, going over the best options for Plan B.
Plan A was already in motion. Gabe was currently working with his buddy JB Wilks, one of the nation’s top undercover hackers, to break into the agency’s priority server. In order to get past the network’s advanced security, which made erasing a sent message impossible, they planned to corrupt the images she’d sent instead. No longer would the images portray a man and a woman standing at the sink; they’d look more like a series of streaks—high in contrast and color, impossible to make sense of.
If JB was successful on this front, the upload would still include Sloane’s voice memo announcing that she’d found Anna Fielding. He could have also corrupted the audio file, but said that would look too fishy. Images had issues; it was fairly common and shouldn’t raise brows. Sloane had suggested he go in and erase all of her personal data as well, the audio files she’d sent in for backup, but both Gabe and JB agreed that that would be a mistake. Best to let Wren investigate everything she’d sent in, see the final results, and come to his own conclusion that Sloane was mistaken about the supposed face of Anna Fielding. He’d probably deem her incompetent and want her off the case entirely. Of course, she’d likely resign before that happened.
The solution was to reenact the scene. To reshoot a different couple and send that in with a message explaining that she had not formatted the images correctly the first time, so she was resending them to be sure they came through.
Hours prior, after swinging by Sloane’s cabin to retrieve her bag, Andie and Maverick had taken her to the cottage where the brother and sister posed at the kitchen sink, right where Richard and Ava had been. Sloane snapped shots from the same position outside. Maverick had a little too much fun with the shoot, reaching up and petting his sister’s hair with sudsy hands. Andie might have gotten after him for it, but Sloane sensed that she needed the comedic relief as much as the rest of them.
Once they were back at Andie and Trenton’s place, Sloane manually changed the dates, times, and file numbers to match each of the images she’d sent before. With a welling hope in her heart, Sloane hit send and lifted an inner prayer that it would work.
Now all they could do was wait.
Of course, Elroy had a dozen private protection agents at the ready, waiting for the word to offer their services. But hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary. Sloane wanted nothing more than to get reprimanded for being so far off the mark with the female she’d claimed was Anna. The claim, along with the images, would probably get tossed out before even making it to Wren.
