“Wait,” Sorenson snapped, his eyes bugging out. “Honest. It was a note saying you two were undercover ATF officers, left on my bike outside of Sally’s Bar. That’s all. Simple.”
Aiden glanced at Saber. “Don’t we have the footage from the cameras outside of Sally’s?”
Saber nodded. “Just had it gathered but haven’t had time to go through it.”
“I saw the guy,” Sorenson admitted. “Was coming out, kind of drunk, and saw him leave the note. I chased him but, like I said, I was kinda drunk. Then curious. So I read the note.”
“What did he look like?” Aiden asked.
Sorenson shrugged, and his belly jiggled. “Like a guy. Maybe in his forties, big nose, glasses, brown hair. Nothing special about him.”
Aiden looked over his shoulder, right at me.
Huh. I hadn’t realized he’d known I was there, but again, it was Aiden.
He dug his phone from his back pocket and returned his attention to Sorenson. “I’m going to show you ten pictures, and you’re going to tell me if any of the guys look like the one who burned us. Got it?”
Sorenson shrugged again. “Whatever.”
Aiden held out his phone and scrolled through, pausing several times and then continuing. Finally, he pulled back. “Anybody?”
“Yeah,” Sorenson said, his eyes gleaming. “I definitely saw the guy in those pictures, and now, I kinda think I have more to bargain with, you know?”
“No,” Aiden said quietly, which was always a bad sign. Was Sorenson smart enough to realize that fact? “You actually have less. We can go through the footage from Sally’s, or you can tell me what you know. You have five seconds.”
Sorenson picked at a scab on his neck.
“Four,” Aiden said.
Sorenson’s gaze darted around the room.
“Three.”
“Um,” Sorenson muttered.
“Two.” Aiden pushed his chair back.
Sorenson swallowed. “Fine. It was the second guy. He’s the one, I’m pretty sure. I mean, all of those guys on your phone look alike, but I think it was the second guy. He had a really big nose.”
Aiden scrolled through his pictures again. “This guy?”
“Yeah. That’s definitely him. I mean, he looks younger in the picture, but that was a nose you don’t forget, right?” Sorenson smiled, showing stained teeth. “I’ve been helpful.”
“Yeah.” Aiden stood, and even through the distance, I could feel a heated swell of anger from him. “Thanks.” He glanced at Saber. “You got this?”
Saber stretched to his feet. “Yeah. I’ll see you at the new office in an hour or so?”
“Sounds good.” Aiden crossed out of the room, leaving a light trail of silver in his wake.
I met him in the hallway. “You good?”
He grasped my arm and drew me down the hallway and stairways to the main reception area, leading me off to the side and away from the desk. “No. I am not good.” He clicked a button and a picture appeared on his phone. “This is who burned us.”
Everything inside me quieted and then went cold. The picture was from a New Hampshire driver’s license, taken about eight years ago. It was Jareth Davey—big nose and sharp eyes. His hair had thinned and held more gray since I’d last seen him. Since he’d kidnapped me. “Oh, God,” I whispered.
It washard to believe it was only after lunchtime, after the day I’d had. Finding the finger had blown reality out of the way, and I shivered, putting my hands out to the heat blasting from the car vents. Then to know that Jareth Davey had somehow followed Aiden from Lilac City to his undercover op in Portland made me want to throw up.
We’d been underestimating the nutjob, and even though I’d been preparing for a fight, I had still buried my head and hoped he wouldn’t come back after me.
