Ian moved to the Eagle’s Talon’s secure conference room in the subbasement to meet with Kieran, Lincoln, Julian, and Tate. “I ordered background on Joe Maddox. If Hunt is right, Cassie’s still in danger.
“Tate, put a level-three team in there. It won’t surprise anyone at the hospital if Chase Security is there. The hospital will like it since they won’t have to foot an overtime bill. Apprise the FBI detail of the situation as a courtesy. I want a list of everyone who came in contact with her since her arrival in the OR. I spoke with the infection control folks, and they’re invoking their protocols too. Should make cooperation easier. We need to find the source, and if Maddox is the one, is he killing patients or just going after Cassie?” Ian said.
“I’ll head over there and do a site survey. At this point, I expect to need two inside the unit, two outside the unit, and two with the family.” Tate typed into his tablet.
Kieran looked at Lincoln. “What else do we have?”
“Boss, you were on the money. I’m glad we recorded the waiting room. Wilds is setting her up for a fall. He claims she was stabbed because she turned her com off.” Lincoln opened an MP3 file and played the surveillance recording.
“That bastard,” Kieran said.
“We know she cycled her com to push-to-talk or off a couple of times. What’s one more?” Wilds asked.
“Wilds, she took that armed asshole down without a blip. You know what could have happened if he got a shot off. Bad enough there was a security breakdown. She also put two into that bastard Ames. That headshot would be tough for anyone’s nondominant hand. Now she’s dying. Please, don’t destroy her memory,” Vincent Cruz said.
“You know damn well I told you it was a dead zone in the bathroom. You acknowledged we needed coverage. Cassie was off the grid for fifteen minutes. We should have checked on her sooner. Yeah, she broke protocol, but we broke protocol too. Chase was right. We messed up. We did her a disservice,” Brice Walton said.
“This is above your pay grade, Walton. There is no place in this scenario for guilty feelings. Just keep your mouth shut; I’m not falling on my sword for her. She refused to counsel about her undercover role. Ian Chase calls her during my meeting. He can have the broken pieces—if she lives, her body is a fucking jigsaw puzzle. She’ll probably need a drool cup. Let him deal with that shit.
“The deal is she disrespected me during the briefing. She disregarded a direct order to stand down when she took out that wife beater. Gun or no gun, she was insubordinate. She turned her com off while she almost screwed Whitman and Chase on the dance floor. She’s a loose cannon. There’s no place for that in the Bureau—no one is gonna miss her.
“Who’s not gonna believe she turned it off when she took a piss? You know girls and the bathroom. I have the tapes, and I have her earbud. No one but us has to know that room was a dead zone. And no one has to know we let her go without contact for more than fifteen minutes. After she was stabbed, it was chaos. There were so many people to safeguard. It won’t be an issue to lose the recordings. Screw her. She should have fucked Ames instead of fighting him off. If she did, maybe he wouldn’t have stabbed her.”
As the recording continued to play, Ian grabbed the edge of the table, turning his knuckles white.
“Greg, you’re a bastard. Cassie did her job in spite of the shit you dumped on her. She planned to out you in the morning—and I promised to go with her. I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I can’t live with it anymore. Fidelity, bravery, and integrity—I sure didn’t live up to that.”
“Walton, this could mean your job. Without her, it’s ‘he said, she said.’”
“With the way I feel now, that would be fine. I watched her work her butt off at Quantico—always helped everyone without a second thought. Never left anyone behind. Was better than ninety-five percent of our class—male or female. Can you tell me what she did to you to deserve your crap? That woman was born into that role. Is it because she wouldn’t sleep with you? I overheard her tell Sophie Garland what you pulled at her apartment. You were lucky she didn’t call the police or put a bullet in your head. Is that why we’ve lost every female agent on our team?” Brice’s voice rose.
“Or is this because she dropped you like a rock in the conference room?” Preston Galloway asked.
Ian bit the inside of his cheek.That’s my girl.
“Galloway, she’d spread her legs for me if I told her to do so. In fact, all you bleeding hearts, we had plans to go back to her room after the shift was over. She’s not so angelic after all,” Wilds preened.
“You’re full of it. Cassie wouldn’t let you near her,” Villanueva added.
“Remember, if I go down for this, so do all of you. Are you ready to take the hit? Naughton is on his way back from Seattle. He’s been her partner since she was assigned to the artsy-fartsy Bureau. Yates is on his way back from London. That SOB, Ian Chase, is already too nosy, and she’s Luke Paulsen’s ward. I’ve also got that Metro detective up my ass, talking about her like she’s his personal crusade. He wants to know what I said to cause Chase to swing. We need to get our stories together. I’ll say she was out of our sight for three minutes to take a piss. You all know we had no idea Ames was waiting in the can. We got there as soon as we could.”
Quinn Marcus joined the conversation. “Why can’t we just tell the truth? We let her down. You just don’t want anyone to hear how you talked to her all night. I want nothing to do with you, and if that means taking a hit, I will. I need to be able to look at my wife and daughters.”
Lincoln switched files. “This was picked up this afternoon.”
“They took her to the operating room again. Paulsen said the doctor told him it was bad. Hopefully, she’ll die—and we can tie this up without a hiccup,” Wilds said.
“You’re a piece of shit, Wilds. How could you wish that on her? I’m still having nightmares about all that blood,” Vincent Cruz said.
“Yeah, but I’m calling the shots here,” Wilds said.
Lincoln pushed stop, and Ian stood, his eyes filled with flames. “I want Wilds’ head on a spike. I want a name matched to every voice with surety. Then I want interviews with each of them.”
“Ian, calm down.” Kieran positioned himself between his brother and the door. “Think, man. You can’t go shoot Greg Wilds. It will not help Cassie. Jason reported he’s never seen you this unpredictable. He deserves a bonus if you keep running in every direction like this. Treat it like a mission: define the objective, define the end game, plan, and execute.
“We have the names of the men working the hotel that night, and we’ll get statements from them. We have the names of the personnel from the art theft division and will interview them. We’ll get whoever is involved by the book.” Kieran placed calming hands on his shoulders.
Ian dropped his head. “Call a meeting—including Hunt. Notify our people at the hospital. I don’t trust Wilds—he would benefit from her death. No one crosses the room threshold without an escort. One hour.” He stormed out of the room.
