The notebook had to be what they were after.
Gabe crouched beside the overturned mixer. Photographed the outlet plates someone had pried off. The insulation pulled from the walls. The methodical destruction of someone who knew how to search a space properly.
Definitely not amateur hour.
His jaw tightened.
These weren't random vandals. These were trained operatives. And they thought Cara Sweet had something worth killing for.
He glanced at her. Still trembling. Still shocked. But not surprised. Not the way a normal civilian would be surprised to find her home searched and her business destroyed.
She'd been expecting something. Just not this.
"Were you working with Ruiz?"
The question came out harsher than he'd intended. Less about gathering information. More about the frustration of not knowing whether to protect her or arrest her.
"What? No." She met his eyes. "I only met him that one time when he came…here. And I never met your brother. If I had anything that could help you, I would tell you."
The lie sat between them like a third person in the room.
But calling her on it now, in the middle of this destruction, felt wrong. Cruel. Like kicking someone who was already down.
He could wait until she wasn't shaking. When he had time to plan the interrogation properly.
"You're not staying here alone."
She argued. Of course she argued. The pride and independence of someone who'd been taking care of herself for so long she'd forgotten how to accept help.
Or maybe she just didn't want an FBI agent sleeping on her couch. He couldn’t say he blamed her for that.
"I'm not getting you killed because you're too stubborn to accept help. If I think you know something, they think so too."
What he didn't say:And I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know what you're hiding.
Until I know you're not involved in whatever got Ruiz killed and David taken.
Until I'm sure protecting you isn't the biggest mistake of my career.
She agreed. Reluctantly. With the expression of someone accepting a death sentence instead of an unwanted protector.
They worked in silence after that. Sweeping flour. Documenting damage. Creating order from chaos.
Gabe had interrogated hundreds of suspects. He knew how to read body language. Spot deception. Identify the moment someone decided to lie.
Cara Sweet was lying about something.
But she was also terrified. Exhausted. Standing in the ruins of something that mattered to her.
The ceramic crock broke her first. She lifted it with shaking hands. Whispered a name. “Agnes.”
Gabe kept working. Gave her space. Felt something uncomfortable twist in his chest at the raw grief on her face.
The wooden spoon broke her second. Snapped in half. A gift from someone named Dom.
He filed it away with everything else he didn't understand about her.
Outside, the sky shifted from black to gray. Dawn approaching. The world waking up while they stood in the ruins.
