She didn’t need his compassion right now. She needed his strength.
“When was the last confirmed contact? Not assumed, confirmed.”
Ellory swallowed once before answering. “A little over thirteen months. Encrypted message through the usual channel we share. He used the phrase he always did to prove it was him.” Her jaw tightened. “After that, nothing. Just…silence.”
He continued asking the hard questions. “Who identified the handler’s body, and how solid was that ID?”
She exhaled through her nose. “Dental records. He was…burned too badly to identify any other way. But there’s no record of it I can find anywhere. Just what I heard from a person I know in the FBI. That’s what bothers me.”
“If Cipher sends messages with bodies…who benefits from your brother disappearing without one?”
That one hit her harder.
Ellory’s fingers bit into her palms, and she met his eyes. “You’re thinking my brother flipped.”
“No.” Though he didn’t tell her that was Cipher’s way—to get people to do his bidding through greed, desperation and extortion.
“My brother would go to his grave before he would flip.” The punch of anger in her voice made him see her differently. She might be The Accountant, and she didn’t have a gun or know how to use one, but her job wasn’t for the faint of heart. She was one of the toughest women he’d ever met.
Their gazes met as the statement echoed through the lab.
Ash couldn’t take it another minute—he crossed the room and took Ellory in his arms. She curled against his chest, gripping his shirt the way she did in the throes of desperate desire. He hated that right now, she was just plaindesperate.
“I’ve been building a file since he disappeared,” she whispered.
Of course she had.
He should tell Con immediately.
But telling Con would get Ellory pulled from the op. Sent away.
Ash’s heart flexed.
He couldn’t lose her.
He couldn’t keep quiet either.
He didn’t speak, and neither did she, but he felt a shift in her. Studying her face, he knew she felt a change in him too.
“You just did something incredibly hard, Trouble.”
A crease appeared between her brows. “What do you mean?”
“You shared something you’ve been carrying alone. That’s not easy.” He brushed his knuckle beneath her chin, lifting her face to his. “Let me carry it with you now.”
The relief on her face was almost too much. He held her tighter and considered sharing his own secrets. The hard ones—Melina, and everything that had driven him out from behind a desk and back into battle gear.
It wasn’t the time. Right now, the moment was hers.
He nudged her slightly. “C’mon. Let’s find something to eat.”
She gave him a slight nod. By the time they wandered into the kitchen, she was composed again.
Everyone was gathered in the dining room having a late-night snack of leftover cold chicken and pasta salad. No one commented on the fact that he and Ellory entered together, or that they sat close enough to touch.
The secret between them drew them closer. But he had to tell Con.
He caught his commanding officer’s eye and started to twitch his head to request a word in private, when suddenly Kennedy stood up with Dante at her side.
