The big guy stopped and looked over his shoulder.
Evan smiled. “Thanks for caring enough about Kiley to have her back.”
Mack’s mouth fell open. He quickly snapped it closed, gave a terse nod, and walked out the door.
CHAPTER 20
MAN, OH MAN.Kiley was hyperventilating.
She watched Mack march down the hallway. Thankfully he turned in the other direction and didn’t notice her. She didn’t want him to see her shell-shocked face after overhearing his conversation with Evan.
She slid down the wall and rested her forehead on her knees.
Why did she have to overhear their conversation? It did her or Evan no good. It just brought up everything she’d been trying to avoid admitting. Evan was a good guy. A man of honor. Hardworking. Dedicated. Cared about others. A team player. The man she was falling for, and still—still—he was the guy she wanted to blame for Olin’s death. Maybe needed to blame.
She was caught between two opposing emotions, and she couldn’t see a way out of it.
Father, please, help me here.
Forgiveness... the word sprang to mind as it often had in the early days when she’d prayed about coming to grips with losing Olin. Could she forgive Evan? Was he even at fault here, or was she unwilling to take her share of blame? Blaming Evan was much easier than admitting she could have done more to save Olin too. To accept that maybe all of it was one of those situations God allowed and yet made no sense to them.
God, please, I am begging. Help me see the right thing to do here.
Vivian’s face came to mind, along with the anger and blameshe’d just directed at the team. Kiley had taken the woman’s wrath because she’d thought they deserved Vivian’s anger, but did they? They worked as hard as they could. Did everything they could. Hadn’t let go of the investigation even when they’d been ordered to do so and were still working on behalf of finding her daughter and the other girls.
No.They shouldn’t feel guilty. And maybe Evan shouldn’t either. Sure, he’d made a mistake, but people weren’t infallible. Had she been wrong in blaming him? Was she clinging to his guilt these past few days so that she didn’t have to face her feelings for him?
“Kiley?” Cam stepped into the hall. “You okay?”
She raised her head that felt as heavy as the battering rams they used to break down doors. “Just taking a quick break.”
“Ready to get back to it?”
She nodded and whisked all thoughts unrelated to the investigation from her mind.
Cam stretched out his hand. “We’ve got this, you know? It won’t best us.”
Did they? Did they really?
She took his hand and stood. Mack came back down the hall, carrying bins and Evan’s tote, his expression much calmer. She smiled at her friend, thankful he had her back, though she didn’t appreciate him trying to scare Evan off. Still, now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
At the doorway, her phone chimed, and she dug it out to see a text from Eisenhower telling them not to worry about stepping on Counterterrorism’s toes when researching Malouf. The shipping company owner wasn’t on Counterterrorism’s radar at all. This told her two things. Since Counterterrorism wasn’t looking at him, and the team hadn’t found anything questionable on the guy, he was likely on the up-and-up, and she should back-burner looking into him and work on more pressing leads.
She stepped into the room, and Evan ran his assessing gaze over her. She did her best to hide her emotions and took a moment to cross off those action items on the whiteboard they’d finalized, and ran down the outstanding items she wanted to follow up prior to their op. But before she got to work on them, they needed to pin down tactics for the op. “Cam, can you put the recon photos from Sean on the screen for review?”
He nodded, and soon a picture of an older three-story apartment building popped onto the TV. He slowly scrolled through the photos of the entire complex and a sketch Sean had made of the layout, plus an apartment floor plan. They reviewed their basic breach drill, Evan paying full attention to the details.
“What’s the stacking order at the door?” Evan asked with a hitch in his voice.
“Mack, me, Sean,” Kiley replied. “And you take up the rear.”
Mack angled his head as he peered at the screen. “Looks pretty straightforward.”
“Agreed,” Kiley said. “No rear exit, but we should still arrange for local SWAT to back us up.” She shifted her focus to Evan. “Can you contact your Tacoma police connection and arrange that?”
“Absolutely.” His enthusiasm didn’t surprise her, as SWAT would bring added security to the raid. “Can I make one suggestion?”
“What’s that, Evan?” Kiley was almost afraid to hear his suggestion. He had to be worried about the breach.
