I softly placed the knife on the wooden bench despite wanting to throw the fucking thing across the room. I treated my weapons with care because they were the difference between life and death. "Don't fucking say it," I growled.
I knew what name was going to come out of Wes' mouth before the four words hit my ears. "Special Agent Beckett Walsh."
"Motherfucker," I cussed as my fist slammed down on the makeshift workbench.
"I knew you weren't going to like what I had to tell you."
No, I didn't like it one bit. I hated Special Agent Walsh with every ounce of my miserable being. He was an arrogant asshole who couldn't take his head out of his ass long enough to listen to me. I knew Mason was going to shake the marshals as soon as anopportunity arose. I had warned him, but the cocksucker hadn't listened. A sleazeball like Mason Dunkin would never testify and then go into WITSEC voluntarily.
"Is Walsh still out of the Nashville field office?"
"He is. I checked because I knew you would want to know."
Damn right, I would want to know. Nova was my best friend. I knew her since childhood. She was the only person I kept around from that time in my life. Beckett fucked up when he let Mason get away, and I would take joy in reminding the special agent I'm not someone to be fucked with.
"Get me his address. I'm going to pay him a visit."
Wes sighed. "Are you sure I can't do this for you? I can make most things go away, but covering up the murder of a special agent is going to push my resources to the limit."
Note he didn't say he wouldn't do it. Just that it wouldn't be easy. "I'm not going to kill him. I'm just going to make him wish he were dead."
Another sigh. "I'm not sure that's much better."
I wasn't about to lie, so I kept my mouth shut.
Wes didn't bother to sigh this time. "I just texted you the address."
I pulled the phone away from my ear when it pinged and saw a text from Wes with the address as promised.
"Keep me in the loop, please. I would prefer to know ahead of time if I need to send out a cleanup crew."
A savage smile crossed my face. "I make no promises."
Without even having to see his face, I knew Wes shook his head before I ended the call. The man was used to me by now. I was as unpredictable as they came. Violence was my go-to answer to everything I did. To hell with the consequences.
I stepped out of my living quarters and headed to the common area. Lilith, Sloane, Nyx, and I––the four females who made up Ghost Team––lived in what others would call acompound of sorts. We each had our own living areas in a U shape with a common area in the middle.
I found the rest of my team spread out amongst the area. Lilith was busy taking apart and cleaning her gun. She was the most anal of the bunch. A day didn't go by that she wasn't checking over the weapons. Lilith was a marksman, so it made sense.
Sloane was taking her frustrations out on a punching bag. Hand-to-hand combat was where she excelled. We would normally be hitting the mat by now, but I had needed a few minutes by myself.
Then there was Nyx. Like myself, she preferred knives or any tool for that matter. The two of us loved torture just a little too much.
"What the fuck has you smiling like that?" Nyx was the first to notice me. "Did you kill someone in the cell, who we didn't know was there?"
That was the other thing our compound had. Two cells to hold those we needed to torture, and a room that resembled a morgue. There was a drain in the middle of the room to wash the blood away after we killed someone.
"Not yet, but I'm one step closer to avenging Nova." That got everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Lilith set her gun aside and asked.
"Mason has resurfaced." For the first time in seven years, I wore a smile while saying the fucker's name.
"When do we roll out?" The frustration Sloane had shown the bag was now directed toward a common enemy. Each one of us wanted a piece of him. Nova might've been my best friend, but this whole team was her idea. We were supposed to start it together. Nova was the reason I met the others, and when she disappeared, we took her vision and made it a reality in honor of her.
This was the part they weren't going to like. We rarely worked solo. Strength in numbers and all but keeping a low profile in this case was the better option. "He's in federal prison. Solitary confinement. There's no way to see him, but I'm going to go pay a special visit to our favorite federal agent."
My teammates all glanced at one another, and I knew what they were going to say before Nyx opened her mouth. "Are you sure that's a good idea?”
