“You could get arrested for threatening a helpless old man in prison.”
Stryker hung up and marched inside. Brooks was talking with an employee in the atrium.
“Where’s Cooper?” Stryker bit out.
Brooks pointed across the lobby. Cooper was on the phone. Seething with anger, he waited for Cooper to finish. The familiar feeling pulsed through him, sending fury through every fucking cell in his body. His blood pressure shot up, he clenched his fists. Spinetti had orchestrated the whole thing from his damn prison cell.
After Cooper hung up, he made his way over to Stryker. “I’ve got good news.”
“Spinetti called me again.” A growl ripped from Stryker’s throat. “That son of a bitch pulled this off from his fucking prison cell.”
“He admitted to it?”
“He said, ‘I heard you had a break-in’.”
“Relax, he’s goading you. This is way out of his league.”
“You think?” Stryker pushed back. “You told me you thought he had a contract out on me.”
“You, not your company.”
“Bro, his crew breaks in to the FBI pod, but no other pod is breached. C’mon, Cooper. Help me out here.”
“Fine, I’ll have an agent look into it.”
“That’s not gonna cut it.”
“I said I’ll have an agent look into it. Let it go, Stryker.”
The two men glared at each other until Cooper pinned on a triumphant smile. “I’ve got good news.”
At this point, Stryker was too pissed to care.
“We’re only suspending your government accounts and I’ll oversee the investigation to make sure it stays on track,” Cooper said.
Stryker scraped his fingers through his whiskers. “What about Spinetti?”
“For fuck’s sake, I had to sell this to every single person I talked to. I did this because we’re friends—close friends—but you’re pissing me the hell off right now.”
Stryker had definitely struck a nerve. Cooper was one of his most laid-back friends. “You’re right. I’m sorry, dog. You did go to bat for me and you hit a home run.”
“Fuck the baseball analogy. You hate baseball.”
Stryker chuffed out a laugh. “Look, Iamgrateful for what you did. Suspending the government accounts is bad, but shutting us down would have been a total cluster. Thank you.”
“There, was that so difficult?” Cooper held up his hand. “Don’t answer that.”
“What’s next?” Stryker asked.
“I’ve got to talk to Brooks.” Both men approached Stryker’s VP as he finished up with an IT employee. When she went back upstairs, Cooper told Brooks the good news.
Brooks broke into a grin and shook Cooper’s hand. “Man, you are the best. This is a huge relief. I can live with this.”
Cooper arched his eyebrow at Stryker. “See? Now, that’s gratitude.”
“What’d I say?” Brooks asked.
“I wasn’t grateful enough,” Stryker replied, “and Cooper was driving his point home because you were grateful enough for both of us.”
