“You didn’t do a background check before going on a date?” Bonnell said.
“I was feeling good about him, so no.”
“Or since?”
“I’ve been a little preoccupied with the case.” Bryce had only let his guard down once in the last few years and apparently it was going to keep biting him. “Why?”
“Hopefully it’s just a coincidence. We need to keep an eye on him,” Bonnell said.
“We can’t jeopardize his career,” Bryce told her.
Bonnell raised an eyebrow. “We’ll do what we need to in order to protect the department and our world, Agent Reynolds. If that means getting a meddlesome FBI agent reassigned or dismissed, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Her tone grated across his nerves. He was an agent with almost a decade’s worth of experience and he knew what the job required. But that also meant he knew what the protocol was and why he needed to follow it. With too much information, Jesse could become a threat to the department’s secrecy. Bonnell was right, the world was more important than one man’s career.
That didn’t mean Bryce had to like it or that he shouldn’t fight for Jesse while he could. “He’s smart. He not only made Alex, he started putting pieces together and realized that we had to be there for the statue, too. And when Alex collapsed, he cared. Jesse is a good man. He doesn’t deserve for us to bury him.”
“And if he stays quiet, there won’t be any problems,” Bonnell replied. “Is that understood?”
Some days, his job sucked. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Get ready to roll out in ten minutes. I don’t think it will take me long to snag this case out of the FBI’s hands.” Bonnell left his office.
Bryce was glad he hadn’t mentioned Jesse’s connection to theSpooky True Talespodcast. If she learned that he was potentially involved with another investigation, then she’d start manufacturing Jesse’s transfer to another office.
Now all he had to do was look Jesse in the eye and take his case away. With any luck, he wouldn’t have realized the mess he was stumbling into. Bryce would be able to do his job and end Jesse’s connection to the paranormal.
And to him. Bryce would just have to accept that.
God, he wished there was a way to protect him and be with him.
