Page 126 of Every Last Breath

“I want to see my son.”

“Once we finalize the deal, we’ll put you in a room with him.”

“Ticktock, Agent Kinkade.”

Shutting the door behind her, she let out a quivery breath. Holy shit.

She rushed into the observation room.

Sanborn practically slapped her with his stern gaze as she closed the door. “I have a stranger in my freaking house!”

Everyone in the room froze at his raised voice. The DGB didn’t yell. Never cursed. He was the epitome of smooth, unruffled power.

“And you all”—Sanborn pointed to her, Castle, Reece, and Gideon—“thought, in your infinite wisdom, it was best not to tell me and handle this on your own?” His anger was so tangible, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam rising from him.

Maddox stepped forward. “We didn’t know who we could trust. Still don’t, but if the mole knew we were on to him, it could’ve compromised the mission.”

“It was my idea to leave you out of the loop,” Castle said, taking the major hit. He met her eyes, and she spotted a glimmer of friendliness. “The prime directive had to come first.”

“Good initiative, horrible judgment. I take it Mr. Matthews knows we have a leak?”

She nodded.

Sanborn shuttered his eyes, his face grim. “Even the civilian knows.” While I was in the dark. He neglected to say the words, but he didn’t have to.

She cringed on the inside at the hurt and disappointment in his expression, in his tone.

Yes, in a way, it was an awful betrayal. Albeit a necessary one.

They still had to investigate everyone in the building, including him. Now Sanborn knew that they knew about a traitor, if he was indeed the mole—which she doubted—it’d be damn near impossible to catch him, unless the evidence from Novak fingered Sanborn irrefutably.

He rubbed his brow and glanced at his watch. “I can get the ball rolling on immunity for Novak, but I won’t be able to get anything in writing until midmorning.”

“When do we tell him about his son?” Maddox asked. “I lied and told him we’d put him in a room with Val. The minute Novak finds out his son is lying in a morgue, he’s going to lose it.”

Sanborn stared at Novak through the one-way glass and a haunted look clouded his eyes.

“He almost killed twenty thousand people, including us,” Reece said. “I say we tell him after he signs the deal and we verify the microchip isn’t chicken feed that’ll have us chasing our own tails, tying us in knots.”

Sometimes chicken feed—worthless information—glittered like gold. They had to exercise extreme caution, and verification would take time.

“So what if you lied to that monster about his son?” Reece was a good man, one of the most honest and honorable she knew, but his words belied his issues with not wanting to have children. Complicated issues that had ended his marriage.

Sanborn lowered his head. “He may be a monster and a terrorist.” His voice grew quiet and gentle. “But he’s also a father. There’s nothing worse than the pain of losing a child.” The usual cool, clinical veneer cracked, revealing real sorrow that twisted something in Maddox’s chest. “Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around.” He swallowed, cleared his throat, and said, “I should be the one to tell him. After we know the information he gives us is legitimate.”

The loss shrouding him was unmistakable. Sanborn was a father and had suffered the agony of burying a child. From the somber expressions of the others, they hadn’t known either.

She might’ve picked up on it when he talked about her miscarriage if she hadn’t been wallowing in the mire of her own convoluted emotions.

“I’m sorry.” The rest of her condolences stuck in her mouth when she sensed the gazes of the others slide to her. Their unease about broaching a subject personal for Sanborn mingled with her own. “That we couldn’t bring Val in alive. That you’ll be the one to deliver the news.”

“It’s a part of the job.” Drawing in a sharp breath, his face turned stoic and his shoulders went straight as a soldier’s. “No one outside this room is to know we have a mole, so we can get this broker and plug our leak. Understood?”

Everyone nodded.

“We’ll put our heads together and come up with a game plan. But that we doesn’t include you, Maddox.”

“What? Why?”