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“She’s going to want some answers soon,” Kate said. “When she’s well enough.”
“I don’t want her involved.”
“She’s already involved. She’s a valuable member of the most elite black ops team in the world. She’s tough as nails.”
There was a long silence, and she knew he was thinking long and hard about where this needed to go. Finally, he gave her the words she knew he despised saying. “When she’s well enough, I’ll give her what I can.”
Before she could feel a modicum of relief, he added, “And, Ms. Walker, if you keep anything like this from me again, no agreements or obligations will keep me from coming after you.”
The line went dead before she could respond to his threat. She didn’t work for him. He didn’t work for her. And even though they were on the same side, they were adversaries in many ways.
Her shoulders drooping with the weight of her world, she placed the phone on the table in front of her and said softly, “I know you’re disappointed in me, my darling. And out of everyone who’s angry with me in this, the idea of disappointing you rips at me more than anything.”
Turning, she looked up at the portrait of the man she had adored…still adored. They’d had only a few short years together, and she would give everything she owned just to have one extra day.
“But hear me now, my love. They will pay for what they did. I will not rest until it’s done. No matter who stands in my way, I will end them.”
Xavier and Ash were halfway to the airport before they spoke. The intel Kate had given them was minuscule in some ways, but in light of what had happened to Jazz, it was earth-shattering.
“When do we tell her?” Ash asked.
Xavier appreciated that his boss was asking for his input. Telling Jazz was going to be a delicate matter, to say the least. Not only was she in for some major surprises and heartache, there were still gigantic holes in the information Kate had provided. She would have questions and would want answers immediately.
“She’s not going to be in any condition to hear any of this for a while. Because once she does…”
Ash nodded. “Once she does, she’s going to want to get to work.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. We’ll wait.”
Xavier didn’t ask for how long. This might be a one-day-at-a-time thing until they both thought she was ready. Yeah, she’d take a giant bite out of his ass if she knew his thinking, but this was going to have to be the way until it wasn’t. He wasn’t going to take the chance of losing her again.
“And Kate?” Xavier said.
“She’s holding on to a boatload of intel. Until we can figure out what’s going on, or until she’s willing to spill, we keep her out of our circle.”
“What she gave us is a good starting place,” Xavier said. “She wasn’t lying about that.”
“No. I don’t think she’s lied about anything. She just knows a lot more than she’s willing to share. For now, we’ll focus on who grabbed Jazz and why. Based on the little intel she gave us, we know the major player in this massive cover-up is dead, as is his family. But someone wanted Jazz for what she could do for them. We find out what that is, then we might pinpoint who took her.”
Nodding his agreement, Xavier took in the scenery as they sped down the highway. The Blue Ridge Mountains were a beautiful, impressive sight, but he missed Montana’s massive peaks and snow-covered vistas. When Jazz was well enough to be moved, he wanted to take her to his cabin. He would care for her and make sure she regained her health. In the meantime, he and the team would dig deep to find out who’d had the audacity to capture and torture one of their own.
And when she was ready, he would tell her everything, including what was in his heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Chicago
Oscar Sullivan glared at the dead coroner lying on the floor. Dead men told no tales, and that was something his good-for-nothing scum of a brother-in-law had forgotten. Guilt lay heavy on Oscar’s shoulders, but it had nothing to do with killing this crap of a dead doctor. This had all started because Oscar had found the girl in the first place. Going to Kevin had been a mistake.
If only he’d just taken the girl for himself and used her for what she was meant for, none of this would have happened. He knew a part of him still had that old-school mentality. In the old days, Kevin had been of a higher rank, and Oscar had followed that odd kind of protocol. And now his beloved sister was dead.
The coroner had been easy enough to break. For a nice chunk of change, the doctor had skewed the autopsy findings to show an aneurysm had killed his sister and not the poison Kevin had injected into her scalp. And that was why the coroner would never be able to draw another breath. He might not have done the actual deed, but he had covered it up, and that made him guilty in Oscar’s book.
He still had no idea how his sister’s will had come to indicate that cremation was her preference instead of a traditional Irish funeral. He’d known his sister—obviously better than her husband had—because there was no way she would have chosen such a thing. Not only would she have considered it a sacrilege, she had once told him that she was terrified of cremation. She wouldn’t have changed her mind. So either Kevin had forged that document, or he’d somehow coerced her into agreeing to it. Either way, he knew without a doubt that the man was responsible.
A deep, dark sadness swept over him. He had acknowledged his role in how this played out, and he would regret to his dying day his part in making this happen. The only way to make amends for the wrongs done to his sister was to destroy the person responsible.