Page 101 of Stolen Temptation

“Before the cops opened fire.” William tries to redirect Finn’s fury onto himself. “Like we told you.”

“I’m askingMiles,” Finn presses, giving the full weight of his pointed glare to the younger of the two.

“I…” Miles clears his throat. “I fell back after we carried the shipment in.”

“Long before the cops got there,” Cian concludes, his head falling to the right.

“Why?” Finn rises and plants his palms on the table between them.

William rocks forward in his chair.“He was probably just fucking scared. It was his first job?—”

Cian throws a punch across the table, nailing William in the nose. The kid yelps and reels back, clutching his face as blood waterfalls from his nostrils.

“If you interrupt us again, you’re going to catch a few staples to the mouth,” Cian promises with a tone more frigidthan ice. William glares but wisely keeps his mouth shut, his hands pressed to his nose as he tries unsuccessfully to stop the bleeding.

Miles still can’t meet Finn’s eyes.

“I’m not going to ask you again, kid.” Finn leans over the table, getting in the foot soldier’s face. “Why did you fall back so early?”

“I…I overheard D-Dax take a call when the others weren’t around.” Miles gulps. “The person on the phone said to get out as soon as the product was inside.”

Cian cracks his bloody knuckles. “Did you recognize the voice?”

Miles shakes his head. “But…it sounded official.”

“Official how?” Finn steps away from the table and starts to pace behind his empty chair. “What did you think that phone call meant?”

“I thought that Dax had received an order from one of the higher-ups. I thought…he was going to pass the message onto us, too, but he didn’t.” Miles frowns. “He disappeared. And he took our van with him.”

Beyond the one-way mirror, Darren and I both freeze.

On the other side, Finn and Cian do too.

We’re all thinking the same thing.

The cop bust…the loss of our guys and all that contraband… Leo De Luca claimed responsibility, but the mole is the real culprit.

The one who told Dax to hightail it out of there before the cops showed up.

The one who told Dax to take the van with him, effectively stranding our operatives there so that when the cops arrived, they had no hope of escape. It devolved into a shoot-out. And Miles and William only survived because they managed tohide. And now, eventhatdoesn’t look much like a coincidence anymore.

“Where is Dax Moreland?” Darren muses aloud, one millisecond before Finn says, “When was the last time you saw Dax?” Finn’s dark tone rivals the blackest night.

“I overheard the call, went inside to help the others, and when I came back out, Dax was gone and so was our ride…” Miles rushes through the words, his gaze fixed to the tabletop. “I didn’t know what was going on, but then I saw the shadow of police lights and heard men shouting. I knew something was wrong, so I hid.”

Cian starts furiously typing on his phone. I know where he’s going with that, so I whip the tablet out of Darren’s hand and start doing some typing of my own. I toggle through our online organization system, hunting for the drop report that should have been created during the planning of this operation.

I find the operative list showing the people who were assigned to carry out this mission. Eyes scanning the names, I hear but don’t see Cian when he alerts Finn a second later. “According to the hospital records, Dax isn’t among our dead or wounded.”

“Then where the fuck is he?” Darren’s gruff voice sounds even angrier in this tiny, soundproof room.

And then I find what I’m searching for.

I bang my fist on the one-way mirror, causing everyone in the interrogation room to jump. Finn and Cian turn back to look even though they can’t see us through the glass.

A moment after Finn grabs his phone, mine starts to buzz. I pick up.

“Dax Moreland isn’t on the operative list for this drop.” I force the words out in one breath. “He wasn’t even supposed to be there that day.”