Page 9

8

Black Knights Inc.

Britt watched Eliza escort his brother and Sabrina Greenlee to the stairs leading to the third floor. She promised them private suites to rest and rinse off the dust from the road.

Knox murmured his thanks. Sabrina remained silent and gripped the handrail like a lifeline as she slowly climbed the stairs behind the other two.

Poor woman is dead on her feet , Britt thought and waited until they disappeared before glancing at the people gathered around the conference table. The faces staring back at him showed no malice or resentment that his sole living relative had brought a heaping helping of trouble to their doorstep.

Quite the contrary, all he saw was sympathy and understanding.

Somehow, that was worse.

He’d found a home amongst these good folks. They’d welcomed him with open arms and full hearts, and he’d have sooner stepped on his own dick than do anything to harm them. And yet… he harmed them by making them complicit in his bid to protect his brother.

He reached for his third—or was this his fourth?—cup of coffee and took a long sip of the bitter brew. He needed the extra time to gather his thoughts because the tale Sabrina and Knox had laid on them had a lot of moving parts.

On the one hand, Britt was ecstatic to learn his brother wasn’t responsible for Cooper Greenlee’s death. On the other hand, he hadn’t the first clue how to help Knox clear his name since it’d been made clear that none of the government officials Knox had been working with could be trusted.

Setting his mug on the table with a muted thump , he made a sudden decision and announced firmly, “They can’t stay here.”

Ozzie ran a hand through his mad scientist hair. Boss spun his favorite K-BAR blade in a circle atop the table. And Becky pulled a Dum-Dum lollipop from the top pocket on her pink bib overalls, unwrapped the candy, and shoved the bright blue sphere into her mouth.

Everyone else remained still, silent, waiting for him to elaborate. He couldn’t because his plan was amorphous and forming. He didn’t want to talk out of his ass until he was sure what his ass wanted to say.

After a handful of seconds, Becky ventured, “You want to chuck them out on the street when every agent in the bureau will be gunning for them? And when you’ve been warned those same agents are itching to make your brother the fall guy for whatever went wrong on their case?”

Britt shook his head, feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between the family he’d found and the family he’d been born to. “I can’t drag y’all into this. I can’t ask you to harbor a fugitive and risk your good names when I have no idea where to start in clearing his.”

“He says there has to be someone on the inside,” Ozzie ventured. “Someone working the case who gave him and his partner up to the cartel.”

“Yeah, but who?” Britt grimaced. “Knox says they were planning to arrest the leaders of the narcotics trafficking organization on charges ranging from drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms to wire fraud and money laundering. That means we’re not just talking about the rat possibly being someone inside the FBI. It could be someone who works for the ATF or the IRS. That’s a lot of alphabet-soup agencies to sift through to try to find one corrupt asshole.” The coffee had soured in his stomach. He frowned when he added, “Where I’m from, we call that a classic case of too much shit and not enough shovels.”

“Follow the money,” Ozzie said. “And the online chatter. There’s always at least one of those things.”

“And how long will that take?” Britt questioned. He knew the answer was “too long” by the way Ozzie grimaced.

“So what’s the alternative?” This was from Hew. His broad brow was creased in deep furrows.

“The only thing I can think to do is help them get out of the country. Maybe…” Britt shrugged as a plan began to solidify in his head. “I don’t have a lot saved, but I’ve got enough to help them start a new life and?—”

“I don’t want a new life.”

Britt saw Sabrina Greenlee standing at the base of the stairs. She’d removed her raincoat, which highlighted the dejected slump of her shoulders and the nervous way she twisted her hands together.

“I-I…” She swallowed and tried again. “I didn’t mean to spy. I came down to get something to eat before jumping into the tub. The last thing y’all need right now is for me to faint again and drown in my own bathwater.”

Eliza appeared on the step behind her. “I’ll get you something so you don’t have to go all the way down to the first floor. What do you want? A sandwich? Some yogurt? I made fresh blueberry muffins and strawberry scones this morning.”

Sabrina moved aside to allow Eliza to pass. “You don’t have to do that. You’ve all done so much already and?—”

“Nonsense,” Eliza cut her off with a wave of her hand. “We’re happy to help.”

Britt read the indecision on Sabrina’s face. Eventually, exhaustion won out. “Your muffins and scones sound amazing,” she told Eliza earnestly. “But I don’t think I can keep much down, so maybe…maybe the yogurt?”

“You got it.” Ever the consummate hostess, Eliza scurried toward the metal staircase that would take her to the first floor. Or…as much of a scurry as Eliza ever managed, which was more of an elegant quickening of her steps.

Sabrina’s eyes and voice were hesitant when she returned her attention to the gathered group. “I don’t want to start a new life.” Her tone grew more confident. “I want to clear Knox’s name. If I just talk to the FBI and tell them what I saw and know, then surely they’ll stop hunting us. Surely they’ll protect us while they find the culprit within their ranks.”

The defiant tilt of her chin made Britt wonder if beneath the drained, malnourished stray resided a woman possessing more than her fair share of grit.

The abuse she’d suffered at the hands of the men who’d come for Cooper and Knox had only been intimated at in the tale Knox spun. But Britt was good at reading between the lines. She’d been brutalized. And when her brother had tried to save her from the worst of it, she’d watched him take a round to the brainpan.

That she was still on her feet and not catatonic in a corner somewhere spoke to her tenacity.

He softened his tone when he told her, “I wish I had as much faith in the wheels of justice as you do. But whoever outed Knox and your brother to the cartel is corrupt. This person didn’t think twice about forfeiting the lives of two men. Your life won’t be any different.”

He watched her long, pale throat work over a swallow. She’d been through hell and he hated piling on. But there was nothing for it. She had to know what she was up against.

Hew was the one to drive the point home. “If you walk into the nearest FBI field office and share your account of what went down at your brother’s house, there’s a good chance the double-crosser will find a way to discount you. Or, the easiest thing they could do is share your location with the cartel and let the drug lords do the dirty work for them. No.” Hew shook his head. “The only safe bet is to find the rat first and add your testimony to Knox’s account of things later.”

Britt watched what little blood remained in Sabrina’s face drain away. “Th-that’s what Knox said,” she whispered, her chin trembling. “He said our best bet was to make it here with the hope that his brother—” she hitched her chin toward Britt—“could hide us or help us disappear. I just—” She twisted her hands so hard Britt worried she might snap off a finger. “I just didn’t want to believe him that there’s no way out of this.”

To Britt’s surprise, it wasn’t tough-gals-stick-together Becky who jumped up to put a comforting arm around Sabrina’s shoulders. It was Hew. The man looked huge next to the doe-eyed brunette.

“Come sit down before you fall down,” he murmured, and Britt watched in astonishment as the big man gently steered her toward the conference table.

She retook the seat she’d abandoned earlier, sniffed back her tears, and nodded her thanks. “You’re friends with that FBI woman, right?” She turned a beseeching gaze on Britt. “The one from the kitchen? She’s not associated with the case Cooper and Knox were working. Couldn’t you convince her to listen to us? To help us?”

Mention of Julia had visions of that kiss dancing in Britt’s head.

Every pleasurable sensation he’d ever experienced had been instantly forgotten the minute her lips touched his, and he’d been lost. Lost in the feel of her busy hands. Lost in the all-consuming, hungry wetness of her mouth.

Kissing Julia had felt like touching the sun. Letting her walk out that door, knowing he’d deceived her, had hurt like heartbreak. And now he was being asked to drag her into this mess—the thought was as enticing as it was terrifying.

“Wait.” Becky popped the sucker out of her mouth to point it at Britt. “So you’re friends with Agent O’Toole now? I thought you were stalking her.”

“I wasn’t stalking her,” he insisted for what felt like the one-millionth time. “I was just…”

He didn’t finish the sentence because he couldn’t finish the sentence since he was…you know…stalking her.

“What makes you think Britt and the FBI agent are friends?” Ozzie asked, his laptop open in front of him. His fingers flew across the keyboard, but Britt had learned Ozzie could give both ears to a conversation while simultaneously giving both hands to his computer.

“Because he kissed her,” Hew declared, and that was enough to cause Ozzie’s flying fingers to come to an abrupt landing.

Britt glowered at Hew. “I swear you’re begging me to junk punch you today.”

“You kissed her?” Becky’s eyes were wide in emphasis.

“I was distracting her. Peanut”—the cat had been sitting at the end of the table, leg behind his head so he could thoroughly clean his balls, but he lifted his face away from his task when he heard his name—“almost outed their hiding spot.” Britt gestured toward Hew and Sabrina. “It was the only thing I could think to do to keep O’Toole from opening the pantry in search of cat treats and?—”

He held his palms out in front of him in a classic traffic cop “stop” hand signal. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. What matters is Julia O’Toole isn’t my friend. So she’s not an asset we can rely on here.”