Page 7 of Darkness of Mine

“That’s why I’m here,” I say.

He flips his pen over in his hand, the movement not agitated but rhythmic. “Want me to set up another meeting with her mother?”

Jack was who I entrusted to take care of Hannah after Eli shot Freya’s father. He tracked down her parents and she’s currently recuperating with them in an FBI safehouse.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Jack puts the pen down and holds my gaze.

“What’s your connection toLa Tormentita?” I ask.

“I don’t know. What isLa Tormentita?” Jack’s poker face is pretty much indecipherable, but Reaper goes deathly still.

“Not what, who. The direct translation is Little Storm but you may know her as Carmen,” I say.

Jack twists his lips and shrugs. “Sorry, it doesn’t ring a bell.”

He’s lying and the last threads holding me together snap. I lunge for him.

My fingers curl around Jack’s neck, the chair scraping against the concrete as I lift him up by the throat.

“Don’t fuck with me, Jack.”

“Ooh, I like him,” Reaper quips, watching us without the slightest concern. “Much less stuck up than the last one in charge.”

I glower at him. “Insult Farrah again and I’ll have you sent back to Poseidon.” That’s another thing I found while digging through the database. Reaper is a transfer from a CIA unit that recruits their assets from juvenile detentions. The little I could uncover suggests most of them would have been better off staying in jail.

The only warning I get is the slight flick of Reaper’s wrist before a dagger flies through the space between Jack’s face and mine. The gap is mere inches and the blade whistles past before embedding in the wall several feet away.

Jack closes his eyes, looking utterly bored despite the near miss and my hand still around his throat.

Reaper just smiles. “Sorry. Knife play is kind of my kink and big dick energyreallyturns me on.” He keeps smiling, but it’s tenser than before. Enough to know that my threat hit the mark.

I let go of Jack, shoving him back into the chair. “I’ve been going through all the Bureau’s open case files looking for anything that relates to Carmen.” Because I have zero doubts that’s where Freya has gone. She’s the only person with the skills to keep Freya hidden from Oz.

Jack opens his mouth. “I?—”

“Shut up and listen,” I cut him off, anger burning on the harsh edges of my words. Freya has already been out of my grasp for too long, I don’t have time for this. “Imagine my surprise when I find you’ve been keeping tabs on someone off the books.”

Jack looks up at me. His eyes are sharp, the calm mask he’s wearing belayed by the dangerous energy vibrating off his skin. Jack and I have been associates for years now but I have a feeling I’m on the verge of seeing the real Jack for the first time. This is the reason he’s down here, working Black Ops, because he’s willing to do the things most people won’t touch.

What he doesn’t understand yet, is that right now, out of the two of us, I’m the more dangerous one.

I’m the one with something to lose.

I cross my arms and stare down at him. “This is the part where you talk.”

Jack holds my gaze. “Who I keep tabs on outside of my work hours is none of your business.”

“It is when you’re using FBI resources.”

A slight tilt tugs at Jack’s lips, and he shakes his head. “I hate to break it to you, River, but down here, your rules don’t matter like they do up there.”

I grind my teeth together and force a breath through my nose. “I swear to god, Jack, I don’t give a fuck about Carmen. I don’t care who she is to you or why you’ve been tracking her, but she knows where Freya is, and you don’t want to find out what I will do to get that information.”

Honestly, I don’t want to know either. I can feel myself getting more desperate, my compassion draining, my morals shifting. Freya is all that matters in my world and I don’t think I’ll start seeing clearly again until she’s back in my arms. Or maybe cuffed to my bed.

Jack pushes up off his seat. He taps his fingers against his thigh and shares a brief look with Reaper, who quirks a brow and shrugs. “The Little Storm will slice him to pieces if he sets a foot wrong.”