Page 60 of Justified Fear

“He has them.Lots of videos of him bartending, pretending he’s in that old movieCocktail.Have you met him?He seems like a complete douche.”

“Emily.”

“That’s all I could find.And those profiles were created in the last nine months.Which raised a lot of red flags.”

For someone of that generation to not have any kind of social media profiles as a kid was odd.Ian had none, but then he was a former spy with trust issues.

“Keep digging.Hopefully, working with TFH will give us some kind of idea how much trouble is coming Keely’s way.”

“10-4, my good buddy.”

“You’ve been watchingSmokey and the Banditagain.”

She sighed.“It’s Aaron’s favorite movie.”

She and her brother shared a house.

“Talk later.”

“Bye, Mix.”

She hung up before he could say anything about using that idiotic nickname she’d given him.It would do no good, but he still hated it.

He had a terrible feeling that this assignment might just go FUBAR at any moment.Something was off about the whole situation.The last time that happened, he had to leave MI-6 after almost losing his life.Ian definitely didn’t want a repeat of that.

Twelve

Late in the afternoon, Ryan stepped off the elevator and turned the corner to head to Charity’s office, Maya by his side.The forensic technician had her office on the floor beneath the main TFH area.Usually, he didn’t bother Charity.She was always good about keeping them updated on whatever investigation they were working.Also, most of their cases were search and rescue, which didn’t really involve Charity.He had heard more than once that the woman was territorial about her office, and he had learned a long time ago to respect spaces.

He stepped in to find her sitting in a chair with her head between her legs.

“Hey,” he said, hurrying forward.“Are you okay?”

Maya reached her first, apparently picking up on her distress.Charity righted herself and smiled down at Maya.When she looked up at him, her face was ashen, causing alarm to run through him.He reached out for her wrist, and she gave him a disgruntled look.Still, he took her pulse.

“I’m fine.Just a little dizzy spell.”

“Your pulse is a little high.”

“I do have a cute boy taking my pulse.”

He didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close.The woman was insanely in love with her husband, so Ryan knew she had no interest in him.

“Is it normally this high?”

“No.It’s fine, like I said.I stood up too fast, which my doctor has told me to be careful about.Did you need something?”

He sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to give him more than that.He didn’t know Charity well enough to know if she was lying to him.He let go of her wrist.

“I wanted to check on ballistics.”

“I haven’t gotten the bullets yet.Which is odd because usually Elle is good about that.”

She grabbed her phone, then made a face.

“What?”Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.Nothing about this case had been going right since that first night.

“Can’t do ballistics.No bullets.”