Page 1 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

One

Kapone Hanson hated anyone who arrived late. His mama had taught him the importance of showing up on time. She had been married to an Army man, and she had taught school. She was a bit of a tyrant. So, even at the age of thirty-five, he broke out in hives when he was late.

Like right now. He rushed into the TFH headquarters, irritation running up and down his spine. He understood it was insane. It didn’t, however, make it any easier to deal with being fifteen minutes late to a job where he didn’t have to be on time. Team Bravo’s captain was laid back.

The moment he rushed into the common room, the energy was off. Robbie Ramirez, better known as Rami, and Nikki Kekoa were huddled together. For once, they weren’t fighting. When Robbie Ramirez looked up at him, he shook his head.

“They’ve been looking for you, Kap.”

“I’m fifteen minutes late,” he said, exasperated.

He rolled his eyes. “Not that. You know they don’t bust our balls about that.”

Since the two active teams were always considered on call, they got a lot of leeway in their schedules.

“Then what?”

“Jesus, Rami,” Nikki said, rolling her eyes. “It has to do with a case Alpha got last night. Some victim found dead in Haleiwa.”

He frowned. Bravo was a search and rescue team. Granted, they often ended up helping with various cases, but their primary focus was searching for missing people. Alpha team handled more prominent cases. Things that involved foreign dignitaries and…fuck. Government officials.

In his life before TFH, Kap had been an NCIS agent. He didn’t want to deal with the headache that came with that old life.

The door to the commander’s office opened.

“Kap, we need you in here,” Seth Harrington called out.

The office was entirely made of glass, so he could see Adam Lee, Team Alpha’s captain, along with the commander, of course.

He knew there was no way of avoiding this shit, so he strode into the office.

Martin “Del” Delano was sitting behind his desk.

The former Army Ranger had been the original commander of what became Team Alpha.

At mid-forty, he was still in top shape.

The massive Hawaiian sported his signature bald head and was wearing a TFH polo shirt and cargo pants.

He still looked like a hard ass. The only thing that softened him was the multitude of pictures featuring his wife and kids surrounding him.

“What’s up?” Kap asked.

“We had a case last night, and we thought you might be able to help us,” Adam said.

“Sure. Something to do with NCIS?”

Seth and Adam shared a look.

“What?”

Seth sighed. “The guy was former CIA.”

His stomach dipped. Of course, that was the reason they’d pulled him in. It was Monday, and all Mondays were shitty.

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes,” Seth said. “And he worked with Eden Carlyle at one time.”

Fuck. Yep, Mondays were always ballbusters.

“I didn’t know that part of her life then.”

And he didn’t. She’d hidden it from him.

You were dating for only a month.

Shut up.

Adam glanced at the big boss and, apparently, both he and Seth were going to let him take over. Kap looked at his boss.

“Listen, we know it is a sore spot, but, apparently, this Andrew Green was working in the same region you were at the time.”

The Middle East. He had been stationed at the NCIS Bahrain Field Office.

A work weekend trip to Saudi had him at the US Embassy, and from the moment he had seen Eden, he had wanted her.

He had pursued her, and for a month, they had spent all their off time together.

That had ended when he’d found out she had been lying to him the entire time.

“I haven’t had much interaction with Eden since that time.”

“We know,” Seth said. “It’s just that if Green’s death is linked to his work, you were there at the time. You might be able to give us some background.”

“And with Eden Carlyle,” Del said, pulling off the band-aid. The two team captains looked at him, and he shrugged. “Kap isn’t dumb. He knew exactly what you were going after. We want you to go with Team Alpha to question Eden.”

There was something in his voice that had Kap’s senses tingling. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Del looked at the captains again. “See, I told you. Not dumb.” He turned back to look at Kap. “He had Eden’s home address on a piece of paper. He also had her unlisted number. It’s the one that Dillon Security gave her, and not a lot of people have access to that.”

He absorbed that bit of information. “I’m not the person you want there. I irritate her.”

And the moment he said it, he knew that he had told them more than he had wanted to. Rookie mistake.

“But you knew her once upon a time. You can tell us how she reacts to the news.”

There was a long moment of silence as the pieces fell into place. “You want to know if she had anything to do with his murder. How was this Green killed?”

“Execution style, back of the head,” Seth said.

“And y’all got the case because he was CIA?” he asked Adam. If he had worked for them for any amount of time, there could be dozens of people who might want him dead.

“Yes. HPD was thrilled to throw this at us,” Adam said.

“Not sure how much I’ll help, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Good. We’re sending you with Graeme. He’s the one she had the least amount of interaction with. We definitely don’t want Autumn going, since her brother works as Eden’s partner most of the time.”

He nodded. “Just tell me when and I’ll go.”

There was a knock at the door, and he saw Graeme MacGregor standing there.

He fucking hated Mondays.

When they pulled up to the small house in Waimanalo, Kap ground his teeth. He was trying his best not to show just how much this was irritating him.

“You should stop grinding your teeth if you don’t want your ex to know this irritates you.”

He glanced over at the giant Scotsman. He was former military married to their ME, Elle.

“And maybe don’t glare at your temporary partner.”

“Sorry. This is still a sore subject with me.”

“You don’t say.”

He heard the humor in Graeme’s voice and couldn’t help but smile.

“She’s going to lie. It’s what she does,” Kap said, looking back at the house. Eden’s family had a lot of money, so the modest house surprised him. He thought for sure she would live in one of the palatial beachfront mansions.

“CIA, I get it. Just don’t say that to her face.”

Kap slanted Graeme a look. “I won’t.”

The other man rolled his eyes. “Sure, you will. She’s under your skin, and from my own personal experience, when feelings are involved, things can go awry. Just let me take the lead.”

“No problem.”

Graeme was muttering under his breath as he slipped out of the car.

Kap followed, his head pounding and his hands sweating. Why? Why did this woman still send his senses spiraling?

Graeme rang the doorbell, but there was no answer. After a few moments, he knocked on the door. Jesus, the man just did not know his own damned strength. The door vibrated with each hit of his fist.

“I’m coming, Jesus,” someone grumbled. He knew that voice with a hint of Texas twang dripping from each syllable.

The door swung open, and he blinked.

Eden stood there, her hair a mess like she’d just woken up, and she was wearing a tank top and little sleep shorts.

“What the hell?” she grumbled, looking at Graeme. She hadn’t noticed Kap yet. Hard to see him with a giant taking up most of the space.

He knew from personal experience that she liked to sleep in those little bitty shorts.

“We need to talk to you.”

“We?”

Graeme moved so that she could see me. Her cheeks lost a little color when she saw Kap, but she didn’t address him. Her gaze went back to Graeme.

“What do you want?”

“I thought people from Texas were supposed to be nice.”

“Who the hell told you that? You know the state logo is Don’t Mess with Texas, right? Especially when a Texan had about three hours of sleep. Wait? What time is it?”

“It’s almost noon,” Kap said.

“Okay, four hours and horrible jet lag.”

Graeme sighed as if he was being put out. Kap rolled his eyes.

“Graeme would like to come in and talk to you about a case we’re working. Your name came up.”

She turned her attention to him, and he wanted to groan. Three years and all the lies she’d told him, and no other woman grabbed him by the balls with just a look. Her light blue eyes seemed to see more than he wanted to show her.

Then, she sighed and stepped back. They walked past her into the foyer, which led right into the living room. A large, grey sectional took up most of the room in front of a massive TV.

“What the fuck?” a male voice from up above bellowed.

“I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with this,” she muttered.

Kap looked up and saw a tall blond guy marching down the stairs.

He was missing a shirt and was only wearing a pair of board shorts.

In the last few months, he had run into Eden, but she had never had a man with her.

Jealousy hit him harder than he would ever admit.

Again, three years and she still got to him.

So much so that Kap was thinking of punching the asshole for irritating Eden.

“What the hell are they doing here?”

“I don’t know, and if you don’t stop yelling, I will shoot you.”

Kap blinked and looked at Eden. She sighed.

“El, this is Graeme MacGregor from TFH Team Alpha,” she said, motioning to Graeme. Then she pointed at Kap. “The other one is Kap. Gentlemen, this is my brother Elwood.”

El had reached the ground floor, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Kap.

He ignored Graeme. Great. El, the twin she’d talked about constantly.

He was never a romantic rival, but Kap remembered being insanely irritated with their connection.

It made sense since they were twins, but also the only children in the family.

“Did you just threaten to shoot your brother?” Graeme asked. Meanwhile, El was still staring at Kap, as if he were thinking about feeding him to sharks.

“Only fair. I have had no coffee, and I’m tired. Come on in the kitchen.”