Page 14 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

Eight

“The rustle of sheets forced Kap to open his eyes. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in three years. It took his brain a second to catch up to where he was, why he felt so good, and the fact that Eden was slipping out of bed.

“Where are you going?”

She smiled at him over her shoulder. Her hair was a bit of a mess from his hands and had been left damp.

Even in the dark, he could see the scar on her shoulder.

The bullet wound he hadn’t known about when she had come to see him.

Even thinking about someone shooting her made him want to strangle the person who did it.

“I didn’t want to wake you.”

He sat up. “We need to talk more.”

Her smile faded and she nodded. “Come on. I’ll show you everything we have.”

“Everything?”

“Yes.”

She slipped out of bed and grabbed a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. After Kap pulled on his cargo pants, he followed her into the bathroom.

“God, my hair,” she said with a sigh. “This is why I have to blow-dry it out. Hawai’i doesn’t like my hair.”

He watched as she tried to tame it. It was a mass of curls he had never known she had. It was sexy and, even as she tried to comb it out, the curls suited her. It also revealed more about her personality to him.

“You’re a control freak.”

She glanced at him. “I just like things a certain way.”

He snorted as he crossed his arms over his chest. Kap wasn’t ashamed to admit he liked the way she seemed momentarily distracted by the movement.

“That’s the textbook definition of a control freak.”

Those clear blue eyes narrowed as she studied him. “Excuse me?”

He chuckled. “You wouldn’t use that tone with me if you knew what it did to me.”

There was a long pause.

“What does it do to you?”

Her voice had dipped lower, and she licked her bottom lip.

Of course, his unruly dick hardened. It had always been like this with her.

There had been a few women since they had dated, but they had never captured him like she had.

The memory of every moment had been imprinted on his soul, and he couldn’t seem to move on.

“Stop that. We have work to do right now.”

“And later?”

“Up to you.”

Her eyes sparkled as her lips tipped up. It was the first genuine smile he had seen from her in years. From the moment he’d run into her here on the island, she had seemed…not sad, but not happy. Something was weighing her down, keeping her trapped in some way.

“Let’s go look at this research you have,” he said, hating the way her happiness seemed to fade.

The sooner they got to work and figured this out, the sooner…

his mind had been moving in a direction that he hadn’t planned.

After their breakup, he had convinced himself that he didn’t need her.

But now, even when they were sparring and she was calling him “Kappy,” he felt more alive than he had since they had been together.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he followed her down the stairs to the wall in the living room. She hit a button, and a door slid open.

“Could you be more of a spy?”

She snorted. “This was here when I bought the house. It is one of the reasons I bought it.”

She stepped into the small room, and he realized it was some kind of panic room. The lights came on automatically.

The entire wall was filled with an investigation that must have taken…

He glanced at her. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Since my brother and I have completely recovered. We knew there was something more than the CIA wanted to admit.”

He nodded as he looked over the research and the connections they’d made. Kap knew she had been a CIA agent, but she wasn’t an investigator. She probably could have worked at the BAU with this level of work. The list of abductions, ten to be exact. Nine deaths. One survivor.

“You could have let this go.”

“No. I couldn’t.”

He glanced at Eden. Her arms were crossed, her expression determined.

“You think whoever it is will come after your brother?”

“First, if we hadn’t found the others, we probably would have let it go. Or at least hired someone else to deal with it. But these are agents. All of them are dead for some reason we can’t figure out. There is no connection with their work.”

“They’re agents. They had to have some enemies.”

She made a rude sound. “Yes, but if you look closer, every one of them was considered not because of the job.”

“Don’t they cover up their deaths? The CIA lies about things like that, right?”

“Yes, to the public.”

It took a second for the ramifications to sink in. “You’ve seen the official reports?”

She nodded.

“How?”

“Can you arrest me if I know someone who hacked into the CIA and made copies?”

“You know someone who can hack into the CIA?”

“No comment.”

He growled. “I won’t arrest you. You didn’t do it.”

“Then, yes, I do know someone who can hack into the CIA.”

He shook his head. “Charity will be very jealous of that ability.”

“She’s tried to hack into the CIA?”

Kap shrugged. “I know that she can hack into several organizations, but she’s never mentioned the CIA. So, the official story about El?”

“He was captured by terrorists, and the one thing he remembered is that they spoke English. American English. They were not from the Middle East, as the CIA is claiming. That’s what set off our alarm bells.”

“Does anyone outside of you and El know about this investigation?”

She hesitated, and he felt his temper flare to life. She was still trying to hide things from him.

“Don’t look at me like that. I won’t give up the hacker’s name without permission.”

He blinked.

“But Ian knows. I had to tell him a day ago because his spy senses were on red alert, and he knew something was going on.”

Her phone rang and she rolled her eyes. She answered even though it had to be about three in the morning.

“What do you have?”

Maybe the hacker. She glanced at Kap. “Are you sure?”

Some more talking from her friend.

“Okay.” She clicked the button for the speaker. “Kap, I believe you know Sam.”

“Sam? The one Mix hates?”

“Only because I kick his arse seven days a week and twice on Sundays. Nice to have you on Team Catch the Bastard.”

“Quit with that name. We both told you weeks ago we were not going to use it. What did you find?”

“Well, I just chatted with your brother and the man who loses to me every week—”

“Sam.”

A sigh. “Fine. I just wanted to let you know that I am going to look at connections between the victims. I will start with you and El since I know your life story well.”

“You don’t think it was some American group?”

“You know I’m convinced that it is tied to one person in the US. If I do another deep dive into these people and find something that matches with you and El, we might find a string to follow.”

“Why haven’t we done this before?”

“We have. But you were left out of the equation. I want to look at why someone would come after all of you.”

“We all had prices on our heads.”

That had alarm racing through Kap. “What?”

She looked at him and shrugged. “Goes with the territory. Although the price on our heads is gone. We have no connection to the CIA anymore. Since my family is no longer privy to information, we aren’t high on anyone’s list. Our inside information is old and useless.”

“That’s what Mix said. We were listing all the things you had in common with the victims, and, of course, we reviewed your work.

But you and El really didn’t investigate.

You moved information, kept an eye on things at the consulates and embassies.

Your family has never been one of those who engaged. ”

Kap had been thinking the same thing earlier. “So you think it is something on a personal level?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about it before.”

“Don’t. You and I know that you have spent years poring over the details. We looked into their personal lives.”

“But not enough. There has to be something that connects all of you. If it isn’t the job, then it is something in your background.”

“And the hit on her last night?”

“That is the anomaly. I am going to do some research on an idea I have.”

“Sam,” Eden said, worry threading that one syllable. He looked over at her.

“No, I’ll be careful. Don’t really need to hack anything. I know I have something that connects all of you in some way.”

“You could have called me tomorrow about this. Why now?”

“Well. Your brother was very excited, and I was worried that maybe you and the very handsome Officer Hanson might be indisposed.”

Eden’s face flamed, and Kap chuckled.

“Do you need any help from Charity?” Kap asked.

“No. I got this. It’s all the files I came up with on my own. I need to sit with them and look. I know something is there.”

“Thanks for the call.”

“No problem.”

Then the line went dead.

“She’s not good with normal human interaction.”

“You know this, Sam? She’s the one who helped us when Jin and then when Autumn was in trouble.”

She nodded. “El and I have known her for years.”

“Do you know why she’s on the run?”

She nodded, sadness filling her expression.

“She helped me find El against orders. She wasn’t directly ordered not to, but she was aware of the rules.

Then, she started poking around for us on her own.

She knew we were getting frustrated, so she jumped at the chance to help.

I know we aren’t the only reason. When she began searching for information for us, she discovered something else.

Not sure what it was, but our actions caused her to find something that sent her into hiding. ”

Kap now had a better picture of what was going on and why Eden felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Guilt was the cloak that dampened her shine.

He had thought he was seeing the true Eden months ago when they ran into each other for the first time.

Instead, he thought he might have it backwards.

Now, she hid her feelings, and he hated that he was part of the reason why.