Page 16 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

Nine

They went to TFH headquarters first. Eden was exhausted but keyed up.

She’d already had a bit of an adrenaline crash, but she was wired up again.

The building was quiet when they drove up, and her nerves were on edge.

She knew the men who showed up at her house had been hired hands.

They hadn’t been the people who were after all the agents for the past four years.

It didn’t mean that those people wouldn’t have been standing outside waiting for them. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, telling her that they were being watched.

As they walked in, she was surprised to see the activity in the common room. A considerable chunk of Team Alpha was there, and it looked like all of Team Bravo was there, including Ryan Morrison and his SARS partner Maya. She had heard he was on the mainland visiting family.

“So,” Autumn said, stepping forward, “I hear you had visitors. Sam told me she’s hunting them through the traffic cams. Charity tried to come in, but we have Sam working until a decent hour. Then Charity will take over.”

Eden nodded. She and Sam had been texting. “Thanks.”

Autumn studied her for a long moment. “You look better with your crazy hair.”

Then she looked at Kap. “Glad you aren’t dead. Gotta get a snack.”

Eden blinked and looked at Kap. He shrugged. “You know what she’s like.”

“I don’t like my crazy hair.”

“I think it’s sexy,” he said.

“Ugh, stop,” El said. “I don’t want to have to beat the crap out of you.”

Kap rolled his eyes.

Adam came striding out with Graeme on his heels. “Ms. Carlyle, you haven’t been as forthcoming as you should have been.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, but I was worried about putting anyone else in danger.”

“Bullshit. You thought there could be a leak, so you didn’t trust us.”

Adam wasn’t usually so blunt. She felt Kap bristle next to her, but Eden didn’t want him getting in trouble for insubordination. “Okay. That too.”

“Well, at least you’re being honest.”

Before she could respond to that, the front doors opened.

Eden blinked. Emma Delano came striding into the room.

Del’s wife was a certifiable genius. As in, gaming companies and government agencies hired her regularly.

Eden knew that Emma sometimes helped with TFH investigations, and that was how she had met Del.

“I hear we have patterns to look at,” she said.

“Yeah,” Kap said. “Do we have the information set up for Emma to look over?”

“Yeah,” Drew said, rising out of his chair and hitting a few things on his tablet. A screen on the wall came to life, displaying all of Eden’s research. “Sam sent us all the info you had.”

“Okay, I need some caffeine, and then I will get to work.”

Seth came out and nodded to her. “We have the personnel files for everyone up there, but I think we need more info.”

“Wait, how did you get those?”

“Sam sent them.”

“You and El need to sit down and go over them,” Adam said. “There might be something there that clicks with you both. Something that we might overlook.”

“Like what?”

“Their files don’t have the gossip. And I know there is always gossip—among other things—that happens at the office that might not make it into the files. You and El might think of something.”

She nodded. That was actually an excellent idea.

“You can use conference room B.”

Once she and El were settled, Kap seemed to linger for a moment before saying, “I’ll be in the common room.”

Then he slipped out of the room. It was stupid to feel deflated. It wasn’t like they were back together or that he would stay with her, but it didn’t mean she didn’t yearn for that.

“Oh, stop mooning over him,” her brother said, disgust dripping from his voice.

“Get bent, El.”

“I don’t get it.”

“What do you mean?”

“He broke you three years ago.”

Anger raced through her blood. She didn’t usually have a quick temper, but she was exhausted and stressed.

“He did not. I was not broken.”

She said it with such vehemence that her brother’s head snapped up. “You were. You cried, Ed. You never cry over a man.”

“Wrong. I cried over Tad.”

He made a face. He had never liked her high school boyfriend. In fact, now that she thought about it, he didn’t like any of the men she’d dated. Was that why she had never let him meet Kap?

She pushed that thought aside.

“You take the first three and I’ll take the next. Think of everything you heard about them through gossip, even unsubstantiated.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but instead, he nodded.

They worked in silence for a while. The only sound was the scratching of their pens as they made notes and the turning of pages in the notebooks they were writing in.

They could always do this, even when they were kids.

They had that weird twin connection that even if they were irritating the hell out of each other, they liked to be close.

Codependent? Yep, but with their childhood as the children of CIA operatives, they could only trust each other.

“Why did you cry over that asshole?”

“I was sixteen and he broke my soft heart,” she said, sarcasm dripped from every word.

“And your head? Is it screwed on straight?”

“Has it ever been?”

His eyes narrowed. “Ed, I just want to make sure…”

She sighed and reached across the table to take his hand. They had been through hell together these last three years. “I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

He turned his hand so his palm was facing up, and he could grab her hand. “But I do. They never…they never came after you before.”

“But what if they did?”

He let go of her hand. “What?”

“What if they used you to lure me out?”

He closed his eyes. “Ian was thinking the same thing, which means you got shot on purpose.”

“Of course I did. That was no accident,” she said, humor lacing her voice.

He opened his eyes, regret shimmering. “Don’t joke.”

“Hey,” she said, getting up from her chair and going over to him. “We have to joke so we don’t fall apart. You know that. But either way, I think they wanted both of us.”

He frowned up at her. “Both of us?”

She nodded. “I think they took you because you were the one going around to other sites.”

One of his jobs for Carlyle was PR. He would go around and drum up business for their company, but he would also do a little work for the CIA. She had done the same thing up until the year before his abduction.

“It could have been me.”

He sighed. “If you say so.”

He had never been so pessimistic, but forty-eight hours in hell could really fuck a person up.

“I do. So, that might help us. Let’s keep working on these lists. I want everything you can think of, too. We both knew a lot of the same people, but we also had different relationships. Plus, men are gossipier.”

“I take offense to that,” Ian said, walking into the room. She rolled her eyes.

“Give me a break. Y’all are always worse than we are. Including at Dillon. I have never heard so much illicit gossip from Emily, and you know how much she talks.”

He chuckled. “That is pretty bad. Are you coming up with anything?”

“Not yet. We’re still just going through and listing everything.”

“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“I want to stop in to talk to Warner, keep him updated.”

She nodded. All of them were trying their best not to use electronic devices. All three of them never trusted the safety of that. The spy business had taught them that nothing electronic was ever really safe.

As if her phone had been privy to her thoughts, it vibrated on the table.

“Who is it?” Ian asked. “If it’s Sam—”

“No.” She looked at her brother. “It’s Uncle Marv.”

“Marvin Bellows?”

She nodded.

“You need to take it,” El said.

“Why?” Usually, her brother didn’t want her to tell Marvin anything. It wasn’t that El didn’t trust him in particular. Marv was still with the CIA, and El would never trust anyone who was still working with the Company again.

“You might be able to get information from him. It isn’t like he’s the sharpest tool.”

That was true. He had risen through the ranks, stepping on other people. As much as she loved him like an uncle, he was also kind of an ass. Working for him had been fine for her, but she knew a lot of other people didn’t like him.

The phone stopped vibrating.

“Seriously, you need to call him back.” She kept staring at her brother, waiting for his reasoning. “He might call Mom and Dad.”

“Shit. Yeah.”

She picked up her phone and hit Marv’s contact number.

“Eden, it’s so good to hear from you. I was worried.”

“Why would you be worried?”

“I heard there was a shooting in Hawai’i.”

She blinked as she looked first at her brother, then at Ian.

“There are shootings here all the time, Marv.”

“Hold on a second.”

She heard him move, and it sounded like he was shutting a door. This was something he didn’t want anyone else to hear.

“There are rumors.”

“What rumors?”

“First, a blond woman who works for Dillon was shot last night.”

“Well, I wasn’t shot.”

She wasn’t shot, only shot at. If she could keep as close to the truth as possible, she would convince Marv.

And why was she doing that? One reason was her parents.

As bad as the situation was, adding them to the mix was a bad thing.

They would not just ruffle feathers. They would pluck those feathers brutally.

Marv sighed, relief filling his voice. Unlike her brother, she trusted their old family friend—to a point. He was still a company man, and she knew that if anything went sideways, Marv would side with the CIA. It was his life. He had no kids, no wife, nothing outside of his career.

“That’s good to hear. My next call was going to be to your parents, although I didn’t want to do that.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t warn them. Was there something else?”

“What?’

“You said there were a couple of reasons why you called. Was there something else?”

“Oh, yeah. Listen, I’m glad that you and El landed on your feet with Dillon.”

“Thanks. We like working for Conner. He’s been a great boss.”