Page 5 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

Three

By the time Kap and Graeme returned from the Dillon Security offices, he wanted to break something. He knew he should be holding onto his temper, but this case was already testing every one of his nerves.

“So?” Adam asked as they stepped into the common room.

“They wouldn’t tell us where she or her brother had been and told us to get a search warrant for the phone,” Graeme said.

“You don’t sound worried,” Kap said.

He shrugged. “Dillon’s former FBI. He’s just going by the book. We should receive the warrant soon. Right?”

Adam nodded. “And remember, if someone paid enough for her and her brother to protect them outside of the country, that’s some big money. Dillon is one of the most expensive security companies. Whoever it was will have to be notified. You know there is an NDA.”

“Which Dillon said they were doing, but apparently, the client hadn’t responded. Of course, they got back in the dead of night,” Graeme said, studying him. “They showed us the proof.”

Yep, they had been ready with that, which wasn’t suspicious at all. All agents had their own security systems, so they could pull up the proof of the brother and sister returning.

“Is it normal for her brother to stay over with her?” Adam asked.

“Apparently, when they fly in like that. He has a place on one of the other islands, so he usually stays at her place when he has work here,” Graeme said. “If she didn’t have proof that he went into the house with her, I would put my money more on him than on her.”

Kap’s gaze narrowed as he studied Graeme. “Why?”

He shrugged. “He has that look about him. He’s living on the edge. There’s a lot of darkness there.”

He knew what the Scotsman was saying. Former special forces for the British military, Graeme had witnessed many terrible things and the harm they could inflict on many people.

“While we are waiting on the warrant, and whoever their client was, start running down people who might know something about why that man was on our island. People like him just don’t pop up in places for no reason.”

They both nodded and headed to their offices. Unfortunately, Kap’s teammates followed him in.

“So, this has to do with Eden?” Rami said.

Dammit. He needed a break. Dealing with his anger each time he encountered Eden was becoming annoying. More annoying? His teammates fucking with him.

“Yes.”

“How did she look?”

“Like always.”

But she hadn’t looked the same as usual. There was a fragility about her now. It was like the morning she’d returned to Saudi when he had confronted her, like one wrong word and she would fall apart.

Nikki studied him. “I heard her brother was there.”

Of course, she had. TFH was a rumor mill, complete with bets being made on everything from who was going to hook up with whom to who was going to get married.

“Wait, are there bets on me?”

“Yep,” Nikki said, popping the “p.”

“The fuck?”

“Everyone is wondering how long you’ll last before Graeme kicks you to the curb,” Rami said with a chuckle.

“So, there isn’t a bet about them banging?”

Dammit, he knew that voice. Their captain’s fiancée was a little different.

Autumn Bradford leaned against the doorjamb.

She was eating, of course. Some kind of candy bar.

He had no idea how she stayed so thin when she ate enough food for a small family of three.

Probably had something to do with being raised in a cult.

He’d heard Seth comment that she would go weeks without a decent meal, so now she ate whatever and whenever she wanted.

“Not that I know about,” Nikki said.

“Uh, weird. So, she has an alibi, but that dude was CIA, so you know what that means.”

The feds were going to show up, if they hadn’t already been in contact with TFH. That meant more headaches.

He knew he should have realized that was coming, but within a few seconds, his phone went off.

Captain: Big Boss’s office, now.

“Well, this has been fun, but I have a meeting.”

“No one has ever said that. No one has ever said they want to go to a meeting,” Autumn said.

He said nothing to that. Instead, he shooed them out of his office, then hurried to Del’s office.

Adam, Graeme, and Seth were already there. Del did not look happy.

“Shut the door, Kap,” he said.

He did, then turned to face the other three men.

“What happened?”

“We have an issue.”

“The CIA?”

Del nodded. “Here’s the thing. They’re acting really weird.”

“They’re the CIA. They are weird,” Graeme murmured.

“This is over the top. They asked questions, and I told them I would share if they would. They refused.”

“That’s not that odd for them,” Seth said.

“You think there is more to this than just a normal killing?” Adam asked.

Del nodded.

“There’s never a simple killing when it comes to an operative,” Kap said. “Are they taking over?”

“No. That’s the bizarre part. You’ve dealt more with them when you were with NCIS than I have, so can you ever remember a time when they didn’t try to take over?”

“They always want to take over, even when it’s clear that the death of an agent—either active or retired—has nothing to do with their work at the CIA. They use the excuse of national security.”

Del leaned back in his chair and studied them all. “I don’t like this shit. It feels like there’s something nasty festering, and the fucking CIA dragged it to Hawai’i.”

“You two couldn’t get anything from Eden or her brother?” Adam asked.

“No,” Graeme said. “In fact, Kap and his pretty mug seemed to irritate her.”

Yes, let’s talk about my ex and how much I irritate her.

“Do you think Kap should stand down?” Adam asked.

“No. He knocks her off kilter. We know she probably was telling the truth about when she returned to the island, but I think she knows more. Kap agrees with me on that.”

“Dig into this Green. I want to know everywhere he was stationed.”

“The CIA is helping us with that one?” Kap asked, not able to keep the skepticism out of his voice.

“No. But I know that Charity has been digging into his background. We might also want to try to call in that friend of Jin’s,” he said to Adam. Jin was Adam’s fiancée. “See if she can get hold of Sam.”

He nodded. “Graeme, you and Kap head down to see what you can find out.”

Ordered away from the office, Eden made her way to the set of Task Force Honolulu. Emily had made it to the set, just to be called back to help work on how Green had found out Eden’s number.

She stepped on set, flashed her ID, and found Ian right away.

The man could be a model. He fit in this world, with its lights and cameras, thanks to his classic good looks, dark hair, and blue eyes; he could definitely play the role that Jakob Wulf played.

She caught his eye as she made her way over to him and the actor in question. Wulf was one of the three Wulf siblings who owned and operated Wulf Industries. Although he seemed to spend more time acting than with the company.

“Eden Carlyle,” he said, rising from his director’s chair. He leaned forward, giving her a kiss on her cheek. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Thanks,” she said. She and Ian had worked protection for Jakob’s fiancée last year when she’d had a stalker. “It’s good to see you, too. How’s Lani?”

“Brilliant.”

He didn’t hide his accent when he was off camera. He was playing a good old American, but he was as British as her partner.

There was a call, and Jakob sighed. “Back to work. Make sure to get some of the snacks, Eden.”

Then he headed back to what looked like a scene they were filming in front of one of the hotels.

Ian stepped closer. “You look like shite.”

“Fuck off,” she said with no heat. He was another brother she didn’t need, but she appreciated his concern. “I got no sleep, then had the damned TFH at my door this morning.”

“Yeah. I heard from my nemesis.”

“Oh, you talked to Sam?”

She hadn’t told him that the woman he knew as Sam was probably her best friend outside of her brother.

She didn’t like divulging secrets to anyone, even people she trusted.

Either way, everyone knew he had a rivalry going on with the former CIA analyst. Not just at Dillon.

Apparently, most of TFH was aware of it as well.

“No. I meant Emily.”

“You have more than one?”

He pursed his lips but said nothing for a moment. She knew he was trying to get hold of his temper.

“Anything going on here?”

“Naw. They should have sufficient security in place by the end of the week. Jakob wants us to do the background checks since the last one showed up naked in his dressing room.”

“Jesus. I hadn’t heard that.”

He chuckled. “The best part was that Lani was the one who found her. I don’t think that woman will be doing anything like that ever again.”

Lani Kingston-Wulf was Hawaiian born and tough. She could just imagine how the woman reacted.

They watched the scene being filmed, which she barely paid attention to.

Instead, she kept an eye on the people surrounding the actors as they worked through their scene.

And, of course, she was thinking about Green’s murder.

The man wasn’t anyone who was in the know about things going on.

Yes, he was an agent, but she knew the only reason he had the job was that he was a legacy. His uncle had been a section chief.

Ian tapped her arm and motioned with his head to a small area away from the filming. She followed him.

“What’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re thinking about something else.”

“I can do my job, Ian.”

“I wasn’t saying you couldn’t. I just know something else is going on. I know you had to multitask in your former career because you actually had two jobs.”

Now that she was outed, everyone knew that her job with her family’s business was a cover. It didn’t mean that she didn’t have work to do, tedious office work that often made her want to scream. Eden still had to do it.

“Well, it has nothing to do with this job, so don’t worry about it.”