Page 26 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

“I’ll hand these things down to you. They won’t have too much DNA on them, since they likely pulled them off of him before the sexual assault, but we should bag them.”

Even though Gene was focused on work, Greyson couldn’t help but be worried about the man.

“If you do it, Gene, you’re going to regret it. Taking a life isn’t easy. I’ve seen your record. You’ve not had to do that often.”

He glanced over.

“I don’t need a lecture from you. Like I said, I hope you’re never in this position, but I am. I’m going to get him justice.”

Then, he changed the subject.

Again.

Gene had read some of Corbin’s file, and the one from Vice. They had done surveillance on the place.

“The scumbags here won’t be the ones running the operation,” he stated.

“They’re just assholes who are involved.

The person behind this has been evading the FBI for a while.

It takes time to abduct men, and sell them off.

We’re going to have to pull old missing person files.

This might just be the ones that were found. ”

Greyson agreed.

“I’ll start getting them for you.”

That worked for him.

Gene knew that now that he was on the case, all of this would be sorted out.

He’d make sure that he found the people running it, and until he did, he’d make the assholes who hurt Corbin pay.

“Here are his things,” he said, picking them up. They were torn and he knew they’d been ripped from him by the filthy fucking animals.

It made him sick to pick up his bloody boxers, and he knew that he didn’t know half of what happened to Corbin.

And he wasn’t sure he could handle the truth. Hopefully, Ethan didn’t need to talk this out.

Truthfully, Gene would vomit.

Reaching up, Greyson took them,

As he did, Gene kept rooting around. There was no badge, no gun, and no keys anywhere to be found. He was willing to bet the fucker who hurt him kept a souvenir. Since Corbin had to get there somehow, they likely took his vehicle too.

Well, he’d get them back when he found them. The game was on, and he wasn’t stopping. It was time to hunt them down.

Climbing out of the dumpster, Gene dropped to the ground, and pulled out his phone.

They needed DNA to chase these people. If the FBI got it, he could control what the city cops saw, and that was the plan.

“We’ll get the techs here to pull this mattress and the clothes,” he stated. “I need it done off the record, for now,” he said.

Greyson shook his head.

“Don’t do it, Gene.”

He looked over.

“What did I not make perfectly clear?” he asked Greyson, moving toward him to get up in his face. “Did I not make perfect sense? Whoever hurt Corbin is mine. I’m going to find who is behind this, and I’m about to clean up the city. Isn’t that my fucking job?”

Greyson wasn’t having it. He also knew this was just anger talking, and that, he got. Only, it was time to check the man.

So, he shoved him back.

“First, don’t get up in my face. I’m the last person you want gunning for you, Gene. Check yourself. Now.”

He said nothing.

The man was to the point.

“Secondly, if you’d stop fuming and just listen, I’d make this a hell of a lot easier for you. Only, you’re so up in your feels that you’ve forgotten I’m on the same side you are.”

Okay, he had a point.

So, Gene waited for him to explain.

“Don’t call the techs to this scene. If you do, you’ve left a paper trail. For someone so goddamn hellbent on avenging Corbin, you’re dumber than a box of fucking rocks.”

He blinked.

“Did you just call me dumb?” he asked.

Greyson nodded.

“Yes. If you tie the FBI to this, there’s a trail, even if you think you can cover it. If you ask Sasha to examine remains, she’s putting that shit in a report. She’s all about the rules. Remember when you got the shit kicked out of you, and Ethan avenged you and almost got tagged for homicide?”

Yeah, he recalled.

Greyson was to the point.

“She paints by numbers—the FBI numbers. Don’t bring her in. If you do, it won’t be long before Gabe suspects something, and is gunning for you. If you go three steps beyond cowboy, then you’ve crossed his line. You need to think smarter.”

He would concede that point.

So, he calmed down.

“What do you recommend then?” he asked, since it sounded like Greyson had a plan.

While pissed off, he wasn’t too pissed off to listen to someone else’s plan to help him do this.

Greyson needed him to just listen.

Honestly, he couldn’t believe that he was helping him do this. Greyson couldn’t believe he was going to show the man how to bury a file so deep that no one would see it.

“The techs don’t need to know what body these samples are tied to. Put a fake case number on them, and have them only report them to you. They’ll create a case file, but it’ll lead nowhere. Once they file it, you’ll be able to make it disappear.”

Well, yeah.

He’d done that when Ethan was abducted and assaulted. He wasn’t an idiot. Only, he couldn’t say that to Greyson.

“You don’t say?”

Greyson kept going.

“You’ll get the results, but our ME won’t know for sure who they were pulled for either. You can say it’s to skip over the local law’s backlog and you’re letting them use the lab resources to see if it’s connected.”

Gene said nothing.

Not.

A.

Peep.

That’s when Greyson narrowed his eyes, and realized this was nothing new to the man.

“Wait a damn minute,” he stated. “You aren’t surprised I’m telling you how to do this. You’ve done this before!” he accused.

Gene shrugged.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he admitted. “I’m shocked you’re accusing me of something so heinous and outrageous. The only way to tell is to do a complete audit of thousands of files,” he stated. “No paper pusher is going to do that for funsies.”

And there it was.

Holy.

Shit.

“Jesus Christ, I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and gotten myself tied up in this mess,” he stated. “I don’t want to know. Stop talking to me,” he added.

That made Gene smile—more so since the man didn’t know half the shit that was going on in his office. Well, now, he’d be twitchy and paranoid.

“Yep. We’re in this mess together. So now, you can help me pull it off, or you can worry what the hell I’m going to do, and have done.”

Greyson sighed.

“So now it’s outright blackmail?” he asked.

Gene didn’t miss a beat.

“Ouch. That you’d accuse me of that hurts my itty, bitty feelings. Imagine the audacity to think someone who works for the government would do something like bend the rules and know how to get away with it.”

He sighed.

And Greyson knew the truth.

They were about to do this the wrong way, but for the right reasons.

Well, there went his career in the FBI.

If they got caught.