Page 15 of Storm and Tempest (Brand of Justice #13)

Chapter Twelve

“ W here is he going now?” Jax shook his head.

They’d followed Samuel from the lunch with Hadley to a local community park where he was now wandering the network of paths between wide stretches of grass where people played ultimate Frisbee or tossed footballs.

The whole place had been manicured to within an inch of its life, but kids on the playground and splash pad seemed happy enough with the setup.

Bruce huffed beside him. “Clandestine meeting?”

“Or he knows we’re following him and he’s stringing us along.” Jax hung back. “Going for a stroll to clear his head.”

Between his federally ingrained skills and Bruce’s former life as a spy, Samuel Chistane shouldn’t know they were behind him. Except for the fact he was from the same line of work as Bruce—and maybe he’d never left. After all, he could still be working for whoever wanted to pay off his debts.

Jax palmed his phone and dialed Maizie. As soon as she picked up, he said, “Everything good?”

“Yeah,” she said on a sigh, sounding tired—or something else he couldn’t figure out.

Had she been crying? “Ramon dropped off the laptop, so I’ve got a program going through the files, indexing everything.

Local police are looking for gangbangers who shot up a restaurant yesterday morning.

There’s nothing in any of the reports about you being a fed, and the footage from inside the place was lost. The police never got their hands on it. ”

“Any fatalities?” Jax scratched his nose under his sunglasses, keeping an eye on both Bruce and Samuel—and the two dogs playing on the grass to his right.

“A few of the customers in the restaurant had bumps and bruises. A guy with a preexisting heart condition was taken to the hospital, but it was just to check him over. He’s already been discharged.”

“Thanks, Maze.” That matched his hunch. “Did you get much sleep last night?”

“A little. I’m going to talk to Elizabeth later. We have an appointment scheduled.”

“Good. Keep yourself safe, yeah?” He meant that in all ways.

“You, too.” She hung up.

He’d be surprised if there turned out to be anything on Elliot Adams’ computer. Seemed more like he was an innocent bystander in all this, but it never hurt to be careful.

Up ahead, Samuel took a path that disappeared into the trees. A shaded running trail that would likely be popular in the afternoon heat.

Jax glanced at Bruce. “You good?”

The older man wiped sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. “Been in hotter places than this.”

“I’m sure you have. But I’m guessing you were younger then.”

Bruce chuckled. “You’d be right about that.”

“Let me know if you want me to keep going alone.”

“Kenna wouldn’t be offering to go it solo. She’d be complaining about the heat along with me.”

Jax smiled. “I’d like to hear about what the two of you got up to in England. But maybe later.”

“My side of the story.”

They stepped into the shady part, and both let out a long sigh.

“Twenty degrees cooler in here at least.” Jax wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Thank you for bringing her up. A lot of people have hesitated, like hearing about her is going to make me lose it.”

“Maybe you should lose it.”

Jax shook his head. “That’s when things get dangerous for me. If I’m going to find her, I need to keep things tight and my head on straight.”

“Like not getting a rifle and taking that guy out?”

“Chistane is more valuable to us alive than dead, and you know it.”

“He’s more valuable to us if we can find him than if we can’t.” Bruce motioned to the trail up ahead, where the strip of asphalt between tall trees bent to the right. Samuel Chistane was out of sight. “And if we aren’t being watched.” He glanced around.

“What is it?” Jax asked. The back of his neck prickled with some kind of awareness. He looked around.

“Whoa,” Bruce said.

Jax clocked the red dot on his chest, a tiny light. He was in someone’s crosshairs.

But he wasn’t the only target.

“You, too.” Jax motioned to the red dot from a different laser sight on Bruce’s shirt buttons. Which meant they were being covered from multiple angles. “Put your hands up. Don’t do anything rash.”

Uniformed SWAT officers who were definitely FBI—not local police—emerged from all angles. The fact he hadn’t realized he and Bruce were surrounded until the team was almost on top of them impressed him. And made him proud to be their boss.

“FBI! No sudden movements!”

Jax stood very still, both hands in the air. He looked for a familiar face among the crowd of cops, but with their helmets, it was hard to recognize the few whose names he would know.

One grabbed the back of his shirt. “Down on the ground!”

“I’m Special Agent in Charge Oliver Jaxton. What’s going on?”

Bruce was slammed to the ground, held there by a knee. To his credit, the older man didn’t fight back. But he yelled, “We didn’t do anything!”

“What’s going on?” Jax looked around and spotted an agent he recognized at the back. “Farlan!”

The agent nearest Jax said, “We got a report. Male of your description brandishing a weapon with civilians around, threatening to shoot.”

Jax shook his head. “We’re just walking. That’s it.”

The agent lifted his chin, and the man behind Jax let him go.

Special Agent Farlan reached them. “Guys, this is the Phoenix ASAC.” To Jax he said, “These are agents from Albuquerque. They’re here doing a training, and we were closest when the call went out.”

“This is a setup.” Jax motioned to Bruce. “Let my friend up, please.”

The agents lifted Bruce to his feet. He looked like he wanted to push them away, but Jax shook his head and Bruce contained himself.

“Sorry you wasted your time,” Jax said. “Someone is obviously targeting me.”

Farlan tipped his head to the side, and they stepped off to the edge of the group. “You need to come to the office. Write up a report. Let us know what’s going on.”

Jax would’ve said yes, normally. But right now, that was the last thing he wanted to do. It seemed like, for the first time, being an agent who followed the rules wasn’t going to get him what he wanted. “I’m not coming in.”

“Hadley is going to want to talk to you. He was asking where you were this morning.”

“He told me to take a few days.”

“And make an appointment with the department shrink, right?” Farlan stared him down.

“But you didn’t do that. Now you’re out here…

what—recreating? Going for a stroll in the afternoon heat.

More likely you’re chasing a ghost, trying to find a woman who doesn’t want you and making up leads so everyone thinks there’s some grand conspiracy. ”

Which is likely why in just two days Kenna’s friends had gained more leads than the FBI had in two months. Not counting whatever Amara was up to, handing him that file and sending him after Elliot—a man she had run off the road and probably killed.

Jax took a step back.

“Boss, you need to come back to the office with us.” The agent tilted his head. “Your friend, too.”

A couple of other agents crowded around.

“Hadley told me to take a couple of personal days,” Jax said, loudly enough more than just Farlan could hear it. “So that’s what I’m doing. Because he’s running the office, so everything goes smoothly.” Meaning Jax was expendable.

In a big organization, that was a good thing. The success or failure of the FBI as an agency shouldn’t rest on just one person’s shoulders. It should continue on, no matter who was in what role.

He could walk away, and they would be fine. But Kenna wouldn’t be.

Farlan frowned. “He threatened to suspend you if you didn’t show up.”

That cleared that right up—and solidified his resolve even more.

Jax slid his gun and its holster from his belt and handed it to Farlan.

“My duty weapon. And my badge.” He slid the cred pack from his pocket and handed it over.

“Take these to Hadley. Maybe ask him why no one in the department is considering the fact that my wife was kidnapped recently. Except Special Agent Herron. She sent an agent to find Kenna after the transport left. That agent went missing, but everyone thinks he transferred out.”

The skin around Farlan’s eyes creased.

“If he was transferred, then find out where,” Jax continued.

“Get Special Agent Elliot Adams on the phone and speak to him. Find out if he really transferred out of the office right after the silo operation. Ask questions about what’s going on in the office.

Because something isn’t right.” He looked around. “Unless you’re all in on it.”

“There isn’t a conspiracy,” Farlan said.

Bruce barked a laugh. “Son, I’ve seen empires rise and fall. Conspiracies are the air you breathe. Ain’t no getting away from them or avoiding them when they’re all around you. Question is, what side are you on?”

Farlan looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead a sad expression crossed his face. He turned, and the agents all disbursed. Walking into the woods the way they’d come, leaving Jax and Bruce on the path alone.

“Did you just quit the FBI, Son?”

Jax winced. “I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

“You already did the hard part. Don’t take back what you let go. Release it, move on, and let’s find Kenna.”

Jax looked around. “Where did Chistane go?”

“Guess we’d better find him first.” Bruce shrugged. “Good thing I put a tracker on his car. I just hope he goes back to it now and doesn’t dump it for a new one.”

“You think he’s switching vehicles, covering his tracks?” Jax glanced at him as they headed down the path back to the parking lot.

Bruce took a pair of aviator sunglasses from his shirt pocket and slipped them on. “That’s what I would do. But it feels more like this whole thing has been a trap. He’s baiting me, stringing us along.”

Jax nodded. “I don’t like it, but I think you’re right.”

When they got near enough, Bruce pulled out his phone. “His car is gone.”

“When did you put on a tracker?” Jax asked. Somehow, he’d missed that.