Page 13 of Storm and Tempest

“Sir—”

“I’m not finished. What I’m saying is, just worry about what’s in your jurisdiction. You were put in charge of this office. Now’s the time to act in accordance with your position. That means not using more Bureau resources than necessary to look for your wife. An investigation is one thing, and I’d be right where you are if it was me. But you can’t have most of the agents in this officeand half the technicians and analysts in the place working on finding your wife. There are other cases to solve. Got me?”

“Yes, sir.” This guy disagreed with the president, and he was making this visit about politics instead of it being about the case Jax was working. But Hadley was right that Jax’s people had other cases to work. He couldn’t pull everyone off what they were supposed to be working on just to find Kenna.

As much as he might want to do exactly that.

Jax continued, “I should give the team updated assignments. That way they know what they’re supposed to be working on.”

“Right. That brings me to that consultant of yours. The one you gave access to our entire system.”

“Maizie is excellent at her job.”

“That’s part of the problem, I’m afraid. A couple of the agents are questioning her now, trying to find out who has been worming their way through our computer system. She’s the most recent hire, so she’s first.”

“She’s being interviewed?” He was technically her guardian, but she was also an adult. And no one here knew she was his adopted daughter. “Does she have representation?”

“Why would she need that?”

Jax had to act like the dutiful agent. Not just because it kept him from descending back into the darkness of addiction, but also because that was what everyone around him expected. “Sir, if you’ll excuse me?—”

“You’re going to jeopardize your career on a wife who may not be who you think she is, and a consultant?”

Jax nearly said yes. But the last thing he could do was burn it all down and walk away. No matter how much he might want to.

“Take a few days,” the ADIC said. “I’ll cover for you here at the office and keep things running while you get your head straight. That work for you?”

As if Jax could say no.

Chapter Five

Jax strode down the hall and headed for the elevator so he could go to the fourth floor, where they had interview rooms and the holding cells. On the way, he grabbed his phone and called Stairns.

“Morning, Jaxton.”

There was a reassurance to hearing it. Possibly because Jax respected Stairns far more than he respected a lot of the people he’d worked with.

He held the phone to his ear and pushed the UP button. “How’s everything there?”

“Kids are off to school. Laney is having lunch with Elizabeth, and then they’re going to play tennis at the country club.”

Jax looked at his shoes, a smile pulling at his lips. “Thank you.”

“And our Maizie girl?”

Jax’s nose started to itch. He wanted to open up to Stairns, but they’d never been like that. “She’s being interviewed by a couple of agents about a worm in the network. I’m headed there now to find out what’s going on.”

He wanted to tell Stairns how it felt not knowing where Kenna was, or how he didn’t know how he was even going tobegin to find her. The lack of leads told him enough about the enemy they faced. But how was it supposed to get Kenna back?

This building, this job, was supposed to be his support network—the way he understood how the world worked and how he could navigate it, knowing that he could keep everything contained. All those self-destructive tendencies were in check if he had to pass regular drug tests, act within the bounds of procedure, and operate with integrity. Sure, some agents didn’t. That was why they had an Office of Professional Responsibility. But it wasn’t the way he operated.

“Fix it.”

“Yes, sir.” Jax didn’t work for the guy, but he had immense respect for what Stairns had done with Maizie. Craig and Elizabeth Stairns had three grown daughters and grandchildren, and they’d opted in their retirement to take on the challenge of helping Maizie navigate recovery from trauma and rebuild her life. Likely out of respect for Kenna.

“Any new leads?”

Jax told him about Buzard’s body and talked enough around the hole in the ground and what the groundskeeper said that Stairns would know what happened—that Kenna’s team had dug him up and taken him. “I need the funeral director’s name, I think. To find out if there was anything odd about the body or how it all transacted.”