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Why the hell is Renault seeing Charlene at her house? Noah asked Ethan as if he was still dating her as soon as Ethan told him what was happening.

Ethan said, I don t know. I ll see if I can learn what he was doing in Shelby Bay.

Just be careful. We don t want to tip him off that we know he has had contact at that home.

Yeah, I will be. I was disappointed that we weren t able to catch any sign of Oakley at his great-aunt s house, but I knew his turning up there could be a long shot.

I agree. It can take weeks to take these guys down, so I m not giving up hope, Noah said.

Ethan was glad that they were working together when he hadn t been totally sure in the beginning.

They arrived at the grocery store and hurried through it to pick up all the groceries they both needed. How about if I grill steaks at the DEA house tomorrow night for the three of us? Noah asked.

That sounds like a great idea. Ethan liked that Noah was trying to really develop some wolf camaraderie with them.

They paid for their groceries and then Noah drove Ethan back home. Okay, good luck with your quest concerning Renault.

Thanks, I m hopeful we ll learn what he was doing, and we can clear him of being a suspect. Ethan carried the groceries into the house while Noah drove off.

Ethan texted Charlene: I m home with the groceries. I m just putting them away so no rush on coming home. Just do it when it feels natural.

It took Charlene a while to text him back and she finally said: Okay. The tide s coming in so it s perfect timing for us to return. We ll probably arrive in about twenty minutes.

He texted: Perfect.

He finished putting away the groceries. Then he started peeling the potatoes, slicing them up, and boiling them. Afterward, he began frying the green beans.

Before long, he heard Charlene talking to Renault as she was coming up the steps to the back deck.

Ethan went to the back door to greet them. Hey, Renault, good to see you. He shook his hand. Have you been missing me?

Yeah. Frankly, I have been. You were great at the job. Have you been missing the job? Renault asked.

Ethan laughed and pulled Charlene into a hug. No. Not at all.

Renault smiled. I can see where she would make you feel differently about working at the office any longer. All I ve got to say is Noah really missed out.

Charlene smiled. He ll do great finding someone he s a whole lot more into than he was with me. It s all good. Hmm, lunch smells delicious.

So what brings you around here? Ethan asked Renault.

Well, if Charlene hadn t told you yet, I came to apologize to her for not telling her I had sent the roses anonymously. She said you beat me by bringing two dozen.

Ethan laughed. Yeah, but your delivery beat my arrival at her house.

Renault smiled, looking more lighthearted now that he d come clean about the flowers with both Charlene and Ethan. Renault even helped Charlene set the table and brought everyone glasses of ice water.

That wasn t the only reason I came here—I mean, to apologize to Charlene.

I kind of have a situation at work. Since you re no longer there, but I know you well enough to realize you weren t sabotaging our missions, I was trying to catch who might be the one responsible, Renault said, sounding as serious as could be.

That s a dangerous thing to do on your own, Ethan said. At least Ethan had Tori and Adam s backup if he had really needed them to intervene while he was in Portland.

It s just as dangerous for all of us on the force if we have someone in the department who is on the take, Renault said.

True. Ethan brought in the roasted chicken while Charlene got the bowl of mashed potatoes and Renault dished up the green beans. So what do you have in mind doing? Is Grainger sanctioning this?

I asked Grainger if I could surreptitiously learn who might be involved. The boss said not just no, but hell no. He said I was too valuable to lose. Renault sat down at the table and forked up some of the chicken Ethan had carved up.

He s probably right about that. Do you have any suspects? Anyone who seems suspicious?

Agents Pete Cohen and Manx Ryerson.

Ethan glanced at Charlene. She raised her brows.

They were with us on the raid at Charlene s house, but I checked the roster and both of them were on five of the raids where we took heavy fire.

We had kept the mission plan secret except for just a few key players.

So neither of the agents had a lot of time to get the word out if they were involved in this.

They only had enough time really to warn them we were at the door, ready to knock it down.

Renault dished up some green beans and mashed potatoes.

Ethan thought about those missions as he ate one of the drumsticks. Okay, so two of our agents were wounded on three of those raids.

Right. So I would discount the men who were injured because they were right in the line of fire, pushing forward, trying to take down the perps. Even I got winged on that first job.

Yeah, I remember that.

Hell, Renault said, if you hadn t been there for me, I would have died.

We got lucky.

Did any of your men die? Charlene added butter to her potatoes.

No, but we had enough injuries that might not have occurred if someone hadn t warned the drug dealers before we bashed in their doors, Renault said.

True. I figured a good way to narrow down the search was to discount anyone who had been out sick, injured, or on vacation because they wouldn t have been aware of our missions, Ethan said.

Exactly. Not once did Cohen or Ryerson take any bullets. In fact, I couldn t account for their whereabouts during this last raid. Which could have been another reason why we would get hit so hard. Two of our men weren t there helping us to take down the perps, Renault said.

They must not have warned Kroner that they had hit the wrong house and were coming to his house next, Charlene said.

No one but I knew who we were actually targeting, Ethan said, because of previous botched cases.

About the other cases, Renault, you could be right.

I was so busy making sure our injured men were getting seen to, and that the drug dealers we caught were being hauled away, that I don t remember what either of those men had been doing.

They looked like they hadn t been in a fight at all. The rest of us were sweating, had gas-mask marks on our faces when we removed the gas masks, and I didn t see that they d even worn gas masks.

Hell. Ethan wished he had been more observant of the two men.

Don t feel bad about it. I didn t catch on until the raid on Kroner s house.

I found your informant and took tougher measures to learn how come we hit the wrong house.

He said that an agent, he didn t know which one, told him he would make it worthwhile to him if he changed the name of the street that we were supposed to hit.

Nothing too noticeable, something that could be a reasonable mistake.

But he also asked who the drug dealer was, and Ferret told him he didn t know and he wouldn t give the agent the actual address either.

Aww, hell. I thought Ferret had lied to me.

He was sweating and nervous, tapping his foot, avoiding eye contact, even looking up at the ceiling as if he was trying to come up with a story.

But I couldn t learn from him why he had given me the wrong street name.

Now Ethan was truly irritated about it. He sure wished the hell he knew who the agent was.

Ferret did know who the drug dealer was.

I just kept who we were going after under wraps from our team until we arrived at the house.

I just kept thinking something wasn t right because we had all these near-misses on capturing the perps, Renault said.

Charlene mentioned what she had seen at the convenience store. I mean, it might not have been anything, but Ryerson and Cohen acted suspicious to me.

Renault shook his head. Especially after Ryerson and Cohen followed you into the restaurant to intimidate you.

What are you thinking of doing to prove who the mole or moles are? Ethan asked, hoping he wasn t being taken for a fool because the mole was really Renault who was trying to learn if Ethan thought it was him.

I got word that Oakley had a home in Shelby Bay, but it s in another person s name and so it took a lot of digging to unearth it.

Oakley doesn t know what I look like so I actually followed another guy who often buys drugs from Oakley.

That s how we learned Oakley was involved as a dealer initially.

I figured this dude would be going to his source.

I followed him from Portland, long drive, I know, but I didn t realize he would lead me all the way out to Shelby Bay and to this home that is associated with Oakley.

That was risky. Especially since Ethan and Noah had caught Renault at it and worried about him working with the criminals.

Yeah, I know. But the thing of it was, I went to buy the drugs for evidence, had a microphone on, and the whole thing. But no one sold me anything. They denied having drugs there.

But there was nobody to back you up. What if someone was conducting surveillance and saw you going there and thought you were involved in all this? Ethan asked.

To tell you the truth, I would have asked you to go with me because I trust you, but you went and retired on me.

I figured I could rely on Noah, but he has gone back to Florida and who knows when he s returning to take over your old job.

Plus, being new on the team, he might not want to go rogue to help me solve this.

I imagine he wouldn t. Just like it s too dangerous for you to do so. What did you find out when you went to the house? Ethan asked. Maybe Renault saw something that would help them.

I didn t see Oakley. I didn t see anyone I recognized. Just some small fish. I figured Oakley and the others might be lying low after the raid on Kroner s place and us netting one of the guys.