32. Elliot
CHAPTER 32
ELLIOT
N ova hasn’t said a word since we left the hospital. Unfortunately, Milo didn’t make it. He was dead before we even arrived, but I know she’d hoped for a miracle.
I know I did.
The man threw himself in front of her, taking a bullet that would have surely robbed me of the woman sitting beside me. I owe him everything.
Tucker drove down and made a copy of the thumb drive. Then he and Riley headed back to the ranch. That way we could deal with the Lieutenant Milo claims Nova trusted enough to hand over the evidence that nearly got her killed.
Which is what we’re doing now, sitting in an old diner on the same side of the booth, waiting for him to show up.
From the research I did, I know he’s in his early forties. Dark skin, bald, brown eyes. He was a Marine before leaving that life behind for one in public service. On the surface, he looks like a decent man. But after everything we’ve dealt with, I still worry.
“Are you all right?” I ask her then take a drink of my coffee.
“No. Not really,” she admits. “I just keep hearing his voice in my head. Over and over again.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it?” she asks. “I’m the reason he’s dead.”
“You gave him a purpose to live.” When she doesn’t respond, I lean over. “You trusted him with something so important people are killing for it. You took a man that no one would have looked twice at and made him a hero.”
“He died,” she replies.
“And I wish I could change that. But don’t take away the heroics of what he did because you’re feeling guilty. He made a choice to sacrifice himself for you. Honor that.”
“Why did I let him stay in that alley?” she asks, still not looking at me. “If I trusted him enough to give him that drive, why didn’t I give him somewhere warm to sleep? Warm food for his belly?”
Unsure what else to do, I reach over and cover her hand with mine. “Milo said you gave him that place to sleep, remember? You did that for him.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“You won’t know anything until you get your memories back,” I tell her. “But I know you. You wouldn’t have left him there if you weren’t sure he was safe and cared for.”
She starts to respond, but the bell over the front door dings, and Lieutenant Davin Crew strolls in, wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, and a black jacket. His gaze travels around the diner until it lands on Nova.
I watch him closely, noting how he visibly relaxes when he sees her.
“Nova.”
“Lieutenant,” she replies.
I note that he’s a bit thrown off by her unfamiliar demeanor. “You still don’t remember, do you?”
She shakes her head, and he slides into the booth across from us. “Sorry.”
“Not your fault.” He smiles. “I’m just glad you’re alive.” He shifts his attention to me and offers his hand. “I hear I have you to thank for that.”
“Elliot Hunt,” I tell him.
“Hunt? As in Hunt Brothers Search & Rescue?”
“One and the same.” I’m a bit surprised he’s heard of us since we tend to work mainly by word of mouth.
“You and your brothers are a legend around the precinct. We heard what your brother Bradyn did last year. Rescuing all those girls from that trafficking ring overseas.”
Nova stares at me, her expression shocked. “Seriously?”
“It’s what we do,” I reply. We take no credit because it’s God who guides our steps. Every single one of them. Even if I’ve struggled with my own faith, I’ve never doubted that.
“You’re good men.”
“So are you, from what we hear, Marine. Until you left the service for a job here in Dallas.”
“My mother was sick,” he replies. “She needed someone here.”
“Family is something I understand.” My respect for Crew grows. “I’m hoping you can offer us some help now.”
“Anything.” He turns to Nova. “What can I do?”
“Hi, honey, what can I get you?” the waitress asks as she crosses toward our table.
Crew flashes her a kind smile. “Just coffee, please. Ooh, you know what? I’ll take a piece of pie too. Whatever you have.”
“You got it.” She writes something down then leaves the tableside.
“How long have we been working together?” Nova asks.
“This time or the time before?” When she doesn’t answer, he chuckles. “Nova O’Conner, I have known you since you were a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old right out of Marine boot camp and ready to serve your country.”
She looks honestly shocked. “I was in the service, too?”
“Here you go.” The waitress sets down a mug of coffee and a piece of pie.
“Thank you,” he replies.
“Anytime. Let me know if you need anything else.” She leaves the table again, and I cast a glance at Nova, who’s starting to look rather frustrated at the interruptions. I know she’s desperate for answers. Even more so after what happened earlier today.
“So I served in the Marines with you?” She asks again.
He nods. “You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. After training, you got stationed in Oahu. I had already been there for a year.” When she doesn’t respond, he continues. “You were leaving a restaurant one night, and a couple Marines tried to get fresh with you.” He grins. “I started to help, honorable gentleman that I am and all that, but before I got to you, two of them were on the ground, and the third was running away.” He laughs. “I’d never seen anything like it. So I knew I had to meet you.”
She looks at me then back to him. “So we were friends ?” The inflection of her tone is the true question, and Crew catches on.
He arches a brow. “If you’re asking if we were more, the answer is no. I was already engaged when we met, and you’ve always been a little sister to me. You and my wife have been close friends too. Sabrina is going to be happy to know you’re okay.”
“Really?” She’s hopeful once more.
He nods. “Why do you look so surprised?”
“Brett told me I didn’t have any friends.”
If I hadn’t fully trusted the man across from me yet, all of that would have changed the moment I saw the volatile fury on his face at the mention of Nova’s former fiancé. “That man doesn’t have a truthful bone in his body,” Crew growls. “He never had anything but selfish intentions when it came to you. I never liked him. Begged you not to marry him.”
“Why did I plan to?”
He shrugs. “After losing your mother, you felt alone. You worked a lot, and my guess is that you were tired of being lonely. Brett was charming at first—I’ll give you that. But he was always a snake.”
She nods. “He’s the one who shot me.”
Crew’s expression morphs from anger to fury. “I’d suspected, but to hear he did—” He shakes his head. “I knew he was dirty.”
“You did?”
He nods. “We had a fight after you got engaged. I told you it was a mistake, that there was something off about him. You told me that not everyone could have the kind of love Sabrina and I shared and that some of us had to settle. I, of course, told you that you were wrong, but things weren’t the same between us after that. Even at work, you avoided me.” He shakes his head in frustration, clearly hating that he’s recalling such a memory. “Anyway, a few weeks before you left for your latest undercover op, you came to me and told me that you were ending the engagement. That something felt off and you wanted to reconnect when you got back.”
“I didn’t say what felt off?”
He shakes his head. “But a few months ago, you showed up out of the blue and told me that Brett had taken it upon himself to show up on mission. You said you didn’t trust his motives and thought he’d been working with Ivan long before the mission was even authorized. That him showing up had nothing to do with you and everything to do with him trying to get close enough to keep an eye on you. You asked me to look into it.”
“Did you?”
“Oh, I did. Took what he did to the captain and insisted he pull the plug and get you all out, but he refused.”
“We don’t think he can be trusted,” Nova says.
“You’d be right there. I can’t prove it, but some of the decisions he’s making lately don’t make any sense.”
“Like what?” I question.
“Aside from not pulling the plug even though Brett went rogue? There were quite a few things. Telling us to drop certain cases. Denying surveillance requests despite insurmountable evidence. Then there was the other thing with your op,” he says then takes a bite of pie.
“What about it?”
Crew washes down the pie with a swig of coffee. “Whenever an officer heads undercover for any length of time, we take precautions to ensure that the true identity is hidden. But this time, they erased both you and Sam.”
“That’s not typical? Brett told us they’d done that, but I just assumed it was because of the type of mission,” she replies.
“It’s not typical for them to go that deep. They erased your life. A specialized team removed every image of you they could find from the internet so no facial ID could be used. They removed your records, both from the service and work at the precinct. Your fingerprints were taken out of the system. It was like you never even existed.”
“They did a thorough job,” I tell him. “The only thing we managed to dig up was a surveillance video of her outside a shop.”
“They were intent in what they did. When I asked about it, the captain said you were going deep undercover and they wanted to be sure because it was suspected Ivan had contacts as high up as the FBI. It’s why they sent you and not one of their own agents. Or so they said.”
“You don’t believe any of that,” I say, not even bothering with a question. His answer is clear in his expression.
“Not a word of it. But before I could really dig, they’d already sent word you’d accepted, and you didn’t want to back out because you believed you could do good work.”
“I wish I could remember any of this.” Nova groans in frustration. “It’s all missing. My entire life is gone.”
“It’ll come back.” I have to fight the urge to put my arm around her and pull her closer, if only to offer the slightest comfort.
“Tell me what led you to me.” Crew takes a bite of his pie.
“We were at my apartment, looking for the evidence Brett claims I have. We didn’t find anything, but there was a man outside my window. At first, I thought he was spying on us.”
“Milo,” Crew says with a smile.
“You knew him too?”
“Of course. You had him over for Thanksgiving every single year. Sabrina and I were there too, and we met him then. Nice guy. Rough life. But you’ve been trying to get him clean and sober ever since. You’d worked out an agreement with the guy who owned that building adjacent to yours, and you’d been trying to help him get his own place. Is he doing okay?”
Nova looks down at her hands.
“He’s dead,” I tell Crew, sensing that she doesn’t want to speak the words. “Took a bullet meant for Nova.”
Crew looks genuinely upset. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry to hear that. He was a good man, Nova. You saw the best in him and gave him every chance.”
“So people keep telling me.” She raises her gaze back to Crew. “He told us that you could be trusted. That I told him, if I didn’t come back, to go to you.”
“Go to me with what?”
“This.” Nova reaches into her pocket and withdraws the thumb drive then sets it on the table between all of us.
“Is that—” Crew starts.
“Surveillance photos. Transaction receipts. Locations, dates, and cargo manifests. All of it linking directly back to Ivan. My brother Tucker was able to access it.”
Crew’s eyes go wide. “You got it.”
“I got it.”
“Nova, this is big.” He reaches forward and pushes the drive back to her. “But I can’t take it.”
“Why not?”
“The captain is dirty, I’m certain of it. And if you give that to me, you run the risk of losing it. They’re watching me. Every move I make. I had to slip two tails just to get here without incident.”
“They’re tailing you? Why?”
He shifts his gaze to me. “Ever since I went to the captain with my fears about Brett, they have. And now internal affairs is sniffing around the precinct. It’s a mess.”
“Are they interested in the captain?”
He nods. “But not just him. After Sam’s body was found, we thought it was only a matter of time before yours washed up too. When that happened, I went to a friend of mine at the bureau and told him my concerns. He took it to his superior, and the next thing I know, IA is requesting access to files and taking up office in our conference room.”
Frustration tugs at me. If he can’t help us, who can? “Can your contact help us?” I ask him.
“No. I wouldn’t trust it. I thought we were friends and he would look into things quietly, but now I’m thinking he’s just looking for a career climb.”
“Then what do we do? How do we make sure this gets into the right hands?” Nova asked. “Sam and Milo died for this. It has to mean something.”
“It will,” Crew assures her. “Let me do some digging. I’ll see what I can find out.” He turns to me. “Do you have anyone you can trust? Anyone with reaches high enough to make sure that evidence doesn’t end up buried?”
I run through the list of contacts I’ve made over the years. Agencies both here and abroad, as well as contacts I still have in the military. “Possibly. I’ll make some phone calls.”
“Excellent.” Crew turns back to Nova. “You have to keep that evidence safe, Nova. Without it, Ivan walks. But be careful who you trust. He has deep pockets, and his reach is wider than we ever considered before.”
“You stay safe too,” she tells him. “Hopefully, when all of this is over, I can get to know you and Sabrina again.”
He flashes a smile. “We’d like that.”