Logan (Federal Protection Agency #9)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Logan

I smashed my elbow against the doorframe as I dragged a struggling man across the room. He was shouting something, which I assumed was probably a lot of cursing, but the man was so drunk I couldn’t make out a single syllable.

I let out a few curse words myself as pain shot up from my elbow and made my arm go numb. I’d been hunting this fucker down for days and I just wanted to get him behind bars and out of my life.

When the case came across my desk, I thought it would be simple. A man had broken into his neighbor’s home and assaulted the woman and child living there. The neighbor had cameras and had reached out to the police immediately. There was no question about what had happened and who the perpetrator was.

Instead of the easy case I’d expected, however, I’d been given the runaround for days trying to find a damn abusive pedo who had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.

I’d eventually tracked him down to the basement of an illegal casino, which explained why he’d been so hard to find.

I none-too-gently shoved the man into the holding cell at the Federal Protection Agency’s headquarters to wait for one of the locals to come collect him for processing. This was a part of my job I truly enjoyed, watching the assholes we caught shake and sit wide-eyed as they waited to find out what their fate would be after we tracked them down.

Don’t get me wrong, as a detective I would never take it upon myself to dish out my own brand of justice and abuse the fuckers when we tossed them in cells, but I wouldn’t treat them with kid gloves, either. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to beat the crap out of them, I just wouldn’t. I prided myself on controlling my temper when faced with pedophiles and abusers. Some days it was beyond difficulty to resist, but I took my position at the FPA seriously and would never risk my job on the team just to get a few hits in.

I slammed the cell door behind him and shook out my arm to try and get some feeling back in the limb. The pins-and-needles feeling was just starting to leave my fingers when walked into the FPA offices. I plopped down at my desk and, with an audible sigh, pulled the top folder off the stack of waiting paperwork that never seemed to go down.

“Need some help there, old man,” a nearby voice needled me.

Without needing to look away from my paperwork, I balled up a piece of scrap paper and tossed it at the man sitting next to me.

“Shut up, Roland. I’m only two years older than you.”

“Yet it still took you three days to track down one fifty-year old pedo.”

Looking away from the paperwork I’d barely started, I glared at my fellow detective. Roland slouched against in his chair, one elbow braced on the desk, and a shit-eating grin on his face.

Why was this asshole my best friend?

“Keep it up and I’m never inviting you over for another barbeque night.”

“What? No, you can’t do that.” Roland leaned so far over his desk his arms extended onto mine, knocking my paperwork askew. “Tyler is on a new vegetarian kick. You’re my only hope for getting any meat in my diet. You can’t deny me. I’ll die of iron deficiency, or something, and then you’ll have to live with that on your conscience.”

Rolling my eyes at my friend’s antics, I returned to my work. Roland was a good detective, but I’d never seen him do any paperwork.

A miracle, and the luck of being the Boss’s brother. I’d complain about the nepotism, if I wasn’t personally aware of how hard Roland had worked for his position.

Plus, Roland’s upbeat attitude was sorely needed in the FPA. Dealing every day with crimes against children could wear on a person’s soul over time, and even the best agents and detectives were at risk of burn out. Having Roland around was like keeping a ball of sunshine in my pocket that could bring some cheer to even the darkest days.

I wasn’t sure who he’d conned into doing his paperwork for him but my bet lay on the youngest member of our team, Drew.

Drew West, the son of Jonas West, a local detective with the Baton Rouge PD, and Cooper’s new protégé. The kid was a wiz with computers, and after a bad start a few years ago when he’d gotten caught up in some black hat hacking, Coop had taken him under his wing and started teaching him the right way of hacking. Since Jonas and Coop had ended up falling in love while working on the case after Drew had been kidnapped and needed protection, the young man had plenty of time to spend with Coop.

In his new job of white hat hacking, Drew was working for the greater good, using computers and traversing the dark web to track down people like the asshole we’d just brought in. Criminals.

I was just considering throwing something heavier than a paper ball at Roland when my phone rang.

“Detective Hollingsworth speaking.”

“Damn, Logan. You even answer your personal phone with that business voice? You really do need to get out more.”

A wide smile spread across my face as I leaned back in my chair far enough to make the old wood groan in warning.

“Sebastian Roth. Holy hell, man. Where you been hiding? I haven’t heard from you in forever.”

An awkward silence echoed from the phone, and I could feel the weight of the other man’s thoughts even from a distance.

“It’s a long story. Did you hear about that pedophile ring that was brought down last month?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t public news, but it was definitely the talk of the office for a while.” I sat up so suddenly in my chair I thought the poor piece of furniture would collapse under me. “Oh, shit. Was that you?”

“Yep. Like I said, long story.”

“I’ll bet.” The barely started paperwork glared up at me, waiting to be finished. I eagerly pushed it aside for the much more interesting conversation I’d found. “I’m guessing, since you’re calling me and you brought up the topic, that you need my help with something concerning that case?”

“Sort of. It’s…” Another heavy silence passed, this one even longer than the first. “…complicated. I’d rather not explain over the phone. Can you come by the office today?”

I didn’t even need to check my calendar, even though I was fairly certain I didn’t have anything scheduled this evening. Even if I had plans, Sebastian’s serious tone would have convinced me to cancel them. “Yeah. I should be able to come over around six. I’ll bring dinner. You still like that Thai place over by the park?”

“Yeah, sounds great.” Sebastian’s voice was fainter than it was before, as if he’d moved away from the phone or been distracted by something. “And Logan. Thanks.”

“No problem. I’m always glad for an excuse to get takeout.” I kept my tone as casual as possible, trying not to let myself get too worried before I even knew what was going on.

After Sebastian hung up, I sat staring at the dark screen of the phone for a few minutes, lost in thought.

The discovery of a major pedophile ring right in our own swampy backyard had been a shock, but I thought it was over. Baton Rouge’s mayor had immediately set plans into motion to take care of the problem and make sure something like that never happened again.

So, what could still be worrying Sebastian so much?

“Hey,” Roland tossed the same paper ball I’d thrown at him back at me, bouncing it off my head. “What’s up? Problem?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I hope not, but… I really don’t know.”