Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
O nce again, everyone was gathered in the large conference room, and Gavin scanned the faces of their group. Xander, Wilson, Buchanan, and the entire cyber team were seated around the large table. MacKay, Tiny, and Esme were on the Smartboard. It was nearing eleven at night, and Quinn, along with three FBI agents, had just left Hudson Security’s offices.
Despite the hour, there was a buzzing energy fueling the group. Because Bean was sitting with them. She was beside him, the fingers of her left hand laced with his. Of course, that didn’t prevent his amazing woman from typing on her laptop one-handed.
She was okay. A little bruised and battered—which had him howling—but she was good. If only his heart could believe it.
Finding her deep in the forest of Jackson Cove State Park had been relatively straightforward. Once they’d had her general location, they’d headed to that sector of the park. Abbot had launched Bean’s thermal drones and it hadn’t taken long to locate her. Their team—him, Alvarez, Wilson, Buchanan, and Xander, with Witherspoon directing comms and Abbot flying the drones—had quickly and silently trekked to get her. The hardest part had been waiting for the right moment to move. He’d nearly lost his mind as he’d watched that asshole hit her. Multiple times. Thankfully Xander had taken over as team leader or else Gavin would have been arrested for gutting the fucker.
The last five-plus hours since they’d found her had been absolute chaos. The FBI had descended, along with Quinn’s team. Between Bean getting checked out by the EMTs and then doing interview after interview with the feds, Gavin hadn’t had a moment alone with her. There were a million moving pieces that still had to be dealt with, but none of them mattered.
He squeezed Bean’s hand and studied her profile. The left side of her face was bruised, and there were a few small scratches along her cheeks and forehead. But the corners of her lips curved up while she continued to type.
She glanced at him. “What do you say we get this mission debrief over, boss?”
The exhaustion in her eyes tore at his gut. He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to each of her bruised and scraped knuckles. He’d come so damn close to losing her.
Giving her a nod, he wrapped her delicate hand in both of his and turned to the group. “All right. What do we know?”
“We know that Wilson’s still a fucking crack shot,” Xander said with a grin. “Two bullets. A through-and-through in each shoulder. Impressive.”
Gavin lifted his chin at Wilson, eternally thankful for his friend.
“Both Constance and Branson are in federal custody,” Esme said from the Smartboard. “Branson had a pit stop at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to get his shoulders stitched up, but I’m told they’re both now at the federal detention center in SeaTac. I believe they’re currently getting processed.”
“That’s correct,” Tiny said. His eyes narrowed as he glanced at something off-screen. “Looks like with Branson it’s kidnapping, extortion, and murder for hire. Charges for both Bean’s case and Anson’s. For Constance, all the same ones plus embezzlement and an attempted murder charge.”
“Attempted murder?” Bean asked.
She glanced at him with shock in her beautiful blue eyes, and Gavin could only shrug. This was news to him as well.
“While you guys were out on Bean’s rescue mission, there were some developments,” Tiny said. “Abbot?”
“Marcus Driskel,” she said, adding photos of the man to the Smartboard. “As we all know, Constance just hired him as a bodyguard. He was formerly with McClintocks’ security and was part of the group that was fired after Anson’s kidnapping. Tiny looked through his financials, and let’s just say there were some red flags.”
“According to my contacts,” Esme said, “Driskel and Constance were dining at Pacific View this afternoon and she poisoned him. He has an anaphylactic allergy to tree nuts, and she snuck a mixture of pulverized cashews, almonds, and walnuts into his food. The only reason Driskel didn’t die right then and there was because there was another diner at the restaurant who had two EpiPens on them. That and the EMTs were just down the road. He got lucky.”
Gavin frowned. “Why did Constance poison him?”
“Because Driskel was also the driver she hired to take you out after the gala,” Esme said. “Otton is dead, and Driskel is the last loose end tying that incident back to her and Branson. I was told that Driskel made a deal with the feds. He said she legitimately hired him for security protection this week. Said he was skeptical but needed the money since she didn’t pay him for the car-chase situation. Apparently, when he arrived at the resort and met with her, it turned into a fuck fest. Obviously, he didn’t realize she was planning to off him.”
“Esme also got some intel on the warehouse property where you found Anson,” Tiny said.
“Of course she did,” Gavin said with a smirk.
Bean chuckled. “I swear, woman, you’re magic.”
“What can I say?” Esme shrugged. “Tiny passed along the companies affiliated with the site and a couple of the names sounded familiar, so I did some digging. Long story short, the property belongs to a Triad group operating out of San Francisco. I checked with my various contacts and they confirmed that Branson had some gambling debts, and the Triad bailed him out. He promised a payoff plus extra interest for use of the property.” She winced. “Obviously, the guy’s going to run into some problems when he hits federal prison, because he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.”
Gavin didn’t give a shit about what would happen to Branson. As far as he was concerned, the fucker deserved everything that came his way. He just hoped that if the Triad went after him, they’d make him suffer. Heartless? Absolutely. Did he care? Not at all.
“Then there’s Elena Nabers,” Abbot added. “She was also taken into federal custody today. According to her social media, messages, and texts, she was in some kind of relationship with Branson. She basically did whatever he wanted in exchange for lavish vacations, expensive gifts, that sort of thing. He never gave her cash, so we didn’t see anything hit her financials, but there are numerous photos posted online of the two of them vacationing together. While looking through some of her photos on social media, something interesting popped out.” Abbot added another photo to the Smartboard. This one was of Nabers in a black cocktail dress with an older, dark-haired man in a suit. “Tiny, care to take this one?”
“That guy,” Tiny said, “is DJ Madison, a current trusted member of Polanski’s team.”
“Motherfucking hell. He’s the fucking inside guy.” Gavin scowled but took no satisfaction in being right about there being a traitor among Polanski’s team.
Tiny nodded. “Looks like it. We found multiple large deposits into his personal account from Sherman Photography, one of the bogus companies Nabers created. He was taken into federal custody today as well.”
“Holy moly,” Bean said, leaning back in her chair. “I knew you guys were awesome, but damn . You all took it next-level.”
Abbot grinned and waved at the rest of the cyber team. “What can we say, B, we learned from the best. Over the last few hours, I think all of us asked ourselves, ‘What would Bean do? What would she look into next?’ Besides, there was no way in hell you weren’t coming back to us. We had to make sure we had all our ducks in a row for you.”
Bean’s eyes misted, and Gavin squeezed her hand. “You have to admit, honey, you are pretty amazing.”
She glanced his way and a tear slipped free. She hastily swept it away and gave a watery chuckle. “You guys... Thank you so much for everything. Thank you for finding me.”
It took everything Gavin had not to haul her into his lap. Instead, he yanked her chair closer to his and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Everyone here loves you, B,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.
“Not to add to the waterworks or anything,” Alvarez said. “But I’d just like to say that I’m really proud of you, B. You handled yourself well out there. ”
“But will you please sign up for our outdoor survival class?” Buchanan cut in with a grin.
“Yes,” Wilson chimed in. “Pretty please?”
Bean laughed, wiping away another renegade tear. “Believe it or not, when I was hiding in that hollowed-out tree, I told myself that was one of the things I’d do if I got out of that mess.”
Gavin squeezed her shoulders. The thought of her not getting out of that mess turned his stomach.
“Well, you did get out,” Xander said. “And you did a damn fine job. Though I must say, egging Branson on about Constance was risky. However, the bit about that woman’s dirty, used pussy was fucking hilarious?—”
“Hey!” Gavin glared at his friend as laughter filled the conference room.
Xander held up his hands. “What? She said it, not me. I’m just repeating. Besides, it was hilarious. Risky, but hilarious. And I, for one, am in complete agreement with B.” Xander glanced at Bean and then nodded at Gavin. “He almost lost his shit though.”
Alvarez smothered his laugh with a fake cough. “Anyway, good job out there. We all know you’re fucking smart, and no one is surprised you outwitted the fucker and got him to turn his back on you.”
“Again, totally thought Frazier was gonna lose his shit, but what can you do?” Xander shrugged, grinning. “You’re his woman, B, so you can’t fault the guy, right?”
She glanced at him, grinning. “Your woman, eh?”
“Damn straight.” He winked at her, tipped her chin up with his finger, and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “All right, everyone out. I’m not gonna tell my woman just how much I love her in front of all of you.”
“Oh, come on,” she said, her tone teasing as chuckles broke out in the room. “I love you, so what does it matter if they’re all witnesses?”
His heart locked in his chest, and his gaze bored into hers. She stared at him with a look of love he still wasn’t sure he deserved. But he was taking it, dammit. Taking her. Forever.
“Everyone, get out,” he growled.
Laugher filled his ears as his teammates cleared out. Bean waved and thanked them all, but he didn’t take his eyes off her.
The moment the room was clear, he pulled her onto his lap and pressed his forehead to hers, unable to speak. The fear and worry, the hours of not knowing where she was or if she was okay were lodged in his throat like a rock blocking his words.
She was safe in his arms, but he still couldn’t quite believe it.
Her soft hands cupped his jaw, and his eyes filled with tears. Closing them, he savored her touch.
“I love you, Gavin. Thank you for coming for me.”
His chest squeezed with emotion. Her words, her touch eased the panic gripping his heart. “I love you so much, B. I was so scared I wasn’t going to get the chance to tell you, to show you how much I love you.”
She pulled her forehead from his and tilted his face up so he met her steady blue gaze. Her thumb brushed away a tear he hadn’t realized had fallen. “But you have shown me in so many ways. I know you love me. I was too busy getting stuck in my own head, but your love fueled me today, made me want to fight, to not let him win.”
She pressed a kiss to his lips, and more tears spilled down his face. God, this woman...
He crushed her to his chest and held her tightly, memorizing her scent, the feel of her in his arms. He never wanted this moment to end .
“I love you so damn much,” he whispered, dropping his face into her neck. “So much.”
“I love you, too.”
With a sniff, he pulled away and took a deep breath in, wrangling in his emotions. “You’re going to have to bear with me though. I’m not sure I can let you out of my sight for a while.” He shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “I’m basically going to be your shadow.”
She smiled and pressed another soft kiss to his lips. “That’s fine.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Wait. How long are we talking?”
“Forever, baby. You’re stuck with me forever.”
She laughed. “We’re going to compromise on the shadow part.”
“And the forever part?” He held his breath.
Her expression softened, and his heart expanded. “You’ve got yourself a deal on the forever part.” The smile she gave him was blinding. “Now shut up and kiss me.”
A grin split his face. “Yes, ma’am.”
He was more than happy to do her bidding. Forever.