Chapter 11 On The Hunt
Duncan
Niall fucking McGee.
Speaking his name out loud made me feel like I’d swallowed a mouthful of broken glass.
We’d been friends at one point. Had something changed or was there always a cold-blooded killer living inside of him?
The thing that really had me stumped was his motive.
What could he possibly stand to gain from my death?
Money? Recognition? Not that it mattered.
His dishonorable actions made him enemy number one in my book.
Colorful expletives flew around the room when I revealed who I believed the mole to be, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Sloane.
The look on her face said it all. She was pissed.
Not for herself and the pain she endured as a result of the accident.
My fierce Sunshine was furious for me. Her next words confirmed it.
“I want to make him suffer.”
“He will. As soon as I have proof that he’s the one who pulled the trigger, I’ll make sure he pays.”
“Wait. So you don’t actually have proof?”
“Not yet, Lanie.”
“Then how do you know it was him?”
“At the twins’ party yesterday, Finn triggered a memory from the accident.” I stood, pacing the floor. This next part was more difficult to explain. “I remembered hearing the man speak, then the gunshot, but what my mind blocked out was the fact he was whistling when he walked away from me.”
“Whistling.” She didn’t seem convinced. “How does whistling lead to your handler?”
“Do you remember when I confronted Niall the night Sloane and I reconnected?” They all nodded. “In his hotel room, he was whistling the exact same melody. It was familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I’d heard it before. Not until yesterday. That’s when everything snapped into place.”
“You realize it could be a coincidence, right?”
“Keaton.” I turned to my protégé, the first agent Waverly and I recruited to our team. “Do you believe in coincidences?”
“Fuck no.”
“Well then, there you go.”
“Do you think Niall was the one passing information to Murray’s organization?”
“I have no idea, Koen. That’s what we have to figure out. We need to comb through every facet of his life from back then.”
“You realize if he is behind everything and he catches wind that you remember, your life could be in danger.”
Lanie brought up a good point. It was actually part of the reason I asked Nelson to bring his little side project with him.
Niall wasn’t an idiot. He knew Sloane was my greatest weakness.
I wouldn’t put it past him to try to use her to get to me.
As much as I wanted to be with her twenty-four seven, that wasn’t realistic.
I needed a way to know where Sloane and the twins were at all times.
Everyone knew cell phones and jewelry were the best places to hide a tracker.
No one would suspect Nelson’s flesh-colored patches were capable of the same. They were my plan B.
“Something has been bothering me. Technically, more than one thing.”
“What’s up?”
Over the years, I’d learned to let Noah talk through his concerns. The guy’s brain didn’t work like everyone else’s, which was why he was invaluable to the team. He saw stuff the rest of us easily dismissed.
“The surgeon, for one. I think Niall or someone else paid him off to alter the report to say the bullet was from a previous gunshot wound.”
“Why not just take the bullet out of the equation completely? Wouldn’t it have been a better option to get rid of the fact Duncan had been shot at all?”
“Everyone in the operating room saw him pull a bullet from Duncan’s chest, Keaton. It’s cheaper to pay one man to change his report, than to pay a dozen people to forget what they saw.”
“True. But why hide it at all?”
“Because when I woke up with no memory from after the crash, Niall figured he was in the clear. If I knew I’d been shot, I wouldn’t have stopped searching until I found the shooter.”
“Exactly.” Noah grinned.
“What else?” I asked him.
“Why would Niall risk potentially exposing himself by trying to get you to rejoin the investigation?”
“It was a trap,” Lanie concluded.
“Son of a bitch, he was tying up loose strings.”
“You caught him off guard when you showed up at his hotel room, Duncan. He wasn’t prepared.” Noah glanced around at his fellow agents. “I have an idea.”
I lowered myself onto the sofa next to Sloane, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. She was tense, with good reason. Whatever Noah had in mind would undoubtedly highlight the target that was already on my back.
“What is it?”
“We go on the offensive.” He looked straight at me. “Call Niall, tell him you want to meet with him alone. Bait him. Say you remember something about the accident. We’ll control the location of the meet.”
“No. No way.” Sloane shook her head, wincing at the sudden motion. “It’s too dangerous. What if something happens to you? I can’t lose you again.”
“Sunshine, nothing’s gonna happen to me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. Listen to me.” I cupped her cheeks.
“Waverly and I hand-picked the people in this room for our team because we wanted to build something special. And we did. I’d take a bullet for any one of them, and they’d do the same for me.
We’re family in every sense of the word, except our bond is thicker than blood. They’ll make sure I come back to you.”
“Swear it to me, Duncan.”
“I promise, Sloane.”
Turning back to my team, I gave a nod. “Noah’s right. It’s time to be the aggressor. Let’s go on the hunt.”
My daughter was gonna be a hell of an interrogator one day. She’d been popping off questions nonstop since Waverly dropped them off two hours ago. I was ready to confess to crimes I hadn’t committed just so I could have a moment to think.
“Daddy, can I taste your pisketti sauce?”
“Sure thing, Reagan.”
“Daddy, can Ralph have some pisketti sauce too?”
“No, baby girl. Puppies can’t have people food.”
“Why?”
“It’ll hurt their tummies.”
“Daddy, is Mommy gonna eat wif us?”
“Mommy needs to rest so she can feel better.”
“Daddy?”
“Yes, Reagan?”
“I love you.”
Damn. I’d never get tired of hearing those words.
“I love you too. Now why don’t you go watch TV with your brother while I finish dinner.”
“Okay.”
She hopped off the stool, shuffling her slipper-clad feet across the floor. They were the same fuzzy pink bunny ones she had on the first night we met.
Shortly after my team left, I carried Sloane up to our bed under protest. She’d wanted to wait for the kids to get home, but she was fading fast. I tucked her under the covers, kissed her forehead, and made her promise to stay put.
Her eyes were closed before I even left the room.
Between not feeling well and her worry about my upcoming mission, she was drowning in exhaustion.
“How much longer, Dad? I’m starbing.”
“Ten minutes, Ro,” I answered my son while I stirred the homemade sauce.
It was my first time taking care of them completely on my own.
I was their father, how hard could it be?
Damn hard, as it turned out. What a fool I was to think otherwise.
They went back and forth for ten minutes trying to figure out what to have for dinner.
Reagan wanted cheeseburgers while Rogan insisted on pizza.
Halfway through, they flipped the script entirely, begging for chicken nuggets and french fries.
Problem was, I didn’t have anything they’d asked for in my house.
After a painfully expensive trip to the grocery store, where the shopping cart somehow ended up filled to the brim with more stuff than we’d come for, we returned home only for them to change their minds again.
Spaghetti was now the choice du jour. Guess what we didn’t buy at the store?
Luckily, I found noodles and tomato sauce in the cabinet and meatballs in the freezer.
Dinner commenced without further complications.
Bedtime, however, was an exercise in patience.
Without Sloane to be the voice of reason, my kids took advantage of the fact I couldn’t say no to them.
Every book they wanted me to read, I read without hesitation, silly voices and all.
Reagan asked for Ralph to sleep in her bed.
No problem. I tucked them both in. Rogan wanted to show me the pictures he’d taken with the camera I bought him.
Sure thing. I scrolled through each one twice.They had me wrapped around all twenty of their perfect little fingers.
Hell, if they’d asked for the moon, I would’ve found a way to gift wrap it.
By the time they actually fell asleep, I had just enough time to peek in on Sloane before I had to call Waverly to bring her up to speed.
The door to the bathroom was pulled shut when I snuck into our bedroom, and my girl wasn’t fast asleep like I’d expected.
She came out a couple of minutes later, completely unaware of her surroundings.
Her hand flew to her chest and she let out a tiny squeak of surprise when she noticed me sitting at the foot of the bed.
“Lord have mercy, you scared me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t want to wake you.”
Closing the distance between us, I drew her into my chest and never wanted to let go.
She soothed the jagged edges of my soul with her light.
After the accident, I refused to even consider letting another woman into my heart.
It wouldn’t have been fair to her or me.
There wasn’t a chance in hell anyone would be able to replace my Sunshine, so I didn’t even try.
Seeing her so sick and lifeless this morning brought up all of those old feelings.
It scared the fuck out of me to think I could lose her again so soon after getting her back.
Was I being irrational? Absolutely, but I couldn’t help it.
She and the twins were everything to me. Without them, I was an empty shell.
“Come on.” I took her hand. “Let’s get you back in bed.”