Chapter 16 – Evelyn
EVELYN
“Comms check, Charlie team,” Liam said, his fingers flying across the keys of his laptop.
Sitting next to him, Sebastian brought up the street cameras in front of the sports bar, Declan’s Pub and Grille, that Dominic referenced this morning.
Unable to sit still, I paced behind them.
The van wasn’t very large, so I was only able to go a few steps before I had to turn around, but the movement helped keep some of the anxious energy at bay.
I should be out there with my team instead of stuck in the van.
Sebastian and Liam could more than handle the electronic surveillance.
I glanced at the door. Maybe I could just have a peek around.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sebastian said, his eyes dancing in amusement. “Alexander gave me permission to tie your pretty ass to a chair if you try to leave the van, and Adrian agreed.”
I rolled my eyes, ignoring the heat that flashed through me at the thought. “They’re not the boss of me.”
“Care to say that to my face, little warrior.” Adrian’s voice crackled through the comms at that moment.
“Charlie team, would you comms check again? I think you’re breaking up,” I said sweetly as I glared at Sebastian. He must have turned on my comms during our conversation so Adrian and Alexander would overhear me.
“I think you heard him loud and clear, baby girl,” Alexander said. “Charlie team, comms check good.”
“Focus,” Marcus said before I could retort. “The streets are clear here.”
“Beta team, check in,” Liam said.
He pulled up the cameras inside Declan’s. The bar had a rectangular bar in the center of the space with booths on either side. Izzy and Maya sat at one of the booths on the far wall. Their vantage point let them see the whole bar.
“Beta team, comms check good,” Izzy said.
Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a low braid, and she wore a white T-shirt and jeans, her attire fit in with the rest of the crowd.
Maya’s purple hair was pulled into two pigtail braids, and they wore brown corduroy pants and a faded green shirt.
Both were well known among the local cops, although the cops mostly knew them as a security consultant and the daughter of the local captain.
“Targets are entering the bar,” Maya said.
The camera view on Sebastian’s screen captured the two FIA agents entering Declan’s.
They walked through the crowded bar to sit at the rectangular bar top.
Large screens hung from the ceiling, showing different sports games.
Agent Mike Holden immediately started watching one of the screens intently.
In contrast, Dominic scanned the room. Was he looking for me?
“Alpha team, comms check.”
“Alpha team, comms check good,” Grace said.
“Have I mentioned how happy I am that this mission doesn’t involve hiding in a bush or on a fire escape?” Danny said. They sat in an old sedan a few blocks away from the office while they waited for my go-ahead.
“We only did that ‘cause we didn’t want your big ass to blow the mission before we got started,” Grace snarked.
“Focus,” I chided. “Izzy, are we good?”
“We’re good,” Izzy said. “They just ordered food and drinks, so they’ll be here for at least an hour. Marian can keep them longer if we need to, though.”
Marian was a woman we’d helped when she was in college.
She’d had a stalker who hadn’t taken no for an answer, and campus police wouldn’t do anything about him.
We’d taken care of him, and she’d gotten to go back to her life without looking over her shoulder.
When Liam had run a background on Declan’s and its staff earlier, I’d recognized her and called in a favor.
She’d promised to keep them there longer through various distractions if we needed it.
“Got it. Mission is a go then. Alpha team, you’re up.”
Danny and Grace exited the car and walked toward the office. Danny slung his arm around Grace’s shoulders like they were just a couple out for a stroll.
“Get off me,” Grace grumbled.
“Shh,” Danny crooned. “You don’t want to ruin our cover.”
Grace scoffed. “Please, like Liam would ever let us get caught on camera.”
Liam chuckled. “I appreciate your faith in my abilities, but if you could do us all a favor and fuck already, that would be great.”
I covered my mouth to muffle my laughter as Danny and Grace both bitched at Liam for saying what we were all thinking.
Sebastian tugged me down into his lap. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who was thinking that,” he whispered in my ear.
I snuggled down into his arms, keeping my eyes on the screens against the wall. “We’re all thinking it, but they keep denying it.”
“Clearly they’ve never read a good enemies-to-lovers romance,” Liam said. He must have muted Grace and Danny; they still cussed him out on the comms.
“Focus on your love life later,” I broke in. “You’re approaching the building.”
I leaned forward and switched the main screen’s view to the body cameras Danny and Grace wore.
It was a poor substitute for actually being there, but it was Marcus who had suggested it.
He really was trying, and I appreciated the gesture more than he knew.
My fingers still twitched with the urge to join them, though.
While the FIA’s offices didn’t have an electronic lock, the building still did. “Power surge coming up in 3, 2, 1… Go,” Liam said.
His fingers danced across the keys as he mimicked a power surge that temporarily disengaged the building’s locks.
Surveillance earlier had uncovered that the cameras inside the building’s lobby were just for show, so Danny and Grace bypassed the elevator and headed for the stairs.
The FIA offices were on the third floor, but they took their time and cleared each floor as they went.
The last thing we needed was the surprise of someone working late, although Adrian and Marcus had confirmed earlier that everyone who worked in the building had left for the night.
They approached the FIA’s office door, and Grace reached into her vest’s front pocket for the key. It slid into the lock easily, and I sighed in relief. In the back of my mind, there was still a chance that this was a trap, but I was hoping it wasn’t.
Danny and Grace slipped inside the office. The overhead lights were still on, and I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or if they had just forgotten to turn them off. Dominic may have left them on intentionally, but I could see Mike forgetting to turn them off.
Grace did a slow turn of the room, so I could see what we were working with.
The room was fairly large, probably 20 feet by 20 feet.
The back wall was a row of windows with the blinds pulled down.
Against the windows was a large bulletin board with pictures and files pinned to it.
Two beige desks faced each other in the middle of the room, and filing cabinets lined the walls behind them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the previous tenants were accountants.
The desk on the left was tidy and neat, with just a pad of paper sitting next to a computer mouse, but the computer was missing.
This had to be Dominic’s desk. The desk on the right had fast food wrappers littering the surface, and a pile of paperwork on the corner threatened to topple over.
His laptop sat on the desk, open, and Liam pumped his fist.
“Excellent. Let’s get to work.”
Grace leaned over the desk and plugged a USB into Agent Holden’s laptop. An idea struck me.
“Start with passwords that contain his favorite sports team and the last year they won the championships.”
“Honestly, my darling, your brain is so sexy.” Sebastian kissed the back of my neck, and I shivered.
“Save the hanky panky for later, Boss Lady,” Liam said. “Like when you have the van to yourself?”
I rolled my eyes and was tempted to chuck my pen at him, but I didn’t want to distract him as his fingers flew across the screen.
The faster we got done with this, the easier I would breathe.
I slid off Sebastian’s lap so he could assist Liam with the hacking.
I focused on the live feed from Grace’s chest as she approached the bulletin board.
Danny lifted his phone and started snapping photos of the board’s content.
My employee ID photo from SDS was pinned in the top left corner.
Below me, photos of Adrian, Alexander, Marcus, and Sebastian were also pinned.
The row below them contained photos of Ryan Jacobs, Marshall Beckett, and Julian Slater from Citadel, and the stranger from the gala, Luke Jones.
Underneath each of the pictures were scraps of paper with different notes on them that detailed the slow accumulation of information as the agents worked the case.
The note under Luke Jones drew my eye as Grace moved closer.
“Kingfisher?” was written in red and underlined.
It was the only word on the scrap of paper.
I frowned. I thought Kingfisher was an organization.
Was it a person? Or did that just mean that Luke Jones worked for the Kingfisher organization?
Although if Kingfisher was a person and he was the Kingfisher, that would make sense.
The Citadel guys had certainly deferred to him and were even a little scared of him.
I racked my brain but got a sharp headache for my trouble.
I should have been paying attention better, but I was distracted because the room was spinning.
I studied Luke Jones’s mug shot. He certainly had a dead look in his eyes.
But did that make him a criminal mastermind?
What was the Kingfisher even involved in?
There was still no confirmation of if it was a person or just an organization.
There was barely a whisper of the name on the dark web.
So how did he stay hidden? There were too many questions and not enough answers.
“I’m in,” Liam announced, breaking my concentration.
“Have you found anything yet?” I asked, leaning over so I could see his screen.
“Boss Lady, I’m good but not speed-of-light good,” Liam said, smirking at the screen. “Give me a moment.”
“Well, I am speed-of-light good,” Sebastian announced. “I’ve got something.”
“What is it?” Alexander asked.
“Remember that recording that they played for you yesterday at the station? I was able to trace the email that it was attached to. They attempted to mask the IP address but not well enough. It traces back to a personal residence of one Director Thomas Keller.”
I blinked at him. The FIA Director sent it? “How did he get it?”
“Working on that right now, my darling.” Sebastian typed furiously.
My cheeks heated as I thought about what those fingers could do. I pushed the thought out of my mind. I had to focus. I could ogle my boyfriend later.
“I think I know where he got it,” Liam said, documents opening on the screen below the live feed. “It looks like the recording originated from Luke Jones’s phone. It was sent to the director shortly after Jones was released.”
I closed my eyes and thought back. I vaguely remembered him typing something into his phone after that conversation. I didn’t realize he’d recorded the conversation, though. What else had I missed?
“Why would he send the director the recording?” Adrian asked over the comms. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It does when the director was the one who ordered him to be released,” Liam said.
“He, what?” I leaned closer to get a better look.
“I just found a communication from the director’s office to the chief of police directing him to release Luke Jones because he is a confidential informant for another case.”
A confidential informant? He certainly didn’t speak like a CI.
But maybe he was? Was he a CI for the FIA for Kingfisher?
That didn’t make any sense, though. Liam was a great hacker, but he wasn’t the only one out there.
This wasn’t even trying to be hidden, so was it real, or was it just a ploy to get us off the trail?
My brain spun, and I pressed my palms to my eyes as I tried to think.
Most of my concussion symptoms were fading, but tonight was too much for my brain, it seemed.
“Almost done,” Danny said.
I looked up at the feed to see they were done photographing the board and had moved onto the files on the agents’ desks.
“Good,” Alexander said. “Finish up and get out of there. We can piece it all together later.”
I felt guilty. I was supposed to be giving the orders, but my brain was so overwhelmed at the moment. I was grateful Alexander was taking the lead.
“What should we do with the key?” Grace asked.
“Leave it under Agent Haye’s desk,” I said. “Like halfway underneath, so it looks like he just dropped it.”
“Good thinking, boss.” Grace leaned down and placed the key at the corner of the desk like it had slipped out of his pocket when he sat down.
“Where should we place the bugs?” Danny asked.
“Try below the windowsill, in a light fixture, and above the door,” Liam replied. “They’re small enough that they shouldn’t be picked up.”
“And if they are?” Marcus asked.
The argument about bugging the offices had been a big one.
On one hand, the information we gathered there could be invaluable, and on the other hand, if the bugs were discovered, the agents would know we were there.
But Dominic had handed me the key, so it really was a matter of whether I trusted him or not.
My gut said yes, but my brain was cautious.
“Just place the two of them. One in the light fixture and the other under the windowsill behind the bulletin board.” I settled on a compromise.
“Got it,” Danny said. He placed the bugs quickly.
I breathed out a sigh of relief when he and Grace exited the building. It went well, and it didn’t seem to be a trap. But if Sebastian and Liam were right, this just got a whole lot more dangerous, because the corruption at the FIA? It might go all the way to the top.