Chapter 10
Adalyn bolted upright when she heard the handle of her bedroom door click. She blinked to see Rowan standing there and dropped the hand that had reached for her weapon, fell back on the pillow.
Gumbo was still snuggled up against her—because apparently she was letting the dog sleep with her now. Gumbo had completely ignored the bed she’d laid out for her and jumped right up next to her.
“Hey, I knocked, sorry to wake you.”
“No, it’s fine. I need to get up anyway.”
He frowned. “It’s been like three hours.”
“And that’s enough sleep for me. So what happened?” She forced herself to sit up now, blink away the fog. Gumbo snuggled closer so she buried her face against her head for a moment.
“We’ve got a dinner meeting with the fire inspector soon. Heading out in about half an hour.”
“How’d you swing that?”
She listened as he filled her in on everything, motioned for Gumbo to follow her as she stepped into the hallway with him. Not that the pup needed any encouragement.
Then he said, “And we think it’s better if it’s just me and Tiago.”
“Hmm. Hey, will you take Gumbo out real quick, make sure he does his business?” She leaned down and kissed the dog’s face. “Listen to the big man, but only right now.”
Rowan simply snorted, but said, “Come on, mutt.”
And Gumbo followed, tail wagging happily. So Adalyn headed to Gage’s office, found him doing push-ups. “Uh, hey.”
“What’s up?” He didn’t stop, just kept up his reps. She knew he also boxed for exercise and had a standing desk at the North Carolina office with a treadmill underneath. It seemed his brain and body were always moving.
“So I hear there’s a dinner meetup soon. That’s fortuitous.” She stepped around him to look at some of the images on-screen. “I know her,” she murmured, touching his mouse and hovering over the image of the woman named Nola Cartier.
“You know the potential punishment for touching my stuff starts with losing body parts.” But Gage didn’t bother to stop her. Just started on sit-ups instead.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m real freaking scared.”
“The Cartier woman is engaged to Kayce Laurent, per her recent social media posts. She keeps them private but…” He trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish.
Private was a relative term for someone like Gage.
“So how do you know her?”
“She actually lived in the complex with Fleur. I mean, not with her, but she rented one of the condos. I do all the security checks and she’s got a memorable face anyway.” A big smile, big eyes and a softness about her.
Gage just grunted. Probably because he was a happily married father of one who was obsessed with his girls and no one but Nova had a memorable face for him.
“And this changes things. I wasn’t going to argue about not going tonight.” Lies. She’d totally come up here to argue. “But it makes more sense if I go now. Fleur too. And we’ll be in disguise.”
“How does that make more sense?”
“Because I’m going in disguise whether you like it or not.”
He paused, sat up and propped his elbows on his knees. “Skye said this was coming.”
“What?”
“The pushback,” he said with a grin. “She said you were too tired earlier to argue. I told her she was wrong and now I owe her twenty bucks. Fine, you can go but you’re going to be in serious disguise.”
She blinked. “You’re not going to argue?”
“I mean, I could.” He started on the sit-ups again, his breathing raspy. “But there’s no point. You’re trained and we need eyes on this meeting. But Fleur isn’t going. She has zero training and could slip up without even realizing it. Besides, she lives in the city and it’s more likely someone will recognize her. I have zero reason to suspect that Laurent is anything but what he appears to be. Or his fiancée. But Rowan saw someone at the site today. Or he thinks he did.”
“Thinks he did?”
Gage rolled to his feet, started doing spring jumps. “Yeah. But he said it’s more likely an effect of lingering PTSD.”
Oh.She frowned, digesting that even as she hated the urge to check on Rowan, to make sure he was okay. Because screw him.
“Who does he think he saw?”
Gage paused, breathing hard as he stopped. “Curtis Miller.”
The name was a body blow to her chest, but she forced herself to nod. To breathe even as her heart skipped a beat. He’d been the lead on that mission where everything had gone haywire. “Well it wasn’t him,” she murmured.
“I know that and he knows that. But I want you there tonight regardless. Look, I know you’ve got issues with Rowan but you two work well as a team. And you’ve got shared history.”
More like shared trauma. But she kept that thought to herself.
“Tiago will meet with the inspector and I want you two to be eyes and ears on the place. Hailey’s going to be a lookout on the street and you know Jesse’s not going to let her go alone.”
“What about Ezra? I haven’t seen him.”
“Got him running down a couple leads.”
Before she could respond, Fleur stepped inside, her eyes widening when she saw the screens and the whiteboard that Gage had set up.
“Wow.” Ignoring both of them, her sister went to stand in front of it, looking at all the pictures, names and other information listed out in bullets under each potential target. “I just came in to see if you guys were hungry for dinner. So these are the people who want you dead, huh?”
“Well, maybe. They might not know my identity at all.” She’d reached out to her former handler and a few former assets, trying to figure out if anything had been leaked. Or if there’d been any chatter about any of her old covers. So far Gage hadn’t found much, but he was still searching the dark web and other places.
Her sister snorted softly. “It’s a lot of maybes. Jesus, Addy, this is…a lot. You’ve just got this whole other life I never knew about. I mean, I guessed, but this is wild.”
Guilt sliced through her, sharp and deep. She’d hated keeping things from Fleur, the one person in the world she’d do anything to protect.
As if she read her mind, Fleur turned, her expression softening. “I’m not, like, mad or anything. It’s clear that you couldn’t tell me. Or I’m guessing you weren’t allowed, probably still aren’t allowed to?”
Adalyn simply nodded, her throat too tight to speak.
“What do you know about Nola Cartier?” Gage asked as he sat in front of his panel of computer screens.
“Oh…wait, why? She can’t be involved in any of this.” Her sister shook her head vehemently.
“We don’t think she is.” Gage didn’t turn around as he continued working. “But she’s engaged to—”
“Kayce. Yeah, I know him too. What on earth do they have to do with this?”
“He’s the fire inspector from the bombing today,” Adalyn answered. “We’re hoping to get inside intel on what’s going on. He’s friends with Tiago, or they went to school together and were friends at one point. Can we use your relationship with Nola if necessary? To explain what’s going on?”
Fleur blinked, but slowly nodded. “Yeah, sure. I mean…I kinda get why you’re not talking to the cops. So yeah, if he can help, then yes. Feel free to tell them about what happened. I’m still…” Her lips pulled into a thin line. “Clara’s mom is planning her funeral for next Thursday,” she whispered.
“Oh, honey.” Adalyn pulled her sister into a hug, held her close as she felt her sister’s tears on her neck.
“I just found out.” Her words were muffled against Adalyn’s neck before she pulled back. “Thank you for the phone,” she added. “I know you said it’s safe to use, but I still kept my conversation pretty short. Her mom is a mess but they’re a big family. They’ll all lean on each other at least. I…I’m going to her funeral.”
Adalyn didn’t comment one way or another because she wasn’t sure if it was possible. It was way too soon to decide that.
“Adalyn, you need to get ready if you’re going to head out with the others,” Gage said, thankfully cutting off that conversation.
Adalyn would worry about telling her sister no later and hope it didn’t come to that.
“I’ll have my phone on me if you need me,” she said to Fleur. “And Gage will be here too.”
As that familiar punch of adrenaline rolled through her like before any op, she hurried from the room and raced to her own bedroom. It was time to get ready and get some answers.
And even if she didn’t want to think about it or have any sort of feelings for Rowan, she hated that he was struggling with memories. No one deserved that shit, but least of all him. He’d been a good team leader and… God, she was just glad he hadn’t been on that mission.
Even as she had the thought, she hated herself for it, but she was still grateful he’d been forced to stay behind. That he’d survived when others hadn’t.
As she reached her room, her phone buzzed. And just like that, her adrenaline spiked at the sound of an incoming text. From another unknown number.
Sooner or later I’ll find something that matters to you. I’ll burn the whole city down to get to you.