Chapter Fifteen
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I think I’m gonna have to go dark for a while now.
What the hell had happened? And what would Bristol even know about going dark? The very idea of it was terrifying.
Cassie hurried across the well-lit parking lot to the rear door of the Crimson Point Security building and scanned her ID. The moment the locking mechanism released she wrenched the door open and raced up the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. It was after hours on a Friday night, but some of the staff would still be working.
She burst through the fire exit door and into the reception area. The front desk was empty, but down the hall she spotted the twins coming toward her.
“Whoa,” Tristan said in his mellowed Kentucky accent, pausing in concern as she rushed in their direction.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked, stopping just behind him.
They might be identical, but she knew them both well enough now to tell them apart. Their personalities were completely different.
“Bristol. She’s in trouble. Is Ryder or Callum in?” She glanced past them down the long hallway. The office doors she could see from her vantage point were all shut.
“No. Walker’s here, but he’s in a meeting. Here, come sit down and tell me what’s going on.” Tristan gestured toward the nearest office.
She didn’t want to sit down, didn’t want to rehash this more than once or talk about her personal business, but she couldn’t very well go pound on Walker’s door when he was in a meeting.
“Anything I can do?” Gavin asked her.
She shoved her frustration down. They were trying to help. “No. Thanks, though.”
“Sure.” He looked at his twin.
“You go ahead,” Tristan told him.
Gavin nodded then looked at her again. “Let me know if you need anything.”
She forced a smile. She didn’t like asking other people for help, but she had no choice at the moment. “Will do. See you.”
Tristan opened the office door and flicked on the lights. She went over and sat in one of the leather chairs positioned in front of the desk. He lowered his tall frame into the other one several feet away, watching her intently with concern in his green eyes. And it was genuine, which made him even hotter than he already was. It was strange, since he and Gavin were identical, but to her, Tristan was way better looking, no matter how wrong it felt to be attracted to someone she worked with.
In spite of everything, from her cynical view of the opposite sex and all the lovely trust issues that came with it, she still wasn’t immune to him. It was a good thing they were work colleagues and couldn’t get involved. Her taste in men was epically disastrous.
“What happened?” he asked, the overhead light making his short auburn hair glow. “Cass, seriously. Talk to me.”
She relented. “I don’t know, but it’s bad.” The hard knot in the pit of her stomach said so. It was killing her that she didn’t know more, couldn’t do anything when she wanted to charge over there and get to the bottom of this. “Bristol called half an hour ago to say there had been a situation. She said she was okay, that she’s with TJ, but then she said she had to go dark, and asked me to pack a bag for Beckett to pick up.”
He frowned. “TJ. The homeless guy who rescued Carly?”
“Yes.” He saw the problem. “I don’t know what happened or what she was doing with him in the first place.” None of it made sense. “Going dark? Bristol?” She huffed at the ridiculousness of it. “Something’s really wrong.”
“Did she sound okay?”
“Mostly.” More together than she should have, under the circumstances. “But I’m worried. I came straight here because I’m hoping for help with getting some answers.” Before she went insane.
Tristan nodded, leaned forward and reached out for her hands. She felt a little jolt when his fingers closed around hers, heat suffusing her chilled skin. He’d never touched her before, and she didn’t like the little velvet flip deep in her belly one bit. She resisted the urge to snatch her hands away, get up to pace and burn off this overload of anxious energy. He was just being kind.
“Did you contact Beckett?” he asked, now leaning close enough for her to see the light dusting of freckles across his nose and catch the scent of his cologne. Subtle, clean, and woodsy. As sexily understated as the rest of him.
She gently pulled her hands from his, feeling awkward and not liking the way her nervous system had gone haywire at the innocent contact. “Called him twice. He didn’t pick up or respond to my messages. I’m hoping Walker can help.”
He was CPS’s intelligence expert with a million connections in the industry.
Before Tristan could answer, a door opened somewhere down the hall and voices floated out. Cassie jumped up and hurried to look out the doorway just as Walker came out of another one near the end of the hall, followed by Beckett a moment later. They both stopped when she stepped out into the hall.
“Cassie, hi,” Walker said.
He was a physically imposing man in his mid-forties, his short black hair graying around the temples. He was the most reserved of the CPS management. Quiet and intensely observant, not surprising given his background in Army intelligence.
“Hi. Did you get my—” She went silent when a woman emerged from the same office. “Ivy.” Walker’s fiancée.
Cassie had met her several times, but didn’t know her well. Though she got the feeling that very few people probably ever did. She wasn’t sure what Ivy’s background was, but it was also something to do with intelligence. She’d heard about some of Ivy’s hacking abilities from the twins after Ivy had guided Gavin through the violent mob to save Carly during the Portland riots.
“Hey.” The brunette’s expression was polite enough, but it gave nothing away. Although it didn’t take a genius to know what the meeting they’d just finished had been about.
Cassie’s gaze swept from her to Walker, then Beckett. “You were meeting about Bristol.”
“Come into my office, and we’ll talk,” Walker said, his deep blue eyes kind.
“I’m heading out,” Beckett said, then looked over at her. “I’m supposed to pick up a bag at your place.”
“I’ve got it in my vehicle.”
“Give us a few minutes,” Walker said to him, then curled a hand around Ivy’s hip and kissed her temple.
For some reason, witnessing that simple gesture of affection triggered an ache deep in Cassie’s chest that she quickly blocked.
“See you at home. Tell Shae I’ll be there by six-thirty.”
“Will do,” Ivy said to him. “Although dinner might be delayed, because I heard she might be having a call with Finn.”
“Ah. From Djibouti.”
“The place all Marines dream of being deployed to at least once in their career,” Ivy said wryly. She followed Beckett, offered Cassie an encouraging smile on the way by.
Cassie glanced over her shoulder to see Tristan still standing in the doorway of the office they’d been in. “See you.”
He gave her a nod. “See you.”
She followed Walker into his office. After shutting the door behind her, she took a chair in front of his desk and got straight to it.
“So, Bristol called me thirty minutes ago.” She repeated what Bristol had said, still worried as hell and doing her best to appear completely calm and professional in front of one of her bosses. “Do you know anything about this TJ guy, other than he’s a former Ranger who wound up on the streets?”
Walker nodded. “Beckett came in after getting a call from him around the same time as Bristol talked to you. I reached out to some contacts to verify what TJ told him, and everything checks out.”
“What did he say?”
Walker waited a beat. “TJ’s undercover DEA.”
Shock ripped through her. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he was anything but a down-on-his-luck vet, but Walker seemed convinced it was true. “You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Wow. “So...that’s why Ivy didn’t find anything about him before when she did some digging?”
“Exactly. After he left the military, they created a whole new identity for him. But he did receive an honorable discharge from the Army, and was recruited by the DEA shortly thereafter. He’s been working undercover on the streets for a while now.”
Cassie leaned back in her chair and ran a hand over her face. So TJ was definitely involved with people in the drug trade. Dangerous people. “Okay, then whatever happened this afternoon with him and Bristol is related to his cover. How did she get caught up in it?” It scared her that Bristol had been dragged into whatever this was. Her stepsister was in no way prepared to deal with something like this.
“We were told he was meeting at the hospital with a confidential informant about drugs moving through the building.”
Oh, God. “And Bristol stumbled right into the middle of it,” she guessed.
“Looks that way. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and took them both by surprise. The CI got nervous, thinking TJ might have set him up. Two suspects chased him and Bristol from the hospital and were involved in a single vehicle collision minutes later. Bristol and TJ escaped without injury. The DEA is running the suspects’ IDs now, looking for a match in their database.”
Shit. “So where’s Bristol?”
“At TJ’s house.”
“He has a house?” Since when? With what money? He’d barely started working.
“Beckett’s company is providing it to him as part of their employment package.”
Wow, Beckett really did go above and beyond for the veterans he hired. “Did Beckett know about him being undercover DEA?”
“No.”
“Am I allowed to know the house’s location?”
“You’ll have to ask Beckett about that.”
“All right, I will.” She shifted in her seat, determined to stay professional and not lose her cool, but Walker was clearly only telling her certain details, and it was frustrating to say the least. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“That’s all I know at the moment.”
Cassie doubted it but maintained her composure. Whatever Walker knew, he had told her the most important things. Presumably. “Is she safe there? With him?”
“For the time being, yes.”
He seemed certain about that. Cassie wasn’t as confident. “She has no training.”
“But he does.”
Yeah, but how trustworthy was he? Just because he’d been a Ranger and served with Bristol’s brother didn’t mean he could be trusted with Bristol’s life. “And this all means that she’s currently a potential target.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“I can protect her myself.”
“The CI was someone who works at the hospital with her. They know each other personally to some extent, and so it stands to reason he’ll know the connection between you. The cartel involved could access your tax and financial information, including your credit card statements, and easily find out where you live. Whereas TJ’s been living on the street under an assumed identity for months, without any digital fingerprints to trace.”
He paused, his gaze steady and calm as she chewed on all of that. “If Ivy couldn’t find much on his background, no one can. Also, the house he’s staying in is registered to Beckett’s company, without any way to link it to him. Not even a utility bill in his name. So Bristol is actually safer where she is. At least for now.”
Cassie absorbed that for a few sobering moments. She might not like any of it, but had to agree his points were all valid and logical. Bristol’s safety was all that mattered right now. “Do you have a way of contacting them?”
Bristol must have shut her phone off, because voicemail had picked up immediately when Cassie had kept calling her back.
“Just the number TJ contacted Beckett with. He used a burner.”
Great. She shoved out a breath, scrubbed a hand over her mouth and chin. What the hell was she supposed to do now? Just nod, sit here, and pretend this was no big deal? Leave Bristol in TJ’s questionable protection and do nothing?
“I understand this must be upsetting for you.”
Upsetting? Yeah. Technically she was only a few years older than Bristol, but she was a lifetime older in terms of life experience, and she had training. “I want to protect her.”
“I know.” He watched her for a second. “I think you should take a few days off until this is resolved.”
“No.” Absolutely not. She had busted her ass to get this job, to give herself this fresh start, and as the sole female bodyguard at the firm, she had to prove herself on the daily more than the guys did. It sucked that it was necessary, but that was just how it was in this industry. “I don’t want time off.”
Time off would just mean empty hours for her to fill by mentally climbing the walls of her little house.
“Is Bristol close to her father?”
“Yes.” Reasonably so. At least compared to Cassie’s own experience.
“He’ll need to be notified, then.”
“Not until I know more.” What was the point? It would only scare the shit out of him, and he’d barely recovered from the massive heart attack he’d suffered a little more than a year ago. There was no way she would tell him yet.
“I’m happy to inform him of the situation when the time comes if you want.”
“No. It needs to come from me. Thank you, though.”
“Of course. If you change your mind, just let me know.” He pushed his chair back from the desk. “I don’t have anything more to tell you at the moment, but let me reassure you that the firm is monitoring the situation. We’ll share any pertinent intel as we get it.”
If they felt it was relevant and necessary.
He didn’t say that part out loud, but he didn’t have to. She knew how it worked. “Thanks. I need to get going too, grab Beckett that bag for Bristol.”
She rose, thanked him again on her way out and strode quickly down the hall, her mind spinning. Unable to ignore the tension in the pit of her stomach that kept reminding her that Bristol was in way over her head. And that there wasn’t a damned thing Cassie could do to fix any of it.
She heard low voices down the hall and found Tristan talking to Beckett in the reception lounge. “Hey,” Tristan said, pushing his tall frame away from the wall he’d been leaning against. “Everything okay?”
He’d stayed to check on her.
She forced a nod, the craziest thought passing through her brain. That if the two of them had been in Bristol and TJ’s position, she wouldn’t mind being forced to share a roof with him.
Which was insane and completely inappropriate, and she forcefully shoved it from her filthy mind. “What are you still doing here? I thought you left with Gavin.”
“Wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
The little catch in her heart annoyed her. Hanging around to give her emotional support was taking the work partner thing a bit farther than she was comfortable with. He was her coworker and sometimes partner on the job. They weren’t even friends. Definitely would never be more than that. Even if it wasn’t wildly inappropriate, it still wasn’t happening, because she was a complete disaster when it came to romantic relationships.
“I’m fine, thanks.” She switched her attention to Beckett, who stood with his hands braced behind him on the counter. “You taking Bristol’s stuff over to TJ’s now?”
“Was planning to.”
“Good, I’ll go with you.” She spun around and headed back to the hall before he could argue, not giving him a choice. She was going to see Bristol for herself and make sure she was okay. “Meet you out back in five.”