Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
MEMPHIS
“Gabriel Monil and Lachlan Pratt,” I muttered as I dove into a search for the two men. Arick would be doing the same, though I could hear over the comms how much the older couple was trying to keep him included in the conversation.
That meant I had to take the lead.
“You need me to make a food run?” Sinclair asked sweetly from beside me.
My man knew there were certain things that would fuel me through an intense data session like this. Food, fucking, or funny memes — though that last one was harder to find these days. I’d trolled the internet for so long, most weren’t as funny anymore.
Fucking was off the table considering so many people were still around. I didn’t want anyone to see my sexy man while in the throes of passion. It was for me only!
Which of course left food.
“Burgers and fries. Shake too. The cookies and cream one.”
He laughed. “I know, boss. I’m familiar enough with your habits. Let me see if the others want something too.”
As he stood to leave, I grabbed his hand. “Wait. Don’t go out alone. You need to take a buddy. Cohen!”
My teammate leapt from his reclined position. “Yeah?”
“Can you go do a food run with Sinclair? I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to be out alone. Lune is getting bold.”
“Agreed,” my teammate said. “Let’s head out. The sooner we fix his hangry problem, the better we can be about wrapping this case up.”
I rolled my eyes at his teasing. Our ability to wrap up the case had nothing to do with my hunger. It was all about Lune’s skill at hiding in plain sight. Even when we knew he’d been somewhere, the fucker was hard to nail down.
Admittedly, I admired him a bit for the finesse it took to pull that off. In a digital world, not leaving a footprint was iconic.
Of course, he could when he wanted to. Like when he donated to Chance’s campaign.
The campaign that was slowly dying.
I pulled up the stats from voters to see a shocking turn of events. Instead of the downslide I’d come to expect from his lack of campaigning, there was a big uptick in his percentages. Notes from commenters spoke of how they knew he must have been struggling with the fire and its aftermath. Many suggested he might have been dealing with stressors before the event.
Oh, how right they were.
If only they knew the truth.
I ignored that train of thought to focus on what I needed to get done. First up, Gabriel Monil. A cursory check on the open web showed he was a social media darling. This guy was a womanizing prick, yet people didn’t seem to notice. They flocked to him as if he were a god.
Scrolling through his feeds made me want to hurl. I did a background check on him to make sure nothing else popped up aside from what he wanted others to see. Aside from some speeding tickets and one drunk and disorderly charge while he was in college, the guy was clear.
To be sure, I set up a channel to run in the less visible places online. The areas people wouldn’t think to look for when checking on someone. It would take a bit to gather, so I moved on to the next suspect.
Lachlan Pratt was on the opposite end of the spectrum from Gabriel. There was literally zero social media for the guy. Immediately, my mental alarms went off.
He could be who we were looking for.
I ran through the same steps as I had with the other guy. No police records came up for him, nor did he appear to be listed on any registry of any kind — from criminal to blood donations. I was scouring everything I could for a hint.
Then I went deeper.
The dark web was called dark for a reason. As soon as I put his name in, I got a hit. What I pulled up sent chills down my spine. Not because I was scared but because this felt too familiar.
“Why are you looking at pictures of Stabler’s partner?” Archie asked.
I jolted at the noise. “What? How do you know what I’m looking at?”
“Because I can see your screen on the wall.”
One glance over my cubicle wall showed he was right. I hadn’t disconnected my screen sharing from earlier, which explained why Takeshi and Archie were so quiet. Damari too, though he was also drawing in his sketchbook, so hopefully he didn’t see anything he shouldn’t have. Ronan was very particular about keeping his boy away from the darker side of this business.
I didn’t blame him. One of the reasons I let Sinclair dote on me so much was to keep him from focusing on the work itself. He couldn’t go back to his shop right now. At least not until the guys made it back so we could put someone on a security detail with him. There were too many access points there. If they were willing to burn a government office, then they would definitely attack a plain old coffee shop.
“You didn’t answer the question, Memphis. Why is he on the wall?”
“Because this is who came up when I dug for information on Lachlan Pratt.”
Takeshi began signing quickly. I kept up with parts of it, but my brain was struggling after realizing things were not at all what we thought.
Why the fuck was Lachlan Pratt working at the FBI? The guy was not good. Even I could see that. He shouldn’t have been able to pass a background check.
Archie signed back to Takeshi, then turned to me. I waited for him to tell me the other man’s thoughts since I had a feeling they’d be insightful.
“Takeshi thinks we need to contact Stabler. He should know there’s a link between his partner and Tank. We still don’t know enough about Lune to make the connection there, but this is a strange situation.”
“I agree,” I told him.
“He also thinks we need to call the team now. If this is the case, then Lachlan Pratt might be a threat in other ways. Is he linked to The Gilded Ones? Can you find a connection?”
Dropping into my chair, I drowned out everything else to focus on the screen in front of me. I lost myself to the rhythm of the keys and the click of my mouse. With each resource I used, I got closer to finding out if we’re in greater danger than I thought.
“Stabler? It’s Archie. I’m calling with something important. Where are you?” Archie’s voice was urgent, his tone making it clear there was no delaying this conversation. I tuned in enough to hear his side as I went through what I know of the Gilded Ones and their associations.
On the surface, anyone would assume he had no type of internet presence because he was an FBI agent. There was a need for secrecy in that field of work.
But I knew better.
Something about him always bothered me. Not because of anything he said. Simply in the way Stabler mentioned him from time to time. Like he was a problem the man didn’t know what to make of.
Orion wasn’t the only guy who could read what wasn’t always said.
“You’re at the office about to go into a meeting. When can you get somewhere secure? It needs to be just you. Or can you come to the office?”
Whatever Stabler said next made Archie scoff. The young man stomped around the office, his voice pitched low enough I couldn’t hear over the way I pounded on my mechanical keyboard.
“Let us know as soon as you can. Thanks!”
“What did he say?” I asked as soon as I heard him drop the phone on the table.
Archie huffed, then came around to where I could see him. “He said there’s something happening that he can’t talk about in the office. He’s on a case that he feels is a waste of time, but his boss wants him to investigate. His partner thinks it’s a dead end too, so he’s arguing with their supervisor over it right now. Stabler needed to go in order to calm the pair down.”
“Sounds like Pratt is a hot head?”
“That’s what I got out of it too.”
He turned to look at his husband, likely because he was signing something. From the corner of my eye, I saw him nod as he signed back, “Good point”.
“Takeshi’s thoughts?” I asked.
“He thinks there’s definitely a connection somehow. It’s not clear, but his intuition is saying we need to get the team together in one place and stay close. Whatever is going on with Lune is linked to Pratt in some way. Even if it’s just they’re both against Tank in some way.”
I nodded as I mentioned the stray thought I’d had earlier. “You don’t think Lune and Pratt are the same person do you?”
“What? That seems a bit far-fetched, don’t you think?”
“Not really. We don’t have a lot on Lune. Even the photo we have is one I’m not fully certain is him. We mixed up Ajax and Mordecai. What if we’re wrong about this too?”
The doubt in my voice made me sick to my stomach. This wasn’t who I was.
My career with NightShade was built on gathering the facts and presenting them to the team. We didn’t have to guess at things because I knew how to get the truth.
But with this, I was at a loss.
So much of what we were doing felt like it was up to chance. And often, we were steps behind the men we tried to take down.
How the hell would we ever finish this if I couldn’t pull it together?
Archie’s hand on my shoulder startled me. “Hey. You know you’re not alone in this? Tell us what you need, and we’ll help.”
“Food! The man needs food!” Sinclair demanded as he slid past Archie to climb in my lap. I barely had time to back up my chair before he positioned himself just how he wanted.
My mouth opened to tell him I needed to work, except instead of speaking, I wound up with a mouth full of fries. Sinclair grinned at me, like he was happy he successfully foiled my actions.
He’s lucky I loved him.
Turning to Archie, he said, “Catch me up on what I missed.”