Chapter 21
Zane
“Thanks for this,” I tell Anastasia, keeping my voice barely above a whisper so Brenda and Jack can’t hear me from where they’re seated at a café table near the front door of my sister’s coffee shop. Tessa is standing just beside me, silent as she’s been since they left the boat.
I can feel the nerves pouring off of her, and if I can’t calm her down, I worry this conversation is going to go very poorly.
“Of course. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay down here?” my sister asks, her gaze shifting from me to the table they’re sitting at, then back to me.
“Nah. Head upstairs. Do me a favor, though, call the team and have them on standby should this go sideways.”
“Consider it done.” Anastasia reaches over and squeezes Tessa’s hand gently. “You know where to find me.” With one final glance at the corner table, she heads toward the back and up the stairs.
“You ready?” I ask Tessa.
“No. But let’s go anyway.”
I rest my hand on her lower back and guide her toward the table. The contact is as much for me as it is for her. We take our seats, and I cross my arms. “So the FBI is investigating self-defense these days? That’s new.”
“I’m not here for you,” he says, then shifts his attention to Tessa. “I’m here for you.”
“Me? What about? I didn’t kill anyone!”
“That’s to be determined.” He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a photograph, then slides it on the table between us. “Do you recognize them?”
Tessa leans in and studies the photographs. A petite blonde woman smiles out of the image as she stands beside a dark-haired man with dark eyes and a wide smile of his own. I don’t recognize them, and based on the look Tessa is giving, she doesn’t either.
“No.”
“No?” Jack confirms.
“No. I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
“Start talking, Weathers,” I snap. My patience is already wearing thin, thanks to Brenda springing this on me like a perfectly orchestrated trap, but until I start getting some real answers, I’m feeling rather volatile.
“You’re looking at Karver and Alara Benson. The owners of Southeast Environmental Commission.”
Tessa shakes her head. “No. I met Karver and Alara; this is not them.” She slides the photo back.
“Dental, fingerprints, and DNA sampling confirm that these are the Bensons.”
Tessa’s quiet a moment. “Dental? Why would you need—” She pales. “They’re dead?”
Jack nods.
“What exactly are you accusing Tessa of?” I ask, unease crawling up the back of my neck.
“Nothing yet. Their bodies were discovered in a remote campsite outside of Denver. They’d been dead three and a half months.”
“Three and a half months?” Tessa chokes out. “I was hired three months ago.”
“If that’s true, then my best guess is that whoever hired you was pretending to be them. But I need to know exactly what they looked like and what they said.”
“If that’s true? Surely you’re not accusing her of a double homicide.”
“You don’t even know this woman,” Brenda says.
Anger surges to the surface, and I have to actively fight against exploding right here at this table. Somehow, I don’t think Anastasia would appreciate it if I flipped her pretty café table.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Tessa insists.
“But you did change your name. Multiple times,” Brenda says. The way she watches me tells me that she’d been hoping I wasn’t aware of it.
“That doesn’t equal murder. Tessa was trying to hide from an abusive family situation.”
“Sure. But she avoided taxes for nearly two decades and forged state documents for three different names. That’s a crime that carries a hefty jail sentence.”
“I can make all this go away.” The first words Brenda ever spoke to me come rushing back with horrible clarity. Bile burns in my throat.
“You are not going to blackmail her,” I snap, shooting up from my chair with such force that I send it flying backward. My muscles tremble with barely leashed rage. Whatever she’s done to me, she will not put shackles on Tessa, too.
Tessa flinches.
Brenda grins at me, clearly ecstatic to have gotten a response.
“We don’t care about the name changes,” Jack says, clearly frustrated. “The only thing I want to know is who murdered the Bensons.”
“Then you should talk to the other employees. I never even saw them again after that initial meeting. All contact was through email.”
“None of their employees have seen them since they went missing. Their assistants received emails from them saying they were taking a last-minute trip and would be back in a few months. Then, they were told to onboard you as a new secretary.”
“I don’t understand why they would hire me then. Nothing out of the ordinary happened while I was working there.”
“That’s the piece we can’t figure out.” He crosses his arms and studies her. “You sure you don’t know them? Seems awfully handy that you were struggling and just so happened to catch a break like this. Surely it ended all your financial troubles.”
Before I can even respond, Tessa pushes up from her chair.
“I would never hurt another person. I would rather starve to death. I’m telling you the truth.
The two people who hired me looked nothing like these two.
” She points to the picture. “I worked directly with Genevieve Logan during the time I was employed there. Up until my apartment was ransacked and someone attacked me when I tried to run.”
Jack’s gaze narrows. “Someone attacked you?”
“Yes.”
“She showed up with a stab wound in her thigh, as well as multiple bruises and defensive markings.” I cross my arms, trying to read his expression. Either he’s a great actor, worthy of an Academy Award, or he’s genuinely surprised.
“What was taken from your apartment?” he questions.
Slowly, Tessa takes her seat again. However, I remain standing, although I do pick up the chair. Anastasia will chew me up and spit me out if I damage the furniture she restored herself. “I never looked.”
“You said you were escaping an abusive family situation?” Jack asks. “Care to elaborate?”
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“Is it possible that’s who was after you then? Who tossed your apartment?” he presses.
“Given that he died two years ago, no.” Tessa crosses her arms.
“It seems probable that they were after her because she could ID them,” I offer.
“That’s what I’m leaning toward, too,” he replies.
“Add to that what happened right after she arrived, and what happened last week, I’d say it’s more than probable,” Brenda says.
Considering the fact that Jack doesn’t ask for clarification on either event, I’m guessing Brenda took the liberty of filling him in.
“What is your involvement in this?” I ask her. Brenda Leroy does nothing without an ulterior motive.
“A member of my team has been at the receiving end of bullets twice since she came back to town. That makes this my business.”
“I’m hardly a member of your team,” I retort. “I thought your preferred term was ‘asset.’”
She glares at me. “Either way. You’re my business. And you’ve had nothing but trouble since Little Miss Small Town decided to return home.”
“No,” I reply, letting the bite of her words wash over me so I don’t lose my head to the anger trying to root within me. “That’s not it.”
Brenda reaches into the briefcase on the ground beside her and holds out a folder, so I cross and take it from her. “You’re being activated,” she says. “One of the employees, who was hired a few months before Tessa, has opened their own private company a few blocks away from the original building.”
“And why isn’t the FBI talking to them?” I question, shifting my gaze to Jack, who honestly looks about ready to explode. I imagine having Brenda come in and take over is not something he’s overly thrilled about.
“Because the government has decided I’m only allowed to investigate the murders. Since that particular employee has an alibi, they are of no further interest to me,” he replies.
If I weren’t so frustrated, I’d laugh. Seems Brenda has her claws in his higher-ups, too. At least it’s not just me she’s controlling. “So explain to me why the government is interested in the murder of two do-gooders? Isn’t that local PD’s jurisdiction?”
“It’s not the Karvers were interested in. However, Cal Markson has loose ties back to an environmental terrorist group known for targeting high-profile companies and staging elaborate attacks on and off US soil.”
I look down at the mugshot in front of me. “This guy has a list as long as my arm. Why hasn’t he been officially charged with anything?”
“We think he has someone covering for him; we just can’t figure out who. Thing is, Markson is a small fish. I want the shark at the top of his food chain,” Brenda says. “Which is why you and your team are headed to Savannah, Georgia.”
“If they’re dangerous, though, why are you sending Zane?” Fear laces Tessa’s voice, and Brenda grins, prepared to eat her alive at the first opportunity.
“Zane killed someone with his bare hands a week ago, and you still wonder why I keep him around? He and his team are good at what they do. And when things go sideways, they’re the most brutal group of mercenaries I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
“Not at all how I would put it,” I snap, fresh anger washing over me. Mercenaries? We’re not mercenaries.
The back door opens, and I turn as Weston, Ryker, Sawyer, and Garrison all stroll in. Each of them is wearing an angry expression. They come to stand behind me and cross their arms.
Even Jack Weathers appears to be slightly intimidated. He stands, likely not wanting to be the only man sitting.
“Mercenaries?” Sawyer questions. “That’s not a great way to talk about us. Tank, maybe, but me? Come on, I’m cute as a button.”
“And deadly as a viper.” Brenda pushes to her feet and takes her briefcase.
“Call yourselves whatever you want, but what was the body count on that last mission? Seventeen? Eighteen? I can’t remember.
” She taps a sharp nail to her chin. “Either way, violence seems to come as naturally to you as breathing,” she adds with a grin in my direction.
I’m afraid to look at Tessa.
What if she’s buying this act?
For a woman raised in such a violent home, the last thing she would want is to be tethered to someone capable of taking a life. How could I have been so foolish as to think otherwise?
“To be fair, most of those were mine,” Weston adds coldly. It’s not that he’s cold about the deaths. Each and every one, even as necessary as they were, eats him alive. But he’s trying to take the attention off of me.
Which means Tessa’s expression is likely twisted in horror.
“Hmm. Well. Talk to your leader. He has your next orders.” Brenda strolls out of the coffee shop without a second look back.
“Can’t say I’m a fan of hers,” Jack says. He turns to Tessa. “I’ll be in contact with any other questions. Can I have a word?” he asks me.
“Sure.” I glance back at Weston, who offers me a slight nod, letting me know he’s watching. Then, I follow Agent Jack Weathers out onto the sidewalk in front of Anastasia’s place.
“I don’t believe Tessa killed anyone,” he says.
“She didn’t.”
Jack nods. “You should know that Miss Button-up? She is coming for your girl—hard. I’m not sure why, or what the trouble is there, but if she could pin this entire thing on her, she would.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Regardless of what you think of me, Mr. Knox, I’m not a fan of bullies. Government-issued or otherwise. Have a nice night.” He heads down the dark sidewalk, and I cross my arms, trying to prepare myself for whatever waves Brenda just caused in the already brewing storm between Tessa and me.