20. Andrie #2
“I have dark roast coffee and chocolate milk,” he offered wryly.
“No!” The rest of the room protested, cringing, even as Junie shrugged as if the two were interchangeable.
“Jolene, Josie,” he greeted with a head nod, though his smile fell by the time he greeted the last sister. “Anything for y’all?”
“I thought you were waiting on us to start researching?” Matteo asked, folding his arms across his chest.
Juniper took one of the seats in front of the main computer monitor in what the Iron Wraiths called the “war room.” “No need to wait. I’ve got things running. But it would speed things up to get an ID, and we could come here quicker than they could collect it and bring it to us.”
A side door opened, and Whisp strolled through, bag in hand.
“There,” Jasper said, sounding pleased. “All done.”
I hadn’t realized he’d been tending to the cuts this entire time. The numbing agents had done their job; I hadn’t even noticed him stitching.
“I don’t see anything that indicates permanent damage, but you’ll be sore for a few days and likely itchy when it starts to heal.
I’ll check on you later this week to make sure it’s still free from infection.
” Pulling off the gloves he was wearing, he stuffed them, along with the bandages and blood-soaked towel, into a trash bag.
“I’m due at the hospital for my shift in an hour.
Do you need anything else?” The last part was directed at Grimm.
He shook his head. “Get out of here. There isn’t anything more you can do right now.”
The two men walked into a hall after Jasper gave Xander instructions for my arm.
Xander stayed glued to my side, his hand still wandering up and down my good arm.
Vik was behind the bar, busying himself by cleaning bottles and wiping down surfaces.
It was nothing that had to get done but was so very Vik.
An orange juice appeared next to me a moment later. “It’ll help with the blood loss,” he muttered when I looked at him. Reaching out, I stopped the hand wiping down the counter next to me. “Thank you,” I said, knowing how worried he must’ve been.
He grunted. “Don’t do that again, all right?”
Grimm walked back in with a sandwich on a plate in one hand, a red cereal box under his arm, and a coffee mug in his other hand. He set the sandwich next to the orange juice, giving me his own critical look, before going over to deliver Juniper’s requested “brain food.”
“All right,” Juniper said around a mouthful of the brightly colored cereal.
“Fingerprints are in and say … Gary Smithfield. Less-than-honorably discharged three years ago. Looks to have stayed in Virginia, which is where he’s from originally.
I’m working through his military files, but it’ll take a hot minute.
” Fingers flew across the keyboard as she hacked her way through the military firewall as if it were child’s play.
A picture of Gary appeared on the main screen a moment later. It was definitely the same person. “He had a few drug charges and a few issues of getting too pushy with a few of the female officers. Shit hit the fan when he assaulted the base commander’s daughter.”
After more typing, the picture on the monitor moved to make way for another. “This is the real Steve Turner. He’s a current SEAL but is on deployment in Syria at the moment.”
“Someone pulled the name from somewhere,” Josie said, leaning over her sister to look at the computer. “Any intersect between the two men?”
Juniper’s hand jumped out and snagged the box of cereal just as Josie tried—and failed—to ease it backward to Jolene.
“That’s going to take a while. There’s a lot of overlap.
They’ve been to several of the same places in the world, trained at the same places, even crossed paths a few times.
” She tossed a glance over her shoulder at me.
“You can go home. I promise to go as fast as I can, but I’d be shocked if I have anything before tomorrow. ”
Surprised that I’d managed to eat both the sandwich and juice while Juniper had been busy, I glanced around in search for my keys when a thought hit me. “I’m not getting my car back. Am I?” I asked Xander, thinking of what or, more accurately, whom, he’d put in the trunk.
He stared at me first, the shock of my words causing his eyes to widen. Then he chuckled. “That’s a pretty safe assumption.”
“Good,” Lessia said, rising from her seat. “With any luck, you can convince her to replace it with something someone under eighty would actually want to drive.”
“My car isn’t that bad,” I protested, thinking of my totally non-descript light tan sedan.
She rolled her eyes. “The only thing that car is good for is a long-term stakeout. No one ever sees the thing. It’s so … bland.”
Xander gave me a boyish grin. “I hate to agree with her, but sweetheart, please, can we at least get something with a bigger engine? And more leg room,” he added.
Something nagged at me even as I let the two of them help me off the bar top.
“He said they already had a buyer.” I whirled around to Juniper.
“Gary had to have had some connection to the identity he used but also a way in to get to me. His paperwork was legit—at least in terms of what I would normally get. And he had the military release, the official one with permission to see me about active military operations as long as it tied back to ‘mental healing’.”
“You’re right. It’s another data point to add to the list,” Juniper agreed, not looking at me as she continued to dig. Clearly, I was a step behind her.
“And whoever helped him get to me must also have some sort of contact with this buyer. I can’t imagine Gary hatched this plan on his own.
Even if he’d heard my name from another SEAL, why target me with the idea of stealing my patient files?
And why enough overwhelming confidence to line up a buyer before he even has the information in his possession? ”
That had everyone else in the room pausing as my words sank in. “Damn,” Josie swore, grabbing a seat in front of another computer, booting it up. “Toss the info you’re mining my way, Junie. I’ll start sorting it out for you as you keep digging.”
Lessia practically dragged me out the door, citing her need to get back to work after dropping us off. I tried to catch Vik’s eye, hoping he’d offer to drive us home, but he’d disappeared somewhere in the depths of the building.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
The last thing I saw before the door closed were Juniper and Josie, hard at work at their computers, with Grimm and Matteo standing behind them, watching the large monitors with information flashing over them.