Chapter Sixteen
Tris watched the door close and sighed. It was over. The job. Probably his career. He might not lose his job, but he would be exactly what everyone thought he was—a keyboard jockey who supported the real operatives. A guy who’d failed at his first real mission. He hadn’t caught the bad guy. He’d tried his hardest, given it everything he had, and still come up short like he’d always feared he would. His father was coming in to clean up his mess, and he would go home and be a dutiful son and watch after his subs and do his diminished job to the best of his ability. He would be nothing more than a son, brother, friend…husband.
It didn’t sound so bad.
“I know this sucks for you, but I, for one, am not upset about heading home,” Zach said. “This trip’s timing was shitty for me.”
He wasn’t the only one who was planning some life changes, but he still had some questions. Zach was planning to shift his focus to the Agency. “You already talked to Coop?”
Zach nodded. “Yeah. We had breakfast yesterday morning, and he offered up a room. Getting a place in Dallas will be so much more convenient than constantly having to fly out for briefings. I thought Cooper might want someone to help with rent and utilities and stuff. I’ve lived alone most of my adult life, so I’m looking forward to having someone to talk to every now and then. But there was something I was thinking about. Don’t your parents own the place? You don’t think they’ll sell it now that you’re definitely not living there anymore?”
“Somehow I think my parents will continue to be perfectly reasonable landlords.” His mom wasn’t about to chuck out her son’s friends. She would consider keeping the house up her contribution to the team. “And sure you want to suddenly move in order to be closer to the team? There’s not another reason?”
“Yeah, like I said, I’m kind of sick of being alone.”
“So you’re doing this to have a roommate?” Tris stared at the big guy, willing him to get to the real point.
“Fine. I want to see where it’s going with Devi. The last week has literally been the best of my life. We went to Top the other night and Cooper and Kala were there. It was the nicest time. It was…like being around family,” Zach said in an almost wistful way.
It was hard to remember some people weren’t constantly surrounded by family and friends who’d known them all their damn lives. It could be annoying, but then he realized how alone Zach must feel. “I’m glad it’s going well. Devi is great. And I bet Coop will be happy to have someone who doesn’t immediately fall in love and move. I think Nate lasted like a week and a half before he was living with Daisy. Take your time with Devi. I think Cooper needs some stability.”
“I can do that,” Zach promised. “Devi’s got a lot going on. I want to add to her life not give her more to do. I need some time to figure out how we can fit into each other’s lives.”
“Let’s get going.” Tristan looked around the room. “The last thing we need is Tash honking at the door.”
“You okay?” Zach asked, studying him. “I know what this mission has meant to you and what you gave up for it. You seem to be handling this like a champ, but you have to know this means Big Tag’s going to take over everything. Well, if the higher-ups let him.”
What he’d given up was precious time with Carys and Aidan. He didn’t want to lose more. “I think the fact they allowed him to take over this op means they’re coming around. You were sent in to discredit the team. It’s been a couple of years and you haven’t managed it.”
“I was sent in to report back with an unbiased eye,” Zach corrected. “I’m going to admit something I wouldn’t to most other people. I wasn’t ever unbiased. I wanted on the team.”
“Because it sounded like a beautiful train wreck?” Tris got to work. Despite what Aidan had said, Tris didn’t mean to leave their stuff behind either. Though he wouldn’t call for a bellman. They’d checked for bugs, but the absence of them in the room didn’t mean there weren’t still eyes on them. Especially once they hit the elevator. He intended to walk out before anyone could think to stop him. He grabbed his laptop and shoved it in his bag.
Zach grinned and picked up Carys’s laptop bag, moving it to the table at the front of the outer room. “It is most of the time. What I loved about the idea of the team was the family aspect. It felt more military to me than Agency. I liked the idea the team would care about each other, would know each other. So often a Mr. or Ms. Black would roll in, order my Special Forces teams to do their will, and then never see a one of us again. Big Tag gives a damn about everyone he works with, and he’s passed his philosophy on to his team. I wanted to be part of that.”
“I can see why it would be appealing.” Tristan mentally counted their baggage and the likelihood he and Zach could handle it. Luckily, he packed light. The good news was they hadn’t gotten around to unpacking more than toiletries since they wouldn’t be staying more than the night. It was easy to shove the dirty clothes in the outer pockets of the luggage and then roll it to the living room where Zach moved it into place. “Tell me something. Did you know about the whole taking the last parachute and leaving Parker behind to die thing?”
Zach chuckled. “I did. I kind of watched it happen, though from a distance. In Kala’s defense, she didn’t believe they would kill Parker. He’s being kind of dramatic when he says that.”
Tristan scoffed at the idea. “She did not care.”
“Okay, she didn’t, but what else was she supposed to do?” Zach asked, proving he would back his teammates even when they were a little psycho. “She did catch him, and she did make sure he made it safely to the ground. It was a hell of a thing.”
“Why didn’t it make your report?” Tris was always careful to go over mission reports even when he wasn’t involved in the op.
Zach stopped, and Tris could have sworn there was the faintest flush to the big guy’s face. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.” He knew exactly what had happened, but he wanted to hear Zach say it.
Zach shrugged. “Fine. Because you don’t tell on your sister. I’m not a snitch. You know what they say.”
Except there was one problem with what Zach had said. “You were literally hired to snitch. Also, you should be happy you didn’t because snitching on that particular sister wouldn’t lead to stitches.”
“Nope. It leads to a body bag, and what can I say, man? I drank the Kool-Aid and I want more,” Zach admitted. “I came on board because some of the directors worried the team would be unstable. Don’t ever tell our Langley handlers, but those directors wanted Big Tag and Charlie in. It’s the only reason Drake and Taylor were allowed to form the team. They knew if they had the twins, they had their parents. Some of them thought if we could get shit on the team, they would have leverage over the whole Taggart clan.”
Tris stopped in his tracks, feeling his eyes widen. “Ian would eat them all if he knew.”
“Which is why we’re not going to tell him, brother,” Zach said. “It would cause problems. I handled it for him. They’re no longer talking about shutting it down at Langley. Instead, they’re giving the team more important assignments, and that’s why I think this one is going to fall to Big Tag. Honestly, bringing your dad in is the nail in the coffin to the people who want to shut this team down. If we have Adam Miles, no one’s going to argue with us.”
His father was being used as a chess piece, but he had to trust his dad could handle it. Between his father, Big Tag, and Charlotte, they would likely upend the whole game and change all the rules. If there was anything he’d learned from all of this it was to trust the people he loved. “Well, then one good thing came out of all the mess I made.”
He went into the bathroom and grabbed Carys’s makeup bag and his and Aidan’s toiletries.
“You didn’t make a mess,” Zach said from the outer room. “You did what you could with what you were handed. Everyone was impressed you could even find the fucker. He was well hidden, but you tracked his ass down. You couldn’t know you were going to walk in and find The Jester face down on the floor, man. You did what you had to do.”
“Nice of you to…” Tristan stopped, focused on what Zach had just said.
Face down on the floor.
By the time Zach had shown up, Tristan had turned him over. He’d had to see if the man could be saved and along with him, his knowledge. When Zach had walked in, The Jester had been lying face up, his unseeing eyes staring at the ceiling.
“Hey, I cleared out Kala’s stuff,” Zach announced. “She had everything in a duffel. I think we can manage it on our own.”
What else had Zach been sent in to do? Who was Zach really working for? Maybe he was being fucking paranoid as hell. Maybe it was a turn of phrase, something that dropped from his mouth without thinking about it.
Except Zach Reed was always precise.
Tristan cursed inwardly because when he’d gotten dressed he hadn’t put his holster on. He’d been in a hurry because they’d lain around naked for a while, and then he’d sat there talking to Aidan while Carys was in the shower. When he’d remembered his phone, he’d gotten dressed in a hurry.
Zach rounded the corner. “You need help in here?”
Tristan forced his expression to go blank. “Nope. Got everything I need.”
Zach stared at him for a moment, and then his eyes closed. “Fuck. He was face up. You turned him over. Damn it, Tris.”
Tris dropped the bags he’d been holding. Zach was armed, unlike him. Tris held his hands up and assessed his odds of getting out of this situation alive. “So you killed him? And if you did it, then who did I kill? I thought I killed his assassin.”
His mind worked overtime, trying to come up with any reason why Zach would have done what he’d obviously done. Zach was his friend. Zach was also military. He could have been following orders. But why would Tris have been left out?
“He was a distraction. I hired the man. Trust me, he deserved what he got. I needed everyone to think we’d closed that circle. You should know Tara had nothing to do with it. She was just doing her job.” Zach’s hands came up, too, as though trying to let Tris know he wasn’t a threat. “There’s a reason, Tris. Please believe me. I am not here to hurt you or anyone on this team. I genuinely care about you guys.”
There were a few scenarios he could come up with. “Your Army bosses wanted The Jester dead? Had they been working with him? Taken bribes from him?”
“It’s not like that,” Zach replied. “Let’s get out of here and I promise I’ll explain everything. Just… There are people who can’t know. Who can never know what I did. Big Tag…he won’t forgive me. Cooper…”
Tristan was about to make a move when a sound split the charged air around them. A knock. Someone was at the door.
Zach’s jaw went tense. “Tash would have called.”
“She wouldn’t have had to,” Tris said. “Aidan has a key. I didn’t order anything.”
Then they heard the sound of something worse. The door in the outer room opening.
Zach pulled his SIG and held out a hand, telling Tris to stay back. “Hide.”
He wasn’t about to do that. If this was going south, then Carys and Aidan were in danger. He wasn’t about to hide behind the fucking shower curtain. Not that there was one. It was a standing shower with glass sides. Where the hell did Zach think he was going to hide?
“Mr. Dean-Miles,” a deep voice said. It was masculine and held a heavy French accent. “We know you’re in there along with Captain Reed. We have your ladies in custody. Would you like to see them again or should we put them down? It’s entirely your choice.”
Carys. Fuck. They had Carys. “I’m coming out.”
Zach sent him a fierce look, his voice low. “Like hell you are.”
“Are we going to let them kill us in the bathroom?” He didn’t see they had a choice unless they wanted a firefight followed by the police showing up and then him likely receiving Carys back in a body bag. He didn’t even know where Aidan was. Did they have Aidan, too? Was the “ladies” a bit of homophobia stacked on top of these fuckers’ criminal behavior?
“I’m not playing,” the voice said. “I have colleagues with me, and you’ll find we’ve taken over the hotel. There’s no one who will come to your aid and no way to contact the police. You can come with us or we’ll kill the women since they’ll be of no use.”
“I’m coming out,” Tris said forcefully, raising his hands as he walked by Zach. “I can’t let them hurt Carys, and we don’t know who else they have.”
There were three “ladies” in the hotel tonight, and Aidan. His gut churned. Could they have killed Aidan? They would have to have found a way to drug Kala or she would fight until she killed them or they killed her.
How had it gone so wrong?
Because chaos was always the point. They’d played Huisman the way they would have played anyone else. Like he had things that mattered to him. Like he had things he loved and wouldn’t want to lose.
But what if chaos was all he cared about? Chaos and some revenge no sane person could understand.
Zach cursed behind him, and when Tris glanced back, he’d put the SIG on the counter and held his hands up. “We’re both coming out, and neither of us is armed.”
Tris went out the door first, though Zach tried to move in front of him. He couldn’t trust anyone. He was immediately faced with five men dressed all in black, each carrying a weapon. Two of them held handcuffs.
“Dr. Huisman requests the pleasure of your company.” The man in the middle seemed to be their leader. He was tall and lanky, his eyes predatory.
“Where is my fiancée?” Tris asked. “Let her go and I’ll tell you everything.”
A chuckle went through the group, and the leader shook his head. “You will tell Dr. Huisman everything anyway.” He glanced over to his left. “Prenez-les.”
Take them.
Before his fight instincts could take over there was a hissing sound and a sharp pain in his thigh. He heard Zach curse and realized two of the men carried tranquilizer guns. He recognized them because he’d recently been hit with one very similar. These assholes shopped at the same stores as his dad.
Tris felt the world go hazy and prayed he would be able to see them again.
* * * *
“I want someone to kill.” Big Tag paced like a tiger.
“I know, babe. Believe me, I know, but all Tasha could find were low-level employees who didn’t know anything.” Charlotte was trying to calm him down. “They worked fast. I think the manager has likely skipped town, but we’ll find him eventually.”
Carys and Kala had been gone by the time Aidan and Tasha had finally gotten through the entrance to the speakeasy. It had been completely shut down and locked up when they’d gotten there. The big bouncer who’d dressed like a twenties gangster had been absent from his post, and no one they asked knew anything beyond the bar closed at eleven. An hour or so before they’d entered it the first time.
Had Kala walked in when it was open, and they’d decided to use the opportunity? Then Carys had shown up like a lamb to slaughter.
Aidan felt useless. Lost. How could they be gone?
When they’d realized what had happened, they’d tried to call Tris and Zach, but cell service had been out and by the time they’d climbed the stairs to the suite—the elevator had mysteriously stopped working—all they’d been left with was luggage.
Someone had jammed service at precisely the right time. Tasha had to drive a mile and a half away before she’d managed to get her father on the phone to activate the trackers he had implanted in all of what he called his “puppies.” Tris, Kala, and Zach should have been trackable.
They’d gotten nothing.
“They must have pulled their trackers,” Lou said.
“Or they’re in range of a jammer.” Adam Miles had been on his laptop when they’d returned to the safe house. He had barely looked up. “They shut off CCTVs around the hotel, too. They just came back on.”
“Likely because Huisman has them wherever he wants them.” Kenzie paced, too, mirroring her father in so many ways. She’d been tense and shut down, none of her natural ebullience in evidence since she’d learned someone had kidnapped her twin and cousin.
Her father turned to her, his jaw tight. “You need to get upstairs. Parker could be here any minute. He knows Kara’s been taken. Won’t he be surprised when he sees you here?”
Kenzie’s chin came up in stubborn defiance. “Let him. I don’t care. My sister is in trouble. My cousin is in trouble. Hell, I’m worried about Tris and Zach because what’s going to happen when they realize Tris knows nothing and Zach is barely involved? They’ll kill Zach, but they’ll likely torture Tris.”
“Or torture Carys so Tris will talk.” It was the scenario playing through Aidan’s head. Carys being hurt over and over again for a secret Tris didn’t possess. “He’ll try to make up something, but they’ll figure out he’s lying.”
“It’ll take them time to verify whatever he tells them,” Big Tag said. “Tris is smart. He’ll come up with something. He’ll buy us some time.”
Aidan had to hope so. “My question is why would they take Kala and Zach? I would think they would be more trouble than they’re worth.”
The logical side of his brain went where his heart didn’t want to go. Kala would be trouble. Zach would be trouble. Should they have searched the hotel more thoroughly? Would they have found bodies?
Cooper strode down the stairs. He’d changed out of PJ pants and into black fatigues and a black T-shirt, a tactical vest covering his chest, and he was loaded up. He carried an AR-15, and Aidan counted at least three handguns and two knives.
“Yo, Rambo. Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Big Tag asked, staring at Cooper like he could force the other man to do his will.
Kenzie got a good look at Coop and nodded. “One of us has it right. I’ll go with you. Give me a sec to get changed.”
Charlotte sighed. “Yes, because running around Canada dressed for war is going to make everything easier. Kenzie, you’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m not running around,” Cooper promised. “I know exactly where I’m going.”
A brow rose over Big Tag’s eyes. “Do you? Have you carefully considered all the places Huisman could take them and logically narrowed it to one or two buildings? Did you get a listing of all the properties Huisman owns so you could deduce which one would be the easiest to store four prisoners in?”
“If they’re prisoners.” Tasha sat beside Lou, her hands in knots on her lap. She said out loud what they were all truly afraid of. “I don’t understand why they need Kala and Zach.”
“We don’t know they have Kala.” TJ was ever the optimist. Like Cooper, he’d dressed in tactical wear and looked ready for anything. Though he hadn’t strapped on an armory yet. “She could be following them. Same for Zach. You said you left him with Tristan.”
“Yes, in the suite where there wasn’t any place to go,” Tasha argued.
“The CCTVs went out before we could see anything. I have no idea if Zach was still with Tristan or if he maybe hid somewhere and followed them,” Lou replied. “Kala could have done the same.”
Charlotte shook her head. “Kala would have called in. She would have found a way. Same with Zach. We need to go back to the hotel…”
“She’s not dead,” Kenzie shouted. Her strawberry hair shook, making her look slightly wild. “She’s not fucking dead. I would feel it if my sister was dead.”
Charlotte moved in, wrapping her arms around her daughter. “Of course you would.”
But her gaze went to Ian, worry plain there.
“You guys can stand around here trying futilely to get the trackers back online,” Cooper began. “They’re not working and won’t. Why the fuck do we even have them? Anyway, feel free to sit on your hands. I’m going to go blow up the Huisman Foundation. Then I’ll move on to his house and any other place I think he might be hiding until he gives me back my…our people.”
Big Tag’s head fell back on a groan. “Fuck me.”
TJ stood, moving Cooper’s way. “I understand the impulse, man, but the minute you start blowing shit up, we all get taken into custody.”
“That’s easy for you to say since Lou is sitting right there safe and sound,” Coop shot back.
Lou turned his way. “Kala wouldn’t want you to get arrested. She would want you to play this smart. They didn’t leave bodies for us to find which means that wasn’t the message they were sending us.”
“We haven’t gotten the message yet,” Big Tag pointed out.
“Or they’re not going to send a message at all,” Cooper shot back. “They’re going to leave us here because they don’t care. Huisman wants to know who the bombmaker is. He’s figured out Tristan is The Jester, and he took Carys and Kala so he would have leverage to make him talk.”
“Then why take Zach?” Tasha asked. “And how would he know Carys would be in the bar when she was? She wasn’t supposed to be, you know. This whole plan doesn’t make sense.”
“He had control of the CCTVs.” Kenzie seemed to have calmed down. She leaned against her mom. “According to the report Phoebe sent, he paid the manager of the hotel, which is why they were short staffed. He sent home anyone who might have interfered. We have to think Huisman intended to take Carys and Aidan at some point. When they separated, he decided it was easier to take them out individually.”
“He would have to drug Kala.” Coop set the AR-15 on the table.
“I know we think she’s invincible, but I assure you she can be overwhelmed,” Big Tag said. “What I don’t understand is why go when Tasha and Zach got there? You’re adding in two variables when you don’t need to. I understand waiting until later. If I’d been planning I would have gone in at say three in the morning, overwhelmed the group while they were likely sleeping, and take out the four of them. The way Huisman did this, they had to deal with six instead of four.”
“It was only luck they went when Aidan and I were downstairs.” Tasha was pale, her hands around the mug of tea her mother had pressed into them ten minutes before.
“I don’t think so.” Big Tag ran a hand over his head, a gesture that screamed of frustration. “I’m missing something.”
Aidan sat there feeling utterly useless. They were out there going through god only knew what and he was sitting here. He couldn’t do anything. The loves of his life were going through hell and he was…nothing.
He felt like he couldn’t breathe. All around him the team was going over possible scenarios, and he was sitting here.
“Hey, Aidan. Are you… I’m sorry. That’s a dumb question. Of course, you’re not okay.” Adam turned his chair around, leaning toward Aidan. “I need you to know I’m going to find them. Huisman can’t take over every CCTV in the country. He’ll slip up, and I’ll be there. This is far from over. I need you to stay calm and be ready in case we need you.”
“Need me? I can’t fucking do anything. I’m not trained for any of this. I’m not prepared for this life.”
“Of course you are. Aidan, you do something none of us can do. You literally save lives with your hands. When all looks lost, you stay calm and find a way to put a human body back together. We might need those skills because once I figure out where they are, there won’t be any holding Cooper back,” Adam said.
“I wish I’d gone to the gun range more,” Aidan admitted.
Adam’s head shook. “I’m glad you didn’t. I’m glad you spent all these years learning how to save people’s lives. We might need that today because I believe they’re alive, and we will have to fight to get them back. I know you think you should be there on the front lines, but we need you. We need you safe because when it all goes bad, you are the most important person here.”
Adam’s words were doing what he’d likely meant for them to do. Easing Aidan’s mind. Getting him in the right frame of mind. “I don’t have a kit.”
Most doctors didn’t carry around the tools of their trade. He’d done some training in fieldwork with EMTs. He’d also spent summers in Africa at a clinic run by Nate Carter’s mom. They often went into villages and sometimes had to deal with emergencies where there wasn’t an OR for miles. But then he had a kit.
“Cooper has one.” Adam turned his chair again, and his eyes went back to his screen. “The team is ready for this. The kit will be basic, but you can do it.”
Aidan stood. Something to do. He desperately needed something to do. “Let me look through it and make sure I have what I need.”
“I’m still stuck on why they would let Kala live,” Lou said, sniffling into a tissue. “Huisman has to know who Ms. Magenta is. He knew Uncle Ian and Tash worked for the Agency.”
“She’s not fucking dead,” Cooper barked.
“Hey.” TJ stepped in front of Lou like he needed to protect her.
“Everyone calm the fuck down.” Big Tag’s voice rang out through the chaos.
Chaos. They were caught in a chaotic situation. The kit was sitting on the table in the dining room, but Aidan stopped. This was chaos. Disruption. According to Ben Parker, it was what Dr. Huisman believed in.
Does chaos ever make sense?
Carys had asked the question.
Maybe it didn’t to an outsider, but perhaps they were using a logic that didn’t apply. They needed to stop thinking like Agency operatives and start thinking like a narcissistic sociopath who’d watched his father die at a young age.
Sometimes our brains make odd connections. Trauma can do funny things to a person. Especially a child. Sometimes revenge doesn’t make sense. Carys had said. The brain can make connections that wouldn’t look rational to the outside person.
Carys’s words were playing around in Aidan’s head. “Unless this is all about Ian, and then he would want Kala. He would want to hurt her to get back at her father.”
“We don’t know Huisman even knows who Kala is,” TJ argued.
“He does.” Big Tag seemed stuck in place. “He knows exactly who she is. He’s been watching me and my family since long before there was an Agency team. Damn it. I’ve been avoiding the truth because it didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t fucking kill his father. Neither did anyone on my team.”
Carys had been on to something. She’d looked at the situation from the outside and slid pieces into place none of them realized formed a different picture. “But you were the starting point. If you look at it from a distorted position, none of it happens if Big Tag isn’t there. Levi Green got involved with Huisman’s father because he was looking for men under Big Tag’s protection. Without Ian they wouldn’t have had the money or the resources to run. They certainly wouldn’t have been investigating Dr. Rebecca Walsh.”
“So he could want revenge on you, and that would mean hurting Kala.” Cooper sounded more hopeful. “She can handle pain. She can handle torture. She can stay alive until we find her.”
There was a knock on the door, and Charlotte took her daughter’s hand.
Kenzie stood there, her eyes narrowed. “No. I’m going to talk to Ben.”
Her father got into her space, taking her shoulders in his big hands. “You chose this. You and your sister chose this fucking life. You could be home right this second getting ready to go to whatever job you chose, but you’re here because you decided to be a damn spy. So you will walk up those stairs and keep the illusion because you don’t get to fucking burn it all down when the inevitable happens. This is where it was always going, little girl. So you will walk upstairs and keep your shit together while I find your sister.”
Tears shone in Kenzie’s eyes, but she took a deep breath and nodded. “She would kill me if I blew this for her. But you can’t leave me here. You have to let me come.”
“If I can manage it safely.” Big Tag backed down. “Now go.”
Kenzie allowed her mother to lead her upstairs two seconds before Ben Parker walked in with Tara. She looked rumpled and anxious.
Parker looked…ready. Hungry. Like he’d been waiting for this for a very long time.
“I think I’ve brought Mr. Parker up to speed.” Tara left Parker standing at the edge of the room, walking right up to Big Tag. “You should also know I called in and they told me I should do whatever you tell me to do. They’ll send whatever support you need. My, Tris, and Zach’s bosses are going to be working with Langley to get us whatever we need.”
“CSIS is ready to help as well,” Parker offered.
“They believe us when we say it’s Huisman?” Cooper asked.
Parker looked him over, his face a polite blank. “Of course not. They want proof, but they also don’t like the idea of US operatives being taken on Canadian soil. Which is why we should get going before they send a team. They’ll want to play this as cautiously as possible. If you want Ms. Magenta back, you’ll listen to me. Do you believe me now?”
The last question was pointed directly at Ian, who nodded shortly. “I do.”
“This is about me and it’s about the bombmaker,” Parker affirmed. “He wants both of us, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get us. He’s taken Ms. Magenta because I’m sure he’s aware I have…feelings about her.”
“We talked about this on our way from the hotel.” Tara wasn’t staying at the safe house due to sleeping arrangements. She was in a hotel a few miles away. When the shit had hit the fan, Big Tag had woken her and asked her to bring Parker in. “We believe Huisman has found out Tristan has something to do with The Jester and possibly the same connection with Zach, since they work closely together. I’m not sure about that part. Zach has always been behind the scenes.”
“What do you mean?” TJ asked. “I would think if they were going to take someone, it would be me. They can’t possibly mistake me for Zach. He’s bigger than me, and we don’t have the same coloring. If what you’re saying is true, we have a leak.”
“Or he’s been watching you far more carefully than you ever imagined,” Parker argued. “If there was a leak, he would know Tristan has no idea who the bombmaker is. Then there would be zero reason to start this war right now. He’s certain someone knows. If he didn’t come after TJ, then he’s eliminated TJ as a possible source of information and decided Tristan knows something.”
“He doesn’t,” Aidan insisted. “He would have told me.”
“He certainly would have told me,” Tara agreed. “We’ve been struggling to find anything on the man. At one point we thought we’d found him, but by the time we got where we thought he was staying, he was gone. I’ve always wondered if someone might have tipped him off. What if we do have a leak? What if the leak told Huisman Tristan knows to throw him off?”
“Or what if Tristan knows something he doesn’t think he knows.” Lou looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Or Zach.” Big Tag was still in a way that let Aidan know something was going through his brain. “Tara, I need all the reports. Every single one you have on every mission Zach worked.”
“Zach?” Cooper asked. “Why would this have anything to do with Zach?”
“What do you know?” Aidan couldn’t see how the big captain was involved.
“I know Zach was placed on this team to discredit us,” Big Tag offered. “But now I’m wondering if he didn’t maneuver himself into the position. I need everything, Tara.”
Tara nodded. “I’ll put it together. I’ll get it to you and then I’ll help Mr. Miles. I suspect he’s going through CCTV cameras across the city. I managed to pull the plates of every vehicle Huisman owns along with all the foundation’s vehicles, and I have a list of properties associated with his businesses.”
He knew Carys worried Tara had feelings for Tris, but it was obvious the woman knew how to do her job. “Thank you.”
Big Tag gestured her way while looking at Cooper. “Yes, thank you for being sensible. Now let’s sit down and figure out where we’re looking. I know I’ll get a call at some point.”
“You’ll get a video,” Parker countered. “One that details what your operative is going through. Or perhaps a finger. He won’t call you himself. He doesn’t need you to acknowledge it was him. He simply needs to know you’re in pain.”
“It’s almost like you hoped this would happen.” Cooper was staring at Parker like he was going to use one of those big knives on him. “Is this another situation like the one in Dallas with Lou?”
Parker’s eyes rolled. “No. I did not…what? Tell the man I’ve been trying to stop for years to kidnap a woman I have complex feelings for? It’s obvious your feelings for her aren’t.”
“She’s my teammate.” But Cooper wasn’t trying hard.
He wasn’t about to have them fight over Kala right now. “Mr. Parker, do you have any idea where he might take them?”
Adam snapped his fingers. “Hey, Lou, get on your laptop. Tara, too. I think I have something. Ms. Magenta’s tracker came back online briefly. I think whoever said they have a jammer is right, and it briefly went out. I’ve got a location, and I think it’s on a street.”
Tara and Lou scrambled to get on their systems.
“I would bet he’s on a road that will take them to a private airport.” Parker moved behind Adam. “You’ll be looking for at least two vehicles. He might split them up. Two and two. He’ll have almost certainly drugged them.”
“Ka…Kara would have tested any drinks,” Big Tag said.
Lou stared at her laptop screen. “There’s not a lot of defense against a tranq gun. If they couldn’t get her drink, they would have gotten them another way. If they didn’t drug her…”
“Something would have blown up by now.” Even Cooper looked like he was standing down from his scorched-earth plan. “Can we get to the airport in time?”
“No,” Tara said, her eyes on her screen. “But I can see who’s filed a flight plan. They have to file something thirty minutes ahead of take off since they’re in regulated air space.”
Parker leaned against the wall, looking over the whole room. “No need. I know where they’re going.”
“Enlighten us,” Big Tag said in a tone that should have had Parker intimidated.
Instead, the Canadian simply smirked. “Back where it all began. We should go to Toronto.”
Aidan grabbed the kit. He prayed he wouldn’t need it.