Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
“The past isn’t pretty. It’s twisted and bloody and, sometimes, you just might be better off leaving the secrets buried. Before you go digging up a grave, make sure you can handle the ghosts that you’re going to wake up.” – Gray Stone
“Emerson, you know it’s going to be bad.”
Emerson pulled in a deep breath. She tried to control the rage that made her fingers want to shake.
She hadn’t expected Cass’s bombshell. No, dammit, she had expected it.
Feared it. But actually getting confirmation…
“We both could have died when she blew our cover.” Her own mother, putting her in danger.
Worse, putting Gray in danger. There were some sins that could never be forgiven.
“Technically, that prick ex of yours blew it.” His eyes never left her face. “I already have an agent digging into his records because I figured he’d been the one to sell us out. Thought he wanted to have the case blow up so he could try and replace you.”
“Instead, he was just following orders. The way he’s always done.” Her mother said jump, and Nathaniel obeyed.
“I think he’s been tied to the attacks on you.”
She could not move. There were buttons on the wall near the observation mirror. One, two, three ? —
A light knock rapped against the observation room door. The door opened a second later, and Agnes popped her head inside. “They made contact, Agent Stone. Just like you said they would.” Her lips pulled down. “Rylan was always a bit of a jerk, but I didn’t know he was a traitor, too.”
Gray advanced toward Agnes. “What did you learn?”
“Rylan just called Nathaniel Hadaway. They plan to meet outside of O’Sullivan’s tonight. Honestly, it’s not the smartest place to meet. I mean, come on, tons of cops and agents hang out there. If you’re gonna have a clandestine meeting with someone, be more clandestine.” She rolled her eyes.
“Does Rylan realize you’re aware of the meeting?” Gray asked.
“I don’t think so. I can be very sneaky when the occasion calls for it.” A pause. “The occasion called for it.”
“Thanks.”
Emerson felt a heavy weight settle in her stomach. “Guessing we just found out which person at the FBI has been feeding intel to Nathaniel.”
“And to your mother.” Gray was grim. Pissed. “I already peeked into Rylan’s bank records. Some large deposits were made recently. Deposits that traced back to one of her donor accounts.”
Right. Of course. A donor account. Not her mother’s own account. She would try to hide her paper trail.
“You want me to be your backup?” Agnes remained in the doorway. “Because I know you’re planning to make that meeting tonight.”
“Damn straight, I am. But I have other plans for backup.”
“I want to help.” Agnes lingered. “What can I do?”
“Get me the exact location for Senator Maxine Marlowe and Owen Porter.”
Agnes bobbed her head. “Done.” She bustled off down the hallway.
Emerson realized that she’d twisted her hands together. Slowly, she let them fall.
Gray eliminated the distance between them. His hand rose. Cupped her cheek. “Before this night is over, you’ll get all the answers that you want. No more fear, Emerson. No more broken mirrors. No more always looking for a shadow to sweep out and attack you.”
She swallowed. “You think Nathaniel has been stalking me.”
“Don’t you?”
The idea that a man she’d been involved with intimately might be tormenting her, playing sick games with her…
“He’s a psychiatrist. He’s supposed to help people.
” Nathaniel? No, no. Emerson shook her head.
“I’ve already looked into this. Into him.
You think I didn’t suspect Nathaniel, too?
The way he steamrolled into my life? The way he wouldn’t let go when I tried to break things off?
But he can’t be the one who first attacked me all of those years ago.
When I was seventeen, he was studying in Oxford.
He was an ocean away. There is no world in which he was the man who broke into my home back then. ”
“Maybe not then,” Gray agreed. “But I sure as hell suspect the bastard now. ” His fingers slid down her cheek. Down her neck. Rested over the faint scar that marked her.
His touch was warm and strong and so careful, all at the same time.
“You said you loved me, Emerson.”
Her chest ached. “I did. I do.” She wasn’t going to pretend or hold back. With Gray, she wanted to be all in. No hesitation and no fear. “But you haven’t said?—”
“I love you, Dr. Emerson Marlowe. I would fight like hell for you. Any day of the week.”
Two days. Two days had passed since she’d watched Gray fall beneath the pounding hooves of horses. Two days since he’d fired his gun to save her. Two days since she’d told him that she loved him.
Two days of chaos. Of case work. Investigations. Getting transported back to Atlanta. Two days of not being alone with him. Of aching to just throw her arms around Gray and make certain he was safe. Alive. To be certain that they’d made it out and everything would be fine.
But things weren’t fine, not yet.
“Cass wanted revenge.” His gaze never left hers. “What do you want, Emerson? What do you want me to do for you?”
“I want to find out what really happened. When I was seventeen. Now. I want to find out what happened to my father when I was a kid.” So many secrets. Way too much pain in her life. “And I want to bury that part of my life. I want it deep in the ground.”
“You want me to kill for you.” A nod. “Done.”
“Wait, no!” She grabbed his shoulders. He’d way misunderstood.
“No. No, I want the answers. I want proof. I need proof because I have to know that—” Emerson caught herself.
Held the words back. But, thought… screw it.
“I have to know that I’m not crazy. That I’m not slipping away in the darkness the same way that my father did. ”
His features softened. He bent his head, and his lips brushed over hers. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry but…”
Why was he sorry?
“I don’t think he ever went into the darkness at all.”
Her brow furrowed. “Gray?” A fist seemed to squeeze her heart.
“But I’ll get you the truth.” Another soft kiss. “I’ll get you any damn thing that you want in this world. Always. Know it. Believe it. Believe me. ”
“We shouldn’t be meeting,” Rylan Tate groused, as he glanced over his shoulder toward the busy road near the entrance of O’Sullivan’s.
He was huddled on the side street. The same street where a perp with a knife had once nearly attacked Emerson and Gray.
“This is bullshit, and there is zero need for us to interact like this. You owe me money, but you could have sent it to me via an app like everyone else does, dumbass.”
Nathaniel Hadaway stepped from the shadows. The sun had already set. Darkness slithered from the corners of the nearby buildings. “I need more information.”
“I have nothing else to give you! Look, I know you said that if you took Emerson’s place, I’d be the agent featured most in your new book, but I can’t help you any longer.
” Rylan made a slashing motion with his right hand.
“Can’t. Won’t. This shit ends now. I’m done with the sneaking around and the reporting, and I don’t even care if the senator is involved or not.
Gray Stone fucking scares me, and if he finds out that I’ve been feeding you information?—”
“Spoiler alert, he’s found out,” Gray announced as he pushed away from the brick wall. He’d been there the whole time. Watching. Waiting. He’d arrived before Rylan. Before Nathaniel.
It had been easy to hide in the dark.
At his words, both men spun toward him.
“Oh, hell.” Rylan’s shoulders slumped. “I’m about to be demoted so hard.”
“You’re about to be in a world of pain.” Gray smiled at him. He walked forward, his suit coat covering the gun he had holstered beneath his arm. “You sold me out because you thought you’d be the hero in his book? Seriously? That’s why you did it? For five minutes of fame?”
“All I did was tell him a few details about what you and Emerson were investigating. Senator Marlowe asked me to do it. Personally ordered me to cooperate with him. Said he’d be taking over Emerson’s spot.
” Rylan backed up a step. “The senator swore that if I didn’t help her, then she’d make sure I never advanced in the FBI. ”
“Advancing is going to be highly problematic for you,” Gray assured Rylan. “Highly. ” But he turned his attention to Emerson’s ex. Nathaniel who had gone eerily still. “What was the plan?” Gray asked him. “Why lure Rylan here?”
“Lure?” Rylan repeated the word, turning a bit toward Nathaniel.
“Were you hoping to make him look guilty?” Gray asked, curious.
“He already had deposits that could tie back to the senator in his bank account. Maybe you thought you could pin Emerson’s attacks on him.
Maybe you thought you could kill him and make yourself look like a hero.
Bet that seemed like a fun storyline for your book, huh? Psychiatrist unmasks rogue FBI agent.”
“Rogue agent?” Rylan seemed to be repeating a lot of things. He shook his head. “Kill me? ”
But Nathaniel didn’t speak. Just stood there, with his hands buried in the pockets of his oversize coat.
Gray pulled out his own weapon. He aimed it straight at Nathaniel. “It’s over.”
Nathaniel still didn’t speak.
“Lift your hands out of your pockets. Put them in the air.”
Rylan whipped out his own weapon. Pointed it at Nathaniel and then…then he pivoted and pointed the weapon right at Gray. Laughter poured from Rylan. “You really thought I was being led around by this prick?” More laughter. Coming harder. Faster.
Nathaniel kept his hands in his pockets.