26. Dana
As Michael and Jack approach the car, I breathe a sigh of relief that Logan isn’t with them. For someone who seems to attract confrontation, I loathe it, and the thought of going another round with him was making me anxious. He hasn’t had the chance to lay into me about the files I was carrying yet.
Michael raps his knuckles against the window, drawing my gaze. He takes a long look at me. Butterflies in my stomach take flight, fluttering furiously at the intensity in his eyes. Then he curls his forefinger and middle finger toward him, calling us out.
Jessa opens the door and circles the car, stepping into Jack’s arms, and I stand awkwardly in front of Michael.
He seems to consider me for a moment before pulling me into him. His arms wrap around me in a bear hug of a hold.
The trees blur together as tears fill my eyes, and a heavy worry sinks into my arms.
What happens now?
When the dust settles, Jessa and I will still be criminals.
The hit must be complete if all parties are dead and Zane’s base program is back with Jessa, but I know she won’t be allowed to keep it.
The question now is, what will they do with us?
Jessa told me she worked with Jack and his team over the last year, and it was her choice, but I don’t feel like I have a place with them. Jessa is a hacker; she’s useful. I don’t have a function—unless you count baking cupcakes as a lethal skill. So what happens when we leave here? Or will I be leaving with them?
I’m not ready for the answers to my questions, so I stay silent and inhale Michael’s scent.
When he breaks our embrace, I catch Michael’s eyes as he looks at me. Jack and Jessa murmur to each other off to the side.
Exhaustion sets in, but I manage a weak smile, and he returns it when my stomach growls. With all immediate threats now gone, my body has finally spoken up. I haven’t eaten today.
“We need to talk—about Logan.” Jack joins our huddle with his arm around Jessa, and Michael takes a deep breath as he tugs me to his side.
“Logan has been looking for justice for a long time.” Jack’s words are hesitant, measured.
“You mean Piper? For killing your client, the senator,” I offer, to help fill in the pieces of the story I put together from listening in.
Jack doesn’t respond. Instead, he grimaces and hesitates to confirm my theory. So Michael continues.
“Yes and no. Logan has been searching Piper for killing the senator. We knew that wasn’t her name; it’s all we have to go on, so that is what we call her.” Michael carefully considers his words as he looks between us.
Our two sides have never fully trusted each other. Judging by the pale look on Jack’s face when Jessa walked into the room today, none of them knew what she was up to. We are two opposing factions within a barely functioning team, and they still aren’t sure what to tell us.
“What aren’t you saying, Jack?” Jessa steps away from him, putting some space between them. “There’s too many secrets. You need to start bringing us in.”
Michael jumps in, grabbing our attention away from Jack. “It’s not that. We trust you. We want to move past the secrets—even Logan does, although I’m sure it doesn’t feel like it right now. This is hard for us to share, because this is about Logan. While he’s okay with us giving you this information, he doesn’t wish to talk about it. Do you understand?”
I exchange a pensive nod with Jessa, and she answers for the both of us.
“We understand.”
“Logan has been looking for Matteo Sparr—for a very long time,” Jack says. He and Michael exchange another solemn look, and I catch a hint of haunting familiarity in their expressions.
“Why?” Both of their faces fall further after I ask, and I instantly know I’m on the right track.
“Logan holds Matteo responsible for the death and mutilation of his younger sister.”
Silence.
A million questions fight to be the first out of my mouth, yet I say nothing. The opinion I had of Logan is slowly being broken down and rebuilt with this new information.
Knowing this, his actions and reactions today, and before, are more defensible.
I never saw Logan as a brother, or as anyone who had a priority other than his mission. But his anger looks different in this new light. Now I know it was panic in his eyes when he realized Piper was going to get away—again. Jessa and I are responsible for not giving him that peace.
“When was this?” Jessa whispers her question.
“It was a few years before—” Jack cocks his head to the side. “Before I came to town. You know, undercover.”
“You mean when Maxwell’s sister left town.” Jessa fills in the timeline.
“Yeah. She was supposedly sent to live with family abroad the day after it happened. She just vanished. To Logan, the Sparr family became untouchable, and he was left alone to pick up the pieces.” Jack keeps telling the story as Jessa and I listen from the sidelines. I’m sure neither of us remembers anything from that time.
“I didn’t hear anything about a murder.” Jessa’s eyes are saucers. “I know I would have remembered something like that.”
“No one did. Logan’s sister went to a different school than you did, and the investigation into her death went nowhere. It was covered up rather quickly by the Sparr family. ”
“Why didn’t Logan’s family press law enforcement to keep looking into it?” I ask, and Michael is the first to meet my eyes. His pinched brows tell me I’m already going to hate the answer.
“I’m not going to answer that.” I tense, but Michael raises his hand, asking for more time. “Not because we want to keep this from you, but because this is Logan we are talking about. You should know this much, but it’s up to him to share the worst moment of his life with you.”
I nod furiously. I do understand completely. Logan is a driven person. Until now, I thought it was an overaggressive ego driving his actions. I never considered that he may have his own demons.
“Jack, you need to know: I didn’t know they had history when I—when I hired Piper.”
Logan and Jessa have both lost family to Matteo Sparr, and a glance at her tells me she feels his pain.
“How did you know to hire her?” Jack’s story about Logan takes a back seat.
“I had alerts set up for different phrases while I was looking for Dana.” She squeezes my hand. “The hit popped up on my radar. I knew where you were going before you left,” Jessa confesses, and Michael smirks at Jack. They should know by now: Jessa will always know more than they will. “I have some connections, and I’ve worked with Piper and her team in the past, but they don’t work with names, so I can’t help you there. I sent out an encrypted message through our channels, notifying them of the Sparr hit on Dana and presenting a counteroffer.” She suddenly stops her explanation.
“Your counteroffer was a hit on Matteo.” Michael searches for confirmation, and Jessa nods.
“Yes. I reached out to their group because I know from our past—uh, dealings, that they’ve participated in dismantling different areas of the Sparr organization, so I was pretty sure they would accept my offer.”
“Where did you get the money to fund them?” As Jack asks the question, Jessa shoots him a look, and he backs off. When we were on our own for those ten years, finding money was never difficult for Jessa. She could hack in and funnel money from any number of criminal organizations, and it was particularly easy to do when money was being laundered. As long as we stayed under a certain amount, most people thought it was lost in fees, exchange rates, or interest.
“There’s something else.” Jessa looks guiltily at each of us, including me. “I think it was their group who sent the anonymous tip about Dana and I being at the farmhouse last year.”
“Why do you think that?” Jack asks from the other side of Jessa.
“I went back through Link’s old call logs. They were heavily encrypted, but I was able to hack my way back down the path it came from. It closely matched the same channels I went through to connect to Piper’s team.”
“But why would they give you up?” Michael’s tone sounds suspicious.
“That’s a question for them. I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it a lot over the last few days, and the best I can come up with is they were either looking out for Dana and me, or they felt we could help them in some way by working together—with you.”
My head is swimming with all of this new information.
The sirens are so loud now that I’m sure we only have a minute before we need to explain ourselves to the cops.
“Can I speak with you for a minute?” Michael’s voice is low, and before I can respond, Jessa has already moved away with Jack to give us some privacy.
“Sure.”
Michael takes a step away from everyone, and I follow him. “I never thanked you.”
“What are you thanking me for? I almost got you killed—a few times.” Michael looks confused as I mentally add up the many times he has been shot, drugged, and knocked out over the last twenty-four hours because of me.
“Dana, you single-handedly took down a trained hitman in hand-to-hand combat.”
“I had no choice.”
“Well, you had a choice after he was dead, and you chose to stick around. And not only that: I was there in the mill when you begged for all of us to be let go.”
“I was scared.”
“I know you were. I was scared too. But you didn’t think about yourself. You thought about all of us, and we noticed—and appreciated it. You’re one of us. I want you to know that. It’s me who has failed you.” Michael’s confession catches me by surprise.
I place my hand on his arm. “Michael, if it wasn’t for you, I would have walked out of my coffee shop yesterday and been shot in the head. You took a bullet for me, and you fought a killer to buy me time to get away.”
“You’re making it sound a little more intense than it was. It was a flesh wound.”
“Well, when I tell the story from now on, I’m going to say it was a center chest hit. The bullet just missed your heart, and you’re lucky to be alive. Don’t worry; the ladies will eat it up.” I try to joke, and he smiles before giving me an awkward look I can’t quite place.
I didn’t think it was possible for him to step any closer, yet he does. Now he’s towering over me, and I have to angle my head to look up at him.
He runs his fingers through my hair, and I sigh. It’s been so long since I’ve had this kind of contact, and the fact that it’s him makes it even better.
His smile shines in his eyes when he opens his mouth, but he quickly shuts it and breaks our stare when three cop cars arrive. The siren is thankfully cut off, and Sheriff Talbott is the first to step out of the vehicle.
I take a step forward, but Michael doesn’t let me take another. Wrapping his large hand around my arm, he holds me in place. I lift my free hand to draw the sheriff’s attention over so he sees a familiar face.
There’s a long pause as he looks at me, then at the men around me. He looks back at me and motions for the men with him to stay where they are.
“Kim? What are you doing here?”
I reach for Michael’s hand and give it a squeeze to tell him it’s okay. Then I step forward. “Sheriff, my name isn’t Kim. It’s Dana Granger. There were some people after me.” Then I point at Michael and Jack. “These men are part of a security team that was sent to protect me.” My face flushes hot. I didn’t think all of this through. “I don’t know exactly how that works.”
Michael takes a slow step forward, and the sheriff looks at him, recognition dawning in his expression as he says, “The fishing friends.” Then he stares me down. “Why were people after you?”
“I had some files they were looking for.” My stomach knots. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that part.
“Sheriff, we work for a contract tactical security unit. If you’ll give us a moment to speak with you, I’m sure we can work this out. We have someone here who is injured, and we’d like to get her some medical attention as soon as possible.” Michael points at Kaley, who lifts her hand in a brief wave.
The sheriff turns to look at his deputy, Pete. He tells him to take a look at Kaley, then he addresses Michael. “Why don’t you two come stand over here.”
Jack clears his throat. “You need to know that we have two men inside the building with the body of a known crime lord, and one around back with another body. We are unarmed.”
“Fair enough,” the sheriff answers, then turns to the two remaining cops. “Announce yourselves and round everyone up.” He glances back at Jack and Michael, waving them over. “You two, over here. Hands out where I can see them.”
Jessa closes the distance and stands beside me. We divide our attention between the sheriff and Pete, who is checking on Kaley. Her lower lip trembles, and I hurry to her side.
“How does it look?”
Kaley winces when the deputy lowers her leg to answer me.
“We need to get her help. It’s swelling something fierce.” He tucks the blanket around her and stands to stretch his legs.
“Can we get her to Dale’s? They’ll know what to do.” I hope Dale has regained consciousness. I left him a note imploring him to go back to his bar and lay low when he woke up. I’m sure it did no good, and he’s probably on his way up here right now. But there is someone at Dale’s who can help Kaley. Barnes is a retired military doctor, and he’s always hanging out there with the rest of their group.
Pete nods. Both he and the sheriff are familiar with everyone in town, and he must know who I’m talking about.
The sheriff is already approaching us when Pete looks in his direction. He points at Kaley.
“Her ankle is pretty bad, and it’ll swell worse unless we can get her some medical attention. Kim says we should get her to Dale’s. Barnes should be able to stabilize her, then we can get her to a hospital.”
Michael and Jack stay a couple of feet back from the sheriff as he looks from me to Kaley, then back to his deputy.
“These guys have the paperwork, but I’m still waiting on clearance. It should only be another ten minutes or so.” He takes another look around, then levels his gaze on me. “Why don’t I drive Kaley to Dale’s. I have some painkillers in the car. Kim, you can join me. I’d feel better if you two were close until we have confirmation on everyone here.”
Michael tenses behind the sheriff, but Jack grabs his arm and shakes his head before he steps out of line.
The tension breaks when Logan walks around the corner of the building with one of the cops, and less than a minute later, Eagle and Grey appear with the other.
“Where are we at?” Logan asks Michael, but he doesn’t respond. His gaze is set firmly between the sheriff and me.
Jack is the one who answers. “Waiting on clearance.”
The sheriff clears his throat. “I’m sure if you men are who you say you are, then you understand that we can’t just let you leave until we have the official word.”
Logan nods his head. “Of course.”
The sheriff relaxes. “Now, these files. What are they?”
I clench my teeth to stop myself from answering and digging us all in deeper. Thankfully, Michael saves me.
“They were financial records for a known crime family, but we don’t have them. They were destroyed months ago.”
The sheriff squares his body on me for half a minute until I nod my head in agreement. When I do, he takes a deep breath.
“Very well.” He looks down at Kaley with a smile that seems strained. “Let’s get you to Dale’s. Kim, can you help me get her up?”
I rush to Kaley’s side, and she hooks her arm around my neck, hugging me close to her. As we make our way to the cop car, she leans close to my ear. “Thanks for staying with me.”
I feel awful for her. She’s been thrust into this life-threatening situation, and she’s terrified.
“Hey. It’s okay now. It’s all over. You’re going to be okay.”
“Put her in the passenger side. The extra space in the footwell will help her ankle,” the sheriff says from her other side.
She settles in with a series of winces and hisses, then we shut the door.
The sheriff speaks to our group as a whole. “I’m sure we can all agree that this is an unusual situation.” Then he points at me. “We’re escorting Kaley to Dale’s to get that ankle looked at. No one touches the bodies until we hear back. Then we’ll meet up with all of you at the barn.”
“I’ll ride with you.” Michael takes a step forward, but his offer doesn’t break the sheriff’s stride. He raises his voice and answers without turning his head.
“No you won’t. I’ve been accommodating, but that only goes so far until we have confirmation.”
“I’ll go with you.” The sheriff stops and turns to Pete, who steps forward, offering an alternative solution. “If there were people after her, it makes sense to travel together. Harcotte and Vance can stay here until everyone is cleared.”
The sheriff looks from Pete to the other two officers, then back.
“You stay here, Pete. We can’t leave our two rookies alone.” He turns to look at the lankiest of the two officers. “But you make a good point about safety. Vance, follow me in your cruiser. Until we are back at Dale’s, stay off the radio—just in case.”
I glance at Michael, who hasn’t taken his eyes off me. When I meet his gaze, he curves his lips in a pinched smile.
I don’t want to be away from him, but Kaley is in pain. I take comfort in knowing that Michael wouldn’t let me go on my own if there were any hits still outstanding.
Michael’s team looks apprehensive about us leaving, and I understand their worry. So much has happened in a couple of days. I glance at Jessa, and she smiles. “We’ll be a few minutes behind you.”
“Kim, we need to get Kaley to Dale’s.”
The sheriff is right. I’m overthinking this. I open the door to the back seat and slide in, tapping the pads of my fingers against the cage to get Kaley’s attention.
“How are you doing?”
She tries to turn toward me but gives up quickly. “It hurts. I need those painkillers the sheriff was talking about.”
Sheriff Talbott gets into the driver’s seat and starts up the car. He glances at me, then over at Kaley. “Right. The painkillers.”
He reaches into his glove box and pulls out a wallet with a syringe. Kaley pales when she realizes it’s going to be an injection, and he calms her, telling her this is faster—then he quickly shoots it into her arm before telling her to close her eyes and rest.
As we drive away with the second cop car trailing us, I look out the back window. Michael is still there, watching me intently until we’re out of sight.