Chapter 19 #2
Dawson leaned against the front quarter panel and crossed his arms. “You gonna tell me why I’m standing here like an idiot after we've already talked about the fact that I got a hit on that blood that was found on the back of that gator.
That the hit came back from a military database, and we learned it was Doyle's blood, and yet you want me to sit on it?”
“Not while he's standing fifty feet away.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you can be a pain in the ass.”
“My mother, every time I talk to her.”
Dawson hooked his fingers into his belt loop. “Tell me why I shouldn't haul Doyle in for questioning right now.”
“He's not a good guy, but putting him in an interrogation room right now won't do anyone any favors, except maybe Tara.”
"What the hell am I supposed to do with that?"
“Warn her.”
"You're really pissing me off, and unless you give me something else, I'm bringing him in," Dawson said.
"I need to set him up, and that will be impossible if you're putting pressure on him."
"Why do you need to do that?"
“Let’s just say he’s here to put a bullet in my back,” Sterling said. “Eventually.”
Juniper sat in her office with the door shut, her laptop open, and the pub moving around her like nothing had changed.
Manny banged pans around in the kitchen and yelled out to his staff about what needed to be done. He was good at managing his people. He ran an efficient kitchen, and his food was spectacular. It's why the town continued to come night after night even though they weren't on the water.
Tara laughed at something because Juniper could always hear Tara's voice over the chatter. And it was infectious. No matter what was going on in her life, the woman was always happy.
Even though right now, she was annoyed with her latest conquest, which actually made Juniper want to do cartwheels. The idea that Tara was sleeping with Doyle made Juniper want to vomit.
Juniper rolled her neck and stared at Logan Pike’s name on her screen like it was a lit match near a can of gasoline.
Mia’s report wasn’t long. His DEA record read like most. He was highly skilled. A little high strung. And left with a few accommodations and a few more reprimands for not always following orders.
Not really all that out of the ordinary.
His current location was unconfirmed, but a rental vehicle attached to a Delaware-based security account had pinged thirty miles from Calusa Cove that morning.
Too fucking close for comfort.
Juniper stared at the number until it blurred, then she opened the secure call window and put in the request.
Bea answered on the third chime. “Solstice.”
Juniper let her shoulders drop and made herself sound tired. That didn’t take much acting. “Hey Bea.”
“You look like shit.”
“It's not easy running a bar and keeping tabs on a guy like Sterling.” She leaned back in the chair, and the old thing tilted to the left like it always did. She'd come to like it, but today, it didn't offer much comfort.
“You sound rattled.”
“I am.” She rubbed her thumb along the edge of the desk.
There was a notch in the wood near the corner, probably from the previous owner, maybe from a knife.
She’d found it the first time she realized she had feelings for Sterling, which was about two weeks after his arrival in Calusa Cove.
It wasn't so much her feelings for him that had made her want to find comfort in the wood on her desk, but more the fact that she had to lie to a friend.
Realizing that Bea most likely had never been her confidant rattled her more than that damn gator had. “Nick Colter showed up in town last night.”
“Randomly?” Bea asked.
“That’s how it looks. He says he’s here for Dove and Trent’s wedding, but it's the first I'm hearing of Dove and Nick knowing each other.”
“Nick and Sterling are close, so if he were to see him, no big deal, but I'll need to look into Dove,” Bea said. "It’s possible. She did run a few JSOC missions, and her uncle was a well-known Marshall."
“Nick does have a reputation for knowing everyone.” Juniper kept her gaze on Pike's name. “Thing is, Nick and Sterling have been talking, and I overheard a few things that made me uncomfortable.”
“About?”
“Shrike.”
“I'm listening," Bea said.
“I've only got pieces,” Juniper said. “Either things we already know, or things that don't make sense.”
"Okay, what doesn't make sense."
"A name," Juniper said. "Pike. Logan Pike. You know, the DEA agent that survived the raid when Mark was killed."
"I remember him."
"What I got from Sterling and Nick was that they believe he was part of the reason the raid failed. That he's involved with Shrike."
"Oh, honey. That's impossible."
Juniper’s fingers tightened around the edge of the desk.
Bea had called her honey plenty of times over the years.
In hospitals. In conference rooms. Once in a parking garage after Juniper had thrown up behind a government SUV, because a case had gone bad, and the smell of burned plastic had dragged her backward into grief she thought she’d locked down.
“I don't believe so,” Juniper said. “And I need you to look into him.”
“That won't be necessary.”
"The man you sent me to watch over and protect believes this man could be part of an organization that wants what's stored in his mind,” Juniper tossed out there. "Not to mention, Pike could be involved in Mark's death. I think that's a good reason to dig."
“No,” Bea insisted. “Pike’s one of ours.”
Juniper gasped. It wasn't fake. Or for show. It was fucking real. “One of ours? How do you know that?”
“Because he’s under my command.”
Juniper struggled to believe the woman staring back at her from her laptop. The same woman who had held her up at Mark's funeral. And then a few years later, sent her to this location to watch a man tangled up in the same organization that had killed her husband.
“You have Logan Pike under your command,” she said. “And you never thought to mention that?”
“It wasn’t relevant to your assignment.”
“The fuck it wasn't.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“You were placed in Calusa Cove to watch Sterling and the people around him. Not to reopen Mark’s death.”
“What exactly is Pike doing for you?” she asked.
“You know I can't tell you that," Bea said. “I’m starting to worry about you.”