Chapter 32
Austin
An alert from Meg popped up on the big screen.
They give me the creeps.
Jack was out of his chair before I finished reading the second line.
Nina flinched as her eyes shot up from the items on the table. “What’s going on?”
“We have company,” John said. “Jack and I will handle it; the rest of you stay here.”
“Looks like AJ and Matt already are.” I nodded at the screen, now showing the SSI reception area from four different camera angles.
AJ leaned casually on Meg’s desk, placing himself between the two unwanted visitors and Meg.
Matt was standing just off to the side, giving him a clean shot if he had to draw his gun.
Nina reached for my hand, and without thinking, I curled my fingers around hers.
Shit, she’s trembling.
I couldn’t imagine how overwhelming it must be to have your world, her innocence, shattered to pieces.
Squeezing her hand was the only comfort I could give her with G watching.
That and remind her to breathe. When I whispered the gentle command, she inhaled loudly before slowly turning to look at me.
“They’re here for me, aren’t they?” she asked.
“Probably.” I turned to Jamie. “Can we get sound?”
He held eye contact while giving the slightest shift of his head towards Nina.
I nodded. They wouldn’t say anything Nina shouldn’t hear. Not in a private investigator’s office.
“You recognize them?” Jay asked.
“No.”
“Gibson?”
“On it.” His fingers were a blur as they coasted over the keys of his laptop.
“Why is this happening?” Nina asked, her voice cracking with the attempt to hold back her sobs.
“Nina—”
“I mean, I know it’s because of all of this.” She pointed to the table. “But why? I’m nobody. I don’t know anything.”
Tears filled her eyes.
The shell around my heart cracked.
Voices filled the room as Matt escorted Meg away from the desk to safety.
“Why didn’t he bring her upstairs?” Nina asked.
“She’s safe with Cate,” Jay answered.
“We don’t want to draw their attention upstairs,” I added.
“Mr. Sheppard, the woman we’re looking for is employed by your wife, so you can cut the ignorant act,” one guy said in too formal English.
“German accent,” I said to Gibson. “So not CIA.”
“Or any other TLA agency,” Jay added.
It wasn’t entirely true; some three-letter acronym agencies had foreign operatives, but Jay’s gut instincts matched mine.
“Contractor? Mercenary?”
When Nina’s hand flinched, I squeezed and rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb.
“Not all mercenaries are killers,” I whispered. While technically true, I had a sinking feeling in my gut these two would kill without hesitation.
John stood his ground without flinching. “That doesn’t change my answer. Just because the woman in the picture has served me coffee doesn’t mean I know her.”
The other guy looked around the room, eyeing everyone from head to toe, pausing at each person’s holstered gun.
“Who else is here?” I asked.
“Meg and Cate are in our office. Nathan’s on assignment,” Jay answered generically. Nathan was with Nina’s grandmother. The last thing Nina needed was to worry about her grandmother’s safety.
“Doug’s installing a security system,” Jamie said.
“We’re here,” G added smugly.
No one at SSI suggested we disarm ourselves to work in the office, so we hadn’t. We each had full sized 9mm pistols on our waists, and snub nose .38 Special revolvers on our ankles.
“Austin, you and Gibson stay here with Nina. Jay and I will provide backup,” Jamie said, standing.
“Are they going to shoot us?” Nina’s voice wavered.
“No,” the four of us answered together.
“If they get past the—”
“They won’t,” Jay said. At the same time, I said, “Then we’ll stop them.”
“But—”
“Nina,” Jamie said, squatting next to her. “They’re trying to intimidate us because they don’t know who they’re messing with.”
They know. The CIA officers who hired the parade of goons harassing Nina would’ve armed them with all the intel they needed. Nina doesn’t need to know that.
They’d have the same information I had. I smiled. Which means they’ll make the same mistake. Them underestimating the SSI team worked in our favor.
“They won’t hurt anyone, will they?” Nina’s eyes strayed back to the screen just as one of the goons looked straight into the camera.
“If we find out you’re lying, we’ll bring the full force of the law on your heads.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” John said. He pointed to the door. “If you’re done threatening us, you can leave.”
I always knew my uncle was tough, but I’d never seen him in action, so watching him stare down two professional killers who towered over him impressed the fuck out of me.
Sheppard & Sons might be a small town PI company, but they weren’t a team to be trifled with.
It occurred to me that the official police reports we’d accessed may have downplayed SSI’s role to discourage other civilians from going vigilante.
Within seconds of John locking the door behind the guys, Jamie and Jay returned.
“Breathe,” I whispered, squeezing Nina’s hand again.
“I, I can’t live like this.”
“It won’t be like this forever. I promise,” I said, hoping I wasn’t lying through my teeth.