Chapter 7 Ben
Ben
Dallas, Texas
Tuesday morning
should’ve avoided. My nervous system is already keyed up and the caffeine is just throwing kerosene on it. But I needed the
routine.
Wake up, work out, take a shower, get dressed, drink coffee, go to work. The monotony tricks my brain into believing everything
is still normal. That my world hasn’t tilted off its axis in a way I never saw coming.
The longer I work for the FBI, the more I crave stability in the ordinary. Like walking through the glass doors of the Henderson
Building, riding the elevator, nodding at strangers talking about sports and weather before peeling off onto our respective
floors like it’s any other day.
But nothing about my job is ordinary, and last night proved that.
My brain hasn’t stopped replaying it. Cybil Langford. The girl who once gave me a black eye for putting frogs in her boots.
Now all grown up—and somehow tied to the very company Ramirez wants to work with.
At the twenty-second floor, I step off the elevator and into the familiar facade of AJ Investments. The polished reception desk. The sleek sign. The friendly agent greeting me with a “Morning, Mr. Miller” as I scan my badge. The illusion of normalcy.
The floor is divided into large conference rooms that overlook the city on one side and individual offices on the other where
members of the forensic accounting team are working other cases. On the surface, anyone who happens upon our floor would see
what we wanted them to see—an ordinary investment firm.
I’m halfway to my office when my phone buzzes with a message that has me pivoting to a stairwell. I take the stairs up to
the twenty-third floor and scan my ID card again to unlock the door to enter what was once the offices to Dallas’s number
one real estate company. Right now, it’s the FBI headquarters for Operation Shadow Broker.
I walk past empty cubicles to a corner office with a view of the Dallas skyline and find FBI Special Agents Ruby Knight and
Seth Jackson waiting.
“You look . . .” Ruby gives my navy suit a once-over. “Like you were the one up with a sick child.”
Ruby, perfectly polished in a gray pantsuit and ponytail, looks about as fresh as the morning news anchor. I sink into the
seat between her and Seth. “Good morning to you too.”
I glance over at Seth, whose exhaustion is hanging in the circles beneath his eyes. “Long night?”
Seth, senior to me by a few years, one wife, two kids, gives a tired grin over his coffee mug. “Spent the night sucking snot
out of a squirmy—”
“Stop,” Ruby gags, holding up a hand. “Don’t finish that sentence.”
Seth just chuckles. “Hey, kids are just tiny criminals. Sticky fingers. Loud demands. Suspicious odors. Training ground for
this job.”
“At least criminals are predictable,” Ruby mutters.
I suppress a grin, but my focus shifts back to Seth and why I asked him to meet me this morning. As one of the best forensic
accountants the Bureau has, he’s been pivotal in the behind-the-scenes role of making my alias as a financial advisor believable.
“Would you mind looking into something for me?”
Like a button has been pressed, Seth shifts, focused. “What’ve you got?”
“Can you look into a company called VerityCrypt?”
“VerityCrypt,” Seth repeats. “Looking for anything specific?”
“Not sure yet,” I say. “Ramirez mentioned it to Rook last night, but if it’s important, I want to know.”
“Got it.” Seth nods.
Our boss, Special Agent in Charge Katherine Scott, steps into the room with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She
sets down a laptop and a handful of files, surveying us with that hawklike precision that makes me sit up straighter.
“Morning,” she says, before glancing at Seth. “How are the girls?”
“Flu’s hit the Jackson household,” Seth says with a yawn. “My mom’s at the house to help keep it contained.”
Ruby wrinkles her nose and squirts hand sanitizer into her palms like she’s preparing for chemical warfare.
Seth rises from his seat. “I’ll dig into VerityCrypt’s filings first. See if anything’s twitching under the hood.”
“Appreciate it,” I say, meaning it. If he can juggle sick toddlers and federal takedowns, maybe there’s hope for me to have
a life outside of the job one day too. The image of Cybil flashes through my mind—Cybil in my arms, Cybil looking at me like
she’d seen a ghost. I shove the thought aside. One crisis at a time.
Seth leaves us with Katherine, who sits in her chair and pins me with a look that churns the coffee in my gut. “Let’s talk
about last night.”
The memories rush back. Someone attempting to break into the museum library. Sammy Pawson appearing—and disappearing. Cybil.
How the meeting was cut short unexpectedly when Earl Edmond questioned Lorenzo Ramirez about someone interfering in his business
in Italy.
I included all of this in the report I sent to her late last night—everything except my personal connection to Cybil. Because
if I revealed that, I’d have already been pulled from the mission. And I can’t leave. Not now. Not when the collateral damage
has a name, beautiful brown eyes, and a smile that could either jump-start a heart . . . or crush it.
“What do we know about Edmond Developments?”
Katherine’s question snaps me back to the present.
Ruby flips open a file. “Luxury real estate, high-end commercial and residential properties. Earl Edmond built it from nothing,
transforming underdeveloped areas into prime real estate developments. His son, Sebastian Edmond, is the CFO but also has
a cryptocurrency company on the side. Cybil Langford graduated from University of North Texas with a political science undergrad
and started working for Edmond.” She closes the folder. “I’ve got an agent digging for more information on her.”
I shift in my seat. It won’t take long to connect the dots from Cybil’s life to mine. I open my mouth to say something when
Katherine continues.
“And Sammy Pawson?” she asks.
I shake my head. “After the initial sighting, he disappeared. Ramirez and Rook didn’t mention him.”
“I lost him,” Ruby says flatly, clearly still annoyed. She was circling the museum while I was trapped in the world’s shortest
meeting. “What about the museum surveillance?”
Katherine’s fingers fly over her keyboard. She frowns. “Jammed.”
“By us?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “Not our people.”
Ruby frowns. “So no footage of whoever was trying to break into the library before us?”
“Not at this time.” Katherine shakes her head. “Any theories on who might be behind that?”
“I wouldn’t rule out Ramirez,” I say. “He hates leaving a trail, and the timing fits. The meeting hadn’t even started before
Earl Edmond questioned Ramirez about his interference with a supplier in Italy.”
Ruby crossed her arms. “I’m surprised Ramirez didn’t lose it.”
“I was too.” I sit forward and my focus sharpens. “But here’s the strange part. While Ramirez didn’t deny it, he also seemed
caught off guard by the accusation. He seemed suspicious.”
“Of whom?” Katherine asks.
“Earl Edmond. Earl’s son. Something wasn’t right. Ramirez mentioned something to Rook about VerityCrypt afterward. I looked it up last night. It’s a cryptocurrency company owned by Sebastian Edmond. I’ve asked Seth to check it out and get back to us.”
“Maybe that’s why Sammy ‘The Paws’ Pawson showed up,” Ruby says, arms still crossed. “You said Ramirez needs Edmond to secure
some kind of property overseas, right?”
I nod. “Yeah, something about an old manufacturing site in Italy.”
“If Edmond’s stalling, Ramirez might’ve invited Sammy to apply pressure. A little reminder not to get cold feet.”
The theory makes too much sense. And if Ramirez was worried enough to bring muscle to a gala full of witnesses, then Cybil—standing
right in the middle of it—was already too close to the fire.
Katherine’s brows pinch. “Do you think the deal is going to get squashed?”
I don’t hesitate. “If it does, we’re dead in the water. The only way we nail Ramirez is through that laptop—and the only way
I get near it is if this deal stays alive.”
Ruby leans back in her chair and smirks. “Simple. Keep the deal alive to stay alive—our new motto for the mission.”
The words hit harder than they should because I know exactly what can blow this deal, and the weight of it is pressing down
on me. I glance at Katherine. “There’s something you should know about Cybil Langford.”
Ruby’s smirk fades. Katherine just waits, patient.
“I know her,” I say. “We spent summers together as kids. She’s the cousin of my best friend growing up, but I haven’t seen
her since she left for college.”
Katherine folds her hands. “You’re still friends with her cousin?”
“I am,” I sigh. “We don’t see each other often, but we keep in touch.”
Katherine sits there quietly, thinking. And then she looks at me. “Did she recognize you?”
I nod once. “She knows I’m lying about my name. She didn’t call me out . . . but she knows.”
“And the mission?” Katherine asks. “Has it been compromised?”
My shoulders drop with the weight behind that question.
We’ve all been working for the last eighteen months to get me into the inner circle of trust with Ramirez.
Thousands of hours spent building my alias to entice Rook into trusting me so he’d introduce me to Ramirez as someone they could trust to help hide their money and get rich at it.
Up until last night, I’d played the role flawlessly.
“I can’t be sure,” I finally answer. “Everything happened in a matter of minutes.”
Ruby narrows her eyes. “If she talks to the wrong person, everything we’ve built goes up in smoke.”
The truth stings. I know Ruby’s angry—and she has every right to be. I should’ve said something last night, but I was still
trying to wrap my head around the whole situation. This mission isn’t just about RICO charges. It’s about Danny Morales. And
making Ramirez pay for what he did. I owed Ruby the truth and I can’t let her down. I can’t let any of them down.
“Pull me from the mission,” I say.
“What?” Ruby snaps, shocked.
“I’ll come up with something. Make an excuse why I can’t help Ramirez. Another client needs me, and we’ll send in Seth. He’s
been walking me through this anyway—he knows the mission.”
“He’s an accountant, Ben,” Ruby answers first. “He’s not trained for undercover ops. Ramirez is already suspicious. If you
pull out now, you think he’s just gonna hand over the laptop to whoever walks through the door next?”
She’s right. I know she’s right. But I don’t want to let this mission fall apart because of me. I look to Katherine for guidance.
“You stay,” she says without hesitation.
My chest tightens. “What?”
“Ruby’s right,” Katherine says, steady and unflinching. “You’re already in, and pulling you now might not just cost us the
operation—it could tip off Ramirez. If he thinks he’s being investigated, he’ll disappear. New name. New face. New empire.
We’ll lose him for good.”
She leans back, leveling me with a look that carries the full weight of what she’s asking. “Unless you want to call it.”
Time slows. Calling a mission is serious. It means we’re out of options. It means signing a death warrant on everything we’ve built to put Ramirez away. On everyone Ramirez might hurt next. Including Cybil.
I rake a hand down my face, the reality settling like lead in my gut. If I walk away now, there’s no reaching back for her.
No way to warn her. She becomes just another casualty Ramirez leaves in his wake. I force my voice steady. “What do you want
me to do?”
Katherine tilts her head slightly, eyes sharp. “You convince your childhood friend to believe your story.” Her gaze holds
mine like a dare. “She’s a liability. Turn her into an asset.”