Chapter 30 Ben
Ben
Dallas, Texas
Saturday night
It’s been an hour and a half, and I haven’t stopped pacing since Ruby and I got back to the office. My head is pounding, my
shirt is stiff with dried sweat, though I’ve unbuttoned the collar and rolled up the sleeves, and I know my pulse won’t slow
down until Seth Jackson walks through the door.
Katherine assured us Seth was fine—confused, but a team was bringing him back here to be debriefed. Then it’s our turn. The
weight of the night is circling my brain like vultures. Every decision, every risk, every close call that has me second-guessing
myself.
Tonight’s operation was supposed to be airtight. Every angle covered, the risks calculated, but the events of this evening
proved how quickly things can all fall apart.
Ruby’s phone vibrates on the desk for the third time in five minutes. She picks it up, frowns, and flips it over, silencing
it.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“No idea.” She shrugs. “I don’t recognize the number.”
“I know I’m the new guy on the team, but is letting me get kidnapped part of the initiation? Do I at least get a T-shirt?”
My attention jerks to the doorway where Seth is standing, coffee in hand, looking as calm as someone who regularly gets kidnapped on a Saturday night.
He sips his coffee. “One minute I’m a trusted member of this organization, and the next the Dallas PD is giving me a field
sobriety test and running my name through our most wanted list.”
Ruby rolls her eyes, but I can see she’s relieved to see Seth unharmed.
I rise to meet him, and my throat is tight with the apology he deserves. Tonight was a disaster, but it could’ve gone absolutely
sideways in ways I’ve been trying not to imagine. “Man, I—”
“It’s my fault.” Seth holds up a hand, shaking his head and looking sheepish. “I thought I grabbed the cold and flu medicine
but accidentally took my wife’s anti-nausea medicine instead. Knocked me out cold.”
“What’s it called?” Ruby reaches across the desk for a pen. “I’ve got a neighbor who won’t stop leaving notes on my door about
my recycling habits, and I feel like a well-timed nap might make her rethink her life choices.”
I send her a sharp look.
“What?” She shrugs. “Too soon?”
Seth gives a tired laugh and drops into the seat next to hers. His eyes are still a little glassy, but I’ll take that over
the alternative.
“You should’ve told me. I would’ve pulled you from the mission.”
“I didn’t realize what I had done until I went into the men’s room and saw three of me in the mirror. Then the fire alarm
went off and the last thing I remember is getting into the back of an Uber.”
“Not an Uber,” Katherine says, stepping into the office and closing the door behind her. She sits at the desk and logs into
her computer, typing as Seth, Ruby, and I exchange quick glances. She turns her screen so we can see the paused video image.
“This is from an ATM machine inside of the Merius Hotel.”
Katherine hits a button and the video plays. A man is withdrawing cash at an ATM, blissfully unaware that in the background
Seth is being escorted into the lobby like a washed-up rock star who pregamed too hard. He’s stumbling, his arms slung around
their shoulders, but that doesn’t stop him from kicking one leg out at an odd angle.
Ruby leans closer to the screen. “Are you . . . dancing?”
Seth squints at the footage. “I think avoiding a potted fern. Or celebrating it. Hard to say.”
My gaze locks onto the man and woman with Seth. The man is wearing a hotel uniform and looks disturbingly at ease guiding
Seth. But the woman . . .
My jaw clenches.
“You recognize the woman,” Katherine says, and I know she knows I do.
“Yes,” I say, my voice rough. “It’s Cybil Langford.”
“I was kidnapped by your ex-girlfriend?” Seth nails the mock indignation, but it doesn’t relieve the pressure weighing down
on me. Does he realize how lucky he is that it was Cybil and not Ramirez?
“She’s not my ex-girlfriend,” I mutter, but I catch Ruby’s pointed look. I press on. “There are some new developments.”
Katherine folds her arms. “Let me guess. Ms. Langford might be our elusive interceptor at the museum? Edmond might have a
more nefarious purpose for investing in Ramirez’s deal?” She leans forward. “Or maybe Ms. Langford isn’t just the unassuming assistant?”
Those didn’t sound like guesses to me. I swing a look at Ruby, but she gives a tiny shake of her head. I face Katherine, trying
to find an explanation for how bad it looks, because it looks really bad. But for the first time since running into Cybil, I’m feeling like maybe the rose-colored glasses have slipped and I’m
seeing her as . . . Nope. I can’t.
“I know how it looks, ma’am, but—”
“Don’t get formal on me, Ben.” She sits back in her chair and folds her arms again. “Save that for the report. What I want
right now is an explanation for what happened tonight.”
Taking a breath, I recount the events of the night. I don’t leave out anything, including Seth’s unsteady posture and glazed
expression, my conversation with Cybil, and then the way I found her in the hallway, which led to the fire I started and the
terrifying moments when we couldn’t find Seth.
“I’m sorry.” I face Seth, because this apology is as much to him as it is to Katherine. “I should’ve recognized you were sick and called the operation right then.”
“I’m good, man.” Seth shrugs. “Your girl didn’t get too frisky with me.”
The room falls silent, and I slide a sideways glance at Katherine. She’s expressionless, unlike Ruby, who is biting her lip.
Seth, still woozy, blinks. “Wait.”
Another second passes in his medicine-induced state until he realizes what he said.
His eyes widen. “Too soon?”
Ruby full-on cackles, and for the first time all night there’s a tiny break in the tension.
“We’re all grateful for your safe return,” Katherine says, her tone deep and genuine, but I know she’s not looking for an
apology—she’s looking for the truth about how our mission tonight imploded. And her next words confirm that. “Let’s go back
to the conversation you had with Rook and Ramirez.”
“I know they saw me talking with Cybil, so I assumed they were going to ask me about our conversation, but instead, they wanted
to know if I thought she might be willing to give me information on Edmond’s accounts.”
Katherine frowns. “Why?”
“One of Edmond’s offshore accounts has been flagged. Ramirez is worried it’ll draw attention to any large transactions.”
“By whom?” Seth asks, a little more alert now.
“They didn’t say,” I admit. “But any new transaction—especially a large one—will likely lead back to Ramirez. And after tonight,
I think he might be willing to cut Edmond out of the deal completely, but it will come at the cost of bringing in a more concerning
investor.”
“Like Sam Baird,” Ruby offers.
“Or Milosh Kamarov,” I add. “I know tonight didn’t go as planned, but in a way, I think it’s revealed a bigger threat. I’m
not sure getting the RICO evidence is our priority anymore. It’s the deal. We need to figure out what Ramirez is selling and
why an ex-KGB member like Kamarov and an international broker like Baird are interested in it.”
“And Ms. Langford.”
I swing my gaze to Ruby, and she looks unapologetic. “What?”
“If she’s gathering intel on Ramirez, it might not be for Edmond. We might need to consider she has her own agenda.”
“Like what?” My question comes out like a demand, but Ruby doesn’t flinch.
“I know you want to rule her out,” Ruby continues. “But we know that someone was trying to get into the museum library before the meeting with Ramirez and Edmond. A meeting where they were supposed
to discuss the deal and where Ms. Langford disappeared from the gala at the same time. In Italy you were concerned you were
being followed, and I don’t know if you noticed, but Cybil was nearby in every instance. Tonight you caught her eavesdropping
in the hallway, and that was after she was talking with Kamarov, right?”
I don’t like the direction this is going. “What are you saying?”
“Maybe Cybil’s a pawn. Maybe she’s not. But she’s gathering information, if not for herself, then for someone, and if we’re
going to change the scope of this mission, then we have to assume everyone involved is a potential threat.”
I run a hand through my hair, gripping the back of my neck. My brain can’t find an argument with what Ruby is saying, but
my heart? My heart doesn’t want to accept it. Not when it’s her. I know Cybil’s been lying to me. But the weight in my chest doesn’t come from betrayal—it comes from the terrifying realization
that I might love her anyway.
Falling for the woman who kidnaps FBI agents? Yeah, I think I skipped straight to advanced-level Stockholm syndrome.
“I’m not saying she’s innocent in all of this,” I concede. “But Cybil Langford is the kind of girl who would go out of her
way to protect others. People don’t just wake up one morning and decide to spy on a dangerous crime boss like Ramirez. If
she’s involved—truly involved—there must be a good reason.”
“Then we find out what it is,” Katherine says, finally speaking. “While I don’t condone setting restaurants on fire, I think it’s important we determine Ms. Langford’s intentions—and possibly how we can use them.”
“Use them?”
“We need to uncover information about Ramirez’s deal, correct? As Edmond’s assistant, she has better access than we do, and
something’s motivating her to go up against Ramirez. If we find out what that is, what she knows, we might be able to use
that information to take him down.”
I know she’s assessing this situation through a level of experience I can’t begin to comprehend, but I want to make sure I’m
hearing her clearly. “You want to turn Cybil into an informant?”
“Given the outcome of tonight, I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere near the YubiKey or Ramirez’s accounts. Nobody wants
him to pay for what he did to Danny Morales more than we do, and Ms. Langford might be our best and only chance to do that.”
I’m about to argue when a knock on the door stops me. Katherine rises to answer it. A man on the other side whispers something
to her, then hands her a cell phone. She turns, locking eyes with me.
“Your grandmother.”
Every muscle in my body tenses. Gran wouldn’t call at this time of night unless something was really wrong. I stand and take the phone. “Gran? Is everything okay?”
“Yes, of course, honey,” she says lightly, oblivious to the near heart attack she just gave me. “But I have a question.”
“Gran, it’s late,” I say, glancing over my shoulder to find the team watching me with barely restrained amusement. “And I’m
working. Can it wait?”
“How exactly does one perform a citizen’s arrest?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Gran—”
“There’s this new fella, just moved in, and I don’t think he’s just here for the shuffleboard and early-bird specials, if you know what I mean.”
I don’t.
“Bernie and I saw him sneaking out the back gate with a suspiciously heavy duffel bag. We would’ve followed him, but Bernie just had hip surgery and—”
“Gran, you have to stop spying on your neighbors,” I whisper-hiss, and Ruby outright snickers behind me. “I have to go, but I’ll call you
later.”
“Fine,” she sighs. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
I frown. “Tomorrow?”
“Don’t tell me you’re not coming to Buddy’s birthday. Everyone will be there.”
I groan. I completely forgot about the invitation Rex sent for his dad’s birthday. The man is like a second father to me,
but with everything going on, there’s no way I’ll be able to make it. “I’ve got work.”
“Bennett Bradley, work isn’t everything.”
“I know, Gran. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good. And if you happen to have any night-vision goggles, bring those with you.”
I hang up before she can ask for wiretapping equipment and hand the phone back to Katherine.
“Instead of Bring Your Kid to Work Day, can we have a Bring Your Grandma to Work Day?” Ruby grins.
I return to my seat. “I love her, but I’m pretty sure she was responsible for the Chicken Coup of ’92.”
Katherine’s brows lift. “I don’t know what that is, but I’m curious how your grandmother got access to my assistant’s personal
cell phone number.”
My lips part because I don’t know either. “Um, do you want me to call her back and find out?”
“No,” Katherine says. “How fast can you get in touch with Ms. Langford?”
The thought of calling Cybil sends my pulse into overdrive. I don’t like the idea of turning her into an informant—especially when my whole plan was to keep her off Ramirez’s radar, not paint a bigger target on her back.
“I don’t have her number, but I can try to reach her tomorrow by calling Edmond’s office.”
Katherine’s lips press into a thin line. “That’s not soon enough.”
“Not to pour fuel on the fire,” Ruby chimes in, “but have we considered how Ms. Langford knew who to call about Agent Sleeping
Beauty over here?”
“Hey,” Seth protests, then grimaces. “That’s going to stick, isn’t it?”
I ignore him because, one, yes, that nickname is officially permanent, and two, I don’t think he’s fully alert to realize
where Ruby’s question is leading.
“There was a note on Seth to contact the FBI, right?” She looks to him for confirmation, and he nods. “So how did she know
he was with us?”
The question slams into my chest, leaving a gnawing pit of unease.
How did she know?
Katherine’s gaze sharpens. “We need to get ahold of Cybil Langford—now.”
I take a deep breath, dread already pooling in my stomach. I know exactly where to find her.
Holt Ranch—where I first fell for her, where she used to drive me crazy in more ways than one, and where every teenage ounce
of my pride got tangled up in wanting her attention. Only this time, it’s not just teasing and adolescent pranks. This time,
the stakes are real, and more than my heart is on the line.
“Looks like I’m headed to a birthday party.”