Sam

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I SAT THERE, LISTENING as Derek left the room. I was angry. Confused. Blindsided and hurt. Griggs had been bought out by Jacob? How the hell could we have not seen that? We were an expert team. We left no fucking stone unturned. How the fuck could we have missed something as big as that? I should’ve asked those agents more questions, asked them how they came to that conclusion. I could get Lance to hack their records. I could get Lance to pull the information they had on file so I could figure it out.

Figure out what the fuck I had missed.

The room was cold, and the sad thing was, I couldn’t blame the agents for thinking the way they thought. They didn’t understand the dynamics and the gravity of all that had happened over the past two and a half months. With the information they had and being two completely unbiased parties, it did look like I was one of the perpetrators.

I sighed, releasing my jaw from its prison as the door opened again.

I turned my head and saw Derek come back in. His face was red, but his posture was composed. He unbuttoned his coat and sat in the chair next to me, scooting it close before he took my hand within his. He laced our fingers together, letting out a dramatic sigh as his eyes raked up to mine.

But I couldn’t look at him.

I had failed him.

“I know you’re not the one doing this,” he said.

“You sure about that?” I asked.

I turned my gaze to him, watching him hesitate before he nodded his head.

“One hundred percent.”

“Then why did you pause?” I asked. “If you’re so certain, why did you leave? Why did you hesitate?”

“Because I know you. It wouldn’t make sense for you to throw yourself in front of a gun Jacob was shooting from if you were working with him.”

“Damn straight,” I said.

“But the FBI isn’t wrong.”

“What?”

“About you and your alibi. I wasn’t going to say anything in front of them—”

“And you shouldn’t say anything now,” I said.

I looked up at the cameras, noticing they were still recording. I unlaced my fingers from Derek’s, pulled him up from the chair, and then ushered him out the door. I wanted to know what his point was. I wanted to hear what he had to say, but there was no reason for us to be doing it in that room where cameras were pointed at us. We had been free to go, so we needed to take that right and get the fuck out of the building.

Eyes were heavy on us as I escorted us down the stairs.

“Can I talk?”

“Hush. You can talk once we get into the car,” I said.

We stepped out of the building as a car drove up to us. I checked to make sure it was the driver I had done my background sweep on, but I felt a twinge of doubt course through my system. Those fucking agents had gotten into my head. They were making me doubt myself and my work.

And I knew the type of work I could do if I wasn’t emotionally compromised.

Like I was now.

“Get in,” I said as I opened the door.

“Then we talk?” Derek asked.

I nodded my head, stepping in after him quickly before the car took off from the curb.

“So, what are you saying about the FBI being right about me?” I asked.

“Sam, don’t do that. Just hear me out,” he said. “I didn’t want to mention it in front of them, but when you rushed off after the second explosion, I wanted to run after you, but I didn’t. The security guards wouldn’t let me.”

“Good. That was their job,” I said.

“But when the ship tipped back the first time, I realized the explosion must’ve been coming from my cabin.”

“What?”

“You said you couldn’t make it past the kitchen, right? But the kitchen wasn’t what was on fire?”

“Correct.”

“And when you found the security guard,” he said, “there was no fire on that end either?”

“Not one bit.”

“My cabin room was just past the kitchen. If you had kept going down that small little hallway, you would’ve hit the door. It’s the only place that makes sense, given what you went through down there. And if they’ve come to that same conclusion, which they probably have, that means the bomb was probably in the luggage we brought on board. For our overnight stay.”

“And the only people who handled it were myself and the team,” I said.

“And the team’s alibis have all been accounted for.”

I leaned back into the seat of the car as I tossed my gaze out the window. How could I have been so stupid? Always take someone with you to do shit. That was one of the first rules taught when going through training for private security. I’d gotten comfortable with my blossoming relationship with Derek. I assumed his trust in me would cover me in certain scenarios, which disabled me from seeing scenarios like this one. I was more than emotionally compromised.

I was making stupid decisions because of it.

“You know you’re suggesting that someone on my team is corrupt, right?” I asked.

“I’m aware of that, yes,” Derek said.

“Which means someone’s been pulling the wool over my eyes the entire fucking time.”

“I know how you feel. Jacob did the same thing to me.”

I groaned as I raked my hands down my face. Holy fuck. My mind was swirling with so many possibilities, and it was hard to settle them all into place. I had to stick with what I knew. I had to deal with the facts and not the possibilities.

But first, we had to deal with the obvious.

“I think my relationship with you has caused unnecessary risks,” I said.

“You’re not pulling away from me now. We’ve been through too much,” Derek said.

“Doesn’t matter what we’ve been through. I’m speaking with you as your employee now. Not as your lover. I’m not making sound decisions anymore because of our relationship.”

“I’m not letting you go, Sam. I didn’t on that boat, and I won’t now just because a couple of dickhead FBI agents want to pit us against one another.”

“I’m taking unnecessary risks that are putting your life in danger. Your luggage was supposed to be checked before it even got into my hands. That was the plan. And I made the mistake of not checking myself. I don’t know why, but I think John was right.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“John and I had a conversation about a week ago about us staying on this case too long and getting soft. I’m getting soft. I trusted my team too much and didn’t do a last check on my own. Had I done that before your luggage got to the ship, I would’ve found the bomb easily if it was in there. It was negligence on my part because I’m trusting my team too much. I never trust my team that much.”

“But you have to. That’s what a team is for. That’s why we didn’t see it coming with Jacob. And Griggs, apparently.”

“But I should have. That’s my job, Derek. Don’t you see that? All of this is my job. It’s my job to see what you don’t, not to rely on your fucking opinion and go with it. You're rubbing off on me and in a way that’s going to cost your life,” I said.

I beat my fists into the cushions of the car as Derek sat there, staring at me with wide eyes. I was pissed. My instincts were kicking into full gear now. It was the only damn thing that made sense. There was a protocol that went into checking that luggage. I picked very specific people to rifle through it and make sure nothing was out of place. I made sure a chain of command was in place to make sure nothing like that made it onto his yacht that night.

And since the FBI confirmed the presence of a bomb on the ship, that meant someone in that chain of command had planted that fucking bomb.

Holy hell. Someone on my team was corrupt.

“I think we should set up a trap,” Derek said.

“What?” I asked.

“A trap. To catch whoever on your team isn’t doing their job.”

I nodded silently, trying to allow that truth to dawn on my mind. It all made sense. The attack on the security guard. The placement of the bomb. The handling of the luggage. It would explain the attack on Jacob in the garage. I confirmed it was the same assailant, but it never crossed my mind that Jacob could’ve paid someone to attack him. The same person that attacked that security guard on the yacht. Griggs on his payroll would’ve given Jacob access to his house and his personal schedule, but Jacob paying someone on my team a kickback would give him personal access to a private event like the Fourth of July celebration Derek threw for just the two of us.

I swallowed thickly as I nodded my head.

“A trap. Okay,” I said. “I can do that.”

“I think we should also keep it beneath the FBI’s radar,” Derek said. “You know, until we can confirm things. Prove our theory. The last thing we need is them pinning something on you that you haven’t done. No one’s ripping you away from me, Sam. No one.”

I felt his hand curl over mine as I closed my eyes. A trap. I could set a trap. A trap to lure out the snake that had slithered into our midst. I started running the names of everyone who had handled that luggage down in my head. Men I’d worked with before. Men I’d trusted with my life on several occasions. Men I’d garnered reputations with and hired on for multiple jobs before this.

One of them had turned their back on me.

And they weren’t going to get away with it.