Despite repeatedly being warned not to enter Brewster’s office by agents at their desks, I do.
The minute the door swings open, Murphy’s lean body flies away from hers and into the corner of the desk. He bites back his groan of pain.
“Knocking, Mr. Reiss,” Brewster scolds, adjusting her skirt back down. “It’s common courtesy.”
So is not fucking your agents, especially my handler.
“Out,” I command to Murphy, hand still on the knob.
“Excuse me?”
“Out.” My voice booms. “Now.”
“Who the hell-”
“Murphy, I will make sure the gambling problem you think you have under control is exposed for the crippling weakness it really is if you say another goddamn word to me. Out!”
His eyes widen in fear as much as concern.
Brewster clears her throat. “Go.”
He gives her a curt nod. “Yes ma’am.”
On his way past me, he glares, mentally ripping me apart.
His hurt feeling for being an immoral, borderline corrupt agent one blow job away from ruining his career, is the least of my concerns right now.
The moment he’s gone, I shut the door, lock it, which is what they should’ve done, and approach Brewster’s desk.
Unfortunately, she gets a word out before I do. “You have some pair of brass balls on you to march into my office and start making commands. You are out of line, Reiss.”
I roll my eyes. “I honestly don’t give a shit.”
She starts to speak, which is when I cut her off.
“I don’t have time to give a shit even if I wanted to. I have less than fifteen hours to save a young girl’s life. So spare me the bureaucratic bullshit you were about to bore me to death with and listen.”
Brewster folds her arms across her chest, eyes pasted on mine.
“One of the auction sites went live.”
“They’re always live.”
“Live streaming. Live….victim up for purchase.”
Intrigue shoots her eyebrows up.
“I need to do a live hunt.”
She leans against the edge of her desk and shakes her head. “No.”
Rage blitzes through me rattling my chest. “What the fuck do you mean no?”
“No.” Her refusal stands. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was in the presentation yesterday. I was right beside everyone else looking into the bidders you brought us. And you were right. They’re all small fish in a stupid aquarium tank. I remove them now and others just like them take their place, and pick up the little feeds they left behind. I want one of the men who is feeding them. And that information is something you don’t have. You don’t have any an inkling who-”
“I do!” My voice echoes around her office.
“What?”
An annoyed exhale escapes. “I do.”
“Then why didn’t you bring that up yesterday! Why are you withholding information?”
“You really wanna have this discussion now? You really wanna talk about my lack of being a team player with a kidnapped sixteen-year-old girl in the process of being sold!”
“Talk!”
Frustration forces me to growl, but I continue through it, “Once I infiltrated the small ring of buyers, they begin to babble about past auctions. Past buys. I began to detect a pattern and established not only a string of aliases, all assumingly linked to the same individual, but more or less his comfort zone of snatch and distribution. Unfortunately, no actual addresses to go off of. He steals those or uses P.O. Boxes.”
“And you didn’t think you might wanna share that with us!”
Guilt grabs me fiercely by the neck. “I didn’t want him to get away again.”
“What….What do you mean again? Is this a cold case of ours?”
“It’s the one that got me here.”
Brewster shakes her head. “You were sent here for hacking yourself into a prestigious university.”
“Please, Clover Rose is far from prestigious. Having me at the school brought them the closest they were ever gonna get to it.” After swallowing my arrogance, I explain, “I was sent here because I called in a false tip to the police station about a bomb, which got me exposed before I had time to cover my paper tracks. I called in a false tip because I knew what this man had planned. He was going to kidnap a student, a student I….knew. She fit his profile then and my false tip forced him to flee before he had the chance grab her.”
Her mind is clearly reeling yet she asks, “Why don’t I know that?”
“Confidential and keeping it confidential was part of the agreement. Even she doesn’t know what almost happened to her.”
“Why do you think it’s the same man?”
“I told you. Patterns. I spot shit most of you can’t fathom. Not just typical repeated actions like where the asshole likes to get his coffee in the morning, which when he’s planning for an auction it’s Bella’s Brewhouse, it’s a series of numbers. Repeated dates. Repeated times. Repeated codes all used on a very conscious and subconscious level. He has a system. A system I cracked. A system, I wanna take down before he gets away with-” the information about the teen’s identity almost slips out.
She doesn’t need to know that. I don’t want her to think I’m too close. I don’t want another analyst or fresh out of the academy computer idiot to lose Mia.
I’m not leaving shit to chance.
Wyatt was right. I’m a control freak. But this time? It’s gonna be beneficial.
I press my lips together to regain my composure. “I don’t want him to get away with selling her, and I damn sure don’t want him to get away again. This is what you have been begging me to do. Let me. Do it. Set me up for a live hunt.”
This time Brewster immediately agrees. “Done. We’ll get you in the hunt house and have agents ready to go as soon as you get a location. You think you can actually catch him?”
I don’t have choice.
I have to.
“I’m gonna call in a favor for an extra guarantee.”
She doesn’t seem phased with additional legal or illegal help.
Good because I can’t do this alone and the idiots she’s going to enlist won’t be anywhere close to enough.
“But I do need something from you.”
“A favor?” Her scoff isn’t off putting. “You don’t get to ask me for favors, Reiss.”
“I’m not asking for a favor.” My body takes a step forward. “I’m telling you what you’re going to do for me, starting with having an agent that’s not Murphy escort me and my children up to their grandparents’ house and leaving a security detail to insure nothing happens to them.”
Brewster’s lips purse briefly together. “Done.”
“And then you’re going to get their mother and bring her to the live hunt where I can physically see she is safe.”
“Their mother is dead.”
“Their mother is very much alive,” I growl, instinct kicking in. “And she is going to stay that way. You bring her to the hunt house. Don’t bother asking. She’ll give you hell. Your best bet is a surprise attack and to pray she just doesn’t get in a shot. She socks a punch like she’s got a brick in her fist.”
Lesson learned when sparring at the gym one day. Needless to say, while my girlfriend may not hit as hard as me, if you rile her up to the point she needs to swing, chances are it’s gonna hurt like a bitch.
There’s a gleam in Brewster’s eye I don’t like. “Okay….I do that for you….I rescue your girlfriend or whatever…you lose the chance at your freedom.”
“What?”
“Your freedom for her protection. You catch me this sonofabitch, your sentence remains. You lose him and I add to it.” Her threat makes her smile triumphantly. “Is she really worth that to you, Reiss?”
“Yes.”
The lack of hesitation in my voice is unexpected by her mouth creaking up.
“If that’s the deal we have to make then fucking do it, Brewster. There isn’t a goddamn thing I wouldn’t do to protect those I fucking love.” Stepping forward once more I close the gap between us. “And it would be wise for you to fucking remember that. Because if anything happens to them, any of them, and it’s your fault or this department’s in any way, you will see what a real monster looks like.”
She squares her shoulders. “Are you threatening me, Reiss?”
“Yes.”
“You think it’s smart to threaten a Federal Agent?”
I pin her in place with my stare. “I think it’s smart for you to remember Brewster, just how dangerous the man standing in front of you is.”
She noticeably tenses.
“Test me and you’ll watch me destroy your life, your legacy, and this joke of a facility brick by fucking brick. Not only will I expose every dick you sucked to get where you are because equality in the workplace is a goddamn joke, but I’ll make those skeletons in your closet do a walk of shame like it’s Sunday morning at a fucking frat house.” Her mouth twitches to reply, “Oh, and before you consider threatening to lock me up or take away my job again, let me not so kindly remind you, this agency isn’t the only one on my dick. I choose to be here because it keeps me close to my family. I am much more powerful than you can possibly process. I wouldn’t make the mistake of provoking me.” After giving her uncomfortable demeanor another glance, I begin to exit the room. “I’ll see you at the hunt.”