Fox tailed Axel’s vehicle to the western edge of town. He hadn’t been out this way before, but it seemed charming enough. The further they got from the interstate, the more like a town Hidden Creek became, with fewer and smaller strip malls, and more cute little houses perched down side streets.

He could see how people might want to live here, away from the big city but close enough if they wanted to go in.

The FBI field office was bland from the outside, with little to give it away. Two stories tall, with a sign out front which bore the bureau’s crest in white on blue; it could easily have been mistaken for a hundred other little offices.

Axel’s vehicle pulled up to the side of the building and Fox parked a couple of bays away to give them space. He emerged and locked his car as they took Rodriguez inside.

Axel held the door for Fox, then stepped up alongside him.

“So this is your office, huh?”

Axel smirked at that. “Oh yeah. Behold the glory. It’s better than a tent, though not by much.”

“Right.” Fox smiled a little as he followed Axel to a glass-walled office which bordered the open desk area in the center of the interior.

It was so at odds with Axel, this place, yet he fit here. This man who was power and intelligence combined, all poured into a dark suit, was like a tiger in a cage in here, just waiting to be let loose.

Fox felt the warmth rise in his cheeks and he sat carefully when Axel gestured him to a chair.

Axel’s hand landed on his shoulder.

Fox gasped at the unexpected touch. Axel hadn’t moved away. He was still here.

Close.

So close that his warmth seeped through Fox’s clothes and touched his skin.

His eyelids fluttered and he blinked to try and hide it, then raised his head to shoot a quizzical look up at Axel.

“Are you okay?” Axel frowned faintly down at him.

“Um.” Fox cleared his throat, then affected a lazy smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just checking.” Axel squeezed briefly and then crossed to his side of the desk to sit.

Fox could have kicked himself. Couldn’t he have thought up something to keep Axel near him for longer? Bad enough he’d driven at high speed through a small town with bullets flying at them. Worse that Axel could have been seriously hurt.

Was he all right?

He could feel the lingering presence of Axel’s fingers, like they had bled into his flesh and merged with him.

“Okay. What’ve we got?” Axel tapped at his computer and entered his password so slowly that Fox easily made out what it was. A few more keystrokes and he opened up some files, then turned his screen so that Fox could see it too. “Taylor Kennedy, alias Clive Marsters, alias Spike. Any other aliases we should know about?”

Fox shook his head. “He’ll have hundreds, but I’d never heard of Clive Marsters until today, so if he’s using others right now it’s unlikely I’ve encountered them before. He sheds most of them before they can stick.”

“He’s dealing with Rodriguez under the name Spike, which suggests Rodriguez could be an older contact?”

Fox rolled his chair closer so he could prop his elbow against the desk. It had been a hell of a long day, and it wasn’t over yet. He figured he could be forgiven for needing to sag slightly. “Potentially.”

Axel tapped and brought up some more files. “Here are the suspects we arrested this morning. They’re the source of our leads to Kennedy’s involvement. Recognize any of them?”

Fox reached across so that he could cycle through the mugshots, but in the end all he could do was shake his head. “No.”

“That’s fine. They’re home-grown talent. I suspect Kennedy is just using them.” Axel checked his watch, then sighed and stood up. “How about we go ask ’em some questions?”

“Haven’t your team already interrogated them?”

“Oh, yeah.” Axel shrugged. “But not everybody’s technique works on every suspect. Let’s go see if they know Rodriguez at all.”

Fox bounced up and fought the urge to touch Axel as he passed.

* * *

“So what’s the plan?” Fox eyed a pale-skinned white woman the other side of one-way glass. Her hair was unkempt and her clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in a couple of weeks. “You want me to go charm the pants off her?”

Axel shook his head. “No. Dane’s notes indicate she doesn’t respond well to either good manners or overt threats. Let’s try something else. Wait here.”

Fox nodded and stuck his hands into his pockets.

Axel left his side, and entered the interrogation room twenty seconds later.

Fox watched with more than just professional interest as Axel sat in the chair with his back to the one-way glass.

“Marcie Delaney,” Axel said softly. “My name is Axel Ford. I’m the Special Agent in Charge at this office.”

“I don’t give a fuck who you are, pig!” Marcie spat at the table.

Axel shrugged and said nothing.

Fox leaned toward the glass with growing fascination as Axel sat silent and still as a rock. He couldn’t even make out whether Axel was breathing, but he had to be.

He frowned. He wasn’t alone in finding this weird, if Marcie’s movements were anything to go by. She began to wriggle in her seat, then jiggle her handcuffs against the loop which fastened them to the table.

“What do you want?” Marcie finally broke the silence.

Axel said nothing.

Fox almost leaped out of his skin as the door to his room clicked open, and he snapped his head around in time to find Agent Dane join him.

Dane flashed a grin and jerked a thumb toward Axel. “He’s going this route, huh?”

“Yeah, apparently.” Fox turned back to watch Marcie fidget. “She really doesn’t like silence, does she?”

“A lot of people can’t take it,” Dane agreed. “Especially from a guy as big as Ford. He can pull off a pretty intense stare when he wants to, too. Doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s like magic.”

Fox nodded faintly. It wasn’t a common technique for him, but then he was rarely in an interrogation situation. He was more likely to use social engineering, and that mostly involved speaking.

It was fascinating.

His brain skipped a beat, wondering what it might be like to have Axel’s stony silence bear down on him, bore into him, envelop him.

What did Axel’s eyes look like right now?

“What do you want!” Marcie screamed it now.

Axel’s shoulders shifted with a deep breath. “Xavier Rodriguez.”

“I don’t know no Rodriguez!”

Axel returned to the silence.

“Oh, he’s good,” Fox breathed.

Dane chuckled. “Well, you don’t get to be in charge by being average. So what’s your story?”

He glanced her way. “What?”

“CIA, hacker, hot stuff, surely you’re taken?”

“Oh my God!” Fox almost laughed, but didn’t want to give away their presence, and managed to stop himself. “Who says Axel’s the only one who’s good?”

Dane smirked and flicked hair over her shoulder. “Never said anything of the sort. He likes you, you know.”

“I dunno about that. He’s straight, right?”

Dane’s eyes widened. “Uh. I meant, like, as a person…”

Fox felt himself glow bright red. “Oh shit, uh. So did I?”

She blinked at him.

“Like, like him, as… a… straight person? Perfectly heterosexually? He’s a great… dude… bro?”

“Uh huh.” Dane cracked a slow smile. “Ask him out, then.”

“You’re an asshole,” he breathed. “Oh my God, how could you do that to me? I damn near had a heart attack!” He crossed his arms tightly. “Are you saying he’s..?”

Dane shrugged. “Honestly? Don’t know. Never asked. But I know if we never ask for things it makes them way, way harder to get.”

Fox scowled at her, half tempted to ask if she knew Peter and was in cahoots with him, but movement from the interrogation room snatched his words away.

Marcie pulled at her cuffs, fear in her eyes.

Fox leaned in. Had Axel done something?

No, he was still where he’d been all along.

Was she that uncomfortable?

“Fine!” She sounded desperate. “He’s the one who hired us, okay?”

Axel’s shoulders shifted again. The pause was so long that Fox itched to shake him.

“To do what?”

“To buy the stuff!” Marcie slumped in her seat, her shoulders hunched forward. “All we had to do was pick it up, store it, that’s all.”

“Mm.” Axel reached into his jacket then slid something across the table to Marcie. It looked like an evidence bag, but Fox couldn’t see what was in it. “Then how was this under your property with everything else?”

Her eyes fell to it, but she shrugged. “I don’t know. Xavier came to inspect the stuff the other day, make sure we’d got the right chemicals.”

“He come by often?”

Marcie shrugged.

“You’ve worked with him before,” Axel prompted.

Marcie gave a weak nod.

“All right. Thank you, Miss Delaney. “I’ll have a female agent escort you back to holding.”

Axel stood and left the room without another word, and Fox watched Marcie’s reaction.

She looked relieved. Grateful. And confused as hell.

“It’s her first arrest,” Dane said as Axel came into the observation room. “Maybe one day she’ll have enough experience to make things harder for us.”

Axel nodded in agreement. “At least we have the connection now. Spike hired Rodriguez, Rodriguez hired Delaney and her buddies. Is picking up local talent part of Kennedy’s MO?”

Fox drew his hands from his pockets. “Anything and everything can be part of his MO,” he muttered. “He’ll switch tactics to suit the situation.”

“Great. We’ll have to see if we can dig up more in the morning. For now, though, I suggest everyone go home and get some rest. There’s nothing more we can do without information.”

Dane nodded. “Agreed. And you two look beat. You’ve been in an explosion, been shot at, and haven’t stopped to breathe. Go home, boss. We can pick this up in the morning.”

Axel eyed her, but she skipped out of the room and Fox saw her head into the interrogation room to unlock Marcie from the table.

He felt Axel’s eyes on him, so he looked up.

“So,” he said as baldly as he could manage. “Your place or mine?”

Axel eyed him and Fox couldn’t figure out whether the big guy took him at face value or was reading something into it.

“Yours,” Axel finally said.

Fox’s heart stuttered.