Despite It All by Reese Knightley

 

Two days later

Greene

He had torn apart the city with Dave’s words ringing in his ears.

I gave you one fucking job.

“You okay?”

Liam’s voice jogged him back to the salmon-colored motel. He pulled his gaze from his socked feet and squinted through the haze of smoke.

“I can’t keep him safe if he won’t stay put.”

Liam huffed a short laugh filled with irritation. “According to Dave, Forest has never been good at accepting help, following orders, or staying put.”

“I can’t find him, so what do you want me to do?” He crushed out his smoke, and leaned a shoulder against the stucco near his motel room door. He knew what he wanted to do. If he had his way, he’d handcuff Forest to keep him still. But that might differ from what Liam had in mind.

“Dave and I want to know if you want out.”

“Been thinking about it.”

“And what have you decided?” Liam rubbed at his chin.

“No. I don’t want out at the moment.”

Liam’s shoulders seemed to deflate as if a weight had been lifted. “Dave got word Forest has been at a hotel for the past two days.”

“Hotel?” He frowned. Had Forest met someone there?

“Yes. Today, Parish put several agents he trusts in the lobby in an attempt to guard Forest until we can round him up.”

“You want me to go now?”

“No, not right now.”

“Okay.” He rubbed at the burn in his chest and kept his thought to himself. The chances of the FBI keeping track of Forest when he’d given him the slip was going to be slim, but it would be fun hearing about it.

It would also be the last goddamned time he trusted him. And when he got his hands on the little liar, he was going to give him a piece of his mind. People probably went too soft on Forest because of his looks. The hell he would.

“We need to go through Summer’s apartment.” Liam’s words jogged him back to the rain, smoke, and the dismal motel. “We need to close that loop.”

Liam was right, Summer Peterson was their primary objective and no matter how much he wanted to chase down Forest and resume his bodyguard duties, Liam needed him. He had to think of the bigger picture. Find Summer, then he’d have time to give Forest what he’d been asking for.

And what had Forest been asking for? His undivided attention. And then what? He crushed that thought just like he had his cigarette. No sense in going down that road. They were too opposite. Opposites attract. Not in this case. In this case, he hoped to God Forest never found out about him.

He stepped back into his room, tugged on his boots, and grabbed his jacket.

The bathroom door opened with a billow of steam and Holden emerged, bringing a faint trace of clove aftershave and motel shampoo. He preferred the scent of something lighter, something more…more what? Like fucking vanilla? Quit that shit. For fuck’s sake, a few goddamned days around Forest and he was craving the man’s smell?

Already partially dressed, Holden sat on the other queen bed and tugged on his boots before pulling on a t-shirt and zipping his jeans.

“Link fucking snores loud,” Holden said.

“He does?”

“Snored right through the walls for the past two nights.”

“I don’t snore?”

“Not like him, but I think it’s because you don’t sleep.”

“I sleep enough.” He tucked his keys and wallet into his jeans and changed the subject.

“You haven’t done much of it in the past few days.”

“You okay with Beckett coming?” he asked, turning the tables on Holden.

“I don’t have a problem. He does.”

He’d asked Holden once what Beckett’s problem with him was, but Holden was pretty much clueless and he’d let the subject drop.

A knock on the hotel door rattled the wood, and he pulled his weapon before checking through the curtain. Old habits died hard. Zane stood outside with Isaac. He shrugged on his leather jacket and stepped outside into the rainy darkness with Holden on his six.

Staying beneath the awning, he lit up a cigarette, sucking in a few hits. Now, every damned time he smoked, he thought of that stupid fucking bet. Well, he wasn’t quitting today, and after that stunt from Forest, he was tempted to back out of the bet completely.

Liam came out of a motel room across the way and locked the door. The rest of the unit jogged through the rain and loaded up in the Suburban. He crushed his smoke out, quickly field stripped it, and tossed it away in the nearby trash.

One minute later, they were pulling out of the parking lot with Liam behind the wheel.

“If Forest locates the mole, we might have a better chance at getting Summer back alive,” Isaac spoke up.

“I hear he’s the best,” Holden said.

He silently agreed. He’d seen the agent’s file; he knew exactly what Forest was capable of.

Liam turned behind a large, five story brownstone apartment complex and drove down the wet alleyway to the next building over from where Summer lived. It was a nice area with manicured bushes and a tennis court in the back. It was a hell of a lot nicer than any area he’d lived in and he figured she had to be high up inside the organization to rent there.

The place looked quiet and expensive. Grabbing his jacket, he stepped out, lit up a smoke, and headed around to join the rest of the team. The lighting around the place was minimal, and he figured it was dark enough to breech without being seen.

This should be a slam dunk.

“Holden, Link, and Eagle, cover the exits of the apartment building and blend in. Let us know when we have the all clear.”

Liam handed them all earpieces and Eagle cackled, tucking in his earpiece.

“Um, yeah, okay.” Eagle’s eyes sliced over Link and Holden, two of the largest on the team.

“Just do your fucking best,” Liam growled.

“What are we watching for?” Eagle gave a shit eating grin.

Link grabbed Eagle by the jacket before Liam could rip the guy a new one and pulled Eagle along toward the side of the brownstone building.

Liam let out a hard breath and turned on him, Isaac, and Zane.

“You three come with me, the landlord gave me a key.”

“Is the FBI joining us?” He wouldn’t put it past Forest to crash the party just to show his stuff. That was probably his own wishful thinking. He tucked in his earpiece.

“They’ve already bagged and tagged everything they needed. I have the all clear from Parish to poke around.”

While they waited for the all clear, his mind drifted to Forest. It was hard not to think back over the time in the office and the way Forest had handled himself, the way Forest had looked at him, and the lie right out of the guy’s mouth before he disappeared. Despite it all, he couldn’t help wondering if Forest would be opposed to a hook up.

That was fucking crazy thinking.

Forest was a forever kind of man. He had relationship, rings, and kids written all over him. That should have stopped him cold, but it didn’t. Nor could he deny his raging attraction. Forget it, that ship had sailed a long time ago.

He’d shut the guy down so hard at that party that it wasn’t difficult to imagine how a pass would go over now. Shut the hell up. He wasn’t making a pass at Forest. The blond hottie was made for someone better. Way better than a washed-up drunk like him.

Whena ping came from Liam’s phone, it snapped him back to the job at hand and stopped the annoying voice in his head. There was more of a chance for snow in So. Cal than Forest wanting a hook up with him. Yet as farfetched as the idea was, it took root.

“That’s Link, the walkway is clear,” Liam said.

“This will be a piece of cake.” He rubbed his hands together.

“One and done,” Zane agreed.

The outside sensor lights flickered on and he jogged up the short stairs to her apartment. Carpet cleaner, bleach, and fresh paint lingered in the trapped air of the stairwell.

“Someone recently painted. We should find out who it was,” he said.

“I’ll ask the super,” Liam responded, opening the apartment’s cream-colored front door.

The inside was as neat and tidy as the outside. Magazines perfectly displayed on a glass coffee table. White couches with bright blue pillows arranged on thick cushions.

He fingered the leaf of the green potted plant near the door. It was fake. Liam walked across the medium blue-colored carpet and disappeared into what looked to be the kitchen. Zane and Isaac headed down the hallway off the entryway and he went toward a white door at the end of the living room.

The handle turned easily beneath his grip and he pushed open the door, revealing a small room. Some people would have used it as a second bedroom, but not Summer, she used it for an office. He ran a finger over the bookshelf near the door and it came away with only minimal dust. So, she’d recently cleaned the place, maybe she hadn’t been missing the whole thirty-three days.

Walking around the wooden desk, he rolled the black leather chair away from the desk and slid open the small drawer in the center, it was empty. FBI had probably dumped everything in boxes.

“Find anything?” Liam asked from the door.

He gestured to the gaping spot on the black mat that covered the top of the wooden desk, a signal that a laptop was missing.

“FBI take her laptop? And she recently cleaned in here. The dust is about a week old.”

Liam checked the case notes on his phone. “She has a cleaning lady who comes every two weeks.”

He’d never had a cleaning person. Right now, he didn’t even have an apartment. He’d let the lease go when he’d returned to the states, and staying overnight at a hook up’s place didn’t count.

Letting his apartment go seemed like the thing to do at the time, which turned out to be the wrong fucking thing because he’d ended up living with his deadbeat mother. That was where Liam had found him, yanked him back from the black hole of alcohol, and brought him back to work.

“Did the cleaning lady get paid last time?”

“Let me check.” Liam fired off a text.

He lifted a framed picture of three people from the desk. One person was a younger Forest, standing next to a woman, Summer, by the looks of it, and on the other side of Summer stood another man. All three were smiling as if they’d just had the time of their lives.

“Who’s this guy?”

He flashed the photo toward Liam, who snapped a picture of it.

“I’ll ask.”

“Who you asking?”

“Dave, he’s texting some contact.”

“Ask him where the photo was taken.”

“Nothing sitting around in the bedroom. It’s all tidy,” Isaac interrupted from the doorway.

“There’s a wall safe, but it’s locked,” Zane said, coming up behind Isaac and slinging his arm around the guy’s shoulder.

“And of course, we don’t have the combination.” He wondered if the FBI had tried to crack the safe, and placed the photo back on the desk.

“Okay, the cleaning lady was paid two weeks ago,” Liam said, glancing up from his phone.

“So that means Summer could be missing seventeen days instead of thirty-three?” he asked.

“Looks like it. The FBI does not have her laptop. It was missing when they came through here,” Liam murmured, eyes on his phone.

He lifted a stapler and squeezed, it made a slight popping sound and a small piece of metal dropped to the carpet. “Who came through here?” He dropped the stapler back on the desk and walked past Liam and into the living room.

“The FBI?” Isaac answered cheekily, following him.

“I mean, who exactly in the FBI,” he responded and kept going across the living room and down the hallway and into the bedroom. It was tidy, just like Isaac had said. White bedspread with just a few splashes of blue and green. A painting of a pack of wolves sat on the floor leaning against the wall below a black and silver wall safe.

“I’ll have to get those names,” Liam said, following them both. “Right now, it only says a team.”

“Yeah, I’d be interested in those names since one of them may be the mole.”

He examined the safe. It was a typical tumbler style tucked into the wall and easily crackable if a person had the skills. He did not.

“Think you can crack it?” Zane stopped next to him.

“No, but I bet Colin Savage could.” He shot a glance at Liam.

“I’ll call him,” Liam said. “He can catch the helicopter that’s bringing Beckett.”

“How well do you know Savage?” Zane asked, leaning a shoulder on the doorjamb.

“About ten years.” He turned toward the bedroom door. “I knew him before he met Archer Hall.”

“So, you, Colin, and Archer ran black ops together back in the day?” Isaac probed.

“I saw coffee in the kitchen.” He headed past them all and back down the hallway. A man’s past was his own, and that was where it needed to stay. If they wanted more of it, they weren’t getting it from him. They could ask their damned question to Archer or Colin.

“Was it something I said?”

“It’s always something you say,” Zane told Isaac, and then grunted. “Ouch.”

“You deserved that,” Isaac responded with another low chuckle and then some muffled messing around came from back down the hallway.

“Knock it off,” Liam hollered, following him into the bright living room. The colonel made a call to Colin and then pressed the mic in his ear to let the rest of the unit outside know of the latest info.

He started a pot of coffee, drowning out everything else but his need for caffeine. When the smell of French Roast hit the air, he stepped out onto the patio and lit up a smoke.

The glass door slid open and Holden stepped out and closed it behind him.

“Colin should be here in thirty. A chopper is dumping him and Beckett at the FBI building. Link and Eagle went to retrieve them.” Holden joined him at the railing.

“You excited he’s coming?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Yeah, okay. I’m kind of excited, but it doesn’t matter.” Holden rubbed at the back of his neck, staring out at the parking lot.

“Give it time.”

“It’s been over a year and a half.”

“Maybe it’s not meant to be.” Fuck, he hated stating the obvious, but Beckett had been dodging Holden ever since they’d first met back at General Luke Rhine’s ranch in Arizona.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Holden agreed. The soldier told him the story of how they’d hit it off at the ranch and then Beckett said some cold fucking words to him at Luke and Dillon’s engagement party.

“You going to hit on Forest?”

“What makes you think that?” He scowled through a haze of smoke when Holden laughed.

He was saved from being grilled by Holden when Liam came out, offering them each a cup of coffee.

“Go ahead,” Holden told the colonel and headed back inside.

“Thanks.” He took the cup from Liam and took a sip of the hot, bitter brew, creamer was probably too much to hope for since the apartment was empty. Although not his favorite, he had taken it black on many missions.

“The guy in the photo was Summer’s husband, Rick. Forest said the picture was taken at the marina. They all grew up together.”

Something flitted across Liam’s face, a sadness and worry.

“What?”

“Rick died in the crash that injured Forest.”

“The drunk driving crash?”

He frowned, taking another pull from his smoke. To some people, the pain Forest must have gone through losing Rick was unimaginable. He knew that agony well. It was something a man had to work through, sometimes on his own and sometimes it took others to help. It was a stronger man who could admit when he needed help. Hell, it took him years to take that hand of help, and the person who offered it was standing right here. Smothering his smoke in the planter near the railing, he drained his cup.

“Yeah, the drunk driver. How are you handling things?”

He clenched his teeth. It seemed that every time the word drunk was mentioned, Liam looked at him, silently judging him. His sponsor told him it wasn’t the case. Imagining that people were looking at him with criticism was his own perception, that it was his issues eating him up inside. He took a deep breath and answered truthfully, “Pretty good, it comes and goes.”

“I’m here if you need me.”

“I know.” He rubbed at his chin and then scratched at the hairs beneath his jaw. He should have shaved today. The goddamned thing grew in faster than a jackrabbit could run. Liam’s phone buzzed with an incoming text message and he was thankful it took the colonel’s attention away from him. Hopefully, they could locate something of usefulness in Summer’s safe.

“That was the building manager. The apartment one level below this one was recently painted and not because it was vacant. The resident requested it,” Liam said.

“Who was the resident?”

“Hardier.”

“The same Agent Hardier that Forest was investigating? The one from the coffee shop that shot at us?”

“That’s the one.”

“Well, that’s pretty fucking coincidental.”

“It is.” Liam pushed up from his chair.

He pulled his weapon, double checked the clip, and followed Liam through the apartment.

“What’s going on?” Holden asked, following them out of the front door.

“We may have found the mole,” he grunted.

He only hoped that the paint hadn’t been used to cover up blood.