Rising Hope by Edie James
36
“What’s your take?”Rollo asked Jack the minute the video connection booted up. Might as well get straight to it.
“This is a disaster,” Jack responded in his typical, blunt manner.
If things weren’t so serious, Rollo would have laughed. You could take the man out of the SEALs, but you couldn’t take the SEAL out of the man.
“What’s your main concern?” Rollo zeroed in still further.
Jack grunted. “Take your pick. A government agent’s apparently dead and it looks like his partner tried to kidnap your brother and Sarah and frame her for the murder. My main concern’s the fact that there’s no chatter on law enforcement channels.” He shook his head. “There’s literally nothing. No BOLOs. No below the radar requests for info on your brother or Sarah. No mention of the killing or the missing drugs. It’s disturbing.”
Fear squeezed Rollo’s throat. “No kidding.”
Emmie spoke up. “So as of now, Enzo and Sarah have the contraband in their possession, and we know that Sarah’s weapon was used to kill the agent. And they’ve got someone’s multi-million-dollar payoff of jewels.”
Jack looked grim. “That’s about right.”
She blew out a breath big enough to stir her dark bangs. “Yeowza.”
“Copy that.” Rollo squeezed the muscles at the base of his skull.
Jack arched his back and groaned. “So far, we’ve dug up a connection between Enzo’s current CO and the agent who murdered his partner, but we don’t have any solid evidence yet.”
Rollo whistled long and low. Man, he hated conspiracy stuff. Things got ugly fast when the perps hid among the good guys.
“I know.” Jack’s expression turned wary. “Gross.”
Rollo knew that look. There was something else. Something Jack wasn’t looking forward to revealing. “What?” he prodded his old friend.
Guilt tinged the man’s expression, but it moved on quickly, like the shadow from a cloud blown past the sun.
“What?” Rollo repeated.
“The DEA operative who’s working with Enzo has a past. I’ll fill in the deets later.”
“Do you think she’s involved?”
Jack shook his head. “I doubt it. She and Enzo have had the drugs, and the jewels, for hours. If she was on the take, she would have killed him by now.”
Emmie made a strangled sound and pressed a hand to her chest.
Rollo squeezed her shoulder. “Jack’s right. If she was part of the conspiracy, there’s no reason she’d have kept Enzo around this long.”
Emmie made another sound deep in her throat. “And you think running a legal clinic’s dangerous?”
“It is.” He tried not to grind his teeth. She had a part time paralegal and a private investigator on call, but mostly it was Emmie, alone, in her tiny downtown office, with all manner of angry, disturbed and often mentally ill clients stopping in.
“Anyway…” Emmie gestured at Jack on the screen. “What do you need from us?”
“Not sure.” He scratched his chin. “Ethan and Star and Angie are digging into this interagency mission, but they’ve come up cold. Same with Panetta’s location. He’s dropped off the radar.” He eyed his watch and jumped up from the desk chair, slipping behind it and clamping his hands on the high back as he leaned toward the screen. “We’re gathering for a briefing in a sec. I’ll have Enzo contact you as soon as we’re done.”
Rollo nodded. “Perfect. Meanwhile, I’ll fill in the family.”
Jack made a face. His hand inched toward the keyboard. “Good luck.”
Emmie put out her hand. “Hang on.” She caught Jack’s gaze over the video feed. “I know someone who has backchannel access to the NSA’s databases.”
Rollo’s mouth dropped open. The NSA made the CIA and the FBI look like college fraternities. Knight Tactical would have trouble breaking into the NSA terminals. Even during his time in the Pentagon, with the highest possible security clearances, he never would have been able to access NSA info.
Jack looked equally skeptical.
Emmie picked right up on that, of course. Her shoulders tightened. “Paige is former Special Forces, a no-name black ops squad buried so deep in the system no one knew it existed. She’s still got ways in. Tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll get her on it.”
Rollo almost stopped her. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but he left them unsaid. Emmie might be desperate to save her twin, but she was far from stupid. If she trusted this woman, he did, too.
Jack was staring him down, unmoving.
Rollo nodded, just the barest hint of a movement.
“Roger that,” Jack said, and turned his attention to Emmie. “We think the jewels are payment for outing cartel informants. It’s doubtful that Panetta, the agent who murdered his partner, would have enough info to offer the cartel to get that kind of payment. Sarah and my team think there are higher level people involved.”
Rollo blinked hard. “Enzo’s CO?”
“Possibly, although it’s hard to imagine him having access to that kind of info.”
“Agreed. So before Enzo and Walker turn themselves in, we need to make sure we’ve identified the players.”
“Bingo.”
Emmie opened her mouth to add something, but shouting broke out behind the closed door.
A door slammed. More shouting.
“Talk to you later,” Rollo told Jack, and switched off the computer. He rolled his eyes at Emmie and headed for the door. “Never a dull moment.”
Her eyes were wide, but she grinned back. “Not hardly.”
He swung the door open, only to be assaulted by chaos. The front door banged shut, only to swing wide a second later.
Dante stormed in, dragging a man by the collar. Teo followed. Noah was right behind them.
Rollo’s heart stuttered. He looked for Wren. His daughter was in the kitchen doorway, sandwiched between Viv and Alyssa.
His father stood halfway between the women and the doorway, his old service revolver in hand.
“Found him trying to break into Emmie’s car,” Teo announced.
“I wasn’t breaking in,” the guy protested, but no one was listening.
Rollo squinted at him. He looked familiar. A shaggy mop of streaky blond hair so sun-faded the lightest parts were bleached white, worn jeans and flip flops on his permanently tanned feet.
What kind of car thief wore flip flops?
The haze was clearing, the sense of familiarity growing even stronger. It was like having a word lost between his brain and his tongue. He knew what it was, he just couldn’t—
Emmie lunged past him, heading straight for the guy.
“Emmie, get back!” Noah ordered.
Rollo resisted the urge to take his eyes off the intruder. Noah would make sure she didn’t get any closer.
But her clear voice rang out, solving the puzzle. “Skeet Archer? Why are you trying to steal my car?”