Page 44 of Drowning in Darkness

“He used her to control him?” I whisper.

“That’s right.” He’s always protecting, even when people think the worst of him. I trust my gut that he is one of the good ones. He keeps proving it even though he ignores those facts. “But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done terrible things, so before you go painting him as a white knight, know we have enough on him to send him to death row.”

I’m sure. But did he enjoy those things, and what was the nature of them? It’s important that I get facts.

“Murder?” I check.

“Multiple.”

“Did they deserve it?”

“Mostly. But I don’t condone vigilante justice.”

But sometimes that’s the only way to nail one of these fuckers. I can’t judge, not when I’ve done the same.

FIFTEEN

JAMES

Every dangerous man has a weakness. Mine blindsided me when I stopped watching my enemies and started watching her.

Assistant Director Declan Reid is as dirty as they come. Nobody holds his family hostage when he burns Stephanie and Camryn’s planned location and collects a cool million in an offshore account for the information. He needs to meet his maker sooner rather than later. The girls are still two hours away from the pink house, which gives me a little time to figure out if anyone else is involved. Now they are limited on where they can hide while I deal with Christopher, because the coward has disappeared off the fucking grid. I need to flush him out without alerting the rest of the organization. He’s not stupid; he knows that his new target, while not written on a list of people to never touch, is still someone he shouldn’t even look at.

I shift in my chair and call my sister.

“James, tell me she’s safe.”

I’m not surprised she knows about the attempt to take her. I might be good with technology, but my sister is on another level, and no amount of FBI firewalls can stop her.

“She is.”

“And unharmed,” Hunter adds. Her brother is perfect for my sister, but annoying to me.

“She has a couple of scrapes and bruises. I had her looked over by experienced medics.” I make it sound like she fell over and got a boo-boo, not a near miss with several bullets and bruised ribs that, from experience, hurt like a bitch. Also, those medics have sadly dealt with horrific injuries with the people I send their way. They are just one of many teams I have around the country, because when you take someone’s favorite toy away, they rarely give it up without a fight. Putting them in the system will get them straight back to hell, and whatever they experienced before will pale into insignificance.

“Tell me where she is,” Hunter demands.

“Don’t be stupid,” my sister cuts in. I’ve always loved her no-filter approach. I don’t regret protecting her from the awful future that was planned out from her birth. If she hadn’t escaped, she would never have risen to become a force for good, and countless people would have suffered without her skills.

“Is she with you?” he asks.

“Absolutely not.”

Now that would be stupid for so many reasons, especially the way she makes my blood heat with one look.

“Keep it that way,” he snaps.

“Hunter,” Eleanor chastises. “He would never hurt her.”

True. But she’s not picking up on the subtext. “There are no plans for her to be with me.”

“Why isn’t she calling me?” Hunter demands.

“They’re on the move. She’ll call once they’re sure they’re safe.”

“What made her unsafe?”

The world. “Moles. I’m working on it.”