Page 157 of Deadfall

“You don’t know? How the fuck don’t you know?” My voice was deathly calm even though on the inside, I was primed to murder someone.

“We found out all of this, including Emersyn’s coordinates, with only twenty-four hours to infil—” He paused. “Seven was the only one I knew was clean—”

“Where did the information come from?”

“The driver, Angel, is Albatron’s man. He sent the coordinates of the island and gave us the information, but no name.”

“You trusted one of Albatron’s men?” I asked, incredulously. “How do you know Seven is clean? Rune? Your entire operation might be compromised—”

“I didn’t know Angel worked for Albatron until after extraction. The email specifically said Rune was clean and Seven, well, Seven is dead,” Griffin said bitterly. “So it doesn’t matter. I haven’t heard from the rest of my team yet.”

Nyx shook his head. “I’m sorry about Seven, man.”

Griffin’s lips thinned. “Thank you. My tracking chip has been back online since we arrived. It’s only a matter of time before they show up here.”

I looked at Nyx who nodded. He’d make sure they were detained upon arrival. I wasn’t about to have men I didn’t trust wandering around my house.

“How did Albatron end up with you two?” Atlas asked.

Griffin frowned and didn’t look happy with what he was about to say.

“He’s the one who extracted us.”

I stared at Griffin. “What?” I was shocked I could even get the word out.

Griffin stared at each of us in turn. “I think I should probably start at the beginning.”

He tossed back his drink. It took an hour, but Griffin told us every excruciating detail from the island. I stood frozen, locked onto every word of their ordeal. Once he finished, silence descended.

“Emersyn had a conversation with Albatron after exfil,” Griffin said. “I think you need to talk to her about it—”

The thought that Emersyn had been alone in a room with Albatron was too much. I threw the drink in my hand at the nearest wall, the sound of the glass as it shattered cut off his words, and the tension skyrocketed. No one moved as I leaned over my desk and fought to contain the violence. I looked up at Atlas and he nodded, already knowing what I was going to say.

“I’ll tell West to locate Mahoney.”

Atlas left, and Nyx crossed his arms over his chest, still leaning up against the desk with a look on his face I knew well. He was waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do.

I straightened and took a deep breath. “I’m going to have dinner with my family,” I said, my words deathly quiet and clipped. “And then we are going into the war room and figuring this shit out.”

Nyx ushered Griffin out of the room, and I watched the door shut behind them.

I was torn between wanting to be pissed off because it was his team that had a mole, and also gratitude for how he’d taken care of Emersyn on Mahoney’s island. But, Nyx was right to take him away—I needed to gather myself before I said or did something I regretted.

Truth be told, his words confirmed something that hadn’t been far from my own thoughts. I’d started to worry that one of our teams had a mole problem. It just didn’t make sense that in almost three years we hadn’t been able to reclaim Emersyn. That wasn’t Griffin’s track record, and it certainly wasn’t mine. The fact that the traffickers had always stayed one step ahead of us had irked me to no end. Now I knew why, and this mole better hope he stayed far away from here.

74

EMERSYN

“I can give you the grand tour later,” Kaelin said as she opened a bedroom door. “Right now, I just want to make sure you feel at home and—” My face must have blanked because Kaelin frowned. “What do you need? I can get Doc if—”

“No, no—” I waved away her concern. Home. “It’s just—it all feels surreal still,” I said, my voice quiet as though speaking the words would break the fragile reality that I’d found myself in. “I–I thought I’d never see him again.”

As soon as I said it, my vision blurred with more tears, and I realized deep down I didn’t think I ever expected to see my father again. Kaelin smiled kindly, but without pity. Instead, there was understanding there that put me at ease.

“No one will bother you, take as much time as you need.” She nodded at the attached bedroom. “I’ve left some clothes on the bed for you. We’ll need to do some online shopping once you feel up to it.” She winked.

I couldn’t even find a thank you around the thickness in my throat, but she didn’t seem to care. Just before she left, she turned once more, and I saw the joy written on every inch of her face.