Page 53 of Blake

He waited for the door to close before he turned back to the two men watching him. “Where’s Reid?”

Neither man spoke for a second and Blake could feel Decker profiling him. “He went to meet a friend for a drink. Apparently, the guy wanted a favour. Why?”

“No reason,” Blake hedged knowing that he wasn’t fooling anyone with his reply.

“Any thoughts about Sally Nixon?” Decker asked.

Blake was surprised that he let the bullshit he was feeding them slide. “Somebody didn’t want us talking to her about Sana is my guess, which tells us we’re on the right path.”

Waggs nodded. “Agreed.”

“Anything from the employees?”

“A few rumours about financial problems but nothing that any other company doesn’t deal with. One interesting thing though. One of the older lab assistants that used to work with Robert Paxton before he hung up his lab coat and became a suit, said that before Robert and Henrietta got engaged there was some big hoo-ha about her leaving another man at the altar. Care to guess who it was?” Waggs raised his eyebrows at Blake.

“Clark Baker by any chance?”

“Bingo! Apparently, it was a big society wedding, but Henrietta met Robert and called it off just weeks before. From what I can tell there was a huge fallout from it.”

“Which begs the question. How did he end up on the board of Sana?” Decker asked.

“Can you do some more digging on that angle? I have to make a call.” Blake stood and wanting complete privacy, walked to the car and waited impatiently for the call to connect and Jack to pick up.

“Good of you to call.”

Blake ignored the sarcasm from his boss. “I need an update on the other two targets.”

He heard Jack sigh and had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what his boss had to say.

“I was going to call you after I got off the phone with Will. Gunner has requested leave for his aunt’s funeral which has been confirmed as genuine by Will, but it means he’s away for two days at least as it’s happening on the Isle of Jersey. Mitch has gone completely dark. He left here last night after training and hasn’t been located this morning. We’ve tried his cell and tracker, but both are switched off.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic. So the three men suspected of being the mole are all unaccounted for at this point.”

“Where’s Reid?”

“He went to visit a friend which is convenient because Pax and I were just shot at on the highway and I don’t think it has anything to do with this case.”

“Things are moving fast and whoever it is feels cornered,” Jack mused aloud.

“I agree, but who is it? Can you ask Will to check the CCTV on the I-10 close to Loma Linda? Also have him see if he can track Reid’s movements for the past few hours?”

“You really think it’s Reid?” Jack asked sounding deflated.

“I’m hard pushed to believe it’s any of them. I just can’t reconcile it with the men I know. But the fact is, we know it is one of them. With Reid’s sister being so sick he’s a prime target.”

“I fucking hate this,” Jack growled.

“Me too and I hate lying to Pax.”

Silence met his words on the other end of the phone. “This can’t get out until it’s confirmed and then only to those that I deem necessary. Your girlfriend is not necessary, and might I remind you, she works for Zenobi.”

Blake clenched his jaw. “No reminder necessary. I’ll do my job and keep my secrets and for the record, Jack, if you ever infer that my loyalty is in question again then you can shove your job up your ass.” With that he hung up knowing that if he stayed on the line any longer, he would say something he would regret to a man he respected.

Blake punched the steering wheel hard letting his frustration course through him. He was angry at Jack for questioning him and yet here he was questioning Reid, Mitch, and Gunner. Three fine men with impeccable records of service to their countries and Eidolon. He was a hypocrite—to them as well as Grace now.

His eyes moved to the entrance of the street and he watched through the shattered glass of the still intact windshield as Reid’s truck pulled up in front of him. Blake watched Reid exit the vehicle and glance in his direction before giving the glass a hard stare. Blake tried to read the look on his face, but it was almost impossible. Reid, like the rest of the team, was a master at controlling his emotions.

Blake was unsure what to do. Did he confront his friend or wait for the call from Will? Assessing a threat was one of his skills and yet he was compromised in this instance by the fact he didn’t want Reid to be a threat.