He nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like Rafe. But it still doesn’t give us anything to go on. Rafe is a ghost at the best of times. We released him a week ago. Hell, by now, he would have run off to…Thailand, and none of us would know it!”
“Thailand?” I said, giving him a dirty look.
“You know what I mean. He’s gone. There’s no finding him until he wants to be found.”
“Yes, but he took a big risk by showing up at Leah’s place. He didn’t have to do that.”
“He only showed up there because Leah is connected to Tahlia. He was protecting his guys,” Cash said appeasingly.
“Then maybe they’ve heard from him!”
He shook his head, pushing up from his seat. “Rae, I’ve talked to Johnny. He hasn’t heard shit, and he’s not in the position to help us find a missing man. He’s taking care of Tahlia and trying to figure out his own clusterfuck with Rafe. Face it, this falls at our feet. There is no one to help us this time around, and from where I stand, I can’t see a single fucking way to find FNG.”
I paced the room some more, needing to admit something to Cash. “I…have something to tell you.”
“Christ, you always do,” he sighed. “What is it this time?”
“When Johnny was on the run, he asked me to do something for him.”
Cash’s eyes narrowed on me. “Okay. And what was that?”
“He asked me to break into the evidence locker at Tahlia’s work and dig through it for information on FNG.” Cash’s eyes turned hard the more I tried to explain. “He was sure there would be something in there that would prove FNG wasn’t in the truck,” I rushed on.
“And did you find anything?”
“No,” I grumbled. “I mean, I went through the information with Dash—”
“Fuck!” he shouted, turning his back to me. “You involved Dash in this?”
“I needed help with the crime scene.”
He spun and pointed his finger at me. “You never need Dash’s help.”
“Well, I only had so much time to go through the evidence. He’s not the person I want to work with ninety-nine percent of the time, but I had no choice.”
“You broke into an evidence locker,” he spat. “You committed a crime, and then you knowingly involved another member of the team in that crime.”
“Hey, he didn’t argue too much about it.”
Cash took a deep breath and rubbed Betty in his pocket. We all knew that’s what he did when he got pissed. It was only a matter of time before I walked in here that he would need the soothing strength of Betty.
“Alright, so you didn’t find anything on FNG when you broke into the evidence locker. I’m assuming you returned it all.”
“Of course.”
“And since you haven’t been hauled off yet by the police, and no one has called me, I can only assume you got away with it for the time being.”
I opened my mouth to say something reassuring when the door burst open and Dash stared at Cash with wide eyes. “He’s been spotted.”
Cash immediately stiffened and stormed around his desk. “Where?”
“The private airfield. Our contact says he’s seventy percent sure it’s him.”
Cash snatched the phone off the cradle and switched to the intercom. His voice boomed throughout the building. “Code Black. Rolling out in five.”
He repeated the message, but I was already out the door, taking the stairs down to the gear room. Everyone else rushed in, the same as me, grabbing their gear and jumping into a vehicle. I was unfortunate enough to be stuck with Dash and Fox, which was the norm, but still not preferable.
“Sit-rep!” Fox barked, though he wasn’t in charge.
“FNG was spotted at the airfield,” Dash confirmed.
I took the underground tunnel to the road, hitting the gas as soon as we were on the outskirts of town. Dust kicked up around us as one minivan after another flew down the road. Luckily, the police were now aware of who we were, so we had more leeway in a situation like this.
“Man, I knew he was alive,” Fox grinned. “Didn’t I tell you he was alive?”
“Not the time,” Dash reminded him.
“I mean, damn, I’m good!”
“Fox,” I snapped.
“Right, right,” he nodded, still grinning at us. He was silent for a whole two seconds before he started in again. “I’m just saying, I called it! From the start, I was the one that said he faked his death. This has to do with Rafe, doesn’t it?”
I rolled my eyes and he started whooping.
“I fucking knew it! So, FNG is working for Rafe.”
“We don’t know that he’s working for Rafe,” I said grudgingly. “Honestly, I think that’s the most absurd notion out of any of this. Remember, FNG was with us when we attacked Rafe’s secret lair in Colorado. If he was really working with Rafe, he would have warned him.”
“That’s true,” Dash said.
“It’s more likely that Rafe took FNG. The footprints around the truck the night of the explosion suggest that FNG was standing still. If anything, he was knocked unconscious and taken. There’s no indication that he went anywhere willingly.”
Fox thought about that for a moment. “Alright, I concede that FNG was kidnapped, which is really shitty considering his training, but I was still right about him being alive.”
I rolled my eyes as Fox leaned over with the comm set and started getting me set up. I lifted my arm, allowing him to thread the wire around my outfit. Then he grabbed the bullet-proof vest and wound it around my body, tucking the wires out of the way.
“Comm check,” I said, giving the thumbs up when I read them loud and clear through the earpiece.
“Let’s get you strapped in,” Fox grinned, holding up the thigh holster.
“Yeah, Anna’s gonna love this,” I muttered under my breath, lifting my thigh as Fox practically sat in my lap.
“No worries, my kickass friend. My sweet Anna knows I would never stray from her sweet lips.”
I grimaced in disgust. “Can you not spew that crap when you’re sitting so close to me? I might have gotten that in my mouth.”
“You too will fall to the one thing no human can resist. Love,” he said whimsically. He finished strapping the holster on and sat back in his seat.
“I can resist just fine,” I said as I continued adjusting all my gear.
Dash handed me a gun over the seat and I slid it into the holster, securing it before taking the second one he held out to me.
“Yes, but how long before you find yourself sitting alone at the bar, watching all your friends go home with the one person they can’t live without? And you’ll wish you had someone—maybe Duke—to go home with.”
“Duke? Why would you assume I would want to go home with Duke?”
Dash laughed in the back and Fox stared at me for a full minute before bursting into a fit of laughter and tears. “Oh, you’re killing me, Rae. Really, I thought a bad batch of shawarma might be the thing that ended it all, but this…holy crap.”
He wiped the tears from his face, still shaking his head as he chuckled. I didn’t see what was so funny. Why did everyone assume I would end up with Duke? He was just another man I had to put in his place.