Knocked Down
PAVAD: FBI
Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
Calle J. Brookes
Copyright © 2015 Calle J. Brookes
Cover by CJ Brookes
All rights reserved.
The Lost River Lit Publishing, LLC name and imprint are the sole properties of independent publishers Calle J. Brookes and C.B. Brookes. They cannot be reproduced or used in any manner; nor can any of their publications or designs be used without expressed written permission.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, or locations, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For my very own hero. Thank you for always believing in me.
For our daughter, may you someday follow your own dreams.
Other Titles by Calle J. Brookes
Paranormal
Dardanos, Co. Series
The Blood King
Awakening the Demon’s Queen
The Healer’s Heart
Once Wolf Bitten
Live or Die
The Seer’s Strength
The Warrior’s Woman
The Wolf’s Redemption
A Warrior’s Quest
The Wolf God & His Mate
Out of the Darkness
Warrior Blind
The Witch
Dardanos, Co:
The Adrastos Series
The Outcast
The Forlorn
Romantic Suspense
PAVAD: FBI Series
Beginning
Waiting
Watching
Wanting
Second Chances
Hunting
Running
Redeeming
Revealing
Stalking
Suspense/Mystery
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001
“Knocked Out”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
Coming Soon
Ghosting
Balance of the Worlds
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003
“Knocked Around”
PAVAD: FBI
Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
Calle J. Brookes
Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.
Prologue
When Sebastian Lorcan unlocked the door to the penthouse he shared with his wife and daughter the last thing he expected to see was three beautiful women sprawled out around his living room in extremely strange positions.
“Don’t the two of you get enough of me at PAVAD?” The Prevention & Analysis of Violent Acts Division of the FBI sucked enough of his time from his family. And he knew it was the same for the two women currently curled up next to his wife on the couch.
Still, it warmed him to see how comfortable his wife was with the other two women. Carrie’s mild autism prevented her from being too at ease with people in her space. Even these two, some of the closest members of her family.
“Hey, boss. You’re interrupting some serious TV time.” The woman who spoke was dark-haired and dark-eyed—and practically upside down on his favorite black leather couch. She rolled lightly and settled in a more upright position. “Your opinion? Is it logical to kill a vampire with a chair leg? In that same position?”
He was used to Paige’s weird conversational habits but it still took him a moment to figure out what she meant. “Charmed? Really? Don’t the three of you get enough of kicking bad-guy ass at work?”
His sister-in-law Alessandra, wife of his brother Seth, snorted delicately. “Not exactly like these three. Of course, there’s a good argument that the kind of monsters we deal with are demons, too.”
“No. Not demons. Just pure evil.” And Sebastian knew they all knew it, too. Each one of them had faced their own share of demons over the last few years.
But they had triumphed. And that was what mattered the most. “Where’s Maddie?”
His wife smiled. “She’s sleeping. The antibiotics are working, I think. She’s been fever-free for the last two hours.”
Some of his worry lifted. There was only so much a father could handle when his child was ill. He leaned down—over Al—and kissed Carrie.
He’d missed seeing her at the office. There times together were far too precious, as it was. When they had the opportunity to be off work together, he took it. But it wasn’t possible with Maddie sick.
After the baby was born he and Carrie had discussed their family’s needs with Ed Dennis, head of PAVAD, and Hellbrook, head of the Complex Crimes Unit where both Sebastian and Carrie worked. A permanent office area near the CCU had been arranged for Carrie. She was out of the field on a mostly permanent basis, but still oversaw all of CCU Team One’s cyber and computer needs. There had been several times when she’d worked from their home office when needed as well.
It had been that, or she was set on quitting the FBI and focusing on software development. But the Bureau hadn’t wanted to lose her skills, so this compromise had been made.
She was home on a regular evening basis—but unfortunately he was not.
Which was why he was a little bit put out to see Al and Paige. They were so interfering with his plans…
“Go. Both of you. I want some alone time with my wife. Don’t you have husbands waiting on you? Paige, I saw yours eating a newbie special agent for lunch earlier. He should be nice and ready for you when you get home.” Both women, agents on his team in the CCU, had married within the last six months. And they were just as limited in their times with their husbands as he was with his wife. He just wanted the two of them gone—as quickly as possible.
“I really wish people would get it. Mick only eats special agents who deserve it. But I do need to be going. Simon has a basketball game tonight. I told him I’d be there.”
“You’re my ride, little sister. Let’s get going.” Al was just as eager to go as Paige and Sebastian smiled inside thinking about the why. “We’re looking at a house this evening. And from the pictures online this might be a good one.”
His brother was batshit crazy over Al, and the baby she was currently carrying. Not that anyone could tell by looking at his sister-in-law. It was still in the early stages. He remembered how he’d felt looking at Carrie just after they’d found out about Maddie. Now Seth, the wildest one of his siblings, was searching real estate listings and talking about nurseries.
Life was funny like that.
One minute you’re being screwed by the world, and the next you’ve found your everything.
Five minutes later both of his sisters-in-law—Paige and Carrie were foster sisters—were out of his hair and he had his face buried in the fire that was his wife’s. “I thought they’d never leave.”
“You’ve only been home eight minutes.”
“It seems like they were here forever.”
“Rough day? I thought it was just meetings.”
“It was. Financial ones. I hate numbers. That’s Seth’s gig, not mine. And we had to review some old cases with the money crunchers. Including the Collingsworth-Lowenstern case. Remember that one?” He wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her over the top of him. He made sure to do it slowly. Even after the year plus they’d been married, Carrie didn’t like sudden movements. She lay her head on his shoulder and just rested there against him.
She fit perfectly. She always had.
“How could I forget? It was obvious from day one that you hated working with me. Then.”
“Hated? Strong word for how I felt. Horny. Heated. Turned on
and fighting it. Those are better words.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
“No? Let’s think about it then…you and I were…”
“Called into Ed Dennis’s office. I’d never been in there before…”
Chapter One
Two Years Earlier
Carrie Sparks struggled to force herself not to rock back and forth while waiting for the elevator to make its ascent. Forced herself not to look at the man sharing the three-and-a-half by three-and-a-half foot elevator with her. He was just so big, so strong…so cold and terrifying.
It was hard to ignore him. Sebastian Lorcan looked like a statue or airbrushed or something. It wasn’t right that a man like him look like that. He hated her. She’d known that since the moment they met just over a week ago. And that made her typical nerves so much worse.
What had happened? Why would Ed Dennis have called her in so early on her day off? What was going on? Had something happened?
“You can stop worrying. I’m not going to swallow you whole.” He said it without any emotion in his tone at all. That made it all that much worse for her.
Of course he had to know that. He was a criminal profiler, after all. And the profilers she knew well all had the ability to see right inside her.
Did he?
“I know that. And I’m not worried.” She thought for a moment. “Sir.”
“Are you always so formal?”
“What do you mean? It’s protocol.”
“It is, isn’t it?” He looked at her with those eyes of his. They had to be contacts, didn’t they? People didn’t really have eyes the color of her cat’s. That was just too weird. “And you always follow the rules, don’t you?”
Was he trying to trick her somehow? Of course she did—it was the job. Wasn’t it? “I follow policies and protocols outlined by Director Dennis. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. Why wouldn’t you?”
***
Sebastian Lorcan didn’t know why he was needling the woman. And she wasn’t much more than a girl, was she? She had to be a decade younger than he was. Young, intelligent, and gorgeous. He’d always liked redheads.
She was absolutely stunning when one looked at her. Long red hair that had a tendency to curl, the eyes that she usually hid behind tinted glasses were the color of the finest whiskey he’d ever seen.
And her body—it was absolutely perfect and curved in ways that a man’s hands itched to touch. She’d crept into his dreams a few times since he’d met her a week ago.
The elevator opened and he waited while she awkwardly maneuvered her crutches. She’d been injured on a previous case when an agent had attacked her. He’d arrived at PAVAD just in time to help on the tail end of that case.
From what he’d heard, she’d been knocked pretty hard. She’d been forced to take some time off, but as far as he knew this was her first day back.
He certainly hadn’t seen her around the building. He knew himself well enough to admit he’d looked. Sebastian wondered at her team leader’s reasoning. Why would he let her out in the field at all?
Sebastian didn’t understand it.
He followed her into the director’s office, past the assistant that was everywhere the director was. Agent Len spoke briefly with Sparks, and he listened to the concern the other woman had for the redhead.
People cared a great deal about this young woman. Did she realize that? Was that going to be a problem eventually?
Sebastian came from the school of thought that agents shouldn’t become friends, that it just made them vulnerable in the field.
But Sparks’ team worked extremely well together. And two members of that team had become far more than just friends during the case in which this girl had been injured.
He didn’t know how he felt about that…yet. He was reserving judgment on the CCU, and all of PAVAD, until he had more time to settle in. Dennis had given him three months. If he didn’t like the way things were done, he could transfer out, no harm-no foul. Sebastian was taking those months.
The CCU was a life changing appointment, after all. Sebastian had learned why Hellbrook was a Bureau-legend. Even if he didn’t understand the man.
This woman was considered Hellbrook’s pet around the St. Louis FBI, and the term was often used derogatorily.
Sebastian understood that. She was young, and untried, and assigned to the best unit in the nation. More than that, from the rumors he’d heard, she’d been headhunted by Hellbrook before she’d left the Academy.
People were bound to be jealous and put out by that. And Hellbrook didn’t help matters by almost always being seen with her by his side. If it hadn’t been for Hellbrook’s obvious relationship with Georgia Dennis, the director’s only daughter, he’d have bet the rumors would have been much worse.
The girl was struggling with the door to the Director’s office, and Sebastian reached around her. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve got it.”
“How long are you on the crutches?” He could still see the faint bruising on her cheek, and on her arm. She’d been pushed off a cliff, if he remembered correctly.
Fury was hard for him to tamp down. How could anyone look at her and want to hurt her? He didn’t understand it at all.
“Eight more weeks, three days. But I’m still able to work, to work.”
The instant he heard the repetition he knew she was getting upset. With him? Why? He hadn’t meant to upset her. He understood what the repetition meant; he’d been told shortly after they met that Carrie Sparks was on the autistic spectrum and often had difficulty expressing herself verbally. Or would start to repeat things when anxious or upset.
Another reason why people viewed her more different than the other agents around this place.
He’d found her fascinating since the moment he’d first laid eyes on her.
He’d always had a thing for redheads. If he was any other kind of man…
Chapter Two
He did make her nervous, and Carrie wouldn’t deny it—especially to herself. The other man in the room also made her nervous, but she was starting to understand him. Ed Dennis looked all terrifying, and he had a reputation to match, but the head of this new Prevention & Analysis of Violent Acts Division—PAVAD, for short—was actually just an introvert.
A very powerful, dedicated, and intense introvert, but he wasn’t as emotionally cold as people once thought him.
Still, it made her extremely anxious to be called into his office for the first time in her career. “Director Dennis, sir.”
She was thrilled that she didn’t stutter—or repeat—anything even a single time.
“Agent Sparks.” He stood and held out a hand to her to assist her sitting. “How are you, my dear?”
“I’m recovering, sir. Out of the field for a few weeks, though. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
“Not at all. In fact, if you choose to, you can take more time off to rest. I understand if you don’t want to, though. I’d go crazy at home, myself.” He looked at her, with dark eyes that seemed to understand everything about her.
“No, sir. My place is here with the CCU.”
“Then I’ll tell you why I had you brought in today. Agent Lorcan, you as well. I have a case that is right up your alley, Agent Sparks.”
“Sir?”
“A colleague of mine in Portland conferenced with me this morning. He’s with Cyber. They are having a rash of internet and personal identity cases that they think are related. They need our best to determine if the two cases are connected, and what they mean. There’s been some chatter, I guess you’d call it, that the two may have terroristic ties.”
Lead formed in Carrie’s stomach at the ramifications if the chatter was true. “Internet chatter?”
“That’s what Collingsworth believes. I need someone to go and determine if the two are related, and if they meet CCU, and PAVAD, parameters. That is going to be your task, Agent Lorcan.”
“Yes, si
r.” Lorcan still stood, just behind Carrie’s shoulder. He made her nervous back there, looming.
“I’m sending you first. And some agents will meet you as soon as they are all available, if needed. Your team, Agent Lorcan. If you’re ready to take it. Weed out what you don’t want. I’m only waiting for Paige Daviess and Alessandra Brockman to finish their current deposition this afternoon.”
“Of course.”
“Then have Agent Len make the travel arrangements on your way out. I’ll have Collingsworth meet you when you arrive. Move quickly on this, but quietly. I don’t need to tell either of you the consequences of this, if it’s true.”
Chapter Three
The girl did not fly well, at all. But that didn’t surprise Lorcan. He didn’t fly so well himself. Add in the fact that she was drumming her fingers against the arm of her chair for the entire flight, and he was about to go insane.
The crutches, cast, and bruises had garnered her some attention when they’d boarded first class, and that had obviously bothered her.
Hell, it bothered him. She was still hurting, and he could see it. If he had the man who hurt her in front of him again, he didn’t know what he’d do. Probably break both the guy’s legs. That would be fitting, wouldn’t it?
Lorcan had heard that it wasn’t all that unusual for CCU cases to turn a bit dangerous. He wasn’t so sure how he felt about that.
Half her team had faced injury during the same case. Was that par for the course? Would his own team face the same?
He knew the names of the nine agents who would be sent to Portland if needed, but not who they were. From what the director had told him previously they were being pulled from other units in the St. Louis field office that were being disbanded.