Burning (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense Book 11) Page 14

  Now was just as good a time as any, wasn’t it?

  She told herself it was because of the files she wanted to call him. And nothing more. That’s all it was. The files…and the fact that the name on all six of the files in question was one she would not have expected. And ones she knew weren’t true—because the man in question had not been back from medical leave on the dates in question.

  She knew, because they had been on medical leave at approximately the same time—and had returned to work the same week. Long after the files had been time stamped.

  What was Eric doing? Had someone forged his signature to the files?

  Chapter 40

  Cody stared at the screen in front of her. It wasn’t an aberration. Eric Brady’s name was written on the original documents in her files, but on the scanned documents in the PAVAD mainframe it was Marianna’s name listed. Why?

  Someone knocked on her door, and she looked up. Her breath caught when she saw who was standing there. “Eric? What can I do for you?”

  “I just heard what happened and I was worried.” He stepped inside.

  Cody fought the urge to step back. This was Eric. They had been friends for almost five years, hadn’t they? They’d relocated from Indianapolis together.

  He’d hauled half of her stuff in his truck on the drive down.

  No. It wasn’t Eric.

  “I’m fine.” She looked away from him and toward her phone. “Hang on a moment, won’t you? I need to actually text someone about a file before I forget.”

  “Sure.” He leaned against her desk, his hands going to the top of her files. Cody grabbed the first one. He stepped back and held his hands up. “Sorry.”

  “No, I am. Those are files you aren’t cleared to see. You know how it goes around here.”

  She was wrong about him. She knew she was. Wasn’t she? “Was there anything else you needed?”

  His expression tightened. “I need…”

  He leaned around her and looked at her screen. Where she had the signature on one of the files blown up across her monitor.

  His. “What are you looking at? This file is from months ago.”

  “Just auditing, per the director’s orders. Eric, I do need to finish this soon. I’m a day behind already.” She waved her hand at the stacks on her desk.

  He moved, faster than she expected. Then his fingers were wrapped around her arm. “They’re looking for me, aren’t they?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I see what you’re doing. I know Sin Lorcan’s here looking for someone selling us out. I got a tip-off last night.”

  “About what? What are you saying, Eric? If you’re in some kind of trouble…” She wasn’t going to be able to get past him unless he allowed it, was she?

  She could scream, but she’d better be absolutely certain he was the guy Sin was after first. And wasn’t just her panicking over what had happened the day before.

  Her weapon was locked away somewhere in Internal Affairs, and she’d probably never get that one back.

  “I didn’t mean to do it. I just needed the money. You have to keep Sammy out of it. You have to promise.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  “Yes, you do.” He had a wild, panicked look in his brown eyes unlike any she’d ever seen before. His fingers tightened on her arm. “Come on. We’re getting out of here. Then I am going to drive away. Move out of state. Out of the country maybe. But Sammy needs to stay out of this. Promise you’ll make that Lorcan guy understand that. I won’t hurt you and I’ll let you go as soon as we get outside. I didn’t mean this to happen, Cody. I swear.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  She wasn’t seriously being kidnapped by a guy she’d considered a friend, was she?

  Did he honestly expect to just walk out of PAVAD? With her?

  ***

  “It’s Brady.” Sin looked at Dennis and the files spread between them. “Jaspreet found the financial connections we need.”

  “He’s one of Agent Cody’s, isn’t he? This is going to prove difficult for her, I’m afraid.”

  Sin winced. He hadn’t thought about that. “She won’t be in until three.”

  “She’s in now. I saw her in Marianna’s office an hour ago. She’s holding up?”

  “Apparently.” He’d thought she’d stay home and take it easy. Sin fought the urge to storm downstairs and just look at her. Make sure she was in one damned piece. Whole, safe, and beautiful.

  They had a lot to work out between them, didn’t they?

  He was actually looking forward to it. His brothers, that damned billionaire—who may or may not have been less annoying than he thought, and the two kids between them.

  “I want the permanent position. But I’ll need a few months to get things in order first. After we find the traitor.” He’d take a few months, spend that time with Tyler. Merrick and Lucy. That sounded good, didn’t it?

  “We’ll talk then. Sin, take this in the friendly spirit that it’s meant. Get your ass downstairs and find your girl. PAVAD…PAVAD can wait for once. I can promise you that.”

  Sin looked at the director for a moment. The man was serious, wasn’t he?

  “Second chances are rare. Take yours. Everything else…just minor details.”

  Sin stood. Pulled his phone from his pocket. He’d find out exactly where in the building she was, and then he’d take the older man’s advice.

  Chapter 41

  Cody answered on the second ring. But it wasn’t what Sin expected to hear. “I need help! Hurry! It’s Eric who’s tampering—“

  “I’m coming for you!” Sin shoved the phone in his pocket, then hit the panic alarm on Ed Dennis’s desk phone. It locked all the doors in the building for three minutes. It was a security precaution that only he, Dennis, Hellbrook, Len and possibly Fin McLaughlin knew about. Designed to keep shit from getting out and probably thoroughly illegal by fire code standards.

  He looked at Dennis. “Brady’s got her.”

  “Go!”

  Sin didn’t need permission—he was already half out the door and running toward the stairs. He was getting to her—no matter what.

  He shoved people out of his way on the stairs, not caring who or how. Dennis was behind him, and that was all the incentive anyone reluctant seemed to need.

  That, plus six-and-a-half feet of angry man would do it.

  Forensics was too damned far from the director’s office for his liking.

  When he barged through the reinforced glass doors of the lab people were gathering. Like they sensed something was happening, though the alarm he’d set off was a silent one. Locked doors were hard to miss. He’d needed his security card to even get in to the lab itself.

  Merrick’s office was the last one in her hallway. He nearly plowed over Ally Reynolds. Sin didn’t care.

  Dennis and a few others were on his tail. Sin didn’t look back, just knew they were there.

  Her door was locked. He called her name. She screamed his.

  He yanked his security credentials off his neck and slid the key in the electronic lock. He was high enough up the chain that there wasn’t a locked door he couldn’t unlock.

  ***

  She’d never seen anything more welcoming than Sin bursting through her door, with war and fire in his eyes. He grabbed Eric around one arm and almost threw the other man out the door. Away from her.

  Eric cursed.

  Cody looked through the door at the agents congregating. The director was standing with his foot on Eric’s throat. Eric wasn’t stupid enough to even try to move.

  The director, of all people. Fin McLaughlin was there, concern on his face. “Anyone care to tell me what’s going on?”

  Cody shook her head, then looked at Sin. “Sin can.”

  Mick Brockman shoved his way to her door. “Lorcan?”

  “Eric Brady has been tampering with evidence,” the director said.

  “He wanted me to interfere on his behalf. Wh
en I told him no, he refused to leave my office.” She tried to keep the tremor out of her voice, but it was hard.

  She wouldn’t let herself look like a weak idiot. Not after everything that had happened to her already.

  She wouldn’t.

  Sin took the choice out of her hands. He wrapped his around her waist and pulled her against his chest. “It’s over. Brockman…take that son-of-a-bitch out of here.”

  Mick did exactly as Sin told, yanking Eric off the floor. Cody almost felt sorry for him, after she saw the expression in the director’s eyes.

  Chapter 42

  Sin yanked her against him. What had she been thinking? “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “What choice did I have? I know what he wanted and he wasn’t going to get it.” But she clung to him in return. Sin just held her, ignoring everyone else around them. His eyes met Dennis’s. The older man nodded, then pulled Merrick’s door closed behind him, leaving them alone. And locked in.

  “What did he want?”

  “Me to help him, tell him that what he’d done was ok. But it wasn’t.”

  No, but Eric had been her friend. And he knew it. “I’m sorry. I know you were friends.”

  “No. Apparently we never were. Not if he could do that to me, to Payton and Mari, all the others. Sam, dear god, what is this going to do to her? He loved her, we all knew that. And she cared a great deal for him.”

  Eric’s ex-wife seemed like a nice woman, and Sin felt a rush of sympathy for the shock this had been to her.

  It wouldn’t be easy for her. Thank God she and Brady hadn’t had any children, at least.

  “Did he hurt you?” She’d been alone with a traitor, and he hadn’t known it. A desperate man—and desperate people did desperate things. “You shouldn’t have confronted him alone.”

  “I didn’t. He came to me. And he locked the door.” She tried to pull away. Sin wouldn’t let her.

  He wasn’t ready to, not just yet. “Why? What was it he said?”

  “He wanted me to speak to you. To explain he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” Her words were muffled against his shirt. Her arms were around his waist. And she tremble. “And then he wouldn’t let me leave. I don’t know what he was wanting. I don’t even know how he knew you were involved. Or me.”

  Brady had confessed everything to her, hadn’t he? She’d have to be debriefed and everything—on top of what would happen with I.A. over the Terry York shooting the day before.

  “I don’t know, either.”

  But Brady had still been alone with her for too long.

  He could have killed her.

  Sin’s arms tightened around her. Now that they were alone he wanted to show her how he hurt. What she meant to him.

  He wouldn’t have touched his brother’s ex-wife if he hadn’t cared so much about her that all the shit from their past seemed insignificant now. But how in the hell was he supposed to put that into words?

  He’d never been that great communicating how he felt with women. Not the ones that mattered to him, anyway.

  “Merrick, god.”

  “Just stand still for a moment, will you?” Her arms were just as tight around him as his were hers. For a moment, the unresolved issues between them didn’t matter one bit.

  What mattered was that she was safe and they were right there together.

  Until someone barged through the door just as Sin was ready to kiss her again. Apparently the director’s security lock had released every room in the building. Including her office. Dammit.

  He jerked back, though he kept his arms tight around her waist.

  Not that it mattered—his sister-in-law stood there in the door.

  Al had a worried expression on her beautiful face. Worried, followed by calculating when she took in how close they stood.

  Merrick stepped away from him with a guilty look in her own eyes. The guilt pissed him off, but he bit it back.

  For now.

  Al hugged her. “It’s going all around PAVAD that Eric tried to hurt you and got arrested. Are you ok?”

  “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me, but he did get arrested. What are people saying happened?”

  “Not much. Just that Eric was dragged into an interrogation room—in handcuffs—by Mick and Ed Dennis. And that they are waiting for Sin. But no one knew where he was. I had an inkling he’d be in here. You’d probably better get going.”

  Al looked at him and he could see the speculation. His sister-in-law was too damned observant at times, wasn’t she?

  Probably too good for someone like his brother Seth. “Don’t leave her alone, Alessandra. And keep your weapon on you. Stay with her until I get back. Whenever that is. If that changes I’ll text you.”

  “Of course.” Al sank into the chair next to Merrick’s desk. “Just consider me her new best friend. I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

  “Thank you.” Sin looked at Merrick again. She nodded. Her composure was returning. She could handle herself, couldn’t she?

  He wasn’t so damned sure he wanted her handling things by herself anymore.

  But he didn’t have a fucking clue what that meant. For either of them.

  And he had questions for Brady that needed answers.

  He wanted to stay with Merrick, to scoop her up and take her home. Far away from PAVAD to that damned smart house that had every safety function imaginable—and some he doubted were even on the market yet—and keep her safe and protected.

  He chose PAVAD instead.

  Chapter 43

  Sin looked at Eric Brady and fought every instinct he had to tear the guy in half. Maybe quarters.

  He hadn’t missed the frightened look in Merrick’s eyes when she’d been trapped in her own office.

  She hadn’t had her weapon on her—thanks to yesterday’s shooting—and Brady was taller, stronger, and more desperate.

  And there was only one exit in Merrick’s office.

  “Talk. Tell me all you know. Or I’ll simply rip you in half.”

  There was a touch of surprise in Dennis’s eyes but the director said nothing.

  Sin didn’t care.

  This guy had thought nothing of trapping Merrick.

  He slammed his fist down on the table. Brady jumped. “Now!”

  Maybe not the most effective interrogation technique but it was better than what he wanted to do.

  He always wanted to hurt and kill when those he cared about were threatened.

  But this? This was more than he expected.

  “Brady, why did you ask Agent Cody to intervene with Agent Lorcan and Director Dennis?” Mick Brockman asked, in a calm, almost conciliatory tone.

  Brady stared at the men around him. He’d come across as a good guy. And he’d thrown his life away because of stupidity. Did the guy realize that? “She considered you a friend.”

  “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

  “You had your hands on her when I unlocked the door. You had her trapped. You were shaking her. And she was pushing you away.” Sin stood after he said it. If he sat there looking at Brady any longer he was going to lose every bit of control.

  He’d known it would be like this if he ever gave in to what he felt for her. It would be an all-consuming burn.

  Merrick had always made him burn, and she aroused his protective instincts so much he was ready to do serious damage to someone who had hurt her. “Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. By the time I reach zero, you’re going to talk. Fifteen, fourteen. Ten.”

  Mick stood as well. Sin knew what they looked like. They were both over six and a half foot tall. And Mick was large with it. Brady was just over six-foot and a hell of a lot less in shape.

  He and Mick were probably pretty damned intimidating, even without the reputations they possessed.

  Dennis had to be the cool head of reason, and everyone knew how protective he was of the division. Forensics, in particular. “Five.”

  “Brady, I think you better take this chance for what it is.” Dennis finally
spoke. “Treason is a very serious charge.”

  The guy paled. “It wasn’t treason. It wasn’t.”

  “If you give us everything you have, we may be able to bargain it down to just tampering with evidence. You’ll spend a few years in minimum security. But you’ll get out.” Dennis sank in to the chair. “Why did you do it, Eric? You have friends in PAVAD. You’ve been to my house. You were an usher at Sin’s brother’s wedding recently. Mick’s sister. We considered you a friend, too. Tell us. What made you get involved with whatever this is?”

  “Who told you what to alter?” Sin wasn’t stupid. Brady wasn’t the mastermind behind this attack on PAVAD. Of that he was one hundred percent certain. Brady hadn’t been in PAVAD when the first incident occurred.

  No. Someone had gotten to him, and that was the person Sin wanted. “A name.”

  Brady looked at him. “I wasn’t going to hurt Cody. I swear.”

  “You had your hands on her. She’ll probably have bruises. You had her trapped. Trapped by a man she’d worked with. A man she trusted. Did you think what that would do to her? Especially after yesterday?” Sin struggled. He honestly struggled to gain his control again. To separate the professional from the personal.

  “I…I’m not like Hugh. I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

  “But you did. Your friend. Everyone you worked with in the lab is going to feel the betrayal. Can you tell us why you did it?”

  “I didn’t have a choice.”

  Sin snorted. “That’s bullshit. Everyone always has a choice.”

  Chapter 44

  Cody made it through the rest of the afternoon, but it was tough. Everyone wanted to talk to her—or stare at her. Everyone wanted a part of the gossip.

  Her friends wanted to check on her.

  And Sebastian and Seth wanted to pound Eric into the dirt. But Sam was the one who really needed the people around her.

  Eric’s ex-wife still cared about him. And this was a major blow to her. The younger woman was in a state of shock, and those who knew her well could see it.