Running (18 page)

Other than another PAVAD
agent, there wasn’t anyone in the Bureau that she could—or
would—
currently trust.
Not after what had happened on the road yesterday. Not until she
delivered the files from Seth directly into Ed, Sebastian, Hell, or
Mal’s hands. Until then she’d just be sure to stay off the radar.
Somehow.

She had to wait around for
two hours for a bus to take her from Vernon to Amarillo, and then
it was another three and a half hours on the road. She slept most
of the way there, her body needing the break from the last few days
of push, push, push. She’d considered calling someone, but Seth’s
utter conviction that someone inside the Bureau was pulling strings
had her deciding against it. Even her own team. She didn’t want to
risk putting them in the middle of whatever it was Seth was trying
to find.

To take that route
before
she had his files
seemed almost a betrayal somehow. She knew it would be the wrong
move to make. On a deep level, she just knew it.

The post office wasn’t too
difficult to find, even on foot, and thankfully there weren’t too
many people inside.

Getting inside and grabbing
his files was anticlimactic. No one stopped her, no one asked for
identification, and the two people in the post office barely looked
up at her. She smiled when she saw the name on the envelope. It was
definitely Seth’s—he’d used his ex-sister-in-law’s name on the
package. Wonder what Cody would think about that?

She had just enough time to
head to the airport. She’d used one of the prepaid credit cards
she’d found in the bag Brynna had put in her hands last night to
book a flight back to St. Louis. It was one of the fastest
options.

She wanted to get back home
before her brothers got a good hold on Seth. She could just imagine
what they’d want to do to him.

She finally broke down and
sent a single text message to Jules.
I’m
fine. Coming home soon. Keep secret. Protect Seth. Traitor in his
unit.

Jules would understand, and
Al trusted
her
to
go directly to Ed Dennis with the information. The director of
PAVAD and Jules were as close as family—Jules’ nephew Matthew was
Ed Dennis’s grandson.

It was all she could do.
She turned the cell phone off as she boarded the plane. The best
flight she could get for what little money she had on the card was
coach with two stop overs, but it would still get her to St. Louis
faster than driving. She’d use the next eight hours to sleep and go
over the files. Maybe she could find what Seth had
missed.

Chapter
Forty-One

***

Every damned bone in his
body hurt. And the cuffs on his wrists weren’t helping matters. He
looked at Barnes. As soon as he could, he’d be making that asshole
pay somehow. He hadn’t exactly been gentle when Seth was cuffed and
unable to defend himself. Barnes had a real hard on for him. Why
hadn’t he realized that before? Or was it because Seth’s cover had
been blown? It had been a long ride to St. Louis. “Is this
necessary? I’m surrounded by federal agents—hell,
I
am a federal agent.
Don’t you think this is overkill?”

Barnes laughed.

The silver-haired man who
had just entered the door didn’t. “Uncuff him. Now.
Hellbrook?”

“
Done.” A big redheaded guy
swiftly released Seth’s wrists. The infamous Hellbrook—the FBI’s
version of Superman? Seth had heard of him. Everyone in the Bureau
had. Hadn’t realized Hellbrook was in St. Louis, though. “Sorry
about that.”

Seth fought a curse when he
stretched his arms out. “Think this damned arm is bleeding again.
So where’s Blondie?”

“
I assume you mean Agent
Brockman?” The silver haired guy sat down across the table from
Seth. He recognized him from the newscast. Blondie’s precious Ed
Dennis. Was he as good as she said? If Hellbrook was Superman, this
was the leader of the X-Men. “We were hoping you could tell
us.”

“
What do
you mean? Didn’t you find her?” Should he come clean now, or wait
until he had the files? Had Blondie back where she belonged? Should
he stall? How long would it take her to get to Amarillo and back to
St. Louis? Had she made it yet? Had something happened to her? A
surge of worry hit him hard. He hated the idea of her out there
on
his
quest,
completely alone. If anything happened to that
woman…

“
No…We found you. But not
Agent Brockman. Care to tell us where she is?”

“
I don’t know. Shouldn’t
you keep better track of your agents than that?”

Hard hands grabbed him and
he was jerked from the chair. He thought about fighting, but he
really didn’t think he had the energy. He found himself looking
into familiar blue eyes—eyes that he hadn’t expected to see in
a
male
face. The
dark-haired guy holding him was obviously one of Alessandra’s
brothers. And a damned fucking giant. Wow. She hadn’t mentioned how
big the brothers were. Was the other one even bigger? Seth had
never considered himself a small man, but this guy…“Who ran you off
the road?” The guy shook him with little effort. Seth didn’t find
many men intimidating, but a guy that had to be at least
six-foot-six
and solid
muscle? A pissed off guy six-foot-six and solid muscle? Hell, yeah,
Seth felt a bit intimidated.

“
I don’t
have a fucking clue. We need to get back there and find
her.
Before someone
decides to take her home and adopt her. She is housetrained, I
think.
”

He half expected the fist
that plowed into his face.

“
That’s really going to
help.” A woman said it this time, and Seth was vaguely aware of two
more people entering the room. Female type people. His ears and
eyes were still ringing.

“
Put him down, Mick,” said
the smaller of the women.

The guy dropped him and
Seth kept himself from falling back into the chair with every last
bit of pride he had. He would
not
sink to his knees in front of these guys. Or
women.

The dark haired woman
helped him to a chair. “Wow, you do look like them, don’t
you?”

“
So I’ve heard.” She was
skinny and big eyed. Her hands were gentle when she touched him. He
liked her immediately. “Who the hell are you?”

“
Paige.”

That was a name he
recognized—he’d heard Blondie
and
the Becks mention a Paige. “
Blondie’s partner.”

“
And Carrie’s sister. This
is Jules.”

“
The sister-in-law. I get
it.”

The sister-in-law slid an
open file toward him. “If you’ll sign this release, I’ll stitch up
that lip. Looks like Mick busted it again. I’m sorry. We try to
control him, but he gets a bit unruly at times.”

“
No kidding.”

“
My
husband will be here shortly, then we can find Al. She’s ok, isn’t
she?” She handed him a pen after tapping it on the file once. Seth
looked at the paperwork in front of him. Forced himself not to
react to what was typed there where his name should go.
Al is coming. Stall!

He made a show of signing
his name with a flourish. The sister-in-law nodded, then returned
the file to the bag she’d carried in. He had to admire how cool she
was handling this. Not a flash of emotion was on her face. For his
benefit? Barnes, Carrigan, and the older guy who hadn’t been
identified? “Try not to leave a scar, will you? The ladies like my
pretty face. They say I’m one of a kind.”

“
Somehow, I doubt that.
I’ve seen the other two of your kind roaming around here. You seem
to be a matched set. They’ll be here shortly, by the way. And
Carrie.” There was serious reproach in the sister-in-law’s tone and
he fought the urge to squirm. She had the prim librarian look down
pat and with just a tiny press of her lips together had him
squirming in his seat.

“
How is Red?”

“
Carrie is great. She rolls
with things really well lately. Not so sure Sebastian will refrain
from ripping your head off, but you do deserve that.” This time it
was the partner who spoke. She’d settled at his side, between him
and the big guy. He got the strangest feeling she was protecting
him. From who? Barnes? The big bastard who was still glowering at
him? “So what are we doing here?”

“
I don’t really know. I
wasn’t exactly issued a detailed invitation.”

The sister-in-law dabbed at
his lip with an antiseptic pad. Seth hissed. “That
hurts.”

“
Yeah. I’m sure it does.
Hold still. I think only a stitch or two will hold it. You want
numbed or an injection?”

“
Just get it over with. I
promise not to cry.”

“
Alright, tough guy.” But
she patted the hand he still had on the table.

No one spoke as she
stitched him back together again. When she was finished, she
cleaned up the small table area and then turned toward Dennis.
“Eddie, I think we can clear the room now.”

The director nodded, a
coldly harsh expression on his face. He turned to Barnes. “Get out.
All of your people. This is PAVAD now. Keeney. Out. You can review
transcripts later.”

Barnes was just stupid
enough to protest. “But it’s our case and we brought him in.
Courtesy.”

“
No. This is PAVAD, you’re
out. Mick, remove them.”

The big brute stepped
forward. Seth half expected him to flex his muscles and crack his
knuckles. “Out.”

He made one hell of a good
enforcer. Seth grinned, despite the stitches, and waved at Barnes
and his cronies as they tromped toward the door. The door opened
before Barnes could turn the handle. Bertram was there, a man Seth
didn’t recognize, and both of
his
brothers. A familiar redheaded woman was behind
them.

He grinned. The cavalry had
arrived. At least part of it. He hadn’t wanted to involve his
brothers, but they were now. And now he had people around him he
could trust. Couldn’t beat that.

Now if he just knew where
Blondie had gotten off to, he’d be set. “Boys. Nice to see
you.”

“
Seth,
you’re a damned idiot. Where’s Al?” Sebastian cut straight to the
chase. But at least
he
hadn’t hit Seth for what he’d done to Red.
Yet.

“
Hey, Red. How you doing?
Sorry about your car.”

“
We’ll get it back
eventually. And I’m fine. How are you?” She smiled at him, then
surprised him by kissing his cheek. She whispered in his ear before
pulling away. “He loves you, you know.”

“
A bit
worse than the last time I saw you.” She said to the room at large.
She sat down in the chair the dark-haired woman vacated. Paige
flitted around the room, going from corner to corner so fast and so
frequently Seth made the decision
not
to watch her. She’d make him even
dizzier. Alessandra’s brother packed quite a punch. And from the
way the final dark-haired guy in the room had sidled up to the
sister-in-law and was glowering at Seth, he thought he was about to
meet the other brother. Did this one hit first, ask questions
later, too? At least he wasn’t’ as big as the other brother. “So
what happened? Where’s Al? Did you leave her somewhere like you
left me?”

“
Yeah…about that,
sorry.”

“
Oh, I do know whose idea
it was.” She smiled at him then and he could easily see what it was
about this girl that had captivated his brother so much. “No
harm.”

“
That’s debatable,”
Sebastian said from where he stood next to his wife. Seth looked
around the room—his brothers, her brothers, her partner,
sister-in-law, the big guy Hellbrook, Edward Dennis, and Bertram.
They pretty well had him surrounded. On purpose? “Time you came
clean, bro. What the hell is going on?”

“
Not yet. I’m still
waiting.” Where was she? How much longer could he do
this?

“
For? We’re trying to find
my sister, here.” The big giant again. So he didn’t know about the
message from the sister-in-law. Interesting.

Might be fun to play around
with this guy for a while. Be one way to stall. And he doubted Red,
the partner, or the sister-in-law would let him get punched again.
They didn’t seem the type to allow that. “Are we? And who is that
again? I’ve had a concussion, the memory isn’t all that great
lately. And someone just rattled my skull again.”

“
Seth. Don’t be an
asshole.” It was Sin this time, and Seth lookedup at his
older-by-a-few minutes brother. “What’s going on?”

He wasn’t saying a damned
word until Blondie was right there next to him,
safe
, because as long as she was out
there unprotected he would not be stupid.

Because he knew for a fact
that leaks happened, and there were too many damned variables in
this room that
he
couldn’t control. No matter how much Sebastian trusted those
variables,
Seth
didn’t. “As the great oracle once said, all will be revealed
in good time.”