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I just nodded, still trying to wrap my brain around what he’d said. I knew Anton worked for someone powerful—Interpol wouldn’t have been interested in him as an informant unless he had dirt on someone high level—but he’d been closed-mouthed about the details, wanting to keep that part of his life far from Elias and me. I don’t want to know, I decided. “Take me back to my car.” I had to get Elias, and we had to get out of here.
Agent Pierce scoffed. “So you can go on the run and make me chase you down again? Not happening.”
“Who’s making you do anything? If you don’t want to chase me, stay here. Or go home. Or go to the moon, for all I care. What you decide to do isn’t my problem.”
“It is my problem when you’re clearly in danger. I can protect you.”
“I don’t need you to do that. Elias and I have been just fine on our own.” Agent Pierce made a loop of the street we had gone down, and from what I could see, he was heading back into the town proper.
He glared at the road ahead of him. “You’ve been surviving, but how sustainable is that? I can help you.”
“I’ve heard that before—from the US Marshal who was my contact when Elias and I first arrived. But then he sold us out,” I said.
His eyebrows shot up. “How do you know he was the source?”
“I overheard him talking to someone…Hayes, maybe…about getting me to the ‘meet up location.’ I don’t know what those men, or you, want with me, but I have learned my son and I are better off on our own.”
“Are you, though?” he pressed. “What about your son’s medical care?”
I froze. “What do you know about that?”
“I know your son has Loorer’s Disease.” Had that information been in our government files? I suppose it must have been. It felt disturbing, though, to have this man, a complete stranger, know personal details about my son.
“I know you’ve been trying to get him into the medical trials for the new treatment,” Pierce continued.
Now that couldn’t have been in his file since the new treatment hadn’t been announced until I was already in the US—and hiding from the US Marshals. How the hell did he know that? How long had he been watching me? Had he intercepted my communications? No, that couldn’t be it. I may not have the training to know if I’m being watched or if someone is tailing me in person, but I damn well know how to cover my tracks online. Computers are my thing. No one could access my emails without me realizing it.
But before I could demand answers, he spoke again.
“I can help with that, but I’ll need help from you first,” Pierce said.
“What happens when I don’t have the answers you’re looking for?” Can I still trust you when there’s nothing I can do for you?
“I think you do.” He dug out his phone, opened a file while keeping an eye on the road, and handed it to me.
“What is—?” My mouth dropped open. “Is this what Anton said that night?”
Pierce nodded. “And judging by your face, you do have the answers I’m looking for.”
I tried to school my expression into something more neutral, but it had been so long since I’d seen one of the hidden messages my brother and I used to share since we were kids and trying to get one over on our mother. “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “What do the words of a dying man matter to a federal agency?”
His jaw clenched. “They matter to me. Back then, I was the team leader, and the night your brother died, one of my teammates died too. A kid named Kyle Cuddy,” he said. “We walked into an ambush. And it wasn’t because of bad planning or bad luck. Someone set us up.”
“And you think Ian Hayes is responsible?”
“I do. He also had another teammate of mine killed on US soil, Roger Gentry…but I need evidence to tie him to both.” He gestured to the phone in my hands. “I’m hoping Anton was trying to direct me toward some. The whole point of the ambush was to take him out. Whatever he knew, it had Hayes scared. If there’s any way I could get my hands on that information…it could be the key to taking him down.”
I looked up from the phone and studied him—the clench of his jaw and the hardness of his eyes. This was a man desperate for answers. “Have you considered coming at it from a different angle?” I asked, interested in spite of myself. I’ve always had a thing for puzzles—it was what made me such a good programmer. “For Hayes to set up an ambush, someone must have leaked the mission details. If you find out who did that, you could use that person as a source.”
“I’ve looked into it,” he replied. “But from everything I’ve seen, the mission should have been secure. Outside of my team, only a handful of people even knew it was happening—and when I tried digging into them, it only led to dead ends. Whoever did it must be very good at covering their tracks.”
“Or you’re looking in the wrong place,” I pointed out. “It’s always a mistake to rule people out too quickly. Have you thought about investigating your teammates?”
Anger flared across his face. “No SEAL would sell out another. Not ever.”
“That’s naive of you.” His being offended by the idea didn’t mean it could never happen. “You said yourself they made up most of the list of people who were in the know.”
“Not. Possible,” he insisted, his voice so harsh I decided to let it drop. No point in making him angry arguing over something that was none of my concern anyway. Staring out the window, I saw we weren’t far from the diner, if I cut across the park. I needed to go get my car so I could get my son and get out of town.
