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“Just let me out here, will you?” I said.
“No,” he replied. “I told you—we’re sticking together from now on.”
My stomach sank. “So I’m your prisoner? Is that it? Do I have any choice about this?”
“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. “Nate, where the hell are you when I need you?” He let out a sigh, then pulled over in the Walgreens parking lot, putting the car into park and turning to face me. “No, of course you’re not my prisoner,” he said. “I’m not going to force you to stay with me. But I do think it’s your best option.”
“Because you can keep me safe? But the price of your protection is helping you find evidence against Hayes, right?” I shook my head. “The man has a private army, more money than God, and no scruples at all about killing anyone who gets in his way. If you want to take him on, I can hardly stop you—but I’m not going to help. It’s too dangerous.”
“He’s the one who had your brother killed,” Pierce pointed out. “Don’t you want him to pay for that?”
Hell yes, I wanted him to pay. But I had to be smart about this. There were more important things than what I wanted. “Not if it means putting my son in danger.”
“What if I could help your son?” he argued.
“Help him how?” He’d mentioned something earlier about medical trials for the new Loorer’s treatment, but surely I’d misunderstood. What kind of connection would a Navy-SEAL-turned-FBI-agent have to a clinical trial?
“If you help me, I can introduce you to Dr. Samantha Mayfield.”
“You know Dr. Mayfield?” She was the woman who had pioneered the new treatment—not to mention one of the leading experts on Loorer’s in the world. I’d sell a kidney for the chance to meet her.
“I do. Her boyfriend and I served together—he’s one of my closest friends.”
I stared at him, trying to gauge whether I believed him. If it was a lie, it was a really effective one…but he didn’t seem like he was lying. Saying yes to him still frightened me, but if there was any chance he was telling the truth, then how could I say no?
“If you’re lying to me, I will make it my life’s mission to ruin you, do you understand? My son isn’t to be taken lightly.”
“So, is that a yes?” he asked.
“Yes, Agent Pierce. I’ll work with you.”
“Adrian.”
“Huh?”
“If we’re doing this, call me Adrian.”
“Okay,” I said, already regretting this. “Adrian.”
THREE
ADRIAN
“What’s the plan?” Nataliya asked once we were back on the road. “We meet with your backup?”
My hands gripped the steering wheel. “There’s no backup,” I said. “The plan is for you to figure out what that message says. That will let me know where we need to go next.”
“You don’t have—” I glanced at her. Her eyebrows were knitted together in confusion. Even so, she still looked absolutely stunning, and an odd electric sensation spread outward from my chest. I had to make a conscious effort to focus on what she was saying. “What kind of FBI investigation sends one agent without backup? You didn’t even stop to talk to the police earlier—” Realization spread across her face, followed quickly by anger. “What did I just say about lying to me? Huh? Are you even a real FBI agent, you asshole!?”
“Enough!” I said, cutting her off before she could get even more worked up. “I am an agent. I’m just not here officially. Cuddy and your brother’s deaths aren’t an FBI matter. It was a military operation on foreign soil—the FBI has no jurisdiction.”
“But Hayes—he’s operating in America at least part of the time, isn’t he?” she argued. “You said he smuggled antiquities. Is he selling them here in the US?”
“He is,” I agreed. “At least, as far as I can tell. Once I’ve built a case against him, I’ll take it to my superiors.”
“Why haven’t you taken it to them already? Why are you building this case on your own?”
Here, I hesitated. I hadn’t wanted to get into this, but I wasn’t going to lie to her if I could help it. “I tried, but I was told to leave it alone. Hayes has protection from up high. Maybe he’s bribed people. Maybe he has blackmail on someone—or multiple someones. Maybe the Hayes Group is just too valuable to the Pentagon to risk pissing him off. For whatever reason, I need rock-solid evidence against him before I can call in the cavalry.”
