I had my theories. “If the company is defunct, the feds will be a lot less interested, maybe enough so that no one ever looks that closely at what Devlin did at Anson’s behest. Or maybe he wants to knock me down as far as possible so if prosecutors come after me, I’m less able to defend myself.”
“Or both,” Kat said.
“I’m more worried about how our friend Taylor Stewart ties into this,” Ben said.
The team had now proved what they’d originally assumed, which was that the name was fake. That meant there was no way to track the special ops guy who might have been hired to kill my soon-to-be-ex business partner. When I’d learned Devlin had screwed me, I’d wanted to kill him, but I didn’t want himdead.
“I agree with Mr. Zip Ties,” Wheeler said. “We need to figure out who and where Taylor Stewart is so we can keep him well clear of Savannah.”
“Our best shot of catching him will be if he makes a move on Devlin,” Kat said. “X is working on the surveillance warrant, and the minute we have it, we’ll get a team on him.”
“I’d make it two teams,” Ben said. “If he’s spec ops.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to have three,” Lang said. He didn’t smile or blink when he said it. He was serious.
I’d gone from worrying about my business to fearing for my life in under a minute. My stomach heaved, and I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth.
Wheeler grabbed a nearby trash can while Ben stroked my back. I waved them both off as the nausea passed.
“We’ll keep you under our protection,” Kat told me.
I sighed. “Forever?”
“For as long as it takes,” Kat said. “But there’s something else about this case you need to know.”
I reached for Ben’s hand, not sure how much more disappointment I could take.
“X is getting pressure from above,” she said. “Anson has some powerful friends, who’ve spoken to their powerful friends. You can imagine what they’re saying.”
“That’s how this works?” Ben bit out. “We have a killer on the loose—”
“Alleged,” Kat said.
“But when someone says jump, X says how high?” Ben finished.
The other agents held their collective breath. Kat kept her cool. She probably hadn’t made it this far in her world without having incredible patience, poise, and game face.
“We’re not shutting down the alleged financial crimes committed by Anson and WCI,” she assured us. “But we are putting it on the back burner.”
“Do we have a new assignment yet?” Pasco asked.
“Not yet,” Kat answered.
Wheeler lifted his hands to indicate the neat piles of printouts we’d generated from the L&M server data dump. “We’ll have to clean up the conference room. If we happen to notice something we missed, or some pages got stuck in the printer...”
“There will definitely be some pages stuck in the printer,” Pasco said.
Kat frowned, then asked Pasco, “How much of the information is still unencrypted?”
“I’d estimate 25 percent,” Pasco said. “But I’m guessing that’s the most interesting 25 percent, given the level of security on the files.”
Kat stood. “If anyone asks, I’m going to make the case that this is part of closing down the operation and preparing ourafter-action reports. But we’ve had a long few days, and it’s almost 1600 hours now, so let’s meet here at 0800 to start those clean-up tasks.”
Everyone filed out of the conference room.
“I think I need a nap,” I told Ben.
He kissed my forehead. “Then you should take one. I’ll tuck you in before I go. Or I could stay.”
