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He left the office trailer, slid his sunglasses on his face, and stared around up at the nearly completed building where Eddie Foreman had died.
Nik's investigation so far hadn't gotten much more information than he had gotten today. He'd spent the past week in the bars and cafes asking questions, sometimes simply listening to the local gossip. And there was plenty to be had. Maddix Nelson and Mikayla Martin were subjects that were heavily debated. Both were well known. Mikayla was well liked; Maddix was an employer and well liked with the same intensity that he was well hated.
And murder was always fodder for gossip.
So far, Robert Cronin was the only one associating Maddix with gambling tracks and underground casinos in Baltimore and D.C. No one else had heard of Maddix gambling.
129
Pulling the keys to the new GMC Sierra he had picked up that morning, Nik hit the unlock and auto start, waited, then moved to the vehicle. He'd already lost everything that meant anything to him once. Losing it again wasn't high on his list of priorities. He hadn't stopped living by the sword. He doubted he would ever stop living by it. God knew what would happen to him, though, if anything ever happened to Mikayla.
Pulling the cell phone from the leather holster at his side, he pressed the speed dial and waited.
"Malone," Jordan answered on the first ring.
"I'm going to be awhile," Nik informed the other man. "I may need help as well." Jordan was silent for long moments. "What's going on?" Nik quickly outlined the situation without informing his commander that he was now sleeping with the woman he was here to investigate. More to the point, he was more concerned with protecting the woman than he was with protecting the man who had hired him.
Jordan was no man's fool, though. He'd been bitching for weeks over the fact that his agents couldn't keep their dicks in their pants or their hearts in their chests until they completed their commitments to the Elite Ops.
He was raging over the fact that Travis Caine, the most recent agent to succumb to Cupid, had hooked up with a high-profile lover.
Lady Victoria Lillian Harrington had once been an agent, until an attempted assassination had wiped her memory and allowed her to return to her previous life. Not that the return hadn't benefited the Ops. It had. Her return had been a mission in and of itself. But that didn't mean Jordan had to like the fact that Travis had now placed someone above Elite Ops. Just as three other agents before him had done. Jordan's branch of the Elite Ops, in Jordan's opinion, was weakened by the fact that his men had acquired the greatest weakness of all. Love.
"How close are you to figuring this out, Nik?" Jordan asked.
"Hell if I know," Nik breathed out roughly. "She's been shot at three times, but the more I've thought about it today, the more I can't help but think each time was a deliberate miss. Both times they had clear shots. They were close, but missed. I can't leave until I figure out who killed that damned foreman and created this mess. If I find him, then I find the person shooting at Mikayla."
"Your job was to figure out if Miss Martin was lying and if so, who she was covering for," Jordan reminded him. "You've completed the job you were hired to do. Now you can turn the information over to the local authorities and leave." It was a subtle warning to drop the mission and return to base. That wasn't happening.
"Jordan, I'm not leaving until she's safe."
Silence stretched between them for long moments.
"Fuck. I thought for sure you'd at least hold out until your
commitment with the Ops came to an end," Jordan growled. "This isn't going to be easy to explain to Elite Command."
"What's there to explain?" Nik asked coldly. "I'm finishing a mission to repay a debt, nothing more."
"Then why do you need help, Nik?" Jordan asked. "If all you're doing is repaying 130
a debt?"
"Explain it to Elite Command however you have to," Nik stated. "I need at least one agent."
"Everyone is out now," Jordan snapped. "The present mission has been hell where information is concerned. I might be able to pull one of the girls from the other unit, though. I think Raisa is returning from England tonight or tomorrow. I can send her out if she returns."
"She'll work."
The agents in Elite Two had been reassigned to Jordan's command for the few years they still had on their commitments. They were information gatherers, behind the scenes, support only. They were damned good, though. Nik would let Raisa cover his back anytime.
"Kira Richards and Bailey Vincent are in D.C.," Jordan mused then. "They're on a fact-finding mission. They headed out night before last. I'll see if I can contact them."
"That could work." Nik nodded. "I'll keep you updated on what I'm finding here, but it's a hell of a situation. I don't think Mikayla's lying, Jordan. That leaves Maddix holding a smoking gun and a dream alibi to say he didn't do it." But there was nothing left but to suspect Maddix. His alibis were friends and business associates. If killing Eddie had benefited them as well, then they were all in on it.
"Nelson has some pull in D.C.," Jordan reminded him. "One of Elite Command's members knows him personally. That information won't sit well."
"I don't care if it doesn't sit well." Nik turned onto the interstate, his eyes narrowing in anger as he glared at the road.
