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To make me paranoid.
I was positive that I was right, and I felt my back stiffen a little as my body and mind went into a heightened state of alert. I had no idea what these two were about, but Trent was a definite threat.
“Time for things to change a little around here, Mister Arden.”
Nothing about this could possibly be in my best interest, so I braced myself and waited.
Chapter 5—Unavoidable Agreement
I wasn’t sure if I was waiting for a bullet or not, but I was a little surprised when Trent, the guy with the crazy smile, reached into his briefcase and pulled out a bunch of papers. I was not surprised by the FBI seals on both the papers and the envelopes inside the briefcase.
I was definitely on edge as he displayed the papers out on the table. Even if his first trap hadn’t managed to catch me, I was quite sure Trent wasn’t someone I could just ignore. I had the feeling talking my way out of this one wasn’t going to work either, and shooting my way out of it wasn’t an option.
Currently.
“Let’s see what we have here…” Trent let his voice trail off, cleared his throat, and then indicated a list of—appropriately enough—bullet points on the page. “Possession of unregistered firearms, public endangerment, unlawful discharge of firearms, inciting panic, and of course, the really good one—terrorism.”
I was taken aback but tried not to show it. That charge hadn’t been on the list of charges Moretti and Michael Beard had discussed when they came to see me.
“That last one is the one I find most interesting, seeing as it is a matter of federal law, not just the state of Illinois. I had to pull a couple of strings to get that officially on the list. It was even more difficult getting the timing exactly right. I had to wait until your boss and his tricky lawyer thought they had everything under control. I suppose they wanted to leave your little display under vandalism or something. Anything to appease your boss, hmm?”
I remained completely still.
“At this point, your lawyer won’t see the new charge until after we’re done here. He’ll spend half the day getting it removed, but it won’t matter—I’m already here.” Trent shuffled some papers around in the briefcase. “Did I miss anything?”
“There’s also a woman from your neighborhood who wants to press attempted murder charges against you on behalf of Glenda, her Yorkshire Terrier,” Johnson added. “I honestly don’t think the judge plans to honor that one, though.”
“Fuck the bitch,” Trent said with a smile. “Get it? Bitch? The dog is a girl.”
Johnson laughed, right on cue.
“Anyway,” Trent continued, “with the terrorism charge in place, it opened the doors up wide for me to move in and check you out like I’ve never been able to before, and I have to admit it is a bit of a pleasure for me. You know—seeing you in chains.”
He waved his hand toward me and kept up the obnoxious grin.
“I know a lot about you, Mister Arden,” Trent said, “or should I call you Evan?”
I didn’t respond. This kind of game was best played with as little talk as possible.
“Lieutenant, possibly? No, not that. You really aren’t one anymore, are you?”
I remained silent and motionless.
“So tell me something,” he said. “Were you always a murderer, and that’s why you became a sniper in the first place, or did you learn it from the insurgents? I don’t see how you were in their hands for all that time without turning traitor, personally.”
My flesh went cold and my throat seized up.
I knew exactly what the asshole was doing, but that didn’t stop the blood in my veins from running cold, nor did it stop me from forming fists out of my hands and creating mental images of pummeling Trent into the cold cement floor.
He wasn’t the first to suggest it. In fact, the CIA had spent a good week questioning me when I returned from the Middle East. I answered their questions over and over again, finally losing my shit altogether. They had their suspicions about another Marine who had been rescued—one that had given up information and ultimately gave away my unit’s position—and wanted to pull me into it as well. Yes, Al Qaeda members tried to get me to turn. They tried every fucking tactic they could dream up, but I never gave in.
I never told them a damn thing.
Loyalty.
I closed my eyes, drew in a long, slow breath, and then looked back up at him. Like the handshake, he was doing all of this on purpose—trying to goad me into reacting stupidly. I wasn’t going to be that easy to break, though. I’d dealt with a lot worse than this asshole.
“Do you have anything you’d like to add to the list?” Trent asked as he smiled at me again and waved the paper around. “There have been an extraordinary number of deaths from long-range weapons since you moved into the area. Care to confess to any of them?”
