She looked uneasy. “I never thought of that.”
Jackson studied her for a moment, then asked, “Any reason he would have done an image search of you online?”
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
“You said you used a fake photo for the podcast website. But maybe Warren wanted to check up on you. Maybe he took a photo of you recently, ran it through a search, and found something that connected you to your old life.”
Avery hesitated, the idea clearly unsettling her. “That’s possible,” she said slowly. “He always acted like he wanted to know more about me. Asked questions that didn’t seem important at the time. I just don’t know why he’d do something like that.”
“Curiosity, revenge, money,” Jackson said. “Take your pick.”
She stared down at her plate, her fingers tracing the edge of it. “It could be any of those,” she said quietly.
He nodded, the thoughts still turning over in his head. The more he heard, the less this felt like a simple betrayal.
Something else was driving it, and he intended to find out what.
Avery went still, her fingers rising to her mouth. Her eyes unfocused, like she was replaying something in her mind.
“What is it?” Jackson asked.
She hesitated before speaking. “There was something. About two months ago.”
He waited, watching her closely.
“Warren was at my house,” she said slowly. “We were going over ideas for upcoming podcasts. I had my laptop open, and I was searching for background details on a case. I had a news site pulled up, and there was an article on the front page.” She paused, her voice dropping. “It was about an attack on a Crossfire Ops team.”
Jackson felt his pulse jump. “The one where I got hit.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t mean to react, but I did. I gasped. Just for a second before I caught myself, but Warren noticed.”
Jackson leaned back, processing that. “Yeah,” he said finally. “That might have been the start. He probably filed it away, started digging. From there, it wouldn’t take much to piece things together. A few old connections, a couple of names, and he could’ve figured out who you really were.”
Avery’s eyes filled with regret. “I didn’t even think about it. I closed the tab right away and changed the subject. I thought I’d covered it.”
Jackson ran a hand over his jaw. “You probably did everything right, but Warren was already curious. Once he started looking, he’d find something. Even the smallest detail would lead him to the rest.”
He looked down at the table, the thought hitting hard. “But why? Why sell you out?”
Avery shook her head. “I wish I knew.”
Her voice cracked on the last word.
He kept watching her, the frustration burning through him. He wanted a target, someone to aim at, something he could fix. But this was messier than a betrayal. It was personal, calculated, and it had nearly gotten her killed.
Jackson picked up his phone and pulled up the file Noah had sent earlier. Warren Sinclair’s background flashed on thescreen, the digital dossier neat and thorough. Noah’s team had already done a deep dive, and the man’s whole life was spelled out for them.
Mid-forties. Decent reputation. Ran a small but successful podcast network out of Houston. The photo showed a man with short dark hair, clean-shaven and solid, forgettable features. Nothing that screamed danger or desperation.
Jackson scrolled through the rest of the report, checking and rechecking. No criminal record. No obvious debt or shady financial moves. No sign of any prior connection to the Brotherhood.
On paper, Warren Sinclair was just another business guy trying to make a name for himself. But paper didn’t always tell the truth or the full story.
Jackson frowned and typed out a quick text to Noah.Check visitation records for Haver Barker. See if Warren Sinclair’s been to the prison in the last year.
He set down his phone and looked across the table at Avery. “If Warren did figure out who you were, he might have met with Barker first. Maybe to make a deal.”
Avery shook her head slowly. “It’s possible he did, but not necessarily for that reason. He’s done a lot of interviews with convicted killers before. He likes to get inside their heads for story ideas. If he was researching something tied to the Brotherhood, maybe he visited Barker for background info.”
