Where was the man Jesse had drawn into a kiss in the museum earlier that day? The Bryce before him was entirely closed off and about business. And that business would make Jesse’s first interesting case disappear. He couldn’t let Lawson slip out of his fingers. Orders be damned. They were wrong to hand this off.
Jesse stood and squared his shoulders. “I need to see the paperwork.”
“There isn’t any,” the other man said.
“You can ask your supervisor about it,” Bryce said.
“I’m not letting Lawson out of my sight until I know you’re not going to whisk him away to the bowels of some unknown facility in the middle of nowhere,” Jesse replied.
“Sounds like someone’s been listening to too manySpooky True Tales,” the other man said.
Bryce shot a glare at the other man.
A terrible logical conclusion dawned on Jesse. If he hadn’t been so concerned with getting Lawson to talk, he might have put the pieces together earlier. Running into Bryce after meeting with Celia Sanchez hadn’t been an accident. Well, it had been in the literal sense, but Bryce had been there to talk to her. Either she had something to do with government cover-ups or Bryce and Alex were her sources for a story.
Bryce was too loyal and too determined to be a whistle blower for a podcast. In fact, he sounded a lot like the agents Uncle Ephraim talked about in his journals. Stressed out. Unwilling to talk about work. Being in the right place when shit was getting weird.
Some investigator Jesse turned out to be. The very people he’d been hoping to meet strode into his life and he nearly didn’t recognize them.
“Holy shit. You’re DWO,” Jesse said.
“Oh, Bonnell’s going tolovethis,” Alex said.
“Get the prisoner out of here,” Bryce ordered.
Jesse stepped between the other man and Lawson. “You’re not going to take my case and deny me the truth.”
Bryce shook his head. “The DWO doesn’t exist. It’s internet rumor based on conjectures of conspiracy theorists.”
“But they do,” Jesse said. “The government claims they dismantled the organization in 1952, but they didn’t. They—youhide in plain sight. Ordinary buildings and cover stories all to disguise the way you combat alien and outer-dimensional threats.”
“You sound like you’ve spent way too much time on Reddit,” Alex said.
“I know the DWO is real. Don’t try to bullshit me,” Jesse replied.
Bryce stepped closer to Jesse, gently moving the other agent with him out of the way. He stood conspiratorially close. “You have a coworker watching us.”
“Yeah,” Jesse said, intentionally keeping his voice louder. “I did that on purpose.”
“Do you think it’s smart to rant about conspiracy theories with someone from the bureau watching?”
“Are youthreateningme?”
“I’m trying to avoid doing that, but you’re not thinking clearly,” Bryce said.
Of course he wasn’t. Because the first man he wanted to be with in his new city was someone who had lied to him. Only Bryce had never lied. While he hadn’t been upfront about being a member of a secret organization, he hadn’t tried to mislead Jesse until he claimed he was DoD.
Which, in the grand scheme of things, was a huge fucking lie. But then, what did he expect from an organization that supposedly didn’t exist?
“Bring me in,” Jesse said.
“What?” Bryce asked.
“I can help. Let me keep working this case. I might even have a lead from another investigation.”
“No,” Bryce said firmly.
“Please, Bryce. I need to see this through.”
