Page 1 of Consume

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Grant

NCIS Special Agent Ashley Pierce’seyes narrowed in on me. “Your son is in grave danger. Our time is limited, and we must have your complete cooperation.” Her gaze was icy—a look that told me that she felt there was a good chance I would never see my son again.

My blood ran cold. I wasn’t afraid of terrorists in a firefight, bombs injuring me again, or guns pointed at my face. My only fear was being unable to save my son. If something happened to my boy, a kid I didn’t even know and had only met once, it would destroy me. “Of course. I’ll do anything. Please tell me everything youknow.”

My eyes were locked on Autumn AKA Ashley. I’d suspected her of being involved in this case but not as law enforcement. I’d been with her the night of Paul’s party, and I’d realized now that it hadn’t been a coincidence.

I attempted to make eye contact with my commanding officer, Paul Thompson, but his gaze remained locked on his feet. His white summer dress uniform blended into the barren walls, as did his skin, which seemed paler than normal. I felt his pain. This claustrophobic space wasn’t doing anything to ease my anxiety.

“Lt. Commander Thompson, you are free to leave. I would like to speak with Petty Officer Carrion in private.”

Paul didn’t even reply. He stood, nodded to both of us, and made a quick exit. I watched him until the door closed again. Mitch had told me that he would hook Paul up, and in exchange Paul would tip him off about drug tests. And Ashley had Mitch’s dealer, Rafael, under surveillance. Man, depending on what she had discovered, Paul’s career could be over. But there was no guarantee that Ashley had unearthed any of our secrets. SEALs covered for each other. That had never been more apparent to me than when this whole ordeal started.

And although my priority was locating my son, I would not rat out my brothers. I had to tread carefully.

“Special Agent Pierce—”

Her turquoise eyes brightened with a twinkle of amusement. “Grant, I think you’ve earned the right to call me by my firstname.”

My mind flashed to our drunken make out session the night Tiffany had been murdered. Autumn’s mouth had been hot and wet, her tight, little body had pressed against mine. I had tried to drown my longing for Mia in Autumn’s embrace. And for a moment in time, it had worked.

“Fine, Ashley. Where is myson?”

She pushed out a deep breath before saying, “We don’t know. What we do know is that Joaquín has gang connections and we believe he was involved in kidnapping your son from Mia in the hospital.”

I almost felt relieved to hear her say that because it validated my theories, which Mia had dismissed. “When did you find out he wasmine?”

“Well, officially we don’t actually know he’s yours. We would need a court ordered DNA test for that. But when I brought Mia to meet the boy, I had hoped to be able to trip her up, that she would’ve known about her nephew. But then when I saw her reaction to the boy, I started to connect the dots. He looks like you, by the way. I found records that showed that Mia had given birth to a baby boy in San Francisco two yearsago.”

I was immediately suspicious of her. She had found records that had vanished from Mia’s storage unit. The ones I believed Joaquín had taken. Maybe he had given them to her. How did I know she wasn’t a crooked agent? And she had approached me at the SEAL party I took Ksenya to, offering to help me free Joaquín. I couldn’t trust her at all. “How could you have possibly made that jump from him resembling me to him being my son? Seriously. It’s a bigone.”

“It was just a hunch, and I’ll admit it was a weak one. Grant, I’m trained to hunt down leads and test all the angles, so I did. Plus, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was Mia’s kid. Since you were the only guy she’d dated, it was logical that you were the child’s father. That was why I met you at the coffee house and showed you a picture of Julián so you would investigate on yourown.”

I tempered my anger and forced myself to acknowledge her impressive detective work. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known I had a son. Thankyou.”

Her lips pressed into a satisfied smile. “Don’t thank me until we find him. We have eyes on Joaquín’s known gang and cartel connections. But so far, we have been unable to locate yourboy.”

“Tiffany’s mom was last seen in Marin.” I gave her the only piece of information I had, hoping that she could find something we couldn’t.

“We know. After you gave Kyle the DNA results, he called in an inquiry to a former SEAL turned PI, who tipped usoff.”

Damn, NCIS had eyes and ears everywhere. “Does Kyle know who youare?”

Ashley shook her head. “No, Kyle doesn’t have a clue about my involvement or my identity. Only Paul knows for now, and I’d like to keep it thatway.”

I wasn’t going to praise her for her correct assumptions. I was more pissed that she was following me. But I wasn’t going to call her out—my son’s life was on the line. “You said Julián is in grave danger. Why? Isn’t he just with the grandmother? Is she involved? Who isshe?”

“Her name is Lorraine Reynolds, but we don’t think she would hurt him. We believe that the Ramirez Cartel is holding your son as leverage to keep Joaquín inline.”

She was blowing my mind. “Cartel? So what does Joaquín know about Julián? He mentioned his name to us at the jail. Mia’s theory is that he did that so we could find our son. I think he did it to frame me for Tiffany’s murder. Because if I had thought she had kidnapped my son, I’d have a motive to kill her. Hell, I probably would’ve killedher.”

She eased over to me and sat so close I could inhale her floral perfume. “You shouldn’t repeat that. And remember, I was with you the night of the murder. I know for certain that you didn’t murder Tiffany. And for you, Grant, I would blow my cover and risk my career to ensure you were never charged.” She cast a downward glance. “As for Joaquín’s name drop, I have a different theory.”

I hated that she was making me ask exactly what she thought, but I did it anyway. “Would you care to share?”

“No, I wouldn’t. And I don’t want to speculate until I have proof. We need to stick to the facts.”