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CHAPTER 16
Blake stood next toEric, looking down at the plans of a building as his boss explained a possible strategy to finally catch the thieves who’d been robbing banks all over the country.
It was Wednesday, the second week in December. The team had been tracking the movements of this gang of bank robbers for the last two months by the time Blake had joined them nearly four weeks ago. Over the last week, they’d finally caught a break when they’d received a tip via the Bank Robbers Mobile App, an application launched by the FBI in 2016, to make it even easier for the public to help law enforcement.
The site and app offered a search tool to find and group robbers by location, a national map that plotted robbery locations, a chronological list of robberies, electronic wanted posters with details on each robber and crime, and a printable version of each poster containing information on how to contact authorities.
They were flying to Chicago tomorrow. Everything had been planned down to the last detail. A technical team would be on standby, with eyes and ears outside and inside the building.
As Eric droned on, Blake tuned out. They’d gone over the details enough times for him to know what needed to be done. The one question he kept asking himself over and over, though, and one he couldn’t find an answer to was, why was he here?
He’d resigned. Walked away from this life after Will’s untimely and unnecessary death. But when Eric had contacted him months later, he’d immediately agreed to help. He couldn’t bring back Will, but he could make sure no one else died, he’d reasoned. There had been an urgent need inside him to try and atone, somehow, for his partner’s death.
But, as he’d come to realize, he could never do that, no matter how many times he put himself in danger—something that had only gradually dawned on him over the last week.
And over the last few days, Jason’s words were keeping him awake at night. Will shouldn’t have stormed into the building without backup. He knew that. And he was finally able to grasp—on some level at least—Will’s death hadn’t been his fault.
And Miss Betty had been old and ill. The reason why she hadn’t told him was because she hadn’t wanted him to worry about her.
But his discoveries—realizations—didn’t change much, really. He still didn’t have anything to offer Lindsay. Oh, he had money. Thanks to Miss Betty’s very generous inheritance, he would probably never have to work again, but he’d didn’t know the first thing about being part of a family or what a dad was supposed to do.
But damn it, did he miss her. He’d picked up his phone too many times to count, intent on sending her a message, only to put it down again. She needed someone who understood the meaning of family, not someone like him, who had no idea what it meant.
Love. Such a small word. Such a powerful emotion.
“Davidson? Your head in the game, or on some or woman?” Eric’s crisp voice penetrated his thoughts.
“I’m here,” he said.
Eric stared at him a moment longer before he scanned the room. “See you at the airport tomorrow morning at seven. Be ready.”
As they all left the room, Blake’s phone rang. It was Jason. His heart missed a beat. Lindsay.
“What’s wrong?” he asked without greeting Jason.
“Depends.”
“What are you talking about?”
“On whether you’re certain you’re not interested in Lindsay,” Jason said coolly. “I’ve been wondering for the past week whether I should tell you.”
Blake’s heart simply stopped. “Tell me what?”
