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“Eventually yes, but I didn’t want you to distrust the agency entirely. I didn’t want you to lose trust in me by association,” she answered. I could see a small bit of guilt trapped behind her siren eyes. I believed her this time, and I couldn’t fault her from withholding that from us. We would have lost trust in both her and Boss if we knew that the FBI couldn’t be trusted.
“Fuck, so we’re on our own,” Wells complained.
“Essentially, yes. That’s why I insisted that we send the ship into international waters for the arrest. I didn’t want the local field office to catch wind and warn anyone or, even more importantly, try to cover up their own tracks until we get this figured out. I’m trying to bury the office in evidence. People don’t trust law enforcement, and they are the reason why,” Abby explained.
“So we have to take down a whole trafficking ring and transport the victims ourselves?” Christine asked in disbelief.
“Well, at least the first part. What are you going to do about the FBI agents? You can’t just go in and arrest them. That won’t go over real well,” Jasmine asked Abby.
“You’re absolutely right. I can’t go in and arrest them. I’m putting together a report with evidence, and I will hopefully be able to convince internal affairs and investigations to open an official inquiry into this office. They’ll already have a strike against them as the investigation of the trafficking ring unfolds, because this was all happening under their noses with nothing being done about that. Their credibility and ability to do their jobs will be micromanaged while the investigation happens, and hopefully they will find more damning evidence or get confessions. That’s all above my pay grade, but I have to lead the horses to water,” Abby answered.
“So back to tonight, then. We just make the arrests of the traffickers. We protect the victims while we wait on back up?” Jones asked.
Abby nodded. “We’re only going to act tonight if it’s clearly obvious there is a large group of victims in holding, and they are being transported then, okay? Otherwise we need to take the time to plan another trap or a safer way to arrest the Reapers. If we know where they are hiding and operating from, we can keep an eye on them, watch for when they make their move. There has to be a safe way to bring them down without getting anyone else involved. We need to stay under the radar until it’s safe to bring a team from my office in,” Abby said.
Guy cleared his throat and held his hand out. Jones slapped his credit card into Guy’s hand to pay for the boat rental.
“That’s fair,” I answered. What she proposed was smart. We’d only intervene if we had no other options. This was no longer just about taking down a large human trafficking ring; this was about exposing a corrupt part of the FBI and the impact that it would have. We would have to sink some time into helping Abby get the evidence she needed. None of us needed rogue agents trying to retaliate against us for ruining whatever arrangement they had with the Reapers.
“Glad we could compromise,” Wells said with a smirk.
Yeah, this discussion went a lot smoother than the one we had in Vegas. We had a lot of issues to work through before we took action. Some wanted to jump head first and worry about how to fly later, while others knew we needed some sort of plan. At least this time, it wasn’t nearly as tension filled.
“Do you have any evidence yet?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes, I actually interviewed an agent,” Abby answered with a small smirk.
“When did you have the chance to do that?” I asked with my eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Do you really think a private snorkeling tour takes six hours?” she asked.
“Damn it, Abby, tell us it was at least worth breaking the one rule we made, twice over,” I growled. This woman was going to drive me absolutely insane, and yet I secretly loved it. I loved the way she could get under my skin. She challenged me and kept me on my toes, and I wanted more. I was a fucking sucker for her; it just sucked that eventually I’d lose her.
“Yes, I pretended to be a college student studying criminal justice. I made up some bullshit last-minute paper and I needed to interview law enforcement to find out more about policing and interacting with the community. I got the agent to admit that they do take some private contracts from citizens, and one of those is security. He bragged about accepting some contracts for a real-estate tycoon. He didn’t mention Ricketts by name, of course, but he didn’t have to. I could read between the lines.”
“Holy fuck.” Yates let out a whistle and then grinned. “You sure are impressive. I know you turned down Strong, but what about a bionic man?” Yates asked. Her wiggled his eyebrows. I was dangerously close to painting the surrounding skin purple with a bruise. No man liked to be reminded of rejection.
Abby let out a loud laugh with a snort at the end. “Yates, Strong is exactly my type, and if I turned him down, what makes you think I’m going to take you up on that offer?” she teased.
“Opposites attract,” he said with another grin. The group busted out into laughter. Even I had a hard time maintaining an annoyed expression. He was pathetic sometimes.
“Nice try. Next time you make a move, you may get a bionic hand to match your leg, got it?” she asked with a sickly sweet smile.
“Got it. Jeez, no joke. You and Strong are perfect for each other. Intimidating as a motherfucker,” he said and took a step backward.
I didn’t bother holding back a laugh that time.
“We need to load the boats up with our loadouts too, just in case we have to make a move tonight,” Guy said, bringing the conversation back to the mission.
He was right.
“I’ll get that taken care of as soon as we’re under the cover of darkness. Come on, babe, want to help me take inventory of the guns and rounds?” Wells asked.
“You know I find it fascinating,” she said with a wink.
I didn’t know if that was some weird talking dirty and roleplay combination they had going on, but I wanted it to stop.
They exited Guy’s suite, and the feeling of wanting to gag left with them.
