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“You’re probably right,” Sinclair agreed. He turned to Mac. “You must be relieved, Mac. This takes the pressure off. Once these guys are in custody, you’ll be safe.”
She sent him a quick smile. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet, and I don’t have an apartment to go back to but, yeah, it’s good.”
A car pulled up to the curb and a short, stocky man got out. “That’s my NCIS partner, Ron Daily,” Sinclair said by way of introduction. Everyone shook hands.
Sinclair tapped the file against his leg. “Okay then. Let me get in there and get started with Ben. Thanks for trusting me with this. I appreciate it. I’ve already spoken to my boss, and he is coordinating with some of the top officials at CGIS. We’ll take it from here.”
Dismissed. Mac would normally argue about it, but what did it matter? She was too close to things, so they weren’t going to let her work it anyway. Cross would find someone to represent CGIS during the interviews, and Sinclair would get all the information he needed. At least, she hoped he would.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked as they piled into the SUV.
“The hangar,” Cain said. “We still have to find the motherboards and figure out who TigerKing is.”
“Is it alright if I come along?” She looked at Cain, who gave her a quick nod.
“We need all the help we can get. Besides, Grady, Cameron, and the others from Owens’s team aren’t in custody yet. We need eyes on you.”
With that settled, she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Her body was sore and her mind was heavy, and she was barely able to hold her head upright. After the drive-by shooting last night, she couldn’t sleep. She just kept replaying it in her mind. What if Dane hadn’t grabbed her in time? Or worse, what if he’d been shot? That had caused more than a little anxiety.
They’d only known each other for a couple of days, but she couldn’t believe how much she liked him. Damn, he’d gotten under her skin. Dane was a good man. A strong man that she could draw strength from when she needed it. He was supportive and kind. He had a great sense of humor, and he was hot as hell. He even liked cats. She was sure she’d heard him talking to Beans. That had been the icing on the cake.
Too bad they couldn’t date. Not only had she done that in the past and it blew up in her face, but now she no longer had a team. With everything that had happened, she would be under scrutiny for a long time to come. Her boss had been a crook, and her partner had been undercover with another agency, and she had been unaware. Yeah, there was no coming back from the office gossip around that stuff. She’d end up bringing Dane down with her. A clean start was the only way. CGIS had offices all over, didn’t they?
But first things first. They had to find the motherboards. If they could figure out who the mastermind was, then they could find the stolen merchandise.
That thought niggled again. A tickle in the back of her brain. Something she knew… but remained just out of reach.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Dane sat down at his desk and winced. A sharp tearing sensation rippled through his obliques, making him hiss quietly. He checked the time and saw it was too early for his next dose of Advil.Dammit.He was also slightly pissed off that Mac had sat down next to Cass, which was stupid. What the hell? Were they in grade school? It was ridiculous, yet he was grumpy about it. He couldn’t even blame it on needing sleep. He’d slept more last night than he had in the last few months.
He sent a text to his neighbor, Mrs. Palakiko, asking about Beans. He never thought of himself as a cat guy, but once Beans had shown up on his doorstep and refused to leave, well, he was a goner. He never realized how much company a cat could be, or how soothing it was to sit with Beans on his lap purring. He needed that now. The purr. It relaxed him.
He got up, went back to the kitchen, and poured himself a coffee. Jace had just made a fresh pot and the aroma was nearly nirvana. Cain walked out of his office. Dane raised his cup and his eyebrows, but Cain shook his head no.
Tac wandered over and poured a cup. “I need this today.”
“I hear that,” Dane agreed.
“I just got off the phone with Bertrand,” Cain addressed the occupants of the room, which got everyone’s attention quickly. “He’s happy that we figured out what Craig Owens was up to, and he’s thrilled it’s a joint Navy/Coast Guard ring because then no one is going to want to bash the other in the press and in Washington. But…he’s less happy that we haven’t found the motherboards.”
Dane and Tac both returned to their desks and sat. Bertrand not being happy was understandable, and par for the course. Dane was pissed about that too.
Cain went to the front of the room by the whiteboard so he could address all of them. “By the way,” Cain added, “Sinclair pulled off the raid and found some of the missing weapons with help from one of the other Coast Guard Special Ops teams. That pleased Bertrand, taking some of the pressure off us.”
“Thank fuck,” Dane muttered.
Cain shot him a side-eye glance, then continued. “They arrested Cameron, Grady, and Anderson. They were hiding out with the weapons. They also arrested Probert over on Kauai.”
“Why didn’t we do the raid?” Jace asked.
“Because it’s a waste of time. We knew the motherboards wouldn’t be there,” Dane said and blew on his coffee. “Did they say why they shot at us? It seems like such a stupid move.”
“Yeah, it was,” Cain agreed “But they were desperate. Apparently, they figured without the file, there was no real evidence against them. They ditched the bike and got rid of everything else and were in the process of getting rid of the weapons when the raid happened. According to Sinclair, Cameron thought without evidence they might be kicked out of the Coast Guard but at least they wouldn’t go to jail.”
Cass piped up. “So, are we thinking that Cross is the head of the snake? That he organized stealing the weapons and getting them to Oahu to sell them?”
That was the million-dollar question.
