“Cyrus had an aptitude,” Landon muttered. “Not like it was my decision. All of this was in place long before I arrived. I just followed the orders I was given.” He pointed to War and Jinx. “Basically, Cyrus is a combination of you two. He has lethal skills that were honed by our government, and he has Ali’s tech gifts. He was perfect.”
“Oh, yes, perfect,” Jinx agreed with a shake of his head. “Right up until the point when he went rogue and started killing people and hunting Ali. Right up until then, he was just an absolute rock star.”
Another loud clearing of Landon’s throat. “Yes, until then…though, we do not have concrete proof that he is the man behind—”
“Why the hell haven’t you told Ali?” Jinx cut through Landon’s words. “Why are you standing here telling us instead of her?” This bastard was driving him crazy. “Ali’s got a stalker. A man who has killed. You seem to know exactly who he is, only instead of telling Ali this rather important intel, you are deliberately keeping her in the dark. Makes zero sense to me.” He shouldered past Landon, a hard hit with his shoulder against the other man’s body because he was done with this BS.
“It makes sense…” War’s low voice stopped him just as Jinx was about to storm from the office. “If Landon doesn’t trust Ali.”
Jinx swung back around. “What in the hell? Are you kidding me?” War had better be kidding. Sure, he wasn’t normally a kidder, but this time, he’d better be. “Ali is the victim! She needs protection. She needs her team. She needs—”
“If Ali finds out the identity of this man, there is concern—from my supervisors,” Landon rushed to clarify. “There is concern from them that she might…join him.”
“Join him?” Jinx’s temples throbbed. “As in…what? Cross over to the dark side?” He laughed, but the sound was mocking. “This is Ali. She doesn’t go dark. She doesn’t do shit like that.”
“She loved him when she was seventeen. Loved him so much that she broke the law for him, several times. I believe that Ali didn’t have contact with him when she started working for the government, but I have no actual proof of that. She’s very good, and if Ali wanted to hide her interactions with him, I suspect that she could have done so.”
He wasn’t believing this—
“And Ali says that she is being stalked but…again, I don’t have concrete proof. I do know that the target who was killed on her last mission—he should have been safe. Ali knew how to get to him. Ali was the one with that intel. And then, in a blink, he was dead.”
War swore. Low and viciously.
Jinx didn’t say a word. He was too busy choking down rage.
“It’s a possibility that I—and my supervisors—could not overlook.” Landon’s spine was as stiff as his voice. “So we thought it prudent to wait and watch to see what would happen next.”
Jinx charged back to him. “Ali was being terrorized. Instead of helping her, you left her on her own because you thought you could pull in your missing agent.” Yeah, he could connect the dots, no problem. She’d been the lure. “Didn’t matter the danger to her, you thought you could use her to get back what you’d lost.”
“I did not specifically lose him,” Landon blustered.
He wanted to knock out the asshole. “You still want to use her.” Now it all made sense. “That’s why you’re here telling me and War this crap. You think we’ll side with you. You think we’ll say, sure, yes, let’s take down this mysterious big, bad wolf. You think we’ll help you—”
“You did work for the organization—”
“Go screw yourself. Long and hard. Or short and fast. I don’t really care which. Just go screw yourself. I am helping Ali. I’m telling her about this Cyrus jackass. I am not hanging her out to dry.”
“Then you’ll be hanging your brother out to dry, Jinx. I’ve learned that the Feds are about to close in on him. They have enough evidence to send Ramsey away for a very long time.”
The throbbing in Jinx’s temples got worse. A thousand times worse.
“Of course, I could help out with that. I mean, my supervisors could. They are the ones who told me to come to you with this offer. You work with me—keep this quiet for a little bit longer—and your brother will be given that second shot that you wanted. He’ll have to make some concessions, you know. Provide evidence, turn on his associates. But we both know a suitable arrangement can be reached…and all you have to do is—”
Lie to Ali.
Turn on Ali.
Use Ali.
Fuck.
Chapter Twelve
“Tell me again why the hell we’re doing this.” Odin’s face was locked in especially tense lines, and his voice had gone even harder than normal.
Ali sighed. “I told you that you did not need to tag along with me.”
“I’m supposed to be your protection for the day. You know that.”
What she knew was that Jinx had left her high and dry at the fancy beach house. She’d been less than pleased, to put it mildly. “He and War cut me out of my own case.”
Odin didn’t deny the charge. “A development came up. You know Jinx will update you as soon as—”
A door opened beside them. A door that led to the shady bar that was owned by Ramsey.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” A rough, angry voice.
And it’s the devil himself.
“I’m trying to figure out why we’re here, too,” Odin muttered.
Ali squared her shoulders and turned to face the man who stood glaring in the doorway of the bar. “Ramsey! Just the person I was hoping to see.”
His gaze tracked over her, then to Odin. Then back to her. “Where is Jinx?”
Cutting me out of the case. But I have some work to do myself so… “You know, around.” She motioned vaguely. “I was hoping to catch you at a non-busy time.” She’d figured the place would be deserted so early in the day.
His eyes narrowed on her. “How the hell did you know I was even here?”
Technically, she hadn’t known. She had planned for a small bit of B&E in order to get inside and do a little recon work. But since the bar wasn’t as empty as she’d hoped, she’d settle for talking to Ramsey.
“Told you this was a bad idea,” Odin grumbled.
“It’s not nice to say ‘I told you so,’” Ali chided him. “We’ve been over this before.” She didn’t let her gaze shift from Ramsey. Now that she studied him closely, she did notice some similarities to Jinx. Their eyes were different—his were dark while Jinx had that bright, bright blue. Same hair, though. Thick and black. Same hard jaw. Same—
“There a reason you’re staring so hard at me?”
Her chin notched. “I’d like to speak privately with you.”
“Yeah, that’s cute. See…Jinx made it clear I wasn’t supposed to do anything with you. Not supposed to look at you, not supposed to touch you, not supposed to let any of my big, bad world near you.” He shrugged. “So how about you load up with Odin, and get the hell off my property?”