Chapter Twelve

Reed

"You have a what?"

My head tilts, my eyes scanning her from her toes to the top of her head, feeling one hundred percent certain that she didn't say what I thought she did.

"An informant."

The same words leave her lips again, and even as I watch them form the words, to the point there is no mistaking what I'm seeing matches up to what I am hearing, all I can say is, "Explain."

Mila rolls her eyes and shrugs, which instantly makes me sit farther up in my seat. I go to great lengths to keep everything I do secret and hidden as it should be. The fact that she's been talking to someone outside of me, makes me on edge.

"When I started looking more into these missing men, I started to find little clues around the last known sightings. They were small, very discreet, the police didn't even pick up on them. It was a name. I ran the name in my system and it pulled up, him." She clicks the computer and a young kid's face fills the screen overhead.

When I say kid, that's using the term loosely. He's a teen for sure, probably seventeen to nineteen, but the look on his face is one I know well. He's been hardened by the system and has seen the same evil we have.

"His name is Sebastian Provo. Estimated age is nineteen. We don't have an accurate age as he was in and out of foster care and juvenile detention before disappearing on a field trip that the local orphanage put together." She goes through his details before looking up at me.

"So are we linking him to the couple we've been following? I find it hard to believe they would have left a young man like him alive when he fits the physical description of their usual targets." My brow furrows, trying to see her logic in talking with this guy. Mia is smart and I trust she wouldn't purposely be talking to this guy somehow if it wasn't safe or important. I just don't get how he fits.

"He doesn't work for them. At the last location, he left a symbol in the dirt. A partial one anyways. I was able to decipher it and here—"

She clicks the screen and a new image pops up of a flag I know all too well. Accompanied by gruesome images of crimes that I've been studying for years. "He has ties to them?" I refuse to speak the name of the gang in the south that has destroyed its country and its people to the extent that they have.

"Forced to have ties with them." She nods. "He's from Florida originally. He needs protection. Our kind of protection. This couple is selling body parts and his crew has been responsible for the sales out of the country."

I eye the images and the notes, listening to Mila go over every reason why she trusts him. Little games she set up to see where his allegiance truly lies. "I'll reach out to Ciaran. They're already moving in to take out this couple, that feat alone is costing them almost a month's time. Let me get them this info so they can prepare."

"Already done." Mila's eyes brighten as she taps her fingers on the screen and all the info is sent. My mouth pops open and I'm sure the look on my face is ridiculous. Mila rolls her shoulders back. "Ciaran said I can always report to him as well if I have information. It's just quicker to send it to him now that you approve."

My gaze falls to the floor, and for a few seconds, my breaths become choppy and strained. I recognize the feeling of not being in control as it settles around me. "Don't do it again." I throw her way before stomping out and into the fresh air.

My lungs spasm once I'm in the open and sweat dots the back of my neck. My gut swirls while I fight to breathe in and out, pushing back the intrusive thoughts wanting to fight their way to my subconscious.

"Reed?" Mila's voice is quiet, and her eyes are hard when I turn to look at her.

"I need a second." I need an hour. I need not to think about her going against the rules and the path I've set for myself. I don't care that she talks to her family, but I have a protocol I follow. A system that feeds my urges and my need for control. She went around that. Mila did something on her own. I don't want to hinder her or hold her back from her decisions, I realize this while I'm struggling. I'm just not ready to give up all the control I have over this aspect of my life as the ghost.

"Did I do something wrong?" Her voice is hollow.

I shake my head no, even while my mind screams yes. I don't want to put the burden of my needs on her. I don't want her to feel insignificant to the work she has proven she can do. "Please, Mila, I just need some space."

Her mouth opens and closes. Her hand reaches out to me, before she pulls it back again. My back goes rigid when she starts to finally walk away, giving me the space I need. Only I don't like her leaving either and that confuses me even more. I don't want to hurt her. I never want her to think she has little importance to me or that a simple misunderstanding could ruin what we have. We've already been apart before and now that I have her, now that she's assured me over and over she won't leave, I need to start believing her. Mila wouldn't hurt me. She loves me. My heart physically aches at the thought that I reach my hand up to grab at my chest. I've never felt this pain, this feeling of my chest being too full that I could claw at it while at the same time cherish it.

Mila is ten steps from the door to the house when I run up behind her and my arms circle her waist, pulling her body into mine. "I'm sorry."

I feel the tension leave her easily as soon as I utter the words. Mila turns in my arms, her own circling my waist while she hugs me. "I am too. I shouldn't just do things without asking when it comes to your work."

"I trust you." My lips move against her hair as I speak the words, reassuring her and myself.

"I know, Reed. But still, I should be more considerate too. As much as I want to help, it is still your protocol and decisions."

I didn't think my chest could get any tighter until she said those words, the ones I needed to hear. There wasn't judgment in her tone or disapproval. It hits me again how much she accepts me for who I am.

"We should go call Ciaran to update him and see where they're at. The window of opportunity is small and now they have to keep this guy alive."

Mila backs up, her face is back to business while she nods along with my words. "I can't believe they've been waiting for almost a month. It probably feels like hell in the area of the desert they're in."

It took a month for us to get a solid lead on the missing young men in the southern Nevada area. They weren't partiers, or into illegal activities. By their families' accounts, they were normal, college-aged males who were out hiking or doing some sort of exercise or running errands when they disappeared. Mila started gathering intel and soon we found more than the five that had been reported. It was around that time Mila must have started talking to Provo who let her know what was happening to these men and how much their organs and skin were going for on the black market. We watched hours of surveillance videos until we found the most unlikely of subjects. Each man made contact first with an elderly woman and helped her to a car. A few minutes later, they are seen leaving and she drives away. Luckily, with Rogue intelligence, we were able to catch the woman driving over to a curb where an elderly man slides in and they take off, following the young men.

We called Rogue and sent them the intel. Their unit has been lounging in the desert since then, while we waited for the couple to make another move. I'm not sure if something spooked them or if one of them maybe fell ill, but their hunting season was put on hold for a few weeks, until now.

Mila and I head inside and I pull up my computer while she settles on the couch. I check over their surveillance and the new info Mila had from Provo. Hopefully Rogue is ready to take home a few new targets.

Grabbing my phone, I call Ciaran and he answers on the second ring.

"Reed," he says my name and static crackles between us.

"They're clocked at three miles out. Get your team mobilized. Remember, Sebastian Provo gets out alive. We need him to get to the holding place." I give the instructions that seem most plausible from what I can see on my screen.

"That's your little friend, right?" Ciaran scoffs, and I hear him mumble something to someone else.

I feel eyes on me, and when I look over at her, mischief dances in her eyes. My doll is pretty proud of herself. "Technically, he's Mila's friend. For now."

I hang up and toss the burner on the table. They need to concentrate, and I think, with the way Mila's tongue drags across her bottom lip, my attention might be needed elsewhere.