22. Zach

TWENTY-TWO

Zach

"Play it again," Luca demanded, hunched in front of the laptop.

"What do you see?" The camera was behind the mayor, and all I could see was his stiff shoulders—a mayor on the edge—and Indigo opposite, laying a warning on him about his town. That was bad enough, but Luca had a sixth sense for what people really meant, and he was narrow-eyed and focused.

As the surveillance footage from their meeting played out on the screen, I analyzed each moment of the tense exchange between Indigo and the mayor. Their voices echoed through the room, filling the space with a combination of her threats and his apologies.

Indigo leaned forward, her gaze piercing as she fixed the mayor with an inscrutable stare. "You understand the stakes here, Mayor," she murmured, her tone deceptively calm. "Your town is a valuable asset for our network and is rewarded as such, but we need your cooperation to ensure that things run smoothly. What happened with the sheriff getting involved in our business needs to be dealt with."

"He was merely dealing with a bar fight."

"Asking questions of my men," Indigo corrected.

Mayor Thomas shifted in his seat, the lines of worry etched deep into his brow. "He knows what he did. He won't do it again."

"You're right. He won't."

"Wait, you don't have to hurt him."

"Sometimes it's the only way," Indigo offered and sat back in her chair. She was flanked by two guards who were taking their role of intimidation seriously: looming over her like a brick wall, both armed to the hilt.

"Sheriff Allinson is a family man. He didn't realize the bar fight was with one of your men."

"So, the sheriff doesn't know what's happening in his own town?" She sounded as if she was having a gentle chat about the weather.

"Of course he does, but after you dumped a man dead in the road, the town is restless, and the sheriff was concerned that?—"

"I'm not interested in excuses."

"I've done everything you've asked," the mayor replied, his voice tinged with a note of desperation. "But I can't keep covering for you if things go south or if you hurt more people. My constituents are scared, and I can't afford to lose their trust."

Indigo's lips curved into a predatory smile. "I'm well aware of the pressure you're under, Mayor," she said, her voice dripping with menace. "But, as long as you keep your sheriff under control and continue to play ball, your town will remain under our protection."

The mayor's shoulders slumped, his resolve crumbling under the weight of Indigo's threats. "I'll do what I can to keep things under control," he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. "But you must understand, I can't keep this up forever. Eventually, people will ask questions, and I won't be able to cover for you anymore."

Indigo's expression hardened, her features carved from stone as she leaned back in her chair. "I suggest you make it work, Mayor," she snapped, her patience clearly wearing thin. "Because if you can't keep your sheriff or the rest of your shithole town in line, we'll find someone who can."

The mayor tensed again. "I'll do my best," he muttered, his voice tinged with resignation. "But you have to promise me, none of your guys start fights in our bars. I can't handle any more curveballs."

"Actions speak louder than words," Indigo snarled. "If you fail to control your town, I'm here to tell you there will be consequences. "

With that ominous warning hanging in the air, Indigo rose from her seat, her presence looming large over the mayor as she left with the guards following her. As the door closed behind her, the mayor slumped back in his chair, a weary sigh escaping his lips.

I exchanged a glance with Luca, who rewound to the " shithole town " comment.

"She's running scared," Luca murmured.

"She doesn't look scared."

"No, see, the way she says ‘I'm here to tell you' is just that—she's been warned to keep control, and she's passing that down the line.

"Which means she's not so much Kozlov's right-hand woman with her own agency, but just another lackey?"

Luca nodded and reached for the soda he had balanced on the arm of the sofa. "That's what it looks like to me."

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of frustration at the thought of Indigo being nothing more than a pawn in Kozlov's game. We'd been tracking her movements for weeks, hoping to glean some insight into her role within the organization. But if she was just another cog in the machine, it raised questions about the true power dynamics at play. Kozlov was the man to take down.

"So, what's our next move?" Luca asked, shifting my focus back to the task at hand.

"We wait on Kai coming back with intel, and try not to dwell on Indigo's insignificance in the grand scheme of things. There's still plenty of loose ends to tie up, and our window of opportunity is rapidly closing before Kai is found out."

"You're worried about Kai?" Luca took a sip of his soda.

"He's a loose cannon," I said and waited for Luca to agree.

"I think you underestimate him. A loose cannon, yeah, but he loves this undercover shit, and there's no way he'd do anything to jeopardize you."

"What do you mean?"

"He fucks up, it puts you in the crosshairs, and man, that man is so far gone on you."

"He's not," I spluttered, and Luca rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, dude, whatever." Then his eyes narrowed as he stared back at the screen and contemplated our options. "We need to keep digging," he replied, his voice firm with determination. "Let's start with the surveillance photos you took."

I scrolled to the folder. "We have the ones that the security cameras caught outside the town hall and stores. Security, a man that comm identified as Viper's co-pilot, Viper himself plus that Bulldog idiot. Until Kai links us in, we can't dig into anything else there, and Kozlov has NSA levels of encryption on his data."

"I hate sitting on my ass doing fuck all." Luca was frustrated as he crumpled his can .

"You're here to keep the mayor honest."

Luca sighed. "I say boo, and he nearly pisses himself. Trust me, he's staying honest." He stood and picked up another soda. "Talking of which, I need to leave in ten, I've got mayoral babysitting to do."

My thoughts kept drifting back to Kai. For the first time, I found myself consumed by worry for my partner, a feeling that cut deeper than any professional concern. Kai's safety weighed on my mind, a constant, nagging presence that refused to be ignored. Had Kai planted the chip without raising suspicion? I wished I could reach out, to check in with him, but I knew that wasn't an option so I paced for a while.

My earpiece buzzed. "Sierra Base to Sierra Two?" Ethan's voice was as clear as if he were in the next room.

"Sierra Two receiving."

"It's in place and reading."

"Copy."

I breathed a sigh of relief—if the chip was planted and data was being read, then that meant it hadn't been found yet, so Kai had been safe when he'd placed it.

This wasn't proof of life, but it was enough to take the edge off.

Images began to arrive in the secure inbox—stills from the internal security cameras that were being downloaded to Swim Central. Some had notes—IDs that Ethan and the team had made .

"Sierra Base to Sierra Two," Ethan said, his tone urgent on the secure line.

"Go ahead Sierra Base," I responded.

"This isn't good," he said, and Luca glanced up from the photos he was skimming on his tablet. What? he mouthed.

"Patching you in with Sierra Six," I warned.

"Sierra Six comm live," Luca acknowledged.

"Okay, this photo…" A photo appeared front and center on my screen, and Luca sat next to me again. A security still time-stamped an hour ago showed the side profile of Kai, plus a full face of a big man, light hair in this black and white surveillance world, who was holding on to Kai's arm, bent over him, scowling. The touch was territorial.

I hated it.

"Who is it?"

"Facial rec puts this as Kozlov's nephew—the sister's kid."

Luca whistled. "It's a family affair, then?"

"What do we know about him?" And why does Ethan sound stressed?

"Former VDV." Russian Airborne troops. "This man is a ghost, left VDV, turned up again in… but this isn't good." Ethan sounded frustrated. "Shit!"

Good? The man was gripping Kai's arm as if he was just about to drag him outside and… kill him? Worse?

"Shit, what?" I snapped, aware that Ethan using the word shit with that much shock in the single syllable couldn't be a good thing.

"He has a redacted CIA file. He's… I need to run this up to Sanctuary ops, this doesn't look good. Hold…"

Luca went out to the kitchen and came back with coffee, but I couldn't face drinking when my stomach was in knots. Why was a former Russian military with a redacted CIA file working alongside his homicidal uncle, and near my team?

My Kai.