14 Ford

Ford

“Did this place used to have livestock?” I asked as Austin did his best to ignore me while sitting on the couch.

I was on the other one, in the spot that I couldn’t help but think of as mine now. It was as far away from Austin as I could get, but even then, it felt like it wasn’t enough space for him.

He had been slowly thawing toward me.

Very slowly.

I still couldn’t get a read on him, though. He’d be all charming smiles and false niceties one minute, then it was like a switch was flipped, and his eyes turned dark. If there was something that hit a nerve, he would shut down, and he didn’t bother to cover up the fact that it was something he wouldn’t talk about.

“Off limits,” he said grumpily, cutting his eyes to the side.

So much for thawing.

That was the response I received whenever something hit a little too close to those things he didn’t want to think about. I’d heard those two words nearly grunted at me too many times over the last few days. If I never heard them again, it would be too soon.

I just wanted to know things about him. Really, I wanted to make small talk more than anything. Sitting here in silence was driving me nuts. He wouldn’t even turn the TV on. Normally, I hated TV, too bright and too loud. I liked the quiet during my downtime. But with the pressure bearing down on me, the silence was not helping my stress level as we played the waiting game.

“Do you have a deck of cards?” I asked, leaving the livestock question alone for now.

“What?” he looked at me with a knitted brow.

“Cards? You know, playing cards? We could play poker or some sort of matching game. I don’t know.” I rolled my eyes. It was clear I was desperate if I was asking for a fucking deck of playing cards. “I just thought it would be better than sitting here doing nothing.”

“Nothin’ is fine with me.” He shot me a smirk, the one I’d dubbed his asshole one. A quick flick of the corners of his mouth upward with no real warmth in it.

“Austin, you can’t really mean th—”

“Yeah, I can,” he said, cutting me off without a care.

I had hoped the fresh air he’d gotten earlier in the day would have refreshed his mood. I should have known when he came back— smelling of sweaty man and frozen woods, not all that unattractive— pissed off and tossing the phone at me as he grumbled how I was safe to make “my call”— as he’d put it— his mood had not lifted while he was out there chopping wood.

I’d made “my call” with Austin practically breathing down my neck. He didn’t make me put it on speaker, but his ear was close enough to mine that I was sure he caught every word. If he thought it would irritate me, he didn’t get me at all. I wanted him to trust me. I had nothing to hide. So he could tear apart everything I owned and listen in on every call if he wanted to.

Violet had answered but the call had been brief. He’d called me by his younger brother’s name and told me to “keep my ass at school” before saying he’d call me later.

I took that to mean it wasn’t safe to talk. Which was a good sign, or so I hoped. It could have also meant that he had to go find Lipton or one of his lackeys to inform them that I had reached out to him.

I was trying hard not to think about it.

I trusted Violet.

Then again, I’d trusted Lipton for years, and I’d been proven a fool.

“Knock that shit off,” Austin said.

Taken off guard by his outburst, my head reared back as I blinked at him, my body strung tight and ready for a fight.

He rolled his eyes at me as if getting defensive was the dumbest reaction I could have had.

“I’ve seen you get that look,” he said, brow raised. There was a softness in his eyes that made me exhale and relax. “You’re in your head. Thinkin’ too hard. Probably blaming yourself for what’s happened and wanting to kick yourself in the balls for not seeing it.”

“You’re not wrong,” I said. “It’s hard not to go back and overanalyze every move that’s been made with me as the pawn. Hard not to question all my instincts.”

“I get it,” he said with a nod. His gaze went to the fire, hand knocking off his hat so he could run his fingers through his hair. Then he scrubbed both hands over his face.

I waited, feeling as if there was something bigger on the horizon.

He tilted his head back, hands sliding away from his face. His mouth opened, and I was nearly holding my breath while hanging onto the edge of my seat. I wanted this little piece he was about to share with me. I wanted it more than I’d wanted anything ever before.

Then the phone rang, the shrill sound shattering the moment we were about to have.

It was all I could do to hold back a curse.

“Unknown,” he said, eyes snapping from the phone screen to meet mine.

“Probably Violet using a burner.” I held my hand out, palm up. With hesitation, Austin answered it and put it on speaker before handing it over. I glared at him, but since I didn’t have anything to hide, I didn’t have a reason to hate him for wanting to listen in. “Hello?”

“Sounds weird hearing you answer the phone like a normal person,” Violet joked, but there was a tightness in his voice that reminded us of the gravity of the situation we were in. From his tone, it was clear he didn’t need an explanation. He knew I was innocent.

“If I make it out of this, it might be my life from now on,” I said back.

Austin and Violet snorted at the same time. I was only able to glare at one of them, so I did, hard. Austin’s eyes twinkled with taunting amusement as he flashed me a wide smile.

“Company?” Violet asked, sounding casual enough, but I knew what he was really asking. If I was safe. If it was okay to speak freely.

“Yes. I suppose you can call him my bodyguard.” Austin’s face fell, a hard, unhappy expression instantly taking over. I had a hunch he’d hate being referred to as my bodyguard, and I had been right. Maybe it was a low blow, but it gave me a small bit of satisfaction. If he was going to dish it out, he should be able to take it. I shot him one of his classic quick smirks. Two could play that game. It only made him narrow his eyes in my direction. “One of Reed’s men.”

“Rephrase that, please,” Austin cut in with an almost disturbed glare in my direction.

I blinked at him for a moment, replaying what I’d said. When I got it, I nearly busted out in laughter.

“He’s part of Reed’s team,” I clarified, raising a brow as if to ask if that was better. “I’m keeping them in the loop… though I don’t really know what the fuck is going on.”

I set the phone down on the corner of the coffee table between Austin and myself.

“I’m not sure what’s going on either,” Violet said. “I just know shit isn’t right. They’ve rounded up our team, and have us working in the office. Some agent named Ted Bluff is temporarily in charge of us, so I’ve been told, but I haven’t seen anyone other than that snake Rachel Timber. You know, Lipton’s assistant. She creeps me out. Anyway, they won’t let us do anything, not even touch the computers. It’s mostly a bunch of sitting around like they’re—”

“Keeping you on lockdown and watching you,” I said, knowing exactly what was going on. It sucked my team had been pulled into this.

“Yeah.” He huffed out a frustrated breath. “I don’t trust a single thing that’s going on. That’s why I told them I had to pick up my brother from school, and also why I’m currently driving to do just that in case they are monitoring my movements.”

Always thinking a step ahead. That was why I made him the team leader.

“Do you think anyone on the team is a part of it?” I asked, hating that I was putting him in that position.

“If they are, I’d be shocked. You have a loyal team.”

I knew it, but it was still nice to hear. At least I could say I had done one thing right.

“Has Lipton been around?” I asked, trying my hardest to keep my tone even.

Yeah, I was still being cautious. My head was a mess. Who could I trust? Was I making yet another bad call in thinking Violet was being honest?

No. I refused to let my mind go down that path. He was the first name that popped up in my mind when I thought about reaching out to someone from the team. Violet was loyal to me and as honest as they came.

“Hmm,” Violet said. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him. Only his assistant.”

I saw where I’d fucked up. Where it began… my downfall. Lipton had a hand in everything I did. He knew about my idea for the team. He helped make the team happen with his charm and connections. He positioned me right where I was so that I could fall when he pushed me. I was the distraction he needed to slip into the shadows.

Thank God, I never told him about my connection to Reed and his team. And I’d kept what little I knew about Reed’s technology a secret. At least I’d been smart that way.

“Does Lipton have anything to do with what’s going on?” Violet asked almost cautiously.

“Yeah, though I can’t prove anything yet. I know he’s behind this.”

“What do you need from me?” he asked, sounding like he was ready to jump in and help without any more information because he had all the trust and faith in me.

I met Austin’s eyes. For a flicker of a moment, a softness washed through his gaze as he stared back at me, his light brown eyes sparkling with a hint of gold.

“I need to get access for Reed’s team,” I said like it was something that could be done.

Violet choked out a stunned laugh.

“I’m sorry, what? How do you expect me to do that when they’re watching us like we’re…”

“Distributors of child pornography?” I said because that was the label they had me wearing. The thought made my stomach roil. Saying it out loud like that, even if it was to make a point, one that we all knew was fucked, nearly made me throw up.

Violet growled, and I could see his face in my mind. Lip curled, disgust weaved through every part of his expression. It would only last a second before he pulled his mask back down. I’d seen it more times than I could count over the years. That was how I knew he’d be good for my team and the reason I trusted him, because pure disgust like that couldn’t be faked.

“I need to know what to do,” Violet said, the edge in his voice still very much there, like a sharp knife ready to cut.

Austin’s brow went up, almost as if he was impressed by how loyal and dedicated to taking out the bad guy Violet was.

“We need proof of who planted those files,” I said. Not that he’d have the first clue how to go about finding out that info.

“How did you know… that the FBI was after you?” Violet asked, hesitation in his tone.

I sat back on the couch, rubbing at my brow as I tried to think. Something about his question twisted my gut into an uneasy knot. Same as it was doing for him, I imagined. And if the look on Austin’s face said anything, he was feeling the same.

“I got an alert,” I said, thinking back. It was all a bit hazy, and the dots might have only started to connect as I thought back. “I was at home, sitting in bed, and I got an alert on my phone about a file I’d requested access to. But the thing was, I’d been denied access two days earlier. I hadn’t pressed because I had plans of getting the information another way.”

Austin gave me a pointed look that I nearly rolled my eyes at like a child.

“Another legal way,” I stressed for Austin’s benefit. “The file would have just been more convenient. I thought it was strange that I’d been given access to it after I’d been denied, but what bothered me more was that the alert had come at three in the morning.”

“So you hopped out of bed,” Violet joked in a halfhearted tone. It wasn’t a funny situation, but humor was how he got through things sometimes.

Not unlike Austin, I guess, now that I thought about it.

“Of course I did,” I said, trying to smile through the stress of the situation. “I got on my laptop only to discover that all of my access had been pulled. All of it. Total lockout of FBI systems.”

“That means that you were probably locked out before you got that alert about the file,” Austin said, his eyes sharp and angry.

“Yep. Lipton knows me. Knows how I’d react. So when I got that alert, of course I couldn’t wait to look at it, and that was part of his plan. I did exactly what he wanted.” I paused closing my eyes to fight against the hurt, betrayal, and rage. “That was when shit just started popping up on my screen. Files that I didn’t recognize. I knew I was fucked. The names of some of those files alone told me what they had to do with. I was being set up, and I figured it wasn’t long before they came to take me in.”

“So you ran,” Austin said.

“So I ran,” I said with a small nod, managing a tiny smile in response to his understanding face.

“Makes sense,” Violet said.

“He wanted me to run,” I said as it clicked into place. “If I’m on the run, I look guilty, and I can’t deny any of it. Fuck!”

It was all part of his plan.

I shot up, rage rushing through my veins. I’d played right into his hand.

Lipton had somehow already set me up before he even sent me that alert. The files that downloaded to my computer were just a decoy. The FBI already had the incriminating information by that point.

“He knows me.” I felt the need to state it again as I locked eyes with Austin. I needed something from him right now, but I didn’t think I had the right to ask.

“Hey,” he said softly, Violet on the other end of the line temporarily forgotten. “We’re gonna fix this. We’re gonna take him down.”

I got lost in his eyes. He was genuine and open, and I wished I could hold on to this real, unguarded version of him.

As soon as he realized it, his expression slipped into the mask he wore most of the time.

“Violet,” Austin said, using a take-control voice I hadn’t heard from him.

“Yes, sir?” Violet said, responding to the authority in Austin’s tone. I could practically see his back going pin-straight as he spoke.

“Oh no,” Austin said, shaking his head. “Call me Austin, please.”

I snorted and shook my head.

“Austin, sir,” Violet shot back, a whisper of a laugh in his tone.

If those two ever got in a room together…

That was something I never wanted to deal with.

“We need to find out where those files came from and who sent the alert. And, fuck, how it got on Ford— I mean, Agent Priestley’s computer.”

“Not sure how I can do that,” Violet replied.

“Keep this phone on you. I’ll have someone get in touch with you,” Austin said.

“Got it.”

“You might not have a job if you do this,” I said, the guilt choking me. It was bad enough to have my life ruined, but Violet and the rest of the team? I couldn’t ask the same of them.

“I don’t want this job if this is the kind of bullshit it’s gonna pull on its good people,” Violet replied, making a smile faintly take over my face. “We’re behind you, sir. We always will be.”

“Keep it between us for now,” I ordered softly. I wanted to trust the rest of my team, and I think a huge part of me never lost that trust, but the fewer people I brought in, the easier it would be to keep things quiet.

“Got it.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll keep this phone for now. If I can’t answer, I’ll return the call to whatever number comes through.”

“I’ll let them know,” Austin said.

With a slight grunt, Violet was gone. He was never one for goodbyes.

“You have a plan?” I asked Austin, hope blossoming in my chest.

“Not exactly,” he said, cocky grin in place. “Unless you count me callin’ in people to make a plan.”