32 Austin

Austin

For all of the intensity we had getting ready to raid Lipton’s vacation house, the outcome was less than thrilling.

The place was empty. We went room by room, then went back through, checking walls and closets and under beds.

Fucking empty.

There was food in the fridge, dirty dishes in the sink, and the sheets were rumpled.

He’d been staying here, sleeping in luxury while Ford had nearly died at the hands of mercenaries. While my fucking house got broken into and burned down. While people were being kidnapped and abused under his orders.

Half of us stood in the massive living room, looking at each other with a stupid kind of clueless expression that couldn’t be helped.

Ford had wanted so badly for Lipton to be here, and though he had been at one point, he wasn’t now. It sucked that we likely missed him within twenty-four hours. A fucking day.

An uneasy feeling kicked in my gut.

Something wasn’t right.

“You feel it too,” Jameson said, pressing his shoulder into mine. A move that threw me for a minute. Though we’d had that bonding talk, I didn’t think it had changed much.

“Yeah,” I said back, though it hadn’t really sounded like a question. “What is it about this house that we’re missing?”

“Hmm,” he replied deeply, eyes scanning the room with sharp focus.

“What are we doing?” Dune said as he came up behind me. Campbell and Carver from Ford’s team were right behind him, wearing matching curious looks as I moved around the room, scanning the three doorways.

“Looking for something,” I said as I moved into the hall. The sound of thumping boots behind me gave me the security of knowing I had backup.

I pulled my glove off with my teeth, then ran my freed hand along the wall. I tuned my ears, listening to the near-silent sound.

“This hall leads to the office and that’s all.” I turned, looking back down the hall. “This doesn’t seem right.”

I spun around, taking wide steps to get to the office. I stomped over the door that they’d broken down to get in here when they first cleared the house. Look at that, we hadn’t needed the code to get in. I blinked at the ugly as fuck room for a second before I started feeling along the wall.

Catching Jameson’s eyes, I pointed and gave a nod of my head.

There was something behind this wall. There had to be. Unless whoever made this house decided to leave a bunch of dead space hidden behind the hall and the outside of the house, there had to be something behind this fucking wall.

How did we get into it? Where was the entrance?

The wall only held a few big paintings, and it was covered in wallpaper with a crazy enough pattern that a strange seam wouldn’t be seen unless you were looking close enough. There was an uncomfortable-looking couch placed in the middle with a small side table.

Fuck yes!

My hands pressed against a section of the wall where I saw a split that seemed out of the ordinary.

Nothing happened. I let out a frustrated growl.

“There’s got to be a release somewhere in this room,” I said as I started lifting paintings off the wall.

I was convinced there was a release here. If not, then it was likely some remote open and I wasn’t trying to go through the hassle of figuring that out, even if we did have Milo with us to help.

There was nothing under the paintings. I was ten seconds away from finding an ax and breaking through the wall. I took a calming breath and scanned the room again.

Carver and Dune were tossing books off the shelves with the finesse of feral animals. As I crossed the room to the big mahogany desk, I witnessed Jameson yanking a lamp from a side table next to the couch, pulling so hard the cord whipped wildly as it ripped away from the socket. He began stripping the table next, tearing out the drawers and flipping it over just to check the underside.

My eyes scanned the contents of the desk. A gold clock that looked old. Two fancy pens in special holders, also gold. A lamp that wasn’t anything special. Huddled together in the left corner was a glass paperweight, a letter opener that appeared to have diamonds embedded on the handle, and a plain ceramic bowl which held a penny. Yep, one single penny. That was fucking weird. I tipped it over, but it didn’t seem to be anything of use. So then I started pulling drawers, running my fingers over every space I could reach, looking for buttons on the underside or a false bottom. No luck on the left side.

The slim drawer centered in the middle of the desk was locked. I yanked hard, hoping that I could break it with my strength, but of course, that didn’t work. Without hesitation, I snatched up the letter opener and began to pick at the keyhole. When that didn’t work, I shoved the letter opener into the slit on the top of the drawer and forced the space wider until I heard a metal clang and a pop. The letter opener fell to the ground as I ripped the drawer open. The moment my fingers curled under the lip of the desk, I felt it, the button no bigger than a fingertip. Without another thought, I pressed it, not even giving it a second thought. It could have been the key to blowing up the house instead of opening the door.

I couldn’t help but grin when a section of the wall popped open like a door with a small hiss. Thank fuck.

At the sound, everyone stopped looking and followed me to the door.

A pat on my shoulder told me the team behind me was ready to go.

Gun raised, I headed into the room on the other side.

“Fuck,” I said as I took in the hidden office. I would have put money on this being the one that held everything Lipton didn’t want the FBI to know about.

Shit.

There were screens on one wall, thankfully blank at the moment. Another wall held built-in shelves full of what I was going to assume were ledgers, a dozen or so cardboard boxes, rows of disks in cases, and enough VHS tapes to tell me that this operation had been going for a long fucking time.

I pushed down the sickening thoughts.

All I had to do was catch Lipton. Then I could end him because I knew there was enough in this room to prove Ford had been set up.

“There,” I said pointing at the metal door on the opposite side that was less hidden than the one we’d come through.

We moved further into the room almost as one.

Dread set deep in my gut as I turned the handle and pushed.

The heavy door opened slowly, revealing a concrete room. The smell of stale blood and rot and death wafted out, nearly making me gag. I pushed it down and stepped inside.

In the middle, a man hung by his arms. He was still as a statue with his head down, and I would have sworn he wasn’t alive.

“Vi!” Carver yelled.

“Violet?” I clarified, but Carver didn’t respond to me. He was frantically trying to get the man down.

“Yeah,” Campbell answered me as she moved to help Carver. It was terrifying the way she popped up out of nowhere. She was the silent and deadly type. “Is he breathing?”

Dune went to help them get Violet down, which was probably a good thing since Violet looked as tall and built as Dune.

I turned away, knowing they had it. I kept my eyes open. I wasn’t about to be caught off guard.

Dune would check the man over. I hoped Violet wasn’t dead.

Violet let out a long whimper as they lowered him to the ground. I glanced at the action and nearly cringed when I took in his visible injuries. His nose was broken, probably his eye socket, and maybe his jaw. His face was a puffy, bloody mess of different shades. Both eyes were swollen shut. And that was just what I could see.

His hand reached out and blindly latched onto Dune’s tactical vest.

“I didn’t tell,” he rasped out and it sounded wet. “I didn’t…”

“Shhh,” Dune said softly as he grabbed Violet’s hand and held it while he used his other one to check over the severely injured man.

Ford was right. His man didn’t sell him out. I wished I hadn’t even put that doubt in his mind for a second. Ford’s team was really as trustworthy as mine. Something like pride welled inside of me for just a second. Ford was a good man, and the loyalty of his people only proved it.

“Where is Lipton?” I asked in a whisper to Jameson, who was still with me.

His lips turned down in a frown.

He wasn’t here, I could feel it.

“Fuck!” I roared as I tossed my fist at the concrete wall.

Yeah, it was a dumb move, but I was so fucking frustrated. We had been so close. So fucking close.

“The hell?” Ford said from the doorway. His eyes unhappily zeroed in on me. “Don’t.”

He rushed over to me. Jameson stepped back with an amused snort, and if I was willing to look away from Ford’s devastatingly handsome face, I would have glared at the fucker.

“You okay?” Ford said in a softer tone, pulling my hand up to check it over.

“Fine,” I choked out. I mean, it was technically a lie, but also, it didn’t count because I’d eventually be okay. Might take a minute or two for the throbbing pain to recede and for the embarrassment of my childish action to fade. I hadn’t broken it, so I’d be fine soon enough.

“He’s not worth it,” he said softly as he brought my hand up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss against my knuckles.

I didn’t think I was the type of dude to swoon, but my heart was feeling quite melty in my chest and my knees had gone a little weak.

“Violet,” I croaked out. I wasn’t afraid to show affection in front of other people— at least, I didn’t think I was— but I figured now we needed to focus on other things. Bigger things. More life-threatening things.

My hand raised, and I pointed to the man on the ground with Dune leaning over him. Dune’s lips moved, but whatever he was saying was too low for us to hear.

The room became full as both teams filed in. Half of them circled around Violet.

Ford let go of my hand as he took a step forward. Before he could get closer, Carver locked eyes with him and headed our way.

“Dune says we need to get Violet to a hospital,” Carver said once he made it to our little group.

Reed, who was standing next to me now, shared a look with Ford. Normally, getting someone to a hospital and keeping things quiet would have been easily done. However, we didn’t have a badge to throw around because Ford was a wanted man, and his team wasn’t supposed to be in the field. We couldn’t risk exposing them and putting a bigger target on their backs. And Reed couldn’t do his normal thing to get things taken care of quietly, because we couldn’t risk being tied to Violet and Ford. It would be all over for us then. Somehow, we’d managed to stay under the radar during this whole thing. We needed to keep doing that.

So it was going to be tough to get Violet the care he needed and do it quietly.

That didn’t mean it was impossible. We just had to pool our resources and use every contact we could think of.

“I’ll take him,” Harlow, from Ford’s team, spoke up. “If I go alone with him to the hospital, I can explain the circumstances and keep the local police at bay for a bit. I can flash my badge.” He sent Ford a cheeky smile, and I had to bite the inside of my lip to stop from smirking.

“I don’t always do that,” Ford grumbled like a pouty child. It was adorable.

“I’ll get him seen by a professional and buy us some time. If they come for me, I’ll just explain that I got a tip where Violet was and I went after him on my own.”

“I’m going with you.” Dune had an edge to his tone that dared anyone to argue with him. “That way, I’ll be there if something happens on the way to the hospital.”

Harlow gave Dune a curt nod.

“I’ll follow you,” Sawyer spoke up. “I’ll keep lookout outside and be ready if we need to go quick.”

My eyes were glued to Ford. His jaw ticked and his eyes were full of rage. He balled his fist as Dune and Harlow lifted Violet and carefully carried him out of the room.

I slipped my hand into Ford’s and gave him what I hoped was a comforting squeeze. He squeezed me back, but his jaw didn’t unclench.

This was killing him to be their leader and not be able to be there when one of them was down. That he couldn’t save his agent from what he’d been through, and not be able to be there for him now.

“We’ll get him,” I promised. I’d said it. I couldn’t take it back.

So there was only one thing left for me to do.

Get that fucker Lipton and take him down.