Chapter 13

As he made his way down the stairs, Adam wasn't thrilled. Well, he was happy, but not with the situation. When he stepped into the living area, he got a shit-eating grin from Graeme.

"Shut up," Adam said with little heat.

He chuckled. "No judgment from me, mate. Even though I lost some money?—"

"Dammit, Del told you guys to stop making bets on our sex lives."

He continued on as if Adam hadn't spoken. "And Autumn is going to be insufferable about this. Still, I'm glad you finally got her back."

"I'm not sure if I have her back."

His smile dissolved. "What do you mean by that?"

"She doesn't want any declarations. At least not right now."

"Ah, the rational side of her. That makes sense. You all are in an intense situation. Remember Speed?"

"We are not in a Keanu Reeves movie. This is real life."

"I understand that, mate. But women like big declarations."

"So, you're wise to women now?"

Graeme snorts. "Well, I have mine, right? So maybe I can give you some advice."

Adam wanted to tell his friend to mind his own damned business, but Graeme had a point. The man did get Elle to marry him.

Adam sighed. "I don't have any problems with my feelings. I've loved her for years."

There was a beat of silence. He knew it put a little too much emotion in the declaration, but it was hard to keep it under wraps.

"But it's about what she's ready to hear?"

Adam nodded once. "I told her how I feel and said I would wait."

"Just don't leave it too long, mate. Don't be pushy because that's not the right thing to do."

"Waiting is going to be a pain in the ass."

His friend barked out a laugh. "She cares for you. You just have to prove to her that her feelings are right and just."

Another nod, but before he could ask another question, their walkies went off.

"On my way up with information," Autumn said.

"What do you think the story is about her and Ian?"

Adam glanced at him. "Not sure. They seem to be close, but platonically."

"Yeah. There were grumblings."

"Stop betting."

The way the Scotsman's eyes danced told Adam that Graeme wasn't about to stop. None of them were…the buttheads. Adam would have to deal with it when he was team leader, but right now, he didn't care. He wanted this case over so he could prove to Jin it wasn't the situation.

The door blew open, revealing Charity, followed by her husband TJ, and finally Autumn.

"Hey, there," Graeme stood. "What's up?"

"Well, I wanted to text about it, but Autumn insisted that I come here to talk to you," Charity said with a frown.

"Listen, I don't trust Hank. He was always good at all things science, including electronics. There's always a chance that he's been monitoring us."

"And you came here?" Graeme asked.

"She made us turn our phones off," TJ said.

Autumn rolled her eyes. "Listen, Alphabet Man, I have very little patience for this right now. I told you to stay back at TFH, but you went all macho asshole and insisted on bringing us here. Like I can't protect Charity."

"I offered to drive so you could eat," TJ said, laughing.

"Okay, so what do you have?" Adam said. He didn't want to chitchat about things. He wanted answers more so than before he'd ended up here.

"Calm down, boss. I would think you would be more settled."

They heard someone coming down the stairs. The only person up there was Jin.

"Do not embarrass her. It's an order."

Autumn's eyes widened at his vicious tone.

"Never, boss."

"And stop calling me that."

"What's going on?" Jin interrupted whatever Autumn had her mouth open to respond with.

"We might have discovered who is doing all the shenanigans on the island."

"Yeah?"

Adam looked at her. She was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a massive UH shirt. Damn, she was so fucking beautiful.

"She was just about to tell us."

Jin nodded, and they turned toward the newcomers.

"We were looking at some payments from Brewer," Charity began. "TJ and I were going through all the transactions, and this one popped up." She pulled up the document on her tablet. "I turned the GPS off before you say anything. Anyway, when we saw this, we went back years. There are payments every three months or so for 100 K."

Adam looked over the documentation. "What is this HankSea?"

"That's where I come in," Autumn said. "HankSea is Harold Seymour Andrews."

"You don't know that for sure."

"I do. That was my father's nickname for him."

Excitement filled Adam. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but damn if this didn't feel like an excellent lead.

"But wasn't he killed in the fire?"

Autumn rolled her eyes, irritation turning down the corners of her mouth. She crossed her arms over her chest. "No. That was what the stupid FBI and ATF said."

"Hey," TJ said with a laugh. Adam got the idea that this was a long-standing argument between the two of them.

"Anyway, I have always said that Harold would have survived. That bastard was good at looking squeaky clean," Autumn grumbled.

"On paper, until you dig under all the BS," Charity said. "He left his money—and there were millions— to this HankSea. On paper, it looks like some kind of wildlife rescue. But the money gets filtered out of there and into other accounts, most in places like Switzerland and the Caymans."

Both places would make it hard to trace. Autumn wasn't wrong. If this Andrews was still alive, that was the smartest thing to do.

"If we could track them down now, it would do no good," TJ said. He was a liaison with TFH, but his bread and butter were cybercrimes.

"Too long?"

TJ nodded. "Fifteen years is a long time to clean that money, and I'm sure he has."

"Why was Brewer giving him money?" Jin asked. "I get that he might be into saving wildlife, but to offer up that much is suspicious. And it started after Dylan disappeared?"

Charity nodded. "And the next payment was due a day ago, according to the pattern. It was almost always every ninety days. It looks like Brewer decided to cancel it."

"Because they found Dylan? Do you think that he thought he was paying to keep his son safe and out of the way?"

"That's a great question," Adam said. "I think we need to wake the bastard up."

They all agreed with it, except Jin. She was studying them all as if they had lost their minds.

"What?"

"It might be dangerous."

He chuckled, and then he realized she was serious. He sobered, realizing that she was worried about them. "Hey, we'll be fine. This is what we're trained for. He had some goons around him."

"Which makes me think of something," Graeme said. "They seemed kind of wrong, you know what I mean?"

Adam thought back to the men they had encountered. The men they encountered reminded him of muscle that someone making a statement would want. Big, not that bright, but they told people to leave him alone. Celebrities wishing to make a splash usually hired those types. Billionaires tended to hire a different sort. "Yeah. I just thought it was normal when we were there, but now, it seems odd. Billionaires like him who hide out and don't want attention would normally hire someone like Dillon Security."

Autumn was already texting, probably to Ian. He would know if they were with Dillon.

"What were they like?" Jin asked.

"They were more mob-looking, or at least more brutish. Not like Ian," Adam said. "Almost like something you would see in a movie."

Autumn snorted. "He's going to check with their admin. And just so you know, Dillon has some muscle types, but most of them are smarter than Ian. And you can tell him I said that. Marcus is going to meet us there. Tamilya is with him."

Adam nodded. Autumn was a strange duck, but she was good at her job.

"I want you to stay here with her," he told the three newcomers. Autumn opened her mouth, but Adam said, "You know Andrews. It's been over fifteen years, but you saw him up close and personal for several years."

She straightened her spine, and the militant look faded from her eyes. "Yes. You're right."

"I take it you're okay with being here," he said to TJ, who nodded. "You can use the computer set up in the panic room. It still has all the bells and whistles you put on it."

"Yes," Charity said, excitement filling her voice. In fact, the whole room felt like it was buzzing. As if they all knew this was it. They were finally on the trail of what the hell was going on. He thought of everyone but one person as he glanced at Jin.

"The guards will stay," Adam said.

Then, he grabbed Jin by the hand and tugged her into the kitchen for privacy. She was deathly pale and frowning at him. Worry darkened her eyes. "Tell me."

She sighed. "Can't you wait until it's light? It would be safer, yes?"

He set his hands on her hips, then leaned against the counter, pulling her into the vee between his legs.

"It might be a little safer, but the truth is, I'm worried about Sam. If they haven't killed her, they would have left her somewhere."

"You think she's still okay?"

He nodded, then grimaced. "I won't lie. They might try to gain information from her. Or they did, but they might need more. Anyway, they got lucky with Dylan. He was left up on a trail. The report said there's a good chance he was just tossed off the side of the trail. The only reason we didn't find him earlier was that animals got after him."

"And Alana was left on the beach."

He didn't want to voice his opinions on that part just yet. The two murders were linked. He was sure of that. The timing proved that. But they were different murders. One was passionate and up close. The other was shot in the back of the head, impersonal.

"So, they aren't that smart, and Sam is amazing based on everything you told me about her. There's every chance that she escaped them and is hiding out."

She nodded. He could hear her mind turning over the situation, and she would drive herself crazy, so he decided to throw a bomb in the middle of everything.

"I hate that this was our way back to each other."

She blinked, her unfocused gaze finally centering on him. Every time she did that, he felt on top of the world. There was always something about Jin's focus. She could be intense at times, and when she turned that attention on him, his brain melted—but in a good way.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, getting back together matters."

She shook her head, and he opened his mouth to argue with her, even though he knew he didn't have the time. She stopped him with one question.

"Does it matter how, or even why?"

The insinuation was that being together was the important bit. Adam shook his head, again opening his mouth to tell her how he felt, but Graeme called out.

"You need to go. We can talk about this when everything is done."

He didn't like leaving openings like that. At an early age, he learned that cops didn't always get to have those conversations if they put them off. But he knew it wasn't the right time for declarations. At least big ones like ‘please take pity on me and marry me.'

So, he said the one thing he could that he knew would make her understand his feelings.

"You matter to me, ku'u lei."

Her gaze softened, and she rose to her tiptoes to brush her mouth against his. Once, twice…, and then they were interrupted again. Graeme was annoying AF.

"You matter to me, too, Adam."

Just that one little sentence sent his heart soaring, and while he didn't want to leave, he wanted this over. The faster they figured out what the hell was going on and who was after her, the quicker they could sort themselves out.

"Be safe," she said.

He nodded, then walked out of the kitchen, and for the first time, he knew he had left his heart and part of his soul with her, but Adam knew he would be back for it.

* * *

It had been forty-five minutes since Adam left, and Jin was on pins and needles. Every nerve in her body seemed to be electrified. She paced her room, tossing looks at the bed that had been destroyed. She wanted that back. She wanted to go back about two hours and tell him she was in love with him.

But now she couldn't, and there was a worry that he wouldn't return. She would never forgive herself if that happened. Or him. She would be pissed at him if he got hurt.

The wind had picked up, and tree branches scratched against her window. It added to her irritation. Nothing seemed to be going right. They should have stayed up in this room and never come out.

Sure, Jin. That's realistic.

She rolled her eyes and sat down on the end of the bed. It had taken years to recover, but now that she had found her way back to Adam, she wanted more. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew it was more than just lovers.

Truthfully, she didn't know what he wanted. Right now, she had her shit together, but she still had bad days. She would fall into those dark memories of her abduction and torture. They didn't happen that often now, but they still appeared out of nowhere. Triggers could be a scent, a song, or even some idiot on H-1 who might think he could tailgate her to get her to move faster.

Not everyone would want to deal with that. It was a lot. She was a lot. But she was okay with that, and she accepted who she was. It took her years of rehabilitation to realize that her problems had gone deeper than just what happened to her a few years ago. A family who never accepted her, parents who hated each other, and when they divorced, they acted as if she were a problem—an outsider to their new lives.

Their lacking as parents was not about her. And thankfully, she believed that most of the time. Still, her issues would probably always be with her. Her PTSD was managed but not completely gone.

There was a scratch at the window again, and she frowned. This one sounded louder. She knew no one could get close to them without the FBI and HPD noticing, but it bothered her.

When she pushed the curtain aside, she swallowed a scream at the face staring back at her. A woman was sitting on a massive tree branch. She opened the window.

"I thought you would never catch on," she said as she slipped through the opening. Jin knew that voice. She had never seen Sam up close, but her voice…she knew that well.

"Sam?"

She nodded and smiled, although it looked a little tired around the edges. Jin took her in, this woman she thought was her friend. Dark red hair was tied in a messy bun on her head. She wore a T-shirt and jeans that looked too big for her. There was a bruise on her face, and she had dark circles under her eyes, which were two different colors. One was more hazel, while the other was greener.

"I finally got a vacay to Hawai'i and didn't even have to pay for it."

Yeah, she was definitely Sam. "How did you get here?"

"Remember that asshole down the street?"

She nodded.

"Well, he was watching me. They abducted me, then brought me here. Why, I have no idea. I know what they wanted, but bringing me was a mistake. Who the hell flies someone on a private plane to Hawai"i? I guess they didn't know about my life before."

When Jin said nothing, Sam nodded. "I expected you would find out with that former DEA in on the case. Anyway, we need to go."

Jin shook her head.

"What? Don't you want to see this through?"

"I'm safe here."

"No, you aren't. This runs deep, and you can bet Hank has people in HPD and the FBI on his payroll. How do you think they found me?"

"I thought I led them to you."

"In a way, but not actually finding me. I figured Hank paid top dollar to some jerk I knew a lifetime ago."

Something clicked. "You're not talking about Ian, are you?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. Mr. MI-6 is straight as an arrow. Or as good as you can be when you're a spy. We can discuss this later after I get you to safety."

Jin crossed her arms, and Sam frowned.

"I never knew you would be difficult about this."

Before she could say anything to that, Sam stepped forward and pricked her with a needle. Everything around her seemed to go hazy. "I just need you hidden so they can't use you against TFH."

Her world turned upside down, and she realized Sam had picked her up fireman style. "Oof, you're solid for such a tiny thing."

She wanted to tell her to get bent, but she couldn't form the words as her world darkened and faded completely black.

* * *

When they arrived at Brewer's home, Adam knew something was off. Rich people always seemed to have some kind of lights on, showing their house off to anyone who might be driving by. It was a tool that many burglars loved, especially since so many people didn't live there full-time. It made their houses easy targets.

Tonight, Brewer's entire house was dark. Even the security lights didn't come on as they approached. And from Marcus, they knew that the security system was down.

Dressed in night gear, they kept to the natural shadows. Even though the exterior lights were off, there was a full moon. It lit up the yard, so they all kept to the sides of the house the best they could.

They all had night vision goggles, and Tamilya was checking for heat signatures.

"There's no movement inside, well…he's sitting in the living room by himself," she said over their comms.

"No security?" Marcus asked.

"No."

"Let's still go in undercover," Adam said. "I don't want to risk any of us getting hit."

It took another five minutes to clear the front door, which was left unlocked. From what they could see with their night vision, the place was a mess. There had been a fight, that's for sure. Glass crunched under their feet.

"He's on the couch," Tamilya said over comms.

They all walked to the area and found him. Marcus leaned over and felt for a pulse. He shook his head.

"Let's clear the house," Adam ordered.

While it was a multimillion-dollar mansion, it wasn't that big. It took them a few minutes to go through each room and the closets to make sure there wasn't some surprise waiting for them. Within ten minutes, with the entire house cleared, they called in the death.

"Take off the night vision, folks. And let's check this place out."

They all did as he instructed, and someone hit the lights. There had indeed been some kind of struggle. There was a gun in Brewer's hand, but what dumbass left a place looking like this when they wanted to make it look like a suicide? They definitely weren't smart.

"These guys are dumbasses," Marcus muttered, voicing Adam's thoughts.

Seth Harrington made a noise. He had come along for the ride since he would start as head of Team Bravo next month.

"This almost feels like something Russians would do, right? Like, all those oligarchs who die of heart attacks on the way out of a fifth-floor window?" Harrington asked.

There were nods all around as they carefully looked around. It was their scene, but with Charity tied up at the safe house, HPD gave them a hand tonight.

"This just doesn't make sense," Tamilya said, joining them.

"It does if he was a loose end," Adam said.

"But for whom?" Tamilya rolled her shoulders. "I mean, there are a lot of moving parts, but why would they kill him right now."

"It has to do with his son being found," Adam said, connecting the dots. "Why was he paying Hank Andrews all these years?"

Before he could make out what it all meant, there was a call from Charity.

"What have you got?"

"Nothing, but we have a problem."

The tone in her voice sent a shiver of panic racing through him.

"What?"

But he knew, even before she said anything. Before she said the words, his heart sank.

"Jin's missing."