14. Chapter 14

Ihaven't felt this type of anger for eleven years. I know that Rick would probably enjoy how angry I am but my anger isn't directed at him.

There was a time when I used to be proud of how stubborn she was, but not now, not with this.

It doesn't take me long to search through all the investigation documents relating to the man that died at the ball. They haven't connected the death to assassination, they haven't even bothered trying to find out what type of snake venom killed him. He may have been important and charitable but the man had enough enemies that his death is just being swept under the rug.

I move my focus onto the raid by the police and the FBI. I sift through the files with practiced ease, my fingers flying over the keyboard as I navigate through the federal systems. It"s almost child"s play to hack into their databases, and within moments, I"ve accessed their files on the raid.

They didn"t find anything. There"s no evidence at all. They weren"t able to crack into my laptop, and my failsafe kicked in when they tried, wiping out any data and rendering it useless.

I remember the older male lead agent"s attempts to question me during our detention. He was fishing for information, trying to piece together a narrative that would incriminate us. But I gave him nothing except my own frustration and defiance, questioning why they were taking such a keen interest in innocent men.

His frustration grew until he stormed out of the room, leaving me to wonder how much longer the interrogation would last. But then Kacey appeared to get us out.

And there she was, Ash, standing quietly behind Kacey, keeping a low profile. I almost didn"t recognize her, but in that moment, I felt a swell of pride for both of them. They had come through for us when we needed them most, and for that, I was grateful.

They were left more frustrated than they started, even the storage room in the basement was completely empty when they went in there, and their crime scene techs hadn't discovered anything either. That actually surprised me as I know we left all of our tools in that room, clean but still there. But the room was empty. Completely spotless.

Closing out of those systems, I log into our own private server. I need to make up some shit for the uncles about why we have not taken care of the contract on Taipan. But when I log in the job isn't there.

I double check that I'm logged into the server correctly; I am.. It's just not there at all.

Opening up the message app within our private server, I send a ping to the uncles, intending to update them on the missing contract. ‘I was coming on here to give you an update on the most recent contract, but it"s not in my job list. Was it given to someone else?'

Simon responds instantly, ‘No. That job should never have been issued.'

Perplexed, I type out my question, ‘What do you mean?'

Matty chimes in, ‘Exactly as we said, the job should never have been issued. It wasn"t checked properly before being sent. We know who that person is, and it isn"t someone we want terminated.'

My heart skips a beat. Are they implying that they already know Ash is Taipan? The impression I got was that she kept that side completely separate from her work with the uncles. Hastily, I type another message, ‘If we don"t take it, someone else will, though. Do you need us to do anything?'

Simon"s reply is swift, ‘No, the individual who requested the contract has been removed from the board.'

Well, that"s a relief, but it also seems like convenient timing. Did they take matters into their own hands? I type a new message, ‘Has this been confirmed?'

Matty responds, ‘Yes, he was found in a compromising situation at a charity ball recently.'

My heart pounds in my chest, and suddenly, I feel lighter, as though a heavy burden has been lifted from me. Ash is such a badass that she took out the person who had a contract out on her without even realizing it.

I'm about to disconnect when another message comes from Simon, ‘A new contract is on the server for you.' Simple and straightforward, as though they are hoping to simply go on with life like there was nothing important about the contract that disappeared. And I'm sure they are hoping in my mind that's all it is.

I sigh and open up the contracts section, there is a new one there and I open it up. They don't realize that we are trying to keep a low profile for the moment. Even if nothing has come of the FBI's investigation, they are still going to be a dark shadow over us for the time being if we go to any of our properties. Which we would need to if we wanted to grab any of our own supplies.

Looking at the new file, I almost groan. Why can't life be simple?

"Ashley!" I call out to her where she is curled up on an armchair staring out at the city.

She frowns, getting up and walking back over to me, slowly coming to my side of the table so that I can show her the screen. It doesn"t take her long to understand, and she starts cursing as she takes her phone out of her pocket and makes a call.

"Where are you?" she asks, and I can only hear the vague sounds of a response from where I"m sitting. "I need you to get to Elsa"s place... No, I don"t care that you"re in the middle of something... Fine, I"ll go there until you can get there, it"s not far... the rush? Someone has put a hit out on her, Kallen..."

This time I do hear the vicious cursing on the other end of the line, and I almost tear the phone from her hand to give him a piece of my mind, but I refrain. However, my mind does get stuck on her wanting to go protect her friend.

"She is safe for the moment from what I can see. They will think we are accepting the job, so they shouldn"t send anyone else for a while," I murmur, but I can see she is only half paying attention to me. She does relay the information, but I know she will still want to go.

Rick walks into the living area as she hangs up, frowning when he looks toward us.

My attention snaps back to Ash as she walks to the bag with all the weapons. "Don"t think for a moment that you"re going anywhere alone," I snap, and she scowls at me.

"Then get off your ass and come with me," she growls back.

She probably assumes that I"m going to decline, but I surprise her by closing the laptop with a twitching hand. I wish I could use it to wrap around her reckless throat or turn her ass red until she begs and whimpers for forgiveness, but I simply stand, reaching into the bag and pulling out a couple of guns. Rick saunters over with a grin, following our lead and loading up.

Once she is prepared, she pulls out her phone again, and I already know she is calling her friend to warn her. I wouldn"t advise it, as she seems the type to panic, but it"s not my friend. After a moment, she pulls the phone away from her ear and presses buttons, putting it to her ear again. Time passes slowly before she pulls it away from her ear again.

"She isn"t answering. She never doesn"t answer," she says with a frown. I grab the keys to the car and point at Kacey, who is walking toward us, presumably to join in, but I stop him. "Stay here and update Nix when he gets out of the shower. We should be fine with just us going, less conspicuous. Kallen"s team should be there soon anyway," I say, tucking a gun into the back of my pants. He nods and turns back toward the couch, taking a seat to wait with a frown.

Once we have grabbed enough weapons to take out an army, I motion her ahead of me and out of the apartment. I just hope that her friend is still okay.