Adair opened his mouth to argue, but clearly, between Ian and Becker, he was outmanned.
Dorsey moved with the speed and confidence of a man who’d performed his job a thousand times, hand on Kelson’s bicep as he led him toward the door, Ryan walking behind him. They’d been partners so long they even walked with the same stride.
“Rodriguez and Brodie, you guys go with them; you’re their backup.”
“Yessir,” both men said quickly, and as they all headed for the door, I saw Rodriguez grab Brodie’s barn coat when Brodie was about to walk into one of the agents. Brodie gave him a smile and moved quickly to match Rodriguez’s stride. I hoped Ian or Becker saw that. It was nice when new partners started out even being thoughtful of each other.
“Eli,” Ian said, and I saw then how his eyes flickered over to me. He wanted to go with me; it was taking a lot for him to accept that he needed to stay there. But I wasn’t in imminent danger, and we all had jobs to do. “I need you with him like a shadow, yeah?”
“Absolutely,” Eli agreed quickly, reaching out to give Ian a quick touch of reassurance.
Ian nodded, swallowing hard before stepping in front of me. “You lose Eli for any reason, I’ll assume that you want to be single.”
My gaze met his, and I saw how steely his was, how level.
“Do you understand?”
“I do.”
“And you will answer your phone when I call,” he said flatly. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He took a breath. “I’ll see you soon.”
He turned away from me without another word, pulling out his phone as he moved, and I was suddenly faced with Becker.
“We’ll head back to the office, Jones, so you and Eli can make a plan for the day. It looks like he’ll be going with you to meet some kids.”
I glanced over at Eli in time to catch his look of horror. Oh yeah, he was thrilled he got to babysit me, I could tell.
Chapter 7
WHILE KELSON sat in one of our six holding rooms, Ryan and Dorsey manned the office. Kage, who was in the process of moving down the hall and giving Becker his old office, was meeting with Adair’s boss and his boss’s boss—the Feds had an organizational chart that was hard to follow—as well as the police superintendent and the deputy mayor.
Eli and I stopped on the way back to the office for coffee because I was frozen inside, plus something to eat because, as he said, “You look like you’re going to pass out.”
“How’d you know?” Eli asked as we sat in the drive-thru at Starbucks.
“That Kelson was wrong?”
He grunted.
“It’s a sad truth, but no one knows Hartley like me.”
“Do you think he had anything to do with that?”
“No. That kind of vigilantism has never been him.”
“But he’s still out there somewhere killing people.”
I shook my head. “I disagree. It’s not him anymore, and I don’t know how to explain it other than it’s like the killing he did, that’s out of his system.”
“But you can’t say that for certain.”
“Yeah, I can,” I sighed, leaning my head back. “I think if the Feds just let him go now, he wouldn’t be a threat anymore.”
“Willing to stake your life on it?”
I thought a moment of what I knew of Hartley. “Yes.”
“No shit?” He was startled and turned to me instead of ordering, stunned.
“I need a red eye, so tell her,” I said, pointing at the speaker. “And get me a scone.”
At the window, Eli was still so flustered when she told him they were out of blueberry scones, and did he want something else, that he started saying things they didn’t even have. Once they agreed on a chocolate croissant, he tried to give the cashier a hundred-dollar bill she clearly wasn’t about to break. I leaned across him and passed her my phone instead.
“Thank you,” she said, shooting Eli a look of pure distaste.
When he pulled away, I patted his thigh. “Calm yourself.”
“You realize that right now you sound as psycho as Hartley.”
I turned to him and laughed. “Really? Just as psycho?”
He had to pull over so I could drive when he realized he’d compared me to a serial killer.
Once we were back at the office, Kage told Eli to get his ass back to the crime scene so he could keep the reporters off Ian and Becker.
He didn’t want to argue, but he didn’t want to leave me either.
“Redeker,” Kage barked, and Redeker rose from Kowalski’s desk, which was apparently going to become his, and crossed the room to me. “You’re with Jones today.”
“Yessir.”
Kage pointed at the door, and Eli moved fast, talking to me over his shoulder. “I’ll tell Ian as soon as I get there.”
“I’ll call too,” I told him before turning back to Kage, who had left without another word. “Okay, I guess that was all,” I said to no one in particular before pulling my phone from the breast pocket of my suit jacket to call Ian.