“Fired from what? A lousy security outfit hired by a dirty politician? Somehow, I doubt she’ll have trouble finding another job. There are a shit ton of you hacks out there, willing to do anything for the highest bidder.”
Coleman met Austin’s gaze again, still flat and controlled.
“You fuckin’ disgust me.” Austin stepped back and looked Coleman up and down. “What the hell were you, anyway? Probably a Marine. Goddamned jarheads never get anything right.”
“Hey,” someone yelled from outside, his voice coming through the broken windows. “My dad was a jarhead.”
“That makes a real sick sort of sense,” Ty said. “Shut up, Daisy Mae.”
Austin gripped the back of Coleman’s vest and jerked him across the office. He rammed the man’s legs into the desk and gestured toward the display Everly had left. “Look closely. This is Seaver. This is the woman you’re fighting for. The woman you would be entrusting with the health and welfare of an innocent little girl. Everly—if that’s even her damn name—obviously wanted you all to see this. So look. Look at what you’ve unleashed on my daughter. Someone who bribes” —he stabbed a photo—“cheats”—he stabbed another photo—“and steals”—he stabbed a bank statement—“on a daily basis.”
Austin moved around the desk and picked up more paper, shaking it in Coleman’s face. “A woman who wants my daughter so badly that she paid off a judge to get her”—he threw that paper down, then picked up more—“then enrolled her in an elementary boarding school across the country so she could send her away as soon as she turned five.”
He tossed the papers aside, letting them fall wherever they landed. The corner of an envelope peeke
d out from beneath a sheet from the Seavers’ folder. Austin grabbed the envelope and found his name printed across the front in Everly’s handwriting. The sight punched Austin in the gut. He couldn’t face what she might have written right now.
“If you wanted Bella so badly,” he yelled at Coleman, “why didn’t you just take her in Turks and Caicos? You had plenty of guys there.”
“Those guys weren’t ours.”
“Perfect.” He threw his arms out to the side. “That means there’s another team after Bella, and she’s now protected by only one person. One person who lied to both of us.”
“She doesn’t need anyone else.” This came from the peanut gallery outside. “Everly’s the best there is.”
Coleman and Austin shot dual “Shut ups” out the broken windows.
“You could have still grabbed Bella,” Austin told him. “Everly could have just run with her from the bathroom. You were there with at least three other people.”
“We had conflicting information.”
“About what?”
“About who sent that other team.”
“What difference does that make?” Austin demanded.
“Regardless of what you think of us,” Coleman said, “we wouldn’t have gotten involved in this if we could have tracked that team back to Seaver.” Coleman lifted his chin toward the desk. “Where’d you get all that?”
“We have…sources,” Decker answered.
Coleman’s silvery gaze darted to Decker, then to Austin. “Reliable, credible sources that could be used in court?”
“All reliable and credible,” Austin told him. “The rest, I don’t know. But now that you’ve gone and sent my daughter back to the devil, I’ll have to find out, won’t I? You’d better hope I never find out who’s important to you, to any of you, because without my daughter, I have no fucking reason to give a damn what happens to me. And all the time in the world to rain havoc on your sorry asses.”
“Why don’t you ditch the threats and these cuffs?” Coleman said. “Then we can go through the information together.”
“Why in the hell would we do that?” Decker answered.
Coleman heaved a sigh, and frustration entered his tone. “Because I’ve known Everly since she was just a kid, and she’s never once disobeyed an order. This team is her family. Every man a brother, uncle, or father to her. She doesn’t like kids and didn’t want this assignment. Once she was here, she maintained a steadfast belief that your daughter belonged with you from day one. So the fact that she risked all she knows and all she has to take your daughter somewhere on her own means she believes in you.” He paused. “And I hope you can offer her a job when this is over, because she’s still so fucking fired.”
“How do you know she’s not on her way back to the States right now?” Austin asked.
“If she was taking her back to the States,” came from another peanut outside, “she would have met us at the rendezvous point, genius.”
Austin’s anger dissipated a little, but he kept his guard up. “If she told you everything and you trust her, why did you come after Bella now?”
“Because a team of unknown origin almost took out one of my own along with an innocent child,” Coleman said. “And because American law says she belongs with Paige Seaver. We also have a file on you showing you’re not such a good guy, and that by living with you, your daughter is in danger.”