Page 76 of Sebastian

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“Is everything okay with Gunner?” Emma asked as Sebastian sat down next to her.

“No,” Seb sighed. “His mom is sick.”

“Oh no. Is she going to be okay?”

Sebastian shook his head, and Emma was flooded with the emotions of losing her own mother all over again.

“He left to be with her. He wanted me to tell you goodbye for him, and that he would have stayed to keep you safe if it was any other circumstance.”

“No, I’m so glad he went to be with her.”

Emma sat in silence as she watched the guys walk into the conference room. Looking at their faces, and the way they nodded at Seb as they sat down, it was clear that Gunner had told them what was going on.

“I’ll get the call started.” Gage walked towards the computer in the corner of the room and began typing. A few minutes later, a video feed of a very handsome man, likely in his early forties if she was to guess by the earliest signs of gray in his hair, came up on the screen in front of her. Introductions were made and she learned the man was Agent Wilson, the federal agent that had been working to dismantle the Santoro’s illegal operations. She’d been briefed by Stone and Hawk about what to expect earlier that morning, but her nerves were still churning in her stomach.

“Agent Wilson, the floor is yours.”

“Thank you, Sebastian. Ms. Sullivan, I feel it’s necessary to remind you that anything discussed in this room is confidential and the information shared today is for only the people in this meeting to know. Is that clear?”

Although his voice was tight, there was a certain amount of empathy in his eyes that came across through the video screen, and that put Emma at ease.

“Crystal, Agent Wilson. And please, call me Emma.”

“Good, Emma. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s recap what we know. We’ve had two undercover agents in the Santoro organization for the last three years. Gunner and Hawk have been working closely with those agents during that time, although I did receive an email from Gunner earlier today and I understand that he has had to take a leave for personal reasons.”

“He’s still hoping to be kept up to date on the developments and will come back if we need to utilize his specific skill set,” Gage said. Emma almost questioned Gage before she remembered that Gunner was a sniper. That was the specific skill set he was talking about. Emma swallowed, trying to stop her nerves from spilling over.

“Good. I’m okay with you guys keeping him in the loop. Continuing on. Over the last three years, our undercover agents have been able to gather evidence of illegal gun and drug operations, but they haven’t been able to infiltrate what we suspect is their latest endeavor of human trafficking. We’ve been given the name Marco Santoro from Emma, who we all believe is connected to the crimes in Clarence County as well as the attempts to kidnap and injure Ms. Sullivan. Now, we’ve known for some time that Antonio Santoro uses his nephew, the surgeon, as an enforcer and as the person who handles removing anyone the Santoro family decides has wronged them. Thanks to Emma, we now know that Marco Santoro is that man, although we haven’t been able to capture an image of him, and his name is not registered anywhere on any legal identification.”

Sebastian felt Emma squeeze his hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, watching her bite her bottom lip.

“Emma? Is there something you would like to add?”

“No.” Her voice squeaked and she felt her cheeks flush. She just couldn’t believe how complicated everything was.

“Our main objective for this meeting is to come up with a plan for Marco to make a move against Ms. Sullivan, and for us to take him down when he does.”

“What do you need me to do?” Emma asked.

“You are going to be somewhere safe, away from whatever we plan,” Sebastian grumbled.

“No. I want to help. Agent Wilson just said that Marco needs to make a move against me. He can’t do that if I’m nowhere to be found.”

“While that’s very nice of you to offer, Emma, we aren’t in the business of using victims as bait for the monsters we catch. However, I would like to have you speak with one of our forensic artists to see if it’s possible to get a sketch drawn up of Marco for us to run through our various databases for identification purposes.”

“I’m more than happy to do that, but I also know that Marco won’t be fooled by a whispered rumor that I’m going to be standing outside a building at a certain time, or that suddenly my security detail has all pulled away from me and I’m sitting at the hotel all on my own. No. You need to put me out there and let him come for me. It’s the only way this is going to work. I want in on the plan.”

“Emma’s right,” Gage said, a soft look of resignation on his face as he turned towards Sebastian. “As much as I hate to admit it, Cap, any plan we have for catching him needs to involve her.”

“No.” God, he was almost as stubborn as she was. This wasn’t his choice to make!

“I’m not some princess that needs to be kept in an ivory tower. I’m perfectly capable of doing what needs to be done.”

“Are you? Because you’ll need to see him. You’ll need to be in the same space as the monster who took so much from you.”

“I’m stuck thinking of him non-stop no matter what! I might as well be useful, instead of just sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

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