Page 68 of Cage

He sits back in his chair and sighs. “She looks at you like you hung the fucking moon, Cage. And she is attached to Rowie at the hip already. Plus, she seems to adore the fuck out of Rylan.”

I let out a low growl that makes Cassian smirk. “I’m fucking with you. Obviously, she likes me the most. That’s beside the point, though. She’s in love with you. And you’re in love with her. I think you’re the only two on The Ranch that aren’t aware of it yet.”

Does she love me? Is it possible for that to happen so quickly? She’s barely been here a week. Then again, I’m obsessed with her in a way that is probably considered unhealthy.

“She’s not going to leave. From what I’ve seen and heard, she has nothing worth going back to in DC. Hell, I’m pretty sure her father won’t be alive after you confront him about all the bullshit he’s put her through.” Cassian shrugs.

He’s not wrong about that. I don’t want to upset her by killing her dad, but I also can’t allow the man to continue breathing forall the hurt he’s caused her. I just can’t fathom how a father can be so cruel to his only daughter. I’ll never understand it.

“Well, I can’t make anything permanent until I figure out what the fuck is going on with this threat. I want to see every single news report and document about the helicopter crash.”

Cassian nods and immediately starts printing off everything he can find. While he does that, I scan everything for any tidbit of information that might be useful. Newspaper reports, online forums, and a bunch of official reports. It was a huge headline when it happened. The wife of a congressman dying in a helicopter crash.

I’ve gone through nearly everything twice by the time the printer stops spitting out useless information. There’s nothing to be found anywhere. Fuck. I don’t know why I was so sure I’d find something.

“Holy shit,” Cassian mutters.

My attention snaps to him. “What? What did you find?”

He looks at me, his gaze dark. “She look familiar?”

When he turns his laptop toward me, I nearly drop the papers in my hand. “What the fuck?”

“Where and when was this?” I ask.

“This was a month after the crash at a press conference.”

I stare at the photo. What does this mean? What does she have to do with Ember? There has to be a connection between this and what’s happening now. But why did she lie to me? And what the fuck am I going to say to my girl?

“She know the location here?” Cassian asks.

“Yes. Of course she does. She’s been one of our handlers for over ten years.” I can’t fucking believe this. She’s played me. And that pisses me off more than anything because I don’t get played.

“There was a plane tailing us from DC, though,” I say mostly to myself as I try to fit the puzzle pieces together in my head.“Which is why I brought her here. And Ruth knew that’s exactly what I’d fucking do.”

“I think you need to talk to Ember to see if she knows anything about this new information,” Cass replies. “You scanned her for bugs before you put her on the plane?”

The memory of throwing Ember over my shoulder and hauling her onto the plane runs through my mind. My lips twitch as I fight a smile. From the second my firefly insulted my plane, I was entranced by her. And obviously fucking distracted because I did not scan her for bugs.

Shit.

Without saying anything, Cassian and I rise and move to one of my bookcases, where I lower my gaze to a stack of books. As soon as the device scans my retina, the entire shelf unlocks, and we step into one of the many secure rooms in my house.

As soon as I close us in, I turn to my brother. “Why would Ruth be spying on us?”

Both of us stare at each other. Ruth is only privy to certain information. She’s one of the agents we’ve worked closely with over the years. There’s stuff that we don’t speak about to anyone but each other, and only when we are here on The Ranch. Hell, there are some things we don’t even talk about out loud. Instead, we use special codes we learned when we were recruited by The Agency. Things that could be used for or against the country as well as certain politicians.

“What information do we have that would benefit her?” Cass asks.

“Better yet.” I start to pace around the small space. “What information do we have that will benefitZeke? Elections are coming up. Is he planning to run for office?”

Cassian types ferociously on his keyboard. “According to some news outlets, there has been talk in the past about him running one day.”

“And we have information that might be damning for another political leader who might want to run,” I add.

“Don’t kill me for asking this,” Cass says cautiously.

“Ember isn’t helping them,” I snap, already knowing what he was going to ask. “She’s a fucking victim in this. Once again, her father is doing what is best for him, even though it will hurt her.”

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