Page 17 of Sinner's Salvation

As he studied Ledger’s face, Evan understood something important. Ledger would torture and killanyonewho stood between him and what he wanted.

Which was what, exactly?

Knowledge? Control of Anna if she could be reasonably contained? Or were his goals bigger than that?

Lefty and Righty were both politicians, men who were members of the Senate and Congress. He bet his left nut that they didn’t have the security clearances to be on this base, let alone this deep into this operation.

Ledger could very well be planning to go rogue at any point, and do...what? That was the real question.

“With your permission,” Evan said. “I’m going to hit up the nearest vending machine for a couple of chocolate bars and a bottle of water.” He glanced at the security feed. “Is all this being recorded?”

“Of course.”

“I’d like the opportunity to study the recordings later to make sure I don’t miss anything.”

“You can view them in this room, but nowhere else.”

“Understood.” Evan nodded at him, then headed out of the room. He grabbed the food and water at a couple of vending machines, then went back to the room where the FBI agent and Anna Breznik were waiting.

There was a set of two guards with heavy weaponry in the hallway outside the room now. One man was stationed six feet to the left of the door, and the other was stationed six feet from the right.

Evan nodded at them, then went into the room.

Anna was sitting in the chair with her eyes closed and her head leaning up against the wall as he began opening the door, but by the time he took his first step inside, she was looking right at him.

Brian Stettler, on the other hand, slept on, his breathing at the same pace as before.

Evan took a couple more steps into the room, allowed the door to swing shut behind him, and held up the food and water.

Anna got to her feet and walked over to Brian, giving him a gentle shake. “Brian, wake up. Your breakfast is here.”

The baby agent opened his eyes, his gaze focused and aware, yet his breathing still hadn’t changed.

Damn, the kid was good.

Hopefully, whoever was watching the security feed missed it.

Brian slowly sat up and rubbed his face. “How long did I sleep?”

“About twenty minutes,” Anna replied, her attention on Evan. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Gunn?”

“About that,” he agreed pleasantly. He held out the chocolate bars and water.

Anna took them from him before the kid could move off the gurney, turned, and handed them to Brian. She glanced over her shoulder at Evan. “These haven’t been tampered with, have they?”

“No, ma’am. I got them from the staff vending machines right before I came here.”

She stood in front of Brian while he tore open the first chocolate bar and shoved half of it into his mouth.

She was like a lioness watching over her cub. Brian Stettler had completely won her over.

Evan watched him chew and swallow the whole bar in about five seconds flat. The kid chugged half the water, stuck the other bar in his pocket and capped the water bottle. “So you’re the good cop and that other guy is the bad cop?” Brian asked, his tone hostile. “What’s next, torture devices and burning at the stake? Then maybe a shower and a soft bed?”

Evan’s eyebrows shot up. The kid wasn’t all that far from the truth, but bringing it up was an interesting tactic to take at this stage. He was trying to control the direction of the interrogation by calling out the most common rapport building tactics.

Evan laughed. “How about we skip the torture and campfire, and get straight to the hot shower? I figure you two might want to get out of those bloody clothes and into something that doesn’t stink or make other people wonder where the crime scene is.”

“Do we have a choice?” Anna asked.

---