Page 17 of Lost Hope

His question obviously puzzled her.

“It couldn’t have been a neighbor hearing a gunshot,” he explained. “Tank was long dead before any of us arrived.”

She bowed her head. A small sign of defeat that hit him in the chest. “My supervisor got the call about your friend breaking into the computer system and told Tom and I to bring him in for questioning ASAP. He ordered up the local law to hang out in case we needed help persuading him to come in. You know the rest. The first officers on scene called in the death before we reached you.”

That made a horrible kind of sense. NCIS obviously hadn’t known Tank was already dead.

“We need documentation,” she insisted. “Surveillance footage from the base, access logs, witness statements?—”

“Which I guarantee have already been erased.” Ronan couldn’t keep the edge from his voice. “We need to move fast. Find who did this and?—”

“And what? Take the law into our own hands?” She straightened, all five-foot-nothing of righteous authority. “That’s not how justice works.”

“No? How’s it working so far?” He gestured at Tank’s phone. “They’re three steps ahead of us, fabricating evidence that’ll have every law enforcement agent in the state gunning for us, while you want to file paperwork.”

“Following procedure keeps innocent people from getting hurt. Keeps investigations from being compromised?—”

He pushed off the wall. “They killed your partner. Framed you for treason. There’s no procedure for this.”

“There’s always procedure.” But uncertainty flickered in her eyes. “We gather evidence. Build a case. Present it to?—”

“To whom?” He stepped closer. “The same people who just branded you a traitor? The ones who’ll shoot first and delete the bodycam footage later?”

“That’s not?—”

“That’s exactly how it works. Not the sanitized version they teach at FLETC. The real world, where good men die and bad men edit the security tapes.” He forced himself to soften his tone. “Look. I’m sure you’re good at your job. But this isn’t a normal investigation. These people operate outside the rules.”

“So your solution is to do the same?”

“My solution is to stay alive long enough to expose them.” He held her gaze. “Sometimes you have to break the rules to serve justice.”

She looked away first, but not before he caught the flash of recognition in her eyes. Part of her knew he was right. The question was whether the dedicated agent could override the lifetime of training that said otherwise.

“If Tank really did access those files, he had a good reason,” Axel added quietly. “Whatever he was onto, it was big enough to get him killed. Big enough to authorize the killing of two federal agents and”—he gestured between himself and Ronan—”whatever we’re called these days.”

Ronan watched her process that. “This goes deeper than any official investigation will reach. You know that.”

She didn’t answer, but her silence felt less hostile. Progress?

Maybe.

They needed her sharp mind, her insider knowledge. But first, they had to keep her alive long enough to use it.

“Sullivan was working as a clinic aid at the VA facility on base,” Maya said. “But you wouldn’t know that, would you? Since you walked away three years ago.”

The acid in Ronan’s stomach burned hotter. She wasn’t wrong. He’d cut all ties, burned every bridge. What else had he missed? What had Tank been into that was worth killing for?

“Sounds about right,” Axel said into the tension. “Tank always did have a big heart.”

Maya’s laugh held no humor. “Right. Because you two know him so well.” She swung her gaze to Ronan. “Tell me again how your good friend didn’t contact you for three years, then suddenly needed help?” She grabbed her jacket. “I’m done playing games. There are killers out there, and I’m not finding them hiding in some garage apartment with two former-SEALs who can’t even keep their stories straight.”

“Maya—” Axel started.

“No. I’m doing this my way.” She yanked the door open. “Stay out of my way, or I’ll arrest you both myself.”

The door slammed hard enough to rattle the windows.

Axel blinked at Ronan. “What now?”

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