Page 59 of Overstaying His Welcome

I ignored that train of thought to focus on what I needed to get done. First up, Gabriel Monil. A cursory check on the open web showed he was a social media darling. This guy was a womanizing prick, yet people didn’t seem to notice. They flocked to him as if he were a god.

Scrolling through his feeds made me want to hurl. I did a background check on him to make sure nothing else popped up aside from what he wanted others to see. Aside from some speeding tickets and one drunk and disorderly charge while he was in college, the guy was clear.

To be sure, I set up a channel to run in the less visible places online. The areas people wouldn’t think to look for when checking on someone. It would take a bit to gather, so I moved on to the next suspect.

Lachlan Pratt was on the opposite end of the spectrum from Gabriel. There was literally zero social media for the guy. Immediately, my mental alarms went off.

He could be who we were looking for.

I ran through the same steps as I had with the other guy. No police records came up for him, nor did he appear to be listed on any registry of any kind — from criminal to blood donations. I was scouring everything I could for a hint.

Then I went deeper.

The dark web was called dark for a reason. As soon as I put his name in, I got a hit. What I pulled up sent chills down my spine. Not because I was scared but because this felt too familiar.

“Why are you looking at pictures of Stabler’s partner?” Archie asked.

I jolted at the noise. “What? How do you know what I’m looking at?”

“Because I can see your screen on the wall.”

One glance over my cubicle wall showed he was right. I hadn’t disconnected my screen sharing from earlier, which explained why Takeshi and Archie were so quiet. Damari too, though he was also drawing in his sketchbook, so hopefully he didn’t see anything he shouldn’t have. Ronan was very particular about keeping his boy away from the darker side of this business.

I didn’t blame him. One of the reasons I let Sinclair dote on me so much was to keep him from focusing on the work itself. He couldn’t go back to his shop right now. At least not until the guys made it back so we could put someone on a security detail with him. There were too many access points there. If they werewilling to burn a government office, then they would definitely attack a plain old coffee shop.

“You didn’t answer the question, Memphis. Why is he on the wall?”

“Because this is who came up when I dug for information on Lachlan Pratt.”

Takeshi began signing quickly. I kept up with parts of it, but my brain was struggling after realizing things were not at all what we thought.

Why the fuck was Lachlan Pratt working at the FBI? The guy was not good. Even I could see that. He shouldn’t have been able to pass a background check.

Archie signed back to Takeshi, then turned to me. I waited for him to tell me the other man’s thoughts since I had a feeling they’d be insightful.

“Takeshi thinks we need to contact Stabler. He should know there’s a link between his partner and Tank. We still don’t know enough about Lune to make the connection there, but this is a strange situation.”

“I agree,” I told him.

“He also thinks we need to call the team now. If this is the case, then Lachlan Pratt might be a threat in other ways. Is he linked to The Gilded Ones? Can you find a connection?”

Dropping into my chair, I drowned out everything else to focus on the screen in front of me. I lost myself to the rhythm of the keys and the click of my mouse. With each resource I used, I got closer to finding out if we’re in greater danger than I thought.

“Stabler? It’s Archie. I’m calling with something important. Where are you?” Archie’s voice was urgent, his tone making it clear there was no delaying this conversation. I tuned in enough to hear his side as I went through what I know of the Gilded Ones and their associations.

On the surface, anyone would assume he had no type of internet presence because he was an FBI agent. There was a need for secrecy in that field of work.

But I knew better.

Something about him always bothered me. Not because of anything he said. Simply in the way Stabler mentioned him from time to time. Like he was a problem the man didn’t know what to make of.

Orion wasn’t the only guy who could read what wasn’t always said.

“You’re at the office about to go into a meeting. When can you get somewhere secure? It needs to be just you. Or can you come to the office?”

Whatever Stabler said next made Archie scoff. The young man stomped around the office, his voice pitched low enough I couldn’t hear over the way I pounded on my mechanical keyboard.

“Let us know as soon as you can. Thanks!”

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