Page 51 of What's Left of Me

At the ringing of the bell, Mason answered.

“Hello, can I help you?”

“Good morning, I’m Agent Carmichael, and you know Agent Rose.”

“How may I help you?” Mason wasn’t letting them in, and I wanted to laugh at how frustrated the agents no doubt were.

“May we come in?” Agent Carmichael didn’t sound upset yet.

“And why would I allow that?”

There was a pregnant pause before Rose spoke up. “They’re unreasonable, Darren. I warned you.”

Mason hummed. “But we’re not. See, this isn’t public property. We were hired by the Briar family to protect Phoenix Briar. We don’t work for the FBI or any authority, and per our agreement to cooperate with any of the agencies, professional respect is to be given in the form of notice upon arrival for any questions or other. This was agreed upon not only with the chief of police but also the FBI, and Phoenix’s doctors. You’re both in violation by showing up here, so no, Agent Rose, I’m not being unreasonable. I’m following orders drawn up by your boss. Shall we call him?”

Mason was a firecracker when he wanted to be, and I was glad he was on our side. One look at Gabe and I could tell he was proud of his man.

“Mr. Saint, I—” Agent Carmichael began but was quickly cut off.

“Daws, actually.”

“Excuse me?”

Mason sighed. “My name is Mason Daws, not Saint, though maybe someday.” Mason peered over his shoulder at Gabe and winked. Of course, we all chuckled.

“Mr. Daws, my apologies. I am well aware of the agreement, and I would have contacted you prior to our arrival if it wasn’t an emergency.”

And this is where more bad news decided to rear its ugly head.

“What emergency?”

“May we please come in and explain?”

Agent Carmichael didn’t sound like half the douche Rose did, and even though we were sick and tired of the FBI dragging ass, if there was an emergency, we needed to know.

“Very well, come in.” Mason opened the door wider, and Agent Rose walked in followed by Carmichael.

He nodded to all of us when he came into view. He wore a suit like they all did, was clean cut with blond hair and blue eyes. He was younger than Rose, I was certain, and I wondered if Rose hated that he was older than the agent in charge.

“Good morning,” Carmichael greeted everyone. “I’m sure you heard I’m Agent Carmichael, in charge of this investigation going forward.”

“I certainly hope you’re more competent.” Angel smirked and to Rose’s credit, he merely glared.

Carmichael ignored Angel and focused on Phoenix. “I do apologize for just showing up, Mr. Briar.”

Subconsciously or not Phoenix, slid his hand in mine. “Why are you here?”

“Thanks to your impeccable hearing, we were able to narrow down a few of Jaron Zaffy’s work associates that could possibly be the man who took you. What we’ve found out was that Jaron outsourced some goods for his family’s funeral home but not the embalming fluid. That actually was Hank’s job. However, the associates we uncovered as the possible suspect work in different businesses that Jaron uses.”

“While fascinating, how is this an emergency? It sounds more like a break in the case, and you very well may have the guy,” I interjected.

Carmichael nodded. “And we may. But that’s also the emergency.”

“I don’t understand.” Phoenix scooted closer.

“I’m sorry to do this, Mr. Briar, but we’re only able to hold Jaron’s associates for forty-eight hours due to lack of evidence. We tried to fight it to hold them longer but they lawyered up, and the judge is only giving us two days to get some sort of proof that we have the right guy.”

“How does this affect, Phoenix? He already said who the voice was.” I couldn’t understand what more Carmichael wanted here.

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