Page 60 of Fatal Vision
Chapter Eleven
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PULLING ONE OVERon Theo was going to take all of Shelby’s Miss Oklahoma charm.
“They’ll never let me inside,” Colton murmured as he pushed the wheelchair up the handicap ramp to the front door.
He and Connor had her bathroom drain flowing again, they’d mowed the lawn, and fixed her back porch step, which had started leaning sometime in the past three months. Even her sticky bedroom window slid once more with ease.
“Hush.” Shelby was already wearing her best smile. While anxiety hummed under her breastbone, the smile wasn’t entirely an act. It was nice to have a man around again, independent woman or not. She could have fixed the issues in her house, but having Colton around had its advantages.
Because, honestly, there was nothing she hated more than unclogging drains.
The wheelchair was probably unnecessary but it made for a good prop. She hated looking incapable in front of her peers, but the more helpless she appeared, the less likely anyone would be suspicious about this visit. “We already made it this far. Positive attitude, Bells.”
He snickered. “As long as I don’t end up behind bars for the next thirty years.”
This small FBI office wasn’t listed in the phone book, nor did it show up on search engines. Most people in the area believed it was a tech company that specialized in government contracts.
Which wasn’t far from the truth.
The “contracts” Shelby and her handpicked group of teammates specialized in involved investigations into the armed forces and its veterans. From the DoD on down to the VA hospital, sensitive cases came across their desks. The murder of veterans, especially those who’d served on Special Operations teams, were Shelby’s specialty.
She’d had a bright future with the Bureau and still did. She just needed to solve the serial murder case and prove to her superiors once more that she could be a shining star in their ranks.
Stealing case files from the office probably wasn’t the best idea, but she couldn’t sit on her backside and twiddle her thumbs. Not when she knew she’d uncovered something that day and the killer had come after her. Not with Connor and Colton here playing bodyguard when their boss needed them back in DC.
And not when Shelby herself had too many nagging questions floating around her brain.
She’d gotten herself and Colton through the gates with a call to the front desk. Her buddy, Mindy Hampton, was manning the phones and had been thrilled to hear Shelby was paying a visit.
Connor sat outside in his truck. He needed to go pick up his girlfriend soon, so Shelby needed to make this quick.
She had the feeling by Mindy’s reaction though, that this would not be a quick visit. The group was small and they’d shared a lot. Several of them were followers of her dad’s ministry. They thought of Reverend Jack Claiborne as their spiritual leader and his daughter was family.
That’s where Shelby hoped the wheelchair would come in handy. If she looked and acted the part of an easily exhausted, disabled agent, she could use that to beg off when it was time to skedaddle.
As expected, Mindy stopped her at the check-in desk—they didn’t have the official metal detector here, like most FBI offices had installed. Since their little team was somewhat secret and well-hidden, they didn’t get visitors off the street.
“Oh my God,” Mindy said, her thick upper East Coast accent dripping from each syllable. “You look freakin’ amazing, Shelby!”
Her face said otherwise, but Shelby was used to that right now. In some ways, she was a walking—or wheelchair-riding—miracle. Amazing might be stretching it about her looks, but then, anything looked better than dead.
Mindy scooted around the desk and hugged Shelby as if they were the best of friends.
“And who is this tall drink of water?” she asked, eyeing Colton.
Shelby introduced them and Mindy grabbed her handheld wand. “Well, let’s see if you’ve got any guns on you,” she said and winked at him.
Colton played his cards right, grinning and winking back. “Why, Agent Hampton, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were flirting with this ol’ boy.”
Mindy was behind him, making him hold his arms out. Shelby caught her staring at Colton’s butt and paying no attention to the wand. “Shelby did say you were divorced.” She laughed evilly under her breath. “And it’s not every day, I get a fine-looking cowboy like you in here.”
A few questions about Shelby’s health later, and she and Colton were finally on their way to her office at the back.
Since Shelby’s chair was mostly metal, she’d stood up and let Mindy inspect it. Formality, she had said, and Shelby agreed, although she felt an errant twinge. Close co-workers was one thing; agents who went by the book another. Theo had repeatedly drilled it into their heads. He had worked at a larger office where one of the agents had gone off the sane train and shot three of his fellow agents. The pressure of the job, the frustrations of the system, sometimes did that.
