Page 21 of Forged in Steele

His phone rang even with the doors closing. For security reasons, she didn’t want the hospital to have down spots in the event of an emergency just like this one and wanted her guards to have phone coverage in as many spaces as possible. So before signing a contract with the hospital, she’d recommended the installation of antennas in the elevator shafts to give a stronger signal inside the elevator cars. They’d complied.

“Sir.” Jared leaned back against the wall, acting casual but his jaw was set as he listened.

“The detective is here, and he informed me.” Jared ran his hand through his thick dark chocolate hair. “I’ll have a list of needed resources and agents to you within the hour.”

Jared ended his call. “My supervisor. Nathan Adair, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Portland field office. He will personally coordinate allocation of assets and additional agents. Means we won’t have any downtime.”

“Will you have your pick of agents?”

“In as much as they can be freed up from current assignments, yes.” He stared ahead at the wall. “My second in command will be Reed Rice, a seasoned agent who’s on the violent crimes squad with me.”

Perfect.Someone she knew. “Reed’s great.”

“You know him?”

She nodded. “My family has worked with his wife, Sierra, at The Veritas Center on a few investigations lately.”

“Reed told me all about the Center and how they handle forensics for law enforcement. Reed might be biased, but he said they can be counted on to provide the latest in procedures and tests in all areas of forensics from trace evidence to firearms.”

Bristol nodded. “It would be great to use them.”

“They’ll have faster turnarounds,” Jared said. “So I’ll recommend we do use them. Starting with processing the Pratts’ room.”

“Your supervisor will approve that?”

“He said anything I need, and I need.” He grinned.

The sweet grin was so reminiscent of the ones he’d shared with her at the camp, sending her heart somersaulting. The elevator dinged on the first floor, and she all but raced out of the car before she gave away her feelings.

They strode together across the large atrium with a fountain flowing, the rushing water sound calming in the past, but not today. She matched Jared’s long strides step-for-step, but it wasn’t easy in the spiky heels. She only wore heels of any kind when forced and hoped her grandad got here soon if she didn’t want to face-plant in front of Jared. Equally as important, since she was officially on the team, she should be wearing her uniform.

“I’ll bring in a few of our geek agents to review any leads on the security footage and enhance any photos that can be cleaned up. Means I’ll want access to the feed in the command center.” He skirted around a toddler who raced ahead of his mother.

The mother gave an apologetic look. Bristol smiled at her and wanted to tell her to be glad she had her child with her, but held her tongue. She looked up at Jared. “My cousin Teagan can arrange the video.”

“I’d like to know more about Steele Guardians. More than you told me in the past, that is.”

She’d expected he would ask, maybe for information only or to try to pin the blame on them. “What do you remember?”

“Just that your dad and uncle founded it after retiring from law enforcement careers. Your dad was a detective, right?”

“Right, and Uncle Hugh was a sergeant before they retired. They’re now ready to fully retire, and my sisters and cousins are taking over for them. As I said, I’ll be joining them in three weeks. Teagan is the company COO and has been in place since my brother was murdered.”

“Murdered?” He shot her a look. “Oh, man. Thomas was murdered? That’s awful. I’m so sorry. Did it happen on the job?”

“No. At his home.” She didn’t want to say more than that or with her emotions already raw she might start crying. “Three of us still work in law enforcement and three with the company.”

“I remember your dad and uncle required five years’ service in law enforcement before joining the company so you’d get a feel for how criminals act.”

“Correct.”

“Your insights today seem to bear that out.” He glanced at her. “Your suspect questions and video interpretation says you think just like one.”

“Thanks, I think. I mean I’ve never been complimented about something like that.” She wrinkled her nose, a habit she needed to break if she wanted to come across as a hard-nosed deputy during this investigation.

“Trust me, in this case it’s a compliment.” He trained that smile on her again.

She looked away before it could capture her full attention and turned down the corridor leading to the conference room.

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