Page 10 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“Yeah?”

“Sinner just dropped off Vanessa at a motel with a man and another woman.”

“Dropped off?” I asked as I shoved open my office door and settled behind my desk.

“I’m assuming he’s ditching his vehicle. Do I follow Sinner?”

“No, stay with Vanessa, but keep your distance. He wouldn’t have dropped off Vanessa with someone he didn’t trust. If anything suspicious happens, move in.”

“You got it, boss.”

I tossed down my phone and pinched the bridge of my nose. I thrived in a situation like this, but the logistics of keeping Adams in the dark was a complication I was beginning to regret.

* * *

I wasin my office with Red, Kavanaugh, and Eli, awaiting a phone call from Sebastian. The last anyone saw of Sinner was when he walked away from the motel with Vanessa and his two guests yesterday. But since then, a firestorm had erupted, possibly ruining the entire mission.

“I should have followed him,” Red said again, sighing as he leaned back in the seat.

“Those weren’t your orders,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, but I could have left Brad at the motel and followed. We knew the situation was hot—”

“Red, it’s not your fault,” I repeated. “Let it go. He’s fine now.”

He shut his mouth, but glared at the floor. He took it seriously when shit went south. But this decision was all on me. Now I had to hope that we hadn’t completely blown this mission.

My phone rang and I picked it up. “Cash Owens.”

“It’s Sebastian. What’s going on?”

“Sinner’s headed toward you, but we have a problem.”

“Fuck, why does there always have to be a problem?”

“Because that’s just the way shit like this goes.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “What’s going on?”

“When Sinner picked up Vanessa yesterday, he was in his own truck. He had to ditch it after dropping Vanessa off at a motel. He had two other people with him, a man and a woman.”

“Christ, I bet it was Sean and Cara.”

“Who are they?” I asked curiously, looking at the others to see if the names rang a bell with them. They all shook their heads.

“Cara is his ex-girlfriend, and Sean is her brother.”

“Any idea why they were out here?”

He was silent for a minute. “Cara has some issues,” he said carefully. “I don’t know the specifics of why they broke up, but I’m guessing she went out there for him.”

“And she took her brother with?” I questioned.

“She has severe anxiety. She was kidnapped years ago by a serial killer. She got away, but not completely unscathed,” he said, not really needing to tell us more. It was pretty clear by that short statement that she was pretty fucked up from what happened to her. But that didn’t explain why Sinner left her and came out here. He didn’t strike me as the type of man to leave a woman like that.

“Okay, well, that would explain what my guys saw as Sinner was making his way to pick up his truck. The woman, Cara, passed out and had to be carried the rest of the way. As far as Red could tell, she was fine. They took off and that’s the last anyone saw them.”

“I’m not seeing the problem,” Sebastian said in frustration.

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