Searching (PAVAD- FBI Romantic Suspense Book 18) by Calle Brookes (guided reading books txt) 📗

Just to see what was happening. He’d ended up escorting Brady to an interrogation room himself.

Always a part of the action, never a part of the limelight.

PAVAD was all about not taking the glory for any one agent or team. It was the whole organization who deserved the credit, as the great team that it was.

Well, Lytel called bullshit on that. Ed Dennis was getting his glory somehow; he had no doubt about that.

Men like that always did.

No matter who they had to bury to do it.

He waited until the end of the day. Then he did some more digging. He needed to see what was going on.

And he had a payoff to make.

He wasn’t the only one on a secondary payroll around here, after all.

Even the subcontractors wandering around the building—not all of them were on the up-and-up, either.

Lytel had a five-forty meeting with one of them right there in his office.

Wonder what the director would do if he ever found out some of the shit designed to bring him down was happening right there under his damned fucking nose?

Lytel didn’t intend to be around to see that.

He was almost fifty-six now. He was going to take his cash from this and retire.

He wanted to find an island somewhere and just relax. He’d divorce the wife, keep in touch with the kids by email if he chose to, and then he’d live his life for himself for a change.

After all these years, he deserved it.

But first, he had a few meetings lined up for the day. Todd Barnes would be there in fifteen minutes, and he still had that damned IT contractor to talk to about the latest security updates for his department. He personally couldn’t stand the two sonsofbitches, but they all played for the same side now, after all.

He had to remember that. At least for the time being. PAVAD meant being a part of the team, after all. Lytel always had been a team player.

10

Todd left Director Dennis’s office a week after he’d visited St. Louis to make the delivery, forcing himself to keep a smirk off his face. The guy was such a stupid prick. Todd couldn’t wait until Edward Perfect Dennis got what was coming to him. He’d get exactly what he deserved. It was just a matter of time until that happened.

In the meantime, Todd was going to do what he was told. At least on the surface. He was ready to move up the ladder. It was about time.

There were people in the waiting area of Dennis’s office. Todd forced himself to nod politely. Agent Len-Royal, the director’s prissy little assistant, was watching him. It was obvious she didn’t like him, even though her face was blank when she looked at him.

Her and that beefcake husband of hers who was running around in the CHILDS department one floor down from the Complex Crimes floor.

They didn’t just have areas for each division of PAVAD now. They had entire floors.

Fucking ridiculous. No division of the bureau, or of any federal agency that he knew of, had grown so quickly. Everyone was saying there had to be some sort of corruption within it somewhere.

The bureau just didn’t work the way PAVAD did.

It was bound to destroy itself from within. Soon.

Very, very soon.

One of the men waiting in the outer office was the envelope guy. That had Todd flinching a bit.

Sturvin wasn’t an agent. The prick was an independent contractor hired to service the human resources and benefits and accounting departments of PAVAD. Their servers.

Sturvin wasn’t PAVAD. He was an outsider.

From what Todd’s contact had told him, that was something Dennis had been shot down about too. He’d wanted to keep everything IT within PAVAD itself. Dennis had wanted actual agents from the computer departments to handle everything within the sanctified walls of PAVAD. Barring that, he’d wanted Lucas Tech involved.

The moneymen had told Dennis differently. Lucas Tech was too damned expensive, apparently.

And Dennis was pissed.

Todd had to admit, he would have felt the same thing.

Although he understood why Sturvin was there now.

Outside eyes and ears for the ones who wanted Todd in St. Louis, too.

The destruction of PAVAD was a massive scheme.

It wasn’t something just one man could do. Nor was it something that was going to be easy. Sturvin was a plant.

A plant they thought Ed Dennis would eventually trust. Sturvin’s kids went to the same school as the director’s. Just like every damned big name in PAVAD who had a kid now. Keep them all safe and sound at Brynlock Academy with its five figure a semester tuition and its armed guards—paid for by Lucas Technologies.

Whoever was orchestrating this shit was very, very good.

This infiltration of PAVAD had taken years to build. Years to plan. Someone had been planning this from before PAVAD was realized fully.

It wasn’t likely to fail.

Todd’s eyes met Sturvin’s, and he nodded. Just once.

Just an acknowledgment of their common purpose.

Although…Todd doubted the other man had a philosophical or moral reason for doing this, not like Todd. Money drove that man.

Todd had done his own digging into Sturvin, after all.

As cash-strapped as that man was, Sturvin’s motivation was cold, hard cash. Had to keep that pretty wife of his in the lifestyle, after all.

Todd finally made it into the hallway and let his smirk go free.

Fuck PAVAD. It was finally going to happen.

Todd was going to be a part of it. He checked his watch.

He had fifteen minutes to go before he had to meet with his check-in point here in St. Louis.

Plenty of time to take a few digs at Paul Sturvin.

Just to see what the guy was made of.

A team was only as good as the weakest link, after all.

11

“So it’s been a full week since he spent the night at your place?” Miranda asked from the passenger seat as Jac drove. Miranda wouldn’t stop talking about the last subject Jac wanted to think about: Max. Miranda was always asking Jac about