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

“Knight and I were consulting a local detective about a case when the call went out that the director was looking for Barnes,” Ken said. “We were close enough to the hotel to get here quickly. Found him like this.”

“How long do you think he’s been like this?” Max asked.

Kelly Compton looked up at him, from where she was starting on the blood that had been beneath Barnes’s body.

Blood and…bone fragments. Hair.

Max bit back the bile.

He couldn’t stand Barnes, but seeing this…

“From the looks of the bloodstains, Max, he’s been bleeding slowly for a few hours at least. But…nothing definitive yet.”

They had Barnes on the gurney.

To Max’s shock, the man’s eyes opened.

Stared right at him.

Kelly stood.

She took a jerky step back when Barnes’s hand shot up and wrapped around her bony forearm.

Barnes didn’t let her go. Max freed her quickly, as gently as he could.

Max stepped closer to the wounded man. “Todd? Todd, can you hear me? Do you recognize me?”

“Max—”

He did. Barnes was aware of what was happening around him.

“You’re going to be ok, Todd.” Max told him, leaning close enough to fill Barnes’s vision. “We’ll get you to the hospital and fixed right up.”

“He…going after… others…PAVAD...”

Max’s heart stopped beating for a moment. “Who, Todd?”

“Didn’t…know. Lytel…it’s Lytel. Dirty.”

“We know that, too. Did he shoot you, Todd? Was Eugene Lytel the man who shot you?”

“Yes…killed Anderson…whole team. Dirty. Young…Fallow…dirty. All of them. Didn’t know…till…got…Saint…”

The man’s eyes closed. The paramedic jerked his hand, for Max to get out of the way. “We need to get him to the trauma center. Every moment counts.”

Max nodded, stepping back. “Thanks, Barnes. I’m going to get him. I’ll see he pays for this.”

Barnes never said another word.

Max looked at the agents surrounding him. “Eugene Lytel. What do we have to do to find him?”

“And are the men on his team as dirty as Todd Barnes—an agent no one really likes or trusts—said?” Knight asked.

“We need to see what he sent in that email again.” Max had read them. And knew in his gut there was at least some truth to them. Information Todd had written in that email had lined up with information that only the director and Max and Sin had had.

“One thing to consider—if whoever has his computer tracks his email, they’re going to see whoever those emails were sent to,” Knight said. “Making them potential targets.”

There had been others cc’d on those emails.

“The director, me, Jaclyn—and Miranda Talley. Barnes has a thing for Miranda this time. He sent her everything. Said it in the email to me itself.”

Knight swore. “Someone better find that woman, then. Fast. Because if your pal Lytel has a team of his own, and they’re in the PAVAD building, there are plenty of people to go after all of you. And it’s not going to matter one damned bit if it’s in the PAVAD building or not. If they want to get to someone inside, they will.”

Max swore. The other man was right. They didn’t know how many in Lytel’s division were dirty. And they were right there with Miranda, Nat, and Jac.

To a man as skilled, as trained, as familiar with PAVAD as Lytel, that meant one thing.

Jac and the other two women he cared about were as good as sitting ducks.

110

More waiting. He couldn’t get the shot. He watched as the elder Jones girl headed out. She was such a classy woman. Cool and sophisticated, just like her mother had always been.

He’d felt good when he was with her. Less invisible, though he’d never laid hands on her. He wouldn’t have dared.

Strange that Jaclyn and her sister would have chosen law enforcement. Something as common as law enforcement wasn’t good enough for one of Colonel Jones’s daughters.

Not them.

Even when they’d been fucking teenagers, the good old colonel had gone on and on about how perfect they were, especially the younger one. How they were destined for the top.

Poised and graceful, and perfect.

Hell, the colonel had been prepping them to be married off to the highest bidders when they were barely old enough to drive.

Strange that they’d end up working PAVAD.

Then again, considering Boyd’s connections to Ed Dennis, maybe it wasn’t.

He wondered if Ed Dennis even knew.

Beautiful girls, though the redhead was more classically beautiful.

The younger woman looked like a lost waif.

He sighted the rifle on first one sister, then the other.

Eugene had hated Boyd since the moment he had learned about Felicia’s death.

Her murder.

His grip tightened on the weapon. He would give anything to get back at that smug bastard.

Jaclyn stopped to say hello to one of her neighbors. Eugene watched her, struck again by just how graceful she was. By how much she favored Felicia.

No wonder Max Jones had it so bad for her.

When he turned back, the younger sister had already loaded those dogs of hers into her Wrangler.

He studied her through binoculars instead, thinking that just around the eyes, around the hairline, she looked like the father she had never known.

He wondered if Boyd had ever noticed that little fact.

At the angle she was now, there was no way he could take the shot clearly. He would have to wait.

111

There was a six foot five, broad-shouldered, dark-haired pain in the ass staring at Miranda from behind mirrored glasses.

Knight had shown up two minutes ago, covered in blood, with a hard look on his face. He’d come right to her side and just…sat there.

Miranda didn’t say a word. The last thing she needed now was Allan Knight just staring at her. Especially a bloodstained Allan Knight.

The man gave her the shivers. Sometimes not in a good way. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be across the street, digging into the past?”

He shook his head slowly.

“Knight…whose blood?” He didn’t look hurt. She hadn’t heard a call about an agent in trouble.

“Todd Barnes was shot in the head in his hotel room not even two hours ago. Chalmers and I found him. It’s Barnes’s blood.”

Miranda flinched. “Is he going to