Therefore she had to die.
He looked at Fawkes.“Our fight is with anyone who has aligned themselves with members of Omega Sector.If we keep their focus outward, they’ll miss what’s really happening until it’s too late to do anything about it.”
Fawkes didn’t know it, but Damien had already put into motion the next strike against Omega.A more indirect hit this time, against two people in Texas who had helped them with a case last year.The super-spy wall would help point them in the right direction so they didn’t miss it.
Split their focus yet again.
Damien nodded at Fawkes.“But I understand your fight is not with civilians.You’ve made that very clear.I’ll make sure Harper focuses on Fitzgerald, not Summer.”
Damien’s focus would be on her, though.
Fawkes just rolled his eyes.“I don’t think that Harper is competent enough to kill Fitzgerald anyway.”
“Don’t worry.I will help him with that.Like I told him, I have a plan.He probably won’t like the end result, but it’s still a plan.”
“I don’t want him going after Summer Worrall.They’ve moved her into a safe house, but Harper is idiot enough to try to find her if he thinks it’s a good idea.”
“Where is the safe house?I’ll make sure Harper doesn’t go anywhere near it.”
Fawkes gave him the address.“It was hard for me to get that info, so make sure Harper doesn’t go there and screw it up.”
The safe house was in an area just on the outskirts of town.Damien smiled at Fawkes.“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Harper goes nowhere near Ms.Worrall’s location.”
Damien, on the other hand, had no such compunctions.
* * *
“SOWE’VECONFIRMEDthat Curtis Harper is working with someone else,” profiler Jon Hatton told the team as they sat around the conference table.
It had been a long damn day.Ashton had wished for the obstacle course or an escaped criminal they had to chase down or even some cat caught in a tree that required a SWAT rescue.Anything that would get him out of this room and provide him a physical release for the frustration coursing through his system.
Summer’s face when he’d told her about his part in Tyler’s death yesterday.Eyes open or closed, it seemed to be the only thing he could clearly see.
They’d talked a couple of times on the phone so he could be certain she and Chloe were okay.He’d even dropped by there this morning to drop off one of Chloe’s favorite toys.A fire truck.
Summer had been polite but distant.Ashton hadn’t pressed.Like she’d said, there was too much going on right now to concentrate on what had happened in the past.He could see the weight of all the stress wearing on her.Her normally light and happy features were pinched and pale.
And the fault lay squarely at his feet.
“A security camera caught this footage of Harper and an unknown second man just after the florist shoot-out last Friday,” Jon continued.He put a picture up on the screen.“We haven’t gotten a hit on the second man in any of our facial recognition databases.”
“We also checked the picture against all family members of anyone that the SWAT team, particularly Ashton, had any sort of official contact with in the past few years,” Brandon Han said.“In case they’d started a club or something.”
“Anything?”Ashton asked.
“No.You don’t recognize him, do you?”
Ashton studied the second man.There didn’t seem to be anything striking about him whatsoever.His hair was brown, generic.Skin pale.His cheekbones were just short of puffy.His clothes were ill-fitting.He could’ve been anywhere from thirty to fifty years old and probably got passed by on the street all the time without anyone noticing him at all.
“No.Hell, I’m looking at him right now and am not sure I could describe him to anyone else.”
Brandon and Jon looked at each other, nodding.“We think that’s what he wants.That he’s wearing a pretty effective disguise.”
Ashton studied the picture again.Granted, he wasn’t an investigating agent like Brandon or Jon, but he was still pretty observant.“I don’t disagree with you.But it’s a pretty damn good disguise if it is one.”
Both men nodded.
“Do we think this is the same second guy who was at Summer Worrall’s house when Fitzy got shot?”Roman asked.
