“Fine,” El said. “It’s been a pain being moved around, but other than that, it’s been okay.”
“We are going to figure this out,” Conner said.
She nodded, even as an impending sense of doom weighed down on her. It felt as if there was a massive clock ticking away, counting down to the next murder. She sent a prayer up that no one else was hurt before they could catch the bastard.
Kap was rolling his shoulders, trying his best to rid himself of the energy that had built up. It was annoying not to be doing anything. This was the one part of the job that he hated. Even when he was with NCIS, he hated waiting around. Of course, there was an added layer of irritation because he knew this was killing Eden.
She had been in direct contact with Sam for the last hour on and off. They were both hunting down leads but coming up with nothing. Marv Bellows was still missing, and he knew that weighed heavily on her as well.
He watched as she paced back and forth on the far side of the room, talking to Sam.
“She’ll be fine,” her brother said from behind Kap.
Kap turned to look at the man. “I know that. Your sister is the strongest woman I know, besides my mother, of course.”
His mouth twitched. “Yeah. Us Southern boys and our mamas.” His smile dissolved. “She’s always been the stronger of the two of us. No matter how many times I tell her that, she doesn’t believe me.”
“Those forty-eight hours…”
He sighed. “I knew she would come for me. Even in the worst of it, I knew that my sister would find me. And in that, I could go on. If I didn’t have her, I probably would have told them everything.”
“Naw, you wouldn’t have.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you have the same DNA as that woman. You’re right, she’s stronger than both of us, like most women. But even knowing you have backup, a lot of people give in to torture right away. And I know that you were both trained to be agents, but you were never meant to be, am I right?”
He nodded.
“I’ve heard of agents that gave over info right away.”
“I’m still puzzled about why they kept me alive. I know they were trying to get her there, but they didn’t have to keep me alive for that.”
That had been bothering Kap as well. The twins seemed to be the exception to the rules, which was worrisome. It was as if whoever was in charge treated them differently. With a bastard like this, that wasn’t a good thing.
“We have another problem,” Eden said as she strode over to them.
“What now?”
“Scott is missing, too. So, now we have Marv missing and the boss we don’t trust missing also.”
“Do you think that Marv might have put his foot down and refused to help him?” Kap asked.
“Not sure if he would,” El said.
“He might have. I got on the phone with Mom.”
“I thought we weren’t telling them anything,” El said, irritation rolling through his voice.
“First, I didn’t tell Mom, but she knows something’s up. You know how she is.”
“And she knows about Marv?”
She nodded. “Marv got passed over for a promotion. He was supposed to be moved up to a position that would oversee operations in the Asian theater.”
El whistled, and Kap put the pieces together.
“You think that Scott passing him over was the straw that broke the camel’s back?” he asked.
