“Good morning,” she said, feigning cheeriness. “I thought we were meeting at 8.”
Leo gave her a smug smile. Cunningham shot a look at Meredith and Taylor’s boss stepped forward. “Agent Sinclair, after what happened at 12:24 this morning in the parking garage, Assistant Director Cunningham and I are concerned for your safety and your…”—she cleared her throat—“perspectivewith your current case.”
“I’m fine,” Taylor lied, skirting the three of them and taking her seat. “I know my deadline on the Jarvis case is up today, but I have new leads on what might have happened with the baby. I’m meeting with my team to bring them up to speed in two minutes. We have several people to interview, and—”
Leo held out a hand. “I’ll take your Jarvis file.”
Taylor caught sight of Beck, still outside her office, her notes tucked safely under his arm. Janiece had joined him, her face a worried mess of lines.
Taylor hid her own worry. “May I ask what’s going on here?”
AD Cunningham sunk his hands into his pants pockets and looked bored. “What Agent Sardana is trying to say is that you’re on suspension, Sinclair. Hand in your service weapon and badge.”
“What the hell?” Taylor said to Mer, a sudden sourness in her mouth. “You’re kidding, right? I’m suspended? Because I was attacked in the parking garage last night?”
Meredith crossed her arms. “You’re lucky that’s all it is. Every step of the way you’ve broken protocol on this case, and you know it.”
Mer didn’t know the half of it.
Or did she?
I have eyes and ears everywhere.
Damn spies.
“Broken protocol?” Did this have to do with Grey? Matt? Or was this Bureau speak foryou embarrassed us in the media?“Could you be a little more specific?”
“Do I really need to?” Meredith shifted her weight and tapped a foot. “From the moment you started working with that PI, you’ve violated procedure after procedure. You went undercover without permission. You let someone break into your apartment and gain confidential information.”
“Lethim? I didn’t let the perp do anything. He circumvented my security and figured out my laptop’s password.”
She continued as if Taylor hadn’t spoken. “Last night in the parking garage, you discharged your weapon.”
“A man attacked me!”
“We’re looking into it, Taylor. Meanwhile, go home, get some rest, and forget about this case. Leo is taking over.”
“Like hell he is.”
Leo snickered.
Which made the anger she hadn’t felt since last night emerge fresh. She jumped from her chair and started around the desk to get in his face—very Mitch Monroe-style—but Meredith grabbed her arm. “Don’t make things worse for yourself, Taylor.”
Taylor shook her restraining hand off and cut her gaze between Mer and Cunningham. In her peripheral vision, she saw the rest of her team gathered outside the glass wall of her office. “Is this because I went to Justice Greystone? He worked the original case. Why wouldn’t I interview him and get his insight?”
Her boss’s lips firmed and she seemed to choose her words before she spoke. “You’re a loose cannon right now, just like Greystone was at the end of his time with the Bureau. I won’t have those on my team.”
She held out her hand. “Turn over your notes, Taylor.”
Technically, the information contained inside her briefcase was the property of the FBI.
Good thing Beck was FBI.
“I don’t have them.” Taylor removed her gun from its holster and her credentials from her bag, stacking both on top of her desk. “Guess you’re on your own to solve the Jarvis case.”
Her legs shook but she held her head high as she moved past the threesome toward her office door. Beck opened it before she could and held it for her. She thanked him, moving down the hall, her team huddling around her.
“Did they fire you?” Beck asked.
