“Evidence,” Anya answered. “But this time, it led somewhere. There were notes, and there were pictures of the girl. Almost like a trail of breadcrumbs. So, I did my profile and had a short list of suspects by the end of the day, as requested. But everything just felt…off. I mentioned that in my initial report, but my partner and I argued about it. She told me that ‘excuses aren’t needed, solutions were.’ I couldn’t, in good conscience, hand over what I had without telling them I wasn’t confident in my profile. My partner finally agreed and used my exhaustion against me by offering to take the report to the SAC while I got some rest.”
“She altered the report,” Jaime guessed as an unexpected anger coursed through her veins for a woman she didn’t even know. Thatwasn’twhat partners did. They had each other’s backs. They didn’tstabeach other in the back.
“Very good, Detective.” Anya paused, listening to Derek’s purr and centering herself before she continued. Remembering that day still pissed her off. She could have blamed fatigue for not seeing her partner’s true intentions, but Anya knew it was more than that. So much more. And that was what hurt the most. “By the time I got back to the office, my list had been narrowed down to one man, and a full-on operation was being organized. Everything was happening fast. Too fast. I couldn’t pin my partner down long enough to get any information. The harder I tried to talk to her, the more she avoided me. Finally, I was frustrated enough with all of them to raise my voice and demand to know what the hell was going on.”
Jaime smiled. “I bet that was a sight.”
Anya didn’t return the smile. “I playedrightinto their hands. When I asked about my report and why my concerns weren’t being taken into consideration, my partner used my outburst as a ‘gotcha’ moment and said I was just overly tired and, therefore, questioning my assessment.No onelistened to me, Jaime. And my gut was telling me—no, it wasscreamingat me—that we had the wrong guy. But all I could do was watch on as the Hostage Rescue Team geared up and went on a blind mission thatIessentially sent them on.”
“I take it things didn’t go well.”
Anya’s nostrils flared with rage as she remembered that night. “It was a trap. We were lured there and ambushed. Six agents lost their lives that night.”
“Damn.” Jaime’s heart dropped. “What the hell happened?”
“Officially? I rushed my profile, didn’t warn HRT of the potential risks, and was forced into an early retirement.”
“You’re fucking kidding me!”
Anya appreciated Jaime’s outrage. It was more than her own partner had for her four years ago. “I wish. My incompetence,apparently, was better optics than a disgruntled HRT agent who led his team to slaughter.”
“What the fuck? It was another agent?” At this point, Jaime had sat up and crossed her legs beneath her. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. Anya nodded, and Jaime scoffed while shaking her head. “That explains how he got around your profile. But why? Did he just…break?”
Anya studied Jaime for a moment before answering. “You’re right about the profile. I couldn’t get a read on Agent Lewis because he was pretending to be someone else. I had worked with him before, and he knew my techniques.” She picked Derek up and mirrored Jaime’s position. “Lewis was up for SAC but was passed over.”
“The councilman’s friend?”
Anya nodded. “It had been the third time Lewis had been passed over due to politics or favoritism. Before I was forced out, I learned that his wife had left him for another man—a more successful man—who, as it turned out, had been playing father to Lewis’s daughter for more than a year. Lewis blamed his failures and losses on the councilman. And when he didn’t get any support from his team, he blamed them as well.”
“Shit,” Jaime blew out a breath. She wasn’t naïve about how being in law enforcement could fuck with your head, but to fucking slaughter your colleagues? Even losing Taylor hadn’t been enough to turn Jaime into a psychopath. “Wait, what about the kid? What happened to her?”
“She was never taken.” Anya scooted Derek off her lap and leaned over to get her tea from the small table by the bed swing. “She had snuck out to be with her new boyfriend.”
“Lucky timing?” Jaime asked, even though she had a feeling it was far more complicated than that.
“Carefully planned and paid for,” Anya amended. “Lewis spent weeks watching every move, recording routines and schedules. He knew the councilman was strict and didn’t allow his daughter to date, but what sixteen-year-old doesn’t want to date? He paid another teenager to chat her up and ask her out.”
“Getting her to go against her father’s rules meant she wouldn’t readily answer when he called.”
“You really are good at this, Detective.” Anya managed a small smile. “He premeditated his revenge for three months. In that time, he duped me and people who called him a friend and murdered six of them.”
Jaime reached out and took one of Anya’s hands in her own. “Tell me you don’t hold any responsibility for that.”
Anya thought about that for a moment. “I think any good doctor will wonder what signs they missed, but I also accept that I am only human.”
Jaime nodded, relieved that Anya wasn’t carrying the weight of those deaths in the same way she was with these recent ones. But Jaime had one more question that she had been hesitant to ask. “Your partner? Was she…?”
“No. She was in the communications van with me when it went down. The SAC, wanting to be the hero for his friend, insisted on being in there with the team. He was the first one killed. Then it just…” When Anya closed her eyes, she could see the tragedy clearly. It had taken her a good part of the past four years to compartmentalize the trauma, and honestly, she wasn’t quite sure she had done such a great job at it. “Everything happened so fast, Jaime. We couldn’t get to them in time to save them.”
We?That little tidbit surprised the hell out of Jaime. “You were a field agent?”
“Yes. You look surprised.”
“I kinda am. Sorry. You’re just…” Jaime’s eyes fell on Anya’s bare legs. She shook her head. Anything she said now would end up sounding incredibly sexist and idiotic coming out of her mouth, since she’d probably heard all of those idiotic things about herself before. “Did you get Lewis? Or is he why you live in a fortress, take alternate routes home, and have an address in the system that isn’t yours?”
Anya bit her bottom lip. It didn’t take an FBI profiler to understand precisely where Jaime’s mind went when she gazed at Anya’s body. At least Jaime had more willpower to keep those thoughts to herself than most of the men Anya used to work with.
“We got Lewis,” Anya revealed. “However, PTSD tends to dig its claws in.” She glanced around, noting the security cameras even in the backyard. “Maybe it’s a little overboard.”
