“Special Agent Palmer.”
“Director Ashland,” I ground out through clenched teeth.
Betrayal sliced me to the core as I stared in disbelief at the man standing in the doorway. I knew Waverly was feeling the same a few rooms away. Roger Ashland had been a mentor to both of us through the years, someone we looked up to and had the utmost respect for.
“Aren’t you going to let me in?” Hard steel pressed into the center of my chest. “We’ve got a lot to discuss.”
“Gun,” Keaton barked into the comms unit.
I spread my feet wider, standing my ground. “You motherfucker.”
“Now, now. There’s no reason for name-calling. This isn’t personal.”
“The hell it isn’t.”
“Step back, Duncan. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
“Koen, tell me you’ve got that fucker in your sights,” Noah growled.
“He’s in the crosshairs.”
“Whatever you want, Duncan, we’ve got your back. If you want to let this play out a little longer, then take thatstep back. If not, use the code word and Koen will drop him where he stands.”
No hesitation. I stepped back. The director of the FBI might have a gun pointed at my chest, but I wasn’t worried. He’d never get off a shot, not with my team watching my back. We came here for answers, to get a confession from Niall. That quickly, the objective changed. It was obvious the Irishman was purely a puppet. The man holding the strings, the real mastermind, was someone I never would’ve suspected in a million years.
As I moved farther into the room, I kept both assholes in view. There was no way I’d give either of them my back, not when they’d already proven they were willing to stab me in it.
“Never thought you’d turn traitor, Roger. Why’d you do it? Money?”
“Not everything is about the almighty dollar, Duncan.”
“Then what was it?”
“Family.”
“You’re related to Erik Murray?”
“Not Murray.” He shook his head. “Do you remember the kid he met that day in the restaurant? The one we could never identify?”
Murray’s doppelgänger.
“Of course I remember. We ran a check on all his past lovers to see if one of them had given him an heir. Nothing came of it.”
“Because I made sure it didn’t.” For the first time since he pulled his weapon on me, I saw a hint of remorse. “When the surveillance footage from the restaurant crossed my desk, I had to do something. No one could know his identity.”
“Who is he?”
“Evan Ashland, my nephew. He’s the product of an affair between my sister and Murray. I didn’t have a choice, Duncan.”
“There’s always a choice. You just chose wrong.”
Covering up his nephew’s lineage was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Somehow I didn’t think his criminal behavior ended there.
“Murray was grooming Evan to take over the business. If you succeeded in taking down his organization, my nephew would’ve been on the chopping block right next to him. I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“So you were the one who ordered my death, not Murray.”
“You were getting too close.”