“Hell if I know. I just work there,” I deadpanned, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my coat.
Ash chuckled. “Right. I’ll stop by for a coffee before heading back to Portland.”
I nearly fell over.He was staying the night in town?“Where are you staying?”
Jake answered for them. “At the inn. It’s too late to drive back.” He shot a look at Hayes. “And someone didn’t want to be a good little pilot for the crew.”
“Call me that again and I’ll break your legs,” Hayes warned on a low growl, turning to face them. As if on cue, his arm reached out behind me, hooking around my waist, gently pulling me to him. He looked down at me and then at the boys. “I take it you all have heard?” he guessed.
Dominic hummed, his dark eyes coming to me. “Gordon losing an asset that big will not bode well.”
“For who?” I asked, lifting my chin. “Gordon has no idea who or what Red Snake is.”
“Correct, but that doesn’t mean he won’t seek retaliation against the FBI,” Jake tacked on, adjusting his glasses. Halfway through the meal, he’d excused himself, grabbing a small bag from his backpack. He’d come back with his glasses on and stated that “contacts took a while to get used to.”
“Retaliation?” I parroted, the hairs on the back of my neck rising.
Silence.
I looked up at Hayes and went back to the team. “What am I missing?”
Ash’s eyes flashed with hesitation, darkening under the moonlight as he glared at Hayes. “You haven’t told her?”
“Told me what?” Hayes’ arm tightened around me when I tried to step away.
“Gordon has connections,” he said to me, holding my eyes. “I told you his drug trade in Portland was somewhat of a small empire.”
“Yes, you did…but you’re not telling me everything,” I accused, turning in his hold. I was fully ready to push him away, but there was something in his eyes, a flicker of fear deep within the green. “What is it?” I begged, my voice trembling on the last word.
“His connections in Seattle go deeper than we thought.”
My brow furrowed. “And that’s bad?”
Hayes looked over at Ash, and my eyes followed his, finding a shadow hanging over the retired SEAL. “Do you remember when Grayson disappeared on Carrie two years ago?”
Yes. She was distraught over it.
I nodded.
“Grayson had to go underground. On a hunt…to find me.”
My lips parted, shock slamming into me like a runaway train. “What?” I breathed.
Over the next few minutes, Ash gave me his truth, telling me about the pastor’s wife he’d found, tortured, starved, and chained to her bed. He told me how when he came back for her, the pastor had cleared the house and taken her underground—to Devil’s Den. Devil’s Den was somewhat of a local legend in the PNW. There was an underground city, ruins of the original Seattle that had burned down nearly a hundred years ago that stretched far beyond the tourist attraction overseen by the local government. There were rumors, dark and terrible rumors, about the nightmares that took place in Devil’s Den.
From drug smuggling to human trafficking.
“You think Gordon has connections to this place?” I asked when he was done, breaking the tense silence.
“The FBI believes that Gordon is a distributor of Nightwalker,” Dominic answered. “The drug Lucas used on Carrie the night he assaulted her.”
“Yes, I remember what it is,” I pushed out, feeling sick. I didn’t need to be reminded of that night or how, when I was curled up on my couch watching a rerun ofFriends, my best friend had nearly been raped.
“Because of this suspicion, I went to the FBI field office earlier this week to have a meeting with the agent overseeing the case,” Ash explained, crossing his arms over his chest. “There are cameras all over that building.”
I huffed and mirrored his position, stepping out of Hayes’ hold. “Look, I need you to give it to me straight. That fucking asshole put me through hell for years and now he wants to do it again. That can’t happen—”
“It won’t happen.” Hayes cut me off.