Jackson’s expression darkened. “You want to see him.”
“I need to,” she insisted. “He works from a remote location most days. It’s about an hour from here, in the middle of nowhere. If I go there, I can confront him face to face.”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “And you think he’s just going to confess?”
“No,” she said. “But I can try to tap into the feelings he has for me. I can maybe try to play along with those feelings to get him to talk.”
Her voice broke a little at the end, and she looked away, drawing in a breath to steady herself. “I trusted him, Jackson. He wasn’t just my boss. He believed in what I was doing—or at least he made me think he did.”
For the first time that morning, a spark of purpose replaced the exhaustion in her chest. If Warren had betrayed her, she’d make him face it.
One way or another, she was done running.
Jackson let out a sharp huff and shook his head. “No. It’s too dangerous.”
Avery leaned forward, her hands pressing flat on the table. “It doesn’t have to be. We can do this smart.”
He gave her a hard look, the kind that usually ended a conversation. “Avery, I’m not walking you into a setup.”
“You won’t be,” she said quickly. “Listen, we could park near the house and run surveillance first. Make sure no one fromthe Brotherhood is around. You’ve got that heat scanner, right? We can use it to check the place before I even go in.”
Jackson’s jaw flexed, his expression unreadable. “That’s not the point. He sold you out once. You really think he won’t do it again if they’re paying him?”
“Maybe he will,” she said, her voice tight, “but I need to know. I can’t just sit here, hiding, waiting for someone else to make the next move. I need the truth.”
He didn’t answer, and she could see he was about to shut her down. The look in his eyes said he’d already made up his mind, but she wasn’t finished.
“Please, Jackson.” Her voice softened. “I feel like a coward sitting here, waiting for the next attack. I need to know what we’re facing. If Warren will talk, if he’ll give us anything that ties him to the Brotherhood, then this could be our way to bring them down.”
He looked at her for a long moment, the silence heavy between them.
Avery held her breath, watching him weigh the risk. She could see the battle in his eyes—the soldier in him calculating every threat, and the man in him who didn’t want to see her hurt again.
Finally, he exhaled, low and slow.
Jackson didn’t say anything at first. He stared at his coffee, then at her, the muscles in his jaw far from being relaxed. Finally, he gave a short nod. “All right. We’ll do it. But we do it my way.”
Relief washed through her, sharp and immediate. She didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. She gulped down the rest of her coffee and set the cup in the sink. Jackson was already on his feet, grabbing his gear bag and checking his weapons.
They moved quickly. Years of training and habit made his motions precise. Avery followed his lead, vesting up and checking the small handgun he handed her.
“Stay close to me,” he said, his voice steady and calm. “I’ve got equipment that’ll alert me if we’re being tailed, but I need you watching the mirrors and the road. Anything out of place, you tell me.”
She nodded, heart thudding. “Got it.”
They headed into the garage. The SUV waited where he’d parked it the day before, dark and solid, its interior smelling faintly of oil and leather. Avery slid into the passenger seat and keyed in the address on her phone. “It’s about sixty miles out,” she said.
Jackson started the engine, the low growl filling the small space. “Then we’d better get moving.”
He eased the vehicle out of the garage, shut the door, and headed down the narrow dirt drive. The sky was a flat gray, the kind that pressed low over the hills, and a fine drizzle streaked across the windshield. The wipers swept it away in slow, rhythmic arcs.
They drove in silence at first, the road winding through the Texas Hill Country. The trees were dark with rain, their branches bending under the weight of it. Water pooled in shallow ditches, and the gravel roads kicked up wet grit beneath the tires.
Avery stared out the window, her mind spinning with every turn. The closer they got, the heavier the tension grew. Each mile felt like another layer of risk added to the pile already hanging over them.
Jackson’s focus never wavered. His hands stayed steady on the wheel, eyes scanning the mirrors, the road, the skyline ahead. He looked calm, but she could feel the alertness coming off him like heat.
It wasn’t lost on her that she trusted him more than anyone else in the world right now. And that trust came with its own weight.