CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

 

 

I’D ASK WHAT the hell you’ve gotten yourself into, but judging from the handcuffs, I think the answer is obvious.”

Holden looked up to see his boss, Commander Mack Hunt, standing in the doorway regarding him expressionlessly. Tall, with wide shoulders and jet-black hair, Mack had gone through BUD/s with the Team’s former chief, Kurt. They were still tight to this day.

Holden shrugged as well as he could, considering the fact that his hands were still shackled together and attached to the top of the table. “It’s complicated, Sir, and not anything you can fix.” He threw a quick glance at the one-way mirror before turning back to his commander. “You probably shouldn’t be here, Sir.”

Mack was a man who’d never been known to hold back when he felt like giving his men an ass chewing, so Holden was surprised when he quietly stepped inside the interrogation room, closing the door behind him.

“There’s nobody behind the glass. That was part of the agreement I made prior to coming in here.”

Holden nodded. The Feds could have lied and slipped an agent into the other room after Mack came in. Hell, they could have turned on a recording device. This place was probably loaded with them. But he trusted his boss. The man had survived his time on the battlefield because he was smart. He knew how to protect himself and his men. Which meant he’d taken adequate steps to ensure their privacy.

Not that Holden planned to say anything incriminating anyway.

“So, what is it the FBI expects you to do?” he asked even though he already had a pretty good idea. There wasn’t a clock in the room, so he couldn’t say exactly how long they’d been grilling him, but it had been at least eight to ten hours. It was always the same questions over and over from multiple interrogators from multiple angles.

Where is the item you stole?

Who did you give it to?

Where is the auction taking place?

When will the transfer of the property happen?

What’s the name of the organized crime boss you lived with when you were a teenager?

The questions had gotten repetitive—and old—fast. And Holden hadn’t answered any of them. Instead, he’d sat there and stared at the Fed across the table from him until the men got frustrated and stormed out. That jackass, Isaac, had lasted the longest. He got so pissed off when Holden refused to say a word he’d almost taken a swing at him. It was childish, but Holden would take any victory he could get. Frustrating the FBI as long as he could was the most he could look forward to. Sooner or later, they were going to throw him in a cell and stop asking questions.

Since he refused to engage them in any form of conversation, Holden knew they’d change tactics at some point and bring in someone they thought could get him to talk. Apparently, Mack was that someone.

“They told me you stole something from the NSA. Something critical to national security.” Mack sat back and rested his ankle on the opposite knee. “They want me to convince you to tell them where you hid it or who you gave it to.”

“I figured as much,” Holden said.

“I overheard one of the agents say the FBI had an undercover agent staying with you for the past week? Is that true?”

Holden nodded, his chest tightening like it was in a vise. At least Mack didn’t know he and Kendall had been sleeping together.

Thinking about Kendall conjured images in his head he didn’t want to see. Visions of her kneeling on his bed, dressed in his T-shirt, her face full of anguish as she tried to tell him something. Of course, she hadn’t gotten the words out because the FBI had kicked in his door and arrested him while the woman he’d been falling in love with had kept him from fighting.

“Shit, Holden, you know you’re probably looking at life in prison, right?” Mack asked. “If they don’t have you executed for treason.”

Holden ground his jaw and nodded.

Mack slammed a hand down on the table with a curse. “I’m used to my SEALs getting themselves into messes now and then. Getting in fights and putting themselves in the middle of something they have no business being in is one thing. But this isn’t something I can fix or make go away.”

“I know,” Holden said quietly. “And I’m not asking you to.”

The truth was, he had no idea what he was going to do. He’d stolen that damn thing from the NSA because it was the only way he could help a friend save the life of his little girl. His career, his freedom, and his life were gone because of it. If he confessed to everything, he’d go to jail for life. If he didn’t say anything, he’d go to jail for life. Either way, he was screwed.

His only hope was that if he waited until the eleventh hour to tell the FBI what they wanted to know, he could make a deal with them and get out of prison before he started to use a walker. This wasn’t only about him, though. He had no idea what the thing he’d stolen could do, but it must be something that put the U.S. at risk if the Feds were so desperate to get it back. Which meant it put every person he cared about in danger, too.

That included Kendall.

He knew it was friggin’ stupid to still care about her after what she’d done, but he did.

He thought he’d found something special with Kendall. That maybe he’d finally met someone who cared enough about him to be there when he came home from wherever crap hole he’d been. He’d even convinced himself in the quiet corners of his mind that he was in love with Kendall, and that maybe, she might be falling in love with him.

Clearly, he’d been wrong about that. At least the part about her loving him.

He’d been such a fucking idiot.

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Maybe because I’m an idiot.”

Kendall sighed, wishing she could simply disappear into the fabric of the couch in Holden’s living room. It would have been easier than facing the suspicious glares of the people she’d come to think of as friends, people who wanted to know why she hadn’t told Holden the truth in time for him to do something to fix the situation.

Kimber and Dalton were on the couch. Kyla and Wes were sitting on the floor near the TV. Noah and Sam were standing by the door to the kitchen. Every one of them was regarding her with various degrees of suspicion and anger as they waited for her to explain her cryptic answer to an otherwise straightforward question.

Of course, if there was an easy way to answer, she would have done it already.

Kimber had sent her a text about an hour ago consisting of three simple words.

Is it true?

Kendall had been sitting in the same exact spot on Holden’s couch she was now, lost in near despair when her phone had pinged. After the SWAT Team had dragged Holden out, she’d gotten dressed and gone to the San Diego field office, hoping to talk to him. But Isaac had refused to let her see Holden. He said if she hadn’t gotten Holden to tell her where the Key was by now, she wasn’t going to.

She’d stared at Kimber’s text for at least five minutes, not sure what to say. She hadn’t been surprised Holden’s friends knew he’d been arrested and of her involvement in it. She couldn’t figure out why they’d even contact her after what she’d done. Desperate to fix the damage she’d done, she’d texted Kimber back.

It’s true. I screwed up.

It probably wasn’t the most coherent sentence to ever grace the wi-fi domain, especially if Kimber didn’t already know Kendall was an FBI agent. But it had been honest. That had to count for something.

Do you care for him? Kimber texted.

Kendall didn’t even have to think. Yes.

Are you going to do something to help him?

I want to, but I don’t know how. The words blurred as tears filled her eyes. That had been happening a lot today.

Where are you?

She was almost afraid to say she was at Holden’s. That she was there because she wanted to feel close to him. When she told Kimber the truth, her response had shocked Kendall.

We’ll be there in twenty minutes.

Kendall had assumed by “we” Kimber had been talking about her and Kyla. She was stunned to see four SEALs had been with them. That had been half an hour ago.

“So, are you going to expand on that idiot thing?” Kimber asked in exasperation. “Or is that your answer?”

Where did she start?

“I’m an FBI agent and this was my first undercover assignment,” she said quietly. “I had no idea what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that I was supposed to somehow figure out who Holden had stolen that NSA tech toy for, and where it is now. I never planned to fall for him. That wasn’t supposed to happen. By the time I realized I was in love with him, it was too late. I tried to warn him, but my boss got antsy. The next thing I know, a SWAT team was crashing through the door.” She swallowed hard, holding back tears. “You should have seen the way he looked out me as they dragged him out.”

Everyone stared at her like she’d grown flippers out of her head. That was the moment she realized she’d admitted out loud to loving Holden.

It should have stunned her. The idea that anyone could fall in love in a week was crazy. It was even more insane when you considered the entire week had been one huge lie and that neither of them had been completely honest about anything.

Except for the parts related to how much they cared for each other. They’d been very honest about that. More tears threatened as Kendall faced the truth. She’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t even know the real her and had gotten him tossed in prison.

“Holden really stole something from the NSA?” Kyla asked in a shock.

Well, more shock than she’d been showing before. Truthfully, Kyla had looked out of it when she’d come in. Like she couldn’t understand how things had gotten to this point.

Kendall had asked herself the same thing about a thousand times today.

“I’m not even going to get into how classified this information is, but suffice to say, I’d end up with a cell right next to Holden if anyone knew I told you. But yeah, he stole an extremely valuable piece of spy tech from the NSA,” she said. “They call it the Key and they’re desperate to get it back because apparently there isn’t a computer-based security system in the world this thing can’t hack. Worse, the thing is slated to go up for auction on the Dark Web tomorrow night. If a terrorist group gets their hands on it…”

She left the rest unsaid. Everyone there was smart enough to figure out how bad something like that would be. She also didn’t point out that if Holden was found guilty, he was looking at life in prison—or worse. That freaked her out so much she could barely breathe.

“We didn’t know what we were stealing,” Wes said, his voice almost as soft as Kyla’s had been, and equally stunned. “We were given the location and the security plan and told exactly which vault to break into. Hell, we didn’t even open the case to look at the thing. We grabbed it and left.”

Kyla looked at Wes, her face suddenly pale. “We? You were there, too? Why would you do something like that? If the FBI finds out, you’ll go to prison.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and Wes caught it with a gentle thumb. As if realizing what he’d done, he quickly pulled his hand away, his face flushed.

“When Emma got kidnapped and we realized we were going to have to break into the place Kimber used to work for, Holden knew we’d need some specialized equipment,” Wes said, looking at everyone but Kyla. “Obviously, it’s not the kind of stuff you can get at Walmart, so Holden and I went to see this guy he used to know. Only the guy wouldn’t let us borrow the gear unless Holden agreed to steal something for him.” He shook his head. “We didn’t know it was a piece of NSA spy gear. If we had, we never would have done the job.”

Dalton cursed. Beside him, Kimber’s eyes filled with tears.

While Holden had never come out and said so, Kendall suspected that’s why he’d stolen the Key. Heck, Holden had practically told her as much the first night they’d met when he’d told her he’d do anything to protect his family. Dalton, Kimber, and Emma were his family. Wes had done it for the same reason.

“It was McKinney, wasn’t it?” she asked Wes. “He loaned you the gear. You stole that thing for him.”

Wes’s eyes narrowed, like he’d just revealed something he shouldn’t have. Something that Kendall would use to further hurt his friend. Like she could hurt Holden more than she already had.

“Holden told you about him?” When she nodded, Wes blew out a breath. “I have to admit, I’m a little surprised. He’s only known you for a week.”

“Sometimes a week can be long enough when two people are being honest with each other,” she said then winced. “Well, we were honest about the personal stuff at least. The stuff that really mattered. He told me about growing up in San Francisco. I know he was in a gang, that his mother was a drug addict, and that McKinney took him under his wing.”

Kimber wiped tears from her face. “It sounds like you did learn a lot about Holden. Your boss at the FBI must be pleased. It should make Holden’s prosecution go much smoother.”

The jab hurt, but she deserved it.

“I never told my handlers about any of that stuff. Nothing beyond generalities. The FBI knows his mother died from a drug overdose and that he knew a guy who was involved in organized crime, but nothing more than that.”

“Why didn’t you tell them McKinney’s name?” Dalton asked.

“Because I fell in love with Holden,” she said simply.

Noah pushed away from the door frame he’d been leaning against. “With all this stuff you’ve been keeping from the Feds, is it possible Holden could get out from under this when it goes to court?”

Kendall sighed. That was the same question she’d been asking herself all day. “Probably not. If we were talking about a normal trial in a normal court of law, he might have a chance. But with the national security implications, the prosecutors will be out for blood, especially if the Key gets sold at that auction. In that kind of environment, with the mountain of circumstantial evidence they have tying Holden to the theft, they’re going to put him away for life.”

“What if Holden confesses and tells them about this McKinney guy?” Kyla asked.

“The moment Holden confesses and tells them about McKinney, he’ll lose what little value he has to them,” Kendall said. “If the FBI is able to get the Key back, it might get time cut off his sentence, but he’s still looking at decades in a federal prison.”

If it would get him off scot free, she would have been down at the field office shouting McKinney’s name from the rooftop already.

“What if the FBI didn’t get the Key back?” Wes asked. “What if someone else did and offered it to the Feds in return for complete and total clemency for Holden?”

For a moment, Kendall didn’t understand what Wes meant. But as the words slowly filtered through and their meaning took shape, the hope she hadn’t allowed herself to even consider began to build in her chest.

“Do you know where McKinney has the thing?” she asked Wes excitedly.

He shook his head. “No, but I know someone who probably does. We just need to go get him out of the FBI field office.”

Kendall blinked

Beside Wes, Kyla’s eyes went wide. “Are you actually suggesting we break Holden out, steal something from an organized crime boss, then barter it for Holden’s freedom? Not to mention our own since the FBI will realize we’re the ones who broke him out.”

Kendall’s head spun as she tried to figure out how they could possibly pull something like that off. It was beyond insane.

“You know that’s crazy, right?” Kimber pointed out. “We’ll never make it past the front door.”

Kendall prayed she didn’t regret this.

“You guys can’t, but I can,” she said.

 

* * * * *

 

Holden was sitting there with his eyes closed when he heard the door of the interrogation room open. No doubt it was another agent there to question him. He still had no idea what time it was, but it had to be close to 0400.

The light footsteps told him it was a woman. No surprise there. They’d thrown a dozen different guys at him from intellectual to threatening in an attempt to get him to talk. It made sense that they’d try a woman next. They probably thought he’d respond well to a softer touch.

Like that had a friggin' chance in hell of working.

If she followed the same script, she’d sit down across from him and introduce herself, then say she was there to help him. The first few times he’d been amused. After that, it had just become annoying.

But she didn’t do that. Instead, she grabbed his wrists and unlocked the cuffs around his wrists. He jerked his head up and almost fell out of his chair when he saw Kendall. Which would have hurt like hell, since his ankles were chained together.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, his heart soaring and plummeting at the same time. It sank even further as the significance of her presence hit him. “Oh, I get it. They sent you in to question me, figuring you have the good cop role down pat since you’ve already banged me. I bet the other agents had a good laugh when you told them how easy it was to get me to fall for you.”

She flinched at his words, and he immediately felt like shit for saying them. But hell, she’d lied to him about everything. What the hell was he supposed to do…thank her?

Kendall’s mouth tightened, but she didn’t say anything as she crouched down to remove the shackles on his ankles. Straightening, she stepped back and motioned for him to stand.

“Come on,” she said when he didn’t move. “We don’t have much time.”

Holden stared at her. He’d thought way too much about Kendall since the Feds brought him in here. He wasn’t naive or stupid enough to blame her for being FBI or for him getting arrested. The former was her job. The latter was his fault. He’d stolen that damn thing from the NSA.

No, the thing that made it nearly impossible to look at her, much less forgive her, was the fact that she’d tricked him into falling in love with her. He’d thought she was different and it had all been a lie.

“Let’s go,” she urged.

“Go where?” He rubbed the chafe marks around his wrists a few times before crossing his arms over his chest. “If you’re taking me to a holding cell, why did you take off the cuffs and shackles?”

“I’m not taking you to a holding cell, you idiot,” she snapped, then glanced at the door, a panicked look in her eyes. “I’m breaking you out.”

He frowned, sure he was hallucinating. “What?”

“I’m here to get you out.”

Kendall darted a quick look at the door again, like she thought someone would walk in at any moment. Why would she care if anyone did? She was one of them. She had a friggin' FBI badge with her photo clipped to her belt for heaven’s sake.

“What kind of game are you playing?” he asked. “Do you think that if you act like you’re trying to help me escape, I’ll trust you again and tell you where the Key is?”

She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Dammit, Holden. I get it. You don’t trust me. And you have every reason not to. I screwed up, and I know it. There’s nothing I can do to change that now. I can try to get you out of this situation, though. But to do that, I need you to trust me enough to come with me before another agent comes in here.”

“You recognize the inconsistency in what you just said, right?” he asked. “You get that I don’t trust you, but then you ask me to trust you. Why the hell would I do that?”

She sighed, and for a moment he thought those might be tears in her eyes. Then she shook her head and locked gazes with him. “Because Wes, Dalton, Noah, and Sam are in a van downstairs, along with Kyla and Kimber. I need to get you out of this building before someone stumbles over them. Or us, for that matter.”

He must be more exhausted than he’d thought because he simply couldn’t comprehend what Kendall had just said. There was no way he’d heard her right.

“Why would they be downstairs in a van?” was all he could say.

“Because if I can get you out of here, we’re all going to get that damn thing you stole and use it to barter your freedom.”

If he thought he was confused before, it didn’t compare to how much his head was spinning right then. “Why would you do something like that? You’ll go to prison right along with me if this goes wrong.”

Kendall gazed at him for a long time. “Because I love you and I’ll do anything to get a chance to prove it.”

Before he had could say anything, Kendall turned and headed for the door. Hand on the knob, she looked over her shoulder at him.

Holden took a deep breath, then got to his feet and followed her out of the room.