Emily finished his sentence. “You hope he’s still alive. They couldn’t kill him. He still has Lanier’s file on his computer.”
“That’s right, but he only did the investigation into Lanier. He didn’t reach any conclusions.” Nash wedged his hip against the back of the couch. “If Webb is dead and I delete my file, nobody will pick up the thread.”
“Wouldn’t you have heard by now if Webb were murdered?”
“If his body has been discovered. What if nobody knows?”
Emily grabbed a pillow from his couch and hugged it. “I guess you won’t know until tomorrow...or rather later this morning when you call him.”
“Lanier’s communication and that live chat with Wyatt just bought us some time, and I’m going to use mine to get a few hours of shut-eye, a shower and breakfast—in that order. I suggest you do the same.”
Emily stared at the red dot on her phone and then held it up. “We have the advantage, don’t we? They’ll never see us coming.”
“We’ll hit ’em like a ton of bricks.” Nash brushed Emily’s hair to the side, like gathering sunset in his hands, and kissed the nape of her neck.
Just like he’d never seen Emily Lang coming. She’d hit him like a ton of bricks...and he’d never be the same.
LATER, AFTER A few hours of sleep with Emily curled up at his side, Nash dropped off Denali at Meg’s place. Meg complained that Clay and her cousin, April, should’ve left the dog with her when they went on their honeymoon, but she just liked complaining.
Nash and Emily went to breakfast, where he wolfed down eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, the works, while she played with a bowl of oatmeal. He left her with that cold oatmeal and a hot cup of coffee as he made his way into the station.
Valdez blinked when Nash walked in. “You supposed to be here, bro?”
“Does it look like I’m working?” Nash plucked at his white T-shirt and patted his hip. “I don’t even have my weapon.”
“What the hell went on last night?” Valdez raised his coffee cup as if in a toast. “Brett Fillmore dead. Some Las Moscas soldier dead. Another soldier in custody.”
“Baby still missing.”
“Yeah, this is complicated. Do you need any help?”
“Nah.” Nash pulled out his chair and waved at his computer. “Just wanna close a few loose ends in case the investigation into the shooting takes a long time. It shouldn’t, but you already know how slowly the bureaucracy works.”
“I sure do.” Valdez slurped some coffee. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will, thanks.” Nash waited until Valdez was on the phone, deep into a call. He scrolled through his contacts on his computer and found Webb.
With a sick flip-flop of his stomach, Nash placed the call. He closed his eyes and blew out a breath when Webb answered on the second ring.
“Nash Dillon.”
“That’s right. Everything okay there, Bruce?”
Bruce responded, “I was expecting your call, Agent Dillon.”
Nash’s gut twisted again. Hadn’t the guy told him the other day to use his first name? Nash licked his lips. Why did he feel that the Agent Dillon held some significance?
Nash lowered his voice. “You know about Marcus Lanier and that file, don’t you?”
“Marcus who?”
Chapter Nineteen
Nash’s hand curled into a fist. Had Lanier gotten to Webb?
He cleared his throat. “The file you sent me linking Lanier’s finances to those of Las Moscas—you have it, I have it and Lanier wants it destroyed.”
Webb’s voice dropped to almost a whisper. “You’re the only one who has that file now, Dillon. I suggest you delete it, and I sincerely hope you didn’t make any copies or send it to anyone. That file never sees the light of day. I will deny any knowledge of it and its contents.”
“What does he have on you, Webb?”
“Just do it, if you know what’s good for you and that baby.”
“What’s to stop me from duplicating the file or not deleting it at all?”
Webb clicked his tongue. “I put in fail-safes, Dillon. You’ll send the file I emailed to you back to me. I’ll be able to tell if it’s been duplicated or attached to an email. Then I will corrupt the file and send proof to our friend.”
“He’s no friend of mine... Yours, either, Webb. We can do this together.”
Webb laughed and Nash knew he’d lost him. The finance guy who loved numbers had gone over to the dark side.
“He is my friend, and while he may never be yours, you don’t want him as your enemy. I’ll send you instructions on how to embed certain codes in the file. You do that, send it back to me, and he will cooperate with you. Any recording or reporting of this conversation will have a very bad ending for you, Dillon.”
He and Emily would have to fix this on their own. “I’ve been put on leave for a shooting. I won’t be back at work for a few days.”
“I know that. We have time. I’ll explain it to him.”
Time. That was what Nash wanted and what Wyatt needed.
“Send those instructions to my personal email.”
Webb got Nash’s personal email address to send him the instructions to prepare the file for obliteration. He didn’t have to know that Nash had no intention of using them—but he would be obliterating Webb’s career.
Nash ended the call with a feeling of dread gnawing at his gut. Lanier’s tentacles reached farther than he thought, but he didn’t know who he was dealing with. When Lanier had hired Emily to spy on Wyatt, he’d unknowingly unleashed a powerful force of reckoning—a mama bear protecting her cub. Emily would go to any lengths to protect Wyatt...and Nash would go to any lengths to protect both of them.
On his way out of the station, Nash waved to Valdez, talking on the phone. He drove back to Emily, still nursing the same
