“Just come back to the office. There is someone you need to meet.”
“Zach?” But Zach had already ended the call. I looked down at my phone. Yep, he hung up on me.What the hell?
The whole ride back to the office, I racked my brain about Zach's call. Had Jakob talked to him about Henry? No, I couldn’t believe that Jakob would have shared Henry's secret. Not with Zach or anyone else for that matter. But how could Zach know about Michael Altmann, and who was I supposed to meet? I rushed back to the office as quickly as the cab driver would drive without getting a speeding ticket. It was impressive. My driver still made it under fifteen minutes when a usual trip took twenty-five minutes. That earned him a generous tip.
“Welcome back, Mister Evans.”
Misty, the best office manager in the world, greeted me as soon as I left the elevator. She started with us when we opened our law firm, and it was the best hire we ever made. At first, Misty was just our receptionist, but over time she took on a much larger role. Now she was our office manager. Misty was a wiz with all the other employees, but also kept Zach, Noah, and me in line. Misty was a real treasure, and I hated to think about her retiring.
“Thanks, Misty.” I looked down the hallway, and I could see Zach’s office light was off. “Hey, do you know where Zach is?”
“Yes. He’s in one of the private conference rooms on the tenth floor. Mr. Levy told me to send you down as soon as you arrive.”
“Okay, thank you. Oh, and please…”
“No phone calls or any other disturbance as long as the world isn’t falling apart.” She ended my sentence with a smile and winked. “I got your back, don’t worry.”
“Thanks. I’ll be downstairs then.”
I forced myself to smile at her, then turned and went back to the elevators. Instead of taking it, I opened the door and took the stairs. Five years ago, we moved into this building, where our law firm stretched between two floors. We grew from just Misty and the three of us to fifteen full-time employees and interns over the years. We were damn proud of the progress. But now I wished the conference room was closer. When I finally knocked on the closed door, my collar was soaked in sweat, and I was a little out of breath. Man, I needed to start running again.
“Yes?”
“It’s me.”
“Just a second.”
I could hear Zach as he walked over to the door. The doors of the private conference rooms were locked from the inside so no one could enter. It gave our clients a sense of security in sometimes scary situations. Zach opened the door a second later and ushered me into the room.
My gaze found Jakob at the conference table with a cup of coffee and a few files in front of him. He didn’t seem worried, and I relaxed a bit. If Jakob was calm, whatever this was couldn’t be that bad. Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked at the windows.
A tall, blond Viking-looking man stood looking over the streets below. When he turned, I spotted the tattoo on his neck right away—a small, swastika made of thin, black lines. I snapped.
“Who the hell are you?”
“The man who can help you save Michael’s life.”
“What?”
My breath left me, and I stood there and stared at him. He was tall, with lots of muscles. When he moved, I could see more dark ink peeking out from under his sleeves as he flexed his arms. Tattoos, I didn’t want to see—not after Henry had told me how they got them.
“Sit down, Caden,” Jakob spoke up, and I whipped my head around to look at him.
“I’m not going to sit down. I want to know what’s going on here. Who the hell is this, and what did you tell them?”
“He didn’t tell us anything,” Zach said from behind me, but I kept staring at Jakob. Why the hell was he so relaxed and calm? Jakob knew about Henry and his psychotic family. Now he sat there, with his coffee and looked as cool as a fucking penguin in an ice bath. Not to mention, there was a Nazi in the same room.
“Ok, great, you didn’t say anything. Then why are we all here?” I glared over my shoulder at Zach before I glared at Jakob. “And how does he know about Henry?”
“I saw his tattoos and knew that we needed to talk.”
“Jakob, stop being so fucking cryptic,” I snapped and pulled my arm away when Zach tried to reach out to calm me down. Zach sighed. Then he walked over to the man at the windows.
“Caden, this is Special Agent Marcus O’Hare.”
“What?” I stared so long at the man that my vision started to blur. “Wait…what?”
“I accidentally arrested him a couple of years ago, while he was undercover with a human trafficking ring. I recognized him when he came out of Zach’s office. Then I saw the tattoo and knew that he might have helpful information.” Jakob explained the whole situation.
“Why was he here in the first place?”
It couldn’t be a coincidence. First, Ian Callahan showed up and told us about the parole hearing, and now an undercover agent shows up at my office. Maybe I was paranoid, but this was a tad too much coincidence for me.
To my surprise, Zach blushed when he glanced at the FBI Agent, and it clicked. “Oh, hell, no.”
“Don’t look at me like that, Caden. I have a right to my private life.”
“An undercover agent? Seriously?”
“I think we have more important things to discuss right now. Don’t you think?” Marcus O’Hare said in a loud, confident voice before
