He just watched her as she met up with Carrie Lorcan. They had a discussion about something, as Paige Brockman joined them. He studied the people present beneath him. Georgia, Carrie, Paige.
Josh Compton and his wife were discussing something heatedly near a back desk, a file flapping in her hands, heatedly.
Dan Reynolds, Ed’s closest friend and Compton’s father-in-law, was heading in their direction.
Dan would be retiring in one week. He’d wanted to be completely retired before the beginning of the year.
Dan’s biggest plans were to join the Brynlock PTA. His young twins would be old enough for preschool in a year or so. Ed smiled, thrilled that his friend had the second chance he’d so deserved. Dan’s wife Allison was in the basement lab, most likely. The elevators dinged—Cody Lorcan, Sin’s wife, stepped out.
People. PAVAD wasn’t just agents; it was people.
And someone was threatening those people. People Ed loved.
He would never rest easily while that was happening.
Max Jones walked through the bullpen, stopping to talk to Agent Whitman. Ed smiled, remembering what the man had told him about the beautiful Agent Jones. Finally. He had been expecting those two to tie the knot for years. They belonged together—everyone had been able to see that. Except perhaps the two of them.
Someone came up behind him. Put a hand on his shoulder. Ed knew who it was immediately. He would always know. She must have taken the back elevator. “Mari.”
“You are up here, looking very serious. Anything I can help with?”
“I’m ready to retire.” Four words he had never said to her. But four words that held power.
Blue eyes widened. “Ed? What happened?”
He took her into his arms, not caring who was watching them from below. “Nothing. I’m just…I’ve almost accomplished what I wanted here.”
He had one more department to get off the ground. The one dearest to his heart. Cold cases. The forgotten.
Then… “I’m ready for more. To let someone else take PAVAD to where it is meant to go. I…want to concentrate on being husband, father, and grandfather and friend now. This stage of my life is coming to an end. I want more.”
He had three cases he needed to finish first. Andy Anderson, Darrin Hull, and one more. Hers. The one woman other than Marianna that he had once loved, truly loved. He owed it to her to answer the questions about her death.
More. He owed it to her two daughters.
And he had to find the people responsible for the leak in PAVAD.
Ed was making that his final mission.
He’d make certain PAVAD was safe for the ones who came after.
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There was no way to fix this. Eugene bit back a curse.
He still had that bastard Barnes’s blood on him. He’d have to find a place to change clothes. Burn the evidence.
He knew enough about forensics to know what he needed to do. He hadn’t enjoyed that. The rush just hadn’t been the same.
Maybe he was getting tired of it. The death and killing. He saw so much of it; it had been bound to twist his soul eventually. Or flat-out bore him to his teeth.
How could it not? Nothing lasted forever, after all.
Barnes had completely screwed everything up. Eugene had told the others that he was a bad choice. Barnes shouldn’t have been brought into this at all.
Barnes was too stupid to have followed through.
Two mistakes such as Sturvin and Barnes were something they couldn’t afford. Not on Eugene’s watch. He’d already been cussed at one time too many over Sturvin now.
Fallow and Young and the others were watching him now. Mistrusting him.
Once again, he had been ignored. And now Barnes had spilled his guts.
He might have even named fucking names.
Lower man on the hierarchy—Eugene’s words hadn’t mattered. Exactly like every time before.
No matter where he turned, whichever way he looked at it, Eugene would always be the guy who did all the grunt work. Both inside PAVAD and out of it.
Well, fuck that.
He was finished. It was time to take all of his damned money and find a beach somewhere.
As soon as he cleaned up a few things first, he was going to put in his papers. Claim he was having a mental breakdown or something, like Stephenson had years ago. He was just done.
He’d seen that before.
The PAVAD shrinks were all about mental wellness now, and taking time off if the ugliness of PAVAD got to be too difficult to handle.
He’d put in for some extended comp time, find an island south of the equator, then fake his own death. Erase Eugene Lytel as if he’d never existed.
Get out from under everything—everyone—who had ever dragged him down. Including the wife and kids.
He would miss the grandkids, though. He liked most of them.
But they were getting old enough now to be on the internet. Maybe he’d friend them under a fake name or something. Keep an eye on them that way.
The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea.
That was exactly what he was going to do.
But first…he had a personal score to settle with Colonel Boyd Jones.
He had always hated that sick son-of-a-bitch.
And there were only two beings that bastard truly cared about. Two people, if the colonel was capable of caring about anyone.
It was time to take one of those away from him.
Eugene had been looking forward to it, for weeks.
Ever since the girl had transferred to PAVAD.
He’d discounted Jones’s older daughter—she wasn’t Jones’s by blood. Eugene snickered at that.
The younger one wasn’t either, for that matter.
But old Boyd didn’t acknowledge that.
He’d discovered that for himself when he’d casually asked Jaclyn about her relation to the bastard from Washington, several years ago.
She had made it very clear she despised her stepfather. And wanted no part of him. Her hatred had almost been tangible. Eugene had done some digging, checked some old dates in some old records and done a small bit of
