“I know you’re there. I can hear you breathing,” Skinner yelled into the phone.
“I’m here. Sorry, I was lost in thought,” Kreed answered, not really sure how long he’d made Skinner wait.
“I tried to call you several times yesterday, Sinacola.” Skinner’s tone was scolding, and he should be in trouble for missing those calls.
“I saw that, but it was too late to call you back,” he answered honestly.
“Are you sure you’re good with this assignment?” Skinner asked, his tone still irritated.
“You aren’t getting rid of me. I didn’t answer the fucking phone. My bad,” Kreed said, frustrated with his lapse and Skinner’s attitude. Already, he was slipping. Last night, he easily justified the mess up, deciding he could call Skinner this morning. Why had he ever thought that might be acceptable?
“Knox is concerned about you,” Skinner informed him.
“Knox is an asshole who’s trapped inside a house, waiting for something to happen, no different than me.”
“I can see that. Sinacola, I don’t normally worry about you. If you need out of there, just tell me.” Skinner’s voice had changed, not quite to the level of ‘pissed off’ it had held before, but Kreed wouldn’t call it warm and fuzzy either.
“Of course I will. Why’d you call?”
“I’ve got Thomas Hasselbeck, the head of the IT Department at Redemption Apostle Tabernacle, in custody. We’ve been productive on our end. The dots are starting to connect. What Stuart was able to give us put the church in front of several sets of very well-connected eyes. We’re elevating this to a domestic terrorist cell, Sinacola. Bottom line, Hasselbeck comes with a stronger IT background than we realized. There’s concern that if he showed up onsite, he could jeopardize what Stuart’s accomplished. It appears the church searched him out to protect their systems. I’ve got interrogators in with him now. He’s showing signs of breaking, but he’s hanging on longer than I thought. I’d hoped we’d know more before Stuart went back in today,” Skinner explained.
“All right,” Kreed said as he stopped pacing in the middle of the room to take in the new information. That changed everything.
“Explain the threat level change to domestic terrorist cell. That’s a pretty big leap in such a short amount of time. What did you uncover?” Kreed tried to understand the steps Skinner had taken over the last twenty-four hours. His brow furrowed at the implications. All of a sudden this case hit way too close to home for more reasons than just the hate associated with sexual orientation. His eyes closed, and he listened intently to every word Skinner said.
“It’s a cell, Sinacola. It’s organized and there are several. These people use religion to hide behind and single out the victims to prove their point. Your gut’s right. Special Agent Langley didn’t work alone, regardless of his claims in his confession. Now we need to see how far this goes,” Skinner said.
“And you’re following all legalities to make this stick?”
“It’s why you’re staying onsite,” Skinner advised.
“But I’m not alone here, am I?” Of course he wasn’t.
“No, you have backup. They’re close by.”
No way would Skinner leave him alone with that threat. It had to give him hope, even as the dread of the next question filled his soul.
“But Stuart’s alone in there?” The silence that came back said more than anything. Damn it. Aaron wasn’t equipped to handle this kind of situation. Kreed absolutely didn’t fucking want Aaron back inside that church. A terrorist cell? About damn time someone paid attention to those extreme freaks who hid behind the Bible. With his mind racing, Kreed cocked a brow. He was surprised the church had flown under the radar for this long with their vile propaganda and hate-filled picketing.
Think, Sinacola. Stop and think.
What makes this different than any other case? Nothing. Aaron’s green, but solid. Just lay it all out to the kid. He’ll be fine.
But, more than anything, Kreed didn’t want Stuart back inside that church. The church targeted homosexual men and made horrific examples out of them. Fear gripped his heart.
Seriously, he couldn’t lose anyone else right now, especially not Aaron. It would be too much. He wanted a future with him in it. Damn it! What they had would never be just a hookup. Clearly defined emotion was now involved, and he didn’t want his guy walking back into that church this morning.
The minute he’d walked across Colt’s living room and kissed Stuart, everything had changed. This was Mitch-fucking-Knox’s fault. All up in his face, telling him the kid had had eyes for him all night long… Kreed’s jaw clenched as he sneered at the memories in his head. Man, if he hadn’t already thrown Knox off the porch, he’d fucking do it again. This wasn’t even his damn case to worry about. Fucking Mitch Knox! People got hurt every day. That was life.
Kreed steeled his spine and forced all this unwanted sentiment out of his head and his heart. It was harder to do than he’d ever thought possible.
“Sinacola, answer the fucking question,” Skinner said, forcing him to tune into the conversation again.
“Repeat,” he fired back, having no idea what question he’d missed.
“Are you sure you can handle this? There’s no shame in walking away. It might even be for the best,” Skinner added quietly. He was the one person on this planet who knew everything there was to know about Kreed Sinacola. Knox didn’t even know as much as Skinner did.
“If I bail, it’ll derail things. I’m not leaving Aaron without someone to watch his back. The kid and I have things worked out. We don’t have time to get acquainted with new partners. He trusts me, and you need the kid,” Kreed reasoned.
“Aaron needs to trust you, but the kid phrase bothers me. He’s almost thirty. Are you using him to fill the void from the loss of your brother?” Skinner asked boldly, and it took all Kreed had not to bark out a laugh at that one.
“Hell no, not at all.” Fuck no! Aaron was the light in all the darkness that had surrounded his life. Hell, it didn’t just surround him, it had consumed him until Aaron Stuart worked his magic. Kreed’s eyes darted toward the door as he realized the magnitude of that thought. Aaron had come into his life and chased the shadows away. There was silence from Skinner, and he had no idea what to say. His director was savvy enough to put two and two together, and if he did, he’d pull Kreed from this case in a matter of minutes. He had to think of something—anything—to help qualify his statement.