Black Truth, White Lies (Black Hat Bureau 3)

“I brought clothes.” I held up the bag. “I can swap out in the back.”

The plan had been to close shop, send the girls home, and change at the shop. Aedan’s unexpected visit derailed that to the point I wouldn’t have my spare clothes if Arden hadn’t noticed I forgot the bag.

The more often the two halves of my life intersected, the worse I became at dealing with the traffic.

“Your creek cuts across this property.” A distant expression clouded Aedan’s eyes. “I smell it.”

“You can tell that from in here?” I saw only a sea of grass through the windshield. “Impressive.”

“The spring that feeds it carries a sediment imprint similar to a fingerprint.”

Who knew having an aquatic daemon on your team would prove to be so useful?

“Come on, Aedan.” Asa exited the vehicle. “You and I will head on down.”

Aedan and Clay got out, Aedan left, and Clay leaned against the side of the SUV. I climbed over the center console, changed on the bench seat they vacated, and exited beside him.

Once I had my boots on, we ducked between the strands of barbed wire fencing and hiked a mile or two down to a copse of trees shielding a trickle of water that wanted to be a creek when it grew up, or when the next heavy rain fell.

Parked across it was a white pickup from a national car rental company with a heavy-duty metal cage tethered in the bed.

No sign of Asa or Aedan, which concerned me, but they must have gone to investigate upstream.

“Did you dust for fingerprints?” I circled the vehicle, stopping at the tailgate. “We’ve got blood here.”

Given our last two cases involved rogue agents, I was willing to bet the driver was in our database.

“Why would I dust for fingerprints if I don’t have anywhere to send them for processing?” Clay joined me at the open cage door. “Same goes for blood or tissue samples.” He crossed his wrists. “You’ve tied my hands, Dollface.”

A growl to do Asa proud rattled in the back of my throat. “What do you want me to do?”

“Accept this as proof your enemies are coming out of the woodwork, with or without Samford on the books.” He tugged me against his side in a one-armed hug. “This isn’t what you wanted for the town, I know, but you struck a deal with the director to stay here. You’re invested. You’ve put down roots. You’ve made your stand. Now it’s time to back it up, or else, I hate to say it, you need to move on.”

Colby and I could resume the nomadic lifestyle most agents embraced to cut down on entanglements. As a young agent, I hadn’t minded frequent changes of scenery, but it had gotten old there at the end.

Colby might live a largely virtual life, which meant travel would be easier, but she had settled into calling Samford home. She liked the girls, our neighbors, the town, and its endless flow of activities. Her relationship with those things was removed, her experiences often secondhand, but did I want to force her to give up on the one stable thing in her life? Aside from me, she had no other constants.

“I’ll think about it.”

“You already said that.”

“Fine.” I huffed. “I’ll actually think about it instead of blowing you off with a nonanswer.”

“Thank you.” He kissed my temple. “And, because I love you, I sent those samples to a private lab.”

“You’re the best.” I squeezed him. “A cookie hog and a bully, but still pretty awesome.”

“If I had blood,” he said, pulling back to fan his cheeks, “I would be blushing from such high praise.”

Knocking his hands down, I hauled him back on track. “How long until we get those results?”

“You’re overlooking a teeny problem.” He pinched two fingers together. “Without the Kellies, we can’t compare what we find to bureau records.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I had to speak to our resident Kelly first.

“Where did Asa and Aedan go?” I scanned the soft earth for footprints. “You don’t think Asa…?”

“Lured Aedan off to murder him?” Clay pretended to consider it. “The daemon would in a heartbeat.”