Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(99)

Ava knew she was gaping like a fish, but the director had twisted the situation into something tawdry and ugly. It felt as if he’d slapped her.

“I am the one who kissed Agent Kanas. She simply played along in case there is another UNSUB involved in the multiple murders and serious attempts on my life, and if they happened to have eyes inside this event then she wouldn’t give away the fact she’s been assigned to watch my back.”

“She wasn’t guarding your back when I walked in.” The director sounded equally furious. “She was goddamned scratching her nails down it.”

“That is not true.” Dominic defended her.

“Tell me you two haven’t been physically involved.”

Dominic’s eyes were dark with resentment, and his fingers clenched and unclenched, but he didn’t deny it.

Was he regretting getting involved with her now? Of course, he was. His career was everything to him, and she was dragging him down into the gutter with her.

Ava dropped her gaze to the carpet.

“At least you aren’t stupid enough to lie about it further.”

Ava glanced up, anger scalding the back of her eyes.

“You were given another chance after being put on suspension, but you’ve proven repeatedly you’re a hothead who has no place in the Bureau. Worse,” the director raked her with a censorious gaze. “You are a bad influence on others. Give me your credentials and service weapon. I will see to it that your belongings are shipped to the address on file. You will not be allowed back onto FBI property.” His tone was off-hand and derogatory. “SSA Sheridan, report to OPR first thing tomorrow.”

“What?” Ava took a step forward. “I get fired and SSA Sheridan gets reported to OPR? In what universe was that fair?” She saw the answer reflected in the director’s eyes. The wealth, the power of the Sheridan family, versus the blue-collar impotence of hers.

Ava stared at the director as silence reverberated around the room.

“You can’t do this.” The words emerged from Ava’s lips as a whisper when what she really wanted to do was scream.

“I will do whatever I deem appropriate to protect the reputation of my agency.”

Ava kept waiting for Dominic to do something, help in some way, but he only stood there, hostility pouring off him in palpable waves.

Bitterness boiled through her veins. She should have known.

His resentment shouldn’t feel like a betrayal. But it did. Humiliation flooded her. She would not break down in front of these men. She opened her borrowed clutch and offered her weapon to her boss, along with her creds.

“I’m a good agent,” she forced out. Then, without looking at Dominic, she left.

*

Dominic waited for the fury inside him to subside. He knew how to talk his way out of this. He knew that reactive anger would get them nowhere. He wanted to take Ava in his arms and calm her down, but he needed to calm himself down first.

She wouldn’t leave without talking to him. She’d wait for him somewhere quiet where they could discuss things. He’d fix this.

Dammit. Panic raced through him. No way would Ava stick around after she’d been insulted so thoroughly. She’d leave. ASAP.

Dominic started to go after her, but the director grabbed his arm.

“She isn’t worth it, Sheridan.”

He pulled away. The desire to put his knuckles through the man’s face was almost overwhelming, and he pulled in air to stop himself. He’d already punched his brother tonight. Ava had turned him into someone who would rather use his fists than his words, when it was his words that had gotten him where he was today.

This wasn’t who he was. What the hell had happened to him?

Finally, he figured out what he needed to say. “I know she’s only a rookie, but she is a damned good agent. She is the first person who figured out we had a killer targeting FBI personnel.” His voice sounded like broken glass grinding against itself. “At great risk to herself, she helped resolve a prison siege and prevented the warden from being violently raped while we all sat around and watched. She saved my reputation after the car crash when everyone believed I’d probably had a few too many drinks or maybe snorted a line of coke. She went after the truth and uncovered a drug smuggling ring the DEA had been after for months.”

“She’s a loose cannon—”

“She’s the best goddamn federal agent I’ve ever met!” Dominic yelled. “And you fired her when I kissed her. I’m the one you need to fire.” Dominic stuck his finger in the man’s chest, sure as shit about to lose his job. But he didn’t care.

If the Bureau he worked for treated someone as fiercely loyal as Ava Kanas like trash then he did not care.

He needed to find her.

She’d already have convinced herself that he didn’t value her enough to defend her. And his silence while he’d been trying to keep his shit together would reinforce that notion. None of this was her fault. Not getting kissed in public, not him decking his brother, not her getting fired.

This was all on him, and she was the one paying.

He went to hurry after her when the door was pushed open. Rather than Ava returning, his father and his godfather stood there. Secret Service agents hovered in the background.

“Problems, gentlemen?” President Joshua Hague and his dad came in, closing the door behind them.