Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(26)

“These are files that were in Garrett’s office before he left. I had been in the office for…I was there, and the file was there, so I took it. I did return it later, but all the pictures were gone. I have the originals.” Warren asked Reed what they were.

“They’re pictures of you, sir. You and Marshall.” Warren looked at her. “They’re pictures of the two of you in bed. Why would he want these?”

“Because he thought he could blackmail him.” Jack pointed to the next folder. “This was his plan. I don’t think it would have done him a great deal of good without the rest, so I guess he abandoned the idea.”

“And the tapes? Where are they? With you, too?” She shook her head. “Do you plan to use them, as well?”

“No. They’re in your private home in the Hamptons. They’ve been there all along. There’s a swing in the yard. Under the left leg is a box. Those as well as the letters are stored there.”

She leaned over Reed, hurt more than she thought she’d be. “This is the records of all our assignments. I updated them when I could. Also, you’ll find a record of all the chips we had implanted into us. I had mine—”

“Jack, look at me.” She stretched her neck but continued going over the things on the computer, ignoring Warren. “I asked you to look at me. You may not have worked for me before but you do now, and I want you to respect my requests.”

She stood. “It was no more a request than when Corrine asked George to take out the trash. I don’t trust people, that’s a given. But I’d never do anything…knowingly do anything to harm the man that I assumed I worked for.”

“I know that now. And I wanted to thank you. You have no idea what those would have done to our families had they gotten out. No one must know.”

She decided to tell it all. “Everyone knows, sir. The only people who might not know are the hobos on the street, and only if they haven’t seen the two of you together. The entire country knows you and Marshall are lovers. If you guys let it out there, it’s doubtful that anyone would care.” He started to speak. “I have the floor, thanks, so just shut up and listen. You mark my words. No one gives two shits who you sleep with, so long as the economy keeps on the way it is.”

“But Garrett thought they would. Why else would he have taken those pictures and set us up? He thought that the country would care.”

“He thought that everyone would care, because he was stupid. That man might have run a good game for a while, but he was the stupidest man I ever met.” She pointed to the computer. “Do you know that there are so many memos on this thing that never got sent because the man couldn’t string two words together and make it work?”

Marshall laughed. Jack leaned back over the computer to continue from there when Caitlynne asked her about Snow. Jack stood there for several seconds before she moved to her chair again.

“She’s safe. I spoke to her a few days ago. She’s not happy with me, but she’s safe.” Jack turned to the people in the room. “She had nothing to do with anything but helping me remove the chip from my head. I’d been overseas on assignment, and when I returned, I’d bumped my head on an open cabinet door. She was in her office when I asked her to look at it and to stitch it up if it needed it. She pulled it out, and I knew something was wrong.”

“You had the chip on you when you came here. It was broken, but Reed helped us figure it out. How do you think Mann found out you’d had it removed?”

“He knew right after I came back from Europe. I was to come in for a physical, and I figured they’d plant another one in me or had figured out that I knew. Casey said that the x-rays that she took of me looking for another one probably set the sucker off. She said if they ever wanted me to come in and have a little operation, I was to get her out of town. When Mann started harping on me about the yearly physical three months too early, I sent her away.”

“Where is she?” Marshall asked. Jack shook her head at the question. “We can bring her here, keep her safe,” Marshall insisted. “There’s no reason for her to be unhappy when we can help her.”

“Yeah, well, I thought I was safe, too, until I went to scope out the house I was supposed to target. They’d been there all day waiting, taking care of everything, so when I got there, all they had to do was pop a couple in my head and make an anonymous call.” She looked at Dylan to finish. “I wasn’t doing too bad at first. Once I jumped over the fence, I went to the doghouse on the neighbor’s property. I’d already stashed my street clothes there and a set of night ones. Black on black to hide better. I was bleeding pretty well by then, and my head was pounding. But I knew hanging around would get me killed.”

“Do you know what time you were hit?”

She nodded. “21:57.”

“That means you were off line for twelve hours before Dylan found you. Where did you go?”

“I don’t know for sure. I had to backtrack until I got so lost that I didn’t know how to get back. I had planted a car as a means to escape, but I couldn’t remember how to get to it. Then there was the blood. I couldn’t keep walking around leaving a path of breadcrumbs for them, so I found an empty building and stayed there long enough to rest. The next thing I knew, I was seeing this house in the clearing and had to get rid of the drive. I couldn’t go far, I knew, so I put it under the broken step.”