Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(72)

Ariel sent him a wry smile. “Nevertheless, I didn’t get to spend the time I’d hoped to with her. Still, I think I would tend to agree with Owen on this. She’s too smart to give herself away like that. I think her morality is like many highly intelligent people. I’m not saying she isn’t a good person. She absolutely is. She gives a lot of herself to her work, and her work is good. She believes in her work. She believes in it to the point that she could have some situational ethics concerning it.”

Ariel was right. She only knew Becca on paper. “No, she’s not that woman.”

“Owen, we know she worked with McDonald,” Dante said. “That’s a fact. From the report Solo sent Big Tag, she spent time with McDonald in Europe. A whole summer working with her.”

“She was working at Kronberg Pharmaceutical. McDonald just happened to be there, too,” he pointed out.

Ezra leaned toward the laptop. “Phoebe, I would love for you to delve deeper into this. If someone is setting up Dr. Walsh, I’d like to know who and why. And if you can come up with any way this helps out Walsh, I’d like to know that as well. I’ll let you get back to work.”

Phoebe nodded. “Of course.”

Owen understood the underlying message. Ezra wanted whatever he said next to stay in the family, so to speak. Phoebe was connected to them, but she wasn’t a part of the immediate team.

When the screen cleared, Ezra looked to him. “Did you read the same report I did?”

“Of course he did.” Robert was always stepping in front of anyone who fucked up. The big brother of them all.

He couldn’t hide behind Robert this time. “I did read it. I understand that she likely had some kind of a working relationship with the woman, but Becca Walsh wouldn’t have supported McDonald’s research. She didn’t even stay the entire summer. She walked out in late July and gave up her grant.”

“Which means she might have gotten a hint of what McDonald was working on and left,” Robert agreed.

Dante shook his dark head. “Then why on earth would McDonald have sent her that box?”

He was sick of hearing about that bloody box. “We don’t know what’s in it. It could be shite Becca left behind for all we know.”

“Levi Green doesn’t think so,” Ezra pointed out. “He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t think whatever is in that box is important. The only thing McDonald did that was important was her research and the formulary for the drugs and protocols for the therapies she used on you and the others.”

“You’re wasting your breath. He won’t believe you,” Dante said nonchalantly, as though he didn’t particularly care about the outcome of this fight. “He’s too far gone. He thinks he loves the girl.”

“I like the woman,” Owen corrected. “I like her a lot and I’ve gotten to know her.”

Dante leaned in, his dark eyes pinning Owen. “Like she’s gotten to know you? You’ve gotten to know the real her? Have you considered for one moment that she could be playing you the same way you’re playing her?”

Robert held out a hand, trying to stop Dante from pushing this confrontation further. “Give him a break. He didn’t go through what the rest of us did. He doesn’t think everyone is out to get him.”

“How does he explain that the CCTV of the night she claims she was being stalked has been erased?” Dante asked. “Something happened that night and she’s covering it up.”

He knew what they’d found, or rather hadn’t been able to find. “Then why mention it to me?”

“You are na?ve then,” Dante said with a shake of his head. “Or you’re thinking of finding a way out. This could be a way to leave this shitty life of ours. And if she was a wealthy doctor who happens to have something the very man who could ensure no one comes after you wants, then that would obviously work.”

“What exactly are you accusing me of?” Because there was no way to mistake that for anything but an accusation.

“Hey, calm down,” Ezra said.

Robert looked like he was ready to get in between them if he needed to. “No one is accusing anyone of anything.”

“Oh, I disagree,” Owen said, watching Dante. “I think he’s got very specific thoughts about what I’m doing. Say it out loud, mate.”

Dante shrugged and sat back. “I’m merely pointing out the obvious. You aren’t one of us. You got stuck with us. You don’t have the same problems we have and you have a history of betrayal. A man like you would take the first chance he can find to get out.”

“That’s not my assessment of Owen at all,” Ariel said, her voice going cold for once. “And you should understand I knew the man before he lost his memory. I worked with him. He was a good man who made one mistake, and he made it out of love for his mother and sister.”

Dante’s eyes took her in. “You think the rest of us don’t know there’s a traitor among us? Ezra thinks he’s so quiet when he speaks, but I hear him. I hear him talking to Damon and Taggart. Some of the things that happened in Colorado… Levi Green knew exactly where to be, and that means someone told him. One of us. We were the only ones who knew.”

Robert had moved closer to Ariel, as though he thought Dante might attack her.