file named Angel Enterprises.”
“He had a file on us?”
Josh wasn’t surprised, but he wanted to know what Mullins had on them. He watched a woman wrestling two toddlers and a small scrappy dog across the road. Stephen started speaking again and Josh forced himself to concentrate.
“Yes. It’s mostly info the agency already had, but there’s a file on your search for Weatherly. There’s a note which says wrong rings.”
Josh shivered. There were ghosts dancing on his grave. “Wrong rings?”
“Yes. Do you know what it means?”
“No idea,” Josh said lightly. “Do me a favor and erase the file. We don’t want another spook like Seagull getting involved.”
“Seagull?” Stephen’s confusion was obvious.
“The government spook.”
“I don’t know a—oh, you mean Herring. Graham Herring. I’ll make sure all the files on Angel Enterprises are erased. Talk to you soon.”
Josh disconnected and stared at his phone. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Cal slid an arm around his shoulders. “Is everything all right, my angel?”
“We need to talk,” Josh said.
“Talk.” Cal looked at him expectantly.
“Not here. Let’s go to your office. Gil too.”
The smile slid off Cal’s face. “’Kay. Gil, get your butt into my office.”
Gil looked up. He must have seen something in Josh and Cal’s face because he didn’t make a smartass comeback.
Josh led the way into the office. Gil shut the door and glanced between the two of them. “What’s the look for?”
Cal shrugged. “Josh, you have the floor.”
“Stephen called. He was going through Mullins’s files. There was one on Angel Enterprises.”
“That’s not surprising,” Cal said. “Spooks have files on everyone. I have files on everyone.”
That’s why Josh had notebooks, hundreds of them, all in a constantly changing code. When he died, he hoped some poor bastard would get the job of deciphering his notebooks. It would keep them occupied for years. But back to business. He took a deep breath.
“There was a note. All it said was ‘wrong rings’.” He saw the confusion on Cal’s and Gil’s faces. “There were only six of us who knew about the rings.”
“We had a mole in our midst,” Cal said slowly.
“But who was he reporting to?” Josh asked. “Just Mullins or Chyna Moles too?”
“If they were reporting to Mullins that means the government spook knows,” Gil said.
Josh nodded. “Our operations were open to everyone.”
He thought they’d been so fucking careful keeping it to the six of them.
He saw the exact moment they understood. Cal went pale and Gil looked sick to his stomach.
“There was only one person who said it was the wrong ring,” Cal said slowly. “Only one person who spotted it.”
“It was him,” Gil said through gritted teeth. “All this time it was him.”
“It has to be. I’m sorry, Gil. There isn’t anyone else.” A light went on in Josh’s head. He licked his lips. “There’s more. He knew about Erica’s bungalow. Billy said only one person knew about the place. I thought he meant Mullins. If only Mullins knew, how did Max find it?”
Suddenly Gil sprinted out of the office.
“We’ve gotta go after him, before he kills him,” Josh yelled at Cal before he took off after Gil. He heard Cal hard on his footsteps.
He stopped short in the conference room. Gil had Max pinned to the wall, his forearm against Max’s throat. Max was as crimson as his Red Lantern shirt, and his arms flailed uselessly. Max’s chair was toppled over on the floor.
“What’s going on?” Dave asked, looking confused.
“He’s a fucking mole,” Gil yelled. “He told Mullins everything.” He pressed his arm in tighter and Max choked.
“Put him down,” Cal ordered. When Gil didn’t obey, he said more firmly, “We need to talk to him, Gil. Put. Him. Down.”
Gil dropped Max like a stone and stalked away, leaving him coughing and gasping on the floor. “He’s all yours.”
Cal went over to Max and hunkered down by him. “Is this true? Are you a mole?”
Max licked his lips. “Yes. No.”
“Which is it?” Josh snapped.
“Yes. I leaked information to Mullins.”
“And Chyna Moles?” Josh demanded, looming over him.
“No! Just Mullins.”
Now everyone except Gil was standing over him and it was obvious Max was praying the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
Gil snarled something incoherent and stormed out of the conference room.
Max looked crushed.
Josh stared at Cal who nodded. He looked down at Max. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I’m sorry,” Max whispered.
“I don’t think sorry is good enough.”
Aware of Max’s eyes boring into his back, Josh followed Gil and shut the door on Max. He looked at his long-time friend, who looked anywhere