Rising Storm (Westin Force #2) - Julie Trettel Page 0,63
him because of it. I hadn’t known it would be you, this wasn’t exactly planned. I saw the opportunity and I took it. Him bringing up Emma struck a chord with you that I knew made you willing to listen.”
“Two sides of every coin. How do I know that you’re not just telling me all this to lay guilt on Jacob, so then I’ll be watching the wrong guy?” I didn’t really believe that, but there was a reason I was the guy who investigated every angle of a mission for weaknesses. What if Emma was my weakness and Martin had seen that and jumped?
“That, my friend, is trust and a little faith. It doesn’t come over night and I’d worry more if you didn’t question my intentions. I’m smart enough to know there’s nothing I can say in this moment. Time will tell and I just hope you’ll give me the benefit of the doubt and keep an open mind. Everything I’ve shared is known within the Verndari. Jacob’s position was actually elevated because of it and there are those skeptical of him now that he’s pushing to shut it all down. I will admit, he’s kept Maddie and Oscar’s origins entirely secret. I can count on one hand how many of us know the truth about them. He really does love them and will do anything to protect them. I suspect this movement has as much to do with that as anything.”
“Good to know.”
“What we absolutely know is that the pressure he’s put on high dollar Verndari that were backing the Raglan cause is working. They’ve lost almost all funding over the last six months, causing them to up their game and become sloppy.”
“That ambush we walked into wasn’t sloppy.”
“No, it wasn’t. Our intel hasn’t been able to confirm or deny what your suspicions are regarding that.”
“Our breech was a rabbit shifter by the name of Keeley.”
“I read the report Patrick had shared with us, but it was very vague how you ascertained this information.”
“Emma.”
He chuckled. “From what I’ve glimpsed of her, that really isn’t surprising.”
I was grateful that Martin had spoken up and shared Jacob’s backstory with me. His link to the Raglan had been suspected but never confirmed, as far as I knew. Whatever he had told Patrick and the Westins, they’d forgiven him and still chosen to ally with the man. I wasn’t privy to what that was, but I would certainly be keeping a closer tab on the man knowing everything Martin had shared.
“We should probably get back before people start asking questions.”
“I’ve already cleared this vault, here’s the inventory sheet. Spot check a few things just for your own peace of mind and no one will ever know the better.”
I nodded and took the sheet from him. I looked around at the artifacts taking a quick assessment. I was better at this than he expected. I immediately found a discrepancy. I checked the paperwork. A wooden candlestick was listed on the sheet and checked off as confirmed.
I poked around without drawing suspicion and couldn’t find it.
“Candlestick,” I said.
“What?”
“There’s an old wooden candlestick on the inventory sheet, but it’s not here.”
Martin froze and grabbed the sheet from me. He walked over to where it must have been. I could see the circle in the dust surrounding it.
He took out his phone and scrolled through pictures before holding it up to me. “I literally checked this vault this morning. It was here, I swear.”
I looked at the timestamp and the picture.
“They’re here and they’re watching. They must have known you’d already cleared this room and didn’t expect us to come back through. I need to get this to Tarron and Taylor ASAP.”
He nodded. “What’s your number? I’ll text you the picture.” I rattled it off to him. “This isn’t my area of expertise. What should I do?”
“Act normal like nothing’s wrong. Turn in the sheet as you have it. I’ll make my walk through to check on all the teams and then pass this back to Tarron and T. They’ll run some checks through security since we have the timestamp and everything.”
“It’s not like we aren’t visible and clear on what we’re doing here. Why would someone be so stupid?”
“People do stupid things when they’re desperate.”
“You just go back to work as usual and I’ll take it from here.”
I took a deep breath. This mission had just changed. Game on.
Emma
Chapter 20
They were supposed to be gone only three days, but we were already on day