eyes lift from the inch by three-inch-long piece of paper in front of me to Grayson when he slumps into the chair next to me. He was the last of our team to be debriefed. The strain shows on his face. His father made him go last for a reason, and it’s the sole reason I stayed here waiting for him. I know what it’s like to be raised by an anal-retentive man who thinks the sun shines out of his ass, so the least I can do is lend Grayson an ear if he needs to vent.
“How’d you do?”
Grayson scrubs a hand over his recently clipped hair. “Four weeks. You?”
“Six months,” I grind out through clenched teeth.
Grayson chokes on his spit. “You got a six-month suspension?” When I jerk up my chin, he coughs out, “How? I’ve been here all day. Other than tearing our team apart, the highest suspension was two weeks. So, why the fuck is yours twelve times that?”
I commence my reply with a shrug. “Supposedly loud noises, such as a gun firing close to someone’s ear, does more than scare them.”
Grayson is smarter than he looks. He reads my riddle in a way no one ever has—no one since Melody. “Could have been worse. I would have inched back the trigger when the gun was still in her mouth. She deserved to die after what she did.”
In sync, our eyes stray to the room at the end of the hall. No one will admit it, but we know Tobias’s body is in there being prepared for transport to his hometown of Tiburon.
I stare at the door for several sobering minutes before switching my focus back to Grayson. “Has anyone told his daughter?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I was told I wasn’t privy to that information.” I didn’t know you could hear a jaw tick until now. “Want to get out of here? Grab a beer or something? If I don’t blow off some steam, I’m going to shoot someone… again.”
I contemplate Grayson’s offer for all of three seconds before shaking my head. As much as I don’t want him shooting up the place, I failed to save Tobias, so the least I can do is make sure he makes it home. I did the same thing with Joey. I drove with him in the back of the ambulance from the ranch to the coroner’s office in the city. If Tobias was being driven to his final resting place like Joey, today’s trip would have been a lot longer than the two-hour one Joey and I took six years ago, but since he’s being flown home, it will be around the same amount of time.
When Grayson stands to his feet, I copy him. “Reach out when you’re back? Or better yet, come find me. They may have dismantled our team, but we’ll always have each other’s back.” When I lift my chin, he slaps my shoulder twice before pulling me in for a man-hug. “And call your girl. This shit has gone on long enough.”
Stealing my chance to reply, it’s way too late to mend that bridge, he tousles my hair before spinning on his heels and stalking down the corridor. My lips curl into an ill-timed grin when his exit occurs with his middle fingers being projected at the office his father, and several executive members of the Bureau remain.
I stop watching his dramatic exit when my name is called. When I crank my neck, the agent in charge of Tobias’s transportation asks if I’m ready to leave. Nodding, I slip the piece of paper Tobias handed me into the pocket of my trousers before following the agent’s solemn walk.
As suspected, Tobias’s body is in the room Grayson and I were staring at. He’s covered by the same plain white sheet the first responders covered Joey with, but one of his arms isn’t lifelessly flopped over the edge of the gurney. Thank God. I don’t think I could have handled seeing that image for the third time in my life. The first was Mr. Gregg’s.
“Is he going straight to a funeral home?”
The unnamed agent shakes his head. “A coroner from San Francisco will meet the transport team at Tiburon. Although he was killed on duty, we need the exact cause of death cited on his death certificate.”
“His carotid artery was severed.” Shock resonates in my tone. I’m not a medic, but the cause of Tobias’s death is as obvious as the sun hanging in the