gestured at Dixon. “Don’t bother trying to talk to him. He can’t speak, you see.”
“What did you do?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Cut his tongue out. He can’t speak out against me if he can’t speak at all, now can he?”
Kelsey felt cool air hit the back of her throat.
They’d cut the senator’s tongue out?
Someone spoke. Someone outside her field of vision.
“Hm?” Skilton glanced up then said something in a language she couldn’t place. “We’ll have to continue this chat later, I’m afraid.”
He stood and walked away.
Kelsey shivered and stared at Dixon.
She’d wanted him brought to justice, not this. Never this.
There were some punishments you didn’t wish on your worst enemy. Dixon deserved to face punishment, but not torture.
TUESDAY. FEDERAL DETENTION Center. Washington, DC.
It was a good thing Logan couldn’t enter the detention center with his gear on. In his foul mood he was likely to want to use it. Removing that temptation was for the best.
He stared at the back of the offer’s head guiding them through the building.
Zora had quickly organized the relocation of all of the detainees they’d been holding at the secure site. It was blind luck that Skilton hadn’t taken an interest in the facility he’d broken into beyond capturing his targets. He could have wiped out everyone they’d captured.
From what Logan understood, most of the team was here as well. It was hard to see the fault in the plan to gather here, what with layers of security, thick walls, and dozens of armed guard’s on-duty at all times.
Diha hadn’t been able to tell Logan much concerning Joon’s disappearance. Logan had been surprised to hear that out of the four agents, Joon was the least suspicious. While his departure was wasn’t reported, he wasn’t currently under any sort of travel ban. He was allowed to come and go as he pleased so long as he completed the internal review meetings. Diha hadn’t come out and said it, but he’d heard it in her tone. They just didn’t have the manpower to expend tracking him down.
Logan was ready to accept that Joon was a dead end. But that left Logan with no idea where to look next.
He needed intel. He needed people. And he needed to find Kelsey. Even if she truly didn’t care for him, he wanted to know she was safe. That was it. He’d back off, leave her alone and whatever else she asked of him. So long as she was safe.
At long last the guard showed them into an office space area. Logan recognized a few faces from headquarters, but that was it.
“Where is everyone?” Logan glanced over his shoulder at Evan.
Before he could answer, a door opened and Tucker leaned out. “TL? Man, you okay?”
Logan headed for his second in command. Behind Tucker were Jamie and Harper, along with Zora and another man Logan didn’t recognize. Tucker wisely stepped back and out of Logan’s way. Zora glanced up and met his gaze with her impassive stare.
He’d always done his best to accept the scraps of information she gave them, but not now. Truth was he didn’t trust her to prioritize Kelsey’s life above her damned objective. In fact, it was Logan and the others going rogue who’d saved Kelsey in the first place from an abduction.
“Where are we with finding Kelsey?” he asked.
“Good to see you weren’t badly injured,” Zora said.
“Evan!”
Logan glanced over his shoulder to see Felecia throw herself at her husband. The warm reunion only made him colder inside.
“Kelsey?” he said again.
Tucker gestured at a laptop. “We have their vehicle on camera for a few blocks before we lost it. I’m guessing they split up. Changed plates. Something to throw us off.”
No one else spoke.
“And?” Logan prompted.
Still no one uttered a word.
“That’s all we have?”
“Logan, we have—”
He held up his hand. “If you’re going to say we have bigger fish to fry or people looking into it, I do not want to hear it. Where were you? Why wasn’t there more security? How did this happen? You keep saying you trust us, but you don’t tell us a damn thing and now Kelsey is gone.”
“Logan,” Tucker said in a low voice, “that’s not fair.”
Logan turned around met Tucker’s gaze.
He lifted his hands. “You need to calm down, man.”
“And you need to remove your head from her ass. We’re losing people. Good people. Now I understand there’s a bigger goal here, but if we lose sight of the people? End goal doesn’t mean shit.” Logan’s gaze slid