Page 63 of Breaking the Rules
She leveled her gaze at him. “Micah, I know this isn’t easy. But I believe that Petra is being targeted. Someone has tried to get to her on two separate occasions by sending in armed teams. I need your help to make sure they don’t succeed.”
“Are you sure you’re not just doing this to find out where your boyfriend is?” Micah challenged.
“Micah.” Xavier’s voice held a measure of restrained anger.
“This is my company, too, Saint,” Micah reminded him. “I still have a say.”
Waverly cut in. “Ultimately, yes. I do want to find Dante. But my first priority is to get to Petra and keep her safe. She’s the one innocent party in this mess, and I’m not going to let her pay a price for it,” Waverly said coolly.
“I’m on board, of course,” Kate put in. “But where do we stand with the studio? Brad wasn’t too happy with you for flying home early. He’s going to go ape shit when he hears you were clubbing together.”
“I was ordered off of the assignment. I’m supposed to be lying low,” Waverly said for Micah’s benefit. “So Brad’s going to take last night as a personal affront. Especially if there’s any coverage of what actually happened. He’s going to see it as me going rogue.”
“What are the consequences for going rogue?” Micah wanted to know.
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. We don’t do the heavy lifting that other agencies do. We just gather intel. For all I know, Dante doing a little extra research into the assignment could have been labeled going rogue, and they could have sidelined him somehow.”
“Do you think that’s a possibility?” Xavier asked, watching her closely.
“I’m working under the hypothesis that Brad decided to expand the side business by accepting contracts from the private sector. I had a friend look into Grigory Stepanov, and she couldn’t find a speck of dirt on the guy.”
“Travers with the FBI confirms that there’s no official investigation into Stepanov on his end,” Xavier added. “He also found no record of a police report regarding the incident in Lake Tahoe, which is interesting considering that no one called the cops when a heavily armed team turns a house into a shooting gallery.”
“So unless it’s another agency trying to keep this very quiet, I’m leaning toward a private player,” Waverly told them.
When Xavier nodded, she was pleased to realize he’d come to the same conclusion.
“This has the potential to be a lot bigger than finding a missing person,” Xavier said, addressing the table. “If Tomasso started picking up jobs he shouldn’t be touching, we’ve got some serious problems.”
“Another reason to not get involved,” Micah tried again.
“Brad strikes me as the kind of guy who’d be willing to go pretty far to clean up a mess,” Kate spoke up, through a mouthful of donut.
Including taking out one of his own agents, Waverly thought. “I agree with Kate. Dante and I both felt there was something off with the assignment from the get go. There were no objectives—just get and stay close. Brad knew we were going to Tahoe, and Dante was supposed to check in with him that evening.”
“So either Tomasso sent in a backup team, or the client just needed inside surveillance so they could make their move,” Xavier ventured.
Micah sighed and poked at the half-eaten donut on his napkin. “I really don’t like it when you guys work together,” he said morosely.
“Cheer up, pal. Weren’t you just saying how things had been quiet for a while?” Xavier said.
“I was saying that so you’d take a fucking vacation, not drag me into some kind of espionage plot.”
“What do you need from us?” Xavier asked Waverly with a spark in his eyes.
“A lot, and I hope you’re feeling generous. Brad kept his players list under wraps. The only other agent I worked with was Dante. But if I go back through our assignments, could you have your research team take a peek and verify that they were legitimate investigations?”
Micah nodded, finally finding a task he felt comfortable with. “If you can get me the backgrounds and timelines I should be able to pull some information together for you.”
“Great. Then I’m going to need a way into Petra’s estate, and I need it fast. These guys aren’t going to wait, and if the studio gets it in their head to sideline me—”
“That’s not going to happen,” Xavier cut in. “No one gets to you.”
“That’s why I want you going after Petra with me, X,” Waverly smiled.
“What about the money trail?” Kate piped up.
“I’ve got a friend who’ll follow that. If Brad’s not just taking government contracts anymore, I need to prove it. Micah, once you pull together the data about any fishy investigations, I’ll have her see if there’s money to follow there as well.”
