No matter how valid that excuse, she knew she was lying to herself. She wanted to call him. She wanted to spend more time with him even though he really wasn’t her type—because hot guys weren’t her type? She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. She was a complete idiot.

Shane drummed his pen on the table. “What are we supposed to do back here?”

Sloan’s eyes narrowed. The task force leader clearly recognized Shane’s obvious resentment at being left behind. “Keep searching for this UNSUB and I believe you are to report back to HRT with our findings.”

“Seems like they know more than I do.” He sounded pissed and didn’t seem to care if Sloan knew it or not.

Yael glanced at him in surprise.

“I’m not here to babysit your ego, Agent Livingstone.” Sloan’s expression as well as her tone turned frosty.

“It isn’t my ego that’s bothered by the situation.” Shane rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’d like to contribute in a meaningful way and being kept out of the loop means I’m redundant.”

Sloan nodded. “Understood, but there is more than enough leg work to go around. Pitch in however you feel will be most helpful.”

“Ma’am.” He nodded and somehow it didn’t sound facetious. “Any idea how Zenko connected with the UNSUB?”

“Not yet. I’m hoping we can ask him directly later today.” Sloan continued. “Techs have set up monitors with live feeds to the HRT and FBI Charlotte agents.” She pointed to a door to an adjoining room. “Randall’s team are staking out Zenko’s apartment and have surveillance in place. We hope to gain access to one of the neighboring apartments shortly. See if we can determine whether or not Zenko is in that bed. One thing to note is his truck is not there, but it could be in the shop or he might have bought a new one. Not sure yet. We’ll buzz anyone who wants to watch the arrest should we receive enough advance warning. In the meantime, let’s keep after this UNSUB and demonstrate he is more evil than genius.”

The noise of chair legs scraping against the floor filled the room.

Shane stood and went over to Ashley Chen, presumably to ask to be contacted when and if the HRT operators went into action. Yael understood why he’d be anxious about his friends and colleagues after last time.