Angus grew still. He needed to focus, damn it. “I like cabins.” He’d get any of his team still working for the government fired if he admitted they were working these cases together and had needed the cabin to do so. “Real estate is a good investment, you know.” Not the truth, but not a lie. He was definitely skirting the edge of a felony, however.

“I have heard there are good returns on real estate.” Fields popped the drop into his mouth.

Angus turned on him. “What is up with you and cough drops?”

“I’m on a diet and they’re the only treat I get,” Fields said, sucking on the drop.

Rutherford sighed. “They still have ten calories a cough drop, you know.” He shook his head and opened another file folder, pushing forward a picture of a dead African American woman. “Identify her.”

Angus started. “You found another body today.” Shit. The victim looked a lot like Serena. Whoever had been watching the team had done so for months. “Are there still HDD operatives on Serena Johnson?”

“Of course,” Fields said. “She’s safe. Unlike this woman. Her name was Bernadette Wexel.”

“Was there a note?” Angus asked, his throat suddenly raw. Another woman. Another death. She looked young and broken in death.

Rutherford leaned toward him. “You know there was, don’t you?”

Angus closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “All right. What did it say?”

“You know. Stop messing around with us,” Rutherford snapped. “Stop playing. It’s over. You’re over. Don’t you want to get this all off your chest? Come on. They gave you to us because we know you. You were one of us—don’t let me down. Don’t let your team down.”

Angus stared into the earnest eyes of the HDD agent. Well, he was going for earnest. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Rutherford gave up any pretense of brotherhood. “I can help you or I can destroy you and everybody you’ve touched, including sweet Nari Zhang.” He slapped down the five pictures, one at a time, their edges barely touching.

Death and pain and horrible endings.

Rutherford tapped his finger on the first victim, who looked like Nari. “Lori Chen. A bright doctoral student who worked part-time at Miller’s Coffee, just down the road from your apartment building. How often do you get coffee there?”

Angus leaned in to study the woman. “Hell if I know.” But he did grab a coffee there once in a while, when Wolfe wasn’t around to force sugar on him. It made sense that anybody targeting him might’ve come across her. “That’s a coincidence.”

“You’d think.” Rutherford planted his entire hand over the dead redhead on the log. “Sasha McDouglass. Guess where she worked?”

Angus shook his head. “No clue.”