“Not yet. Things might take a nasty twist for Holly. I don’t want her taking the fall for this. I know how it works, crap flows downhill. If I have to, I’ll take the blame.”

“How? We weren’t officially there.”

“I’ll threaten to expose everything. The way I see it, crap is going to flow uphill if they try to throw Holly to the wolves.”

“Nathan, you can’t blackmail the FBI.”

“Watch me.”

“No, I mean you can’t do that. I’m not aboard with that.”

Nathan stared out the window. “Then I want a conversation with FBI Director Lansing. Tomorrow.”

“There’s no way Ortega will arrange that.”

“It wasn’t Holly’s decision to involve us, Harv. It was Ortega’s, with Director Lansing’s blessing, the don’t-ask, don’t-tell business. Besides, I’m pretty sure I know who’s behind all this cloak-and-dagger crap.”

“Your father.”

“Yep. Remember Ortega’s answer when I asked if dear old Dad knew of our involvement?”

Harv said nothing.

“He wants a political victory for his CDT, and he’s willing to break the rules to get it. It’s a big feather in his cap if he pulls it off. It’ll guarantee funding for the next five hundred years. It’s front-page, headline-grabbing material.”

“I think it’s Occam’s razor.”

“All right, I’m listening.”

Harv lowered his voice. “Frank Ortega called your father. He’s the one pulling the strings. He wanted his grandson found at any cost. If the civil rights of a couple rat bags get violated in the process, so be it.”

Nathan heard the pain in his partner’s words and softened his tone. He stopped pacing. “Look Harv, if it was you who went missing, I’d do the same thing. You know that. Don’t condemn Ortega for wanting closure. Will he tell you the truth?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“We need to know for sure. I want that call with Director Lansing. If he doesn’t already know the score, I’ll tell him everything. All of it, from the beginning. No threats. I’ll take full responsibility.”

“Come on, Nate, that’s not fair to you, to us. There’s plenty of blame to go around. It was the FBI’s stakeout.”

“It was all there, right in front me. I should’ve put it together. I want to make this right. We need to make this right.”

“We have to protect ourselves.”

“That’s why I want the call with Lansing.”

Chapter 9

Chapter  9

Nathan couldn’t sleep. He stared at the ceiling, his thoughts on James Ortega. When the phone rang, he glanced at the clock. Almost midnight.

“Nathan, it’s Holly. Did I wake you?”

“No.”

“I’m five minutes away, can you meet me in the lobby?”

He hesitated, not sure he wanted company, but there was something in her voice. “Five minutes.”