Discover Love(8)

 

"I swear you must have married Bethany for her baking," Chad said, having eaten two pieces. Known as the gentle giant of the group, his tired face spoke of the little sleep gained with a newborn baby in the house.

 

Jack, his eyes twinkling as he rubbed his beard, smiled, pleased with the praise for his wife's culinary skills.

 

"Hell, we know that's why Monty married Angel," Bart laughed, looking over at the dapper Saint. "Her cupcakes alone would make any man rush home."

 

"As long as I can keep her baking and not trying to solve murders, I'm happy," Monty quipped.

 

"Tell me about it," Patrick said, referring to both his sister, Angel, and his fiancé, Evie.

 

Jude looked over at Chad and Cam and commented, "You two look like shit. How much sleep are you getting?"

 

"Not enough," both men replied at the same time.

 

"Hell, in the SEALs, we'd go for a long time with no sleep," Bart bragged. "Right, Jude?"

 

Before Jude could respond, Cam speared his friend with a glare. "As soon as Faith has your baby next month, we'll talk about how a baby crying all night stacks up against the mighty SEALs. Until then, shut the hell up."

 

The group laughed good-naturedly before Jack got down to business. "We've been contacted by the FBI to look into a situation that they've started investigating as well. Of course, we no longer have Mitch to work with."  

 

This realization produced groans from around the table. Mitch Evans had served as the Saints FBI contact and co-investigator for most of the past year, but recently had resigned and moved back to his small hometown to become the Chief of Police. And it was no secret that his assistance, and friendship, would be sorely missed.

 

Nodding his agreement, Jack continued. "It seems that a whistle-blower had contacted someone at the FBI about six months ago concerning unidentifiable problems."

 

Bart, not taking anything at face value, looked up sharply. "Unidentifiable?"

 

Jack confirmed, "That's what they said. The person I've been in contact with at the FBI is the agent in charge of the investigation … Lin Wang." Looking up, he pierced the group with his stare and said, "He's also requesting a meeting face to face. I told him I would send a contingency to the Bureau in D.C. Luke you're on point."

 

Luke, listening to the conversation while working on the computer program, jerked as he heard his name called. Looking up sheepishly, he said, "Sorry boss. What was that?"

 

Grinning, Jack repeated, "You're taking point on this assignment. You'll be heading up the team going to D.C."

 

Eyebrows lifted, Luke stared at Jack before sliding his eyes around to the rest of the group. "Me? Boss, I've always been a behind-the-scenes kind of guy."

 

"No shit," barked Jude, the outgoing ex-SEAL, joining the others in good-natured laughter. He often assisted Luke on computer investigating but preferred being in the field.

 

"This problem has something to do with computer codes," Jack explained before leaning back in his chair, pinning Luke with his gaze. "And, quite frankly, you've got more leadership in you than I've allowed you to show. So, tag, you're it."

 

Shaking his head while smiling, Luke nodded, his curiosity peaked. "So what do we know?"

 

"The Bureau was contacted by a man named Eli Frederick about six months ago. They had little information at the time, other than he said he needed to meet with an agent to discuss a situation he had become aware of. That was all he said. According to Lin, a meeting was set up, but Eli never showed. Last week, a body was discovered by some weekend fishermen in one of the small tributaries of the Potomac River. Decomposed, it was sent to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science for identification and finally a positive ID was made from dental records. It was Eli Frederick. And there was a bullet hole in his skull."

 

Several fucks resounded from the Saints as they looked up from their tablets.

 

"Executed?" Cam asked. His mind shot back to his youth spent in drug gangs, where a bullet to the head was a quick way to get rid of an unwanted enemy … or someone who had been a traitor.

 

"They're still investigating and not turning up much about him in recent years. Seems he graduated from MIT with a degree in software engineering about six years ago and has worked privately from home since then."

 

"And they think he came across something that was suspicious and got him killed?" Bart asked.

 

Nodding, Jack confirmed, "That's the assumption they're going on, but they'll cover that more when you meet with Lin." Before the group could jump to volunteer, he added, "Luke, I want Monty with you since he knows the ins and outs of the Bureau. Marc, I've got a few security flight assignments for you to take so I won't send you to D.C. Patrick, I'm sending you with Luke and Monty. This'll get you more experience in the mission planning stage. Once they get back with their information, we'll meet to see what we need to do to unravel the mystery of the whistle-blower Eli Frederick."