Read Online Into Her Fire (Fantasy Heights) by Meg Silver - Free Book Online
Authors: Meg Silver
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Thomas answered to Wade Fraser and the Justice Department. Marla answered to Mercury and the syndicate families.
“Wait. Marla still works for Mercury?”
“Yes,” Josh said. “She has to report to him, and police what goes on, especially with Thomas.”
Amanda thought on that for a moment. She remembered Marla saying she’d been under orders regarding Gail Warnous. Orders from Milazzo? Maybe. And that would explain how Steph had gotten away with letting Thomas believe Marla had been the one to tell Warnous he was an agent. “Ah. So that’s why Marla and Thomas don’t get along. They work for enemy factions.”
Josh took a pull off his beer bottle before responding. “It isn’t supposed to work that way and most of the time, it doesn’t. Mercury’s an all-right guy. He takes his responsibilities here seriously, but Marla… I don’t know. She likes having power, and it always puts Thomas’s back up. They’ve had some rough times dealing with Andrew West, the security chief we just fired. But now that West is finally gone, things should calm down.”
She didn’t think he looked too optimistic about that, but sat back to listen to the rest as Josh began to talk about his wife. “Kay was… complicated. Our marriage was too, and when she disappeared, I was suspect number one. Even with Dixon’s confession, I’m sure there are still people who believe I killed her.”
Amanda’s stomach rolled over, but she stayed quiet. It hadn’t occurred to her that Josh might have been a suspect, but of course he would have been. Wasn’t it always the spouse the authorities looked into first? And Josh would have made a juicy suspect if their marriage was troubled. He had stood to inherit an extremely lucrative stake in Fantasy Heights.
“There was only one person who believed I was innocent,” he said.
“Thomas?” she guessed.
He snorted. “No. Bill Dunkirk, Thomas’s partner. Stick around long enough, his name’ll come up a lot. He wrote all the screening tests for staff and clients.”
“What, so he was like a psychiatrist or something?”
“Sort of. I can’t really say more, but I think it’s important you understand something. Thomas was no choirboy before he came here. The Bureau hand-selected him from the military to protect Bill, and Thomas wasn’t chosen for his looks, if you know what I mean. He had his work cut out for him, too. Bill went from prison to prison, crime scene to crime scene gathering profiling data. When they weren’t doing that, they hunted murderers and fugitives. They did that for four years, nonstop. Thomas worshipped the guy. Thought he was the bravest, most honorable man there ever was.”
Oh, no, Amanda thought. She knew from all those Internet articles that Bill Dunkirk had died the night they tried to execute a search warrant on Kay’s killer. Thomas must have been devastated.
Josh confirmed as much. “What happened the night Bill died was Bill’s own fault. I don’t think Thomas even remembers most of what happened. If anyone’s dumb enough to bring it up, Thomas either walks away or says the Bureau gave him one job to do, to keep Bill Dunkirk alive, and he failed. End of story, and he isn’t interested in taking arguments.”
Amanda blew out a long, low whistle. “What happened to them? What killed his partner?”
“An IED. A bomb, rigged on Dixon’s property. There’s a lot more to the story but you should hear it from Thomas, not from me.”
Now she chewed the inside of her bottom lip. She could respect that, but there was one thing she needed to understand. “If Thomas was assigned this post by the Bureau, why does he perform? Don’t they mind?”
Josh pondered the label on his beer bottle a long time, probably deciding how much he could tell her without getting himself in trouble. “The short answer is that it would be unrealistic to station someone in a place like this and expect them to keep their hands inside the vehicle, so to speak. The
“Wait. Marla still works for Mercury?”
“Yes,” Josh said. “She has to report to him, and police what goes on, especially with Thomas.”
Amanda thought on that for a moment. She remembered Marla saying she’d been under orders regarding Gail Warnous. Orders from Milazzo? Maybe. And that would explain how Steph had gotten away with letting Thomas believe Marla had been the one to tell Warnous he was an agent. “Ah. So that’s why Marla and Thomas don’t get along. They work for enemy factions.”
Josh took a pull off his beer bottle before responding. “It isn’t supposed to work that way and most of the time, it doesn’t. Mercury’s an all-right guy. He takes his responsibilities here seriously, but Marla… I don’t know. She likes having power, and it always puts Thomas’s back up. They’ve had some rough times dealing with Andrew West, the security chief we just fired. But now that West is finally gone, things should calm down.”
She didn’t think he looked too optimistic about that, but sat back to listen to the rest as Josh began to talk about his wife. “Kay was… complicated. Our marriage was too, and when she disappeared, I was suspect number one. Even with Dixon’s confession, I’m sure there are still people who believe I killed her.”
Amanda’s stomach rolled over, but she stayed quiet. It hadn’t occurred to her that Josh might have been a suspect, but of course he would have been. Wasn’t it always the spouse the authorities looked into first? And Josh would have made a juicy suspect if their marriage was troubled. He had stood to inherit an extremely lucrative stake in Fantasy Heights.
“There was only one person who believed I was innocent,” he said.
“Thomas?” she guessed.
He snorted. “No. Bill Dunkirk, Thomas’s partner. Stick around long enough, his name’ll come up a lot. He wrote all the screening tests for staff and clients.”
“What, so he was like a psychiatrist or something?”
“Sort of. I can’t really say more, but I think it’s important you understand something. Thomas was no choirboy before he came here. The Bureau hand-selected him from the military to protect Bill, and Thomas wasn’t chosen for his looks, if you know what I mean. He had his work cut out for him, too. Bill went from prison to prison, crime scene to crime scene gathering profiling data. When they weren’t doing that, they hunted murderers and fugitives. They did that for four years, nonstop. Thomas worshipped the guy. Thought he was the bravest, most honorable man there ever was.”
Oh, no, Amanda thought. She knew from all those Internet articles that Bill Dunkirk had died the night they tried to execute a search warrant on Kay’s killer. Thomas must have been devastated.
Josh confirmed as much. “What happened the night Bill died was Bill’s own fault. I don’t think Thomas even remembers most of what happened. If anyone’s dumb enough to bring it up, Thomas either walks away or says the Bureau gave him one job to do, to keep Bill Dunkirk alive, and he failed. End of story, and he isn’t interested in taking arguments.”
Amanda blew out a long, low whistle. “What happened to them? What killed his partner?”
“An IED. A bomb, rigged on Dixon’s property. There’s a lot more to the story but you should hear it from Thomas, not from me.”
Now she chewed the inside of her bottom lip. She could respect that, but there was one thing she needed to understand. “If Thomas was assigned this post by the Bureau, why does he perform? Don’t they mind?”
Josh pondered the label on his beer bottle a long time, probably deciding how much he could tell her without getting himself in trouble. “The short answer is that it would be unrealistic to station someone in a place like this and expect them to keep their hands inside the vehicle, so to speak. The
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