Be With Me: A Novella in the Acts of Valor series by Rebecca Hartt

Author:Rebecca Hartt [Hartt, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: James-York Press
Published: 2023-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Fitz set his morning coffee next to his keyboard, then sank into his office chair to begin his Friday. The first thing he did every morning was log on to the Trilogy platform used by the Bureau and monitor the cases being run by his special agents. He skimmed the latest updates.

Well, well. That businessman with ties to the mob had realized he was under investigation and wanted to turn informant on his fellow mobsters. Fitz’s lips curled with disdain. So much for honor among thieves.

At precisely eight thirty, his phone rang, as it did every weekday when Peter Gray, the senior agent in charge in the Norfolk field office, touched base to hand down new orders.

“Good morning, sir.” As much as possible, he smoothed the grating sound made by his injured vocal cords.

“Is it, though?”

No day was a good day for Peter. Fitz’s biggest fear was ending up just as cynical as his SAC.

“I’m putting you in charge of a kidnapping case. Kid by the name of Grayson Saunders has vanished from his home in Suffolk . . .”

The humming in Fitz’s ears kept him from hearing what Peter said next. Faith’s Grayson Saunders? Who else would it be?

“. . . cell phone, before it stopped working, pinged several towers in southeast Virginia and just over the border in North Carolina. State police have launched an AMBER Alert and sent over their report. I’ll forward it to you now. Keep me apprised.”

The phone clicked in Fitz’s ear. What a nightmare. His past rushed back to him. Rory, his son, had been Grayson’s age when he’d been killed. Please, God, not again.

Guilt clamped down on Fitz for ignoring Faith’s frantic call the previous day. In his defense, he’d thought Grayson had been skipping school like most teens did at least once. But his failure to return after twenty-four hours without a word suggested there was more to his disappearance than first met the eye.

Needing to pull a team together, Fitz tapped out his favorite subordinate’s extension, gratified when Charlotte answered right away.

“Patterson-Strong.”

Fitz had hand-picked her when she was just Charlotte Patterson. She’d married Navy SEAL Lucas Strong six months after the couple helped Fitz round up a group of extremists entrenched in the government and the military. The six-foot tall beauty with short auburn hair had been heading to CIA training when Fitz lured her to the Bureau instead—though her husband probably had more to do with her decision than Fitz did.

“It’s me. Grab Lowe and meet me up in the command center. We’ve got an abduction case.”

“Uh, slight problem. Lowe just called in to say he’s too sick to come to work.”

Fitz blinked several times as destiny interfered with his plans, leaving him just two choices: He could either find another pair of special agents, or he could step in for Lowe, roll his sleeves up, and get thoroughly involved. His battered heart quailed. Faith’s vulnerability was going to suck him right back into having feelings for her.

“No worries,” he heard himself say.

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