Page 11 of Shadow Secrets
Somewhere between the sob she’d fought back and the way she’d sat in that chair and held herself together through sheer, stubborn will, he’d realized she was so much more than Penn’s younger sister. She wasn’t a symbol or a ghost or the other side of his worst day. She was a woman who’d watched someone die and run two miles in the dark to the one person who could help.
That took something.
The compound was lit up when they arrived, which meant Garrett had put the word out. Floodlights were on along the perimeter. Vehicles repositioned to block the main approach. The gate rolled open before Sebastian flashed his credentials.
Garrett met them at the main entrance. He was dressed like a man who’d been pulled from bed but didn’t resent it—jeans, a flannel shirt, boots laced tight, his sidearm on his hip. Claire was on speakerphone, her voice brisk and professional on the other end, FBI mode fully engaged.
Other team members materialized in a steady trickle that suggested they’d each left their homes the moment Garrett’s call came through. Mack appeared from the kitchen with two mugs of coffee, his face unreadable. CB came down the hall on his phone, assuring his wife, Regan, that he’d be home for breakfast with her and her mother. Jasper, who lived at the compound, was no doubt at the monitoring station, headphones around his neck, three screens alive with feeds from the compound’s perimeter cameras.
Even Dr. Vivi Montgomery, who ran the place, was pulling on a robe as she came to greet them. Her hair was falling out of a braid. Her husband, Ian, was walking beside her, on high alert.
Sutton stood in the middle of it all like a woman watching a machine spin up around her. Sebastian could see her processing all of it under the too-bright lights. She was out of her depth in strange territory, and she knew it.
But she was standing.
“This is Sutton Crenshaw,” Sebastian said, addressing the room. He quickly introduced her to Vivi and the team. “She’s the witness and now our principal. Nobody gets near her without going through me.”
Garrett’s gaze moved from Sebastian to Sutton. He extended a hand to her. “Garrett Cross. You’re safe here.”
Sutton reluctantly took his hand. “Is that something you can actually promise, or is it just something you people say?”
A flicker of something—respect, maybe—crossed Garrett’s face. “It’s a promise.”
“Why don’t we move to a more comfortable spot?” Vivi said, smiling at Sutton. “Let’s talk in the conference room.”
Mack handed Sutton a cup of coffee. “This will take the chill off.”
Sutton worried her bottom lip. “Got any sugar for it?”
Vivi started leading the way to the room, her robe flaring out from her legs. “Mack, get her a sandwich and a soda. Sugar is good after shock.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, disappearing toward the kitchen.
Claire’s voice came through the phone as they followed Vivi. “Blackridge PD confirmed a body at the intersection of Calder and Eighth. Female, early twenties, multiple gunshot wounds. No identification on the body, but the description matches Virginia Galbraith. I’m dispatching agents from the Missoula field office tonight.”
Sebastian heard the words, clinical, efficient, each fact filed. But beneath the professional surface, in the place he didn’t let anyone see, something cracked. Ginger was dead. The girl he’d saved was dead.
He sealed the crack and kept moving.
“I need to debrief the witness while the details are fresh,” Claire said.
Sebastian took the phone from Garrett, surprising both of them. “She’s been through a significant trauma in the past hour,” he said. “I want her settled first. Food, water, a room with a lock on the inside.” He looked at Sutton. “We’ll go through everything tomorrow.”
“Sebastian,” Claire started. “That’s not how this works and you know it.”
Sutton’s chin lifted. The defiance was a reflex—he could see that. A woman who’d been making her own decisions in hard places for years, suddenly surrounded by people making decisions for her. “I can handle it.”
Sebastian ground his teeth but nodded. In the conference room, Garrett set his phone on the table. Sebastian pulled out a chair for Sutton.
Over the next few minutes, she answered all of Claire’s questions. A few of Vivi’s, too. She drank the soda but ignored the sandwich, although Sebastian heard her stomach growl.
When they were done, he showed her to a room down the residential corridor. “You did good. The FBI will start searching for the killer.”
At the door, she paused and looked up at him. “Thank you.”
Before he could respond, the door closed behind her. Sebastian exhaled.
Garrett materialized beside him a few seconds later. “You good?”
