Free Fearless: Complicated Creatures Part Three by Alexi Lawless Page A

the team with your intel, but most of all, you helped Sam. I don’t know what happened between you two, nor do I need to,” Evan added quickly. “But I could see the difference in her when you were there. She didn’t say it, but I think a part of her was relieved when you showed up.”
    “You had her back, man,” Talon agreed. “There’s nothing more important to Sammy than loyalty.”
    God, if only he’d fully grasped that years ago, when he was just a scared, confused kid, trying to do right by the both of them and failing miserably. Wes took one lingering look at the closed door of her hospital room.
    Two steps forward, one step back. In the time since he’d seen her, she’d been nearly killed twice. First fate and circumstance stood in the way, and now her stubborn refusal to accept help when she needed it. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
    Wes’s resolve hardened. He’d just have to find another way.
    He walked into the cafeteria and headed toward the coffee bar when he caught sight of Carey’s broad back to him, sitting down, speaking to a distinguished-looking man with a startling resemblance to Jack Roman.
    Had to be his father, or some other close relative—the same build and eye color was unmistakable. Wes hadn’t seen Jack since that first night, and he’d been too focused on Sam to bother asking any questions about his nemesis’s whereabouts.
    Wes got a fresh cup of coffee and casually sat down at a table behind Carey, close enough to hear their low conversation but not near enough to attract too much attention. He picked up a German newspaper someone had left behind, pretending to peruse it as he sipped his coffee.
    “I’ll send some of my men with you, but I don’t recommend you take him back to Chicago,” Carey was saying as Wes leaned back enough that he could eavesdrop.
    “I appreciate the offer, but that won’t be necessary,” the older man replied. “I’ll make sure my son is taken care of.”
    “Mr. Roman, before Jack—” Carey paused, as if searching for the right words. “Before what happened, he gave me a file.”
    Mr. Roman said nothing.
    “Sam’s file,” Carey clarified after a pregnant pause. “Mr. Roman, there is no way Jack could have gotten access to any of that information without your help,” he continued, his voice so low Wes had to strain to hear it. “The information in that file had to have come from you. Is that a correct assumption?”
    The man said nothing.
    Wes stared at the newspaper, German words swimming in front of him. What the hell was Carey talking about? Why would Jack have a file on Sam? And why would his father have given it to him?
    “I’m not concerned with how or why Jack had this file,” Carey added meaningfully. “But there was something in it that directly pertains to me and Sam, and now that I have it, I mean to see it through.”
    “If I knew what you were referring to—theoretically,” the man replied carefully after a few moments. “What would you be interested in pursuing?”
    “I’d like to know why the CIA investigated the deaths of Robert Wyatt and his son, Ryland, for one,” Carey answered immediately.
    Wes’s hands tightened around his coffee cup—trying to wrap his mind around the implications. He’d always thought Rob and Ry had been killed by a drunk driver. Just some senseless and awful accident on that dark, lonely stretch of highway headed back to the ranch from Houston.
    “Were they murdered?” Carey asked, getting straight to the point.
    Wes sucked in a quick breath. Holy shit. He sat still as a stone waiting for Mr. Roman to answer.
    There was a long pause, as if words were being carefully selected and portioned out like so many kernels.
    “I cannot comment on this supposed file, Carey, but I will say having met Rob Wyatt on several occasions, he was a complicated man with his fair share of enemies,” Mr. Roman said after a moment.
    “You’re not telling me anything I didn’t know,”