Raging Fire (Guarded Secrets Book 4) Read Free Page B

Seriously, I think they should give new recruits a map of the building. I must have gotten lost at least twice a day for the first few weeks I lived here. It always upset Seeker when I was late to training, but I couldn’t help that I had gotten turned around. It took a long time to get used to CIRA, including hours of exploring, plus casually getting lost and then refusing to admit it to anyone I saw, but afterwards I never got lost again.
    I made it to my room and tossed my bags to the ground. The room hadn’t been touched since I left months ago. If anyone else came in here, they would think no one lived here. The bed was neatly made, there was almost nothing on the floor or furniture, and the walls were practically bare. There were only a few stray photos of my family before everything went to Hell, and one picture of the old team I worked with, before everyone was lost in Sandtown, and another of my current team.
    Past and present were laid before me, but I knew where the future would take me. Right to my stepfather’s front door to kill the bastard. While I had gathered a lot of information on him during my time with the FBI, but his exact location still eluded me. Once I had it, then he’d be as good as dead.
    I just had to find him first.
    CIRA had resources, but I didn’t want to be caught looking for someone. Everyone here would ask too many questions, and the less they knew the better until I could handle it, alone. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy though. The moment I walked into Sharp Shooter’s office, I knew something was wrong. Night Stripe and Renegade were in the room arguing with each other. Maybe they hadn’t fixed everything after all.
    “Spit Fire,” Sharp Shooter called, interrupting Night Stripe while she rebuked Renegade. “Glad to see you again. I have heard good things, but I will take your full statement in a few moments. We are just finishing up here.”
    Night Stripe looked furious as she took in his words. “We are nowhere near done, Sharp Shooter. We can’t just sit here while they rebuild!”
    “Night Stripe, we will talk about it as a team later. Just wait for Rum and the others to return. This isn’t just on you. It’s going to be hard for everyone to hear. We thought we were done with them, but we just can’t seem to kill the cockroaches.”
    I glanced toward Sharp Shooter in curiosity. There’s no way he could be discussing the Cardoza Cartel. How could they possibly know they were back? My gaze fell to Night Stripe who slapped a file down onto Sharp Shooter’s desk in anger.  What’s in the file?  I wondered, silently begging for her to open it so I could find out, but instead she left it on his desk and walked out. Both she and Renegade were tense as they left, and the accompanying door slam made it clear whatever was going on didn’t please them.
    “Sorry about that Spit Fire. We aren’t quite ready to tell everyone what Night Stripe found and neither of them are thrilled with me for waiting.”
    “I see that.” The reply fell short. I eyed the folder and wondered if I could get a quick peek to see what was going on while I had been away. “What was it about?”
    “Nothing important as of right now, we want to be sure before we tell everyone. I don’t want to give false information. Depending on whether it’s true or not will affect a lot of people, and I don’t want to open old wounds unless I have to.”
    “Right.” The word lingered in the air as I moved toward his desk. I wanted to get a closer look at the file to figure out exactly what they had been talking about before I came in. I wondered if they stopped because they knew my stepfather was taking over the Cardoza Cartel or if they found out I knew him before I joined CIRA. Either way, I knew telling our agents that the Cardoza Cartel was slowly reviving itself would be hard for them to hear. We had lost too many people against them. To tell them the threat had returned would not