Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

29: "Keep the file open, just in case."

It started with information on my siblings and me, but after looking through the last one, I knew that the last pages in the file he had put in first. He had my hospital reports in first then built up to the complete information he had on the front page, this was bound to be the same way. I flipped through information on my siblings and me, eventually getting to my mother, and finding sporadic information on my old house. There were newspaper clippings of the crash, the memorial and the burial, but what I noticed is it was only on my mother and my siblings. There was very little on my father in the folder.

He had focused on everyone except my father, and I didn't understand until I found a hand written note that I was having trouble making out. It looked like my mother's name, but I couldn't be sure because the handwriting was shaky and indiscernible. I flipped through the pages until I found more information on my father. The file had started with my father's information, stating where he worked, his position, the year my parents were married, his schedule and the properties he owned other than our house. He had been tracking my father thoroughly and then expanded onto the family.

But why? What did my dad do to start this, if anything? I wondered as I put a few of the remaining thinner files into the shredder. I wasn't finding the answers from the file as I had hoped, because in Ash's mind, he knew why each person was his list. There was a reason, whether hired or personal as Jax had said, but there was always a reason. I was trying to discern what that reason was as the shredder came to a halt and screeched, unable to push anymore paper into the bin.

With a heavy sigh, I retrieved the bin and dumped the contents into the fire. As I looked back into the open drawer where Ash kept his files, I realized all that remained were the larger files that would have to be done one at a time so I wouldn't destroy or damage the shredder. I was about to put the shredder back together when I heard the guards racing through the house. I glanced back at the fire to see that most of the paper hadn't been burned yet, and had to act fast. I put the shredder back together and closed the cabinet drawer, not taking the time to space the files out so it looked full. Ash seemed to me meticulous, he was going to notice that files were missing if I spaced them out or not, but I had to try.

I heard a car door slam, which sent me spiraling into a panicked frenzy. I stroked the fire, while straining to hear for footsteps that would be coming my way any moment. The paper shreds turned to ash before my eyes as footsteps started to come up the stairs. I didn't know the layout of the building, but from the last time a guard came up here I knew that the stairs weren't more than a few feet from this door. I raced to pick up the water from his desk, and drenched the fire until it was out. I didn't waste the time placing the cup back on the desk, and climbed back up to the vent just in time for the door to open.

I was sure I was caught. I wasn't even in the vent shaft when the door opened, but the guard stopped momentarily outside to talk to someone allowing me to slip into the vent before they came into the room. I hit the side of the vent shaft in my haste, causing a metal bang that I hoped would go unnoticed. The cover slipped over my hiding spot as a new voice drifted through the air and hit my ears.

"I don't care what you have to do to get the information, I need it. I want to know everything before I begin to work on the case," a man said as he walked briskly into the room. His features were stone cold as he sat in his desk, the cool blue gaze looked at his guards and then around the room. My breath was held deep in my chest, my hand tightly clasped over my mouth and a pressure on my tongue from my teeth, as I tried to regain composure so I wouldn't make a sound. I had almost been caught, and that had shaken me to the core.

Maybe I wasn't cut out for this, I thought to myself as the man sat in the office chair and ran his fingers through his dark black hair.

"We can't find anything on her, Ash," one of the men said. "She dropped off the grid two days ago. We haven't seen her at the Ricker home and a phone call from a blocked number was the last one the family received. Her phone hasn't had any activity on it, and she's not showing up at any of the regular places. She's gone." I bit my tongue harder to control the emotions that raced through me when I realized that they were talking about me. The fear and anger that I was leading these men to my family without even knowing. They had so much information on me, and were able to keep track of me no matter where I went except at the agency.

"Then until we find her let's focus on the other case, Kayta Petrov, what did the father want?" Ash asked carefully, as if he was accounting for every motion the man in front of him made.

"He says that he no longer needs our services. It appears that the girl has calmed down and will not be a problem. If it happens again, he will contact us with whether he's gotten rid of her himself or needs a less diplomatic approach."

"That's fine by me, I never enjoy dealing with Russians. They are far too trigger happy and would rather deal with family in their own way," Ash said as he leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face. "I actually pity that poor girl if she tries to escape. Having a dictator as a father must be difficult," he said with a chuckle. "Keep the file open, just in case. Next please."

"The case for the Cardoza Cartel was taken care of, luckily before they had that run in with agents from the CIA."

"Good to hear, keep tabs on them. I will want to know how they are doing in a few weeks," he said with a cruel smile. "For now let's focus on the latest case, I hear a family knows too much for their own good or the father does at least. Rig up another car accident," Ash ordered with a smile. "But, Theo, how about you keep it clean this time. They are supposed to look like one car accidents, you can't have skid marks giving away that there was another car again. We were going to be investigated until I paid to make it go away. Make sure it doesn't happen again."

My stomach leapt into my throat at his words, he was going to kill another family just to silence them. I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat, but that only allowed the anger I was feeling take its place. I'm not letting this happen to anyone else, I thought as I slowly crawled backward through the ducts as Theo replied and the door slammed shut. I wasn't going to stand by and let Ash continue to tear people's lives apart. It needed to stop, and I was going to be the one to do it. I couldn't hesitate as I had done with Jax. No one was here to shoot him for me; I'd have to do it myself. I needed to stop more people from going through what I had. For now, I needed time to think while I tried to think of a new plan to finish him off for good. I wasn't going to let him get rid of another family. I would sacrifice my life for that and it was a necessary risk owing to the amount of files he had, the number of families he could tear apart.