Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

expect us to act like emotionless robots in that kind of situation. It’s just not human. It’s ridiculous how far the higher-ups will go to protect criminals when they should be focused on the health and safety of the victims.”

It was rare to see Naomi this riled up, and I imagined that her interview must not have gone well for her to be so upset.

“You didn’t get in trouble for intimidating that guy into confessing?” I asked.

“Hardly.” She shrugged. “They gave me some spiel about conducting myself accordingly as a federal agent. Honestly, they seemed more concerned about the media finding out and potential accusations of entrapment than they did about my actual conduct. Typical administrative malarky.”

Honestly, I could understand the brass’s concerns. Naomi had threatened to throw one of our suspects to the wolves after spreading a rumor that he was a child abuser to get him to talk. Technically, it wouldn’t have been a lie, but everyone knew that even criminals didn’t look kindly upon those that hurt children, and it wasn’t a good look for a decorated federal agent to attempt to weaponize a prison community.

Fiona joined us just a few moments after Naomi appeared.

“That was quick,” I commented. She’d been called in to speak to the same woman right after I’d been dismissed.

“I’m not the one under scrutiny here,” Fiona shrugged. “So I didn’t have much to say. As far as I’m concerned, all of my coworkers acted in good faith and with the best interest of the victims in mind.” She spoke as if she’d rehearsed what to say a hundred times, and I chuckled at her vehemence.

“Didn’t you illegally hack into the kidnapper’s phone?” I muttered so that only she’d be able to hear.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Fiona shrugged. “As I said, I’m not the one under scrutiny here. Wallace never brought it up, so I’m assuming they don’t know about it either.”

“We can thank our lucky stars for that,” Naomi teased. “If the top brass knew about everything you’d done, they’d shut the branch down without bothering with a hearing.”

“By all means,” Fiona hissed, “let’s keep discussing this at the FBI headquarters!”

“Sorry,” Naomi smirked.

I couldn’t help but smile. My fellow agents had all really gone out on a limb, all for the sake of rescuing my niece, Amber. Criminal or not, what Fiona had done had been highly illegal. She’d even agreed to resign afterward if she had to, all so we’d be able to track down the man who had snatched Amber from her grandfather Harry’s home.

There was a weird atmosphere around us. We were all worried about the outcome of the hearing, but at the same time, we couldn’t help cracking jokes and poking fun at each other. Maybe injecting humor into the situation was the only way we were able to stay calm about it.

“I’m concerned about Junior,” Fiona frowned. “He really messed up when he rushed into that gas station, even if he did keep everyone involved from getting hurt in the end. And Miranda’s going to be questioned as a direct witness.”

“She might not cooperate.” Naomi raised an eyebrow. “You know how impetuous she can be, and loyal to a fault. She won’t speak badly of him.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Fiona grumbled. “If she refuses to tell the truth, don’t you think it might make the situation even worse?”

I furrowed my brows together as I thought about what she’d said. I could easily see Miranda dodging the interviewer’s questions and brushing everything off as a joke. Fiona had a point about how that might reflect poorly on Junior.

His actions had been noble, but we didn’t know if the higher-ups would see it that way. He’d rushed into an active hostage situation to defuse what had been seconds away from becoming a bloodbath between the police and the so-called parents of one of the victims of our last case. Like the other children, the little girl had been kidnapped from her real home. The couple she’d been staying with had panicked when the police showed up to retrieve the child, and if Junior hadn’t stepped in, there was no telling what might have happened.

Of course, he had acted against protocol in a pretty flagrant way, and now he was paying the consequences of his selfless action.

We moved onto lighter topics of conversation then as we waited for the rest of our team to finish their interviews.

“We might be getting a new coworker soon,” Naomi suddenly commented. “I heard Nelson speaking to someone on the phone in his office. I didn’t stick around long enough to eavesdrop, but it sounded like he was asking whoever it was about their work history.”

“That would be nice,” Fiona sighed. “I was relieved when Charlie and Junior joined because I thought we wouldn’t be stretched so thin then, but it feels like we’re still shorthanded. We all had to pitch in during our last big case.”

“That would be helpful,” I agreed.

“What would be helpful?” Miranda asked as she suddenly plopped down into one of the armchairs sideways so that her legs were dangling over the armrests.

“Having more people working at MBLIS,” Fiona replied. “How’d your interview go?”

“Fine,” Miranda shrugged. “Really boring. I’m ready to go home.”

“What did you say?” Fiona asked anxiously.

“Just the truth,” Miranda replied as she shifted around to sit correctly. “I told them that Junior wanted to de-escalate the conflict with minimal injuries to all parties involved and that he was able to do so with his rapid decision-making. Something like that, anyway. You would have been proud of me. I was as eloquent as Naomi in there.”

“I highly doubt that,” Naomi teased. Miranda stuck her tongue out at her, and Fiona looked relieved to hear Miranda hadn’t done anything crazy.

“I wonder how much longer they’ll be,” Miranda mused aloud as she glanced toward the door that led to the back offices where we’d been interviewed. “I’m surprised you got out so fast, Charlie, considering you’re the one