by LENA DIAZ,
After barely eating anything, she’d thanked him politely, then planted herself on the couch in front of the TV to watch the morning news. Her thanking him was the longest conversation they’d had since last night’s confusing drama in the bedroom. If he’d thought for one second that she truly wanted him, he’d have been all over her. But he hadn’t trusted her motives, not after everything that happened yesterday. Seeing how she was acting this morning, he wasn’t sure if he’d been right last night, or whether he’d made the biggest mistake of his life.
“Shannon?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She didn’t look at him.
“I’m about to leave now. Like I said, I’m going to follow up on a few things, see if anyone’s making any headway trying to find out where Maria and the others might be.”
He waited, then tried again. “If you’re still upset about last night—”
“I’m fine.”
He sighed. “I’ll be back later today, definitely before dark. I’ve left cash on the counter so you can call that same restaurant that I called this morning to deliver any time you’re hungry. Please don’t use any of your credit cards or call anyone you know.”
“You’ve said that three times now. I know the drill. And I know my choice is to stay here or go to jail. You can leave now. I’m not going anywhere.”
He missed the easy friendship they’d shared for so long. Even the other night when he’d brought pizza by, and they’d watched that sappy love story, he’d rank that evening as one of the most enjoyable he’d ever had. He loved being with her, listening to her jokes, watching her face soften with emotion as she watched the actors on TV. How had they gone from that to this in such a short time?
“I said you could go now, Ian.” She pushed the remote and changed the channel.
“You promise you won’t go anywhere?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” she said sarcastically.
“Then it should be okay to leave this with you.” He set her pistol and the magazine on top of the counter.
She glanced over, then blinked. “You’re giving me my gun back?”
“Is there a reason that I shouldn’t? I can trust you. Right?”
She hesitated, then said, “Yes. Of course.”
“There’s no way for Butch or the others to know that you’re here or even suspect it. But if a casual burglar were to decide to try to break in, or something like that, I want to know you’ll be protected.”
Her gaze finally lifted to his. “Thank you, Ian. I appreciate it.”
He nodded. “I’ll lock the door. But you’ll need to throw the bar across it. Okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled. “Be careful.”
The smile surprised him, confused him. He didn’t know what to make of it, so he just left.
Half an hour later he pulled up in front of the duplex. But instead of parking inside the garage, he left his Charger on the curb. Then he headed inside. Keeping all the lights off so no one could see him if they looked in from the street, he sat on the couch watching the car. Then he pulled out his cell phone and settled in to make some calls.
“Sanders Auto Repair. This is Ralph Sanders. Can I help you?”
“Boss, it’s Ian.”
“You’d better be on your way to the shop right now, Savage. Or you can kiss your job goodbye.”
“Yeah, that’s why I called. Partly, anyway.” He explained who he really was and confessed that he’d been working there as a cover for the past six months. Convincing him would have been easier in person. But going to the shop today wasn’t part of his plan.
“Well, I’ll be a son of a... I can’t believe it,” Sanders finally said. “I mean, I do. But I gotta say, I’m mad as hell. Not that you were undercover all this time, but because I’m losing the best mechanic that I’ve ever had working for me. You sure you don’t want to quit working for the Feds and come work for me full-time?”
Ian laughed. “The way things are going right now, I may need to take you up on that offer sometime. But not yet.” Hopefully his boss at Homeland Security wouldn’t fire him for working the case on his own when he was supposed to be on administrative leave. But he was playing with fire right now as far as his career was concerned.
“My door is always open, son. You did great work for me.”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Since I’ve been gone, has anyone come around looking for me? They might not have come inside. They could be hanging around the place, maybe sitting in the lot across the street. One of them drives a white cargo van. Another drives a bright yellow Volkswagen, a fairly new Beetle. Seen anything like that parked outside the garage for no good reason?”
“Can’t say that I’ve noticed. But we’ve been pretty slammed lately, and I’ve been pitching in working on the cars since my best worker ditched me.”
Ian winced. “Sorry, sir.”
“What makes you think I meant you?” Sanders laughed. “I’ll check with the guys, keep an eye out. If I see this Bug hanging around, you want me to call you at this number?”
Ian was taking every precaution he could to ensure that nothing could be used to trace back to the hotel where he was keeping Shannon. That meant destroying his current burner phone as soon as today’s work was done. Instead, he told Sanders that he’d call him back tomorrow to see if he’d found out anything that might help.
He called dozens of other contacts that he’d made in the time that he’d been working this investigation, including confidential informants willingly working in the sex trade. They claimed to enjoy what they did for a living, and since no one was technically forcing them, there wasn’t much Ian could do other than to provide them a list of agencies, shelters and churches that made it their work to help sex trade workers. In return, his CIs provided him with tips.
As he made his calls, he kept a close watch on his car parked out front. But no one had even slowed down as they passed the duplex. No garish yellow Beetle pulled up behind the Charger. And even though he spoke to dozens of people in places where he’d gone in the guise of Ian Savage, no one claimed to have heard of anyone looking for him or asking questions about him. No one fitting Butch’s description, or any of his minions, popped up on the radar.
It had been a long shot, but he was still surprised that everything was so quiet. He’d assumed that Butch or one of his right-hand men, or Wolverine at least, would have been out scouring the city trying to find the man who’d double-crossed them. He couldn’t see them letting a slight like that go without wanting retribution. Either no one was searching for him, or they were driving yet another vehicle that he didn’t know about. Or they’d left town already. Since that would mean the victims with Butch were completely beyond his reach and unlikely to be rescued, Ian was praying that wasn’t the case.
While he worked through his contacts, he created a list of places he planned to canvass himself, places where his contacts weren’t as likely to carry phones around. But at the top of his list was to start right where he was, in his current neighborhood. He wanted to see whether his neighbors had noticed anything suspicious. But before he could do that, there was one more call he needed to make.
He’d been putting this one off because he didn’t want to make this call. But allowing his personal preferences to get in the way of solving a case and rescuing human trafficking victims was unacceptable. It was time to step up and get this particular chore over with. He dialed a number that he’d never used, even though it had been given to him years ago.
The line clicked. “McKenzie.”
“Adam, it’s Ian.”
Chapter Sixteen
Shannon smoothed her blouse over her jeans, hesitating at the door to the hotel suite. She was breaking a promise by leaving. But Ian had lied to her for so long, it hardly seemed fair that she should feel so guilty over one little lie. And yet she did. He’d wanted her to stay here for her o
wn protection. But how could she do that when the friend who’d risked her own life for her, a friend Shannon had spent much of her adult life tracking down, could be here somewhere in Gatlinburg at this very moment, in need of rescuing?
A car horn honked outside. The taxi she’d called was getting impatient. She took one last look around, then headed out the door.
Uncomfortable with the idea of sitting beside a driver she didn’t know, she sat in the back seat.
He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “Where to, ma’am?”
She gave him the duplex’s address and brutally shoved her feelings of guilt aside. She knew the risks, that Butch or one of his men could be watching the place. But if she was going to pass as a street person again to try to hunt down news about Maria, she needed the right clothes for it. Her meager savings couldn’t cover luxuries like a new outfit. Especially since her call this morning to let her boss know she was going to miss another shift had been short and not sweet. He’d fired her.
When the taxi pulled up in front of her home, she counted out the exact amount and handed it to the driver. He didn’t look happy to not be getting a tip. But she couldn’t afford one, and she refused to use Ian’s equally hard-earned money when she was going against his wishes.
The taxi’s tires squealed as he took off, making her wince as she turned the key in the lock. After one last glance around to make sure that she didn’t see anyone skulking in the bushes or parked on the street watching her, she headed inside.
* * *
IAN ADJUSTED the collar of his leather trench coat, since his favorite leather jacket had been destroyed, and headed inside the internet café. He immediately spotted his oldest brother. Adam was doing his best to blend in, having chosen a table in the back corner away from the busy counter. But McKenzies, because of their large build and height, were more likely to be noticed than not. Ian imagined the thousand-dollar suit that Adam was wearing, along with his coal-black hair and striking blue eyes, didn’t help. But he seemed oblivious to all the women casting glances his way.
Adam motioned toward him. Ian returned the greeting and headed to his table. He couldn’t help grinning when he noticed that he had the opposite effect on the women around them. His blond-streaked spiky black hair and dragon tattoos must not be to their taste.
“Something funny?” Adam asked, looking puzzled.
Ian shrugged. “Nothing I’m not used to. Thanks for meeting me here.”
“Not a problem.” He gestured toward Ian’s face. “The bruises are fading fast. How’s the arm?”
“Nothing a few pain pills don’t knock out. You said you have information on Gillespie?”
The disappointment on Adam’s face told Ian he’d messed up, again. His brother must have wanted more small talk, to catch up on a personal level before turning to business. Ian was too out of practice with polite conversation to realize it.
Ian cleared his throat. “How’s, ah, your new bride? Jody, I think you said?”
Adam smiled sadly. “Thanks for the effort. But you’re obviously in a hurry, so I’ll get right to the point of our meeting.” He pulled a manila folder out of the briefcase on the seat beside him and set it on the table in front of Ian. “You can take those with you. I just got the information together this morning and haven’t had a chance to digitize it. It’s a good thing you called.”
“This stuff wasn’t already in Memphis PD’s computer databases?”
“I imagine it is. But my former partner grew up in the days of typewriters and legal pads. I doubt he even went online in the department’s system to gather this information. He probably got it from the archive paper backups in the basement and made copies. At least he sent it overnight instead of your typical snail mail, or we still wouldn’t have it.” He pointed to one of the reports as Ian thumbed through the pages. “That’s an overview of the investigation into the sex ring I told you about.”
“What are all these? Surveillance photographs?” Ian began sifting through a stack of pictures.
“Most of them, yes. They were taken in the months and weeks before we did our sting. Others are mug shots of the guys we arrested.” He pulled one of them from beneath a few others and set it on top. “That’s your guy there, Gillespie.”
Ian frowned and held up the picture. “How long ago was this?”
“A little over two years.” He flipped the photo over and grinned. “Two years, three weeks and two days, to be exact.” He tapped the handwriting on the back. “That’s my old partner’s work.” He handed it back to Ian.
“He sure has bulked up since then. I almost don’t recognize him.”
“Yeah, well, as I’m sure you know in your line of work, these guys do everything they can to change their appearance when they start over somewhere else. They don’t want anyone from their old life to spot them. Every indication is that he left Memphis shortly after that mug shot was taken and the charges against him didn’t stick.”
“When I was in the hospital, I remember you saying something about his right-hand men, that they went to prison. Were you able to verify that they’re still locked up?”
Adam held his hand out for the pictures. “May I?”
Ian gave the stack to him and Adam fanned them out. He selected three and set them in front of Ian. “These are the main guys, the ones giving the orders. All three are serving time as we speak. But everyone in our task force believed Gillespie was the brains behind the operation. He had everyone too scared to turn on him and testify against him. It killed me that we had to let him walk.”
“Okay, well, I’ll look through all of this, study Gillespie’s background. If I can figure out where he’s been, maybe I can find out where he’s going. Maybe some of these smaller fish caught in your net are out and working with him again. I can follow up that angle, as well.”
“What about your fellow agents at Homeland Security? They helping you with this?”
Ian grimaced. “Not officially. I called a few I trust this morning to discuss the investigation.”
“A few you trust? You don’t trust everyone you work with?”
He wasn’t quite ready to discuss all the particulars with his brother. This new truce, or whatever it was between them, wasn’t something he was comfortable with just yet. So he didn’t tell him about the index card and his suspicions about a mole.
“I wouldn’t say that. But I’m on administrative leave right now. My cover was blown, so I’m officially off the investigation. Any snooping I do, if it’s reported up to my boss, won’t be good for my career. I’m being careful about whom I contact on the inside right now.”
“I see.”
The disappointment on Adam’s face had Ian tensing. This was what he normally expected from his brothers rather than the friendly cooperation of a moment before. They expected him to fail, to screw up everything. So naturally Adam assumed the worst. Never mind that Ian had done everything right, everything by the book, and it was someone else who’d blown his cover.
He gathered up all the pictures and reports and slid them back into the folder. “Thanks, Adam. I really appreciate this.” He pushed his chair back.
“Ian?”
He arched a brow in question.
“Christmas is in three weeks.”
“Yeah. What about it?”
Adam frowned. “You missed Thanksgiving—”
“I usually miss Thanksgiving.” He didn’t want to feel like a hypocrite sitting around the table trying to come up with something to say when it was his turn to say why he was thankful. Not having to see his father every day didn’t seem appropriate.
“You missed my wedding in June. I posted the information in the paper and sent an invitation to your PO box and—”
“I was undercover. It would have been too risky to be seen at an event like that, especially here in Gatlinburg. And, honestly, I haven’t checked
that PO box in ages. I have to admit that I didn’t know about the wedding.” He’d rented that box at his family’s insistence years ago and put it on automatic renewal. But he rarely ever checked it.
Adam held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I get it. But you said your cover has been blown now, that you’re off the case, at least officially. It sure would be great if you could be there for Duncan’s and Colin’s weddings at Christmas. The ceremony will be at one in the converted barn at the family cabin. It would mean a lot to Mom if you’re there. It would mean a lot to all of us.”
Ian snorted in disbelief.
“I’m serious, Ian. We want you there.”
“Including Dad?”
Adam hesitated.
“That’s what I thought.” Ian stood and held up the manila folder. “I really appreciate this. It could be the break I need.”
Adam stood, as well. “Enough to repay me by showing up at the weddings?”
It was Ian’s turn to hesitate. He had planned on being there Christmas morning for his mother’s sake. Easter and Christmas were her favorite holidays, and he always tried to be at one of them every year. But pretending he was part of a big happy family at something like a wedding left a sour taste in his mouth. Still, his brother had never asked him for anything before. That alone had him holding back a quick no. “What are their names? Colin’s and Duncan’s fiancées?”
“Duncan’s marrying someone from Colorado, a former FBI agent, Remi Jordan.”
“And Colin?”
“Peyton Sterling.”
Ian stared at him in shock. “Her arsonist sibling nearly killed Colin. The fire—”
“I know. Some crazy stuff happened this year. I’d like to bring you up to speed, when you have time.”