“TELL ME EVERYTHING again,” Rowan said, as he held Alex’s hand while they trotted down the staircase toward the lobby.
She’d never seen Rowan move so fast, but she knew right before she said, “I finally got into that server. It belongs to the FBI,” that she was going to get a reaction. She just hadn’t expected his reaction to be so intense. He moved swiftly to get dressed and ordered her to do the same. She grabbed jeans and a T-shirt from her bag that they’d brought back from the hotel. Within minutes, they were hurrying into the hallway. “There’s nothing more to tell you than whoever used the dating app did so while at FBI headquarters,” she reported, breathing deep from the exertion. “It’ll take a lot more digging for me to find out who exactly the SiR profile belongs to in the FBI, but whoever it is, works there.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Rowan snapped. He stopped on the landing and turned to her, a vein protruding out of the middle of his forehead. “I kept wondering why I was getting the run-around. This is fucking why. It’s someone on the inside.”
“It also makes all this incredibly dangerous,” she gently reminded him, considering he looked about a second away from storming into headquarters and demanding answers. “We’re dealing with someone in the highest levels of law enforcement. Think of the access they have.”
“I don’t even want to consider that,” Rowan said, letting out a long-frustrated breath. “And yet, it’s one step closer to finding Mia.”
She nodded, but also pointed out, “We need to get somewhere safe. All I know is if it were me, I would have safeguards on that server. He found us once before. He’ll find us again, especially considering we know what we know.”
Rowan’s fingers tightened protectively around hers, and Alex felt the warmth swell in her chest. “And this time, he’ll make sure we’re eliminated for good.”
The thought sent a chill right down to her bones. She nodded. “The game has changed now. We need to think this through from every angle.”
“Yeah, we do.” He pulled her in close, dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’ve got somewhere safe that we can go.”
Good. That was a start. Alex followed him down the stairs, and she stayed right on his heels as they entered the lobby. The bar was off to the right. The news was on the television screen they passed, and the reporter was discussing the last victim, Harriett Laurie, pretty face shown on the screen. Alex’s stomach roiled with the thought that there was a very good chance this psychopath posed as one of the good guys. Even more so, she knew from her experience with Ryder that there was also a very good chance the killer was close to the case.
Rowan’s friend Wes came to mind. She needed him checked out. Maybe it was time to bring Ryder into this.
Before Alex could pose that question, and just as they passed the security desk, Rowan suddenly stopped. She slowly turned to him, saw the concern on his face, and then everything happened fast from there.
A handful of men and women wearing FBI shirts and jackets and bulletproof vests closed in on them, weapons drawn. Rowan shoved her behind him, his gun trained out in front of him.
“Stand down,” Wes yelled. “Hawke, stand down.”
Alex felt her blood go ice cold. If it weren’t for the handful of other FBI agents there, she’d grab Rowan, kiss him, knowing that would be her final goodbye. But she doubted Wes, if he were the killer, would take her out here.
Rowan’s shoulders squared, and his voice lowered. “Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on here.”
“She needs to come in,” Wes said, cool and collected. “She hacked the server. And she has to answer for that.”
Alex slowly turned to Rowan. His gaze was trained on Wes, burning fiercely with betrayal. She grabbed his arm, feeling the slight tremble of contained power. “Put your gun away. It’s fine. I’ll go in.”
“Alex,” Rowan warned, not taking his eyes off the targets around him.
She grabbed his hand and pushed it gently until he slowly lowered his weapon, and she turned to face him, keeping their conversation private. “Call Ryder. Look into Wes.”
Confusion furrowed Rowan’s brows for only a moment before clarity filled his expression. He grabbed her hand, tightening his fingers into hers. “I’ll call a lawyer and get you out.”
“Don’t,” she said. “Let me see where this goes.”
Rowan pinched his lips shut tight, clearly restraining the string of curse words sitting on his tongue, and stayed rooted to the spot while Alex let Wes take her by the arm and lead her into the waiting black SUV.
The drive to the NYPD station was quick, as was getting her into an interrogation room. Metal table and chairs, a one-way mirror where she knew people were watching her from the other side. She kept her breath slow and steady, knowing one thing for certain: She was brought there to make a point. She simply needed to find out what that point was.
When the door finally opened, she expected Wes to enter, but instead, she had to control the surprise engulfing her as the Director of the FBI, Carl Lewis, strode in. He was everything the FBI would want as their leader. Good-looking, in shape, held the classic all-American look with good teeth and neatly styled hair. “Hello, Ms. McCoy.”
“Hello, Mr. Lewis.” She clasped her hands tightly together under the table, confused by his arrival. Sure, he was doing the media rounds to keep the public at ease, but what did that have to do with her?
He took a seat at the table across from her, opening the button of his suit jacket as he sat. “I’m aware of your arrangement with both the FBI and the CIA. I also have no time to play games with you.” He placed his hands flat against the table. “Why were you hacking into our databases today?”
“To be honest,” she answered, releasing her hands to relax and kept her voice calm, “I hadn’t known the server I was attempting to get into belonged to the FBI until I landed in the database.” Which was actually the truth.
Lewis’s gaze hardened. “You have not answered my question.”
“I was paid by a wife to look into her husband who apparently has joined the dating app SiR,” she lied breezily.
One eyebrow arched. “And that led to hacking into the FBI’s databases?”
“Well, not exactly,” she replied, with an easy shrug. “I discovered the husband belonged to the dating app SiR. After that, I fell down a rabbit hole there and eventually came across a server that wanted to keep me out. Of course, that intrigued me.”
“And why is that?”
Again, she shrugged and was as honest as she could be. A lesson she learned from Ryder. Lying was easier when the truth was in there too. “It’s like candy to a kid. Whenever I can’t get in, I want to get in, but as I am sure you already know, the second I saw the server belonged to the FBI, I got out.” She leaned forward a little, not letting this man shake her. She’d always been on the right side of the law, even if she had to go into the gray sometimes to catch the bad guys. “So, why exactly am I here, Mr. Lewis? You know who I am. You know what I do. You know I didn’t do a damn thing when I hit that server.” Which made her wonder what else he knew?
“You’re here because what you did was illegal,” he said. “I know you’re working with Rowan Hawke to find his sister. Here is your official warning to back off. This is not his case, and any further interference will get you tossed in jail.”
She sat back against her chair, folded her arms, and watched him a moment. She didn’t have the knack to read people like Rowan could, but something about his warning rubbed her wrong. Going on that hunch, she offered, “What if I told you that I’m closing in on a suspect, and if I continue, I will find him?”
Lewis’s jaw clenched. “I would tell you that you do not work for the FBI. Go home to San Francisco.”
That answer made alarms go off her head. “Are you going to arrest me if I refuse to stop, then?” The thought was insane. And Rowan’s frustration about being shut out now was totally understood, because the same damn thing was happening to her.
Why?
Again, his jaw clenched. He mirrored her posture by leaning back in his chair, folded his arms, and regarded her intently. “I brought you in today, Ms. McCoy, to remind you that while you have an obligation to your government, you do not have free rein. Again, this is your warning to back off and go home. There is no next time. Stop working this case immediately.” He firmed his voice, squared his shoulders arrogantly. “Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Oh, yeah, she got a whole lot, and right now, Wes was no longer looking guilty. “Perfectly.”
He began to rise. “Go home, Ms. McCoy.”
She followed his every move, and continuing on her hunch, she said, “Just so we’re clear.” He met her gaze again. “Your security is weak. The fact that I hit a server without knowing it means you have someone on the inside that is secretly using a server for their personal use. They’ve weakened your system, and they’ve created a doorway into the FBI databases that I managed to break through. It’s sloppy work, and had I had longer, I would have easily caught them. Let me know if you want that name, and”—she squared her shoulders arrogantly—“you should really get that fixed.”
“We will take that under consideration.” His eyes flared, and yet, there was something dead in his gaze that suddenly turned her blood to ice.
Something that felt oddly personal. Anger. Rage. Hatred. Directed at her.
The door opened, and Wes strode into the room, looking about as miserable as any man could look. She could only imagine that Rowan ripped him to shreds for allowing this to happen.
Lewis cupped Wes’s shoulder on his way out the door. “Get her on a plane to San Francisco, and get back to work on the case. Balls to the wall to get this one put to bed.”
“Yes, sir,” Wes said.
And Alex, well, she just smiled, knowing she’d found their killer.
CHAPTER 15
AN HOUR HAD passed since Alex was taken into custody. Rowan had placed the call to Ryder, only to find out from his office that Ryder was on a business trip to New York City. It didn’t take long to realize that he’d come to help Alex, even though she adamantly refused him to join them. After that, Rowan had called and woken up a friend, who happened to be a lawyer, and was in the process of driving down to police headquarters, which was where Rowan waited now.
He paced in the alleyway across the street from headquarters, his fists clenching, while he did everything not to storm into that building and demand her release. The streetlights cut through the dark night, but the alleyway, stinking of garbage and God knows what else, kept Rowan hidden in the shadows.
“You broke your promise.”
Rowan whirled around, catching sight of Ryder standing behind him before he also met his fist, sending Rowan’s teeth chattering and his body flying back to hit the ground. Hard.
“You told me you would protect her,” Ryder snarled, standing over him.
Rowan snorted, rubbed his jaw, easing the pain coursing through his face, then got onto his feet. “I don’t have time for you.” He went to turn away, focusing back on the headquarters’ front doors, waiting for Alex to walk through them. But as he turned, he heard the click of a trigger. Slowly, he glanced back over his shoulder at Ryder. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
Ryder’s eyes narrowed to slits. His weapon remained trained on Rowan. “You’ve placed Alex into the hands of the FBI. Give me one very good reason why I shouldn’t make you hurt a little for that?”
“Because you love me, and I really like him,” Alex interjected.
Emotion rushed into Rowan as that like sure sounded awfully close to something much more real than that. He whirled around and didn’t hesitate. He charged forward, had Alex in his arms in a split second, and laid the kiss on her he needed to have. She tensed, obviously in surprise, but then melted against him. “I called to get you released,” he said after breaking the kiss.
“No, I called to get you released,” Ryder stated firmly over Rowan’s shoulder.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I got myself released, so let’s put the gun away, all right?” She gave Rowan a hard squeeze and a sweet smile. “Thank you for trying to get me out, though.”
Rowan glanced her over. “You’re all right?”
“Totally fine,” she said, then she released him and moved closer to Ryder. She placed a hand on his arm, ignoring that Ryder continued to scowl at Rowan. “You are not supposed to be here. You could have sent me help without coming, and we both know that.”
Ryder didn’t even look at her, still snarling at Rowan. “I told you I did not like this. And this is why. He’s putting you in danger.”
“He’s not putting me in any danger that I don’t want to be in,” she said. She seemed an expert at ignoring what he said, and instead continued, “It’s sweet you came for me, thank you, but the last thing you need is to get yourself wrapped up in all this. You need to go home.”
Ryder’s gaze swept to her, tightened, and he examined her intently. “Tell me everything that happened.”
That warning she gave sent off alarms in Rowan’s head too. Her soft tone of voice. The worry in her eyes. It all raised the hairs on the back of Rowan’s neck. He sidled up to her and took her hand, now feeling the slight tremble there. “Hold nothing back.” On that front, he agreed with Ryder completely.
She paused then said with a voice holding a slight tremble too, “Our killer is Carl Lewis.”
A beat.
“Are we talking about the Director of the FBI?” Ryder asked.
Alex nodded. “Yeah, that Carl Lewis.”
Rowan processed this, taking it all in. Many times, killers liked placing themselves right in the middle of an investigation. It was why Alex suspected Wes, though Rowan had doubted that was the case, even though he’d planned to have Ryder look deeper, just in case his friendship with Wes made him wrong.
The more Rowan thought about it, the more he knew Lewis was right in the heart of this case, probably getting off on all the attention. Lewis being their killer also explained why everything seemed to be sitting at a standstill and why Rowan kept getting shut out. Though that realization sank heavy into his bones, because now he realized just how deep this ran in the FBI and how hard finding Mia would truly be.
Lewis was smart, educated, and high in power.
For his own peace of mind, Rowan slid his arm around Alex, bringing her closer as he asked, “What makes you so sure it’s him?”
Alex glanced up, her gaze full of sympathy. “He said, ‘balls to the wall.’”
Ryder snorted loudly. “I should have come sooner. How is that a way of identifying a killer?”
“It’s a saying my sister told me once that the guy from SiR used often,” Rowan explained before looking back at Alex. “Any chance you caught his tattoo too?”
“What tattoo?” Ryder asked.
Alex answered, “Mia told Rowan that the guy she’d been talking to had a big military tattoo on his back.” She turned to Rowan and shook her head. “And, no, I didn’t see it. He was wearing a jacket.”
Ryder reached for his phone in his pocket. He texted as Alex continued, “But honestly, it’s a feeling I got too.” She turned to Rowan, those pretty eyes holding his intently. “He’s just the type of man that you described, and when he spoke to me…”
“Wait,” Rowan said, feeling the warmth leave his blood at that. “Lewis was there in headquarters today?”
“He was the one who interviewed me.”
“That fucker,” Rowan said, thrusting his fingers into his hair. Lewis had no reason to talk to Alex. Though the killer, knowing how close she was getting, would begin to unravel, make mistakes. “He gave you a warning, then, I take it?”
She gave a slow nod. “That’s the way it felt to me. He told me to go home. He knows that we’re digging. It sort of felt like he just wanted to make the point that he could get to me.”
Rowan didn’t like that. Not one fucking bit. And now, on top of his concern for
Mia and his worry for his parents’ emotional state, he knew he’d placed the woman who had worked her way into his cold heart in the direct line of fire.
Before he could say as much, Ryder asked, “Is this the tattoo?”
Rowan turned toward Ryder’s cell phone. The photograph was of a woman smiling on the beach in her bikini, but a man was in the background, his back facing the camera. The solider with a gas mask and a helicopter beneath it—it was all there. “Yeah, that’s it. How did you get that?” Rowan asked.
“I told you before,” Alex said. “Ryder has some good contacts.”
Ryder cursed then shoved his phone back into his pockets. “Lewis is a good friend of a senator in New York City we provided protective detail for. They spent time together at the senator’s lake house. One of the senator’s daughters had caught Lewis in that photograph. I had to request she take it down off social media, but of course, we kept the photograph on our server.” He straightened his shoulders and then frowned at Rowan. “You know what you’ve done, then, don’t you?”
Alex glanced between them. “What have you done?” she finally asked Rowan.
Of course Rowan knew, even without the judgmental gaze of Ryder glaring him down. He had known it a second ago. “I’ve made the woman I care very much about the target of a very powerful and brutal serial killer.”
“Well…” Alex said, focusing entirely on Rowan, “it’s a damn good thing that this woman is the one woman who can take him down and find Mia.”
He expected Alex’s strength, though now everything had changed. He cupped her face. “I can’t ask you to be a part of this anymore. Not with Lewis involved. It’s too dangerous, and he now knows you’re driving this show.”
She leaned into his touch, and her eyes warmed. And suddenly Rowan felt like he wasn’t the only one who realized this time things had changed between them. This time, it wouldn’t be so easy to walk away when all was said and done.
Maybe this time they would both choose to stay.
“You don’t have to ask me, Rowan,” she said, breaking the silence. “I’m in this. Until the end. Until we find Mia.”
Sexy Liar Page 10