In Deep with the FBI Agent

by Lynne Silver

  “It’s not sorted. It’s only worse.”

  “It’s going to get better, Casey. I promise.”

  “I hope.” For the first time, she allowed a tiny beacon of hope to settle in her heart. She’d pushed Sam away as a knee-jerk reaction, protecting her mother and herself. But what if the best protection they could have was a handsome, smart FBI agent on their team?

  “Don’t hope. Go make it better. Go Casey Cooper on their asses and fight back. They fired you unfairly.”

  A smile found a place on her lips. “Am I a verb now?”

  “Damn straight you are. Okay, I have to go, but I’m going to call you on your cell as soon as I can. All right?”

  “Fine,” she said on a sigh. It was nice knowing Sam believed in her and her ability to fight for her job, but she wasn’t feeling much like a spitfire in this moment. All she wanted right now was to go home, put on her comfiest pajamas, and curl up in bed. She wasn’t sure she had it in her to go fight to get her job back. Though Sam was correct. She’d let Nancy accuse her of things, none of which were true, and she’d taken it without speaking in her own defense.

  How the hell had that happened? She’d never been a doormat or one to take a verbal lashing without speaking up. The only excuse she could see for why she’d done so today was that she’d been down in the dumps without Sam. She hadn’t been feeling like herself ever since she’d shut the door behind him last week.

  She took a restorative breath and looked around her nearly bare office. What was she going to do? What could she do besides file a lawsuit in which she spent money on an attorney’s fees and ended up with a worse relationship with the school? She might win the suit, but she’d still be out of a job and any chance of repairing the relationship with Montgomery Prep.

  Determined, she stood and exited her office on a warpath to Nancy’s. She strode past Carolina, Nancy’s admin, and knocked once on the door and entered without waiting for an okay.

  “Nancy. We need to talk,” she said, and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the headmistress’s desk.

  “I believe we already said everything that needs saying,” Nancy replied, barely looking up from her computer.

  “No. You said things, but didn’t give me a chance to respond, and I’d like to. I care very much about my job here, and I don’t want to leave Montgomery Prep. It’s more than a job for me. I’m passionate about the school. It’s been my home for a very long time.”

  That got Nancy’s attention; she steepled her fingers, leaning back in her desk chair to meet Casey’s gaze. “I’m listening.”

  “You accused me of being careless with my password and said that the parent body needed to see you were acting decisively about the cyber attack. Well, that same parent body would be very interested to hear how you knew about the attack, but chose to keep it a secret for weeks between you and Dan.”

  Nancy froze at her desk.

  “That’s right, I overheard your conversation, and I did tell an FBI agent about the security breach. It was because I disagreed with the decision to keep the information private. I knew there was a larger security scam happening, and I felt it was our civic duty to assist in any way possible. Not to mention, it’s illegal for a school to keep that information secret. Our school has an honor code, and part of that code is to report wrongs. I was following the honor code.”

  “I see,” Nancy said slowly.

  “Perhaps I should’ve voiced my opposition better. I should’ve told you first what I’d heard, and that I was going to the FBI, but I feared for my job. I promise if you hire me back, I will always come to you first.”

  “Understood.”

  Casey could see by her face she understood the pressure quite well. Hell, call a spade a spade. Casey was blackmailing her boss. “You also accused me of being free with my password and hinted that I might’ve been the one to hack the school.” She swallowed. “That is ridiculous. We were the victim of a sophisticated computer hacker. Much as I’d like to boast those kind of technical skills, I simply don’t have the knowledge, nor would I ever engage in those kinds of criminal activities. Also, time logs from my boyfriend will prove that I was nowhere near a computer during the data breaches.”

  Nancy opened her mouth, but Casey kept going. “Furthermore, and possibly the part that hurts the most, is that you accused me of poor job performance. I think if you look at the donation numbers since my tenure here, you’ll see that parent participation in our annual campaign has increased by twenty percent. Additionally, I pulled in the large donation to augment the renovation on the new library. I was an asset to this school, and I’d like to continue to be far into the future.”

  Now finished with her speech, she sucked back some air and sat on the edge of the chair waiting for Nancy’s verdict. She didn’t have long to wait.

  “You make some very good points, Casey. I’d like to take the weekend to think about it. For the time being, we’ll keep the news of your departure quiet, and I’ll give you a final decision Monday. Leave your stuff in your office for now.”

  It was better than she’d hoped for. Casey rose and nodded at Nancy. “Thank you, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you and never having to report to the school board that you tried to hide a cyber attack.” She kept a calm pace until she made it back to her office, where she high-fived Annie and did a little happy dance in the privacy of her own office.

  She wasn’t fired! Not a chance Nancy was risking her position or the possibility of legal action. She improvised her happy jig for another moment and then came to an abrupt halt. It hit her that she’d have to spend the next forty-eight-plus hours at home alone.

  It was the alone part that gave her pause. She hadn’t made plans for this weekend, and hadn’t made plans since she’d sent Sam packing. Sitting on her couch wallowing was her mother’s gig, not hers.

  The weekend went as slowly as predicted. She spent one busy hour at the supermarket. She actually attempted to cook something on her own. She wasn’t deluded enough to pretend cooking wasn’t a lame attempt to feel closer to Sam. Cooking was their thing, and she managed to produce a chicken stir fry that was actually edible.

  Great, now she could cook a meal, which killed an hour of the endless weekend, but what should she do for the other forty-seven? She couldn’t call Arianna or Valerie. In the breakup, Sam got custody of them. At least, that was her untested theory.

  Finally, Casey ran a bath, then got into her pajamas and made sure to keep her cell phone within reach at all times. Sam had said he’d call back soon; what was taking so long?

  She missed him. It was a painful ache deep in her body that she wanted to relieve. She’d been so stupid to break up with him: it wasn’t as if she’d wanted to end things, but she’d thought she had to choose between her career and her love life. All week she’d berated herself and questioned her decision and picked up the phone to call Sam, only not to dial out of cowardice.

  Hearing his voice today had been the best sound ever. She wasn’t going to let Nancy bully her into ruining the best relationship she’d ever had with the best man she’d ever know.

  Though her career was her life, her literal bread and butter, would anyone expect her to give it up for a man she’d been dating less than a month? It would be insane. Yet it didn’t feel insane. It felt right.

  The seconds ticked by on her alarm clock, and throughout the night a faint vibrating buzz sounded every time her phone got an email. She grabbed the phone each time to check if it was Sam, but no. Each time it was an advertisement. Normally she slept through such minor distractions, but tonight, they were as loud as an army bugle call. She tried to imagine her life if Nancy didn’t allow her to return to her job. What would she do? Would she actually have the nerve to go through with her blackmail threat? Where would she go if she didn’t work at Montgomery Prep?

  She’d have to leave the Washington area. Though the area was chock full of private schools, it was a small community and no one would be likely
to hire her. She’d have to leave the area, move to a new city, take her mom with her. As the red glowing numbers on her alarm clock inched closer to midnight, tears dripped into her pillow at the thought of leaving her hometown and of leaving Sam. Mostly of leaving Sam, because she’d been falling in love with him. Who knew? Maybe she’d been in love with him since they were fourteen. God knew she’d always been aware of him and counted on his little locker notes.

  The memory of his locker notes forced the tears to come in a steady flow as she grieved for all she had potentially lost.

  Sam paced the floor of his office until the carpet was intimately acquainted with the soles of his shoes. There was a bottle of lukewarm Coke in his hand, which he’d been steadily drinking since six last night. He hadn’t gone home to sleep and he still wore yesterday’s clothes, although he’d lost the tie.

  The hunt for Matthew Melles, alias Smith, alias Bratsilova, alias Lefkowitz, wasn’t going well. Sam was ninety percent certain he hadn’t fled the country, though they’d alerted customs. That was still a ten percent chance he was enjoying foreign waters, which was too high for Sam’s comfort.

  But why would the guy have fled? It wasn’t as if he knew there was a manhunt for him. Their first stop had been at the tutoring company headquarters, which turned out to be a post office box at a shipping and package store in Bethesda, Maryland. They had two agents camped out there waiting for the guy to get his mail.

  He had no residence of record, because the man was a ghost. None of the names he used had been issued a driver’s license or identification at a legitimate DMV. He was operating entirely on manufactured IDs and disposable cell phones. And he’d been living out of hotels.

  His tutoring business was the only legitimate thing about the guy, but even that was owned through a complex network of holding companies. To untangle the knot would take time and tip Matt off that the hunt was on. Right now the odds were slightly in the FBI’s favor, because as far as they knew, their target was still conducting business as usual. He didn’t know he was the focus of an investigation, and was more likely to get cocky and make a mistake; sort of like the mistake he’d made returning to ask Casey out after the school had been hacked.

  Casey had shared that he’d been driving a white sedan, but she couldn’t remember the model. She did remember that he’d said his real car had been in the shop and he had a rental. Great. There were only about three hundred rental car agencies in the metro Washington area. It would take forever, or never, to track that source down.

  “We’re going to have to bring her in, Sam,” Jack said from his position on two pushed-together chairs where he’d spent the night. He was referring to the plan they’d come up with around ten last night to use Casey as bait.

  “No.” He pointed the bottle of soda in Jack’s direction. “I said no last night, and I still say no.”

  “The guy has the potential to commit identity fraud on nearly every rich and powerful person in the country, Sam. We need to get him. The sooner, the better.”

  “I’m not putting Casey in danger,” he insisted.

  “She wouldn’t be in danger. We’ve gone over this. Unless you come up with a better plan, I’m calling her in one hour.” Jack held up a finger.

  Sam stared blankly at his partner, his mind full of caffeine and murky clouds. He wasn’t coming up with anything better in one hour. Shit.

  Two Hours Later

  Sam stared at Casey with hungry eyes as she entered his office. She was looking around curiously, or she was looking anywhere but at him. He’d finally given up on his pacing and was collapsed into the desk-chair bed that Jack had abandoned.

  He stood to greet her and make her look at him, but then he realized he hadn’t shaved, his clothes were wrinkled, and his breath smelled like twelve hours of soda with nary a toothbrush in sight.

  “Excuse me,” he announced and hustled off to grab the kit he kept in his office for days like today. Five minutes later, he was back with a fresh shirt, washed face, and brushed hair and teeth. There’d been no time for a shave, but with his light hair, he wasn’t all that caveman.

  “Hi, Sam,” Casey said in a low voice, and he turned to look at her.

  “Hi, Casey. Thank you for coming out this morning.”

  She shrugged, and her silky looking blouse slipped off her shoulder, revealing her bra strap. Sam’s gaze locked on the black strap juxtaposed against her pale, soft skin. He remembered kissing that spot a few weeks ago before he peeled the strap off her shoulder and moved his mouth lower.

  “Sam?” Jack cleared his throat. “Do you want to explain the plan to Casey?” He angled his head meaningfully toward the conference room.

  Sam stayed where he was and said, “No. I’m opposed to the plan.”

  Casey’s eyes were wide as she turned to Jack, her reddish hair looking darker in the shadowy room until Sam flipped on the harsh overhead fluorescents. “You didn’t say Sam was against me helping.”

  “I don’t want you near this guy, Casey. We don’t know if he’s dangerous.”

  She rolled her eyes, and he wanted to kiss her. Hell, he always wanted to kiss her, but when she looked slightly tired and dressed in her casual clothes, she was irresistible. “You’re not sending me into a dark alley in the middle of the night, are you?”

  Jack chuckled. “Of course not, Ms. Cooper. It would be during the day in a safe environment. We’d have agents with you every step of the way.”

  Jack stepped closer to Casey and gently brushed her elbow to usher her into the conference room. Sam glared at the point of contact and followed them into the room. He took the seat closest to Casey, rolling his chair close enough to smell her shampoo.

  She scooted a minuscule inch the opposite way but turned to whisper, “What are you doing? Why are you glaring at me?”

  “I’m not, Casey. I don’t want you to do this. I don’t ever want you in danger.” His heart pounded and it felt as if they were alone in the room—in the universe—when her expression softened, and she gently stroked a finger down his cheek. “I want you safe. Always, Case.”

  “I will be if you’re there,” she whispered.

  Their stares intensified until it felt as if there was a laser connection between the two of them. She broke it first and turned to Jack as Ted entered the room. Casey was introduced to their boss, who did a piss-poor job of treating Casey as a stranger.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you from Sam,” Ted said, dropping into a seat at the head of the table. “When are you two going to patch things up? We’re all sick of him moping around here like his puppy died.”

  Casey bit her lip as Sam rolled his eyes heavenward and prayed for an asteroid to zoom through the window and take him out. No, better it should take out Ted as vengeance.

  Thank God for Jack, who moved forward as if their boss hadn’t totally embarrassed both Sam and Casey. “Let’s go through the plan and iron out any wrinkles.”

  “Good idea,” Casey and Sam said in unison. They spent the next two hours going through every conceivable variation of the plan and possible pitfalls.

  Jack and Ted wanted the arrest to happen on the Montgomery Prep campus since it was the place where Matt had met Casey numerous times, but Casey was adamant that they keep it off campus and away from even the slightest chance a student could get in the way. She also wasn’t sure if the school would allow it.

  “We don’t know if he’s going to get angry,” she argued. “It has to be away from the kids.”

  “Ah, you admit there is a risk,” Sam pointed out.

  She glared at him, and he returned the look with equal fervor.

  “Stop coddling me.”

  “You’re not trained for this, Casey. We are. We’ll put an agent in a wig.”

  “You know why we can’t do that, Sam,” Jack said on a protest. “We need to correctly ID him.”

  “She can do that from a camera feed,” Sam said.

  “This guy could run the second he sees it’s not Casey.
We need him to be completely off guard.”

  Sam shut his mouth because his colleagues were correct.

  “I can do this, Sam,” Casey insisted. “Don’t go all caveman on me.”

  He turned in his chair and met her stare. “I have faith in you, but I’m protesting because I can’t live in a world in which I let you get hurt.”

  Tears glittered in her eyes, and he felt a lump in his own throat that he didn’t have time to swallow before Casey snapped on her big-girl panties, rose, and all the agents stood as well. “When do we do this? I want to catch the bastard.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Casey picked at a thread on the unfamiliar couch in the apartment that wasn’t hers. It was an FBI-held apartment they were using as a decoy to catch Hacker Matt, as Casey had come to think of him. Under the watchful eye of Sam and his team, she’d called Matt Melles Sunday afternoon to tell him she’d broken up with her boyfriend and wanted to take him up on his offer to go for dinner.

  Acting like the brokenhearted girlfriend hadn’t been at all tricky. All she had to do was be herself. Seeing Sam had been amazing, especially when he’d told her he couldn’t live in a world where she got hurt. She’d nearly leaped across the table at him to kiss him in his place of work, but stopped herself in time.

  She decided that once they caught the hacker, and when she got her job back, she’d invite Sam for a dinner where they could discuss their relationship like two rational grown-ups. She’d come clean about her mother and confess that she was scared to share the burden. She’d give him a chance to run and make a clean break, but she happily suspected she’d be stuck with Sam Cooper for the long haul, and she couldn’t be happier about it.

  Casey struck out the first time she called Matt and got his voice mail; there’d been a very long and boring hour while they waited for him to call her back. Finally at seven that night, she’d told them she was going home. She hadn’t slept well Friday night, and needed to catch up on her sleep.