No Good Deed

by Allison Brennan

  “Send me everything you have,” Joseph said. “Don’t argue, just do it. To me, understand?”

  He hung up and rubbed his eyes.

  “You need sleep,” she said.

  “Rogan got away. Those bastards shot him, had him cornered, and he fucking got out.”

  “This is like a bad joke. We set the trap and he avoids damage like the Road Runner cartoon.”

  “His days of running will soon be over. The report says he was seriously injured.”

  “We can’t assume anything.”

  “They had dozens of people on his tail, and somehow his men found and extracted him. No one knows how the fuck they found him, but they know how he got away. Two men, one black and one white, carried him out under gunfire. Then—get this—Sean Rogan flew the plane out of Mexico.”

  “You’re right. I don’t believe it.”

  “Juarez is sending us photos, but he recognized the Rogan brothers on sight. Jimmy had Adam Dover killed when he let the redhead and Kane slip away the first time—if he was ID’d, his time was up anyway. But Rogan grabbed his wallet and phone and knows who he is.”

  Nicole sat heavily on a bar stool. “Okay—we can adjust. We knew that Dover could be made if the feds looked deep into my file. I’m surprised it took them three months to uncover it.”

  “I spoke to Maggie again. The feds she spoke to were from the FBI, and our contact learned late last night that our favorite bitch is the one who put it together. She spoke to your brother, dissected your entire personnel file.” He slid over a thin packet. “This is your profile, darling. I didn’t know Kincaid was a profiler.”

  Nicole grabbed the papers and flipped through them. Words and phrases jumped out at her.

  Rollins is in charge; Tobias is a figurehead …

  Rollins is ruthless …

  … money is her primary reason for staying local …

  … narcissistic …

  … resents the DEA, blames the DEA for her father’s death …

  … the murder of John Rollins should be reopened …

  … her uncle is Jimmy Hunt, a wanted fugitive who fled five years ago …

  “How the hell does she know all this?”

  “Your brother was very chatty.”

  “I should have killed him long ago.”

  “He’s never been a problem until someone asked the right questions.”

  Nicole screamed and crumbled the papers in her fist. “That bitch! What gives her the right to psychoanalyze me? Like she can possibly know me?” She took a deep breath. “At least they haven’t made all the connections. But if Elise opens her mouth again—”

  “My concern is that Kincaid knows your house in San Antonio was a cover. We dismantled the safe house in the city, but if they’re looking for safe houses, it’s only a matter of time before they find this place.”

  “How?”

  “I’m good, Niki. Very good. But there are property records. It’ll take someone very sharp to connect the company that owns this property to us, but we need to leave the country. You’re not safe.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “I can’t lose you, Niki. I would rather die.”

  She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “I don’t deserve you, Joseph.”

  “It’s the other way around,” he whispered.

  The door opened and both Nicole and Joseph pulled their weapons.

  Tobias.

  Nicole feared for a minute that Joseph would shoot him, but he slowly lowered his gun.

  “You fucking idiot,” Joseph said.

  “Screw you.”

  “Stop,” Nicole said. “We don’t have the time to argue.”

  Tobias glared at them. “You talked to my dad? He wants me in Mexico now. That’s fucked.”

  “It’s for your own good, Toby. We need to lay low until we get the money.”

  Tobias handed her his phone. “Look at the pictures.”

  She did. Lucy Kincaid. Going into her house. Leaving her house. Never alone. She recognized Nate Dunning from the FBI, but not the old guy, and not the half-Hispanic guy who came in late last night. “You went to her house?”

  “I didn’t do anything, just watched. Too many people are keeping tabs on her, but I thought if I could grab her we’d have leverage.”

  “Do not touch her! Fuck, Toby! The wrath of God will come down on us, and we don’t have time for it before we get the money. Remember the bigger plan. We’ll take care of her when it’s time.”

  “No one is that well protected,” Tobias said.

  You are, she wanted to say, but didn’t.

  Tobias tossed her the flash drive he’d taken. “Lyle and I went through the files, made a list of every name in every email over the last two weeks. Some high-up fed named Dean Hooper authorized the operation to take our money, but he’s in Sacramento.”

  She wanted to strangle him and kiss him—the names! Whoever did it would be on record. She’d read the legal briefs, but they didn’t name anyone specifically. Just a civilian consultant.

  “Let me see it,” she said.

  “Go to the notes app on my phone.”

  She did and scrolled through.

  “Did you know that Kane Rogan is in surgery in Hidalgo?” Tobias continued. “He slipped away. Again.” He glared at Joseph.

  Joseph tensed and Nicole put her hand on his arm. “Stop it,” Nicole said. “We’re in this together, Tobias. Don’t bait Joseph. We know what happened with Rogan, Juarez, and Dover.”

  Joseph showed Tobias the photo that Juarez sent of the four men climbing into the plane. “Recognize them?”

  “Rogan, his brother, the black guy—I know him. He stole my helicopter at Trejo’s place. Bastard.”

  “They’re all going to be dead when we’re done here.”

  “Good,” Tobias said.

  “Wait—wait!” Nicole tossed Tobias his phone and ran to the couch where all the papers she’d printed from Dunbar’s hard drive were strewn about. She rifled through them until she found the memo she was looking for. She waved it around, giddy. “Rogan! He took our money.”

  “You said he didn’t have the skill,” Tobias countered.

  “Not Kane, the soldier. Sean Rogan. His brother. Did you know that he used to be a hacker? Then he made millions designing computer games when he got out of college. He worked undercover for the FBI to take down another hacker organization. And he’s living with that bitch Kincaid. It’s all here—I just didn’t see it. He’s the civilian consultant who worked with the FBI to siphon off our money. He has the skill, Kincaid must have given him information.”

  “Okay,” Joseph said, “if it is Sean Rogan, how do we force him to give it back? Kane is under guard at a hospital, Kincaid is being watched by military types, who else can we grab for leverage?”

  “Sean Rogan himself. And believe me, when I’m through with him, he’ll retrieve all our money and then some. Because he’ll know if he doesn’t, everyone he cares about—Kincaid, his brother, and those fucking boys in the fucking boys’ home he set up—will die.”

  She turned to her cousin. “Toby, how did you get so close to Kincaid without being seen?”

  “Her neighbors are on vacation. I’m not stupid, Nicole. I know how to do recon. Lyle disabled the alarm and we hung there for the night. Nice place. Perfect view of Kincaid’s house.”

  “Lyle,” she said to the man who might still die for picking Tobias over her, “go back there. I’m going to try to grab Rogan on his way back from Hidalgo—I’ll bet once his brother is in the clear, he’ll hightail it home to check on his precious girlfriend. But if we miss him, I want to know when he gets home and who else is there. Keep me notified of every change, every movement, every person—I don’t want to be surprised.”

  Lyle left, and Nicole kissed Joseph. “Today is the day. We’ll have our money and leave Texas for good. And every one of those pricks who thought they were smarter than us will be dead by sundown.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


  Lucy woke up to a quiet voice in the dining room. She sat up. The lights were dim and at first she didn’t know who was talking; then she recognized her brother’s voice. He was on the phone. It was barely five in the morning; she didn’t think she’d fallen asleep until three, and she’d stayed on the couch, feeling somehow safer here than alone in her bed without Sean by her side. The scent of rich coffee had her mouth watering. She stretched then walked gingerly to the kitchen, the tile floors cold on her feet. She doctored her coffee with cream and sugar and walked back to the dining room.

  “ETA?” Jack said into the phone. “I would come down, but—yeah. Yeah—well, tell him he’s used eight of his nine lives and he’s getting too old for this shit. Put Sean on the phone.”

  A huge weight lifted from her chest. They were okay. They were all okay.

  Jack said, “Good work, Sean … She’s right here.”

  She took the phone Jack offered her.

  “Hey,” she said softly.

  “Hey yourself, princess,” Sean said. At the sound of his voice her eyes watered. She sipped her coffee, letting the emotions wash over her. Relief. Nerves. The remnants of fear.

  “You’re okay.”

  “A couple bumps and bruises. Nothing that won’t work itself out in the hot tub.”

  She smiled and rubbed her eyes. He was alive. That was all that mattered.

  “Kane? The others?”

  “Kane will be fine. Jack has the details. I need to get on the road. We had an issue with my plane, so I’m driving up.”

  “Not alone.”

  He didn’t say anything for a second. “I’d planned on it. Why?”

  She told him about the information in Dunbar’s computer. It came spilling out in one long run-on sentence. She paused, but before Sean could say anything, she said, “I have no proof, but we know the reason Tobias had Harper Worthington killed was because Adeline kept the money she was supposed to launder for him. Why, we don’t know, but that’s really not important at this point. What’s important is that you’re the one responsible for Tobias—and Nicole Rollins—not getting their money back. Rollins knows that.”

  “It’s a stretch,” he said.

  “It’s not!” she exclaimed. Why didn’t he see that he was in danger? Why was everything about her? He wasn’t an idiot; he had to see the truth. “I’ve taken every precaution I can because I agreed with you that there is a threat on my life since I helped take that bitch down in the first place. I know, in my gut, that she’s still here because she wants her money. It’s all about Rollins, and if we don’t remember that we’re going to regret it. She blames you as much as me—but she knows that you’re the only one good enough to get it back.”

  “I won’t drive alone, Lucy.”

  She let out a long sigh. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll let you know when we leave and when to expect us home, okay?”

  “Thank you,” she repeated.

  “Sweetheart,” he said softly, “it’s going to be okay. I promise. Kane found information that’s going to help the feds take them down. I have to go, Rick is calling.”

  “Stockton?”

  “I don’t trust a lot of feds, and neither does Kane. We’re only giving the information to Rick, and he can decide what to do with it. I love you, Luce.”

  “I love you, too, Sean. Please be careful.”

  But he’d already hung up.

  She handed Jack’s phone back to him. “What really happened?” she asked.

  “Kane is in surgery. He was shot twice. He’s probably going to lose a kidney, but fortunately he has two of them.” Jack gave her a half smile.

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Lucy, he’s going to be okay.”

  “I can handle the truth, Jack.”

  He took her hands. “I know you can. I’ll tell you everything I know, I’m not trying to sugarcoat it. Blitz learned that Tobias—through the man we believe is his intermediary, Joseph Contreras—doubled the bounty and changed it to a kill order. One million dollars if they recorded Kane’s execution. Kane didn’t know about that, and after they rescued Siobhan Walsh, he followed the lone survivor into hostile territory.”

  “Define hostile.”

  “It’s a region southeast of Santiago near the Tamaulipas border where Kane has made enemies with a particular small but violent guerrilla gang run by a hood named Felipe Juarez. The problems down there are primarily rival criminal organizations.” He paused. “Sometimes, when a criminal group gets taken out or stymied, they pass the blame to Kane even when he had nothing to do with their downfall. It can both help our cause and hurt it. But with Juarez, it’s definitely a personal vendetta against Kane.”

  She nodded that she understood and motioned for Jack to continue.

  “The fact that they used Siobhan as bait made Kane uncomfortable that these people knew more about how he operated and who he protected than he was comfortable with anyone knowing. He was also concerned about the Sisters of Mercy, a religious order that works throughout Mexico. Retribution is always a threat with these people. What he learned, however, was that there’s a major deal going down—a collaborative effort uniting factions and giving Tobias—and Rollins—more power and control. This deal is costly, and may be why Rollins and Tobias are so desperate for the money Sean siphoned. It explains why they went to such great lengths to get the money—the murder of the congresswoman’s husband, the kidnapping of her partner, and finally breaking Rollins out of prison.”

  “Because she’s the leader,” Lucy said. “Everything fell apart for them three months ago when Kane confiscated part of their gun shipment, and we stopped their use of the boys as couriers. Rollins went to prison and Tobias was left floundering. For fifteen years Rollins has been building to something … everything she’s done has led her to San Antonio, to enact a Big Plan. Capital P Plan because my psych training tells me that Rollins does nothing without this Plan in the mirror. Fifteen years and no one knew anything about Rollins … and in three months, with her out of the picture, everything comes crashing down. Any sane criminal would have left the country with the three million she had, but she’s still here. Because the bigger picture—the big Plan—is more important than her freedom.”

  Jack listened carefully. “When did you grow up?” he said under his breath.

  “If Kane got this information, how did he get shot?”

  “That I don’t know, but the gang called in reinforcements and surrounded him. He was shot at some point in the standoff, yet still managed to outwit them and find a hiding place. He lost his equipment during the attack, but apparently your boyfriend tracked him through his watch.”

  “His watch?”

  Jack smiled. “When Kane realizes that Sean reprogrammed his watch so that he could track Kane’s movements, Kane will go ballistic. But it saved his life.”

  “What happened to Sean’s plane?”

  “During the escape, it was shot multiple times. It’s a testament to Sean’s piloting capabilities that he was able to even get it off the ground, let alone fly it back to the border. Ranger thinks it’s scrap.”

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  “And,” Jack said, “Sean gave two pints of his blood for Kane’s surgery. But Sean and Kane are both O negative, and there’s not a lot of that blood type to go around. The hospital won’t let him leave for another hour, at least.”

  “Universal donors,” Lucy said, “but they can only receive O negative.”

  “Exactly. Lucy, it could have been a lot worse. Blitz was shot, but it’s not serious. Sean has a few stitches.”

  “But they’re alive.”

  “Yes.”

  She closed her eyes and thanked God. “Okay.” She looked at her brother. She was relieved, so why did her eyes feel so damp? “Thank you for being honest with me.”

  “Always, Lucy.”

  Nate came from down the hall. He’d showered, his short brown hair still wet, and was fully dressed. “I’m making breakfa
st,” he announced. “Doc Vigo is on some big conference call in Sean’s office. Durant sent us all a message to be in at oh-seven-hundred. Huge briefing.”

  “You don’t have to cook for me, too,” Lucy said.

  “Sean told me to.”

  “You do everything Sean says?”

  Nate just smiled and walked down the hall to the kitchen.

  Jack said, “You can’t cook.”

  “Of course I can.”

  “I suppose you can cook, but it’s not edible.” Jack smiled. “Mom tried with you, but it didn’t stick.”

  “You’re all just mean. My cooking isn’t that bad.”

  “With enough salsa, anything is edible.”

  She glared at him.

  He kissed her forehead, then pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you, Lucy. You have Dillon’s brains and my instincts.”

  She didn’t understand what he meant. “I’ve done nothing. And apparently I can’t cook, either.”

  He smiled. “Shower, get dressed, we leave here in forty-five minutes.”

  * * *

  Jack borrowed Sean’s favorite car—his beefed-up Mustang—and followed her, Nate, and Hans to FBI headquarters. Lucy understood his precaution, but thought it was overkill. As soon as Nate drove through the gate, Jack peeled off going who knew where.

  Hans was quiet on the drive over, spending time on his phone—not talking, but texting and reading emails. He was tense, and Lucy wanted to know what his earlier conversation had been about, but didn’t ask. He’d tell her if she needed to know, and wanting to know didn’t qualify. As soon as they stepped into the FBI building, Hans detoured toward the SAC’s office. Then he turned around and said, “Lucy?”

  “You need me for something?”

  “No—just call Noah and tell him about what you learned in Dunbar’s files.”

  “I sent him an email.”

  “Call him.”

  And then he was gone.

  Lucy and Nate walked down to the VCMO Squad wing. Juan’s light was on and his door open. He sat at his desk, not in his customary suit, but in slacks and a polo shirt. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

  “Juan,” she said. “How are you? Nita?”