“Surprised to see me?” she asked.
“A little.” Tony’s dark gaze went to the bandage at her temple. His hand shook slightly as he gestured to the cigarettes. Nicotine withdrawal or fear? “Can I have one of those?”
Diego remained near the door, having agreed with Becca that she should again take charge of this interview. She had the personal connection with Tony. Besides, she knew all about how to work with men who preyed on women. She’d learned a lot in the past eight years.
“You failed,” she said. “And the Circle knows you’re talking to me, they know I’m here again today...and, quite possibly, they’ll soon know you were talking to other people. You may as well tell me who interviewed you.” As she spoke, she slowly unwrapped the carton and released a pack, tapped out a single cigarette, then handed it to him. In his visitor log, there were repeated entries for a Jack Johnson, but the contact information listed turned out to be false. It was a cover for the SSAM Fan, no doubt. She needed the man’s real name. And she needed what information Tony could give her about the Circle’s operations in Chicago.
In short, she needed entirely too much from Tony.
Tony reached for the cigarette and put it in his mouth. Though she wouldn’t light it for him, he seemed to relax at just the touch of the cancer stick to his lips.
“Tell us what you know about Samantha Manchester,” she said.
“Her again?”
“I presume our mutual friend asked about her.”
“He did, and he got what he wanted...what you want. You’ll have to partner up with him if you want the rest...his words.”
Partner up. Their Fan was seriously delusional. But also smart enough to track down a lead on a decades-old murder. How had she missed that Tony was connected to the Circle? She’d been too focused on the details of the case she’d been involved in to see the bigger picture. Besides, the Circle wasn’t a blip on her radar at that point in time. They weren’t even supposed to be operating in Chicago.
“What did you give him?” she tried again.
“If you want to know, you’ll have to talk to him.”
She scooped up the carton she’d laid on the table.
“Hey!” Tony tried to reach for them, but his hands were cuffed.
“We had a deal.” Becca held the carton up. “You talked to your friend, so why not talk to me?”
“It’s a matter of principle,” he said wryly.
“That would be great—if you had any principles.”
“Neither does your interviewer. In fact, he’s killed a couple people that we know of, and possibly others that we don’t know about.”
This time, surprise registered in Tony’s expression. “More than just Fanta, huh? Didn’t know he had it in him.”
“How did he know you were linked to the Circle?” This time, Becca handed Tony an entire pack of cigarettes.
“Not sure how he figured out the connection, but he’s been coming for a while now...months. Always brings his camera and likes to hear me talk.” Tony laughed. “Which is fine, because I like to talk, especially about my conquests.”
Tony leaned forward, into Becca’s face, though his shackles prevented him from actually touching her. “You may have caught me for a few murders—”
“And rapes.” She hid a shudder. Being this close to him was bringing back memories of the crimes she’d studied to track him down.
He smiled. “And rapes. But that’s just a drop in the bucket, sweetheart.”
Chills ran up her spine, but she refused to react. “So tell me the rest.” She’d try appealing to his ego, since it had worked so well for the Fan. “What have you hidden from the world?”
“I worked for the Circle. That’s all I’m saying.”
She slid the carton of cigarettes within his reach. His fingers twitched. “What did you do for the Circle? Did it have to do with human trafficking?”
“That’s all I’m saying,” Tony repeated. He sat back in his seat, a grin splitting his too-handsome face. “The Fan knows. He’s got it all on tape. He said he’d be waiting for you when you figured it all out. That’s all I’m supposed to say.”
“So this is a test?”
He shrugged. “Whatever he has in store, you’d better be careful...by my count, you don’t have many lives left, pussy cat.”
Tuesday, 3:00 p.m.
SSAM Offices
Diego and Becca met up with Damian at SSAM.
“No luck contacting Eve?” Becca asked.
“She’s not responding to our calls.” Damian’s annoyance was clear. “Still working on the cease and desist motion to remove her video blog from the internet.”
Becca understood the frustration, because she felt it too. Eve’s clip denounced everything they stood for...everything she would have thought a journalist like Eve, rumored to have integrity, stood for. So why was she doing this? What was her connection to the Circle?
“Maybe you can kill two birds with one stone,” Diego said.
“What are you suggesting?” Damian asked.
“Post a comment on Eve’s blog...something that defends SSAM and invites her to contact you if she wants the correct information.”
“And the second bird?” Becca asked.
“If Damian posts something indicating how hurtful Eve’s post is to you, maybe the Fan will come out of the woodwork, too. He certainly seems protective of you.”
“That he does,” Damian said, his gaze thoughtful. “Let me run it by Lorena and see what she thinks.”
Tuesday, 7:45 p.m.
Auburn Gresham neighborhood, Chicago
“You filmed without me?” Patrick could strangle Eve with his bare hands. They were partners. He had been her cameraman for nearly two years. Yet she’d filmed and posted the video diary entries without consulting him. All of it was aimed to hurt Becca, solely because she was getting to the truth about the Circle before Eve was. Jealous, selfish bitch.
Eve taking control hadn’t been his plan when he’d arranged for the James Powell interview. She was only supposed to get the man to tell his story, so Patrick would have the video to send to the police. She wasn’t supposed to latch on to some vendetta against Becca or SSAM.
“You’ve been busy.” Eve didn’t look up as she spoke. She skimmed through the comments on her blog. “Besides, it seems I did okay for myself. Nearly two hundred comments, including one from Damian Manchester himself. He’s inviting me to interview him.”
Patrick had seen it, all of it. He’d read every comment, mostly derogatory toward Becca, by people who only had Eve’s point of view. And he’d nearly cheered out loud when he saw Damian’s post defending their agency’s mission, asserting Becca had done nothing wrong, and insisting Eve should get her facts straight.
Patrick stood in front of Eve’s coffee table, but she continued to scroll through the website. “Do you know she was hurt last night?”
Eve finally looked up. “Who?”
“Becca Haney.”
Eve looked back at the screen, dismissing his concern in an instant. “She’s fine. She’s been leaving me messages all day, asking me to take down the video.”
At least Becca was okay...physically, anyway. Eve had still attacked her character, just as much as the Circle had attacked her body.
“Why would you do this?” Patrick asked in disbelief. “I trusted your ethics, your passion for justice.”
She grew quiet, and he almost believed she wouldn’t respond. “I have my reasons.”
“Your accusations aren’t even true. You’re supposed to care about integrity and honesty. That’s what investigative journalism is all about.”
Eve frowned. “Sometimes you tell the truth that needs to be heard.”
White-hot anger filled his vision. She was a hypocrite. She hadn’t even mentioned him or his part in everything when she’d accepted an award last fall. “In other words, you speak whatever truth suits your needs. You’re trying to pick a fight with an upstanding agency, not fi
nd the truth. Did that award you claimed for yourself mean nothing?”
She didn’t know about his documentary project, and now he was glad he hadn’t shared. When she’d been walking on air for weeks after that award, he’d bitten his tongue and played his normal part. But no more.
He was Becca’s partner now. She’d appreciate him, and everything he’d done.
Eve didn’t, and wouldn’t, and needed to be punished.
“It’s for a greater good,” she said.
“Whatever the fuck that means.”
Eve finally gave him her full attention. Her shocked expression was rewarding. “You’re that mad that I did this without you?”
His jaw clenched so hard he thought it might shatter. He’d given her everything. Done everything she ever wanted. Their shared quest for truth and understanding was intensely personal for him. And what did she do? Threw it back in his face, saying she didn’t need him. Jumped to rash judgments about people who didn’t deserve it.
“I was about to film the next part of that video blog.” She sounded hesitant now and closed her computer. She stood and went to a side table where she picked up some papers. “I’ve got the script ready to go. Found a juicy video that James Powell had hidden on his flashdrive.”
“The one I gave you.”
“That’s right.” Her movements became jerky, nervous. “How did you get that, anyway?”
“I have a friend on the CPD. He took it from the scene of the murder.” Patrick had found the thing himself, in James’s desk drawer, just after killing the man.
“Want to help?” Her voice was unnaturally high. She was suspicious.
His hand slipped into his pocket, where a thin length of cord was coiled.
Becca didn’t deserve Eve’s unkind words. It was his job to protect Becca. Eve was ruining everything.
“I was thinking a retraction would be a better idea.” He took a step toward her.
Eve must have sensed his intent, because she glanced toward the door and licked her lips. He sidestepped to put himself in the middle of her only escape route. Not that way, sweetheart. There was only one way out of this. His.
Chapter Nineteen
Wednesday, 7:02 a.m.
Becca’s apartment
Diego woke to something he hadn’t felt in years. Contentment. He lay still, focusing on the regular rise and fall of Becca’s chest as she slept, tucked against his side. His week was half over and he had no clue where this thing with Becca was going, but he hoped to figure it out.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t spend the morning in her bed, thinking about the future, especially when a sense of urgency he couldn’t explain pushed him to rise. He’d long ago learned to trust his instincts.
Not wanting to wake her, he slowly untwined their limbs and edged out from beneath her. With a sigh, she stretched and nestled into his pillow, a smile on her lips as she resumed her dream. Diego quietly tugged on some sweatpants, with an idea of making coffee and maybe seeing if he could scrounge up something for breakfast. Soon, they’d head to SSAM to see what Einstein might have found out about the location of Eve Reynolds. The woman hadn’t returned their calls, despite Becca’s frequent appeals. Maybe the need to talk to Eve was the urgency he was feeling...or the need to figure out a way to have a future with Becca.
He stepped into the living area and gently closed the bedroom door behind him. And stopped short when he spied a stranger on Becca’s couch, sitting casually, with one arm slung over the back as if he’d come over to enjoy a beer and a ballgame.
No, not a stranger. Diego tensed as he recognized the man. He’d seen him before, and it hadn’t been under good circumstances. During an information drop when he’d notified the Circle of an impending drug bust, this guy had been in a corner of the room, talking quietly on the phone and sending glances his way. Almost as if the man had recognized him. Diego had assumed he was naturally suspicious and simply keeping an eye on people who came and went. But, even then, the man had the confident air of someone higher up on the food chain.
Diego had passed the guy’s description on to Garrison months ago and hadn’t heard anything about it. Hadn’t thought about it again. And now the man was in Becca’s living room in fucking Chicago. And Diego’s pistol and his woman were in the other room. Shit. Way to protect and serve.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” the man said. He remained seated, kept his hands where Diego could see them, and, in general, made an effort to appear nonthreatening. “Quite the contrary, actually. My name is Nico. I need your help.”
New York accent, muscular build, unreadable expression. In short, this guy could have been Diego, in his undercover persona.
“Then you won’t mind putting your weapon on the coffee table and sliding it toward me.”
Nico immediately complied, using slow movements. That was one in the plus column. His sidearm was a beauty, too. H&K. Flat black with just a bit of shine. And then Nico went one step further and pulled a second sidearm from an ankle holster. An H&K P2000 SK subcompact. Diego had to resist a whistle. So, okay, trust between them now had a firm foundation. And the dude had good taste in guns. Let’s see how he stands up to the honesty test.
Diego moved the weapons to the kitchen counter, then turned back to face Nico. “You work for the Circle.”
Nico raised his eyebrows. “You remember. Or that’s a good guess.”
“I remember. But that was in New York. Why are you here?” Diego was supposedly a Circle minion...one with some connections in the NYPD. Had the Circle found out about him investigating in Chicago and sent someone to kill him?
“My work takes me to both cities.”
“I don’t have any information to share this week,” Diego said, in case that was what Nico was here about. “I took the week off. Personal leave.” He willed himself not to glance back toward the bedroom door, where Becca slept, naked and vulnerable. This leave was probably the most personal of his life.
Nico scowled. “I’m not here for the Circle, but we do need to talk about your role with them.”
“What about it?” His muscles bunched, and though he had Nico’s weapons, he had a feeling the man could be a serious threat if he chose. But then, so could Diego.
“I know your real role. I know about the task force.”
Diego carefully schooled his face into a neutral expression. “Task force?”
Nico held his gaze for a long moment. “Good job, but I really do know. You’re trying to take down the Circle, and hey, I’m all for that.”
“Why would you want to take down the Circle?”
“Because I’m part of the task force, too.”
Diego stiffened. That was complete bullshit. Diego would have known. Garrison would have told him if he’d come into contact with a fellow agent, wouldn’t he?
“I know Garrison, and I know about Selina.” Nico’s quietly spoken statement stunned Diego. “I could have told the Circle where she is at any time. And what you did for her...that’s how I knew I could come here, could trust you.” A slant of his lips passed for a grin. “I don’t do the white knight thing, but clearly you do.”
“Let’s say I do. Who needs a white knight?”
“I’m risking my job—hell, my life—right now,” Nico said, rising, but still keeping his hands where Diego could see them. “But it’s to save a friend.”
Diego was reluctantly intrigued, especially since this guy seemed like the definition of lone wolf. “And in exchange?”
“I help you and Agent Haney take down the Circle.”
Diego stiffened at the mention of Becca.
“I’m DEA. Deep undercover. I’ve been with the Circle for years, and I’m close to taking them down. Garrison wants to wait until we have enough evidence against the Boss.”
“And all we have to do is help you find your friend? What’s his name?” It couldn’t be an easy task if this man was willing to take a chance letting Diego know about his undercover status. Either the job was dangerous
, or the friend was important. Probably both.
“Eve Reynolds.” Nico’s eyes flashed like lightning as he said her name.
Definitely much more than just a friend.
* * *
Becca heard the low rumble of two male voices in the other room. One was Diego’s, but she couldn’t make out their words. They didn’t sound particularly hostile toward each other.
She hurried to pull some clothes on and took her gun from the safe in her closet, then waited on the other side of the closed bedroom door. She listened for any indication that he needed assistance. But then she heard, distinctly, Eve’s name followed by total silence.
So she cracked the door open and slowly made her presence known—as well as the fact that she held a gun. Diego was facing another man, their stances practically mirror images of each other. She read tension in their lines, but not aggression.
“You know Eve?” Becca asked.
“I do,” the stranger said, turning his attention to her. “I’m Nico.”
Just a first name.
“He wants our help finding Eve. She’s missing.” Diego was keeping his gaze on the other man, and there were two guns on the kitchen counter that weren’t hers or Diego’s.
“And are we going to help him?” Becca asked.
“That’s the question.” Seeing Becca’s confusion, Diego explained. “Nico says he recognizes me as part of the task force...because he is also part of the task force.”
If that were true, Nico was risking all kinds of danger by coming to them and revealing his undercover identity. Then again, he could be working for the Circle, trying to lure Diego into confessing the truth. “But you don’t know him?”
“Only by sight. I saw him once at a Circle hangout.”
“Eve is my friend,” Nico said, appealing to Becca, but not begging. She suspected the man didn’t know how to beg. The hardness in his hazel eyes indicated he’d seen the gritty side of life, possibly even lived it daily, and had come to expect shit to happen. His friend going missing was just one of those shitty things. “I know she was taken, and I know she posted a video blog about you, with the threat of more to come.”
Dark Deeds Page 22