by Mandy Baxter
Landon snapped to attention at her words, a deep crease digging into his forehead. “No.”
“No?” Emma repeated. “Just . . . no. This isn’t even open for discussion?”
“Nope,” Landon said.
He threw the blanket off his body and levered himself out of the chair with some effort. Good. He deserved every bit of discomfort he was feeling and then some. “That’s not fair, Landon. It’s cruel to put people through something like that when I don’t have to.”
“You should have thought about that before you stole millions of dollars from a bunch of ruthless arms dealers,” he quipped. “Now you have no choice but to see this through to the end.”
“I wouldn’t have had to steal anything if you’d done your job in the first place.” It was a low blow, but Emma didn’t care. Landon had hurt her with his casual dismissal, and she wanted him to hurt right back.
Landon’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “I hate to break it to you, Emma, but there’s no need for further investigation when a suspect confesses. Which your dad did willingly without coercion. I did my job. To the letter. Maybe you ought to remind yourself of that the next time you’re looking for someone to blame for your own rash behavior.”
Rash? Rash? If steam could have billowed from her ears, Emma would have been Old Faithful by now. There was nothing rash about six years’ worth of digging. And likewise, nothing rash about the fail-safes she’d constructed to bury that money so deep that Sousa would never get his hands on it. She’d practically put her life on hold to exonerate her dad. Oh, Emma knew that the pictures of her scattered all over the Internet told a different story, but it wasn’t her fault if Landon was too damned blind to see past the paparazzi’s interpretation of her life for what it really was.
Lonely.
“Or maybe you’re using my rash behavior to assuage your own guilt over putting an innocent man in prison.” It was easier to be mad at Landon than sit around and wallow in self-pity. She could use anger. Sadness and hurt didn’t do anyone any good.
“Go ahead and think that if it’ll help you to sleep at night.”
Of all the lousy, jackassed—
A loud knock interrupted Emma’s train of thought, and Landon put a finger up to his lips, commanding her to silence. Her heart thundered in her ears and she held her breath as though the simple intake of air would give her away. Landon crept to the door and gently eased his gun from the holster that hung from his left shoulder. He reminded Emma of a hunting cat, all sleek lines and quiet grace. Slowly, he flipped the latch across the door before opening it a crack and peeking at whoever was on the other side.
Emma let out a breath when Landon’s stance relaxed and he swung open the lock to let Bill Crawford inside. “Good, you’re both up.” Crawford didn’t waste time with pleasantries as he took a place at the front of the room, effectively blocking out Gilberto Silva and the highlights from yesterday’s soccer game. Damn it. “We’ve come up with what we’re hoping is a passable cover story that will justify your presence, McCabe, and keep Emma in the game.”
“All right,” Landon replied. “What are we looking at?”
“First off, don’t be surprised to find out that an internal investigation into your actions and cases has been ongoing for the past several months. It took a bit to fabricate the records and evidence, but we managed to put something together. I have to say, you didn’t make it easy for us. You’re squeaky clean.”
Emma cast a sidelong glance at Landon. His smirk spoke more of pride than arrogance. She’d always known that at his core, he was an honorable man. “What did I do?” Curiosity sparked in his blue eyes. “Steal evidence? Falsify records? Sexually harass a coworker or two?”
“Misappropriation of government funds. Shaking down witnesses and suspects for money. Accepting a bribe or two. Oh, and a couple of instances of recovered cash going missing from evidence. We needed you to come across as a greedy son of a bitch.”
“Sorry to break it to you, Crawford,” Landon remarked. “But if these guys do any sort of digging, they’ll find out that I don’t really need to steal to get my hands on money.”
Emma didn’t miss the hint of embarrassment in his words. As though he hated to admit that he had more than enough cash to set him up comfortably.
“I’m aware,” Crawford said, unconcerned. “And I’ve taken care of that as well. Sorry to break it to you, but your bank account is going to be a little light for the next week or so. You might want to consider operating under a tight budget.”
Landon leaned a shoulder against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. The look of amusement on his face piqued Emma’s curiosity. Any other person would’ve blown a gasket at the prospect of having his bank accounts wiped out. Temporarily or not.
“Okay, you’ve established that I’m dirty,” Landon said. “What about Emma? How do we fit together in this scenario?”
“We’ve covered that angle as well,” Crawford replied. “Cesar was skeptical at first, but if you two can play your parts, we shouldn’t have any problem convincing him that you and Emma are lovers.”
With those last words, Emma put on the brakes as her brain came to a screeching halt and spun out. Was Crawford out of his mind? Lovers?
She didn’t dare look at Landon as Crawford continued to talk as though he hadn’t dropped the mother of all bombs on her. Cesar wasn’t an idiot. If he’d been fed a story that Landon and Emma were sleeping together, he’d settle for nothing short of watching them do the deed himself before he trusted them. This plan had disaster written all over it.
“Cesar has already been told,” Emma said rather than asked. “I mean, how did your undercover guy even work something like that into a conversation?” Oh, by the way, Cesar, I wanted to let you know that after I faked Emma’s death, I discovered that Deputy U.S. Marshal McCabe will be sticking around a while because not only is he a dirty cop, but he and Emma are getting busy if you know what I mean. “Are you guys out of your minds? There’s no way he bought that story, no matter what he told your guy to the contrary.”
Crawford stared at her as though she were speaking a foreign language. Apparently these SOG guys didn’t spook easily, because from the way he was acting, Crawford wasn’t quite sure what all of the fuss was about. Then again, Crawford hadn’t had Landon’s tongue in his mouth last night, either. It was humiliating enough to have struck out not once, but twice, with McCabe. Now she had to pretend like they were a cozy couple?
They might as well shoot her now and call it a day.
Landon didn’t even blink an eye at Crawford’s cover story that he was on the take, but he broke out into a full-body sweat at the suggestion that he and Emma were sleeping together. Holy fucking shit. Lovers? He’d spent most of the past sleepless night convincing himself of all the reasons why keeping his distance from Emma was important. Hell, the hours between 4 and 5 AM had been spent coaching himself not to stand too close to her, not to touch her, not to inhale her sweet scent or find an excuse even to pick a piece of damned lint off of her shirt. Exhaustion had finally won out after that, and then he’d had to start all over again at six when he woke up to find Emma stretched out and bent over, her tight, pert ass mere feet from where he sat while she assumed pose after torturous pose. Who knew yoga could be so damned erotic?
And after he’d talked himself down from a raging hard-on—so he wouldn’t be humiliated when he walked across the room flashing his arousal like a neon sign—Crawford had the nerve to stroll in and tell him this? No. Fucking. Way.
“I’m with Emma on this one.” She turned to look at him, her expression pinched, but he didn’t acknowledge it. Couldn’t. “There simply isn’t enough time to establish that sort of cover. This isn’t something you can create a bogus paper trail for. I’ve only been in the city for a couple of weeks and this Cesar has been keeping an eye on Emma for at least that long. If he acted like he bought the explanation, I have to assume that he’s playing you.”
&nb
sp; There was no way he could keep his relationship with Emma platonic if he was forced to demonstrate his affection just so some pervert would buy the story that they were sleeping together. He might as well haul his ass back to Portland and hand his badge in to Monroe right now.
“Sousa and his men have no idea what Emma was up to prior to her coming out of the woodwork to claim responsibility for the stolen money, which leaves plenty of unaccounted-for time in which you began your relationship. The official story is that you’ve been working together for months. You have history with Emma since you were the arresting deputy on Javier’s case. Who better to help Emma exonerate her dad while ripping off the criminals who put him in jail in the first place? It’s a totally believable angle, and actually, I can’t believe how well it fit into our plans. I sort of wish we’d thought of it in the first place. At this point, Teyo Sousa is interested in one thing and one thing only: getting his hands on his money so he can buy his bomb,” Crawford continued. “The only thing keeping Emma alive at this point is the fact that she’s the only way that can happen. If Sousa didn’t need her, she’d be dead. End of story.”
A hot lick of apprehension traveled the length of Landon’s spine, a reflection of the fear in Emma’s gaze and the nervous energy she was throwing off from Crawford’s unfiltered assertions. But if he tried to butt in and downplay this for her, shrug it off like it was no big deal, he wouldn’t be helping her. “I agree with you there. Until Emma returns his millions, she’s safe. It’s after the exchange that worries me. That’s when the situation is going to get messy.” It was important that she understood what was at stake here. Namely, her life. She’d thrown her hat in the ring with some serious players, and now she had no choice but to follow through with the game.
“I’m not saying Cesar isn’t skeptical,” Crawford continued. “Which means that Sousa is nervous. Your presence is going to complicate things, but it’s not going to affect our time line. This will be wrapped up before the end of the week. Period. And as far as afterward goes, that’s why we’ve got a man on the inside.”
Minimal? Not if he had anything to say about it. He’d get Emma out of this situation completely unscathed even if it killed him. True, his presence had complicated an already touchy situation, but Landon refused to let Crawford make him feel guilty over inserting himself in this operation. No matter what he did or didn’t feel for Emma, she needed protection and someone needed to step up and take care of that. Whatever was happening on his end of the investigation fell on Crawford and his people.
“Okay, fine. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Cesar buys that Emma and I have something going on the side and gives his boss the thumbs-up to move forward. Then what? What’s her part in all of this and how quickly can we get her out of it?”
“We’ll be flying blind from here on out,” Crawford explained. “The problem is that this situation escalated too quickly for us to do any sort of reasonable damage control. My guy has been working this case for a year, and I’m not going to compromise him by trying to make any more contact than what’s absolutely necessary. Emma’s interference put a monkey wrench in an undercover op that’s taken us a goddamned long time to set up.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have interfered if I’d known what was going on.” Emma’s cold tone chilled Landon to the bone, but Crawford merely quirked a brow. “It’s not my fault you guys didn’t cover all of your bases.”
“You’re lucky you’re not in jail right now, Emma. Or worse.” Crawford fished two cell phones out of his jacket pocket and tossed them on the bed. “Your phones. I’ve made sure they’re clean. No taps, no GPS tracking. Cesar should be calling to arrange a meet in the next couple of hours.”
“So that’s it?” Emma didn’t sound quite as accusing, but her tone hadn’t warmed in the slightest. “We meet with Cesar, make the transfer, and he lets my dad go. And then I’m out of this. Right?”
Crawford gave a noncommittal shrug that caused Landon’s gut to burn with anger. “That’s up to Cesar and his employer, isn’t it? Like I said, none of this is running according to plan so we’re going to have to wing it. I suppose it’s fortunate we have McCabe to keep an eye on you, because if Cesar gets even a whiff of something dirty, Sousa won’t hesitate to kill your father—or torture you—just to teach you a lesson.”
“What are the chances we’ll come into contact with your man?” Landon asked. If they got into anything sketchy, he’d like to know who he could shoot at and who he should leave alone. “I think it’s best at this point to plan for the worst possible scenario.”
“Worst possible scenario?” Emma drew her knees up, hugging them tight to her body. She looked like a scared child, more like that girl Landon had met six years ago than the woman he knew now. “What do you think could happen, Landon? And don’t bullshit me. Give it to me straight.”
Crawford gave him a look that said, Well, she asked for it. Landon let out a slow sigh and raked his fingers through the short strands of his hair. “You pissed off a very dangerous man, Emma.” He leveled his gaze on her and she gave him look for look. Bravado? No, Emma was too ballsy to fake it. “First, he’s going to make sure you give him his money back. Then—”
“Just say it, Landon. I can take it.”
“Then he’s going to make an example out of you to make sure no one ever tries to fuck him over again.”
Emma swallowed visibly and let out a shuddering breath. A less stalwart soul would have crumpled into a useless heap of nerves by now, but not her. She was made of steel. “Well, I guess we’d better make sure to keep the upper hand, then.”
Landon gave her a wan smile. “Yep. That’s pretty much it.”
Crawford checked his watch and headed for the door. “I’ve got a meeting in thirty minutes, but don’t worry. We’ll know what’s going on. If anything changes, I’ll be in touch later tonight.” He gave Emma a nod in parting and then stepped out into the hall. He said, “Good luck,” to Landon as he closed the door behind him.
The quiet that descended with Crawford’s exit was deafening. Landon didn’t know what to say. How to proceed from here. He didn’t take undercover assignments for a reason. No matter how he tried, he was always uncomfortable with the level of dedication it took to make someone truly believe the line of bullshit you were feeding them. Landon preferred assignments that allowed him to be straight. The less deception, the better.
Emma stared at some faraway spot on the wall, her expression blank. She was a million miles away. Landon rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to work out the knot from sleeping in that lumpy, uncomfortable-as-fuck chair. No doubt Emma had whiplash from how quickly he’d changed gears with her last night. And now, they had to pretend as though there was much more between them than a few kisses. Admittedly, they had been hard-core. Even better than the first time he’d kissed her on the roof. Landon doubted he’d ever forget the softness of Emma’s lips or the way her breath in his ear had turned him into a single-minded asshole hell-bent on getting her clothes off as quickly as possible.
“Tell me what to do.”
He almost couldn’t hear her words over the TV, and she was still staring blindly at the far wall. If she hadn’t tried to play the vigilante, Emma wouldn’t be in this mess right now. But Landon was through chastising her for decisions she couldn’t undo. He needed her focused and on task if they were going to survive Crawford’s mission. Because he had a feeling that if things went south, no one, not even the SOG, would get them out of it.
“We can do this, Emma. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or your dad. I promise.”
Chapter Fourteen
“What if he asks for proof?”
Landon quirked a brow, wondering exactly what sort of proof they’d be asked to provide. A hot shower had managed to work loose some of the knots in his back and shoulders. His mind was clearer, too, as he’d used the time alone to form a game plan and prepare himself for the task at hand. “First of all, I doubt he’ll ask for
proof, Emma. You have to remember, this is about one thing for them: getting their money back. You have to think like them, put yourself in their shoes. They respect strength and ruthlessness and little else. Don’t give them a reason to doubt you and they won’t. Understand?”
“Have you ever done this before? The undercover thing, I mean?”
The insecurity in her tone was going to be a problem if he couldn’t do something to bolster her confidence. So far, Emma hadn’t even made an effort to get cleaned up and dressed. And while Landon didn’t object to her tight spandex lounge pants, he wanted her to look like she had her shit together when they met with Cesar.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Emma. I’ve never taken an undercover assignment before. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do this convincingly. And no matter what you think to the contrary, I’m damned good at my job. I’ve been in stickier situations than this. It’s going to be okay. You have to trust me.”
“What do we do?” For the first time in an hour, she made eye contact with him and the intensity of her gaze made Landon’s lungs seize up. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on and the truth of the matter was, it wouldn’t be hard for him to pretend that he was completely head-over-heels in love with her. “I mean, do I throw myself all over you, kiss you in front of Cesar, stick my hand in your back pocket?” She gave a sad laugh. “I’m not sure how couples behave when conducting a business transaction with arms dealers.”
“The same way non-couples do, Emma.” Landon rifled through the dresser drawers for something suitable to wear. He wanted to be sure he looked the part, a cop who liked money and wasn’t opposed to bending the law to get what he wanted. If Cesar had done his homework—and Landon suspected he had—his part in all of this would be the toughest sell. “You have to get into the right mind-set. You’re a badass who stole millions of dollars from hardened criminals. They have something you want and you’re playing hardball to get it back. That doesn’t make you weak, Emma. You still have the upper hand and they know it. Without that money, Sousa can’t get what he wants. You have all of the control for now. It’s important that you go into this situation believing that. Do you understand me?”