“True, but the only people I know who carry burners usually have something to hide.” Mallory pushed her chair away from the table and climbed to her feet. “The owner of that particular burner just turned it on again. Alex got a hit on the location. The Sun Garden restaurant in Chinatown.”
Ashley grabbed her jacket. “You hungry for Chinese food?”
“Starving.” Mallory pocketed her cell and checked her sidearm, her secondary weapon and the Taser she habitually carried.
They headed to the door and opened it, coming to an abrupt halt when they found Lucas Randall on the other side.
Blood rushed to Ashley’s cheeks.
“Where are you two going?” He eyed her warily like she was going to bite him. She almost groaned aloud as she remembered she’d told him it was okay to fuck her but he wasn’t allowed to like her. She sounded like some sort of morally depraved sex addict, when all she really wanted was to keep him safe.
“Chinatown.” Mallory answered when Ashley found herself mute.
“You have a lead?” His gaze sharpened.
“Yup. The cell phone used to make the tipoff about the fugitives being seen in the port area just went live in a local restaurant. We’re going to check it out. See if we can eyeball the caller.”
Lucas folded his arms across his chest and stared down at Mallory. “And your plan is to what exactly? Walk in and arrest anyone carrying a cell phone? For being a Good Samaritan? Sloan will freak.”
Mallory frowned. “I’ll get Alex to call the number when we get there. See if anyone answers. At the very least we can photograph the person. If he’s genuine he’ll never know we checked him out. If he’s a bad guy he could lead us straight to the fugitives.”
“Does Alex know what you’re planning to do? Or Frazer?”
“I need to do my job, Lucas.” Mallory put her hands on her hips when Lucas planted his arm solidly against the doorjamb.
“Last time I checked, you were assigned desk duty.”
“So…what?” Mallory asked. “I’m supposed to sit here and run ViCAP searches rather than act on time sensitive intel when the Bureau is stretched thin? Send Ashley in alone? That isn’t gonna happen.”
Lucas looked unmoved by her speech.
Mallory’s shoulders slumped. “Do you have a spare emery board so I can file my nails after I finish my typing?”
He smiled at her. “I’ve known you too long to let you manipulate me with a pity party.”
She pulled a face at him. “So what’s your idea? Give it to Boston PD?”
“Agent Chen.” He turned and addressed her directly. Ashley’s mouth felt so dry it was as if she’d swallowed sand. “I hear there’s a really good Chinese restaurant in the area and I’m hungry. Would you like to join me for lunch?”
She forced her voice to remain steady. “They’ll make you as a fed a mile away.”
“We’ll stop by the hotel and change.”
“You’ll still look like a fed,” Mallory muttered, but it was the same for her, too. Not many agents could blend into that district. It was an advantage Ashley would happily exploit.
“I’ll pretend to be Agent Chen’s boyfriend taking her to lunch.” The look in Lucas’s eyes spelled trouble.
Mallory rolled her eyes. “Then you’d better start acting like a love-struck fool and call her by her first name.”
A dimple appeared next to his mouth. Ashley remembered that mouth on her breast and felt a corresponding tingle at the apex of her thighs. Despite the fact they were at work, she wanted him again. From the light in his eyes, he knew it, too.
“I can do that. Ashley.” His voice grew husky, sending shivers of something sensual shooting through her.
This was a terrible idea.
He turned back to Mallory. “We’ll call when we get there and Alex can ping the phone.”
“Fine.” Mallory pulled off her jacket and tossed it on the back of her chair. Clearly she wasn’t happy, but Lucas was correct about her officially being on desk duty. Frazer hadn’t been pleased they’d only narrowly missed encountering a murderer yesterday. Ashley should have been the one to tell Mallory she couldn’t go on the op, but it was hard to hold another woman back, especially on a case as emotionally evocative as this one.
Mallory scrubbed her fingers through her short hair and sat back down at the table. “Do me a favor?”
“Anything.” Lucas smiled and Ashley felt a “ping” go off under her ribcage like a pinball having a good time.
“Don’t think you’re weaseling out of my bad books that easily.” Mallory eyed him sternly. “But bring me back something to eat?”
“You got it.” He pushed away from the doorframe and let Ashley lead the way.
“Any luck getting an ID on the minivan driver?” he asked, all work.
Her heart raced, but Lucas seemed unperturbed by their midnight encounter. She needed to put it behind her too. She needed to forget they’d almost had sex.
“I ran the image through the DOJ’s NGI, DoD’s ABIS and DHS’s IDENT databases using Interoperability. They all came back with nothing. I’m going to contact Interpol next.” She was happy to concentrate on the case. “I’m still looking into how they found out about Susan Thomas but Alex Parker isn’t returning my calls. In case you hadn’t realized it yet, he’s not my biggest fan.”
He grunted and changed the subject. “Did anyone find out anything useful about the victims who’ve been identified so far?”
“Mallory is looking into them, but hasn’t found any linkage. I suspect a lot of them were runaways or lured from foreign countries, and the chance of having their DNA in the system is minimal.”
His expression was angry. “If you come up with any connections to casinos let me know.”
“Okay.” She drew the word out. “We started to get some IDs on the johns photographed in the hours leading up to the raid. Agent Mayfield was compiling the list and there’s a meeting this afternoon on the best way to approach them and which interview technique to employ. Mallory agreed to sit in on the meeting to help devise tactics.” She checked her watch. “What did you get up to this morning?”
“Nothing much.”
“You’re acting suspicious again,” she noted dryly.
“There’s nothing to tell.” Lucas hit the elevator button and they climbed inside. They stood on opposite sides of the car staring at one another. They both knew what had happened the last time she thought he was acting suspiciously.
She decided to push it. She wanted him to trust her. “Mallory said you had a lousy poker face.”
He hiked one brow and indicated she go first when the doors opened on the ground floor.
“She thinks someone else survived that explosion.” She spoke so quietly the words barely left her mouth.
“Mallory’s wrong.” He tilted his head and gave her a cool stare that made the hair on her nape tingle.
Damn. “Now I wish I hadn’t said anything.”
He held the door for her and hailed a cab. She got in and crossed her legs, ultra aware of the firm line of his jaw and the flintiness of his gaze. He didn’t say anything and within two minutes they were back at their hotel and heading to the eighth floor. For some reason, she couldn’t stop thinking that the last time they’d traveled this exact same route, the journey had ended in a red-hot kiss. Now Lucas had become remote and unapproachable.
Which was exactly how she wanted it, she reminded herself.
“If you have a vest, wear it,” he tossed over his shoulder as she got to her door. He didn’t stop and she watched him walk away with a familiar sense of isolation closing in around her.
Since when did she care?
Irritated with herself, she went inside, unzipped her pants and laid them on the side chair. She pulled on a pair of tight fitting jeans and tucked in her blouse. She eyed her Kevlar vest. It was cumbersome and annoying but she had no idea what she was walking into. Blowing out a breath, she removed her shoulder holster, pulled on the v
est and fitted a holster to her belt. Over that she pulled a large white roll-neck sweater that came down to mid-thigh, and grabbed a leather jacket that was long enough to cover the bulge of her weapon. She put her creds in her inside pocket, pulled on tall boots and slung a purse across her shoulders. She was back in the hallway just as Lucas came out of his room, wearing jeans, sneakers, a navy T-shirt and a gray hoodie.
His T-shirt clung to hard pecs and hinted at six-pack abs.
“Where’s your vest?” she asked, pretending her voice hadn’t squeaked.
“I don’t have anything that’ll hide it except my raid jacket. Not sure that’s appropriate for undercover reconnaissance.”
She hit the elevator call button. She didn’t know if he was a sexist ass for telling her to wear hers, or just a good agent looking out for a colleague.
The Kevlar dug into her waist. “Can you tell I’m wearing mine?” she asked nervously.
He ran his gaze slowly down her front. Hot brown eyes rose to meet hers. “Nope.”
The memory of last night hung in the air between them. She blanked her face to hide her arousal. She didn’t know the last time a man had rattled her this much. Maybe in college? When she’d started to fall in love, and had walked away before anyone else got hurt.
“Where did you do your training?” he asked. The elevator was moving at turtle speed.
His curiosity about her life was a little unnerving. “Denver, Minneapolis and a short stint in New York.” The latter had fed her addiction to shopping, but hadn’t helped her fear of the ocean.
“Enjoy it?”
Keep it about work and things will be fine. “Good computer people are at a premium within the Bureau so I was always busy. I like busy.”
“That’s why I keep hounding Alex for help. What’s wrong with the Bureau? Why can’t we attract more computer geeks?”
They hit the lobby and started moving through crowds of people lined up to check in. Looked like the tractor convention had left town.
She skirted around a group of women with suitcases. “The really good kids get headhunted in high school. And a lot of the brilliant ones don’t even bother attending college or getting a degree, which means they can’t apply to the FBI as agents.”
His brows lifted in question.
“The brilliant ones already know more than most professors about certain aspects of computing.”
“Hacking.” Disdain rang through his tone.
“Not just hacking.” It was easy to be dismissive when you didn’t understand the mindset. “And not all hackers are bad.” She shrugged. “It’s not that much different from playing with Legos to start with, although ‘hackers’ are generally more concerned with looking for flaws in a design system than building something from scratch.” They walked out the main door and south along the street. “It often starts when they’re kids trying to figure something out. It’s a game. A puzzle. Even those who do crazy things like try to hack the NSA—they don’t usually believe they can get in.”
He looked skeptical. “Were you a hacker?”
She held the door for a family. “I played around on the net.”
“That’s a non-answer.”
“Funny,” she said sharply. “I thought I passed my background tests and polygraphs during my interview.”
Her background was impeccably crafted and she knew it so well it had become more like the truth than her complicated and thorny reality. Hypnosis and hours of practice had enabled her to nail those tests. That and the fact she believed in herself and her reasons for joining the FBI.
The fact she’d lied would only be a problem if she was ever caught.
“You went to college—does that mean you aren’t that good at computing?” he asked wryly.
“I guess I left myself open for that one.” She gave him a reluctant smile as they hit the sidewalk. The frigid breeze made her hair dance in her face and Ashley wished she’d packed a hat and gloves. “My dad was in the tech industry and always tried to impart the importance of education and qualifications. He taught me code as soon as I could write. Computing became second nature.”
“Was? He’s not around anymore?”
“My parents died in a car wreck when I was fifteen.” Ashley swallowed the lump of grief that always accompanied thoughts of her mom and dad. The more she’d looked into their deaths, the more she was certain it hadn’t been an accident.
Lucas’s eyes changed, grew somber. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded abruptly and turned away. She didn’t like lying, which was just one reason she didn’t like talking about herself. But the truth was dangerous on so many levels—a good reminder why she couldn’t afford to get close to anyone. Being lonely was nothing compared to being responsible for someone’s death.
“So you could have made a name for yourself in cybersecurity. Instead you joined the Bureau. Why?”
“Do I get to play twenty questions when you’re done?”
His smile was pure male confidence. “My life is an open book. Tell me why you joined the Bureau and you can ask me anything.”
“I wanted to make a difference for my country. To fight for justice.” She shrugged. “I wanted legitimacy.”
He watched her for a moment as if gauging her answer.
Maybe it was too honest. Maybe he thought her reasons were naive, but she wasn’t the sort to go to war, and she didn’t want to walk the beat. Joining the FBI offered her the best chance of putting her skill set to work in a constructive way.
“How do you want to play this?” she asked as they got closer to Chinatown.
He slung his arm around her shoulders and she froze as he tucked her close against his side. He whispered into her hair. “Just a man taking his girlfriend to lunch. We can sit and eat and scope out the joint. Take some photos and see if Alex can ping the cell. If the signal is nearby we’ll try and follow it. If it isn’t we can go over the case.”
It sounded like a reasonable plan but Lucas’s body felt way too good pressed against her side.
“Hey.” He squeezed. “Relax and pretend you like me.”
She gave him the side-eye because he was openly referring to their encounter last night, which she was trying to pretend never happened. “I like you just fine, Lucas. I just don’t want to like you.”
His lips curled. “I don’t even know what to think of that statement. Good thing I have a healthy ego.”
“There’s definitely nothing wrong with your ego,” she muttered.
His grin was the wrong side of dirty. Why she found that so endearing she didn’t know. “I should put in a complaint for sexual harassment.”
“Hey, you’re right.” His voice grew serious. “I crossed a line last night. If you’re not comfortable doing this—”
“We,” she emphasized. “We crossed a line. I was definitely a willing participant. If I hadn’t been, you’d be sporting bruises in some key locations.” She already had too much deception in her life to pretend otherwise. She’d already gotten more out of it than he had, especially when she’d been such a bitch afterward.
Determined to play her part, she reached over to stroke his fingers where they rested on her arm. “This isn’t a bad plan, though the locals are bound to be suspicious of strangers.”
Their eyes met and they both swallowed and looked away. Trying to dispel the tension, she glanced around. “At least there isn’t anyone following us.”
He hugged her again before letting her go and taking her hand. “I’m being overly cautious. I guess that’s what happens when someone tries to blow you up.”
“Paranoia can be good,” she said carefully. It was how she lived her life.
They kept walking, weaving through people on their lunch break. Holding hands felt strange and unusual. Way too romantic for a woman like her. She’d reduced the romance in her life to occasional sweaty one-night stands and cool sayonaras. If she needed dinner and a movie she went alone, if she wanted flowers she bought them.
Mayb
e hot kisses against cold damp walls weren’t so out of character after all.
“So, where’d you grow up, Ash? Mind if I call you Ash?”
No one except her immediate family had ever given her a nickname, but she kept her tone dry. “Well, as we’re dating…” She looked up and met his gaze. Those eyes of his were an intense, deep brown. Hers were black as charcoal, but his were a rich, vibrant chestnut. She cleared her throat trying to arrange her thoughts. “After my parents died I lived with my godmother on Long Island. She passed away a couple of years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” His fingers clasped hers tighter.
There was something so appealing about nice manners and genuine concern, especially when wrapped up in a package of large, sexy alpha male. She hadn’t realized she was susceptible to that kind of allure.
“There’s no one else? No siblings?” he asked.
“They’re all gone.” The breeze picked up. A good excuse for the fact her eyes were watering. “What about you?”
“Three older sisters who’re all married with kids.” His eyes scanned every face they passed. “The good news is that keeps my parents off my back about settling down and starting a family.”
“What’s the bad news?”
He grinned down at her. “It doesn’t stop my sisters.”
Her heart fluttered against her ribs. Time to change the subject to something less personal. “There’s the restaurant.” She pointed to a sign up ahead written in English and Cantonese. The Sun Garden. They stopped outside the window and perused the menu. She used the excuse of calling Mallory to let go of his hand.
“So we’re at the restaurant,” she said brightly to her BAU-4 colleague. “Want us to pick up anything in particular for you?” She smiled in case anyone was watching them. Lucas had made her paranoid, too.
“Alex pinged the burner two minutes ago and they were still there or very close,” Mallory said. “And kung pao chicken, please.”
Cold Secrets (Cold Justice Book 7) Page 13