Ashley caught Lucas’s gaze and nodded.
“No problem.” Ashley hung up and followed Lucas inside. The place smelled like heaven and was packed with Asian diners—always a good sign. There was a wait for a table, so they stood near a wall covered in fliers, waiting patiently for a waitress to seat them.
Lucas ran his hand down her arm and took her fingers in his. “I take it that was positive news?” He raised her hand to his lips and she knew her eyes were wide as saucers when he kissed it. He leaned in to brush her cheek with his. “I’m not the only one who needs to work on their poker face.”
She blinked out of her daze. He’d succeeded in knocking her off balance, which she didn’t appreciate. So she reached up and pulled him toward her, using his hoodie to draw him closer, nipping him hard enough to make him flinch before he opened his mouth for her. Then he surprised her again, his hands moving low, pulling her hips tight against his as he dove deep for a kiss. Raw, basic hunger rushed through her, making her heart thud and her brain pitch. He tilted her chin for better access and demolished what little remained of her defenses.
The sound of a throat clearing with disapproval had them breaking apart like a couple of hormonal teenagers. They stared at each other for a long moment and his eyes told her they weren’t finished—not by a long shot.
Her cheeks heated. She’d kissed him to prove she was in control, but he’d wrested it from her again. Her skin was supersensitive, nerves vibrating. She didn’t like it. Didn’t like it at all. The fastest way to end this attraction would be to fuck his brains out and get the man out of her system. But he’d told her he liked her and she didn’t know what to do with that.
He took her hand and tugged to follow the disapproving waitress to the table. The woman pressed her unsmiling lips together and left them with menus and water.
“You hungry?” He took off his hoodie and put it on the seat beside him. He pulled his T-shirt over his sidearm and it clung to his pecs. It turned out the guy didn’t need to wear a suit to look completely edible.
“Starving.”
His nostrils flared and a muscle worked in his jaw. He nodded his thanks to the waitress as she dropped off tea and chopsticks. “So what did Mal say?”
“He’s here.”
She didn’t see anyone on a cell so she picked up the menu. When the server came back she ordered beef and black bean sauce and Lucas ordered chow mein and kung pao chicken for Mallory. She added fried rice.
When they were alone again, Lucas reached across the table to take her hand.
She eyed him warily. “I think you’re enjoying this role way too much.”
“Said the woman who just kissed the hell out of me.” Dark eyes glittered with what looked like retribution.
She withdrew her hand and poured tea, a ritual she enjoyed, grateful for the excuse it gave her not to touch him. “I was making a point.”
“Feel free to reinforce that point any time you want.” One side of his mouth curled up in an engaging grin. He was attractive enough to turn heads. Especially here, where he stood out for his sheer size.
She forced a coldness she wasn’t feeling into her tone. “You know what happens when you play with fire,” she warned.
You get burned.
His eyes told her he got it, but far from looking contrite, he looked interested, and damned if that didn’t stir something inside her that spelled trouble. Her cell rang. Mallory. Thank God.
“Alex is about to call the number with a cold call pretext.” Ashley leaned closer to Lucas across the table and quietly repeated what Mallory told her. “It’s ringing now.”
She kept her head still while her eyes scanned the other customers. Lucas was doing the same in the opposite direction.
“Got him,” Lucas said. He played with his cell as if taking a photograph of her, but was obviously taking shots of someone behind her. She mugged and simpered until he put the cell down, then she watched as he sent the photo first to Mallory and then to someone else—probably Parker.
Ashley’s stomach started to rumble just as their appetizers arrived. She’d thought she’d be strung too tight to eat, but once she smelled the food she was ravenous. Her cell rang. Mallory again.
“His name is Charlie Lee. He’s wanted for skipping bail on assault charges.” Ashley relayed the info Mallory gave her to Lucas, who’d already demolished his appetizer.
“Ah, damn,” Lucas muttered around a mouthful of spring roll. “He’s on the move.”
“So much for lunch.” She took a quick drink of her tea.
Instead of heading out the front door, Lee turned toward the kitchen. As soon as he was out of sight, Lucas climbed to his feet and they both walked purposefully in that direction. Then the guy reappeared in the kitchen door with a smile on his face, but stopped dead when he saw them approaching. Ashley and Lucas might be in casual clothes, but it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that they were on some sort of official business.
Lee turned and disappeared into the kitchen. Lucas darted around a table and pushed past a couple who were standing to leave. They shouted in protest but Ashley jostled them, too, saying “Sorry” in Cantonese as their voices rose in alarm. She followed Lucas as he sprinted into the kitchen.
Her gaze bounced off the cooks as she chased their mark, who was now heading for the rear exit. The guy slipped out the door with the agility of Wile E. Coyote.
Lucas got to the exit before her, slamming through into the back alley. She was a fraction of a second slower. They both hit the asphalt running, pounding the pavement, desperate to close the distance between them and the perp.
“FBI. Hold it right there!” Lucas shouted.
Ashley’s heart hammered and her lungs burned but she didn’t ease up. Lucas was gaining on the guy, slowly at first, then faster. Charlie Lee glanced behind him, slipped on a piece of litter and fell to the ground, rolling twice. He stood quickly, but a garbage truck rumbled its way across the ally in front of them, cutting off his escape. Lee tried to dodge but there wasn’t enough space between the truck and the Dumpster for him to squeeze through. Lucas tackled him and they both flew through the air, the truck shuddering to a halt as the two men rolled on the ground.
Ashley drew her weapon and showed her badge to the wide-eyed driver. She held eye contact until he put the truck in park.
Lucas had Lee in flexi-cuffs in five seconds flat. Ashley called for a squad car to meet them at the restaurant as he jerked the guy to his feet. They might be able to use the fact he’d skipped bail to get him to tell them everything he knew about the crew running the underground brothel—assuming he knew anything. Maybe someone had paid him to fake the sighting. Maybe he’d done it as a prank because he hated law enforcement.
But right now Charlie Lee was the closest thing they had to a lead.
Was he part of this criminal enterprise? Did they have a solid foothold in the States, or were they just starting out? Everything about these guys screamed extreme sophistication, and Ashley didn’t like it.
“I need to pick up my sweatshirt,” Lucas told her as she slipped her cell into her pocket. They steered the suspect back toward the restaurant to await the cavalry.
“Why’d you run, Mr. Lee?” Lucas asked, holding the man by the arm.
The guy shrugged and cast her a sideways glance. “Why you work for the feds?”
She exchanged a glance with Lucas but didn’t reply.
“You the worst kind of Chinese,” Charlie Lee sneered.
She curled her lip. “Forgive me if I’m not overly impressed when insulted by a skip-jumper wearing handcuffs.”
Lee started resisting as the approached the restaurant but Lucas gave him a firm shove.
They entered the kitchen through the rear door. The chefs were still cooking, but eyed them nervously as they came back inside. A side door Ashley hadn’t noticed before opened and a man walked out carrying a beer. The room behind him was densely packed with card tables and groups of men, all sitting u
nder the heavy pall of smoke. Ashley reached for her weapon and had it in a two-handed grip pointed at the man in the doorway.
“Federal agents! Hands in the air where I can see them.” She yelled the instructions again in Cantonese.
Ashley took the guy in the doorway by the shoulder, spun him, pushed him against the wall and slipped a pair of restraints over his wrists. No way was this one getting away from her.
“What’s going on, Chen?” Lucas murmured as the noise in the room turned to intense silence.
The welcome sound of police radios crackled from inside the restaurant. She pulled out her gold shield. “Armed federal agents back here in the kitchen!”
The officers cautiously came through the doorway with their weapons drawn. They eyed her badge. She recognized one from Susan Thomas’s murder scene.
“What have we got?” he asked.
“Illegal gambling den—”
And just like that the spell was broken. People scattered like roaches, heading for another exit at the back of the room.
The uniform pushed past her and grabbed the first guy he could reach, holding him against the wall as he called for reinforcements.
Lucas’s eyes were full of questions because she could have handled this better. Then she raised the head of the man she’d cuffed and watched Lucas’s pupils flare with recognition and hatred.
It was the man who’d driven the minivan the day Mae Kwon had picked up Agata Maroulis. They’d finally scored a hit against the bad guys.
Chapter Ten
“That’s damn good work, Agents Randall and Chen,” Sloan said as she came racing back into her office. Icy droplets of sleet spun off her FBI windbreaker as she tossed it on the back of her chair. She ran a hand through wet hair, scooping it back off her face. Her cheeks were ruddy with cold, her expression focused as a laser.
A total of sixteen people had been brought in for questioning, including the staff of the Sun Garden. They hadn’t been too thrilled with having to close the restaurant down, but that’s what happened when you housed an illegal low-stakes gambling den in the back room. The arrestees were sitting in holding cells, and interview rooms, sweating it out until the FBI decided exactly how to handle them.
“Agent Rooney is the one who tracked the cell phone and Agent Chen recognized the minivan driver from the surveillance footage,” Lucas told her, not wanting to take credit for things he hadn’t done.
The fact that the man who’d picked up Agata Maroulis from the train station was also the person who’d taken Becca from her mother to pay off a gambling debt was his and Sloan’s little secret. They couldn’t reveal that information without revealing their source and they weren’t ready to do that. Given the violence of these perps they might never be ready to tell the world Becca was alive.
The minivan driver’s name was Ray Tan, and only the fact Becca said he’d never touched her had stopped Lucas from plowing his fist through the guy’s face.
Ashley had done a hell of a job spotting him, considering the grainy quality of the two-year-old image. She sat in one of the chairs in front of Sloan’s desk. Fuentes came to the door, looked around and slumped into the seat next to her. Lucas propped up the wall, too wired to sit. Mayfield came in behind Fuentes. Crossed her arms.
Ashley still wore jeans and the sweater from when they’d made the arrests earlier, although she’d removed the protective vest. Casual clothes softened her hard edges and made her seem less formidable. He wanted to get both versions of her naked and writhing under his tongue.
“Nothing at the port?” he asked Sloan, pretending he wasn’t visualizing having hot sex with one of his colleagues.
“Nothing.” Sloan huffed out a breath.
He forced himself to stop looking at Ashley. Dammit. He’d been attracted to people he worked with before—but he never allowed it to distract his focus. He wasn’t a monk, but he wasn’t the use them up and spit them out type, either. He liked having genuine relationships with interesting women. The fact none of them lasted beyond six months just meant he hadn’t met the right woman yet. He did his best to let them down gently, but his job came first, and when a woman couldn’t handle that reality he moved on. No hard feelings. No wasted time on the biological clock that his sisters insisted was always ticking for women over thirty.
But he didn’t remember the last time someone had affected him as intensely as Ashley Chen.
“Normal shipping is going to resume at midnight. Considering you picked up the guy who told us he saw the fugitives at the port in the same spot as a known associate of the trafficking ring, there’s a good chance the sighting was bogus.” Her exhausted features told him exactly what she thought of that idea.
“Or he could genuinely have been wanting them to be caught so he could get rid of the competition,” Ashley said quietly.
“Whatever the reason, the fugitives weren’t at the port, and we searched every goddamn inch.” Sloan blew out a growl of frustration. “The guy lied to law enforcement and wasted thousands of dollars of police resources, and cost the port a fortune. He will pay. Now, what’s the best strategy for questioning these people?”
Sloan looked at Ashley.
“Because we initially picked up Charlie Lee for jumping bail, his burner phone is now in evidence. We can flag it as being the phone used to make that anonymous call. See if we can get him to admit to making a false report and obstructing justice,” Ashley suggested.
“He’s not going to tell us anything,” Lucas argued.
Sloan leaned back in her chair. “He’s facing a warrant on skipping bail for assault charges. Combined with wasting police time we might be able to build a good enough case against him for him to be looking at real time.”
“We could offer him WITSEC,” Ashley suggested. “It’s the only way he’d go for any sort of deal, but if he has family where the traffickers can get to them, forget it. The guy isn’t going to talk.”
Sloan pressed her lips together. “I’ll talk to the DA about WITSEC. What about the driver, Ray Tan?”
“He moved here two and a half years ago from Macau. We’re waiting for background checks from Interpol. We know he acted as a driver for Mae Kwon but aside from that we don’t have anything on him, except for the illegal gambling charges.” Ashley smoothed her palms over her thighs in a nervous gesture.
He and Sloan exchanged a quick look and he caught Fuentes watching them speculatively.
“My suggestion would be to question everyone and make them all the same offer to give up any information they have in exchange for dropping the illegal gambling charges,” Ashley said.
“Charlie Lee will need to be remanded into custody as that’s the reason you gave for being there and going after him,” Sloan said pointedly.
“No one’s gonna roll for charges that will probably be reduced to a misdemeanor for first time offenders.” Fuentes scoffed.
Ashley sat forward on the edge of her chair. “That’s my point. But they’ll assume we’re desperate for information and have nothing to go on. Then we let them go—”
“What? We only just caught the suckers,” Fuentes complained, as if he’d been the one to bring them in.
Lucas straightened from the wall. He’d figured out what Ashley was suggesting. “She’s right. We don’t mention we’ve got Ray Tan on the surveillance camera with Agata Maroulis—not yet. We let him go. Then follow his every move. Set up surveillance of every place he frequents, put trackers on his phone, car, and anything else we can find.”
His eyes connected with Ashley’s. It was a good plan. A really good plan.
“You think he might lead us to the fugitives?” Sloan asked doubtfully.
Lucas nodded. “He’s a known associate. He might want to tell them exactly how desperate and clueless we are—if only with a phone call.”
Sloan looked down at her desk while she contemplated her alternatives. Finally she nodded. “I’ll make arrangements for the surveillance as soon as I clear it with Salinger.”
“The commissioner and the mayor called,” Mayfield said. “They want to be kept informed.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” Lucas asked Sloan.
She put her elbows on the desk and pushed both hands through her damp hair. “No.” She caught his gaze again. “But it’s their city too. Tell Dana to hold them off for as long as possible.”
Dana was the media relations officer. Lucas couldn’t imagine the pressure Sloan’s marriage must be under with her husband working for Mayor Everett.
She caught his eye. It was only a matter of time before others learned about the fact they had a living witness. He nodded as a flash of understanding passed between them. They needed to catch these bastards before that happened.
“So who’s questioning the suspects?” Fuentes asked.
“You and Mayfield take Charlie Lee and half of the others. Talk to the DA about Lee before you question him, see how much time he’s looking at. Randall and Chen take Ray Tan and the rest. Make sure holding knows none of them are to be released until I personally give them the go ahead, and that won’t be until tomorrow morning at the earliest. No more fuck ups.” Sloan held his gaze and he nodded.
Becca’s life depended on it.
* * *
Andrew stared at the screen. The backdoor to FinCEN and various other federal bodies had just been booby-trapped, and any attempt to use it would spring a complex snare that would probably reveal his IPS address and his location. His hands shook.
He’d been lucky to spot the change in the code in time to avoid falling down the worm hole. He was tired and hadn’t been paying proper attention. He was getting lazy or arrogant, but it had been a long time since anyone had tested his skills.
Had Rabbit ratted them out?
No. Andrew had monitored the man’s communications and activity closely since the explosion. Rabbit had more to lose than anyone and knew exactly what would happen should he talk.
Andrew shut down the pathway that led him to FinCEN and deleted any of the logs in his system. That particular exploit had cost him nearly a quarter of a million US dollars. At least he’d been careful not to leave traces that would allow anyone to follow him back to his other lairs on the web.
Cold Secrets (Cold Justice Book 7) Page 14