Sniper

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  When, not if. It warmed my heart to hear the confidence in his voice. “I think I want to move someplace quiet. The city no longer holds the appeal that it once did. Now I just want to live a quiet life where nobody knows me.”

  “You can’t shut yourself off from the world. Bad things happen all the time and it doesn’t matter if you live in the city or in the middle of nowhere.”

  “I know, but look at where you live. It’s so peaceful here. The town isn’t too big and it seems like everyone is friends around here. I don’t think I’ve ever known one of my neighbors while I lived in the city.”

  “You could always come live here when you find her.” My head swiveled his way in disbelief. Was he asking me to move in with him? When he saw the questions on my face, he quickly amended his statement. “I mean, in this town. You’ve met so many people recently and we look after each other here.”

  “That might be nice, but I’m not sure. I don’t know that I could live so close to Pittsburgh anymore. It would be a constant reminder of what happened.”

  “It’s just something to think about.”

  And I definitely would. I did like the people I had met so far. The one issue that I had was that I was starting to feel the slightest bit of something for Chance and that was dangerous. He’d made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want more, and I thought I didn’t either. But I’d never met a man like him, one that so willingly put me first. What would I do when he moved on to another woman? Would I be able to watch him take other women home? What if he decided to get married one day? I wasn’t sure that I would be able to stand watching him fall for another woman and promise her everything he could never promise me. Yes, Chance was definitely starting to mean more to me than I ever thought he would.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I sat at the conference room table with Chance and Sebastian. Becky was just coming through the door with a large stack of folders and started passing them out. I didn’t know what they were, but it was obvious she had done a lot of work in the past few days.

  “Okay, I did a lot of digging last night, like so much that sleep wasn’t an option at all. I’ve had so much coffee that my coffee needs coffee to stay awake,” she rambled.

  “Becky,” Sebastian said, stopping her rant. “Let’s just get to what you found and then you can go to sleep.”

  “Righty-o, bossman. So, I started with the idea that other children had been taken by this ring and gathered every single piece of information I could. Some of my program is still sorting details of the police reports, but here’s what I have so far. It looks like about twenty children have been taken over the past two years, all with the same kidnapping markers as Payton’s case. I can’t be sure yet that all the cases are connected, but all of these children are still missing.”

  “How does The Broker fit in with all of these cases?” Chance asked.

  “Well, almost every single one of the cities that a child was taken from is a city where Weston Hughes has one of his business located. There are a few that didn’t match up, but weren’t far away either. However, other than that, there’s no link that I’m seeing between him and the kids or the moms that went missing. It seems that Morgan is the first woman he’s made contact with that is linked to either of these rings.”

  “So, we can’t prove his involvement in any way,” Chance said angrily.

  “Not that I can see. I’ve gone through all his accounts and there are no deposits that aren’t legitimate. Unless he’s funneling through one of his companies, which I could technically hack the records for, he’s doing this all in cash or offshore accounts. And honestly, I don’t think he would cash a check that had for trafficking children in the memo line. Either way, there’s no way to confirm that he’s involved.”

  “What about acquaintances?” Sebastian asked.

  “He has many, but none that pop out as anyone nefarious. He keeps all his social and business dealings on the up and up. Basically, the only way that he does anything even remotely illegal or has an association that would be seen as unsavory is as The Broker. And The Broker only deals in cash.”

  “Crap,” Chance muttered.

  “So, you found nothing,” Sebastian said.

  “Not necessarily,” Becky grinned. “The agent that Jeremy Wick was in contact with, Agent Finley, has several interesting oddities in his accounts.”

  Becky took a remote and turned on one of the screens on the wall. In seconds, she was flipping through windows and clicking on links until she came to what she was looking for.

  “What are we looking at?” Sebastian asked.

  “This is Agent Finley’s account that is supposedly hidden under a false name, Brett Michaels.”

  “Brett Michaels? Seriously?” I scoffed.

  “Apparently he’s as unoriginal as he is stupid. The account can be traced back to him by any decent hacker. Whoever was hiding his account was not a professional. There are deposits, dating back from the very first kidnapping, of $10,000 per child. Each deposit shows up in his account two days after the child is taken.”

  “$10,000 doesn’t seem like a very large amount for the kidnapping of a child,” Sebastian surmised. “When you consider the consequences if you’re caught, why would Agent Finley put his career and his life on the line for $10,000?”

  “I found old gambling debts that he’s been slowly paying off over the years. The interest alone will assure that he will never pay it off in this lifetime.”

  “So, the $10,000 goes to that?” Chance asked.

  “It hasn’t gone anywhere,” Becky said. “That’s the insane thing. If you owed money and were doing this to pay off debts, you would be making those large payments to get rid of the interest that was accumulating.”

  “That means he’s collected about $200,000.” Chance looked over at Cap. “That’s not enough to run away on. He would need more than that.”

  “He could be collecting enough to disappear in the future, but that would take a hell of a long time. $200,000 over the course of two years is the equivalent of what he would bring home in less than four years. I’m not seeing that as a big windfall,” Cap said.

  “How much are his debts?” Chance asked Becky.

  “About $500,000. It was less, but the interest is killing him.”

  “He could have paid that down significantly over the past two years. Why is he holding on to it?” I asked.

  “I don’t have the answer to that. However, it also made me wonder what part Jeremy Wick had to play in all this. I didn’t find a single thing connecting him to Agent Finley in any financial way. It appears that he truly thought he was trying to help take down a prostitution ring.”

  I glanced to Chance, wondering what he thought about all this. His former Master Chief being involved in this was a lot to take in and finding out that he had been fooled by an agent was even worse. They served this country in the Navy and then Jeremy was taken advantage of in the worst way.

  “Alright, so our next step is to get our hands on Agent Finley and find out how deep this goes. If he was getting paid for his part, we need to know exactly what he was doing and who else he might have known that was involved,” Cap said to Chance. “Get your team on surveillance. Becky, get a dossier on Agent Finley and have Rob get communications set up for the job.”

  “Will do, bossman.”

  Chance stood up and I followed, not sure what I was supposed to do now that he was going to do a job. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be invited to tag along on this assignment. Where did that leave me?

  “I’ll leave the two of you alone,” Sebastian said as he left the room.

  “What do I do?” I asked.

  “You go back to my house. Take my truck, but don’t put any fucking dents in it. I’ll get a ride from one of the guys.”

  “What am I supposed to do? Just sit on my ass while you’re out getting information?”

  “Morgan, this is a Reed Security job. I can’t have you come with me.”

  �
�This is only a Reed Security job because you took over this investigation from me. I didn’t ask for you to do it and I don’t even have the money to pay you for it.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s an issue of liability for the company and you’re not trained to do any of this.”

  “I’ve been investigating on my own for the last three months. You wouldn’t even know about The Broker if it wasn’t for me. I did that. I’m the one that’s put myself on the line every day for my daughter, letting men touch me like they own me. I can’t just stop now like it was all for nothing!”

  He pulled me close, wrapping his arm around my waist. His other hand slipped to the nape of my neck. “I know all you’ve sacrificed and you shouldn’t have had to do it in the first place. I know how personal this is for you and I want to help you. We all do, but this is what we do and we’re damn good at it. When we take Agent Finley, it’s not gonna be a nice, sit-down conversation. I don’t want you involved in that, no matter how much you think you should be.”

  “This is my daughter we’re talking about. I won’t be left out.”

  “I won’t leave you out of the loop, but I can’t…” His jaw clenched and he took a slight step back, glancing away from me, like it was too painful to look at me. “You mean something to me,” he finally said, looking intently into my eyes. “I’m not sure what exactly or…shit, I don’t know much of anything. I do know that I don’t want you in danger in any way. You’re the first woman since my wife that I’ve allowed into my life. I just…”

  He couldn’t finish for whatever reason. Maybe he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say or maybe he didn’t even know what he was feeling. Either way, I could see that he needed to protect me from whatever they were going to do. He had promised me that he would help find my daughter and at the moment, this was what he needed from me.

  I slid my hand along the scruff of his jaw, forcing him to look back at me. “Okay. If that’s what you need, I’ll wait at your house until you tell me otherwise. Just promise me that you’ll keep me updated on what’s going on.”

  “Thank you.” He rested his forehead against mine and I watched as his eyes slipped closed. His hands skimmed my arms and then wrapped around my waist, pulling me into him once again. He pressed a kiss to my forehead and then stepped back, clearing all emotion from his face. Gone was the man that had just struggled to express his emotions to me, and the man that I first met stood in front of me. I understood it. I wasn’t myself when I was on the stage, dancing for men that wanted my body to satisfy their needs.

  He pulled his keys from his pocket and placed them in my hands. “There’s an envelope of cash in one of the kitchen drawers. Get whatever you need.”

  “I don’t-”

  “You don’t have any fucking clothes. Please, just get what you need and get food for the house. There’s nothing in there anyway.”

  “Okay.”

  “You have to disarm the alarm when you go in. I’m going to have at least two people at the house with you, just to be on the safe side. Just wait here and I’ll find out who’s available.”

  I nodded, not really sure what to say to him. I was just about to sit back down when he grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled me into him, crushing his lips to mine. His tongue slipped through my lips, caressing my tongue and driving me crazy with his touch. I couldn’t recall a single time that any man had made me feel just an ounce of what Chance made me feel. When he ended the kiss, he turned and walked away without a second glance, leaving me confused and turned on.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Sniper

  CONFUSED DIDN’T EVEN begin to describe what I was feeling. I had just kissed Morgan like she was mine, and she never could be because I didn’t want to ever be tied down again. It had to be because I had talked with her this morning about her life and Payton. It had reminded me of everything I could have had with my ex-wife. That had to be why I was feeling so much for her right now.

  With Jackson and Gabe coming with me on our assignment, I had to find someone else to look out for Morgan while I was gone. Ideally, I would have one of my married coworkers look after her, but that wasn’t fair to have someone leave his family to look out for someone that wasn’t even mine. Hunter didn’t have any kids yet, but he was obsessed with Lucy and was more along the lines of Knight now, taking protection to the extreme.

  Which meant that I would have to ask Alec, Florrie, Craig, or Rocco. Really, my only option was Florrie. I couldn’t trust the rest of those assholes to keep their hands off Morgan. Not that they would in my house, but I didn’t even want to take a chance with them. Unfortunately, Lola wasn’t working on this side of the business anymore, so I would have to have one of the guys go with her.

  “Florrie,” I shouted as I walked into the parking garage, just barely catching her before she left for the day. She slammed her door and walked back toward me.

  “What’s up?”

  “Can you do me a huge favor?”

  She groaned, rolling her eyes in irritation. When it was time to go home, no one wanted an extra job at the last minute. “What is it? I have plans.”

  “Hot date?”

  “Sort of.” One eyebrow rose, like she was urging me to laugh at her. Florrie’s idea of a date wasn’t what the average woman wanted. She liked gun ranges and motorcycles. Anything that was fast and made her feel alive was exactly what she wanted to be part of. I’d never heard her turn down anything an adrenaline junkie would want to do, but ask her to go to dinner and she asked what they were shooting. The woman was not normal.

  “Morgan is staying at my house while I go do surveillance. Could you and one of the guys take her back to the house and show her the alarm system and then stay with her until I get back?”

  “You haven’t showed her how to use the alarm system yet?”

  “She’s only been there two days and it was never meant to be for that long.”

  “If you weren’t interested in having her stay longer, why is she? Take her to a hotel.”

  “She doesn’t have any money on her. Everything she owns is back in her shitty apartment in Pittsburgh and if we went back there, we might as well put a bullseye on her back. Besides, after her little stunt with Maggie, I’m not sure it’s safe for her to stay at my place alone.”

  “Put her in a safe house,” Florrie argued.”

  “My house is safe.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “How long are you gonna keep fucking her? Because you never want any woman longer than a night, but here you are, practically moving the woman into your house.”

  “Florence,” I said, stressing the name she hated. She glared at me, her fingers digging into her arms as she tried to keep her cool. “What happens with Morgan and me is irrelevant right now. I have to go out on this assignment and I need someone to show her my security system and stay the night. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Fine,” she sighed, “but don’t expect me to sit and have girl talk with her.”

  “I would never expect that.”

  “You owe me big time.”

  Shit, this wasn’t good. I knew she was going to ask for something big. There was never an easy favor with Florrie. “What do you want?”

  “You bought that rifle from Cazzo. I want to take it out to the gun range. For an entire day.”

  “That’s going too far. I haven’t even gotten to shoot that yet.”

  “Then I can test it out for you and tell you how it shoots.”

  “Pick something else,” I snapped.

  “Have fun getting home in time to show Morgan how to use the system.”

  She turned and walked back to her truck, leaving me no choice but to allow her to use my gun. “Fine! I’ll let you take it out on Saturday, but if you break that rifle, you owe me $166,000.”

  “Please, I’ve been shooting since I was four. I think I can handle your one hundred and seventy year old rifle.”

  I gave her the keys to my house and walked away.
I felt sorry for the man that bagged Florrie. She was any man’s worst nightmare. Not because she was uptight or too girly. She didn’t nag or want a commitment. She was just too badass and she could take any one of us or manipulate any man into doing what she wanted. Not only that, she was a better shot than most men and everyone knew it. Now I was going to have to listen to her brag about my rifle before I even got a chance to use it. Sometimes I really hated strong women.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Morgan

  “I DON’T SEE why I had to have a babysitter take me home. I can find a door by myself and I’m pretty sure I can press buttons on my own,” I grumbled. “I worked at a bank for years where I was trusted with money and accounts and occasionally, giving little kids suckers.”

  Florrie snorted next to me, obviously finding my predicament hilarious. She had insisted that she drive me home and have Alec drive Chance’s truck. Apparently, Chance’s truck was sacred and wasn’t to be touched by anyone, even though Chance had given me the keys himself.

  “And why does it take two of you to bring me home? I’m guessing one of you will show me how to press the buttons and the other will show me how to turn the handle on the door.”

  “Actually, we’re here to make sure Chance’s pillows and bed are still safe.”

  “Haha. That’s so funny,” I said dryly.

  “I’m not joking. A few years back, Chance’s house was shot up and someone broke into his house and slashed his pillows and bed. He was fucking pissed.”

  “I could understand the house, but the pillows and bed?”

  “You must not know Chance too well. He’s insanely possessive of his hypoallergenic pillows and his bed. He paid big money for them and that’s the one thing he really wants as far as creature comforts.”

  “So, I could steal anything in his home but his pillows and bed?”

  “Pretty much,” she grinned.

  We pulled into Chance’s driveway and she parked to the side of the garage, while Alec hit the button to open the garage door and parked inside. I got out and followed Florrie to the door and watched as she showed me the very simple instructions for securing the house, and getting back in. It wasn’t rocket science, but apparently, I was not able to do something like this on my own.