Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  “That’s just it, isn’t it, Lara? You didn’t think. You never think beyond what’s right in front of you.”

  She tamped down the defensiveness welling up in her. She kept her tone as neutral as possible. “No. I follow my instincts.”

  “Yeah, well this time your instincts got a man killed. Would’ve gotten hundreds of people killed if Christina and her new little sidekick hadn’t figured out that Halpert had been looking at the schematics of the mall and then gotten local PD to clear it.”

  Lara’s gut burned again. “I know. But if Mercer hadn’t ordered the feed cut—”

  Nick took a step closer to her then stopped as if the thought of being more near actually repulsed him. His tone was even but his nostrils flared. “Mercer shouldn’t have done that. You’re right. But there never should’ve been a situation in the first place where Mercer could’ve made a dumbass call like that.”

  “Nick—”

  His voice cracked and his volume rose. “Dammit, Lara, you should’ve come to us with that SIM card. Should’ve trusted your team!”

  “I know, okay! If I could go back to twenty-four hours ago, I would. To before all this.” She gestured around her apartment with her hand. “I would go back to when Halpert contacted me yesterday, threatening to spill my secrets about Moretti. I wouldn’t have baited him. I wouldn’t let this happen.”

  “But you can’t.”

  “I had no intention to let him hurt anyone, blow up any buildings, just for evidence. You know that, Nick.” A sickening tightened all the muscles in her midsection. “You do know that, right?”

  She hated how small her voice sounded. But she hated even worse that he thought she would’ve let people die to get information about her mom’s murder.

  “Yes,” Nick finally said. “I know that. I don’t think you were that far gone.”

  Yet. She wasn’t that far gone yet.

  He didn’t say the word, but it floated around between them anyway.

  And he was right. She’d become more and more consumed with her mother’s murder for the last year. It had taken a toll on her mental health and her priorities.

  Nick had warned her. Or had tried. He had been able to see what she couldn’t: that Lara was becoming obsessed.

  And he was right, she’d definitely crossed a line today. Gotten herself wrapped in Halpert’s little game just to get crumbs of truth about her mother’s death.

  She’d made the selfish choice.

  The letters FBI stood for Federal Bureau of Investigation, but agents also used the letters for a motto: Fidelity. Bravery. Integrity.

  That motto didn’t apply to her anymore. She wasn’t sure exactly when it had stopped. It had happened before today. Today it had just become clear.

  Lara didn’t know how to begin to make this right. She was trying to think of words to say when Nick’s phone buzzed in his hand.

  Nick shook his head. “Mercer.”

  His brown eyes met hers. He was still angry with her about all this. She knew it. Acknowledged it. Accepted the blame since it was hers alone to shoulder. They would have this out more, later. They both knew it.

  But right now they had a common enemy. Mercer.

  Nick turned the phone to speaker mode. “This is Delano.”

  “He blew up the mall in Staten Island, Delano. I thought we said we had until 2:30.”

  Nick grimaced. “Yes, that’s true, sir.”

  “Is the problem incompetency on your part or just general lack of intelligence?”

  Two sentences from Mercer’s mouth and Lara was already done. “You shouldn’t have forced the team to cut the internet feed, Mercer,” Lara said. “If you’re looking for someone to blame, check the mirror. Halpert detonated the bomb early because you cut the internet feed between him and me.”

  “Do not even get me started on what an epic screw-up you are, Grant,” Mercer immediately shot back. “If you hadn’t gotten yourself stuck in your own apartment with your own bomb, we wouldn’t have this issue to begin with.”

  Lara waited for Mercer to bring up the SIM card she’d hidden from the team. Nick shook his head the slightest bit and Lara knew he hadn’t told their boss about Lara’s true epic screw-up.

  Even though it would’ve meant a shoo-in for Nick as the new supervisory agent and head of CMU.

  Nick had been angry, justifiably so, but he hadn’t told Mercer what Lara had done. That was the exact reason Nick should get the job. Because Nick would protect his team. Because he would always put the team first.

  Because his very nature demanded that he enfold those closest to him into any shelter he could provide.

  Lara had always resisted the shelter Nick offered because she’d never truly known that sort of sanctuary. But that hadn’t meant Nick hadn’t offered.

  “Who’s to blame or not isn’t what is important right now,” Nick said calmly. “Stopping Halpert is. He’s escalating. I wouldn’t be surprised if his next bomb isn’t his biggest one yet.”

  “Bigger than a fucking shopping mall?”

  Lara rolled her eyes at Mercer’s apoplectic tone. The man would give himself a heart attack.

  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

  Nick’s tone remained calm. “The shopping mall was cleared. The school in Long Island we thought might be the target was also cleared.”

  Mercer wasn’t interested in looking on the bright side. “A member of the bomb disposal squad died. Do you have any idea of the damage that will do for FBI and local law enforcement relations? How it makes my office look?”

  Lara opened her mouth to blast Mercer about worrying more about appearances than stopping a killer, but Nick held out a hand and gave her a pointed look. Lara pressed her lips together and turned away.

  “We’ll have to worry about that after we stop Halpert, sir,” Nick said. “That’s our priority. Our only priority right now.”

  “Fine,” Mercer said through gritted teeth. “But you are one fuckup away from being pulled off this case entirely, you got it? Both of you.”

  Lara turned back toward the phone. “Yes, sir.”

  “We get the message loud and clear, sir. And you don’t have to worry about it.” Nick looked straight at Lara. “Believe me, there will be no more mistakes.”

  Chapter Two

  Fury rolled in waves off Mitchell Halpert. They’d forced his hand and he had done it. He had blown up the mall earlier than scheduled.

  All because Lara had cut the feed with him. Decided she would no longer talk to him.

  Mitchell shook his head. No, Lara wouldn’t have cut it. She needed him too badly. Someone else had cut it, undoubtedly having figured out that she was at her apartment when he allowed her to send the email.

  The deaths of the people in that mall were on the FBI’s hands. Not his. With their actions, they had forced him to detonate. And they’d permitted the deaths with their own incompetence: evacuating the school where Kai Aoki’s child attended on Long Island, rather than figure out exactly what Mitchell had planned.

  Mitchell supposed he shouldn’t be disappointed at the FBI’s ineptitude. He shouldn’t blame them for following his bread crumbs. After all, they were just going where he’d led them.

  He hadn’t led them to the mall in Staten Island. Ergo, sorry dead people.

  If law enforcement had been smart enough to figure out Mitchell’s plan those people at the mall wouldn’t have died. Their fault. Not his.

  He already missed talking to Lara. No, she hadn’t cut the feed. She was too desperate for the information about the cases that linked to her mother’s murder. The ten cases Mitchell held in his hand.

  Although he didn’t think she would’ve actually allowed other people to die to receive the information, he did know she wanted it. Agent Grant didn’t
strike him as someone who became desperate very often. But she was desperate for this info about these other ten cases.

  Knowing she was dependent on him eased the fury over the cut communication. He was still in control. He was the one who decided who lived and who died. He was the one who decided if and when she would receive the information she so desperately wanted. Agent Grant needed him.

  Lara needed him.

  He could kill her right now. One simple click of his mouse could detonate the bomb under Lara’s seat in her apartment. She’d be dead just like the people in that mall.

  But he didn’t want to do that. Talking to her—despite her occasional ugly words—had been the most fascinating activity Mitchell had been a part of in years. She wasn’t his intellectual equal, of course, but there was something compelling about her. Demons she seemed to carry around. A refusal to play by any rules but her own.

  A refusal to be browbeaten.

  The two of them weren’t as different as Lara might think. She couldn’t see it, but they both wanted what was just. What was right. Both wanted others to respect them. To acknowledge their abilities.

  Rejection and humiliation will not be tolerated.

  Mitchell was just willing to take that motto to whatever length needed in order to make it true. Lara allowed herself to be kept in check, at least somewhat, by rules.

  A shame that Lara hadn’t found the same illumination that he had. That she forced herself into a mold that wasn’t meant for her. Couldn’t see that she was the yin to his yang.

  But she at least respected Mitchell. Didn’t like him, but considered him a worthy adversary.

  Lara and the FBI would soon find out exactly what Mitchell was capable of. The entire world would. And it was so much more than they thought.

  The world should’ve already known his name by now. His brilliance had dictated it, but it hadn’t happened. Mitchell had punished those who had sought to take his glory away. The lives of everyone who had put a halt to the sale of his tracking software were now changed forever. They were all paying for their sins.

  And if only the people at BrainWave had embraced Mitchell’s brilliance instead of fearing and ridiculing and scorning him, Mitchell wouldn’t have been forced down this path to greatness. He would’ve found another path, one not tainted with so much blood, in which everyone would’ve known his name. Known his greatness.

  Soon everyone would anyway.

  It wasn’t the way he had planned his fame originally, but it would still work. And ironically, it would be the very tracking software he’d first developed—the one that had cost him everything thanks to the cowards who refused to follow through on what they’d promised him—that would allow him to make his face known all over the world.

  He’d been planning this event for ten months. And today was the day.

  History could’ve remembered him for much different reasons, but regardless, it would still remember him.

  But not just yet. He had a few more pawns to move into place before his final checkmate. Plus, he wanted to wait until he and Lara were face-to-face and he could see the recognition of his brilliance in her eyes as he made his last move. Ah yes, Lara would forever remember his face. They all would.

  First, he wanted to see what damage his other explosives had caused. Mitchell had to admit he was a little sad not to have been on site to rescue someone at the mall before the detonation. He enjoyed doing that. Picking someone to save. It made him feel a bit more benevolent.

  It was one of the most entertaining parts of being at the bomb sites, deciding who to preserve, to protect. Generally he picked out someone who looked nice. Or had on a shirt or blouse that was an appealing color. Something as completely random as that. Although Mitchell had actually saved that one kid because he saw him pickpocketing someone and found that funny.

  But Mitchell hadn’t rescued anyone today, since he’d been talking to Lara. If the FBI hadn’t forced him to set off the bomb early then he probably would’ve saved someone.

  Just a little more blood on the FBI’s hands.

  Mitchell decided to turn on the news on the crappy television here in the motel. To catch a glimpse of his handiwork. Sure enough reports of the explosion were on every station.

  But it didn’t take long for Mitchell to realize this was different than the other explosions. Less panic. No body counts. After watching for just a few minutes Mitchell grasped that law enforcement had somehow managed to clear the mall before he’d detonated the bomb.

  Mitchell let out a screech he couldn’t suppress. How had they gotten ahead of him? Figured it out? He’d been watching their progress from the CMU computers and they’d seemed far off base.

  Rage pooled through him as he flung his laptop across the bed. They’d ruined his plans. Thought they were smarter than him.

  Mitchell snatched up his laptop that hovered precariously on the edge of the bed, a part of his mind thankful that it hadn’t fallen and broken, spoiling everything.

  He immediately logged in and triggered the denotation of both the bomb at the school in Long Island and the bomb under Lara’s chair.

  He felt a moment’s regret about the explosives under Lara’s chair in her apartment. It was quite possible the bomb unit hadn’t been able to safely remove that yet. Mitchell could admit he would regret if Lara had died in that chair just now. He should’ve thought this through more carefully.

  If she died she wouldn’t be around to give a testimony of his brilliance.

  He wanted her to be right there with him when he finally made his name for himself. Wanted her to know the extent of the damage he’d caused before anybody else did.

  Wanted her to be the first person who would always remember him.

  So hopefully she wasn’t dead. He would know soon.

  But most importantly this was a sign. It was time for Mitchell to put his grandest plan into play. Finally, he would receive the recognition of greatness he deserved. They may speak of him in horrified whispers and hushed tones, but they would speak of him.

  Mitchell had given the world a chance to know him for what he could bestow upon them. Instead they’d chosen to know him for what he would take away.

  Rejection and humiliation will not be tolerated. Those found guilty will be put to death.

  Chapter Three

  “Could you make out any details from behind him?” Nick asked as they left her apartment to head back to the CMU offices. Lara wanted to get back as soon as possible to make up for her lapse in judgment. “Did anyone interrupt him or did you hear anything distinguishable while talking to him?”

  Lara closed her eyes and tried to think about the long hours of conversation in a different light. In a light where she wasn’t just a woman struggling through the painful memories Halpert had forced her to relive, but as an agent who’d been conversing with a suspect.

  It’s how she should’ve been thinking about the conversation the whole time. Another failure on her part.

  “No one interrupted him,” she finally said. “I know that. So he had to be in an isolated place. Not a restaurant or coffeehouse or anything.”

  “Okay, that’s a start.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yep. That eliminates about two percent of the city.”

  “What else?”

  “A plain wall behind him.”

  “So that could be a hotel.”

  She shrugged. “Or another bunker. He could be underground in another state park somewhere.”

  “It was a long time. Did he ever shift around like he was changing the batteries in his computer or something? Did the internet feed ever have problems?”

  Lara sat up a little straighter. “No. I definitely would’ve noticed if he was changing the batteries in his computer. I would’ve made a crack about his stockpile. And the internet con
nection was fine.”

  “So probably not a cellular feed. He was using Wi-Fi not 3G.”

  “He was in a hotel.”

  Nick nodded. “I would think so. No interruptions. Able to plug in his laptop. Reliable internet.”

  “Good to know. But it still doesn’t really help us.” A line etched between her brow.

  They knew his identity, knew what made him tick, but they were still at square one when it came to finding Halpert.

  And hell if Lara knew exactly where they stood with him. Would Halpert tell the team’s secrets? Had the explosion of the mall been the price for keeping his silence or had it only been in retribution for cutting the internet feed?

  Nobody wanted their secrets out in the open. So what if most of the team’s secrets were like Lara’s—not illegal, not life-threatening, not even particularly interesting to the general public? Their secrets were theirs. And even if it wouldn’t make front page news, every single member of the CMU team was stressed about the possibly of those secrets becoming public.

  But Lara knew the team. She knew that no matter how painful or humiliating their secrets were, not a single one of them was going to let someone else die just to hide their dirty laundry.

  Mitchell Halpert had to be smart enough to know that, too.

  And it all came so clear to her. If she hadn’t been so caught up in trying to get any scrap of info she could about her mother’s murder, she would’ve seen it much earlier.

  “He’s playing us, Nick. Halpert.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I would say he’s been playing us from the beginning.”

  “No, with all this ‘I’m going to expose your secrets’ business. He’s using that to distract us from whatever is his master plan.”

  Nick glanced over at her, brows furrowed. “Okay, the guy is definitely smart enough to have a pretty advanced endgame. But why? Why do you say that?”