Constant Craving (Task Force Hawaii #3)

by Melissa Schroeder

  “But to what end?” Drew asked.

  Charity rubbed her temples. “Maybe because this is what Foley does. He creates chaos then he does what he wants. So while TJ is playing around with Task Force Hawaii, Foley is doing something else.”

  “And using you to get at TJ, but this feels different. I read over the case files you emailed me last night.”

  She blinked. “Emma, I didn’t email those until after midnight.”

  Emma shrugged. “Baby won’t settle down, so I’m up a lot. I read them on my tablet in bed.”

  “Okay, well, what did you find?”

  “He doesn’t get detected until the last moment. So either there is another reason to reveal you as the target, or the stooge he is using this time used you and is kind of sucky at his job.”

  “Why Hawaii?” Drew asked.

  Emma shook her head. “Not sure, although, the link might be in the FBI.”

  “I think we’re done here, though. All of it loops back to us, and I can’t figure it out,” Charity said.

  “Unless there’s a person who broke into TFH offices,” Drew suggested. “But we would have known that, right?”

  Charity blinked. “Oh, damn.” She opened up file menu and started scanning the files. Then, she saw it.

  Money Wash.

  “Son of a bitch,” she murmured.

  Emma leaned over her shoulder. “That’s the name of the last operation to take down Foley. The one where it all got screwed up.”

  “And it’s on my computer. That’s what he did. Remote access. I want to find the bastard and make him cry.”

  Charity moved her cursor closer to the file wanting to contain it, but Emma stopped her.

  “No. He’ll know if we do anything.”

  “But he could access it again.”

  “I can set up a program to trace it if he does, but I have a feeling he’s done. Setting you up was the main reason.”

  “Dammit. Okay.”

  Emma tapped her shoulder. “Move over and I’ll work on it.”

  Charity did as she asked and grabbed her coffee cup, realizing it was empty.

  “Hey, I’ll get you some more. Anyone hungry? I can grab something to munch on. The coffee stand has sandwiches.”

  “I’m always hungry these days. One for me and some water.”

  “Thanks, Drew.”

  He hurried out of the lab, and Charity sat down in the chair he’d vacated.

  “He looks better,” Emma said as she continued to tap on the keys.

  “Yeah. That’s one good thing that came out of this.”

  Emma glanced at her over the computer screen. “Don’t worry, Charity. It’ll all work out.”

  She smiled and nodded. In the end, she would be vindicated. If Emma Delano had been on Foley’s case from the beginning, Foley would be in jail. Charity knew her professional reputation was in good hands. She was safe in that quarter.

  Unfortunately, she was pretty sure her heart was definitely going to be left bruised in the end.

  TJ took a long drink from his bottle of water, then wiped the sweat away from his forehead using his forearm. It was noon, and he’d been working since the sun had peeked over the water. He’d had no sleep the night before, and his jaw hurt like a mother fucker. And he wanted to be pissed.

  But he wasn’t. He was mad. Mad at Drew for the sucker punch. Irritated that Charity had figured out what was going on, and that Del had ordered him to TFH headquarters on Monday. He was maddest with himself though.

  It had been awhile since a woman had captured his attention. Charity was a woman of hidden depths. She was a science nerd, a comic book/sci fi geek, and she was rated an expert shot by the CIA. Add in that she was sweet and sexy, and when he made her smile, he felt as if he owned the world...

  He sighed. He looked around the kitchen, happy that he would be done with it this week. It had given him something to concentrate on this weekend instead of Charity. He had called her a couple of times, but she hadn’t answered. He didn’t blame her, but it didn’t mean he would quit trying any time soon.

  TJ knew that he was at fault, but he saw no other way around it. He had a job to do, and he doubted that any of them would have done differently. Hell, he had heard the stories about TFH and some of the things they had pulled to get the case done. Still, it didn’t make him feel any better.

  What kind of cosmic joke was the universe playing on him? Or was it that she seemed out of reach that he wanted her? The moment he thought of it, the image of her smiling at him popped into his head. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the way heat beat through his blood. The taste of her mouth against his, the way she had sighed and leaned closer...

  Nope, it had nothing to do with the job.

  His phone rang, and he saw it was his brother Luke.

  He could ignore it, but if he did, Luke would tell his mother. Then there would be more calls.

  “Hey, loser.”

  “Nice way to answer the phone, bro.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Mom said you had a date the other night.”

  He frowned. “And? You know I’m not one for kissing and telling.”

  There was a beat of silence. “Listen, TJ, I understand what went down in DC a year ago, but when you took that job, Mom freaked. We—”

  “We?”

  “Me, Matt, and Wade. We convinced her you were starting over. Getting a fresh start and going back to what you liked doing.”

  “Yeah?” The fact that his little brothers were discussing his love life with their mother was embarrassing. Damn.

  “But, after a year there and you hadn’t had a date...we all started to worry.”

  “You guys never talked about my love life before.”

  Luke chuckled. “Actually, we did because you did have a rep in high school. You know how hard that was to live up to?”

  “Aw, poor baby boys.”

  “Fuck you,” he said with little heat.

  “I had a date. You can quit worrying.”

  “How did it go?”

  “Good.” That much was true. That is, until she realized he was investigating her and her roommate punched him. “She has a cat with your name.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He chuckled. “Telling you the truth.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Even has a female cat named Jess.”

  “No way. You found a geek?”

  “A gorgeous one at that.”

  “Is she a local?”

  “Actually, no. Well, she lives here but she’s not originally from Hawaii. Works for a task force here on the islands, but she’s originally from Atlanta. And, she has ordered things from Mom and Dad’s store.”

  His brother grunted. “Okay, that is really weird.”

  “Small world indeed.”

  “When are you going to tell me her name?”

  “It will be on the invitation.”

  There was a beat of silence, and TJ laughed. He had definitely stunned his little brother, which was never easy. Luke was known for his antics from the time he could crawl, according to his mother.

  “I’m not giving you her name. You idiots will look her up on the database, and I don’t want that.”

  One of them would definitely look her up and they would all go through her background. It was already bad enough with his FUBAR of the situation.

  “At least I can report I tried. So, are you at the beach today?”

  “Nope. Working on the house. Getting the cabinets done so I can get the appliances and counter tops installed next weekend.”

  “Sad, bro.”

  TJ walked to the window and looked out over the rooftops to the little speck of ocean he could see. “I have to get this place ready for family visits. As it is, this is the last of the big stuff I have to do. This time next week, it will be ready for Mom to come bake me cherry pie.”

  “Oh yeah,” his brother said smacking his lips. “I had some last weekend.”

 
; “Bastard.”

  “Ha. Well, I did my job. I have my real job to handle today.”

  “What are you working on?”

  “I’m digging into a cold case. It might have some ties to one that landed on my desk last week.”

  Luke worked on the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program with the Texas Rangers. He’d always been someone who loved old mysteries.

  “Oh, and you give me shit? Give me a break. You’re working weekends. At least I can head down to the beach for a sunset.”

  He laughed. “Too true. Gotta go. Be sure to call Mom once a week. Otherwise, I have to listen to her complain about not hearing from her poor baby. It makes all of us so ill we have to call in sick to work.”

  “Aw, sorry you aren’t her favorite, but you know, being first does make me that.”

  “Get bent. Later, bro.”

  After hanging up with his brother, he felt lighter. He hadn’t always had this kind of relationship with his younger siblings. There was four years’ difference between him and Luke. His younger brothers had all been born about eighteen months apart, so they were always closer than he had been. Now that they all had a few years under their belts at the Rangers, he had started to talk to them more. Not so much as an older brother, but as a friend. It was the one thing that he liked about his move from DC to Hawaii. He had started to understand how much he really liked and admired his brothers.

  With a sigh, he realized none of them would admire him for what he had been playing at here. His mother would definitely box his ears. He grabbed some fresh water and went in search of his doorknobs. He had just a little bit more work to do, and then he would definitely head out to the beach.

  The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when Charity’s phone rang Monday morning. Unfortunately, she’d been awake for hours. First, a late night call from ADA Deason telling her that they had made a deal with the defendant in the case, so she was off the hook for court Monday. She had almost forgotten about it with everything that had happened on Friday, but she definitely sent her thanks to the man upstairs for this blessing. She would be a wreck today.

  When she saw her mother’s number, she wanted to ignore it. Her mother had a weird sixth sense about her. She always seemed to call when things sucked, and she could always tell something was bothering Charity.

  Ignoring the phone call wouldn’t work. Her mother would just call Drew, who was still being an ass. He would rat her out. If she wanted to keep her parents out of it, at least, until they knew just what the hell is going on.

  She clicked to answer.

  “Hey, Mama.”

  “Good morning.”

  “What are you doing calling me so early?”

  “I just talked to Drew to find out your schedule because I needed to talk to you, and he said you weren’t having a good time of it.”

  Plans to kill her roommate were back on. It was bad enough he screwed everything up the other night, but ratting her out to her mother was a grave sin.

  “I had a long week, but it is looking up. I’m avoiding court because the defendant made a deal. Was there anything you needed?”

  Her mother hesitated, and for a second or two, Charity was worried her mother was going to try and coax what was wrong out of her.

  “I just had an interesting morning, and well, I can’t say anything to your father yet.”

  “I told you he knows about you and the pool boy.”

  “Ha ha. I don’t know how I raised such a smart ass.”

  “Better than a dumb one.”

  “True.” Then her mother paused again, and Charity was really starting to worry.

  “Mom, is there something wrong?”

  “I went to see your grandfather today.”

  “Grandpa’s okay, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, yes, he is fine. It’s just that he had a guest.”

  She smiled. Her grandfather had been widowed when Charity was just a little girl. He was a charismatic man, who could charm just about anyone he came into contact with him, so it was no surprise he had a woman.

  “And? I never thought you were a prude.”

  “I am not being a prude. It was his choice of companion that bothered me.”

  “Was it a man?”

  “Good lord, no. Although, that would have been surprising, but not as upsetting.”

  “Mom.”

  “Your grandmother was there.”

  At first, her brain didn’t compute the answer. “What?”

  “Your grandmother was there, and not just stopping by. She was wearing a robe.”

  “You mean Grandma Edwards? Dad’s mom. That grand-mom?”

  “That’s the only grandma you have.”

  “They hate each other.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I mean; I remember her telling him he had the manners of a dog. A dead dog at that, and I never really understood that expression. How does a dead dog have manners?”

  “Your grandmother doesn’t always make sense when she’s upset. And that day had been bad.”

  The memory was fuzzy, but she was sure it had something to do with her birthday party. There had been an argument over something she couldn’t remember. She was seven and there was yelling and cake thrown. That was all she could remember about the day.

  “It is hard for me to even remember if there was a time that they would even say something nice, let alone get busy with each other.”

  “There is a thin line between love and hate. I just don’t know how I am going to tell your father.”

  “Why do you have to tell him?”

  “He has to know. If I don’t tell him, then he finds out I knew, he will be extremely pissed.”

  She opened her mouth, but her mother said, “Damn, there he is now. Nothing to your father about this.”

  Then she hung up. Charity looked at her phone, then clicked it off.

  “What the hell is happening to my life?”

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Go away.”

  Drew ignored her and opened the door. “Hey, is everything okay with your family?”

  “No. Well, yes. I mean nothing bad, but apparently my grandparents are sleeping together.”

  Drew blinked. “You mean the conservative uppity white woman and the former Black Panther?”

  She closed her eyes. “God, my life sucks.”

  “At least you don’t have court.”

  “Yeah, at least there is that.”

  “How about we go get breakfast before going in?”

  She opened her eyes and focused on him finally, and realized he was dressed for work.

  “Are you planning on going back in?”

  “Yeah. I figured I need to get back into work.”

  “You know Cat’s back from Maui, right?”

  He nodded. “No worries. I’m going to have to face it sooner or later. Both of us will.”

  “Give me thirty minutes, twenty-five if you go make me some coffee.”

  “Got it, Ebony Queen.”

  When he left, she couldn’t fight the smile. It might be a crappy day, and she might not be happy with the outcome, or how stupid she had been, but having Drew up and moving around—dressed even—well, that was definitely a fantastic way to start a Monday.

  Chapter Nine

  TJ sat at the long table in TFH’s conference area and waited. The entire team—even Drew¸ who had dragged himself into the office—stared at him as if they were each trying to figure out how to torture and murder him. Even a newcomer was giving him the stink eye, an athletic Hawaiian woman he knew was Cat Kalakau. He hadn’t been introduced, but she had sniffed in his direction. He had read her file, and he was pretty sure she was configuring the best way to kill him and hide his body. If there was one woman on the team who could do it, it would be her.

  Ten minutes earlier, he had arrived. No refreshments had been offered, and Del had been the only one who spoke to him. He was told to sit down before Del and Charity had walked off to Del’s of
fice to talk. And that was the last anyone had said a word to him.

  He didn’t try to engage. There was no need for small talk, as he knew for a fact most of them wanted to rip off his face. He had been in this position before when he ferreted out someone who had been selling data info. Jacob had worked in his office, but it didn’t make it any less of a crime because of that. Still, the people he’d worked with for years had turned on him. It was what drove him to the undercover assignment with Remington in the first place.

  The door opened, pulling him out of his dark reflections. Del waited to allow Charity to step in front of him. The woman had dressed to kill him, he was sure. The white dress looked simple in design, but the way it hugged her curves made his fingers itch. How did she even walk on those four-inch heels? She made it look so easy, swaying with each step. He wanted to follow those same curves with his hands, his mouth...

  He pushed those thoughts aside. He didn’t need to be sitting at the conference table with a hard-on. It wasn’t like he had much of a chance for relief any time soon. This was about winning them back to work with him. As she walked to her chair, she didn’t look at him, but he held his own and didn’t beg. Barely.

  “So,” Del said, taking a seat. Charity sat next to Del and continued to avoid eye contact. “We’ve been looking at the issues that brought you to us, and we kind of understand why you came in under cover. But now we have a little problem on our hands.”

  “What?”

  Del looked at Emma who took control of the conversation. “Listen, we get that you apparently have cleared her, but the FBI still hasn’t. Worse, you’ve now made her a target.”

  He glanced at Charity, who had no expression on her face.

  “What?”

  No answer from Charity, so Emma continued. “I’m sure you were led here by whatever hacker Foley has been using. But the heart of the matter is that by showing interest, you have made her a target. We know what happened last time you went after Foley.”

  Dammit. “And how would you know about that?”

  “I have my ways. And, well, Del has contacts. The woman you all were shadowing got killed.”

  He nodded. “But we had no contact with her.”