He pulled out his cell and popped his SIM card.
“What are you doing?” she asked in surprise.
“Where should we drop you?” Mac didn’t answer her question.
She froze and felt the two men do the same.
“I, ah…” She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Her home would likely be engulfed by reporters. She couldn’t go there.
And suddenly she knew she couldn’t keep quiet any longer about what she’d found at her brother’s house even if it meant telling Frazer and Parker as well as Mac. She couldn’t believe Cole was involved, but she couldn’t keep quiet if people might be in danger. If he was guilty she was already complicit—the thought was horrifying.
She cleared her throat as Frazer negotiated traffic. “I have something to tell you. You aren’t going to like it.” Guilt oozed from every pore, so thick she was sure they could smell it. “On Monday, when the judge and his wife were murdered?”
Mac stared at her over his shoulder like a law enforcement officer rather than a lover. Surely he’d understand why she hadn’t mentioned this before?
“I went to Cole’s house that morning. He was supposed to meet me to go over his tax forms but I assumed he forgot. So I went through some of his drawers to get the information I needed.” The whole car held its breath.
Her mouth turned into sand. She rubbed her left arm. “I found a piece of paper with a picture of the dead judge on it.”
The silence in the car sounded like a sonic boom.
“I didn’t mention it because I know my brother. He would never be involved in this sort of thing—”
“We don’t always know people the way we think we do,” Parker said quietly.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Mac stared at her like he’d discovered she was an alien.
“I went back the next day. With Cole. I figured I could confront him with the file and see whether or not he was lying to me, but the file was gone.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out a thumb drive.
“What’s that?” Mac asked.
“This was in the same file folder in my brother’s file cabinet. It was lying on the bottom of the filing cabinet when I went back for a second look. I took it. I don’t know why I took it.” Mac raised his brows in a “really” motion. She tried to ease the dryness in her throat but no amount of swallowing helped. “There’s nothing on it except porn movies.”
Alex plucked it from her fingers and examined it closely. “Let’s head to my apartment where we can check it out—not the porn.” His grin was pure mischief.
Frazer nodded.
“You didn’t think this was worth mentioning?” Mac’s voice was deceptively soft. She knew him well enough to realize he was furious.
Tess shrank back against the seat. “You don’t understand. Cole isn’t like that. He’s not a violent person. He’s a pacifist.”
“Where is he now?” Mac demanded.
“I have no idea,” she snapped back.
“You know his schedule?”
She nodded. “He has a lecture on a Friday morning at nine-fifteen. He’s free after that.” Those eyes of his darkened to a turbulent green. She’d screwed up.
“Did it ever occur to you,” he said very slowly, like she was slow-witted, and maybe she was, she certainly felt stupid. “That data stick might be what your intruder was looking for last night?”
“It’s just porn—”
“You’re a computer expert now? Like your brother is?” Mac’s lips curled. And she shut up.
“If you’d told investigators we could have combed Cole’s house and maybe saved a life. Maybe saved Heather’s life. Did you think of that?”
Her chest split wide open. No. She hadn’t. “Cole isn’t a violent person.”
“And if you’d truly believed that you would have told me about the file when I turned up at your house.” Mac turned away from her and despair tried to swallow her whole.
Protecting her brother had been something she’d done since she was a little girl, since the raid that had left them orphans against the world.
“I didn’t even know Kenny Travers survived the gunfight until Tuesday, but I was supposed to blindly trust you when you show up with a different identity twenty years later?”
As angry as she was she still needed to finish this. “There’s something else.”
“What?” The impatience and anger in Mac’s tone made her flinch.
“I went to Cole’s house after you left last night.”
His eyes flashed to hers and she glared back. She’d kept their dirty secret. She was beginning to think she’d been the biggest fool imaginable for sleeping with him and that she was a complete failure when it came to judging people.
“I decided to confront him about what I’d seen on Monday. But he wasn’t there, so I searched his bedroom. The paper file was hidden under his mattress.” She took a deep breath and pulled the plastic bag from her purse and handed it to Mac, careful not to touch him. “I called you several times but you didn’t answer.” She twisted her hands together. “I took it. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know who else to trust.”
Mac’s eyes were wide. Then he took the latex gloves Frazer offered him and turned his attention to the printed pages. He started swearing and looked up. “We need to obtain protection for everyone on this list.”
She turned to stare out the window as the streets of DC rushed past. Her lack of trust might have gotten people killed and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to live with herself if that was true.
Frazer took an incoming call. After he hung up he told them, “Eddie Hines was just arrested in a remote cabin belonging to a female prison guard. In northern Idaho.”
So who had been her intruder last night? Cole? Had her brother shot at her? Had Cole murdered Mac’s ex-wife and tried to frame him?
Ice formed in her veins, jagged shards that ripped through her flesh. Her teeth chattered so much she huddled deeper into her jacket. How could she have been so foolish? How could she have made such a stupid mistake? Mac met her gaze and she knew he was thinking the exact same thing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What do you want to do?” Frazer asked Mac.
Mac had left angry far behind and moved on to combustible, molten rage. He was reeling from the fact Tess had lied to him from the start. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply to quiet the fury, but it was like something volatile beneath his skin and once it ignited it wasn’t going out until it burned down to the bone.
He’d been on the verge of contemplating how they might make a relationship between them work after this whole debacle was over.
How had he allowed himself to trust her on the basis of who she’d been as a kid? What sort of idiot did that?
His sort, apparently.
Except his feelings for who’d she’d been as a kid had nothing to do with what had happened last night. That was strictly eighteen-plus.
“Do we call the task force and have them send a team to Cole Fallon’s house?” Frazer asked.
“No.” Mac was working on the assumption that the ghost skin might be inside the task force. “But we need to track him down and arrange warrants.”
“I’ll find him.” Parker pulled out his cell and made a call.
They needed to talk and Mac needed a clear head to figure this shit out. But regardless of what had happened over the last ten hours he was still an FBI agent and FBI agents did not discuss cases in front of uncleared witnesses, especially those linked to the case. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“What about DNA? Any results back?” asked Parker.
“We can’t talk in front of a civilian,” Mac said tersely.
“He’s not an FBI agent.” Tess pointed at Parker. Her face was pale but there were two bright spots of color on her cheeks. She was pissed. Excellent. That made them even.
“Parker’s a consultant,” Mac bit out. “He has security clearance.”
Tess’s eyes glistened and
she reached for the door handle. “Stop the car and let me out.”
“Not gonna happen, sweetheart.”
“Are you saying I’m your prisoner?” Her voice vibrated with anger. “Or perhaps you haven’t finished using me to further your career yet? That’s what you’ve been doing every step of the way. At the prison, at the compound, every time you came to my house.”
Tension in the car ramped up until it felt like a garrote wrapped around his throat.
“I’m saying,” he tried to be rational, “that I don’t want you to warn your brother that we’re onto him.”
“Then I should remind you that I’m the one who brought you the information!”
“She has a point,” said Parker.
Mac’s eye twitched. “She’s a little late coming forward with this.”
“I would have come to you last night but you didn’t answer your phone.”
“I was a little busy getting arrested,” he snarled.
“And that wasn’t my fault!” she snapped. Then her anger seemed to crumple and she put her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry about your wife.”
“Ex,” Mac said sharply and meaning it. “Ex-wife.” Despite what Tess probably thought when he’d left her lying naked on the kitchen floor, he hadn’t had feelings for Heather. His ex had killed their relationship with her betrayal and deception. He really wasn’t the forgiving type. It didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt to see her brutalized.
Where did that leave him and Tess? It left them exactly nowhere, where they’d always been. But he needed to be diplomatic. Unless he wanted to have to forcibly manhandle Tess and make her do what he wanted, he needed to convince her to come with them voluntarily. And she was right. He had used her. He had put her in danger. It didn’t mean he didn’t care about her. He just couldn’t trust her. Not anymore. Not ever again.
“The FBI will no doubt have more questions for you. It would be better if they knew where to find you rather than wasting their time running around the city looking for you. Plus, it will look better that you surrendered yourself.”
“Surrendered? I just gave you your goddamned alibi.” Her lips clamped down and she retreated into herself.
“The FBI planned to put a protection detail on you and now the news has broken about your identity the media will be all over your home. Where precisely are you planning on going?”
Her mouth tightened. “I don’t know.”
She stared fixedly out the window and looked so isolated something inside his chest snapped.
He didn’t believe she was involved in murder, but she’d concealed information. Now she’d have to pay the price. So would he.
Parker interrupted. “You can get some rest at my apartment while we try to figure this out, Tess. I have a spare room. No reporters. And no one would think to look for you there. You’ll be safe.”
Mac met Parker’s gaze, grateful but unable to voice it. Parker seemed to understand.
“I’m worried about Cole,” Tess said quietly.
“You’re not his mother, Tess.”
Her eyes flashed red hot. “I’m all he has. You saw to that.”
Ouch.
“I swore to protect him the day I curled over his body in that small cramped closet as bullets whizzed above our heads. Since the day we were taken into foster care and people wanted to separate us because I was damaged goods. He’s my little brother and I love him. Obviously, that’s an emotion you can’t comprehend.”
He flinched but kept his mouth shut. No one said another word but she didn’t try to defend Cole again.
He leafed through the file on his lap, trying to get his breathing under control. It contained details on all of the victims and several other potential targets. They needed to warn these people, which meant he was going to have to contact HQ soon. But he needed to figure out who the ghost skin was before he gave away the fact he was on to them. They couldn’t risk this person going to ground.
So—who to trust?
ASC Gerald? The color of his skin made him the safest bet. And if that was racial profiling people could go fuck themselves. Antigovernment types weren’t always racists, and racists weren’t always antigovernment. However, Gerald was unlikely to have connections with the Pioneers.
Hopefully the thumb drive contained details of their other planned attacks and they’d be stopped before being carried out. It wasn’t looking good for young Cole.
Mac glanced at Tess. From the angle of her chin as she gazed fixedly out the window she was pissed, but she was also upset.
He’d hurt her. Again. This time, it was her own damn fault.
“Make sure we don’t have anyone following us,” Mac told Frazer. He didn’t want the ghost skin finding out where they were or whom he was talking to. The wheels of justice were renowned for turning slowly, but in this instance, they needed to act fast.
“Give me your phone.” He addressed Tess.
She handed it over reluctantly and he popped the SIM card.
No one asked questions.
They got to an apartment near the Watergate Building and Frazer parked in the underground garage. They took the elevator up to Parker’s pad. Mac knew he and Rooney were buying a house nearer Quantico, but this place was pretty swish, too.
Parker showed Tess into a spare bedroom. “Grab a shower. Get some rest. You’re safe here.” Mac didn’t like the quiver of guilt that wriggled inside him. He was the one who should be reassuring her, but he couldn’t bring himself to risk it. Tess was his weakness and she’d brought this on herself by lying to him.
Except…given the circumstances he couldn’t blame her for being reluctant to trust anyone.
Hell, she hadn’t known he was still alive until he’d turned up on her doorstep Tuesday night. If someone stepped out of his past after a twenty-year absence would he tell them his deep, dark secrets? The answer was hell no, but he didn’t have time to forgive Tess right now.
Lives were at stake. And he was still so furious she’d conned him he didn’t trust himself to behave judiciously.
Chances were his career had been blown to smithereens. Maybe if he helped expose the ghost skin, and proved someone was trying to set him up for murder he’d be forgiven, but this wouldn’t look good no matter what color he painted it.
He followed Frazer into the fancy kitchen with its wide, marble countertops and shaker cabinets.
Mac peered out the window. The place had a great view of the Watergate complex. “As ironic as it sounds given the view, I need to know that what I’m about to say cannot be overheard.”
Parker eyed him solemnly and pulled out a keychain. “I swept for bugs yesterday.” He pressed a button on the fob and a small red light appeared on his keychain. “This will stop electronic ears in the immediate area and I have some other anti-listening devices installed.” Parker looked pointedly at the windows.
Mac blinked at the guy. He’d briefly forgotten Parker was in the security business.
“We’re as safe from eavesdroppers as any human can be, although I can’t guarantee flapping ears.” Parker inclined his head in the direction of the bedroom where he’d left Tess. He then pulled out his laptop and inserted the thumb drive.
Mac kept his voice low. “I think the killer is one of us.”
“Us?” Parker cocked his brow.
“You mean FBI?” Frazer said.
Panting sounds started coming from Parker’s computer. Mac went around the island to look. Two men and a girl were being creative in a car wash.
Mac blew out a frustrated breath. “Is Tess right? Is this her brother’s porn collection?”
Parker frowned. “Maybe…but,” he pointed at the screen, “Looky here.”
Mac saw a list in a directory with faded file names.
“Hidden files.” Parker clicked on one. “Encrypted.”
“You think it’s related to the murders?”
Parker shrugged. “I have no idea. Could be gardening tips.” He cracked his kn
uckles. “But I intend to find out.”
“What makes you think they have a mole inside of the FBI?” Frazer asked while Parker did his thing.
Mac helped himself to a glass of water from the tap. He could still taste the sour scent of jail on his tongue.
“I should have thought of it from the beginning. David Hines was a smart fucker and always had his eye on the long game. He—along with other white supremacist groups—urged some of their followers to keep quiet about their racist or antigovernment beliefs and sign up for law enforcement. Told ’em to rise through the ranks and find other like-minded souls and secretly influence policy from within. Act as early warning systems for groups like the Pioneers and be ready to rise up when called upon. It’s the latter part that worries me now.”
This could damage the FBI’s reputation irreparably, particularly coming close on the heels of ASAC Guy Clarkson being uncovered as a Russian spy who’d framed one of his best friends to take the fall. Richard Stone had almost died in ADX Florence, reviled as one of the most hated men in FBI history. Frazer and Parker had been involved in overturning that miscarriage of justice, too. They were good people. People he could trust. Unlike Tess.
“It’s not that easy to fool all the background checks,” said Frazer.
Parker cocked his head thoughtfully as he worked. “Not impossible either, as we both know. Also, they don’t need to be an agent to gain access. They might be tech support.”
“So what do we know for sure?” Frazer grabbed a stack of post-it notes and a pen from beside Parker’s phone. He made a list of the victims. Seeing Heather’s name gave Mac a kick in the gut. It still didn’t seem real that she’d been murdered.
“How’s Trettorri doing?” he asked.
“Hanging in there. Docs think he’ll recover but it’ll take time.”
Which this investigation didn’t have.
“They run the DNA from his fingernails yet?” Mac asked.
“I’ll call and check. Let’s get our priorities straight first.” Frazer wrote a note and stuck it on one side of the butcher’s block.
DNA.
Mac thought about all the evidence they’d collected and were sifting through. The evidence would eventually nail the bad guys, but by then it might be too late.
Cold Malice Page 31