by Janie Crouch
Emotion had no place in solving crimes. No matter how much Cain wanted someone to be innocent, he knew firsthand that wasn’t always how things panned out.
He looked through all the unknown files again. People with a background in computers who would be able to get Freihof the information he wanted without being detected. The one thing they knew for sure was the traitor was highly skilled in computer usage.
But a number of people were skilled in that area. Even people who had jobs not involving computers or intel could still have the prowess needed to be the mole.
Cain picked up a file for John Carnell. The guy was a genius; his damn mind worked like a computer. Abrupt and sullen, he was often difficult to work with, but almost always the smartest person in the room.
Cain slid Carnell’s file from the unknown to the suspicious pile. There it joined half a dozen others. Two from people who had filed complaints with the head Omega office in Washington, DC, when they were bypassed for promotions—maybe one of them had an ax to grind and had become the mole. SWAT wannabe Saul Poniard’s file was also in the pile; he had such a perfect record that it bugged Cain.
And Lillian Muir, a member of the SWAT team. Cain didn’t like putting her name in the suspicious pile, especially since she’d been one of the people injured in an explosion a few days ago at Freihof’s last known place of residence. A wooden projectile had lodged itself in her shoulder. A painful but non-life-threatening injury.
But Cain could not deny that Lillian’s past—and how well hidden she’d kept it—made her a suspect. Someone who had gone to the lengths she had to hide her past was someone who had something to lose.
When Steve Drackett walked in the door, Cain slid Lillian’s file under another one. He knew Steve was too emotionally involved with his inner team to objectively consider the possibility that one of them was the traitor.
“How’s it going in here?” Steve asked.
“I’ll admit, I’d rather be out enjoying your beautiful Colorado mountains than stuck inside this windowless room.”
Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “I keep saying you need to transfer from the DC office out here. Quality-of-life clause.” Steve’s eyes flew to the screen where Cain had paused the recording of Grace Parker’s death.
Cain walked over and shut it off. Steve had seen the murder footage enough times; he didn’t need to see it again. Steve gestured toward the files on the table. “Any luck?”
“I have my theories. My categories of suspects. I have to be honest with you, Steve, it’s probably better if you just don’t even know who I’m really looking into.”
Cain wouldn’t tell him anyway, but he hoped the other man wouldn’t ask. Cain respected Steve, had known him for a lot of years. He didn’t want to let this drive a wedge—professional or personal—between them.
But he would if it meant catching the mole.
Steve rolled tense shoulders. “I don’t like it, I’ll be honest. But I like even less the thought of a traitor walking among us every day. Of more of my agents getting hurt or killed.”
“I know,” Cain said softly. “We’re going to get him, Steve. Get them. Freihof and whoever this mole is.”
“Do you have any particular direction you’re following?”
“Some. Based on profiling and what might be considered suspicious activities. Or even particular skill sets. But what’s really going to help me catch this person is the computer stuff.”
“That’s why you’re going to Hayley Green.”
He could still see the way she’d looked at him that day in the courtroom. How dead her eyes had been. That had been the last time he’d seen her. He’d tried to visit her multiple times the first year she’d gone to prison, but she’d always refused to have anything to do with him. So then he’d stopped trying.
Although he’d never stopped thinking about her.
“I don’t have the skills to find this person, but she does.”
Steve’s eyebrow raised. “You know Hayley is a convicted felon. You made sure of that.”
His gut tightened at the thought, like it did every time. “But she’s also the best at hacking a computer system.”
“Are you sure she will help you?”
Hayley had been paroled four months ago. Cain knew the exact date she’d gotten out. He’d been surprised when she moved back to Gainesville, Georgia, upon release. The place she always said she wanted to get away from.
They both had wanted to get away from it. Heaven knew they had spent enough time during their relationship in high school talking about getting out. But maybe she had decided that familiar was better.
“Cain?” Steve repeated. “Are you sure that Hayley will help you? After everything that happened?”
Cain forced himself to release the tension in his shoulders. “Hayley was guilty. She’s now out of prison and I’m sure she’s ready to move on.”
“But moving on and helping the man who put her in prison are two different things.”
Helping the man who used his relationship with her to put her in prison.
Steve didn’t say the words, but he didn’t have to. Both of them were thinking it; Steve had known Cain when it happened. They both knew that was much more difficult to move on from.
Cain ignored it. He’d done what he had to do four years ago, even though it had gutted him. But the law had been on his side. He tried to remember that.
And he’d had no idea the judge would be so hard in his sentencing of Hayley. But that hadn’t changed the fact that she was guilty.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle Hayley,” Cain finally said. And he would. He couldn’t believe that she wouldn’t help him catch a murderer, no matter what had transpired between the two of them in the past.
“If you say so.” Steve wisely didn’t say anything further.
“I’m going to have to go completely dark from Omega.” Cain began stacking files. Many of them would be coming with him to Georgia. “Hayley can’t work anywhere within the Omega system.”
“Completely dark?” Steve asked. “That could be dangerous. You won’t have much backup if you need it.”
“Until we know how deep this goes, have a better idea of who the mole is and what sort of capacity he or she has for obtaining information? I can’t work within the Omega system. If this mole is as good as we think, he’ll realize it if I’m inside.”
The last thing either of them wanted to do was cause the traitor to go to ground. They’d never be able to catch him then. And that would make apprehending Freihof that much harder.
“The only people who will know what I’m doing will be you, Ren McClement in the DC office and me.”
Steve nodded. They both wanted to trust more people but keeping this circle as small as possible was the best scenario. McClement worked in the highest levels of Omega Sector, bringing together multiple departments when needed. The man was all but a legend. Cain trusted Ren just as much as he trusted Steve.
With his life.
“You just be careful,” Steve said. “Going dark can have some hard consequences.”
“I’m willing to pay that price if it means we get this traitor out of our midst.”
“I know you are.” Steve studied him. “But sometimes we are not the only person to pay the price. Hayley might have been guilty of whatever crime she committed years ago, but dragging her into this could be even worse.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect Hayley.” Believe it or not, even if she couldn’t see it, he’d always been trying to protect her. From the day he met her in high school until today. “I’ll make sure it’s cleared through the state so that she won’t be violating her parole by helping us. I won’t let anybody hurt her.”
Steve moved toward the door, nodding. “I hope she sees it that way.”
So did Cain.
Chapter Two
She almost moaned in relief at how good it felt to be off her feet for just a second as she wiped. It was two o’clock in the afternoon. She’d already been working six hours and still had another eight to go. Just like yesterday.
And the day before that.
It was the only way she could make ends meet when she earned only minimum wage. Less than that, actually. But she didn’t argue, because at least she had a job.
Not many people were willing to hire a convicted felon, she’d found when she left the Georgia Women’s Correctional Institution four months ago. She’d been fortunate that the restaurant she worked at in high school part-time, still owned by the same family and now managed by their son, Timothy Smittle, a high school classmate of Hayley’s, had been willing to take a chance on her.
They hadn’t let her wait tables, explaining that they couldn’t allow an ex-felon to interact with customers or handle money. But Timothy had graciously offered to allow Hayley to bus the tables, wash dishes and clean the entire restaurant.
The same Timothy who was looking over at her now, eyebrow raised, since she was no longer wiping the table, just resting. Hayley quickly jumped up, not wanting to risk another lecture about how lucky she was to have a job at such a respectable establishment.
Hayley didn’t think too hard about her future. About the fact that she was twenty-eight years old, had no college degree, was an ex-felon and would probably still be working fourteen-hour days at the Bluewater twenty years from now.
Or the fact that she might have to start running for her life as soon as she was legally able to access a computer.
As she carried the bus pan back to the dishwashing area—thankful that some customer had come in and cut Timothy off from the route that had led straight to her and a lecture—she tried to count her blessings.
As a part of her parole she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near a computer. The anklet she couldn’t remove ensured she had no interaction with a computer that lasted longer than two minutes every six hours. Not even social media. Although maybe she could manage a tweet in under two minutes.
It was a prototype. She should probably feel honored that she was one of the first batch of cyber criminals it was being tested on. This was what happened when you were part of a high-profile crime that even grabbed the attention of US senators. Everybody wanted to make sure you didn’t do it again.
Hayley had to admit her fingers itched for a keyboard. She yearned to get back into a world that involved no dishes or people like Smittle. She had a gift. When it came to computers and coding, she knew she had a gift.
Too bad she had let those gifts get her in trouble and cut her off from what could’ve been a very comfortable future. No one to blame but herself for that.
Well, maybe someone else to blame. But she didn’t expect she would ever see Cain Bennett again, so there was no point in targeting any anger toward him.
She rubbed at an ache in the general vicinity of her heart at the thought of Cain. Then cursed herself not only for getting her shirt damp with her wet fingers, but for even thinking about him at all.
Plus, being away from computers was what was keeping her safe right now. As long as she couldn’t go near a computer, she was not a threat to the people behind the situation that had led to her arrest and going to jail. Once they knew she could get near a computer and had the ability to trace their identities, Hayley had no doubt her life would become much more complicated.
But she couldn’t touch a computer for another two years at least, so she would run screaming over that bridge when she got to it. She had more than enough trouble to deal with today.
Which led to her most important blessing. She could hear him entering the restaurant right now, even from the back.
“Mama Hay-lay!”
Hayley dried her hands on her apron and ripped it off, dropping it next to the dishwasher. She walked out into the front of the restaurant, strolling by Timothy without even pausing.
“I’m taking my hour break.”
Timothy didn’t argue. It was the one measure Hayley had demanded when she came to work here. That she would be given a break once a day, during the lull in the afternoon, when her cousin Ariel came by with little Mason.
Mason, Hayley’s three-and-a-half-year-old son.
She grabbed Mason up in a hug, tickling him, breathing in his scent that meant so much to her, that calmed her and the tight spot inside her that grew whenever they were apart.
She and her son were together. They were both healthy, they were both happy, they were both free. A piece of paper signed while Hayley was in prison had made Ariel Mason’s legal guardian hours after his birth, but her cousin had made sure that Mason always knew Hayley was his mom.
Hayley wrapped her arm around Ariel also. “Hey, coz. Thanks again.”
Hayley knew it had to be difficult for Ariel to get Mason here every day. They were trying to figure out exactly how to transition him back from Ariel’s care to Hayley’s with as little trauma as possible for Mason.
“No problem. It’s the best part of our day.”
Hayley’s cousin had been a godsend. Hayley honestly had no idea what she would’ve done if it hadn’t been for Ariel’s willingness to care for Mason while Hayley was still incarcerated. He’d be a ward of the state otherwise.
Because there was no way in hell she would’ve told Cain he had a son. He’d made it very clear how little he thought of her when he’d used sex between them just to further his career by arresting her.
“It’s raining outside, so do you want to go to the mall play area, champ?”
Little Mason nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah yeah yeah.”
The drive to the mall took less than five minutes and soon they were watching Mason run around the enclosed area for children, made of soft foam material shaped like cars and rocket ships. It was one of Mason’s favorite places to go.
Mason took after her—slender build, sandy-blond hair, and a zest for life that unfortunately had been driven out of her in prison. Hayley loved seeing the energy in Mason, and that energy fed her soul, especially on days when work seemed never ending.
“I know I sound like a broken record,” Ariel said, taking a sip of the coffee she had picked up in the food court. “But you look exhausted.”
Hayley rubbed her eyes and looked at the coffee with jealousy. She’d love to have the caffeine, but food court coffee was out of her budget. She didn’t want to admit how good sitting down for an hour felt. “I’m okay, no need to worry.”
“You’re working twelve-to fourteen-hour days, six days a week. You can’t tell me that’s not taking a toll.”
“It’s not forever. I just want to make sure I’m as financially situated as possible before you leave.”
Ariel took a sip of her coffee and worked to avoid making eye contact with Hayley. “About that... I’ve been thinking that maybe now isn’t the right time. There will be another fellowship next year.”
“No!” Hayley’s tone brooked no refusal. “You’ve given up three years of your life for Mason and me. It’s time for you to go do what you really want.”
That included a full scholarship to Oxford, studying medieval literature for her master’s degree. It was what Ariel had dreamed about her whole life. She’d postponed that dream to take in Mason, but Hayley refused to let her cousin give up any more time than she already had.
Ariel leaned over until her head touched the side of Hayley’s shoulder. “I haven’t given up zilch. If anything, I’ve gained. Mason has
been a blessing.”
Hayley leaned her cheek against the top of Ariel’s head. “I’m sure you didn’t think that during middle-of-the-night feedings when he was a newborn.”
Hayley tamped down the heartbreak she still felt at having missed that part of her son’s life. The important thing was that Mason had been cared for by someone who loved him.
“You’re working yourself to the bone to try to make money for when I’m gone. If I applied for next year’s fellowship you’d be in a much better situation.”
Hayley wasn’t just trying to save up money for Ariel’s absence, but she didn’t want to burden her cousin with any of that.
“But we both know they’re not going to offer it to you again if you turn them down this year.” They both watched as Mason ran up over a foam bridge. He’d already met another little boy and girl and was giggling with them both as they ran.
“There are other places I can study. Closer to home, not across the ocean.”
“Ariel, you’ve done your part. I don’t know how I would’ve survived without you. But you need to take care of yourself now. And Mason and I need to get to know each other, on our own. To become a mother and son.”
Hayley had lived in the tiny apartment with Ariel and Mason since she’d gotten out of prison four months ago. Any hours she didn’t spend working she spent with her son. And once Ariel left for Oxford, Hayley wouldn’t be able to work these insane hours. Someone would need to be with Mason after day care, and Hayley planned to be that person.
So if she had to work herself nearly to death over the next two months to have enough money to get by while Ariel was gone, then she would damn well do that.
She would do whatever she had to in order to be able to live a normal life with her child.