She would find those bastards and take her five minutes alone with them. How dare they threaten that little boy? Thank God they’d had the decency to leave the kid alone. Len would make sure Mattie was never threatened again.
“So how did they get through the gate?” She asked the man at her side. He’d been quiet for a few minutes, and she appreciated that.
“Looks like they sheared the bolts, then rammed through with their vehicle. Crude, but effective.”
“So why didn’t Rosa hear? The gates not that far from the house.”
“No,” Royal said. “But if she was doing something else and they had a quiet enough engine, they could bump, then back-up, then repeat until it is done. And she may not have noticed, especially since they cut the power to the house while they were at it. She was probably focused on getting to Matthew and finding out what was going on with the power. Even if she looked out the window, with no security lights, she wouldn’t see a damned thing.”
“If they cut the power, why is it up and running again already? It was on when we pulled in.”
“Maybe they didn’t cut the connection. Maybe they circumvented the power, so that it would be off for a small amount of time? With the right skills, that would be possible."
“But who would have those kind of skill?” Len asked.
“We need to see the threats he’s received. Why would he be targeted right now?”
“As the deputy director, he’s been targeted before.” She’d killed to protect him before, too. But that was something only she and Ed, and a few select individuals above them, knew about.
“I understand that, but something made these people target him right now. If we can isolate their motivation, that will give us the first direction.”
“True. It may have something to do with PAVAD. There has been some opposition in recent months.”
“And what exactly is PAVAD?”
“Ed’s pet project. Hush-hush, still. So everything I am telling you is in the strictest confidence. It stands for the Prevention and Analysis of Violent Acts Division. Ed created it, and will be heading it up. If the funding goes through and everything goes according to plan. It will be located here in St. Louis, and will be a unit that features a diverse and extreme mix of skills and talents. Only the very best of this field office will be kept here, and we have a short list of prospects to head up the units and teams.”
“Wow.”
“Yes. That’s another reason you were called in tonight. You are on the list to stay here. Ed picked several agents personally based on his observations, despite any weaknesses in the personnel files. You were one of them.”
He smiled, his teeth flashing white against his dark skin, made even darker by the night surrounding them. “There aren’t any weaknesses in my personnel jacket.”
“That you know of.”
Chapter Three
PRISSY little witch. Dakon pushed thoughts of the woman aside and focused on the task at hand. He didn’t have time for Agent Len; not with the director’s life in danger.
It took a couple of hours to determine that most likely the intruders had been professionals and there’d been more than two involved. Some serious organization then. He shared his concerns with Len. She nodded. “So they knew what they’re doing. I could tell in the way they moved. It was familiar, fluid. I’ve seen at least one of them before. Somewhere.”
Dakon considered her words for a moment. “Seen at work?”
“Probably. Somewhere I’ve been often; these people knew I’d be with Ed. I don’t know if they knew I’d be with him here, but I’m pretty certain I heard one of them say my name.”
“Why in hell didn’t you say something sooner?” Dakon look at her knowing his anger showed on his face. That cemented it; it was someone they worked with, someone who knew them well enough to recognize her in clothing far different from what she wore daily, while in a darkened garage. And it was a big difference.
This traitor was closer than he had originally thought.
“Because I wasn’t sure. Until I was back in this spot.” She knelt down next to Dennis’s car. “And played back what had happened.”
“Played back?”
“Yes. I remember everything I hear. I heard two voices, one familiar. White male. Probably in his fifties. He was standing here. The other man was unfamiliar. Younger. More impatient, yet more chilling. A pro, probably. He’s the one that pulled back first. Cut his obvious losses.” She looked at him, and Dakon had no difficulty seeing the concern in her eyes. “He’ll be back. For Ed. And probably for me. I did see him, well enough to determine that he was probably white. Close to our age, and fit. I’d know him again, if I heard him speak.”
“He’ll have to get through me first, Len. To get to either of you.” And he meant it. He didn’t fully understand it, but the thought of her and Ed Dennis threatened by someone they hadn’t identified yet infuriated him. “But Ed can’t stay here alone. Not tonight. He’ll need a detail at all times.”
“I told him. His answer—you and me. Period. This has got to stay quiet. PAVAD cannot afford for even one of us to make a single misstep. And this division is too important to Ed. To me. For all of us, really. If it doesn’t work out, half the agents in this field office are gone, relocated. Within weeks. Even you and me. And Georgia.”
Dakon felt a sinking in his stomach when he thought of the implications of that. He’d applied for the St. Louis field office for a reason. His mother was in a nursing home just outside the city limits, and had been there for most of the fifteen years since she’d left Dakon with his father when her health had gotten worse. It had taken him close to twelve years to find where she’d disappeared to. She hadn’t wanted him to see her fade away, but she was his mother. Her care facility was the best in the state. He’d studied it carefully when he’d located her. No, she had to be in St. Louis.
Which meant so did he.
Chapter Four
HIS expression told her exactly what he thought of that. “We have to find this traitor within the next week. That’s when we’re making the announcement about PAVAD. Ed’s calling a conference for all teams a week from tomorrow. We have to have everything perfect before then. He’s—we’ve—worked so hard on this. We can’t fail.”
“So who would have the most incentive to see this new division never get started?”
She had already ran that list over and over in her mind. “I have a few people in mind.”
“Let’s get started then.”
Len appreciated his immediate response. Despite how she felt about him personally, she had to admit the man was good at what he did. “Ed has an extra office space in his library we can get set up in. I can access all of my files from the computer in there. And it’s as secure as it can be. Agent Tompkins set up the system for Ed several months ago.”
He nodded. “JT is good at what he does.”
“Yes, he is.” Len lead the way to the library. Ed was upstairs with his grandson, getting the boy resettled for the night. Rosa was in the kitchen, drinking what Len suspected was some laced coffee. The poor woman was not used to these kinds of things, but she had real nerves of steel. And she loved Matthew immensely. Thank God the bastards had left Rosa and Matthew alone. “In here.”
Len settled behind the desk chair and booted up the computer, conscious of his presence behind her. Why was she so aware of Dakon Royal all of the sudden? Was it because of the adrenaline associated with nearly being killed still coursing through her system, making her senses heightened?
Or was it the slight hint of male aftershave she could smell?
She shook those thoughts off and entered her Bureau passwords into the system. Now wasn’t the time, and this wasn’t the man to have those feelings for. But damn, he smelled good.
“Why don’t you grab that chair? I’ll print out copies of the possible traitors so you can have some as well.”
“No. I’m good reading here. Let’s just get through them as fast as possible to see if anything stands out. You can print them later.” His fingers were on the back of the chair, brushing against her shoulder.
“Here’s the short list. These five agents here.”
“We need to face the possibility that it’s not one of these five. And with over two hundred agents in the building, plus auxiliary staff, we need to be careful not to limit the options. It can be anyone.”
“Except the females. And I’m one hundred percent certain the man was close in age to Ed. Once we get ballistics back on the gun we may have a better chance of determining who, as well.”
“And we’re getting that from Indianapolis.”
“Ed’s set to go to Indianapolis tomorrow, anyway. He has an interview with a possible team leader. Fin McLaughlin. I was to accompany him.”
“And now we both will. What about Mattie?”
“Ed’s arranged for a friend of his from the CIA to join Rosa and Mattie for a few days.”
“And he trusts this guy that much?”
“Yes. The man has a thing for Rosa, as well. And Mattie knows him.” So it wouldn’t disrupt the little boy’s routine; she knew that was important to Ed. “And I’ve also assigned a few agents to keep an extra eye on the place. Women I went through the Academy with and can trust. He’ll be safe.”
“Good. I suggest we shut down for the night. Tomorrow will come pretty early if we’re flying to Indy.”
Len looked up into dark brown eyes. Eyes that were staring at his hand where it rested on her shoulder. The shoulder left bare by the spaghetti strap of that damned red dress.
He pulled his hand back. Stared at her for a long moment. “Well, uh… Goodnight. If you want, I’ll take the first watch. And I’ll wake you in a few hours.”
“That will work. We can both catch some sleep on the plane if we need to. Goodnight.”
Len nearly ran from the room. She knew where the guest rooms were in Ed’s home and she entered the first one she passed and closed the door firmly behind her. Ed’s room was right next door. She’d be able to hear anything that might need her attention.
And the guest rooms were clear across the house from the library where she’d just left Agent Royal.
Good. She needed the space to think.
Chapter Five
DAKON had never been an easy flier, and he probably never would. Not so, the woman beside him. Len slept peacefully, her little body folded into the seat almost perfectly.
Her entire body was perfect. Did she realize that?
He must have been staring at her for far too long—Ed Dennis was watching him watch her.
“She’s exhausted, but she’ll never admit it. Len is like that, and she’s worked hard for me in recent weeks. I hate that this has happened so close to our success of the new division.”
“She mentioned how important it is that you get this division going. Is it going to be that different from what we’ve got now?”
“Yes. Including a separate building, five hundred feet north of our current field office.”
Dakon felt his brows rise. He hadn’t realized it would be of quite that magnitude. “How many agents and staff?”
“At this point we have funding for one hundred support staff, and eighty-seven agents. I want double that before the building is completed. That’s one of the purposes of this Indy trip, besides the interview with McLaughlin. I have a few other meetings set up. Quietly, of course.”
“Of course. So what will PAVAD do?”
“You cannot repeat this, of course. PAVAD will feature a series of teams who are built from agents who have particular skills that will benefit each team specifically. You, for example, with your explosives experience will be added to a team that has a space for someone with that experience. A profiler, like my daughter or Dr. Brockman, will also be assigned to each team. Basically, I want the team able to pull from their teammates’ experiences to form a quick, accurate, more up-to-date response in the more complex, out of the range of ordinary tasks the Bureau is often asked to do.”
Dakon didn’t like the idea of switching teams. His team leader, Dr. Malachi Brockman, was damned good at what he did. And their team functioned extremely well, with a close to ninety percent solve rate—something rarely heard of in the Bureau.
Dennis must have read his mind. “Don’t worry, if your team is high functioning, I’m not going to break something that is already fixed.”
“When?”
“Probably sometime in April of next year.”
Eight months away. He was supposed to keep this under wraps for eight months. “Does Georgia know?” Ed had only the one daughter, and she was considered one of Dakon’s closest friends.
“Some of it. Enough to know I’m forming some special teams. But none of the details. You are only learning about them because of the potential threats.”
“So Len said. I take it she’s in on every level?”
“She’s probably the one person who knows as much—if not more, as she’s started reviewing files of prospective agents and working on budget proposals—as I do. I know I couldn’t have come this far without her.”
She was the one person who knew as much about this secret division of Dennis’s—and someone had already tried to kill her once.
Maybe Dennis wasn’t the real target?
Chapter Six
HE was staring at her again. He’d been watching her covertly since they’d stepped off the plane. And it was really starting to get under her skin. He’d been under her skin since the moment he’d first arrived at Ed’s home the night before. Was it because she was feeling unusually vulnerable after what had happened in Ed’s garage?
She wasn’t on the front lines very often, though she’d been trained in what to do. Getting shot at wasn’t something that had happened to her before, despite her training. Yes, she could defend herself with a weapon, but her strengths were in hand-to-hand martial arts. Or a knife. She felt more than adequately able to defend herself with a knife. But an unknown gunman—or gunmen—was something entirely different.
And that bothered, her. She’d be the first to admit that—to someone she trusted.
And she definitely wasn’t sure she trusted SSA Dakon Royal. He was good at what he did. She knew that. But she’d never gone for guys with that kind of arrogance and, well, charm. And she’d definitely seen him use that charm on the women in the Bureau, to get what he wanted.
And she’d heard the rumors of all the women he’d supposedly been involved with. Not that she put much stock in rumors, but… she’d definitely noticed him and the way he acted with women. How could she not?
He was one of the most physically attractive men in the field office, and that was saying something. And he was always flirting, and playing. She wasn’t used to that. She was used to more serious men like Ed. Men who came to work to do their jobs, and didn’t see the Bureau as the fishing ground for personal activities.
She mentally shook herself. Why was she being so judgmental about him? Had he ever said or done anything to her to make her feel this way? Or was she just that much in need of a personal barrier?
Did she find him attractive?
When was the last time she’d found a man even the least bit intriguing? She’d been all about her career from the time she’d graduated high school, and what relationships she’d had—and she’d had a few—hadn’t gone too deep. It had to have been at least two or three years since she’d even been out on a date—with someone besides Ed, that was. And as a romantic evening—dinner with Ed didn’t really count.
That’s what it was.
She felt vulnerable, and was drawn to Agent Royal because of that vulnerability, and because he was the right age, available, and a source of strength. And because it had been a long while for her in that department. That’s all that it was.
It had to be.
Chapter Seven
INDIANAPOLIS
was a smaller city, and it resembled all the others she’d ever been in. The rain that deluged down around them when they exited the jet didn’t help her mood.
“What’s first on the agenda?” Royal asked. He held the umbrella he’d procured from his ready bag over her head. She appreciated the consideration.
Ed also held an umbrella. She was the only one not quite prepared.
“First, we check into the hotel. I made accommodations under three different names at three different places.”
“So we headed to A, B, or C?”
“D. I have a fourth place in mind that I haven’t registered at.” She wasn’t taking any chances with Ed’s safety. Not after last night.
“Sneaky. I like it.” He leaned down near her ear. “Sexy…”
She glared up at him. “Not in the game, Agent Royal.”
“Any particular reason why?”
“No time or inclination.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it. Plenty of fish in the FBI sea for you to play catch.” She wouldn’t be one of his conquests—the only men she ever got involved with were the ones she knew were interested in the long term. She’d never take a chance on repeating her mother’s mistakes. And Dakon Royal was a mistake waiting to happen to any woman who didn’t realize ahead of time that he would never be interested in anything more than a few days’ play. “I believe in long term, and you will never be that.”
“I could. For the right woman.”
“Well, that won’t be me. Ed gets all of my attention.”
His attention focused on her more fully and he stepped closer. “That’s the way the wind blows? You and the deputy director got a thing going?”
Beginning: A PAVAD Prequel Novella (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense) Page 2