by Misty Evans
Always.
“I’ll get you the list.”
Always. Caroline punched a fist in the air. “Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
“Watch your ass, Foster. One of my agents may have been involved, but this has always been an ATF operation. I’m a minor player. If you go down, there’s not much I can do.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
Donaldson disconnected and Mitch shoved the truck into gear. “I hate that guy. He’s such a pansy.”
“But he’s our pansy. And he’s the only one we’ve got right now.”
With Maria at work, Grey checking on his contacts at Judiciary, and Brice taking a combat nap to recharge, Mitch and Caroline killed another hour at a diner for lunch. That gave Brice a solid four-hour nap. Way more than Mitch got. Then again, he’d had his battery charged in a different way. A way he very much liked and hoped to do again soon.
He glanced at Caroline and blew her a kiss.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t even want to know what you’re thinking.”
“I’ll tell you later. In very explicit terms.”
“Terrific. Can’t wait.”
Mitch parked the truck in the nothing-special motel parking lot outside the nothing-special room twelve. Pretty much, this place looked like every other circa 1970 roadside motel. Cheap, clean—somewhat—and easily accessible. He glanced around, making sure they were alone and damned sure weren’t going to sit in this truck like deer about to get picked off.
The cops hadn’t nabbed Caroline’s attackers and Mitch was too paranoid to believe it was a random mugging.
“Let’s get inside,” he said. “We’ll wake up Sleeping Beauty and fill him in. We’ve got a few hours before Maria is off-shift. Between now and then, we’ll piece together what the hell was going on with Tommy. Maybe figure out who jumped you.”
“It has to be whoever Jesse is working for.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? They have the most to lose. They’ve been buying assault weapons by the truckload under this operation. If we expose it and shut it down, no more guns.”
Mitch knocked on her head. “Think harder, babe. If we’ve got a cover-up happening, maybe local ATF wants to shut us up.”
She scoffed. “You think our own government attacked me?”
“I think anything is possible and you need to keep an open mind. You’re fucking brutal when you get too dialed-in.”
Before she could yell at him, he hopped out of the truck and waved her along. Caroline hauled her laptop with her and followed Mitch to the door. “You didn’t have to be so rude.”
“Seriously, you’re going to deny you get hyper-focused?”
“Well, no, but ‘brutal’ is a bit harsh.”
Mitch laughed and banged on the door.
“Don’t be a jerk about waking him up.”
“I won’t.”
He banged on the door again then gave it a kick. Why not?
“Did I not just say don’t be a jerk?”
“Trust me, that wasn’t being a jerk. That was waking him up gently. He told me he sleeps like the dead.”
A minute later, the door swung open and Brice stood there, his hair all kinds of crazy-assed, his shirt a wrinkled mess, and his basketball shorts not looking too good either.
“Wake up, sunshine.”
Brice ran his hands over his face as Mitch and Caroline marched into the room. “Time?”
“One-thirty,” Mitch said. “I gave you just under four hours.”
“Yeah. I’m set.”
“Good, cause that’s all we can spare.” Mitch propped against the short dresser while Brice locked and bolted the door behind them. “We found some funky shit on that flash drive. It’s time the three of us started piecing this thing together and Maria can fill in the blanks.”
Brice yawned. “What about Donaldson?”
Caroline set her laptop on the desk against the far wall. Good spot. Away from the windows. “I spoke to him earlier,” she said. “The Deputy AG called him and the ATF higher-ups into the meeting and lambasted all of them for letting this case get out of control.”
That got Brice’s attention because he did a double-take. “He told you that?”
“He did. Underneath all that schmuckiness, he wants to do right by a good agent. He said he’d get us the list of agents on the taskforce. Hopefully that’ll come soon. Then we go down the list and find someone who will talk to us.”
“Caroline wants to take this to Judiciary,” Mitch added.
Brice jerked his head back. “Judiciary? Seriously?”
She shrugged. “Where else can we go? We know from Donaldson that the Deputy Attorney General is now aware of this operation. Who knows when he became aware of it, but he’s in spin mode now. If the DAG knows, you think his boss doesn’t?”
“Well, shit,” Brice said.
Mitch crossed his arms simply to have something to do with them. “Yeah. I tend to agree that if the DAG knows, this thing probably goes all the way to the top, which would be why, according to what Kemp told me, the White House rumors about invoking Executive Privilege might be true. Again, how long they’ve known is in question, but it’s been at least since they traced that weapon to their straw buying operation. Short of it is, I don’t trust any of these fuckers.”
Brice sat back against the headboard and crossed his legs at the ankles. “If we get that list from Donaldson, I can start working that. I might know some of the people on the list.”
Mitch nodded. “I have Grey checking his contacts in Judiciary. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Caroline finished booting up her laptop and spun the desk chair toward them. “Based on what we found on that flash drive, we can assume Tommy was getting information from Jesse, a known straw buyer, in the hope of busting whoever Jesse was buying the weapons for.”
Brice nodded. “And we know he was buying massive quantities because Marty from the gun shop told us.”
“Right,” Mitch said. “So Tommy is basically sitting in his car, watching these straw buyers buy these guns and he’s told to stand down. To not arrest them because the bigshots want whoever Jesse is buying weapons for.”
“And then Maria busts in on a meeting.”
Fucking Tommy. Should have known better than to get emotionally involved with his informant’s sister. Rookie mistake. Mitch gritted his teeth. Too late now. “Considering what we found on that flash drive, I think Tommy panicked. He’s got this informant and he’s involved with the guy’s sister. If the informant goes down, the sister will be devastated. Tommy, from what Maria says, was in love with her. He’s in deep trying to figure out a way to keep Jesse’s status from being blown—these gunrunning cartels would have strung him from a tree. On top of that, he’s got Maria to worry about. In short, he’s fucked five ways to Sunday.”
Stupid bastard.
Caroline spun back to her laptop. “Maybe that’s when he started complaining about the operation.”
She clicked the mouse a couple of times and Mitch walked over, eyeing the two files she’d pulled up and aligned side-by-side on the screen.
“Look at the dates,” she said. “The memo to his ASAC was sent on August 12. The response came on August 13.” She closed both documents and opened a few more. “Knew it.”
“What?”
She tapped the screen. “These are his handwritten notes regarding his activities. Look at the dates. He started documenting everything on August 14.”
Brice hopped off the bed and joined them at the computer. “He started documenting everything six weeks before he was killed.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Caroline added.
“Jesse could have panicked.”
“Ya think?” Mitch cracked. “Maria has never said Jesse knew about her relationship with Tommy.”
Caroline tapped her index finger against her lips, closed one eye then the other as she thought about it and Mitch nearly laughed. Typical Caroline.
<
br /> A solid minute later, she gave up on thinking and shook her head. “No. She’s never said. Jesse could have found out from someone else.”
It all made perfect sense to him. “Exactly. If Tommy was stuck, Jesse was just as stuck. He’s the informant and now his sister is involved with an FBI agent. Maybe Jesse gets spooked and realizes if his status is leaked to whoever he’s buying guns for, he’s dead, and his sister’s just as dead.”
Brice sighed. “Crap. The easiest way to rectify that situation is for Jesse to do an end run and leak Tommy’s name to whoever he’s buying for.”
Mitch reached up, pretended to ring a bell. “Ding. Ding. He plays innocent and tells his contact that he’s got some heat from this guy connected to the FBI and ATF.”
“And they take him out,” Caroline said.
“And they take him out. Taking him out protects Jesse and Maria. Sure, she’s brokenhearted, but Jesse can live with that. Better brokenhearted than dead. That still doesn’t tell us who worked you over in the parking lot.”
She waved that away. “We have to find Jesse.”
They’d definitely do that, but Mitch wasn’t giving up on Caroline’s attackers. He wanted those fuckers in his crosshairs. “As soon as we pick up Maria, we get her back here and ask her what Jesse knew. If she thinks he sold Tommy out, she might flip on him.”
“My God,” Caroline said. “What was Tommy thinking?”
“He wasn’t,” Mitch said. “His dick was.”
Worse than I thought.
If that was even possible.
Caroline ran the heel of her hand over her forehead. They should get out of New Mexico. Now that she’d been attacked, both the FBI and ATF knew she—and probably Mitch—were here. And here, they were vulnerable. Limited funds, limited contacts, limited places to hide. If they went back to D.C. they’d be more nimble and definitely more productive.
She checked her watch. One hour until Maria was off work. “I think we need to go home.”
Mitch spun on her, his mouth hanging open. “Go home?”
“Yes. Before you start yelling, think about it. We have no resources here. If we go back to D.C., Grey and his techie guy can help us. We even, so it seems, have Donaldson. If we can make contact with a member of Judiciary, we’ll have that too. All we have to do is convince Maria to go with us. We’ll get her to tell her story to Judiciary and we’re off. All around, I think we’re safer in D.C.”
From his spot on the bed, Brice made humming noises. “She might be right.”
“I’m not debating that,” Mitch said. “But I’m sure as hell not going anywhere without Maria. The minute we’re gone, she’ll disappear. And maybe not by choice. Get my drift?”
Caroline stood, paced a few steps while wagging her finger. “We’ll take care of her. She won’t be happy about going back to D.C., but she loved Tommy. As much as she loves her brother, Tommy is dead and she wants justice for him. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have tracked Kemp down to give him that thumb drive and make sure he was trustworthy.” She stopped pacing, propped her hands on her hips. “I hate to do it, but we need to scare the hell out of her, make her think going back with us is the only thing that’ll fix this mess.”
Mitch eyed her and her mind zipped back to their Bureau days. How many times had she seen that look? He’d channel all his frenetic energy into one task and the intensity of it, the sheer force of him propelled the case forward.
Ignoring Brice, she jumped out of her chair, walked to Mitch and squeezed his cheeks with both hands. “I love when you have that look.”
“What look?”
“The I’m-about-to-kick-ass look.”
For a few seconds, the room went quiet—even the ancient air conditioner ceased—and Caroline stood there, cradling Mitch’s face in her hands, her heart slamming so hard it hurt, knowing she’d never love anyone as much as she loved longshot Mitch Monroe.
He’d probably wreck her life. No. She wouldn’t allow that. Him wrecking her life meant allowing him to do so. And she wouldn’t.
Not this time.
If this didn’t work out, she’d survive. She’d done it before, she’d do it again.
She simply didn’t want to just survive. “We have to make this work,” she said.
He brought his hands up, wrapped them around her wrists and squeezed. Somehow, standing there, gazes locked, he understood she wasn’t talking about the case.
“I know. It won’t fall apart this time. I promise you.”
“Hey, now.” Brice smacked his hands together and leapt off the bed. “This is all super-romantic, but I’m gonna grab Maria. Give you two a few minutes to—” he motioned with his hands, “—do whatever it is you do when you’re alone. Jesus, my mind just fried. It’s like a Monroe-Foster porno in my head. And that’s some ugly shit.”
Oh, now that was funny. Caroline, needing to torture poor Brice for another few seconds, made panting noises. “Oh, Monroe!” she gasped.
At that, Brice laughed. “You are sick. But I like it. I’m gonna grab our witness and then we’ll talk her into a road trip. My blog is gonna go viral. I can feel it.”
He left the room and Mitch turned back to her. “Are we driving back to D.C.?”
“Not if my father will let us borrow his jet again. With any luck, we can be on a plane back to D.C. by tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Caroline wanted to go home.
Whether Mitch agreed completely with her logic he wasn’t sure and really didn’t give a shit. But he was close enough to agreeing that he’d take a flyer. If Caroline wanted to go home, he’d get her there.
From his spot on the edge of the bed, he glanced over to where she was just about done sweet-talking her father into ponying up the plane. If he did nothing else right in his goat-fuck of a life, he’d make it work with Caroline.
Whatever it took.
He checked the digital clock on the bedside table. Brice had been gone thirty minutes. Another twenty and he should be back.
Then Mitch would go to work.
Caroline set her phone on the desk and gave it a spin so Mitch wandered over. “We all set?”
She nodded. “The plane is in D.C. He said he’d find their pilot and send him. If all goes well, we’ll be out of here tonight.”
Suddenly, the idea of leaving New Mexico had merit. Maybe Caroline’s theory about being on home turf had triggered something in him. “That works. We need to get Maria on board, no pun intended.”
“They’ll be back soon. Let’s talk about how we’re doing this. Before she knew you were Tommy’s friend, she was intimidated by you. Let’s capitalize on that. I’ll be the understanding female. I hate pulling this nonsense, but she’s loyal to her brother and she needs to be convinced that Jesse could be involved with Tommy’s murder.”
Involved? The way it looked, Jesse was their killer. That sounded too tidy though. And if so, why hadn’t Jesse been arrested when that ballistics report came back? Although, the government could be looking to wrap this up as fast and as quietly as possible and sacrifice Jesse along with Tommy. The big shots probably figured whoever Jesse was working for killed Tommy, but they’d let Jesse take the heat because his puzzle piece fit.
Mitch nodded. “I’ll take care of it. She may not like me when it’s over, but she’ll be on that plane.”
“I could use about a gallon of scotch right now,” Caroline cracked.
He rubbed her shoulders, digging his thumbs into the knots, and dropped a kiss on her head. “It’s like the old days. The two of us making a plan, working a case together. I miss those days.”
“Maybe if we figure this out, those days can exist again.”
She didn’t really believe that. “Uh, Caroline, I’m never going back to the Bureau. You know that, right?”
“Why not? Once your name is cleared, you could reapply.”
“Trust me, I know. Not only would they never hire me, I don’t want it. I don’t miss the politics and the bull
shit. If I did anything, I’d work with Grey on his Justice Team. He’s got enough work there for ten people. And, even better, he’s the one dealing with the political garbage.”
She rolled her head as he continued his battle with her shoulders. “But you’ll come out of hiding, right? When this is over?”
Yeah, that he’d do. Once they cleared Tommy’s name, he still had to prove he hadn’t killed Kemp, but now, with Maria giving Kemp those files, he couldn’t help but think the two murders were linked. Once he uncovered who’d set Tommy up, he’d go to work on the Kemp connection. Then he’d make a deal with Donaldson. He’d turn himself in if Donaldson made sure Caroline’s career stayed on track. He couldn’t tell her about that, though.
“I’m tired of running. When we get back to D.C., I’m officially back on the grid.”
At the door, the lock tumbled and Mitch stood. “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Brice hollered.
Mitch glanced down at Caroline, ran his fingers under her chin. “You ready for this?”
“I guess I have to be. Let’s roll.”
Maria looked tired. Brice was tight-lipped. And Mitch figured it would be a helluva ride.
“Bolt that door,” he reminded Brice. The former ATF agent looked annoyed, but did as instructed.
When Maria moved to the chair by the window, Mitch held up his hand. Time to start taking extra precautions. Just in case. “Not by the window. Over here, by the bathroom.”
Even with the drapes closed, a shooter could find its target. If she wasn’t sitting in front of the window maybe they had a chance of her not taking a round. Maybe.
Brice, ever the gentleman, moved the side chair to the cramped area between the closet and the bathroom door. Mitch sat on the end of the bed with Caroline across from him, the two of them pinning Maria with her back to the wall. Exactly as he’d planned.
Human beings were animals underneath the clothes and attitude. One glance to Mitch, then one to Caroline, and Maria’s face morphed from tired nurse into cornered prey.
“You’ve gotta be tired,” Mitch said, “so we’ll make this quick.”