Criminal Behavior--A Thrilling FBI Romance

by Amanda Stevens

  Ethan resolved himself to the confrontation. Gwen Holloway hadn’t been on the federal payroll in nearly fifteen years, but she still had powerful connections inside the Bureau and the DOJ. One call and she could make his life uncomfortable if not downright miserable.

  These days, she traveled the country teaching and consulting with various law enforcement entities, but she still dressed in the traditional FBI uniform of a plain black suit, white blouse and polished loafers. In her fifties, she’d refused to cut her waist-length brown hair, compromising instead by pulling it back from her face and securing it in a bun at her nape. She wore no makeup, but her nails were always immaculately groomed and her teeth were almost blindingly white, though she rarely smiled.

  She came toward Ethan now, her gaze so intently focused she might have been vectoring in on one of the FBI’s most wanted. “Hello, Ethan. Do you have time for a chat?”

  “Sorry.” He held up his takeout bag. “I’m having dinner in my room and calling it a night. Maybe another time.”

  He might have been addressing a wall. She turned on her heel and said over her shoulder, “There’s a coffee shop just down the street. It should be nice and quiet this time of day.”

  Ethan hesitated for only a moment before he followed her back out into the warm evening air. She was a tall woman, and he matched his stride to hers, the brisk pace drawing a few glances from the strolling tourists. There was still quite a bit of traffic for a Friday night. Delectable aromas wafted from restaurants as laughter and music spilled out from bars. People were in good spirits, anticipating the weekend. The afternoon had been hot and humid, but twilight brought sea breezes and cooling temperatures. This was the time of day that Charleston did best. Good food, strong drinks and interesting company.

  Nostalgia stirred, and Ethan found himself once again thinking about Addie. She looked good. The years since their breakup had only enhanced her appeal. She was leaner than he remembered, her toned muscles a testament to the time she dedicated to the track and to the gym. She still wore her blond hair long, though like Gwen Holloway, she pulled it back and up so that her periphery was unimpeded.

  Seeing her again had brought back a lot of mixed emotions. Ethan supposed he’d never really gotten over her, though he hadn’t pined for her. Pining was an indulgence and a dangerous distraction for someone in his line of work. Yet for the first few months after the breakup, rarely a day had gone by that he hadn’t berated himself for what he’d done. Remorse had been an unwelcome companion. But ten years was a long time, and he’d moved on even if those regrets still surfaced now and then. Even if Adaline Kinsella still popped into his head at the most unexpected times.

  No, he hadn’t pined. He’d thrown himself into his work and recommitted himself to his training. He’d dated. He’d even had a serious relationship, but things had eventually gone flat, and they’d ended things amicably. The romance had never progressed beyond a certain point, and truth be told, she’d never measured up to Addie. In hindsight, Ethan realized that he was the one who hadn’t measured up. Comparisons to Addie had been an excuse. Someone like him was probably better off alone.

  He hadn’t pined for Addie then and he didn’t pine for her now, even on a crowded street when loneliness seemed to weigh on him the heaviest.

  “Ethan? What’s wrong with you? I said your name three times just now and you ignored me.”

  “Sorry.” He shook himself out of his fog as a black Charger came into his line of sight. It was parked at the curb with the windows up and the motor running. “I was just checking out that car across the street. Government issued, looks like. Your people?”

  Gwen barely glanced at the car. “What makes you think so?”

  “Wild guess.” He tossed his unopened sandwich in a nearby trash bin. “Makes me wonder what ordinary citizens would think if they knew certain former federal agents were allowed to call up the FBI and request surveillance on one of their own, all on the taxpayers’ dime.”

  “What makes you think I’m the one who made that call? ”

  He gave her a sidelong glance. “Who then? My stepfather?”

  “There are a lot of powerful people who like to keep tabs on you, Ethan.”

  “Why? I’m nothing special.”

  She returned his side-eye. “We both know that’s not true.”

  “I get it. The interest comes from people in the Bureau and the DOJ who don’t think of me as Ethan Barrow. To them, I’ll always be James Merrick’s son. Do you all sit around wondering when I’ll crack?”

  “If we wondered that, you wouldn’t be where you are today. But we do have concerns about your recent behavior. Like it or not, your presence in this city attracts attention. Last time you were here, you compromised the Bureau’s relationship with local law enforcement, embarrassed your family and nearly got yourself fired. You leaked information about procedure and blood evidence that allowed the press to question the results of a long and painful investigation. Your stepfather and I went out on a limb for you.” She glanced both ways before she stepped into the intersection. “You were given a second chance on our recommendation, so don’t act like we’re an inconvenience when we expect answers.”

  “What’s the question?”

  “Why are you in Charleston?”

  He gave a careless shrug. “Just relaxing and taking in the sights.”

  “I hear you were also taking in the sights in Columbia yesterday.” She smoothed back her wind-ruffled hair. “How is James, by the way?”

  “About as well as you would expect for someone who has spent the last twenty-five years confined to a psychiatric unit for the criminally insane. But maybe you should go and judge his condition for yourself.”

  “I have.”

  He turned. “When?”

  “I’ve gone to see him regularly since the day he was committed.” She stopped in front of the coffee shop and waited for Ethan to open the door. For some reason, that surprised him, though he complied without hesitation. Gwen glanced back at him. “You’re not the only one who still cares about him, you know.”

  She stepped inside, holding up two fingers to the barista and then pointing to a table in the back. She slid into the seat facing the door, leaving Ethan to sit with his back exposed. That did not surprise him.

  “When was the last time you saw him?” he pressed.

  “It’s been a while. Almost a year.” She shrugged off her jacket and hung it on the back of her chair. She folded her arms on the table and clasped her hands. He could see bits of gold shimmering around her throat and in her ears, but her fingers were bare. She was a handsome, accomplished woman—a successful author and wealthy entrepreneur—but she’d never married. Ethan could understand why. Dating didn’t come easy to those who spent their lives hunting monsters.

  She gazed at him across the table, silent until their coffee had been served, and then she said, “Are you upset that I still visit him?”

  “Why would I be upset?”

  “I don’t know, Ethan. Why don’t you tell me? Maybe it’s a proprietary thing. I can sense your hostility. You used to be better at hiding it.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Her hazel eyes watched him closely. “I’ve known you since you were a child. I’ve watched you grow up. Your parents graciously included me in the milestones of your life, but you always resented my presence, didn’t you?”

  “Then why come if you knew you weren’t welcome?”

  “Because Richard and Karen were my friends and because I cared about you. I still do. I understand the nature of your resentment, even if you don’t. Deep down, you blame me for what happened to your father. Rationally, you know that I was just doing my job. That I never wanted any of that for him or for you. But emotionally...” She sighed. “It’s still very painful for me, too, Ethan. James was not only my mentor, but also my friend. His absence an
d his legacy will always be felt in the BAU. And by me.”

  “You left quite a legacy yourself.”

  “I like to think so.”

  Ethan stared back at her. “You were with the FBI for, what? Ten years before you left to write your first book? You were on a fast track. Unit chief, destined to be section chief, maybe even deputy director by now. Everyone must have been stunned when you tendered your resignation.”

  “Not really. The BAU has a high burnout rate. You should know that better than most. I didn’t leave to write a book or even to start my own firm. I wanted to get my life back. And I felt I could be just as effective on the outside as a teacher and consultant, maybe more so. What’s your point, anyway?”

  “There’s no point.” Ethan glanced out the window, searching the street for signs of surveillance. The black Charger was nowhere in sight. He wondered if Gwen had covertly signaled the agents to back off. “It’s just something I’ve thought about over the years. You were my father’s protégée. The two of you were very close, and yet you didn’t hesitate to profile him.”

  “He would have done the same to me.”

  “Not one moment of self-doubt or second thought? Even when you all but led the Charleston PD to his doorstep?”

  Something flickered in the green-gold depths of her eyes. Anger, Ethan thought, but not remorse. The Gwen Holloways of the world didn’t look back with regret. “I trusted the profile,” she said.

  “That profile and his arrest made you famous. You became a household name. A Bureau rock star. The young agent who brought down the great James Merrick.”

  “Again, what’s your point?”

  “What if your profile was wrong?”

  “The evidence wasn’t wrong.”

  “Evidence can be planted.”

  Ethan could see the wheels turning inside her head as she sifted back through their conversation, deciding on the best way to handle him. She landed on bemused empathy. “You’ve been holding all this in for a very long time, haven’t you? That’s not good on any level. You should have come to me instead of letting all this fester.” She cupped her hands around her coffee cup, but she didn’t drink. “If you’ve got more to say, now’s the time to let it out. Tell me everything. Let’s clear the air once and for all.”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  “Why hold back now? It’s not like I can hurt you. I haven’t worked for the government in years. I have no control over your life or your career. You and I are just friends.”

  Ethan’s voice hardened despite his best efforts. He didn’t want to reveal any cracks. She would pounce the moment she sensed weakness. “We’re not friends,” he said. “And we both know you could end my career with one phone call.”

  “You think I’m that thin-skinned and vindictive?” She lifted her cup with another sigh. “Believe it or not, I’ve always had your back, Ethan. I’ve always been your champion, just as James once championed me. I’m giving you a free pass. Speak your mind. You have my guarantee that nothing you say will leave this table or be used against you.”

  Ethan leaned back in his chair, slipping one hand in his pocket as he regarded her with wary curiosity. What was she up to? “You mean that?”

  “I do. I’d really like to explore the origins of your hostility.”

  “Then instead of talking about the profile and my father’s confinement, maybe we should talk about your affair.”

  Emotion flickered across her face, but to her credit, she never broke eye contact. “That’s nonsense.”

  “I saw the two of you together.”

  “Of course you did. We worked together.”

  “No, this was different. I saw you in my grandparents’ garden here in Charleston. My mother and I came down one weekend during the Twilight Killer investigation. My father had been gone for weeks, and my mother begged him to have dinner with us on our last night because we wouldn’t see him again for a long time. He finally relented and even brought a change of clothing so that he could stay over. I heard him leave in the middle of the night. I got up and followed him out. I wanted to talk him into staying so that my mother wouldn’t be so unhappy when she woke up. You were waiting for him in the garden. You tried to kiss him, but he pushed you away. He said it was over. He thought it best that you transfer out of the unit. You got angry, and then you got violent. You slapped him, as I recall. I think you even clawed his face. I didn’t understand a lot of what went down between you, but your outburst scared me.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I don’t know. I just knew that it was a bad thing and that if I told my mother, she would be hurt. It was only when I grew older and looked back on that night that I was able to put it together.”

  “Yet you still said nothing.” Gwen leaned in. “You were a lonely, confused little boy, Ethan. Distressed about your mother’s unhappiness and hurt by your father’s distance. You misunderstood what you saw. Or maybe you had a dream and convinced yourself it was true in order to rationalize your negative feelings toward me.”

  “I didn’t dream it.”

  “I remember that night well, too,” Gwen said. “I came to your grandparents’ home to confront your father about something he’d missed in the profile. He was already making mistakes. I was already seeing signs of his illness. But he never liked to be challenged, and we argued. It had nothing to do with an affair. Our relationship was never anything but professional.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  Gwen gave him a slight smile. “You sound so much like James right now. If I close my eyes, I could almost believe I’m sitting across the table from him, conversing the way we used to over a case. I never realized how much alike you are. So focused and single-minded. You don’t like to be questioned or challenged, either, do you, Ethan?”

  A warning thrill prickled his backbone. She’d laid a trap, and he’d willingly tripped the spring. Already, he could see the beginnings of the case to be made against him. If he overstepped his bounds in Charleston, if he dug up incriminating evidence that threatened the status quo, a subtle campaign would be initiated. This conversation was his warning. Next would come censure, suspension and then a career-killing transfer, if not outright termination, all accompanied by whispers of incompetence, insubordination and insanity.

  As if intuiting his train of thought, Gwen said, “What else is on your mind, Ethan?”

  “I think we’re done.”

  “Yes, I agree. Time to call it a night. But it’s been a most enlightening conversation,” she said. “I feel better already now that we’ve cleared the air. One last thing, though. We still need to talk about Adaline Kinsella.”

  His gut tightened. “I don’t see how she’s any of your concern.”

  Gwen’s brow creased as she reached for her jacket. “You caused a lot of trouble for that young woman ten years ago. You nearly derailed her career along with your own. I imagine you broke her heart in the process. I’ve spoken with Deputy Chief Cutler about my concerns.”

  “Concerns about me?”

  “About Detective Kinsella. Did she tell you that she’s been chosen by her department to attend my program? That’s quite an honor. A real feather in her cap. But I won’t waste my time on someone who isn’t one hundred percent committed to the training. It wouldn’t be fair to the other enrollees. Detective Kinsella is a promising candidate. She’s a good cop—smart, diligent, ambitious. But I worry about outside distractions. It would be a shame if she lost focus and had to be cut from the current session.”

  Ethan tamped back his anger. “Is that a threat?”

  “It’s a warning. Leave her alone, Ethan. You screw this up for her, there won’t be a second chance for either of you this time.”

  She stood, slipped on her jacket and left without a backward glance. Ethan paid the bill, and by the time he exited the coffee shop, she�
�d already crossed the street. The black Charger was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a gleaming Mercedes pulled to the curb, and Gwen got in the back.

  Ethan watched as the car turned at the next intersection, and then he removed his cell phone from his pocket and checked his messages. He walked down the street until foot traffic died away. Pretending to tie his shoe, he hunkered at the curb and slipped his phone beneath the front tire of a parked cab.

  Tomorrow he would buy a burner phone and turn in his rental car. Small measures that would inconvenience Gwen Holloway, but nothing would stop her once she set her sights on a target.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, Addie sat in her parked car with a blueberry scone and iced coffee as she kept an eye on her surroundings. For someone who had a tendency to get bored and restless with too much time on her hands, she’d never minded surveillance. It gave her time to think, and she had plenty on her mind this morning.

  Despite her insistence that sometimes a coincidence was just a coincidence, she wondered if the previous evening’s events really could be connected to Ethan’s arrival in Charleston. Maybe the trespasser hadn’t been so much a prankster as a watcher. Someone sent to keep an eye on her. Rattle her cage with those flower petals.

  Now she was starting to sound as paranoid and obsessed as Ethan.

  Addie shivered despite the heat.

  Her initial assumption about the interloper had likely been right. Even as a child, she’d known about that strange breed of spectators who tried to insinuate themselves into a tragedy, or worse, into a victim’s life for self-aggrandizement. Her grandmother had tried to protect her from those who would cruelly invade their privacy, but from time to time a “fan” would slip through. Sometimes an aggressive reporter would ambush Addie on the playground or a photographer would hide in the bushes to try to get candid photographs for a story on Twilight’s Children. Eventually the personal contact died away, and the letters that came later had never seemed threatening.