“To protect the warden,” Ava repeated. Sweat ran down Ava’s temple although she felt icy cold. “The warden isn’t going to want you to murder Gino in cold blood. She’ll want him punished in accordance to the law.”
The woman stood up behind the counter. Naked, arms crossed over her chest but shoulders back, voice strong. HRT was almost there.
“She’s right, Milo. I could never have survived this ordeal if it wasn’t for you helping me. Thank you for that. Let Gino rot in prison. Put the knife down before they come in here with guns blazing and shoot you for being armed.”
On screen Milo and the warden both glanced toward the cafeteria where sounds of the assault team could be heard.
“Put the weapon down,” Dominic urged directly into the mic. “We don’t want to hurt you after you’ve helped resolve this crisis.”
Milo looked sadly at Gino. Then he tossed the knife on the counter and raised his hands high into the air. He took a step back and executed a brutal kick that hit Gino in the face. Ava sucked in a startled breath at the ferocity of the attack. Then Milo stepped away with a smile that sent shivers through Ava just as the HRT guys blew the doors and rushed inside.
Ava met Dominic’s stare and flinched at the turbulent emotion in his gaze.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Ava grimaced. It was her turn to have her ass kicked.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Did you know about this?” Charlotte demanded angrily as she pushed to his side.
Dominic turned off the microphone and recording instruments. Anger coiled inside him like razor wire. If he said no, Ava wouldn’t be suspended, she’d be gone. Kicked out of the Bureau permanently. And she was a damn good agent—one he’d just had sex with.
Complications were multiplying like rabbits and the fact he felt compromised by what they’d done, both by the need to protect her and the need to protect his own reputation and his job, made him so fucking furious that his skin felt like it might char at the edges if he released even an iota of his rage.
“Of course, I knew.” He looked Charlotte in the eyes and lied.
Ava was a Black Swan. An unknown unknown that changed everything completely.
It was so Ava he should have known. Milo’s protective loyalty to the warden was another. Who knew serial killers felt loyalty?
Charlotte threw up her hands when he refused to say anything more and turned away to organize her stuff. He and Ava stared at one another.
She understood exactly how angry he was. Her expression turned from contrition to resilience to resentment with each breath she took, her mood conveyed by the increasingly belligerent angle of her chin.
Typical Ava.
A loose cannon. A loner. Unpredictable.
The Incident Commander came into the room and shook his hand, but Dominic had not solved this crisis. He’d just stalled for time which hadn’t been good enough in this particular instance. Then the IC turned to Ava and shook her hand.
“I don’t know if any of that was true, but that was a goddamned beautiful thing to watch.”
“What is Frank Jacobs’ condition? And the warden?” Dominic interrupted. This operation had been a team effort and the fact the Incident Commander didn’t recognize that pissed him off.
“Jacobs has been rushed to the nearest trauma center—he’s alive. The warden is physically unharmed.”
“I didn’t do much, sir.” Ava spoke clearly, interrupting what Dominic had been about to say. Ballsy considering his fuse was so short the slightest thing might set him off and she knew it. “The negotiation team worked tirelessly to prevent the hostage-takers harming the hostages. I was a little shock value at the end.”
Dominic shook his head.
Shock value. That summed her up perfectly. And she totally cut the legs from under him with the power of her convictions and ingrained sense of honor. It’s what Van had seen in her.
The Incident Commander nodded. Goddamn, the man looked infatuated. Hell, they probably all did, except Charlotte who didn’t seem to like Ava, at all. “I’m going to recommend you get a commendation.”
Ava shook her head. Hazel eyes wide and unnerved. “No. No, sir. I’d rather my part in this be forgotten. Scrubbed from the record if at all possible.” She swallowed repeatedly. “I really do have a mother, brother and sister who might be in danger if my name gets out.”
“So, it was true?” the Incident Commander questioned.
Ava grimaced but didn’t answer. Dominic went still for a long moment realizing exactly what that meant. At a young age Ava, or Emmeleia, had watched her father murdered. She’d been hit so hard on the face that she still wore the scar today. Instead of crawling off and hiding the way he had when his mother had died, Ava had fought back. Changed her identity and gone up against one of the most powerful mob families in NY history.
He put his hands in his pockets to hide the fact they were suddenly shaking. The others moved away, and he and Ava stood staring at one another, surrounded by chaos and frantic activity.
“That’s where you met Van?” He had the epiphany out loud.
She nodded.
No wonder they’d been close and the guy had sung her praises. He’d known her since she was a little kid with a target on her back.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything.” She spoke low so only he could hear.
And that was where part of his anger came from, he realized. The fact she hadn’t confided in him. She hadn’t told him her deep dark secrets. Which was hypocritical because Dominic did not trust easily and guarded his secrets like a miser’s gold. WitSec wasn’t your average confidence. Lives depended on not revealing information that didn’t need to be revealed.
He and Ava had known one another five minutes. Five minutes that felt longer than a lifetime.
Eban and Charlotte were clearing up, gathering the notes they needed to make their reports.
“Remove Ava’s name from any of the documents and case notes,” Dominic told them.
Eban nodded. Charlotte kept her lips pressed firmly together in disapproval.
Ava’s eyes told him she was grateful.
“Want to do the walk-through with us?” asked Eban.
Usually Dominic would do exactly that. See if they’d missed anything or could have done anything differently or better.
“You guys go on without us.” He was still trying to put the pieces of his brain back together.
Before Charlotte and Eban could leave though, the warden arrived in the doorway, wearing an over-sized, black HRT t-shirt and the same pants she’d been wearing for days.
She cleared her throat. “I wanted to say ‘thank you’ to the people involved in resolving this siege, the tactical unit but especially to the negotiators.” Her eyes were red, and her hands trembled. The woman knew they’d all seen her naked and at her most vulnerable but here she was, facing them head-on, meeting their gazes with an indomitable spirit. “You kept me from falling over the edge of hysteria in there and allowed me to retain a shred of dignity.”
She shook hands with them all. Joe and Eban both had their jaws clamped so forcefully shut Dominic knew they were holding back tears.
It was impossible not to be moved. He glanced at Ava and although she held herself stiffly, her eyes were glassy. For all her attitude, Ava Kanas had a big heart and had taken a giant risk with her and her family’s safety to help rescue this woman, a stranger to her.
And yet she held back with the group hug while Charlotte dove right in.
He narrowed his gaze because he knew from the way she held herself she wanted to join that embrace but didn’t feel welcome.
Suddenly he wanted to scoop Ava up in a big hug but was afraid if he did so everyone in the room would be able to read his thoughts and feelings regarding this woman, and he wasn’t even sure what they were himself.
He knew he liked her. Really liked her. To the point where he’d compromised himself in a way unimaginable a few hours ago. It
appeared he’d taken over from Van in trying to protect her within the Bureau—mainly from herself.
For the first time in days his cell phone started buzzing in his pocket. Comms were back on inside the prison. He’d be lying if he said he’d missed being plugged in.
Mallory Rooney was on the line. “Ballistics from a rifle found in the back of Caroline Perry’s car match the bullet casing found on the roof after the Calvin Mortimer shooting.”
“So, you found her car?”
“Down by the river.” Rooney paused. “Ava didn’t tell you?”
He ran his hand through his short hair. “I asked her not to tell me anything until this siege was over, which it now is. She can fill me in on everything I missed. Tell me the new stuff.”
“The task force is trying to place Caroline Perry at the scenes of any of the deaths of the FBI agents in question. We are also looking at Karl Feldman. Seeing if they were possibly working together. We have someone trying to trace where she purchased the gun but nothing so far.”
Dominic rubbed the bridge of his nose. The scab had healed, and his bruises were starting to fade. His shoulder still ached though. And his ribs. But the injuries were fading, and he was keen to put this nightmare behind him.
“Task force is trying to establish a connection between her and any of the NYFO cases your squad worked. Maybe she assumed another identity and isn’t really Caroline Perry.”
“Have the BAU worked up a profile of the likely offender yet?” asked Dominic, trying to ignore the whirlwind of activity that swirled around him. Ava crossed her arms and stared at him, patiently waiting for news.
“Given the wide-ranging, potential crimes with differing MOs it hasn’t been easy,” Rooney admitted. “They found plastic explosives on Fernando Chavez’s speedboat on the weekend. The guy was insanely lucky that there was a fault with a detonator or else he and his whole family would probably be dead by now. The fact the UNSUB can move across the country so easily suggests they have means and are above average intelligence but we haven’t narrowed it much further than that, yet.”
Dominic’s world slowed. “Wait. Fernando Chavez? Fernando only crossed over with some of the older agents by a couple of months…”
“Task force is examining the cases.”
Dominic’s mind was racing. It was his life. He knew the facts better than any task force. “I need to make a call. I’ll call you back.”
He strode out of the building barely aware of Ava on his heels. He searched for the contact information of a female vice cop he’d worked with during the hunt for a notorious serial killer named the “Lost Girl Killer” by the press.
Peter Galveston had liked to pick up hitchhikers and keep them for weeks or months at his upscale cabin in remote woods where he raped and tortured them. Eventually they died from their injuries or he’d grow bored and finish them off by hunting them in the woods near his house, or strangling them with his bare hands.
The guy had taped much of it in graphic detail, but they’d always thought he’d had someone helping him. Maybe more than one person.
Finally, Dominic found the number he was looking for. Sandra Warren.
“Sheridan?” She sounded exactly the same as she had a decade ago. “What the heck can I do for you?”
“Hey, Sandy. Where are you at, right now?” His heart was pumping fast.
“That’s an odd question?” Classic cop, not giving anything away.
“It’s really important that you listen to me carefully. This is not a prank. I want you to head straight for Federal Plaza. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t drive your own car, don’t drink or eat anything…”
“What the hell? Is this some sort of secret society hazing thing? Do I win a prize at the end of it?” She was laughing.
Dominic’s mouth was dry. “Where exactly are you now?”
She lowered her voice. “Talking to a sex crime victim in lower Manhattan.”
“Alone?”
“No. I have a detective with me. Why? Hey, come on. You’re scaring me, buddy.”
“I can’t explain, but I really need you to do as I ask. Get a cab to the FBI office and wait there until someone contacts you.”
“What about my family, Dominic?” Her voice rose with fear. She was taking him seriously.
“Call Ben, tell him to pick everyone up—not in your own car, get a cab—and meet you at NYFO. Call me when you get there…”
“Okay, but if this is a joke I’m going to roast your ass.”
“It’s no joke.”
She hung up, obviously in a hurry to warn her husband.
“You figured it out?” Ava asked, watching him as they threw their belongings into their go-bags. He ignored the sight of the messed-up sheets on the mattresses on the floor, but Dominic did not forget what they’d done.
It paled into insignificance when compared to the deadly actions of this killer—not the act itself, but the associated shame.
“You know who it is,” Ava declared, grabbing the wash bags out of the tiny bathroom and tossing him his.
“I think so.” He dialed Lincoln Frazer. Nausea swirled in his stomach.
“Who?” she asked.
Frazer answered with a terse, “What is it?”
“Peter Galveston,” Dominic said.
“Galveston is dead,” said Frazer.
“I know. I shot him.” It had been the first time Dominic had killed a man, but not the last.
“These murders do not share an MO with Galveston,” Frazer argued.
“I’m telling you, Linc, it’s connected to him. He was our major focus when Fernando Chavez joined our squad. We caught him within a month of Chavez being there and Preston Daniels retired shortly afterwards. Fernando effectively replaced Preston.” Dominic’s fingers cramped from holding the phone so tightly. “I know it’s related to Galveston.”
“I’ll call the task force and ask them to prioritize reviewing his case files.”
Dominic had lived and breathed that case for months. He knew the case files inside out.
“I called a female cop called Sandra Warren who acted as bait for the serial killer. I told her to get to NYFO ASAP and get her family there too. Whoever is doing this will target her.”
His phone showed another call coming through. “Wait. She’s calling me back. Let me take that.”
“Fine,” Frazer said. “I’ll call the task force.”
“Dominic? I can’t reach Ben.” Sandy was talking quickly, too quickly. “What the hell is going on?”
“Did you check the school?”
“The kids are both in the principal’s office. I told her to keep them there until I pick them up.”
“Let someone else do that, Sandy. Let an officer—”
“No. Goddammit, if they are in danger, I’ll be the one to pick them up. Tell me what the hell is going on.”
Dominic took a long breath to slow down his heart. “We believe someone has been hunting down the agents working the Peter Galveston case—”
“Hunting down?”
“Killing.”
“Oh, my god.”
Dominic could hear tires screeching and a siren go on.
“Oh, no, oh god.” Sandy was gulping audibly as if struggling to breathe. “There’s an ambulance outside my house, Dominic.”
Dammit.
He heard her sobbing her husband’s name and then nothing. She hung up on him. Dominic stood there and closed his eyes. If he’d figured this out earlier then he might have prevented this. But that was exactly what the UNSUB wanted. For Dominic to tear himself apart with guilt.
He called Frazer back and told him what had happened and to contact agents at NYFO to get protection on Sandy whether she wanted it or not.
The UNSUB’s plan appeared to have misfired and Dominic wouldn’t put it past the asshole to have something lined up in reserve.
“What are you going to do?” Frazer asked.
Dominic glanced at Ava. He wished she was safely out of
the way back in Fredericksburg—not because he didn’t want her around but because he didn’t want her to get hurt. And this UNSUB would be more than happy to hurt Ava if she got in his way.
“I’m close by so I’m going to make sure Galveston is in the dirt where I put him. I want an exhumation order signed by the time I get to Chapel Hills on the border of New York State and Pennsylvania. I’ll call the RA in Binghamton for assistance. You call the director.”
“I’m on it,” Frazer replied. “Just one thing…”
“What?” Dominic snapped as he headed out the trailer to scrounge up a ride.
“Watch your back. Even if Caroline Perry was involved, I don’t think she was acting alone.”
Frazer was right. The plot was too intricate to be carried out by one lone actor. “I agree.”
“Kanas working out okay as protection?” The way Frazer asked made Dominic wonder if he’d guessed something was going on between him and Ava.
“Still saving the world,” he told the other man.
Ava’s lips pressed together, and he knew she knew they were talking about her. But he didn’t have time to worry about her feelings or about what the hell he was going to do with this woman who was complicating his life and his work. Not until they caught this killer. Not until they stopped the madness.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ava sat next to Dominic in the helicopter that had originally been tasked as a decoy for the prisoners’ escape. Now Dominic and Ava were using it to head south from Buffalo to somewhere called Chapel Hills.
It was only mid-morning, but considering everything that had happened since midnight she felt like this day had already lasted a thousand years.
They’d got out of there in record time, Dominic barking out questions and updates even when he was on the phone trying to arrange the exhumation of a serial killer named Peter Galveston—the so-called Lost Girl Killer. Now Ava sat in the back of the helicopter, nervously watching the countryside whizz by below. This was her first time in a chopper, and they were traveling so fast her heart was about two feet behind her body. It was deafeningly noisy even with the ear muffs and the mic in her headset wasn’t working, so although she could hear Dominic and the pilot talking to one another, she couldn’t ask questions or join in the conversation.
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