by M. S. Parker
I was dangerously close to begging but didn't care. I knew I was going to lose her again, but I couldn't bear to see her walk away right now.
She turned back around to face me, leaving her hand in mine. “Like I said, my boss is making some calls to see what we can do. I should know more soon enough. I'm sure a lot of it will depend on what you give us.”
I wanted to remind her I wasn’t talking before I knew precisely what they could offer me, but I held my tongue. She looked like she wanted to say more, and I wanted to hear her talk, no matter what she said. Who knew how much longer I'd be able to hear her voice.
She pulled her hand away from mine, her entire demeanor shifting to something stand-offish. Professional. “Now, let me tell you what we have so you understand what you will be faced with. We know you were at Leticia Backman’s house. Your prints are there, and I'm sure the maid will remember you.”
Shit.
Her words had bite.
I hadn't been thinking about Karis when I'd fucked Angelina. Or, more accurately, I had been thinking about her, but it'd been about how to get her out of my head. I'd never imagined she’d find out.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but she kept going.
“Leticia told us about the forgery you tried to pass off to her. We know about your buddy Blake posing as your boyfriend to get you in the door with Backman. We talked to him. Nice guy, by the way.” She paused, and then added, “Not like your mentor, Uaine Leconte.”
Fuck me.
I tried to hide my reaction, but I couldn't stop the sick feeling in my stomach. She definitely had my attention now, regardless of her tone. They’d done their homework.
I just really hoped it didn't mean what I thought it meant. Because if it did, things were even worse than I’d expected, and considering I was probably going to be charged with murder, that was saying a lot.
“We know he took you in and taught you the ropes, Bron. We got that story from a couple of different sources.” She laughed uneasily and shifted in her seat. “He doesn’t really hide what he is or what he does, which tells me it’s going to be hard to pin anything on him. He’s probably skillfully dodged justice for many years, which is why we need your help.”
Shit, shit, shit!
“Did you talk to him?” My voice stayed even, but my gut was churning.
She was right that Uaine had trained me. He'd taught me everything I knew. How to pick a mark's pocket without them feeling a thing. The way to charm any man or woman I met. He'd nurtured my natural artistic talent and had me forging masterpieces by the time I was eighteen.
He'd also shown me a ruthless, violent side when anyone got in his way. We'd gone our separate ways by the time I was twenty-one, but we'd still done the occasional job together until a couple years ago when one of our joint jobs had gone horribly wrong, and he'd killed someone. When I'd confronted him about it, words had been exchanged, including a few statements that made me believe that Uaine had killed before. Probably some of his other protégés who'd displeased him. Maybe marks who got wise. I hadn't stuck around to find out.
Since then, the two of us had stayed out of each other's way in a tense truce.
A flare of anger went through me.
If he came near Karis, I might break my own code regarding taking another person's life. No one was going to hurt her.
“Did you talk to him?” I repeated my question.
Karis raised her eyebrow. “My partner and I spoke with Mr. Leconte.”
Something in the way she said it made me think she wasn't being entirely honest, but then she continued without giving me the chance to question her about it.
“I got the impression that Mr. Leconte leads a rather stable life for a grifter, something more comfortable than most people in your...profession.”
Dammit. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to get me to talk now, to reveal a bit about Uaine that she didn't know. Except she needed to stay away from him. He'd already shown me that he had no problem killing people who got in his way.
Oh shit.
I suddenly realized that I might really know who killed Leticia Backman.
“He didn’t admit to his connection with you,” Karis continued. “In fact, he seemed sort of...annoyed. Is there a reason why he’d want to distance himself from you?” She tilted her head, a curious expression on her face. “Maybe I caught him off guard by letting him know I was investigating you. Maybe he hadn’t expected you to get caught so easily.”
I narrowed my eyes. She was trying to bait me, and I needed to be careful. Before I said anything, I needed to think. Granted, we hadn’t talked in years, but she'd always been closer to me than anyone else. If I opened my mouth to tell her anything, I might tell her everything.
But still, I couldn't let her go on as she was. I had to protect her. So I said the same five words I would've told anyone who came to me about my former mentor.
“Stay away from Uaine Leconte.”
Chapter Four
Karis
I watched Bron closely as I talked, looking for the familiar tells I'd once known better than I'd known my own. I didn't think for a moment that he'd actually give me anything without a deal in place, but since he hadn't asked for a lawyer, I was still allowed to talk to him. And while he was too smart to give me anything I could use, I needed to know if I could still read him. If I could, I'd be able to determine how much of what he said was the truth.
He'd gotten much better at hiding his emotions since we were kids, but I could still see bits and pieces. Like the way his body leaned toward mine when our hands touched. I'd told myself that I'd done it to gauge his reaction, but I knew the truth.
I'd wanted to touch him.
No matter what he'd become, no matter who I was now, I was still drawn to him as much as I ever had been.
All of that changed, though, when I mentioned Uaine.
His entire body tensed and a shadow moved across his eyes. He recovered quickly, but I'd seen it. My professional curiosity took over. He was the second person so far to tell me to be careful or avoid the man.
“You know, I’ve been told before that he was a dangerous man, Bron. We talked to your old friend Arielle about him too.” I waited to see if that name got any recognition in his eyes, but the only acknowledgement was the clenched muscle in his jaw.
A sudden thought occurred to me, and I decided to go with it. I had no proof, no real reason for suspicion, but my gut told me to take the risk.
“Do you think Mr. Leconte might have been involved in Leticia Backman’s murder?”
Bron's eyes flicked over to me, then back to where he'd been staring over my shoulder. “Stay away from him.” His voice was flat.
“I get it. He’s a dangerous man. I don't need you to tell me that.” I folded my hands. “I sat in his apartment with him. I know he's not as charming as he pretends to be.”
Bron’s eyes focused on mine. He didn’t look scared, but there was something in them that told me I was in over my head. “He's more than that, Karis.”
Karis. Not Agent Melendez. And I could tell he wasn't using my first name to try to get to me. His warning wasn't professional. It was personal.
I couldn't be personal though. My instincts told me I was on to something here, which meant Bron might really have something we could use to get him immunity.
Okay, so maybe it was a little personal.
“Were you working with him on Leticia Backman?” I asked. “Is that why you don’t want to talk about him? I know he recruited you, and we’ve got people who put you two together. Did he kill her because she came to us to turn you in?” A thought hit me hard enough to make my heart thud painfully against my ribs. “Will he come after you now?”
Bron's eyes held mine for a moment before they slid away again.
“I’m done talking, Agent Melendez. Unless you and your partner can put a deal on the table, I’ve got nothing else to say to you.” He leaned back in his seat, his posture suggesting he w
ould have crossed his arms if they hadn’t been shackled to the table.
We were back to agent now. I knew his concern for me had been genuine, but it was clear that he wasn't going to let me get close. I had a feeling he hadn't let anyone close to him in a long time.
I should've just left it alone, but I pushed. “Look, if you didn’t have anything to do with her murder, I need to know. My boss is ready to put you away for it on top of your robbery at the museum.”
The muscle in his jaw clenched again, and I knew he hadn't realized we had evidence in the museum heist. He'd thought we'd picked him up for the forgery he'd given Mrs. Backman.
“That’s right,” I continued. “We’ve got evidence that puts you in the museum at the time of the robbery. Corroborating witness testimony. It'll be a slam dunk. Add that to Mrs. Backman's death and the fact that she came to see us, it won’t be difficult to connect the dots. Everyone else is ready to slam your case shut and toss you behind bars, but I know there’s more to it than that.” I paused, then laid the rest of my cards on the table. “I recommended immunity in exchange for your help. If Mr. Leconte is as dangerous as you seem to think he is, then we really should work together to get him off the streets, don't you think?”
Silence stretched out long enough for me to start to wonder if Bron really was done talking this time.
“I’ll tell you this much,” he finally said. “You don’t know how dangerous Uaine Leconte is. Trust me on this, Karis. Keep your distance from that man.”
A bit of temper flared at his tone. He sounded like he was talking to the girl he'd known, someone he'd always felt like he had to protect. I understood the feeling since I was struggling with it too, but he couldn't see me in that position of vulnerability. He had to see me for who I was now. Still on his side, yes, but an FBI agent. Trained. Strong. Able to take care of myself.
“It’s the suit, isn’t it?” I asked him, sitting back to give him a good look at me.
He frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“The reason we’re having so much trouble connecting in here. The suit. You’d be happy to open up to me if I were sitting here with you in something a little more relaxed and casual, wouldn’t you?”
I knew someone could be listening to our conversation, so I needed to be careful. I couldn’t talk about the way things had been when we were younger. I couldn’t talk about who we'd been to each other, but I hoped I could get my point across anyway.
His eyes gleamed, and I knew he understood. This was the moment of truth. All he had to do was put it out there that we had history, and my career would come tumbling down. Even with the evidence we had, the case would suffer because any good defense attorney would be able to use our past connection to bring up reasonable doubt.
I was counting on Bron still having some feelings for me, even if they were only nostalgic friendship.
“I’ll open up for you when you open up for me, Agent Melendez,” he said.
I breathed a sigh of relief, though didn't let myself feel it too much. It was entirely possible that Bron was holding that card back to play at a better time.
“If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” He grinned at me, letting admiration show on his face. It wasn't a leer, but there was definitely something sexual there. “The thing is, you haven’t scratched my back yet.”
“I think putting my neck on the line for immunity should be good for at least a little information. Throw me a bone here. Give me a reason to keep pushing for you to walk out of here a free man.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Agent Melendez. I’ve told you all I can for now.”
I recognized the tone of finality in his voice, but I refused to give up.
“Then I suppose I'll just have to tell my boss that you and Mr. Leconte were working together. I'm sure the DA won't have any problem convincing a jury that you were fully aware of what he planned to do to Mrs. Backman. After all, the two of you have a history.”
Bron's expression tightened, but he didn't say anything.
“I know this guy has a reputation,” I continued. “I know he's dangerous. So, I’m not asking you to tell me where he is. All I want to know is if you were working this job with him. If you were, we can pick him up, hold him. We'll keep you safe while we work out the deal.”
“Dammit, Karis!” He practically growled the words. “Yes, I know him. No, he and I weren't working together on anything I hypothetically may or may not have done. Now leave it alone!”
Even when he was pissed, he made sure he didn't say anything incriminating.
I ignored the warning. “So, you two weren’t working on Backman together, but do you think he killed her?”
This time, the silence lasted long enough for me to know that he really was done talking.
I wanted to say more, to break open the crack in his mask. I wanted to make him talk to me. Not about the case, but about what happened to him. To me. To us. I wanted to force him to tell me how he felt; ask him why he kissed me. I needed to know if his concern for me was merely a way of covering his own ass because he knew if something happened to me, he'd lose the one person who was trying to help him.
That was the real question, I knew. How much of what he said, what he did, was done purely out of self-interest rather than genuine concern for me?
The next question was just as important, but only I could answer it.
How much of what I was doing came from wanting justice, and how much was because I couldn't bear to lose him again?
Chapter Five
Karis
I had two motives for going to Colman's office after my conversation with Bron. First, I needed to see where things were with the DA. While I still didn't have answers to the questions circling in my head, one thing had definitely been evident during my meeting with Bron.
He wasn't a killer.
Nothing in his past suggested any real violence. Sure, he'd gotten into some fights as a teenager, but after all he'd been through, that wasn't exactly surprising. Parents murdered, life uprooted, and then put into a system that was only fifty-fifty when it came to decent homes.
So when it came to his innocence in the Leticia Backman murder, I trusted his word. For everything else, I'd wait and see.
My second motive for going to Colman on Bron's behalf had little, if anything, to do with the case itself. I wanted to reach a deal that would give me more freedom to reconnect with him. Something that would let me try to get answers to all the questions burning inside me. Something that would let me work toward closure. If I could be part of the deal, I could work out meetings where what we said wasn't recorded so I could ask what I wanted to ask.
Once I finally had answers, I was sure that I'd be able to move on.
A knot formed in my stomach as I knocked on Colman’s office door. After a moment, he called for me to come in.
“Ah, Agent Melendez, a pleasant sight, as always,” he said as I walked inside. “I saw that you went back into the interrogation room with your suspect. Did you learn anything new?”
His tone seemed dismissive, like case talk was just his version of small talk and he’d rather be talking to me about something else. Knowing him, he would've preferred something a lot more personal, with plenty of innuendos and sexual undertones.
“He’s not really saying much right now,” I said honestly. “He did say that he wasn’t working with Uaine Leconte, and I tend to believe him. We know the two were associates at one time, but Br–Mr. Murray's dislike of Mr. Leconte seemed genuine.” I paused and then decided to add in the one thing that Bron had been adamant about. “Mr. Murray seems to believe that Mr. Leconte is dangerous. He even went so far as to warn me away from Leconte.”
“Have a seat,” Colman said abruptly, gesturing to one of the small chairs in front of his desk and stepping around to close the door.
I hesitated. I cringed at the idea of being alone with Colman in his office. He'd never crossed the line, but he'd been getting close over the past co
uple weeks. But if I wanted to discuss Bron's deal, I had to play ball.
“I’m not going to bite. Not in the office anyway.” Colman winked.
I really hoped that was just a bad joke and not a confession of his sexual proclivities. I wasn't a prude, but I really didn't want to think about my boss being into kinky sex.
I took the offered seat and tried not to shudder when he stared at my legs. Yet another reason I never wore a skirt to work.
“The reason I wanted you to sit down was to tell you I think you’ve done a great job with this case.” He leaned on his desk, standing far too close for my comfort. “I admire your dedication, and I’d like to see you take some time for yourself.”
I managed not to roll my eyes. No matter how many times I reminded him that my personal life wasn't any of his business, he always brought it back up. I had a bad feeling that, one of these days, I’d need to threaten to go to HR if he didn't stop. And even that might not have been enough. Guys like him sometimes needed a follow-through on a threat.
Or a good kick in the nuts.
I knew which one I would've preferred to deliver.
“I’m serious, now, Karis.” He looked me up and down, not even trying to disguise the lust in his eyes. “You’ve spent too much time on this case. You need a break once this is over. Maybe a special dinner or a night out at the club. What do you say?”
My smile was tight. “Are you asking me out?”
I was going to make him say it so that there'd be no misunderstandings later.
The pleased expression on his face told me that it was the right thing to say. “That wouldn’t be entirely appropriate since I'm your boss, but if we happened to be at the same place, at the same time, and wanted to enjoy each other's company, I wouldn't be opposed to that.”
What a load of bullshit. He couldn't even man up enough to say it. If he hadn't held Bron's deal in his hands, I would've finally let him have it. As it was, I made sure my reply was just as vague. “How about we talk about this again once this case is resolved? There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
