by M. S. Parker
Shit.
I forced myself to stay calm. If he had any evidence, he wouldn't have started with such an evasive statement. That was interrogation 101. Give a vague statement and let the suspect provide additional information when on the defense.
“I'm not sure what you mean, sir.”
“I knew you'd play dumb.” His eyes ran over me, and I resisted the urge to squirm.
Even though I was wearing slacks, a dress shirt, and a tailored jacket, his gaze made me feel like I was practically naked. My hands curled into fists under the table as I fought to keep the polite smile on my face.
“I know that’s how you work, Melendez,” Colman continued. “I’ve been watching you every day. Every day you come in here and use that body of yours to get what you want. Flaunting that tight ass in front of everyone so no one can get any work done.”
“What the–” Bron started to get up, but I put a hand on his arm. We didn't need him smarting off to Colman and making things worse.
“I'd listen to her if I were you,” Colman said. His eyes narrowed as he walked over to my side. “Is that how it works? You play the big-bad agent and order him around? I could see you liking it that way.”
My stomach churned, mouth flattening. “Agent Gau, I'd like to know what you wanted to talk to me about.”
One corner of his mouth curved up in a smile. “I'm just here to give you a warning, Agent Melendez. I know you've been spending an awful lot of time with a criminal, and I don't think it's for wholly professional reasons.”
His hand brushed against my shoulder as he walked around behind me to stand closer to Bron.
“How was she, Mr. Murray?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Excuse me?”
I heard the danger in Bron's voice. He might abhor guns, but fists...that was something else.
“I'll bet she's sweet in all the right places,” Colman said. “Sweet and tight and hot, right?”
My chest tightened as the air in the room thickened. I couldn't believe this was happening. I'd always known Colman was a lecherous ass, but this was going too far, even for him.
“Tell me, Mr. Murray,” Colman lowered his voice. “Did she keep you handcuffed when she fucked you?”
I heard the chair scrape even as I saw Bron flying out of his seat toward my boss.
Chapter Four
Bron
My fist connected with his jaw hard enough to send a jolt up my arm. I was going to feel it later, but right now, all I could feel was anger, and I wasn't even sure that word was strong enough for what I was feeling.
“Bron, no!” Karis shouted behind me, but it was too late. I’d already landed the shot.
“You son of a bitch!” I glared down at the man I'd just knocked to the floor. “If you ever touch, threaten, or so much as look at Karis, or any other agent, in an inappropriate manner, I'll make sure you regret it.”
“Bron, what the hell?”
I turned to see Karis staring at me. She didn't look mad at me, so I felt safe in saying I wasn't in too much trouble.
“Don’t ‘what the hell’ me,” I said, frowning at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just Colman. He talks shit.” She still looked incredulous.
“That’s it.” Colman's voice came from behind me.
I turned to see him pushing himself up from the floor. His face was red, and not only the spot where I'd connected with his jaw.
“You just bought yourself a one-way ticket behind bars, you snot-nosed little bastard.” Colman's voice shook. “And as of right now, there are no deals on the table for you anymore. You’re done.”
This was it, I thought. I'd lost it all, but I wasn’t about to stand by and watch him treat Karis like that, deal or no deal. She deserved better than that, especially from her boss. He should have been offering her a raise. After all, she’d been the one to ID me from the videos at the museum. If it hadn’t been for that one brilliant piece of detective work, none of the rest of this would've happened.
No matter what happened to me, I considered the punch well worth it.
“Agent Gau.” Karis's voice was sharp, strong. “Stay here, please. We need to talk about Mr. Murray.”
“I don't need to speak with you about that,” Colman snapped. “Or about anything. Not only am I going to throw him behind bars, you’re out of here too.”
I felt the urge to hit him again, but I could see by the expression on Karis's face that she was pissed, and that meant she wouldn’t back down.
Colman continued, “Once I report your misconduct with a suspect, you won’t have a future with the FBI, or anywhere else for that matter.”
“No,” she said. Her voice hardened as she walked around the table to stand in front of him. “No, Agent Gau, none of that is going to happen.” Her smile was tight, vicious.
I'd seen that smile before and knew what it meant. Karis had that look on her face more than once in our childhood. Usually before she beat the shit out of some brat who'd been running their mouth.
Karis continued, “You won’t do anything to Bron or to me, Agent Gau, because if you do, I’ll report you for sexual harassment and misconduct. I’m pretty sure once I speak up, you’ll find that no one around here appreciates your advances, your comments, or your little touches every now and then.” She lowered her voice and took another step toward him. “So, before you start making threats, and throwing around weight you don’t actually have, think about what that would mean for you. I’m fairly certain it would be much more devastating for you to have your career cut short at this point than it would be for me. You’re too old to be starting over from scratch, aren’t you, sir?”
“Who’s going to believe a rookie over someone like me?” he sneered. “Your only witness to whatever I supposedly said is the con man you're sleeping with.”
The door to the room opened, and everyone froze. Benita walked into the room, and I actually found myself taking a step back. I towered over the older woman, but the expression on her face scared the shit out of me.
“No, Agent Gau, Mr. Murray is not the only witness,” Benita said as she came to stand next to Karis. “I’ll back her up, and I’m sure every woman who has ever worked for you will do the same. You’ve got nothing on anybody because of how much is stacked against you already. So, like my partner said, think about what your next move is before you do anything...reckless.”
I watched with satisfaction as they cornered him. He rubbed his jaw as he looked at me, and then, looked at them. The defiant look in his eyes reminded me of a petulant child.
“No one is going to believe a couple of lesbians and their little criminal boyfriend,” he said.
Benita actually laughed. “Seriously, Colman? You're going to accuse Karis of sleeping with Bron in one breath, and then call us lesbians in the next? Do you really think that's going to work?”
“All it's going to do is make you look like more of a chauvinistic ass,” Karis added. “You know that as well as we do, so get out while you're still ahead.”
He glared at all of us. “Your days are numbered here, both of you. And, as for you, Mr. Con Man, I’ve got your number, pal.” He pointed at each of us as he reached the door.
Benita rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut the hell up. If you try anything, the only person around here who will be going down is you. Got it?”
We all managed to stay quiet until the door closed.
“Did you see what happened?” Karis asked Benita, her voice low.
“Yeah,” Benita said. She looked at me. “Nice hit.”
“Thanks.” I shrugged. “But I just did what anyone would have done. I'm not a big fan of violence, but some guys need a punch in the face to know when to shut up.”
“All right,” Benita said. “Yeah, Colman is one of those people that could probably do with multiple punches to the face, but we’ve got work to do, guys. Uaine is still out there, and that's more important than Colman's drama.”
; “Right,” Karis agreed. She followed Benita out of the room and I, of course, followed her.
I always followed her. And I knew now that I always would.
I sighed as I stepped into the hall. I'd always prided myself on being calm, cool, able to face any situation and think my way out of it. I hadn't needed to use my fists since I was a kid, but Karis did something to me, made me lose my head. Nothing else mattered apart from her. Not my freedom, not my life. Only her.
I'd do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost was to me.
Chapter Five
Karis
I tried to use the short walk from the briefing room to my office to get my head pulled together. Between everything that happened yesterday and then the incident with Colman, my head was spinning. In some ways, it hadn't stopped since Bron had come back into my life.
Actually, if I was being entirely honest, there had been two times recently when my brain hadn't been pure chaos. The two times I'd had sex with Bron, he'd managed to make pretty much everything in my head go away.
Including, it seemed, my common sense.
“Okay,” I said as we reached our desks. “What did you want to bring us up to speed about before Colman interrupted?”
“Security camera footage from last night,” Benita said.
I looked at Bron, who shrugged. “What security footage? We were outside.”
Benita rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Rookie? Join us in the twenty-first century.” She hit the spacebar on her computer keyboard, revealing a screen shot of the sidewalk outside the restaurant. “We’ve got footage from the restaurant, the traffic lights, and every business in the area that has a monitored security system with cameras. And it’s all downloaded on both our computers.” She stepped to a third desk and typed something in, unlocking the computer. “Plus, I got temporary security clearance for one Mr. Bron Du Murier so that you, sir, can join in on the fun. Pull up a chair, and let’s start reviewing these tapes.”
“Does anyone else think it's odd that despite how paranoid everyone is about law enforcement cameras in public places, they’ve essentially achieved the same effect with their own personal security systems?” I asked.
“A little.” Benita smiled fondly, and I knew we were on good terms again. “Now, let’s see if we can find where Uaine came from and, more importantly, where he went.”
For the next few hours, we poured over footage, looking at the same shots from different angles, the same actions. I watched Uaine try to shoot me and Bron push me out of the way. Saw me get up and chase after Uaine. Saw him almost get hit by the car, run through the alley up to the fence where I’d lost him. There didn't seem to be any cameras on the other side of the fence, and by the time the alley opened back up, there were far too many possibilities when it came to where he could've gone next. Too many cameras to subpoena generally. Agents were trying to get business owners to voluntarily give over their footage, but it was slow going.
“This is ridiculous,” Bron finally said. “How are you supposed to be able to get away with anything anymore?”
Benita cleared her throat and gave me a meaningful look.
Dammit.
“Bron,” I called. “Come here a moment.”
He rolled his chair over to my desk. “What’s up?”
I leaned close, my stomach flipping as I breathed in the spicy, masculine scent of him. I kept my voice low so only he could hear it. “You need to watch what you say in here, okay? You don’t know who could walk by, and Colman will hold you to the letter of that deal, using anything you say before we have Uaine against you.”
“Right,” he said. He reached out and put his hand on mine. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
“Anytime.” I wanted to keep my voice light, but all I could think about was the warmth of his hand on mine.
Benita cleared her throat. “All right, you two, get back to work.”
We held each other’s gazes for a beat longer before he spoke, “Okay, I’m going back to my desk.”
“No,” I said. “I could use a second set of eyes on this.”
I could feel Benita watching me, feel her disapproval, but she didn't say anything. I didn't know how much she knew about how far I'd gone, if she'd heard Colman's accusation, if she'd believed it, but I hoped that her silence meant that she was going to trust me to deal with all of this.
“What are we looking at?” Bron asked.
“Here’s what I’ve got.” I backed the footage up to where we could see Leconte jumping over the fence. “This is where he escaped. He jumps over the fence here, and he runs out of frame, but I can’t find any footage that shows where he went after that.”
“So we'll have to wait for the agents to bring in the footage from the other streets?” Bron asked.
“I thought maybe you knew some place of his around there,” I suggested.
He shook his head. “I can't think of anything.”
“What about where he came from?” I asked and turned toward Benita. “Hey, Alverez.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you been able to find where he came from?”
“Not yet,” she sounded as frustrated as I felt. “Uaine seems to appear out of thin air, shoots at you, then disappears.”
“He must've gained some serious ninja skills since I last saw him.” Bron sounded envious. “Wish he would've taught me. Could've come in handy with that–”
I smacked his arm. “What did I say?”
His eyes widened. “Shit. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to her,” Benita said dryly. “Apologize to yourself when you get yourself in trouble that we can’t get you out of.” She stood. “I’ve got to stretch a bit. Anybody want any coffee or anything? My treat.”
“Sure,” I answered. “You know what I like.”
“Need any help?” Bron offered.
“No, I got it. You two stay out of trouble while I’m gone. You want one too, Bron?”
“Yes. Thank you,” he said. He gave her a charming grin. “And we’ll behave while you’re gone.”
“You better.” She gave him a sharp look before walking out the door.
I sat back. “What am I missing, Bron?”
“What do you mean? You can only work with what you’ve got in front of you.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head and frowned. “That answer’s not good enough for me.” I thought back to how I’d poured over the museum tapes so many times, scouring them for some sort of clue, any sort of clue. And then I'd found one. I was convinced I could do the same with these tapes as well. “No, I’m missing something. The answer is right in front of me. It has to be.”
I pulled up a map of the area.
“What’s that for?”
“I’m going to map out where we were and where it looks like he went. Maybe, if we get a bird's eye, we can narrow down the possibilities of where Uaine could've gone.”
“Right.”
I looked back at the map. “Okay, here's where I lost him. Let's see what our options are.”
“You did your best to catch him, Karis. You know that right?”
I gave him a sideways look. “Like I did when I chased you?”
He gave me that charming smile again. “But you didn't want to catch me.”
I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help smiling in return. “Maybe that's it.”
“Does,” Bron glanced at the door, “does Benita know about the time you saw me?”
“Yes.” I didn't add that I thought she might also know about what had happened since then. That she might've taken Colman's accusations and believed them. Bron didn't need to worry about this too.
Benita came back in with three coffees in her hands. “Any luck?”
“Not really, but sort of,” I said.
She handed out the coffee cups. “Okay, please explain, because I don’t get it.”
“Bron and I were looking at a map to see if we could figure out where Uaine might've been going,” I explained. �
��But we're not sure where to start.”
“I have an idea,” Benita said. “Let me check something.”
We were silent for a few minutes while Benita stared at her computer.
“Got it!” She looked at us. “There's one route that would have the fewest security cameras.” She leaned over my shoulder and traced the line on my screen.
I looked at Bron. “Do you think Uaine knew that?”
He thought for a moment before answering, “Maybe. It’s smart enough to be one of his ideas, but I think it was just dumb luck that it worked out that way, honestly. He couldn’t have known. If it had been his plan to dodge cameras, you wouldn’t see him on the camera when he shot at you.” He reached over and tabbed on my keyboard until he brought up the video of the shot. “See, that's a perfect shot of him, which means either he wanted to be caught on camera, or he wasn’t thinking about them at all. I believe it was the latter. He just got lucky.”
“Bron, why didn’t you decide to go into law enforcement?” Benita asked.
He laughed. “I wouldn’t know any of this if I hadn’t gone into what I do. I'd probably be working in some factory right now.”
“Fair enough,” Benita said. “Well, guys, I’m heading out. You probably should too. Rookie, I know you like to stay late and solve cases on your own, but go home and get some sleep tonight. Both of you get some sleep. We’ll get back at it tomorrow and see if we can come up with anything new to help us find Leconte.”
“Right,” I said. “Have a good night.”
“Night, Agent Alverez,” Bron said.
I looked at the screen and studied my map again.
“She’s right, you know.” He nudged me. “We should get home and get some sleep. Or some kind of rest, right?”
“Right. I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing something. Like maybe I’m not looking at the right footage, or I’m thinking about the wrong properties. I don’t know, but it feels like it’s staring me right in the face.”
