Tough Justice Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  “Sorry, but you looked a little spooked,” he explained, voice low. “I wanted to make sure you were good.”

  Lara nodded but didn’t meet his eyes. She was looking over his shoulder down the hall. They were alone. Lara switched her gaze towards Cass’s office.

  But were they really?

  “Are you okay?” he prodded.

  Lara snapped back to attention. “Me? Oh, yeah, just hungry,” she hedged. “Hey, want to go grab something to eat?”

  “Um, sure.” His brow rose. Nick was too good. He knew she wasn’t telling him something. “Let me grab my jacket and see if Ty and Xander want to come with. They don’t seem to be getting along too well.” Nick turned and began to walk back to the cubicles, but Lara grabbed his arm, stopping him. He looked down at her hand and its too-tight grip. She met his questioning stare as he inclined his head back up.

  “I was thinking it could be just a me-and-you thing,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe grab something and go back to your place?”

  If he hadn’t already looked as if he was questioning her actions, she was sure this request would have been a glaring red flag for him. Though her voice hadn’t suggested anything beyond eating, she thought she saw the notion of them repeating their earlier romp cross his expression. But, as he waited to respond, she watched as his eyes took her in. She prided herself on the walls she’d built to protect her innermost thoughts and the drama that came with them, but at that moment Lara believed Nick saw exactly what she needed him to see.

  Lara needed to trust someone.

  And she was choosing him to be that person.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Nick,” Lara started, “as you know, trust isn’t easy for me. I could give you excuse after excuse as to why I’m like this but, well...” She paused, not wanting, while simultaneously needing, to continue. The smell of their fresh coffee filled her senses, as if it was trying to egg her on with a jolt of caffeine. Though, as she fought to figure out her next words, it didn’t seem to be helping. Nick picked up on her hesitation.

  “Lara, what’s this about?”

  “You and I. We’re partners,” she stated.

  “Yes, we are, but what does that have to do with this?” He motioned to her obvious discomfort. Lara shuffled her weight from one foot to the other. She was taking a huge risk, but she didn’t know who else to trust. Nick’s eyes roamed across her face. His concern egging her on.

  Bite the bullet, Lara.

  “Cass,” she said, hesitating at the relief that pooled at the simple fact of saying the name aloud. “She’s been going into my father’s house. Twice now that I know of.”

  “Okay...”

  “Without my knowledge or permission,” she added. “And without any reason why she should.” That changed his tone.

  “Wait, our Cass? As in Cassandra McDonner?” Lara nodded. “Why?”

  “I don’t know, but I’d really like to,” she admitted.

  “You haven’t asked her about it?”

  “No,” she replied, firm. Nick’s eyebrow rose in one perfect movement. It made her think about the night they’d shared a passionate moment. Right before she’d fled. It led to the idea of other memories they could make together. Ones with no clothes and certainly more contact. Lara rolled her shoulders back, trying to refocus. Nick unknowingly had a way of distracting her when she least expected it.

  “Why wouldn’t you ask her? Is that why you wanted us to leave the office?” Lara heard the sigh before she felt it leave her lips. “Lara, what’s going on? You have to give me more to go on here.”

  “I didn’t want to talk about it there because I didn’t know who I could trust. I think Cass is involved, in some part, in this case.”

  “Connected? Again, you’re going to have to give me more to go on than that.” Nick was starting to get frustrated. Join the party, she thought.

  “A few days ago I saw Cass at Battery Park. She was talking to a woman, definitely intently. There was no doubt that they more than knew each other. Before they left, they even hugged. The entire exchange seemed intimate, familiar. A friend for sure.”

  “Okay.”

  “I recognized the woman but couldn’t remember where from until later. Her name is Katya Auerman.” She paused, seeing if the name carried any weight for the man. His expression didn’t change. Lara hadn’t expected him to know all of the faces surrounding the Moretti crime syndicate and its lengthy run. “Katya was held by the Moretti organization for six years as a trafficking victim, brought in when she was seventeen.” Nick’s face hardened. “I had read up on her—her dossier—and she seems to have adjusted well to life post-syndicate. No criminal record, works as a hostess at an upscale restaurant. Seems as okay as you can be, given all that she’s been through. I assumed Cass sought out a former victim for information or some kind of closure for what happened to her sister Allie.”

  “But now you don’t think so,” Nick guessed.

  “The security footage we saw today, the woman that Mason Moretti was all over...” She didn’t finish. His eyes widened a fraction.

  “That was Katya.”

  Lara nodded.

  “I think Cass has been playing some dangerous games with me as some kind of payback over Allie’s death and the Moretti case.”

  “Why?” he asked, clearly confused. “You brought down her sister’s murderer. Something no one else was close to doing any time soon. Isn’t that one of the reasons she transferred over to the task force? You’re her hero. Why would she want to fuck with you?”

  Because she might know everything.

  Lara didn’t respond aloud. If she answered him in any way she’d be betraying a secret she’d wanted to keep buried.

  She needed to keep buried.

  Nick picked up on the pregnant silence. “Ah, this is the ‘more’ you haven’t been willing to tell me.”

  Lara hated the way his tone had gone cold. It truly bothered him she wouldn’t wholly confide in him. I can’t, Nick. Not yet, she thought, hoping he’d understand without her having to explain.

  Then again, wouldn’t she be upset if he wouldn’t have enough courage to trust in her? Hadn’t she already felt that when she’d found out that he and Mei had briefly been together?

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, barely able to keep eye contact as Nick stood and walked close.

  “When you’re ready to trust me—really trust me—with what’s in there, Lara—” he placed his hand against her chest, over her heart “—I’ll be here for you.” The gesture both surprised and touched her, but she couldn’t find the words to apologize again. For a moment all she could do was feel the warmth of his hand seeping through her shirt. She was almost sad when he took a step back. “But, until then, I’m just your partner.” He took another step back, emphasizing the distance he was putting between them. “So, what do we need to do with Cass?”

  Relief and appreciation created a cocktail of emotion Lara was more than happy to drink. Another pro on the Nick checklist? He could compartmentalize. That was a trait she’d used tenfold while undercover. It was one she valued in their line of work but hadn’t often seen.

  “I don’t know what we should do, really,” she answered, body already loosening. “What I do know is that confronting Cass could go sideways on us quick.”

  Nick agreed. “If she’s mixed up in any way to either Moretti or whoever is pulling the serious strings, then having our personal tech guru know we’re on to her could make us the vulnerable ones.” He shook his head. “Cass is a serious asset to our team. I don’t want to have her against us. At least, not with the notion she has nothing else to lose.” A new thought occurred to the agent. “You don’t think she had a hand in Mei’s death?”

  Lara shook her head adamantly. “No, Cass wouldn’t kill someone. She may instigate and help perpetuate mind games, but killing someone in cold blood? I don’t think she’d do that.”

  Nick agreed again, though she could have sworn she saw a glimmer of dou
bt behind his eyes.

  “She was stabbed and seemed genuinely scared because of it,” he added. “She might have bitten off more than she could chew. Maybe the puppeteer became the marionette.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.” Lara’s phone vibrated in her pocket. It didn’t vibrate again. “Whatever hand she’s had in this case so far doesn’t seem like it’s a means to an end but more of a way to throw us—me, really—off-kilter.”

  Nick ran a hand through his hair. A deep exhale in the motion’s wake. “Joining this task force I knew I’d most likely get into some difficult cases, but this one...” He let out a low whistle. “It has more twists and turns than a corn maze.”

  Lara paused from opening her new text to look at the man. She raised an eyebrow. “A corn maze?” she asked, before letting out a small laugh.

  “Hey, I saw a movie where a cop said that once. I thought I’d give it a spin.”

  She smiled and returned to the screen of her phone while Nick expanded on whatever movie had taught him the Southernism. Its origin didn’t intrigue her quite as much as the incoming text.

  It was from Lola and set Lara on high alert.

  I caught that redheaded chick trying to get into your dad’s house again. I told her you know and will be changing the locks. You should have seen her face. She ran off.

  Lara read it again before closing her eyes. Why hadn’t she told Lola to not approach Cass if she saw her again?

  “Dammit!”

  “What?”

  “Cass knows,” she answered, fingers already flying across the phone’s keyboard.

  Thanks, Lola. But now you need to disappear for a while. There’s some dangerous things going down and that woman was linked to it. Please lay low for a while and be extra cautious. Call me immediately at the sign of any trouble.

  Once the text was sent, Lara relayed the original message back.

  “So now Cass knows that I know,” she said.

  “That’s not good.”

  “No, it’s not,” Lara agreed. She moved off of the counter and began to pace. If she’d only told Lola not to approach Cass sooner...

  “She’ll have to make the next move now,” Nick said, voice low, unhappy.

  “I know, but what do you think it’ll be? And when?”

  Trying to picture what a woman like Cass McDonner could do versus would do was making Lara’s stomach knot. If she did indeed know the entire truth behind the Moretti case, then she could do a lot more damage than even Nick realized. How had everything gotten out of hand so fast?

  “We’ve completely lost whatever upper hand we had,” she said. Hearing the words out loud made their situation seem even more shitty. “I definitely feel like this is a corn maze we’ve been dropped into.”

  “Now that the surprise offense is out of the question, we’ll need to attack first,” he said after a quick smile. “We need a game plan before she can come up—” Lara’s phone vibrated again, stopping the man mid-sentence. Lara quickly read it, the knots in her stomach only twisting further.

  “It’s Cass, isn’t it?” Nick asked.

  Lara nodded. “And she’s faster than us.”

  Nick came back over, taking the phone from her hand. Over his shoulder she reread the text message. When he was done he looked Lara full in the face.

  “No,” he said. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “I don’t think we have much of a choice, Nick. You said it yourself, she’s one enemy we don’t want to force into a corner.”

  If she was even an enemy at all, Lara reminded herself.

  Loss made people do things they normally wouldn’t dream of doing. Cass could be in just as much danger as they were. Jumping to conclusions could do them more harm than good.

  “She’s not this stupid though.” Nick motioned to the text on the phone. “She has to know I—we—wouldn’t let this happen.”

  Lara shrugged. She wasn’t going to argue because, whether or not Nick already knew it, Lara was going to do it regardless of the danger. She wanted, needed, and would fight for, answers.

  And, apparently, Cassandra McDonner had at least a few.

  Lara’s eyes roamed back over the text once more. As if reading it three times would give her more clues.

  Meet me at South Street Seaport, Pier 17 at 8. Just you.

  “It’s a trap.” Nick had his arms crossed over his chest, his face pinched in only a way that deep skepticism could make a face pinch.

  They were back in the conference room at the Bureau and not alone. Nick had rallied their team for a debriefing on their current situation. Lara had left out the truths she couldn’t bring herself to tell the team about her past. Victoria, the only one who knew them, took the information in silence. The others hadn’t.

  Especially Nick.

  “It’s a trap and we all know it,” he reiterated. “You aren’t going alone to meet her.”

  “No, I’m not. But I also don’t think Cass expects me to either,” Lara said. “Given what we know about her, there’s no way she hasn’t figured out that I’m bringing company.”

  “She’s too smart for that,” Xander piped in. “Too clever.”

  “But we still should make it appear you’re alone,” Nick said. “Do you think she’d really talk if we all strolled up to her with smiles on and guns drawn?” Lara shook her head. “If she knows you aren’t going alone, then that makes her more dangerous. She’ll most likely be well armed.”

  Xander nodded, then added, “And a solid escape route planned. Not to mention some kind of action in case things go wrong. We need to make sure we go in just as—if not more—prepared.”

  “Are we really talking about this right now?” Everyone turned to Ty, who had, for the most part, remained quiet. His earlier sour mood at working with Xander hadn’t dissipated. In fact, he seemed more agitated than before. Not that Lara could blame the man. She bet she didn’t look so cheerful either. When he realized all eyes were on him, he continued. “This is Cass we’re talking about here. We know her, and now we’re trying to say she’s some big criminal mastermind? She may have done some crazy shit, but she isn’t responsible for all the deaths, Mei’s included.” His whole demeanor seemed to slam down on that point. Absolute belief in his words. “No way, I don’t believe that for a second.”

  Lara was about to agree with that sentiment when Victoria spoke up. The rings beneath her eyes told a very clear story of no sleep and unending hard work. A part of her team had been killed. No matter how much she believed in the healing powers of resting, she wasn’t having any of it herself.

  “I agree with you to a point,” she started. “But the sad fact of the matter is, if you snap, you snap.” The room quieted as she let her words sink in. Not even Ty defended against their blunt truth. “And if Cass has snapped, then that isn’t good for her and especially not good for us. We don’t know what she’s capable of, but I have my suspicions, as well as I’m sure you all do, that a woman with her intelligence and skills could do some damage if she wanted. So, Lara, you will go meet her at the location she provided, while the rest of us will set up around the perimeter as backup. We’ll even pull in some more bodies to help. We will take every precaution available to us. You will wear a wire, and at the first sign of any trouble, team member or not, we will take her down. Is that understood?” The question wasn’t just aimed at Lara. It blanketed the room.

  One by one they all agreed.

  “Good. Now let’s get us some fucking answers for once.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The building at the end of the pier was supposed to be a diamond in the rough between the two that sandwiched Pier 17. At one point it had been heralded as a clean slate with loads of potential. However, construction had stalled after a series of bad luck befell the builders, chief among them being investors pulling out last minute. Their abandonment had created a two-year unfinished building, seemingly frozen in a continuous state of one giant work-in-progress.

  Three storie
s, narrow, half of the third floor an open tangle of exposed beams that branched out and almost over the dark water surrounding it. It was, for lack of a better word, a shell of a building. Though each floor had walls and windows, it was clear this progress hadn’t extended to the third floor. Lara could almost picture what the original plan had been right down to the walk-out balconies, showing off the waterfront view for the target audience of tourists. A restaurant maybe, plus some kind of shopping space. A gift shop that sold NYC trinkets and the Statue of Liberty key chains.

  Lara shrank deeper into her jacket. The gun, holstered between her side and arm beneath, moved slightly.

  From a strictly tactical standpoint, the abandoned construction site wasn’t the smartest place to carry out dirty dealings. Since it was effectively an island with only one way to escape on foot without getting wet, if Cass planned on implementing an escape plan, she would be hard-pressed. Even if she did plan on going for a swim, there was nowhere to go in the cold, dark water. Not before at least twenty warm bodies were out with spotlights, waiting to scoop her back up.

  Lara shifted her weight from foot to foot. She was nervous, it was true, but it was more of an anxiousness at finally finding out something that could help them stop whoever was at the top of this maddening game of cat and mouse they’d been playing. Lara knew that even if she hadn’t had the backup of her team, a distance away for fear of spooking their teammate, she would have still marched up to the dimly lit, neglected building with determination.

  Lara’s footsteps echoed off of the splintered wood beams. Eyes jumping from each lamp as she passed. She paused as she glanced to her right at the pier across the water from her, yards away. Nick was there, two over, hidden in his own shadows. Ready to have her back if needed. Ty was to her left along the next pier, holding down the fort while Xander and Victoria were across the street behind her, attempting to blend into the night, eyes peeled for anything suspicious. A few NYPD beat cops, dressed down, milled around with the agents with specific instructions to only move when Victoria gave Junior Agent James Walsh, their liaison, the signal. Everyone was waiting. Everyone was ready. It was enough to put a little pep into Lara’s step knowing that, even though she would have come alone if she’d had to, she wasn’t alone.