by Mandy Harbin
“I need to stop by my apartment for more clothes,” she said a little louder, knowing she had no other choice but to comply.
He walked into the room carrying a duffle bag. “You’ll buy some when we get there. C’mon. Viola is going to meet us since Dave is out of town on business. The others are staying back. As soon as the medical examiner confirms that’s O’Brian’s body we have, they’re bringing in Showalter. If all goes well, he’ll be in custody in a matter of days.”
Shelby followed him outside, still trying to grasp what was happening. Focus on the case, not on the man.
It would take all her training to turn off her heart.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Open up! I know you’re in there!” The shouting and pounding continued, pulling Mason out of sleep and into a massive hangover. The empty bottle of Macallan slipped from his grasp as he stood and grabbed his pounding head. Walking was tricky since each step magnified the pulsating sensation. He needed about a gallon of water and four aspirin.
He wrenched the door open and winced when something slammed into him.
The sun…shining in his face.
“Quit yelling,” he groaned, and turned, leaving the door open for Jedrek and his cousin. They could find their own way in. He needed to make it back to the couch before he decided walking was too overrated and sat on the floor en route.
“Dude, you’re a mess,” Jedrek said, though whatever he was carrying was making so much noise he could barely hear his words.
Mason dropped his head into his hands when he made it back to the starting position. Small victory.
Jerome picked up the empty bottle and put it on the coffee table. “We brought you some food.”
Mason opened one eye to look at the man. “Why are you here?” He could only image why his contact within the SEC had shown up at his home, and he didn’t like any of the possibilities. He lifted his hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.” He glanced at Jedrek. “Can you get me some aspirin from the kitchen?”
Jedrek lifted a bottle and shook it. “Came prepared.” He opened the medicine, poured out some pills, and handed them to Mason with a bottle of water. He downed them in one swallow while Jedrek opened the noisy paper sack. “Breakfast of champions,” he said as he handed Mason some kind of sandwich. He didn’t care what kind it was. His stomach growled at the smell, and he snatched it away.
“When’s the last time you ate?” Jedrek asked as he sat in the chair across from him.
Mason shrugged, and said around the bite he took, “Don’t know. What day is it?”
“Sunday.”
Mason groaned. “Shit.” He had to get over this hangover or tomorrow he’d be worthless at the office.
“Wanna tell me why you haven’t been by the club or answered our calls in over a week? I haven’t seen or heard from you since the scene Tuesday night.”
Mason glanced at Jerome. “Ask your cousin.”
Jerome frowned. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from you since you called asking about Agent Landry.”
Mason’s stomach turned, so he dropped the half-eaten sandwich and fell back against the couch, rubbing his face. Shelby, God, he’d done nothing but think about her for days, and when he couldn’t turn off his brain, he tried drowning it in liquor.
Yeah, he was paying for that now.
“Who?” Jedrek asked, stone-faced as usual.
“Don’t, Parker,” Mason bit out, glancing at Jerome, warning him not to say anything. “You shouldn’t even be here.”
Jerome sat on the couch, looking confused. “I have an update, but you wouldn’t answer the phone I gave you. I called cuz here to let me in. You asked for my help, and—”
“I knew it was a fucking mistake, going to the feds,” Mason snapped. He looked at Jedrek, and mimicked in a stoic voice, “My cousin works for the SEC. He can help you.”
“I do not sound like that,” Jedrek said, crossing his arms, brooding as usual.
“Yeah, you kinda do,” Jerome said, smiling briefly before focusing on Mason. “You left your office on Wednesday and haven’t been back. Why? Did something happen?”
Boy, did it ever. “Tell me something. How much control do you have over this investigation?”
Jerome frowned. “I’m not sure I’m following.”
Mason licked his lips and narrowed his gaze. “I found discrepancies in William Baxter’s accounts. I came to you to report him. I did it for selfish reasons, I admit. William is incompetent, and I want his job. When I found those reports, I saw an opportunity, and I took it.”
“Yeah,” Jerome said slowly. “I know.”
Mason sat back and laced his hands together. The longer he was awake, the better he was feeling. It could’ve been the food or the medicine…or both, but he was starting to feel human again. His heart still ached, but he couldn’t do anything about that now.
“Do you know everybody assigned to the case? What their assignments are?”
Jerome shook his head, looking confused still. “No. It’s a joint effort between the SEC and the FBI. When you first came to us, we weren’t sure the extent of Baxter’s deceit. Once we realized the magnitude, our director pulled in the FBI. But you don’t have to worry. I know a couple of those agents personally. Rick McMillian is team lead. He’s a good guy. Viola Lane and I have worked together before, too.”
Jedrek’s head snapped up, and Mason’s gaze slid to his. His partner’s eyes narrowed, and Mason knew the guy remembered her from the other night. Too late to keep him out of the loop. If he hadn’t put the pieces together yet, Mason was about to do it for him.
“And Agent Shelby Landry?” Mason asked Jerome.
“What the fuck?” Jedrek exploded.
Jerome jumped. “What?”
Mason looked at Jedrek and completely understood his rare display of emotion. “I found out Wednesday, which is why I haven’t felt like taking any calls.”
Jedrek’s head whipped to Jerome. “Do you know about this?”
Jerome’s eyes got bigger, and he looked completely lost. “No, he doesn’t know,” Mason answered for him, but looking at Jerome as he replied. “I called him Wednesday, and he told me she’s a linguistics expert.”
“I just fucking bet she is,” Jedrek spat. Mason had to beat down the ridiculous urge to defend Shelby. His partner wasn’t implying anything Mason hadn’t outright accused her of himself.
“She is,” Jerome said. “And she was able to bring something to the case no one else could.”
A string of expletives flew from Jedrek’s mouth.
“I’m fully aware what her skills are,” Mason said, unable to stop the smile of sarcasm. “But do you know why the fuck the FBI is investigating me when I was the one who turned in Baxter?”
Jerome was struggling for words—that was clearly evident—and finally said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Shelby—excuse me, Agent Landry—came to the club a few weeks ago, claiming she wished to learn about the lifestyle and wanted me to be the one to teach her all about it.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” Jerome said, frowning. “Jed says all the time how there’re all walks of life who enjoy kinky shit.” But as he said it, Mason was sure the man was questioning the probability himself.
“She brought her friend, Viola, with her to the club.”
“And she asked a lot a questions,” Jedrek said, eyes turning dark again.
“Okay, it does look bad, but after studying your file and learning about your lifestyle, maybe she wanted to give it try?”
“She told me she was a massage therapist. She lied about her job,” Mason challenged.
“Agents do that all the time. They don’t share their career to just anyone. Hell, I lie about it all the time,” Jerome said, shrugging. “I need more before I ask Rick about this. What if she approached you on her personal time and didn’t want anybody to know?”
“Except Viola, another agent she works with?” Jedrek asked i
ncredulously. “Bullshit. But hell, for sake of argument, if she’s working a case that involves Mason at all, why wouldn’t she tell her boss she sought him out? That’s a conflict of interest if it’s not related to the case. Any idiot can see that.” He shook his head. “You seriously expect him to believe two FBI agents assigned to investigate Fieldstein and Baxter Investments were at the club just for kicks?”
Mason was glad Jedrek understood right away. But he was a private man, too. He would not like anybody taking advantage of him.
“And speaking of Viola, her husband is a real piece of work.” Mason stood and walked over to the package he got from Dave. He grabbed it and tossed it to Jerome. Jedrek loomed over his shoulder to look, too. “Everybody has a price, man. His was forty g’s. If that isn’t enough proof for you, I don’t know what is.”
Jerome opened it and pulled out the photos, his face darkening.
“He sold you that?” The question came from Jedrek. “He fucking sold out his own wife?”
Mason nodded. “He told me the FBI was investigating me and gave, er, sold me the photos to prove it.”
Jerome grabbed his phone as he stood. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.” He was grumbling something as he made his call. “Rick, hey. Something’s come to my attention, and I need some clarification on your team’s assignment.” He stepped into the hall as he listened. Mason watched until he heard some rustling and looked to his left. Jedrek had picked up the photos again and was scrutinizing them. He held the one that had Viola in the center of it. Mason couldn’t be sure what was going through the man’s mind, but his eyes stayed glued to the blonde.
“I’d heard about that,” Jerome said, drawing his attention again. “We haven’t discussed it yet.” He glanced toward Mason as he said, “He’s been out of pocket for a few days. We were just meeting, so I could bring him up to speed. He’d like to know why Agent Landry has been playing him, and frankly, so do I.”
The mention of her deception burned deep within him.
“I don’t blame you for getting drunk, man,” Jedrek said. “If it had been me, I’d have tied her up and whipped her ass.”
He laughed without humor. “Oh, I did.”
“What?” Jerome yelled, and Mason looked over, thinking the man was yelling at him for admitting that, but he was looking at a spot on the wall as he roared into the phone. “Why the hell wasn’t I told about this..? No, this is bullshit… This was our damn case… Well, where is she..? Yeah, got it.”
He hung up the phone and turned toward Mason, who was already staring, waiting for some answers. Jerome clicked on his phone as he walked back to the couch. He cussed and picked up the photos again, shuffling through them. He pulled out the photo with Shelby smiling and talking to Viola with another man in the background.
“Damn it,” he breathed, and went back to scrolling on his phone.
“What’s going on?” Mason asked, not liking the man’s behavior.
“Got it.” He held out his phone and showed Mason an image of a middle-aged man. “Have you ever seen this guy before?”
Mason took the phone and studied the picture. He got a flash of something, but it went away just as quickly. He frowned in concentration and then it came back to him. He had seen this man before, only his hair wasn’t as short.
“Yeah.” He tapped the phone, looking up at Jerome. “That’s the dude that came to the office with William that Saturday and accessed the system. The one he was supposed to play golf with. I called you after they left and told you about it.”
Jerome picked up one of the photos from the coffee table and handed it to Mason. “Look familiar?”
It was the one with Shelby partially hugging a man who wasn’t facing the camera. The neck and profile were the same, though. She was hugging the man who had been with William that day. “Who the hell is that?”
“That’s Darrell Tobin. He’s one of the guys on her team.”
Mason nodded slowly. “Darrell. She’s talked about him before. Said something about him being like an uncle to her. What the hell was he doing with William? Is he working another angle on the investigation?” If they were trying to get close to William, it wouldn’t work. Mason had known him for years, and his boss rarely let anybody into his inner circle.
Jerome fell to the couch beside him. “No.” The look the man gave him had his heart pounding. “Darrell is their mark.”
“English, Parker!”
“When you work for the government, your life is an open book. Somebody, somewhere caught wind of Darrell moving a large sum of money between accounts. Internal affairs got involved. They’ve been secretly investigating him and knew he had dealings with F and B. They weren’t sure if his involvement was legit or not, but when you came to me and we started investigating the firm…” He trailed off, shaking his head.
“Somebody found the link.”
“Yes. This joint task force wasn’t created to crack down on F and B. That’s solely the SEC’s job. It was assembled to flush out Darrell.”
Mason stood and paced as he let this settle in. She hadn’t only deceived him, but she’d turned on her friend Darrell. He battled with reason and anger. If Darrell was a criminal, then it was her job to take him down. Did she care that a man she’d told Mason was one of her close friends was possibly dirty, or was she able to turn off her emotions so easily? “And she agreed to do this?” he said aloud, trying to make sense of it all.
“No,” Jerome said softly.
Mason whirled. “No, what?”
“She doesn’t know about Darrell. She was picked to seduce you because she’s the closest one on the team to Darrell.”
“She didn’t seduce me,” Mason growled.
Jerome sighed. “You know what I mean. She was picked because of her connection to Tobin. He’s mentored her since she joined the bureau. William and Darrell apparently go way back, as in before college days. Rick said the director thinks Darrell has been helping William steal money and covering it up for years.”
Mason mulled that over. “Okay, but why use Shelby?” It felt as if the feds were going about it in a manner that didn’t seem functional to Mason’s business sense. He was a straight shooter, and they were beating around the bush. The wrong bush at that.
“Think about it. If Darrell is in cahoots with William and knows the SEC suspects his dirty business partner, Darrell will be busy making sure nothing points to him. He needs a scapegoat to divert their attention, so the FBI gave him one. They want him thinking they believe you are the guilty one. You have means and opportunity. And I would bet a case of beer that Darrell was the force behind William blackmailing you to move that money. He’s trying to frame you, steering the FBI’s investigation in the direction he wants.”
“But it’s really a distraction,” Mason said slowly. “Make Darrell think one thing while they build their case against him.”
“Exactly. And Darrell might get sloppy. Agent Landry knows him better than anybody else on the team. Putting her in the middle of this gives her the opportunity to stumble on something that might be overlooked by another investigator, allowing her to connect the dots for them.”
“Because Mason’s firm has a habit of leaving incriminating evidence lying around,” Jedrek said sarcastically.
“So she has no idea,” Mason said, feeling angry again, but for a completely different reason. “She’s being played. Her own fucking boss is playing with her. They used her to get close to me, and they’re using her friendship with Darrell to take him down.”
“Pretty fucking shitty,” Jedrek said, crossing his arms.
“Look, I’m not happy about this either. I should’ve been told about their plan. Hell, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you to tell you they were upping the ante, releasing doctored evidence that O’Brian was dead, hoping William would slip up. But I didn’t know it wasn’t only for William’s benefit.”
Mason’s body grew cold. “Darrell. They want him to think they’re closing in on Willi
am because, if he believed that, then he’d know it would only be a matter of time before his connection to him was discovered.”
“Bingo.”
“Fucking feds,” Jedrek barked.
“Hey. I said I didn’t know about it,” Jerome said. He looked at Mason. “I would not have gone along with them using you. Or her, for that matter. I respect you coming to me and would’ve lobbied to keep the F and B investigation separate from Tobin.”
“Which is why they didn’t say a word to you about it,” Mason said in resignation. Messed up didn’t even begin to describe this situation. He was still mad that Shelby knowingly used him, but she was in deeper than she realized. If the feds weren’t going to tell her, he would. She trusted Darrell, and that put her in a lot of danger. Mason could try calling her, but he didn’t want to risk everybody on her team hearing what he had to say. He had no idea who all knew the extent of the investigation and who could be trusted. “Can you arrange a meeting with Shelby?”
Jerome swallowed. “You can’t interfere with an ongoing investigation.”
“Fuck that,” Mason breathed. “You wouldn’t have a goddamn investigation if I hadn’t blown that whistle I found.” He unclenched his fisted hands and took a deep breath. “You will get that meeting. If not, I’ll go to the media and fuck everything up. I’ll squeal like a goddamn pig about everything.”
Jerome shot to his feet. “If you do that, they can throw your ass in jail.”
“I don’t care. Shelby needs to know the truth. She either finds out on the news once it’s blasted everywhere, or I tell her in private. Your call.”
“You realize since they staged Carl’s death, she thinks you murdered him.”
Mason shut his eyes, stifling a groan. He hadn’t thought about it like that. If Jerome had done his job, it would look pretty damn convincing. And they wouldn’t have told her the truth because they were using her to get to Darrell. Because her case hadn’t been about Mason at all. “Yeah, that’s a problem, but once I tell her everything, she’ll understand.”
