He could easily imagine what Al had told him had happened.
Mick hated snow.
And he hated feeling this…tense.
He always felt tense when Paige Daviess was around. Mick knew himself well enough to suspect the reason why. That woman had gotten under his skin since the moment they’d first met.
It wasn’t every day a man’s sister brought home a dark-eyed temptress dressed as a hooker and wearing FBI creds. But Al had.
Al and Paige had previously worked in Undercover Operations. It’s where they had met and become such close friends.
Unfortunately for Mick, Paige had followed Al home that day. And virtually never left.
Which meant she was there every time he turned around.
Except…she hadn’t been around much in the last month and a half. Not since they’d both almost died.
His chest itched where the mostly healed scars reminded him of what could have been every time he looked at them.
Mick was keeping himself back from the center of the action in this small precinct. It didn’t matter. People were still shooting him looks. No doubt because of his size and his manner. He deliberately crossed his arms over his chest and glowered.
Paige just happened to be the person directly in his line of sight.
She’d just walked in at his sister’s side. His mouth quirked, but he forced it down.
She and Al were yin and yang. One darker, one lighter. Both beautiful, stubborn, and irritating.
But Paige had lost weight since she’d been abducted. And she couldn’t afford to lose it.
Mick wouldn’t let himself be worried about that woman. He was there to observe PAVAD’s Team Three, to evaluate a member of that team for an extremely dangerous assignment. And give Ed Dennis assessments of several other members of this team.
It wouldn’t matter that it was his sister and her partner that were the focal point of this case.
Mick wouldn’t let it.
He wasn’t there for them.
Deputy Carroll stopped the two as they passed where he stood. It didn’t take him half a second to know that his sister didn’t like what the man had to say. Not that that surprised Mick.
Mick stepped closer.
He hadn’t missed the irritation on his sister’s face. Al was usually pretty good about holding her temper. But he hadn’t missed how Carroll seemed to go out of his way to antagonize the women of the team.
“I don’t know why you’re so convinced it’s drug related. Nine times out of ten, it’s the wife or husband that done it.” Carroll had her cornered.
Mick debated intervening. But Dennis wanted to see how Al handled herself.
Not that Mick was going to be an impartial observer there. Dennis had told him that wouldn’t be a problem. That he knew Mick would be ruthlessly honest in his assessment of his sister.
And it was just between him and Dennis. For Dennis’s personal edification.
Mick was struggling with the fact that Dennis hadn’t yet clued him in on why.
“Because we don’t make assumptions in the CCU,” Al shot back. She wasn’t a pushover—Mick and Mal had made sure of that when she’d been a too sweet, little, blond, blue-eyed girl. He liked to think those lessons had stuck with her. “Why are you pushing so hard that it’s not?”
Carroll was a real prick, with a corncob shoved up his ass.
Carroll’s ego was going to get in his own way.
This case was his big break. Especially if Carroll was planning to run for sheriff in the next term.
Carroll had a serious problem with women in law enforcement. Mick had seen it before.
It was his job to make certain that didn’t become a problem.
That the guy’s target was Paige had no bearing on how Mick felt whatsoever.
Paige and Al made it closer to where Mick stood. Their team leader was seated at the conference table, waiting.
Al slipped into the seat next to him. Mick took his own.
“What did you find?” Sebastian asked.
Paige slipped out of her thin jacket and hooked it on the back of her chair. “Delasi isn’t exactly uncle-of-the-year material. Petty drug charges, bad attitude, seriously jealous of his sisters, but I’m not sure he could pull this off. He’s too slovenly for it. And he’s not overly bright.”
“I agree,” Al said. “He’s more petulant than violent. At heart, he is intimidated by his sisters and the fact that Angela and Wade seemed to be able to handle things far better than Delasi could.”
“So how does that translate into him not being a damned murderer?” Carroll demanded. He’d taken the seat directly across from Paige. It was at her that he stared.
Mick got it. He did.
A woman like Paige was guaranteed to pull a man’s notice—whether that man wanted her to or not.
And Paige had invaded Carroll’s turf.
He’d have to keep an eye on the situation. Make sure Carroll didn’t interfere with her ability to do her job.
“He’s cooking his own meth, but there’s nothing that says he’s our murderer. He could have run just because of the potential drug charges. There’s nothing to connect him and Wade in years. Unless we’re talking personal face-to-face encounters. Which, it’ll take us a while to confirm whether they met or not. We need to face it,” Paige looked around the table slowly. “The Heathers’s home is so isolated, anything could have been going on out there, and no one would ever know it.”
Chapter 24
It wasn’t going to be a round-the-clock case. Sebastian dismissed the team around ten that evening, with instructions that they were to rest and be ready early in the morning.
They were going to have to study everything about Wade and Angela’s life in minute detail. Because in a town of eight hundred, chances were good the killer was nearby.
They may have already met him.
Paige was actually looking forward to crashing in the hotel room she was sharing with Al. She hurt far more than she was going to admit.
Somehow she and Al got stuck in an SUV with Mick. Paige wanted to lean back and close her eyes—the hotel was thirty miles away, and it would be at least forty-five minutes on the road—but she resisted.
It was best not to let him see weakness, after all.
No one spoke. Paige kept her eyes trained on the passing scenery. What she could see, anyway. It was pitch-black out and snowing.
She’d always hated the snow.
There had been so many nights she and Carrie had huddled together in an alley, hoping they wouldn’t freeze to death by morning.
She shivered.
“You ok?” Al asked quietly from the front seat.
“Just chilled.”
Mick turned up the heat.
Paige tried not to read too much into it.
Maybe he was cold. It took a lot of heat to thaw him out after all.
“Not hurting?” Al asked.
Paige just shook her head. She was. But she’d deal. A couple of acetaminophen and she’d be just fine.
“She is. She’s just being stubborn.”
“I’m fine. I’ve certainly had worse.” It was just bumps and bruises. She’d deal.
Mick just grunted. Paige didn’t have the energy to fight with him.
Not tonight.
First Nick Delasi the day before and then TJ Heathers today—both had drained her in different ways. She and Delasi had skidded right into the curb. Paige’s head had struck pretty hard. Harder than Al probably realized.
But she’d dealt with concussions before. She knew how to handle it.
She’d be good as new in the morning.
Chapter 25
She’d withdrawn. Mick wouldn’t let it get under his skin. Nor would he let himself worry about Paige. Let Al and Sebastian do that. Mick had bigger fish to fry.
He and Sebastian were going to have a discussion about Mick’s true purpose for being th
ere.
Mick waited until the other man had made his way into the hotel room they shared. The Walmart parking lot across the street shot light glaring into the window. It would make sleeping difficult, but he’d deal.
He had deliberately booked himself into a room with the Team Three leader instead of his sister. Sebastian had been asleep when Mick had made it back after taking Paige to the clinic the night before. The poor guy had been in obvious pain; Mick hadn’t wanted to wake him.
Tonight they had a lot to talk about, especially after Mick had had time to make his observations.
“Spill, Brockman.”
Sebastian Lorcan wasn’t stupid; he knew exactly what Mick was doing. That he wasn’t there on IA purposes. “We need to talk.”
“No doubt.”
“We need one of your people.”
“Who?”
“The director and I.”
“Why?” Sebastian demanded. He wasn’t about to let Mick prevaricate. Both men knew it.
“An assignment. It’s incredibly risky. And long-term. It’ll change the dynamics of your team.” Mick had the man’s measure. Up front, honest. Or else. “We need to know if your agent can handle it.”
It took several hours, but when they were done, Mick knew the director had made the right choice.
Both he and Sebastian knew exactly what risk the agent would be facing.
The odds were not good that the man would survive unhurt.
But it was necessary.
There was no way to catch the traitor in the bureau without what would happen next.
Mick would have to speak with the agent in question. That man would have a choice. What he and Director Dennis would ask him would change the man’s life for a long time to come.
And maybe not in good ways.
Mick wasn’t certain he could have accepted such an assignment himself.
He had too much he was invested in. His family.
The agent in question had no one. Except Team Three.
Mick had a strong suspicion he’d accept.
If it wasn’t vitally necessary to the safety and integrity of PAVAD, he never would have considered this assignment as a solution to their problem.
But it was all they had.
He half felt like he was signing the man’s death warrant.
Chapter 26
TJ’s other grandma showed up. She wasn’t happy. TJ didn’t know Grandma Tracey very well. He only saw her sometimes. And always with his dad or mom around. Mom said it was because Dad didn’t always trust that Grandma Tracey would make good decisions.
TJ had always felt a little guilty for liking Grandma Margie better. Mom and Dad had said that was ok. Just because biology tied them together didn’t mean they had to like each other.
But he had to show her respect. Mom and Dad were big on respect.
He looked at Grandma Tracey as she stood on Grandma Margie’s porch. She looked mad.
But then again, Grandma Tracey always looked mad. Especially when she talked to his mom or Grandma Margie.
TJ thought she might be jealous that he spent so much time at Grandma Margie’s.
“He’s my grandson, too!”
But Grandma Margie didn’t scare him like Grandma Tracey.
Guilt for feeling that way had him opening the door and stepping out behind Grandma Margie.
Dad had been her son. She had loved him. And TJ was all that was left of his dad now.
“I have a right to see him, too!”
He wished she would just stop yelling. His mom and Grandma Margie never yelled. Never.
Sharp, stabbing pain went through TJ’s gut.
It took him a moment to realize it was sadness for his dad.
He wished his dad was there to tell him everything was going to be all right.
TJ wasn’t certain it would ever be all right again.
Chapter 27
Al was going over forensics reports that were finally starting to arrive. The local techs, while dedicated to detail, were extremely inexperienced. Everything had been sent to PAVAD via Jaz, to preserve the chain of custody, immediately after Team Three had arrived.
Those reports were just in preliminary stages, but Ally had wanted to get them something to work from.
Everything would be double- and triple-checked once tests were fully completed.
And then the quality control team for the forensics department would review everything and repeat the procedures taken.
It was a long, tedious process that could sometimes take weeks.
Out in the field, the CCU teams didn’t always have weeks. Not when it came to catching killers.
So far the preliminaries told them everything they already knew. Except they confirmed that neither Wade nor Angela had any signs of drugs in their systems, the dogs hadn’t been sedated, and there had been no gunshot residue on Angela or her clothing—except what was expected as an acceptable amount of transfer. Gunshot residue wasn’t conclusive of anything—other than someone had been in the vicinity of a weapon discharging.
But Carroll was making a big deal of the GSR that had been on Angela’s hands.
Angela had pressed her hands to the wound over her husband’s heart, even though he had already been dead.
Her handprint had been found on the gray T-shirt Wade had been wearing. Al looked at the photo again.
Wade’s shirt read, “My kid thinks I’m a superhero.”
His wife’s handprint told an entire story—far different than the one Carroll was pushing.
She despised that guy. And she didn’t think she was the only one. He’d caught Paige at the vending machine that morning.
After he’d had words with Mick.
He’d actually gotten in Paige’s face and told her to stay out of his way—or Paige would regret it. He’d caught Paige by surprise, and trapped her against the machine before she could react.
But Paige had held her own, of course. She’d mentioned something about stepping on the guy’s instep hard enough to have tears coming to his eyes.
Carroll had taken his hand off Paige quickly after that.
Carroll seemed to think he was a pretty powerful guy around here.
Al had quietly informed Sebastian of exactly what had happened, well aware that Mick was listening as well.
Their team had been called in as a favor to someone in this town. Carroll didn’t know who he was dealing with.
She had absolute trust that her brother and her team leader would deal with Carroll exactly as he deserved.
In the meantime, she had more than four hundred emails to help Nugent sort through.
Most were to a classmate of Nick Delasi’s.
Jon Mundy.
She opened her laptop and logged into Carrie’s latest program and did some quick research.
Fifteen minutes later, she had a place to start.
Jon Mundy worked at the quarry—same shift and department as Nick Delasi.
And Troy Linsey, Wade’s half-brother.
She checked the whiteboard.
No one had spoken to either men yet. She thought it was about time that happened.
She checked the list of emails Nugent had printed out.
She’d start with Jon Mundy—he was the recipient of more than half of all the emails Nick Delasi had sent. That meant he was the most likely to know what Delasi had been into.
Or he was an accomplice.
Chapter 28
Paige watched through the interrogation window, studying the man’s mannerisms. She knew the signs of crystal meth usage. She’d seen it far too many times before—going back two decades, at least.
She wasn’t entirely sure her biological mother hadn’t been a user. She could look the woman up in the FBI databases, or have Carrie do it, but Paige had never been able to bring herself to do it. Some mothers just belonged in the past. As far away from the present as possible. Paige wanted no reminders
of the woman who had birthed her.
Not now.
She looked at the agents next to her. Nugent. And Mick. “He’s using meth.”
Carroll was listening. “Half the losers around here do.”
“Your town has a meth problem?” Mick rumbled. “Why wasn’t this made known earlier?”
Carroll shrugged. “Didn’t think it was relevant.”
“We found a meth lab in progress in the home of a relative. Now his cousin. And you don’t see the connection?” Paige was very rarely surprised by stupidity from those on the job—though it had happened, of course—but this…?
Carroll was being reckless, and he didn’t even get it.
“Wade had nothing to do with meth. Just because his brother-in-law and cousin were losers didn’t mean what happened was drug related.”
“No. But your damned ego doesn’t help us find out who killed Heathers any faster. Something for you to keep in mind.”
Paige almost thought the idiot was going to challenge Mick to his face. She almost wished he would.
Mick could be downright terrifying at times—especially when he thought someone deserved it. She should know. He’d been on her case far more times than she wanted to think about. “Maybe it’s because Deputy Carroll went to school with Nick Delasi and Jon Mundy? Maybe these are good buddies of his. Why else would he think Angela killed her husband? Maybe some of the emails Nugent and Al are going through are from him?”
“Good question. Carroll, care to answer?”
“You FBI think you’re big shots, don’t you? When you get this all wrong, someone’s going to have to answer to the people around here. And that’s going to be me.”
“Then I suggest you figure out who killed Wade Heathers. And, Carroll, you and I will be having a long talk. Soon.”
Mick’s tone had the other man backing up quickly.
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