“You stole from the bank?”
“Yes.” Then she realized how that sounded, so she quickly added, “That’s what it looks like from this transaction.”
She stowed her phone back in her purse, pretty much just dropping it in there. Who cared if she cracked the screen? She needed to get rid of this money. And fast.
Mr. Secret Service Agent reached across to her left shoulder. He gently forced her to step away from the terminal.
How was that going to help? “Let me at the computer.”
“No.” He let go of her shoulder but stayed between her and the terminal. “Explain.”
“Somehow it looks like I took two million from the bank’s accounts and transferred it into my own. While I was standing here, working.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I can’t believe you—”
“Answer the question.” His voice was strong, an even tone she’d heard her teammates use in interrogations.
“No,” she spoke through gritted teeth. “I didn’t steal money from this bank and transfer it to the same account the federal government deposits my paycheck into. And I didn’t do it in a completely obvious way any amateur hacker wouldn’t even do, thus making it stupidly obvious in implicating myself.”
His face didn’t change. No sympathy. No humor. Totally professional, as though he’d shut down when faced with a cunning adversary.
She wasn’t his enemy.
“I’m not that dumb.” Problem was, this argument meant she could do it. Of course she could. She was the best. But she’d have done it in a way that made it not obvious it was her who had stolen money. “And I would never breach ethics, or the law, like that.”
“Like hacking the school district website to change your grade?”
“I was twelve.” Her hands curled into fists by her sides. “My mother made me tell the pastor so he could pray with me when I asked for forgiveness.”
He looked like he might’ve agreed with her mother’s methods. Talia felt sorry for his daughter, even if he had moved across the country to work and live where he was close to her.
“Now let me get to the terminal, so I can fix this and figure out who just tried to get me thrown in jail. Or worse, kicked off the task force.”
His jaw worked side to side. Then he stepped out of her way. “When you’re done, you can tell me about this task force you speak of—the one that wasn’t in your file.”
She nearly tripped over the strap of her purse. Ended up with her fingers on the keyboard and her ankle wrapped up with the chain that normally went over her shoulder. Of course the task force wasn’t in her file. That defeated the purpose of the work they did.
She typed, rolling through sections of their network as she tried to find out where the command originated from. Had to have been activated somehow. Internally. Maybe by her program initializing? A signal that their code should go live, taking money and transferring it to her. Which meant they’d have been in the system before she was.
She thought about calling in to the office. Former Navy sailor Haley was their go-to gal, and she could solve just about any problem Talia threw at her. She’d been trying to trip the woman up—metaphorically speaking—for weeks. Haley had told her to “bring it on.” Probably because she felt sorry for Talia and wanted to help occupy her so she didn’t spiral into a depression.
The rest of them just brought in donuts and tried to get her to eat two. She’d eaten four, and then thrown them up later. Stupid roiling stomach.
No, she couldn’t call the task force. They would swoop in and try to save her, which she would let them do. The reality was that she had to stand on her own two fabulous gold shoes. After she put them back on.
Talia swiped on her tablet screen to her bank accounts.
“Moving the money already?”
She finished what she’d started, then turned to him. “I transferred it back to where it came from.” She lifted her chin. “Because it’s not mine, and I don’t want it.”
He just stared at her.
Talia turned back from Mr. Judgmental and tried to nail down the terminal where the code had come from. Whose computer had been used to implicate her in a bank robbery? Whoever they were, they were good. That was for sure…
She took a step back and almost tripped because the chain strap of her purse was still wrapped around her foot.
Strong California redwood arms wrapped around her, then steadied her upright. “Careful.” Like she was deficient somehow, and he needed to keep her standing. As if.
She moved out of his arms.
“What is it?”
She shook her head. All this couldn’t be because of him. Her hacker, the man who’d had her kidnapped. Nearly sold on the black market, as though life was a commodity to be traded. Bartered for.
Victoria had gotten her back.
There was no way he’d bother with a stupid transfer now, after a month of nothing. Especially not for something that was just irritating and not much worse than that. Yes, it was two million dollars. But it wasn’t like she hadn’t fixed the problem as easily as it happened. What would be the point, other than to continue to torment her with his power over her? She could think of worse ways for him to prove that. She’d lived through the “worse.” To the extent that those were all the ones she thought of now.
Was this his doing?
“Talia.” The voice was softer, but not compassionate.
She shook her head.
“Talk to me.”
A knock sounded on the door, enough it slid open a few inches. The manager’s assistant stood in the doorway. “Mr. Crampton has informed me that an incident seems to have occurred. Money appears to be missing.” She directed her attention to Mason. Considering he was the “law” here, that made sense. Did the assistant want him to arrest her?
Would he?
Almond lady’s eyebrows rose. “And it appears to have been transferred into this woman’s accounts.”
Talia said, “I already put it back.” Just so there was no confusion. “I’m trying to figure out where the transaction originated from.” She glanced over at them for a second.
The assistant touched Mason’s arm. “I require assurance that you’ll do the right thing here.”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Talia mimicked his voice inside her head. Of course. She didn’t watch to see what else the woman did. Or how he responded to it.
She had bigger problems right now than watching him flirt back. Or not. Whatever. It wasn’t like she cared.
The assistant was probably going to get security, so they could escort her out.
Talia got back on the computer. She worked her way through all the data. Definitely a local terminal on the network. Maybe a flash drive, plugged into someone’s computer. She could probably figure out which one, and they could go retrieve it. That would mean physical evidence to prove she wasn’t the one behind this. Security footage would confirm she never touched the computer in question.
She was being implicated.
Framed.
. . .
The manager’s assistant had left, looking nervous. Maybe Crampton had told her it was her responsibility to fix the problem. Mason had reassured her before she left that it was his job.
“Ms. Matrice, I’d like you to step away from the terminal.”
She didn’t move. “I’m almost done.”
“Ma’am—”
“Seriously?” He didn’t know if she was talking to him or the computer. Then she turned to him. “Give me, like, two minutes before you go all cop on me, okay?”
“Go all cop?”
She started typing again. “I work with a task force. All of them are federal agents. Like, super cops. You wouldn’t believe the stories I could tell you. Abductions and militia, and gunshot wounds.” She shook her head and made a gagging sound. “So much blood. Crazy chemicals in the river, and that drone strike.”
He frowned, remembering a briefing he’
d read. “Are you talking about the lab in Oregon that was all over the news?”
“Uh, yeah. That was us.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Who do you think got Haley and Niall out of the lab before it blew?” She pointed one index finger at herself. “Moi. Thank you very much.”
“Okay, so I get you know what you’re doing. But this is serious.”
“I’m one of the good guys,” she said.
“You still need to answer my questions about this.” There were several things that required an explanation at this point.
“I should probably call Victoria.”
“Is she your lawyer?”
Talia glanced over to frown at him. “No. She’s my boss. Director Bramlyn, State Department. Look her up.”
He pulled out his phone to do exactly that.
“But be prepared for the backlash when you do.”
“I really need you to step away from the terminal, Ms. Matrice.” He tried to soften his voice, particularly when he said her name. Hopefully that would convince her he wasn’t a threat. She could trust him, talk to him. It worked with suspects on occasion. Helped to build rapport and calm a situation.
He touched her shoulder then, as he’d done before. “The money is really back where it belongs?”
She bent to retrieve her phone, logged in again, and showed him the screen. Just the seven hundred and some change.
“Very well.” He nodded. “But I think we might have to reschedule the remainder of this test to a later date.” Because there still needed to be a full investigation.
“So you can get someone else in to do it?” She cocked her hip, something he knew from having a teenage daughter didn’t mean anything good.
“That’s not up to me. But you can’t deny—” He tried to look like he was shrugging off the worry. “—that this will make for an interesting report.”
“Nice for you,” she shot back. “I’m in the middle of an investigation. I was trying to move on with my life, but nooooo. He just drags me right back into the middle of it so he can freak me out and mess with me. Like it wasn’t bad enough before.”
Mason thought he might’ve seen tears in her eyes for a second. Before he could say anything, she continued, “So we’re back to the middle of this case. Where I’m the technical consultant and the victim. Yay.” There was nothing good in her tone. Not even self-deprecation. She looked like she wanted to cry.
She was the victim? “Tell me what happened.”
Talia scrunched up her nose and shook her head like there was no way she would ever do that. Not if she could help it.
He shifted closer a fraction. “How can I understand if you don’t tell me what I need to know?”
He wanted to help as well, but he should keep this professional first. If it got personal later, that was something entirely different—until he arrested her. This woman clearly wasn’t telling him the whole truth—understatement—so she probably had plenty to hide. He’d guess it wasn’t all lawful, despite her credentials.
Had she really thought she could pull the wool over his eyes?
Talia actually looked for a moment as though she might talk. But then she shook her head. “Go ahead and look up Victoria Bramlyn. Check her out, and maybe she’ll read you in. I’m not sure you have the clearance to be told.”
She turned away then, opting for the cold shoulder instead of opening up. That was fine. He probably wouldn’t trust her either if their roles were reversed.
“If you could not get back on the computer,” he started.
She cut him off. “I’m shutting down.” She pulled the cables connecting her tablet computer to the terminal and hit a few keys on the tiny keyboard before she twisted it and stowed it back between servers in the rack. “I guess he won. Again.”
He moved so he could see her face. She’d paled like someone who’d seen a ghost. Whatever that was supposed to look like.
War weary, so different from that confident woman who’d walked right up to Mr. Crampton and introduced herself. What had happened to weigh her down to this level of defeat?
Whatever it was, she’d pushed it aside and found her strength. From her relationship with God, maybe. Now she’d been swallowed up by the past again. Those defenses had to have been flimsy.
“I need you to talk to me, Talia.”
They could do that here, or in his office. Probably both. He didn’t like the idea of taking her in for questioning, though he had to. This involvement would go in her file. A permanent mark on her career that might cause damage at a later date if she applied for a higher position. But he needed to know what had happened. He needed an explanation for the stolen money, even if she’d given it back.
She shook her head and reached for her shoes. “You might think you want to help, or that you want to know so you can put all the juicy details of what happened to me in your file but when you do know, you’ll wish you’d never asked.”
“That isn’t the way it works and you know it.”
She straightened, now back to her augmented height. The woman was the full package; looks and brains, and a broken heart. She made him want to wrap her in a hug, the way Rayna insisted he do, claiming it was better than chocolate. Whatever that meant. Teenagers were like an alien species sometimes.
Or maybe that was women in general.
It could be a testament to his trouble understanding women and his lack of success in that department. Never mind that the Bible said to dwell with one’s wife with understanding. He’d been married, and he hadn’t figured that out. He didn’t suppose he’d manage it with a woman he’d met barely an hour ago.
Talia lifted her chin and pinned him with a stare. “There’s nothing you can do to help. But if you need to know so badly, I can—”
Feet pounded down the hallway and an older suited man ran past them, breathless.
They both watched him disappear through a door at the end of the hall, then Mason turned to her. “Let’s go find the manager. We should talk to him before we head out.”
They would be going to his office, where she would explain everything to him. She seemed to know who had transferred that money. Returning it didn’t negate the fact a theft had occurred. All that had gone on here today required a full accounting, otherwise there would always be suspicion—on both of them.
He led her down the hall with his hand on the small of her back. She held her body tight, tense with whatever she was thinking. Before they turned the corner, a middle-aged man barreled toward them. Red faced. His thick jowls shifted as he ran. His white shirt strained in the front by the expanding gut above his waistline.
“Gunman.” He breathed and shoved between them. “In the bank.”
“What…”
The man trudged away, racing his heavy frame down the hallway. He glanced back over his shoulder. “We’re being robbed.”
Chapter 3
Talia took a step back. A robbery…and a robber? That didn’t make any sense. First she’d had her identity targeted to make it look like she’d stolen money from the bank. She’d put that back. Once she answered questions for the Secret Service and gave a statement, all that would be straightened out. But this?
Mason had his gun drawn now. He glanced at her. “Draw your weapon.”
Talia reached into her purse and pulled out a stun gun.
“That’s it? You need a real weapon here.”
She pulled out her tablet with the other hand. Awkward, but it would help prove her point. “This is my weapon.”
She tucked the stun gun between her elbow and her side. Typed with her thumbs on the screen of her tablet. She sent a message to Haley and Victoria to tell them there was a robbery in progress at the bank.
Was it the work of her hacker?
Brute force physical action wasn’t his style. He had hired gunmen for that. Most of his work was done electronically. Talia was the one who had to face the consequences of it, while he stayed secure in whatever bunker he was holed up in, causing havoc in her life
.
She bit her lip.
“We have to go.” Mason’s voice was surprisingly soft. Determined to bring her in after he took down a bank robber? Maybe he’d realized certain things were past her purview and that was all right with him, because he could handle it.
Pretty much like every other federal agent she knew.
“Or you can stay in this hallway while I go in there. But I need to do it fast, before anyone gets hurt.”
“Go.” She followed him as he crouched at the door and eased it open with two fingers. Hopefully no one would run out the door and crash into them.
He looked beyond it, gun ready to take on whoever was in the bank lobby. She’d had extensive training when she’d come onboard to work with the Northwest Counter-Terrorism Task Force, so she knew how to use all manner of weapons and how to defend herself, if necessary.
She preferred her stun gun.
And really, when it had come down to it, what good had that training been? Not much against a group of armed men who had captured her, drugged her, and then dropped her off at an undisclosed location to be sold on the black market. She got on her knees every morning and thanked God that Victoria managed to get her back.
She was here. She was okay.
But that didn’t mean she was whole.
Life went on. This assignment had been about getting back to her real life. Now the hacker had found her here, too. She bit her lip to hold back the flood of emotion. She wanted to scream, and cry. Maybe go to her mom’s house and lay on the couch in footie pajamas, drink tea and tell her all about what had happened.
She would do it, if her mom wouldn’t respond by having some kind of medical event brought on by stress. Considering her therapist hadn’t even been able to hold back his reaction, her mom surely wouldn’t manage it.
Mason turned back and whispered, “There’s a counter close to us. We’re out of his line of sight. We need to crawl to it. Ready?”
Talia whispered back, “A minute ago you were going to arrest me for being a thief. Now you want me to watch your back?” How was he sure she wasn’t just going to stun him and then run off with those millions? Maybe he just wanted her with him so he could arrest her later.
Third Hour Page 2
