Trusting a Stranger

by Melinda Di Lorenzo

  Maybe nobody had gotten a clear photo of her. She’d tried to shield her features as much as possible when she’d ushered Sean Dunst out from the hotel.

  Still, she knew she was probably fooling herself. The second that bullet had slammed into him, she’d dropped her guard, and who knew what photos had been taken in that split second?

  Hopefully she was overreacting. It had been a long time, with no indication that there was anyone left who might want to do her harm.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have come back home to New York?

  The elevator door whooshed open, and once again she flashed her creds to security before heading down a long hallway to the back of the building where her new team of talented agents had been assigned to work on the kinds of cases that nobody else wanted.

  This was what she had been born to do, to work within the law as much as possible but to not be afraid to slightly blur the lines in order to achieve ultimate justice.

  She passed the receptionist desk and nodded to Penelope Zimmerman who, rumor had it, was like a pit bull when it came to keeping out the unwanted and fielding phone calls from kooks.

  Lara fought against the panic that threatened to crawl up the back of her throat. Maybe all of the news reports would only show Sean Dunst’s dead body. Who cared about the FBI agent who had gotten him off the ledge? Dunst’s unexpected murder was the real story, not her.

  All she needed was a little good luck on her side, but then when had that ever happened? The minute she opened the door to the conference room she knew things were potentially bad.

  All of the team was there, but Lara first looked at her boss, Supervisory Agent and Unit Chief Victoria Russo. As always not an ash-colored hair on her head was out of place, and she was impeccably dressed in a black suit and a crisp white blouse. It was only when Lara gazed at Victoria’s blue eyes that she knew things might be as bad as she’d expected.

  She’d known Victoria for a long time. The tough woman had been Lara’s boss when they’d both worked for the DC department. Victoria knew more about Lara’s background than anyone else on earth. Her glare cut through Lara, as if seeking to look into her very soul.

  Lara felt as if Victoria was whispering in her ear, telling her that Victoria knew Lara had just been through hell, but Lara was strong enough to handle it. She hoped she was...she had to be.

  She sat at the long conference table across from her new partner, Nick Delano, and straightened her back. Victoria gave her a nearly imperceptible nod. “Welcome back, Lara,” she said, letting Lara know it was going to be business as usual after all.

  Lara looked across the table, where her new partner was watching her intently and with open interest. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, Nick Delano’s bold attractiveness was only enhanced by the scar on his right temple.

  She might find him physically appealing, but she wouldn’t go there. The last time she’d opened herself up to a man, it had been with deadly consequences.

  Besides, she wasn’t even sure she liked her new partner yet. She’d scarcely had time to interact with him that morning before she’d been called to the hotel to meet Dunst on the ledge.

  “What happened out there?” Mei Wang asked as she flipped a strand of her long dark hair over her shoulder.

  “It must have been pretty tough out on that ledge for so long,” Ty Jackson, Mei’s partner added. Ty was an African American man with dark eyes that radiated a keen intelligence.

  Cass McDonner looked up from the laptop in front of her. “I’m working to get as much background on Dunst as possible.” Cass was the team’s tech guru. Lara had worked with her in the DC department.

  When Victoria had moved to the New York City department, Cass had asked to move with her. Cass was nothing short of a magician when it came to gathering information and with all things computer related. She would be a valuable member of this new team.

  “We’re all waiting with bated breath for a blow-by-blow of what happened out there,” Xander Harrington, the final member of the team, said.

  Lara spent the next few minutes filling in the details of the hours on the ledge. “All I had to do was get him into a patrol car, but we’d only taken a couple of steps out of the building when he was shot right between his eyes.”

  “It had to be an experienced sniper to make a shot like that,” Nick observed.

  “We have plenty of cases lined up to work on, but this is now top priority for our team because it involves one of our own,” Victoria said. “We have questions, and we need to get some answers. Why did Dunst specifically ask for Lara? Why was he killed and by whom?”

  Cass looked up from her computer once again. Her funky purple-rimmed eyeglasses enhanced her hazel eyes and clashed with her red hair. “So far what I’ve managed to find out about Dunst is that he’s a small-time criminal with a drug problem. He’s a user and a low-level dealer. I can’t find a phone number for him, so he must use burners when he needs to make a call. We need to find out if he had one with him when he was shot. His rap sheet mostly consists of breaking and entering, minor drug charges, shoplifting and petty theft.”

  “And murder,” Lara added. “What do we know about Tina, the young girl he confessed to killing?”

  Cass clicked a few keys. “Nine-year-old Tina Cole. She disappeared on her way home from school two weeks ago. Eyewitnesses saw her walking away from the bus stop with a man who looked like Dunst, and his home is only two blocks away from the Cole family home.”

  Cass paused to push her glasses up more firmly on her nose and then continued. “Tina’s body was found in an empty overgrown lot three doors down from Dunst’s place. He was immediately identified as the prime suspect, but not enough evidence surfaced for a search warrant or to pick him up and charge him. Unfortunately most of the eyewitnesses were just kids, and the investigation into her murder was still in the preliminary stages.”

  “He’s in hell now,” Lara replied darkly. Justice served. “What about Tina’s parents?”

  “John and Heather Cole. John works for the post office, and Heather is a registered nurse at a Brooklyn clinic. John was at work when Tina was kidnapped, and Heather was stuck in traffic on her way home. Cameras confirmed this. Neither were told that Dunst was a potential suspect in the case.”

  “So it probably wasn’t a revenge killing by one of her parents,” Nick said.

  “Was she their only child?” Mei asked.

  Cass nodded and clicked more keys on the laptop. “This just popped up. Unfortunately, you’re very photogenic,” she said and turned her computer around so that Lara could look at the monitor.

  She’d thought she had prepared herself, but as she saw the photo on the news feed, it was like a hard punch to her gut. Dunst’s body was on the ground, and, standing next to him, her mouth opened in surprise, was Lara. Her shoulder-length brown hair, her green eyes and complete facial features were there for everyone to see.

  Cass turned her laptop back to face her as Lara’s mind raced with black thoughts of utter destruction. She’d been outed by a damned child killer on a ledge.

  “We now have a new situation on our hands,” Victoria said briskly. She held Lara’s gaze for a long moment and then looked at each of the others. “I didn’t see a need to fill you in on each other’s background. You all know the basics, but now that’s changed where Lara is concerned. You need specifics.”

  Everyone at the table looked at Lara with curious speculation, but she kept her eyes focused on Victoria and mentally prepared herself for her boss to drag her back into nightmare territory.

  “You know about the Moretti crime syndicate, right?” Victoria asked.

  “They were all taken down over a year ago,” Ty said. “Nasty organization based in Chicago, but with ties to New York and other cities.”

  “That’s correct,” Victoria replied. “The boss, known on
ly as Moretti, eluded the FBI for five years. The organization was involved not only in gun and drug sales, but also human trafficking, including children. A little over two years ago, Lara went deep undercover into the organization in Chicago, and after a year she managed to gain the trust of the high-level operatives. She learned the location of a meeting where the elusive Moretti would be present, and the FBI swooped in and made the arrests. For the past year Lara has been in a safe house while the trials occurred. Moretti and most of his crew are now in various federal prisons, with Moretti out on Long Island. But when the FBI made the raid they didn’t get everyone who was involved in the criminal activities.”

  Once again Lara felt the weight of her team members’ stares. She’d hoped to come into this new position without dragging any of her past behind her. She’d wanted a clean new start, but that wasn’t going to happen now.

  “We have to assume that, with Lara’s photo out there, it’s possible that somebody in the Moretti ring might see it and know that it was Lara who infiltrated them two years ago and brought them down. Now that it’s clear Lara is back in New York, it’s also possible that somebody is looking for revenge.” Victoria looked at Lara. “Maybe it’s time for you to disappear again for a little while, until we see how this all plays out.”

  “No.” The single word fired out of Lara like a gunshot. “I’m not hiding any longer. I spent over a year in a safe house, and I’m not going into lockdown now or ever again.” No way. No how. She needed to get her life back on track.

  “How high might the risk be to Lara?” Xander asked.

  “As I said, with Lara’s help we managed to get Moretti and some of his men behind bars, but we don’t know who might have slipped our noose,” Victoria replied. “And we don’t know how far Moretti’s reach might be beyond his prison walls.”

  “I’m not backing down,” Lara said firmly. She’d given up enough of her life because of the monster Moretti. She wasn’t about to sacrifice another piece of her soul to the disgusting man and his powerful ring. She brought him down, and that’s where he’d stay.

  She clenched her hands into fists beneath the table. She needed this job. She needed this new position to work out. Her undercover work hadn’t gone as planned. The last thing she wanted was for this new gig not to work, and she’d potentially be relegated to desk duty for the rest of her career.

  “I’ve got her back if any threats come her way,” Nick said, his dark eyes unfathomable as he held Lara’s gaze.

  “We all have her back,” Mei said. The same sentiment rang out from everyone around the table.

  Lara might have been grateful if these weren’t all new teammates, if she’d developed a trust with any of them. But she hadn’t had time to build any confidence in them, and ultimately knew that at this moment, she could only depend on herself.

  Victoria looked at her again, a question lingering in her eyes.

  “I’m here to stay,” Lara said with a grim firmness, even as her heartbeat accelerated. Although Moretti was in prison, even while she’d spent so much time in the safe house in the darkest, deepest recesses of her mind, she’d always known somehow that it wasn’t finished.

  The horrendous nightmares that had plagued her over the past year or so would continue to haunt her, but they were reminders that she’d survived the deadly Moretti web once, and, if necessary, she was determined to again.

  She consciously willed the self-doubts away. New job. New start. Moving forward.

  “There’s been no indication that the syndicate is even operating anymore,” Cass said. “The FBI has been monitoring the situation since Moretti went to prison. Nothing has come up to even suggest that they’re back in business. That’s why it was approved for Lara to come back to New York and join this task force.”

  “Then that’s good news, right?” Mei said. “Maybe with Moretti behind bars the whole operation fell apart.”

  “That’s been the general belief of all of the agents who worked the case in Chicago,” Victoria said.

  “Maybe Lara’s not in any danger from anyone,” Xander said. “Maybe by cutting off the head of the snake, the rest of the snake died.”

  “And I hope it was a slow and painful death,” Lara muttered under her breath. That case had forever changed her. She thought she’d been prepared. All that training...instead the case had destroyed any innocence that she might have had left from her lonely, crappy childhood. It had made it difficult for her to trust anyone and had ripped out a chunk of her heart that she would never get back.

  Victoria looked at Lara. “Right now I’d like you and Nick to continue to investigate Dunst and his murder. Talk to his friends or any family he might have. Find out what connection he had to you and why a low-level criminal would warrant a sniper shot between the eyes.”

  She turned her focus to encompass the others at the table. “The rest of you will make sure the Moretti ring has been out of business since their boss went to prison. This will give Lara and Nick the freedom to investigate Dunst and close the case quickly. Cass, see if you can get hold of a list of any visitors Moretti has had in the past year and a record of any of his phone calls. If there is no movement, then Lara is safe here in New York working on this team. Also find out if a phone was on Dunst when he was killed.”

  “On it,” Cass replied.

  Before Victoria could say anything else, Lara’s cell phone rang. “Sorry,” she murmured as she pulled it from a clip on her belt. “It’s an officer from the scene at the hotel earlier,” she said when she saw the caller ID.

  She punched it on speaker and set the phone on the tabletop. “Officer Cruz, this is FBI Special Agent Lara Grant.”

  “Agent Grant, I just thought I’d call to let you know that we found something odd on Sean Dunst.”

  “First, let me ask you a question. Did Dunst have a phone on him when he died?” Lara asked.

  “Negative, no phone was found.”

  “Then make sure your men do a thorough sweep of the hotel room to see if he left one there,” she said. “Now, what did you find on him?”

  “A black ink pad and a wooden stamper.”

  Lara frowned and looked around the table at the others. An ink pad? She stared back at the phone. “What did the stamp look like?”

  “I just sent you a photo.”

  Lara quickly checked. The past collided with the present, creating something close to madness inside Lara’s brain. “Thanks for the info,” she managed to say and then ended the call.

  The photo showed a letter M superimposed over an upside down M. She turned to show everyone the image. Everyone except Victoria looked at her expectantly. “That’s the insignia of the Moretti crime organization.” Lara’s voice was flat, not reflecting the raging turmoil that twisted her gut. “Everyone who worked for Moretti or who was trafficked by him had that symbol either tattooed on their arm or someplace else on their body. Dunst was connected to Moretti.”

  “Why would low-level Dunst have something like that in his pocket? Did he use it on the little girl?” Ty asked.

  “Negative,” Cass replied. “According to the autopsy report Tina had nothing like that on her body when she was found.”

  Lara barely heard the conversation of suppositions and possibilities as it swirled around the table. An icy chill had taken over her entire body.

  She feared that the ghosts she’d dreamed of chasing her in her nightmares were now very real monsters, and they had finally found her.

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  Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  ISBN-13:
9781488005336

  Trusting a Stranger

  Copyright © 2016 by Melinda A. Di Lorenzo

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