“That’d be a pisser,” he agreed. “But there’s still time to figure this out.”
Poppy rolled her neck, wincing when it popped. “I feel as if the world is sitting on my shoulders. I could use a massage.”
Shaine looked at her quickly and she laughed, realizing that must’ve come out sounding as if she was fishing for some action. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right. I just meant I’m ready for a spa day.”
“I wouldn’t mind giving you a massage,” he said with mock sincerity. “I’d promise to keep my hands strictly professional.”
And what if I don’t want strictly professional, she almost quipped but thought better of it.
They were working so well together, she wasn’t about to throw a wrench into things.
Shaine took Poppy back to Brandi’s apartment to get her car and then they headed back to their place.
They still had a few hours before their shifts at Lit, and Poppy thought it might be good to use that time to do some snooping.
“Want to do those background checks now?” she asked.
“You sure? It’s been a long day and it promises to be an even longer night.”
“I’m good.”
Shaine smiled. “All right, then, I’m down.”
This time they met in Shaine’s apartment, giving Poppy a chance to see how Shaine’s character, Rocco, lived.
“Ah, I see that Rocco is a slob,” Poppy joked, gesturing to the empty pizza boxes and beer bottles on the kitchen counter.
“Hey, I like to stay in character,” Shaine countered with a cocky grin that was both adorable and exasperating at the same time. She remembered the epic arguments they would have about their hygiene habits. Poppy liked things tidy; Shaine liked things chaotic.
The best part about their arguments had been the makeup sex afterward.
“Right, so where would you like to do this?” she asked, trying to put her mind back where it belonged.
“Here, let me clear a spot,” Shaine said, going to the sofa where he scooped up a mound of clothes, whether they were clean or dirty, she wasn’t sure, and disappeared into the bedroom with them. Knowing Shaine...both. He had a habit of tossing his dirty clothes wherever they landed. And sometimes they landed on a pile of unfolded clean ones. He returned and grabbed his laptop, sitting beside her. “Who are we looking up first?” he asked.
“Raquel. I want to follow up on Brandi’s claim that she was an MMA fighter in the past. While I wouldn’t put it past her, something doesn’t ring true. Brandi might be trying to protect Angelo still.”
Shaine punched in the name but they only had her stage name and very little details, until Shaine added the scorpion tattoo. “Let’s see what this pulls up,” he said, hitting Enter.
“Well, look at that,” Poppy said, smiling.
“The FBI database is a scary thing,” Shaine said. “But highly effective.”
An information sheet with Raquel’s name, date of birth, known tattoos and photo popped up.
Under professions, amateur MMA fighter was listed.
“Damn, I really wanted that to be bullshit,” Poppy said, disappointed. “So, it could’ve been Raquel that beat the hell out of Brandi, after all.”
“Possible, but not probable. I’m still leaning toward a man who did that damage.”
“Why?”
“Because of the bruising on her face. Wide knuckles.”
Poppy nodded at first but then realized something. “Angelo has small hands. Almost feminine. I don’t think it was Angelo.”
“What if someone was setting Angelo up? Everyone knows that Angelo and Brandi were a thing... What if Brandi isn’t protecting Angelo’s skin but her own? I think she knows exactly who killed Darcy and it’s the same person who beat the shit out of her.”
“If that’s the case, we need to find out a way to get her to talk. Otherwise, whoever it is...might just disappear.”
CHAPTER 24
Shaine picked up the phone on the first ring. He never sent Sawyer or Silas to voice mail, simply because they all worked dangerous jobs and no one ever knew which day might be their last.
“You’re lucky, you caught me before I have to leave for my shift,” he told Sawyer. “But I’m glad you called. I could use some big brother advice.”
“Yeah? What’s going on? I heard you took on that big case in Miami. Lots of people would’ve killed for that detail but you manage to land the high profile gigs.”
“What can I say? I’m awesome,” Shaine quipped, but he quickly lost the laughter in his tone as he shared, “Man, this case is brutal. El Escorpion is playing hardball. We’ve already lost one of the DEA agents.”
“I heard through the grapevine, which is why I wanted to connect with you. How are you holding up?”
“Okay,” he answered. “People are dropping like flies, agent and otherwise. The body count is adding up. Makes me twitchy to close this case, not because I want to add it to my resume but because I don’t want to lose any more good people.”
“I don’t want to lose another brother,” Sawyer returned. “Watch yourself.”
“Trust me, I’m doing everything I can to stay alive.” He paused, then added, “There’s something else I didn’t expect when I took on this case.”
“Such as?”
“My undercover partner. It’s Poppy.”
Sawyer’s stunned silence mirrored Shaine’s when he’d first seen her in the debriefing room. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope. In the flesh. She’s my partner.”
“How’s that going?”
“Awkward at first, but...she’s really good. I underestimated her abilities years ago. I should’ve just kept my trap shut and took my chances.”
Sawyer knew that Shaine had gone through the ringer trying to get over that breakup. “That sucks, man,” he commiserated.
“Yeah, I can’t help but worry about Poppy getting hurt, but she’s kicking ass so I can’t complain.”
“Matters of the heart, man...reason and logic have nothing to do with them.”
Shaine couldn’t agree more.
“So, what kind of advice are you looking for? For the heart or the head?”
“I miss her,” Shaine admitted with a sigh. “I mean, I always knew that I missed her but I didn’t realize how much until I saw her again.”
“Nostalgia is powerful,” Sawyer suggested, but they both knew what Shaine wasn’t saying. It was more than nostalgia. Sawyer sighed. “Look, you never had closure. Everything was just abruptly cut in half when she left. Maybe after the case is closed, you two ought to sit down over a cup of coffee and talk things out. Maybe not to patch things up but to put the issues to bed so you can move on.”
“What if...” he trailed, not sure he wanted to say out loud what he was feeling. “Never mind.”
But his brother knew. “You still love her.”
Shaine didn’t want to admit it. Maybe if he never said the words, it wouldn’t be true. But he knew that was stupid. “Yeah, maybe,” he allowed grudgingly. That was as much of an admission that he could manage.
“No one but you would be surprised by that,” Sawyer said. “We’ve known.”
“What do you mean?”
“Shaine, everyone knows you haven’t gotten over Poppy. We’re not judging you. We loved her, too.”
Tears tingled behind his eyes. Ah hell, he hadn’t meant to dig so deep. “I’m sorry... I don’t know what’s come over me. I need to focus on the case, not this crap that’s in the past.”
“I’m here if you need to talk it out,” Sawyer offered. “But in the meantime, get your head in the game. I don’t need to bury another brother.”
Shaine was never cavalier with his brothers about safety. “I hear you,” he said. “Thanks for calling and checking in.”
“Of course. That big brother gig, you know.”
He laughed. “All right, big brother. Take care of yourself.”
Sawyer clicked off and Shaine sighed
, feeling lighter after connecting with his brother.
Even though he couldn’t share details of the case, just having that momentary connection with home was the mental wash he needed to get back on track.
Sawyer had always been the cool head of the group, which made the white-collar crime division a perfect fit for him. He preferred corporate suits to slumming around in seedy bars with confidential informants.
But Sawyer never acted as if he were better than Shaine for his division choice, like some in the white-collar division.
Silas, their little brother, was the one doing the work that neither Shaine nor Sawyer could stomach.
Child abduction cases.
He’d rather deal with drug dealers, murderers and general scum-of-the-earth than work one case involving a hurt kid.
Shaine headed out to run errands before his shift.
* * *
Armed with a search warrant, Rosa stormed Amerine Labs with the forensic accounting team, intent on finding the evidence she needed to pin El Escorpion’s many crimes onto their shoulders.
Selena and Mateo watched with cold fury as their employees were sent out of the building and told to wait outside while files were being collected.
“Was this really necessary?” Selena asked sharply. “You’re earning yourself a nice lawsuit. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time as a DEA agent because I’m going to have your job.”
“You need to work on your threat department,” Rosa said, amused. “You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last person to threaten my job when I was closing in on their operation. However, I will give you props for the detailed doll. I was pretty impressed, actually. I like it. Once you’ve been arrested and the case has gone to trial, I’m going to put it up on my mantel. I’m curious, where’d you find someone who can sew such detail? That’s a lost art.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Selena asked, genuinely disgusted and confused. “What doll?”
“The nice little package you had delivered to my house. Nice detective work, by the way. My house isn’t listed on any database.”
“You’re insane. I didn’t send you anything, nor would I. This is ludicrous. All you’re doing is halting important research on drugs that matter. Mateo, call our lawyer. This is a waste of time.”
Mateo sent a hateful look Rosa’s way and walked outside to make the call.
A shiver of something went down Rosa’s back, something that felt a lot like uncertainty, but she pushed it aside, knowing she was on the right track. “Keep talking, I’m sure you’re very good at convincing people that you’re a paragon of virtue. We already have proof that you’ve been receiving illegal chemical compounds...drugs often used to make Ecstasy, which isn’t far off from the newest street drug, Bliss.”
“I don’t know what Bliss is and I certainly don’t make Ecstasy. However, what you will find is that my company had a significant investment in an experimental drug that had not yet been through FDA approval. I know it will burst your bubble to know that, although perhaps not strictly by the book, our process is completely legal.”
Rosa smiled thinly. “We shall see.”
The forensics team left the building carrying a multitude of boxes, computer hard drives and external drives and they left Amerine Labs a shell, effectively shutting down their operation until the evidence could be sorted.
Today was a good day, Rosa thought as she drove away, humming a light tune.
Today was an extra good day.
* * *
Shaine showed up at Lit and followed his usual routine, but he was paying particular attention to everyone tonight, even the people he’d previously dismissed.
But first and foremost, he wanted to check out Angelo and see if the guy acted out of sorts.
“Hey man, how’s things?” Shaine asked conversationally. “Anything excited going on tonight?”
Angelo seemed agitated as he went up to Shaine. “Have you talked to Brandi?”
Shaine looked appropriately confused. “No? Why?”
“She’s not answering her cell and I went by her apartment and she was gone. It’s not like her to split like that.”
“Did you guys have a fight or something?”
“No, she said we needed to take a break, you know, after the whole Raquel thing, and so I said sure because, hey, a break sounded good, kinda like a hall pass, but then I haven’t heard from her in days so I went to check it out and she wasn’t home.”
Either Angelo was a good actor or he was genuinely worried about Brandi, which didn’t play into the theory that the man had beaten her.
Shaine glanced down at Angelo’s hands, confirming what Poppy had said about his small, feminine hands.
There was no way Angelo had done that to Brandi. In fact, his knuckles would be red and chafed at the very least, but they were freshly manicured without a scratch on them.
Shaine clapped Angelo on the shoulder in support, saying, “I’m sure she’ll turn up. She’s probably just trying to make you sweat. Girls are like that. They like to watch you suffer when you’ve screwed up.”
Angelo nodded, but he looked unconvinced. Shaine frowned. “Is there something else bothering you?”
“Her apartment...smelled funny. Like bleach. And it’d been trashed. Brandi was weird about her apartment. She liked things put back where they belonged. She’d never leave her apartment like that.”
“What are you saying, man? Do you think something bad happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” Angelo said, becoming more agitated. “I just got a bad feeling.”
“If you’re really worried about her, report her missing to the cops.”
“Go to the cops?” Angelo scoffed. “I can’t do that. I have a warrant out on me.”
“Oh? What for?”
“A bullshit possession charge,” he said, waving away Shaine’s question. “I missed my court appearance and just haven’t had time to sort it out. So they issued a warrant.”
“That sucks,” he commiserated. Maybe it was the anxiety, but this was the most Angelo had talked since they’d met. He wasn’t his usual suave, too-cool self, and Shaine was going to milk it. “Hey, I heard some of the girls talking the other night about another dancer named Tinsel...do you know anything about her?”
“Yeah, she was a friend of Brandi’s,” he answered distractedly as he flipped through his phone, looking for something. “She had a massive crush on Big Jane of all people. Followed her around like a lovesick puppy. It was weird. Why?”
“Just curious,” he murmured, pretending to move on, but his mind was moving quickly. “So did they date or something?”
“I don’t know,” Angelo answered, irritated that Shaine was still on the subject. “I don’t pay attention to who Big Jane is messing around with. Look, I gotta make some calls. Can you hold down my shift for me?”
“Yeah, sure, I got you, buddy. Handle your business.”
“Thanks, man,” Angelo said, disappearing quickly.
What the hell? Big Jane?
He sent a hasty text to Victoria.
Background check Big Jane. ASAP.
Victoria responded with a thumbs-up emoji.
He grabbed someone to man the bar and then disappeared backstage to find Poppy.
Shaine found her and pulled her aside, out of earshot of everyone else.
“Darcy didn’t have a thing for Angelo...she was seeing Big Jane,” he whispered.
Poppy’s eyes widened in shock. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.”
“Why would Darcy say she was all about Angelo when she was really into Big Jane?”
“Maybe her family was ultraconservative and wouldn’t be okay with that kind of relationship,” he guessed. “But either way, that changes things a bit. And another thing...there’s no way Angelo did the damage to Brandi. You’re right, his hands...are like a girl’s and they are soft. If he’d beat the shit out of Brandi, there’d be marks on his knuckles.”
; Poppy nodded. “So what are we looking for? Bloody knuckles?”
“That might be a good place to start. Be careful.”
That last part came from his heart, not his head, and it’d come out before he could stop it. Thankfully, Poppy didn’t seem to notice the difference and didn’t take offense.
She waved and returned to her vanity so he could slip back to the bar.
Things just took a confusing turn.
CHAPTER 25
Ramirez was staring at a report as everyone filed in for debriefing, and Poppy knew by Ramirez’s expression that something had gone wrong.
“Everything okay?” Poppy asked, taking her seat. “What’s that?”
“We’ve hit a snag,” Ramirez finally admitted. “I’ve been trying to find some way that the results might be wrong, but it’s right there in plain black and white.” She met the group’s expectant gazes. “None of the discrepancies in the customs manifests can be attributed to Bliss production.”
Ramirez pushed the results to the center of the table and Poppy picked them up first. On one hand, she felt privately validated that her hunch had turned out to be correct, but it gave her no satisfaction to know that Ramirez had been off base.
“The forensics team came back with the results of the search warrant...we got nothing. There were some minor infractions, in which they’ll be fined by the FDA, but any action will be their jurisdiction. Amerine Labs isn’t manufacturing Bliss, that’s for certain.”
Poppy and Shaine exchanged looks but remained silent.
Ramirez exhaled with disappointment. “So it would seem you were right. Selena and Mateo aren’t right for El Escorpion. So what do you have? Please make this day better and give me something to go on.”
Shaine jumped in with something productive. “We’re pursuing the lead with Brandi. We think she knows something but she’s not talking. We need more leverage, something that will make her see that it would benefit her to talk.”
“You weren’t the only one with a setback,” Poppy admitted. “We thought Angelo was our guy but we’re starting to rethink that.”
“And why is that?” Ramirez asked.
“Because he wasn’t the one who beat Brandi and he’s not the one she’s either protecting or scared of. She blamed Raquel but I don’t think it was Raquel.”
Deep Cover Page 19
