by Tee O'Fallon
“Three weeks ago, Alexandra Romano received a wire transfer of twenty thousand dollars, source untraceable.”
“What do you mean?” His gaze caught Alex’s and held it.
“I mean,” Dom continued, “there’s no line item on the bank statement for the sender. I called the bank and they confirmed this wasn’t an oversight. The source record is gone. Permanently. Get this, the only time they’ve ever seen this happen is when it involved a Cayman Islands account.”
The same place where Ahmed Methopolis’s account was located, and a favorite location for Pyramid assassins to bank their proceeds.
The sandwich Gray had partially eaten began to roll and churn in his stomach. There had to be an explanation. There had to be. A multitude of possibilities ran through his head.
An inheritance. A loan. Cashing out a stock portfolio.
He couldn’t believe there was anything illegal going on with Alex, but… His certainty that she’d been lying about something last night came back to him in a rush. And this was too much of a coincidence.
A Pyramid assassin had already bribed a One PP janitor to plant bugs in his and Dom’s phones. He figured the Pyramid had a backup plan.
But was it really Alex?
“I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and shoved his phone back into its belt cradle. Unable to meet Alex’s eyes, he looked past her.
“What’s wrong?” She placed her hand on top of his. “Gray?”
He pulled his hand away and stood. “I have to go.” He needed space. And time to verify there’s a logical explanation for what Dom had just relayed. He prayed there was, but something told him otherwise, and that something simmered in the pit of his stomach like boiling acid.
He glanced once more at Alex’s concerned, questioning blue eyes. His chest felt tight, but he was determined not to let it show. “I’ll talk to you back at One PP.”
It killed him, but he left her sitting alone in the deli. The last thing he’d seen on her face was hurt and confusion.
As he speed-walked back to One PP, Gray prayed like hell there was a viable explanation for the money in Alex’s account. Even as he thought the words, Marina’s beautiful, treacherous face came to him, and with it…pain. Pain others must have felt right before they’d been blown to bits.
The pain he felt now just as surely in his own heart.
Chapter Five
Alex watched as Gray stalked into the squad room carrying a cup of coffee. It was now Tuesday morning, and contrary to what he’d promised, he hadn’t spoken with her back at One PP after bolting from the deli, nor had he called over the weekend or any day since. Not only hadn’t he spoken a single word to her in four days, but he’d managed to avoid crossing paths with her altogether.
What the hell happened? What could have changed so much since last Friday?
One minute they’d been about to make plans for the weekend, and the next he’d run from her as if she had leprosy.
She rubbed her forehead. She’d already downed two aspirin an hour ago, and still her head hurt.
As for Gray, she’d pretty much trashed the hope that he would ever ask her out again. But even though she’d long ago vowed never to waste time or tears on a man, she yearned to know why he’d blackballed her from his life.
Maybe it was for the best, given her deep, dark secrets. He was out of her personal life, but she couldn’t avoid interacting with him professionally. Guess there really was something to be said for avoiding office relationships.
Alex clenched her jaw. She deserved an explanation. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and Gray was treating her like Typhoid Mary.
Taking a deep breath, she stood then smoothed out her navy-blue skirt and white silk blouse. She approached Gray’s desk, her heels clicking on the floor. The closer she got to his desk, the faster her heart beat.
“Gray, are you all right?” she asked, now standing directly in front of him. “I didn’t hear from you all weekend, and you haven’t said a word to me since last week. I’ve been worried about you.” She gave him a tentative smile, having no idea what to expect.
Piercing, icy-cold eyes stared up at her without a hint of pleasantry. Definitely not the warm, gentle gaze that could jumpstart her heart. “I’m fine,” he said in an impassive voice then stood and grabbed his coffee mug and a file on his desk.
“Wait.” When she caught his arm, thick muscles bunched beneath her fingers.
He jerked from her grasp. “I have a meeting.” Like his gaze, his voice held no warmth.
Hastily, she looked around the squad room, thankful most of the morning shift hadn’t arrived yet. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why won’t you talk to me?”
He looked past her, taking a deep breath that tightened his shirt and jacket over his broad chest. “Because I—” He shook his head subtly. For an infinitesimally brief moment, his eyes softened, and he seemed on the verge of saying more. An instant later, that frigid visage was firmly back in place, like blinds being yanked down to block out the morning sunlight. He clenched his jaw. “Let it go, Alex.”
“Let it go?” She shook her head. “What the hell does that mean?”
The conference room door next to Lt. Frye’s office opened, and Alex caught a quick glimpse of several men she didn’t recognize. Without another word, Gray headed for the room and shut the door behind him.
Alex swallowed the lump in her throat. Gray’s brush-off and the words he’d said cut deeply. All her life, people told her how incredibly smart she was. So how could I have been so off-the-charts wrong about someone?
Again.
She glanced around the squad room to find Dom eyeing her with something akin to contempt. And she hadn’t done a damn thing to deserve it from him, either.
What is with these guys? Like Gray, Dom rose and went into Lt. Frye’s conference room. When the door shut with a solid thump, she felt a discernible chill. She walked briskly back to her desk and dropped into her chair.
Voices filled the room as the other detectives on the morning shift began arriving, extending greetings her way. She smiled, pretended that everything was okeydokey, and did her best to busy herself with work.
Ignoring the alluring smell of fresh coffee wafting through the air, Alex glanced at the conference room door, knowing Gray was in there. She wondered what was so important that they would schedule a meeting before the regular day shift began. It was certainly not the norm. Then again, after last week’s explosion they were probably critiquing everything that went down.
Turning her attention to typing yet another memo for the lieutenant, Alex was startled by the vibration of her cell phone. Taking personal calls during work hours was generally taboo, but Lt. Frye cut her some slack—she needed to monitor her phone in the event that Nicky’s condition required her to leave work unexpectedly.
She pulled the phone from her bag. The number on the digital display was one she didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Alexandra Romano?” a thickly accented female voice asked.
“Yes.” Alex gripped the phone tighter. No one with a Middle Eastern accent had called her in many years.
“You spent some of my money. Now it is time to earn it.”
“Who is this?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“My name is of no consequence, Alexandra. Or should I call you Aileen?”
Alex widened her eyes and fear shot to her belly.
How does she know my name? My real name?
“You were paid twenty thousand dollars for a favor,” the voice continued. “It’s time to make good on it.”
Alex flicked her gaze around the squad room to see if anyone noticed how freaked she was by the call. Luckily, the detectives were already ensconced in their work and no one was paying attention.
“What favor?” she asked in a hushed tone. “I don’t know you, and I won’t do anything for you. Whoever you are, you can have your damned money back. Every penny. I just need a little time to get it.”
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br /> What in the world is going on here?
The woman laughed. “Your naiveté is understandable, but that is not how this works. You don’t have enough money to pay us back, so you will do us a favor. Your son’s life depends on it, in more ways than one.”
“My son?” Alex’s voice rose at the threat to Nicky. A few of the detectives looked in her direction. “You bitch,” she said through gritted teeth. “How dare you threaten my child?” She stood and hustled out of the room, down the hall, and into the ladies’ room. She peeked under all the stalls to verify she was alone. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are. You can’t deposit money into my bank account, threaten my son, and expect me to do you a favor. Are you crazy?”
“Hardly. We want you to copy files for us,” the woman continued. “Files the NYPD has on the Pyramid. You will be contacted within the week with instructions on where and how to deliver the documents.”
“Are you insane? I can’t bring you police files. I won’t!” Alex had no idea what the Pyramid was and didn’t care. “I’ll pay you back the money. Just tell me how.”
“You should be grateful. Your son is very sick, is he not? And you are nearly in debt.”
Alex stood frozen in the middle of the ladies’ room. Her grip on the phone tightened even more. She sucked in deep breaths, trying not to scream.
How do they know all this?
As anger coursed through her, Alex pressed her lips together. “I won’t do anything for you, do you hear me?”
“I do not make empty threats, Aileen.” Laughter echoed in Alex’s ears. “Wait for my call.”
The connection ended.
Alex’s entire body began to shake. Her life of the past seven years was about to unravel. The safety net she’d carefully and precisely constructed around her and Nicky was about to give way without a landing pad. The terror she’d worked so hard to leave behind…it could find her again. He could find her. More running. More hiding. I can’t start over.
The phone fell from her grasp onto the bathroom floor with a sharp crack. Her stomach roiled, and she was overcome with the urge to wretch. She just made it into one of the stalls before emptying what remained of her breakfast into the toilet. Tears rolled down her cheeks and dry heaves wracked her body as she clung to the edge of the seat, gasping.
When the dry heaves stopped, Alex rose and went to the sink to rinse out her mouth. She looked in the mirror, hardly recognizing the face staring back at her. Her blond hair was askew. Smudged mascara gave her a raccoon look, and her eyes were red and puffy. She shuddered and made a decision.
There was no way she could handle this on her own. She was completely out of her league. Money she’d thought was an unexpected gift—even if temporarily—was turning out to be her worst nightmare. God, but she never should have touched it.
It was blood money.
But who—or what—is the Pyramid?
It didn’t matter. This woman had threatened her son. Alex needed to protect him, and she couldn’t do it alone. There had to be a way out, some kind of escape for them both. They could run, but whoever this woman and the Pyramid were, one thing was mind-bendingly clear: they had resources beyond her wildest nightmares. They knew about Nicky’s illness, and they knew who she was. Correction, they knew who she’d been.
How, for God’s sake?
The phony life she’d created in New York was virtually undetectable, every nuance carefully crafted from a false identity purchased three thousand miles away in a dingy basement of an even dingier storefront.
She had to tell Gray and Lt. Frye. They would know what to do. They would keep Nicky safe. They had to.
But in confession there was danger. Submitting false identity documents to the department most definitely constituted cause for dismissal. Losing her job was a foregone conclusion. It was only a matter of when. What she needed was time. Time to line up a new job before she was fired. With Nicky’s need for expensive medical treatments income was paramount. But his safety came first. And that didn’t give her time.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed a tissue from the counter and cleaned up her face. On rubbery legs, she went back to the squad room and called Nicky’s school, verifying he was safe and sound and in class. Then she knocked on the conference room door. Everyone in the squad knew that short of a life-threatening emergency, when this door was closed, no disturbances would be tolerated. Well, dammit, this is an emergency.
When no one answered, Alex knocked louder. Heads in the squad room turned to see who had the audacity to pound so loudly on the closed conference room door.
Alex covered her mouth with her hand. Fear and shame cut deeply into her heart. Fear at what the future held. Shame at having been forced to do something illegal. These were her final thoughts just before doing the unthinkable. Without invitation, she opened the door.
Eight sets of eyes turned her way. Men in dark suits: Lt. Frye, Gray, Dom, and two IA detectives. The other three men she didn’t recognize, although they all wore visitor badges and must have arrived in the squad room before she did this morning. She could swear they were frowning at her.
“This is not a good time,” Lt. Frye said from the head of the table. His voice was typically calm, but there was a definite undercurrent in the room, one that told Alex something very serious was going down.
“Sir, I’m sorry.” She clasped her hands together, they were shaking so badly. “But it’s important.”
“Please wait outside.” Lt. Frye pointed to the door. “You know my policy.”
Every man in the room watched her, including Gray. His freezing stare penetrated her heart and soul.
What the hell have I done to deserve the hatred on his face?
“No, sir,” she said in a clear voice. “This can’t wait. I need to speak with you. Privately.”
Lt. Frye shook his head and stood, clearly intending to hustle her out the door. That’s when Alex caught sight of the open file on the table in front of his chair. A photograph of her was clipped to the left side of the folder. A personnel folder.
Hers.
Alex’s gut clenched.
This meeting is about me.
Lt. Frye began urging her out the door, but Alex pulled from his grasp. “No!” she cried. “I have something to tell you.” In an uncharacteristic spurt of anger, she slammed the door shut, locking her inside the room with eight men who were undoubtedly investigating her for submitting false documents and lying on her NYPD application forms. “I need your help, Lieutenant. Someone—the Pyramid—paid me money,” she blurted out.
That got their attention. For several seconds no one moved or said a word. The earth seemed to be standing still on its axis. All the air was sucked from the room. Suddenly, Alex couldn’t breathe. Her face grew hot. Her throat felt dryer than the desert.
Somewhere in the room, a chair scraped the floor. A man’s arm went around her shoulders, guiding her to a chair. Gray. It had to be him. She’d know his aftershave anywhere.
“Get her some water,” Gray ordered.
A moment later, a plastic water bottle was pressed into her hands. Alex sucked down gulp after gulp. She closed her eyes, knowing they were all waiting for her to talk.
“You have the right to consult with a lawyer,” Gray said from where he was now seated across the table from her.
“What?” Alex snapped open her eyes. “I don’t want a lawyer. Why would I need one? You can fire me over the falsities in my application forms, but you know you won’t press charges.”
They might have her dead to rights for the bogus information she’d put down in the department’s employment application, but she’d researched existing case law before falsifying those papers. They would certainly fire her for that, but there’d be no need for a lawyer.
“That’s not what this is about.” Gray’s tone was hard. “Tell us about the money.”
Alex looked into Gray’s beautiful silver eyes and suddenly understood.
This is bad. Re
ally bad.
She took a deep breath. “Three weeks ago, twenty thousand dollars was deposited in my bank account from an unknown source.”
“We know,” Gray said.
“You know?” Alex could only stare at him, wide-eyed. She was having a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact that this man she’d begun to care for was actually investigating her. “Then do you also know, Mr. Detective,” Alex continued in an icy tone that matched Gray’s, “that I have no idea where it came from and that when I asked the bank about it, they told me they were unable to trace it?”
“And you up and decided to divulge this information now?” IA Detective John Simonetti pursed his lips. “You work in a police department. Did you ever consider asking for help with that?”
No, she hadn’t. Relying on others didn’t come easily to her. Alex squeezed the plastic water bottle so hard it cracked. “I thought I could handle it on my own. I assumed that whoever owns that money would eventually figure out the mistake and I would give it back.”
Gray’s eyes bored into her. “For someone hiding behind a false identity, you took a big chance working at police headquarters. It would have made more sense for you to stay as far away from the police as possible, so why did you really take this job?”
“Because,” Alex said, her heart squeezing at the angry look in Gray’s eyes, “I’d been working in a diner earning next to nothing and with no medical benefits, when a beat cop came in and bragged about what great benefits the department had. I did take a big chance coming here, but I needed those medical benefits so badly it was worth the risk.”
Detective Simonetti leaned forward. “I think you intentionally chose to work here for devious purposes.”
“You’re missing the big picture here.” Alex shot Simonetti an angry look. “I busted in on your precious meeting because ten minutes ago a woman called me on my personal cell phone, said she was from the Pyramid and expected a favor in return for that money.” Alex smacked her hand on the table. “She threatened my child!”
Gray’s jaw muscles flexed. “And last week the Pyramid murdered an FBI agent.”
