He took a sip of coffee. It was actually impressive someone had figured out how he’d tracked down the woman who’d made that phone call to the cops. He regretted she’d died violently but it was better to send a strong message with one victim than to risk any more betrayal. No one informed on their organization and lived.
Controlling his cousin’s baser impulses was next to impossible. Instead, Andrew channeled them in a direction that aided their business dealings rather than destroyed them. And while Andrew might not have a taste for violence, he had no intention of spending thirty years in a federal prison, or worse, awaiting execution.
Life was a constant battle and only the strongest survived—he’d learned that lesson more than a decade ago when enduring a disaster that almost destroyed them all. The fact they were still alive was a miracle he didn’t intend to disregard.
Family was the only thing that truly mattered. His uncle had taken him in after Andrew had lost everything. He might not understand his cousin, but he loved him like a brother. Loyalty was the only thing they’d asked in return, and Andrew would cut out his own heart before he betrayed them.
The grief from his old life had faded over the years and, rather than the sharp pain it had been for so long, it was now a familiar ache of sadness that welled up at unexpected moments. He forced the memories aside.
He didn’t have time to indulge in old regrets. This whole mess had cost their organization millions, and all because some pervert wanted to fuck a kid. The idiot should just get on a plane to Thailand or Indonesia, somewhere life was cheap and there was an excess of young girls. He ignored the part of himself that recoiled at the idea. This was how they made money, and it was better than dealing drugs, which had been his uncle’s former specialty.
His email dinged. More bad news. The FBI had raided one of their gambling dens in Boston and arrested several people including Charlie Lee and Ray Tan.
He swore.
Unlike most people in the US, Ray and Charlie knew the real names of the crew who ran the US operation. And the real names could lead the authorities back to the Dragon Devils’ clan.
For the last decade the Devils had secretly expanded their operation until it was the largest organization of its kind in the world. Now, thanks to the kidnapping of one little girl, their entire organization had been threatened.
Killing cops and federal agents had been a mistake, and he’d told his cousin that at high volume immediately after the explosion. If the feds ever figured out who was responsible they’d pursue them with the same vigor they’d pursued Colombian narcos, and Bin Laden. He did not want to be on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
Perhaps it was time to temporarily retreat from their activities. The cops were getting too close.
He left his office with its state-of-the-art computers and walked down the hall to his uncle’s bedroom. It was early, but the old man rarely slept.
He bowed at the doorway. His uncle’s bodyguard straightened.
“Are they out yet?” his uncle asked in his deep, raspy voice.
Andrew raised his head. “No, Uncle, but they are safe. For now.” They’d holed up in a duplex they owned that had an attached garage. The police presence and media attention were so intense they’d decided to wait to cross the border. Andrew was working on a way of getting them out without anyone checking biometrics or paperwork.
“But we have another problem.” He told him about the fact the feds had found out he was getting into their system, and about the raid on the gambling den. “Two of our people were arrested. The FBI is getting closer to figuring out who is behind this. I think we should move to another location in case they get a break. We need to lie low until they have other things to occupy themselves with.”
The old man stared at him with unnervingly intense, black eyes. Andrew knew better than to look away or show weakness. His uncle crushed weakness.
“The other establishments have all been relocated?”
“As soon as we heard about the explosion, Uncle.”
The explosives had been Mae Kwon’s idea after the Greek girl had escaped. A stroke of ruthless genius that he doubted she’d ever expected to be caught up in. If it had been his decision he’d have left the women alive and made a run for it. Nothing stirred up American fervor as effectively as attacking their military or law enforcement on home ground.
His uncle nodded. “I want this mess cleaned up. I want my son home. Eliminate all the loose ends.”
Andrew’s eyes widened, but he didn’t dare argue with the man.
“And, yes, it is time to move. We’ve been here too long. Make the arrangements. We should never get too comfortable.”
Andrew bowed, hiding his smile.
They owned several islands and many grand estates. They had a virtual army of guards, although he didn’t want to test them against Special Forces. Too many people could die in the crossfire and Andrew didn’t intend to be one of them. He wasn’t a coward, but he was terrified of dying. Stupid really. It wasn’t like he could avoid it forever.
“Yes, Uncle.”
“You are a very good nephew, Andrew.”
“I’m your loyal servant, Uncle.” Andrew went to turn away to begin making preparations when Yu Chang’s next words stopped him cold.
“Send me that girl.”
Andrew’s mouth froze in the act of smiling. “Girl, Uncle?”
The man chuckled; the sound like a rattle in his chest.
“The one who warms your bed. I think she must be good if she comes to you so often.” His uncle held his gaze as a test—as if Andrew hadn’t proven his loyalty to the man a thousand times over. “Unless she is special and you want to keep her all to yourself?”
Andrew wasn’t foolish enough to admit he cared for anything more than he cared for the old man. He hid his distress beneath an even lower bow. He’d been so careful to hide his affection for Lily, but his uncle knew everything that went on in their world. Andrew left the bedroom and strode quickly past his office and through the living quarters until he entered the kitchen. All the women froze when they saw him, except Lily who smiled at him hesitantly, her eyes soft with something that might have been love.
He forced himself to stand in the doorway and say sharply. “Lily. My uncle wants to see you.”
“Me?” She had a beautiful voice. Soft and smooth like a whisper over heated skin. Now it crackled with fear.
The other women in the kitchen shot each other wide-eyed looks. No one disobeyed Yu Chang. Not even a beloved nephew. Andrew’s eyes raked her small form, and what little was left of his heart shattered. If the man discovered how much she meant to Andrew, he’d kill her.
“Do not keep him waiting,” he snapped when the silence went on longer than he could bear.
Ignoring her tear-filled gaze he began giving orders to relocate their home. Lily lived on the island so she wouldn’t be coming with them. The sooner they left the safer she’d be.
Hours later, her sobs reached his ears as she passed outside his door. He pulled on his headphones and turned up the volume of his music. He should have known better than to ever get attached to something as vulnerable as a woman.
* * *
By the time Lucas left the field office with Ashley it was nearly midnight and neither one of them had eaten more than a granola bar in hours. They’d questioned everyone from the gambling den and sent them back to the cells to sweat it out. Lucas had played the hard-ass, but Ashley’s presence seemed to unnerve them most. Maybe it was the fact she spoke the language they found off-putting. A few insulted her but she’d snapped back at them and whatever she’d said had made them stop harassing her. Even the interpreter had gone a little pale.
Ashley Chen was her own brand of intimidation and he liked the fact she didn’t let anyone push her around.
Ray Tan hadn’t said a word. He’d stared at Lucas like Lucas was a dead man. He’d returned the favor but was careful not to treat Mr. Tan any differently from the others even though he
knew the guy was a lying piece of garbage.
Lucas’s stomach growled as he stepped out onto the sidewalk. The sleet had turned to ice hours ago, making the road treacherous. February was definitely his least favorite month.
“You hungry?” he asked.
Ashley blinked up at him clearly lost in her own world. “Yeah.” She sounded surprised.
“There’s a diner not far away, unless you just want to grab room service when you get back to the hotel?” Personally he was sick of hotel food, and he wanted time for his mind to decompress.
“A diner sounds good.”
They veered two blocks south. The sidewalks had been sanded but they were still slick. Ashley slipped and he grabbed her arm, trying to keep his distance even though touching her made him want to hold on tighter.
Lights shone brightly from the small mom and pop café. He held the door for her and they found a corner booth. There was a guy at the counter and another couple holding hands on the other side of the room. Lucas asked for water and wished for beer. Ashley ordered a diet coke. The smells coming from the kitchen weren’t French cuisine but they made him drool. It had been a long time since they’d been forced to skip lunch.
After they’d both ordered, Ashley inched around the wraparound seat until she was right next to him. She leaned in so no one could overhear. “What happens tomorrow?”
The heat of her thigh so close to his made him wish they weren’t working a case.
“Fuentes and I are in a surveillance van for the day and we’ll tail Mr. Tan. There are four other surveillance teams taking various positions.”
Her lips dropped at the corners. “Why am I not in the van?”
The idea of being in close quarters with Ashley for a prolonged period of time stirred up all sorts of happy thoughts, none of which related to chasing criminals. “Sloan decided you’re more useful to the investigation doing some more electronic digging.” He wished he could ask her to try to track down Becca’s mother, but Sloan had ordered him not to involve anyone else. He hadn’t had time to even start looking for the woman.
“Talk to the geeks from HQ and see if they cracked Mae Kwon’s cell phone yet.” He was convinced that sucker held the mother lode of information if they could just get inside the damn thing.
She nodded tersely. “Will do.”
“And if they aren’t interested in sharing, see if you have any luck figuring out how the bad guys reach their clientele or how they get paid.”
“First rule of any investigation—follow the money. I’ll talk to the forensic accountant, see where he’s at.”
Their food arrived, two full breakfasts worth. Neither of them spoke until they’d cleared their plates.
Finally he wiped his mouth on his napkin. “Did Alex come up with anything new?”
Something in her eyes changed. The antipathy between the two was palpable.
“I haven’t spoken to him, but Mal said he isolated another five potential cribs and sent the information to local law enforcement. Early evidence suggests they already scrammed. He’s looking at the cell phone data but can’t isolate the numbers of the three fugitives because population density in that part of the city is nuts. He’s going to generate a list of possible johns, using repeat users of the local cell towers. He said he couldn’t exclude people who lived or worked close enough to the brothel to regularly use that tower, nor those who caught public transportation that passed through the area. But he figured their regular schedule might help in eliminating people and giving us a smaller pool to sub-analyze.”
Lucas nodded, impressed. “It’s better than the entire male population of Boston and the surrounding area, which is our current suspect pool.” They had a small but growing list of johns from their surveillance work. They needed someone to start talking. They needed to find these cocksuckers.
The smooth skin of her throat rippled as she swallowed. “I already started digging into the darknet markets trying to find out how they might be advertising their wares,” she admitted.
“I thought that was untraceable?” he said in surprise.
She gave him a look. “Nothing’s untraceable, especially if they have to pay for it, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. VPN and cloaking are becoming more and more common even when not using onion servers.”
It was like she was speaking another language. He understood people and social engineering, and the danger of cybercrime, but he didn’t understand the mechanics.
He attracted the waitress’s attention for the check. “So where did you learn Chinese?”
Ashley wiped her mouth neatly with her napkin. “My mother was Hong Kong Chinese so she spoke Cantonese when I was growing up.” She shrugged. “I speak a little but I forgot most of it.”
“Enough to scare the shit out of some of the idiots in custody today.”
“I just told them not to give me any grief or I’d set their ancestors on them.” The look in her eyes was amused but tired. “Why did you become an FBI agent?” she asked him.
He pushed his empty plate away. “When Mallory’s sister, Payton, was abducted it turned all of our lives inside out. Everyone was a suspect and everyone was scared to let their kids out of their sights. I remember the FBI coming to our house and talking to my parents about the Rooney family. They asked about her parents and whether or not they could have hurt her. I thought they were stupid to even suggest the parents might be involved.” His lips pulled back. “Shows what I knew back then.” In the vast majority of cases, murder victims were related to, or in a relationship with, their killer.
“They never found her,” Ashley stated.
Old anger reared up inside him and made his voice hard. “But they never gave up looking.” He lifted his head. “Did you know the Payton Rooney case was one of the first cases Frazer ever worked?”
Her eyes widened as she shook her head. “Explains why he’s so protective of Mallory.”
Lucas had wondered about that himself. Frazer, Mallory and Alex hadn’t known each other that long but they were thick as thieves. “I think it has something to do with when Mallory confronted her sister’s killer.”
“She almost died,” Ashley stated solemnly.
The fact Mallory had recklessly chased after a serial killer, goading the sick bastard until he’d gone after her had scared the crap out of everyone who knew her. But Lucas understood what it meant to her and how long and how diligently she’d been searching for answers. Sometimes people couldn’t move forward until they’d dealt with their pasts. And she’d had Alex and Frazer as backup. He’d put his money on those guys any day over a creep who attacked little girls.
“So, you joined the FBI to find Payton Rooney?”
When she said it like that, it sounded dumb.
“And because FBI agents get to carry a gun without wearing a dorky uniform.” He shrugged, uncomfortable with talking about his emotions. “After I left the Army I still wanted to serve my country. This seemed like a good way to do it.”
“Thank you for your service.” Her charcoal eyes held his for a moment and his throat got tight.
Usually he just nodded and told the person they were welcome, but this seemed deeper. Her words held meaning and sincerity.
“Thank you for yours.”
She shrugged. “I’m just a computer geek.”
“You’re an FBI agent.”
She shook her head. “What I’ve done is nothing like going to war. Much more like personal survival, which is the absolute opposite of service.”
She looked away and the moment was broken. He wasn’t sure he understood, but she suddenly seemed fragile and he didn’t want to push her. Their respite had calmed his mind, allowed his brain to settle. His body was another matter.
“I’m going to head back to the hotel.” She pulled her coat on, her movements tired and jerky.
Lucas dug into his pocket for cash but she beat him to it.
She smiled even though she was obviously exhausted. “My treat.”
/> “This the closest you’ve had to a date in a while, too?” Even as he joked the memory of her crying out in the darkness filled his brain.
“Not quite.” Her cheeks reddened.
They walked back to the hotel, careful not to touch one another, and rode the elevator in silence. Neither of them spoke as they walked to her door, but the tension was strung tight as barbed wire.
He stopped when she did, and she looked at him with wary eyes that seemed to draw him in and warn him away at the same time.
They’d finally arrived at an understanding. As much as he wanted to kiss her, as much as he wanted to do much, much, more, he couldn’t risk ruining the effective working relationship they’d established. And neither would she.
He ran his knuckle down her cheek. “Goodnight, Ash.”
He forced himself to drop his hand when all he really wanted to do was sink his fingers into her hair and pull her closer.
“’Night, Lucas.” She opened her door and slipped quickly inside.
He found himself staring at the door, alternately cursing himself for letting her go and at the same time knowing the timing wasn’t right. Last night’s red-hot encounter had left him wanting more. Despite Alex’s warning, Ashley Chen intrigued him on both physical and intellectual levels. It might not be the right time to start thinking about a relationship, but the idea of just walking away without getting to know her better didn’t sit right.
And maybe he was just making sexual desire into a bigger deal than it needed to be. He wanted her, and she seemed to want him.
And neither of them was going to do a damn thing about it because the job came first. He turned away and headed back to his suite, knowing a cold shower was in his immediate future.
Chapter Eleven
Ashley stumbled out of bed at nine AM, cursing like a sailor whose shore leave was revoked two hours into a much-needed bender. The alarm on her cell phone hadn’t gone off and Mallory hadn’t woken her. Ashley tossed off her nightshirt and hit the shower, gasping as cold water drenched her warm skin. She adjusted the temperature and scrubbed the late night out of her brain.
Cold Secrets (Cold Justice Book 7) Page 15
