But he didn’t want to.
Alex shook his head. “Let’s see what I get from her laptops before we confront her. I’ve already been tracking her online activity. What?” he asked, seeing Lucas’s surprised expression. “I told you her background was suspect—I could just never figure out why.” He checked his watch. “Give me an hour, and if there’s anything suspicious on the machines I’ll know it. We can make the decision about what to do next.”
“Does Mallory know about Ashley?” Lucas asked suddenly.
Alex shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “Not yet.”
Mallory would not approve of what they’d done.
“Rex, the retriever, had a complication with his blood work, and they decided to keep him at the veterinarian’s for another night before letting him fly. I tried to call her just now, but she’s not answering.” A frown dented his brow. “With luck, she won’t even know I left DC. I might be home for dinner.”
Mallory would be upset when she found out. She liked Ashley. Fuck, he more than liked Ashley. But the woman’s career was over and once this got out, she’d be a pariah. It was just a matter of determining how badly she’d betrayed the Bureau, her country, and exactly what she’d found out about this case. She’d be lucky to get out of this without serving time.
Alex went over and picked up Ashley’s laptops, which they’d retrieved from the trunk of her car last night. He set them both on the kitchen table. Then he took out his laptop, a slim line number that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.
“You should get some rest while you can,” Alex told him.
Lucas was tired and frustrated, but the chances of sleep were right up there with him and Alex winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Instead he scooped up the keys to the van. “I’ll go pick up something for lunch.”
He headed outside, but instead of taking the van, he turned toward the beach. The scent of the ocean washed over him in a frigid salty breeze. The sand covered his boots as he stalked all the way down to the surf. The waves crashed just a few short feet away, and he stared out at the silver gray horizon and wished to hell he’d never met Ashley Chen. Becca’s blue-eyed gaze entered his mind, heightening the feeling to guilt and failure. Part of him wanted to pretend he’d never recognized Ashley in the photos, and another part wanted to post her betrayal on the national news.
He picked up a pebble and rubbed off the gritty sand with his thumb. He bent and skimmed it over the breakers and watched the rock bounce over the surface of the water in ever decreasing strides until it ran out of steam and sank to the bottom.
A fitting metaphor for his career, but his career was the least important casualty of this goatfuck.
* * *
A short time later, a shout from up the beach grabbed Lucas’s attention. Alex was sprinting toward him. His friend had lost all vestige of color, and sweat slicked his short hair to his forehead. Shit. What had he discovered? Had Ashley escaped?
“The bastards sent a hit squad to the hotel.” Alex was panting heavily, but not from the short run. “They found a dead woman in one of the rooms, and I can’t reach Mallory.” His voice shook. “I heard it on the news. Frazer doesn’t know anything.”
They scrambled back up the beach.
“What’s Sloan’s number?” Alex’s voice vibrated with emotion.
“It’s not her.” They wouldn’t catch Mallory off guard.
“What if it is!”
“It’s not her, Alex.” Lucas dialed Mallory’s cell as he marched in the front door. He checked the bedroom to make sure Ashley was still there. The door crashed against the wall, jerking her awake with a start. She stared at him, looking like a kidnap victim. Her eye was swollen as if she’d been beaten; handcuffed to the bed like a hostage.
God.
That he’d been reduced to the level of kidnapper made him feel like he was losing his mind.
Maybe Ashley was right. This wasn’t what he did. This wasn’t how he behaved. But he didn’t know how else to protect Becca, and if he was honest, he needed to hear Ashley’s story for himself. He cared for her—otherwise this whole situation wouldn’t be tearing out his guts.
But as Mallory’s phone went to voicemail, he wasn’t feeling very caring.
His pulse skyrocketed.
Alex followed him into the bedroom, but stood by the door as if afraid of what he might do if he came closer to their captive. Lucas’s hands were sweaty—if anything happened to Mallory he’d never be able to look Alex, Mallory’s parents, or himself in the eye again.
Lucas couldn’t even imagine how he’d feel if the woman he loved with all his heart, the woman who was carrying his child, was murdered. It was bad enough worrying about one of his best friends. He dialed Sloan.
“Where the hell are you?” she snapped.
“Following a lead on the mother.” Apparently lying was easy.
“I need you back here ASAP. SWAT raided the Cambridge location—they’d scrammed.”
His heart gave a painful clench as he forced out the next words. “I heard there was another murder—”
“They slaughtered her.” Sloan’s voice quavered. “Her unborn baby died, too. Perps must have found out we had agents staying in the hotel and sent a hit man.”
His knees buckled, and he sank to the bed. Please not Mallory. Please not Mallory. Please not Mallory…
“She was a beauty consultant named Catriona Malcolm, and the bastards tortured the shit out of her.”
The grip on his heart and throat eased even as the awful reality that another woman had died hit home. He covered the mouthpiece. Turned to Alex who looked like animated death. “It’s not her.”
Alex’s head shot up, eyes straining for hope.
Sloan continued. “They must have figured out what room Chen and Rooney were staying in and targeted them—”
“But Rooney’s okay? You’re sure?”
“She was when I spoke to her this morning. She got lucky. Catriona Malcolm didn’t. Mary Kay convention hit town, and the hotel was fully booked last night. Rooney checked out yesterday expecting to fly back to Virginia, but she was delayed. She had to find someplace else to stay last night. I tried to call her again when I found out about this murder, but I couldn’t reach her. I’m assuming she’s in the air. I called Frazer. Told him to send a protection detail in case she’s being specifically targeted.”
Was this retaliation for grabbing Ashley? Christ, if his actions had led to a woman’s death…
He covered the microphone again. “She switched hotels last night. She’s probably flying. That’s why you can’t reach her.”
Alex dropped to his haunches and buried his face in his hands.
Sloan was still talking. “Frazer was trying to reach Agent Chen. He sounded pretty pissed.”
Lucas glanced at where Ashley lay handcuffed on the bed, watching their every move. “Chen’s with me.”
“Tell her to call him ASAP if she wants to keep her job. I need you back here.”
“I found a lead we need to follow.” It wasn’t a lie.
“Chances are my time as task force leader can be counted in hours if not minutes—unless we catch these perps,” Sloan sounded strained. “I don’t have time for you to be playing house.”
Lucas shook with anger. House? Fucking house?
He barely controlled his temper. He was AWOL and shacked up with an agent he’d recently had sex with, but playing house didn’t quite fit the situation. He could hardly tell Sloan the truth. All their careers were on the line.
He swallowed back the outrage. “Then let’s make sure we catch these assholes.”
“Damn right. She’s asking for you.”
Becca. “I’ll be there by this evening.”
“Make it sooner,” she muttered angrily. “Call me as soon as you get in, even if I’m taken off the case, understand? I want more security on our friend, and ATF can’t spare any more agents.”
“Roger that.” He hung up and
consumed a breath. “Mallory probably doesn’t even know they found a body in the hotel yet.” He rubbed his watch as he felt Ashley’s eyes on his back. “She’ll be landing soon.”
Alex lifted his head. “I should never have turned off the tracking device on her laptop. I should never have left her alone.” His hands were still visibly shaking.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure women don’t go for the paranoid stalker personalities as husband material—at least not the ones I know.”
Alex laughed. “Don’t I know it.” He looked up. “I need to get home to her.”
“We need to finish this first,” Lucas said sharply. As much as he loved Mallory, she wasn’t the only one in danger. “Frazer is sending agents for extra protection when Mal hits the airport. Arrange for one of your company jets to wait for you at Logan so you can leave as soon as we’re done here, but let’s not lose focus.”
Ashley made a noise behind him. Then kneed him in the back. He grunted and got up, walked around so he could remove her gag without getting a boot in his face.
“What happened?” Her voice was hoarse, and the sound of it sawed across his nerves like a violin bow. So did the sight of her black eye.
“Your buddies butchered the next occupant of your hotel room in Boston. I guess they figured the vic was FBI and tried to beat your location out of her.” He didn’t bother to hide his disgust. “The woman was also pregnant.”
Alex swore.
“You think I had anything to do with that?” Her gaze was unflinching. “They’re looking for me.”
“Exactly. When they realized we were onto you they sent someone to try and help you escape.”
“Help me escape?” She glared at him just fine with one eye. “Dear God, I hadn’t realized you were an idiot until this exact moment.”
He ignored the insult. “Where are they?”
“If I knew that, we would have arrested them already.” Her bitterness sounded genuine, but he wasn’t going to be fooled this time.
“I thought you guys had a lead on the secondary location? Why aren’t they in jail?”
“You knew about that?” Lucas asked in surprise.
“Matt Lazlo mentioned it before I left work last night.”
Alex tilted his head to one side and said flatly, “They raided the address, but there was no one there. The perps were obviously warned.”
It was another nail in her coffin, and she knew it, too. “That had nothing to do with me. Check my cell phone—”
“Already did. You could have used an internal phone at the office,” Alex argued.
“But I didn’t.” She blew out a big breath, and her eyes got distant. “I’m so stupid. They must have figured out I’m still alive. You have to let me go. They will stop at nothing to get me back.”
“Your threats don’t bother me—”
“They aren’t threats! Can’t you see I’m trying to save you?” Her expression was filled with righteous indignation and disgust, which mirrored his feelings exactly.
“They won’t stop looking until they find me, and they will kill anyone who gets in the way. I don’t want you to die.” Her voice cracked. Her eyes shimmered. “I don’t want anyone else to die.”
He’d never been good with tears. For a moment, he wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms. Comfort her.
Fool me once…
“Save the histrionics.” He hardened his heart. “You faked your own death, fabricated your background, and joined the Bureau under an assumed identity. Those are not the actions of an innocent.”
Her gaze slid off his.
He held up the copy of the school portrait Nelson Shaw had so generously provided. “Tell the truth, Jenny. Help us catch these people and put them away. We’ll tell the DA you cooperated.”
“Pah. You think the DA can protect me from these people?” She sneered at him. “And while you’re filling him in, are you going to reveal your little kidnap and interrogation plot to him, too?”
“Of course.”
“Well, don’t bother,” she said with a bite in her tone. “No one is gonna believe what I say anyway.”
He ignored that. “The right thing would be helping us catch these people—”
“What the hell do you think I’ve been trying to do?” she snapped.
Sure.
“So why didn’t you tell us you knew Ray Tan?”
Lines formed between her brows. “I didn’t know him—”
“Well, you had a hell of a conversation with him just seconds before he was gunned down in the street, and you were left unharmed!” The rafters shook with the force of his words, and she flinched. Fuck. He reined in his temper.
“I didn’t know him. I’d never seen him before.” She turned her head away and stared at the small window. “But, you’re right, he recognized me. Said I looked like one of the Dragon Devils the FBI were looking for.”
“If he’d never met you how’d he recognize you?”
She squirmed restlessly against her restraints.
Lucas forced his eyes away from her writhing body. Even in the middle of a discussion about betrayal and murder she affected him.
“I’m assuming he either knew my mother or my brother. The family resemblance is strong. Or maybe he saw a photograph of me as a kid like the one you have. My uncle worshipped my mother.” There was something sour in her tone. “He had a large portrait of her in most of his homes, and I look just like her, except I’m more ‘white.’”
“So by your own admission you knew it was the Dragon Devils who killed Ray Tan, but didn’t bother to tell the FBI who they were looking for?” Lucas didn’t feel good about interrogating a woman tied up on a bed.
“I was going to tell Frazer yesterday, but he wasn’t in. Then I was going to tell Matt, but he informed me Boston FO already knew the name of the criminal organization behind the brothel explosion and said you guys had figured out a secondary location,”—which had been her suggestion, he recalled belatedly—“and I figured I didn’t need to give it all up.”
“Your cover, you mean?”
“My life!” She glared at him, and he kept out of range. His nose still hurt like a bitch.
“Who are you working for?” This came from Alex as he stood in the doorway.
“Uncle Sam, same as you do—”
“The Chinese? Koreans?”
She shook her head and spat the hair out of her mouth. A harsh laugh escaped. “Do you hear how prejudiced you sound?”
“Prejudiced?” Alex’s expression said it all. “Me?”
“You’ve been looking for an excuse to kick me to the curb from the moment we met. What the hell are you anyway? A consultant? Bull-fucking-shit.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off.
“You have it all figured out, don’t you? I’m some slanty-eyed bitch using her sexuality and femininity to pry secrets out of susceptible men.”
Lucas had never considered himself susceptible, but he’d certainly been susceptible to Ashley Chen’s brand of woman.
“You think I’m just biding my time, collecting as much information as possible before I run home to…where, Beijing? Except, I’ve never been to Beijing, and I consider myself an American, not an Asian, not even an Asian-American although people can’t get away from the freaking labels that society needs to pigeonhole us.”
There was silence in the room for a long moment before Alex answered very slowly and carefully. “It’s not your ethnicity that bothers me, Ashley. It never was. It’s your duplicity.” His words sliced to the bone.
“So you investigate everyone who works for the BAU—”
“Yes.” Alex folded his arms across his chest. “I do.”
She blinked, clearly taken aback.
“Do you deny that everything you put on the entry forms to the FBI was a lie?” Lucas asked.
Her gaze shifted between the two of them. Her voice grew small. “Not all of it.”
Alex’s lip curled.
&nbs
p; “So tell us the truth. All of it.” Lucas pretended to himself she wasn’t someone he’d made love to. She was just another criminal being investigated. “This is your opportunity. Tell us why you—the niece of one of the biggest crime bosses in the world—switched identities and infiltrated the FBI.”
“Infiltrated? I didn’t infiltrate anything.” She drew in a deep breath and then let it go, along with some of her outrage. “Fine. Let me out of these damn cuffs, and I’ll tell you everything. But I need to get as far away from people I lo—” She cut herself off and stared at him. “Make sure everyone I work with—neighbors, anyone with any sort of association with me—is protected. I know it isn’t going to be easy, but the Devils won’t care whom they hurt or kill to get the information they want. Tell Matt to watch out for Scarlett, and Jed to warn Vivi and Michael.” Her eyes turned to him. “Make sure your family takes extra precautions. Frazer and Darsh, too.”
“Okay.” He couldn’t help how dubious he sounded.
“I mean it. You have no idea who you’re dealing with—”
“And whose fault is that?” he asked quietly.
She looked away.
He reached up and unlocked first one wrist, then the other. Her hands just flopped against the pillows as if too weak to move. Slowly she started clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to get the blood flowing again.
“Start talking,” Alex said dispassionately from the doorway.
Ashley glared at him then forced her arms in front of her so she could shake them out. Lucas didn’t touch her. Didn’t try to help. He was pretty sure if he did he’d reveal everything he felt for her. He couldn’t afford to show her that weakness.
She sat up with a grace that belied her recent ordeal. “I need to use the bathroom, and then I’d appreciate a drink of something warm. Tea would be preferable.” Despite everything she’d been through, she still managed to pull that icy cloak of hauteur around her.
Alex’s brows rose. He’d obviously recovered some of his humor because he gave a small smile before bowing low and leaving. Lucas stood in the bedroom as Ashley used the facilities and washed up. She left the door slightly ajar, and he didn’t push it. The situation between them was precarious enough.
Cold Secrets (Cold Justice Book 7) Page 23
