“Yes,” Taylor said. “I went to work this morning and they told me to hand over my badge and creds.”
“Goddamn typical.” Grey waggled one finger. “They had no intention of letting you keep this case. Should have seen that when Meredith gave you that ridiculous deadline. They wanted that asshole Leo to have this.”
“Why?”
“Who the fuck knows. They’re the FBI. They have reasons for everything.”
“Guys,” Matt said, “can we figure out a plan here? I mean, Tay, getting booted—”
Taylor gasped. “Oh, ouch, Mr. Sensitivity.”
Ach. Shit. Maybe he should think once in a while before speaking. He reached over, squeezed her ice-cold hand still clutching that chair like a lifeline. “I’m sorry. My mouth moves faster than my brain sometimes. All I meant was, you don’t need an FBI badge to keep investigating.” He whipped off a happy smile. “You can be my assistant.”
Grey snorted. “My ass. Everyone sit tight a minute.”
He scooped up his desk phone and hit a button.
Taylor watched him with a sense of awe and hero worship most men would find intimidating. Matt? Well, idiot that he was, he found it inspiring. Getting Taylor to look at him that way might be his new goal in life.
She leaned forward, set one hand on the edge of Grey’s desk. “What are you doing?”
He held up his finger. “Good morning. It’s Grey. Is he in?”
“Grey,” Taylor said, “it’s okay. Like Matt said, I can work with him. I already gave my team assignments. They have my notes. They won’t give Leo a damn thing.”
Justice kept the phone to his ear, a wry grin quirking his lips as he sat back, enjoying whatever he was about to do. “Watch the professional, Taylor. I’m exacting revenge for you. Actually, scratch that. The revenge is for me, you’re the bonus. I hate the fucking backstabbing bureaucracy. I went through it, as did Monroe, even Caroline as well. Half my team has been jerked around by assholes who earned their stripes by sucking up inside the Hoover building.”
Whoa. Justice was fired up. Based on what he’d heard so far, maybe his rejection from the FBI wasn’t a bad thing. Even if it did still sting.
“Look man,” Matt said, “don’t get crazy here. Tay can fly under the radar with me.”
“No. I’m getting crazy.” He held up his finger again. “Good morning, sir…yes, thank you. It was an interesting case. I’ll let Caroline know you’re happy.” He shot Taylor a smug look and hit her with a thumbs up. “Sir, there’s another case I have an interest in. With your permission, I’d like to get my team on it. It might coincide with another of our investigations.”
Five minutes later, after Justice laid some heavy bullshit on his boss, whoever the hell that was, and explained his history with the Jarvis case and how he’d left the Bureau before he could find Felicity, blah, blah, blah, he hung up and smacked his hands together.
“Tell me,” Taylor said, “you did not just hijack the Jarvis case.”
“Sweetheart, I just hijacked the Jarvis case. Thank me later.”
Matt laughed. Taylor wasn’t looking too thankful at the moment.
“Grey, seriously,” she said, “are you trying to get me fired?”
Mitch’s head popped around the side of the decorative screen separating Justice’s “office” from the rest of his team. “Who’s getting fired?”
Taylor held up a hand. “I am.”
“No shit?”
Matt rolled his eyes. “She’s not getting fired.”
Monroe’s gaze pinged from Taylor to Grey. “What’d you do?”
“We’re now on the Jarvis case.”
“No shit?”
Did Monroe not have any other trite responses? “Dude, you gotta come up with something more original.”
“Fuck off, Stephens.”
“Children,” Taylor said, “can we focus on my disintegrating career?”
“Technically,” Matt said, “I think our friend here did you a huge large. If this case goes bust, the Justice Team—and not you—are on the hook for it. If we find Baby Jarvis, the Justice Team”—he looked at Grey—“I assume, will give you proper credit.”
Grey nodded. “Bingo. You sure you don’t want to come work for me?”
“I’m good where I am. Thanks.”
Waving her arms, Taylor pulled their attentions back to her. “I can’t believe you did this. Grey, if we blow it, you’ll be in the fryer.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time. Besides, we don’t exist, remember? If we do, I’ll get an ass-whipping from my boss, he’ll do what needs to be done to save face inside the Hoover building, and we all get back to work.”
“You seem pretty confident of that.”
“Taylor, this isn’t my first rodeo. I don’t care what my superiors say, they like that I piss people off. This team gets shit done when no one else can. We handle the cases the Bureau is afraid to touch. That’s what I’m confident of. Now, are you going to shut up and help me solve this case or do I have to throw you out of here?”
Matt cleared his throat. “She’s going to help you solve this case.”
“But… I already had my team on it. Now I won’t have them, and—”
“Shut up, Taylor,” Monroe said. “Quit being such a tightass and roll with it. For the first time in your career, you get to go rogue. This is the fun part.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I was going rogue. Why do you think I got suspended?”
“Getting suspended is for pussies. You’re not really rogue until you get fired.”
For once, Matt and Mitch actually agreed on something. Matt lifted one hand and high-fived his archenemy. “Why is it we don’t like each other?”
Monroe shrugged. “Hell if I know.”
Good enough. Matt turned back to Taylor. “We’ve got this. If you’re not comfortable with the Justice Team angle, ride shotgun with me. You can act as a private citizen now and my firm has asked for your expert opinion on a case we are independently working. No feds, no Justice Team. Just you and me.”
“It’s not…”
“What?”
Wherever her thoughts led, she shook it off. “Nothing. I’m just…grateful.” She reached for Matt’s hand and squeezed it. Their eyes held for a few long seconds until Monroe cleared his throat.
“Knew it,” he said to Grey. “She’s banging him. After I told her not to. Unbelievable.”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Shut it, Mitch.” Still holding Matt’s hand, she turned to Grey. “Thank you. You have your own reasons for doing this, but I also know you partially did it for me. You know what this case means to me and I appreciate what you did.”
“It’s all good,” he said. “But now we need to find this baby.”
“Yes, we do.” She pulled a file from her backup briefcase and handed it over the desk to Grey. “This is all I have with me. I have more at home I can send you.”
Grey flipped the file open. “What’s in here?”
“The Lamaze lady. Her name is Kristina Caldwell. Matt had planned to look into her this morning before we both got sidetracked.”
Grey rolled his desk chair so he could look at Teeg behind the screen. “Nerd Boy, see what you can find on Kristina Caldwell.”
“I heard her,” Teeg said. “I’m on it.”
Grey rolled back to his desk. “This is why Teeg makes the big bucks.”
“My ass!” Teeg said. “Hang on. Here we go. She pays her taxes on time, has a big mortgage and some small credit card debt. Now, this is kinda interesting.”
Taylor pushed out of her chair and swung wide of the screen so she could see Teeg. “What is it?”
“She’s registered as a volunteer at Hearts of Love Adoptions. Call me crazy but I’d say that’s some interesting irony. A Lamaze teacher working at an adoption agency?”
Matt joined Taylor. “What kind of volunteer work?”
“Give me a minute. I’m good, but not that good. All I’ve got is art. And i
t’s buried. Here we go. It’s a photo of her at an event. The caption says she’s a volunteer.”
“Teeg,” Grey said as he jotted notes, “is Hearts of Love on that list of agencies Mitch and Caroline are working?”
While Teeg’s fingers flew, Mitch shook his head. “Not ringing a bell. We may not have gotten to it yet, though.”
What was this about Mitch and Caroline working with adoption agencies? Matt held his hands out. “What are we talking about?”
Grey sat back in his chair and stacked his hands on his head. “My statement about the Jarvis case crossing paths with one of ours isn’t far off the mark. We’re investigating a black market adoption ring. We’re using Mitch and Caroline as prospective adoptees.”
Mitch as a father? Now that was scary.
“Nada!” Teeg shouted. “Hearts of Love is clean, so far. All positive reviews. That doesn’t always mean anything. I’ll dig around in the law enforcement databases. See what I can find.”
Grey wrote himself another note. “Timing?”
“Am I Chris Angel here? This shit takes more than 3.5 seconds.”
Holy hell. If Matt talked to one of the sisters that way—not that that would ever happen—they’d crucify him. The Justice Team definitely had their own set of whacky rules.
Matt glanced at Taylor. “Let’s give Teeg time to sort this out. Meantime, you ride shotgun with me.”
“Where?”
“Kristina Caldwell’s. We’ve got a baby to find and you said she’s at the top of your list. Let’s go talk to her. See what she remembers about Baby Jarvis.”
Chapter Fourteen
A make-out on a stakeout—it was a first for Taylor.
Stakeouts generally ranked right up there with hell in her opinion. A stakeout with Matt, however, wasn’t all that bad.
In fact, it was currently rocking her world.
Through the windshield of his car, the setting sun hit him right along his strong jawline, growing stubble showing as he sucked her tongue into his mouth and stuck his hand up her shirt.
What had started out as a simple kiss while they waited for Kristina Caldwell to come home had turned into a full-on make-out session.
Taylor had tried to process all the emotions churning in her gut and blowing up her heart while staying focused.
Right. Like that was happening.
Grey went out on a limb. You have to solve this case, come hell or high water. Don’t let Matt distract you.
Fat chance that. Matt had been doing that ever since he’d walked up to her at the bar that night at the conference. Even at the armory, surrounded by Grey, Mitch, and Teeg, she’d struggled to keep her mind focused on the investigation instead of sneaking Matt off to one of the empty rooms and doing him right there.
The FBI had employed plenty of closers over the years who were top-notch. Each knew how to kick over the smallest pebble to find the lead that would solve the case.
Taylor had a gut instinct that rivaled the best of them. Hers had told her to switch the focus of the investigation and follow every avenue Baby Jarvis might have taken. Grey had agreed.
None of the legal adoption agencies in the area had turned up anything fishy, and the TriCare Birthing Center didn’t cater to women who wanted to give up their babies, but the overlap of Kristina Caldwell and Hearts of Love Adoption agency was a red flag. Much like the sticker on the silver pickup truck, this could be the small, seemingly insignificant element that could blow the case wide open.
Taylor and Matt had a list of questions to ask the woman, but Kristina wasn’t home. She wasn’t at any Lamaze meetings either—none were being held in the area, according to all the calls Matt had made.
Teeg was investigating black market adoption agencies. They couldn’t stakeout any of them, so Grey and Teeg were working on a cyber investigation, using Mitch and Caroline as prospective adoptees.
Matt had mentioned what a scary idea it was for Mitch to procreate. In a way, Taylor thought it might be cool. He could be an ass, but she bet if you put a baby in his arms, he’d turn all soft and gooey.
Somehow, Taylor was sure she and Matt had gotten the safer, less fun assignment, and yet, it didn’t feel that way. Matt had loaded them up with food from a hole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant, plenty of drinks, and he’d shared some funny stories from his childhood before they’d gotten sidetracked with that kiss. A few of his stories even involved his sister, but there was no sadness when he talked about her. He’d obviously loved her deeply and still missed her, but he focused on the happy times they’d spent together.
He’d managed to find that gap between devastation and survival. Taylor hoped that one day she could do the same with the memories of Isabel. She wanted to talk about her and remember how much fun they’d had together before her entire family’s lives had gone to shit.
At some point in the past hour, she’d made a decision—once they were done with the Jarvis case, she was hiring Matt and the sisters to help bring closure to her own family. One way or another, she needed to know what had happened to Isabel.
And maybe if she didn’t have an FBI job to return to…well, she’d have extra time on her hands.
Unless she kept Matt in bed…
“Heads up.” Matt had somehow kept one eye on Kristina’s place. “Black Lexus pulling in.”
Taylor slid off his lap into her seat, buttoning her shirt. Sure enough, Kristina was finally coming home. Maybe they could get answers and figure out if she’d had any connection to Baby Jarvis.
Taylor shuffled napkins and empty pop cans out of the way and grabbed her binoculars. “Thank God, we didn’t have to sit here all night waiting.”
Matt took the binoculars and dropped a kiss on her lips. “I would have kept you entertained, sweet cheeks.”
No doubt about that. “How exactly are we going to do this?” Taylor checked her makeup in the visor mirror. Her cheeks were flushed and her black eye was even more pronounced. “I’m not FBI anymore. I have no badge to flash, and she’ll obviously remember us from the birthing center, so if we come clean, she’ll know we duped her and Dottie. Not the best way to start our visit.”
Kristina’s car pulled into the garage and she hustled out, grabbing the rolled up newspaper lying on the wide, concrete driveway.
“Hold up,” Matt said. “She’s got company.”
Taylor squinted into the sinking sun. From what she could make out, a brand new white Escalade was sliding into Kristina’s driveway.
“Damn. Guess we’re sitting for a while longer.” She edged over, shading her eyes from the sun to get a better look at the woman getting out of the Escalade. Kristina took a step back, looking left then right before she said something to the woman and waved the newspaper in front of her like she was trying to shoo her away. “Hey, isn’t that the gal from the other night? The one Dottie and Kristina were both talking to in the back of the room?”
“Blond hair, fancy threads, enough diamonds to weigh down a cow?” Matt lowered the binoculars and nodded. “Check, check, and check.”
The woman said something to Kristina and the woman once again waved her newspaper, looking completely flummoxed as she responded.
“Kristina doesn’t seem too happy about seeing her.” She wasn’t a doctor or other birthing center staff member from what Taylor could recall. “Who is she?”
Matt reached into his backseat and pulled out a small parabolic microphone. “Let’s find out.”
The blonde moved closer to Kristina. In her high heels, she loomed over the smaller woman and Kristina reared back slightly, as if afraid she might catch something.
Matt stuck the earpiece in his ear and rolled down his window. He adjusted a few controls and then cocked his head.
“What are they saying?” Taylor whispered.
Matt took the earpiece out and held it up so both of them could listen. “Babies, what else?”
As Taylor leaned close to the black earpiece, she heard Kristina snarl, “…told you the other
night, this is on you…that baby…the whole thing.” She pointed a finger. “…your fault, not mine.”
The blonde’s bracelets jangled on her arm as she raised a finger and put it in Kristina’s face. She was facing them, so her voice came through clearer. “Just keep your mouth shut.”
Blonde turned on her fancy heels and stomped back to her Escalade.
Matt threw the mic over the seat and started the car. “Stay with Kristina or follow blondie, Agent Sinclair?” He threw her a look, his hands gripping the steering wheel. “Your call.”
He wanted to go after the blonde. Taylor looked between him and Kristina Caldwell, now hustling inside her garage, the door already starting its downward descent. The Escalade left the driveway and jetted up the street.
Taylor looked back at Matt. “I’m betting Kristina’s not going anywhere else tonight. We can always come back.”
He grinned and Taylor’s insides did funny things. “I was hoping you’d say that. Put on your seatbelt.”
* * *
They followed the blonde to the Adams Morgan area of DC where she slowed in front of a white stucco, corner building and then scored street parking in the middle of the adjacent block. Matt pulled into the fire lane on the opposite corner and waited as the woman parked and headed across the street toward the main entrance of the three-story building.
Lush flowerbeds filled the four-foot area in front and a leafy red bush added vibrancy to the long city block. Add to that the ornate overhang with red scrollwork covering the entry door and the whole place screamed of old-world elegance and money.
A man stood under the overhang keying in a code while Taylor snapped photos.
“Let’s send this address to Grey and Teeg. See what they come up with.”
“Send them her plate number, too. Might as well do the full workup.”
“I will.” She fired off a text and dropped her phone into her lap. “Here we are, chasing a hunch and following a woman who could be a total waste of our time.”
“Eh. If it is, we cross her off the list. You never know.”
Taylor chuckled. “She wasn’t even on our list.”
“She is now.”
Missing Justice (The Justice Team Book 7) Page 18
