by Dana Volney
“It’s not where. It’s who.” Alex adjusted his skinny, blue tie.
“Play this out for me, man; I have no idea what you’re being coy about.” Where the shit was his brother? He’d been arrested. If the police didn’t have him, who did?
“The FBI transferred him into their custody.”
“When?” Eddie’s arms fell to his side. He didn’t know anyone in the FBI, and their involvement couldn’t bode well for his brother.
“Within the last thirty minutes.”
The situation was spiraling quickly. The FBI didn’t fuck around. He’d seen them add in every single charge they possibly could just to prove a point. Panic spread in his chest. “Here?” Eddie pointed to the ceiling and backed up toward the door.
“Yeah. Head up to the twelfth floor. Ask for Special Agent Malone.”
His body went cold. She had his brother upstairs and failed to mention that earlier? Holy fuck, this wasn’t good news. She wanted Redburn badly—he’d seen that look before—whether for her career or personal reasons, and she wasn’t going to let that go. If she thought that Leo could help in any way, she was going to go after him with everything she had.
“Thanks, man.” Eddie took off at a run. There wasn’t time to waste.
He cracked his knuckles as he watched the green number increase in the elevator. The stairs would’ve been better. He ran his hand through his hair and squeezed his eyes shut for a beat. He’d need to take a breath before he went at Hannah. She probably wouldn’t respond well to being yelled at.
When the doors opened, he caught the last sway of Hannah’s blonde ponytail disappearing into an office.
I got you now. They were about to have a very real and present conversation. Who did this woman think she was, arresting his brother and not telling him? She knew all right; there was no way she’d asked for Eddie by name when his brother worked for Redburn otherwise.
She’d closed the door behind her, but he put a quick ear to the door, trying not to look suspicious in an FBI headquarters. Silence. The name on the door wasn’t hers. It was the director’s, Malcom Waters.
What are you up to, Malone? He needed his own leverage over this woman.
He opened the door as quietly as he could. If she was really having a conversation with her boss, he didn’t want to become the ass in the room. But the hairs on the back of his neck told him something shadier was happening.
Sure enough. She was bent over the desk digging through a folder. He’d been right before. She was definitely hiding something.
She hadn’t heard him come in. She swore under her breath, closed a file, and started searching through another.
He was on her left, practically behind her, and leaned in, taking a whiff of her sweet scent before inching his lips closer to her ear and whispering, “Find what you’re looking for yet?”
A small scream left her lips as she jumped back. He missed being head-butted by only a millimeter.
He crossed his arms, trapping her by the desk.
“What are you doing in here?” she whispered, standing straighter with her thighs pushed back on her boss’s desk, putting them inches apart. He refused to step away.
“Asking the question before you answer it, I like your style.” He kept his voice playful. There was no need to threaten. Yet.
Her gaze dropped to the folder she’d been searching through.
“What’s in the folder, and why can’t you find it online?” On only the rarest occasions, and usually to protect their own while they were undercover, did the FBI not file information online for all of their offices to access.
“Not everything is cataloged in the system.” Her hesitation was slight but enough to give her away.
Fair point. Computers were amazing, but anyone determined or with money could easily attain information then. A lot of organizations he’d helped take down in the Middle East didn’t use computers.
“What are you looking for? In your boss’s office. Without him here.”
“I was grabbing a file for a meeting we have soon.”
He chuckled. She wasn’t a bad liar. But she wasn’t a great one, either. “Get it and let’s go. I’d like to be a part of that meeting. Especially if it involves my brother’s arrest.”
He didn’t even get a blink with the slow smirk that graced her lips.
He had not walked into the early meeting taking Special Agent Hannah Malone for a ditz. You did not get to be second in command of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services branch of the FBI in Seattle by being a moron. Her reaction was all the proof he needed. You’re one determined, smart cookie, Malone. It was a shame she didn’t know who she was dealing with. She was about to find out.
“Someone’s coming.” He’d bet a year’s supply of donuts it was her boss. The heavy footsteps in the hallway pounded right for the door.
She wrung her bottom lip through her teeth as her eyes darted to the door, windows, and desk.
“We need to talk about my brother.”
However she thought his screw-up of a brother was going to help, she was mistaken. Leo had taken to the gray areas of the law a long time ago, and nothing anyone did or said was going to sway him. Eddie knew; he’d tried that song and dance on and off for years. Leo and his morals were a lost cause.
She eyed the door behind her, then nodded.
Too late. The stride was too close and definitely coming for them. They’d be spotted if they left now; there wasn’t time to waste.
The lock clicked, and the inside of Eddie’s forearm grazed her suit jacket as he pushed back the keyboard, moving pens and paper.
She probably wasn’t going to like his plan, but any red-blooded man would.
Her forehead crinkled in question as the door handle started to turn.
He slid his palm up to her cheek and drew her closer. He ducked his head and pressed his lips onto hers. The soft sensation sent a thrill up his back. He was about to pull away—this had been a dumb idea—then her lips opened to him and he deepened the kiss, drawing her closer to him using his other hand around her waist. Her arms wrapped around his neck as their tongues collided.
Fireworks went off in his mind as the world around them faded into a distant reality. She smelled sweet and delicious, and his lips parted in anticipation. His fingertips tingled as he pressed them deeper into her hip.
Her fingers splayed in his hair, pulling him closer to her. Her kisses were hot and delicious. His palm slid down her back to her hip until both of his arms were wrapped around her.
The surprise was not that he liked the kiss, but how much he didn’t want to stop kissing her. Every part of his body yearned for more of her. Every. Single. Part.
He grabbed on tightly to Hannah’s hips, pressing her to his body, and sat her down on the desk. A sweet moan slipped through one of their kisses, and he was between her legs with his lips her on her neck, pushing her back.
The door creaked, bringing him back to the present. They had to put on a good show or risk the wrath of whatever Hannah wasn’t supposed to be doing in this office.
Hannah in trouble was no good to him. If she got into it with her boss, he’d have to wait even longer for answers about his brother.
He braced his elbows on the desk on either side of Hannah’s head, and she messed her fingers into his hair. It had been a long time since he’d been into a woman, and no kiss, no connection, had ever made him feel this alive.
“Excuse me,” a stern voice from the doorway called out, followed by an intentional throat clearing.
Eddie looked up, his lips parted, and his hair ravished to see the head of the FBI office filling the doorframe. He gazed back down at Hannah and kissed her again, sweetly, gently, before lifting himself up and lacing his fingers with hers to haul her to her feet.
“Whoops.” He shrugged and winked at the husky guy with a gut hanging over his belt, frozen in his spot.
“Agent Malone.” Malcom’s face was red. “Get out.”
Hannah wr
iggled free from beside him, straightening her clothes as she faced her boss.
“Sorry, sir.” She rounded the corner of the desk and headed straight for the door, not stopping.
Eddie took the opportunity to grab the file she’d been so interested in and tucked it into his bag before following her. He closed the door behind him, not bothering to look back. Her boss was pissed.
Eddie swallowed. He was going to get his answers now, or Malcom’s anger would be nothing compared to his own. A good kiss wasn’t going to veer him from his goal.
“What was that?” Hannah hissed at him, keeping up her brisk pace until they were in an office with her name on the door.
“A diversion.” He slipped the blue folder out of his bag. “And a damn fine one, if I do say so myself.” I didn’t hear you complaining.
Hannah was a diversion in and of herself. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her face flushed. She’d also put her desk in between them. The end of his lips drew upward. He’d gotten to her, too. Good. Because now not only did he want to know what was going on with his brother and the task force, he wanted to get to know Special Agent Hannah Malone a lot better, too. He’d found one weakness: She wanted to get Redburn, and Eddie was going to use it to the best of his ability.
• • •
“You’re out of your mind, you know that?” She snatched the file from Eddie’s hand, careful not to touch him. Thank God he had the presence of mind to steal the damn thing. She’d barely been able to put one foot in front of the other.
How embarrassing.
Making out on her boss’s desk was worse than getting caught with the case file. Mostly. How she’d look Waters in the eyes in the future was another story.
“Now that your hands aren’t all over me, we can have a conversation about my brother.” Eddie’s smile was quick and easy, but there was heat behind his stare.
His brother. Her other, less fruitful, informant and all she had left to help her in the case against Redburn. The case her boss had just expressly told her to stop investigating.
There was no more task force. It had probably been the quickest assembled and shut down operation in the history of the FBI.
But quitting wasn’t an option. There was a breaking point, and she was standing firmly on it. She couldn’t let her brother’s murder go without payback any longer. No matter if it cost her the job she loved, this was the time. She wasn’t backing down even under direct orders.
Her gaze flicked to the bag Eddie wore. He was good with computers and tech of all shapes and sizes. It didn’t hurt that his brother was also her informant. She’d counted on his buy in for Leo’s well-being. She hadn’t realized Eddie didn’t know about his brother’s side mission.
This could all work to her advantage. Eddie clearly wanted to help his brother, and she was going to need his help. He was her only hope now.
“Leo.” She tsked and shook her head. “It doesn’t look good for your brother, Eddie. He’s been arrested for Marty’s murder. You know, the person who was going to finally bring Warren Redburn to justice.”
“He didn’t do it.”
“I hear you and your brother are estranged.” She took the leap of assumption. She had nothing to lose. “Do you know where he was last night?”
“Just let me talk to him, and we’ll get this sorted out.”
“People do crazy things when backed into a corner.” Are you one of those people, Eddie? She was about to unleash her own brand of crazy if this day didn’t shape up and start heading in the direction of arresting Redburn.
“He’s not a killer.”
“The evidence suggests otherwise.” And she’d know, because she made up that evidence to get Leo out of his day job, per his early morning request. She wouldn’t risk her last in with Redburn. Marty and Leo had a drink at a pub now and then, and this was a legitimate way to extricate Leo without casting suspicion of something more at play. When the charges were dropped, Leo would even have a story. Not that she wanted him to have a job to go back to. She wanted the whole thing to burn to the ground.
“Let’s hear this evidence.”
She pointed to a random file on her desk, away from Eddie’s reach. “All here.”
Eddie was showing way more emotion than he had in the twenty minutes he’d sat for her meeting. Maybe it was Leo, or maybe it had been their kiss. Either way, she couldn’t pull this off on her own. If she could, she would’ve done it a year ago. But now, today, was her first chance to take down Warren Redburn and everything he stood for. Once and for all.
Her junior agents were good, and she could still finagle their help if needed, but having a person who wasn’t confined by the FBI’s closed case status would be even better—especially one with Eddie’s clear motivation to help his brother. Just the type of person she needed. He’d been hacking since he was a tween, had been trained in the army, and eventually ran his own missions. He was the real deal—built like a quarterback, lean and strong and agile, which was exactly what she needed to take down the slippery sonuvabitch Redburn.
“Follow me.” She pulled down the cuff of her button-up shirt. Eddie’s surprise lip-lock session was the only time he’d catch her off guard again.
His eyebrows rose, and a glint of frustration made the softness of his cheek disappear as his hands were back at his side. “After you.” He waved his palms toward the door and then clasped them around the strap of his laptop bag that crossed over his hard chest.
An unsettled feeling, one that had no actual basis, told her this was it. If she didn’t get him now, she’d never convict Warren Redburn of anything.
That was an option she simply couldn’t live with.
She used her badge to get into Interview Room One and shook her head slightly at Leo while sending him a shut-up glare. For her newly hatched plan to work, she had to keep Eddie on the hook, trying to free his brother.
Leo was clearly about to protest until his eyes widened as Eddie closed the door behind them. “What are you doing here?”
“You realize you’ve been arrested for murder, right?” Eddie took the seat across from his brother, and she sat in the other as quietly as possible. She didn’t want to interrupt this little family reunion.
“Yeah, so? I’m innocent.”
“They don’t arrest innocent people, Leo.”
“Always on the side of the law, this one.” Leo glanced at her with a smirk. “I don’t need your help.”
Eddie sat back, as casual as if he were ordering a soda with dinner. In fact, his words were the only thing that gave away how much he cared. His body language was completely relaxed, as he’d been in her meeting. The only time she’d seen him visibly not chill was when he’d captured her lips and let his hands roam over her body.
“I didn’t offer it.” Eddie’s words were ice.
She glanced between the two grown men who had now fallen into a staring contest. So she’d been wrong. Eddie didn’t want to help his brother; he’d just wanted to know what was going on. Dammit.
“Mr. Dever,” she cut in, “I’m Special Agent Hannah Malone, and I’ve taken over your arrest.”
“Not guilty.” Leo tried to cross his arms, but the short leash on his cuffs prevented him from doing much more than intertwining his fingers to make one big, angry fist.
“Right.” She nodded and pretended to not believe him. “Can you tell me your whereabouts last night?”
“After work, I grabbed a drink at the bar. There are people there who can vouch for me. Then I went home, slept, and you jokers barged in at work and arrested me for something I didn’t do.”
“How well did you know Marty Stack?”
“We’d grab a drink after we both got off work sometimes. I can’t believe he’s dead.” Leo dropped his gaze to his balled fist; this time he wasn’t acting. “How’d he die?”
Leo’s brown eyes met hers, but she didn’t have an answer for him. It was in her best interest, along with keeping up the charade in front of Eddie, t
hat Leo also thought Marty had been murdered. She’d suspected for a while now that he was not giving her the full reports she requested in exchange for the cash he received as a CI when one of his tips paid off. If he had anything else that could help her, she needed to know like yesterday.
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“I don’t fucking know.” He raised his voice, and his cheeks reddened.
“What do you know?” Eddie cut in, his tone collected and barely caring. She couldn’t read this guy. Was he mad that his brother had been arrested, mad that he wasn’t there to slap the cuffs on him himself, or mad that Leo had killed someone and they shared the same last name?
“The last time I saw Marty was two nights ago. We grabbed a beer at the pub in Magnolia we like, and that was it.”
“What was Marty into?”
“He was straight, a paper pusher. Numbers.”
“We both know nothing is straight with Redburn.” The side of Eddie’s jaw flexed, otherwise he was stone. How someone could appear to be at ease yet impassive as a statue was beyond her. She’d never seen it done before.
“And how would you know? I don’t recall you being around much.” Leo slumped back in his chair.
“Don’t blame me for your poor choices. We aren’t kids anymore.”
She knew that look Eddie was giving Leo. She’d given it to her brother, Robert, the last time she’d seen him. No, wait. The last time they’d spoken. A flash of Robert lying on the concrete, his face bloodied, his eyes swollen shut, his jaw broken, made her blink. Memories of him cleaned up at the morgue for proper identification were no better, just less bloody. And that was the last time she’d seen him. Light-headedness made her clasp her hands folded in her lap a little tighter as her breakfast eggs crept up her throat. She took a deep breath, swallowed, and refocused on the family feud erupting in her interrogation room.
“You’re right, because if we were kids, you’d be running off to join the army.” The bite was back in Leo’s tone.
This fight wasn’t helping her cause at all. “Boys,” she interrupted, “back to the murder charge.” She looked between them but landed her gaze on Leo. “Is there anything you can tell me that will help your case with the DA?”
