by Dianna Love
He nodded and she arched a don’t-interrupt-me-again eyebrow.
Man, was she pissed.
Josh shoved a narrowed look at Dingo that raised a feeling he hadn’t experienced since being a kid in trouble.
What the hell?
Back then Sabrina would be somewhere close, radiating tension as she plotted a way to save Dingo from whatever punishment he couldn’t avoid. At the same time, Josh would be sending Dingo a series of completely undecipherable facial expressions to hint at which lie was the best one to offer.
Thankfully, Josh had finally realized finger signals were far more effective than his nonexistent telepathic ability, but Sabrina still hadn’t learned that she couldn’t save Dingo or Josh from whatever messes they walked into with eyes wide open.
The truth was that she refused to accept that Dingo couldn’t be saved from himself.
He would never have the life Josh, the crazy bastard, had ahead of him, or know what it was like with a woman who loved him the way Trish loved Josh, but that was fine.
Dingo had learned a long time ago not to want what others had, like a family and someone to call his own. He shook his head at wandering down that thought trail, and gave up guessing what was going on with Sabrina and Josh. Good or bad, he’d find out soon enough.
Who was he kidding?
He knew what to expect just as a condemned man knew when his last minutes drew near.
Dingo had missed nothing Sabrina said so far, but she lifted her voice and swung her gaze to take in everyone. “Tanner, Nick, Blade, Ryder and White Hawk will be working the Perdido event. I have one last thing to tell you that was shared with me in the strictest confidence. The body of the man who killed Bergman was found and identified as having intentional scars that may mean he was an Orion Hunter.”
“Who found the body?” Dingo asked. “And how do they know it’s the same man who killed Bergman?”
“I can’t go into that right now.”
Are you kidding me? Dingo sat back, trying to figure out where Sabrina would have gotten intel like that, because that meant someone had known about the meet and had tracked the killer who got away.
Fucking Laughton.
Dingo took a closer look at Sabrina. Her jaw was tight from clenching her teeth, a physical tell on her that meant she felt guilty.
Sabrina glared at Dingo for a brief moment.
Dingo lifted his eyebrows in reply. Yes, I figured out who you’ve been talking to, Sabrina.
She moved on with her instructions. “Tanner, would you ask your resource if this scarring is consistent with being an Orion Hunter?”
That resource would be Soo Jin, the woman Tanner had saved from North Korea, and who had helped Tanner and Dingo last month. She was also the woman no one could know was still alive, or that Tanner had her hidden away somewhere.
Tanner nodded and made a note, then asked, “Are we dealing with the stalker at all or focusing only on a potential assassination attempt?”
“Both,” Sabrina answered. “And we can’t be obvious, which is why we’re entering as staff and additional event security. We don’t want to alert the killer to our presence. The threats to Perdido could be one in the same, but as Ryder pointed out, assassins aren’t known for sending advance notice.”
Nick suggested, “Sounds like the Orion Hunters might be going after Satan’s Garden Club. Maybe the hunters don’t like the SGC showing up in their city again. This might all be tied to a turf war.”
Dingo hoped so, but he didn’t like the new addition of Orion Hunters in the picture.
Sabrina wrapped up the meeting.
Before Dingo could question her leaving him to run the operation from the safe house, Sabrina turned to him and Josh. “You two, in my office in five.”
She strode through the connecting door that led to her private area, a bedroom and office combo, leaving Josh and Dingo to follow.
Dingo asked Josh, “What are you doing here?”
“She called and said she needed the three of us to meet privately. I got here as soon as I could.”
Dingo scratched his chin. “She say anything about being pissed at me?”
“No. Why should she? She’s been pissed at you for the past month.”
“I came out here to check on Valene while Sabrina thought I was catching some sleep.”
“Shit.”
“Yep. She covered with the team, making it sound like she sent me out early, but I was already here when she called me.”
Josh slanted a stern look at him, but shook his head. “She isn’t going to cut you loose.”
“She should,” Dingo admitted. “I buggared our deal by coming out here without telling her, but I have to find out if Satan’s Garden Club has anyone in it from before. Anyone who might know about Valene.” He blew out a rush of air and changed the subject. “I may not make the tux fitting.”
Josh had stood and started across the room. He halted at that and swung around on Dingo. “Yes, you will, because Trish and I aren’t getting married without you and Sabrina there, so don’t fuck this up any more than it is.”
Dingo scowled. “I’m trying to tell you that I don’t want to delay your wedding.”
“Do you think Trish will go ahead with it if you aren’t there after she made us wait until Ryder got out of prison? I’m ready to marry her and none of you are fucking this up, especially you.”
Ryder had been wrongly accused of murder and Trish refused to get married while she knew the team needed to focus on getting him out, which had turned dicey.
Ironically, Ryder ended up married to the FBI agent with the best case against him, while Josh was still not married to Trish.
Seeing Josh all hacked about waiting to get married would be funny if Dingo didn’t care, but he did. He’d taken off all those years ago on Valene without a word. He couldn’t do that to Josh. “I’m just letting you know that I’m not leaving LA until I’m convinced Valene is safe.”
“Then get convinced soon, because your ass has to be in Miami in three weeks to get fitted.”
Dingo waved Josh to get moving. Surely he could figure out if there was a real threat to Valene and still be in Miami in time for the fitting.
They walked into Sabrina’s office, where she paced. The minute Josh closed the door, she rounded on Dingo. “You have got to get your head out of your ass and stop playing white knight to someone who doesn’t care.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it, Sabrina.” Dingo crossed his arms, ready to have this out. “I’m sorry for not telling you but this attitude is exactly why I didn’t.”
“Oh, this isn’t attitude,” she warned him. “This is all-out furious. There is nothing in the intelligence chatter about any of Garcia’s old team getting back together. Not a word on the street. Why are you overreacting?”
Was he overreacting? “I’m being proactive. That’s all.”
She looked at Josh. “You can jump in and help anytime.”
“Neither one of you will like what I have to say.”
“Try me,” Sabrina said.
Josh sat down on one of the three leather chairs grouped across the room from a corner computer desk. “You have to leave Dingo alone to make his own mistakes.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “Lot of good you are.”
“I tried to warn you.”
“Thanks, mate,” Dingo told Josh, glad to see someone got what was going on.
“Don’t thank me, mate.” Josh turned to Dingo. “She’s got a valid point on the SGC. Your coming out here without telling Sabrina, or me, was bullshit. What you had with Valene is over and there’s no viable threat, so this is you wanting her back. Nothing more, and you’re headed down a path that might really destroy you this time.”
Dingo grabbed his head with both hands. “You two need to both stay out of my business.”
“Not going to happen,” Sabrina snapped. “I will not stand by and watch you put yourself through that again. You two wouldn’t stand by while I comm
itted emotional suicide.”
Dingo dropped his hands, glad for the new direction he could take in this warped conversation. “Oh, you mean like getting intel from Gage Laughton?”
If she’d expected that, she might have been able to cover her reaction, but her face broadcasted guilty-as-charged right before she shut it down. She’d been busted, but she held her head up defiantly. “You know I get intel from a lot of places. That doesn’t change the validity.”
“It does for me,” Dingo corrected her.
“That’s your problem.”
“I’ll tell you what my problem is. You expecting me to sit here and run the operation from this place when you have plenty of qualified personnel to do that and I’m of more use on the street.”
“You don’t get a say in how I run this op.”
“And you don’t get a say in how I run my life,” he shoved back at her.
“You two sound like you did when we were kids,” Josh noted.
Sabrina and Dingo both said, “Shut up.”
Josh lifted his hands. “Never mind.”
Dingo was done with this. “You can run the show any way you want, but expecting me to sit here when I can be out tracking information on SGC is stupid.”
“Way to go calling her stupid,” Josh muttered.
“Want to talk stupid?” Sabrina asked. “Stupid is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.”
Dingo caught her meaning about him seeing Valene again, but he was done discussing Valene. And he was done fighting with Sabrina. “What’s it going to take to call a truce, Sabrina?”
“Did you find Pete?”
“No.”
She was silent, looking at him while she considered her answer. “If I give you time right now to go convince yourself that this woman is not under threat, can you do that and come back with your head in the right position and do your part on this team?”
As in his head not up his ass? He wanted to believe he could do that, so he said, “Yes.”
“Okay, here’s my truce. You do that and be back here by midnight, get a decent night’s sleep and be ready to roll before daylight. If not, then our only other option is to contact the FBI and tell them Eklund’s in danger from a past operation. They’ll put her in protective custody and keep her there until we can determine if the threat is real.”
If Dingo thought Valene would go willingly into WITSEC, he’d have suggested that first thing yesterday. He’d hoped she would consider taking a few days to stay out of sight in a safe place he chose, but she’d said she was caring for someone sick. Convincing her to hand that responsibility over to someone else would be much tougher than taking her away from work. She was loyal as the day was long. If Dingo called the FBI in to take Valene into protective custody and away from someone depending on her, she’d want blood.
Shit. This was not what he wanted, but this was also an argument he couldn’t win. “If I say I don’t want anyone to interfere, you’ll still do what you want.”
“Before you get pissed at me–”
“Too late,” he muttered, drawing a sharp look before Sabrina continued.
“I’m being generous when I want to have you in lock down. I know you’ll go to her no matter what I say. When you do, ask her about her friend Charlie.”
Josh said, “Sabrina!”
“Don’t Sabrina me. Dingo needs to know.”
Dingo’s gaze bounced from Josh to Sabrina. “Know what?”
“That Valene may not be as innocent as you think. She’s doing business with a man whose background of being an international antiquities broker doesn’t pan out.”
“You’ve been investigating Valene?” Dingo asked, unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
“You’re sure as hell not objective about her or you’d have found out. You’d be thinking like an operative and not with your dick.”
“Who’s Charlie?” Dingo asked.
“I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself, but here’s a tip. With the exception of our generous payment for services rendered four weeks ago, Valene hasn’t deposited over a thousand dollars in her checking account at one time in the past year. Yet a fifty thousand dollar deposit just hit her account today.”
“So now she can’t earn a living?” Dingo snapped. If he was not objective, a fair accusation, then Sabrina was prejudiced against Valene, an equally fair assessment. Sabrina would love nothing better than to find something on Valene that would send Valene far away from Dingo.
“It was from an offshore bank. Who pays for anything legal through offshore banks, Dingo?”
That did surprise him, but while most people moving money to offshore accounts were either dodging taxes or dealing in nefarious ventures, that still did not mean that Valene had committed any crime. In fact, he’d be shocked if some of the high rollers she’d dealt with years ago didn’t hide money offshore.
Hell, Slye had numerous offshore accounts they could pull from in emergencies if they were out of the country, not to mention money stashed in foreign banks for quick access when they were on ops, but mentioning that would get him nowhere.
Sabrina was worse than a bulldog with a meaty bone. She kept gnawing at him. “That should raise red flags on her if you’d take off your blinders. But I’m willing to hear a reasonable explanation if you can produce one.”
Dingo swung his gaze to Josh who said, “Sorry, Dingo, but what Sabrina said is true.”
“You both went behind my back to dig around on Valene? How would you feel if I took it on myself to go snooping into your fiancé’s business, or her brother’s, without saying a word to you first?” Then he turned on Sabrina. “What about Gage? We’ve never pulled out all the stops to go after him and drag his ass to a locked-down location and get some answers? You’re even collaborating with the bastard.”
Josh looked remorseful and ready to explain, but Sabrina pounced and swung the whole thing back on Dingo. “Really? What I do in the best interest of my teams is not up for discussion. You fly out here without a word to let us know where you were. We’re in a business where bodies disappear when people die, and still you feel justified in being angry at me for watching your back? If you were even a little objective you’d see her in a different light. If you’re so sure she’s at risk from SGC, then why hasn’t anyone gotten to her yet?”
Dingo couldn’t answer that. He’d been too thankful every minute that no one had harmed Valene to look at all this any other way. Sabrina was right about one thing. If she wanted him to believe Valene was guilty of something criminal, then he wasn’t the least-bit open minded.
But having a handful of suspicious details rammed in his face made it hard to ignore what Sabrina had said.
He had to accept her challenge and force Sabrina to stop making Valene out to be someone bad. He couldn’t do that without information.
It sickened him to treat Valene the way he’d treat a perp and have to dig around for dirt on her. That meant tossing her in with the rest of the garbage rotting in his soul. Being with Valene in the past had been like stepping out of all this filth and blood and into somewhere full of light and life.
Before he flipped the switch in his head that would turn her into just one more name and set of details, before he destroyed what she meant to him, he had to get out of here and clear his head.
He stood there, fighting to keep from letting words out that could never be unheard. He told Sabrina, “The truce stands until five in the morning. Don’t call me. Don’t come near me. In the meantime, stay out of my business and Valene’s life, and just for the record,” he said, pointing at himself. “This isn’t anger. This is bone-deep disappointment in the two people I trusted most.”
He walked out of the silent room, unsure what his next move was, because Sabrina had succeeded at something he’d have never thought possible, or he wouldn’t have taken a bullet seven years ago to gain Garcia’s attention.
Sabrina had succeeded at shaking his
faith in Valene.
Chapter 9
Valene walked up the third-floor flight of creaking, wooden steps to her apartment and tried to come to terms with facing yet another part of her past.
Like Dingo wasn’t enough for one day,
Noise across the hall from her door sounded as though her neighbors were listening to the baseball game, a regular Wednesday night event in the lives of normal people.
Normal was boring.
She’d keep telling herself that and ignore the fact that she was exhausted but her day wasn’t done. Not when she had yet to receive one positive reply from all the calls she’d made.
It wasn’t as though she had an endless supply of resources. With enough time, she could locate new ones to make up for the one she’d been avoiding, but Smith’s deadline loomed heavier by the minute.
There’d been no word on the artifact from any of her best sources. She was going to have to suck it up and ask for help from the one person who could absolutely help her.
He also happened to be the one person she absolutely wanted to avoid.
In truth, he didn’t want to see her either. Her ex-husband, Henri Roche, met all her resource qualifications of being discreet, of being local, and of being well connected in the high-end antiques community.
But the number one reason she needed him? He had an in-house expert on Galileo who would know if someone was shopping this specific scroll.
She was damn good in her field, but her ego could admit that Henri’s expert knew more about Galileo.
Plus Henri needed the money.
But would that be enough to convince him to work with her when they weren’t even on speaking terms?
She’d gone to her next-best source, whose expert was a couple of steps down from Henri’s, but Aram had already locked that source up for some special project.
Please tell me Aram is not involved with the scroll.
The key stuck in her tarnished door lock. Again. She jiggled it, cursed it, beat on it and finally the lock gave in to her threats.
With the sun clocking out for another day, her apartment was barely navigable through the swath of shadows. She preferred that over bright lights shining across a home that reminded her of how much she’d lost in recent years. She’d never been able to call this place shabby chic because the few pieces of furniture she owned now were just crap.
