by Paris Morgan
“A date?” Ryan squeaked. “She was just born. I think we have a few years before she starts dating. Like twenty or so.”
“Oh, Ryan.” Shea laughed and we all joined in. “He’s going to be horrible on those poor boys.”
“Yep. He’ll probably conduct a background check and require them to wear an ankle monitor so he can find them at all times.” Adam grinned as a frown appeared on Ryan’s face.
“What were you doing that took so long to get here?” Ryan turned the question away from a possible suitor for his daughter.
“Today’s all about baby Hope. We’re not going to worry about that now. There will be plenty of time for a briefing, like tomorrow, or even next week,” I assured him.
“We need some hope, and this is the best dose of that we could have been given.” Adam took the baby from me with a grin.
“But…” Ryan started, “You’re right. All of that will wait.”
***
Agent Watson
“You wanted to see me?” I stuck my head into the upper office, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.
“Yes, Agent. Please, come in.”
John Reed sat behind his desk with Noah Preston standing next to him.
“I hear we have a problem. You allowed something dreadful to happen this last weekend.”
“Yes, sir.” It came out as a high-pitched noise, so I tried it again, a little lower after clearing my throat. “Yes, sir.”
“It was only through a slight miracle that Noah here was given a warning before you conducted your raid. How is it that we were not informed of this?”
“I’m so sorry, sir. They gave me no heads-up. I honestly didn’t know until it was happening, and I couldn’t take on Homeland and SWAT. They were looking for someone to screw things up.”
“That doesn’t excuse your incompetence. We lost eight clubs. EIGHT!” John yelled at me.
I gulped, but kept silent. This was a man who didn’t accept excuses.
“How are you going to pay me back for all of the lost revenue? We lost millions of dollars.” He pounded a fist on the desk with such force, I jumped.
This was someone I didn’t want to show weakness in front of.
“There is another set of clubs in each city that aren’t as classy, but they can quickly be adjusted to accommodate the clientele, and we have more girls in other ventures that can be moved over until we can replace what we lost.”
“Do it. You have until next weekend for me to be making money again. Is that clear?” He demanded.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded quickly glad that he wasn’t ordering my death.
“Noah will assist you. I’d hate for you to end up like that young man who was spying on my company. This is the only chance you’re going to get because I need someone inside that can keep my assets safe. When you can no longer do that, then I’ll no longer keep you from the wolves.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, get out of my sight before I change my mind.”
Without another word, I raced from the room and gently closed the door behind me. I leaned against the empty secretary’s desk and gasped for breath.
I’d thought that Kevin was killed by the Zodiac Master, and yet John Reed had alluded to having had it done. I didn’t get it. Where was the connection?
The door opened behind me and I straightened, gulping a last breath.
“So you screwed up royally. What were you thinking? At least I didn’t end up in jail with the rest of them.”
That had bothered me as well.
“How did you know that it was happening?” I asked quietly, unsure of how much power he held.
He grinned. “Are you really that stupid? Surely you have to know that there are more than one of you working for John Reed. I received a heads-up only a few minutes before your people charged through the doors.”
“Oh.” I sighed as I realized that I wasn’t as important, and what I offered had been analyzed and compared to whatever the other agents had brought them.
“Well, you have one chance to make it up to him, don’t you?” Noah raised an eyebrow to threaten me. “You are going to fix this, aren’t you?”
“I’ll make sure that it’s taken care of. I’m going to take vacation and say that I need time to recover from losing one of our own. That will give me the time needed to get things on track and the doors open next weekend.”
Noah clapped me on the back. “That sounds like a wonderful plan. Now, let’s get started.”
Epilogue
Zodiac Master
I’d left Leslie only moments ago. My heart begged me to stay with her, but when she’d shot me, hope died.
I sank into the chair as I propped my feet up and rubbed the bruise where the vest had saved my life.
How could she shoot me? Did she hate me that much? Didn’t she know that everything I’d done was to bring her closer to me and make her strong enough to be with me?
It was time I took matters into my own hands. No more recruits, and no more fill-ins. I was going to finish off these murders myself.
The look on her face would be amazing when she realized that I was the Scorpio killer.
Soon, my love. I traced her face in the picture I’d printed out. You’ll be mine, forever, and none of these other people you call your family will matter. We can kill anyone we want and watch the police try to figure out who did it.
We’ll be quite the team, but unlike Bonnie and Clyde, no one will be able to take us down. I kissed her picture, Soon.
Make sure to check out the next exciting installment of the Scorpio: Murders of the Zodiac
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Alathia Morgan
Scorpio
Murders of the Zodiac
Book #10
Copyright © 2019 Alathia Paris Morgan
Scorpio-Murders of the Zodiac Book 10
This is a work of fiction and in no way is meant to portray actual people, names, places, events or situations. The ideas were from the author’s own imagination and any resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of quotations for articles and reviews.
Editing by: Rebel Edit & Design
Book cover: Widget Wyvern Studios
Interior formatting: That Formatting Lady
Table of Contents
Dedication
More from Paris Morgan
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
A Note from the Author
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my hubby, who puts up with all of my problems. He lets me talk about books and the stories brewing in my head. Thanks, Babe.
More from Paris Morgan
Murders of the Zodiac
Aquarius Book 1
Pisces Book 2
Aries Book 3
Taurus Book 4
Gemini Book 5
Cancer Book 6
Leo Book 7
Virgo Book 8
Libra Book 9
Scorpio Book 10
Sagittarius Book 11
Capricorn Book 12
Surviving Death
Witness Protection Book 1
Writing as Alathia Morgan
Against Zombies Series
Moms Against Zombies Book 1
Military Against Zombies Book 2
Co-Eds Against Zombies Book 3
Churches Against Zombies Book 4
Geeks Against Zombies Book 5
Governments Against Zombies Book 6
Infected History Series
Infected Waters: A Titanic Disaster
Infected Poppy Fields: A WWI Disaster
Infected Storm Troopers: A WWII Disaster
Writing Romance as Pepper Paris:
Summer of Love
Carter: Summers of Love 1
Kelly: Summers of Love 2
Wade: Summers of Love 3
Jay: Summers of Love 4
Chapter 1
Barbie
When Leslie had gone to chase down the Libra killer, I’d notified her team and shut everything down in our private warehouse. The place was about to be overrun with Feds, and I didn’t need them seeing and questioning me.
I worked for the FBI in a completely different division, and I tried to keep a low profile so my extracurricular activities online went unnoticed. I didn’t want a crossover between my job and the things I did after hours to get on anyone’s radar.
Kevin, God rest his soul, had uncovered a treasure trove of information that I was still looking into two weeks later.
The proof I needed was here somewhere, but it had to be airtight. I wasn’t completely sure who had killed Kevin yet, but when I found out, they were going down. While I’d like to take justice into my own hands, this was so much bigger than the Zodiac Master and John Reed.
With no information on the Zodiac Master, I was going to try to finish what Kevin had been working on; I owed it to him to finish.
I also needed closure, and the only way to get that was to dig into the files that he’d brought me and get some answers.
***
I rubbed my neck, stiff from sitting in my computer chair for so long. I wasn’t as young as I used to be. Hours on end in front of a computer screen was normal, but staying in the same position without moving was a different story. I’d grown soft over the years since high school.
The clock on the screen read seven. Twelve hours working on this information wasn’t that bad considering the progress I’d made. That was until I picked up my phone and did a double take at the date.
It had been twenty-four hours, not twelve! No wonder my body was complaining.
The information I’d managed to cross-reference was only about halfway done, and that was only for the past ten years. But it was more than enough proof to connect Urban Energy with the Gold Money Exchange.
From what I was seeing, most of the accounts they laundered the money through could be traced back to the beginning of the company, so there was probably a second set of books from back in the early days that would explain exactly how it was all set up.
Considering that these accounts, with money going in and out, had been going on for years, I was willing to bet that even the auditors from the early days wouldn’t have been able to tell what was original to the company and what was fake.
After the major bust for the IRS with Al Capone back in 1931, criminals began using smarter methods to make sure they were giving the government their due. Not that they were giving them all the money that went through their hands, but enough that their real businesses would pass inspections easily.
The Urban Energy Corporation and Gold Money Exchange had been doing this for so many years that the records, which explained all of this in the beginning, probably didn’t exist, or had been destroyed so that it made everything harder to trace.
I’d taken my skills and gone in a completely unexpected direction in college—finance and business. When I was asked to join the FBI and help in their white-collar crimes division, it had been perfect for about a year. I’d been placed on a joint team with cybercrimes to take down a group by tracking their accounts through the Cayman Islands. Once the cybercrimes team had realized that I could work a computer with the best of them, they requested I transfer. It was the best use of my skills in both departments.
It had been five years since then, and I worked with white collar crimes on a frequent enough basis to keep my skills current. If what I’d put together over the past few hours was any indication, this bust was going to have serious ramifications throughout the criminal and civilian world.
Stocks were going to drop, and companies that were traded on the floor of the market exchange were suddenly going to be worthless. That was what made these guys so dangerous. They had too many hands in pots all over the world.
There were branches in Japan, China, Russia, and Mexico, with many more in some of the smaller countries. They’d managed to stay under the radar by having a solid business model that allowed them to do business with criminal organizations under the noses of their governments.
I saved the information and uploaded it to my cloud base, making sure to save a copy to my mobile hard drive. There was too much at stake for this information to fall into the hands of the wrong person. Normally, I would head into work, but after a twenty-four hour stretch, I needed to get some rest.
Since I never took days off, I could afford to use some sick days.
The moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.
***
A constant ringing brought me back to consciousness.
“Hello?” I answered groggily.
“Hi. You don’t know me, but I found you through some mutual friends of ours,” a male voice advised.
I shook my head to clear the cobwebs as I glanced at the caller ID.
“This is a private number. Who are these mutual friends?”
“Kevin, Leslie, and Ryan.”
“Shit.” I was fully awake now, even though I’d only slept for, like, four hours, judging by the light coming through the warehouse windows.
“Is this a secure line?”
“Uh, yeah.” I got up and walked over to the small kitchen area to start a fresh pot of coffee.
“I’m Mac. When the Zodiac Master tried to kill me a few months ago, Adam placed me into his own version of a witness protection program, so I’m supposedly dead. He told me to contact you and see if we could work together on what Kevin was doing?”
When I didn’t respond, he continued. “I’m not sure how much you know about the case, or if you’ve been working on it from the beginning, but I can get you anything you need to determine if I’m on the up-and-up.”
“Private chat on the newest first-person shooter. I go by Blondie Doll. If you can figure that out, then I’ll see what we can do about working together.”
“Got it. I’m Mac&Cheese3000.”
A snort came out before I could stop it. “Mac&Cheese3000?”
“You know, ‘I love you, 3000?’ That’s how much I love Mac & Cheese.”
“I sure hope that your computer skills are better than your name skills are.”
He chuckled. “That, I can guarantee. I was working at the same company Kevin was, so I have a little bit of practice. Switching over to the other channel.”
If I were to believe this guy, then it might take me a while to figure out what information each of us had so that we weren’t overlapping or doing the same work twice.
I needed to pee before diving back in, so I hit the startup button so that it could go through its opening sequence without me.
Once the coffee was ready, I poured a cup before sitting down in the same chair I’d abandoned only a few hours ago.
Sure enough, the private conversation request was waiting there from Mac&Cheese3000.
“You found me, so dish. What’s the situation?
” I wanted him to tell me what he knew.
“I’m a police officer for the city of Dallas. When Leslie jumped ship back at the first of the year to help the FBI, I continued doing my own job in the IT department. Then, I guess it was the end of June or the first of July that I went undercover at the local headquarters of the Urban Energy Corporation.”
Leslie knew, but she didn’t tell anyone what I was doing. My IT job was flexible, and I could do both easily. It took me a little while to figure out that Kevin was from the FBI, but we talked a few times here and there.”
“Why didn’t he come to you with what he found out a few weeks ago?” I asked suspiciously.
“I was kind of declared dead, really. The Zodiac Master didn’t like that I helped Leslie and Ryan with taking John Reed in for a little questioning. I had him picked up for something else, and that pissed the ZM off. John Reed is the ZM’s dad, but he’s never claimed him as his son. We’re thinking that most of this serial killing spree is because he wants his father’s attention, and at this point, John Reed isn’t taking the bait and acknowledging him at all.”
“I think we can safely say that Leslie has managed to get under the ZM’s skin quite thoroughly. She made him take down the Libra killer, and from what I understand, he did it personally.” I sipped the warm coffee and could feel myself waking up completely.
“We’ve managed to piss different people off over the course of this investigation, which is to be expected, yet the assistant D.A., Kevin, and a host of other people might still be alive. It’s a hard line to walk in doing our job while getting under these killers’ skins.”
