Special Assignment

by Ann Voss Peterson

  “So you see, Angel, you did just what you were supposed to. You did a great job. After all, we aren’t running a jail here. Durgin wasn’t our prisoner. You did just what we needed you to do. Thank you.” Evangeline gave Angel a reassuring smile.

  Angel sniffed and ran her pierced tongue over her upper lip. “You’re welcome.”

  Evangeline focused on Agent Sara Montgomery. Near Cassie’s age, Sara looked a lot younger, yet she always seemed a lot older and more poised. At least in Cassie’s eyes. “Sara?” Evangeline said. “What have you learned about the woman murdered last night? Lila Strotsky?”

  “The FBI is aware of her. According to my source, she moved heroin for a ‘big man’ in the area. And she worked at a mob-run gambling club until about two weeks ago.”

  “How about her death?” Mike asked.

  “My source says she was making noise about leaving the drug business and going straight. That’s what they think got her killed. The FBI isn’t convinced her death has anything to do with our situation.”

  Evangeline nodded. “All right. We’ll keep looking into it. If there is even a slight possibility the Russian mob has something to do with these deaths, I want to know about it.”

  Mike glanced around the conference room. His gaze landed on Sara. “Where are the other agents who staked out Cassie’s apartment last night?”

  “They returned earlier this morning,” Evangeline said curtly, answering for Sara. She turned to Jack. “What did you find out in your research on Kardascian’s and Durgin’s finances?”

  Unease pricked at the back of Cassie’s neck. Evangeline had changed the topic briskly. Too briskly, in her opinion. As if she was trying to brush over something.

  “You’re going to love this,” Jack said. “After calling in favors at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and having a talk with Durgin’s personal secretary, I found some interesting similarities. Both Kardascian and Durgin were facing a lot of personal debt. Both sold their companies to Tri Corp Media, taking shares in a blind trust run by the Kingston Investment Group as part of the cash buyout.”

  “Both of them?” Cassie said out loud.

  Jack held up a hand. “That’s not all. Remember Mitchell Caruthers?”

  Cassie nodded. Caruthers was the personal assistant of movie star, Nick Warner. Caruthers had also stolen Warner’s money and was responsible for his death. If it wasn’t for Jack, Caruthers might have gotten away with it. “What about him?”

  “He invested the money he stole from Warner in TCM stock.”

  Cassie nodded. She knew that part. They’d found out that detail shortly after Caruthers died. But knowing Jack, he’d saved the best for last. “And?”

  “He also wrote a few large checks to this Kingston Investment Group.”

  “The blind trust,” Mike said. He looked at Cassie. “So all three—Kardascian, Durgin and Caruthers—invested in this blind trust.”

  Cassie tried to get it straight in her mind. “So is TCM the common link in all this or is it this Kingston Investment Group?”

  “Hard to say. TCM has been swallowing up companies left and right recently. But that’s not really unusual. They’ve made a lot of profit over the past few quarters. They need to reinvest.”

  “And Kingston?”

  “I don’t have any favors to call in there,” Jack said. “And they’re not eager to share. It’s not going to be easy to get information about them.”

  “And there’s always the possibility this investment group has mob ties,” Mike added.

  Sara nodded. “The Russian mob is moving into legitimate business areas like finance all across the country. It’s the new trend the FBI is concerned about.”

  Evangeline frowned, lines digging into her forehead and deepening around her mouth.

  “Evangeline,” Lenny said.

  Evangeline leaned toward Lenny, giving the computer genius her full attention.

  “Ethan has located Durgin.”

  “Put him on speaker.”

  Lenny hit a few buttons.

  “Evangeline?”

  Mike translated Ethan’s words into sign language so Cassie could follow the conversation.

  “Yes, Ethan. You found Durgin?”

  “Yes. But there’s a problem.”

  “What is it?”

  “He’s dead.”

  Cassie felt the gasp rip from her throat.

  “Do you have a cause?” Mike asked, then signed Ethan’s answer.

  “A call went out for an ambulance about ten minutes ago. The dispatcher said overdose. The ambulance is here now, but it’s no longer in a hurry. Word is they lost him before it arrived.”

  Mike nodded. “Let me guess, heroin.”

  “Right.”

  Cassie folded her arms around herself. Another person dead. When was this going to stop?

  “Thanks, Ethan. You might as well come back to the office and prepare for that fund-raiser luncheon.” Evangeline nodded for Lenny to cut the connection and turned her troubled eyes on Mike. “Detective Lawson?”

  Mike nodded.

  “I need to talk to you in my office. Right now.”

  He nodded and pushed back his chair.

  Cassie pushed her chair back, as well. She was relieved that Evangeline had some sort of assignment for them. Sitting around worrying was the worst. At least now, she and Mike could do something. Look for answers. Work as a team. She rose from her chair.

  Evangeline shook her head. “Not this time, Cassie. I need to talk to the detective alone.”

  MIKE ENTERED Evangeline’s office, wariness gripping his nerves. He wasn’t good at reading minds, but he was pretty sure that whatever it was she wanted to talk to him about, he wasn’t going to like it.

  Evangeline gestured to a chair near the glass wall that looked out onto the agents’ cubicles. “Have a seat.”

  “I’d rather stand, thanks.”

  “I suppose you can guess why I asked to speak with you alone.”

  He could. The only time he’d been called on the carpet like this by a supervising officer, he’d learned of the police brutality complaint leveled by Kardascian. “You’re terminating my assignment.”

  “Yes. I no longer need you to protect Cassie.”

  He opened his mouth, then closed it without speaking. He didn’t trust his voice to come out sounding normal. He figured it would sound as strangled as his throat felt.

  “I’d like you to help with the investigative side of this, if you’d like to continue at PPS. We need someone with your experience if we’re going to track down whether or not this blind trust and its list of investors has anything to do with the Russian Mafiya.”

  That was fine. Investigation was his job. It was what he loved. But there was another concern that pressed against his chest like a physical force, making it hard to breathe. “What about Cassie?”

  “I’m taking Cassie off the case.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “You knew it was dangerous when you asked her to decrypt that disk.”

  “I suspected. But I never thought it would go this far.”

  There was more. Evangeline knew something she wasn’t sharing. “How far has it gone?”

  She paced to the far side of her desk. Pulling her shoulders back, she turned back to face him. “Last night Cassie’s apartment was set on fire. Lily barely made it out of there alive.”

  Something shifted inside his chest. He balled his hands into fists by his side. “Are Lily and Cameron all right?”

  “They’re fine. A little shaken, though. They both had some minor injuries that I insisted they have checked by a doctor.”

  “That’s why they weren’t in the briefing.”

  “It could have been much worse.”

  “Like if Cassie had been there.”

  Evangeline nodded. “Lily got out because she heard glass breaking in the loft just before the incendiary devices were tossed in. If it had been Cassie…”
She let her sentence trail off.

  Mike didn’t need her to finish. He knew damn well what would have happened to Cassie if Evangeline had allowed her to bait the trap as she’d wanted. “How are you going to keep her safe?”

  “I’m sending her to L.A. with Jack. If she’s not working on the disk anymore, there will be no reason to kill her.”

  As much as he hated the thought of being away from Cassie and of her losing the case she cared so much about, the only feeling he could manage at the moment was relief. The sooner she was out of this mess and safe in L.A., the better. “And you’ll have Lenny finish the decryption?”

  “It’s mostly finished. We just have to figure out what the numbers mean.”

  Mike nodded. Easier said than done. Cassie still hadn’t landed on an explanation that made that disk seem like anything but a jumble of numbers. But deciphering numbers wasn’t going to be the tough part. “Cassie’s not going to go along with this, you know.”

  Evangeline flinched, despite her usual cool. “I know. It’s going to be hard.”

  “I’m not going to break the news. I’ll take on whatever assignment you need me to do, but not that.” He held up his hands. He knew he was being a coward. But that wasn’t all of it. It wasn’t the prospect of facing Cassie’s anger that had him throwing up his hands. It was the fear of breaking her heart.

  “You don’t have to tell her. I will.”

  The door to the office flew open. Cassie stepped inside, her cheeks red, her nostrils flaring. “I’m not going to L.A. I’m staying to work on this disk. And if you refuse to let me do my job, then I quit.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I’m sorry, Cassie. You’re off the case. It’s too dangerous.”

  “For a deaf girl?” Cassie blurted. Evangeline hadn’t said the words, but she might as well have. Cassie had read every word she’d said to Mike through the glass office wall. And what it boiled down to was that Evangeline was yanking the most important case of Cassie’s career out from under her because she was deaf.

  “It’s not just that.”

  Cassie held up a hand. “Save it. I’ll send you my letter of resignation.” She spun around and started out the door.

  A hand gripped her arm. Mike.

  She wrenched herself free. She couldn’t talk to Mike right now. She couldn’t stomach him trying to smooth things over. Not when she knew he wanted her off the case, as well. Not when he was probably happy about the idea of shipping her off to L.A.

  She ducked out of the conference room without looking back. Making her way down the hall and past the agent cubicles, she slipped into the tech room.

  Lenny looked up from his work. Embarrassment flushed his face, covering his freckles and contrasting with the orange of his hair.

  So he knew. He knew Evangeline was reassigning the case to him before Cassie did. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Lenny knew everything that went on around here. Lenny was the one who made this office work. Still, the thought that he knew and obviously felt sorry for her made her humiliation complete.

  She plunked down in her desk chair and started gathering her laptop, her BlackBerry and the personal photos she kept of her family. After the fire in her apartment, these few items might be the only personal property she owned.

  The air currents shifted. The faint scent of leather teased her senses. Sucking in a breath of resolve, she turned to face Mike as he stepped beside her desk.

  “Don’t overreact to this.”

  Don’t overreact? He had to be kidding. “Didn’t you hear? Evangeline is yanking my case out from under me.”

  “Evangeline is worried about you. For good reason.”

  The air shifted again. Cassie glanced toward Lenny’s workspace. Apparently he’d decided they needed a little privacy. That or his discomfort at the thought of taking over the most important case of her life had just gotten the best of him. Whatever the reason, she’d take it. She needed to vent and she’d rather no one at PPS witnessed it.

  “Evangeline needs to let me do my job. If that job entails risks, it’s up to me to decide whether I want to face them or not. She needs to give me assignments and let me do them, just like she does with Lenny and Cam and Sara and Jack and all the rest of people who work for PPS. I don’t need her to coddle me. I need her to trust me to do my job. She has her projects. She doesn’t need to make me one.”

  “Her projects?” Mike echoed.

  “Like Angel.”

  He gave her a confused look.

  “The receptionist. You know, black hair, multiple piercings. She has kind of a goth thing going on.”

  “Ah, yes. I know Angel.” Mike nodded. “How is she Evangeline’s project?”

  “Evangeline likes to take in people. Give them a break, help them turn their lives around. I think it stems from her growing up in the foster-care system.”

  “That’s admirable.”

  “It is. For people who need a break, Evangeline is a godsend. I just don’t want her thinking the deaf girl is one of her projects. I can make my own breaks.”

  “Yes, you can. But in this case, someone is trying to kill you.”

  “And if Lenny takes over the disk decryption, someone will try to kill him. So why is Evangeline shipping me off and not Lenny?”

  “I don’t have an answer for that one.”

  “Yes, you do. Evangeline said it herself. I can’t hear a window breaking. I’m deaf. And that means I’m less than other people. More in need of help. Of coddling. Well, damn it, I’m not less. I’m not less.” Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she couldn’t check their flow. She hated being this weak, this vulnerable. But she couldn’t help it. She was too worn down to be strong. Too tired of death and danger. Too frightened and frustrated. A sob shook her chest and lodged in her throat.

  Mike ran his fingers over her hair. Cupping his hand around the back of her neck, he pulled her toward him. He cradled her face against the crook of his neck and held her tight.

  She could feel his voice rumble in his chest. And though she couldn’t hear his words, his tone smoothed over her like a healing balm. Not patronizing. Not even particularly sympathetic. Just strong and steady and matter-of-fact.

  What she needed him to be.

  Swallowing into an aching throat, she pushed back from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “Ever since I woke up that day in college, people have treated me like an invalid. My family. My friends.”

  “They were probably worried about you. I know Evangeline is.”

  “I know. I know they all want to protect me. They want me to be safe and happy.” She shook her head. “But the hovering suffocates me. The endless concern…”

  She blinked back the tears that had again started to fog her vision. She wasn’t going to break down again. She wasn’t going to let herself cry. She’d cried too much already. “It makes me feel that maybe they’re right, you know? Maybe the world is too much for someone without hearing. Maybe I am less now that I’m deaf.”

  “If you’re less now, you must have been a superwoman before.”

  She couldn’t help but smile. “A supergirl.”

  “What?”

  “A supergirl. There is no superwoman.”

  He gave her a smile, the corners of his dark eyes crinkling. “Maybe not in the comics. But the more I get to know you, the more I believe she’s here in real life.”

  Cassie soaked in his smile, his touch, the look in his eyes. “Because she’s deaf, her other powers are more developed?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I hope so. Because now I’m unemployed.” She’d meant the comment to be flip, a dry little joke, but it stuck in her throat and made her whole body ache.

  “I’m sure Evangeline will give you your job back.”

  “If I agree to run off to Los Angeles, she will. But I’m not going to do that.”

  Mike nodded as if he wasn’t surprised. “L
et me guess, you’re going to finish your work on that disk.”

  She dipped her hand into her pocket. Pulling it out, she held aloft a flash drive about the size of a business card but with a memory bigger than that of most computers. She leaned down and tapped the black case that held her equally powerful laptop computer. “I have everything I need.”

  Mike blew out a heavy breath. “Whoever is trying to kill you won’t know you’re no longer working for PPS. And they might not care even if they do.”

  “What are you saying? That I should run off to L.A.?” She hadn’t realized it, but she’d been counting on Mike to back her up, to agree that her idea was the best course. The possibility that he agreed with Evangeline, even after she’d spilled her guts to him, stung.

  “No. It might be selfishness on my part, but I want you to stay.”

  Cassie let out the breath she’d been holding. Her chest felt tight, not tense and aching, but like a muscle stretching. Mike wanting her in Colorado, especially for selfish reasons, meant more than she could say. Since that morning in college she’d dreamed of finding a man who would treat her as a partner. A man who wouldn’t coddle her. A man who believed she was his equal. And though she was still afraid to hope, she had to admit she wanted that man to be Mike. “I guess I need to figure out where I’m going to stay.”

  “I have an idea. And since my original assignment with PPS is over, I might be in the market for something new.”

  “Or something old, like protecting me?”

  “I have the feeling protecting you will never get old.”

  MIKE STEPPED OUT on the balcony overlooking what had to be one of the most rugged and beautiful former gold-mining gulches in the Colorado Rockies. He’d been to Tim Grady’s cabin once before, a modest little log structure which, unlike Milo Kardascian’s monstrosity, was made mostly of logs. But though he’d thought it was a beautiful setting for a card-playing retreat among a small group of cops, he hadn’t remembered it being quite as breathtaking as he found it now.

  Of course, that could be due to the improvement in company.

  He unfolded the newspaper he’d picked up on the drive. Stepping away from the thin wooden rail separating him from the gulch below, he moved to the grouping of two outdoor chairs where Cassie sat frowning at the screen of her laptop computer. He didn’t know how smart it had been to quit PPS and go off on their own. He’d insisted on certain precautions like Kevlar vests for the two of them. Still, there were a lot of variables. But he knew Cassie well enough to recognize she would have done it with or without him. And that more than anything, he wanted it to be with.