Constant Craving (Task Force Hawaii #3)

by Melissa Schroeder

  “I thought you were her friend.”

  “I am, and she cares about you. Why are you doing this, other than for Charity?”

  She was the most important part, but from the start of it, there had been something off. “It’s not right.”

  “No. But that doesn’t always get people to act.”

  “True. Still, I don’t like this kind of investigation. Remington used to be good. Really good. But, this case messed with his head, and he started seeing problems with everyone. Everyone could be a suspect. When Charity popped up on the screen, she had to be a dream come true. Remington had always theorized there was someone in the federal government helping. This would prove it. That means that Foley knows him well, and probably picked out Charity because she would appeal to his theories.”

  “And you disagree.”

  “Oh, no, I agree, but I don’t think CIA. They could do it, but I’m not sure they would do it as well as someone on the inside. Let’s be honest, there is a good chance CIA agent lists could fetch a bigger payday than FBI. So, I always thought FBI. Remington just didn’t want it to be our organization. The fact that he already knows Heller emailed Charity makes me think Foley may not just have an inside man, he might be the inside man. Someone no one would suspect.”

  “Okay. Just be careful out there. With this ramping up of emails and stolen credit, we will definitely keep an eye on her.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Oh, and just so you know, you don’t have to worry about me or any of the men hurting you. The TFH women might not just ruin your credit if you hurt her. Cat’s a black belt, and Elle’s had defensive training. Emma could definitely beat the shit out of you if she wasn’t pregnant.”

  He thought of Del’s petite wife and chuckled. “I find that hard to believe.”

  Del shook his head. “She lived on the streets in Thailand from the time she was sixteen. I have personal experience with her ability to protect herself. She wouldn’t think twice about hurting someone who hurt her Ohana.”

  He knew from Del’s tone of voice, he might be joking, but there was an underlying message: Don’t fuck with the women of TFH.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  An hour later, Charity, Emma, and Drew were in her office as she prepared to open the email. They had done every kind of possible test before they opened it. There were no attachments, no bugs within the email that they could detect, and they had an early warning system ready to go if it should start to download anything.

  “This makes me a little sick to my stomach,” Drew said.

  Charity glanced at him, then back to her laptop screen. “I know what you mean. Every time I think I’m ready to open in, my stomach starts doing somersaults. I’m regretting those pancakes this morning.”

  “I’m hungry.”

  They both looked at Emma. Her eyes were closed as she rubbed her belly.

  “You’re always hungry these days,” Charity said.

  She smiled as she opened her eyes. “Butch takes a lot of food.”

  “Butch?”

  “Del didn’t want to know the sex of the baby, so we are going with Butch for right now.”

  “Do you know?” Drew asked.

  Emma smiled.

  Charity chuckled. “Does Del know you know?”

  “No. We had a huge fight at Dr. Gregory’s last time we were there. I was so irritated with him, I might have said disparaging things against the Seahawks, but I blame it on the hormones. They make me do silly things. Besides, it’s a dumbass move not to use what science has given us, but then, I’m amazed he doesn’t have a flip phone.”

  Something loosened in Charity’s chest. The normalcy of Emma mocking Del—but not knowing she was actually mocking him—eased Charity’s worries a little bit. It was so…normal.

  Charity drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. Her heart was pounding so hard against her chest, she was sure both Emma and Drew could hear it. She blinked as the room revolved. Mentally, she counted down from ten to one, trying to get her nerves back under control. It was no big thing, just an email. Nothing like it could ruin her life forever.

  With a less than steady finger, Charity pressed enter and waited for the alarms to sound.

  It opened easily, no viruses, just a message.

  Charity,

  FBI on to me. You need to get to the UAE as soon as you can.

  Heller

  None of them said anything for a long moment. It was as if all of them were still holding their collective breaths waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then, Emma exploded.

  “What the bloody hell does that mean?”

  Charity shook her head. “I’m not really sure, but we know one thing. Our suspicions that whoever is behind this setting me up are dead on. But, why me? Why pick some forensic tech in Hawaii who had nothing to do with the FBI, other than to turn them down for a job? Or, well, take the CIA up on their offer before the FBI could pull their head’s out of their asses long enough.”

  “Do you think it could be that?” Drew asked.

  “What? That I worked for the CIA?”

  “That you went to work for them instead of the FBI.”

  Charity snorted. “Not likely. I mean, it was years ago, and they really didn’t pursue me. I had no other contact with the FBI before TJ.”

  Drew snorted. “So, that’s what you’re calling it?”

  She gave him a warning look, but he just returned an innocent smile.

  “I remember when you didn’t like him at all,” Charity said.

  “You know, it may not be because of you picking the CIA over the FBI, but it definitely ties into your work there,” Emma said.

  “I had no cases open when I left DC. None. I cleared my work and made sure I tied up all the loose ends.”

  “But, you are cyber and you were there. In fact, outside of the federal government offices here on the island, you are probably the only former fed with that experience.”

  She shook her head. “There are others in the private sector.”

  “Ah, but they don’t have access to things about Foley. The government has kept that close to their chests, and while a former fed working for a security agency here might know about Foley, access to the files he would want or need wouldn’t work out. You also are a one-person forensic dynamite.”

  “That’s true,” Drew said. “You work mainly on your own. Someone who works for a security firm wouldn’t have the freedom. And, there would always be someone looking over their shoulder. The overlords as you call them.”

  She nodded. “And that sets me up. Still, this feels personal, but why? I didn’t really interview with anyone at the FBI. Not formally. And after I started working with the CIA, they didn’t try to steal me away. They did that to one of my coworkers. So, why does this make me think I was targeted, but not by accident?”

  “Of course you weren’t targeted by accident,” Drew said.

  “What I mean is that he could have easily picked another forensic tech or computer expert anywhere. They picked Hawaii in particular. Is it me, or is there another agenda? But what the hell would that be?”

  Emma smiled. “That is a brilliant observation. We haven’t looked at why you would be picked. You haven’t had any association with anyone from the FBI before this, right?”

  Charity shook her head. “Not really. Just what I mentioned.”

  Emma started pacing, but it was more a duck waddle than her usual active pacing. “Is it personal to you? I mean, your family hasn’t been attacked.”

  She thought about her present family issue and shook her head. “Nope, just strange bed partners.”

  “Yeah, what’s going on with that?” Drew asked.

  “They claim they are going to move in together. I am staying out of it.”

  He opened his mouth, but Emma stopped him. “No. Stop going off onto something else. We need to focus. We’ll talk about the incest in Charity’s family later.”

&nb
sp; “It isn’t incest,” Charity mumbled.

  Emma smiled. “I know. I made a joke. Cool, huh?”

  For Emma, it was an amazing feat. She had issues with sarcasm and humor, but had been working hard to learn the ins and outs of human interaction—as Emma called anything that made her uncomfortable.

  She turned and paced away, then turned around. “Charity, we need to sit down and think of everything that has happened in the last month. Anything that might have been a ripple effect of this investigation, even before it started. Then, we might see something.”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Charity said.

  “Of course it is. I came up with it,” Emma said with no humor, as she approached Charity’s desk. Charity grabbed a pen and paper just as Emma let out a groan and gripped the side of the desk.

  “Bloody hell.”

  “What’s wrong?” Drew asked rushing to her side.

  Emma’s face drained of all color, and Charity was positive that the expectant mother was going to pass out. Charity jumped up and moved to slip her arm around Emma. The mother-to-be held up a hand to ward them both off.

  “No,” she said, breathing heavily. “I think we might need to get Del.”

  “Oh, hell,” Charity said and grabbed her phone and hit the boss’s number.

  “What?” Drew asked looking from Emma to Charity.

  Sometimes, she forgot how clueless Drew was when it came to the obvious. “She’s in labor.”

  Drew took a step back. “Oh.”

  “Well, now we know how you’ll handle fatherhood, Franklin,” Emma said as she lowered herself to the chair.

  Del answered on the second ring.

  “What do you have?”

  “I have your wife in my office, and she might be going into labor.”

  There was a short pause. “That’s not funny.”

  “Do you hear me laughing?”

  “She’s not due for another month.” He said it as if making the declaration made it true. Again, men. They always seemed to think everything ran on their schedule.

  “Are you really arguing with me about whether or not Emma is in labor?”

  “Oh, I am,” Emma said. “I’ve been having contractions since about three this morning,” Emma said.

  Charity blinked and pulled the phone away from her ear. Del had heard what Emma said, and was yelling on the other end of the phone. He was so damned loud, all three of them could hear him.

  “We’ll get her up there.”

  She hung up as he continued to yell at her. She looked at Emma. “Let’s go, woman. You’re about to have a baby.”

  Emma didn’t move to stand up. Instead, she shook her head.

  “What?” Charity asked.

  Emma looked at both she and Drew.

  “I’m not ready,” Emma confessed in a small voice.

  For the second time in about as many minutes, Charity blinked. “I don’t think you have a choice. Babies decide when they are going to show up. And while I hate the stereotypes in Gone with the Wind, I will say, I don’t know anything about birthing babies. We have to get you to the hospital.”

  “I don’t like being on anyone else’s schedule.”

  Charity laughed. “Oh, this is going to be fun. Neither does your husband, but I think you are both going to find out that things are about to change. Come on. Drew, get the door.”

  She helped Emma up out of the chair, and they walked to the elevator together. “I’m serious, Charity. I had another month to prepare. I have not mentally prepared for this. I’m not sure I’m going to be good at it.”

  “Good at what? Labor?”

  Emma sighed and her eyes filled up. “Being a mom.”

  Charity was completely out of her depth. Most of her friends were men, and the women she knew weren’t even thinking about having babies yet. She had never had to reassure anyone about something like this. Panic had her looking at Drew, who shook his head. He was going to be no help whatsoever. Men. Charity only knew one person who could have helped her, and that was her mother.

  “My mother always thought she was the worst mom. Horrible. She was always worried she spoiled me, or that she was too hard on me. And, during my teen years especially, I thought she was. But, you know what? She’s the best mom there is around. Every mother doubts she is good enough or strong enough. I would say that makes you damned normal. You have a great husband, your brother and his other people, and then you have us. We’ll help you.”

  Emma nodded, but Charity could tell she wasn’t convinced. She slipped her arm over her shoulders. “You’re going to rock being a mom. Don’t you worry. You’re a genius, and that baby is probably going to be one too. You’ll both do fine with Del by your side.”

  She wiped away the tears and smiled. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  The elevator doors opened up and revealed an irritated Del. His usually easygoing attitude had been replaced with a thunderous frown.

  “You’ve been having labor pains all day?” he bellowed.

  Emma shrugged. “Just since this morning.”

  “This is the most asinine thing you have done.” He hadn’t lowered his voice one bit.

  For a long second, she expected Emma to yell back. Charity knew the two of them were well-matched in that department. Instead, Emma burst into tears. For a moment, no one said anything. The look of terror on Del’s face almost made Charity laugh. In the next instant, he snapped into action.

  “I’m sorry, baby. Come on, the bag is in the truck. We’ll get you to Queen’s. I’ve already called Dr. Gregory. She’s meeting us at the birthing center.”

  He slipped his arm around her and urged her onto the elevator.

  “You two coming?” he asked.

  “I have to shut things down in the lab. Then I’ll follow.”

  “I need to check with Elle, then I’ll be there too,” Drew said.

  Del nodded as the door closed.

  “See ya in a few minutes. Want to ride together?”

  She shook her head. “I want to go over some stuff first.” He hesitated, causing her to roll her eyes. “I’ll call TJ and get him to bring me if no one else is around. Really, there is no physical threat to me, and especially in this building.”

  “Okay. But if you can’t get him, you call me.”

  She nodded and waved him away. As she sat down at her desk again, she called TJ, but got his voice mail. She left him a message that she had opened the email and to call her back. Then, she started working on the list Emma had told her to make. Babies usually took time, and she wanted this done before she left. The sooner they could clean this up, the sooner she and TJ could figure out what was going on with them.

  TJ frowned when his call to Remington went straight to voicemail. It was odd that he couldn’t get hold of him. One thing about his former boss, and one thing that probably helped his marriage end, was that Remington always had his phone.

  Something must have happened. Something they didn’t know about, or it hadn’t made it out to the news outlets yet. Remington had heart problems, thanks to the stress of the job and his drinking. And his smoking. Hell, the man was a walking time bomb. If he’d been rushed to the hospital, it wouldn’t have made the news. He just wasn’t on their radar. But the fact that he had called TJ earlier, but was now not answering, left TJ slightly queasy.

  “Hey,” he called out as Santos walked by the door. “Have you seen Tsu?”

  He shook his head. “He had lunch out. Should be back by now, so I am avoiding him. I want to get out of here on time.”

  He nodded as is phone rang. Charity. He clicked it on.

  “Hey. What’s up?”

  “I’ve been trying to get hold of you for awhile now.”

  “And I’ve been trying to get hold of Remington. I can’t.”

  “That’s odd. The email is even odder. Just says people are onto us. Tells me to flee.”

  He rolled his shoulders as he stood up so he could pace. “What the hell?”


  “Exactly. All a set up. I’m trying to list everything that has happened between the time they say I broke in to steal operative’s names, and now. Emma suggested it before she went to the hospital.”

  “Anything wrong?”

  “No. Just baby time.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t know what to say to that.

  “I was going to wait until you were done with work, if it is going to be soon.”

  “I need to check in with my boss, then I’ll swing by to get you.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “Charity.”

  “Yes.”

  It had been an easy conversation, and there was no reason to say anything else, but something stuck in the back of his throat. Something he knew he needed to tell her, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Not over the phone.

  “We really need to have a talk about us.”

  There was a long pause—long enough to make the bottom fall out of his stomach.

  “I agree, but I think we need to wait until we get through this. Then, I promise, a long chat.”

  He closed his eyes and ordered his heart to calm down. “Good.”

  “Just give me a ring when you’re at the front door. Everyone else is gone I think. So I am locked up tight in here.”

  “Will do.”

  “Bye, TJ.”

  “Bye, Charity.”

  Once they were off the phone, he decided to try Remington again, and after no luck, he went in search of his supervisor. It took TJ fifteen minutes before he located Tsu in the break room.

  “Hey, Callahan. What’ s up?”

  “I was wondering if you’ve talked to Remington? I wanted to go over the case since the news this morning.”

  Tsu frowned. “Didn’t he talk to you?”

  “What do you mean? He left me a message, but I have not been able to talk to him.”

  “I thought you two would have lunch or something.”

  “You’re not making any sense.”

  Tsu blinked. “He’s here in Hawaii.”

  TJ stopped moving, as an icy finger slipped down his spine. “What?”