9. Dax
DAX
Using Eagle’s phone, I shot a text to the others that we were heading down to the lobby to meet up with Cam.
I wouldn’t want them scrambling to find me if shit hit the fan again.
When we stepped out, it was easy to spot Cam since no one else was in the lobby.
It seems Tommaso made good on his job and got everyone out of the building.
Cam was talking to an older man in a suit, hand tucked casually in his pockets, but something about him told me he wasn’t as mellow as he was trying to be.
“You think you can just pull a stunt like that, and I’ll let you walk away? This whole task force was your idea, and now you want to drop it all and move to the other side?” the man demanded.
Cam just stared at the man, his arms crossed as he leaned slightly away like he didn’t want to be grabbed.
This had me on high alert because Cam wasn’t a man who let anyone fuck with him.
My black knight might not be the best hand-to-hand fighter out of all of us, but he could do some serious damage.
More so after all the training we’d done together getting ready for this trip.
Not caring that I was invading their conversation, I stepped up to Cam and wrapped an arm around his waist. Instantly, he dropped his arms and settled one over my shoulder as he kissed the top of my head.
“Dax, this is Deputy Assistant Director Simon Maxwell. Sir, this is my wife, Dax Blackmore,” Cam introduced, his voice cool and detached, telling me he didn’t like this man at all.
Reaching out a hand, I smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
Simon just looked at me then to Cam and back again. “I’m sorry, did he say you’re his wife?”
“He most certainly did,” I assured. “It was a spontaneous event. I’m sorry you didn’t get an invite, but we’re hoping to have a party to celebrate once things calm down in our work lives.”
This had Simon scowling at me as he fumed internally, the veins bulging out of his neck, giving him away. “Are you telling me you got married to a known crime lord? Have you lost your goddamn mind, Black?”
“Wait, you’ve heard of me?” I gasped, placing a hand on my heart. “I’m not sure whether to be thrilled or embarrassed about that. Babe, I didn’t know you talked about me at work.”
Eagle snorted behind me, trying not to laugh.
This got him his own dirty look from Simon that did little to make any impression on the president.
“You’re the leader of the Phantom Saints, aren’t you?
Does that mean your whole band of criminals is traipsing around here?
Maybe I ought to have them all hauled in and questioned for the death of Diego De León. ”
“Why would we be called in?” I asked, just to see if the idiot would tell me.
The man removed his hands from his pockets and pointed a finger at me, almost tapping my nose with how close it came. “The two of you hated each other. It’s no secret you wanted him dead as much as he wanted you gone. Your crew rolls into New York, and the next thing you know, Diego’s found dead.”
“I see. That’s really incredibly coincidental now, isn’t it?
” I agreed, giving him a contemplative look.
“What if that’s what the real killer wants you to think…
blame the whole thing on me while they run off scot-free to the Maldives, where you can’t get to them.
At least that’s what I’d do if I were in their shoes…
certainly wouldn’t be sticking around helping the newly discovered heir to the De León estate. That would just be asinine.”
Simon growled as he stepped closer, but Cam’s hand shot out, keeping him at bay while Eagle stepped up on my other side. “Don’t even think about it,” Cam warned.
“You dare to lay a hand on me, Black? I’m your superior, and I can have you kicked off this task force and sent to Alaska, where you’ll be chained to a desk for the rest of your days in the FBI,” Simon threatened, poking Cam in the chest repeatedly.
White-hot rage filled me, and I acted before my brain could tell me this was a fucking terrible idea.
Grabbing the man’s pointer finger, I twisted it, forcing him to follow my movements or risk it being broken.
Simon dropped to his knees, and I loomed over him as the finger I was holding needed an ounce more pressure, and it would snap.
“Don’t you ever touch my husband like that again,” I snarled.
“I don’t care who the fuck you are or what rank you hold.
You know who I am and the power I hold, and if I want you stripped of your title and sent to be a janitor for the training school, I can make that happen.
So I suggest you take a deep breath, chill the fuck out, and let us do what needs to be done. ”
Simon didn’t seem to be a fan of my suggestion at all as he started to grab for his gun, but Eagle pulled his first. “Don’t. Even. Think… about it.”
“You know you just pulled a gun on a federal officer? I could put you in jail,” Simon stated as he froze.
Releasing his finger, I squatted so we were closer to eye level.
“Yeah, something tells me that’s not gonna happen.
I can’t help but notice you’re here all the way from D.C.
, yet you’re not flashing your badge around or demanding answers.
From what I could hear, you’re upset that Cam is dropping this project he started where I’d help and hand over all my friends who lurk in the shadows.
If he jumps ship and joins the CIA, that means they get me too.
Are you really here on official business or a self-serving mission? ”
“I don’t owe you any explanation, bitch,” Simon spat.
“Shit,” Eagle muttered.
“Fuck, Dax,” Cam warned. “You can’t.”
Simon, clueless as to what my men were talking about, took his eyes off me for a moment, and I popped him right in the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. “Don’t ever call me a bitch,” I snarled. “I’ve been positively pleasant with you, and there you go, having to make me get violent.”
Slowly, I rose to my feet and watched as Simon struggled to sit up, clutching his cheek, eyes flashing with rage. “That’s it. I’m taking you in for assaulting a federal officer. Black, cuff her.”
“No,” Cam stated.
Finally, the man got to his feet, and he stomped up to me but stopped short when he almost ran into Cam’s gun. Now all of us were in danger of being tossed in jail for threatening this asshole. Yet something had me wondering why he was here in the first place. Turning to Cam, I asked him just that.
“Is he the one who called you, or did someone else give you the heads-up he was here?” I inquired.
“Seems odd that an FBI agent would waltz into a building that’s run by a massive cartel.
The fact that it’s under new management didn’t even get announced until this morning.
Do we know if they officially ID’d the body they’re claiming to be Diego? ”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t know about Diego, haven’t checked in with the New York office yet today. He’s the one who called me and demanded I meet him in the lobby to discuss my request to leave the Bureau so I could accept an offer the CIA extended to me.”
“Damn, babe, that’s awesome,” I offered in congratulations. “When exactly did that all transpire?”
“This morning while you were taking your nap with Void,” Cam explained. “Nothing was a sure thing since I needed the FBI to agree. Seems they went right to the top of the ladder with the request, even though people switch more often than you think. Some people aren’t meant to be out in the field.”
“Which isn’t you, Black. How can you give up being out in the field tracking down bad guys to sit behind a computer and compile data?
” Simon demanded. “I ensured you had everything you needed, the reason you have the team and could bring your wife in on all this is because of me. What thanks do I get for that? You, pointing a gun at me as you stand by and let her attack me?”
“Shouldn’t have called her a bitch. It’s the one thing that will piss her off more than anything,” Cam answered.
“As for the whole task force thing, I need to have power outside the United States for us to pursue the criminals that Dax has to give us. The FBI can’t offer me that no matter how much you’d like to.
It’s the fundamental difference between the two agencies. ”
Cam lowered his gun, but he didn’t put it away. Eagle followed his lead a heartbeat later, keeping a wary eye on Simon. “He still didn’t answer her real question, though. Are you here in an official capacity, or are you here because a certain friend of ours is pissed that we took Diego out?”
Huh, I hadn’t even thought of that. It had been fucking impossible for me to get someone on the inside of the FBI, but I suppose if you just bought off one of the top people, it would be easy to get whatever information you needed.
“That leads to the question of what does Marco have on you?” I asked, pondering allowed. “Marco won’t make a move until he believes he has a chokehold on whoever he’s blackmailing. Drugs would be too simple, alcohol too predictable… I’m thinking hookers.”
When I said it, Simon flinched.
“Okay, hookers, but that wouldn’t be quite enough since lots of people pay for sex nowadays. Hmm, that leaves sex with people of a questionable age. Is that what it is, Deputy Assistant Director Maxwell?” I asked, pressing, hoping he’d crack, and he did.
Simon made a bolt for the door, but he didn’t count on Eagle stepping in his way and body-checking him. Once more, Simon was on the floor looking bewildered as Eagle loomed over him. “Sorry, were you going somewhere? I don’t think we were done with our conversation yet.”
The laughter that burst out of me had me almost crying at the whole scene. It was as if I’d watched a cartoon of the entire interaction. Cam reached down, grabbed Simon by the back of his suit coat, and hauled him up.
“I suggest you listen to me carefully,” Cam said in a low, dangerous voice that had me rubbing my legs together.
“You’re going to sign my transfer, make sure that whatever is needed for that is handled, and I won’t say a word to the higher-ups about your preferences.
We’re going to take Marco out, something you should be glad to have happen.
Once he’s gone, who’s going to have the evidence of your sins?
Think, Maxwell, use that brain of yours to realize he’s using you to keep us from destroying him. ”
Simon gulped, his eyes so wild with fear that I wasn’t sure he was even really hearing what Cam was saying.
Then slowly, his breathing slowed and his eyes cleared until the man who I believed could be an assistant director reappeared.
“You make a good point, Black, but how do I know you won’t be holding this over my head just like he was? ”
Cam shifted so he was now face to face with Simon.
“Because you know who Dax is and that I’m married to her.
If the FBI, CIA, or even the President of the United States asks me to turn her in for any crimes I might know about, I’d say no.
That’s all the security you need to hold me equally accountable. ”
Simon cleared his throat, rolled his shoulders, and adjusted his suit so he looked less disheveled.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, Black. I’ll get the paperwork processed, and you’ll be the CIA’s problem as soon as Tuesday.
It takes at least a day to process, and it’s Sunday so that’s the fastest I can make things happen. ”
Cam reached out a hand. “It’s been a pleasure to serve with the FBI. Thank you for the opportunity.”
Simon grasped Cam’s hand and squeezed harder than he needed to as they shook. “Watch your back, I’m not the only one who’s under his thumb. If that man can’t find something to hold over you, he’ll make it happen with the camera at the ready.”
“We’ll take that warning to heart,” Cam answered. “Have a safe flight back to D.C.”
The three of us watched the man leave, needing reassurance he was really gone. Simon hailed a cab and was off before I let myself relax.
“What the fuck was that?” Eagle asked. “Do we need to worry about Marco having someone in every goddamn place? Everywhere we go, he’s got people crawling out of the woodwork to fuck up our mission.”
He was right. Marco had a reach that didn’t make sense, even with Diego and the Mad Dogs. How was he finding the connections and setting traps for unsuspecting victims if he’d been in Mexico?
“Do we have any idea when Marco’s father died?
” I questioned. “When he called me, he didn’t say, but what if while his father was still alive and running things, Marco was here in the US?
He knew his father was sick, but we don’t know for how long.
Marco could have been doing what Tommaso did and set up an entire plan for when he took over after his father died. ”
My brain started to churn through what little knowledge I had about Marco.
Chewing on my thumbnail, I paced the massive lobby.
“I’ve been running the Hidden Empire, what, eight years, give or take, and I didn’t cut off the border to Mexico until three years in, but I’d been slowly taking over the drug routes or cutting them off.
There were so many operations moving in and out I had to pick them off slowly. ”
“What exactly did Marco tell you on the phone,” Cam asked.
Pausing, I closed my eyes, trying to go all the way back to when we’d just gotten home. Till came over, and Marco had called me from her phone. Wes still didn’t know how he’d found out about her, but knowing what we know now, it was probably Dante. Think, Dax, think.
“He told me his father once had an empire like mine, but I slowly destroyed it. Marco was pissed because his dad wouldn’t fight back, just let me take over and forced them out of the game.
On his father’s deathbed, he promised he’d make the empire great again and get revenge,” I shared, yet I felt like I was missing something.
My eyes snapped open. “He said he’d tried to unseat me more than once, but it never worked.
I assumed it was everything that had happened so far.
Trying to stir up trouble in the Empire, assassination attempts, and then blowing up my house.
What if it’s more than that? Ken said that Marco’s been watching me for years, but he didn’t know anything about you?
” I said, pointing to Cam. “What if he had no idea about your task force or assumed Simon would be used to take me down? You kept it all a secret from them that you know me, loved me, and were watching my back long before you decided to pull me in.”
Stepping up to my dark knight, I rested my hands on his chest. “Cam, what did you protect me from?”