Chapter 19 #2
“Gentlemen,” Mel said, not bothering to hide her smirk as they untangled themselves.
Cam found his voice first. “Thank you for the assist today.”
“Glad I could help. Felt good to be back in the field.”
“Don’t get enough of that as TE’s Chief of Security?”
Mel sashayed around the room, smirk still in place. “That job, no. The other . . .” Neither Cam nor Nic asked, not wanting the answer. Mel’s bounty hunter business was booming, but they didn’t need the details. “Is a solitary gig. Felt good having the team back together.”
“That it did,” Cam said, and Nic couldn’t disagree.
She tossed her glittery purse on the table and took a seat, making herself at home. “Price, if you have a moment.”
Cam looked back and forth between them.
“Why don’t you go make sure Aidan hasn’t killed my boss yet?” Nic suggested.
“He and Bowers were still shouting at each other when I passed by,” Mel said. “Can’t say I miss dealing with him.”
“Which one?”
She laughed, and Cam did too as he drifted out of the room, the sound music to Nic’s ears. The tune changed quickly though as the smile dropped from Mel’s face. She nodded at the door, and Nic closed it.
“I assume this is about the matter we discussed last week?” he asked, taking the seat across from her.
She opened her purse and pulled out a flash drive, TE branded, swiped from her day job. “Everything I could get on your father and his associates.” She slid it across the table to him. “You need to be careful. These people are dangerous.”
“How dangerous?”
“Yours wouldn’t be the first blood they’ve spilled.”
“Enough for a case?” Sure, he could take the shot when needed but what he was really good at was building a case and putting bad people away for good.
That was how he needed to approach Vaughn, understanding it would be one of—if not the—toughest cases of his career.
He hadn’t had a concrete place to start before. Now he did.
“You’re the prosecutor. You’re the one who determines if the evidence is sufficient.” She stood, picking up her purse. “Good hunting.”
If there was one thing the SEALs had taught him, it was that.
As he had been on Wednesday, Cam stood in the corner of the conference room, watching Aidan and Bowers square off.
“He’s not a suspect!” Aidan shouted.
“He committed two robberies and helped perpetrate a near third one and the attempted murder of two law enforcement officers.”
“He?” Nic said as he followed Lauren in and closed the door behind them.
“That’d be me,” Cam said, folding his arms. If he could burn a hole through Bowers’s head, he would. Did the US Attorney not understand how undercover assignments worked? Or was he just looking for any excuse to tear apart their team? And why now that they’d bagged the case?
Nic stepped into the path of his imaginary laser beams. “Did any civilian, fed, or other LEOs on scene die today?” Nic asked Bowers.
“No, because they were wearing vests.”
Cam stepped to Nic’s side. “Which I knew because it’s protocol. My boss wouldn’t send our people in without them.”
“Your boss”—Bowers cut a glare to Aidan and back—“has a habit of breaking protocol.”
“We handled the situation,” Aidan replied, not deigning to address Bowers’s accusation. “With zero loss of life.”
“Kristi?’s not talking,” Bowers said, changing the topic from a nonwinning argument to another one. The mastermind behind the heist was in the hospital again with another shoulder wound, Nic’s aim perfect. “Neither is anyone else in the crew. How are we supposed to make a case?”
“Lauren,” Nic said with a nod to her.
She laid three flash drives down on the table. “AD Moore’s.” Bowers reached for them; Aidan snatched them first. “FBI property.”
Before Bowers could object, Lauren laid down another. “Everything you need for the case against Kristi?.”
Bowers’s gaze shot to Nic. “You were already building it?”
“Of course I was.” He gestured around the room and took a step closer to Cam. “We were.”
Bowers scowled at each of them, then scooped up the flash drive. “This better be enough.”
“It is,” Cam said.
Bowers’s glower whipped to him. “And you’re suspended.”
Cam snapped, lurching forward, into Nic’s outstretched arm. “You don’t have the power to do that,” Nic said.
“But I can ask Justice to.”
“Do you really want to go to war with me?” Aidan said.
“Do you know how many of your cases I can tie up? Send agents out on urgent assignment when they’re supposed to be in court?
Prioritize our cases over yours?” Bowers fumed, no doubt adding more strikes against them in his head.
And Aidan knew it. “Byrne’s my best agent and my partner.
You’re not sidelining him because of a fucking grudge. ”
“Cam did his job to a T,” Nic added, lowering his arm. “The artifacts are secure, the AD’s flash drives are returned, and no lives were lost. Everyone’s in custody, our CI is safe, and we have the evidence we need to close this case.”
“We’ll see if I agree with your assessment, Attorney Price.” Turning on his heel, Bowers stormed out, the little ding on the elevator a fitting end to his defeated departure. The collective whoosh of air in the room, all of them releasing their breaths, was audible.
“You’re on leave for a week,” Aidan said to Cam.
Cam shrugged. “I figured as much.” Standard protocol after undercover assignments. Time to realign and catch up on the email and paperwork. “Thanks for not saying so in front of Bowers.”
“Recovery, not suspension. Paid, you earned it,” Aidan said. “You too, Hall. Unless you need her for the prelim,” he added to Nic.
“You got a copy of that flash drive for me?” Nic asked.
Lauren dug around in her jacket pocket, produced another stick, and tossed it to him.
“I’m set, then,” Nic said. “I’ll call if I have any questions.”
“In that case,” Lauren said, “I’m gonna go home and sleep for a week. Any objections?” None made, she hurried out, probably thinking they’d change their minds.
Aidan sank down in his chair, looking like he needed to sleep for a week too. “You two good?” He reached for his coffee cup, took a sip, then sputtered a string of Gaelic curses.
Nic bit back a laugh; Cam let his out. He’d seen the string of the tea bag when Jamie had handed Aidan the cup. Seemed Nic was in on the joke too.
“Do I have you to thank for this?” Aidan asked Nic.
“I believe your husband brought that to you.”
“I’ll tell you how you can make it up to me.”
Nic smiled. “How’s that?”
Aidan’s brown eyes drifted down, toward where Bowers’s office was two floors below. “Get that asshole’s job, and soon. Otherwise, I’m gonna kill him. Then Jamie’s gonna kill all of you.”
Nic chuckled. “Noted.”
Aidan waved them toward the door. “Get the fuck out of here already.”
They were still laughing when they reached the stairwell door at the other end of the bullpen. Cam held it open for Nic, following him through. “US Attorney one day, huh?”
Nic tilted his head—an ear up, an ear down—then stepped closer, backing Cam against the wall. “Unlikely, especially as I’m fucking the local ASAC.”
That was what Cam wanted to hear. Running his hands up the wrinkled dress shirt, Cam grabbed two handfuls and yanked Nic against him. “Are you now?”
“Was planning to,” Nic said with a wink.
Cam’s jaw dropped open, exaggerating his genuine shock and amusement. “Did you just wink at me?”
“Lauren says I’m picking up your bad habits.”
“Oh, I’ve got plenty of bad habits for you to pick up.”
Like kissing in public stairwells.