Chapter Seven
Callie paced across Owen’s office. It was about the only thing she could do with this restless energy that was slamming through her.
She certainly couldn’t go after the bald man who’d tried to kill Nico and her because Owen had ordered her to stay put. Callie had obeyed that order. So had Nico. But clearly neither of them was pleased about that.
At least, Nico was using the wait time by using Owen’s desk and laptop to do some research on their missing person of interest, Tucker Langston, but Callie hadn’t been able to focus on work. Not when she was still dealing with the fresh surge of adrenaline shoved on top of the bone-deep exhaustion from the earlier attack.
Lying in wait .
That’s what Owen had said before he’d hurried out of the office, no doubt to honcho the operation to capture this SOB. And while there’d been many things said in the room during and after their chat with Estie, it was those three words that were repeating like gunfire in her head.
Callie had come under fire several times in the line of duty, but this was a first for her being a target, and she didn’t even know who was behind the threat. It could be Estie, Dante or this Tucker Langston. Or heck, The Fixer. There were way too many suspects and unanswered questions.
She was so lost in her own head that she nearly gasped when her phone rang, and she couldn’t answer it fast enough when she saw Lexa’s name on the screen. Because Lexa had been one of the responding deputies who’d rushed to the scene to get the guy in the blue truck.
“Did you find him?” Callie immediately asked after she answered the call on speaker.
“Sorry, no,” Lexa said on a sigh. “He wasn’t here when we arrived, but there are fresh tracks on one of the trails. Owen will get the CSIs out here in case the guy left something behind.”
Callie wanted to latch onto the hope that there was something to be found. But the odds were the man had never even gotten out of the truck. He’d simply pulled onto the trail, parked and waited. And if Ida had spotted him, then he had almost certainly spotted her as well. He had likely driven off before Ida had even made the call to the police station to report it.
“Thanks for letting us know,” Callie managed to say.
“Sorry I couldn’t give you more. Sorry I can’t give you him,” Lexa tacked onto that before she ended the call.
Nico stood, and blowing out a long breath, he went to her. He reached out as if he might pull her into his arms. Callie hated how much she wanted him to do that. If only for a second. Her nerves were all over the place, and Nico could probably steady them.
At a price, though.
With Nico, there was always a price. Except, it wasn’t. Not any longer now that she knew he wasn’t a scumbag. But the price could be extracted in other ways. By them losing focus of the investigation. That could end up being a deadly mistake. So, Callie wasn’t disappointed when the hug didn’t materialize.
Well, not too disappointed anyway.
“The CSIs will need to look through your house to see if this asshole left any surprises for you,” Nico said.
She groaned because, no, that hadn’t occurred to her. But it should have, and she cursed the fact that she was so far off her game. The distraction was already taking its toll.
“You might know that I have a house here in Outlaw Ridge, and we can go there,” he went on. “It’s about a mile outside of town in the opposite direction of your place and my family’s estate.”
Callie shook her head. She hadn’t known about his place.
“I don’t use it very often, and I don’t tell a lot of people about it, but it’s got a great security system,” Nico explained. “Far better than the inn would be or if you stayed with a friend. Better than staying at my family’s estate, too, since the CSIs are crawling all over the place right now.”
All of those were good reasons for her to accept his offer. But there was a big red flag here. She’d be in close quarters with Nico—while she was trying to focus on the investigation. While she was trying to keep some emotional distance between the two of them.
“No touching,” he added, lifting his hands in the air. “Well, not on my part anyway. I want you, Callie. I want you bad. But I want something even more than that, and it’s you out of the path of any other bullets. I don’t want you hurt or killed and especially not hurt or killed because of me.”
Her mind finally had some fresh words to whirl around. I want you bad . Yeah, that wasn’t going away anytime soon, but she believed Nico when he said he wouldn’t touch her. That was a solid ground rule. Because she didn’t want him hurt or killed because of her either. And if she refused to go with him to his place, that meant they could end up elsewhere, together, where it wouldn’t be as safe.
“All right,” she finally said. “I need to get my go-bag from my locker, and after I let Owen know where we’ll be, we can go to your place.”
Nico and she stepped out of the office, heading to the breakroom where the lockers were located. Unfortunately, that meant going through the bullpen where there would no doubt be some raised eyebrows as to why she was with Nico, especially if they had bought into the gossip of Nico and her being a couple again.
Yep, that’s what they believed all right.
She got puzzled What the heck are you doing looks from three of the four deputies in the bullpen. The fourth, Declan Brodie, didn’t even spare them a glance, but then again, he was having a phone conversation while typing something on his laptop.
When they went down the side hall toward the breakroom, she spotted Owen, who was doing some multitasking, too. He was on the phone and eating a burger wrapped in the bright lime green paper used by the diner just up the street.
“Yeah, love you, too,” Owen said to the caller.
So, he was likely talking to his partner, Ruby Maverick, and Callie had a fleeting thought, wondering if Owen did a better job than she was doing of balancing the personal with the job.
“We’re going to my place,” Nico told Owen while she went to her locker to get her go-bag. “Good security there, and Callie and I can work on any part of the investigation you need us on.”
“I need you to rest first. And eat. By then, Estie’s lawyer will hopefully be here, and I can start the interview. I don’t want to loop Callie in on that in case Estie actually does file a complaint. I also won’t give Estie any fodder since she could accuse Callie of having some kind of vendetta against her because of her past relationship with you.”
That made legal sense. But Callie wished she could hear what the woman had to say during an official interview. Then again, Estie might not say squat especially if her lawyer did all the talking.
“Rest, eat,” Owen emphasized when Nico and she started back toward the side exit. They didn’t make it far though when she saw Shaw approaching them again.
“Guess it’s the day for visitors,” Shaw remarked, looking at Nico. “A guy named Adam Smith just showed up looking for you.”
Nico nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see him.” He shifted to Owen. “I need to use your office again.”
“Of course. Who is this guy?” Owen asked. But then he waved it off. “You can tell me later.”
“Thanks,” Nico muttered, and they went to the office while Shaw peeled off and went back to reception where this Adam Smith was almost certainly waiting.
“That’s one of the aliases my handler uses,” Nico whispered to her once they were out of the bullpen and back outside the door to Owen’s office. “He’s Special Agent Yancy Dylan.”
Callie studied his expression. “It’s bad news that he’s here?”
“Probably.”
And she could tell his mind was already coming up with some bad scenarios. Especially one about the witness, Seth, having been murdered.
“Should I find some other place to wait for you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Stay close,” he insisted.
“Are you worried because you’re not sure you can trust him?” she wanted to know.
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “It’s hard for me to be objective about him so I want you to look for any tells, any signs that he could be dirty.”
She made a sound of agreement and hoped there were no tells. Hoped Yancy was a stellar agent. Because if he had gone bad, then that would make him one formidable enemy.
They waited in the doorway, and Callie saw the tall, lanky man making his way toward them. He was wearing jeans and a plain white tee, both nondescript, which applied to the man himself. The man didn’t have any features that would make him stand out in a crowd.
Yancy made eye contact with Nico but didn’t say anything to him until the three of them were in his office. “Deputy Callie Brandon,” Nico said, making the introductions. “Yancy Dylan.”
Yancy’s mouth tightened. “I understand you and the sheriff are the only other people here who know about Nico being FBI?”
Callie nodded. And left it at that. If he was dirty, there was no need to spill anything that didn’t need spilling.
Yancy didn’t seem especially pleased with her limited response, but then he shifted to Nico. “In light of everything that’s happened, I’m pulling you off this assignment.”
“What?” Nico snapped. “Why?”
His handler slid a glance at Callie before he responded. “Because your cover has been blown.”
“Blown by two cops,” Nico was quick to point out.
“Cops in a small town where the two of you know everyone, and everyone knows you.” Yancy scrubbed his hand over his face and made a weary sound. “Look. Because of this ruse of you being together, people will talk.”
“That’s the idea,” Nico insisted. “They talk, and The Fixer backs off and doesn’t consider Callie a threat.”
“Yes, and they could talk about other things,” Yancy insisted right back. “For instance, Morrelli’s murder and why you were at the crime scene. And why someone tried to kill Callie and you this morning. People might not connect the dots and assume you’re FBI, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. If your cover’s shot to hell and back, then people will be gunning for you. People like Estie.”
Callie could tell that Nico wanted to argue that, but he couldn’t. Plus, if his cover was indeed blown, that could mean a career change in the FBI. Nico might not want that, especially if his undercover persona was linked to other investigations.
“I just need to do a quick debrief with you, and then you should take some downtime,” Yancy continued a moment later. “Is there anything you’ve left out of the reports you’ve been sending me? Any leads you’re working on that I should know about?”
Callie had no idea if those questions were standard procedure, but they sent up little red flags for her. Then again, the flags were probably only there because of the chance this guy might be on the take.
“No,” Nico said. “Nothing.” And he looked Yancy straight in the eyes. “Is the witness safe?”
Yancy shrugged. “As far as I know. I’m not privy to his location. Are you?” he tacked on a heartbeat later.
“No,” Nico answered.
Yancy stared at him as if waiting for more. Which he didn’t get. Nico stayed quiet, something that didn’t seem to please the handler.
“We have agents out looking for this Tucker Langston,” Yancy finally said. “I understand the sheriff, members of his Strike Force team, and the Texas Rangers are all looking for him as well. Obviously, if one of them locates Tucker first, I’ll see what info can be extracted from him without tipping our hand as to why you were really here in Outlaw Ridge.”
Nico responded with a nod.
Again, Yancy waited, but he must have decided this meeting was over because without another word, he turned and walked out.
“Not exactly the warm and fuzzy type,” Callie remarked.
Nico made a sound of agreement, and he shut the office door that Yancy had left open. “That’s usual for him. He’s pissed that my assignment went south when you saw me near Morrelli’s body.” He paused. “But he asked me if I knew where Seth was. That isn’t usual. Assignments like this are basically siloed. We each only know the bits of info needed to do the job and nothing more.”
That made sense. The fewer people who knew Seth’s location, the better. Still, it wouldn’t be impossible for someone to figure out that Nico was FBI and then work from there to find someone who could maybe be used to help them get to a witness and murder him.
Nico’s phone rang with a different ringtone than his other calls had been. This one was three quick beeps that made it sound urgent. Nico’s reaction made it seem that way, too. His expression instantly changed.
“That’ll be The Fixer,” he muttered.
“He calls you?” she asked.
“This is a first,” Nico let her know. “This is a secure phone, not traceable through ordinary means so I put in the number on the online portal on the dark web when I accepted the job to locate Seth. I also assigned his calls a unique ring so I’d know who it was.”
She had questions. Well, one anyway. Did this mean The Fixer was the same person who’d hired him? But getting the answer about that would have to wait because Nico took the call on speaker. He also hit the record function on his phone.
“Do you need the cop dead?” someone asked, the words stiff and mechanical. The person was obviously using a voice changer. “The cop who arrested you,” the caller added. “Do you need her dead?”
Oh, God. Even Callie had known she was on this SOB’s radar, it still felt like a gut punch to hear how easily he’d offered to kill her.
“No,” Nico answered. “She’s taken care of. She’s no threat to my assignment.”
“No threat,” the caller spat out. “Then, maybe she’s a distraction since you still haven’t found the witness.”
“I’m looking,” Nico assured The Fixer. “But someone killed an informant who might have had answers. Any idea who did that?”
Silence for a long time. “No,” the caller finally said. Despite the mechanical alteration, the voice still managed to sound icy cold.
And dangerous.
“There’s a new urgency to find the witness,” the caller continued a moment later. “The person he’s scheduled to testify against is panicking and might try to make a deal.”
Her gaze shot to Nico, and even though neither of them said anything, it was obvious from his expression that Nico was thinking the same thing. The plea deal was something he’d told Estie.
Had the woman passed the info along to The Fixer?
Or was Estie the actual fixer?
Yes, she was in an interview room right here in the building, and while it would be risky to make a call from here, she would be free to use her phone. More likely though, she had just passed along the info to someone else, and the result was this conversation Nico was now having.
“I’ll find the witness,” Nico assured him. There was a dark and dangerous edge to his voice now, too. “I just need you to back off and let me do what you hired me to do.”
“No backing off,” the caller snarled. “The rules have changed, and I’ll add an incentive for you to do your job and find him.”
“What incentive?” Nico demanded.
“A big one,” the voice spat out. “You’ve got forty-eight hours to find that witness and blow his brains out. Forty-eight hours or I come after you .”