Chapter 6
Shana wasn’t sure which unnerved her more. It was either the ATF file’s antiseptic details of Dagmar Hunt’s exploits making them seem more graphic and real, or it was Dane’s vault-like containment of whatever he was feeling about the threat against his mother.
Had the threat changed from a long-ago lunatic’s ravings into an immediate reality?
She wished she knew the answer. She hoped to hell it was more about Dane’s paranoia than a real threat.
It was clear that her nerves were out of control and she was better than this, had to be better than this.
She stalked into the kitchen and forced herself to aim for the coffeepot rather than the tequila.
Not that it was a good idea to add caffeine to her frayed nerves, like adding gasoline to a fire, but she needed something.
Sam stood between her and her something.
He said, “You all right.” Like it wasn’t a question, but that he knew she was far from okay.
“You think it’s okay that ATF is in on this?” Shana’s voice rang with tension. ATF’s involvement took this out of their control. And made the threat a shade more real and dangerous.
Sam didn’t answer her. He spoke directly to Dane in his slow deliberate voice, like he was trying to hide the way he used to talk, his origins.
“The ATF wants in. They’ve been after Dag forever and they smell a goat trap.”
“No way in hell is Dane’s mother playing the goat for this trap.”
“They’ll want you, then.”
“I’ll be happy to be the goat on the ATF’s rope for Dag to come after.” She smiled at Sam, but it wasn’t a friendly smile.
She channeled Dane’s shark smile and wished she could see herself in the mirror. Because Sam didn’t react at all. Nothing. He didn’t flinch, and his eyes didn’t change from the passive knowing state they always had.
“No one is playing any goat. Not on my watch.” Dane’s voice came from behind her, calm but firm. And loud.
Though their mothers were outside now with Jake, Shana hoped they hadn’t heard anything.
She turned and wanted to slap him, wanted to shake him, wanted to demand that she be allowed to play the bait. But before she said anything, he spoke, this time in a normal conversational voice.
“Don’t think of shushing me in my own house.”
He had her down. But the fact that he was right and his mild tone didn’t lessen the rebuke.
She said nothing, but shifted to spread her feet wider and straightened taller with her fists planted on her hips. She didn’t care if he’d accuse her of doing the Wonder Woman pose. It felt good.
“It’s what I do,” she said.
“Dag wouldn’t go for it.”
Sam said, “He might. If we set it up. Spread the word about Shana and you.”
Dane glared at him. Sam’s standing moved up several notches in Shana’s esteem for that. He had confidence that she could pull it off or he’d never have defied Dane.
“I’m the only one who will play target for Dag. You, Shana, and the ATF will have to live with that.”
Her heart tumbled around her insides and her chest clamped down on the clamoring of dread. She’d always know where this was headed as soon as she’d heard Dag’s name. Dane would make sure there was a showdown with his old nemesis. One way or another, he wanted to end the lifelong war.
As if her blood had turned to ice, Shana shivered.
Dane’s cell rang then and he slid it against his ear after noting it was Cap.
“You’re wanted here at HQ.”
“Who wants me?”
“Agent Alan Wilton and his sidekick of the ATF. They’ll be here in twenty minutes. If I were you I’d get here in ten.”
“You have a location for Dag?”
“Not yet. I want to let you in on the players. You can tell them what you need and what you think of their plan. You coming over?”
“I’ll be there within eight minutes. With Shana.”
She was his partner. He needed to keep reminding himself of that. Besides he wanted her by his side. Maybe he was getting soft.
No. In his gut he felt as steely as ever in his resolve to deal with Dagmar Hunt. And put a permanent end to the threat he posed.
Jake swung through the back door and his sunny smile faded as he looked around the room.
“Who was on the phone?”
“The ATF has come calling. Shana and I are going into Cap’s office to meet with them.”
“Sam and I will take security detail.”
Sam nodded.
“Dane has decided he wants to play bait for a Dagmar trap with the ATF,” Sam said in his usual matter-of-fact way.
Except it sounded more ominous than matter-of-fact.
Jake took that in and flashed a glance in Shana’s direction as if accusing her of bagging out of the bait detail. She lifted her chin and shifted her feet so she stood taller.
“No choice in the matter,” Dane said.
“Like hell,” Sam said as if he were remarking on the mild weather.
“Since when do you feel compelled to go along with federal law enforcement agencies?” Shana challenged him because she had a suspicion he was trying to preempt her role. “You’ve never been cooperative.” Not once in his entire goddamn life, she’d lay odds.
“I’m not going to cooperate with the ATF. I want nothing to do with them, but they do present a complication and I don’t want them thinking they can use my mother as bait.”
“You have a point,” Jake said. He looked at Shana again.
“I could play bait and do a convincing job of it for the ATF.” Shana spoke to Dane, but she kept an eye on the other two, hoping they’d back her.
Dane snaked an arm out and around her shoulder.
“Nice offer. But Dag is not going to even know you exist.”
She shrugged out of his grasp and headed for the back door.
She wasn’t sure why it made any more sense for her to play bait over Dane, or why Sam thought she ought to. Maybe he was being protective of Dane the way Dane was protective of her.
None of it was comforting to contemplate.
Dane and Shana arrived ahead of the ATF agents. Cap was waiting for them. His desk was empty, his computer turned off, the phone silent and the atmosphere passive.
“You on vacation?” Dane said. Cap stood with his back to them, looking out his window at the flower garden belonging to the Cape Cod house next door where an older couple lived. Dane knew them. He’d had occasion to cut through their yard more than once.
Cap turned, didn’t smile.
“I wish. But where would I go that’s better than here?”
“You can come to Australia with me,” Shana said.
Dane knew it was an offhand invitation, the kind of open-ended thing you reserved for good friends.
He knew in his mind she meant nothing by it.
But in his gut, the age-old caveman part of him protested with a tightening of every muscle and he had to work at not fisting his hands or jumping in front of her or hauling her to his side to stake his claim.
He had no business feeling that way. He didn’t own her, not really. Only in his deep-down caveman gut did he feel ownership, and only when he gave rein to his primordial self.
And only as long as Shana lets me.
“Speaking of Australia, when is your ma returning home?” Dane said.
The cool look and slight lift of her chin was automatic. Shana’s default attitude with him was indignance. He liked it. He liked toppling her from a haughty perch to somewhere softer.
Today he let it go.
“She’s not going to have much fun confined to quarters if she stays.”
“I’ll call my brothers and have them come fetch her tomorrow.”
Cap said to him, “What about your mother?”
“Getting her off island now that both Dag and the ATF are aware of her whereabouts will be tricky. But I’ll plan something for tomorrow night or the next day if possible.”
“Let me know if I can help.”
“He’s got me for that,” Shana said. “You need to run interference with the ATF.”
“About that.” Cap returned to his desk chair as if it had summoned him. As if he couldn’t be away from his power source too long.
“Who are we meeting?” Dane settled down and sat still when he’d rather have prowled the room.
“Agent Alan Wilton has been on the job nearly twenty years. He’s always been straight by the book but now he’s going out on a limb to impress his new, younger boss and avoid being forced into early retirement.
He wants Dagmar Hunt bad. Dag was the only big man in the Mongols gang who they didn’t get a few years back when they nearly shut down the Mongols operation. ”
“They say Wilton now has an edge to him. Not so much by the book anymore. A little unpredictable.”
“If he weren’t trying to use my mother as bait I might like the guy.”
“His sidekick is a younger, less bitter version of him.”
The phone rang, Cap clipped out his answer.
“ATF agents Wilton and Simpson are on their way. Let’s meet them in the conference room.” Cap stood and headed for the door.
Dane stepped outside the office right behind him
“Conference room—you mean interview room?” Shana followed them both. They didn’t take the door back into the hallway. They’d all walked through a second door.
“You mean the interrogation room.” Dane took his place in a corner of the small room. A scratched-up, sturdy old table anchored the center of the space.
“There’s only four chairs,” Shana said as she stopped short.
Dane folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall as if he were James Dean striking a pose for the paparazzi.
“It’s a planned strategy.”
“Why do you get to play the cool guy in the corner?”
“If you stood in the corner you’d be nothing but a distraction, girlie.”
“He has a point.” Cap pulled out a chair for her.
“Let’s wait for our guests.”
On cue, someone rapped on the door and opened it. Cap’s desk sergeant waved two men in suits into the room. Their suits weren’t as well cut as the FBI’s suits and they were charcoal instead of the usual navy blue of the feds.
The two stopped as if they’d hit a wall, looked around and nodded.
Their stares landed on Dane. He wasn’t surprised.
He didn’t match their gravity and he didn’t return their nod.
He counted the ticks of discomfort while Cap took his time.
He hoped to hell Shana didn’t blow their strategy by piping up.