Chapter 13
Kimble called and confirmed that they got a day’s reprieve for the trial.
“You better not be dicking me around. No shenanigans,” she said.
“No shenanigans. I’m deadly serious, Kimble. I’m going to Boston to track down the threat to the governor because the FBI isn’t doing their job. I’m telling you as a courtesy, not asking for your approval.”
There was a long silent pause except for the long hiss of a breath being expelled.
“I’m damn serious too—as serious as a life sentence.”
“Ronnie Ryan is scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon,” he said, ignoring her warning. “Meet him at the ferry. Make it visible. Parade him around the courthouse. Take him to the Lucky Parrot. You can prep him over dinner. We want Philimino to buy into our excuse for the delay.”
“I know how to do my job. You stick to yours. Speaking of your trip—Philimino is going to know you’re off-island. He’s going to tell Agent Richards. What are you going to do about that? What’s your story?”
“I’m meeting with Benito Stravana. We’re questioning him about what he knows about the drones and the threats against Peter.”
“You know he’s lost half his mind, right?”
“Sure. We’re not counting on getting much from him. It’s our interview with Tracy Peal, Senator Yannis’s campaign manager, that’s going to prove interesting.”
Once again Dane had shocked Kimble into a skeptical silence. Feeling Shana’s eyes on him, sensing her impatience, he turned to see her with her hands on her hips, shapely legs planted ready to fight.
“Gotta go, Kimble. I’ll be in touch.” She gave him a different number to call, a new throw-away phone as if she were taking the throw-away concept too seriously.
Dane didn’t mind her paranoia about being listened to, rather applauded it.
He slipped his phone back in his pocket and took a step toward Shana, but she put up a hand to stop him.
“I noticed you didn’t mention to her that you’re now working with the U.S Marshall’s office.”
He shrugged. “Look, I have to go. We have details to flesh out.”
She nodded, scowled. He took her by the shoulders and pulled her in for a reluctant kiss.
There was no way he was leaving her behind without a good-bye kiss.
No way in hell. It took her two beats to soften, to part her lips and give herself to him, to let him give her everything he had in that one deep, scalding kiss.
Leaving her in their room, he felt rusty with reluctance as he went back down the stairs.
Or maybe the problem was that he was getting old.
Either way, he braced himself to join Elena again, to see her, talk to her, as if nothing happened in all those intervening years, as if she hadn’t been dead and buried, grieved to the point of despair and back.
Holding the tremor of turmoil still, Dane forced a deep breath, put everything aside and focused on the need to neutralize the threat against Peter. He walked back into the kitchen. Acer was on his computer.
“I got something,” he said.
Dane grabbed a cup of coffee and sat next to Acer, looking over his shoulder on one side while Elena looked over his other shoulder.
“This looks like some kind of sophisticated software you’ve got there,” she said.
“Forget you ever saw it.”
She snorted.
“No, for real. I mean it,” Acer said. He flipped the screen of the notebook down and faced her. Dane met her surprised look and nodded. No smile. No reassurance.
“Got it. I never saw it.” She shoved back from her seat and stood. “Tell us what you found, Acer.”
Acer paused a beat with a glance at Dane to get his authorization to share. Dane nodded. No sense keeping mission specific intel from her. She was in on it. The idea was gaining momentum, his trepidation about was gaining momentum too.
“Ziffer’s bank accounts under a trust. He’s not sending money directly to Yannis or Peal. He’s sending money to a PAC. I checked and Yannis gets support from the same PAC. Problem is, so do a lot of candidates.”
“It’s good information. We can use it as a jumping off point with Peal. Imply we have more than we do.” Dane pinned Elena with his eyes as she paced in a circle.
“How about you? What do you have that we can use?”
She shrugged. Dane knew the next words from her lips would be a lie.
“I already told you. Remy may have more by now. He’ll fill us in when he gets here, after we’re back from Boston.”
“You’re rendezvousing with him here? I thought you needed to stay away from the feds?”
“I’ll be safe with Remy. He’s my handler. Remy wanted to go wherever the governor was. Ground zero.”
Not buying it, Dane nodded and saw no reason to let her know he didn’t trust her. Funny how that deep down absolute trust they’d shared so many years ago, while they were together, had evaporated now so completely. Because she’d deceived him in the biggest way possible.
It was even odder that he felt no sense of loss, didn’t care at all that he couldn’t trust this woman who he’d once trusted with his life.
Dane supposed he owed his attitude to Shana.
He knew without a doubt that Shana would have taken him with her into witness protection.
Or more likely, she would never have gone.
She’d have stayed to face the consequences.
“Anything else in Yannis’s files?” Dane asked.
Acer shook his head, frowning. “Nothing. I think he keeps his stuff off-line. To avoid hackers like me.”
“Not a problem,” Elena said. “We’ll get to the files in person.
Tracy Peal will give us whatever we want.
Dane will work his magic. Right, mi ami?
” She smiled that familiar smile. His body reacted from memory.
Tension coiled with the small burst of automatic desire.
He didn’t like that she’d used her old term of endearment.
It didn’t, shouldn’t mean anything now. As he settled, the over-riding sentiment he felt was resentment.
He showed nothing. He knew she’d stop if he ignored her, gave no sign of response good or bad. She’d liked getting her response from him back in the day. But that was back in another lifetime. Literally.
“Time to check in with Rick Racer,” he said.
Slipping out his phone, he wished he had his old secure line, the one that had been blown up with the beach shack. He pressed in Rick’s number.
“You still memorize phone numbers?” she said.
He met her eyes, neutral, and said nothing until Rick came on the line.
Elena listened in. It felt odd that neither Peter nor Shana were there. Acer half-listened. Elena had displaced him on the assignment. He would back Joe at his meeting with Stravano. Joe leaned forward and paid close attention. He always did.
“Did you set up the meeting?”
“Yes. You’re in with Tracy Peal,” Rick said.
“You think she knows enough?”
Rick said, “I bet my left arm she knows more than Yannis. She’s as dirty as they come. A real climber. No holds barred, no trick too low.”
“The plan is to get her to spill what she knows about Ziffer’s prison deal and the intimidation of Peter.
How do we convince her to turn on her boss?
” Dane said, knowing Rick had an answer.
Likely a good one judging by the smug look on his face.
Peter wouldn’t have kept Rick as his right-hand man if he wasn’t world-class caliber at his job—even if his job was sleazy as hell dealing with political messes, back-stabbing, double deals and more intrigue than the CIA.
“I have dirt on Ms. Peal, but Peter won’t let me use it.”
“What kind of dirt?” Dane said. “All bets are off and we’ll use whatever we need to use. We need something big and juicy to convince her to roll on her boss.”
“How about this—I have her on bribing a judge. She cut a deal with a supporter who used to be an enemy by getting her son bailed out of jail. She had an in with the clerk. He calls when anything comes up in the district that might interest her.”
“And you know this how?” Dane shouldn’t be putting Rick on the spot, but he needed to know if Rick had any vulnerabilities. Rick put up his hands.
“My hands are clean. A friend of mine was in court same day the kid was let off the hook and he did some snooping around. Got me the name of the clerk and I did my homework on the rest. I have a nose for rats.”
Dane grinned at Elena and said, “Just what we need in this operation.”
Elena grinned back. A wince of guilt hit him. It shouldn’t, but working with Elena felt like he was betraying Shana. He brushed off the guilt. He’d run operations without Shana before. He would handle this one without her same as any other. But with Elena instead.
Damn. He had no choice. This was Elena’s operation as much as it was his. In fact she—and her boyfriend Remy—could have shut them out and taken it over if they wanted to play hard ball.
“I’ll be ready when you get here,” Rick said. “I’m in on the interview with Peal.” Rick’s voice edged with excitement. “And I want to be able to use whatever intel we get when this is all over.”
“Knock yourself out,” Dane said. “See you at around o-eight-hundred.” He hung up. “Sneaky bastard.”
Elena nodded. “I like him too.”
They had a moment, sharing that connection they used to have, or a shadow of it. Dane would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to feeling the pull.
Elena’s phone rang and it was her partner-lover. He knew because her face lit up. Remembered seeing her face light up like that when she’d looked at him back in the day.
Remembered that she’d made her choice. She’d chosen to leave without him. And he knew damn well she could have asked him to come with her into witness protection. He wondered now if he would have gone, then shook his head, dispelling the past.