Chapter 14
Dane’s mind flipped back in time like a movie running in reverse to figure out where they’d gone wrong, what the feds had on him and how they’d gotten it.
He met Mark Richards’ smirk as the agent spun him around to clasp the cuffs on him.
Dane clamped down on his jaw, his mouth shut tight as a tomb.
“The bad news, Blaise, is you’re under arrest,” Richards almost grinned. “The good news is we’re taking you into Vineyard Haven so you can finish standing trial for murder.”
Acer said, “You mother—“
“Shut up, Acerman. You’re under arrest too. Put the cuffs on him. Cuff them all. We’ll sort out the charges when we get back to the station.”
Mark Richards and his crew of FBI Special Agents took charge, swarming their group. Dane slid a look at Elena, communicated without speaking, the way the used to, glad that they left the folder with Rick.
“I’ll call Peter,” Joe said when they let him go.
“Call Oscar too.”
“The only one you ought to be calling is your attorney,” Richards said.
“She’ll be at the station before we are,” Dane said. “You know how she is. She’ll make some threats, too. And knowing her, like we both do, they’ll be serious threats.”
“We have you on so many counts of breaking—“
“He didn’t break his curfew,” Elena blurted.
The blind loyalty in the statement, so much like the old days, the way they’d been, so much like the way Shana was now, the way she would be if she was there with him instead of Shana—the way she should be—knocked him sideways.
Spinning his head to look at her, twisting even as he was cuffed, causing a cutting pain in his wrist as well as through his chest, he met Elena’s shocked eyes.
The vulnerability, the painful longing he saw there, reflected the flash of his own emotions.
Then it was gone—her eyes shut and she was dragged away.
They put her in a separate black SUV.
*****
Agent Richard’s mouth clamped shut as he walked Dane to the second SUV and shoved Dane inside the back seat. But the smug look on his face didn’t bode well. He knew more than he was saying and it occurred to Dane that he’d been followed.
Damn. They should have accounted for that.
But with the threat against Peter all but closed out by the feds, limiting their resources, and him wearing the ankle bracelet, he truly didn’t figure they would bother following him.
All they’d had were grudges. They had no active reason to suspect him of wrong doing.
Even Richards knew Dane hadn’t murdered the nutcase Nash, or didn’t care.
It was like Peter had said, they wanted to put Dane in his place.
Having him wear an ankle bracelet and stand trial should have been enough to settle the score.
Unless there was more to this deal between prison mogul Guy Ziffer and the Congressman Victor Yannis than met the eye. Unless there was something more to the U.S. Marshall’s office operation than he’d been lead to believe.
Which also meant that Elena was more than likely holding something back.
Wouldn’t be the first time. She was an f—ing world-class competitor before she was anything else.
And though he and Shana had always, had always flirted with that edge of competition, this is where Shana was far different than Elena.
Shana knew that being on the same team, being his partner, most of all, being his lover, had meant more than competing, had been the most important thing of all. Shana had a softness to her edge.
How could you forget the sharpness of Elena’s edge, the lack of softness?
*****
As the door to Dane’s jail cell in the basement of the courthouse closed, the familiarity of returning to a second home greeted him. But the sting of being wrong about his attorney arriving before him struck him harder than the clang of the cell door closing.
The old cop shook his head, dipped his chin aiming his eyes at the floor.
“Sorry Mr. Blaise. I’m sure attorney Kimble will be here soon.”
“What are the charges, Bob?”
“I thought you knew.”
“No. They failed to mention that detail.”
“They said you interfered in a federal investigation. Made threats.”
He went cold.
“What federal investigation?”
Bob raised his eyes, a spark of decency lifting him. “U.S. Marshall’s Office. Guy named Remy Aguire called it in. Alerted everyone and their mother. He’s here now.”