Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Once they arrive at the Arts Festival, things only get worse. Dr. Adrian is nice, but his sister doesn’t make much effort to include Tori in their conversations. She works in corporate finance, and when Tori jokes how she's bad at math, Gina looks concerned.
"Maybe you should get a tutor. Math is very important."
"I'm a little old for a math tutor," Tori says with a laugh. "If I haven't learned it by now, I probably don't need it."
"You're never too old to learn math." She turns to her brother. "What do you think, Adrian?"
"Of course, you’re never too old. I still find multivariable calculus fascinating."
"Me too," his sister says with a grin.
They begin a detailed discussion about repeated integration and a hypervolume greater than three dimensions.
Tori listens nervously. It all sounds like gibberish. She hopes she's not going to have to learn multivariable calculus to date Dr. Adrian.
After walking around and viewing a lot of the art, the three of them have a seat near the big fountain at Seattle Center to eat lunch. Tori makes a point of sitting close to him.
"This is fun," Gina says, balancing her sandwich box on her knees. "Sort of like a picnic."
"It is," he agrees.
His sister swallows a bite of food. "I have to admit the art here is a little far out for my tastes. I don't really understand most of it."
"I’m not sure I do either." He turns to Tori. "What do you think of it?"
"I like the art. I don't think it's too far out." They both listen as she explains her point of view. "Some of it really makes you think. Or it makes you smile. My sister-in-law’s mom is an artist. She's the one who did all those cactus paintings we saw in the second building."
"Cactus paintings?" Gina asks with confusion. "I don't remember those."
"Yes, they look sort of look like, um… something else." To be honest, they look just like penises, but Tori isn't saying that aloud.
Gina seems perplexed, but Dr. Adrian's eyes light up. "I do remember those cacti. You’re right. They were fantastic."
"They're kind of humorous," Tori explains to Gina, who still looks lost.
After lunch, they walk around some more. There's a colorful series of cat cartoons that Tori adores so much she takes a photo of the artist's name for her friend Fiona, who's a marketing expert and is always looking for new talent.
For some reason, she wonders what Liam would think of the festival. She's not sure why, but she thinks he'd enjoy it.
Meanwhile, Gina and Dr. Adrian have started a discussion about some political book they read recently that Tori's never heard of. She feels like a third wheel. What's more is she keeps comparing him to Liam, which is the last thing she should be doing.
She stares at Dr. Adrian's lips. They're perfectly nice lips, but she can't help thinking they're not as sensual as Liam's.
She tries to imagine kissing Dr. Adrian. She pictures the two of them in a heated embrace, but as much as she tries to stir up some passion, there's no wildfire.
What's worse is she's doubting everything. Did Dr. Adrian only invite her here as a friend? Is it possible Liam’s right and he’s gay?
But what about the pink daisy and the look ? There was no mistaking that look.
She's getting depressed. Here, when she finally thought she'd found a decent guy, it’s all going down the drain.
But then something amazing happens.
At one of the exhibits, she sits on a bench to rest while Gina and Dr. Adrian have walked ahead. She leans back and closes her eyes and lets herself doze.
There's movement beside her, but she doesn't pay attention to it at first, not until there's a hand on her knee.
Her eyes fly open. It's Dr. Adrian's hand. He's sitting beside her. His handsome face is directly in front of hers—that strong jaw and those perfect lashes. Does he use an eyelash curler? No, that would be weird.
He squeezes her knee and smiles. "You okay, Tori?"
Her mouth opens. "I'm fine."
"You sure?" He removes his hand but remains near her.
"I didn't get much sleep last night."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I’m also sorry you and I haven’t had a chance to talk much today. We’ll have to do something just the two of us next time, okay?"
"Okay." She gulps .
Gina calls her brother over to see something, and he gives her an apologetic smile before getting up.
She tries to digest what just happened.
Was Dr. Adrian sitting close to me? Did he touch my knee and tell me he wants to spend time alone together?
Yes, he did.
Maybe there's no wildfire, but so what? All wildfires do in the end is burn out.
When they finally leave the festival, she’s feeling optimistic. Even the car ride home isn't so bad this time. There's still the chemical smell, and that jazz saxophone is like an ice pick in her ear, but she's able to tolerate it.
"Here you go," Gina says, pulling into her driveway. "I hope you had an enjoyable time."
"Thank you for bringing me," Tori says politely. She turns to Dr. Adrian. "Would you mind coming inside for a moment?"
His brows go up. "You want me to come inside your house?"
She smiles sweetly. "I'd like you to meet my dogs."
He pauses, seeming to consider it.
Gina huffs with obvious impatience. "No offense, but we have to get going."
"It will only take a second to meet them," she says quickly. "That way when I bring them into the animal hospital, they'll already know your scent."
Dr. Adrian nods with approval. "Sure, I could meet them. I’d like that."
"Great." She reaches for the door handle.
Despite more protests from Gina, Dr. Adrian gets out of the car and follows Tori up the front walk. He waits patiently as she hunts for the key.
"Thanks for doing this."
"It's no problem at all. And I’m sorry this whole day has been kind of a bust. I’m new to Seattle, and Gina tends to be protective over me. "
Tori reflects on his broken heart from Renée. "Don’t worry, I totally understand."
Her dogs greet them as she opens her door. "Eddie’s the golden retriever. Duff’s the pug mix, and that little Chihuahua is Tommy Lee." She points to each one as they gather around with their tails wagging.
"Hey there, boys." Dr. Adrian bends down on one knee, petting all the dogs and examining them. "It looks like you have a healthy group here."
"Thank you. I try to take good care of them." She tells him how all three dogs were strays she adopted from the animal shelter she volunteers at.
"My dogs are both from shelters too," he says, glancing up at her. "It's great that you give your time like that. In fact, I do the same thing."
Obviously she already knows that about him. Just one more way he's perfect.
He stands up from petting her dogs, who all adore him. She's not surprised.
"I guess I'd better get going,” he says. He smiles at her and seems to hesitate for a moment.
Tori wonders if he wants to kiss her but is too shy.
To help him out, she steps closer and gives him a hug. "I had a nice time today." He’s tall and wiry in her arms. She’s never been this close to Dr. Adrian and notices he’s wearing some kind of subtle men’s cologne. It smells good. She usually prefers men not wear cologne, but on him she likes it.
"Me too. Let’s do this again soon."
When they draw apart, she turns her face up, hoping he’ll take the hint and kiss her.
He’s looking down at her, and that’s when Tori decides the heck with it. He’s obviously gun-shy. She puts her hands up to his layered hair. It’s silky beneath her fingers.
Holding his head still, she kisses him straight on the mouth.
To her surprise, Dr. Adrian makes an odd startled noise in his throat.
When she pulls away, he’s wearing a stunned expression.
A car horn blares outside. Gina in her Jeep.
"I just wanted to let you know how I feel," she says in a rush. "I hope that’s okay."
He blinks a few times. "Tori, I… I think you’re great."
She smiles. "I think you’re great too." She senses he’s bothered and wonders if it was a mistake kissing him. "I know you’re still dealing with your heartbreak from Renée. I’m not trying to push you or anything."
His eyes widen. "You know about Renée?"
"I do. And I just want you to know when you’re ready, I’ll be here."
A car horn blares outside again, longer this time.
Dr. Adrian glances toward the sound and then licks his lips. It seems like he wants to say more, but then he shakes his head. He reaches for her hand, squeezing it. "Let’s talk about this later, okay?"
She squeezes his hand in return. "Okay."
Liam learns Walter Yates isn’t his real name. Yates is an alias, and it turns out the guy's real name is Rizzo. They’ve already got him on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice are slow, especially on the weekend, and they're still waiting for an arrest warrant.
"I don't care if he gets on an airplane tonight," he says to Matt as they watch Rizzo's house from inside his bureau car. "I'm following him." The more they investigate Rizzo, the more criminal activity they’re discovering. It’s gone well beyond the Ponzi scheme. The guy has a dozen offshore companies hiding money.
Matt chuckles. They've been surveilling all afternoon, taking over for the other team. "Hey, maybe he'll get on a plane to Hawaii," he jokes. "I can work on my tan."
Movies about the FBI depict everything happening quickly, but reality can be a different story. Besides the mountain of paperwork Liam has to contend with, there are all the ins and outs of working with the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"So I hear you impressed Shelby last Saturday," Matt says with a grin, turning toward him. "I take it your date went well."
Liam nods, "It was good."
"Just good?"
He's not sure what else to say. The woman he's been thinking about all week isn’t Shelby. "She's great, but I'm not really interested."
Matt's brows rise. "Seriously? After everything Amy's told me about her, I figured you two were a sure thing."
"It's not her. It's me."
His friend’s expression turns sympathetic. "You've been through a lot with Rachel. I wouldn't give up on Shelby so easily though. Maybe go out a couple more times."
Liam doesn't reply. Instead, he thinks about how much he's been going on the Happy Pet Nanny website lately. He told himself it was only to check the list of safe foods for Fancy, but every time he goes on there, he can't stop staring at the picture of Tori. There's one of her smiling in a grassy field with her dogs. Seeing her photo lights him up inside. He was tempted to take a screenshot for himself but decided that was crossing a line.
As he's thinking all this, his phone buzzes. He grabs it from the cup holder and reads the message from the ASAC in charge of his squad. "We've got our Rizzo warrants," he tells Matt with a grin. "Arrest along with search and seizure."
"Good news."
Liam nods. It is good news. It also means it's going to be a long night.
After he and Matt switch out surveillance with another team, he goes home for a quick shower and a bite to eat before heading downtown to the bureau's main headquarters in Seattle. There's a meeting with the members of his squad to come up with an arrest plan. They decide on a "knock and announce," which means they'll be knocking on Rizzo's door at six in the morning. They assume he's armed, so the FBI SWAT team will be involved.
Once the meeting’s over, Liam's keyed up. It's usually like this before an arrest, and he knows he won't get much sleep. By four in the morning, he's up. By five he's assembling with all the other agents involved at the preplanned location.
They go over a few last-minute details about Rizzo's house with the SWAT team leader. "Our intel shows two exits. We'll station a team in front and back," the team leader says, pointing to a map of the house.
Liam studies it, memorizing the layout.
Everyone is armed and wearing bulletproof vests along with their FBI raid jackets as they drive slowly up the street in three separate vehicles.
"You ready to take this son of a bitch down?" Matt turns to him with a grin.
Liam thinks about all the money Rizzo’s stolen. People’s retirement savings wiped out after years of hard work. "More than ready." Since it's his case, he's the agent in charge and will lead the group.
It's early morning. A gray sky above them threatens rain. The middle-class neighborhood Rizzo lives in is peaceful. Their team exits each vehicle as quietly as possible, scanning the area as they move forward toward the house, checking the windows for any sign of activity.
Half the team lines up behind Liam on the porch while the other half slips around back.
He grips his weapon, then pounds on the front door, breaking the neighborhood's silence like an explosion. " FBI! We have an arrest warrant! Open this door! "
There's silence. Liam strains, listening for movement inside. He senses houses nearby coming to life .
He glances back at Scott, one of the SWAT agents behind him, who's taken lead on the battering ram.
Liam holds his hand up to Scott and then pounds on the door again, repeating what he said moments ago. Dynamic arrests like this are nerve-racking and can be dangerous, but at least there's little time for suspects to destroy evidence or gather weapons.
This time there are sounds inside the house. He tightens the grip on his Glock and glances at Scott. They both hear it.
Adrenaline kicks into overdrive as every detail around him comes into focus. The type of lock on the door. Whether the person who answers it will be armed. He has to be ready for anything.
Someone turns the tumblers, and a tired, irritated woman of about fifty opens up. "What is all this?"
"Ma’am, we have an arrest warrant for Walter Rizzo. Is he on the premises?"
She blinks at them and seems nervous. "No." She licks her lips. "He's not here."
Liam's instincts tell him she's lying. He holds up the legal paperwork. "We also have a warrant for search and seizure. You'll need to step back."
"What? You can't come inside my house!" She seems indignant.
"As I just stated, we have a warrant. If you don't step out of the way, we'll have to arrest you for obstruction."
Her eyes widen. "Arrest me?"
Liam's losing his patience. "Yes, ma’am. Step back immediately."
There's some kind of movement behind her and Liam tenses, but it's only a small dog. It appears at her feet, and she picks it up. He uses the opportunity to push the door open.
She finally moves out of the way to let them enter, and he's relieved. He'd rather not arrest some woman in her nightgown.
The SWAT team behind him swarms into the house, taking it room by room. Liam and two fellow squad members do a systematic search, holding their weapons in front of them. When they discover Rizzo's office, Liam instructs the other two to confiscate the computers along with any flash drives and papers.
As they get to work, the rest of the agents continue searching for Rizzo. Except there's no sign of him.
"He's not on the premises," Ryan, the leader of the SWAT team, informs him.
While they don’t find the subject of their warrant, they do find a cache of pistols and a rifle leaning against the bedroom door.
"Dammit." Liam shakes his head in frustration. "How did this happen? We had him under surveillance."
"We did," Louis, one of his squad members, speaks up. "I don't know how he slipped past us."
Liam sighs. "Let's continue the search and seizure. Hopefully we'll find something that tells us where he's gone."
After an hour, they load most of Rizzo's computers, file cabinets, and office equipment into the van and continue searching through the house. Meanwhile, Rizzo's wife sits on the couch with her dog, glaring at them as she talks on the phone with her lawyer. She still insists she has no idea of her husband's whereabouts.
After the SWAT team leaves and he and his fellow agents are wrapping things up, Liam takes one last look inside the office. He wants to make sure they haven't missed anything.
The space is in disarray. He glances at the closet again. It's not particularly large. He sticks his head in to make sure they've pulled out anything that seemed pertinent.
But then he notices something. One end of the closet appears slightly different from the other. It's subtle, and most people wouldn't notice it, but he's always had a talent for spotting the unusual. On closer inspection, one side is painted wood while the other is drywall.
He knocks on the wood. It's hollow.
"I'll be damned." Feeling around the edges, he tries to open what he now suspects is a false wall.
He crouches, searching along the floor, and discovers one of the corner boards is loose. When he lifts it, there's a small lever inside. He pulls it up and the false wall opens slightly, revealing itself to be a door.
Adrenaline rushes through him as he reaches for his weapon. The space inside the wall is large enough to conceal a man.
He kicks it open with his foot, holding his gun out, except it's empty. There's another laptop on the ground, along with a handgun. He pulls out both and sets them on a chair to add into evidence.
He tries to step inside the small space, but it's a tight fit and impossible with his weapon drawn. He holsters it and slips inside, noticing what appears to be another door. Slowly, he turns the handle and finds it lets out into some foliage on the side of the house. A cleverly disguised exit no one noticed.
Liam steps out and is amazed to see Rizzo himself crouched only a few feet away. He's hiding in a small space between the house and some tall bushes.
The man's mouth drops open as he stares up at Liam with shock. "Pete, is that you?"
Liam pulls out his weapon. "You're under arrest, Walter Rizzo. On your knees with your hands behind your head."
Instead of listening, Rizzo jumps up and appears angry. "I take it you're not Pete Sanchez."
"I'm a special agent with the FBI."
Liam keeps his gun trained on him. He sees no sign that the man is armed, despite all the weapons they found in the house.
"I've done nothing wrong." Rizzo's face is flushed. He's still wearing pajamas. "I don't know why the FBI is harassing me."
"On the ground now." Liam takes a step toward him, reaching for the handcuffs on his belt. Without warning, Rizzo bolts. It happens in a flash. He pushes through the bushes and disappears.
"Dammit, Walter," Liam yells. He pushes through the same bushes. "Stop or I'll shoot!"
Walter glances back at him but keeps running anyway.
Liam is forced to make a split-second decision and goes after him. He'd rather not shoot an unarmed man in the back while he's running away, especially not in a neighborhood with kids going to school. Besides, how fast can Rizzo be?
It turns out, surprisingly fast.
Liam chases him down the sidewalk. Rizzo's running at a sprint, his heavy frame bouncing with each step. Liam is gaining on him quickly. Up ahead, Walter turns right into someone's front yard, then jumps over a short fence.
Liam does the same and follows him around the back corner of the house. Except as Liam rounds the same corner, he nearly runs into a woman who's exiting her back door.
She shrieks and her hands fly in the air. To avoid knocking her over, he's forced to veer out of the way and trips over a pile of gardening supplies.
"Aaargh!" He goes down hard on his left knee. A burst of recognizable pain colors his vision. The same pain he dealt with for years when he played ball.
He groans in agony but forces himself up. Ahead of him, he sees Walter trying to climb the tall wooden fence that borders the property, but he's struggling.
Liam strides over, ignoring his injured knee. He pulls his weapon out and points it directly at Rizzo, who's nearly over the fence, his large stomach hampering him. Ironically, his pajamas are covered with pictures of trout and fishhooks. Very fitting, considering he's been caught.
Liam might have found those pajamas amusing if he weren't so pissed off. "You're under arrest," he yells. "Climb down from that fence with your hands up."
Rizzo glances at him, still trying to gain a foothold.
"So help me, Walter, I will shoot you from where I'm standing!"
Something in Liam's voice must have alerted Walter that he wasn't kidding, because he slides off the fence and does what he's told.
Liam moves closer. He yanks Walter Rizzo's arms down, shoves his wrists together, and finally slaps the handcuffs on him.