Chapter Twenty-Two #3
“Yeah. And if it wasn’t for your ass buddy fucking things up for me, I’d be a very rich woman right now.”
“But…you’re an FBI agent,” I said stupidly.
“Yep. Clare Bowman’s unit. I was getting all the information I needed until you fucked things up for me, Camden. You’ve proven to be a nasty little thorn in my side.”
“I’m coming, Cam!” Mars whispered in my com. “Keep the bitch talking.” I could hear the pounding of feet and knew I had to do just as he asked.
“What are you planning to do? There are agents everywhere.”
She sneered at me. “Cocky little asshole, aren’t you?
I’m going to kill both of you and then, I’m going to stay and help clean up this mess.
It’ll mean starting all over, but with Josiah dead, I won’t have to share in the profits.
He’s such a bastard, thinking he was the brains of the operation when I held all the cards. ”
I held up my hands, defenseless against the huge gun she was holding. I wore a Kevlar vest, but Judy didn’t. There was no way to protect her.
“Coming, Cam!” Mars huffed in my ear. “Almost there!” I could hear him panting, knowing he was running. “Behind you, Mars,” said a quiet voice, Nash maybe.
“How can you be an FBI agent?” I asked, still shocked at what was happening.
“He’s right,” Judy chimed in. “You’d have to pass a deep background check as well as a polygraph to get hired by the Bureau.”
She laughed…actually laughed. “That was years before I met Josiah. I knew eventually I’d find a way to work a score too big to ignore. I spent five years in narcotics, right under that asshole Crowley’s nose, then I found my opening when I realized how the Durango Cartel was getting their drugs.”
“Keep ‘er talking, Cam!” Mars grunted in my com. It was all I could do not to startle, and it was only then that I realized this bitch wasn’t wearing an earwig or she would’ve known Mars was coming.
“But why?” Judy asked in disbelief.
“My grandparents grew coca in Peru for the cartel. It was their livelihood until the Americans came. The moralistic white men who thought they were heroes but they destroyed whole communities, families and they didn’t care.
When the cartels move to Colombia and don’t need you—what then?
They died in poverty.” The pure hatred was palpable, and Judy gasped.
Lavinia laughed again, looking smug. “I convinced Crowley I needed a challenge other than narcotics, so I transferred to Bowman’s unit long before the two SACs ever made the connection between the drugs and the cars.”
“But I thought you were Sterling’s partner.”
She waved the gun around, making me nervous as hell, but I needed to keep her talking. “Once I realized the cartel was getting its drugs from Sterling’s vehicle theft operation, I moved fast.”
Keep her talking. Keep her talking. “How?” I asked, praying Mars would get here in time to save us.
“I convinced him he needed someone inside the Bureau and helped him set up his corporate charter in my real name, knowing the FBI couldn’t trace it back to an agent called Delaney Anthony…
if they ever found out.” She sighed, narrowing her eyes as she pointed the gun right at me.
“We made millions and then you came along…you little fucker.” She smiled evilly. “Now, it’s time for you to die.”
There was a light knock on the bus door and she startled, turning sharply toward it, swinging her gun.
I snapped my leg out, catching her at the back of her knee, throwing her off balance as the gun went off.
She stumbled toward the step’s door well and the doors burst open.
One shot to the head and she dropped like a stone, broken and bleeding at my feet as Mars rushed onto the bus.
I flew at him, grabbing him as the bus filled with the scent of gun smoke, and blood, my ears ringing. Mars’ arms closed around me in a fierce hug. “Oh, Jesus, are ya okay?” I nodded against his chest. “Cam! You okay, luv?”
“Yes. Yes, Mars. I’m fine.” I nodded again. “Fuck.”
“I know. I’ve got ya. ’Oo is that?”
“Livinia Moss, Josiah’s partner.”
“She’s…an agent?”
I nodded again, clinging to him.
Nash appeared and stepped over the horrifying mess. “Judy?” he asked softly.
“Holy crap! I hate this,” she yelled as she crossed herself, then her hands clutched her forehead. “She was in SAC Bowman’s unit.”
Nash stood with a hand on her shoulder, and Mars loosened his grip to hold me out at arm’s length, looking me up and down. “You’re okay?”
I nodded frantically. “Yes. I kept her talking.”
He grabbed me and pulled me back into a fierce hug, kissing the side of my head. “I ‘eard everything. Ya did great, luv, keeping ‘er talking like that.” He squeezed me harder. “God, I thought I lost ya…almost didn’t get ‘ere.”
“But you did, sweetheart. You got here in time.” I smiled against his chest. “You made it just in time, Mars.”
“Anything could’ve ‘appened.” He rocked me in his arms.
I laughed, which felt inappropriate, then gasped. “You’re squishing me, Mars.”
He instantly let go, holding me out and staring into my eyes. “Sorry, luv.”
I laughed again, pulling him close and kissing him for all he was worth.