Chapter 11

Cierra

I got myself together put all my ducks in a row so to speak before contacting the handler for now I'm reporting directly to Durant since this case was top priority. The bureau had already spent numerous man-hours not to mention the funds it cost to keep men on Mancini around the clock for so many years. There were rumblings about pulling back since we kept failing in all our endeavors to trap him but someone somewhere had a hard on for this guy because we still kept going. I was beginning to think this was a fool's errand, too early to tell for sure but either my instincts were way off which I doubted or we have been after the wrong man for over a decade. There's no mistake that he's up to something and what that something is I'll hopefully find out, but there's no way the Hank Mancini I met the night before was a child trafficker, I'd bet my shiny new badge on it. I took a deep breath and prepared to give my report as it were. The director answered on the first ring as if he'd been waiting on the call.

"Agent Stone you got something for me?"

"Not exactly sir; the preliminary meeting went well but he didn't go for the bait so we're on to Plan B."

"Well we always knew that might be the way things headed from the get go so no surprises there; so you've met the man, your take?"

I was afraid he was going to ask me that; I didn't really have an answer not one I could share with him anyway but his voice sounded so excited, so sure that I was going to be the one to finally get the results they were hoping for.

"I think I'm going to need a little more time before I can form any type of opinion sir. Mr. Mancini is no fool I didn't think he would be too forthcoming on the first acquaintance but he did express…" I cut myself off I knew what he would say but I couldn't help feeling resentment. Had I been a man this would never have come up but because I'm a female and a passable one at that it was quite alright to expect me to use my body and female charm to lure the suspected criminal into my web.

"He did express what agent Stone?"

I took a fortifying breath before continuing on. "He expressed an interest in me personally."

"That's good, that's very good; we did tell you that that was the best course of action. I think we've always failed before because we were never able to get too close to the guy it's like he has a sixth sense or something but a skirt; now that's a different kettle of fish."

Pig! I resented all of them including Mancini for putting me in this position and I still wasn't sure that he hadn't been playing some type of cat and mouse game with me the night before. I'd gotten the distinct feeling last night that he'd been playing me but why? None of the Intel showed him to be that way with the females he usually took to his bed. He's reportedly very generous and somewhat attentive for a playboy. I knew his adopted brothers were agents very well noted ones at that but anything to do with Mancini was purposely kept out of their knowing, so there was no way he could know who I was and yet I couldn't shake the feeling that he was one step ahead of me somehow.

"So when are you seeing him again?"

Durant's over excited tone brought me out of my reverie.

"Tomorrow night we're having drinks in the evening; how about his detail anything there?"

"Yeah there's some movement but it's the usual nothing we can really use, we think he might have secret exits in and out of his places because we never really see him with anyone but we know he's meeting with these people and since the asshole judge has prohibited us from trespassing on Mancini's properties in an official capacity we can't really get eyes and ears in them so you're it kid. If you could keep your eyes and ears open when you gain his trust that might be just what we need because so far this guy is kicking our asses and the higher ups are making noises about scrapping the entire operation, which would be a real shame considering all the time and money we've already spent."

"Yeah I was wondering about that." I wasn't so sure that Mancini was as gullible as Durant seemed to think where I was concerned, wherever they'd gotten the notion that a man who had evaded law enforcement for so long would be putty in my hands for the mere fact that I was a woman was ludicrous. I didn't see him just revealing his secrets; whatever this guy had going on he was very efficient at keeping it under wraps, it was going to take a lot of hard work on my part to break through that and I wasn't so sure after finally meeting him that that was going to be as easy as I'd first thought. I remembered Gracie's warning to not be too cocky going in, how that attitude had caused many others before me to fail. Looks like this one was going to take longer than expected. It was going to take all my considerable skills to bring down the great Mancini, if that were even possible.

The question is did I want to? Yes I had a job to do but was I really doing that job if I let others dictate what I should believe? Something inside of me was very against the idea of his being guilty of the things we'd put on him; if he wasn't guilty of the list of criminal activities we suspected him of then what? Because when all was said and done Hank Mancini has been up to something for the past decade or more; problem is no one seems to know exactly what that was.

I spent the next few minutes on the phone going over strategy with my boss while feeling slightly sick to my stomach. I had a weird feeling that I was about to embark on a very twisted journey full of pitfalls and stumbling blocks. Things were not as cut and dry as they appeared to be and as much as Hank Mancini grated on me the wrong way there was no denying he made me feel. Boy did he make me feel.