Chapter 8

Angelo usedthe key Teresa had reluctantly given him and opened her apartment. She’d wanted to come with him, but he’d been adamant she’d be safer at the office. Once Ox had told her that he agreed with him, she’d given in. She’d also agreed to call in sick, but his plan was to get her to quit all together. That was a battle for when he got back to the office.

He flashed a hand signal to Growler, who nodded.

They both entered Teresa’s place, and he scanned the living room, like he’d done on numerous occasions when he’d been on a mission and had entered a building.

Nothing seemed out of place since the last time he was there, which was only a couple of hours ago, yet the air felt different.

“Do you feel it?” he muttered under his breath.

“Yeah. Be on guard.”

“Always.”

Even though he and Growler hadn’t been on the same SEAL team, their training was the same, and both had honed their instincts to the point where they could tell when an ornament had moved a millimeter away from where it normally sat.

Angelo hadn’t been in Teresa’s apartment enough times to memorize the whole layout or where all her belongings sat, but something lingered in the air.

A disturbance that hadn’t been there either time he’d walked into Teresa’s home.

They slowly went through the apartment, clearing the rooms of any person hiding in them.

Once they were both satisfied that no one was going to jump them, Angelo pulled out the small device and started running it over the contents of Teresa’s home.

Growler was doing the same.

The needle on the screen swayed to the right, and he picked up the lamp, turning it over to find the small listening device. With careful movements, he dislodged it using his knife and placed the lamp back down. He grabbed the specially lined bag and placed the bug into it. Whoever was listening had just been cut off.

After an hour and going over every piece of furniture and furnishings, his anger meter was off the charts. He alone had found over fifteen devices. It was like whoever had put them in had decided that every single picture, ornament, and piece of furniture needed a bug.

“How many do you have?” he ground out when Growler came up beside him.

“Ten.”

“What the fuck? That’s over twenty-five devices in an eight hundred square foot apartment.”

“That doesn’t make sense. They’d be lucky to get anything decent from the recordings.”

Angelo took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. He couldn’t think clearly if he was engulfed in a red haze. None of this made sense.

Why would they need so many bugs?

Unless… no not possible.

But maybe.

“Her place got hit twice by two separate people. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Growler canted his head to the side. “Wouldn’t they have noticed the other ones when they went to put theirs in? And whoever did it, clearly wasn’t a professional—neither one of them. They put them in the most obvious places.”

He shook his head. “What the hell has Teresa got herself involved with?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. But let’s head back to Alliez, and we can dispose of these.”

“I wonder if Cass can get anything from them. I don’t think it’s possible, but hey, you never know,” Angelo said as he clenched the bag tighter.

“You know Cass. If there’s a way, she’ll find it.”

“This is true. Let’s get out of here. While Teresa made the place look nice, after this, it’s giving me the creeps.”

“You going to let her come back here?” Growler asked.

“No fucking way. Not after what we found.”

His buddy laughed. “Good luck in convincing her of that. She looks like she’s determined to do things her own way. And pretty independent.”

Nothing Growler said wasn’t anything he himself hadn’t thought about. This morning’s battle about her coming to her place had shown that Teresa marched to her own beat. Angelo liked that, he really did, but when it came to keeping her safe, he didn’t like the idea of her being here by herself. At all. Especially since it seemed like someone had come inside after they’d been there that morning. If there had been signs of a forced entry, he would’ve seen when he’d opened the door.

So, whoever had come in had either used a key or picked the lot. Neither one of those options sat well with him.

“She is, but if we show her what we found here, it might make her change her mind about coming back here.”

“If you’re stuck for a place where she can stay, Teresa’s welcome to bunk down at our house. Astrid wouldn’t mind and would probably love having an extra mouth to test her recipes on.”

A shaft of jealousy, so hot and swift, stabbed Angelo in his stomach. “No fucking way. If she’s going to stay anywhere, it’s going to be with me.”

Growler laughed long and hard. “Again, good luck with that. Although, I suppose you could use your angelic ways to woo her. The way you used to get information that helped with your missions—or so I heard.”

Theoretically, Angelo knew that Growler was yanking his chain, and normally he’d fire back a quick sarcastic response.

This time though, his temper was at breaking point.

Teresa’s safety wasn’t something to joke about.

“Shut the fuck up. And just so you know, I never slept with anyone to get information. That was a line I didn’t cross. I talked to people, and people talked to me.”

Growler held up his hands in surrender. “I know that. I wish I’d been able to get information that could’ve helped us out on missions. I was a better shot than talker. You know I was just teasing, right?”

All the fight dissipated out of Angel. Growler was his teammate. Teammates razzed each other all the time. “Yeah, sorry. I know that. I just… Fuck, I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I get it, man. I really do. Come on, let’s get out of here.” His teammate clapped his shoulder and strode to the door.

Angelo gave the room one last glance and followed. He was locking it when he heard the whisper of wood over carpet to the left of him.

Phillip stood in the doorway, a bright white bandage around his head, causing his brown hair to stick up like a bad eighties’ hairdo. There were bags under his eyes, indicating sleep hadn’t been forthcoming for the man. “Angelo, right?” The man took a step toward him.

Beside him, Growler went from relaxed to alert.

Had his teammate got the same weird vibes from Phillip that Angelo had gotten the night before?

“Yeah, that’s right. How are you, Phillip?” He kept his hand in his pocket, around the bag of devices.

“Good. Got a bit of a headache, but the doc said that was to be expected with a concussion.”

Angelo nodded. “Concussions can take a while to get over. Make sure you rest.”

“I will. Is, umm, Teresa home?”

“No, I think she’s at work. She asked me to check something for her.” He watched Phillip carefully, to see if the man gave any indication that he wasn’t happy Angelo had been in Teresa’s apartment.

A muscle in Phillip’s jaw ticked, and if Angelo hadn’t had all his SEAL training, he would’ve missed it. He’d bet his month’s salary that Growler had picked up on it too.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see her when she gets back. I wanted to thank her for helping me last night. I better go lay down. I haven’t been out of the hospital long, and my head is starting to pound again.” The man plastered a smile on, and it was as fake as pleather.

“I’ll let Teresa know you’re doing okay when I see her shortly.” Angelo was staking a claim to Teresa, letting Phillip know that any ideas the man had on dating her were not in his deck of cards.

Of course, she didn’t know what he was doing and would probably balk, but that was neither here nor there.

After this interaction with Phillip, he was even more determined to make sure Teresa didn’t spend one more night in her apartment. Angelo didn’t trust the man. If he was proved wrong, then he’d admit his mistake, but he didn’t think that was going to happen.

The big task was going to be convincing Teresa that she was better off with him and not at her apartment.

This was one battle he was ready for—and one he was going to win.

“Waiting’s the worst,isn’t it?”

Teresa paused her pacing around the conference room and glanced at Eveline.

The dark-haired woman smiled softly.

Huffing out a breath, she sat at the table again. “Yeah, I just feel useless. Since my first journalist job, I’ve been on the go. Always doing something. This sitting around twiddling my thumbs is nightmarish.”

Eveline nodded. “I feel you. When I was kidnapped by my former boss, I knew Kyle would find me. But the waiting and trying to act like everything was normal wasn’t fun. Although I had to act like everything was normal because the people around me thought me being kidnapped was part of the movie they were working on.”

Teresa’s mind whirled with the words that came out of Eveline’s mouth. “I’m sorry, what? You were kidnapped? By your boss? And they thought it was a movie? Girl, I need you to explain all of that, because that is so farfetched it’s not funny.” Teresa inwardly groaned—did that sound as rude as she thought it did? “Wait.” She held up her hand. “Sorry, that was kind of rude of me.”

“No, it’s fine,” Eveline assured her. “Even I still can’t believe it happened, and I lived it. If it was you telling me, I’m certain my reaction would be the same.”

“If it’s too much to go into further detail, I’ll understand, but I do want to hear more about it.” Teresa appreciated the way Eveline brushed away her intrusive comments.

If the shoe was on the other foot, Teresa wasn’t convinced she’d be as accommodating as Eveline had been.

“Honestly, I’m fine, now. After it happened, I wasn’t so good and I still have my bad moments, but my therapist said the more I talk about it, the more in control I’ll be. It saves people from making assumptions and coming up with something totally opposite to what actually happened.”

It must’ve been bad if Eveline had to get therapy to deal with the situation. In all Teresa’s time going undercover and seeing some horrific things, if anyone needed therapy as well, it would be her. Somehow, she was able to disassociate herself from her undercover persona to her real self.

Was it healthy? She had no idea, but there was a certain numbness within her now when she approached situations that weren’t palatable to everyone.

Is that why she wasn’t concerned about the fact that there could be listening devices in her house?

No, she still felt emotions. When that person had been trying to get into her house, fear had consumed her. Pushed her to make a phone call she’d never planned on making.

A call she didn’t regret, but she wouldn’t let Angelo know that. If he did, it would inflate his already puffed-up ego.

What if he hadn’t answered the phone?

What if he had left Alliez and gotten a job somewhere else?

Where would she be now?

Would Teresa have called the cops and had some dirty cops turn up or cops that weren’t on the take? It would’ve been a lottery but, if she hadn’t gotten hold of Angelo, it might’ve been a gamble she’d been prepared to take.

Or would she have just waited it out and taken on whoever had been trying to get in?

After all, she’d been in precarious situations before. Why was this one so different though?

Was it because Monte had pulled the pin and taken his support away from her?

While she’d been out in the field, she’d always known that she had the paper at her back. Had it given her a false sense of security? Had Teresa believed the might of the media had kept her safe?

“Teresa? You good?”

Eveline’s voice pulled her from the downward spiral of her thoughts. Her last thought had been one that held a smidgeon of truth—she had believed she was untouchable.

How na?ve was that thought?

“Teresa?”

This time Eveline touched her, and Teresa faced the woman.

“Sorry. I’m good. I was just thinking. Hard.”

“It looked it. Are you sure you’re okay?” Eveline’s concern was sweet, and after working in an industry where, on occasions, it was a dog-eat-dog world, she welcomed it.

“Yeah, just got a little lost in my head. Conjuring up different scenarios.”

“Ahh, the what-if train. Not a fun one to board.”

Teresa laughed. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“Look, I don’t know what path your thoughts were taking you on, but there’s no way Angelo is going to let anything happen to you. None of us will. We’ll get to the bottom of who was trying to get into your place, and the guys will make it safe for you to return to your home.”

“No, she won’t. Not after we found these,” Angelo said.

Two gray colored bags skidded across the table, and Teresa instinctively put her hand out to stop them from falling off.

“What? You’re back? When did you get back?” The words tumbled over each other.

Lost in her discussion with Eveline, she’d totally missed Angelo walking into the room. Had he been standing there for long—or had he literally just arrived?

“I think I’ll leave you both to it. I’ll just be down the hall at my desk if you need me, Teresa.” Eveline collected the computer she’d been working on. As she walked past Angelo, she patted his chest. “Tone it down. You’ll be more successful that way.”

Angelo didn’t acknowledge what Eveline said. He kept his attention on her.

Teresa met his gaze. Her little internal pep talk had reminded her of all that she’d achieved and put up with in her career. “What are these?” she asked again, holding up the bags.

“Those are bugs. We found them in your apartment. There’s over twenty of them.”

She dropped them and pushed away from the table, as if they’d burst into flames and she was going to be engulfed by them. “They were in my place? Why so many? Is it safe to talk?” she whispered.

The scent of musk surrounded her, along with warm, strong arms.

Without thinking, she buried her face in Angelo’s chest and hung on. All the fight and confidence from moments ago shattered by two gray bags.

“We don’t know why there were so many. Our best guess was that two separate people placed them there. And yes it’s safe to talk as those bags are designed to jam any signal. Cass will ensure that they’re dealt with. You don’t have to worry about them,” he murmured and ran his hands up and down her back in a comforting matter.

“Why this job? Why was this one so different that people are now after me?” Teresa asked, as another horrid scenario slammed into her. She pushed against Angelo’s chest, and he dropped his arms. “What if this isn’t the first time someone has left these bugs? What if someone has been listening to me for weeks? Months? Or even years?”

The very idea that her privacy had been invaded sent shivers of revulsion down her spine, and her stomach turned somersaults.

He hauled her close again.

She didn’t fight him. Teresa wanted his arms around her. Being in them gave her a sense of safety, as if nothing could touch her with him holding her tightly.

“I don’t think your privacy has been comprised until recently. While your other jobs may have been about exposing dubious pieces, most of the people you’ve taken down have been the little people. This time, you’ve stumbled on a direct contact with Ramirez Cartel. They’re known for being ruthless and uncompromising. If your story breaks, then they lose one of their major companies helping them. I’m sure there are other companies on his payroll, but Ramirez wants more. Always wanting more. It doesn’t stop.”

For the first time in her career, Teresa wished she’d never taken on this assignment.