9. Chapter 9

nine

Lucas

O nce the shooter’s building was finally cleared, I got a bulletproof vest on Athena and put a hand on the small of her back to guide her to my car. We needed to converge on a safe location.

“You ready to come to the station and talk now?”

“I’ll go to the station, but I don’t have anything else to say to you about your case. I’m not involved in anything.”

Yeah right.

Athena Kane may have finally agreed to let me protect her—from the Morellis or just Leo Lombardi didn’t matter—but I was more convinced than ever that she knew a shit ton more than she was letting on and probably wasn’t even a simple victim like I’d originally thought. She was into something shady.

“If some cop made a mistake and misplaced evidence, that’s not on me. ”

Was she the reason Lombardi got out in the first place? But why would he want to kill her if she somehow helped him? Maybe he didn’t know Athena was the one who got his charges dismissed before he decided to take her out?

Was I making something out of nothing? We’d been assuming it was dirty cop Theo Gates who took the evidence before he disappeared. Athena wasn’t the only suspect. I had no idea if she was Lombardi’s lawyer or if she ever set foot in the police precinct before today.

“Whatever you say, Ms. Kane. Watch your head,” I said, hand going to the back of her head like I did with all the other criminals when I brought them in. The only difference with Athena was that she wasn’t handcuffed, and I led her to the front seat. Her glare told me she understood what I was doing and was none too pleased with the standard perp-head-guide. Good. Let her see how bad it could get if she didn’t start behaving. “Buckle up. It’s the law.”

But it was clear to me that I’d been too lenient in the case so far. I was trying (and albeit failing) to keep my distance from Athena, but I needed to be more involved, more vigilant. My CI died because I let him try to end things with the Morellis on his own terms before I pulled him. My witnesses Will and Claire were almost captured at the airport because I didn’t know enough about who Morelli had on the inside before it was too late.

I would be damned if I was going to let a potential suspect like Athena out from under my control until I knew for sure that she wasn’t in cahoots with the Morellis. Sure, she wasn’t some femme fatale foreign spy, but she could kick some serious ass; it was possible that the lawyer career was just a front, and she was a home-grown mercenary or even another enforcer like Leo Lombardi. She was intent that it wasn’t the Morellis that wanted to kill her, just Lombardi. Maybe he wanted her dead because they were rivals.

I looked over at Athena when I stopped at a red light. All of this was possible, but unlikely. It didn’t help my case to base my actions off of wild conjectures or far-out theories, and I usually never did.

But these were special circumstances.

I would do anything to close this case. I needed to qualify for the Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking unit. I’d be glued to her side during every waking hour until I figured out what she knew. Whether she liked it or not, I wouldn’t be leaving Athena’s side. Someone was desperate to see her dead, so that meant she was important. I just had to flip her so she could be the key to solving this case.

We sat across the table from each other.

Athena wasn’t saying shit, and I wasn’t asking anything. It felt like a demented game of chicken, neither one of us wanting to give in first.

I glanced at my watch. It had been seven minutes.

She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, staring at a space on the wall just past my left shoulder. I stared at her.

I told myself it wasn’t weird or creepy to look her over so thoroughly. She was a person of interest and I needed to understand her body language if I was going to get any information out of her. I needed to understand what it meant when she tilted her chin up defiantly; was it a moment of rebellion against the establishment, or a tell when she was hiding something? When she so adamantly refused to meet my eyes was it because she hated not being in charge, or was she just trying to piss me off?

I needed to know why she did the things she was doing.

And looking at someone easy on the eyes wasn’t exactly a chore.

Mark Rosenberg came storming into the conference room I’d commandeered, breaking up my staring contest.

“You must be Athena Kane,” he said, holding a hand out to her. “I’m Detective Mark Rosenberg. I work in homicide.”

“Homicide?” she asked, taking his hand. “Nobody killed me. I don’t think we need your services just yet.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m qualified in other areas, too,” he said, taking a seat beside her. “I’m the FBI’s liaison with local law enforcement for Luke’s big case he’s working on. Something I’m told you know quite a bit about.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. I could practically hear her ask, Luke?

“I don’t actually know much about the case as a whole, just that someone tied to your Morellis doesn’t like me very much.”

“Do we like Lombardi for the sniper?” I asked. Mark said he’d check out that lead since it was the only one that made sense. CSI found the likely spot the sniper shot from and they were tearing it apart. It was only a matter of time until they came up with some useful evidence. I was confident we’d have a warrant for his arrest in hand in the next few days.

“Oh yeah. He was a marksman in the military before being dishonorably discharged a couple decades ago. Been working for his cousins ever since.”

“I could have told you that if you asked me,” Athena cut in, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, now you want to contribute?” I asked. “How would you know that information in the first place?”

“Anyone can request basic information like discharges from the NPRC. You only need a badge to get access to a full Military Personnel File.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“You never asked me if I knew anything about Leo’s ability to fire a weapon with accuracy from far away.”

“Athena!” I paused to get my tone in line. “Ms. Kane. This is a real, active investigation. Real people are already dead and real people’s lives are on the line. You need to tell us everything you know.”

“I don’t know much else.”

God, she was frustrating! I stood and paced away from her. I didn’t even want to be in the same room as her at this point.

“Ms. Kane?” Mark’s voice was kind, polite even. “Can you tell us how you know that information about Leo Lombardi?”

“Of course, Detective.” I whipped my head back around, incredulous. She’d answer his questions but not mine? “Thank you for asking so nicely. I only met Leo once, for about fifteen minutes, and he had one of those Semper Fi tattoos. He spent the entirety of three flights of stairs bragging about his military achievements to try and impress me. And as I said, I looked up his military record through the National Personnel Records Center. I submitted a request online, and received the results back a few days ago. I’m a curious woman by nature, so I wanted to know if anything he said was true.”

She continued to avoid my eyes as she answered Mark. Why was she helping him, but not me?

“And what was the nature of your time with Mr. Lombardi?”

She paused, sitting up straighter and crossed her legs a little tighter for half a second before relaxing. What did that mean?

“It was an attempt at a setup by a third-party, but the night ended quickly because I didn’t like him. As I said, I spent maybe fifteen minutes with him the whole night before we parted on less than friendly terms.”

My blood boiled. What was a beautiful, confident career woman like Athena doing going on a date with a scumbag like Leo Lombardi?

“Who set you up?”

“I don’t want to answer that question, Detective.”

I groaned and resisted the urge to slam my fist on the table. Now Mark would see how annoying and uncooperative she was.

“That’s fine. You don’t need to. Can you tell me why you don’t want to answer the question?”

“Because my personal life and what I do with my personal time isn’t relevant to your case. I don’t want my personal information involved in your paperwork as it could affect my career prospects if I was seen to be involved in an organized crime investigation. ”

I paused. That made a lot of sense. She was a criminal defense attorney. She needed her clients to trust her, and the more she talked and cooperated with us—the more her name was in our records as a defense witness—the more potential clients might see any of this as a conflict of interest. Why didn’t she just say all that from the start? Why did she have to drive me crazy refusing to answer the most basic questions?

Why didn’t I just ask her why like Mark did? I was the asshole who didn’t think to ask her nicely. I wasn’t thinking properly about anything in this damn investigation.

I was beginning to think I needed to recuse myself from this case. It would probably mean losing out on the promotion and transfer to the Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Unit. Spots in the CACHTU didn’t come by very often, but it would happen again. Eventually.

And I was clearly fucking up more than I thought in this case. Something had to give.

“Thank you for your honesty, Ms. Kane. Are you able to tell me why you think Leo Lombardi may want to hurt you?”

“As I said, the date did not end well. He probably took my rejection personally. Men have done worse things to women who’ve told them no in the past.”

“Worse than trying to shoot you? Twice?” I questioned. Technically Antonio tried to shoot her the first time, but since Lombardi called the shots on that one I felt it was fine to lump the two incidents together.

She shrugged. “Did you have any other questions for me?”

“Not right now," Mark said. "But may I call you if something else comes up? ”

“Yes,” she said, before finally turning and meeting my eyes. “I’d be happy to help someone as polite and respectful as you, Detective Rosenberg.”

Mark got up from his spot next to Athena at the table, and I could see how hard he was holding in his laughter as he left the room. The dick didn’t even wait until the door closed all the way behind him before I could hear his loud cackling, the sound receding in volume as he walked down the hallway back to his desk.

“What the fuck was that about?” I demanded. I knew it was the wrong thing to say—unprofessional, rude, too aggressive—but it was all that could come out of my mouth.

“What? Me answering questions posed in a professional capacity in an appropriate place? That’s called giving back the same respect I received. You should try it sometime, Blake.”

I noticed the way she left my title off, despite calling Mark “Detective” throughout their whole encounter. Ouch. Point taken.

“Are we done? It’s feeling pretty stuffy in here with all the testosterone you’ve got flying around.”

I ground my teeth, but didn’t say the first thing that came to my mind, thankfully.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

I held up her vest again, resisting the urge to let my fingers linger across her shoulders and neck as I helped her into it like a gentleman. We followed the path back down the hallway to the bullpen, but as we got closer to Asshat Mark’s desk I held a hand up to Athena, silently asking her to wait back a few steps while I talked to him .

“What the fuck was that about?” I hissed for the second time today, looking back up at Athena to make sure she was out of earshot.

He just grinned at me, unphased by my anger. “You just don’t know how to talk to witnesses, do you, Lucas? She seemed perfectly pleasant and cooperative to me.”

“You’re a douchebag.”

“Nah, but I think you’re acting like one with her. She’s clearly hot, and hot for you—”

“What?” I interrupted, before dropping back into a whisper. “She is not!”

“And you can’t keep your eyes off her either, so you should fucking just fuck and get it out of your system.”

I was aghast. “You’re out of line. I can’t date someone involved in our investigation. It crosses so many lines.”

“Rules are made to be broken, my man, and she’s no longer a person of interest. She might end up on a witness stand later on, but if anything she’s a victim. And a vulnerable victim just might need some tender loving dick to get through the rough patch.”

“You’re disgusting.”

He ignored me, but to be fair I was pretty sure he was kidding. About the taking advantage of witnesses part, at least.

“So I say get your rocks off tonight—hell, she looks like she’s got stamina, so maybe get your rocks off a few times—and then move on. Or don’t. But trying to reign in all that sexual tension is making you shit at your job. Something’s gotta give.”

I was doing a shit job recently, but that wasn’t because Athena was distracting me, was it? And even if it was, sleeping with an aggressive, stubborn, annoying criminal defense lawyer wouldn’t help my career in the long term.

Would it?

“Ahem!” I turned back to Athena who was tapping her shoe impatiently against the tile floor. “Are you going to make me wait around here all day?”

No, definitely not. Mark may not be a rule-breaker, but he wasn’t afraid to bend the rules to suit him. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—do the same. Athena was off limits. I just needed to try harder not to show how much that bothered me.