3. Chapter 3

three

Lucas

I wanted to shake her until she just stopped resisting and let me do my job.

But it wasn’t her fault that I fucked up. Again. I ignored the chuckling paramedic next to me while I gave her a head start of a couple of seconds, then slammed the vehicle’s door closed and hurried after her.

I was good at my job. I had a perfect record with the Bureau before this damn case.

But then my CI went missing. He was found dead and partially dismembered, meaning the poor man was likely tortured for working with me. Then his killer got the jump on me and fired a gun at a crowded airport before disappearing again. I had a hell of a lot of paperwork waiting for me when I eventually checked back in at the office. Our department’s floor receptionist was going to be pissed .

The witnesses to his murder was followed to the airport and almost didn’t get away in time. Thankfully, I got a text from their assigned US Marshal when they boarded, so I knew they were safely on a plane out of state. I could focus on bringing the case together here in San Francisco while the Marshal dealt with those two; I could tell they’d be troublemakers, but Witnesses C and W weren’t my problem anymore.

Antonio Conti was my problem. Leo Lombardi. Angelo and Carlo Morelli. Dirty cops. They were my problem. My witnesses were safe, but they wouldn’t stay that way if I couldn’t bring the whole Morelli organization to justice.

But this woman…Leo Lombardi texted Antonio Conti to kill her. She was in danger. But she was flirting with Antonio before he got the text, so she was involved? Maybe?

I didn’t know if she was a potential victim or a person of interest or both, but I wouldn’t let her get away when I already lost so much in this case. I needed to pull in a home run, all the T's crossed and I's dotted to keep my case closure rate pristine.

It would be hard, maybe even impossible, to keep an eye on her if I didn’t know her name. I’d checked her purse for ID while she was unconscious, but there was nothing. Whatever identification she used to get through airport security, she tossed before meeting Antonio and kicking everyone’s ass, including mine.

That was hot as hell.

No. It wasn't.

It wasn’t attractive that she was exhibiting suspicious behavior by ditching her identification somewhere in the terminal. I couldn’t find her attractive, especially when I didn’t know how she was involved in my case. All I knew was that she was involved in some way and I needed to find her. I hurried in the direction she’d wandered.

I couldn’t—wouldn’t—detain her again, but I could speak to her calmly, ask her if she’d mind coming down to the station. Whether she liked it or not, she could be in very real danger. I could keep her safe. It made sense for her to come talk with us.

I spotted her short blonde curls bouncing as she climbed into an uber and I sprinted forward, slamming my badge against the front passenger window to stop the driver before he could pull away from the curb.

She looked absolutely outraged when I opened the back door, hauling myself in beside her. While her cheeks flushed a delectable pink as her anger flared, the driver looked like he was about to puke, poor kid.

“Don’t worry, nobody’s in trouble,” I tried to reassure him. I shot a conspiratorial wink to my mystery woman before continuing. “I’m Special Agent Lucas Blake with the FBI. You can continue your drive as directed. I just need to talk to your passenger for a minute.”

He nodded, activating his blinker before pulling out into traffic.

“Buckle up,” I nodded to her. “It’s the law.”

She looked like she was about to open the door and initiate some ninja-like barrel roll to escape from the car. I bet she wouldn’t even injure herself in the process, too, not a single scratch. But instead of proving me right, her delicate hands grasped the seat belt and buckled it like a good fucking girl—

I put a halt to the train of thought my brain was tumbling toward and turned to face her so she had my full attention.

“You’re not in trouble and I’m not detaining you,” I reiterated to her. “I just don’t think you’ve recognized the danger you’re in. You had someone fire a gun at your head point blank—”

The driver gasped dramatically, not even pretending he wasn’t eavesdropping.

“—and it’s only pure luck you’re still alive. I think you should come with me, give a witness statement, and we can figure out how to get you to safety.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “No one is coming after me except you.”

“They tried to kill you once.”

“And they won’t be able to try again. Leo Lombardi doesn’t know my real name. Kinda like you.” She looked smug, like this was a game she was winning.

“But you’re close enough to the situation that you know his name, so that tells me you know more than you’re letting on.”

She shrugged, but her shoulders were tense. I was onto something.

“Come on. Let’s go somewhere safe to talk things out. What’s your name?”

“Damien Velasquez,” the driver promptly answered. I tried to hold back a smile. “Sorry, I was so into your conversation I forgot you weren’t talking to me.” He looked utterly unrepentant, and the mystery woman didn’t bother to hide her amusement.

“Tell me, Damien, what is your rider’s name?”

She cut him off when he opened his mouth to answer. “You don’t have to tell him that.”

“You saw the badge, Damien. I work with the FBI. Will you tell me what address you’re dropping her off at?”

“Do not answer that, Damien. He doesn’t have a warrant.”

“Damien, I’ll give you a five-star review if you tell me.”

“Don’t you dare, Damien. He can’t review you since he didn’t sign up for this ride. I did and I will give you a one-star review if you give my personal information away without a warrant.”

Damien’s mouth snapped closed, and she grinned triumphantly at me as if to say I win.

I was fuming, but Damien wasn’t budging. I didn’t have a leg to stand on legally, and it annoyed me to no end that this woman knew that. How did she know so much about these things?

I tried to get her to speak to me a couple more times during the ride, but she just took out her phone and was tapping away, ignoring me. My efforts were in vain when the uber pulled to a stop in front of a grocery chain box store.

“Thanks, babe,” she said to the driver with a wink. That wink wasn’t aimed at me, but just being in the crosshairs of a hot as fuck woman throwing out playful and sexy winks…it was a lot.

I needed to get laid.

I saw a notification pop up on his phone with a very generous tip from Badass Blonde— did she seriously change her name in the app to hide from me? But then she was climbing out of the car and Damien was pulling away from the curb before I could finish picking my jaw up off the floor.

“Sorry, Agent,” Damien said, taking me out of my thoughts. “But one-star reviews are a death sentence to newer drivers like me. ”

I waved him off. He didn’t do anything wrong. I wouldn’t want the rideshare driver giving away personal details of my mom or sibling to someone without a warrant, so I could hardly blame him.

“How much to drive me back to the airport?”

“It’s on me,” he said. “I have to head back to pick up another fare anyway.”

I nodded, grateful, but knew I’d give him a cash tip anyway when he dropped me off. He was a good kid doing right by his riders, and I’d never fault someone who wanted to look out for a woman’s safety. Too bad more people weren’t like that.

Damien dropped me off at the airport parking lot so I could get my vehicle and head over to the local police station. I had someone to interrogate.

I'd arranged for Leo Lombardi to be taken back there while the mystery woman was unconscious, and he needed the tender, loving care of someone who already hated his guts to interview him after the shit storm that went down at the airport.

Mark Rosenberg, a homicide detective I’d known since we were kids, was waiting for me at the station. Since Leo hadn’t killed anybody—to our official and legal knowledge—Leo wasn’t technically his responsibility, but our positions had already overlapped a lot in the Morelli case and it just made sense to keep him on as my liaison to the precinct .

“Witnesses make it out of town okay?” he asked when he saw me. I nodded. “Good. Sorry you couldn’t go with; I know you and…person…had the hots for each other.”

I shook my head. Firstly, he was being none-too-subtle in trying to verbally redact Witness C’s name, though I appreciated the effort. We already found one dirty cop at this station. For all we knew there could be a dozen more.

Secondly, it wasn’t like that with her. “No, she just reminds me of…”

Any chance I had of having a good day—slim as it was—were instantly crushed the moment I thought of Dani. Mark just nodded in sympathy. He understood.

I cleared my throat, masking any emotions that peeked through. “Where’s Lombardi?”

He straightened up, putting the same mask on his face. “Just over here. He’s got a wicked shiner. Did you hit him?”

“No?” It came out as a question. I hadn’t even noticed that at the airport, but if it was showing already, it probably happened before we ever arrived. Besides, “He let TSA cuff him and came over with the locals willingly enough. It would be police brutality if I hit him unprovoked. Rules exist for a reason.”

“Okay, Dad,” he mocked.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond. Rules were rules, even if they protected the bad guys.

“We’ve been letting him sit and stew for a bit. Found this on him,” he added, pulling a generic-looking pistol out of his holster. A quick look showed me the serial number was shaved off. “Unfortunately, that’s not enough to hold him. He wasn’t in the sterile area of the airport, and he doesn’t have any current charges laid against him that would restrict him from having a gun. We can’t hold him just for being suspicious in a suspicious place.”

“Bullshit. We had him on a whole slew of charges yesterday. What happened to all that?”

Mark looked uncomfortable. “I looked into it, and his lawyer got him released last night due to a lack of evidence.”

“Bullshit,” I repeated. “I saw the goddamn evidence myself when he was brought in.”

“Maybe, but no one can find it now. It’s listed in the system, but none of it actually exists in the evidence locker. Without evidence it’s like there was no crime. They had to release him.”

“Who was on duty last night? Gates?”

Theo Gates was a known dirty cop who was currently being investigated by Internal Affairs. His dirty status was new information from this morning, provided by my two witnesses who just made it to safety. No one would have been keeping an eye on Gates last night when the evidence was stolen.

Mark shrugged. I was pissed, but tried not to show it. It wasn’t Mark’s fault that this case had too many things going belly up.

I was never going to get a transfer out of the Organized Crime unit if I didn’t knuckle down and get this shit taken care of. I wanted to be part of the CACHTU from the start. I couldn’t stop now. I had to get solid evidence for this case to qualify for a transfer.

“What about the text? He ordered Antonio Conti to kill a woman.”

Mark shook his head. “No proof the text was from him.”

“I saw him typing on his phone right when Antonio received the text. It was him. Check his phone records!”

“They did. Leo Lombardi last used his phone from his apartment last night to make a fuck-date on a dating app and didn’t even have it on him at the airport.”

“He used a burner phone then.”

Mark nodded. “Most likely. But there’s no finding it now. The TSA officer who held him didn’t confiscate a phone and didn’t mention seeing him dump one.”

“The officers there are a fucking joke.”

“No kidding. But there’s no phone on Lombardi’s end to tie him to that text.”

“Fuck.” What else could go wrong in this case? “Any good news?”

“We got the surveillance feed set up at the Morelli & Morelli law offices.”

“That is good news. We can go in guns blazing if Antonio Conti shows his face visiting his uncles. Maybe even bring in at least one Morelli on harboring a fugitive.”

Antonio Conti was wanted for the murder of my CI, Mario Costa, before he ever pulled those stunts in the airport. His case would be open and closed…once we finally got our hands on him. Leo Lombardi was proving slicker.

“I also got wind that one of the guys over in Vice had been after Lombardi for a while, and he took it upon himself to set up surveillance on his apartment when he got off last night.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see pictures or videos of that ugly fucker getting off with his date last night .

Mark rolled his eyes. “Got off without charges filed last night. What was his name? Nando Crevallo. I’ll hit him up, see if he knows anything useful. As for other things being useful for the case…”

The way he trailed off made me nervous.

“What?” I asked, wary of where this was going.

“I heard the woman Conti tried to shoot took him the fuck down, man. One move. I’d kill to see the video. Think you can use your federal credentials to get me a copy? For research purposes, of course. Studying the enemy.”

I thought of how she held her own against me just as easily. That could be embarrassing if it got out.

“Nope. I have to save my favors for when I really need them.”

“Maybe we could use the video to identify her?”

I shook my head. I had a feeling that she was pretty damn thorough. She didn’t want to be found, and it would stay that way. For now.