Читать книгу Secret Agent Under Fire - Geri Krotow - Страница 11

Chapter 2

Abi still wanted to scratch someone’s eyes out an hour after leaving the stakeout. An hour after meeting Silver Valley’s fire chief. She poured herself a cup of the awful SVPD coffee and waited for the rest of the case team to get their notes together for the wrap-up meeting. And of course they had to wait for the Silver Valley Fire Department officials to show up.

Which would bring her face-to-face with Fire Chief Keith Paruso again.

It’d been a couple of hours since she’d met Keith Paruso and her body had yet to stop humming from the immediate attraction he’d lit in her. It was as real, as strong as her certainty that not only was he a fire chief, he was a dog. As in capital-H hound dog. He had the bod and smile to get a lot of women in his bed, for sure. She almost giggled, thinking about how puzzled he’d appeared that she hadn’t fawned at his every word.

Focus, focus, focus. She was undercover as a Trail Hiker agent, but outwardly a special advisor to SVPD. That made any kind of romance with other LEA off-limits until this case was solved, especially with another Silver Valley public official who didn’t know what she was really doing. Who didn’t even know about Trail Hikers. There was at least one if not more arsonists to apprehend. In fact, after today, Abi was certain there was more than one and that the fires were being set individually.

So her love life had to take a backseat—nothing new. The case stretched before her as none other, however. Even with all the twisted cases and sociopaths she’d analyzed for the FBI, she had to admit the Silver Valley fire starter had even her stymied. It was a first for her in a long career of catching arsonists. A career she’d committed to while still in high school, when she’d been brokenhearted at the accidental death of her classmate in a house fire. Don’t go there. She tore her thoughts from the dark memories.

Making her way through the break room and down the corridor of the medium-size station, she stuck her head in Rio Ortego’s office.

“Hey, Rio.”

“Abi! Come on in for a bit.” He didn’t look as tired as she felt, yet he’d been up all night, too.

She sank down in a worn leather chair and took in the framed photo of Rio and his girlfriend, Kayla, that rested near his monitor. Why did everyone but her seem to have a life partner? Would a move to Silver Valley bring her love life back in line? After this case was closed, of course. Not one minute sooner.

She’d been recruited for the secret government shadow agency when she’d left the FBI after ten years of honorable service. The offer had been too good to be true; she’d work contracted missions that paid enough to maintain her Old Town Alexandria town house while traveling the world to complete missions her FBI training seemed perfect for.

Except going “home” to DC had gotten harder. The town house was nice and its location prime—for a commuter, which she no longer was. The days and weeks in between Trail Hiker missions felt longer and, in fact, boring. She’d been toying with making a move to somewhere free of DC’s political pressure, away from the abysmal traffic, away from the city life she was ready to leave behind.

“Good work out there this morning, Abi.” He didn’t look up from the report he studied, and he waved at his coffeepot. “Don’t drink that crap from the break room. Have some real joe.”

“Thanks, this is fine for now.” They had to be in the briefing room in less than twenty minutes and she needed a comfortable spot to sit more than she needed a cup of better brew.

Rio and Abi were the only Trail Hikers on the case at the moment, if she didn’t count the police chief. As such, they took pains to keep to the storyline that Abi was a contractor hired to help with the arson cases. Her prior experience as FBI wasn’t a secret and served her alibi well, as she posed as simply an arson expert. As the case was almost certainly entwined with the cult, it made her presence more validated. Since the FBI was being called in to work with SVPD to take out the True Believer Cult once and for all, no one questioned Abi’s role. And better, no one suspected she was part of anything clandestine.

“Close the door for a minute, will you?” Rio spoke quietly and she knew he needed to talk about something Trail Hiker–related.

“Sure.”

Once the door was closed Rio leaned forward, his forearms on his cluttered desk. “I can’t afford for you to be exchanging barbs with Keith Paruso. I’m pretty sure he’s aware of Trail Hikers, abstractly, but he doesn’t have any official knowledge of the agency. As much as this case may necessitate the need to pull him into TH, with his compliance, we’re still obligated to maintain our cover story.”

“I get that, Rio.” She tried to not let him see how stung she was by his statement. Did he think she was going to jump in the sack with him and tell Keith whom she really worked for? “I understand what a security clearance is.”

“It’s not about Keith as much as it’s about every other officer and firefighter who’ll never be part of TH, who don’t need to know about Trail Hikers and what we’re doing.”

“Understood.” She dug her bottom teeth into the foam cup. It felt like her father, lecturing her for dating the wrong kind of boy. And she wasn’t considering dating Keith Paruso—she didn’t know the man.

“Abi, I’m not saying this as any kind of reprimand. You’re the perfect Trail Hiker agent—Claudia doesn’t hire deadweight.” Claudia Michele, the former US Marine Corps General who was the Trail Hiker CEO, had been a tough sell when Abi had reported for her initial interview. Even though Abi had been recruited for the interview by the government shadow agency, she’d still had to prove her worthiness to Claudia, both in the field and at the desk.

“I didn’t take your comments personally, Rio. You’re not the first alpha male I’ve worked for, you know.”

He smiled. “Alpha male? What the hell does that mean? Is that like some kind of millennial code for ‘dickhead’?”

She laughed. “God, I’ve missed laughing with teammates since I left the FBI. It was the best choice for me, to make a change and come here to Silver Valley, but this kind of camaraderie is rare in the civilian world.”

Rio grunted. “I’ve found it to be nonexistent, frankly. Law enforcement is a family, for sure.”

“Working for Colt Todd has to be enjoyable at times, doesn’t it?”

Rio’s eyes flashed. “Chief Todd’s the best, hands-down. And you know he’s fully invested with the Trail Hikers, too, but more on a need-to-know basis.”

Abi grunted. “From what I’ve seen, he’s more than interested in Claudia.”

Rio’s eyes sharpened. “Don’t be so quick to judge, Abi. All of us in Silver Valley end up working very closely together. It’s inevitable that the dangerous circumstances and heroics required to keep Silver Valley safe lead to deeper relationships off the clock.”

“Like you and Kayla.”

Rio’s expression faltered and she saw a red tinge on his cheekbones. He-man, detective and Trail Hiker team lead was blushing over his woman?

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Rio, I didn’t mean to fluster you, for God’s sake.”

“Save it. You know you fit in almost too well here, don’t you, Abi?”

“Maybe. How did you meet Kayla?” Rio’s girlfriend was a local florist Abi had met at the SVPD police picnic last week. Before the arson case had escalated.

Rio’s smile disappeared and his jaw tensed. “At a murder scene. The second time.”

“Oh, God. I’m so sorry, Rio.”

“It wasn’t a personal friend of either of ours, but by the time we closed the case Kayla had been shot at, more than once.”

“She sounds pretty tough.”

“That she is.” The look of bemusement and absolute adoration that changed Rio’s demeanor from grim to grateful shot stabs of jealousy through Abi. Would she ever elicit that kind of emotion from a man?

She sure hadn’t in DC: all the more reason to consider her relocation to Silver Valley permanent. As the song said, a change might do her good.

A short rap on Rio’s office door interrupted her thoughts and was the only warning they had before the door opened and Keith Paruso entered.

“Hey, Rio, great work—” He cut himself off as he took in Abi’s presence. “Abigail.”

“I’ve already told you, Chief, it’s ‘Abi.’” She stood and held out her hand. “Nice to see you again.”

“Right.” Despite the doubt in his reply he took her hand, and she had to admit she wasn’t impartial to the heat, the damned sexual electricity that she felt engulf her as fully as his hand enveloped hers. “Only if you call me Keith.”

“Fine. Keith.” She smiled and sat back down. Keith didn’t take a seat but stood near Rio’s desk as he greeted Rio.

Damp hair and the pungent scent of soap weren’t all that told her he’d gone home and had a quick shower. His worn but clean jeans and collared shirt emphasized his broad shoulders and how his torso tapered to the waist of his unbelted jeans, where she noted he had a button fly.

Oh, God, was there anything sexier than a man in button-fly jeans?

Can it, Redland. Rarely had she become involved with a fellow officer or agent on any case. It seldom ended well and, in her case, it had been disastrous. A flash of memory had her in the stifled surroundings where a drug dealer’s last stand had cornered her and Frederick. Fred, the one man she’d ever thought she could make a life with...

Until he’d married said drug dealer’s daughter, after freeing her from the clutches of the crime ring.

“That’s where Abi comes in. Abi?”

“Abigail. You’re up.” Keith’s hand was on her bare forearm, his breath whispering over her cheeks as she looked up at him. She looked at his hand, strong and warm against her skin. His face revealed nothing save professional courtesy and collegial concern. But his eyes flickered with—patronizing glee. Wait, did he think he was doing her a favor by touching her? Did he think she needed the male attention? That she’d react to his touch?

And he’d called her Abigail again, damn it.

“Sorry, my mind wandered. Just piecing together the evidence we have so far.” She lifted his hand from her using two fingers and pulled her arm away. She looked at Rio. “I’ve already told Colt my thoughts.”

“Which are?” Keith spoke up, no hint in his tone of the emotion he’d revealed a moment earlier, or of her obvious rebuff of his he-man tactics.

“I don’t like how this fire starter has gone from burning down, what, six or seven barns? To all of a sudden move up to larger commercial properties, like the convenience store last month, and before today he aimed at historical landmarks. Today, the run-down farmhouse. It’s not usual, not for a straightforward profile. This isn’t someone who gets off on simply lighting fires.”

“Tell us something we don’t already know.” Keith crossed his arms over his chest. So the man had smarts to go with the cocky player attitude. Abi could overlook a sexy man but the sexiest attribute to her was always intelligence. Followed by a sense of humor, which Keith was demonstrating through his obvious need to tease her with his blatant come-on behavior.

Ignoring the way his biceps flexed against his chest, Abi shrugged. “Right. So it’s obvious to me that you probably have more than one arsonist. Even though the notes left at the scenes are all the same, from the same paper stock and ink. One person, one entity may be directing several different people to commit the arsons. That’s why I’m not convinced these are hard-boiled fire starters.”

“I’ve thought the same thing.” Keith looked at Rio. “I told you this three weeks ago, and I mentioned it to Colt this morning. Today’s spotting of the suspect makes it three out of a total of eight fires after which we’ve seen the suspect take off once the engines arrive.”

Rio’s brow creased and he leaned on his forearms. “Three times none of us caught him, damn it.”

“He had an escape vehicle and a driver. There has to have been another vehicle they drove the ATV to. And then, maybe some kind of hidey-hole in the Appalachians. No one disappears this easily without help.” Abi stopped before she said anything about the Trail Hikers supersecret command post buried deep behind a cave, which had long ago been sealed from tourists. Keith Paruso wasn’t a Trail Hiker.

“What else do you have, Abi?” Keith’s voice was like a caress, damn it. It made her thoughts jumble as a guilty heat ran up her chest, her throat, her face. She wasn’t sure how, but somehow he knew she’d been thinking of him and not the case. More like he assumed she was thinking of only him. She could practically see the planets revolving around his head—this man really did think it was all about him.

“Nothing that’s worth talking about right now.” She stood. “I need to get some notes together before the big meeting. I’ll meet you both in the briefing room.”

* * *

“You seem to have Abi riled up but good, Keith. Care to explain?” Rio grinned and all Keith thought about was how pissed his sister Kayla would be if he gave her boyfriend a black eye.

“No, I don’t. This morning’s the first time I’ve ever seen her. You never mentioned a contractor working at SVPD before today.”

“No reason to bring it up. We have contractors in every now and then. It’s not usual, but it happens. This just happens to be a more visible case. And Abi is, well, more visible, too.” Keith knew with certainty that Rio’s heart was all for Kayla. He never even mentioned that he thought another woman was attractive. As Kayla’s brother, Keith was glad, but as a man, the thought of one woman having such control over his emotions made him cringe. “You seem to like what you see. In our contractor.” Rio’s grin widened.

“You are so damn lucky my sister is in love with you.”

“If things go right, we might be brothers, Keith.” Rio’s expression sobered.

“You’re kidding? Does Kayla know?”

“No, and please don’t say anything. She doesn’t want to hurry our relationship, but, frankly, I’ve been ready to marry her since we started dating again, when I was still working your case.”

Keith nodded. During his “case,” he’d been falsely accused of endangering the lives of citizens who’d been in church when it was set on fire. During its most well-attended service of the year—the children’s Christmas pageant. The incident and its aftermath had changed his life...and his professional reputation. No matter how much his colleagues claimed it didn’t matter, he knew better. It would haunt him until they shattered open the cult.

“Go for it, Rio. You both deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks, man.”

Rio’s bemused expression had Keith smiling in response. He was genuinely happy for Kayla and Rio, maybe even a little jealous. Especially with a woman like Abigail Redland in town.

Hell. He needed to stop this line of thinking before it torched something deeper inside him. He wasn’t the type to settle down, not yet. There was the matter of his professional reputation, which he knew would be restored once he caught the arsonist. Nothing else mattered.

* * *

Claudia Michele sprayed her silver bob with the expensive hairspray her hairstylist had convinced her would make her thick mane “manageable but still touchable.” She didn’t know how many times she’d done her hair, put her makeup on, hoping that the men she worked with would notice her as more than a fellow Marine. There’d been a handful through the years that she’d thought would become more than casual relationships, but with the US Marine Corps as her career, the mission had always been her priority and had overshadowed every chance at long-lasting love.

Until she’d retired from the corps and agreed to head up the Trail Hikers. Trail Hikers was her new baby, but she’d made a promise to herself that she’d put her personal life first whenever she could from now on. The chances to have her own children had passed, but she wasn’t ready to give up on love. Not completely.

And Colt Todd seemed heaven-sent. The Silver Valley police chief had caught her eye from the first time they’d met. It had been over the True Believer Cult case, which they were still pursuing. Would the degenerate group’s evil hold on Silver Valley ever let go?

Her phone vibrated as she picked it up to throw into her Kate Spade tote. One perk of no longer being in uniform and earning a decent paycheck was the fun fashion accessories. She particularly liked this bag because it held her .45 as easily as her Poppy Red lipstick.

“Hi, Colt.”

“Claudia.” God, she’d never grow tired of his deep voice, the way her stomach tingled each time she heard it. “How are you today?”

“I’m well. On my way in to the office.”

“Mine or yours?”

“Mine—I have some message traffic to read. That’s email in your lingo. And we’re indoctrinating a couple of new agents specifically to aid in the cult takedown.”

“Are you allowed to tell me that? About the new agents?”

“You don’t officially know who they are or what they’re for, but with the need for more manpower to take down the True Believers, I think it’s safe to let you in on it.”

“I’d rather you let me in on something else.”

“Colt...”

“Sorry, sorry. I can’t seem to help myself whether I’m next to you or miles away on the phone.”

A silence fell between them and images of Colt’s lips kissing every inch of her body threatened to weaken her focus on the case. “Thank you for this weekend, Colt. It was lovely.”

“Yeah, well, there’s more where that came from. As soon as we round up these criminals.”

“I agree. I was hoping you had some good news.”

“Like that one of our officers happened upon Leonard Wise at the right moment and was able to take them all down? I wish.” She heard the ding of a car alarm. “I’m back at the station after spending all morning at the stakeout with the fire department trying to piece together what little evidence we have.”

“Any luck? I haven’t received a report from Abi or Rio yet.” From Colt’s tone, she suspected the stakeout had proved fruitless. Colt always took it personally when they didn’t get their man or woman after such a concerted effort. It was the mark of a true professional, she thought.

“A little. The bastard got away but we did have eyes on him, and Abi came very close to taking him out.”

“What the hell happened?” Abi was one of her recent hires, a secret undercover agent for TH. Former FBI, Abi was one of the most well-trained “new” agents they’d hired to date.

“He had backup and got away.”

“I’ll be seeing Abi when I get to my office. She’s not going to be in a great mood then, I take it.”

“Most certainly not. And her run-in with Keith Paruso didn’t help.”

“Keith?” Claudia laughed. “He strikes me as incredibly personable, especially considering what he’s been through since last year.”

“Personable to you when he thought you were an admin assistant for the PD’s social media, sure. But on the morning after being up all night waiting for a suspected serial arsonist to strike, and then not catching the criminal?”

Colt laughed with her. His laugh reminded her of how he chuckled whenever he visibly aroused her, how his strong profile had been backlit by the sunset this weekend at the shore. When they’d had dessert before dinner and gone to her private back deck to make love before the day was done.

“Claudia?”

“Sorry. I was just thinking about something else.”

“I know. Me, too.”