Читать книгу Untraceable - Janie Crouch - Страница 8

Chapter Two

Juliet already sat in the conference room between her brothers Cameron and Sawyer, chatting with both, when Evan arrived at the meeting. He wasn’t surprised to find the two men flanking Juliet. If Cameron and Sawyer had their way, she’d be wrapped in cotton wool and hidden away somewhere.

The Branson men were brothers to Evan in every way but blood. He’d known them most of his life—Sawyer, Cameron, and their older brother, Dylan, who no longer worked at Omega—and would do anything for any of them. But their overprotectiveness when it came to Juliet frustrated Evan.

Juliet had strength none of the Branson family wanted to admit, including herself. Right now it lay hidden under layers of fear and regret. But the strength resided inside her. He’d seen it multiple times during their tenure as partners in the field. He wished Juliet would trust him to help her find that strength again, but he couldn’t force it to happen. Could only wait and hope.

Evan deliberately took the seat directly across from Juliet. She nodded at him and gave him a polite smile before looking away. He decided to engage her brothers instead.

“What’s up, Tweedledum and Tweedledummer?”

Neither brother was up to his normal speed. Both were recovering from gunshot wounds received in action over the past few months, Cameron from an undercover operation gone wrong, and Sawyer from an attempt to fix that. They would recover fully, but were manning desks until they were cleared for field duty.

Not that either seemed to mind desk duty right now. It gave them each more time to spend at home with the loves-of-their-lives, also recently acquired in the cases. Having met Cameron’s Sophia and Sawyer’s Megan, Evan wholeheartedly supported his friends wanting to stick close to home.

“Watch it there, shorty. I can still kick your butt even with my arm in this sling,” Sawyer told him. The “shorty” barb had been around since they were all teenagers and Evan had been the last to hit his growth spurt, so he’d been a head shorter than the Branson boys for a time. Even though they now were all around the same height—each over six feet— Evan still got called shorty from time to time. But it brought the slightest of smiles to Juliet’s lips, so he let it slide.

“Yeah, I’d hate to put your other arm in a sling,” Evan retorted.

“Why are we having a big powwow with Burgamy?” Cameron cut in, referring to their boss, Dennis Burgamy. “Since when does he sit in on normal op-specification meetings?”

“I was wondering the same thing myself.” Juliet glanced briefly at Evan before turning away.

Evan knew he had to tell her about him going back undercover as Sinclair. He didn’t want her to hear it for the first time in the middle of the meeting.

“I don’t know why Burgamy wants to be in the meeting exactly,” Evan said. “But you guys should know that I’m going back under as Bob Sinclair.”

Cameron muttered a curse. Sawyer didn’t say anything. He’d already been aware that the Sinclair persona had been resurrected a few weeks ago. Evan had posed as Bob Sinclair to help Sawyer out in a case.

The color washed out of Juliet’s face and she stood, her chair rolling back from the table forcefully. All three men stood, as well.

“Excuse me,” she murmured.

“Jules—” Sawyer reached for her, but stopped when she flinched away.

“No, I’m all right. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Evan watched as she all but fled from the room. He gave a heavy sigh and sat back down.

“Should one of us go after her?” Cameron asked.

“No, let her go,” Evan said. “She just needs to pull herself together.”

Sawyer and Cameron looked as though they might argue, but decided against it. Evan knew he was right. Juliet would not want any of them coming after her, crowding her space. She’d be back when she was ready, which would probably be sooner than either of her overprotective brothers suspected.

Evan hated Juliet hearing about the Bob Sinclair situation this way, but knew it would have upset her no matter when or how she heard about it. There was no way around that.

Dennis Burgamy, head of operations at Omega, entered the room along with his assistant, Chantelle DiMuzio, who looked harried. Of course, poor Chantelle always looked harried. Anybody who worked that closely with their boss day in and day out couldn’t help it.

Burgamy took the seat at the head of the table, glanced around, and turned to Evan. “Where’s Juliet?”

“She had to step out. She’ll be back soon.”

Burgamy, dressed impeccably in a dark suit, sighed impatiently. Everyone knew there was no love lost between him and the Branson family. Each side tolerated the other, but only barely. Usually Burgamy didn’t have much problem with Juliet, however. Why had he even asked about her?

“Well, I don’t have much spare time, so we’ll need to start without her,” Burgamy barked.

“Okay, to get everyone up to speed,” Evan began, trying to stall to give Juliet time to return. “In the midst of Sawyer’s operation last month with Dr. Megan Fuller and DS-13, we weren’t sure if the Ghost Shell hardware system was going to be sold on the black market. Or if we would have the means of stopping it if it was sold.”

“A disaster on all counts,” Burgamy said.

Everyone nodded. Evan continued. “We were in a time crunch so I put feelers out on the street using some past covers, in case I needed to infiltrate any black market weapons groups.”

Evan looked over at Sawyer. “Fortunately, Sawyer was able to acquire Ghost Shell and arrest or eliminate most of DS-13, whom we are considering permanently disbanded.”

Sawyer raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t exactly how the whole thing had gone down, but whatever. Close enough.

Evan looked up, his attention caught by Juliet coming back through the door.

“Sorry,” she murmured to Burgamy, before taking her seat between her brothers once again.

Her features were still a little pinched, but she seemed otherwise well composed. As Evan knew, she was stronger than she thought.

“I was just explaining the situation with Sawyer and DS-13 last month,” he said to her. “You already know all of that.”

Juliet nodded. She did know it. As a matter of fact, she was the reason Sawyer and his fiancé, Megan Fuller, had gotten out alive at all.

“In the midst of that operation, one of my feelers got a lot of response—Bob Sinclair.” Juliet flinched as Evan said it, but he continued. “First, it was DS-13 who expressed interest, but since then someone from Vince Cady’s group has made contact.”

That got everyone’s attention. Vince Cady was a crime boss with his fingers in almost every piece of ugliness you could find: weapons, technology, blackmail. On the surface he looked clean, and did a good job of covering his tracks. Omega had never found anything that could be used to indict Cady, but they knew he was dirty. And even more, he was key to a number of larger groups and sellers. If Omega could get dirt on Cady, they could take down a lot of other bad guys.

Vince Cady was known as a grade-A bastard. Smooth, but with a cruel edge. And very, very smart. Which was why he’d never been arrested.

Cady initiating contact with Bob Sinclair provided a huge break for Omega. Having an undercover foothold in his group would be measurable progress, bringing Omega much closer to taking Cady and his network down.

“That’s excellent,” Cameron said. “It gives Bob Sinclair instant credibility. Cady came to you, not the other way around.”

Evan nodded. “Yes, I plan to use that fact to my advantage as much as possible.”

“Did he contact you for a specific buy?” Burgamy asked.

Juliet spoke up. “Our most recent intel about Cady suggests that he may have acquired some surface-to-air missiles to sell on the black market. That would be a perfect fit for Bob Sinclair.”

Juliet’s voice wavered only the slightest bit when she said it.

Evan nodded in encouragement. “I agree,” he told the group. “Bob and Lisa Sinclair’s reputation is as entrepreneurs. They...” Evan looked over and saw Juliet’s pinched features as well as Sawyer and Cameron’s thunderous looks, so changed his pronoun choice. “Bob, I mean, is known as a jack-of-all-trades, dabbling in weapons, pharmaceutical drugs, technology, information. He’s the type of guy who can help Vince Cady out, so I’m not surprised by the contact.”

“Okay, good,” Burgamy said. Chantelle, sitting next to him, kept clicking away, taking notes on her tablet the entire time. “What’s the timetable for this op?”

Evan still didn’t know why Burgamy was even here. Yes, Cady was a pretty big fish and infiltrating his group would be a huge coup, but why the boss would sit in on an early planning meeting like this was beyond Evan.

“I have a meeting scheduled with Cady tomorrow in Baltimore, his base of operation. Since Bob Sinclair is an old cover, I’m just going to pull and use all the old info, IDs, etc. Prep is relatively minimal. I can go under immediately, depending on how the meeting with Cady goes.”

“Eighteen months absence isn’t going to be a problem?” Burgamy asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure it will come up. I’ll make certain I have something to say.” Evan didn’t know what that would be yet. The truth wasn’t an option, and the whole situation with Lisa Sinclair was quite complicated. Evan would have multiple answers rehearsed, depending on exactly what questions were asked, how they were asked, and the climate of the conversation.

That’s what a good undercover agent did: constantly took stock of the situation and adapted.

“And what about Lisa Sinclair, Bob’s ‘wife’?” Burgamy asked.

And there it was, the announcement of the elephant in the room. Evan didn’t look over at Juliet to see her reaction. She didn’t need anyone gawking at her.

“What about her?” Evan responded, keeping his tone neutral.

“Bob and Lisa Sinclair were a couple. A tight couple.” Burgamy leaned more of his weight on his arms, which were folded on the conference table. “The cover worked so well because the criminal groups you infiltrated bought into the whole Bonnie and Clyde, can’t-live-without-each-other vibe the two of you gave off.”

Evan didn’t want to admit it, but Burgamy was right. Going in without Juliet would make this mission more difficult. But the alternative wasn’t an option, so Evan wasn’t even entertaining it as such. He glanced briefly over at Juliet, who was looking intently down at her notes.

“I’ll make it work, as Bob Sinclair alone. I’ve certainly done my share of undercover work with no partner.” Evan could see the Branson brothers nodding, backing him up. Cameron in particular knew about long-term solo undercover work, having recently come off a life-changing operation himself.

But Burgamy wasn’t willing to let it go. “Isn’t Cady going to wonder about Lisa? Her absence will certainly make suspicions higher, perhaps even jeopardize the entire mission.”

Evan sat up straighter in his chair, then leaned toward Burgamy. He could see Juliet’s brothers mirroring his actions, tension evident. Evan didn’t like where this was going.

“I’m a trained, experienced operative, Burgamy. I’ll handle it.”

The boss’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I have every confidence in your abilities, Karcz. But the facts are the facts.”

Burgamy leaned back in the chair in a relaxed pose that belied the words he’d said. Suddenly the entire meeting became clear to Evan, the purpose of Burgamy’s attendance and his endgame. And Evan had played right into his hands. He knew what Burgamy was going to say before his boss even said it, but there was nothing he could do.

Burgamy turned to Juliet. “Juliet needs to go back undercover as Lisa Sinclair to ensure the success of this operation.”