On a sharp sigh, Ree backpedaled and grabbed her cell from the nightstand. Shelly. “That was fast.”
“What did she say?” Quint asked.
“Word is that Matias is planning to duck out of the country. He’s acting nervous and jumpy, and they want to move on him soon,” she said.
“Wait. Hold on a minute. If they move on Matias, our investigation is done.” Quint grabbed his shirt and his phone. “We can’t allow that to happen.”
“The department heads will work together—”
“No, the DEA will walk all over Bjorn, and I can’t risk losing this trail toward Dumitru,” Quint countered.
“No one is losing anything yet.” Ree tried to inject some calm into a situation that had gone from DEFCON level five to one in two seconds. She read the rest of the text. “Arresting him once he leaves the country is that much more difficult, so Nick is pushing to act as soon as possible. Word of warning, he will move in the second he gets clearance.”
Ree texted back asking how soon that might be. The response came almost immediately.
“Okay, so, it’s looking like it could literally be any moment. We should probably be hearing from Bjorn soon and the DEA is ‘promising’ to give us as much warning as they can.” Ree formed actual air quotes with her fingers when she said the word promising.
“We all know how this goes down. They won’t give us a heads-up until they’re on their way to the bust, seconds before making it, or done. All our work up to this point goes up in smoke.” Quint fisted his left hand, and she figured he didn’t even realize he was doing it. He white-knuckled his cell phone.
“Hold on. Shelly is typing again,” Ree said. The message came through. “She doesn’t think it’ll go down before tomorrow night, if that helps at all.”
“It does,” Quint stated through clenched teeth. “We have less than twenty-four hours to figure out our case or get preempted by Wonder Boy over there.”
Ree thanked Shelly for the information and the heads-up.
Ree said to Quint, “At least we know.
“What are the chances we can stay in place after the drug bust?” she asked, knowing it was too risky because everyone around Lola would be scrutinized. Since Ree’s employment at the bar coincided with the bust, there was no way she wouldn’t be suspect. At the very least, she would be scrutinized. It wouldn’t be good for her or the case they were building against Constantin. Something dawned on her. “We must be getting close ourselves.”
“How so?” Quint’s eyebrow arched.
“What happened in the laundry room earlier. There’s no way we would be sent a warning if Constantin and his brother were comfortable. Right?” she asked, snapping her fingers together. “We struck a nerve by me getting close to Lola.”
“There’s no way Baptiste saw me gawking at Lili, since I wasn’t,” he said. “I barely looked in their direction.”
“Constantin is getting overly protective because...”
“I doubt they picked me up on their cameras in Galveston, because that was one of my first thoughts,” he said, brainstorming out loud.
“If they did, it sure was fast,” she said.
“There were a whole lot of cameras around the actual residence in Galveston. It didn’t occur to me they could be on the neighborhood entrance as well,” he reasoned.
“Baptiste didn’t bring it up, though. He focused on Lili and Lola,” she said.
“He might not have wanted to show his hand on the Galveston residence,” he admitted. “There’s a chance he might not have wanted me to know they saw the truck.”
“I’m sure Constantin is keeping tabs on the building,” she said. “We’re new tenants. I work with Lola.”
“All true,” he said. “You have a few things going for you in that you let Angie take the lead of creating a friendship.”
“That’s probably why Lola doesn’t suspect me of anything,” she admitted. “But Constantin and his brother would pick up on those other things.
“Lola jumped at the chance to bring her laptop to you,” Ree said. “Did that mean she was looking for a friend or a way out?”
“Too bad we can’t march up to the ninth floor and ask,” Quint stated.
“Wait a minute. That’s a really good idea actually,” Ree said.
“It’s too risky. I’ve already been told to keep you away from Lola,” Quint warned.
“Not me.” Ree pointed next door. “Angie has a habit of showing up at people’s doors, sometimes with wineglasses in hand.”
“Or possibly coffee,” he said. “Then again, Angie was headed to a coffee shop yesterday morning to study. Maybe she could get Lola out of the building. We could talk to her outside of here if Angie can get Lola out of the building without a tail. Maybe get a better feel for where Lola’s head is in all this. Her brother wants a way out. The two seem close.”
“Think we can get a message to Esteban?” she asked.
“I doubt it, and it would be too risky. We don’t exactly know what his involvement is in all this,” he said. “He might not want to work for Constantin, but that doesn’t mean the guy is in the clear in my book.”
“Right.” Ree’s cell buzzed again, indicating another text had come through. She grabbed her phone and checked the screen. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What?” Quint patted the bed in the spot next to him.
Ree moved beside him. “Shelly just warned us to keep an eye on our tires if we want to go anywhere tomorrow.”
Quint was up and off that bed in the space of a heartbeat. Ree quickly followed, jumping in between him and the path to the door just in case he got any ideas. Instead, he started pacing. “That son of a bi—”
Ree put both hands up in the surrender position. “I know, but we need to be smart about how we handle this information.”
“It was a so-called drug deal at the warehouse,” Quint continued. “The ‘dealer’ had to be connected somehow to Wonder Boy as maybe an informant.”
“That makes the most sense,” she reasoned as anger heated the blood in her veins to the boiling point. Still, she managed to keep it together long enough to thank Shelly. “She is taking a big risk in telling us this.”
“I know” was all Quint said.
“Lola gave me her phone number at the bar tonight,” Ree said. “I forgot to mention that earlier.”
“That could be what prompted the laundry room visit,” he reasoned.
“True,” she agreed. “Shelly could get into a whole lot of trouble sharing this with us, so please don’t go storming up to Nick and give him a black eye even though he deserves it.”
“I’m angry, not stupid. There’s no way I’m giving him the satisfaction of taking my badge, even if it’s just for a suspension, because of his actions,” Quint said.
“Agreed.” Ree circled the opposite way as she paced. Twice they almost collided, stopping for a second before sidestepping and moving on.
“The only question in my mind is, what are we going to do about it?” Quint said.
ALL QUINT COULD see was red. It was a hue that colored everything in the room, including Ree as she passed by. On her, however, it looked good. Hell, everything looked good on Ree.
“You’re right about one thing, though,” he said.
“Which is?” she asked as they looped past, making another round.
“I really want to punch the smug bastard,” he said.
“He got us over a barrel with Bjorn,” Ree stated.
“Damn right he did.” More of that anger threatened to break through. He’d been managing it so far, but that didn’t mean the teakettle wasn’t about to boil over. “He put us exactly in the position he wanted, and now our hands are tied as to standing down while he takes over his side of the bust.”
Ree stopped him midpace. She checked the time, which confused him.
“Is there anything that can be done about this in the next fifteen to twenty minutes?” she asked.
“Other than come up with a plan as to how we’re going to take that bastard down and still protect our case?” he asked.
“All I see is red and I can’t think clearly.” She smoothed her flat palm over his chest. “But I can think of a great way to burn off some of this energy so we can.”
That was pretty much all the encouragement Quint needed. In the next few seconds, hands roamed and at some point clothes ended up in a pile on the floor. Their bodies ended up a tangle in the sheets. And his heart ended up taking a huge hit.
After an incredible round of making love, she fell asleep in his arms. Quint followed soon after.
He had no idea how many hours had passed by the time he opened his eyes again.
“I’ll make coffee this time,” Ree said, peeling off the covers.
He wrapped his arm tighter around her. “Or we could just stay here. It’ll only take a few seconds for me to be ready for another round.”
Ree laughed. “At this rate, we’ll never get out of bed.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” he said.
“But coffee first,” she said, pushing against her restraints—his arms. “And then I promise you can have your way with me as much as you like.”
“I’ll make sure you keep your promise,” he said.
“Oh, did I just hear Quint Casey make something that sounded like a commitment?” she said, clearly teasing, and yet the words struck like a physical blow. Was that what was happening here? And why did those words make him want to run in the opposite direction? Being with her in bed felt like the most natural thing in the world. Why did a few words hit him like a pole to the chest at a hundred miles an hour?
He mumbled something as he let go of her and then grabbed his clothes out of the pile. She sat on the edge of the bed for a long moment, silent. This was probably where he should say something to her that would explain the situation or how he truly felt about her. Except no words came. The only thing he knew for certain was that he cared about her more than he had anyone in a very long time. Maybe ever. But what did that mean for their partnership?
Relationships could come and go. Finding the perfect partner was a whole lot rarer. Quint sighed as he slipped on his T-shirt, boxers and then jeans, one leg at a time.
“We have to get Lola alone” was all he said as he crossed the room with his laptop. “Let’s see. I haven’t checked this in a while, so...”
He booted up the system after setting the device on the counter.
“Send her an email,” Ree suggested, her tone clipped. Her back was to him as she made coffee.
Could he explain himself? Smooth things over with her? The last thing he wanted to do was make the situation worse.
“Think we could get to Lili?” he asked.
“It’s possible,” she said.
And then it dawned on him. “Why didn’t I think about this earlier? Matias is about to leave, and suddenly Lili is at Baptiste’s side. I’d bet money he and Constantin are protecting her because they realize Matias is about to bolt.”
“That would explain Lola’s nerves at the bar all night and possibly her discussion with her brother,” she said. “Now that I really think about it, I think she told him to hang on a little while longer.”
“She could be the key to all this,” he stated. “She would do anything to keep her daughter safe.”
“Are you suggesting we blackmail her into testifying?” Ree asked.
“It wouldn’t be the first time a government agency used a kid to get someone to testify, but no,” he said. “I’m proposing we get her alone and offer her protection if she’s willing to go to court for us as a witness.”
“Esteban has seen the inner workings of Constantin’s business,” she said with a nod. The coffee maker finished doing its job, so she turned her back to him and poured two cups of black coffee. When she turned around, her face was unreadable. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” he said, taking the offering.
“Based on the conversation with Lola, Esteban wants to be free of running errands for Constantin,” Ree said.
“Which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not a criminal,” Quint said. “But his sister and niece could be incentive to take the offering of a fresh start.”
“You said Lola exchanges emails with her mother,” Ree said. “How would that work exactly? Lola is all about her family, based on what I’ve seen so far.”
“There’s no father in the picture,” he said. “I could take a request to Bjorn for the mother to be relocated along with Lola, her daughter and brother.”
“You think our boss would go for it?” she asked.
“We won’t know if we don’t try.” He opened the case file, and there it was. The report that said the DEA was about to close their case. Quint bit back a curse.
“What is it?” Ree asked.
“It’s official.” He turned the screen around to her so she could read it for herself. “The file was uploaded half an hour ago.”
“At least Shelly gave us a heads-up it was coming,” she said.
“And the knowledge that her partner was not to be trusted on any level,” he stated.
“Do you think Bjorn would go to bat for us? Ask for a little more time?” Ree asked.
“Not after the truck incident. She’s already angry with me,” he said. Quint exhaled slowly. “Not unless we can give her a damn good reason without throwing Shelly under the bus.”
Ree took a sip of coffee.
“I might have an angle,” she said.
“I’m all ears.” Quint hoped the idea had teeth to it. He wanted to bring down Constantin and his brother more than ever, and before the DEA could make their move.