Chapter Five

Kade turned onto Frelinghuysen Avenue, checking the rearview mirror before turning into the Homeland Security Investigations parking lot. If Colon’s people were following Laia and staking out Rosa’s daycare, the situation could go from merely bad to the mother of all clusterfucks before anyone saw it coming.

Last night, he’d made a few calls and arranged for Laia to look at every mugshot in the HSI database that was associated with the Colon Drug Cartel. Specifically, he’d called the lead investigator on the Fernando Colon case, Special Agent Emanuel Dominguez. Unfortunately, Manny hadn’t been available until later in the day, so now it was nearly four p.m.

For most of the day, Laia had been in his home office, glued to his computer and working on her vet school application. Between all the calls he’d made to the Asbury Park PD, the DHS, and his own chief to notify him of what was happening, he’d barely seen Laia all day.

“How’d you sleep last night?” He glanced at her in the passenger seat.

She yawned. “Very well, thanks.”

Yeah, right.

Long, shiny dark hair cascaded perfectly down her back and shoulders, and she looked beyond pretty in a fire-engine red sundress, matching red sandals, and long, dangly yellow starfish earrings. But between the yawns and dark circles under her eyes, she appeared about as rested as he felt, which was totally not.

Her wardrobe may have gone from conservative banker-chic to bold and sexy, but she still wore the same delicate honeysuckle-pear fragrance. Yeah, he remembered that, too. Even now, her sweet scent filled the SUV and every breath he took.

Knowing that she’d been sleeping right down the hall—in his bed, no less—had him tossing and turning for hours before sleep had finally kicked in.

Although when he’d finally drifted off, it had been to images of one of her silky, satiny pieces of lingerie sliding over her bare skin.

“We’re here.” And thank God because he really needed some air that wasn’t infused with her tantalizing scent.

He turned into the lot, then stopped at the gate and stuck his ID card into the card reader. The gate lifted and he drove through. Being Sunday, the lot was fairly empty, and he snagged a spot close to the building’s front entrance and next to three other SUVs, all with Colorado tags.

“Ready?” he asked, shutting off the engine.

Laia began unclipping her seat belt. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Hey.” He rested a hand on hers. “Rosa will be fine with Ashley. I promise. And Smoke is with them. He won’t let anything happen to her, either. If you haven’t noticed, Rosa and Smoke are pretty tight.”

“I noticed.” She blinked down at their hands for a long moment, then tugged hers away. “Let’s go in and get this over with.”

Before he could stop her, she’d finished unclipping her seat belt, then was out of the SUV and beelining for the building faster than an Olympic speed-walker.

Dammit. Kade yanked off his seat belt and raced to catch up to her. He shouldn’t have touched her. For her sake and his.

As he passed the other three SUVs, he noted two of them had their engines running. Through one of the side windows, he glimpsed two pointed ears. Colorado tags? K-9 Interceptors?

When he caught up to Laia, she refused to look at him. He sighed and yanked out the same entry card he’d used to get into the parking lot and swiped into the building, holding the door open for her to enter first.

At the elevator, he slammed the up arrow with the heel of his hand. Mercifully, it opened right away. He followed her inside, and when the doors closed, he doubted the irony was lost on her. Here they were, alone in an elevator, yet this time the connection zapping between them was one of frustration. Neither of them spoke a word.

Man, he was really fucking this up. Whatever this was. More like, wasn’t.

The doors opened, and he led the way through the zigzagging hallway, eventually swiping in again and holding open the heavy steel door used by employees.

Laia went in ahead of him, her head swiveling as she took in the maze of empty cubicles looming ahead. “Is this your office?”

“No.” He waited for the door to click shut. “My office is at Newark Airport. This is where the agents work. I called ahead for one of them to meet us here. He’s familiar with the Colon Cartel investigation and can help narrow down the database.”

What Laia didn’t know, and what he wasn’t about to tell her, was that Manny Dominguez had been the one to transport Josh to this very office for processing before turning him over to the U.S. Marshals.

Most of the cubicles were empty, and he was grateful that even the agents generally took weekends off to be with their families. The last thing he wanted was for Laia to run into someone who might spill something that shouldn’t be spilled.

Josh’s face as he’d been put into the backseat of a patrol car, handcuffed, flashed before Kade’s eyes. That was the last time he’d seen his brother. Alive, anyway.

Laughter rolled through the office. A familiar head poked out from behind the edge of the last cubicle by the window. Thor? Kade would recognize Adam Decker’s K-9 anywhere.

The Belgian Malinois snorted, then galloped toward them, his powerful legs quickly eating up the distance.

“Uh, Kade?” Laia wrapped her fingers around his biceps.

Clearly, she wasn’t afraid of dogs, but anyone not having a healthy concern for the giant K-9 charging at them would be foolish. Thor slowed, his tail wagging as Kade knelt to let the dog lick his face.

“Laia, this is Thor, the second-best narcotics K-9 in the country.”

Thor sat and held up his paw for Laia to shake.

“Second-best my ass,” a deep voice boomed.

DEA Special Agent Adam “Deck” Decker strode toward them, followed by ATF Special Agent Brett Tanner and FBI Agent Evan McGarry. All wore dark cargo pants and matching polo shirts with their respective agency’s badges embroidered on their shirts.

“Kade Sampson, you sonofabitch.” Deck grabbed him in a bear hug, practically lifting him off the ground as they slapped each other on the back.

“Been a long time.” Kade shook the other man’s hand, then did the same to Brett and Evan’s. “You guys should have given me a heads-up you’d be here.”

Brett extended his hand, giving Kade a closeup view of the nasty burn his friend had suffered last year. “We didn’t know we’d be here until last night. We were on assignment in Delaware, then got detailed directly here to HSI.”

Evan shook hands next. “Good to see you, Kade.”

“You, too, Evan.” Now the running engines and the Colorado tags made sense. “Blaze and Blue outside?” The ears he’d seen in one of the SUVs probably belonged to Evan’s German Shepherd. Brett’s arson dog, a hulking Chesapeake Bay Retriever, was probably sound asleep in the back of Brett’s truck.

“Yeah,” Evan said. “We’re taking turns letting them have the run of the office.”

Years ago, they’d all gone through advanced K-9 training together and had struck up a close friendship, although Kade hadn’t seen any of them in the year since they’d returned to Colorado and joined Denver’s Special Ops Task Force. “What are you in town for?”

Deck snapped his fingers, and Thor hustled to sit at Deck’s left side. “Some of the big July Fourth events around the city. We just stopped in to pick up our assignments.”

“Laia, this is Adam Decker. He’s with the DEA’s Denver office.” While the two of them shook hands, Kade added, “Laia is my sister-in-law.”

Still holding Laia’s hand, Deck’s head snapped back to Kade’s faster than Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist. His friend was one of the few who knew the truth. The real truth. Releasing her hand, Deck cleared his throat. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You as well,” Laia said, arching a brow at Kade, telling him she’d not only picked up on Deck’s reaction but they’d be having a discussion about it on the way home. His home, anyway. Not hers.

This was exactly what Kade had wanted to avoid. Anything that could hurt Laia more by dredging up the past.

“This is ATF Agent Brett Tanner and FBI Agent Evan McGarry,” he said, indicating his other friends.

“Nice to meet you.” Brett’s enormous hand engulfed Laia’s as they shook.

“A pleasure,” Evan said.

When Laia smiled, a spurt of unwanted jealousy shot up his spine. Not because he thought his friends would ever dare make a move on her, but because he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be on the receiving end of one of her smiles for a very long time, if ever again.

“Yo, Sampson,” another voice shouted from behind Deck. “You dragged my ass in here on a Sunday, so let’s get to work. The day’s not getting any longer.”

Kade chuckled. The man was right. “Catch ya later, guys. Let’s grab a few beers before you head back home.” He touched his hand to the small of Laia’s back, urging her further into the office.

As they brushed past, Deck, Brett, and Evan clapped Kade on the shoulder. “You got it.”

“Why did your friend react that way when you told him I was your sister-in-law?” Laia asked as they walked away.

“Probably because he knows about Josh.” A partial truth.

“Are you sure that’s all it was?”

“Yeah,” he lied, thankful that Manny wanted to get to work ASAP.

Manny uncrossed his arms and grinned stupidly at their approach. “You must be Laia.” His grin widened and no wonder. Laia was a beautiful woman who had that effect on men. Including me.

“This is Special Agent Manny Dominguez,” Kade said. “Manny’s been working cases on the Colon Drug Cartel for years.”

Beside him, Laia stiffened. “I remember you.”

Manny’s expression sobered. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mrs. Sampson.”

“Thank you,” she said, then took a deep breath. This couldn’t be easy for her. “And it’s not Mrs. Sampson anymore. It’s Velez. I go by my maiden name now.”

“Okay. Have a seat.” Manny shoved aside a black plastic tech box on his desk, then indicated she should sit in front of his computer. He plucked something from his ear about the size of a small button and placed it carefully in one of the slots inside the box.

“What is that?” Kade asked. “A receiver?”

Manny chuckled. “An experimental transmitter and receiver. We just got it in. I was testing it out, and it works like a charm. Undetectable by standard bug-detection equipment and good up to half a mile away. Even comes with digital recorder capacity.”

“Not bad.” As a DHS officer, he didn’t normally get involved to any depth in investigations and rarely used covert equipment. Kade peered inside the box at the tiny gadget. “It’s so small. Doesn’t look big enough to hold a battery. What’s the power source?”

“It’s got a microscopic powerpack smaller than the head of a pin.”

“No kidding. Won’t it burn the inside of your ear?” One of the problems attributed to some wire transmitters was that they radiated a lot of heat, leaving behind nasty burns.

“It’s coated with some kind of insulating gel.” Manny snapped the box’s lid shut, then addressed Laia. “Kade filled me in on what’s been happening to you and that you might be able to ID one of the guys following you.”

When Manny leaned over and hit the return button on his keyboard, a mugshot photo populated the screen, along with the arrestee’s physical identifiers. “I’ve narrowed down the database to those individuals with confirmed ties to Fernando Colon. There are around fifty. If you don’t find who you’re looking for here, I’ll widen the database to include those with ‘suspected’ ties to the Colon Cartel. To scroll through the photos, just keep hitting the return button. Let me know if you recognize anyone.”

“Thank you. I will.” Laia rolled the chair closer to the screen and began scrolling through one image after the next.

Manny tipped his head to Kade, indicating they should talk privately.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Kade said to Laia.

She nodded and resumed clicking through the images.

“I have news,” Manny said when they were out of earshot. “You know Fernando Colon would have gotten more time in prison, but since we never found a ledger of any kind, we couldn’t nail him with the heavier money laundering charges.”

“And?” From the look on Manny’s face, whatever he was about to say would be sucky news.

“Colon only received a three-year sentence, about twenty years less than what he would have gotten if we’d been able to tie him to more drug money.” Manny shook his head, clearly disgusted. “Two weeks ago, Colon was released. Fucker shaved almost an entire year off his sentence for good behavior. Good behavior. You believe that?”

The timing coincided too closely with when Laia started feeling as if she were being followed, then her house getting tossed. Colon’s release from prison had to be the trigger that set everything off. “Where’s Colon now?” Like Josh and Laia’s house, the fortified compound Colon had been living in had been seized by the government and sold off years ago.

“At his mother’s house.”

Kade snorted at the irony. One of the most powerful domestic drug cartel kings was living in a cop’s house.

Colon’s father had been an undercover police officer, one of the best in the state police, before he’d committed suicide. Considering Colon had managed to operate right under their noses, untouchable for over a decade, it was widely speculated that, through his father, Colon had learned crucial details about how police departments and government agencies worked. Colon’s father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew he’d unintentionally spawned a ruthless criminal.

Manny hitched his head to his cubicle. “If she really IDs one of Colon’s guys, then I’d say they’re after something, and we both know what it is.”

“The ledger.” Kade nodded, confirming the obvious. “But why now, and why right after Colon was released? His power base is still right here in New Jersey, always has been. Even in prison, he could have ordered his people to follow her and toss her new place years ago. We’re missing something.” Whatever it was, Laia and Rosa would remain in the line of fire until they figured it out.

“If she can ID one of Colon’s goons, I can get authorization to put some money on the street to try and come up with the answer.”

“I’ll do the same.” Even if the cash came from his own pocket.

He turned to head back to Laia when Manny stopped him.

“Hey, man. I know we searched the house, and we must have asked her ten times and ten different ways if she knew anything about a ledger, and she always said no. Is there any chance she was lying?”

Kade glanced at Manny’s cubicle. With his height, he could make out the top of her head as she focused on the monitor. In many ways, most in fact, they hardly knew each other. But his gut said she was telling the truth about this. “No. If she knew, she would have said so.”

“Are you sure?” Manny asked quietly. “Josh told his lawyer that he had a ledger, but he refused to say where it was. Then he requested to see his wife.”

“That doesn’t automatically mean she knew about it back then.” Kade crossed his arms. Manny was a top-notch investigator, but he was on the wrong track. “That ledger was Josh’s only chance of working out a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He might not have trusted his own attorney enough to make sure it made it into the right hands.”

Kade had learned after the fact that between the time when his brother had placed that call to Laia and her arrival at the jail, Josh had been murdered. To keep him from doing exactly what he’d planned on doing—squealing on Fernando Colon. It was the only chance Josh had of receiving a get-out-of-jail-free card. The only reason anyone knew about the ledger at all was because that lawyer had mentioned it to the prosecutor. Even after Josh was dead, they’d all looked for it.

As it had when he’d gotten word from the Marshals that his brother was dead, Kade’s breath caught in his throat, and he could barely breathe. He’d been the first of his family to view the body. It had been surreal. He half expected Josh to jump up from that cold steel gurney, then grin and call him by the same word he always had when he’d fooled Kade. Sucker.

“Okay,” Manny said. “But she’s here, and you know I gotta ask her again.”

“I know.” And it killed him. He’d known bringing her to the HSI office would be hard enough. Having to answer questions again would reopen jagged, painful wounds that he suspected had taken years to heal. If they ever really had.

“Anything?” Manny asked Laia in a casual tone when they’d returned to his cubicle.

Kade suspected she’d see right through Manny’s bland demeanor.

“Not yet.” She didn’t turn around, just kept pecking away at the return button.

Manny sat on the edge of his desk. “I have to ask you something again.”

Her shoulders stiffened, and her fingers stilled on the keyboard. Slowly, she swiveled the chair, then crossed her arms. Fire might as well have been shooting from her eyes. She’d been grilled too many times by Manny and other federal agents not to know when the questioning was about to kickstart all over again.

Kade braced himself for the explosion about to level the building.