Chapter Ninety-Two

After another round of too-hot sex, Angel had taken her place in the living room, searching for information in every corner of the internet.

She’d received another email from Redgamer3 after no word for weeks.

You’re not even trying anymore.

I’m ready to get this over with.

See you soon.

Again with the three line messages. It was like a haiku with the wrong number of syllables. The guy probably thought it was clever. Angel just found it annoying.

When he’d told her he was watching her, she hadn’t been sure, but now it was clear he wasn’t, or he would have known she had been indisposed for the last few days trekking across Oregon with a sprained ankle.

But now he seemed to want to move things forward. And she was ready.

She frowned at her ankle. The one she had propped up to reduce the swelling. Okay, almost ready.

At about ten o’clock the next night, while Colton was folding his laundry at the other end of the sofa, she finally got a break when she logged into Noah’s email and saw an email from Redgamer3.

“Hot damn!” she shouted and clapped her hands in glee.

“What is it?” Colton asked.

“Redgamer3 responded to Noah. They’re setting up a meeting. He’s making Noah pay him at the drop instead of waiting for Noah to cash out.”

“Does Noah have the money?” Colton wrinkled his nose. It made him look younger. Like the boy next door instead of the sexy DEA agent.

“No. But in his reply he said he does, so Jim is going to meet him.” She paused for a moment before deciding to share the rest.

“You’re frowning. What’s the problem? Isn’t that what you wanted to happen?”

She let out a slow breath. “Redgamer3 emailed me, too. He said he would see me soon. He knows I’m watching. He’s expecting me to show up at their meeting. It doesn’t make any sense.”

This bastard had bested her and gotten away with murder. He had the ability to cover himself so well she wouldn’t have seen the details of the drop. But he was luring her into the meet.

Why?

“Is it okay if I just wait for you to explain yourself?” Colton asked, shaking out a T-shirt and folding it precisely. What an excellent husband he would make someday.

For someone else.

“Redgamer3, or Jim—or whoever he or she is—is smarter than this. They planned this whole thing seamlessly. They drugged my toothpaste, for Christ’s sake. They have to know Noah doesn’t have the funds. Why would they agree to meet him and send me an invitation to come, too?”

“Maybe they want to kill him. To shut him up so someone else will buy it. With Noah out of the way, there won’t be anyone to threaten his potential buyers.”

Colton had come to the same conclusion she’d just reached, but that didn’t explain why Redgamer3 would involve her.

But Colton wasn’t finished. “And he’s made sure you’re there so he can set you up to take the fall for Noah’s death, as well.”

She swallowed. She hadn’t pieced that part together yet, but it made sense. She nodded slowly as she played the idea through her deputy marshal filter. “Yeah.”

Colton cleared his throat. “He could be setting it up as a deal gone bad. With you and Noah there together, he could kill you both, making it look like you killed Noah and he shot you as you were getting away. It would wrap things up nicely, and he would be completely in the clear.”

Oh God, he was right. It all made terrible sense now.

“We have to protect Noah,” she said reluctantly.

Protect the asshole who had hired someone to kill his own brother. She almost wished she could close the email and pretend she hadn’t read it.

But she couldn’t.

Colton rubbed his palms together, no doubt in anticipation for the coming action and excitement, and said, “I guess it’s time to make a plan.”

Angel was glad to have the chance to do something. But she didn’t feel excited. She wanted it to be over with so she could get on with her life.

A life she dearly wished she could spend with Colton.

But she couldn’t do that, either.