Sex, Lies and Valentines (23 page)

Brow arched, he tossed the ball to Danita. Stepping right into agent mode, she rose and faced Hunter.

“I’ve compiled a list of crimes I feel can safely be attributed to four of the six major players. Guns, drugs, identity theft and racketeering. The other two players are less inclined to bragging, but I suspect them of human trafficking and prostitution.”

“You can tie four of them to specific unsolved crimes?” Hunter clarified.

“I can,” she said with a quick nod. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse, tapped a couple of buttons, then looked back at Hunter. “I’ve forwarded you my notes.”

“And you’ve had no luck breaking through to the leader?”

“No,” she said with a grimace. “Not yet.”

“Maybe,” Gabriel answered at the same time.

With everyone’s gaze on him in varying degrees of curiosity, Gabriel shifted so he wasn’t directly facing Danita. She wasn’t going to take this well, and as much as he believed in facing things head-on, facing a woman’s fury was never easy.

“I realized that the only way to break through the barrier around the goon pack was to offer up something they needed. And couldn’t get.”

Danita’s hiss was cut short by the loud snapping of teeth, while Hunter simply shifted his stance. Clearly the official contingent in the room weren’t big on ingenuity.

“What’d you do?” Caleb finally asked, giving voice to the unspoken question hanging in the air.

“I offered a bribe.”

“You offered…” Apparently overcome, and probably not with awe, Danita’s words trailed off. Fists clenched, she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How could you do that? I told you, multiple times, that we were here to gather information. Not to take action. Especially not without consulting me first.”

Guilt was an ugly and unfamiliar sensation, biting at Gabriel with vicious, cutting teeth. What the hell was he supposed to have done? They’d blackmailed him into this situation, he hadn’t asked to come play nice with the feebies. So he’d done exactly what they should have expected. He’d played by his own rules.

He could admit, if only to himself, that he seriously regretted that those rules might hurt Danita in any way, though.

“I had a hunch and I played it. If it works out, I was going to tell you. If it doesn’t, nothing was lost, right?”

Except, apparently, her trust.

Fighting the unfamiliar edge of panic that was prodding those guilty teeth into biting harder at his ass, Gabriel forced himself to focus on Caleb and Hunter instead of Danita.

“So what was your hunch, how did you play it and when will you know the results?” Hunter asked quietly. It was hard to tell if the guy was pissed or not. He played it close to the vest. But he seemed open to any opportunity, which Gabriel had to admire.

“I offered a payment of fifty grand to the cause, with another million payable in a face-to-face visit.”

“A million fifty?” Caleb whistled.

“You used your own money to bribe your way into the higher echelons of this crime ring?” Hunter clarified in a biting tone that for the first time showed the guy had emotions.

Caleb winced. Gabriel could almost see his brother running legalities in his head.

“Not my money. I assume you’ve been monitoring my accounts since the, ahem,
arrest.
” Which still grated. “No. When I realized it was going to take something big to get the boss’s attention. I used a connection of mine to access a large amount of virtually undetectable, yet very special cash.”

Hunter was quick. Both brows rose and he gave a low whistle of his own. “You bribed them with counterfeit money? Traceable, counterfeit currency?”

“I handed over the first installment to Ham Bollinger last night with instructions that the other half would only be offered face-to-face. I’m pretty sure his office is bugged, something he’s aware of. So the message was delivered. But even if they don’t take the bait, we can still make the bust. All we have to do is wait for the initial cash to hit the streets, then trace it back to the source.”

Gabriel refrained from buffing his nails on his shirt.

“And the million? Is that in counterfeit, too?”

“Nah. That part was a bluff,” he said. Pulling out his wallet, he offered Hunter a hundred. “But here’s a sample of the goods I handed over. I’ve got a few more for quality control purposes and tracking, of course.”

The FBI agent inspected the bill with narrowed eyes, his brow furrowed as he tried to tell that it was fake.

“How—”

Gabriel stepped closer, silently pointing out the tells.

“Impressive,” Hunter breathed. Then he gave Gabriel a hard look. “I’d like to know where you got this.”

“You could ask.”

Everyone in the room knew he wouldn’t tell, though.

“Fine. It looks we’re about to break this case wide-open then,” Hunter said. Then he inclined his head toward Caleb. “Can you handle this or should I bring in backup?”

After a long, considering look, Caleb shrugged. “No problem. But just so ya know, if you screw up the wedding, Cassiopeia is likely to put a curse on all of you.”

Everyone in the room grimaced.

“We won’t ruin your party, Caleb,” Hunter promised. Then, with the smallest wince, he added, “But if we do, I’ll take responsibility with Mrs. Easton.”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong,” Gabriel assured them. Not because he was sure. But worrying, especially about an angry mother’s curse, would mess with people’s performance.

And now that rehearsals were over, every performance was vital.

Steeling himself, he let his gaze move to the corner of the room where Danita sat. Arms crossed tight over her chest, knees locked together, her body language shouted “fuck you.” Her glare echoed that message, blue eyes narrowed in fury whenever they landed on Gabriel.

As panic gripped his guts, tying his intestines into knots, he promised himself he’d find a way to fix it with her. Somehow.

He had to.

They had a cat counting on them. And, he grimaced, his future happiness.

FURY HAD ITS OWN flavor. Nasty, bitter and cloying. Danita almost choked on it. But no matter how many times she swallowed, she couldn’t clear it away.

How dare he? She’d told him to fish for information. She’d lowered her guard and trusted him. And in return, he’d gone behind her back, using illegal means to bribe a suspect.

Clearly he had no respect for her. Not as a federal agent, and not as a woman. Otherwise, he’d have been honest.

She’d known going in that he was a player. That he was a man who could lie with the best of them and would play her and everyone around in order to get what he wanted.

Still, she had to blink hard to clear the burning tears from her eyes. Had she really believed that incredible sex was going to change the man? A leopard’s spots weren’t kept in his dick, spewed out with his orgasms.

“Danita, you’re the agent leading this investigation. It’s your bust. I suggest you check the bank. Local merchants will be making deposits and maybe we’ll get lucky, find a connection.”

Her throat too tight with tears to let any words pass, Danita nodded instead. Humiliation vied with the betrayal in her stomach. Hunter had trained her. He’d trusted her. And she’d blown it. She’d been so enamored with Gabriel, so busy falling in love like an idiot, that she’d overlooked one vital fact. Gabriel was in her custody, and she was only here to do a job.

Taking the lead—because it was his role or because she’d blown it?—Hunter continued to outline plans with Caleb for coordinating local efforts.

“Any input, Danita?” Hunter asked quietly.

She yanked herself back into focus. As Hunter said, she was supposed to be the FBI agent leading this investigation. And from now on, that’s all she was.

“I think the counterfeit bribe does have potential to flush out the mastermind behind this, eventually. But that’s not going to help us now.”

“Why?” Gabriel asked, sounding offended.

Danita didn’t even look at him. Instead she kept her focus on Hunter, with a glance once in a while for Caleb who was standing silent by the corner of his desk, his arms crossed as he looked her over like she were the criminal here, instead of his brother.

“You’re overlooking the proposed meet for the second half of the money. If the mastermind is Tobias Black, he’ll refuse the meet.”

“It’s not my father,” Gabriel snapped.

“We don’t have proof of that. As far as the FBI is concerned, he’s still the primary suspect,” she shot back. Her heart ached for the hurt in his eyes. The ache faded fast as his worry turned into a glare.

“The FBI? Or you?” he asked, looking as betrayed as she felt.

Danita dismissed his question with a shrug. As of now, the two were one and the same.

“But even if it’s not Tobias,” she continued, directing her words toward Hunter, “a refusal won’t guarantee us a name. Just like the money, if found in someone’s possession it could provide a break but it doesn’t ensure that person is the mastermind. Only that they somehow came into the counterfeit money.”

“Aren’t you the soul of optimism?” Gabriel growled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him throw himself into a chair in front of the sheriff’s desk.

“As Sheriff Black said, we are working on a deadline. This has to be resolved before the wedding, in three days. After that, there’s no reason for Gabriel, or myself, to be in Black Oak.”

“Then it’s in our best interest to track this counterfeit money, to find a way to break Ham Bollinger and to follow all other leads to close this case,” Hunter said, making it sound as easy as ordering up breakfast.

“I’m going to be busy then,” she said. Her face tightened, but using all her skill, she kept the anger from showing. “It’d be best if I shift from undercover and operate behind the scenes, I think. There’s no more information be gathered by pretending.”

In other words, she wanted to be in a separate room, a separate hotel and preferably a separate state from Gabriel Black.

“You need to stay undercover until we close the case,” Hunter said quietly. Danita sucked in a breath, ready to argue, but the look he gave her made her settle back in her chair. He was right. Giving away her role here would only tip off the crime boss. But she’d be damned if she was spending any more time with Gabriel than necessary. “Update your reports, put a trace on the counterfeit money and confer with Gabriel to solidify our next steps. I’ll expect a briefing from you in three hours.”

“What’ll you be doing?” she asked, knowing the question was out of line but not wanting to be alone with Gabriel yet. Not until she had a handle on her temper and could override the feeling of betrayal that had misery coursing through her.

Hunter flashed a quick smile filled with charm and amusement. “I’ve got to get fitted for my tux. Wedding’s in three days and I’m one of the groomsmen.”

Damn. There went her buffer.

Steeling herself, she looked toward Gabriel. He clearly still had an issue with her outburst if the cold look he speared her with was any indication.

Goody. Nothing said a strong working relationship like iced-over fury.

“I’ll show you to the tailors,” Gabriel told Hunter. He gave Danita an undecipherable look then added, “I think Danita might want some privacy to do all that busywork.”

Her hiss was obscured by the rush of male feet, all scurrying toward the door like rats deserting an angry woman about to set their damned ship on fire.

On his way past, Caleb handed her a slip of paper.

“Computer access passwords,” he said, the charm in his smile rivaling his rat fink of a brother’s. “I figure you can get that privacy in here without a problem.

And just like that, they were gone.

Her boss, her liaison and her lover.

Leaving Danita the privacy Gabriel had mentioned, and the freedom to finally let the tears fall.

She’d always known she was skating a thin line between her career and her relationship with Gabriel. And she’d assured herself, over and over, that her career would always come first.