“They belong to me.Not the government.”
Cam would lay odds they’d actually belonged to his wife.He prayed Lauren was getting him the goods to back up that hunch because this asshole had to go.
“Tell me,” Cam said, deflecting but also getting at something else that had to be addressed.“How are we supposed to trust you?You’ve tried to rip off your own heist, twice.They were shooting to kill in the museum.”
“Because I didn’t trust all the players.”He looked over to Becca, saying, “I do now,” before glaring back at Cam.“Except you.”
Cam figured it had more to do with protecting his identity and killing all the players to keep the money for himself.And Becca had been paid enough to be fooled those weren’t still Kristic’s objectives.
“I don’t believe you’re in it just for the cash,” Becca said.“You entered the FBI for something more.A guy like you, you’re leaving for a reason too.”
“My partner, my boss, my best friend’s husband you mentioned...He slept with the guy I’m fucking.”Not exactly but if it sold the story, he’d use it.
Becca bought it.“Oh-ho, so that’s why you were reluctant to have fun with us?”She clutched Abby to her side.“Like the men, do you?”
“I like men and women for what it’s worth.”Becca’s eyes lit until he shut her down.“I just decided not to get in the middle again.”
Becca seemed to understand, lifting a hand and backing off, but at her side, Abby looked utterly shocked.And that, more than anything, sold his story.
For everyone except Kristic.“I’ll decide if you’re lying after I have the artifacts.”
Nic sat at the conference table in his war room, thumbing through Anica Kristic’s will.Across from him, Aidan sifted through customs forms, looking for the one documenting the artifacts’ entry into the county.He looked about as happy with his stack as Nic was with his.
The will had been poorly and hastily translated from Serbian, and Nic was having to look up every third word with regard to certain items that didn’t have a direct English translation.Didn’t help that every other minute his mind flashed back to last night.To the way Cam had felt inside him, over him, blanketing him in everything he’d wanted for months.It was messy, in part because of the man across from him and his husband, and in part because of Nic’s own screwed-up family and past, the tattoo on his back the epitome of all that had gone wrong before, but Christ, last night with Cam had been perfect.
Wanting it again, Nic rode the roller coaster of desire and worry.Cam was playing a dangerous game undercover with Becca’s crew.The sooner he and Aidan found evidence that Stefan Kristic was behind the heists, the sooner they could get Cam and Abby out of there.
“Any luck?”he asked Aidan.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a fucking haystack.”The SAC pitched another customs form into the discard box on the floor and tilted back in his chair, guzzling his third coffee of the morning.“It should be easy.The Kristics and their belongings came in on a diplomatic visa, but do you have any idea how many diplomatic visas clear SFO daily?”
“More than a few?”
“More than a few,” Aidan said with a nod.“Any luck there?”
“We need someone who speaks Serbian,” he said.“And someone who understands wills and trusts better than me.”He had a working knowledge from the occasional case, but it wasn’t his specialty.
“Switch,” Aidan said, pushing his remaining stack across the table.“I used to help with the estate docs for the family before it got too damn big.I’ll at least know where to look.”
Nic welcomed the change for twenty minutes or so before his eyes started to glaze over.
“Hold on a sec,” Aidan mumbled from across the table, intent on a page midway through the will.“I think?—”
“You want to know what I think?”an angry voice interrupted.Nic looked up to find Bowers in the doorway, his beady eyes intent on Aidan.“I think your boy’s gone rogue.”
Aidan lifted his coffee cup like he was looking for patience and salvation at the bottom of it, then glared when he realized it was empty.He turned his glare on Bowers.“That was the plan.To make the crew think that.”
“Is that why he robbed Elton Moore this morning?”
Nic startled, but Bowers was too focused on Aidan to notice.
“It’s part of the cover,” Aidan said, not an ounce of surprise in his voice or on his face.Nic could see why he’d been so damn good at undercover work before he took the desk job.Or maybe Aidan had been privy to the information, in which case, why the fuck hadn’t he told him?
“To rob an FBI Assistant Director?”Bowers squawked.
“One, Moore knows, I talked to him already.”Well, that answered that question, but again, why the fuck hadn’t Aidan told him?A question for another time.“We’ll recover the flash drives that were stolen when we take down the crew,” Aidan continued.“Moore doesn’t think the encryption on them can be cracked before then.Two, Cam and Abby were off the grid for hours last night, and Abby’s already been in custody once.They had to prove themselves loyal to Becca, not us.”
“Or Byrne’s gone rogue,” Bowers insisted.
