Even under the warm water, he shivered. He lifted his mouth close to my ear in a parody of intimacy. He was so close that his lips actually touched my ear, made me give a shiver of my own. “Last night, another cop was shot in Central Park. Right near where we were.”
“I know. I got hauled in for questioning about it. Remember? You were staring at me along with the rest of them when they brought me in.”
“The detective who was shot, he was my new partner in the task force, although we hadn’t worked together yet. But I had to tell my boss where I was last night.”
I frowned. They hadn’t used that information during the questioning. If anything, their interrogation had felt like the ultimate fishing expedition. They’d had nothing but their own prejudices.
“Not Captain Walsh,” Flynn clarified. “I report through the FBI chain of command. I told my supervisor, and he put me on administrative leave. Said I was getting too close.”
“To what?” I knew what. I wanted to tease him, make him lie.
“To—to you.”
Caught by surprise, I turned my head sharply to look him in the eye. Our mouths were inches apart, his dense eyelashes starred and wet around whiskey-brown eyes that looked right back into mine. I wondered, suddenly, what his tongue tasted like.
“And so why are you here?” I asked slowly.
“Because we have a common enemy. I want to find this fucker, and I know it’s not you. I assume it’s not anyone in the Morelli Family.”
“What makes you assume that?”
“The guys being picked off, they’re all low-level scum. If itwasyou or Luca D’Amato who ordered it, it’d be strategic. But there’s nothing behind these killings—they’re just opportunistic. Small-time associates or soldiers who don’t really matter in the scheme of things, so they’re not used to watching their backs the way you higher-ups are. Whoever’s killing them just seems to be seizing the moments as they arise.”
I’d noticed that myself, though I wasn’t going to admit it to this kid.
“So?” I said instead. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.” I put my hand on his arm, curled my fingers around his bicep. Under my hand, his muscles bunched up, but he didn’t pull away. And his amber eyes grew darker as I watched, the caramel disappearing as his pupils grew.
I watched his lips part, watched him say: “Because I know you’re trying to find out who’s behind it, too. That’s why you were in the Park last night. Right? You were hoping someone might take a shot at you. And someone did.”
“IfI had been out there trying to bait someone into action, I might have found it unhelpful to have a greenhorn Fed stomping around interrupting things.”
“That greenhorn Fed might have helped distract the killer, though. Right? Or…” He swallowed. “Or he could help in other ways, if—if you had a plan.”
“Let me get this straight,” I said. I was still holding his arm, and now with my other hand, I placed one finger on his chest and trailed it slowly down his sternum. Flynn watched it go. “You’re suggesting that we work together? Despite the fact that you thinkI’minvolved in organized crime, andyou’rea sworn federal agent whose sole job is to take me down?”
Flynn’s mouth dropped open, and he swallowed before saying, “I mean, yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying.”
“You just told me you’ve been kicked off the task force. You have nothing to offer me.”
“Except myself,” he said, and then cringed. “I didn’t exactly mean—”
“You have no inside knowledge, no way of tracking the investigation. You don’t even have a badge or gun anymore. What exactly do you have to offer in yourself?”
He had to think about it for a second. “Well, for starters, Idohave field training even if I’m not a field agent.”
“I suppose that’s something.” My finger was still making its way down his body. I reached his navel, skirted it, then dropped my hand away. “But the truth is, Special Agent Baxter Flynn, whether or not you have your badge, you’re still a Fed. And I don’t work with Feds. Besides, if I really were the kind of criminal you seem to think I am, do you think my Boss would approve?”
“You could convince him. You have the Emperor’s ear. Everyone knows Luca D’Amato relies on your advice.”
“From whatI’veheard about Luca D’Amato, he doesn’t need anyone’s advice. He’s doing just fine on his own.”
“You know what I mean.”
I did. The truth was, Luca had relied on my advice for a long time, and I’d always been happy to give it to him. But it had always been my intention for him to stand on his own two feet. He was coming into his own now. Still, if others couldn’t see that yet, it was useful to keep them underestimating him, just as they had before.
“Even if I could get approval, I couldn’t do anything with the law breathing down my neck,” I told Flynn. “IfI were actually the Morelli Underboss.”
Flynn’s eyes narrowed as he thought that over. But then he smiled. “Sure,” he said. “Butifyou actually were the Morelli Underboss, you’d already have a plan in place to ditch surveillance. Right?”
