Alyssa shook her head. Christine’s hair looked better by accident than hers did on purpose. Alyssa could use a curling iron on her hair for an hour, and five minutes after walking outside, it was straight as a board and going wherever it wanted.
“Well, whatever you did or didn’t do, it looks great.”
Alyssa took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of Christine’s desk. She couldn’t help noticing her friend had added a few new pictures to the wall behind her desk since Alyssa had been there last. Anyone who’d ever met Christine figured out pretty quickly she was obsessed with photos. At least when it came to her family. Images of her husband, who was also in the FBI, pixie-size daughter, and goofy German shepherd, Klaus, covered every available wall and flat surface in the office. Not that Alyssa blamed her for putting them up all over the place. Her family was photogenic as hell. Great hair, an awesome family, and a cute dog.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Christine was her best friend, Alyssa probably would have been jealous. She still didn’t know how Christine was able to balance an incredibly stressful job with the perfect home life.
“How are our two girls doing?” Christine asked as she neatened up a stack of folders and moved them to the side, then sat back in her chair. No doubt they were more missing persons cases. Alyssa couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were related to Stefan and whatever the hell he was involved in. “You took them shopping to get some clothes, right?”
“Yeah. They’re doing okay for now,” Alyssa said. “I only hope they find someone they trust to talk to soon before everything they’re holding inside comes busting out.”
Christine lifted a brow. “Maybe they’ll talk to you.”
She shrugged. “I made the offer, but I’m not sure if they’ll take me up on it. Those two are so tight with each other it’s going to take someone really amazing to get them to open up.”
Christine smiled. “I don’t know. You strike me as someone pretty amazing. If they’re going to trust anyone, it’ll be you.”
Alyssa appreciated the compliment. Eight years older than Alyssa, Christine sometimes didn’t realize how amazingshewas, or the influence she had on the people around her. The woman had damn sure changed Alyssa’s life. But she knew if she mentioned it, Christine would disagree. So instead, she focused on one of the reasons she’d come to see her friend. It was something that had popped into her head while she’d had lunch with the twins.
“Do you need help covering their hospital stay? Or the hotel room?”
Her friend had probably racked up some significant expenses helping her keep the two girls off the official FBI radar—costs she likely wouldn’t be able to put on her bureau credit card.
Christine smiled. “Relax. I’ve been doing this for a little while, remember? I have arrangements with all the local hospitals, a dozen or so hotel chains, the bus lines, and even a few of the airlines. They help me take care of people I come across who need help without a lot of questions being asked. So I got this.”
Alyssa snorted. “Of course you do. Why did I even bother asking?”
“No idea.” Her friend leaned forward, resting her folded arms on the desk. “But if you’re feeling generous, maybe you could fill me in on exactly what the hell you’ve gotten yourself involved in. Who tried to kidnap those girls, and what the hell did that hunk Zane have to do with it?”
Alyssa hesitated, not sure she wanted to get her friend involved in this mess. Because there was no way this wasn’t going to get messy at some point. But Christine had stuck her neck out for her. She deserved a few answers. At least as many as Alyssa could give her.
So she told Christine about what had happened at the club last night and the parking garage today, filled her in on Stefan Curtis and Black Swan Enterprises, then she explained about Zane and the other two SWAT officers from Dallas. The only detail she kept to herself was her suspicion that Zane and his friends were some kind of supernatural creatures. That was something she couldn’t share. Not that Christine would have believed her anyway.
When she was done, Christine got up to close the door of her office. When she sat down at her desk again, she had a worried expression on her face.
“You seriously think an organization as large as Black Swan Enterprises could be involved in this level of human trafficking?” she asked. “Why would they risk getting caught and going to prison? Besides money, of course, which they already have a hell of a lot of.”
Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t know, but my gut is telling me they’re mixed up in all this somehow. That’s why I just spent a buttload of FBI money to rent an office space across the street from that parking garage, so we can stake it out. Stefan is kidnapping people and making them disappear. We’re going to figure out exactly what he’s doing and hopefully find those people who’ve gone missing.”
Christine looked at her like she thought Alyssa was crazy but finally nodded. “Okay, I guess I can understand your reasoning based on the evidence you’ve dug up so far. But seriously, four of you trying to go after an international corporation like Black Swan Enterprises? Even if you disregard the fact that your three SWAT cops have absolutely no jurisdiction here, it’s still insane. Pulling full-time stakeout duty on a garage alone would probably take a dozen people. How are you going to do that?”
Earlier today, as she and Diego had hunted down a place for their stakeout, Alyssa had that same thought. There was no way the four of them could maintain a long-term stakeout on the garage and Stefan’s home, not to mention follow Stefan and his Neanderthals when they went out to the clubs to look for more victims. But it wasn’t like they had an option. She couldn’t ask for more manpower to help out. It would take her whole team, and Nathan wouldn’t go along with that until she had something more to go on than instincts.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said. “Somehow.”
Christine regarded her thoughtfully. “You know, I could help you out. Off the books, of course. No one upstairs would have to know. There are some other agents who’d be willing to help, too. People I trust.”
Alyssa’s heart just about melted in her chest. Her friend was too much. Of course, she couldn’t take Christine up on the offer, but it was sweet as hell regardless. “Thanks, but no. I kind of need to keep the official exposure on this operation to a minimum.”
Christine looked disappointed but nodded. “I get it. I know enough about what you’ve gotten yourself into over the past year to recognize you think there’s weird crap involved—weird crap I’m not allowed to know anything about.”
Alyssa tried to play it cool and keep the surprised look off her face but was pretty sure she failed. Obviously, Christine had figured out she wasn’t doing normal FBI stuff anymore, since Alyssa had been the first person she’d called when that corpse had shown up drained of blood in the landfill. Alyssa only hoped her friend hadn’t been digging around too much. She didn’t imagine Nathan or his boss would be too thrilled to have someone poking around their little covert operation, even if it was a fellow FBI agent. It was something that could get Christine fired.
“You don’t have to say anything, Aly. I know you can’t talk about it, so I’m not going to push. But I want you to know that if you ever need help, all you have to do is call me and I’ll be there, no questions asked.”
Alyssa felt like crying. “Thanks. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
“Then don’t try.” Opening her desk drawer, Christine pulled out a thick manila folder with the familiar icon of the FBI Medical Examiner’s Office on the cover and handed it to her. “I’ve been holding on to this for two days, waiting for a chance to show it to you. There’s some stuff I know you’re going to find interesting in there.”
