If the man who was supposed to make this happen wasn’t up to the job, then someone else would be.
“You’re not eating,” Ava said, breaking into his thoughts as she stopped moving a fork on her plate of chicken fettuccini Alfredo.
Ivan gazed at her face bordered by crimson hair in an angled bob and then at his half-finished veal piccata. He forced himself to slice his knife into a piece and respond tonelessly, “Got distracted. Have things on my mind.”
Her eyes widened curiously. “What things?” she demanded.
“Nothing you need to be concerned with,” he said, knowing full well that keeping her out of the loop on his illicit activities limited his wife’s exposure, should everything ever come crashing down like a rocket out of control.
“I’m always concerned about anything that affects you or our children,” Ava told him flatly.
He softened his position, offering her a grin as he saidsweetly, “I know that, and I love you for it. This is just business. Everything will be fine. I promise.”
“Okay,” she relented and returned to eating.
So did he, washing it down with a sip of red wine.
But just as Ivan was happy to have circumvented the delicate balance between his home and business lives, his cell phone rang. He removed it from the inside pocket of his pinstripe suit coat and saw that the caller was Yusef.
Though he hated to take the call, giving Ava another reason to be annoyed, Ivan knew he had no choice considering the stakes for him at the moment. “I need to get this,” he told her and stood, not waiting for a response.
After stepping a few feet from the table, Ivan answered the phone and said irritably, “Yeah?”
Yusef responded bluntly, “We’ve got a problem.”
“What is it?” he demanded, then listened as his assistant gave him some unsettling news pertaining to Eddie and the man who was supposed to eliminate him.
Chapter Thirteen
On Wednesday morning, Landon was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the break room at the field office. Katie had just made herself a cup of green tea, and both of them sat on black stack chairs at a round teak table.
The unsub who went after Raquelle was still on the loose, and Eddie had yet to surface, dead or not.
To say that both situations were stressing Landon out would be an understatement. Compounding this was the fact that the investigation at the center of it all had yet to be completed—leaving the Art Crime Team still on the hook for solving it.
“Your ex is gorgeous,” Katie remarked over her disposable paper cup.
Landon grinned. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
She smiled thoughtfully. “I’m glad her attacker—and alleged bomber of Eddie’s boat—didn’t hurt Raquelle seriously.”
“So am I,” he said. “But the fact that he could have—and remains a threat till we find him—still concerns me.”
“As it should.” Katie tasted the tea. “We’ll protect her as long as the unsub remains at large. And beyond, if deemed necessary.”
“I know.” Landon was comforted by the words, realizingthat the Bureau had his back in not wanting a suspected killer putting the family members—or even ex-wives—at undue risk while an investigation was ongoing. “We just need to find the perp. And tie him more definitively to Ivan Pimentel and his crime syndicate.”
Katie met his eyes and said confidently, “We will.” She drank more tea and waited a beat. “So, is there a real chance you and Raquelle could get back together?”
He stared at the question, giving it all the seriousness it deserved before responding hopefully, “I’d like to think so.”
“Good,” she said, finishing her tea. “You deserve a second shot at happiness.”
“Thanks.” Landon couldn’t agree more with her assessment. Still, he lowered his own expectations as a defense mechanism toward an alternate result. What he wanted and how Raquelle saw things wasn’t necessarily symmetrical. Even if he believed they both wanted to get past his current case and the Eddie factor to see where things stood between them. And beyond that.
* * *
IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM, the Art Crime Team assembled with a major development in the case.
