Stahl shook his head. “Can’t say, but I fucking hope so. Until then, we need to square up with your girl, see if she’s a victim or part of theoperation.”
“Tomi’s not involved.” The look in her eyes on that stage had told him all he needed to know…and his certainty of her innocence had only increased after their talk in the bedroom. She’d reacted like a frightened bird that had fallen out of itsnest.
“She’s got a fairly unstable background. Father dead at eighteen. Shot to death in his own house while Tomi was there. Job hopping every six months orso…”
Cole turned to see Stahl had taken a seat at the table and was shuffling a small stack of papers inside one of those off-yellow file folders the government liked to use. But Stahl wasn’t looking down—he was staring at Cole as if he could see down to his verysoul.
“Sounds like every other person looking forwork.”
“Until last year, when she found full-time employment as a nanny with none other than Luis Despasco. A little suspicious for the profile, don’t you think?” Stahl slowlyblinked.
Cole stared back, projecting all the emotion of a blank slate. Tomi was working for Luis? Shit and double shit. None of tonight was working the way he’d planned. “It’s not about what Ithink.”
“On the contrary, we are hiring your firm to assist us with this mission. What you think could be of great use,” Stahlsaid.
He wanted to use Cole. “Hiring as in I don’t have achoice?”
“Not if you want any involvement goingforward.”
“She had no family to report her missing, so Luis did exactly the kind of thing men like that always do. He exploited the situation to his benefit. Maybe he needed a new girl for the auction, and he had one right in his household.” And if Cole hadn’t been there, she would have been raped and tortured. The only woman he’d ever loved would have become some sick, rich asshole’s newestplaything.
“Why her, though? She’s old—twenty-eight—well past the prime age for a sex slave trafficker. From our source on the inside, we know Luis has been planning a hostile takeover of François’s weapons business for months. By your own report, Luis wasn’t happy when Wise won the bidding war against the Frenchman. What better way to take out Francois than by having a sex slave kill him in an escape attempt? It would give Luis access to everything he needed to take over the Frenchman’s European operation. His contacts, account information.Everything.”
“Why the hell wasn’t all of this in your original investigations intel?” Wise had pulled all the old records to help them findTara.
“Because,” Stahl began, “We didn’t know Luis was involved until after the investigation got called off. Then we heard rumors, but didn’t have the manpower to pursue. You just confirmed the connection. Now we know Luis is involved, which isn’t good for Tomi, and we still don’t know anything more about El Oscuro’s true identity. Luis has disappeared, so has the Frenchman. She’s our only real source now. If she’s bad, we need to flipher.”
“And if she’s innocent?” Coleasked.
Stahl shrugged and then threaded his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. His points made a lot of sense, only he was wrong aboutTomi.
“You think she looks like a covertoperative?”
“No, she seems like a traumatized innocent. But the best ones alwaysdo.”
“Let’s quit with the ‘what ifs’ and cut to the meat of the matter. What exactly do you want from me and my brothers?” Cole was beyond pretending he had any remaining patience. One of his best friends lay in a secret hospital bed fighting for his life. Adam’s love, Tara, was still missing, and now Luis may know they were on to hisoperation.
He also had pictures of Cole on his surveillance system, although Cole’s past had been long erased from any records accessible by anyone below the head of the Department of Defense. When he and his brothers had completed their last official tours for the US military, they’d kept it that way. The Fury brothers didn’t exist, and as far as any official records were concerned, they neverhad.
Their parents, both still alive and happily married, didn’t talk about their sons to anyone outside the family. It was a setup that had always served themwell.
Stahl straightened, uncurling from the chair with the predatory grace of a panther. “I want you to use your connection with Tomi’s past to find out if she’s working forLuis.”
“Our past relationship? As in our teenage crush?” Cole bit out, knowing Stahl already suspected there was more toit.
“The way you looked at her didn’t read former teenagecrush.”
“I looked at her like I would any victim I pity.” And wanted just as badly now as he hadbefore.
“Pity isn’t pissing you off rightnow.”
No, it’s desire, and I damn well knowit.
Cole squared off with the agent, liking him less and less by the second. But if Stahl thought he could dangle Tomi in front of his face like a chocolate-covered carrot, he had another thing coming. Stahl’s manipulation would probably work on most people. But not on someone who’d been trained in the same skillset. “You want me to seduce her to pump her forintel.”
“The FBI doesn’t condone sexual acts forgain.”
“But youdo.”
