“Oh, I know.” Price smirked. “He and Cyrus Vas were both at your girlfriend’s place, as were you. I’m not sure what you said to piss the guy off, but he’s out, and he’s made sure everyone in his network knows it.”
“Have you been following me?”
“That’swhat you’re focused on right now?”
Shit. The woman was right.
“Listen, I?—”
“You what, Agent Morgan? Let your personal life interfere with you doing your job?”
“My personal life has nothing to do with this. The guy showed up at Alex’s apartment completely out of the blue. Honestly it’s a damn good thing I was there, because I’m pretty sure the asshole’s got some kind of sick obsession with her, and I?—”
“I don’t care.”
He blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Did I stutter? I said . . . I don’t care. What Crawford does or does not feel about Miss Webb is not my concern. What I care about is the fact that, as of this morning, your alias has been effectively burned.”
“Burned, how?”
“There isn’t a buyer in even the lowest sex-trafficking circles who is willing to do business with Cole Morris now. Every person your girl Shadow sent invites to for the auction? Yeah, they’re off the map now, too.”
“What are you talking about?
“Those accounts are gone, Coulter. As in vanished. Erased. Poof.” She motioned with her hands at the sides of her head. “Just like Crawford.”
“Wait, are you saying he’s in the wind?”
“I’ve had eyes on him and his minion since his plane landed at a private air strip north of the city last night. The thing is, the agents lost him and Vas in the morning rush hour traffic. Crawford and his guy must have switched vehicles at some point, because they haven’t been spotted on any of the CCTV cameras since.”
Son of a?—
“What about the plane?”
“I’ve got eyes on it, too. So far, there’s been no movement on that end. But even if there is, all we can do is continue following the bastard until we can find a way back inside his circle.”
“I can do it,” he vowed. “I’ll get back into his good graces, and I’ll?—”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort. The guy’s gone rogue. At this point, our best option is to lay low, let the dustsettle, and try again once he’s gotten comfortable enough to let his guard down.”
This cannot be happening.
Months of work down the drain. Weeks of planning, worry, and stress wiped clean, and for what?
“I don’t understand.” He shook his head before raking his fingers through his hair. “What the hell happened?”
“You, Agent Morgan.Youhappened. You let your feelings for Miss Webb take our focus away from the job.”
Coulter’s mind raced as he tried making sense of what she was saying. It didn’t take long for him to come to the same conclusion.
Hehadlet himself become distracted. Worse, Coulter had let his own inflated ego push him into making a power play with his target. He’d given the guy an ultimatum, for crying out loud. And right when his arrest—and guaranteed subsequent conviction—was right there, within his grasp.
“What were you thinking?” Price challenged, though the question sounded more rhetorical than anything else.
Coulter knew exactly what he’d been thinking. He’d wanted Crawford out of Alex’s life for good, and he thought appealing to the guy’s sense of greed with the threat of losing the auction would do the trick.
Looks like you were wrong.
