Page 78 of His Forbidden Alliance

I paced as I waited for him to arrive. When he did, I let him in quickly and locked the door behind him. “What did you find?”

“One of the men on the list of recent hires you sent me, Ross Richard, has been erasing files. He must think I haven’t downloaded them yet. They’re files that show who transferred the money to the fake account with your name on it. The guy’s good at making things disappear, but not from someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“So we found our guy?”

“I think so, but I have a test. Send him a message that he needs to meet with me. Say that I need to question him about some things and evaluate his answers. I want to see how he reacts.”

I frowned. “What are you expecting?”

“He’ll delay and go on a deleting frenzy, or he’ll run. If he’s braver than I think, he’ll show up and try to bluster his way through the questions. We’ll go after him immediately if he runs. Otherwise, we’ll track him down tonight.”

I let out a long breath. “This better be it. I can’t wait any longer. I need to fucking do something.”

Zach smiled. “You really can’t sit still for long, can you?”

“No. That’s really why I was such a fuckup in school and why people think I’m stupid.”

“You’re not. I knew that when I met you, but thank God I haven’t had to take you on a stakeout. You’d drive me insane in an hour.”

“Yeah, probably.” I grinned.

“Go mingle on the floor or something. Occupy yourself a little longer, and then⁠—”

“We get to torture and interrogate.” I was practically bouncing up and down.

“You’re scaring me.”

“No, I’m not.”

He huffed. “Message the guy.”

“I am.”

I stared at the door for a few moments after Zach left before I sent the message. Then I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling.

I was in love with Zach. I didn’t know how it happened, but it was true. I’d sworn I wasn’t capable of that—of wanting one man, of having a soulmate—but Zach was it for me. I was going to find a way to keep him. My brothers could fuck off.

Around midnight, Zach and I once again approached a house. This one was divided into apartments, and the front door required a code, so we came at Richard’s apartment from the back, looking for the best way in. At least he was on the first floor. There were no rear doors, but he was foolish enough to leave his kitchen window unlocked. It was old and stiff, but we forced it open and climbed through. Zach went first, and when the guy ran to see what the noise was, Zach had his weapon up.

“Don’t move. Don’t speak. We have some questions for you.”

“What? But you… you’re the FBI guy. Do you have a warrant? What are you doing here?”

“I’m not here in my official capacity, and we don’t need a warrant. We’re going to rely on your cooperation unless you want trouble.”

Richard turned and started to run. Zach put a bullet in the wall right above his head. He dropped to the floor, and I was on him.

I was so fucking ready for a fight. He got to his feet, and I slammed my fist into his abdomen. He tried to head-butt me, but I caught his head in a vicious grip. I wanted to break his fucking neck, but we needed information first. So I used my grip to slam him into the wall. The fucker shook it off and came at me again. I landed a blow to his chin that sent him sailing back. He slid down the wall, and I pinned him to the floor with my foot on his chest. “Had enough?”

“Get out.”

“Not until we get the information we came for.” I pulled out my gun and pointed it at his head. “We can do this the easy way, or it can hurt. A lot.”

He snarled at me. “What do you want?”

“Where’s Ivanov?”

The color drained from Richard’s face. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”