Page 18 of Blood Money

Lt. Frye shook his head and stood, clearly intending to hustle her out the door. That’s when Alex caught sight of the open file on the table in front of his chair. A photograph of her was clipped to the left side of the folder. A personnel folder.

Hers.

Alex’s gut clenched.

This meeting is about me.

Lt. Frye began urging her out the door, but Alex pulled from his grasp. “No!” she cried. “I have something to tell you.” In an uncharacteristic spurt of anger, she slammed the door shut, locking her inside the room with eight men who were undoubtedly investigating her for submitting false documents and lying on her NYPD application forms. “I need your help, Lieutenant. Someone—the Pyramid—paid me money,” she blurted out.

That got their attention. For several seconds no one moved or said a word. The earth seemed to be standing still on its axis. All the air was sucked from the room. Suddenly, Alex couldn’t breathe. Her face grew hot. Her throat felt dryer than the desert.

Somewhere in the room, a chair scraped the floor. A man’s arm went around her shoulders, guiding her to a chair. Gray. It had to be him. She’d know his aftershave anywhere.

“Get her some water,” Gray ordered.

A moment later, a plastic water bottle was pressed into her hands. Alex sucked down gulp after gulp. She closed her eyes, knowing they were all waiting for her to talk.

“You have the right to consult with a lawyer,” Gray said from where he was now seated across the table from her.

“What?” Alex snapped open her eyes. “I don’t want a lawyer. Why would I need one? You can fire me over the falsities in my application forms, but you know you won’t press charges.”

They might have her dead to rights for the bogus information she’d put down in the department’s employment application, but she’d researched existing case law before falsifying those papers. They would certainly fire her for that, but there’d be no need for a lawyer.

“That’s not what this is about.” Gray’s tone was hard. “Tell us about the money.”

Alex looked into Gray’s beautiful silver eyes and suddenly understood.

This is bad. Really bad.

She took a deep breath. “Three weeks ago, twenty thousand dollars was deposited in my bank account from an unknown source.”

“We know,” Gray said.

“You know?” Alex could only stare at him, wide-eyed. She was having a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact that this man she’d begun to care for was actually investigating her. “Then do you also know, Mr. Detective,” Alex continued in an icy tone that matched Gray’s, “that I have no idea where it came from and that when I asked the bank about it, they told me they were unable to trace it?”

“And you up and decided to divulge this information now?” IA Detective John Simonetti pursed his lips. “You work in a police department. Did you ever consider asking for help with that?”

No, she hadn’t. Relying on others didn’t come easily to her. Alex squeezed the plastic water bottle so hard it cracked. “I thought I could handle it on my own. I assumed that whoever owns that money would eventually figure out the mistake and I would give it back.”

Gray’s eyes bored into her. “For someone hiding behind a false identity, you took a big chance working at police headquarters. It would have made more sense for you to stay as far away from the police as possible, so why did you really take this job?”

“Because,” Alex said, her heart squeezing at the angry look in Gray’s eyes, “I’d been working in a diner earning next to nothing and with no medical benefits, when a beat cop came in and bragged about what great benefits the department had. I did take a big chance coming here, but I needed those medical benefits so badly it was worth the risk.”

Detective Simonetti leaned forward. “I think you intentionally chose to work here for devious purposes.”

“You’re missing the big picture here.” Alex shot Simonetti an angry look. “I busted in on your precious meeting because ten minutes ago a woman called me on my personal cell phone, said she was from the Pyramid and expected a favor in return for that money.” Alex smacked her hand on the table. “She threatened my child!”

Gray’s jaw muscles flexed. “And last week the Pyramid murdered an FBI agent.”

“You can’t really think I had anything to do with that.” Could he?

“What I think,” Gray said, picking up a printout and crushing it in his hand, “is that now would be a good time for you to tell us your name. Because prior to seven years ago, Alexandra Romano didn’t exist. Anywhere.”

Chapter Six

Gray didn’t really think Alex had anything to do with the agent’s death, but as a seasoned detective he knew better than to assume anything.

His gut tightened as he watched Alex’s face blanch. How she could still look so breathtakingly beautiful while being in such deep shit was a mystery of the universe. He prayed she was about to tell the truth. Lying would only dig her in deeper.