LITMIR.BIZ

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was at the top of this maddening game of cat and mouse they’d been playing. Lara knew that even if she hadn’t had the backup of her team, a distance away for fear of spooking their teammate, she would have still marched up to the dimly lit, neglected building with determination.

      Lara’s footsteps echoed off of the splintered wood beams. Eyes jumping from each lamp as she passed. She paused as she glanced to her right at the pier across the water from her, yards away. Nick was there, two over, hidden in his own shadows. Ready to have her back if needed. Ty was to her left along the next pier, holding down the fort while Xander and Victoria were across the street behind her, attempting to blend into the night, eyes peeled for anything suspicious. A few NYPD beat cops, dressed down, milled around with the agents with specific instructions to only move when Victoria gave Junior Agent James Walsh, their liaison, the signal. Everyone was waiting. Everyone was ready. It was enough to put a little pep into Lara’s step knowing that, even though she would have come alone if she’d had to, she wasn’t alone.

      “It’s showtime,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand as she moved a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. The wire adhered firmly to the skin between her breasts would no doubt pick up her words with ease. Whatever Cass was about to say was going to bounce back to the ears of every team member in the field. That fact alone had almost stopped her feet from moving forward. If, in the process of getting answers, the truth of her past with Moretti came out, then there was no way to hide it from the team anymore. No way for Nick not to hear it and finally understand how personal the case was to her.

      Lara willed her feet to keep going, almost shaking her head to free herself of the dark thoughts looming.

      If Cass really did talk—if she did reveal the part of the past that Lara wished would remain untouched—then so be it. The team needed answers. The truth about her relationship with Moretti was a cost she was simply ready to pay.

      Lara walked up to what looked like one of two workable doors on the outside of the building. Plans to create an outdoor seating area beneath the shade of the next floor had been stopped, leaving unstained concrete on either side of the double doors. Glass from some of the windows also littered the area around her. Uncertain for a moment, Lara just stared at the weathered wood wondering what truth was on the other side, before she finally grasped the handle and pushed.

      Her body went on high alert and her training kicked in. She became hyperaware of her handgun beneath her jacket. She didn’t figure Cass would be stupid enough to try anything, especially when she had probably already figured out the team was nearby, waiting to storm the building, guns blazing if need be. However, that didn’t mean she was about to go in unprepared. Plus, the redhead hadn’t advised against it.

      “Cass?” she called, voice not entirely aggressive but still warning the woman she meant business. The door opened with ease, and she stepped just inside. Lara paused, not about to go all the way inside until she could confirm where the woman was.

      “Over here.”

      Lara made out the red hair first before collecting details about the rest of the woman. She was farther back in the corner of the open room, body angled in a way that suggested she’d been looking out through one of the windows at the water. Again, Lara hoped Cass wouldn’t try to swim her way out of the situation.

      Light from lamps outside streamed through the large windows that weren’t boarded up. While it gave the open space—which Lara guessed had been planned as the main dining room for a restaurant—enough of a glow so she could see that no one else was inside, Lara pulled a small Maglite flashlight from her jacket and clicked it on. Its beam was small but powerful. Before she moved any closer to Cass, she swept the light to her left. An open set of stairs led to the next floor, splitting and turning out of sight, while two rooms she assumed were bathrooms were tucked in the opposite corner. To her right and across from Cass was another room, doors already attached at two different points. The kitchen if she had to guess. The rest of the open space was oddly barren. Only a few odds and ends and trash littered the floor. Lara walked around the random pieces, noting some of the walls had been tagged with graffiti.

      Cass had her eyes averted to the floor. She was perched atop a broken sawhorse left over from the builders.

      “You picked one hell of a spot to meet,” Lara finally said, eyeing a plastic bucket in the corner. She grabbed it and placed it across from Cass. She took a seat, mindful to keep her sight line to the front door open. The back door that led to an unfinished outdoor dining area was boarded up.

      “I wanted it to be quiet while we talked...” Cass let her words trail off. She finally met Lara’s gaze. It showed her more than she had thought she’d see. Cass looked stricken, miserable even. Her eyes were glazed over and rimmed red. She’d either been crying or was about to start. Lara didn’t know if she felt comfort or trepidation at the obvious guilt. Nick’s words of not wanting Cass to feel as if she had nothing to lose popped into her head. If that was the case, then she was in trouble. “You know, don’t you?” Cass said before Lara could wrangle in what she wanted to say. She decided not to play coy.

      “I now know a lot of things. I don’t know why I didn’t put it together earlier. You engineered my running into my long-lost half sister,” Lara continued. “You staged my kitchen to look like my mother’s murder scene. The most horrific event in my life!”

      “No! That wasn’t me,” Cass interrupted. “Please, believe me. I did get those files, but it was Katya and her boyfriend who did that. I thought Katya was my friend, but that went too far. I trusted her...” Tears rolled down Cass’s face.

      “And I trusted you. But you dug up my past, and you served it to me on a silver platter and then pretended to be as surprised as the rest of us. You.” Lara pointed at the woman for emphasis in a jab that clearly showed aggression. Just because she could control her tone didn’t mean her body language had gotten the memo to quiet down.

      Even from the flashlight beam radiating up from the floor, Lara could see Cass’s eyes starting to glass over even more.

      She nodded. “Yes, I did,” she admitted, voice dropping in volume. Lara leaned in closer.

      “Why, Cass? Why go through all of that trouble? Because I know it must have been a lot of work. Meghan and I have had no contact since I was a teenager and she changed her last name. Sneaking into my father’s house?” Lara’s voice was starting to betray her. It started to slide, riding building waves of anger as she recounted the obstacles of the past several days. Ones that had not only affected the case but had also shaken Lara right to her core. “Why go through all of that trouble? I don’t understand what makes any of that worth it, not to mention how it even fit into whatever plan you wanted to execute by going through all of those motions. Why?” Lara realized her heartbeat had sped up a bit. She wondered if her team could hear it through the mic attached to her.

      Cass dropped her chin down a fraction, making her long loose hair cascade over her shoulder. Her glasses slipped across the bridge of her nose, but she didn’t set them right.

      “When you first brought down the Moretti organization you came into Victoria’s office and told her about kissing Moretti,” she started, eyes traveling down to her hands intertwined on her lap. “I couldn’t leave it alone. I wanted so badly to understand everything I could about what had happened on the inside. I wanted to know how you’d bested Moretti. I wanted to know for certain that he was really caught this time. That he was really going to pay for everything he’d done. I wanted to know that he was going to pay for what he’d done to Allie.” She gave a weak shrug. “I waited until you were fully debriefed, and I accessed the classified files.” Her gaze went from her hands to Lara’s eyes. “I learned everything.”

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