LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Agent Moore,” she said, as she held her head high. “I have work to do. I don’t have time for baseless FBI inquiries right now.”

      “I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, but if you don’t talk to me now, I’m going to come back and hound you every day until you do.”

      She scrunched up her nose, and he could tell that she was thinking of how to play things.

      “What do you want from me?” she asked.

      “Answers.”

      “I told you on Saturday night why I was there. I was searching for a missing teenager named Megan Milton. I don’t see that there could be anything else for us to discuss.”

      “We didn’t find evidence of any missing teenager in the woods.”

      “I went on a lead. You have to understand that when a child is missing, every lead must be checked out.”

      He was skeptical but was letting it go for now. She was holding back on him. “All right. I can understand that.”

      “Good, so now we’re done.”

      He put up his hands. “Not so fast. Could you please lower your weapon now? I promise I won’t draw mine on you. You have my word.”

      Her lips turned up into a smile and amusement flashed through her eyes. “I don’t even know you, Agent Moore.”

      “I’m a federal agent.”

      The room fell silent. After a few moments, she looked him directly in the eyes. “I would be a fool to take your word on anything.”

      She was frustrating. Even more so because she had a point. “Okay, can I at least have a seat while I talk?”

      She nodded. “That’s fine.”

      He took a seat across from her desk in a comfortable chair, and took a moment to gather his thoughts. “First, things first. Here’s my FBI identification.” He removed his credentials from his pocket and slid them across the table. She picked up the ID with her left hand, still holding the gun in her right. After studying it for a minute, she nodded.

      What was the best way to get through to her? “I need to know what you saw in the woods Saturday night. Take me through it step by step.”

      She opened her mouth to speak, but he lifted his hand. “And before you say you didn’t see anything, remember that I know you had on night vision goggles. Looked like military grade if you ask me. And since I was in the military, ma’am, I’m quite familiar with how they work. So I know you could see and that you saw something.”

      She sighed. “Could I see, yes. Did I see anything? No. I heard a lot of noises, but I never got visual on anything other than some FBI guys. And then you.”

      He nodded. Was she telling him everything? “Why don’t you let me buy you lunch and see if anything more comes back to you?”

      “It won’t,” she responded quickly.

      Too quickly. Maybe he needed to provide her with an incentive to get involved. “I’d like to be able to tell you more about the investigation in hopes that you could assist us.”

      “Assist the FBI?” she asked.

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      She did that scrunching thing with her nose again and didn’t seem to be too enthused. Maybe he’d made the wrong move. He’d thought she’d be intrigued by the prospect of working with the FBI, but it seemed now that was not the case.

      “I’ll have to pass.” She visibly relaxed and set the gun in front of her on the desk.

      “Even if it involves working on a high profile case? Taking down some Russian mob types from New York that have shown up in El Paso?”

      He watched as her eyes widened and the color drained from her face. Then she tipped over in her chair. He was by her side in a few steps. The woman had passed out on him. He really had his hands full now.

      * * *

      “Sadie, are you okay?” a deep voice asked. She must be dreaming. Igor’s grimy face flashed through her mind—his ice-cold blue eyes mocking her. Igor could find her. Hunt her down. He was close. So close. She was in danger. She felt strong arms propping her up. She knew the voice from somewhere but couldn’t place it. Then at that moment it came rushing back to her. Her eyes popped open, and her heartbeat raced. She tried to reach for her gun.

      “It’s okay, it’s Kip. Sadie, you with me? Have you eaten today?”

      She couldn’t process this. She’d been camped out for two weeks waiting to get a glimpse of Igor coming out of the five-star downtown hotel, but she’d never seen him. Her worst fear, confirmed. The Vladimir network was expanding to El Paso. And the FBI was on the trail. She couldn’t let this Kip guy know the truth. She knew Igor could be in El Paso, but hearing the words brought about a visceral reaction within her.

      “Sorry. I haven’t eaten. Sometimes I get a little queasy, low blood sugar and all.” She was hypoglycemic, but her reaction was spurred by something much more sinister.

      He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a protein bar. “Here, eat this.” His light blue eyes flashed with concern.

      “Thanks,” she muttered. This was it. She wasn’t safe here any longer. She’d been tracking Vladimir’s network closely, well, as close as possible, but hadn’t been sure Igor was in the area. Parts of his crew, but not Igor himself. She had known all about his continued operations in New York. The human-trafficking ring that spread up to Canada. As she suspected, his next move had to be expanding into Mexico. But now she had to focus, she had to pull herself together, and quickly. She took a couple of bites of the protein bar as Kip sat silently watching her eat.

      “You feeling any better?” he asked.

      “Yeah. Where were we?” She needed more information from him to determine whether her initial research was accurate. And while she’d never trust the FBI after what they let happen to her family, she needed Kip’s knowledge right now.

      “I was saying that we could use your help in the investigation involving a Russian crime syndicate. It’s actually a family business of sorts that started in New York. They’ve sprung up a satellite office down here, so to speak. Human trafficking over the border.”

      “And where do I come into this?” She wanted to close her eyes and pray that there was no way he knew about her past with the Vladimir family. He couldn’t. That person no longer existed.

      “I saw you in action on Saturday. You’re good. I also think you know more than you’re letting on. So I was hoping you could consult on the investigation with us.”

      “You don’t even know me.”

      “I’ve seen enough. And of course, I had the FBI run a background check on you.”

      Thankfully, her history before joining Witness Protection was in a sealed file that wouldn’t even show up on his search. Add on to that the additional Witness Protection security protocols. But still she wouldn’t put anything past the FBI. Igor Vladimir may have pulled the trigger and killed both her parents, but it was the FBI’s fault that he had been in her house in the first place.

      “So what do you propose?”

      “Lunch.” He smiled.

      “Not happening,” she said. She wanted more information, but she needed to do it her way.

      “Coffee?”

      “Possibly. I wasn’t lying. It’s Monday morning. I’ve been busy catching up on things with more ground to cover. We can set something up for later today if you’re really serious.”

      “I am. And I can work with your schedule.”

      “Meet me back here at two,” she said. That would give her enough time

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