Page 128 of Deep Tide

“Yes. You know him?” Sean shoved his car into park and jumped out.

“Brian Bentworth is dead.”

Sean halted. A slimy ball of dread filled his stomach.

“Sean?”

“He’s—”

“This just came in. He was found in his pickup truck behind a grocery store in Brownsville this morning. Shot in the back of the head. Looked like he’d gone there to meet someone.”

Sean’s mind was sprinting. Bentworth was dead. Executed. Gagnon was now somehow involved in the killing of a federal agent, which ramped everything up to a whole new level.

“If Bentworth was working with Saledo, possibly tipping him off in exchange for money—”

“He was,” Sean said hoarsely. “That handoff I saw was probably his payment.”

“Okay. Fair assumption. But I don’t know why he was taken out now.”

“I do. I just ran his prints.”

“You what? How?” Moore asked. “And how would they know you ran his prints?”

“We have a leak somewhere. Someone acting as a tripwire, giving them a heads-up if their mole’s cover is blown.”

“Shit.”

The ball of dread in Sean’s gut expanded as he realized just how far and deep this crime syndicate’s connections went. He’d heard Saledo was getting his tentacles into law enforcement agencies in the region, but this was worse than he’d imagined.

And worse for Leyla.

Sean glanced around the parking lot just as Owen Breda whipped into a space right by the door. He hopped out of his pickup with his cell phone pressed to his ear and rushed inside the building.

“Do you understand the implications here? Our entire op is compromised,” Moore was saying.

“I know.”

“That shipment of phones we managed to get ahold of, that was probably a decoy. Gagnon knew we were coming for it.”

“I know.” Sean strode for the door. “But we need to focus on Leyla Breda. We can’t—”

“The real shipment is likely still out there.”

He walked into the building and stopped for a second to finish the call. He didn’t give a shit about the shipment right now. He needed to find Leyla, and he needed Moore to pull out all the stops in getting the FBI to help with that.

“Sean? Are you listening? I know you’re personally involved with this woman, but I need you to keep your eye on the ball. That shipment of hardened electronic devices is probably still in transit. We can salvage this operation.”

Sean made eye contact with the receptionist—Denise—and she buzzed him through the secure door leading into the bullpen. The place was filled with frantic-looking cops, and Sean hoped to hell they were searching for Leyla.

“Sean?”

“I understand. But right now—”

“I still believe that Gagnon intends to take possession of that shipment personally and distribute the phones to his VIP clients,” Moore went on. “So, if we can locate the shipment, we can locate Gagnon. And if Leyla Breda is with Gagnon, we locate her, too. You understand what I’m saying?”

“I do.”

“Good. Now, we don’t have nearly enough boots on the ground there to look for her, so you need to get their police chief—Brady—to throw everything he’s got at this. And I need you to keep me informed. I want to know what you know the second you know it.”

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