Page 8 of Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way)

“Don’t get too cocky I bet everyone who’s gone after him felt the same way in the beginning.”

“I’ve learned from their mistakes, I won’t be making the same.” I left the dorm like room that I’d been sharing with the other woman for the past six months; I’d fast tracked it through Quantico ever since they’d snatched me up my senior year at Vassar. It was a dream job for me, something I’d worked towards my whole life, ever since a mad man had killed my parents and my younger brother when I was eight. My dream of becoming a ballerina had died a fiery death on a little hill in Maryland. On that day something had been born in me, a thirst for vengeance. The need to bring criminals to justice; it had become my passion, I’d spent everyday since then with a few exceptions focused on achieving that goal and nothing was going to stand in the way.

In school I’d flung my way through my classes; always at the top, scholarships had helped a poor orphan from the worst part of Baltimore’s inner city make it into one of the nation’s leading schools from where I’d caught the notice of the Bureau; just where I wanted to be. The animal that had slaughtered my family had never been caught and I will never rest until that day came, if I had to babysit a master criminal like Hank Mancini in the meantime, then whatever it takes; there’s nothing stopping me from working on both things at the same time.

“You wanted to see me director?”

“Come in, sit down.”

Well hello to you too; my superior was to say the least…abrasive; he’s a gruff no nonsense type who never smiles and rarely laughs, at least not that I’ve noticed and although he’d offered praise when I did well in my exercises like the Connell case a few days ago, this was his usual way. He could praise you with one breath and tear you apart with the next. His nickname around the bureau is chuckles, which no one would ever dare call him to his face. Whatever the case he’s been director for almost twenty -five years, one of the longest terms in the history of the bureau.

I took my seat in one of the visitor’s chairs across from his desk folded my arms and crossed my legs. His office was very much like his personality, Spartan, neat and everything in its place there wasn’t so much as a paper clip out of place. Pictures of his wife, kids and grandkids graced the top of his huge high glossed mahogany desk. The wall behind him was covered with varying certificates of his achievements as well as awards for his service to his country.

“You leave tomorrow morning at seven that’ll put you in New York at about roughly ten o’clock, an agent Peter Sarkozy will be there to meet you and debrief you on the subject’s latest movements. You’ve been given his portfolio and should’ve already studied him and become very well acquainted with the way he works. Hank Mancini is an enigma; no one knows the real man and we barely understand his public persona. He comes from one of the wealthiest families in the country went to the best schools and had the opportunity to be anything he wanted to be in this life; he chose instead to be a criminal. In almost ten years we’ve not been able to pin any one thing on him but where there’s smoke there’s usually fire and he’s surrounded by a lot of smoke.”

Or the smoke could just be vapor; of course I didn’t say that out loud I didn’t want to commit professional suicide after all but the truth is I’ve studied all the info I’d been given and something just didn’t ring true. Hank Mancini had been an exceptional student his whole scholastic career until his nineteenth year. He’d been an upstanding citizen for all intents and purposes then for some unfathomable reason he’d simply dropped off the face of the earth not to be heard from again until six years later at the age of twenty- five. Now almost nine years later he was still evading law enforcement and on the rare occasion that he was actually brought in he just slipped through somehow without so much as a blemish on his record.

He’s been on the FBI’s most wanted list in the top billing for eight years running and now the job has fallen to me since so many others before me have failed, to find out the truth about the man and bring him down, bring him to justice if need be. No one seemed in doubt of his guilt, his movements were just too suspect according to law enforcement, it was not very well known in the bureau how he first came to be on our radar, that hadn’t been in any of the research I’d done which in itself was a mystery but my job was not to question my superiors no matter how much I might want to know. The problem is I’m not so sure of what I was looking for, it had all been done already as far as I could tell. Each time we got a whiff of something to do with the great Mancini we sent someone out, and each time they came back with their tales between their legs or their ass handed to them. Not only that but the guy was a career ender, quite a few of my colleagues had lost their jobs or positions after tussling with this guy and I knew what my superiors expected of me as the only female to ever go up against this mastermind; they didn’t just want me to use my mind, I was pretty sure they wanted me to use a lot more than that if push came to shove; that’s how desperate they’d become.

Mancini

I needed a little downtime to get the stench of the last few days off of me so I decided to relax by taking my boat out on the water for a little spin. One of my pleasures sailing, in fact I like anything to do with leisure, yachting, racing boats, cars and bikes; I even enjoyed a little rock climbing every once in a while. Those things kept me sharp because they involved staying very focused in order to avoid danger.

Today with the business of filth out of the way my mind turned to more pleasant enticements; like the eyes of one Cierra Stone. I felt the tightening pull in my gut at the memory of what she looked like; on my desk at home in my personal office I had a glossary that I’d already collected since learning of her existence. By the time the beauty came into my atmosphere I will know her inside and out as much I’m sure as she probably believes she knows me. For some strange reason I found that I was reluctant to dig into her past at this particular time, not while I was dealing with the scum of the earth, and that in itself was very telling as well, since when did I care about such menial things? I was beginning to get just a little worried about the strange hold she seemed to have on me; it was her eyes, those amazing sky blue orbs had seemed to look right through me. If I weren’t careful she’d have me falling at her feet before she even landed and that couldn’t be allowed. The lady was coming here to study me in order to put me away for a long long time after all, only a fool would be interested in getting burnt like that.

There was nothing for it though I’d seen and I’d wanted and what Hank Mancini wanted he usually took. Too bad we’ll have to do the waltz before I can take her to bed but make no mistake about it, she will be gracing my bed before long.

The next day was spent at home locked away behind closed doors going over everything I needed to do in order for my latest operation to go off without a hitch, I couldn’t pay too much attention to the feds and whoever else were on me this week I had innocents depending on me and nothing was going to stand in the way of that. They never knew where I was or what I was doing always in my dust which I’m sure was a bone of contention for them, I wasn’t too torn up about it though, I hated them as much as they hated me.

Having law enforcement on your ass twenty four seven wasn’t very fun though so I’d devised ways of out maneuvering them for the past six or seven years, now they were hard pressed to even catch an occasional glimpse of me unless I wanted to fuck with them just for kicks which couldn’t be easy for their jobs, how the hell could you watch someone you couldn’t see? But still they persisted.

That night I went to one of my clubs to unwind; it was my night to see and be seen I guess you could say and not even the entertainment up on stage kept eyes off of me. This was my favorite place I bought it as an escape from my daily life and I’ve made sure this place stayed free of all that other bullshit that usually played out in night clubs; no drugs no strippers no under the table dealings of any kind. I paid my guys top dollar to see that things stayed that way. The liquor was top shelf all the way the food above par and entertainment was always top billing. Tonight’s band was a red-hot European techno group whose latest CD had gone platinum; they cost a mint but the door charge alone will more than pay for it. There were private booths for the more upscale clientele who preferred privacy along with their entertainment; no sexual activities allowed though. The VIP rooms are always occupied by some socialite or diplomatic businessman or someone who had the money to afford the hourly rate. I come from money so I understand better than most that money brings money; people of wealth would rather spend money with their own kind that’s why you have society mavens chairing charities instead of the poor housewife who actually knows what the fuck she’s talking about.

I was on my second snifter of Louis XIV cognac when she walked in it’s a good thing I was sitting alone because my reaction was very unHank like. She fucking caught me off guard; in her official photo you can see the potential for beauty with her tightly pulled back hair, face bare of enhancements she looked about eighteen there; beautiful yes, but you couldn’t get the full effect, the woman standing before me was no hidden beauty she was fucking gorgeous. All that jet-black hair down around her shoulders with those blue blue eyes in a face molded and sculpted to perfection. At least that’s what she looked like to me as she stood there. Two things went through my head at once, my heart had kicked, I’ll have to examine that later, and my dick took notice, something that hasn’t happened in too long to remember. I’d become so jaded that sex was just something you did to scratch an itch. Something told me things were going to be way different this time.

Her body in the low riding jeans that molded slender hips and the tight top that showed off just a hint of cleavage was spectacular, someone had done their homework, I didn’t go for the overly made-up ass hanging out type. They’d sent me the perfect package, I hope for her sake they knew what the fuck they were doing.

She looked as though she was on the prowl and I knew just who her prey was; I noticed others noticing her as well and my ire rose just a little. Back the fuck off boys, this one’s mine no sense in fighting that persistent feeling in my gut who knows where it would all lead? But I was willing to find out.

After my initial jolt when my body had literally started I played it cool; eyes half lidded I swirled my snifter around as I pretended not to notice her casing the room. I felt the moment her gaze landed on me it was almost like an electrical charge, like touching a live wire. I caught the slight flush and her faltering step from beneath my lashes as well.

Game on.

Cierra

The music sounded like something out of a fast paced movie; one of those race car things with ex-cons always coming out on top; how fitting. I hadn’t wanted to make my debut in this way and in this place, Hank Mancini’s reportedly favorite nightclub. I’m essentially on his turf but word on the street is that he has a job in the works and we needed to move fast. I’d barely landed in the city before I was being put out to pasture. Agent Sarkozy had met me at the airport as prearranged and literally went right to it. He was rattling off Intel before we reached baggage claims. “ Our boy has something in the works lots of movement in the last couple days. He also met with Jason Laramie another known criminal who always seems to stay one step ahead of us but we feel pretty positive about this one.” He seemed overly excited and just a tad hyper active he also talked as fast as he walked.

“In the last two days or so Mancini has been seen making the rounds so to speak, this guy never goes into the same place twice at least not within the same time frame so it’s hard really keeping track of who what where and why. As you know we’re no longer allowed by law to plant listening devices or any other kind for that matter in any of his places. The obvious answer to that would’ve been to hit his local hangouts but the thing is he only hangs out in his places. We don’t know as yet who he’s been meeting with except for Laramie but we feel pretty certain there’s something brewing we only get this much action out of him when he has a job lined up, otherwise believe it or not the guy’s kind of a home body. We haven’t seen the girlfriend lately either and I use the term lightly because Mancini as far as we can tell don’t have girlfriends in as much as he has bed partners. He does seem to be monogamous though. So any questions?”

I guess he was finally ready to wind down. “I can’t think of any right this minute no, I’ve studied everything we have on him so far, have sort of a handle on the ins and outs but what I’m not really sure about is why we need a profiler on this one.”

“Well I’m sure you understand you’re more than a profiler on this one, I mean yeah you need to get in there and see what makes this guy tick, but so far everyone we’ve put on him have come up empty, this time we’re hoping to do things a little different, we’re hoping by sending in a female it would make a difference. An attractive female with your skills is like killing two birds with one stone, plus from what I hear you have something unique going on along with your profiling or at least that’s what the boys upstairs seem to think.”

That was kind of news to me but I didn’t let on in anyway as we headed out of the terminal into the busy parking lot. I’d been so caught up in his words I hadn’t even noticed much of anything around me. It was busy as was to be expected in any major city airport with people coming and going by the dozens even at this early hour in the morning.

The black nondescript sedan, which is de rigueur for the bureau was a cool welcome after the early morning heat.

“So you ready Agent Stone?”

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