Page 62 of Consumed By the Mafia

The De Salvos needed her to arrest—effectively remove and in the process humiliate—as many of their enemies as possible. They did not need her to approve of the way those enemies fell in defeat. From the start, she had been made aware that not all of her convictions would survive. It was implicitly clear shewas expected to keep her mouth shut about any and everything she saw and learned behind-the-scenes. That was what she’d agreed to.

She knew that. But sidelining her morals was easier said than done. Abigail realized shedidkeep looking for ways to make things ‘right’—by her definition. That in itself was working against the grand agenda.

She drew a breath, reflexively reaching for the vibrating thing in her pocket before she even registered what it was or what it meant. It wasn’t until she noticed both men had returned their stares to her that she realized her phone was again in her hand.

Abigail dropped her stare to the screen in an effort to hide her embarrassment. The action only worked because the name of the caller made her lungs seize.Crap.She’d been hoping to put this off until at least morning. Her gaze snapped up. “It’s Albert.”

Ryoma cursed.

“Answer it,” Romeo said. “You know the game.”

She supposed she did. Most of the story had been hashed out in the couple of hours since she’d come up with the original, semi-ludicrous plan. She watched Ryoma swap earbuds and waited a few seconds before sliding her thumb across the screen. “Sir—”

“Why did I just get a call about one of my teams apprehending the chief of police?” Special Agent in Charge Julian Albert demanded immediately. “What the heck is going on, Agent Fitzgerald?”

“I apologize for the blindside, sir,” Abigail said carefully. “Given my approaching deadline and our recent concern about internal integrity, I decided to take a risk with a recent development.”

“And how does that lead to arresting Rodrigo Silva?”

“He happened to be involved with a misconduct issue involving me, which I have evidence of, so I’m using that as leverage. I have strong reason now to believe your original hunch of Silva’s connection to the local criminal organization was right. I’m planning to put pressure on him, convince him to talk.” Abigail put as much truth into her words as she could, because it would help sell the story. What actually happened to Silva at the end was irrelevant. She could never, and would never, admit to knowing or agreeing to that part of the plan.

It worked in her favor that Albert had always been suspicious of Silva. She’d been banking on that, even, and she knew her gamble had paid off when he blew out a sigh. “You should have called me, Fitzgerald. Or at least notified your handler. Do you have any idea how angry Agent Mercer is?”

Abigail winced. “I’ll talk to her in the morning, sir.” As much as she didn’t want to.

“You’ll call her as soon as we’re done,” Albert said. “I understand your hesitancy, but for now, we proceed as if the three of us are trustworthy on this until or unless we discover solid evidence of the contrary. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” She actually felt like pouting. Getting away from Paige Mercer had been one of the highlights of this new, twisted deal.

“Good. Now, what’s this I hear you performed the arrest with a three-man team? You didn’t clear it through the proper channels, I know I didn’t assign you backup.”

Abigail pulled in a quiet breath and repeated the story that had been agreed upon, the story Miguel had assured her their team could make work. “I might have gone a little out of the box on that, and I’m sorry. I knew I couldn’t take Chief Silva in by myself, and I wasn’t comfortable trusting the job to local agents when we haven’t had time to re-vet them. So I made some desperate calls and found a couple of overeager graduates who weren’t too far away and were more than happy for some on-the-job experience.” It was such bullshit. But all they needed was a traceable digital trail to back it up.

Albert was silent for several seconds. “You did what?”

Abigail rolled her lips together for a beat and did her best to sound apologetic, letting some guilt mix into her voice, too. “They’re fully legitimized.” Complete lie, of course. “Just green. And I know it was crazy, but I really felt all I needed was a show of support. Silva’s not as aggressive as he wants people to think. Plus we caught him off-guard, so he was slow to react. He might have been reaching for a weapon, but we got him secured before it ever came to that. I only needed the help as far as to get him settled. They know they aren’t being fully pulled in.”

“Do you realize how dangerous that was?” Albert asked, his tone sharp.

“Objectively, yes,” Abigail said. She could say that honestly as long as she didn’t explain why it had felt dangerous to her. “But it still felt less dangerous than going in with agents who might have been compromised.”

Albert sighed, exasperation heavy in his voice. “You can’t hold him forever because you had an argument.”

Abigail firmed up her voice. “I can hold him long enough.”

Again, Albert was quiet for a second. “You think you can get him to connect the dots back to the De Salvos?”

There it was. The first form of the question, or series of question, she had known would soon be lobbied at her. Abigail let herself hesitate, let him hear her intake of breath, and carefully said, “Actually, sir … I learned some new things. Namely that my informant’s been manipulating us on behalf of a different power. I don’t have all that information yet, in particular I’m not clear why he was aiming his accusations at Mr. De Salvo, but I am sure that there’s a connection between my informant and the man I caught Chief Silva with on the day my apartment was ransacked.”

Albert sucked in a breath. “Dang it.” He paused for barely a beat. “This is a big shift, Fitzgerald. We’ve spentmonthson this case already, and you’re saying most of it’s been a waste.”

She winced. “It may not have been a waste, per say. My informant ran when he realized he’d slipped up, but as soon as I can find him, we can use his dishonesty in our favor. In the meantime, I’ll comb through everything he said before and take off the De Salvo filter. See what pops.” She wasn’t watching either of the men in the room, but she could feel at least one glare burning into her skin.

“Fine. That’s the best we can do right now.” Albert sighed again. “Do you even have a name for the new lead? What group are we actually looking for?”

Abigail debated for a moment. “The man I saw with Silva has a name that starts with ‘Bren.’ Silva started to call him that but was cut off. And whoever Bren is, I’m hearing there’s a strong chance he’s got connections to that wild gang that sprouted up last summer—the Ink Blots.” She doubted she could justify tossing the Irish mob into the conversation yet. Mentioning the Ink Blots was risky enough. But she wanted to get all the balls rolling, if she could.

“Bren,” Albert repeated slowly. “And the Ink Blots? That’s a big leap.”

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