Page 7 of Escape You

“Yeah, Tyler. Most of our people of interest are.” He furrowed his brows.

After the initial shock of seeing Mia’s face, I sorted through my emotions. A new feeling settled in my gut, anger. Did she know who I was? Was that why she chose not to tell me her name? She played me. I raked a hand through my hair, swallowing to keep my temper and the tears burning my eyes in check.

“Shit.” Mavell jerked to his feet.

“I have to recuse myself.” I sat back on my seat, feeling drained. The time I’d spent in Venezuela and now this—all of it was taking a toll on me.

“Go on.” He puffed out air, shaking his head. My reaction to Mia’s picture told him everything he needed to know to reassign me. But he’d also need every detail to file the proper paperwork.

“After my trip, I visited my oldest brother in Arizona. His friend needed help, so I offered to escort her to New Jersey. I figured I was coming here for an assignment, so why not kill two birds with one stone.”

He hissed. “More like three birds.”

I deserved that for being gullible and such an idiot. “When we got there, we found ourselves in the middle of a gang shootout.” I pointed at the old boss’s name. “Mickey was shot and killed in the altercation.”

“What’s your friend’s name?” He took out a pen and started making notes.

“Emilia Prado. She has nothing to do with Mickey. She’d never met him until that day. We were at the wrong place at the wrong time. She went there to see Dom Moretti.”

“Did you report the incident?”

“I did. The two shooters ended up dead. Not much for us to do.”

“Good. What else?”

“That’s it. The whole thing took me by surprise. I stuck around to recoup a bit and also just in case my friend needed help.”

Mavell rolled his eyes. “And also, you stayed to lick your wounds after the FBI turned down your request to be on the Venezuela case. The special agent in charge called me. He didn’t appreciate your bedside manner.”

“I’m sorry. If they’d seen what I saw, they’d be in a bigger hurry to shut it all down.”

“I only assigned you to this case because you asked me to keep you close to New York. You blew it.”

Fuck. I needed to stay close to the city to keep an eye on Rossi, the New York boss who’d recently gotten into bed with the Venezuelan cartel. My informant Rebecca had heard the two bosses discussing a plan to deliver people to Rossi in New York. Other than the conversation she overheard, she had no proof. She agreed to stay with me to help me get the FBI involved. If I got assigned to the West Coast, I wouldn’t be able to protect her in New York. She was determined to stay and stop Rossi and her old boss, Smith, from kickstarting their new venture.

“How do you know this woman?” He tapped on Mia’s image. She looked so beautiful in the surveillance shot, drinking an espresso in some coffee shop. A sliver of an image formed in my mind. Mia and I together in that coffee shop. That was so impossible now.

“I slept with her last night.”

“Be specific.” He raised both eyebrows at me, pen in hand, waiting to jot down my fucked-up mistake.

“We had sex.” Those three little letters did not begin to explain what Mia and I had. I left a part of me with her. And up until a few minutes ago, I’d felt as if she’d left a part of her with me.

He threw the notebook on the table. “Are you fucking kidding me, Tyler? You fucked our main person of interest? What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that she was an incredibly beautiful bartender who wanted a hookup. I was technically still on leave. I had no reason to say no.” To me, she’d been more than a hookup. Obviously, to her, it was all a game or a con. Either one made me sick to my stomach.

“You’re off the case. Take a few days off. I’ll need to shuffle a few agents around to get you as far away as we can from New Jersey.”

“Fine. I could use a few days in Atlanta with my family.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Stay there until I say otherwise.” He rose and stomped out of the small room, leaving me with piles and piles of information on Mia Torelli. I was the biggest idiot for falling for her act.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what I said to her, if I gave her any information that could jeopardize our agents. How would she like it if I paid her a visit? I ran my index finger down her bio page. Her address taunted me before my gaze switched to the associations section. In the last three years, she hadn’t had any personal relationships. There was a space for my name. I crumpled the page into a ball and threw it against the wall.

The next page contained more information on the new boss. According to our informant, she was planning a huge gun run for the Sonoran cartel. Her words echoed in my head: “I got the job I wanted last week. But my subordinates seem to be on a mission to see me fail.” She had not lied about that. The job she wanted was the Rogue River crew. And she was right. One of her own had betrayed her and given us all the information we needed to put her away.

Mia was about to walk into an ambush.

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