Page 13 of Out of Sight

“Go talk to your bosses, Bracco. Act like it’s any other day and talk to them about the drugs, about Mario Costa, about Claire or anyone else on their shit list. Everything. Anything.”

I held my breath. Was he asking what I thought hewas?

“And wear a wire while you do it.”

There it was. If they found a wire on me I was dead.

“What if I don’t agree to wear a wire?”

“Then that’s it. No immunity. I’ll talk to your prosecutor about maybe gunning for a lighter sentence in your trial if you still testify, but no guarantees. Are you in or are you out?”

The Morellis all needed to be locked away for everyone’s safety. If something happened to me I’d deal with it since I deserved fuck-all anyway, but Claire? I’d do whatever I could to keep her safe, this brave woman who threw the entire contents of her purse at me to defend herself. Who stood up when she found something fishy going on around her. Who didn’t let fear of going against the fucking mafia control her when someone was hurt.

She was worth it.

The more evidence we could collect, the faster the case could go to trial and the faster Claire would be safe.

“I’m in.”

I pulled my shirt back on after Blake finished taping the wire to my chest. I felt like I could see the outline of the wire through my gray shirt, but that was probably just paranoia. Blake was so careful and the wire was so thin I hardly noticed the tape on my own body, but I still zipped my hoodie up all the way to my chin just in case.

“Ready?” he asked.

“No, but let’s do it anyway,” I said with a deep breath, hauling myself out of the chair.

Claire stood as well, but neither of us took a step toward the door.

“Can we go over the plan again?” she asked.

“Of course,” Blake said. His voice was a lot gentler when he was talking to Claire, not that I blamed him. But come on, now wasn’t the time; meeting her, even so briefly, was the best part of my entire year so far and even I stopped flirting with her while we focused on the mission. “Everybody is leaving at the same time. Will is going to go out the side door with Rosenberg and head to Morelli headquarters to see if he can get an actual recording of either Morelli admitting to their crimes. You and I are going to go to a safe place together to wait for Will where you two will stay in hiding until you can present your evidence to the court.”

Claire rolled her eyes, but nodded. She already made it clear how much she disliked the idea of being near me, but she was smart enough to know it made sense and would keep her safer.

I felt good knowing I would be hanging with Rosenberg. He proved he could be trusted, even if he had a weird sense of humor. He was going to monitor my feed while I went in and then help me get to safety after.

The plan was good, but still we didn’t move.

I knew why I was hesitating: as long as we stayed in this room we were all safe. The second we left and were visible to the outside world we were vulnerable. The Morellis had people all over, even inside this precinct. There was bound to be plentymore moles that Ididn’tknow about. What if someone saw me leave? What if they saw Claire? It was too dangerous.

Rosenberg already called over to Internal Affairs so they were aware of Theo Gates, but doing things by the book meant doing things slowly. Without clear cut evidence he couldn’t be detained, just investigated. He or anybody else could see Claire and report back to the office.

I pulled the zipper of my hoodie back down, passing the coat over to Claire. She looked confused but took it.

“Put that on,” I told her. “Cover your face, your hair. I don’t want anyone to recognize you on the way out.”

She pulled the hoodie on, tucking all that hair inside and pulling the hood low over her face. Rosenberg gave me a nodof appreciation and then we left. He and Blake walked out first, standing up straight and casual as we headed down the hallway. There was no need to draw additional attention to us.

“We’ve got this,” I murmured. It was spoken half to myself and half in an attempt to reassure Claire, who looked ready to puke as we walked past the rest of the conference rooms. She glanced at me, meeting my eyes for a short second, but then turned her head sharply away without saying anything.

She must have really been nervous if she didn’t even have it in her to insult me.

We were rounding the corner into the bullpen—about to split up—when I saw him. Gray leather jacket, greasy dark hair shining in the florescent lighting: Antonio was in the lobby, talking to Gates at the front desk.

I grabbed Claire’s arm, hauling her backwards and out of sight. What was he doing here?

“What the hell?” Claire screeched, clawing at my hand still holding her arm in a vice grip.

“Bracco. Let go of her!” Blake commanded at the same time, just a step behind as I dragged Claire further back. They were being way too loud.

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