Page 7 of Falling Fast

“I will.”

Piper watched her with worried hazel-green eyes as Charlie ended the call. “What’s happening?” she asked.

“Not sure, but I need to get to a meeting. Sorry.” Charlie hugged her. “That’s from Easton. We’ll do lunch on the weekend maybe, yeah?”

“Sure. Tell him to call me so I know nothing’s wrong, okay?”

“Sure.”

Half an hour later she walked into DEA headquarters in Springfield, and headed up to the boardroom on her boss’s floor. At her knock, he called out for her to enter, and when she pushed the door open, she was surprised at all the people already seated around the long table with him.

Her brother, his boss, and a Fed to his left she recognized from her family’s place back in September during the aftermath of the Gallant manhunt. To her boss’s right sat Taylor, a female agent from the organized crime division, as well as a close friend of Charlie’s.

And, at the far end, Special Agent Jamie Rodriguez.

Their gazes locked for an instant, just long enough for a jolt of awareness and nerves to spear through her belly. What was he doing here?

Jerking her gaze away from him, she faced her boss. “Hi,” she said, heading for the chair they’d left vacant for her at the center of the table, where a pen and pad of paper were waiting.

“Thanks for coming in on such short notice,” he said. “Sorry for springing this on you like this. I would have talked to you about it privately first, but given what we’ve just found out, we’ve got a short window to move on this new intel.” He gestured to the others seated around the table. “This is part of the taskforce we’ve assembled. We’ve been going over some new information on the Gallant case you need to be aware of.”

The asshole who had been shot and arrested for attacking her family, and was currently wasting away in a maximum security prison. Or at least, she hoped he was wasting away. “All right.” She sat down and folded her hands on top of the pad of paper, giving him her full attention and trying to ignore the weight of Jamie’s stare from the end of the table. She’d made up her mind months ago to try and forget him. Not that it had worked out so well.

“Based on the information you and your team were able to gather from the flash drive your brother found last September, we were able to further interrogate Gallant about a few things. Until now he’s been totally uncooperative, but his latest appeal just got denied, so he was willing to talk. He gave us some intel and a name to investigate, one already on our radar, in exchange for a reduction in his sentence.”

Charlie kept her face impassive to hide her disgust. Brandon Gallant was a low-level drug trafficker wannabe, and a waste of skin. He was solely responsible for Piper’s ex’s death. Even if Charlie had loathed Greg Rutland for what he’d put Piper through over the last years of their marriage, he’d tried to protect Piper that night and hadn’t deserved to die. “What’s the name?”

“Dean Baker.”

She recognized it as one she’d recovered from the flash drive once she and her team had cracked the encryption on the files and begun to delve through the information on it. Greg had sure dug up a lot of dirt on a lot of dirty people. Too bad that kind of leverage hadn’t gained him any protection. “How is he connected to Gallant?”

“One of his most faithful business clients. On paper, Baker’s totally clean, but he’s a big-time money launderer. We just haven’t been able to find any concrete dirt on him so far. That’s our current problem, even though we have intel suggesting he’s involved with a network of narcos. And that’s also why we called you in for this meeting.” He paused a beat, watching her expectantly, and she was aware of everyone staring at her. “We want you to sign on for a short undercover job for us.”

Surprise flashed through her, but she managed to hide it. “Undercover?” He’d mentioned it to her in passing several weeks ago, that they were working on an undercover op to try and crack a cartel, setting up fake identities in preparation for it. As a civilian analyst, she’d never done anything like that before. Didn’t have the specific training for it and didn’t want it, because she loved her job and had no interest in becoming a field agent.

Her boss nodded. “According to Gallant, Baker is so clean on the surface that we can hunt all we want but won’t find anything to incriminate him. He’s meticulous, has managed to bury all his criminal activity thus far. Gallant says the only way to get what we need is to access the files on his personal laptop, which he keeps with him in a safe wherever he’s staying. Right now, that’s his vacation house in The Hamptons. The laptop is so heavily encrypted that we haven’t been able to hack into it, and he hardly ever has it online.”

Nodding, she filed all that away, more curious about the details of the undercover op than Baker’s computer skills or security. “So you want me to get into his house and steal the files?” Because she had no earthly idea how that was going to work.

“Make a copy of them,” he corrected. “His men will confiscate your phone and sweep you for bugs before you even get through the front door. You’ll have to use the transmitting device the NSA gave us, figure out a way to hide it in an ordinary object that won’t draw suspicion. It can remotely access a computer’s files, copy them, then wirelessly transfer them to a remote terminal. Right?”

Well yeah, in theory. The transmitter was designed to be hidden in plain sight so that field operatives could use it during a sting without risk of detection. “As long as the computer’s on and I can get within three feet of it, and provided I have some kind of wireless connection to send the files out with, then yes, it should work.” Again, theoretically speaking. She hadn’t personally tested it, because why would she, as an analyst?

“Good.” He glanced to his left toward the end of the table before focusing back on her. “I assume you know SSA Brock Hamilton?”

Her brother’s FAST team leader. She aimed a polite smile at the big, early-forty-something man with light brown hair seated next to Easton. “We’ve met briefly a couple of times before, yes.” Hamilton returned the smile and nodded at her, his steel gray eyes warming.

“FAST Bravo is on standby during their training period for the next few months. We’re aware that you’re a civilian, and because of that, SSA Hamilton has given the green light for one of his men to be assigned to the op as personal protection for you. Your brother was the obvious choice but there’s too much of a conflict of interest, so you’ll be working with SA Rodriguez during this assignment instead, since you two already know each other.”

Shock burst in her veins. Work undercover with Jamie? No way. A million arguments sprang to mind, so she blurted out the most obvious one. “But I’m not trained for it.” It was so obvious, but under the circumstances, she felt the need to say it. She glanced at Taylor, and her friend seemed to be holding her breath.

“You don’t need to be if Rodriguez is with you,” her boss went on. “I know you can handle the specifics of the op, and you won’t have a problem adapting to a cover identity once we train you up a little. Besides, given your upbringing, you’re already better trained with a weapon than ninety-five percent of our civilian analysts. SSA Hamilton and I chose Rodriguez specifically because of your history with each other.”

Uh, no you didn’t.Because if they knew the true history between her and Jamie—and not just what happened after the attack last September—they never would have paired them together.

They’d met at a popular nightclub on a warm night last April. A few daiquiris with her girlfriends. Sultry music. Dancing with a tall, sexy stranger who’d caught her eye from across the room. Winding her arms around that sturdy neck, his hard chest and thighs brushing against hers as they swayed together out on the dance floor, her entire body tingling.

They’d danced, teasing each other with the promise of so much more until she’d reached her breaking point and tugged him outside into the back alley. When she’d framed that bristled jaw in her palms and leaned in to kiss him…

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