Page 5 of Fast Justice

The empty sensation inside her expanded. Rowan sighed, berating herself. She had no cause to feel abandoned. She’d let him go a year ago. He wasn’t hers.

But watching him walk away right now, she couldn’t deny that a part of her wished he still was.

Chapter Two

Rowan finally arrived at work almost three hours late. She tossed her briefcase onto the counter that ran along the back wall of her office, and turned to confront the current state of her desk. Her beautiful, antique mahogany desk that dated back to before the Civil War. A present from her parents when she’d passed the bar exam, and she loved it so much she’d moved it here so she could use it every day, instead of keeping it in her home office.

At the moment, every inch of it was piled high with folders and legal boxes for her to go through, and there were more stacked on the floor beside it. She had to be done with all of it by Friday night, and all of it had to wait until she was done interviewing the next batch of witnesses for the Ruiz case.

She rolled her head back and forth to ease the stiffness in her neck. A dull headache pounded in her temples and the base of her skull. The medics had deemed her well enough to skip the hospital and go to work, but warned her she would be sore for a few days. If she was this sore already, she dreaded what tomorrow morning would feel like.

At a sharp knock on her door, she looked up to find her boss, Val, standing there in a charcoal-gray business suit. He was in his early fifties, his thick, light brown hair graying around the temples. “Heard you just got in. You okay?” he asked, running a concerned eye over her.

“Yeah, I’m good. Are you finished with the first set of interviews?”

“No, just took a quick break because Commander Taggart had to take an important call. You ready now, or do you need a few minutes?”

“I’m ready.” She grabbed her laptop, files, and purse and trailed after him down the hall to the conference room. Their first step was to gather evidence and interview witnesses pertaining to the case, including victims. The defendant’s counsel had also hinted that they might be open to considering a plea arrangement, so she and her boss were also working on a possible offer.

Supervisory Special Agent Taggart, commander of FAST Bravo, stood at the far end of the hallway speaking on his cell phone to someone. He gave her a nod of acknowledgment, then looked away as he continued his conversation.

In the waiting area outside the conference room, two more members of FAST Bravo waited, including the team leader. They nodded at her, smiled politely and she did the same, their presence making her heart speed up. If they were still here, then was Malcolm as well?

The moment Val opened the conference room door, Rowan got her answer, her eyes immediately connecting with Malcolm’s. He was seated on the far side of the long table, his big frame taking up the entire chair.

“Hi,” she said, taking her seat across from him and setting her things down, trying to ignore the way her heart fluttered. This was the second business meeting she’d had with him over the past couple of weeks, and it felt every bit as strange and stilted as the first time. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Not a problem,” he answered. “You get everything sorted out?”

“Yes.” Her boss didn’t know she and Malcolm had dated a year ago, and she didn’t want him to. Their past relationship didn’t affect this case whatsoever. At least here in her work environment she had other things to focus on besides the magnetic man across the table, and the undeniable pull he still exerted on her. Work had always helped her center herself, push all her personal problems into the background.

“Go ahead and pick up where you left off. I’ll catch up as we go.” Not wanting to take up any more of Malcolm’s time than necessary, she opened her file, then glanced at the papers in front of Val to orient herself.

“We were just going over Agent Freeman’s recollection of the night FAST Bravo rescued Victoria Gomez,” her boss said, pointing to a section on the page so she could read over it.

Rowan nodded and continued skimming the report. Miss Gomez was a former investigative reporter who had been kidnapped and brutalized by Carlos Ruiz’s men for several weeks. The woman had been subjected to horrific things that made Rowan’s skin crawl, and she had a huge amount of respect for Miss Gomez’s strength.

The cartel had intended to punish her for exposing Ruiz and his network in an article published in the New York Times. She’d been working on a book about her findings when Ruiz had targeted her. His men had slaughtered her family in front of her, abducted her, used her in horrific ways with the intention of selling her into sexual slavery in Asia when they’d had their fill.

Thankfully Malcolm and his teammates had gotten there first. Now Miss Gomez was the government’s star witness against Ruiz. Rowan and Val had already interviewed her several times. Miss Gomez had volunteered to enter the WITSEC program, for her own protection, and was currently at their orientation center somewhere here in D.C. After she testified and the trial was over, Miss Gomez would begin a new life under a new name somewhere else, and hopefully find a sense of peace and security.

“Okay,” Rowan said as she finished skimming the notes, delaying the moment when she had to look up at Malcolm again. “Please continue.” The more members who corroborated the details of her rescue, the stronger the testimony would be.

“Special Agent Freeman wasn’t in the forest when Miss Gomez was discovered,” Val told her. “Tell us your recollection of what happened after she was found,” he said to Malcolm.

“I was still at the house we’d raided, about seventy or so yards from where she was found in the woods. My team leader and a couple other guys got her into an ambulance and came back to the house. Hamilton rode in the ambulance with her to the hospital and I met him there after we had secured the prisoners and remaining female hostages, and finished processing the scene.”

“Describe the moment when you first met Miss Gomez.”

Malcolm’s steady dark gaze slid from Val to Rowan for a moment before he answered. “She was in the back of the ambulance, wrapped up in a blanket Hamilton had found for her.”

The team members had found her naked in the woods, with—

“She had a rusted old collar and chain hanging from around her neck.”

Because those animals had chained Miss Gomez to the fucking floor in a shed out back of the property so no one could hear her scream when they took turns with her.

Rowan’s stomach clenched at the mental image but Val nodded and scribbled down something on his pad of paper. “Did you speak to Miss Gomez at the hospital later?”

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