Page 5 of Justice for Francesca

“Good. I didn’t think there would be. Not only that,” the special agent in charge continued, “but the case has mafia connections.”

“Every agent has worked at least one mafia case. They’re the FBI’s version of a cheeseburger in American culture, which makes it even less of an argument to send me there.”

There was another pause. Another throat clearing. “The victim is Mila Sequeira. The Sequeira principessa.”

Damn. She just got done dealing with the Sequeiras in Dallas. Why the hell not deal with them in San Antonio too?

Her eyes darted to her laptop sitting on the desk in her bedroom as it ran some private searches she was following up on. Technically, her role in the case was done. However, she’d been barely a month into it when she’d stumbled upon something that turned her blood cold. Since then, she’d been carefully poking around in aspects of the case that weren’t technically part of the investigation. She knew she should report what she had found and let it go, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to divulge what she’d stumbled upon. Not yet. She needed to make sure she was right.

Refocusing on her boss, she grabbed a second towel and began to squeeze the excess water out of her hair. “You think my previous case and this case are connected?”

“It would be awfully coincidental if they weren’t, given the circumstances.”

Francesca grasped at the first thing she could think of. “What about my cover? Unless I go into this new situation undercover, my identity in the Sequeiras’ organization will be blown wide open. I’ll never be able to work another case on them. Not only that, if they discover me working the case as myself, it will send them into protection mode. They’ll know the FBI is looking into them, and it could undo all the groundwork we’ve laid for future arrests.”

“What mafia family doesn’t realize they’re being watched by the FBI at all times? No, you’re going to San Antonio. Everyone else familiar with the Sequeiras is already in Dallas.”

Closing her eyes, Francesca took a measured breath, then opened her eyes to stare at her reflection in the mirror. Her last attempt at getting out of this assignment was going to be a risk.“Boss, I really feel I would be a detriment to any case at this point. I’ve just come out from seven months undercover with the Sequeira family. I’m exhausted. I’m liable to make mistakes if I’m not thinking clearly.”

“Frankie.” Ortiz’s voice became stern. “I realize this, but it needs to be you.”

The hairs on Francesca’s arms rose. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Ortiz detonated the bomb. “You know the owner of the club, so that’s the reason you’ve been assigned.”

Her breath caught. The blond Adonis in the suit flashed across her brain before she could prevent it. This could not be happening. “Which club am I headed to?”

Over the phone, there was more shuffling of papers in the background. Another throat clearing occurred. “A place called Elysium. Right in the center of the city.”

She watched her skin pale in the mirror. Why did the universe hate her so much? She tried to be a good person. She paid her taxes. She recycled. She helped elderly people at the grocery store. Life just sucked.

Now she was scrambling to avoid this new case. “Ma’am, I’m officially recommending that I not be assigned to this case. My past association with Tripoli Evans could be considered a conflict of interest.”

Her boss’ voice went low and cold. “Why? You’re not going undercover this time, Frankie. He was one of your primary connections and sources of information while at The Library. That preestablished contact could make things go much smoother.” Her boss was silent and then asked, “Is there actually a conflict of interest? Were you involved personally with the man beyond what was in your report?”

“No, it’s not that. I never participated in any activities at the club with Mr. Evans… or anyone else, for that matter,” sherushed to explain. “I simply observed the club under the guise of a patron. At best, we were… acquaintances.”

That word left a bad taste in her mouth. They’d been more than acquaintances. Friends? Certainly not more than that. She wasn’t so much of a hypocrite that she hadn’t wondered what it would have been like to give in to the attraction she had felt for him, and she also wasn’t blind to the fact that he gave his attention almost exclusively to her at every opportunity while at the club. However, she’d been hiding out as Fleur, a new submissive at The Library, while she searched for five missing women believed to have been taken while they were at the exclusive kink club. Not once had he tried to contact her outside of the times they’d both been at the club, and she would not have followed through on that type of contact unless she’d felt he was a viable suspect for the kidnappings.

Well, except for texting him when she got home from the club each night. He’d insisted, saying he needed to make sure she got there safe. Then he’d reply with “Sleep well,” and that was it.

When she took on the undercover assignment at The Library, she’d cleared Tripoli of suspicion first, and she refused to acknowledge why that had been her top priority. But because of what she knew from her previous interactions with him during that case, she felt a need to defend the man. “There’s no way that man murdered someone. He’s a former Navy medic. Totally upstanding. I just think it would be unwise to put us in close proximity again due to knowing one another from the previous case.”

“As long as you didn’t have a physical relationship with the man, I see no reason why you can’t be assigned to the case.” The cold tone was back in her boss’ voice.

Yup. Totally going to rewrite the handbook when she got back to work.Thou Shalt Not Work with the Same Hot Man on More Than One Case.

Francesca swallowed and forced out, “Yes, ma’am.”

She wasn’t getting out of this. Her boss was normally movable when it came to assignments for fear that even the slightest link between an agent and people being investigated would cause cases to get thrown out of court on a technicality. She was also a big proponent of decompressing after undercover assignments and had actually blocked Francesca from volunteering for several cases in the past because it was “too soon” to go back undercover. Not because she actually liked her but because Ortiz cared about resolution percentages. If an agent was compromised, success rates might still go up, but results took longer.

Again, she felt a compulsion to correct her boss’ misconception. “For the record, Elysium isn’t the same as The Library. It’s a performance artist club. Like a small-scale circus with vaudeville mixed in and a bar attached.”

Yeah, she wasn’t going to ponder why she knew so much about Elysium either, despite never having been there.

“Are there naked people in this ‘performance artist club’?”

“There is some nudity from the performers, yes, ma’am, but not the patrons.”

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