Page 5 of Still Burning

“Ms. Newbury,” Liam said. “I’m Liam Walsh. We spoke on the phone.”

The woman smirked. “I know who you are and that Rome—aka Tex—Bower is the man behind you, scowling at me. Is it the glasses? Not everyone likes the bright color.”

Liam glanced back at me with an amused gleam in his eye. “Tex, this is Marlana Newbury. The DEA agent who was working undercover at the art gallery with Salem.”

“I know who she is. We’ve met. Before I knew she was undercover,” I told him.

How had Liam gotten her to meet us to tell us anything? She was fucking DEA. She didn’t have to tell us shit. But she could clear Salem’s name…or she could tell us something that would have me taking Salem and running.

“She is absolutely nothing like I expected her to be either. It was a relief. Rarely do I like the people I have to work with when undercover. I think I’ll make myself a dirty martini.” The woman then walked over toward the bar. “I’d offer to make you one, but I have issues serving a man. How is Salem doing? Since Tex is here, I am assuming things have changed with the two of you.”

She jumped from one topic to the next so quickly that it was hard to keep up.

“They have,” I replied. “She’s handling things okay, given the circumstances.”

The woman took a bottle of Tito’s from the shelf. “She is tough, but she doesn’t seem to think she is. That was an oddity I couldn’t figure out. That, and she’s completely oblivious to the attention she gets from men. As if she doesn’t even notice them.” She turned back around with the bottle and a glass. “Except you. She noticed you.”

I didn’t respond.

The woman had done her research on Salem. She’d probably known every detail of her life before Salem even came in for the interview at the art gallery. Our past would have come up in her research. My mom had been Salem’s legal guardian from the age of fifteen through eighteen. That had to have been in the records.

When I said nothing, Liam cleared his throat and made his way over to the bar. “Yeah, seems Tex and Salem have a history. One that happened before her marriage.”

Marlana let out a short laugh. “That’s one way of putting it,” she replied while continuing to mix her cocktail. “But her past with Tex wasn’t of any concern to us, although your interactions that I was lucky enough to witness were a nice break from the reality of my job. It was like watching a live-action TV drama. If only Rí had stuck around on earth long enough to see the moment the two of you reconnected,” she said, pouring the contents of the shaker into a glass.

“I don’t like bloodshed, but I won’t lie—I’d love to see the Mafia of the South and the Irish drug cartel face off. It would be one hell of a show. How is it? Being connected with them? I mean, Blaise Hughes andthe family, I believe they call it. Must be a power rush. Heck, we can’t even touch them. The last lead we had that led us to Garrett Hughes’s door was shut down within twenty-four hours.” She sighed. “It was a good one too. But when the administrator calls and tells you to kill the lead and erase all evidence because the president ordered it, you don’t really have a choice.”

Garrett Hughes had contacts that went all the way to the president of the United States? Fucking hell. I had known they had power, but Jesus. I hadn’t known it was that kind of pull. I’d always wondered how Garrett and now Blaise his son who had taken over, pulled off the shit they did and never dealt with blowback.

Wait…she’d said the Irish drug cartel. Liam had said that Blaise didn’t think the DEA knew about them. That the CIA were the ones who had that information.

I turned to look at Liam and saw he was frowning. He’d caught that too.

“Stop with the scary biker-scowl thing,” Marlana said with a wave of her hand. “What? Did you think we weren’t aware that Eamon Murphy was smuggling cocaine and hash from Morocco into Ireland?” She lifted her eyebrows slightly. “We might have nothing on his family in the US yet, but we are aware of all the ports and suppliers. Until we can link them directly to a source here in the states the CIA can deal with them. Not our problem.

“Can we circle back to the fact that your son-in-law’s father is a pain in my ass? I had spent countless hours on that lead, only to have it shut down the second it came close to the Hughes name. I hoped with Blaise in charge, it would be easier to crack, but alas, Daddy Hughes trained up his son well.”

“I believe that has more to do with one of the members of the family in Mississippi than it does with Blaise Hughes,” Liam replied.

I glanced over at him. What did he know about the family’s inner workings? Sure, his daughter was married to the boss, but she wouldn’t share shit like that with him. Would she? Or maybe Blaise did. Liam had never once mentioned knowing anything about their ring of power and how far it reached.

“Ah, yes,” Marlana said, then took a drink from her glass before setting it on the bar. “The lovely, charming Opal Carver. Smart,lethal, and beautiful. I like her, but she’s bested me more than once. Sending her to DC so she could maneuver herself all the way into the White House, brilliant.”

Liam smirked. “I’ve never met her personally, but her older brother isn’t someone you want to cross.”

Marlana let out a sour chuckle. “Ransom. God, don’t get me started on that one. Sneaky son of a bitch hides all kinds of shit behind that distillery they own.” She rolled her eyes and took another drink.

“Anyway, back on topic. You had Hughes contact me to meet with you about questions you have regarding Salem. I’m here. What is it you want to know?”

Liam pulled out a stool, then sat down and rested his elbows on the bar. “Let’s start with how she ended up in Miami and at that particular art gallery with you.”

Marlana took another drink and looked from Liam to me over the rim of her glass. I didn’t feel relaxed enough to sit down, even when Liam nodded to the stool beside him. If Marlana was standing, then so was I.

Once she set the glass back down, she pointed at herself. “That was all me. I saw a distraction for Kendrix and a way for me to check out Eamon Murphy’s widow. See what she knew. How connected she was. Kill two birds with one stone,” she informed us and beamed a smile at me as if I was going to praise her. “I see you don’t understand the detailed footwork it took to pull that off. Clearly not impressed.”

“You put Salem in harm’s way,” I replied in a clipped tone, annoyed by her acting as if this were all one big play she had written.

“She was put in your path again,” she pointed out with exasperation, then looked back at Liam. “You see, I had a plant working at the same gallery as her in Boston to simply keep an eye on things after Rí’s death to see how involved his wife wasin the goings-on of his business, and I was informed she was looking into moving. Had talked about resigning her current position and looking elsewhere. So, I had them mention this job opening to her and talk about how they’d love to live in Miami, et cetera. She took the bait rather easily.”

---