Page 6 of Sizzling Nights

She felt for the note she'd had in her pocket and realized she hadn't gotten it back from Marco. He dropped it on the table in between them. "No. And I'm mad at myself for not waiting around a bit longer. I may have seen who did it."

Her heart beat faster. "They're dangerous."

"Who are they?"

She swallowed again and took a deep breath. "The Celtic Crime Family. I wrote an exposé on them last year. I'd spent an entire year gathering data and intel. I followed employees. I found some of the wives and followed them. I knew they were laundering money for government agencies that had gone to the dark side. I get so mad when the government won't help people who actually need it, because of corruption. My tax dollars...your tax dollars...that's not supposed to be used for their personal gain. But they were doing it. Celtic was instrumental in getting several congressmen installed in their positions. I followed the money trail. I traced some of it back to the President of the United States. Money was moved and laundered through shell companies. They used laundromats, restaurants, bars, commercial real estate and apartment buildings. I followed some of the residents of the apartments. On the books, the apartments are rented for three thousand a month. One of the residents worked at a fast-food restaurant. No way he made that kind of money. I watched him. Chatted him up. Got his trust. He told me he only paid five hundred dollars a month for the great apartment."

Marco's jaw twitched. But he waited. Apparently waiting was his forte.

"I asked if they had any openings and he said he'd ask. Then he stopped working at that place. When I went to his apartment, I found he'd moved out."

Her fingers shook again. "I don't know what happened to him. I've worried about it since then."

"It wasn't your fault, whatever happened to him."

"But I was a fake. I pretended to need an apartment and to be his friend."

"That's what investigative reporting is sometimes."

She took a deep breath. "I know. I've just felt terrible, because he didn't deserve for anything bad to happen to him."

"You don't know that it did."

She swallowed. "Yeah. So, anyway. I wrote my story, and it exposed a lot of dirt in the government, but it also exposed the Celtic Crime Syndicate. I named names. Within hours of the story breaking, I was threatened. My apartment was broken into while I was at work. My car was keyed. My boss told me to get out of town and lay low until she felt it was safe to come back. She helped me get out of the building and she sent someone to my place with me to help pack my things."

"How would you decide it was safe?"

"No threats. No phone calls."

Marco nodded. "Now the peace you've found here is shattered."

"They've found me."

"But haven't tried to harm you."

"Not yet. Which is strange. But I think they know I have more dirt on them and they want it before they harm me."

Marco leaned forward. "Do you?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat. Her fingers shook again. She tried to speak but her voice wouldn't come. She merely nodded.

5

Marco's jaw tightened. Fucking corrupt government officials. The whole lot of them were corrupt. The whole lot of them should be shown to the first jail cell, and the key thrown away. But when it went that high, it meant they had protection. Too much protection.

"Did you change your name?"

"No."

His lips tightened as he stared into her eyes. "Why not?"

"It's my name. I'm not going to let them take my name away from me. They've taken everything else."

He nodded. Couldn't blame her for that. "But you need to protect yourself."

"I've gone off the grid. I don't use debit cards, credit cards, or anything electronic. Everything is cash only. Even my lease is in my mother's name, though they could find that out. She's been dead for about five years, so they can't hurt her."

"You have a cell phone."

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