Page 83 of Taking Care of the Target

On their way to the Hurst’s, Deanne chatted about Trevor, one of the other servers she had a crush on. “What about you? You always stay quiet when me or the other girls talk about guys. Ooh, what about Owen?”

“Like, Maude’s-grandson-and-our-manager Owen?”

“That doesn’t make him any less cute. He’s studying to be a vet, you know. What’s cuter than a guy who wants to save animals?”

Yes, when Cassie thought about it objectively, she supposed Owen, with his sandy-colored messy curls, blue eyes, and desire to save animals, was cute, if a little on the scrawny side. Since arriving in Oklahoma, she’d really only looked at every guy as not-Vince. Speaking of, it’d been almost twenty-four hours since she checked the Trenton news. Upon her arrival here, she’d chosen the cheapest used phone with internet access she could get, and for the first few days, she refreshed the Trenton newspapers once an hour, as if the news would magically change during the day.

Not seeing the story she wanted made her moody on top of her usual moodiness, so she only allowed herself to do it once a day. When they returned home from dinner, she’d do her daily search. She realized it took time to build a case, but she wanted to see Carlo Rossi’s name in print with the words “charged with” or “arrested” or whatever it took to make Vince safer.

“All I’m saying is, I think he likes you,” Deanne said. “He was staring at you yesterday at work.”

Cassie turned to Deanne, trying to connect the dots. What had they been talking about?Oh, right. Owen.“I just got out of a relationship, so I’m not really looking.”

“Hello? That definitely calls for a rebound.”

“With Maude’s grandson who we work with? That’s who you think I should rebound with?”

Two creases formed between Deanne’s eyebrows. “Good point. Okay, we’ll find you a rebound, and then after you get done withthat guy, you can go for Owen.”

Cassie shook her head. The girl wasn’t very good at being steered away from an idea once she set her mind on it. It was how they ended up living together. Cassie mentioned she was staying in a motel, Deanne said she was looking for a roommate, and within two days, they were roomies.

They pulled up to Maude’s and Harold’s, and Cassie ran her thumb across the phone in her pocket. Would looking at the newspapers a few hours early be so bad?

“Are you coming or what?” Deanne asked, and Cassie reluctantly released her phone.

Fine, I’ll wait a few more hours like I’m supposed to. But when I look at you, news, you better be good.

***

The bar in New Brunswick looked like any other dive bar. Dim lighting, cluttered, undusted pictures on the wall, and a few lonely people who’d probably been sitting at the bar since it opened. To top off the abandon-all-hope vibe, a sad garbled song played through the ancient speakers.

Vince had made sure he wasn’t tailed. With most of Carlo’s men arrested, the odds were in his favor, but he didn’t believe in “too careful,” especially with everything at stake right now. The feds even took him in during the raid to help keep suspicion off of him, since he refused to jump into the witness protection program. He needed to be close so he knew what was happening. Needed to think about Bobby. A few of the other guys made bail already, but with the police watching and Carlo behind bars, everyone was on their best, most pretend-to-be-law-abiding behavior.

New Brunswick was middle ground between Trenton and FBI headquarters, and McVee and Mancini insisted they had something they needed to talk to him about.

He noticed the two feds sitting in the back corner and slid into the booth, glad for the high walls that added privacy—the last thing he needed was someone seeing him with these two. Sometimes it felt like they weretryingto get him killed. “What was so important it was worth risking a meet right now?”

McVee pulled out a laptop. “We just had a couple of follow-up questions about Cassandra Dalton, and as a courtesy, we decided to meet here instead of the station.”

Vince crossed his arms and sat back. “Afraid you boys are wasting your time. I told you everything already. If you’d like me to tell you again at the station, we can do that song and dance.”

“It’s just that we got a call from a cop in Frederick, Maryland. After Cassandra went missing, we put out an APB on you and her.”

Bored expression in place, Vince continued to look across the table, but his gut churned with worry.Tell me you did a good job of getting lost, Cassie. Otherwise we’re both gonna be screwed.

Carlo’s boys were behaving for the moment, but they had plenty of contacts who’d have no problem carrying out a hit.

“We’re a bit confused by this video we got…” McVee spun the laptop screen around. A grainy image of himself and Cassie greeted Vince. The agent pushed play and Vince watched their power struggle in the bus station. There was no volume, but anyone could see they were arguing.

Then he watched himself kiss her goodbye.

Longing rose up and wound thread after thread around his heart, a slicing reminder of what he’d lost that day.

McVee paused it so the image could sit there and torture him, and said, “It would appear that Miss Dalton didn’t die from a gunshot wound.”

“Huh,” Vince said.

Both agents frowned at him. They could frown all they wanted. What were they going to do? Arrest their star witness?

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