Page 46 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
Crossing to the stack of undercover clothes she’d arranged in the top drawer of her dresser, she pulled on a green tank top that covered her middle along with a white tennis skirt. No need to amp up the mind-blowing sexual energy between them with a more revealing outfit. She wasn’t a masochist. Telling herself she was going to walk the narrow line she was on the best she could, she reached for her socks and running shoes.
Her phone buzzed on the bedside stand where she had it charging, and she walked over to it. She hoped Buck wasn’t going to pull them. Usually they were the ones who contacted him with updates. She took a breath and picked up her phone, heading into the bathroom. Their communications were always secure, but since Billie was in the house, she closed the door to make sure the sound wouldn’t travel.
“Agent Meadows,” she answered even though she knew it was Buck. One did not pick up and say, “Hi, Buck,” to one’s supervisor.
“The Kellys appear to be trying to flush Tara O’Connor out of hiding,” Buck informed her without greeting. “Obviously they know she’s removed the money because a mysterious fire started in her primary location around seven o’clock this morning when the chairs were packed to the gills with women looking to be pampered before they headed to work.”
“Oh no,” she breathed out.
“Exactly,” he agreed in a clipped tone. “There was a shit show stampede of screaming barefooted women with those girly rubber thingamabobs between their toes, according to the officer I sent to have eyes for us. But it was also on the morning news, which gives me indigestion as I finish my onion bagel. There are reports featuring victims complaining about their manicures being ruined. Can you believe that? I didn’t even know nail salons opened that early or career women cared about shit like that.”
No, Buck wouldn’t understand the desire to look one’s professional best when it involved beauty products. He’d been known to tell new female officers, fresh out of Quantico, if he thought they were wearing “too much makeup,” saying it was the FBI and not a clown house.
“I don’t know what the world is coming to, sir,” she answered deadpan.
“According to early police reports I’m getting from a confidential source, Tara’s second-in-command at the nail salon was freaked out, but she maintained that her boss is on a much-needed vacation after ending her marriage and will be back soon. I’ll tell you, those Southie women don’t scare too hard. This fire screams of arson, and I’m guessing Tara’s people would suspect it.”
“It’s hard to know what she told her staff, sir,” Lily reasoned. “I doubt she would mention the money laundering.”
He grunted. “You might be right. If Tara O’Connor can give both you and Sheila the slip, she’s one smart cookie. Either way—the Kellys are likely to hit back harder if Tara doesn’t appear soon after this initial scare. I don’t want to think where they go from arson. What do you think the odds are of her coming back to Boston like the Kellys want?”
Lily ran it over in her mind. “I’ve read everything I can about Tara and now that I’ve gotten to know her children a little, I’d say she has very protective instincts and is loyal to the people in her circle. She’ll be sick to her stomach about the fire, especially since she knows her husband was the reason for it. She’s going to want to prevent further damage. My bet is she knows there’s only one person she can fully trust.”
“Robbie O’Connor,” her boss surmised. “Any word on them making contact or meeting up?”
There was no way Robbie knew about this yet. If he had, he wouldn’t have come over to discuss his attraction to her this morning. His jaw would have been granite, and he would have been wanting to kick something before hovering close to those two sweet girls.
“Like I said in my report last night, sir, the youngest daughter mentioned wanting her mother to come, but I don’t have anything more right now. We haven’t seen a phone, but we’ve only been in two rooms in the house. I’ve made some further headway with Lieutenant O’Connor since my report, though, and hope to have better access. We have a drink and a walk planned for this evening. Alone. And today I’m teaching the girls to surf—or something of the sort. Our facetime with our subjects is growing stronger by the day. Perhaps he’ll learn of the fire and confide in me.”
Or would he simply cancel their outing? She had to make sure that didn’t happen.
“Too bad you haven’t found a phone. Nothing has popped on our end from his work phone. I tend to agree with you that he likely turned it in to Internal Affairs at the toy store meet. We also have nothing from his brothers’ phones.”
“Robbie would have advised them all to dump them since they’re traceable,” Lily broke in.
“We need something more, Lily.”
Pressing them was his job, so she strove not to be irritated and say,Of course, we know we need a phone, sir.“We’ll expand our efforts today, sir.”
“Good. If you can discover a phone, find out the number. I’ll initiate a warrant for a wiretap. If he has a phone, one would imagine Tara would call him now. We want to have the wiretap in place so we don’t miss any evidence.”
Lily walked to the window where she could see into the house next door—and their subjects. Tim was chasing Cassidy around as she shrieked, clutching Miss Rosie. The little girl was still in her pajamas and had wild bedhead. Reagan, she noted, was lying on the floor reading a book with Miss Purrfect cuddled up to her. None of them suspected they were under surveillance or that their family cat still boasted an FBI tracker on its bedazzled collar. More guilt pricked at her skin.
“Tara will weigh the risks of contact given her children are here, sir, but the arson changes things.” How could it not?
“She trusts Lieutenant O’Connor big-time,” he said flatly. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given him both her kids and the money.”
“Agreed.” She froze when Tim caught her looking as he tossed Cassidy in the air, forcing her to give a cheery wave while her stomach gave a troubled flip-flop. “Sheila and I will make a concerted press on the phone issue. So far, none of the brothers have used one in our presence. I have an idea on how we can push it.”
Photos of the girls learning to surf for their mother. They would see how Robbie handled that innocent request.
“Good. We need a break, Lily. I hate telling my boss how you and Sheila are off in the Outer Banks in a vacation beach rental sipping Sheila’s famous margaritas and getting tans.”
She winced. They were going to get ragged about their tans when they returned to the office. Great. “Sir, I need to go. Lieutenant O’Connor is waiting for me to run with him.”
He sputtered out a rare laugh. “Are you running your usual Olympian speed that hurts a man’s pride or doing a sweet undercover run that makes O’Connor feel like he’s a god?”
Her reputation for speed was well known, and she’d dealt with hurt pride and pissed-off alphas in the Bureau because of it. “I deemed Lieutenant O’Connor would like a challenge. I left him in my dust the first day.”
