Page 13 of Liam (R.I.S.C. Delta Team #5)

I did not see that one coming.

“You got her the IDs,” Liam presumed, his gaze locking with the Seattle detective’s.

Knox nodded. “IDs, passports, burner phones, untraceable cars, airfare… Basically whatever they need to start a new life as someone else.”

“Travis is instrumental in helping get these women someplace safe,” Sloane added. “A new city. New state. Sometimes even a different country. Just somewhere their abusive significant others will never, ever find them.”

“Except mine found me.” Allison’s tone held the slightest of bites.

“And that’s exactly why I was hoping to meet with you both.” Knox looked Liam’s way. “I know what you and your team do. What you’re capable of. And if my research is correct, you’re the team’s tech guy, right?”

He dipped his chin to confirm. “You’ve done your homework.”

“As have you, I’m sure.” The other man didn’t sound remotely offended. “My point is our system is foolproof. Or it was until now.”

“You’re saying this is the first time a woman you’ve helped has been found?”

“Yes.”

“And we’ve been doing this a long damn time.” Sloane arched a pointed brow.

“Who else knows about your little off-books operation?”

“No one that we know of.” She didn’t so much as hesitate in her response.

“Records?”

Sloane motioned to the desk that was several feet behind her. “They’re kept in a secured file on my computer at home.”

“So not here?”

“No.”

He eyed the purse hanging from the knob of the cabinet behind her desk. The computer with the files was inside her home. And what did most people use to gain access to their homes?

Keys.

“Who has access to this room?” Liam asked next, a plausible theory quickly beginning to form.

“Me, Travis, Bruce, and Hank.” Sloane then added a belated, “They’re my two main guards.”

Liam remembered something from their earlier conversation with Bruce. “What about the new guy?” He turned to Allison. “What did Bruce say his name was? Stapleton?”

“That would be Jeff.” Sloane confirmed. “He is the new guard, but he doesn’t have a key to my office.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s new.”

Meaning the man has yet to fully earn the woman’s trust.

“Why give Hank and Bruce a key to your office?”

“In a lot of these cases, time is of the essence,” She explained.

“There could be something vital in the shelter’s records that a client or the cops need.

If I’m not here when I get the call, one of those two gets me whatever it is.

I only live a few blocks from here, but even a few minutes could literally mean the difference between life and death. ”

Makes sense.

Liam turned his attention to Knox. “You said your part in all of this was one of the reasons you needed to discuss this whole thing in person. What’s the other?”

“Like Mrs. Gall…er…Allison…there aren’t many people in this city I trust. The department knows I work off-duty here from time-to-time, so if someone happens to be watching me, then seeing me come and go from the shelter won’t raise any red flags.”

“Why would someone be watching you?”

“Like I said before.” The other man shifted in his seat. “I’ve been trying to nail Tommy Gallo for over two years.”

“And you don’t go after a man like that without raising a few flags of your own.”

“Exactly.” Knox nodded. “And as Allison pointed out, the man has a shit ton of money and connections out the ass. To put things into perspective, I sweep my apartment and electronics for bugs twice a week.”

Now it was all finally starting to make sense.

“When I looked into Gallo, I came across some interesting information. One that really caught my eye was a murder investigation naming you as the lead detective and Tommy Gallo as your number one suspect.”

Allison’s tiny hitch of a breath had him looking her way in time to see her blinking the brief look of surprise from her face. In an instant, it was replaced with an almost defiant expression. As if she were about to defend the very man she, herself, had claimed to be a monster.

“Y-You think Tommy killed someone?” Her throat worked a hard swallow. “Who?”

“One of his so-called business associates,” Knox shared. “A man by the name of Martin Torres.”

Allison’s audible gasp was impossible to miss.

“I take it you knew him?” Liam made the not-so-big leap.

Her nod was jerky, her lips rolling in on themselves. “Marty worked closely with Tommy.”

“Doing what?”

She gave a stilted shrug of one shoulder.

“I never really knew.” She chuckled humorlessly.

“Of course, all I ever knew about Tommy’s work was that he’d taken over his family’s construction business.

So it made sense when he was always taking private phone calls, away for client meetings, or off putting out fires at some job site.

It wasn’t until later I realized he was involved in a lot more than construction.

I still never knew for sure what, but?—”

“You have an idea.”

It was Knox who’d spoken, but he’d parroted Liam’s thoughts. From the get-go, he’d felt as though there was something Allison wasn’t saying. A secret she was keeping close to the vest. Was this it? Did she know specifics about the kind of shitstorm Tommy was involved in?

“I have m suspicions.” Her gaze found his before skittering back to the detective’s. “I’m assuming you’re going to tell me my husband is involved in some level of organized crime.”

“And why is that?”

“Because it’s the only thing I can think of that could explain the influx of money in recent years despite his business taking a slight decline in profit. It would also explain the shady-looking people I saw Tommy interact with at times, and the odd, late-night hours he suddenly began to keep.”

Liam grinned. The woman wasn’t just smart. She was also very observant. But one thing he wasn’t clear on was how she knew so much about the money.

“You said Gallo controlled the bank accounts and the money,” he recalled.

“You want to know how I was able to see the company finances.” Allison’s lips curved into a ghost of a smile.

“Tommy had just gotten home from one of his trips, and I was putting his things away and doing laundry while he showered. I picked up his briefcase to move it into his office but didn’t realize the clasps weren’t fully secured.

It fell open, and the contents spilled out onto the floor.

One of the stapled group of papers was the previous three years’ financial reports.

The graph was right there on the first page, and I’m no accountant, but it was pretty clear to me that we were losing money. ”

Giving them more, Knox went on to say, “That’s actually one of the things that tipped us off to him being dirty after Torres’s body was discovered.

My team was looking into the murder when we came across evidence that Torres was in bed with the Russian mob.

A local group that’s known in the area.” The other man met Liam’s stare.

“Not the type of guys you want to mess with.”

Understood.

Allison cleared her throat. “What, um…what makes you think Tommy killed Marty?”

“Sorry.” A quick shake of his head. “I get that we’re all about sharing, here, but there are still some things I can’t divulge when it comes to an ongoing investigation.”

“Right. Of course.”

Liam watched her closely, part of him feeling such sorrow for a woman he barely even knew. But as he sat there, he realized he was also was proud as hell.

Allison had risked everything—fucking everything —to get her and her daughter out of their own personal, terrifying prison. Time and again, she did what she had to so she and Maddie would be safe.

So yeah, he was proud of her. Who wouldn’t be?

But there was something else gnawing at him. A feeling he couldn’t quite name. And the longer Liam took in the tension in her beautiful profile, the stronger that feeling became.

You know what it is. You just don’t want to admit it.

Liam’s hands curled into fists as they lay resting in his lap. The voice in his head was right, and damn if that didn’t hurt. Because Liam was pretty certain Allison knew more about her husband’s illegal dealings than she was letting on.

So why lie and pretend as though she didn’t?

He’d wait to ask her that question until later, once they were alone. For now…

“Okay, look.” Knox spoke up again. “From what I’ve been told, internal affairs is running their own investigation.

They know there’s a major problem with guys on the force being on the take.

So they’ve been running an off-the-grid investigation for the past several months, trying to get as much evidence as they can on as many corrupt cops as they can.

Especially those they suspect of having possible ties to organized crime. ”

“I’m glad they’re finally looking into that,” Allison commented. “But what does that have to do with me and the trouble I’m having with Tommy?”

“The investigation into Torres’s death is a small piece of it all. But if we can somehow connect Gallo to the crime, then we can use that to try and turn him.”

“Turn him?”

“He’s saying they can offer Tommy a deal on the charge of murder if he agrees to give up the names of the guys above him.”

“We start there and just keep moving up to the next man on the ladder.” Knox nodded. “Eventually, we’ll reach the man at the top, which will bring the entire organization to its knees.”

Allison grew quiet as she processed all they’d heard. A moment later, she took a deep, cleansing breath before paraphrasing everything Knox had shared.

“So let me get this straight,” she began.

“You guys are looking at Tommy for Marty’s murder, and you also think he’s connected to the mob, but you can’t prove any of it.

” A short pause ensued. “I mean, given who my husband is, that’s not all that surprising, but I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with keeping him from coming after me or my daughter. ”