Page 18

Boston …

“Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Mr. Blue’s plan,” Sloane Vessers posed, “who, exactly, are we targeting?”

It was a good question from the very dedicated agent who’d just recently become Henry “Perk” Perkin’s wife.

Missy glanced at a sullen Chuck, seeing if he would answer, but when he simply glowered, Missy ignored him and regarded the other twelve people sitting around the table: DAAG Cavateral, Director Baskins, Agents Tertia and Vessers, six full-time SOS operatives, and two Devons’ brothers who were part time, but who would also be essential to the op.

Cobble had begged to be there, but out of an abundance of caution—and much to his displeasure—everyone had agreed he needed to remain hidden at the bungalow Tuck Devons had provided until everything for their sting was in place.

Missy, because Smalley remained silent, answered. “At the DOJ, we’ve narrowed our possible suspects down to two investigators; Special Agent Beranger, and Special Agent Oliphant. At the FBI office, we have three feasible culprits: Agent Englewood, Agent Georgio, and Agent Fleischerman. Although I know that you, sir,” she nodded toward Director Baskins, “don’t believe Englewood should be on the naughty list.”

“You’re right. He’s been with me for too long. We practically started out together,” Baskins lamented. “Which doesn’t justify my opinion, but I’m going to be really sorry if it turns out to be him.”

Missy gave him a sympathetic nod, but went on to explain why she, Baskins, Smalley and Tertia had boiled things down to just these few bad eggs.

“In the beginning, we were looking at over twenty people in each of the FBI and CIA offices as possible suspects. There was also one in the CIA, but that was resolved, of course, when I caught the actual culprit with El-Umar.” She didn’t have to mention how that had turned out, with the agent, dead.

“We eliminated nearly half the possibilities on the DOJ and the FBI’s rosters during the first five years of the op by checking into their personal lives, money situations, and allegiances. Because of those and numerous other variables, they were cleared. We were then left with a baker’s dozen.

“As more time passed—and we all know how long the ensuing years have seemed—many of the agents remaining were either transferred, retired out, or simply changed vocations. We checked in on them occasionally after they left, and not one has gone on to do anything remotely suspicious, so we crossed them off the list.

“Which leaves us with the five I mentioned. And the reasons they are all still under scrutiny?” Missy looked around, catching each person’s eye. “Every one of them seems to be living above their pay-grade, and I’m not talking chump-change here. They have lavish homes, cars, and habits. They also have travel histories that can’t be accounted for several times a year over the duration of the span we’ve been watching. And by unaccounted for, I mean they’ve either driven without leaving a trail, flown off the record using aliases, or simply disappeared for periods of time to God knows where.”

“Could they all be complicit?” Del asked astutely.

“Perhaps. Which is why, until this point, we’ve hesitated to move forward. We knew when we took out the CIA officer, if we arrested El-Umar and brought Cobble out of hiding to testify, another person or persons might step up to eliminate the threat.”

Yeah. She still wasn’t going to say “murder Cobble”.

Call her superstitious, but those words would never pass over her tongue.

“We already know all this, Agent Andriopolos,” Smalley growled.

Ooh. He was really angry. He never called her anything but Missy.

“Get to the point,” he snapped.

Seriously ? He thought she was going to take that from him? How about she—?

“Uh, not to be a pain, Agent Smalley,” Prez spoke out, cutting off the tirade she’d been conjuring. He smirked directly at Chuck. “You agency people might know all this stuff already, but SOS is only now being brought up to speed. So please, if you will, let the lady talk.” His amusement chilled as his attitude became lethal, almost daring Chuck to speak again.

“Yes. Stand down Agent Smalley,” Baskins put in, circumventing a possible fight. “Or rather…” Baskins paused, regarding Chuck closely before glancing around the table. “You know what? We’re all friends here, and this mission is off the books, so let me be blunt. Cut the shit, Chuck. I don’t know what stick you have up your ass, but we’re all here trying to help.”

Smalley’s eyes grew angrily narrowed before he sprang to his feet. “Help? Is that what you call this? Because from where I stand, it looks like we’re flushing fourteen years’ worth of work down the toilet. We’ve kept Sawyer safe all this time. Now we’re just going to throw him to the wolves?”

“Sit,” Baskins barked. “We’re not throwing anyone, anywhere. We’re only here to listen to a plan right now. A plan we won’t act on it until everyone agrees we have an air-tight way to move forward.”

Smalley slowly lowered back to his chair, but clearly he wasn’t happy.

“Okay,” Del spoke up patiently. “So now that we all have some background on our suspects, tell us what resolution you’ve come up with, Mizzay.”

This was it. Do or die.

Missy understood that if her pitch didn’t go well, Cobble would be told to go back into hiding. Indefinitely. Which he absolutely would not do. If these best-of-the-best here today couldn’t come to a consensus, Cobble would go rogue.

Of that, Missy had no doubt.

She took a deep breath.

“First of all,” Missy spread her fingers on the table, fanning them out to ground herself, “we need a fall guy among the FBI ranks.” She looked at Baskins, Smalley, Tertia, and Vessers. “We’ve purposely left the DOJ out of things for the past few years, keeping them completely in the dark about who, here, is still investigating, hoping someone would become complacent and make a mistake. They haven’t, but don’t youze worry. What I’m proposing will hopefully remedy that.”

“Howevah,” she took a deep breath, “a number of people currently working in the Boston FBI office now know the investigation has never been completely dropped; that it’s been percolating on the back burner. Therefore, I propose we bring it to a boil again, front and center, making an arrest to set in motion the rest of our plan. We need the arrest to look believable, and once we have our fake ‘traitor’ in custody, we can start our subsequent balls rolling.”

Baskins sat back with a smile on his face. “I think I like where this is going,” he praised, bringing his palms together in front of him, almost as if in prayer.

Missy risked a glance at Chuck, but he was still sullen.

Fine , if that’s the way he wanted to play it.

“I’ll volunteer,” Agent Vessers threw out, raising her hand. “I’ll be your scapegoat.”

It was a nice offer, but not only did Perk’s face grow red as his new wife volunteered— looking like he was going to explode any minute—but Vessers wasn’t the right person.

“Thank you for your offer, Sloane.” Missy adored the eager woman, and was sorry she didn’t fit the bill. “But you haven’t been with the Bureau long enough. This all started fourteen ye-az ago, and youze have only got ten under your belt.”

“Then I’ll do it,” Agent Elody Tertia rose to her feet. “I’ve been around for the entire time, and I’m not exactly buddy-buddy with the three agents here whom you’ve targeted. That means they won’t know if it’s out of character for me to be implicated.”

“No!” Chuck exploded out of the blue, his chin actually quivering as he spoke to Elody. “I’m not having you put your career on the line for this.”

Ahh. Here it was.

Missy and her colleagues had been speculating—ever since Tertia and Smalley had pretended to be Perk’s parents in a previous case—that there might be something going on between the pair.

Chuck’s attitude confirmed it.

“Don’t go there, Chuck,” Elody cautioned, narrowing her eyes at him. “ I decide what I will and will not do. Not you.” She was clearly winding up to deliver yet another hardball. “And seriously? It’s about time you stop thinking about everything in terms of how it affects you .”

“What are you talking about,” he growled.

Tertia didn’t back down. “In your quest to keep your cousin safe, have you ever once considered how miserable his life has been?”

“Wh… I…” Chuck somehow, was reduced to splutters. Maybe this was the first time Tertia had laid down the law with him.

It was awesome to watch.

“He…hasn’t been unhappy,” Chuck defended. “He finds work, he makes friends, and he’s furthered his education.” Smalley’s mouth turned sour. “I even looked the other way when I finally found out that he and Missy decided to get cozy.”

Yeah. No. He’d been butt-sore that they’d kept it from him for so long. Missy snorted at his assertion. If by looking the other way, he meant having a bloody fit before affecting what amounted to a years’ long pout, then yes, he had eventually acquiesced to their decision.

Elody, now that she’d plunged into things, wasn’t backing down. “Oh really? You want to cite the jobs he loved and the people he met? Well, fine. He’s had to leave every single one of them. Not once, not twice, but…” She quirked a brow at Missy.

“Eight times,” she supplied adroitly.

“Eight times, Chuck. Eight.” Elody hammered the point home. “In fourteen years. That’s a lot of ‘leaving behind’. And the classes he took? Great,” she scoffed. “But where did that get him? He’s had to use fake identification to earn his degrees and certifications, so it’s not as if he can actually utilize his education.”

She then cranked up for the final punch. “And don’t you dare talk about Cobble and Missy’s relationship and the fact that they kept it hidden for a period of time. What have we been doing, Chuck, if not close to that very same thing?” She pounded a fist on her chest in frustration. “You convinced me that keeping secret any association we have, is for the best, and I’ve gone along with that for months. But who is it best for, huh? You, and some sense of your own importance and how your personal life shouldn’t mix with your public persona?”

Chuck looked like he’d been hit with a big-ass plank. His mouth gaped open, and for once, he was at a loss for words.

“That’s right, Chuck. I am so over keeping whatever is between us, a secret.” Tertia was on a roll. “I’m not some strung-out floozy you have to be ashamed of. I’m an agent with the FBI, goddammit, and if you’re embarrassed to acknowledge me, then I’m done with you. I’ll find someone else who values me enough that they’re proud to have me on their arm.”

It looked like Elody had been holding that one in for a long time, and Missy couldn’t fault her. Smalley was gruff, he was stubborn, and… Seriously? What the hell had sweet Elody seen in him to begin with?

Hmm . Looking at it objectively, he was grumpy as hell, but he was actually kind of cute.

Chuck seemed to shrink down in his chair. Was he being targeted and picked on? Yes . Did he deserve it? Another huge affirmative.

Wiley, who sat next to Chuck, leaned in and whisper-coughed into his ear. “Apologize. Now.”

Missy, being closest to the pair, had heard the suggestion, but she didn’t think anyone else had.

“Elody…” Chuck began.

Missy wanted to cheer that he was taking Wiley’s advice. At least she hoped he was.

Chuck was lucky Tertia hadn’t stormed out the door, slamming it behind her, but she had balls…and patience. She simply stood, waiting. Missy couldn’t say she would have been so understanding.

The intrepid woman crossed her arms over her chest, raised a brow at a subdued Chuck, and almost dared him to continue.

“I’m…sorry,” he strangled out.

Good boy , Miss wanted to say. But please go on .

It was almost as if he heard her advice.

“I…never wanted to make you feel uncomfortable or…devalued. I only thought it might be awkward for us to start anything…complicated while working in the same office.”

Elody snorted. “Well, I didn’t think that. Not for a minute. But right now, it’s oddly fortuitous that you’ve been a stubborn dick.”

Ouch.

“Your silence plays right into the request Missy just made,” Tertia avowed. “Our rogue agent or agents might have wondered why a traitor—when I’ve been outed as the bad-guy—would be dating Cobble’s cousin , a status I’m sure they’ll eventually figure out if they haven’t already. But right now, they’re just going to be gleeful that I’m the one taking the heat.”

She turned to Director Baskins. “So are we good? I can be the patsy?”

Baskins pondered for only a second. “Perhaps. Have a seat, Agent Tertia, and let’s hear what else Missy has to say before we settle on anything.”

Elody huffed, but sat back down.

Missy quickly outlined the rest of what Cobble had come up with, and after spilling it all and getting no pushback, she was buoyed up. That didn’t mean it was being given the rubber stamp. Nope .

A lot of additional opinions flew on how, exactly, things should be played out, and the strategy—in minute ways—was tweaked.

Sarge took copious notes on his computer while final versions of the plan came together, and before an hour was up, they’d settled on a way forward that not only sounded good, but crossed a lot of T’s and dotted a lot of I’s that Missy and Cobble’s original strategy hadn’t covered.

Damn. She loved this group.

“When are we thinking of executing all this?” Smalley finally asked, after having reluctantly grunted in a few suggestions of his own during the round-table discussion.

“Tomorrow is Saturday,” DAAG Cavateral pondered. “If we do it in the next two days, not all our people will be in our respective offices to hear that Agent Tertia has been arrested. So I suggest we wait until Monday. That way, we can make sure our suspects are present to get the news first person, loud and clear. That additional time also means that if anyone here has any more clever ideas for moving forward, they can be voiced before we set the final wheels in motion.”

“I second that opinion,” Del stated, clapping his hands. “And if we’re done here, I promised my wife dinner out tonight. I’m dropping Liam and Lila off at Prez’s, so his girls and Rory can babysit. If I’m late, I’m going to hear it from all factions.”

He wasn’t wrong, Missy snickered to herself.

Bri, Del’s wife, would be semi-understanding, but their two little ones would be climbing the walls to get with the older girls they adored. Lakisha, Rainie, and Rory, who always looked forward to seeing their young “cousins”, would also be champing at the bit.

Yes , Rory. She was still at Prez and Maygan’s house; her very often home-away-from-home, and honestly? Rory hadn’t been exactly happy when Missy had come back to Boston early from what had been a planned week away.

Yeah . She’d actually sulked. So she and Missy had negotiated. Rory would have permanent sleep-over privileges until Cobble, and by extension Missy, were out of danger.

Rory had, of course, immediately agreed.

Secretly, Missy was giddy about that arrangement.

It meant she could spend some quality time alone with Cobble.