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Chapter Sixteen
Jack burst through the ER doors. All he could think was that Gina was lying somewhere in this hospital bleeding to death.
Given that it was Sunday and nearly midnight, the waiting area was quiet.
A grand total of three people sat in the rows of plastic chairs.
The only things Meat had told him was that a woman emptied out Tino’s safe, and there’d been shots fired.
He’d known instantly it had to be Gina and her friends, and his head had nearly exploded.
She’d gone and done precisely what he’d warned her not to.
He’d driven to her apartment and waited for over two hours.
While he’d sat in his SUV , he’d wavered between wanting to arrest her for obstruction of justice and paddling her bottom until she couldn’t sit down for a week.
By midnight, she still hadn’t come home, and his anger had bled out, morphing into something else. Worry and stark cold fear.
He stormed to the reception desk and flashed his badge. “ A woman was brought in with a GSW . Where is she?”
“ Third floor. Surgical unit.” The woman pointed. “ Elevators are down the hall.”
He strode to the elevator bank and punched the up arrow.
He wished his instincts had been wrong, but they weren’t.
After Meat contacted him about what had gone down at Tino’s shore house, he’d called the Sea Bright PD , inquiring if neighbors had called in shots fired near the house.
There’d been no such reports made, but there had been a mandatory GSW report made to the PD and State Police .
When the elevator doors opened, he stepped in and hit the button for the third floor.
It seemed to take forever to get there. When the doors opened again, he followed the signs to the surgical unit.
Outside the unit sat three women in sweat suits, one on a hard chair with her arms wrapped tightly around her belly. Gina .
His throat tightened. He’d come to like all of Gina’s friends, but the instantaneous relief that it wasn’t her who’d been shot nearly sent him to his knees. Slowly , she raised her head, her red, watery eyes locking with his.
“ Oh , Jack ,” she whispered. “ It’s all my fault.”
Words still wouldn’t come. What he ought to do was arrest her. What he wanted to do was take her in his arms and hold her so tightly he could feel her heart beating against his, verifying she was really alive.
Her body began to shake violently, and he didn’t hesitate.
He scooped her into his arms and sat on the same chair, holding her, rocking her while she sobbed openly.
Every cry and every tear that slid down her pale cheeks was a slice to his heart.
Despite everything, he’d come to care way too much for the thief in his arms.
Knowing there was nothing he could say to ease the soul-wrenching guilt she must be experiencing, he kept his mouth shut, absorbing her tremors as her body shook.
He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead, not caring that her friends were watching.
Over Gina’s head, he glimpsed Margo and Annabelle holding hands, their expressions tight with worry. Silent tears trickled from their eyes.
“ Are you going to arrest us?” Margo asked, releasing Annabelle’s hand to drape her arm protectively over the other woman’s shoulders.
“ What I need are answers.” Any minute now and Sea Bright officers, the New Jersey State Police —or both—would show up to investigate the GSW . In fact, he was surprised they weren’t here already.
“ Gina ,” he whispered, then glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone else was in earshot. “ What happened?”
She took a shuddering breath. “ I didn’t listen to you. I should have. Kinsey got shot.”
“ I know.” Using his thumb, he gently wiped away her tears, but it was no use. They just kept coming. “ Tino was there, wasn’t he?”
“ Y -yes. How did you know?”
“ I have eyes and ears on the street. Anything that involves the Falzones , I get a call.”
“ Oh . Right .” She wiped her face. “ Informants .”
He nodded. “ I waited outside your apartment, but you never came home. I was worried. Turns out the local PD received a report from the hospital of a gunshot wound.” Since she hadn’t come home, he really had thought it was Gina .
He cleared his throat. “ I need you to tell me everything that happened. Okay ?”
“ Okay .” Sighing , she closed her eyes, then described what had gone down, including her run-in with Maria and the fact there was at least a hundred grand locked up in the trunk of their rental car.
After what Gina had orchestrated tonight, getting any probable cause to arrest Tino or Franco Falzone before the Commission met was about as likely as either of them strolling into FBI headquarters and confessing to murder.
Gina’s actions would most assuredly result in the Falzones and their soldiers clamming up entirely, relegating all the bugs he’d planted to expensive, worthless hardware from this point forward.
He should be furious. He should be railing into her.
She’d been reckless with her life and the lives of her friends, but she already knew that.
Guilt would haunt her over this for the rest of her life.
He , better than anyone, understood what it was like to be responsible for someone’s death.
For her sake, he prayed Kinsey survived.
“ I need to ask you a few more questions.” First and foremost… “ Did Tino see you?”
“ No . I don’t think so.” She frowned.
“ You don’t think so?” He wasn’t convinced. “ I thought you said the lights were on.”
“ Yes .” She nodded. “ But I dropped to the ground just before he came into the room, and that side of the house was pretty dark.”
“ What makes you think Maria Falzone won’t rat you out?” The woman was as much one of Tino’s victims as anyone. That didn’t mean she would keep Gina’s secret.
“ I guess I don’t know for sure,” she admitted. “ But she wants to get away from him. I could see it in her eyes. I gave her my cell number.” She grabbed his arm, her red-rimmed eyes lighting with hope. “ I think she’ll call me, Jack . When she does, I want to help her.”
“ We all want to help her,” Margo said firmly.
Annabelle nodded.
“ No .” Gina shook her head. “ After what happened tonight, I won’t involve either of you in any of this ever again. This is on me . If she calls, I’ll handle it.”
“ Not happening.” He pressed his lips together. It was bad enough that Gina had handed over her personal cell number to a Falzone capo’s wife. No way would he let her handle this on her own. “ If she calls, you’ll tell me, and the FBI will handle it.”
Her eyes flared hotly. “ Promise me you’ll help her.”
“ I promise.” He seriously doubted the woman would ever call.
Booted feet echoed down the hall. Two uniforms came into view, one wearing a Sea Bright PD patch and the other that of the state police.
“ Stay here while I talk to them.” He stood, taking Gina with him before setting her back on the chair.
She grabbed his hand. “ What will you tell them?”
I have no idea . “ As little as possible.” Even though Tino was the worst kind of criminal, the truth would land Gina and her friends in jail. What he was about to do was beyond stupid, but he owed these women.
As of four hours ago, the FBI now knew the Commission meeting was set for this Saturday . That intel came from the bug he’d planted in Psycho’s house. The only missing piece was the exact location of the meeting. If it weren’t for Gina and her friends, the FBI would still be completely in the dark.
Jack whipped out his creds and flashed his badge at the cops. “ Special Agent Jack Gates , FBI .”
The Sea Bright cop, Officer Schwartz , according to his name tag, frowned.
The state trooper, Patrolman Hernandez , arched a brow.
Most departments didn’t like it when the great and powerful FBI swooped in on their territory, and neither of these guys was baby-faced and fresh out of the academy.
No doubt they’d both had run-ins with feds before.
Jack shook hands with Schwartz , then extended his hand to Hernandez .
The state trooper narrowed his eyes but shook Jack’s hand anyway. “ What’s this got to do with the FBI ?”
Jack tipped his head to the waiting area.
“ These women are my informants, and I’d sure like to keep this incident quiet.
Blowing their cover would kill a major federal investigation.
Any backup you can give me in making that happen would be greatly appreciated.
I can’t do this without you. The success of this case depends on your cooperation.
” Most of what he’d just said was true. Along with a little BS and a big serving of ego grease.
Officer Schwartz scratched his chin. “ You gotta give us some idea of what happened. The hospital reported a GSW . We need to put something down in our incident logs.”
He didn’t really think he’d get off that easy.
Time to pile on more BS . “ They were working on something for me when they were shot at by an unknown assailant in a blue sedan on Main Street in Long Branch .” Another town five miles south of Tino’s house.
“ Wrong place, wrong time, and purely coincidental. You might want to notify Long Branch PD .”
Hernandez , the older of the two men, pursed his lips but said nothing.
“ Take my card.” Jack pulled two business cards from his cred wallet, handing one to each officer. “ If there’s ever anything I can do to return the favor, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Both cops looked at his card, then at each other, and Jack knew precisely what each man was thinking. They were being handed a line of crap, and there was nothing they could do about it. The women would back up Jack’s story, and they’d have nothing to prove the shooting didn’t go down as Jack said.
“ Good luck with your case.” Hernandez tipped his head to Schwartz , and the two men turned to leave.
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