Page 99 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

Gene could feel it in his gut. They’d had that phone call in the commissioner’s office, and he’d told Landry he was close to catching the man.

That morning, he had to off the batch of men he had stashed somewhere.

Going to the commissioner’s office to update him had been a bad move on their behalf.

Damn it.

“Yeah, hit me with the address. I’ll meet you there,” Greyson offered.

When he hung up, Ethan was finding information.

“Gene, he went to Villanova, and he graduated three years ago. He’s got a condo not far from here. I have the address.”

He handed Ethan his phone so he could send it to Greyson while he drove.

Then, he told him the address so Gene could get them there.

“What do we have?” Gene asked, knowing they had to have missed something.

Blackhawk pulled out his phone, and called Corbin’s again, for the second time today.

He needed to make sure they were on the right track with this. The car was a big piece of it, but he needed to make damn sure.

Someone had done a good job of yanking their chains for two days.

“Yes?” Corbin asked, when he answered the phone. “Are you okay, EJ?”

He dove right in.

“Yes, but we think we know who it is, and we’re on our way there. I need information,” he said. “Can you help me fill in the blanks?” he asked.

Corbin could. Already, his gut was rolling with the prospect that they were going to bring the man in. It terrified him to no end.

“I’ll try,” he said, holding Will’s hand as he was about to relive something.

“How did you get this case?” he asked. “I need to know what happened the day you started this mess.”

That was an odd question.

Corbin relaxed.

“I was called to the Captain’s office, and when I got there, Kip, Payton, the Captain, and Landry Mahoney were there.”

He needed to tie this up with a nice red bow.

“Not the commissioner?” Ethan asked.

Corbin was adamant.

“No, he sent his aid to be there. Apparently, he had a meeting or something, but Landry said he picked me to do the job.”

Ethan was willing to bet that Landry had convinced his boss to pick Corbin, thinking he wasn’t a good cop. He’d picked him to ensure that this didn’t get handled.

Only, he’d fucked up.

This mess came to them, and they weren’t green like Corbin.

“Okay, and the day you went into Bull’s , did you check-in with the commissioner? Did you call your boss? What did you do?”

Corbin thought back.

“Yeah, I filed a report, and dropped it at his office. I stopped there before I went home to change into undercover clothing.”

Ethan kept pushing as Gene got closer to the condos.

They had to make sure.

There would be one shot at this.

“And you updated the commissioner as to what your plan was for the night?”

Corbin hadn’t.

“No, he was in a meeting. I left my report with Landry, and told him to tell the commissioner I was doing my undercover hit on the bar that night. I told him that I’d update him the next day.”

Gene glanced over.

Well, fuck.

Landry was definitely behind this. He was getting information and using it to protect his money-making scheme.

“And the other times you updated the commissioner, was it to him or Landry?” Blackhawk asked.

“It was to the commissioner, but when I send my reports in, they must go to his aid, because he normally emails back that he got them.”

Gene looked over.

“Okay, Corby. We’ll check-in soon.”

No, he needed to know.

“Who is it?” Corbin asked. “Please just tell me,” he said. “I need to know. It’s haunting me. Was I that bad of a cop that they spotted me?”

Unfortunately, no.

Ethan was honest.

“You closed big cases, and you didn’t drop the ball. The commissioner didn’t want us handling this. You said that he wanted it in-house, so it was likely never coming to us.”

That didn’t answer his question, now did it?

“Who betrayed me?”

Ethan shared it.

“The commissioner’s aid, Landry Mahoney.”

There was silence.

Ethan kept talking.

“He probably knew you’d be a good person to work this because you follow rules. You report in, and you’re easy to handle. Add that to the fact the commissioner hates dealing with the FBI…”

They could hear the emotion.

“I was burned by someone who worked with law enforcement?”

Gene answered.

“Yes, Corby.”

They could hear Will comforting him.

“Every step of the way, he saw what you were doing, and he was able to make sure you were off the mark. He was playing you the whole time, Corbin. Before you went into Bull’s , he called Renegade, and he told him you’d be there. He called right before you showed up.”

Will was pissed.

“That mother fucker,” he said. “I’ll grab him by his scrawny ass neck and choke his ass out!”

Well, they had to catch him first, and he had an hour head start.

Ethan kept talking.

“I’m willing to bet that Landry had Professor Dunne in college. He went to Villanova, and I’m also willing to bet he had a scholarship. His family wasn’t wealthy.”

Corbin was horrified.

“His diploma is over his desk. He was a political science major,” he said. “I’ve stared at it a million times, and never thought I’d be burned by someone who is supposed to be on our side.”

They understood his rage.

Ethan kept going.

“How much do you want to bet that he had scholarships through Julian Mercer, and he pointed us in his direction knowing that the man was a sleaze ball?”

Corbin just listened as he tried to hold it together. It was difficult.

“On top of that, Corbin, he likely has a connection to Julian Mercer still. Before we arrived at his place, he was given a heads-up. He knew we were coming. Landry was playing us all, Corbin. He was pulling the strings.”

Corbin was sick.

“Why?” he asked.

Ethan knew why.

“He grew up poor, and he wanted to make money. He wanted to be rich so he could fit in, and not be someone’s lackey. He was likely shoving this money away for a rainy day as he played chauffer for the commissioner, and office bitch to him.”

Will was curious.

“But how did he get access to drugs?” Will asked. “He works for the city.”

That was a good question. Ethan was searching as they spoke, and he was looking deeper into his past.

That’s when he found it.

All of his childhood schools listed in his college yearbook weren’t in the US.

His birth certificate gave them another clue, as did the obituary that had been posted twenty years ago for his father.

Ethan shared.

“His mother is Colombian, and his father was American. He was born here, but when his father died when he was five, he was sent back to Colombia when her visa was revoked. These drugs are coming out of Colombia—or they were. That’s as close as I can get to how he got them.

I’d need that CIA laptop and some time to keep digging. ”

They listened.

Ethan was typing as fast as he could while Gene parked their car.

“That means he came back here to go to college. As an American, born here, he could come and go as much as he wanted. I’m willing to bet he also travels back and forth home.”

Gene knew where he needed to look.

“CBP,” he said, clueing Ethan in. That was a database that they did have access to.

It took him a minute, but he was good.

“I’m in the database,” he said, “He flew back to Colombia not last Christmas, the one before that. Customs and Border Patrol has his exit and entrance into the US.”

Gene shared what he was thinking.

“Reed said these killings went back a year. He came back from Colombia, likely smuggling in this drug. Dogs aren’t going to tag it at the airport since it’s a relatively new drug. He got it in, and he’s been making money on it.”

Ethan stopped him.

“No. He had a private flight in. It landed at a smaller airport. Chances are, whoever gave him the drugs to get them in the US likely paid for it. From that day on, his intent was to get rich.”

And he had.

Unfortunately, Customs was much more lax in those cases.

Corbin was silent.

“We’ll get him,” Ethan promised. “We’ll take him down.”

Landry had almost won.

He’d called the media and tried to block them and to make them run in circles. Only, they’d been too fast, and they’d caught up his traffickers. They’d managed to get information out of Renegade, and that blew his little scheme.

“Please,” Corbin said. “Please get him and make him pay for what he did.”

Oh, well, they would.

“We’ll call you,” Ethan said.

Corbin knew they’d handle this.

“Love you,” he said to both of them, and then he cut the call short, escaping.

They heard the pain and betrayal in his voice. It would take time for Corbin to trust again, and they didn’t blame him at all.

“Where the fuck is Croft?” Gene said, making sure his gun was loaded.

Ethan put his hand on his arm.

“Let’s contain him, and Gabe will deal with him. That’s far worse than what you want to do.”

Oh, he wasn’t sure of that.

What he wanted to do was very painful, and it would make the man never do shit like this again.

Because he’d be dead.

When he looked over at his partner, he sighed.

“I’ll bring him in, EJ. You just get ready to call Gabe and let him know we need a transport to Gitmo for this drug-pimping piece of shit. I’ll contain my rage for you.”

As Ethan was making sure they had everything, Gene saw a Mustang pull up behind them. Greyson was driving Ethan’s car.

When he walked up to the driver’s side, Gene rolled down the window.

“Do we have his location?” Greyson asked.

Ethan clued him in.

“I do, but let’s verify. There’s a front desk. We’ll double-check his condo number. Then, we’ll get him.

Greyson stared into Gene’s eyes.

“I called Gabe. He said we’re to bring him in alive. He wants him debriefed on Snow, and transported. He’s getting a Federal warrant sent here. It’ll be an emergency injunction and here in ten. You can kick in the door now.”

He reassured him.

“I wasn’t going to kill him. I just told Ethan that I’d bring him in, but I’m definitely going to fantasize about ripping his dick off and feeding it to him—for Corby.”

He could think about it all he wanted.

It was the doing that was the problem.

“Then, as long as we’re on the same page, let’s go bring him in,” Greyson said.

Getting out, they walked toward the building, and when they went inside, they walked up to the desk.

There was a woman there.

Gene put his badge on the counter.

“I’m going to need some information from you, and then I need you to go stand outside, in case this goes bad.”

Her eyes went huge.

“What do you need?”

He went there.

“What condo is Landry Mahoney in?” he asked, wanting to make sure the address they’d pulled on his license was up to date. “And is this the only way in and out?”

They heard tapping on the keys.

“He’s in three fifteen, but I’m supposed to ring up if you…”

Greyson lifted the M-four so she could see the tactical weapon that he’d had below her line of sight.

“Honey, he’s a predator and killer. Do you want to warn him, so he comes out shooting?” he asked, making up her mind for her.

She gasped and shook her head.

“No? Well, then we need you to go outside, and we’ll be right out.”

She pointed toward the stairs.

“I didn’t see him come in, but he might have used the garage elevator and gone right up.”

Well, they’d find out soon enough.

They took the stairs, just to make sure they didn’t happen across any tenants as they charged the condo, guns out.

On the third floor, they waved a little old woman back into her condo with her fluffy yappy dog. Her mouth was hanging open, as she peeked out the crack of her door.

Then, they got ready to enter.

Ethan tapped lightly.

“FBI!” he said, as Gene booted the door, and it flew backward, nearly coming off the hinges.

Together, they went in.

And what they realized was a punch to the gut.

The place was torn apart, and Landry Mahoney wasn’t there. The piece of shit had escaped.

They were too late.

The man was in the wind.