Taken by the Con (18 page)

Lucia made a sound of disapproval.

Mitchell glared at her. “What are you, his shadow?”

“We’re soul mates,” she said, in a voice that was almost believable. Had Cash not been in character, he would have laughed.

“I’m taking your
soul mate
on a drive. I’ll return him later.”

“Lucy, baby, I’ll be fine. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”

Lucia cuddled up to Cash, pressing into his side, her breasts nearly popping out the top of her dress. “Make it up to me tonight.”

Cash took a long look at her cleavage, both to play the part and because he was a man who found Lucia wildly attractive. Even Mitchell seemed entranced for a moment. Lucia had given Cash a good excuse for not lingering in whatever hotbed of illegal activity Mitchell was taking him to.

With luck, Cash would return to her place alive.

Chapter 9

“W
hat’s going on with you and Lucy?” Mitchell asked.

Why was everyone suddenly obsessed with asking him about Lucia? Guys didn’t talk about relationships. Life couldn’t have changed that much while he was in prison. “What do you mean?”

“She seemed upset.”

Mitchell was fishing to find out if Lucia’s emotions would have any blowback on him or Anderson, such as a bitter ex-girlfriend running to the cops about what she knew about a secret underground casino or newsworthy art theft.

“She’s fine. I’ll make it up to her,” Cash said.

“Make what up to her?”

Nothing to do with Anderson or the art theft. He needed a reason for Lucia to be angry with him, but not angry enough that the relationship was doomed to fail. “She wants to get married. I’m not ready.”

Mitchell snorted. “Why do women think marriage is the only endgame?”

“No idea. The diamond. The dress. The party. Who knows?”

“My fiancée has been riding me about setting a date for our wedding. Isn’t it enough she has the ring?”

“For some women, they need that gold band,” Cash said.

“You’ve been married before,” Mitchell said.

Cash had been married to Anderson’s estranged daughter and it wasn’t a secret. “Yes.”

“What made you pull the trigger?”

And interesting choice of words, as if marriage equaled death. “My wife was someone special. I needed her in my life. She made me happy.”

“Anderson will be pleased to know that,” Mitchell said.

Anderson and Cash hadn’t discussed Britney. It was a sore subject for Anderson. While Cash had tried to convince Britney that keeping her father out of her life was extreme, she hadn’t yielded. “Why don’t you tell me what you need from me? I’ve proven my loyalty. I want to work.”

“Eager,” Mitchell said.

“To make some money? Of course,” Cash said.

“Get us the FBI file on Anderson,” Mitchell said.

Demanding. Cash laughed. “Do you think they’ll hand it over to me? I don’t have an all-access pass. I’m a convict.”

“Anderson and I have talked about that. Is the FBI using you to get close to Anderson?”

Cash knew this moment would decide it he lived or died. However he answered, whatever his facial expression or tone, Mitchell would use it against him. Anderson wasn’t an idiot. He was smart enough to suspect this was a setup. “No. They’re using my hacking skills to close off vulnerabilities in their computer systems.”

“Use those computer skills and get the files we need.”

Cash could communicate the request to Lucia and Benjamin, and they could create a fake file on Anderson for Mitchell, but Cash couldn’t be too enthusiastic or Mitchell would know something was off. “I’ll need a few days.”

“Get the file. Get it quickly. We have more work to do.”

* * *

Cash called Lucia from the Hideaway. He hated sleeping in the small, dirty room, but he sensed she needed space and he had not wanted to lead Mitchell to her place. Cash had gotten used to staying with her. It wasn’t difficult to become accustomed to soft sheets and the scents that wafted up from the chef’s condo below hers.

“Lucia, it’s me.”

“Are you okay? My caller ID shows this number as the Hideaway. Are you home?” Despite the late hour, she sounded wide-awake.

“I’m at the Hideaway and I’m fine. Mitchell wanted to talk shop for a while.”

“Your microphone cut out about ten minutes after you left Franco’s loft. We couldn’t get a bead on your GPS device. We’ve had dead silence over here.”

“They must have had a signal blocker somewhere in the building. I couldn’t hear anything from you, either.”

“We were worried,” Lucia said.

We? “You’re with the team?” he asked.

“Yes.”

So much for discussing anything personal with Lucia. He was glad he hadn’t led with asking about how she was feeling or attempting to open the conversation about why she was angry with him.

“Hold on. Switching the call to speaker,” Lucia said.

“Cash? You okay?” Benjamin asked.

“I’m fine. I need to get Anderson’s FBI file for Mitchell.”

The shuffling of papers. “We can do that,” Lucia said.

“It needs to take a few days,” Cash said. “I told Mitchell I’d need to hack in and steal it. Do you want me to come in to the office tonight?”

“Yes,” Lucia said.

“No, it’s late,” Benjamin said. “We’ll get an early start tomorrow. Cash, write some notes on what you heard and saw tonight. Be ready to talk about it to the team tomorrow.”

“Will do.”

He disconnected the call. He was too wound up to sleep, but it was after midnight. He sat on the bed. He didn’t have anything else to do, but he had plenty of places he’d rather be.

Somehow Mitchell must have prevented his GPS signal from being broadcast. Lucia had taken the signal-disrupting device he’d given Cash. Could Cash find a device on the black market that worked similarly?

He wanted to believe that the work he was doing now would lead to a reunion with his son. What if he was wrong? He needed a backup plan. Nothing could stand between him and his son.

Cash must have fallen asleep because he awoke to a light tap on his door. He rolled to his feet and looked through the peephole. Lucia? What was she doing in this part of town? He opened the door and pulled her inside his room before she caught the attention of the wrong people. “You should not be here.”

She lifted a brow. “Why’s that? You come to my place all the time.”

“This place is a dump and it’s dangerous. I think I’ve heard four fistfights and a gunshot already tonight. The police have been here twice.”

Lucia sighed. “I’m an FBI agent. I carry a weapon.”

“Someone could still hurt you.”

“I didn’t know you cared.”

Something in that comment struck him. What had he done to make her believe he didn’t care about her? It was shocking to him how much he did care for her. He had set out to win her over, but what had unfolded between them had nothing to do with a con or any plans he’d made. “I do care. Of course I do.”

Lucia handed him a file. “While you were on radio silence, I had time to do my homework.”

“What’s this?” Cash asked, opening the file folder.

It was his file. Cash went ramrod straight. “Why do you have this?” He assumed she’d had access to his file from the time he had joined the team, but why bring it to him now? Did it contain something that upset her?

“I wanted to know if your story checked out.”

His blood ran cold. “What story is that?”

“About Adrian.”

His Achilles heel. “You better be careful about what you say next.” If she threatened his son or implied anything untoward about him, he wasn’t sure he could control himself. Master of control that he was, Adrian was his everything. He’d wanted to kill Mitchell for making a threat against his son. Only knowing that Mitchell was just one man on a crew of many had stopped Cash.

“His birth certificate does not list you as his father.”

Anger seared him. He was Adrian’s father regardless of what Britney had or had not written on the hospital’s paperwork. “I am his father.”

“Care to explain why it’s blank?”

Cash resented her question. It was not her business. Britney and his marriage had been rocky when she’d given birth to Adrian. But Cash had been with her, in the delivery room and in her post-recovery room. He had been there for Adrian’s first bath and he’d changed his first diaper. He was Adrian’s father. “I do not owe you an explanation.”

Lucia lifted her chin. “If you want me to believe your story, you do.”

Anger turned to rage, an emotion Cash rarely let himself feel. Lucia could push all his buttons, the good ones and the bad ones. “Would you question someone else like this? I am not a criminal in an interview room. I’m a man you’re sleeping with.”

Lucia snatched the folder back from him. “You can understand, given your history, that I should be wary that history will repeat itself. You’ve been secretive about Adrian. I want to know why.”

Did she really need an explanation? What kind of pathetic father dragged his son into a world filled with criminals? “I don’t want him pulled into this sick, twisted game that Anderson is playing. I would die to protect Adrian. I do not like to talk about Adrian because every time I do it just reinforces that I’m a failure as a father.”

Lucia recoiled and he read shame in her reaction. She had crossed a line and she knew it.

“Get out,” he said. He didn’t want to see her. He didn’t want to talk about this any further.

“Cash,” she started.

“Get out. Get out now.”

Lucia left, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Cash scarcely looked at Lucia at their team’s morning meeting. He answered every question politely, but he was distant. If anyone else noticed, they didn’t say anything. Maybe they chalked it up to the late night, but no one knew Cash the way she did.

Lucia didn’t know why she had pressed him about his son. It was wrong on so many levels. It was a betrayal of his trust, his privacy and his confidence. She could blame the past, Bradley and her sister’s betrayal, but it wasn’t an excuse for her behavior.

After the meeting, she waited until he returned to his desk before approaching him. “Cash?”

He was reviewing the report he had written with the details about the night before.

He spun to face her. “What do you want?”

She deserved his rudeness. “I want to apologize. I’m sorry, Cash.”

“For what?” he asked.

He knew, but he wanted her to say it. Here in the office where others could hear her. “For not believing you. For invading your privacy.” She lowered her voice. “For using something you told me in confidence against you.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“I accept your apology.”

“That’s it? That simple?”

“I want something in return.”

Was this part of the con? She felt bad for even thinking it. “Know that I have limits to what I am allowed to do.” She couldn’t remove his tracker. She couldn’t approve movements outside the city.

“I want you to host your family for brunch at your place and invite me.”

She paused for a moment. “You want to meet my family?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Cash reclined in his chair and she was struck again by how handsome he was. It was that much harder to say no to him when he looked at her. “I want you to trust me.”

Her family was difficult on a good day. “How is meeting my family proving I trust you?” Gatherings with her family were stressful. Add a convict to it and she was sure her parents would not approve. Though her mother would hide her feelings, Lucia knew her father would be frank about his dislike.

“If you want to be involved in my personal life, then let me into yours.”

Lucia sensed that if she didn’t agree it would change her relationship with Cash irrevocably. He didn’t want to be treated like a criminal. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

“What time?” He asked as if it were set in stone.

Lucia had never invited her family to her place. With the exception of the day her father had given it to her and a few visits from her parents, it wasn’t a spot where the family gathered.

“Nine,” she said, still thinking about the cleaning and preparation that would need to go into the brunch. But if it’s what it took to made amends with Cash, she would do it.

* * *

Cash arrived an hour early to help her prepare for brunch with her family. He hadn’t slept at her place since she’d gone to the Hideaway with the intent of catching him in a con.

He said he’d forgiven her for her intrusive questions about Adrian, but he was still upset. She had broken his trust. Strangely, she hadn’t thought about earning his trust. She had only been worried about whether or not she could trust him. It was a two-way street.

Lucia had missed him. She’d grown accustomed to having him around and felt strangely lost without him. Lonely. Her quiet solitude bored her. Her condo felt too large for one person.

“The food is being delivered in an hour, but I need to prepare drinks. Mimosas, heavy on the alcohol,” she said. If she could dull her family’s senses, maybe they’d go easy on her.

“Before Britney died, our relationship was not in a good place. We were separated and she wanted a divorce.”

Lucia turned. The words were unexpected. Lucia put down the glass pitcher and faced Cash. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“That information wouldn’t be in my FBI file. Britney was a vivacious and exciting woman, but our relationship had its ups and downs. She didn’t write my name on Adrian’s birth certificate because she hoped if our marriage went sour, I wouldn’t take Adrian with me. She knew how much I loved him.”

“That’s not how it works. Just because your name isn’t on paper doesn’t mean you’re not his father,” Lucia said.

“I know that,” Cash said.

Lucia shouldn’t have questioned him about Adrian. “Again, I’m sorry I interrogated you about your personal life and your son.”

“I wasn’t fishing for another apology. I thought you might like to know why Adrian’s birth certificate is incomplete. I was too angry to talk about it the other day. But I know why you looked into my history. You still don’t trust me.”

“I trust you,” Lucia said. How could she prove to him that she did? She offered up the one piece of information that was most difficult for her to share. “I wasn’t moved to white collar because I was owed a promotion. I was moved because violent crime wanted to get rid of me.”

Cash tilted his head. “Special Agent Wolfe’s apology. That’s what he meant?”

She nodded. It was embarrassing and difficult to speak about this. “I was the only woman on the team and I couldn’t hack it.”

Cash stood straighter. “Couldn’t hack it or didn’t have the right equipment?” He gestured down her body.

She laughed. She had to. Only Cash would see right to the heart of the issue. He hadn’t accused her of doing anything wrong and she appreciated it. “I didn’t have the right equipment. I wasn’t invited to their happy hours or to their sports games or to their birthday parties. The harder I worked, the more they made me feel like I’d done something wrong and didn’t deserve a spot on their team.”