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“It’s my fault, Bart.”
“No.” He held her close, smoothing her hair, rocking her gently. “No it isn’t.” He’d never been good at this kind of thing, but he held on, let her cry it out while he envisioned an appropriate revenge if he ever got the chance to exact it.
There were some things that were universally off limits, some actions that were positively unforgivable, and some situationsthat could never be reconciled within an acceptable casualty rate. Pregnant women topped that list in Bart’s mind.
“Who is this bastard?”
She stepped back from his embrace. “Carlos Gonzales.”
The name wasn’t familiar to him, but that didn’t mean much. Bart’s work relied more on watching for people behaving oddly. He rarely heard conversations that included real names.
“They put me on a desk when she was kidnapped,” Hannah continued. “This morning they told me I had to relocate. We all know the cartel won’t let me live. They’ve successfully managed to eliminate any agent who’s gotten too close to their mobile meth lab pipeline.”
He wanted to know why they hadn’t turned the tables, but building cases wasn’t his thing. Action and apprehension had been the focus of his career. The legal stuff happened long after.
“They couldn’t have wanted you to relocate here.” Although the truck stop gave her options. It would be easy for her to catch a ride somewhere else without being followed. She wasn’t the sentimental sort who would have come running to him based on one night in Vegas.
Until this moment, he wouldn’t have pegged her as agent who’d break down in tears over a dead witness. Not that she wasn’t compassionate, she was just more of a… professional, he decided, unable to come up with a better word.
“I did ask for the Virginia office, but they said absolutely not.”
He understood the often-contrary nature of people. “Which made you all the more determined to come here.”
“It was a factor,” she agreed, not quite meeting his gaze. “But when they showed me the file on Krystal, I saw a recent wiretap order for the truck stop.”
“That’s nothing but a snipe hunt. You know I run a clean place.”
“I know it, but it would seem your local DEA office has a few doubts. Your house is bugged, Bart. Someone is gunning for you.”
“Not the first time.” He pointed to her shoulder, afraid to touch her again. “Now that you’ve warned me, we need to get you out of the cartel’s reach.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not ready to drop this case yet.”
“You’re still on the case?”
“Not officially.”
Well, that was a line he too had crossed more than once. “You think the cartel killed Tim.” It wasn’t a question. “That his death is related to Krystal and your case in Baltimore.”
“I think there are too many similarities.” She shivered. “I think it’s you and me against the wall here.”
He wanted it to be, but he had a more literal interpretation in mind. Scrubbing at his face, he knew it would be one more image to keep his dreams interesting.
But Hannah appeared oblivious to her effect on him.
“It’s obvious my boss didn’t want me in Virginia because it would keep me too close to this case. The cartel has a new mobile meth lab system—”
Now he understood why she’d gone with the husband-and-wife thing. “And you could only stay close enough to work it yourself if they believed we eloped on our Vegas trip.”
She nodded. “I know it was a lousy lie and it puts you in a bind.” Her long lashes, spiked with water, framed golden eyes filled with doubt and sadness. “Thank God for Eva. I’m sorry to abuse our friendship this way.”
How could a man be angry over anything when a woman looked at him like that? In black lace lingerie, no less. “It’s fine. We both know it’s temporary.”
“Right.” She looked away again. “We still have to make it believable. I knew my boss would figure out where I’d gone when I ditched my protective detail.” She swallowed. “To be honest I’m surprised he didn’t have Suter and Kellerman waiting to haul me in when I arrived. And I did consider the fact that I might be leading the cartel this way—”
“But it seems they’re already here.” He thought of Tim’s notebook and he wanted to pound something. “A mobile meth lab system going through my place? That’s beyond offensive,” he growled. “We need to get to work—”
“When is Kyle visiting again?”
