Page 47 of Three Steps Behind

“Of course you do.” There was always one more thing. One more thing that could get her killed.

“We need tangible evidence.”

“Such as?”

“Recorded conversations.”

“No way. I’m not wearing a wire.” Now that she knew the true Dalton, she easily believed he’d search for one if he thought there was even a remote possibility of it. And she didn’t want Agent Man overhearing what she and Dalton said. It was private. Or it had been, and in Dalton’s eyes it still was. Who knew what intimate things he might say?

“Then we’ll need to catch him in the act. In possession of the drugs. With the women. Or evidence of selling or trading women. Or we’d need to get one of them to talk.”

“Are you crazy? He’d kill them on a dime. No way they’d go up against him.”

He smiled.

“What are you smiling at?”

“You.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Because you’ve seen the real Dalton. Know what he’s capable of. It’s okay to admit you were wrong.”

She ground her teeth, her jaw shifting. She wasn’t wrong. She’d been played. “Look, I’m not going back in there. I’m not risking my life for some case.”

“Really? You’re just going to let him continue to treat women like trash, disposing of them as he sees fit? Using them to make money while he keeps them as sex slaves?”

“That’s your job to stop. You need to prove it.”

“I need your help.”

And there’s the rub.

He took a brisk inhale, then released it in a stream. “We can work well together if you’d just get on the same team. I know you care what he does with those women.”

“And why do you think that?” She did—no doubt to her detriment.

“Because you wouldn’t have gotten sick over drugs, which leaves the women—bought and sold like cattle.”

It was what got her, what made her so sick, but he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know anything.

“I’m going to go get us dinner. Mark is stationed in front of the door if you need anything. I’ll be back.”

And I’ll be gone.

“Any preference on food?”

Nothing would sound good until her stomach settled. “I’m not hungry.”

“You need to eat. How about Chinese?”

“Sure.” Whatever would get him to leave sooner.

“See you in twenty.”

The door closed behind him, and she moved to the large window to watch him leave. As soon as his car took off and rounded the corner, she opened the sliding window—and Mark came rushing in. How on earth? She’d been so quiet.

“There are alarms set up on all the windows. Aubry’s idea. I’d say it was a good one.”