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“This all has been a lot to deal with.”
“True. But one good thing came of it. I met the woman I’m going to marry. You met her. Sierra. She was a bounty hunter looking for me.”
“Wow.” Jake tried to wrap his mind around that. “She doesn’t look the slightest bit dangerous.”
For whatever reason, this caused Ace to laugh. “Oh, she is, believe me,” he said. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Jake nodded. He could definitely understand that. Because Fiona was exactly the same to him. Glancing over at Ace, he realized meeting his new family and getting to know this man, in particular, ranked right up there too.
Chapter 14
Getting around on the knee scooter was a royal pain. Though she had to struggle not to show her frustration, Fiona found the entire process way too cumbersome and slow. Patience had never been one of Fiona’s virtues, and though it was something she constantly tried to work on, she realized twenty minutes into trying to navigate through life on one knee that she still had a long way to go. It didn’t help that this broken ankle had happened at the worst possible time—the biggest bust of her career.
Micheline Anderson was going down. Though the FBI already had enough to charge her with to put her away for years, especially with Ainsley having direct experience of Micheline’s Marriage Institute, Holden working with Spencer, and Spencer already investigating the AAG with Katrina, they wanted more. Fiona did, too, with a furious sort of passion that consumed nearly every waking moment. Because she wanted justice. Retribution for what Micheline had done to Jake Anderson, one of the finest men Fiona had ever known. And for all the poor, gullible or desperate souls she’d taken in with her quasi-affirmation hocus-pocus. The college students she’d swindled, the elderly people who’d gladly handed over their life savings and everyone in between. Including the Colton family, who’d suffered their share of bizarre events already. Learning their eldest son and heir wasn’t actually related by blood had to rank up there as one of the worst. Having Micheline try to extort them for ten million dollars must have been the final straw.
Righting injustice had been one of the main reasons she’d chosen a career in law enforcement. The training she’d received at Quantico had underscored her certainty that she’d been born for this kind of work. Taking this undercover assignment had been more difficult than she’d expected, especially since so many of the things she’d been expected to do went deeply against her beliefs. She was glad it was over, happy that they’d been able to end it with an arrest and numerous, serious charges.
And because of it, she’d met Jake. While they hadn’t known each other very long at all, the connection they’d made hinted at the possibility of a long and happy future as a couple. If she allowed herself to be optimistic—something she rarely did, since she considered herself a realist—she’d come to believe he might just be the one. Once this case was closed, she planned to take some time off and find out.
Meanwhile, the formidable fact-finding machine that was the FBI had gotten hard at work obtaining information. The AAG center swarmed with agents. Since they’d obtained a far more detailed search warrant, the Bureau had brought in teams, who all conducted an intensive search. This went on from sunup to sundown. As soon as one team left to get some rest, another showed up to take their place.
For her part, Fiona tried to stay out of their way. Though she hadn’t been removed from the case, she hadn’t been assigned to a particular team, either. The special agent in charge allowed Fiona and Holden to stay and do as they pleased, as long as they didn’t interfere with anyone else. Fiona had claimed Leigh’s suite as her own search area and took a certain satisfaction in taking apart the room piece by piece.
Thus far she’d found nothing substantial. But then, Leigh clearly had been coached not to leave any kind of paper trail. She’d kept only a few paper files—one with handouts touting the miracle seminars that AAG offered, and another with printouts and newspaper clippings regarding her Miss Mustang Valley win. The rest had to be stored on a computer or in the cloud.
Fiona itched to get a look at her laptop. But of course, she’d had to turn the computer over to the FBI’s IT department, who would thoroughly examine its contents. Right now, she was kneeling on the floor going through the bottom drawer of a mostly empty filing cabinet, just hoping Leigh had been careless one time.
A quiet tap on the door made her look up. Holden St. Clair stood in the doorway, eyeing her. “Did you find anything?” he asked.
“Not really.” Struggling to pull herself up without putting weight on her ankle, she gratefully accepted Holden’s help getting on her knee scooter. “I have to say, I’m really disappointed. I honestly believed Leigh knew a lot more secrets than she let on. Now I’m wondering if Micheline kept her mostly in the dark and told her only what she wanted her to hear.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Holden replied. “Micheline was a master at manipulating people. And Leigh Dennings seemed a naive and trusting sort. By the way, speaking of her... Leigh has been asking for you. She keeps saying she doesn’t belong in jail. She’s been telling everyone who will listen that you will vouch for her character.”
Momentarily taken aback, Fiona shook her head. “She’s wrong. I gave her the opportunity to get out before it all hit the fan. I asked her to do the right thing. She refused. She left me lying in the tiny basement cell, injured, determined not to hear anything bad about Micheline or the AAG. She made her choice. Now she’s going to have to live with it.”
“I agree.” Holden walked around the room, one brow raised. “She decorated this place like a Pottery Barn store,” he said.
His comment made Fiona laugh. “Good analysis. Stylish, cozy and expensive.” She eyed the other agent. “What about you? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“That’s why I’m here now.” Holden flashed a quick smile. “We’ve got some new information,” he said. “A while back, we rounded up a guy named Harley Watts. He did all of Micheline’s dark web work and took care of helping her set up a new identity for when she took off. Once he’d had a little taste of jail, he said he was willing to talk if the prosecutor would hammer out a plea deal.”
Fiona perked up. “Did you get that worked out?”
“We did. And let me tell you, it was worth it. This Watts guy bugged Micheline’s office. He recorded everything and hung on to it all. Once he told us where to find it, we sent a couple of agents over to get it. We’ve got people listening to it all now. My hunch says we’ll have a ton of evidence of even more crimes. Enough to put Micheline away for a long, long time.”
“I’d like to see the transcript when it’s finished,” Fiona said. “I want to throw the book at that woman.”
“I agree. Anyone awful enough to plan for all her followers to commit suicide needs to go away for a long, long time.” Holden shook his head. “It never ceases to amaze me how people can be so evil and yet manage to convince so many others to believe in them.”
“At least we got her.” Her knee had started aching, as it usually did when she spent too much time on the scooter. “I’d better get back to it.”
“Let me know if you need any help,” Holden replied, turning to go. “And please, give me a holler if you find anything good.”
Even though she privately didn’t think she would at this point, Fiona agreed. Back to work, she told herself, but she remained on her knee scooter rather than lowering herself to the floor. What she really wanted, she realized with some disbelief, was to be with Jake. This seemed so out of character for a woman whose work always, always came first, she had to sit still and consider.
She really had it bad for him. Jake was never far from her thoughts. She found herself wonderin
g at odd moments during the day what he might be doing right then, if he felt okay, how his new Colton family was treating him.
