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“Well, it gets worse. The day before yesterday an Agent Jackson Cole washed up about a hundred feet from where the first body was found. Same cause of death as the first victim. He was the new agent in charge of the Valentine case. Word through the office was that Cole had an informer on the inside of Angelo’s organization. Apparently Angelo’s men aren’t too happy with the way things are being run, and there’ve been a few internal struggles. Director Shaw is mainlining Rolaids and hasn’t slept in weeks. His agents keep dying and the higher-ups want to know why.”
Shane grunted. “Not a good position to be in, for sure. But he’s the man in charge, and the leak is in his office, so it’s his responsibility. Do you have an idea on the informer in Angelo’s organization?”
“Yeah, his name is Sal Lorenzo. He’s in the morgue along with Agent Cole, though it took us longer to find all of Lorenzo’s body parts. Angelo was sending a message to his other men.”
“You said there was another victim who washed up. Who was it?” Shane asked, the feeling in his gut already dreading what Jones was going to tell him.
“Randall Clark III, or Randy as he was known to his friends,” Jones said. “He lived across the hall from Rachel for the last several years. According to my sources, they’d dated for a short time and had been briefly engaged their senior year of college before deciding they made better friends than lovers.”
Shane’s head was reeling. Rachel had been engaged? And now a man she’d been close to and had maybe even loved was dead. How the hell was he going to break the news to her?
“Are you going to tell Rachel?” Jones asked. “Or I could do it if you think she’d take it better from me.”
“No, I’ll tell her.”
“Will she be all right? You’ve gotten to know her better than anyone over the last few days. Our file on her tells us pitifully little.”
“From what I’ve gathered her father tried to keep her out of his business as much as possible. She’s led a pretty quiet life up until now, but she’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. She’ll be okay. But once the news has sunken in about her friends she’s going to be out for Angelo’s blood. She’s not one to sit back and let others take care of problems for her.”
“Don’t let her do anything stupid,” Jones said. “The FBI still wants that list, and it is widely known now that she has the last remaining copy. I wouldn’t be surprised if Angelo wasn’t the only mobster looking for Rachel.”
“Great. I don’t suppose you have any ideas how to get her to the bank in Chicago and back out alive? I’ve gone through several scenarios, but the outcome never seems very favorable.”
“I’ve had a few thoughts on the subject but nothing is set in concrete. Carrie and I need to head back this afternoon. She’s got meetings later today. If you’ll agree, let me talk to a couple of people and see if we can get some extra help. It never hurts to have backup. I’ll also see if we can find the bank president and keep him in a safe place for a couple of days until we figure out when we want to go in.”
“Do whatever you need to do. Just make sure the people you tell won’t give Rachel’s head to Angelo on a silver platter. Do you have an estimate of when you’ll be back?”
“No, but you’ll be safe here for the time being. We’ve taken this house off the books, and Carrie and I are the only ones who know you’re here. You have plenty of food and extra clothes. Just stay put until I come back for you.” Jones stood and Shane did the same. “Will you take some advice?” he asked.
Shane smiled and thought back to the days when Jones was his commanding officer. “Since when do you ask if you can give advice?”
“Good point, so listen up. Don’t wait too long to tell that woman you love her. From the way things are going I think it’s something she might need to hear. And it’s something you, my friend, need to say. Maybe it’ll be just the thing to make the nightmares go away.”
“How the hell do you know about the nightmares?” Shane asked incredulously.
“I work for the FBI. I know everything.”
* * *
Rachel thought about using the secret exit in the closet and disappearing again. The idea wasn’t completely without merit. She could vanish for good this time. Change her hair and get some contacts. She knew who to contact for a passport and new identity, and she had plenty of cash stashed away in a safe place. Maybe she should just leave the country. And keep in touch with no one. Start over completely with a brand-new life.
The knock on the door interrupted her plans of escape and she cursed her indecision. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to anyone.
“Rachel,” Carrie said as she came into the room. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think this is something best left alone.” Rachel lay down on the bed and stretched out her tired muscles. She could fall asleep so easily. All she had to do was close her eyes and drift away, but Carrie had other plans. Rachel wasn’t in the mood to hear the reasons Shane had chosen the career path he had. And having a woman she barely knew try to explain it made her all the more irritable.
“No one can understand how it feels to be a sniper unless you are one,” Carrie said. “That’s just the truth. I don’t know what it’s like and Jones doesn’t know, even as close as he and Shane are.” She paused as if weighing her words carefully. “And you don’t know.”
“No offense, Carrie, but I’m really not in the mood to hear this right now,” Rachel said. She didn’t like the combination of pity and understanding she saw in the other woman’s eyes. Couldn’t she just have some time alone to think without someone coming along and judging her?
“No offense taken,” Carrie said. “But I’m going to say what I came to say anyway, and it’s up to you whether or not you listen. What Shane did while he was in the military and the FBI was so important. It’s a job that’s easily overlooked and always underappreciated. The job itself takes a powerful toll on the body and mind, and the stress that comes from it isn’t comprehensible to people like you and me. Not everyone can cut it, and the good ones only last so long before they start to burn out. And believe me, I’ve read Shane’s file. He was very, very good.”
“Believe it or not,” Rachel said. “I understand that it was his job and he had no control over his assignments. But I can’t reconcile what he used to be to how I was raised. I love my father very much, and now that my whole family is gone it makes hearing something like that even harder.”
“But Shane’s not to blame,” Carrie said.
“I don’t know who’s to blame,” Rachel said. “Only that someone should be. Shane is just wired differently. I don’t understand him. He has great compassion and a need to protect the innocent or those who are weaker, but he doesn’t bat an eye at taking lives when given an order. At least with the way things worked in my family, I always knew where everyone stood. Things are more cut and dried than you might imagine in the mob. We celebrated birthdays and weddings and funerals, and when someone was killed their families were taken care of. Does Shane even care that his victims had wives and children?”
