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“I’ve got a couple of devices from my buddy at Langley. State-of-the-art stuff. As small as a fingernail and just as slim.”
“Yeah. Worth a shot. But only if she can get close enough to Charlene’s car without being seen. That woman does not get her own hands dirty. She probably has an associate working with her,” I warn Marcus. “That’s who we need to be careful about.”
“We’ll monitor everyone she meets with, even if it’s just for a minute,” he assures me. “How are you feeling, Luke?”
I know the meaning behind his question and I can’t blame him for asking. What happened with Charlene was so awful and filthy, we all did our best to put it out of our heads and move on but it was deeply personal for me. I lean back into my chair and stare at the laptop screen for a while, trying not to let my mind slide into the past.
“I’m angry,” I finally say, my voice low and cold. Chills trickle down my spine, the memories flooding back in with a ruthless vengeance. “When we met Charlene, we didn’t know the repercussions, Marcus. We had no idea of her connections.”
“How could you have known? She was always the secretive type. And you do understand how dark money flows, man.”
“Yeah and I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve had you looking into her from day one. Maybe we would’ve found out sooner.”
“You had no reason to suspect her,” Marcus insists. “Luke, you had absolutely no way to immediately link her to those fuckers in Iran. Yet she knew exactly who you were from the moment she first shook your hand. She knew, and she kept her mouth shut.”
“What was she supposed to say?” I scoff. “Hi, I’m Charlene Maddox and I’m partially responsible for the submarine explosion that cost you your leg?”
Marcus frowns, a deep shadow creasing between his brows. “She had money flowing all over the Middle East while you and the guys were on active duty. You didn’t even know her then.”
“Fair enough. It doesn’t make what she did right, though, does it?”
“No, it does not.”
“It was illegal. It was treason. And the fucked up part is that as soon as I found out, I knew I had no way of nailing her for it. I couldn’t prove her connections there.”
“You got her on fraud and embezzlement, though,” Marcus points out. “The best we could do was nail her for the domestic activities.” I know he’s trying to make me feel better, but I can still remember how frustrated he was when we sat down and went through all the evidence we’d managed to gather against Charlene. Everything we had regarding her dark money movements was circumstantial at best, and it wasn’t enough for a treason charge.
“Yeah and how did that work out in the end?” I ask, already knowing the answer. “She went to prison for five years, released early for good behavior. We couldn’t even tie the Cassidy’s back to her. We never cut the head off the snake, and here we are, doing it all over again. Trying to nail her down for good.”
“I’ve got a feeling it’ll be different this time around.”
“Pray tell,” I mutter.
“We’ve learned a lot from that episode. We know she’s hiding something, or things, plural. Let’s go with the plural here, because a woman like Charlene Maddox has an ego the size of the Empire State Building. We can be sure that she’s back with a purpose, and the fact that the older Cassidy’s were rattled by your visit is telling enough. She’s working with them again. We know who to watch and what to watch out for.”
“Fair enough.”
“We also have better surveillance tech than we did five years ago, and we’re aware that the snake is trying to slither her way back into the garden,” Marcus adds with a wry smile. “Whatever she’s up to, we’ll get her. Charlene thinks she’s the smartest person in the room. That was her undoing before, and it’ll be her undoing again. You can’t cure arrogance, Luke.”
He makes a multitude of valid points. But it’s Avery I’m worried about. “She’ll figure out Avery’s role here,” I tell him. “She will attempt to get close to her, to try and hurt her.”
“Charlene will never be able to get that close,” Marcus says. “I could have a secondary detail keeping an eye on Avery and the girls, too.”
“Kellan and Fallon will be pissed.”
“But do you really think they’ll say no, given that the three of you are so determined to keep Avery in the dark about Charlene?”
Good point. “Okay. Do that, then. Have a pair of eyes on Avery and the girls as well. But make sure they’re discreet. If Avery realizes we’re tailing her, she’ll fly into a panic, especially after what happened with her ex.”
“Don’t worry about that. Here’s what I’m thinking—let me keep watch on Charlene, first. Let me figure out who she’s meeting with and where. And if there is any overlap with Avery at any point, even by a couple of feet, I’ll put a security detail on her, too,” Marcus suggests. “How does that sound?”
“Smart. Thank you, my friend.”
I’d thought surveilling Avery was a thing of the past. Daniel is dead and buried. That was supposed to be the end of it. I never expected Charlene to get out of prison so soon, and I certainly didn’t think she had the audacity to come back here the way she did. Her actions scream purpose and intent, of a plan she’s likely hatching. And if she’s targeting the three of us, she will be looking for soft spots to hit.
There is no softer spot than Avery and her little girls.
I had to kill a man in order to protect them, and I still have nightmares about that. I had plenty of kills during my Navy service, and I’ve done my best to place Daniel in the same batch of dirty fuckers who had it coming. I don’t want to ever have to do that again, though. I don’t know how much more of my own soul I can sacrifice in order to keep the woman I love safe—especially when I’m trying to keep her safe from a woman who once had her own place in that same fucking soul.
