Page 10 of Special Agent Joseph

With the final goal of putting him away for the rest of his life, she knew it would leave Lucia truly an orphan. And likely hating the person who made that happen. Getting her head around that fact made her stomach tighten with a sick feeling.

Chapter Seven

Later that afternoon, making sure not to be followed, Megan showed up at the Bureau, having replaced her undercover banking get-up with the dark, form-fitting pants and cream silken shirt she normally wore to the FBI office. Loving the feel of the slight breeze through her own golden hair, she flipped her head to the side, forcing the waves back over her shoulders.

To the delight of her superiors, she explained in detail about the conversation she’d had with the mob boss earlier. Excited, Sheila placed a zoom call to her own superior and together they encouraged Megan to take on the job working undercover.

The Special Agent in Charge had his own advice and direction. “You know that every jurisdiction has been on the lookout for Vinnie Farina for a long time. It’s strange his name should come up at this moment, so I’ll take it as a sign. You know that recently while searching through some new evidence against him, we found a dirty agent on his payroll, Special Agent Joseph Marcus. The man is rotten… pond scum. We need to put him out ofcommission too, hopefully with charges that will also hold up on Farina.”

Rubbing his hands together, the middle-aged SAC lowered his voice, then turned his gaze on first one woman and then the other. His seriousness permeating the call. “Whatever you need, it’s yours Megan. Sheila, I can feel us getting closer to an arrest on the crafty bastard whose file is sitting on the top of my outstanding pile.”

“I’m with you there.”

“Okay, then. Megan, be careful. And Sheila, give her whatever she needs to catch the asshole who’s been getting away with murder, drug trafficking, robberies and a host of other charges for far too long.”

***

Days later, Megan had settled in at Vinnie Farina’s mansion, guarding his spoiled darling, and sneaking to find evidence of the boss’s underworld activities. Sadly, Lucia had been sticking to her room for days on end, leaving Megan frustrated and having very little to do.

Her one nemesis, another bodyguard called Jie, became the bane of her existence. The large Chinese dude took every chance he could to push himself on her and once again had caught her unprepared.

Megan slid out of the arms of the grabby asshole, her figure stiff and her eyes shooting warning signals. “Back off, Jie. Don’t make me hurt you again.”

Jie grinned, rubbed at his still sore chin, and stepped back.

With his American qualities overcome by his Asian features, he griped in an obvious southern accent, “Baby, you love it when I pay you attention. All chicks dig it. Some just like playing hard to get.”

She grinned yet spoke with conviction. “See… that’s the difference between me and other chicks. I’m not playing, asshole. Get it through that thick skull, I don’t dig you.”

The denier chuckled. “Like I said, hard to get.” Having the last word, Jie stomped away, leaving the door he’d been guarding unprotected. Which gave Megan a chance to slip inside the forbidden office she didn’t have access to and shouldn’t be in.

Finally able to place the specialized, untraceable FBI covert listening device she’d been holding onto since she’d arrived, she snuck under Vinnie’s old-fashioned wooden desk. Once there, she found a hidden corner to attach it where it wouldn’t be seen.

Done, she stood to retreat to the hallway before Vinnie and his sycophants arrived and found her in the restricted place. Feeling pleased that she’d been able to set the recording device where the FBI computer specialists had suggested would work best, she breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until she heard the sounds of male voices approaching.

Oh, oh! Not good.Swiveling in place, she decided the small balcony would be her best bet for hiding. Thankful the room was on the ground floor, she zipped around the gauze-type curtains just in time before the door swung open and Vinnie appeared, followed by another man.

Hoping his newest bestie, Chen Bao, who’d begun to appear at the mansion had surfaced again, she listened closely. The files she’d memorized on this man and his associates would make anyone sit up and take notice. The scope of organized crime Chao’s syndicate was involved with went far beyond fentanyl trafficking and money laundering. Internationally, this criminal group engaged in elaborate fraud scams, cyber crimes, plus people trafficking and enslavement. The dude was the worst of the bad ones.

Listening to the men talking, she soon realized her mistake.

From the morning she’d first started working, Megan had been on the lookout for her secondary suspect… the dirty cop everyone in the bureau hated and who’d gone off the radar. Turns out, they’d recently located Agent Marcus in a hospital, recuperating from a car accident.

When she’d first arrived at Lucia’s mansion, house gossip had revealed that the full-of-himself asshole had suddenly gone MIA. And according to the housemaids crushing on the dude, for him to go completely off the grid had surprised everyone… especially Vinnie. They’d whispered about hearing the older man yelling at his guards to find the idiot.

Unable to share her knowledge with the others about the missing agent and his mishap, she simply pretended ignorance and encouraged the others to talk while she listened to any bits of chatter relating to the man.

At one point, she’d thought to ask Jie about Joseph Marcus but soon realized her doing that would be totally out of character. Really… slapping him away for touching and then cuddling close for information would send mixed signals to the already brain-challenged idiot.

So… biding her time, she kept her head down and waited for something to break. And here he was, standing in front of her in the flesh, the missing special agent. Once Vinnie closed the door, he dropped his nice-guy attitude and let it rip. His voice slightly below a roar, he yelled, “Where the fuck have you been, Joseph?”

Megan peeked through the gauzy shield and watched the younger man switch from pleasant to angry. “Hey, man. No disrespect, but your clowns kidnapped me and brought me here. Why?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Joseph. What the fuck happened to you? And what’s with the scars on your face?”

“Christ, I was in a car accident, and since then I’ve been recuperating in the hospital, trying to remember who the hell I am. More important, who the hell are you?”

Megan saw Vinnie fall back against the desk, his body stiff with rage. “What? Explain. Now. And it better be the truth or so help me God, you’re a dead man.”

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