Page 85 of Philly
She nodded, too.
He took a breath. “And Mantis is going to have one of the guys hang out with you while you’re not at HICC,” he said, then braced himself for her response.
Her brow dropped. Okay, that wasn’t so bad.
“I’ll get up after you leave, have breakfast, and head straight to HICC. It will take less than an hour. A lot can happen in an hour, but by the time they get here, I’ll be headed out.”
“Then they’ll make sure you make it to HICC.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. Not so much fighting the idea of having someone watch over her but more questioning his planning skills.
A low rumble of a truck filled the predawn quiet—Monk’s, if he guessed right. “They’re already here. Probably Monk,” he said.
One eyebrow went up. “You boys work fast.”
He chuckled. “Says the woman who put a ring on my finger in less than two weeks.”
She stared at him, then relaxed back into her pillow and slid back down the bed. “Go do your thing. Be safe,” she demanded. He nodded. “And call me when you’re on your way home.” Hewouldn’t forget. Callie might be easing into a new life, but her anxiety issues weren’t going to go away overnight.
“Promise,” he said, leaning down and pressing a lingering kiss to her lips. “Love you.”
She smiled and tipped her head up for another kiss. “Love you, too. Be safe,” she admonished again as he rose.
“I always am, but I have plans for us tonight.”
“Are they different from last night’s plans?” she asked, her eyes dancing.
“Same plans,” he said, walking backward toward the door.
“Good,” she said. “I love a repeat performance.”
45
“Good work, Callie,” Stella Zatoro said over the speakerphone. Beside her, Sabina nodded, as did Leo and Chad, who sat across the conference table. Two days had passed since she’d set up her war-room-on-steroids, and in that time, she’d uncovered four more bribes Aiden paid, about ten million he’d skimmed from the company accounts, and four videos (thanks, Leo), of him engaging in behavior with girls far too young to be in the business they’d been forced into. It hadn’t hurt that Rian had given Leo unfettered access to the IT infrastructure of Nolan Enterprises.
“Now we need to find the agent who’s assisting him,” Chad said, flashing her a look. He’d been with the FBI before joining HICC as well, and while neither of them believed everyone at the Bureau was all justice and light, it still suckedknowingat least one of them wasn’t.
“Any luck with that, Sabina?” Hunter, Stella’s husband, asked.
“We’ve narrowed it down to three people,” she answered. “One deputy director in the unit Callie worked in and two directors in two other units. Both still white-collar units.”
“What’s the holdup?” Hunter asked.
Sabina didn’t take offense at the comment. “One of them has a bit of an arrangement with Aiden. After lunch. We don’t have any proof, outside of her monthly contact with him, that she’s engaged in anything that even borderlines on sketchy, but it’s possible there’s pillow talk.”
“She has bad taste, but we’re not sure about anything else?” Stella clarified.
“Correct,” Leo said. “I’m leaning toward just the bad taste. Which, considering what else we know about Aiden, is almost criminally bad, but not the kind of crime we’re looking for.”
“What about the other two?” Hunter asked.
“Delano Rose and Larry Kline,” Sabina said.
“And theyaresketchy. We haven’t connected them to Aiden’s brand of sketchy yet, though,” Leo said.
“How sketchy?” Hunter asked.
“Intimidating witnesses, buying people off, both are on payrolls of organized crime families—different ones—and I’m pretty sure one of them abuses his wife,” Sabina said.
