Best Laid Plans(61)

Sean tensed. He tried not to, but he couldn’t control his reaction. Lucy froze in his arms. “What happened?”

“She didn’t know, not until she saw me. I never forget a face, she said. And I knew. The truth was in her eyes.”

That Sean could remain calm was a testament to his maturity. Because he wanted to kill Mona Hill. And after what he’d learned while digging into her past, she deserved to die.

“I won’t let that woman—I won’t let anyone—hurt you.”

“I have to face the truth.”

He didn’t like the monotone in her voice. “What truth?”

“That people who know me will see it. And when they do, they won’t be able to hide the truth in their eyes.”

“Lucy,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Together. You are not in this alone.”





CHAPTER NINETEEN



The last thing Brad Donnelly wanted to do was visit his former partner, but Ryan and Lucy were right: if anyone other than the killers knew about the mass slaughter of Trejo’s remaining gang, it was Nicole. He needed to get it out of the way, so he arrived at the jail before eight Tuesday morning.

Former DEA Agent Nicole Rollins was being held at the Central Texas Detention Facility while her lawyers and the AUSA negotiated the terms of her guilty plea. It had been an arduous process because initially the Department of Justice had wanted the death penalty, and that would require a trial. Nicole was being charged with multiple counts of accessory to murder, bribery, abuse of authority, attempted murder of a federal law enforcement agent, conspiracy, facilitation of drug trafficking, and more. They still hadn’t uncovered every crime Nicole Rollins had committed during her fifteen-year career with the DEA.

The last time Brad had seen Nicole was the day he was kidnapped by Sanchez nine weeks ago. When he’d called his boss last night and asked for permission to talk to Nicole about his current case, the first thing Samantha Archer said—even before reminding him he wasn’t cleared for field duty—was “You really don’t want to see that cold bitch.”

Nicole had been part of Brad’s team. He was the SSA, he was responsible for his people. When Nicole had transferred into his unit three years ago, he’d liked that she was seasoned, calm, and sharp. She was also unemotional, which Brad appreciated because he sometimes became too involved in his cases. So he found himself asking for her backup more than other agents’.

He’d trusted her. And she’d handed him over to Jaime Sanchez on a silver platter, knowing that Jaime intended to torture and kill him.

Fortunately, it didn’t take Brad long to convince Sam that Nicole might have valuable information. Sam concurred that Nicole probably wouldn’t talk to anyone else. She wasn’t doing much talking now, which was also holding up the process. Still, the DEA wanted her close to home, so to speak, because cops in prison never fared well—even when they were corrupt DEA agents working for known drug lords. She was also being kept isolated, because she knew far too much about undercover operations. They were extracting assets and changing procedures on every operation of which Nicole might have had knowledge. It took time, especially in a government bureaucracy.

A guard escorted Nicole into the small meeting room in handcuffs. She’d attempted to escape shortly after being transferred to CTD and, because she was well trained in hand-to-hand combat, the prison had determined that she would only be allowed out of her cell in cuffs.

Prison could change people quickly, but Nicole hadn’t changed much at all. Aside from no makeup, shorter hair, and the orange prison jumpsuit, her blue eyes were still intelligent and she still looked physically fit. Maybe even more so.

Brad stared at her, refusing to break eye contact first. The pain of his torture, of Nicole’s betrayal, ate at him, but he still held her eyes. It was a testament to her mental fortitude—and lack of remorse—that she didn’t look away.

The guard sat her down and locked her cuffs into the ring on the table. “If you need anything, Agent Donnelly, just let me know. I’ll be right outside the door.”

“Thank you,” he said with a brief nod.

When the guard had left, Brad said, “The last known associates of Jaime Sanchez were murdered two nights ago. Who did it?”

Nicole gave him a half grin. “No. We don’t start with what you want. We start with what I want.”

His jaw tensed. “And what would that be?”

“Conversation.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll go back to my cell.”

“You have no rights.”

“Last I checked, prisoners have a lot of rights.”

“Not you. You’ll sit there until I tell the guard to take you away.”

She laughed. “So dramatic, Brad. Really. Ask me something else.”

“I have nothing else to ask.”

“The first time you’ve come to visit me and you don’t have any other questions? All business? I don’t think so.”

“This isn’t a visit, Nicole.”

She tilted her head. “You want to know why.”

“There is no justifiable reason for what you did. People died, Nicole. Agents. Children.”

Her face was blank. Sam was right. Nicole was a cold bitch. She’d pushed Brad and he reacted, reminding him that Nicole understood him better than he understood her.