Shades of Gray (KGI #6)(71)

B in town. Something big going down. Several of the girls were hired. Can’t say more in email. I’ll talk in person if it’s just you.

The email was from one of the call girls P.J. had befriended in her quest to track down the four men who’d been present when she was raped. Katia—P.J. didn’t know her real name—had been an invaluable source of information, but she was also extremely paranoid and spooky. With good reason. Brumley wouldn’t hesitate to shut anyone down he perceived as a threat.

She quickly checked the date the email had been sent and breathed her relief when she saw it was sent the previous evening. So it hadn’t languished for days while P.J. had been out of touch.

With shaking hands, she shut the laptop, her mind in vicious turmoil.

It had been so easy to forget her objective when she was a world away with people who cared about her. The last days with Cole had enabled her to shove Brumley into the back of her mind. She’d relaxed her guard, had been able to pretend she was flirting and forging a relationship.

Last night should have told her that there was no way she could move forward with her life until she’d taken care of her past. But even after her panic attack, she’d still refused to focus on the task at hand.

She had to get to Vienna and talk to Katia. What if Nelson had been wrong about Jakarta? What if he’d outright lied, purposely sending P.J. on a wild-goose chase? He could have been protecting his boss with his last breath.

What if they could take Brumley down before the deal in Jakarta?

Her mind was filled with a thousand what-ifs.

“Hey, what’s wrong? You’re pale,” Cole said, concern an edge in his voice.

“We need to talk,” she said more sharply than she intended.

Cole dropped what he was doing and walked around to take the bar stool beside her, turning so he faced her.

“What’s up?”

He was all business now, his expression serious, and he was focused solely on her.

She let out her breath, hoping like hell she wasn’t making a mistake confiding in Cole. But she trusted him. It was time to see just how their relationship was going to work.

“Okay, you know I was gone for six months and I managed to take out three of Brumley’s men. You were there when I took out Nelson.”

Cole nodded.

“What I never told you was how I was able to get so close. How I got my intel and knew where to find them each time.”

Cole nodded. “Yeah, I wondered since you weren’t using the team for support.”

“The night of the party, when Donovan and I went in, I saw several very high-class girls hooking up outside the gate with single men going into the party. Donovan explained that they were very expensive working girls. A date for the night plus whatever went on behind closed doors when it was all said and done.”

Cole nodded again.

“Well it occurred to me that these girls were probably in the know. They know when the parties go down. They know who the players are. And that if I got close to one of them, I could tap a valuable source of information.”

Cole frowned. “Okay.”

“I could only find one willing to talk to me. She calls herself Katia. The rest were obviously afraid and unwilling to risk talking to me. I can’t say I blame them. They’re pretty much nameless, faceless women no one cares about. No family to be concerned if they disappear. They’d probably not even cause a ripple if they suddenly went missing.

“Anyway, Katia was willing to talk to me, but she was extremely cautious. Always met in secret. She was adamant that I was the only person she would talk to, and if I didn’t show alone, she wouldn’t open her mouth. So I paid her for info. She’d tell me when a party was planned or even when she’d heard about a deal going down. Apparently a lot of the guys these girls pick up have loose lips after sex and they like to brag about how powerful they are.”

“So she told you how to get to the first three men,” Cole said grimly.

“Yeah. She never gave me a bad lead, so I figure she’s entertaining some people pretty high up in Brumley’s organization, if not Brumley himself.”

“Okay, so what does that have to do with now?” Cole asked impatiently.

“I got an email from her,” P.J. said, her fingers still shaking despite her best effort not to let the email rattle her. “She says something big’s going down in Vienna with Brumley. She wouldn’t say more. She wants to talk to me in person.”

Cole reared back, automatically shaking his head. “Oh hell no. Fuck no, P.J. Not going to happen.”

P.J. put her hand up, pissed because it was still shaking. The last thing she needed was for Cole to think she was afraid, because she’d never get him on board then.

“Think about it, Cole. I’m not going after Brumley alone. I just need to see Katia and find out what she knows. It’s possible Nelson completely misled me when he told me about the deal going down in Jakarta. Think about it. His dying breath and he sends me in the opposite direction to where Brumley will really be. The ultimate f**k-you. I need to get to Vienna and talk to Katia so we know where this deal is going down. If we’re off in bumf*ck Jakarta while he’s doing a deal in Vienna, he’s home free. We may never find the f**ker again.”

“If you think I’m letting you go off to Vienna by yourself, you’re out of your goddamn mind.”