A Covert Affair (Deadly Ops #5)(54)

He nodded once. “Good. If you think of anything else, contact me immediately. And I’m going to want to talk to your staff, but don’t mention anything to anyone yet.”

“I’ve covered Tessa’s shifts, but I haven’t said why and I won’t. And I’ll definitely call you if I think of something.” She wanted Tessa found.

When she pulled away from the curb, she contemplated going home or back to the restaurant. It took her only a moment to decide on work. It would keep her busy. She could catch up on more paperwork. Unfortunately she’d have to field questions about Tessa’s absence; that was inevitable. But the thought of going home, being alone, was too damn depressing.

All her friends worked during the day, so it wasn’t as if she could call someone up either. Not only that, but she hadn’t told anyone about what she’d gone through when she was seventeen. It was part of her past and she wanted it to stay that way. Now she wished she had someone to at least talk to. She contemplated reaching out to Maria, but her husband was friends with Nathan. That would be too weird.

By the time she reached the street to Plátanos Maduros, her stomach was even more twisted up. At least the parking lot was full, she saw, as she neared the turnoff.

Oh yeah, she’d be busy. She slid her hand down the steering wheel, ready to flip her turn signal on, when her Jeep jerked forward under an intense impact. Her head snapped forward, all the muscles in her body tightening. She flicked her gaze to the rearview mirror.

What the—

A truck slammed into her again, her vehicle shuddering as she gripped the wheel tightly. Not again.

Panic exploded inside her when she saw two women carrying shopping bags stepping out into the street in front of her. They weren’t paying attention.

Without pause she yanked the wheel hard to the right, jumping onto the sidewalk to avoid hitting them. She heard screaming but couldn’t look back as she maneuvered down the sidewalk, her Jeep tearing up the outlying grass. The outer sidewalk lined a parking lot, so there weren’t any direct shops on it, but there were poles and freaking palm trees she couldn’t maneuver around.

She looked in the rearview mirror again to see the same vehicle behind her on the sidewalk now. Shit! In front of her was a bus stop and to the right was a line of palm trees. She barely had time to decide which impact would suck less when the truck rammed her again.

Her Jeep jerked forward, the crunching sound of metal filling the air as her vehicle careened toward the empty bus stop. Barely in control, she yanked the wheel sharply so that the passenger side would take the impact.

Her muscles tightened as she braced for the impact.





Chapter 14


Analysts: people who take raw information from HUMINT, OSINT, etc., and draw conclusions by assessing its significance and by collating it with other information.





Nathan nodded once at an agent he recognized but hadn’t seen in a while as he strode down the quiet corridor of the NSA building. He’d already gone through multiple layers of security including more than one biometric scan just to get to this floor. He’d also been very careful not to be followed on the way over. It was impossible to know for certain, but he’d changed vehicles enough times and had gotten on the Metromover.

Twice.

He was new to the undercover part of his job but he knew that this op wasn’t typical. On most of the ops agents got sent on, when they went undercover they might not have contact with Burkhart or anyone for weeks at a time. And even then it was usually via phone or e-mail. But this was a time-sensitive case. He wasn’t infiltrating an organization; he was simply sliding on a persona to question suspected criminals. The meeting this morning had been a bust, unfortunately, he thought as he reached the halfway-open door to Burkhart’s office. Well, one of them.

His boss had an office that was attached to their main command center in Miami, but this was another office he also used. Nathan wasn’t sure why he had two in this building and he wasn’t going to ask why. Though he guessed it gave Burkhart privacy when he needed to work with little to no interruptions.

Burkhart was on the phone but held up a hand and motioned for him to enter.

“Call me with updates,” he said before setting his cell on the desk. “The meeting?” he asked by way of greeting.

“He’s a criminal, mainly into low-level arms dealing. Seemed as if he’d be open to moving drugs, but when I mentioned moving people he shut me down. Got offended.” Which was amusing in a fucked-up sort of way. Even criminals had codes they followed. Or at least a loose set of morals.

“What’s your gut say?”

“He’s not involved. From what we’ve found, his business is solid, and when I talked about moving heroin through his territory he was contemplative but didn’t jump at it. He’s doing well and if I had to guess, from his standpoint, he’ll just bring more heat on himself if he gets involved with me. I think he didn’t want to risk offending me, but he doesn’t want to do business. He’s making good bank per month and he’s happy with his income.”

“Yeah, that’s what Elliott and Karen said too.”

“Do the locals have any thoughts on him?” Nathan asked.

“Captain Nieto doesn’t think he’s involved either. I’m marking him off our list. We’ve taken three of the main suspects off so far.”