going to see this through, he needed her to be willing to do what he asked of her. “You’ll need to help me, too.”
Her eyes narrowed in wariness. “What do I have to do?”
Valuing her caution, he placed his palms on the table to keep from curling his fingers into fists. The burn of anger at Santini simmered below the surface, ready to boil any moment. “Help me bring down Idris Santini.”
A little V appeared between her eyebrows. “Who is this Santini character?”
Blake’s fingers dug into the table. “A very bad man. He killed a fellow ICE agent in cold blood.”
Sympathy flooded her eyes. Blake tried to look away but couldn’t. Her gaze pulled him in, made him want to make her understand the magnitude of the situation. “Our intel had put him at the docks in New Jersey. Liam and I were the closest agents. I was in Manhattan, and Liam was in Atlantic City. Liam arrived first and, without back up, tried to prevent Santini from boarding a freighter. When I arrived Santini had Liam on his knees. I watched the man put a bullet in the back of Liam’s head and toss him off the side of the pier like garbage.” Blake’s fingers curled into tight fists. “Liam should have waited for me.”
“Would you have waited for him?”
The question so quietly asked had the power of a chainsaw and ripped through him, forcing him to confront a truth he hadn’t wanted to face. “No. I would have done the same.”
“And then you’d be the one dead.”
Acid burned in his gut. He wanted to believe he wouldn’t have let Santini get the drop on him. But Liam was the best there was. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, her voice gentle.
He leaned forward. “And now Santini is threatening the life of your sister and her husband. We need to work together to bring him to justice and rescue your sister.”
Blake vowed to take Santini down if it was the last thing he did. And this woman was the key to Blake’s revenge and redemption. He just needed her cooperation.
“Why should I trust you?” Liz asked with skepticism lacing each word.
Blake stared her in the eye and flattened his hands on the table. “You have no choice if you want to see your sister again. In order for us to succeed, we have to trust each other.”
No choice.
Staring at the man across the metal table in the interrogation room, Liz clenched her jaw until her teeth ached.
ICE agent Blake Fallon.
He took the acronym to a whole new level. She didn’t doubt ice ran in his veins. Waves of tension rolled off him, adding to her own anxiety. And yet he watched her with measured patience as if he had all the time in the world. There wasn’t an extra ounce of fat to him, no softness whatsoever. His lean frame and wide shoulders blocked her view of not only the door but also the exit. He had a strong jawline, defined cheekbones and eyes so dark she could see her reflection.
Could he see how terrified she was? Did he even care? She knew that wasn’t fair. His story of his friend’s death left an impression. He blamed himself for something that was out of his control. Most likely he thought he could have prevented the tragedy. She had a feeling control was important to him.
And he wanted her to trust him because he said so.
Well, that wasn’t how trust worked. He had to prove himself trustworthy if he wanted her to believe that he could help her. Because from where she was sitting, it appeared as if he wanted to intimidate her into doing whatever he wanted her to do. To bring down Santini. A man who had murdered his friend. And now held her sister captive.
Under normal circumstances, if a man had acted so domineering she’d be out the door and on her way without a backward glance.
But these weren’t normal circumstances.
And Agent Blake Fallon wasn’t just any man. He was the man who held the power to free her sister.
Did he know about the other man who had threatened to kill Liz if she didn’t hand over the necklace?
Jillian’s new, no-good, rotten husband had put Jillian and Liz in danger, not to mention himself. Poor Jillian. Liz prayed she wasn’t too heartbroken to learn Travis wasn’t the man she’d thought him to be. Unfortunately, he was the kind of man Liz feared he’d be. Calculated, conniving, a thief.
She blew out an angry breath and forced back the fear that lurked at the edges of her mind. She had to be sensible and think this all through.
One mistake could cost Jillian her life. That wasn’t a risk Liz was willing to take. She grew hot beneath her jacket. She unzipped it and let the sides flop open to allow for the mild air of the interrogation room to swirl over her, cooling her thoughts as well as her overheated body.
“You didn’t answer me,” she intoned with a good measure of annoyance she couldn’t hold back. “What do you want me to do?”
He arched one dark eyebrow.
She grimaced. “Besides trust you, that is.”
For a second amusement danced in his eyes, and she thought he might smile. But no. Just as quickly his stoic expression slid back into place, making the angles and planes of his face hard and unyielding. It must have been her wishful thinking that the man had some other mode besides stony.
“We both want the same thing,” he said in a slow measured tone. “Santini.”
She sat up straighter. “I want my sister back. Unharmed.”
Those were two different agendas.
He inclined his head, acknowledging her words. “That’s a given and obviously my priority. But until we bring down Santini, there’s no guarantee you’ll get your sister back. Unharmed.”
His response made her stomach clench with apprehension. She wanted to deny the truth in his words. But judging by where she was sitting and who was glaring at her across a cold, hard table, she figured he probably knew more about Santini and situations like this than she did. But that didn’t mean she had to like it. Or him.
“He told me no police or he’d kill her,” she pointed out.
“Let me worry about that.”
Right. Like that was going to happen. “You still haven’t told me what I need to do.”
“You’ll make the drop like Santini demanded. Only we’ll have people everywhere. When Santini shows up to pick up the necklace, we’ll nab him.”
“That’s your plan?” she asked. The man appeared intelligent, but maybe he had rocks for brains. Great. Not inspiring a lot of trust right now. “I don’t think this Santini guy is going to be dumb enough to walk into a trap. At the very least he’ll send someone to make the pickup.”
“You’re
