intel, the only possible verdict was guilty.
“I had to do something. Behind bars, I’d never get to the bottom of this, if they even let me live. My CID contact, Special Agent J.D. Torres, came to see me after the verdict and we devised a plan to fake my death. Once I escaped, I knew enough to keep gathering evidence against them without worrying that they’d go after my family.”
“And yet here we are, almost a year later.” She sank back into the chair.
“Yes.” His worst nightmare coming true in full color and in real time. “Based on what I learned during my brief time within Hellfire, I’ve been piecing parts of the puzzle together. I’ve learned how the drugs come into the country and I know the top three players in the group. I even managed to stop a drug shipment last month.”
“That’s progress, I guess. What did Torres have to say?”
He recognized that look. She was shifting gears, playing devil’s advocate. He was about to preempt that move. “Torres was the only person who knew about me. I reached out to him to turn in my latest report and let him know where I stashed Hellfire’s drugs for the CID to clean up. He didn’t respond. I discovered he died in a single-car wreck last month. He’d gone missing more than forty-eight hours before police found the car torched, just off his normal route to and from work. Taking that shipment managed to get another man killed and put you and Frankie in the crosshairs.”
“How can they possibly know you were responsible?”
“Process of elimination,” he replied. “I’m the only one who understands how the money and drugs move through their sick, private retirement fund. I can’t be sure when they learned I’m alive. They must have tortured Torres to discover how we stayed in contact.”
“They threatened Frankie and me to draw you out?” She closed her eyes, her fingers sliding the pendant of her necklace along the chain. “How did they tell you?”
“It was a private message on a social media account. They sent me a picture of you, then followed that with the kill order.” When she let loose a string of Italian curses for Hellfire, he couldn’t have agreed more. “I can’t quit now. If I don’t stop them, who knows how many more people will get hurt or die while they get richer?”
Her gaze was distant, thoughtful, as she resumed her place at the very edge of her chair. “I felt someone watching me in Chicago.”
“Yes,” he said with a nod. “I’ve been shadowing the man they put on you since you arrived this morning. I had to move fast before the sniper could set up the shot.”
“So you pulled me out of harm’s way.”
“It almost worked perfectly.” His heart had stopped when they’d forced her off the road. “I’m not sure why they ran you off the road, unless they wanted your death to look like an accident.”
“What about Frankie?”
The edge of panic in her voice slid as deep as a blade between his ribs. “I’m hoping this fiancé of hers can watch her back, but the sooner I wrap this up, the better for everyone.” Once he eliminated Hellfire and knew his girls were safe, he could think about what to do with the rest of his lonely life.
Sophia nodded, her face pinched as she laced her fingers together in her lap. There had been a time when they’d faced bad news hand in hand. He never should have kept any of this from her. “Is he a good man?”
She lifted her gaze to meet his, blinking as she tried to put his question into the proper context. “Aidan? He’s the best. Did you know he was a Colby investigator?”
“Yes. I did a background search on him.” While Frank respected Victoria Colby-Camp and her agency, this was his baby girl’s life on the line. “I sent him a death threat today.”
“You did what?”
“Well, I sent it to him, but it was aimed specifically at Frankie,” he clarified, realizing too late he’d only made things worse. “I wanted them on alert. I couldn’t blurt out what was really going on. I needed them to react quickly, not ask questions.”
“Oh, Lord.” Her expressive eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Here I was, trying to figure out how to clue her in that you’re alive and that we might need her help.”
“We can’t do that. We can’t tell her anything.” Panic snapped and clawed at his heart. “The more she knows about me, the more danger she’s in.”
Sophia’s sound of frustration mimicked an unhappy grizzly bear. “If I don’t kill you before this is over, she will. Trust me on that.”
“I deserve it,” he said through another wave of anguish. “But if I don’t stop them—”
She held up a hand. “I can fill in the blank.” She massaged the lobes of her ears around her earrings. “The treason charge,” she began. “Did you knowingly send that team in Kabul to their deaths?”
That she could even think it of him stopped his heart more effectively than the drug he’d used to fake his death. Still, in light of everything, it was a fair question. “I did not.” It had been such a sharp edge he’d been walking and he thought he’d done everything possible to make sure only he would or could be injured. A tactic that left him with no allies when the plan backfired. He’d been too new, hadn’t known the real players within Hellfire or the full measure of their greed.
Now he did, and he needed to give his wife and daughter the best protection. “I know you don’t owe me anything, dolcezza. Not your understanding and certainly not your forgiveness.”
“Be quiet. I’m thinking of our next step.”
“Our?” he echoed, staring at her. “No way.”
“You need me,” she countered.
He did need her. Desperately. When this was over, maybe they could talk about just how badly he needed her. Assuming he lived through the fight Hellfire would present. “What I need most is to know you’re tucked away safely out of Hellfire’s reach.”
“Is there such a place?”
He didn’t say yes fast enough.
“Then we’ll do this together,” she declared. She stood, the ghost of a smile tipping her lush mouth.
“Absolutely not,” he said. He wanted to keep her as far from the chaos as possible. He’d often fantasized about a reunion when the coast was clear. Coming home to Sophia had always been the best part of fulfilling his military responsibilities. Someday this mess with Hellfire would be behind them and, if she gave him a chance, he’d never leave her again.
“Look where you’ve wound up working alone!” She switched to Italian, indulging in a fiery rant that called into question his intelligence and sanity. “I have contacts and resources. You need my help.”
“You think the two of us can do what the CID couldn’t?”
“Yes.” Her eyes glittered, daring him to contradict her. “As a team,” she said pointedly. “We were unstoppable. They have regulations and systems. We have a dead man with good intel and a reputable woman with excellent connections.”
