Chapter Thirty-One
She checked her watch and looked up nervously from her computer terminal. It was eleven-fifty a.m. Where was Cole? He should have texted her by now. Then she heard a murmur of excitement race through the building.
“What’s happening?” she asked a tech who was passing behind her.
“Conflicting reports of a possible bomb threat on the street.”
“Bomb threat?”
“Truck bomb.”
Shit. “Should we evacuate?”
“We’ve been told to shelter in place. SIOC was designed to withstand that sort of blast. We should be fine.”
A tremor of excitement ran through her. She reached into the pocket in her fancy leather satchel to retrieve her newest burner phone. Reverently, she punched in the numbers of the cell attached to the five-thousand pounds of explosives packed into the back of that truck—the exact same amount McVeigh had used in Oklahoma. She waited for the call to connect, bracing herself for the blast even though she should be safe. She’d never intended to die for the cause. She couldn’t lead from the grave—or from a jail cell for that matter.
She regretted Cole would die, but it turned out his resemblance to his father didn’t extend beyond his good looks. Cole had been corrupted by the impure. But he’d die honoring his father, the man she truly loved.
Her lips tightened and she dialed the number again. She kept expecting to feel a boom but nothing happened. Dammit. She called a third time. Again. Nothing.
Had the idiot fucked up making the bomb? Trent was a farmer out in Virginia who was all for the reinstitution of slavery. He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. She should have known he was the weak link in the chain, but how hard could it be? She put the cell back in her bag and closed it. If you wanted something done, do it yourself.
“Excitement’s over,” their section chief shouted across the room. “Bomb has been disarmed.”
She clapped like every other mindless drone.
“Who’s responsible?” someone yelled back.
“Some young guy. Related to that white nationalist group, the Pioneers.”
“They shoot him?”
“Nah, pulled him from the cab and arrested his skinny ass. He’s being brought in for questioning.”
Ah, crap. That sealed it.
She’d failed.
Everything she’d done. Everything she’d worked for. All for nothing.
She climbed to her feet and stretched out her back. Cole might not know her real name, but it was only a matter of time before he was shown photographs and identified her as his lover. She had to disappear before they found her.
A commotion started near the main door. The Director of the FBI and the US Attorney General headed into their briefing room. She checked her watch. They were later than usual, but maybe they were here because of the bomb threat. Excitement fizzled through her blood and almost made her dizzy.
Their bomb plot might have failed, but maybe this would be better. Killing the FBI Director and the AG in the heart of the Hoover Building would send a message that would ring through the centuries.
On the screens in the media room she could see newsfeeds of the van out front. The news hounds would be baying and snarling for more information, for a story. Her fellow patriots all over the country were waiting, ready to rise up and take action just as soon as they saw a definitive sign that the revolution had started.
This would work.
She started walking toward the meeting room where some of the aides mingled. Her hand slid to her weapon. Everyone was talking excitedly. No one noticed her. Then the director and AG went into the small private briefing room and firmly shut the door. The man who stood in front of the door caught her eye and stared hard. Her hand dropped away from her weapon. She carried on walking and veered right, heading into the outside corridor. She went to the ladies’ room to regroup.
Patience, she told herself. She’d already waited nearly twenty years. She could wait a few more minutes.
* * *
Shudders wracked her body so violently Tess couldn’t stand up. She huddled in Parker’s Audi, numbed by the enormity of what she’d just witnessed.
Her little brother had been dragged out of a van that was apparently full of explosives. Seeing Cole in that truck had made her feel equal parts terrified and ashamed. What was wrong with her family’s DNA? Why did they feel the need to hate and destroy?
The idea that Cole and Mac could both have been killed made her want to curl into a ball and stay there. It would have been all her fault. The revelation that she loved the federal agent had hit her with renewed ferocity when faced with the possibility of his imminent death.
She should have trusted him with the information she had on her brother. The FBI could have arrested Cole without putting so many lives in danger.
She kept picturing Mac running up to that truck and pulling her brother out onto the road. She loved Cole. But she also loved Steve McKenzie. He was annoying and aggravating and brave and courageous. She had the horrible feeling she’d always loved him and would always love him. She couldn’t hide from her feelings anymore, but so what? There was no future for them. No redemption from this disaster.
Parker slipped into the driver’s seat beside her.
“Was it really a bomb?” she asked him quietly.
He nodded, looking completely unfazed. “Bomb techs made it safe.”
Her heart twisted. Her brother was a domestic terrorist. But…it still didn’t feel right. “You’ll think I’m crazy, but I grew up with these kinds of people.” She rubbed her chilled arms. “My brother just doesn’t fit in with those characters.”
Parker’s gaze grew quizzical. “You still doubt he’s involved?”
“Didn’t they try to frame Mac for his ex-wife’s murder?” she argued. “Why is it out of the realm of possibility to think someone framed Cole for this?”
“Hmm…he drove a truck bomb to FBI HQ and was caught in the act?”
“But he was just sitting there! Cole isn’t stupid and he isn’t suicidal. Look.” It was starting to make sense to her now. “He recently started dating a woman significantly older than he is. He’s been very secretive about her, refused to introduce us. I followed him on Tuesday and he met with her for lunch not far from this very spot. Could she be involved? Could she have tricked him?”
Alex’s eyes shot to the huge FBI building and he frowned. “You’re talking about a pretty complex deception.”
“They’ve been planning this for twenty years, Alex. I think they’ve had time to think it through.”
His gaze got even sharper.
“No one’s going to believe me if I say anything. Especially Mac.”
Someone opened her door and squatted beside her. She braced herself to confront Mac, but it was Agent Walsh. Her stomach resumed its awful churning.
“I need you to come inside and make a statement.” Walsh started to drag her out the car and she cried out as he gripped her arm hard enough to hurt.
“Hey. Careful.” Mac was suddenly beside her, elbowing the guy aside.
Mac extended his hand and Tess took his reluctantly. His fingers squeezed but there was no matching reassurance in his eyes.
She pulled away as soon as she was standing on the pavement, and crossed her arms. Whatever her feelings for the man she couldn’t afford to let her guard down. The only thing she had left was her dignity and that was shredded.
“I need to take her in for questioning,” Walsh insisted.
“You mean to make a statement?” Mac furrowed his brows.
Walsh rolled his eyes on a heavy sigh. “She could be involved, Mac. You have to see that?”
“She’s not part of this,” Mac said adamantly. “I’ve been with her for most of the past week.” He didn’t mention the files and Tess found herself watching his face trying to figure out when that piece of information was going to drop on her head and explode. “We’ve had people analyze her internet activity and email and phone calls.”
That reality finally registered, even though Parker had mentioned it earlier. Mac had used their mutual attraction to get closer to her while they checked her background. She hadn’t made it difficult for him. Another reason to despise him and herself.
“There is nothing to suggest she had anything to do with these murders or this plot. I’ll stake my career on it.”
“What career?” someone muttered.
Tess jerked her head up. What did that mean? Her eyes searched Mac’s face, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“I need to do my job, Mac,” said Walsh. “You’re off the case, remember?”
“You did hear they cleared me of killing my ex-wife, right?” Mac said impatiently.
“And that’s why I’m letting you walk Cole Fallon in for questioning.”
She felt sick. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe they’re setting up Cole the same way they set you up?” She held Mac’s stare though the doubt she saw stung.
Nothing she said was going to make a difference. She took a deep breath. “Let’s just get this over with.” She held out her wrists.
Walsh fished his handcuffs out of his pocket.
“You’re kidding me,” Mac fumed.
“It’s a little late for chivalry,” she bit out. “You’ve been investigating me from the start, don’t pretend you haven’t. All those trips down memory lane trying to figure how much I knew? Hopefully you found all the information you needed.”
His brows lifted at that. That’s not what had happened between them. Tess was giving him a way out and she hoped he was smart enough to take it. Her life here was ruined. She needed to start over. But at least she could repair his career.
Mac glared at her, those blue-green eyes of his dark with annoyance. “Trust me, chivalry is the last thing I’m feeling right now.”
He looked ready to kill someone.
Parker bent toward her ear and whispered, “Don’t say a word about anything in the interview room. I’m calling my lawyer. He’s the best in DC.”
“I can’t afford him, Alex. Don’t waste his time.”
“Let me worry about the cost.” His fingers squeezed her shoulder. “Mac is just doing his job. Don’t blame him for that either.”
She didn’t. She really didn’t. Tess nodded, but she felt miserable.
“Tell him what I told you about the girlfriend,” she insisted to Parker. No way would anyone listen to her now.
Walsh snapped on the hard metal bracelets and the man she’d gone and fallen in love with stood by and watched. It felt like the night of the raid again when Mac had left her to survive on her own. Then she was walking across the wide avenue, surrounded by a group of agents all looking like they’d caught one of the FBI’s Most Wanted.
She couldn’t believe she was being escorted into FBI HQ, handcuffed like a common criminal. Her parents would be so proud.
* * *
Mac headed back inside the FBI building where Frazer was waiting for him. He took Cole by the arm and ushered him along a different route from the one Walsh would take Tess. “I checked. There’s no one by the name of Carolyn Martin working here. You need a better story, kid.”
Mac was worried. He needed to catch this ghost skin, but he also needed to keep other agents safe.
“That’s ridiculous. You’re wrong. She works here. Check my cell.”
“Oh, we’re checking your cell, sunshine.” Mac had passed it to Alex without anyone seeing.
“Stop treating me like a fucking kid,” Cole yelled.
An FBI security guard moved toward them, concerned, but Mac waved him away. Frazer shadowed him as they headed across the courtyard and into the elevators.
“Then stop telling stories.” Mac tried not to think about Walsh leading Tess away in cuffs. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he’d seen her running toward that van it had felt like someone had ripped the ground right from under his feet, and just now she’d tried to protect him. Telling the onlookers he’d gotten close to her to use her—which he thought he had at the time, but now knew he was lying to himself.
He’d gotten close because he couldn’t stay away. He’d had sex with her because he couldn’t have walked away if his life depended on it.
“What’s she look like, this supposed girlfriend of yours?” Mac pushed.
Cole clammed up.
“You do realize if what you’re saying is true, she set you up? Right?” Mac taunted. He crowded Cole into the elevator, let his disbelief shine through. “She left you sitting on enough fertilizer to bring down a city block. You think there’d be anything left of you to even identify?” He got in Cole’s face. “You’d have been a fucking aerosol, dickhead, and yet, I’m supposed to believe you’re dumb enough to protect her?”
Cole’s eyes narrowed.
“Now you really look like your daddy. Like father like son, huh? What was the plan? You wanted to be a martyr for the cause?”
Cole shook his head and looked away. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t have a cause.” He went to raise his hands but the cuffs stopped him. He frowned at them like an alien had taken over his body. “Carolyn asked me to help her move today. She said her friend Trent packed the moving van with the first load of boxes and suggested I grab the truck and come pick her up from work so we could drop off the first load.” Cole’s face lit up with hope. “It’s this guy Trent you’re looking for. He must have known she worked here and set her up.”
Bullshit. “What does she look like?” Mac repeated.
“Slim. Straight brown hair. Blue eyes.”
“Got a photo?” Mac asked.
“She didn’t like having her picture taken,” Cole insisted. He sounded less sure of himself now. “She’s older than I am and said photographs reminded her of the fact. But she doesn’t look older. She’s hot.” His explanation lacked conviction, as if he was starting to see the holes in his story.
“Yeah, if she’s who I think she is she’s old enough to have been screwing your real daddy, too.” Mac gauged Cole’s reaction to that information. “I bet she got a real thrill out of nailing you when you look just like David.”
Cole appeared to sag in defeat. “I don’t believe any of this.”
“You better believe it, and if you ever want to see the outside of a jail cell you better help us find her.”
Tears filled Cole’s eyes and ran down his cheeks. “This isn’t happening.” Then he pinned Mac with a glare. “Why did they cuff Tess? Is she in trouble?”
Mac gave him a tight smile. “I get to ask the questions.” Except he didn’t, not really. He had until he got this guy up to SIOC and the task force would take over. He’d be sidelined. The murder of his ex and his involvement with Tess meant there were too many conflicts of interest. Dammit. He needed to find the mole ASAP. Cole may or may not be telling the truth, but Mac was sure someone was working the inside.
They exited the elevator, but the hallway was empty. Thank God.
“So this Carolyn woman told you she was an FBI agent?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed her,” Mac jeered.
“She had a gun, a badge. Why wouldn’t I believe her?”
“Why’d you have a file of the murder victims under your mattress?”
Cole scrunched up his face. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The confusion seemed genuine. Mac exchanged a look with Frazer.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Frazer asked.
That maybe Tess was right. Maybe the kid had been set up the same way Mac had been. He tilted his head. “It’s possible.”
“If he’s telling the truth you’re gonna have to grovel so hard to Tess you’ll be spitting dirt for a week,” Frazer told him.
Cole jerked around. “What do you mean?”
Frazer laughed and Mac glared. “This guy is in love with your sister.”
“Don’t be a fucking asshole,” Mac muttered but it felt like someone had wrapped claws around his heart and squeezed. Of course he was in love with Tess. And he’d arrested the person she cared most about in the world. The only person she cared about. She hated him now.
Even if he didn’t lose his career over this mess she would never be accepted by his colleagues, and the FBI was a family first and foremost.
None of it mattered right now. He needed to figure out who the traitor might be. He suddenly remembered something and pulled out his cell to make a call.
“Miki? Run a search for me on FBI agents and support staff who were based in all the field offices where the murders with similar MO’s occurred and call me back.” He hung up.
“You think she’s still here?” Frazer asked skeptically.
Mac gritted his teeth in frustration. “I doubt it. Pretty sure we just scuppered her plans of a big demonstration of antigovernment sentiment. She knows we’re onto her. She’s gonna be pissed.”