Mastiff Security Offices

Los Angeles, California

 

“We have ten operatives in the field, and three more about to go out. The tech department is working overtime on requests coming in from our operatives and from businesses wanting to test their security systems. We might have to add more people to that department if we don’t want to start turning business away.”

Wren nodded, watching the animation on Andres’ face. She’d been a little concerned that he would grow bored with this position when she first promoted him, but he seemed to be thriving. Maybe he’d always been meant to be an administrator instead of working undercover. Or maybe the timing had just been right. Whatever it was, she was grateful to have a friend working by her side.

“Let human resources know. Maybe three more techs?”

“Stevie’s requested a transfer to the tech department.”

“Has she?”

“Seems she’s expecting.”

Wren was surprised. Stevie had worked hard to prove herself in the field. To allow such a thing to happen at a time when she’d finally won their trust was surprising. But then again, she knew that Stevie had lost a child some years ago, so maybe it wasn’t as unexpected as it might seem. Maybe it was good timing, just like Andres’ promotion had been.

“Okay. Two more, then.”

Andres closed the notebook he’d been studying. “That’s all I have.”

“How’s Gray?”

Andres looked suddenly down at the floor, perhaps trying to hide the color that suddenly flooded his face. But she didn’t miss that, just like she didn’t miss the smile that seemed to beam as brightly as a spotlight.

“She’s good.”

“I’m glad things are working out for the two of you.”

He glanced at her. “The wedding is just a couple of weeks away. Gray and her mother have gone overboard with the planning. I think the thing is costing them tens of thousands of dollars, but every time I suggest we scale it down, Gray’s father says that he only has the one daughter, and he plans to give her everything she could possibly want.”

“Sounds like a good father.”

“Yeah, well, I just want her to be my wife. I don’t really care about bouquets and ten-layer cakes and releasing doves.”

Wren smiled. “Spoken like a true man.”

He shrugged. “Besides, we need to get it done before she starts to show.”

“She’s pregnant?”

He nodded. “Four months.”

Wren jumped up from behind her desk and rushed around to give him a hug. “That’s fantastic, Andres. I’m glad things are going so well for you!”

“Yeah. I have to pinch myself most mornings just to make sure I’m not dreaming.”

“I’m really happy for you.”

He didn’t try to hide the smile now. “And you’ll be in the front row, right? There has to be a friendly face for me in that crowd. You have no idea how many people her family has invited to the wedding!”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Thank you.” He bowed his head slightly. “If that judge who told me I was destined for better things could see me now…I wish I could send him an invitation to the wedding. Show him that he was right.”

“You did all the hard work, Andres. You deserve everything you have now.”

He rolled his head slightly. “Maybe. But if I don’t get home soon, I’m also going to have a very angry fiancée chasing me around the house.”

“Go, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Wren settled back behind her desk after Andres left, skimming through the emails in her inbox. There was one email that had been there for a few days, one she’d requested but was afraid to look at. It felt like an invasion of privacy even though she kept telling herself she had a right to know since he was living in her bedroom.

It was about Cormac Delaney.

When a man shows up on your doorstep with a gunshot wound in his belly, you have a right to find out what he’s been up to, right?

Still…she was almost afraid to see what her research team had come up with.

He told her he’d found a few names he wanted to check into from Devin Wilde’s past, but he wouldn’t give her any more information than that. Said he didn’t want to waste her time with dead ends. His reluctance to share with her, however, made her wonder if there was more to it than that. Was he hiding something?

She knew so little about him that it was beginning to worry her. This man, who seemed to share her passion to solve this cold crime, was so reluctant to tell her anything about his past, and then his speech about how he wasn’t the man she thought he was? It made her wonder what she was getting herself into.

It was bad enough having a serial killer call her cell phone out of the blue with information on one of her operatives that she should have had long before him. She didn’t need to be wrapped up with a rogue FBI agent who could potentially get her killed.

Or her roommates. She had to remember she’d exposed her two innocent roommates to this as well.

There were a million reasons why she should open that email, and only reason why she shouldn’t.

She liked Cormac. He was strong, incredibly hot, and mysterious. The perfect romantic fantasy. From the moment she met him, she’d wanted to know more about him, but was also turned on by the mystery he shrouded himself in. Looking at this email could, potentially, ruin all that.

But it was the right thing to do. The responsible thing to do.

She stared at the icon on her computer a while longer before she finally—with a heavy heart—clicked on the link.

The first few pages were just a summary of things she already knew: Cormac Henry Delaney was thirty-five years old, a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in psychology, and an agent with the FBI. He’d done some work in profiling, but his current assignment had him working homicides in the Los Angeles area that required intervention by the FBI for one reason or another. It was a primarily supervisory role with the local police departments doing most of the heavy work. Boring. She had wondered before why he would take such a position when he could have been working with agents investigating serial killings.

The answer to that question was on the third page of the report her people had sent her: he was disciplined two years ago for inappropriate behavior with a witness. Apparently, he’d gotten emotionally involved with a woman who’d managed to escape from a serial rapist, a rapist who had escalated to murder.

That would explain his apparent demotion. She wondered if that woman was the one he’d mentioned to her when she asked if he’d ever been in a committed relationship.

Things got really interesting on the next few pages.

She found herself reading some of the information more than once, her mind spinning with what she was trying to comprehend. She’d wanted to know who Cormac Delaney really was, but, somehow, she felt like she knew less after reading that comprehensive file than she’d known before.

Where had he come from? Why was he investigating her mother’s murder?

What the hell was going on here?