The Billionaire Op - Lori Ryan Page 0,71
him, his steady, quiet strength.
She kissed him hard and let go, letting him walk away, but praying he'd be back and this would all be over soon.
Chad pulled into the hotel parking lot. They’d fed the location to Burke the day before so Burke would have plenty of time to get the false lead to Bandon.
Only Burke’s direct supervisor, AUSA Waters and those directly involved in the sting knew the location was a setup and Jennie would be hiding at Chad’s house instead of showing up for the meet. The agents at the sting had been handpicked by Mike, and Chad trusted Mike not to use anyone he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about.
Chad knew that Burke and Mike would already be waiting in the room the bureau had rented for the meeting. Since Burke had never met Jennie, it had been easy for Mike to find a smaller female agent with similar hair color to play the part of Jennie.
Agent Kirsten Danners sat next to Chad in the cab of his truck, a bullet-proof vest under her clothing, ready to put her life on the line to draw out a killer. Her hair was too red to be Jennie, but it would have to do. It would be close enough to fool anyone who had a general description of Jennie and happened to be watching them enter or exit the building.
Chad scanned the parking lot as they entered the building and he knew Agent Danners would do the same. His eyes flicked to rooftops, windows, and surrounding cars. No sign of anyone suspicious, but he did spot the two backup agents they had planted outside.
One agent was up on a telephone pole, his position as a fake repairman giving him a good eagle-eye view of the surrounding area. The other was dressed as a maintenance worker and pushed a cart from trash can to trash can emptying the garbage liners and picking up any litter on his route.
The arsonists Bandon had sent to Jennie’s parents’ house were pretty inexperienced guys. Just hired muscle following directions, but so far, they weren’t spilling anything to the police. Chad was hoping Bandon would show up to do the job himself this time instead of sending anyone else who might screw it up again.
As Chad walked across the parking lot with Danners at his side, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Something didn’t feel right about this, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
His eyes roamed the area once again. Nothing had changed. No signs that anything had gone wrong, but he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.
Chad and Agent Danners knocked on the door to the hotel room and waited for Mike to open the door. When he did, Chad stepped through first, quickly taking in the room. Only Agent Burke sat in the room. The curtains had been drawn and Burke had a notepad in front of him ready to take notes.
“You cleared the room?” Chad asked Mike, knowing the answer but needing to ask anyway.
Mike nodded and then introduced Chad and Danners to Agent Burke, introducing Danners as Jennie Evans. Chad kept a protective hand on Danners as he guided her to the sofa, as he would have if Danners were Jennie.
He watched Burke closely, assessing his body language. Burke didn’t bat an eye when the agent was introduced as Jennie. He appeared to have no idea this wasn’t the real Jennie.
Mike and Agent Danners sat on the sofa across from Burke but Chad stood, watching Burke.
Burke leaned forward, appearing earnest as he started his interview. He didn’t bother to try to set his witness at ease before jumping right into questioning her, but he was gentle in his questioning.
“Before we go into the details of your trip to Florida, I want to talk about last night a bit, Jennie. We need to get to the bottom of who tried to set your parents’ house on fire,” Burke said. When he continued, he looked up at Chad and then back to the fake Jennie. “Who knew you were coming home last night?”
As Agent Danners answered him, feeding him the information she’d been given for her role as Jennie, Chad continued to watch Burke. There wasn’t a single clue that he was being anything other than honest in his line of questioning.
No eye-blocking behavior like lowering of his eyelids or rubbing an eye. He didn’t engage in any pacifying behaviors like tugging