down Bertrand’s wife when the man was out of town. Raped and murdered her, then sent the photos of what he’d done to Bertrand via FedEx.”
“Oh, my God.” Kat closed her eyes.
“Not a nice guy, this Minyawi,” Pete said quietly.
No, not nice at all. She remembered seeing pictures of what they’d done to Shannon. Pete’s description of Bertrand’s wife was too close. Kat’s stomach rolled.
She tried to focus on the facts and not a past she couldn’t change. “How did this Bertrand know where to find us, though? Is he a friend of Marty’s?”
Pete tossed back his whiskey, shook his head. “No. That’s where it gets even more interesting. Late last night, a woman in Philly reported something strange from the apartment across the hall. Cops went in, found a body. Identified the victim as retired FBI agent David Halloway. He’d been shot in the head. Authorities don’t have a suspect yet, but my contact’s link at INTERPOL said Bertrand had routinely worked with the FBI’s Art Theft Crime Team, which Halloway was a part of before his retirement.”
It all started to make sense to her. “Marty was working antiterrorism in North Africa. If he suspected this link between the smuggling and the ELA, that explains how he knew Halloway. They’d worked together.”
It also explained why Marty had started dating her. Though she didn’t want to think about that in too much detail. The knowledge she’d been used by three men she’d cared about was a little more than she wanted to deal with right now.
“Possibly.”
“And Halloway and Bertrand?” she said. “They were what, working together now? That doesn’t gel.”
“Or passing information back and forth on unsolved cases. For whatever reason, neither of these guys were out of the picture even though they weren’t on the payrolls anymore.”
“So it’s possible Halloway tipped Bertrand off about my phone call.”
“Looks that way.”
“And Bertrand killed him? To get to me?”
“Not to get to you, Kat. To get to Minyawi.”
Kat thought back to the scene in the park with Bertrand. How many more you got, Minyawi? We can do this all night. But I guarantee I’ll kill the girl myself before I’ll give her to you!
No, Pete was right. Bertrand hadn’t wanted her. He’d wanted revenge on the man who’d murdered his wife.
She stared at the cream-colored leather seat in front of her as a heavy weight pressed down on her chest. This whole nightmare was bigger than even she’d imagined. How on earth could she ever expect to clear her name and keep Pete out of it in the process with what they were facing?
“So what now?” she asked into the silence that settled between them.
“Now we go get your necklace back.”
Kat looked his way. “Where?”
“New York City.”
Her brows drew together. “We were just there.”
“Yeah.”
And that was when she realized just who his friend was who had her pendant. “Oh.”
The sickness she’d been fighting came roaring back as the plane dipped to the left and cut through the inky darkness. She gripped the armrest of her chair, closed her eyes and fought to clear her mind of terrorists and corrupt politicians and a faction that didn’t care about anything but seeing her dead.
And she did. Because, as trivial as it was considering everything they’d just been through, the only thing she could think about right now was the fact she was heading right into the piranha’s waters.
Hailey Roarke peered into the dark windows of Lauren Kauffman’s fancy house on Key Biscayne. No lights shone in the entry or front rooms, but that didn’t mean Lauren wasn’t home. It also didn’t mean she was.
Hailey knocked again and waited, and when there was no answer, pulled the key Pete had told her to pick up from his office at Odyssey from her pocket and slipped it in the lock.
The door gave with a pop, and Hailey stepped in, went to the alarm and punched in the code. When the light flashed green she kicked the door closed and stood in the dimly lit entryway, listening for any sound inside the house. “Lauren?”
The last thing Pete had asked Hailey to do was to swing by Lauren’s place and make sure his sister wasn’t home. And if she was, to talk her into disappearing for a while. At least until things cooled off for him. He didn’t put it past the ELA to go after his sister to get to him and Kat, and neither did Hailey.
When there was no response, Hailey wove through the downstairs and