Mob Bride (The O’Rourke Brotherhood #5)

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Shane

That is not even remotely how I pictured today would go. I certainly never imagined when I went to eavesdrop, I would find the most frustrating woman I have ever met hanging out there, too. I did not expect to chase after her. I did not expect to kiss her and make her come. The only thing I expected was for an inevitable shitshow at the meeting because those almost never go smoothly. A shootout was the only thing I could have fathomed.

Instead, I wind up spending half the morning following Carrie—I noticed that’s how I think of her now—and then going into her apartment and kissing her. What the fuck possessed me to do that? But nothing I said was untrue. I’m definitely attracted to her, and I definitely care what happens to her. But there are just too many secrets and too many lies from her. I understand why she has to tell some of these lies, why she has to keep some of these secrets. I definitely didn’t picture her being a DEA agent.

And that complicates the hell out of everything. Not whether I could date her or even have her as a fuck buddy—I’m not interested in dating a woman who picks an argument at every corner. It complicates things because everybody in my family could be on death row if she says the wrong thing to the right people. I don’t know if I can trust her with who my family is. The only reason she might be trustworthy is because her mom is in the thick of it. Any investigation into us could lead to Meredith, even though we’ve all done our best to keep her out of sight and out of mind.

There’s no guarantee a little digging for a court case wouldn’t bring her name up. It leaves me with more questions than answers, which is a recurring theme with Carrie. It’s a thought I have over and over again. Frankly, it’s getting frustrating and old to always think that. But regardless of how I feel about her, she’s now become a major problem—hindrance—pain in my arse. I don’t even know how to describe what she is.

But I know I’d like to fuck her brains out. Fuck. My cock swells every time I think of her, now that I know what she feels like. If only we could get along.

I’ve got to figure out what to tell my family about all of this. I can’t keep it a secret for much longer, if for no other reason than keeping secrets would only make me guilty of the very things that bother me most about Carrie. But I don’t want everybody losing their fucking minds over this until I can give them some more concrete explanations. They’re going to have all the questions I do, and probably a few dozen more, since there’re five of them to account to. What the fuck did I get myself into?

It’s been almost a week of following Carrie around. It’s obvious she must make it look like she works from home, since she rarely goes out. Her face’s healed enough that she could appear at work without too many questions. But she goes next to nowhere. The few times she has, she’s tried to give me the slip. I’m positive she knows I’m out there watching her. She just hasn’t spotted me yet.

I’ve been able to keep track of her, though. Right now, I’m pulling into the grocery store parking lot four lanes over from her. She’s not shopping in her neighborhood, which makes me wonder who she’s trying to avoid. Is it Jacek, Bartlomiej, or somebody else, or a whole slew of people?

You rarely drive this far to this kind of grocery store just for the sake of coupon deals or quality. I give her space as she gathers a shopping cart and starts making her way through the aisles. I’ve grabbed one, and inevitably, I’ll have to buy shite I don’t need and don’t want. Otherwise, it’ll look strange for me to be walking around the grocery store without a single thing in my hands. The key will be to only buy a few things so I can go through the express lane and finish checking out before her. If I don’t finish before her, she really will give me the slip.

I watch the things she purchases. They’re all in a quantity for one. Nothing makes me think she lives with anybody else or frequently has anybody else over. She’s undercover, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t in a relationship of some sort for the case, whether it’s a friendship, a romantic one, or a situationship. She’s not having people visit her, at least not for meals.

It’s a quiet day in the store. When we get to the cereal aisle, I peek down the ones on either side to make sure there’s next to nobody in either. This may be a stupid decision, but I’m going to confront her because this is as neutral a spot as we’re probably going to find.

I inch my cart closer to her as she pulls something down from the top shelf. She senses me and looks to her right; her scowl etched so deeply into her face I fear it might stick that way.

“Shane, not here, not now.”

“Good morning to you, too.”

“I’m serious. I didn’t want you in my apartment, and I don’t want you here.”

“Oh, but I think you did want me in your apartment, and I think you would want me here if you could. Actually, I think you do want me. We just can’t.”

“Stop. Somebody could hear you.”

“I’m not talking that loud. Even if they hear my voice, they wouldn’t understand what I’m saying.”

“Oh, yes, they would.”

“That’s why I’m keeping my voice down.”

“Shane, please. You have got to stop approaching me. You know what I’m doing. You’re going to blow it all for me.”

“And that undercover work is exactly the kind that gathers information to put my family away. So, if you think for even a moment I’m going to ignore what I found out and let you go on your merry little way, you are so gravely mistaken you can’t even imagine the outcome.”

She stiffens, and I hope she hears the threat and the annoyance in my voice because I’m feeling it. We could have a quick conversation and be done with it.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Not at all, cailín . It’s more a promise, if you will.”

“A promise? Is that what you think that is?”

She scoffs at me, turns back to the box of cereal she reached for. She drops it in her cart and turns around, giving me her back. I push my cart out of the way and snag my arm around her waist, pulling her back against me, moving my hand to just rest on her waist.

“Don’t walk away from me, cailín . We still have a lot more to discuss. Whether it’s here or somewhere else, you are going to give me answers. Do people think you work from home?”

She nods. Immediately, her head turns to look behind me.

“Are you staying home so much because of your bruises? Or is that your natural routine?”

“I knew you were following me. Look, anything I could say that involves your family would directly involve my mom. I have no reason to do that. You will stay out of any reports I make. But you’re making it fucking difficult. If people keep seeing us together, you’re going to make Bartlomiej question me because it’s inevitable it’ll get back to him.

“Why is that? Why does he take such an interest in what you do or don’t do or who you do or don’t speak to?”

“Because I’m a woman living in his community. He knows everything about everybody. It’s how he remains in control.”

“Is he extorting you?”

My voice hardens, not liking the idea that anybody intimidates her. Well, doesn’t that make me the perfect hypocrite? I’m the pot calling the kettle black because I know part of what I’m doing is trying to intimidate her. It feels shitty to know it, but if she won’t give me an inch, I’m going to push her a mile.

“No, he’s not. I was new to the neighborhood when I moved in. Nobody there knew me, and I had no one to vouch for me. He got suspicious.”

“Obviously, rightly so. You’ve come to a grocery store that’s well out of his territory. Who do you think will see us and report it to him unless you’re being followed by his men, too? And if you are, why?”

“Shane, there are eyes and ears everywhere. There are no boundaries to where people connected to a syndicate live. If it’s not Bartlomiej, then it’ll be someone else. Someone could see us and report it to the Mexicans, the Italians, the Colombians, the Russians, anybody. This is not wise.”

I squeeze her waist and put my lips to her ears. “Then meet me somewhere. Meet me, explain what’s going on, and then I’ll leave you alone.”

She scoffs at that too, giving me a look as though I’m an idiot. Obviously, she doesn’t trust I’m telling the truth about leaving her alone. She’s not wrong. I probably won’t, but at least with some answers, I won’t feel so eager to chase her down.

“Carrie, the longer you stall, the more evasive you are, the more determined I will be.”

“As though I don’t know that, but that’s still... I’m not giving in to you. Shane, I told you the night we met I wouldn’t be bullied a second time.”

My fingers dig into her waist. “You really equate my words to his fist? Are you trying to imply you think I’ll beat you for not answering my questions?”

“No, I don’t think you’d ever lay a hand on me in violence. I never thought that. You could have more than once. All four times I put a gun to you, you could have. But I think you’re just as dangerous to me as Jacek or any other syndicate man. I think you’re just as capable and likely to get me killed as any of them. So, back off, Shane.”

She keeps looking around as though she expects somebody to see us. Why is that? I just wish I could get answers to even the simplest of questions.

“I get what your job is, but I also know you rarely work alone in situations like this. How often do you see your handlers?”

She tenses again and gives me a mutinous glare over her shoulder. Just as she turns back around, somebody else’s cart appears at the end of the aisle. She moves away from me, and I don’t stop her. I expect her to turn toward the shelf and continue our conversation of sorts. Anybody could believe we’re just a couple grocery shopping together. However, she immediately walks away. She doesn’t acknowledge the person she passes beyond a flash of a smile. He looks familiar, but I don’t place him right away.

I wait a couple minutes before I continue to follow her. She pretends as though I’m not her shadow. She doesn’t acknowledge me again even as we walk out to the parking lot. It’s for the best now that we really are in public again.

I’ve completely made a mess of today. I don’t know what I was thinking. This was a shitshow of my own making. I didn’t go in there with a proper plan or a task. I just wanted to know the same things as I did before. What the hell is wrong with me? There’s no excuse for screwing the pooch on this one.

It dawns on me as I pull out of the parking lot. I know the man who appeared in the same aisle as us. He’s one of Bartlomiej’s bodyguards. A pretty senior one at that. I doubt there’s a coincidence the three of us were at the same grocery store at the same time. It certainly wasn’t a coincidence I was there. I doubt it was a coincidence the two of them were there.

Is he her bodyguard? Or is he meant to just follow her? Did exposing his presence serve as a threat to her? Or was it a reassurance because he got impatient waiting for her to leave that aisle? I don’t have the answers to these questions that swirl in my mind.

I bought nothing perishable, so I park and watch her building again. I twist and lean to see who else is staking out her place. I’ve spotted some of Bartlomiej’s men before, but they’ve never been as obvious as the one in the store.

She took a ride share to get back to her place. Why doesn’t she just use her car? I know she has one. That makes me more suspicious. Since she’s got plenty of grocery bags, she uses one of those metal folding carts like little old women do. She stacks her bags inside it to get up to her apartment. It would be so much easier if she drove her own car. It makes me think she doesn’t want anyone who’s following her to know she has her own vehicle.

Is she playing poor little girl who can’t afford a car? Is she hiding it for a fast getaway? What role does she play in this community?

That’s the first thing—or rather the next thing I need to know.

“Shane, what’s been going on with you?”

I look over at Finn. I’m sitting in his living room with him, Sean, Seamus, and Cormac. Dillan’s not here because he’s having dinner with his in-laws in Connecticut.

“Nothing.

“Well, that’s a bunch of bullshit.” Sean jumps in, taking our brother’s side. “You’ve been off everybody’s radar for nearly three weeks. Ever since the incident with Meredith’s daughter at the construction site. You assigned her and Meredith a detail, but almost immediately canceled hers, but you still have the one for Meredith.”

“What’s the deal? Since you told us she didn’t go to Pittsburgh, I can only assume you’ve made yourself her personal detail.”

I look over at Finn, trying to decide whether he’s asking me as my big brother or as the second-in-command in our family.

Our dad and uncles retired if there is such a thing. The family always intended for Dillan to inherit the role of our boss from our Uncle Donovan, who was our mom and aunts’ brother. There were some hiccups along the way between when the bratva killed Uncle Donovan and when Dillan assumed his role.

But now he’s in charge, even though our dad and uncles are young enough for one of them to fulfill the mob boss role. They’ve put in their time, certainly their blood, sweat, and everybody’s tears. They still go on missions with us when we need them or when they want to show the world we always stand as a united family. So that’s how Finn, who used to be just our accountant, is also second-in-command.

He obviously reads my mind, and there are so many times where it’s more like Finn, Sean, and I are triplets rather than Sean and I being twins. I’m just as close to Finn as I am to Sean. However, there are some things—some genetically ingrained things—Sean and I share I guess we can’t with Finn.

“Shane, I’m asking first and foremost as your brother. You’re not generally secretive. You don’t go off and do things on your own without an explanation. You’ve asked us to trust you, and we do, but I’m worried about you. As for the second, I need to know what one of my men is doing when he’s unaccounted for.”

“Are you asking this on your own? Or did Dillan put you up to it, and you just so happen to also have your brother involved?”

His face darkens into a thunder cloud, and I’ve offended him. “There’s no just so happens that I care. I always care. That’s a dick thing to say. Yeah, Dillan’s been asking me—been asking all of us—if we know what you’re up to, and none of us has an answer. So, I decided I would bring it up to you. I just decided a moment ago. It’s not like we’re all sitting here, so I can confront you. It’s not a fecking intervention. I want to know what my younger brother is doing, and I want to make sure my man is safe.”

“You only wish for my safety as some little worker bee, not as your brother.”

I am way too testy about this. There’s no reason for me to be so confrontational, but I’m frustrated. It’s been another three days of watching Carrie. It seems like things keep happening in sets of three days. What the fuck is that? Does that have meaning, or am I just reading symbolism into nothing?

“Why are you being like this, Shane?” I look over at Sean.

I want to snap at him and tell him to mind his own business. The problem is, this isn’t just my business, and I know that. I don’t know if the reason I’m so testy is that I don’t feel like I have control over the situation. It’s not entirely that I want to control Carrie herself, but nothing about it feels right. Not having control usually means something is going to go wrong. I guess I am a control freak in a lot of ways. But I have to give my family something.

“Things with Carys are more complicated than they seem. I don’t know everything yet, but—” Oh, God, I have to confess who she is. “—she’s a DEA agent.”

I let that hang in the air as four sets of eyes stare at me as though I’ve lost my ever-loving mind. I very well may have. It’s Cormac who comes out of his stupor first.

“She’s a federal agent? You didn’t think we should know about that the moment you found out? What the feck, Shane?” He’s practically yelling by the time he stops speaking. I expected it, whether it was from him or somebody else.

“What I’m thinking is discretion is the better part of valor, and that we don’t need a whole bunch of people knowing that yet and drawing more attention to her. She’s undercover, and I’m slowly unearthing things about her mission. I don’t want to bring it to everybody’s attention if I don’t have enough information to clue us in.”

“Or you could feed us each bit you have as it comes along.” Seamus shrugs.

“I just don’t want anybody to go half-cocked into this and ruin her investigation, then we end up forcing her hand where she has to include us in any reports she files.”

“And you think dealing with this single-handedly is going to avoid that? That you’re the best person for this?” Finn crosses his arms even though he’s sitting on a sofa. He gives me the same mulish look he has my entire life.

“I think too many hands in the cookie jar just wind up crumbling them all.” Shitty metaphor, but it’ll do.

“I think there’s something more personal at stake.”

My head whips around to my twin, and I glare at him. He knows exactly what I’m thinking. I can tell the moment he decides to lay off. We don’t have to say anything. That’s part of the whole twin deal.

My brothers and cousins stare at me. It’s not to intimidate me. It’s out of frustration, but they know I’m done talking. They’ve gotten as much out of me as they’re going to get, and that irritates them. That’s just too bad.

“Look, I know this isn’t how we normally do things. And I know when any of us think we can do a job on our own, somehow it goes to shite. I need you to trust me on this. If anyone gets wind of all of us being involved, we’re going to risk our lives and Carys’s too, and we’re going to risk finding out nothing. Do you want to be the reason something happens to Meredith’s daughter? Do you want to be the reason the investigation goes to shite, and they bring somebody else in who includes us in it? It’s better off if there’s only one of us involved. She already knows and trusts me. Mostly.”

I know that’s a reasonable explanation. That doesn’t stop Sean looking at me, knowing there’s more. I haven’t told him anything. He just understands. But it’ll be about a heartbeat before Finn and the others figure it out too: there’s a woman involved, and I’m way too attracted to her.

“What else is going on?” I steer the conversation away from me onto anything but me.

“What’s the deal with those construction sites?”

Well, shite.

Finn’s question doesn’t steer it away from me. At least it’s not about Carrie anymore.

“We had a slowdown thanks to Pablo interfering as usual. The fucker just can’t mind his own business.”

Pablo Diaz is second-in-command of the Colombian Cartel. He’s in the same position Dillan was as a nephew set to inherit. Enrique has no children. His oldest nephew, Pablo, will take over the reins when the time comes. Enrique’s so fucking stubborn and wily, he’ll probably outlive us all even if he’s the one with the most targets on his back. Nothing comes in or out of the Americas without him knowing because most of our producers are in Latin America.

“What’s Pablo done now?” Seamus demands.

There’s no love lost between the two of them because of shite that went down most recently with his wife, Tiernan, while they were dating.

“You know him. He just always has to be up everybody’s arse about everything. He doesn’t like that my mall construction is moving faster than his. He had a bunch of guys call out sick, and he blames me—” I look over at Cormac— “when he should blame you.”

“What? I just did what I was told to do.”

Seamus and Cormac always stayed out of trouble the longest. They flew under our parents’ radar the most. But Dillan’s little sister, Colleen, was the ringleader. She got us in and out of trouble. When she couldn’t get us out of trouble, our parents doled out punishments to all of us, but Cormac and Seamus always got off with the lightest. With them, she meted out her own type of justice when we were alone. She was the sweetest little dictator you could ever meet. She told you what to do with ponytails and a smile. You couldn’t not go along with her even if you knew nothing but trouble lay ahead of you.

“I told you to bribe some of his guys, not his entire work crew. And one guy went to Pablo and squealed. He told Pablo he’d have to pay the douche double to get him back on the site. Needless to say, he’s not alive anymore, but it means Pablo knows all about it and doesn’t think it’s Niko anymore.”

Niko no longer handles their construction projects. Christina, his younger brother Bogdan’s wife, does, but she’s about to give birth to their second kid any day now. Niko’s taken over. It’s been a while since we’ve fucked around with Kutsenko Partners’ construction projects because Christina scares us more than all of those shitbag men combined. She’s got way more connections than we do, so she can sink an entire project with one word to the right person in the city planner’s office where she used to work.

We have no issues fucking around with the Cartel’s and the Mafia’s projects. So that’s why we went after Pablo. Partly as retribution and partly to make sure our build finishes first. We can make a point of that when we pitch to other companies for other projects. That’s just how it works.

It’s tit for tat with everything in our life. When we gain something, we expect it to be taken away. It’s just a question of who’s doing the taking now. None of us can kill each other because of our senior roles in the families. It would upset the balance. However, there’re times where we’re in situations where it truly is life or death. When that happens, all rules are gone. You shoot to live because nobody wants to die.

“Well, it’s going to cost us more than I wanted to spend.”

Finn’s our accountant and notoriously tight-fisted. He has a conniption if he can’t account for everything down to the last five pennies. Even that much discrepancy puts him in a snit.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Finn snaps at me, which makes me shrug.

“Huh? Gotta spend money to make money.” I grin at him, and he flicks me off. I’m extremely ready to stop being the center of attention. “How’s Ally doing?”

Finn immediately relaxes, and a huge smile spreads across his face. From the way everyone’s marrying off, you’d never imagine none of us in the syndicates planned to get married, never planned to have kids, never wanted to pass this family business along to the next generation. Slowly, each of us is settling into our version of domestic tranquility and having kids.

Finn couldn’t be more ecstatic. “She’s doing well. She doesn’t always feel so great. Her emotions are kinda supercharged. Days at work that would normally be hard are now really a struggle. But she loves what she does, and she knows how important her work is. By the end of the day—even though she might cry now—she’s glad she can help.”

My sister-in-law is a neonatologist, so I can imagine how working with sick babies must be rough for her. She sees the worst of the worst and tries to cure them. Being pregnant and confronted every day with the tragic things that could happen would be difficult on anybody. Seeing it when you’re growing your own baby? That’s what I can’t fathom.

“Any morning sickness?” Sean jumps in and makes me cock an eyebrow as I look at him. It’s not like any of us are ignorant to those sorts of things, but something in his tone makes me wonder. He shakes his head at me.

“No, Lina’s not pregnant. Just wondering for the sake of wondering.”

Finn’s still smiling, but it dims a little. “Yeah, some mornings are really rough for her, and there’s been several times at work where procedures that normally never bothered her do now. Whether it’s the smell or the sight, it just turns her stomach over. Luckily, she’s only thrown up a couple times. At least that I know of. She might not tell me everything.

Finn shoots us a rueful expression. We all know if Ally told him the full extent of how bad she might feel, he would flip out. We try to solve it all, but morning sickness, I assume, is one of those things that’s generally only solved with time.

We’re all a bit of control freaks because that’s how we’ve stayed alive. I know from watching my own parents and aunts and uncles, and now my brothers and cousins, being unable to fully protect and keep the person you love most well is something unbearable to men who are usually in control.

It makes me think of Carrie again. I worry about her. That said, I think a lot of it is still my ego. It’s not by any stretch love. She irritates me too much for that.

The rest of the evening progresses with all of us watching a rugby match. That’s our thing in our family. We may have all played separate sports, but collectively, rugby is what we most like to watch and what we all play. You won’t find anyone more competitive than my mom and aunts. They’ll knock you on your arse, run right over you, score the point, then come back and help you up with a smile. It’s rather endearing I suppose.

I’m up with the roosters since I know Carrie goes for early morning runs. I’ve followed her in my car, but this time I intend to meet her on the trail. She’s been going the same way every morning, which in and of itself is an issue. It’s too predictable. She should know that. I’m sure she does. She’s got to be doing it for a reason.

I park at the opposite end of the trail from where she enters and time it so we’ll meet in a spot that’s secluded. No one will see us when I stop her. She recognizes me before I recognize her. She comes around a corner and immediately spins on her heels and starts running faster. I take off after her. Blessedly, I’ve got longer legs than she does. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to keep up. She runs like a fucking gazelle.

“Carrie, stop.” I snag her shirt sleeve.

“Shane, how would you feel if I wouldn’t leave you the fuck alone after you told me to? It’s like Single White Female , except you’re a guy fucking stalking me.”

I wait for her to stop hissing at me, then pull her off the trail and out of sight. This way, anybody going past won’t notice us since we’re keeping our voices down.

“Carrie, this all ends when you give me some explanations. I saw you going over to Bartlomiej’s the last two days. You were there for a few hours before you left. I know you’re staking him out, but who is he to you? Or better yet, who are you to him?”

“Shane, I work for him. As far as he knows, I do some stuff for his legal businesses, like social media management. Every once in a while, I go over there. I walk him through some campaigns. Then I leave.”

“And it really takes you five or six hours to do that? Because I know that’s how long you stayed two days ago.”

She scowls at me. I think she’d throat punch me if she could. “You are going to blow everything if they see some car parked close enough for you to watch me. They’ll see you’re in it.”

“Yeah, that would happen except I set up a dash cam and watch the feed from four blocks away.”

That makes her pause and consider it. “Well, I can admit that’s a good idea. It should be a pretty obvious surveillance tactic, but I’ve never used it. What kind of camera do you have?”

“I’ll answer that after you answer my questions. You’re not deflecting, Carrie. I’m more than happy to tell you what equipment I use, but I don’t buy for a second you’re some social media manager who goes over to her boss’s house to train him on Facebook for five hours. Seriously, nothing would make me happier than to walk away. Let you do you and let me do me. Until I can be positive none of this is going to blow back on my family, I’m not giving in. You’ve got to give me something.

“Or you could try trusting me.”

I stifle a laugh that comes out as a throat clearing. “You don’t trust me, otherwise, you’d explain things.”

“Or, Shane, maybe this isn’t about you, and maybe I’d just like to keep my job and my head on my shoulders. Have you thought about that as a possibility?”

“Of course I have. That’s why this could all be over. We could go on our merry little way once you tell me the truth.”

The way she looks at me—I can guess what she’s thinking.

“Carrie, what happened in your apartment didn’t happen because I want to coerce information out of you. That was entirely different, and we both know it. I didn’t kiss you or touch you to manipulate you. It’s obvious we’re attracted to one another, even if we don’t get along. Even if it’s something we shouldn’t feel, we do. But that was then. This is now. We both have a job to do.”

“How very convenient for you, Shane, to just explain that away as though we’re just supposed to pick things up where we left off before that. Well, you’re right. I don’t trust you, and I don’t want you. It was merely physical attraction. I think you believed you could get me on the hook to make me tell you whatever you want to know as though I’m some poor little infatuated middle school girl. I’m not. It felt good, and I enjoyed it, but it doesn’t change my mind.

“I didn’t expect it to. All I want is to ensure my family is safe. I don’t trust Bartlomiej at all, so I don’t think you’re safe.”

“Of course, I’m not safe. What part of being undercover ever is? Shane?—”

She doesn’t have a chance to finish speaking as men swarm toward us. There’re three coming from each direction, and Jacek is leading the charge from the right. She and I both pull guns. I assumed she carried hers under the sweatshirt she ties around her waist when she runs. I rarely leave home without mine.

The Poles are already opening fire on us. She takes on the men coming from the right, and I take on the ones coming from the left. We have the advantage of cover while they’re exposed. One by one, we pick them off until Jacek is the last one standing.

I watch Carrie. It’s not hesitation that allows Jacek to get closer. She’s making sure he’s as easy a target as possible. She shoots, and the first bullet goes through his gut. The second goes into his shoulder. It’s not enough to kill him on sight, but with none of his men around to call for help, he’ll bleed out. However, if he lives, he’ll tell Bartlomiej who shot him.

“Carrie, you need to go. I doubt these are the only men here. There’re bound to be more to come, but right now there’s no one to collect his body, so take advantage of that and go. Run.”

“You’re going to stay behind to watch what happens?”

“Yes. I’ll stay to make sure whoever comes thinks it was me. You don’t need that target on you. It’ll only blow up your investigation. You don’t need to explain to your agency why you murdered him.”