“I’ve already been doing that,” Melinda said, her attention returning to her laptop. “The reason we’ve never been able to make anything stick with BECA is because it’s such a loose network. We refer to them as a group, but the reality is they’re not that formally organized. On purpose, I’m sure, to give each member plausible deniability if any single one gets caught.”
“Which has happened plenty,” Kane agreed. The group was most known for having connections to individuals who had set bombs in minority-owned businesses and even places of worship. Maybe because it was such a loosely knit group, the specific biases were different from place to place. Still, more than once, a perpetrator had mentioned that they’d learned how to make bombs from a connection at BECA. A few times, the FBI had tracked down the connection and made an arrest. But then any other local members of the network seemed to scatter.
As far as the FBI had ever found, BECA didn’t keep any official books or lists of membership. Instead of connecting online like a lot of criminal organizations, they’d gone old-school and networked through word of mouth. In theory, that should have made the organization easier to penetrate. But besides being fanatics, BECA members also tended to be extremely paranoid of outsiders.
“You’re thinking about trying to set up a meet with your CI’s contact, the one who knows someone at BECA, aren’t you?” Melinda asked.
When he refocused, he realized she was staring at him again.
“I don’t think so. But if someone at Petrov Armor really is selling to BECA members, that might be how we get them.”
“I don’t believe you that you’re not trying to set up a meet.”
Melinda’s words were straightforward, with no anger or frustration in her tone. Strangely, the lack of emotion made Kane feel even more guilty about lying to her. But in the end, he was doing her a favor.
“Well, believe what you want,” he answered, glancing at his phone as it beeped with the notification of a new text. “Be right back.”
He didn’t give her a chance to argue, just slipped into the hallway where she couldn’t try to read over his shoulder.
The text was from Dougie again. You’re on, man. My connection says he can get you a meeting with someone from BECA. Told them exactly what you said I should. That I know you from my time in Vegas. Said you left because you were getting heat after some fires you set at businesses run by Asians and Middle Easterners. Also told them you want to buy some guns, but you’ve got a record. Claimed I didn’t know why, but that your connection here had fallen through.
Kane smiled to himself. The bit about the fires in Vegas was something he’d given Dougie. It had really happened; it just hadn’t been him. The person who’d really done it was six feet under, a casualty of a revenge plot gone wrong. Kane had come in too late to save the idiot—and put him in jail. Instead of releasing the truth about the fires, Kane had kept it under wraps, knowing one day he’d be able to use it. It had turned out to be perfect for this case. BECA was known for fostering that kind of random hate.
The bit about the weapons connection was Dougie’s own improvisation, but Kane had worked with worse.
Great job, he texted back. When’s the meet?
Tomorrow.
Friday. Kane nodded to himself. A weekend meet would have been better, would have made it harder for Melinda to try to track him there. But he wasn’t about to complain. Getting a meet with BECA wasn’t easy.
Perfect. Thanks, man.
Sliding his phone back in his pocket, Kane spun around to return to the conference room and nearly slammed into Melinda. “What the hell?”
“You setting up another date?” There was mocking in her tone.
“What if I am?”
“When’s the meet?”
“There’s no meet, Melinda.” He tried to walk around her, but she shifted, blocking his way.
He raised an eyebrow. Yeah, she’d gone through the FBI Academy just like him, but he had seven inches and probably a good fifty pounds on her. Did she really think she could stop him from going somewhere?
Holding in his annoyance, he turned and walked off in the other direction. A meet with a dangerous group of zealots could far too easily go sideways. One thing Melinda needed to learn about him was that when it came to undercover work, he liked to go alone. No backup. No net. It was better for everyone that way.
“We’re supposed to be partners,” she called after him, frustration in her tone, but less than he’d expected.
Kane gritted his teeth, keeping his response inside. Images of Pembrook’s daughter’s broken body when he’d finally reached her during that mission gone wrong filled his head, the way they did every night in his sleep.
He was never going to have a partner again, least of all Melinda Larsen.
Chapter Nine
Davis blamed her for everything that had happened. Blamed her for the deaths of all those soldiers.
The knowledge made her chest hurt, made each breath laborious. Because the truth was, she blamed herself, too.
How had she not seen that someone was willing to betray the company, and missed all the signs that bad armor was being produced? And for what? More profit? They were doing fine. Sales were increasing. They were looking at expanding their markets. Why would someone go to such lengths for higher numbers on their bottom line? No, someone had to be pocketing that extra cash for their own benefit, using her company to enhance their personal finances.
It shouldn’t have been possible to get faulty armor out the door. Not with the security and checks in place. Her father had managed the company for twenty-nine years without a single incident. She’d been doing it without him for three weeks and
