Dave nodded and walked toward his desk. Mason didn’t like mixing his personal and professional lives, so he’d be ending this even sooner than he’d hoped. The guy was probably here to avenge Shelby on his wife’s behalf. Whatever he had to say would be wasting precious breath. His private life might not get drawn into his professional one as a general rule, but Shelby was completely off fucking limits. Period.
“Whatever you’re thinking, that’s not it,” he said, obviously reading the scowl on Mason’s face. He stepped over to one of the chairs across from Mason and sat. Intrigued, Mason eased back down and stared across his desk at him.
“Mr. Showalter, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Katie said, buzzing into his office again. “Mr. Baxter would like to see before your meeting.”
“Tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can.” If Mason didn’t get up to William’s office, his boss would come down here. He looked at Dave. “What do you want then? I am extremely busy, and my attention is needed elsewhere.”
Dave pulled out a manila envelope from inside his jacket. “A business deal. I have information I’d like to sell you.”
Mason laughed without humor. “You’ve come to the Major Leagues with a tee-ball. I’m sure whatever it is, I’m not interested.” He made as if to scoot back and rise. If he left now, he could be in William’s office before the man had a chance to fume that he hadn’t come running at his command. But Dave’s next words stopped him.
“It’s information on Shelby Landry.”
Mason sat up straighter, pinning the man with his stare. “What the hell are you trying to pull?”
Dave’s smile was sad. “It’s simple. I made some bets I can’t cover. My bookie will be here this weekend to collect. I tried putting him off, but he’ll break bones this time, maybe even hurt my wife. I could borrow the money from her, but even she doesn’t have this kind of cash available. If she found out about this, or what I’m offering, she’d leave me. Or worse. I can’t help that. I’m in a corner, and I don’t see any other way out.”
Mason mulled that over. His interest was piqued at the mention of Shelby, but something else struck him. Dave was desperate, and a man led by that emotion did stupid things. Whatever he had on Shelby he was willing to sell. It probably wasn’t much, but if Mason didn’t bite, someone else could.
Someone like William. Dave was here at his office. William was expecting him. If he didn’t show up soon, William would come down here and find him with Dave. So if Mason didn’t give Dave want he wanted and get him the hell out of here, the man might come face-to-face with someone willing to gain any advantage over Mason. It was a stretch to even think that could happen, but when it came to Shelby, his instinct was to protect.
To anybody else, what Dave had wouldn’t be worth as much, and if there hadn’t been a serious risk of William finding out about Shelby and whatever Dave had on her, he’d throw this man out right now. He loosened his tie, preparing himself for the quick negotiation.
“What do you have?” he asked, indicating the package Dave carried.
“Do we have a deal?”
“I don’t know what you want or if what you have is worth a fucking penny. Talk or get out. I really don’t care.” Mason waved him off, faking a nonchalance he’d perfected through years of business transactions.
Dave clutched the envelope tighter. “You’ll want this, I promise. If you don’t like what I have to show you, then don’t pay. I’ll let you judge for yourself if it’s worth it.”
He must think he had something really good on her to leave the deal open like that. “How much?”
“Forty thousand.”
Mason half-smiled. That wasn’t a small amount, but at least the guy wasn’t trying to take him for millions. This, too, felt like blackmail, though, and he was sick and tired of people swindling him today. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could get back to work. “Fine. Show me what you have, and if I think it’s worth the price, I’ll have my assistant wire you the money.”
Dave smiled and eagerly opened the envelope. He pulled out some papers, stared at them, glanced at Mason again as if he wasn’t sure all of a sudden if he should do this. That only made Mason want to see them even more. Dave slowly offered the papers, and Mason snatched them out of his hands before the guy could change his mind.
What the…
Mason’s vision turned red, fury boiling inside of him as he looked at the photos. “What the fuck is this?” he whispered heatedly. Though he knew. There was no doubt what the photos showed.
“Those are images someone on my wife’s team took at various locations. There’s one after a massage parlor bust last year and others at some office gatherings.” He gritted his teeth. “I knew being married to an FBI agent was going to be hard, but when she went undercover as a masseur, I was ready to blow the operation just to get her off that case.” He pointed to the picture. “That one is of them all celebrating the day they nabbed the criminals and closed the case. Viola is the one wearing yellow. The one next to her is—”
“I can see who it is,” he said, cutting off the man as he continued to stare at the photograph.
Shelby. She was standing with her arm around a man who was faced away from the camera talking to somebody. She was smiling at Viola. They were all wearing gear emblazoned with FBI—hats, jackets, shirts. They were not hiding the fact they were all agents.
And Shelby was one of them. An
