Adrian glanced at Megan, letting her answer thatquestion. Someone caught Hank’sattention, and he glanced over.
“He got away as well,” she said, her face blank.
Hank nodded. If Adrian hadn’t been watching andhadn’t caught her reaction, he might have bought it, too. But he’dseen the expression on Megan’s face.
“So we have nothing?” Hank turned back to them,lifted his hands and let them fall to his sides. He moved to theother agents then.
Adrian didn’t think they had nothing. Whatthey had wasn’t much.
The question was, what Megan planned to do withit.
Chapter13
Adrian knew. Maybe not exactly what she’d seen—thoughhe figured she got a glimpse of the shooter. What he didn’t know,was who it was. He’d seen her surprise. He was a smart man. He’deither figure it out, or he would get her to tell him.
She trusted Adrian, but what she wanted right now wasthe time to process and plan. To figure out how she was going tomanage this issue. If it came out the wrong way, this whole FBIinvestigation would tank. Or it would tangent in the wrongdirection. They’d start looking at the wrong person.
And Double Down would be toast.
Hank strode away. She could feel Adrian’s attentionon her. Not staring. That was awkward. But the man had this abilityto just focus, and he’d decided to focus on her.
She bristled and glanced at him. “Aren’t you supposedto be finding Zimmerman?”
His eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t say anything.“Care to share any new information you have in your possession?Information that possibly might help the cause?”
“I really hate people who do that.” She blew out abreath and fought back the mad.
“Do what?”
“Flip everything back, so all of a sudden it’syour fault. I had an ex who used to do that, andit’s infuriating.” She pointed at him.“You’re the one not finding Zimmerman.”
He was still staring—focused.
And now she was blathering. “Eventually you’ll goback to your desk in DC, and you’ll get some other case. I’ll be amemory.”
“A good one.”
She narrowed her eyes. This whole conversation hadveered into dangerous territory. “What’s that supposed tomean?”
He lifted both hands, palms out. “Nothing, Megan.” Heblew out a breath. “Will you chill?”
“Did you just tell me to chill?”
“Yes, and apparently it was the wrong thing tosay.”
“You don’t tell—”
He cut her off. “Is that your phone?”
She belatedly realized her phone was ringing. She dugit out of her jacket pocket. “It’s the Double Down line.”
She’d have preferred it to be Remy with an answer,but she would accept any distraction from this dangerousconversation with Adrian. He probably thought she was unstable.Maybe she was.
Adrian said, “So it’s Steve?”
She stilled to keep from reacting and said,“Maybe.”
Unfortunately, the lack of reaction was a reaction ofits own. She didn’t look up though. Didn’t check to see what he’dseen, or hadn’t. She swiped the screen. “Perkins.”
“It’s all over the police band that there was ashooting at your location involving a bunch of federal agents on anoperation.”
“Mom, I told you to stop listening to the police bandwhenever I’m on an op.”
Adrian made a choking sound. When she glanced up shesaw the humor in his eyes. Megan frowned at him, then focused backon her phone.
“…who knows where, and I have no idea what’s goingon.”
“Did you GPS my phone?”
Adrian laughed out loud.
“Why else did we get on a family plan?”
Megan rolled her eyes. “Mom, I’m fine.Everyone’s fine.” She explained what hadhappened and how they’d chased the shooter, but he got away. It wasmostly true.
“You’re leaving something out,” her mom said. “Whatis it?”
Megan didn’t know how to answer that without sayingtoo much in front of Adrian. “I’ll email you the report.”
There was a second of pause, then her mom said, “Ithad better all be in there. I mean it.”
Megan nearly smiled, but didn’t. “Not a problem.” Shefigured if the blackmailer was in their system, then it didn’tmatter. He already knew who the shooter was. Megan needed someoneshe could totally count on to be in on this with her. She had fewallies, but her mom being part of Double Down was one.
“Those two days you were gone were the worst days ofmy life.”
Megan squeezed her eyes shut.
She felt Adrian step closer, and then his arm wasaround her waist and he hugged her into his warm body. Images fromthose days flashed in her mind. She managed to choke out, “Iknow.”
“I love you. I’m glad you’re all right,” her momsaid. “I’m leaving for my conference in the morning, so I’ll be outof touch for a few hours.”
“Okay, text me when you leave and when your planelands. I want to know when you’re at the hotel.”
Her mom chuckled. “You sound like your father.”
“Good.” Megan swiped at the moisture under her eyesand tried to step back. Adrian’s arm tightened a fraction, like hedidn’t want to let her go. She didn’t fight it. He was warm and thenight air was cold. That was all.
She said, “Love you, Mom,” and then hung up. “Sheworries.”
“Understandable.” His gaze shifted as he took in herface. Assessing, but in a nice way. “You okay?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
“And now you just lied again,” he said.
Megan pressed her lips together. “Maybe it’s none ofyour business.” He saw entirely too much. “And you should just gofind Zimmerman.”
“Run along. Is that it?” he asked. “You’ve decidedyou’re done with me, so I should go?”
She didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t be good if shedid, and she figured she needed the practice at keeping her mouthshut sometimes. There was a whole lot of bizarre subtext happeninghere. She tried to figure out how it’d gotten so out ofcontrol.
“Dismissed.” He let go of her. “I guess I’m figuringout how this is going to go, then.”
“This—” She motioned between them with a flick of herfinger back and forth. “—isn’t going anywhere.”
She couldn’t let it. Not after she’d watched Willdie. She’d failed him, and she had to live with that fact. Therewas no way she would allow someone else into her
