She couldn’t think of that.
Not when it put a lump in her throat she had toswallow and cough to clear.
“You okay?”
“No,” she fired back. “I got shot.”
“Pull over now,” he yelled at her.
“No.”
Adrian cried out in frustration. It was almostsatisfying. Almost.
She turned a corner, biting her lip at the pain inher hip. It was a graze. That was all. No biggie. But it stung, andshe just wasn’t in the mood for verbal sparring she wouldn’t win.She didn’t fight when she couldn’t bring her A-game. That wasn’thow she did things.
“Megan.” He sounded supremely frustrated.
When he didn’t say anything else, she said, “It’s agraze on my hip. It needs seeing to, but its fine.”
“I don’t believe you.” His voice almost sounded sad.“And I don’t trust you. I’m trying figure this out, so we can worktogether to find Zimmerman. Why are you so convinced that you needto do this by yourself?”
He’d been through FBI training, so he could readpeople. That was how he knew. But Megan didn’t like it. She wantedto be able to hide her feelings, her fears. Apparently she wasdoing a poor job of it.
“I don’t do partners.”
“So you’ve said.”
She gritted her teeth. “Maybe…” She had to swallow.“Maybe we could…share information, or something. Check in. Telleach other what we learn.”
After all, why else would she have offered him hernumber?
He said nothing.
Megan kept talking just to fill the silence, eventhough she knew that was exactly what she was doing. “I might notwant to be partners, and that’s my business. I have my reasons, andI’m not about to explain them. But it doesn’t mean we can’t come tosome kind of agreement.”
She barely knew Adrian. She wasn’t about to explainall her hang-ups to him. Especially not when he’d nearly arrestedAlexis a short time ago. One look at Megan’s new friend—herteammate Bradley’s new wife—and anyone could see she’d never havebeen involved in a kidnapping. Especially when the victim wasBradley’s own sister, and her best friend.
Which brought her thoughts back to theblackmailer.
The man behind all of this had torn lives apart. He’dhurt people. Killed two of the Double Down agents. That had rippledthrough the entire crew at Double Down. The latest people to be putunder the spotlight were Mint and Emma, still laying low so theblackmailer couldn’t get to Emma and try to leverage her into doingsomething else for him.
Daniel Zimmerman was going down. If it took hercooperating with Adrian Walker, FBI special agent, then fine. Shecould suck it up and do it. Otherwise lives were at stake, and shewas actually risking innocents just to keep her independence.
No way.
“So what do you say, Walker? Do we have anagreement?”
**
He hadn’t meant to snoop. She was hurt, so he’d beenchecking the duffel on the back seat for some kind of first aid kitor bandage, or something.
Adrian turned the badge over in his hand. An FBIbadge.
Megan was an agent?
“Walker?”
“Yeah.” It came out sounding like he was miles away.All he could do was stare at the badge in his hand. Leather folder,ID photo. Megan Perkins, Special Agent.
She sighed.
His brain spun. There were a few scenarios he couldsee being in play here. She was retired, but kept the badge.Unlikely. She was a current agent on assignment here. Maybeundercover with Double Down, investigating them for some reason.Could be they were up to something and she’d been tasked withfiguring out how deep it went before the bureau swept in andarrested them all. But then why put her on the search forZimmerman? That was a major conflict of interest. Not to mentionshe couldn’t very well investigate Double Down if she was outlooking for a crooked FBI agent.
Which left the possibility that she was the crookedagent. Maybe she was even working for the blackmailer…or shewas the blackmailer.
Adrian blew out a breath.
“You okay back there?”
“Yeah,” he said, aware he sounded like a dim whit.“Fine.”
Was she dirty? There had to be a reason she’d beenthe one out looking for Zimmerman by herself. The one who wanted towalk away instead of facing those two men. The one who’d let a mango, after Adrian had faced them down and killed one. Was there asinister reason why Megan had just wanted to leave and allow anyevidence in the house to be destroyed?
Adrian had two choices now. Get out of the car andleave her, regroup, get backup and come back to sweep herup—meaning he’d be looking for not one, but two rogue FBIagents. And on the off chance she hadn’t been playing him thiswhole time, he’d find out the truth of her situation from people hecould trust.
The second option was that he could stick with her.Play this game she insisted on leading them through. See if shemade contact with either Zimmerman or the blackmailer—orZimmerman, the blackmailer.
Either way he had not only one FBI agent to find butanother one to deal with as well.
Adrian slipped his phone from the inside pocket ofhis suit jacket and took a photo of the badge. Then he emailed itto his boss, Special Agent in Charge HankCromwell, who had assigned him to report back on what Double Downknew about the blackmailer.
They’d been chasing the blackmailer for months. Andwhile they weren’t all that convinced the blackmailer was an FBIagent from Baltimore based on evidence they had gathered so far, itwas possible. If Daniel Zimmerman wasn’t their suspect, then Adrianwould put money on him knowing who it was.
Either way, when they found him they would also findthe blackmailer.
“I’m gonna find a pharmacy and make a pit stop. Ineed supplies.” He could hear the pain in her voice.
“Is it bad?”
“Well, I’m making a mess on the seat, that’s forsure. It’ll be a pain to get the blood out of the upholstery.”
Adrian frowned. “I’ll look up a pharmacy on myphone.”
“I thought that’s what you were doing a secondago.”
The frown didn’t let up. “I’ll find the closest oneso you can get what
