“Lisa and I don’t do business together anymore.” Evan tried to keep it as broad and simple as possible.
Cady stared at him for a long moment, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t like unexpected changes, Mr. Sinclair. I was told you and Mrs. Sinclair always worked together. That you were the brawn and she was the brains of your partnership, no offense intended.”
Evan gave his most easygoing smile. “Well, now I’m both the brawn and the brains of the operation. Nothing has to go through a committee.”
But Cady didn’t seem interested in Evan’s friendly demeanor. “From what I understand, Mrs. Sinclair has not been seen for quite a long time. Over a year in fact.”
Evan shrugged. Cady knew more than Omega had thought. Evan didn’t want to give away any info by blabbering. “We went our separate ways. So what?”
“I had heard such good things about you, Mr. Sinclair. About you and Mrs. Sinclair as a team.” Cady turned and walked back toward his men, who were standing by the car a few feet away. Evan was very well aware that he was in the middle of a warehouse surrounded by Vince Cady’s thugs. Highly armed ones.
And he had no weapon and no backup coming.
“But I’d also heard a few rumors, too. Rumors that you might be law enforcement and that Mrs. Sinclair was no longer with you because she’d found out that fact and left.” Now surrounded safely by his men, Cady turned back and faced Evan. “I so hoped she’d be with you today so that those rumors could be put to rest. But she isn’t, and I have no choice but to believe that you aren’t who you say you are.”
So much for not worrying about any rumors surrounding the Sinclairs’ absence. Suddenly Evan found six weapons pointed directly at him.
“That makes you a loose end. Unfortunately, I don’t allow any loose ends.”
* * *
JULIET HADN’T BEEN SURE exactly where she was going in Baltimore when she jumped into her car not long after talking with Burgamy; she just knew she couldn’t stay in the office. The Baltimore PD was being less than helpful, although, in their defense, Juliet wasn’t sure exactly what she was asking them to do.
Look for someone, somewhere in your city, who may be in danger, but may be perfectly fine.
Baltimore law enforcement had their own problems, and right now Evan Karcz wasn’t one of them.
They had put out the APB on Mark Bolick. And thanks to some cameras she’d accessed showing Bolick leaving the courthouse that morning, she knew what he was driving and his license plate.
Given all that information, the chances of Bolick getting picked up by the police were pretty good. But the chances of that happening before he blew Evan’s cover were much slimmer.
She would start at the pier. Maybe there was something the officers had missed. Northern DC to Baltimore was only forty-five minutes. Juliet was already halfway there.
But the call came in before she ever reached the pier. Juliet’s heart stopped just for a moment when she saw it was her contact at the Baltimore PD. She put the phone on speaker and answered it, still driving.
“Agent Branson—”
Juliet didn’t bother to correct him about the incorrect agent title.
“—the vehicle from the APB you had us put out has been spotted. A uniform radioed it in, but then was called to a nearby emergency and so wasn’t able to pursue.”
Damn it. “Okay. Was the vehicle seen near the pier?”
“No, near the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”
As soon as Juliet heard the words she swerved across two lanes to reach the exit from the highway, ignoring the angry honks from other drivers.
She was just a few minutes from the FSK Bridge, southeast of Baltimore. The officer gave her the last known whereabouts of Bolick’s car. Not far from the warehouses she and Evan had used for some buys when they’d worked together.
Had he moved the meeting out here? If so, why hadn’t he let them know? Of course, it was possible that Mark Bolick was in this area for an entirely different reason that had nothing to do with Vince Cady or Evan. Or that the car the officer saw was the wrong one or no longer held Bolick.
Juliet’s familiarity with the roads near the warehouses helped her as she navigated. But the area was large and there were lots of places to stay hidden if someone was trying to. That was one of the reasons she and Evan had chosen it for use in their undercover work.
She spotted Bolick’s car, with him still driving it, thank goodness, as it pulled up in front of one of the warehouses. Juliet cursed under her breath. Vince Cady must be around here somewhere and Bolick was about to walk in on his meeting with Evan. It was too late to call for any sort of backup, and if she tried to arrest Bolick right here, he might yell and tip Cady off. She needed to do something more drastic.
Juliet pulled in behind Bolick as he was getting out of his vehicle, glad that the relaxed dress code at Omega made her look less like law enforcement. She didn’t let herself think about what she was doing, just threw her car keys under the floor mat, grabbed her Glock 9 mm out of the glove compartment and slid it into the back waistband of her jeans as she quickly opened her own door. She grabbed some papers resting on the passenger seat.
Bolick wasn’t a big guy, thank goodness.
“Hi. Excuse me? Sir?” Juliet ruffled through the papers as she got out of her car. “I’m so sorry. I’m completely lost.”
“I can’t help you, lady.” Bolick made no move toward her, didn’t even look at her, but Juliet didn’t let that deter her. She kept walking.
“I just need to figure out where I am, based on this address. My phone died—”
“Sorry. I don’t know anything about this area.” Bolick turned
