As he watched their expressions remain unchanged, he realized they already knew all of this and were just testing him to see if he would tell the truth.
“Fair enough,” Maddie said. “What about the rest of your team?”
That got his attention. “What do you mean?”
“Have you noticed any of their spending habits change?”
“You people are unbelievable. You want to talk about my team? Let’s see. John Diaz was murdered. Cass and Layla have been attacked and are living at safe houses, and your concern is whether their spending habits have changed? This is beyond ridiculous.” He paused for a moment. “But to answer your question directly, no. There have been no changes. People have been too concerned with staying alive.”
Sanchez nodded. “How well do you know Layla Karam?”
Of course they would go after the Agency person. “I met her when we started preparing for this operation, but do I believe she could be involved in stealing from the cartel? Of course not.”
“Don’t you think that Agency operatives sometimes play outside the lines a bit?”
“Sure, but Layla isn’t your typical spy.”
O’Leary raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Layla’s an analyst, and that’s what she wants to be. The only reason she went into the field is because they told her she had to. From what I got to know of her, there isn’t a deceitful bone in her body, which makes being a spy pretty difficult. But she’s brilliant. Her language skills are off the charts, and she was able to handle herself in the field, but that’s not what she wants to do.”
“You’re confident she’s clean?” Sanchez said.
“I’m confident my entire team is clean.”
“Including Cass?” O’Leary asked.
“Yes. All of us. And Diaz as well.” Zane didn’t know how he could be any more clear about his feelings, but he had to speak his mind. “I don’t know what you guys are really after here. Is it the truth? Because it doesn’t seem like it. You seem hyperfocused on our team, but you need to start looking elsewhere, because the only thing you’re going to find on my team are people trying their best to do their jobs and do them with integrity.”
“Are you finished?” Sanchez asked.
“Yes.” He could’ve said a lot more, but they didn’t seem moved by any of his comments.
“One piece of advice,” Sanchez said.
Zane tried not to seem too annoyed by Sanchez’s arrogance.
“You have too much faith in people. Take off the blinders and look at things with fresh eyes. You might not like what you see.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
O’Leary looked at him. “What Palmer is trying to say is that you appear to see people’s best attributes. In our line of work, we see the worst. Just make sure you’re not going to be blindsided because of your loyalty.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. My team is solid. That’s the end of the story.”
O’Leary nodded. “I think we’re done for now. You’re free to go.”
The last thing in the world he felt was free. There was something deeper going on here, but he had no idea who was setting up his team.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
After the inquisition yesterday at the DEA, Hunter had explained to Layla why he hadn’t been included in the meeting—that he had been tasked to work on the theft. He’d been worried she would be upset, but she’d taken it in stride, saying she understood completely why he couldn’t tell her.
He wasn’t any closer to finding the traitor at DEA, but he had stumbled on something else that was giving him major anxiety. There was no reason to keep his findings from Layla now that the cat was out of the bag regarding the cash and she’d been officially cleared by the investigators after her interrogation yesterday.
He watched her stare intently at her laptop as she typed. He wondered if her mind was really in the game or if it was somewhere else.
“Layla.”
She stopped typing. “Yeah?”
“We need to talk.”
Those words got her attention, and she set her laptop on the coffee table. “What is it?”
“As I told you, I’ve been working on this money angle for a while now, and after I exhausted all the regular routes, I started going down some other paths to find answers.”
She frowned. “This doesn’t sound good. What did you find?”
He hated telling her this. “There are some weird things going on with Cass’s money.”
She groaned. “No. There has to be an innocent explanation.”
Hunter moved closer to her. “How well do you really know this woman?” Before she could answer, he kept talking. “Let me show you what I found.”
“Fair enough.”
“First, it appears Cass has had some major financial struggles. She took out three loans from two different banks and cleared out her savings account.”
“How much are we talking?”
“So far, from what I’ve been able to document, it totals over four hundred grand.”
Layla’s shoulders slumped. “Okay. But it’s not a crime to have money problems.”
“True, but that’s not all.”
“What else?”
This was where things started to get dicey. “Those transactions occurred a few months ago. But within the last month, there’s been an influx of cash. Not in her regular accounts, though.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Then where?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I was finally able to track her financial activity to an offshore account.”
“How much of an influx of cash are we talking?” Layla bit her bottom lip.
He knew exactly why she seemed distressed. “About five hundred thousand.”
She sucked in a breath. “That’s the amount they’re claiming was taken from the cartel money.”
“Bingo.”
Layla shook her head. “You’re telling me that Cass was able to steal five hundred thousand dollars right out from under all of us?”
“It could’ve happened once the money was back in the States. Maybe she had access to the vault on the op. Could there be some weak links there?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know enough about DEA
