Tough Justice: Betrayed

“Dammit!”

“What?”

“Cass knows,” she answered, fingers already flying across the phone’s keyboard.

Thanks, Lola. But now you need to disappear for a while. There’s some dangerous things going down and that woman was linked to it. Please lay low for a while and be extra cautious. Call me immediately at the sign of any trouble.

Once the text was sent, Lara relayed the original message back.

“So now Cass knows that I know,” she said.

“That’s not good.”

“No, it’s not,” Lara agreed. She moved off of the counter and began to pace. If she’d only told Lola not to approach Cass sooner...

“She’ll have to make the next move now,” Nick said, voice low, unhappy.

“I know, but what do you think it’ll be? And when?”

Trying to picture what a woman like Cass McDonner could do versus would do was making Lara’s stomach knot. If she did indeed know the entire truth behind the Moretti case, then she could do a lot more damage than even Nick realized. How had everything gotten out of hand so fast?

“We’ve completely lost whatever upper hand we had,” she said. Hearing the words out loud made their situation seem even more shitty. “I definitely feel like this is a corn maze we’ve been dropped into.”

“Now that the surprise offense is out of the question, we’ll need to attack first,” he said after a quick smile. “We need a game plan before she can come up—” Lara’s phone vibrated again, stopping the man mid-sentence. Lara quickly read it, the knots in her stomach only twisting further.

“It’s Cass, isn’t it?” Nick asked.

Lara nodded. “And she’s faster than us.”

Nick came back over, taking the phone from her hand. Over his shoulder she reread the text message. When he was done he looked Lara full in the face.

“No,” he said. “Don’t even think about it.”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice, Nick. You said it yourself, she’s one enemy we don’t want to force into a corner.”

If she was even an enemy at all, Lara reminded herself.

Loss made people do things they normally wouldn’t dream of doing. Cass could be in just as much danger as they were. Jumping to conclusions could do them more harm than good.

“She’s not this stupid though.” Nick motioned to the text on the phone. “She has to know I—we—wouldn’t let this happen.”

Lara shrugged. She wasn’t going to argue because, whether or not Nick already knew it, Lara was going to do it regardless of the danger. She wanted, needed, and would fight for, answers.

And, apparently, Cassandra McDonner had at least a few.

Lara’s eyes roamed back over the text once more. As if reading it three times would give her more clues.

Meet me at South Street Seaport, Pier 17 at 8. Just you.

“It’s a trap.” Nick had his arms crossed over his chest, his face pinched in only a way that deep skepticism could make a face pinch.

They were back in the conference room at the Bureau and not alone. Nick had rallied their team for a debriefing on their current situation. Lara had left out the truths she couldn’t bring herself to tell the team about her past. Victoria, the only one who knew them, took the information in silence. The others hadn’t.

Especially Nick.

“It’s a trap and we all know it,” he reiterated. “You aren’t going alone to meet her.”

“No, I’m not. But I also don’t think Cass expects me to either,” Lara said. “Given what we know about her, there’s no way she hasn’t figured out that I’m bringing company.”

“She’s too smart for that,” Xander piped in. “Too clever.”

“But we still should make it appear you’re alone,” Nick said. “Do you think she’d really talk if we all strolled up to her with smiles on and guns drawn?” Lara shook her head. “If she knows you aren’t going alone, then that makes her more dangerous. She’ll most likely be well armed.”

Xander nodded, then added, “And a solid escape route planned. Not to mention some kind of action in case things go wrong. We need to make sure we go in just as—if not more—prepared.”

“Are we really talking about this right now?” Everyone turned to Ty, who had, for the most part, remained quiet. His earlier sour mood at working with Xander hadn’t dissipated. In fact, he seemed more agitated than before. Not that Lara could blame the man. She bet she didn’t look so cheerful either. When he realized all eyes were on him, he continued. “This is Cass we’re talking about here. We know her, and now we’re trying to say she’s some big criminal mastermind? She may have done some crazy shit, but she isn’t responsible for all the deaths, Mei’s included.” His whole demeanor seemed to slam down on that point. Absolute belief in his words. “No way, I don’t believe that for a second.”

Lara was about to agree with that sentiment when Victoria spoke up. The rings beneath her eyes told a very clear story of no sleep and unending hard work. A part of her team had been killed. No matter how much she believed in the healing powers of resting, she wasn’t having any of it herself.

“I agree with you to a point,” she started. “But the sad fact of the matter is, if you snap, you snap.” The room quieted as she let her words sink in. Not even Ty defended against their blunt truth. “And if Cass has snapped, then that isn’t good for her and especially not good for us. We don’t know what she’s capable of, but I have my suspicions, as well as I’m sure you all do, that a woman with her intelligence and skills could do some damage if she wanted. So, Lara, you will go meet her at the location she provided, while the rest of us will set up around the perimeter as backup. We’ll even pull in some more bodies to help. We will take every precaution available to us. You will wear a wire, and at the first sign of any trouble, team member or not, we will take her down. Is that understood?” The question wasn’t just aimed at Lara. It blanketed the room.

One by one they all agreed.

“Good. Now let’s get us some fucking answers for once.”

Chapter Three (#ulink_ca6e1c47-19a2-5853-aa45-4fea6d12e215)

The building at the end of the pier was supposed to be a diamond in the rough between the two that sandwiched Pier 17. At one point it had been heralded as a clean slate with loads of potential. However, construction had stalled after a series of bad luck befell the builders, chief among them being investors pulling out last minute. Their abandonment had created a two-year unfinished building, seemingly frozen in a continuous state of one giant work-in-progress.

Three stories, narrow, half of the third floor an open tangle of exposed beams that branched out and almost over the dark water surrounding it. It was, for lack of a better word, a shell of a building. Though each floor had walls and windows, it was clear this progress hadn’t extended to the third floor. Lara could almost picture what the original plan had been right down to the walk-out balconies, showing off the waterfront view for the target audience of tourists. A restaurant maybe, plus some kind of shopping space. A gift shop that sold NYC trinkets and the Statue of Liberty key chains.

Lara shrank deeper into her jacket. The gun, holstered between her side and arm beneath, moved slightly.

From a strictly tactical standpoint, the abandoned construction site wasn’t the smartest place to carry out dirty dealings. Since it was effectively an island with only one way to escape on foot without getting wet, if Cass planned on implementing an escape plan, she would be hard-pressed. Even if she did plan on going for a swim, there was nowhere to go in the cold, dark water. Not before at least twenty warm bodies were out with spotlights, waiting to scoop her back up.

Lara shifted her weight from foot to foot. She was nervous, it was true, but it was more of an anxiousness at finally finding out something that could help them stop whoever was at the top of this maddening game of cat and mouse they’d been playing. Lara knew that even if she hadn’t had the backup of her team, a distance away for fear of spooking their teammate, she would have still marched up to the dimly lit, neglected building with determination.

Lara’s footsteps echoed off of the splintered wood beams. Eyes jumping from each lamp as she passed. She paused as she glanced to her right at the pier across the water from her, yards away. Nick was there, two over, hidden in his own shadows. Ready to have her back if needed. Ty was to her left along the next pier, holding down the fort while Xander and Victoria were across the street behind her, attempting to blend into the night, eyes peeled for anything suspicious. A few NYPD beat cops, dressed down, milled around with the agents with specific instructions to only move when Victoria gave Junior Agent James Walsh, their liaison, the signal. Everyone was waiting. Everyone was ready. It was enough to put a little pep into Lara’s step knowing that, even though she would have come alone if she’d had to, she wasn’t alone.

“It’s showtime,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand as she moved a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. The wire adhered firmly to the skin between her breasts would no doubt pick up her words with ease. Whatever Cass was about to say was going to bounce back to the ears of every team member in the field. That fact alone had almost stopped her feet from moving forward. If, in the process of getting answers, the truth of her past with Moretti came out, then there was no way to hide it from the team anymore. No way for Nick not to hear it and finally understand how personal the case was to her.

Lara willed her feet to keep going, almost shaking her head to free herself of the dark thoughts looming.

If Cass really did talk—if she did reveal the part of the past that Lara wished would remain untouched—then so be it. The team needed answers. The truth about her relationship with Moretti was a cost she was simply ready to pay.

Lara walked up to what looked like one of two workable doors on the outside of the building. Plans to create an outdoor seating area beneath the shade of the next floor had been stopped, leaving unstained concrete on either side of the double doors. Glass from some of the windows also littered the area around her. Uncertain for a moment, Lara just stared at the weathered wood wondering what truth was on the other side, before she finally grasped the handle and pushed.

Her body went on high alert and her training kicked in. She became hyperaware of her handgun beneath her jacket. She didn’t figure Cass would be stupid enough to try anything, especially when she had probably already figured out the team was nearby, waiting to storm the building, guns blazing if need be. However, that didn’t mean she was about to go in unprepared. Plus, the redhead hadn’t advised against it.