“What Butler is doing is extremely dangerous, because people who want to walk away from this organization, don’t,” Hooper said. “I’ve lost undercover agents before; I don’t want to lose Butler. We think Duncan was involved in some way, possibly through his daughter in Reno. I’m dissecting his financial life now. He had something Coresco and his people don’t want us to get, and I have no idea what it is that would be incriminating enough that they’d kill for it. I have a Fed going to talk to his daughter in Reno in case he sent it to her, whatever it is.”
“So what you’re saying is, you’re sending in two civilians, one a convicted felon, to a charity event full of known criminals to gather information and report back to you, hoping to find out whatever information Mack had that got him killed.”
“Yes.”
“Why do I see a million ways this can go wrong?”
But Sam didn’t see an alternative. He feared, however, that he would lose Shauna completely.
If he hadn’t already blown it yesterday.
Chapter Fifteen
Shauna considered she may have been wrong about Austin Davis calling her. She’d been wrong about so many things in her life, what was one more? Agent Hooper was giving Austin until noon Friday to call her to ask her to the event, otherwise she was supposed to call him and tell him she had a change of heart. It was eight Thursday night and he still hadn’t called her.
She sat at the end of the bar with her second pint of Guinness. Evidently, she was sending out keep away vibes because no one talked to her, not even her grandfather Dooley. Which was fine, because she couldn’t tell him about what she was doing tomorrow night and she couldn’t lie to him. He’d always been able to see through her.
What was it with her and men? Was she destined to a life alone? Because every man she’d been involved with had been a failure.
She’d been wrong about Sam when she was seventeen. Not wrong because she knew he was attracted to her, but wrong about her approach. He’d been twenty-two, her brother’s best friend, and she practically attacked him with a kiss and confession that she was in love with him. It had been wrong and childish and stupid.
She’d been wrong about Jason Butler twice. First, she had no idea he was playing criminal, and then when he said he was a criminal, she didn’t doubt it. Had she wanted to believe he was a bad guy so she didn’t have to marry him? She didn’t want to believe that about herself, but she was so twisted up inside that she honestly didn’t know what she’d been thinking then, or what she felt now. She felt awful at how she must have hurt him and visiting him twice in prison was small potatoes. She had loved him … and she should still love him, knowing he hadn’t really lied to her or used her. Yet—she felt manipulated by everyone.
Truth be told, she didn’t feel the same way about Jason now as she had then. Three years was a long time. And three years ago, Sam had been married. She’d written him off the day he said I do to Emma and moved on with her life.
And now Sam was single.
So was Jason. What happened yesterday in the storeroom with Sam still hurt. She felt raw and exposed. At first she was furious, then as the realization settled in, she was so deeply sad because it was over. Worse, she wanted to go to him and tell him, Yes, Sam, I’ll do anything you want if you love me. And that made her feel needy and angry all over again. She had always prided herself on being independent and self-sufficient. And any man who would give her orders about who she could talk to, who she could do business with, who she could be friends with, was not a man she could love.
Sam now knew Jason wasn’t a criminal, but could she trust him down the road not to give her ultimatums?
She’d been living in a daze since last night. Maybe all week. How could she have told Agent Hooper that Austin was going to call her? She obviously knew nothing about men. Not Jason, not Austin, and certainly not Sam Garcia.
Someone slid onto the stool next to her. “Are you okay?”
She jumped. “Austin?”
“Why do you look so surprised?”
“I—I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He smiled, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “I hope it’s a happy surprise.”
“I’m not unhappy,” she said and smiled. “Can I get you a drink? Dooley has some great Scotch.” Austin never drank beer. Maybe that was one reason she couldn’t get past three dates.
“I can’t stay—I have a late business meeting. But thank you anyway.”
“So why did you stop by?”
“To see how you’re doing. You were so upset on Monday. I wanted to give you a couple days. I’d hoped you would have called.”