Red Handed(67)
Cole rose from the couch. “That should be the doctor.”
“Doctor?” she asked, confused. “I thought you said you were okay.”
Logan, Gracie, and Adrian walked in with a man wearing a white doctor’s coat.
“The club is completely empty, and we sent the trainees to bed with word that you were recovering nicely,” Gracie said, dropping onto the couch.
Adrian kept going, heading toward the back of the apartment to what Danielle guessed would be the bedrooms.
Cole shook the doctor’s hand. “Agent Miller, thank you for getting here so quickly.”
Agent? Did that mean he was FBI?
The man smiled. “Logan contacted me yesterday and filled me in on the case. When he called thirty minutes ago to share some new developments, I was intrigued. Never been asked to dress up as a physician for a case.”
Cole gestured for Agent Miller to take a seat on the couch. “We needed a way to get you into the house without raising Rinaldi’s suspicions. No doubt he’s got his people watching. He’s already managed to bug parts of my home.” Cole took his spot beside her. “I appreciate your agreement to look the other way as to Benediction.”
“I grew up with Logan. Believe me, I’m not interested in his or anyone’s consensual sex life,” Agent Miller said. “Besides, everyone in the Detroit FBI office has been looking to nail Rinaldi for years.”
Cole slid his arm around her. “If you contact Agent Davis in the Phoenix office tomorrow, he’ll provide you some details that didn’t make it into James Walker’s file, including his connection to the Rinaldi crime family.”
Agent Miller looked at her. “You must be Danielle. It’s your mother who’s been kidnapped?”
“Stepmother,” she clarified. “Please, if Rinaldi learns I’ve gotten the FBI involved, he’ll kill her.”
The FBI agent frowned, shaking his head. “I know Rinaldi. He doesn’t believe in leaving any loose ends.”
Her stomach dropped. “You think he’ll kill Tasha no matter what I do?”
“If he hasn’t already, then yes, I think he’ll kill Tasha.” He paused. “But I also believe he’ll go after you.”
Cole tugged her closer. “Then she needs more protection. I’ll set something up for her.”
“I’ve got a different idea,” Agent Miller said. “Rinaldi has been groomed to take control of his family’s crime syndicate since before he could walk. He knows when he’s being tailed, and he knows how to shake one. We believe he’s responsible for the disappearance of several young women who have gone missing. Their bodies have never been found.”
She shivered at the thought that the man who’d possibly murdered several women had kidnapped her stepmother. “Then how do you know he’s involved?”
“Rumors from a couple rival associates of his,” Agent Miller explained. “A couple of the girls had been part of a kinky dating agency he owns. He pretends to pair up sexually like-minded people, but usually he takes the clients’ money and sets them up with prostitutes who can’t say no to whatever kink the clients want. The problem is since they’re runaways and junkies, no one reported these girls as missing. And we can’t figure out where he’s taking them.” He leaned toward her. “But you can.”
Cole shot to his feet. “No way in hell are you using Danielle as bait.”
Agent Miller rose from the couch and put up his hands. “Hear me out. She’ll wear a wire and a GPS. Logan filled me in on some of the specifics of what Rinaldi was looking for. Once Danielle gives him the account information, he’ll think he’s won. And he’ll be looking to tie up those loose ends. I think he’ll kidnap Danielle and bring her back to wherever he’s been taking the other girls. Danielle could help us finally put this guy away for good.”
Cole shook his head. “You’ll have to find another way—”
“I’ll do it,” she said, standing and ignoring the concern in Cole’s eyes. “What do you need me to do?”
Adrian handed her a square sterling silver box decorated with sapphires. “This was your mother’s.”
Her heart ached, and a tear escaped her eye. In his grief after Danielle’s mother died, her father had given everything that had belonged to her to charity. Danielle had grown up with no more than a few photographs of the woman she’d never gotten to meet.
She didn’t understand why her father hadn’t given this to her years ago or why he’d hidden the bank account information in it, then given it to Cole, but at the moment, it didn’t matter.