“What changed your mind about making me decide to work here?”
“The fact that your best friend in the department gave your address to someone who tried to kill you was a nail in that coffin.”
He probably figured right. “I hate this city,” she reminded him.
“So I’ve heard. But not in the past week, funny enough.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Hotchins passed her and opened the door to the conference room. “I have a schedule full of meetings this afternoon. Keep me updated on your progress, Agent Price.”
“What did you mean?” she asked again, not happy about his evasiveness after he just confessed how much important information he’d been concealing from her the entire time she’d been up here.
“It’s not my business,” he said, “but you seem to be a bit happier about the city ever since you stepped up your involvement with Mr. Devereaux.”
She tried to keep her face blank, but she could feel the blood rush up her cheeks. “You have a strange definition of happier,” she said, but he was already leaving.
“Keep me updated,” he called as he headed down the hallway.
Evelyn glanced behind her and saw that he’d left Easson’s file for her. Probably a not-so-subtle hint to tell Luke about what they were up against. Evelyn snatched the file and tucked it under her arm and started to turn when the glinting sun reflecting off the skyscraper across the street caught her eye.
She crossed to the window as though drawn by some force and glanced out at the street below, mostly in shadow due to the buildings and setting sun. So unlike Texas, where the sun was practically a constant. Sun she’d never be able to see again.
Maybe for short periods, sure. But long term? As long as the man she shot still had family connections in high places in the cartel, she’d never be safe there. That was just how powerful they were. She could actually count herself lucky they didn’t send someone to track her down in New York, but she didn’t see anything lucky about this.
As soon as she finished this case, she was supposed to go home, but now there wasn’t a home to go to. Just a crappy apartment and a job where her best friend had tried to kill her.
So she was just supposed to sit back and get comfortable?
There was another option still. She could leave. Transfer to another office or even leave the Bureau. Jace had done well for himself on his own, and she had a feeling he wasn’t going to be taking on as many clients in the near future. If she went into the business, he’d be more than willing to shoot her referrals.
But she’d wanted to make a difference. After her time in the service with Jace and the rest of their team, she could’ve made millions if she struck out on her own. But she’d thought she could help if she had Uncle Sam backing her work. And she had. She hadn’t fixed the broken system down there, but she’d made a lot of busts and set up a great backbone in the agencies she’d worked with.
Could she get that same validation from working white-collar? The system was just as broken, but the criminals were better hidden and better defended. And she’d still be working around Luke. Even if it wasn’t on this case, it would be around him.
Which made sleeping with him all the more idiotic. Somehow she’d convinced herself it would be okay if she was going to leave as soon as this whole thing was over. But now there would be no clean break. And, frankly, the idea of breaking at all caused her more pause than she felt comfortable to admit.
The more she was with Luke, the more comfortable she was becoming with him, and that was dangerous territory.
The bright light reflecting on the building across from her disappeared as the sun dropped lower. It wasn’t late by any means, but that was just how it was here. Evelyn sighed. She’d work with Hotchins to decide a good time to bring Easson Harper in and maybe he’d be the key to cracking the case.
And after that, she’d decide where she was going to go. Until then, she needed to focus on the task at hand. She and Luke were close to cracking this. She could just feel it. All she had to do was hang in there a little bit longer and she could sort out the rest of her life then.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“How much do I owe you for this?” Luke sent the document he was looking at on the computer screen to the printer.
“Five grand,” said Colin Carter over the phone. “I’m sending you the account information for you to send the wire to.”
“That’s it?” Not that Luke wanted to pay any more than he had to, but considering what Colin had just given him, he felt as if the man earned a much bigger payday than that.