Taken by the Con (19 page)

Cash put his arm around her. “I’m sorry, Lucia. I knew something had happened, but I didn’t know it was that bad for you.”

She wiped at the tears that came to her eyes. “It’s not just that. I don’t fit in with my family. I don’t fit in at work. I don’t fit in anywhere.”

He made a sympathetic noise and hugged her to him. “Here. You fit right here.”

The words were balm on a raw part of her soul. Of all the partners she’d had, the boyfriends, the friends and the colleagues, she felt most like herself with Cash. “I could not have been more wrong about you,” she said.

“I’m trying to be a good man,” Cash said. “It’s hard. Sometimes I think about running away from my problems, buying a plane ticket to some tropical island and losing myself in the anonymity of a resort town. A fresh start. A new life. People who won’t know I’m a convict.”

Like researching a one-way plane ticket to Bhutan? “Why don’t you?” Lucia asked, wondering if that was the explanation for the library internet search that Benjamin had told her about.

“My life is here. Adrian needs me. Sounds like you need me. Running away is for cowards. My mom left my father and me, and I never forgave her. I can’t do that to the people I love.”

Love. Was he including her in that word?

Her doorbell rang and Lucia tensed. She raced to answer the door. It was the caterer, dropping off trays of food.

After Lucia inspected everything, she paid the caterer and fixed herself a drink. She took one sip and her doorbell rang again. This time, it was her family. Her entire family, arriving all at once.

After making the introductions, Cash fixed drinks while she helped her family with their plates.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Meg asked.

Lucia shook her head. “We work together.”

“Well, then let me say, I should have asked you to set me up with your eligible coworkers. My God, he is cute.”

“You’re married,” Lucia said, annoyed at her sister’s comment. Meg had Bradley. That was enough. Lucia suddenly felt territorial and wished she had said Cash was more than a colleague. Would that have made her sister more interested? Lucia’s relationship with Bradley hadn’t stopped Meg from sleeping with him.

Meg waved her hand. “I know. It doesn’t hurt to window-shop.” Her sister walked away and Lucia shook off her irritation. She wouldn’t enter into a debate with her family over Cash. It didn’t matter what her sister said about him. He wouldn’t be interested in Meg.

When her family was seated at the table, her father’s attention went to Cash.

“Tell me what you do,” her father said.

“He works with me,” Lucia said, not wanting Cash to have to explain his situation.

Her father held up his hand. “I was asking Cash.”

“I’m a consultant for the FBI.”

“What kind of consulting?” her mother asked.

“On special cases,” Cash said.

“That’s an unusual name. Cash. A family name?” her father asked.

“It’s a nickname,” Cash said.

“Do you work in finances?” Bradley asked.

Now they were getting into the thick of it. At any minute, her family would figure out Cash was a convict and it was over. Why had Cash wanted this?

“I have an ability to make money in difficult situations,” Cash said.

Her father’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

Cash glanced at Lucia. He didn’t appear upset at her family’s interrogation. “It means that I grew up running cons to take people’s money. I was good at it. I quit when I was old enough to make my own decisions, but the name stuck.”

Her family stared at him. Why had he told them about being a con man? Why couldn’t he have kept his explanation to the present? FBI consultant, the end.

“My daughter knows you’re a thief?” her mother asked.

“Talk about a rebellion. Come on, Lucia, are you serious with this?” Bradley asked, gesturing at Cash. The condescension in his voice set her on edge.

“As I explained, Cash is my coworker. Just because he has a different background than we do doesn’t mean we need to be rude.” She hoped her tone conveyed her disappointment. Couldn’t her family lower their noses for a few minutes to look at Cash, really look at him, and see that he was a good man?

“Everyone knows you’re sleeping with him,” Meg said.

Lucia rose to her feet. “That is no one’s business.”

“I don’t see you denying it,” Chloe said.

Fury and embarrassment welled up inside her. Why did her family have to behave this way? “I don’t owe you an explanation. Is this how you speak to people at the country club? Of course not! But because it’s me and my friend, you think you can act like uppity, snot-nosed brats.”

Cash remained silent.

“Lucia, you’re making a scene and embarrassing yourself,” her mother said.

She was the embarrassing one? “Am I? I don’t feel embarrassed. I feel pissed off. I’m the only one who’s on the receiving end of this scrutiny. Nothing I do is good enough. My sister can sleep with my fiancé and everyone applauds her when she gets engaged to him. But I invite you to meet a perfectly nice man, and you insult him and rudely pry into our relationship.”

Tears welled in her eyes and Lucia blinked them back. Everyone was staring at her open-mouthed. Only Cash looked amused, as if he was glad she had finally spoken her mind. There was nothing passive-aggressive about her words this time. They were fighting words.

“I am so sorry I invited you over today. I shouldn’t have bothered. Please, enjoy the meal. Lock the door on your way out.” She grabbed her coat and her handbag and fled her condo.

She heard footsteps on the stairs above her. She didn’t stop walking.

Cash caught up to her on the sidewalk, taking her arm. “Wait up, Lucia. Talk to me.”

“Sorry to have left you in the den of rudeness,” she said.

“Not the den of rudeness. They’re worried about you. Protective. Although that shot at your sister was well deserved.”

Lucia laughed. “For a second, I wiped that smug, satisfied look off her face.”

“Why do you care if they call me a thief or know we’re sleeping together?”

Because they were using both as reasons why Lucia was making a mistake. “It’s not their business.”

“Because I embarrass you,” Cash said.

“You don’t.” It wasn’t
his
behavior that had made her feel terrible.

Cash stared over her shoulder. “You looked like you wanted to jump out of your skin at brunch. Your family could sense something was wrong. They went in for the kill because you let them.”

Lucia threw up her hands. “I don’t understand why you wanted to meet them in the first place.”

“This might be hard for you to understand, but I’m tired of people treating me like a tool to be used and discarded.”

“I do not treat you like a tool,” she said.

“I was brought onto the team for my skills and my connections. But I am still a person. You wouldn’t know it from how I’m tracked and questioned and investigated.”

Lucia opened her mouth to deny it, but she couldn’t. His movements were tracked, she questioned him often enough and Benjamin had him under investigation. “You’re a criminal,” she said.

Cash’s face turned stony. “Is that how you see me? A criminal?”

“Not just a criminal.” But it was an explanation for why he was not allowed to do whatever he wanted and go wherever he wanted.

“Then what I am to you, Lucia? I thought you and I had something, but I’m starting to think you only see me as a con man who’s good in bed.”

Lucia shifted. What could she say? They had slept together and it had been great. They worked well together as a team. But what else could she expect from him and the situation? It would end with each of them moving on to their next assignment. “You’re my colleague.” It wasn’t what she wanted to say. He was more than that. But she didn’t have the right words to describe their relationship.

“A colleague,” he repeated, his voice flat.

She could see in his eyes she’d hurt him.

He turned to walk away and she grabbed the sleeve of his coat. “Wait, Cash.”

Cash’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the display. “It’s a blocked number.”

Likely someone from Anderson’s crew. She gestured for him to answer it.

Cash leaned close so she could hear the call.

“Cash, it’s Mitchell.”

“What can I do for you?” Cash asked.

“Glad you asked. We’re having a staff meeting tonight. Seven o’clock. I’ll text you the location later today.”

“Happy to be getting to work,” Cash said.

“Don’t bring your lady,” Mitchell said.

“No problem. She can stay busy without me.”

“Don’t be late. I have big plans for your first job,” Mitchell said.

Lucia didn’t like the sound of that.

Cash said goodbye and disconnected the call.

“You can’t go alone,” Lucia said.

“What did you want me to say? Argue with him? We’re lucky he’s let you tag along at all up until now,” Cash said.

Lucia narrowed her gaze on him. “It could be a trap. I read in your report that he asked you point-blank about the FBI using you to find Anderson. Are you certain he believed you? He could kill you and I won’t be there to help you.”

Cash didn’t appear alarmed. “He believed me. This is the chance we’ll have to take.”

Lucia grabbed his hand. “I don’t want to take chances with your life.”

She wasn’t sure where she stood with Cash. Sometimes, she felt they had everything they needed in each other. Other times, she felt as though the world would do everything it could to keep them apart.

* * *

Without Lucia or the FBI at his back, Cash felt both more like himself and more on edge. He wouldn’t need to worry about Lucia, but if anything went wrong, he’d have to rely on himself to get out of it.

Which hadn’t been a problem in the past. But in the past, he hadn’t been lying to a ruthless criminal and his thugs.

“Don’t let him trick you into doing anything illegal,” Lucia had said to him as he’d left her place that evening.

Illegal
defined nearly everything Anderson had his hands in. How was Cash supposed to avoid it?

He arrived at the location Mitchell had texted him, an abandoned car dealership on the other side of DC from where the casino had been running. Cash was driving the car that was registered to Lucy Harris.

He parked it a few blocks away and walked. First, he wanted his getaway car to be inconspicuous. And second, a car parked in the lot of an abandoned building could bring the police. A seasoned con man wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake.

He entered the dealership and waited for someone to approach him. It was quiet, but Mitchell would know he’d arrived. Sure enough, after a few minutes, Mitchell walked through one of the doorways across from the entry.

“First things first,” Mitchell said, waving to Cash to follow him. “We need to get rid of your tracker.”

“I’ve got the signal blocker on it and broadcasting from the Hideaway.” Lucia had put it on his monitor before he’d left, but he had not activated it. If his tracker wasn’t sending his signal, the FBI wouldn’t know where he was to provide backup if he needed it. “If you cut it off, the FBI come running and I go back to jail.”

Mitchell grinned at him and held up a key. “This came into my possession yesterday. I can remove your tracker without anyone being the wiser.”

Cash propped his foot on the railing and Mitchell used his key to remove the device.

Though it was temporary, Cash felt lighter and freer than he had since before he’d been in prison. He could run. Get a good head start on the FBI before they knew he’d fled DC. He could make it to Seattle, find his son and start a new life.

Except it would be a life of running, of looking over his shoulder for the FBI to find him. Adrian deserved better.

And what about Lucia? Could he run away without saying goodbye to her? She had made it clear that his role in her life was fleeting and she didn’t consider him more than a colleague. Why did that bother him?

“Feel better?” Mitchell asked.

“Can I keep the key?” Cash asked.

Mitchell shook his head. “We’ll keep that as a secret between us when I have a need for you to be off the grid. Leave your tracker here. You can retrieve it when you’re done.”

“Done what?” Cash asked.

“We have a special project for you,” Mitchell said.

The FBI would have no idea where he was going with Mitchell. Cash rolled with it. He would find a way to contact Lucia if he could.

“You need to meet the rest of the crew. I’ll fill you in then,” Mitchell said.

* * *

Lucia had an ominous feeling about Cash’s meeting with Mitchell. Cash would have his tracking device, the signal blocker Mitchell had given him with him but disabled. Lucia needed to know where Cash was. She didn’t trust Mitchell.

Her ominous feeling turned into dread when she received a call that Cash’s ankle monitor had been removed and was sitting on the floor of an abandoned car dealership. Benjamin had sent someone to follow Cash and while they’d lost his trail, they’d found the monitor.

Mitchell could kill Cash and they wouldn’t find his body.

Lucia’s phone rang and she answered, hoping it was Cash.

It was her mother.

“You were very rude to us at brunch,” her mother said.

Lucia closed her eyes. She didn’t need this now. On top of everything else, family drama was too much. Maybe her mom and her sisters had time to fight and argue. Lucia didn’t. “It was rude of me to leave, but that doesn’t mean your behavior was any better.”

Her mother gasped. “What has gotten into you lately? You are so mouthy.”

“I am not being mouthy. I am being honest.” Something she should have done years before. Instead of biting her tongue and checking her words, she should have let her family know how much they had hurt her. How much they did hurt her. “Mom, you’ve caught me at a bad time.”

“Every time is a bad time for you.”

“I’m busy,” Lucia said.

“I’m busy, too. I have obligations and responsibilities and I still make time for my family.”

Lucia’s worry over Cash was cutting short her patience with her mother. “Mom, you do not have any pressing obligations. You have lunches at the country club and social events and shopping for those lunches and social events. Right now, I am working. I am waiting to hear from Cash because something bad has happened.”