“Dani, I don’t think you know Special Agent Espinoza with the FBI? Tony, this is Detective Danielle Delacroiux.” Beau made the introductions.
“Another Detective Delacroiux. She’s much prettier than you, Beau.” He laughed and put out his hand. “No, I’m sure I’d remember this little lady. Please, call me Tony,” he said.
Dani shook his hand and invited him to call her Dani, and Beau hoped she would keep her feelings about Tony’s Neanderthal comments to herself. Beau thought the man showed all the signs of believing the good old boys were alive and well, and female officers were still a novelty. No wonder LeAnn thought he was an ass.
“Please, have a seat,” Dani offered, and when the men sat on either end of the couch, she took the chair opposite them. “It’s the crack of dawn and I had a late night. What are you doing here?”
Tony gave a little chuckle and looked at Beau. “I like her. She’s a feisty one,” he said with a condescending smirk.
Dani glared at Beau, but when she started to stand, he gave a small shake of his head and raised his hand slightly, a silent plea to let it go. “Agent Espinoza, why don’t you tell Dani what you told the commander and me?”
Tony looked at Beau. “That information is need to know. I need her to take on a simple part of the job, not be a partner. Is she assigned to me or not?”
Beau blew out a breath. He knew appearing to cooperate with the feds was important, but he’d be damned if Dani was going to work on any case without a full briefing on the position and he would never assign one of his detectives to this jerk. He stood. “Detective Delacroiux, I’m sorry we wasted your time. Let’s go, Espinoza.”
Tony didn’t move, and Beau could practically hear the wheels turning.
Asshole thought the Généreux PD would roll over just because he was FBI.
It was Tony’s turn to blow out a breath and he slowly shook his head. “You would let a bastard like Julian Charbonnet slip through your hands just to keep a junior detective from getting her feelings hurt? All right, but I’m warning both of you, if Julian gets wind of this, I’ll know right where to look.
“We know Julian’s more than just an all-around bad guy. The man’s a stone cold killer—even if he pays others to do his dirty work.”
“Do you have proof of that, Espinoza?” Bo asked. “Or is this just speculation on your part? Because even this far outside of Washington, we can get a warrant for a wiretap…” Beau trailed his words, wondering at the look of pure contempt on the agent’s face.
“Don’t worry—I’ve been looking for the best way to bring him down. We just need a thread to follow, one little crime to unravel, to open the door to other investigations. I believe he’s been bringing diamonds illegally from South Africa. I almost have his method of shipment nailed down, and I want to identify the American buyer. Once we have that information, we can use it as leverage for future charges, but smuggling will do for now.”
****
Dani kept her face neutral through it all. Espinoza had been into his story before she realized it was going to be about Charbonnet, and Beau had made it clear she was to listen without interruption. When Tony got to the request, she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Or maybe just throw up.
Espinoza had decided the way to get to Julian was through the son who had recently returned to Louisiana. Through Hawk. He made a point of telling her that Hawk was no saint and the way he phrased some of his statements made Dani wonder if he knew she’d had dinner with Hawk. If so, he wasn’t letting on.
“Look, my main target is Julian, but if I can bring Junior down too, so much the better. He runs the same type of businesses in Europe as his daddy does here. He’s just as dirty.”
“What is it you want me to do?” she finally asked, tired of his rant.
“I would have thought that was clear,” Tony said.
“Spell it out for me, Agent Espinoza,” she snapped.
“I want you to get close to Hawk. Sure, he knows you’re a cop, but that’s just the Charbonnet style. Compromise a cop and then exploit the relationship for information. Only this time, we’ll turn the tables. Let them think they’re compromising you, feed them some false information, and use anything you hear to get the goods on the family.”
“When you say ‘get close to him,’ what exactly do you mean?” Dani asked, her voice cold with fury.
“Look, Junior’s dirty, Julian’s dirty. One way or the other, they’re going down this time. I don’t care if you have to fuck him, we need this connection,” Tony said bluntly.
“Get him out of here, Beau!” she spat.
Beau stood and pulled the agent up with him. “Dani, Espinoza’s an ass, but I think we’ve got a chance at Charbonnet here. But let me make it clear. You are being assigned to this case but not to Espinoza. You still work for me and your job is to develop a friendly relationship with Hawk Charbonnet so we can get information on Julian.
“Nothing more, Dani. You are
not
to pretend a romantic relationship. You are
not
to investigate on your own.
Do not
spend any time alone with him unless you clear it with me first. That’s an order, not a request. Just make friends with him. God knows the Charbonnets don’t have many friends. As for you,
Special Agent Espinoza,
”—Beau sneered—“your orders to Dani come through me. Is that understood?”
When the men finally left, Dani slammed the door behind them and flipped the locks. For a moment she just stood there, forehead pressed against the cool wood of the door. She couldn’t have fucked things up more if she’d tried. She should have said something, should have told them right away that she wasn’t alone, that Hawk was in the bedroom.
Well, one thing was certain—despite Beau’s order, she wasn’t clearing her time with Hawk with anyone.
Hawk.
The last thing he’d said to her was not to let him fall alone. No, it was far too late to let him go alone. Not only had she fallen for him, she was getting ready to walk through hell with him. She turned slowly. Hawk was leaning against her bedroom door, arms crossed, expression unfathomable, watching her.
****
His heart was shattered into a million pieces all over the floor of Danielle’s bedroom. Each word, each accusation of that asshat Espinoza was a stake to his heart. He knew what he was, goddamn it. He knew what he’d come from…but he’d been trying to change, hadn’t he?
Now he’d lost the race before it began. Even if he’d met Danielle six months from now, once his hands were completely clean, it still would have been an uphill battle to see if she could forgive his roots, his past. Now his past, his present, had compromised her. A woman like Danielle would never be able to accept what she was about to find out as part of this investigation.
Shit
. The investigation. He needed to keep the news of her involvement from his father or her life would become a living hell. He wouldn’t betray what he’d heard today to Julian, no matter what Danielle thought.
An hour ago, he’d been sure he was falling in love, now he was falling straight into hell. He moved to the doorway to watch her, braced himself, tried to prepare for her condemnation. Her shoulders slumped as she pressed her head against the door. His heart squeezed to see her in pain. Then she visibly pulled herself together and slowly turned to face him.
He opened his mouth, not sure what he would say, but she forestalled any comments with a raised hand. Then she put her finger to her lips and motioned him to follow her. Without a word, she pointed to the base of the lamp on the table next to the couch.
He almost missed it. On the base, next to the cord was a tiny disc. A bug. He started to reach for it, then stopped and looked a question at her.
She shook her head and motioned him to the tiny kitchen where she turned on the water. She pulled him down so she could speak directly into his ear.
“I need you to go, now.”
He looked away and nodded. He could have died a happy man to never have heard those words from her lips.
“I’m going to call you in a little while. Just play along, okay?”
Still not trusting himself to speak, he nodded again and turned away. She tugged him back down as if to whisper more. Instead, she reached to tangle her fingers in the hair on the back of his head and pressed her mouth to his. A hard, quick kiss that she ended with a firm bite on his lower lip.
“Don’t fuck this up, Charbonnet,” she whispered. “Now go. I’ll talk to you in a few minutes and see you soon.” She shoved him toward the door with his head in an uproar.
****
The first call Dani made after her shower wasn’t to Hawk. She couldn’t forget her primary job today was finding justice for Crease and that scum bucket Beaker. It didn’t matter what they’d been in life; in death they were hers. She would get to the truth of these homicides as quickly as possible so that she could focus on her other problem. Tony Espinoza.
The bastard had planted a bug in her apartment. Had he known more than he’d let on? She pushed that thought aside when Tollefson answered the phone.
“Tolley, it’s Dani. You ready for me?”
“Kiss my ass, Delacroiux. I said I’d have ’em ready, they’re ready. Not my problem you’re late,” he groused.
“Damn, Tolley. You get up on the wrong side of someone’s bed this morning?”
“Ah, shit. Yeah. Look, sorry. I got what you want, and you’re not gonna like it. I don’t want to do this here.”
“Meet me at the pub, then. I’ll buy your breakfast.”
“Buy my breakfast? Why do I feel another favor coming on?”
“Tolley! I’m shocked! Can’t a girl buy her best pal breakfast without needing something?” Dani teased.
Tolley barked a laugh. “Yeah, right. That’ll be the day. That’s good, I guess. I’m due for a break. In about fifteen, okay?”
Dani broke the connection, used her phone to snap a few pictures of the bug, but left it in place. It was time to get this shit started. She called Hawk.
“Charbonnet,” he drawled in his delicious Texas accent.
“Hawk? It’s Detective Delacroiux…um…Dani. You said I could call you if I thought of anything else.”
“Yes, Detective. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering, could you meet me this morning? I have a couple more questions.”
“Certainly. I have some business in town. I could meet you in your office in…say…an hour. Will that be soon enough, Detective?”
“Oh, well, yes. I mean no.” She rolled her eyes at herself, and made her voice a bit breathier. “Could we maybe meet at the Delacroiux Pub, instead? I’m meeting someone there for breakfast and we could have coffee afterward. If that would be okay with you.”
“Delacroiux Pub. Any relation?” he asked, and Dani said a prayer of thanks for his quick mind.
“My mémé’s place,” she said and gave him directions.
“All right, Detective Delacroiux, I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Oh, um, you can call me Dani. Everyone does,” she said.
He paused a long time, and Dani wondered if he’d hung up. She was just pulling the phone away from her ear when she heard his voice, low, smooth, and oh-so-sexy.
“All the more reason I don’t think I will. You don’t look like a Dani to me. I think I’ll call you Danielle. It can be my special name for you. See you in an hour, Danielle.”
Her heart was skipping nicely and she knew she had a foolish grin on her face. That last line from Hawk hadn’t been acting.
****
It was good to see him, Dani thought. Todd Tollefson, or Tolley, had been her best friend for years. They’d met in the police academy, both of them outcasts, but for very different reasons. Many of the other cops and even the other cadets thought Dani didn’t deserve to be a cop. They assumed that she’d bought her way on to the force through her family connections.
The veteran cops didn’t like Tolley any better than they liked her. Tolley was a forensic scientist, which by itself would have been bad enough. To make matters infinitely worse, Tolley had the appalling nerve to be openly gay. Together, they were voted to be the most likely washouts in their class.
They’d each had their own reasons for attending the academy, and each had reasons to finish at the top. What started as a bitter competition turned into a beautiful friendship as the two of them took inordinate pleasure in beating every other rookie, taking turns, but always finishing one and two. When it came time to sort the points at the end of the twelve weeks, Dani and Tolley were tied.
Some of the training staff hadn’t liked that little Dani Delacroiux, former juvenile troublemaker extraordinaire, had come in and kicked ass. Others hated that a science geek had passed every physical test with flying colors, and thought he needed to keep his sexual orientation under tighter wraps. So of course, as soon as their tie for top spot was announced it was decided to hold a tiebreaker. The betting pool quickly raised a ridiculous amount, and by a random draw of all academy topics, hand-to-hand combat became the chosen arena.
Veterans and rookies alike surrounded the pair on the large blue mat. Dani and Tolley faced off, circling warily. They ignored the catcalls and rude remarks, attention focused only on each other. Dani feinted left, broke right, but Tolley knew her too well. With a swift turn and sweep of his leg, he had Dani on the ground, straddling her hips. Dani had gone down fast and hard. Those with money on her groaned in agony at the apparent quick loss. Tolley had looked up to the training sergeant in some dismay at the unexpectedly quick takedown.
It was all he got out before the wildcat in her exploded. With a sudden buck of her hips, kick of legs, and a vicious head butt, Dani had Tolley on his stomach, hands cuffed behind his back.
“You might win a fair fight, but I don’t fight fair,” she’d laughingly whispered in his ear.
Breaking into her happy thoughts, the waitress set the food on their regular table in the back corner. Dani grabbed her fork and started eating. She was starving.
“So, who’d you fuck?” Tolley asked, a grin on his beautiful face. With sun-kissed brown hair, blue eyes, and bronzed skin, he looked like he’d stepped from the cover of
Surfer
magazine. Today though, there was an edge to him, a hint of sadness in his eyes.