Authors: Radclyffe
Sandy rolled her eyes. “You’re such a dog. Get up.”
Dell had a better idea. “I could, you know, make you come really easy so you wouldn’t move too much.”
“Oh yeah? Since when.” Sandy eased her legs to the floor and grabbed Dell’s arm to steady herself as she stood. “I’m horny, but I’d rather wait until I don’t have to worry about breaking anything when I come.” She looped her arm around Dell’s waist. “Tomorrow, maybe.”
“Okay, babe.” Dell led her into the adjoining bathroom. “Sit down while I get the shower ready.” When the water felt warm enough, she helped Sandy up and joined her in the shower. “Stand still. I’ll do everything.”
“Deal.”
Dell squirted shampoo into her palm and lathered Sandy’s hair.
“Did everything go okay today?” Sandy asked.
“Yeah. Irina told us that you got a shot of her sister at that deal the other night.” Dell cupped Sandy’s chin and looked into her eyes. “You did a really good job, San.”
“About that,” Sandy said quietly.
“Look, I know you want to help. I get that. But—”
“I talked to Frye today, Dell.”
Dell tensed. “Yeah?”
Sandy punched her shoulder. “Don’t get all bristly right away.”
“You told her you want to go back out again.”
“Well, yeah,” Sandy said as if Dell were being dumb. “But I talked to her about something else too.”
Dell frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not gonna go to work for Michael.” Sandy cradled Dell’s face and kissed her. “I’m going to be a cop.”
Sloan pulled her Harley Super Glide into an empty parking space across from Talia Ballenger’s address on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. She swung her leg over the big machine, clipped her helmet onto the back, and slid her hands into the pockets of her black motorcycle jacket while she sauntered across the street. Casually dodging the cars as she cut across six lanes of traffic streaming along either side of the Parkway, she checked out the building, recognizing it as one of the most exclusive in the city, gated and guarded, with a waiting list that was more for form than function. No one got one of the luxurious apartments unless someone died and willed it to them, or they knew some very important people in very high places.
A security guard behind the desk in the lobby was dressed in an elaborate uniform that was supposed to make him look like a doorman. It didn’t. He regarded her as if she were lost. “May I help you, madam?”
Sloan smiled. “I’m here to see Ms. Ballenger. The penthouse, right?”
“Are you expected?” he said with just a little more warmth.
Sloan tilted her head from side to side. “Expected. In a manner of speaking. Yes.”
His brows knit as if he didn’t understand the language. “Madam?”
Sighing, Sloan leaned her elbow on the ornate, carved wood counter. “Call her up and tell her it’s Sloan.”
“Of course. She usually lets me know if she’s expecting a visitor,” he said apologetically. Apparently, it wasn’t so unusual for Talia to receive female visitors. Even ones who didn’t look like they belonged in her social circle.
“I’m sure she’s been busy.”
His face flushed, but he said nothing. After pushing a number on a portable phone, he muttered a few words, then set the handset down briskly. Coming around the side of the counter, he removed a small key from his belt. “Right this way, please.”
Sloan followed and waited while he keyed the private elevator. “Hers is the only residence on the top floor. Have a nice evening.”
“Thanks. I’m planning on it.” As the doors slid closed, she saw him flush once again.
The ride up was swift and silent, and when the doors glided open she stepped out into a foyer as large and well appointed as some people’s living rooms. Thick wool carpets, a crystal chandelier, paintings on three walls above dark wood wainscoting, and a solid wood door worthy of an English mansion. A buzzer was discreetly inset into the wide, carved molding, but before Sloan had a chance to push it, the door opened.
“This is a nice surprise,” Talia said in a voice like warm honey. She wore a dressing gown—not quite a robe, but not a dress, either. The maroon silk dipped sharply into the cleavage between her obviously unfettered breasts, and the belt tied loosely at her waist was more an invitation to be opened than anything else. Her legs were bare below the knee-length hem, her feet ensconced in backless sandals.
Sloan leaned her shoulder against the open door. “I assumed I was invited. You did give me your card.”
“Yes, but my address wasn’t on it.” Talia stepped aside so Sloan could enter. “I just opened a bottle of Romanée-Conti. Won’t you join me.”
“Not the ’78, I hope,” Sloan said, referencing one of the costliest red Burgundy vintages ever produced by the fabled vineyard.
Talia smiled slowly and surveyed Sloan from head to toe. “Why not? I’m sure you’re worth it.”
“I appreciate your confidence in me.” Sloan followed her through the high-ceilinged living room, noting a dining room off to one side beyond a set of double French doors, and a hallway that she presumed led to the bedrooms.
They passed through an archway into a formal library where a fire burned in a marble fireplace. A laptop occupied the center of a huge desk positioned in front of floor-to-ceiling windows with a million-dollar view of the city. Several books rested on an antique cigarette table next to one of the chairs facing the fireplace. An open bottle of wine and a single glass sat on a silver tray on a low table between the two empty chairs.
“Please.” Talia gestured toward one of the chairs. She retrieved another wineglass from a sideboard near the fireplace and poured two glasses of wine. Handing one to Sloan, who had remained standing, she said, “Let me take your jacket.”
Sloan placed the wine on the low table and shrugged out of her jacket, aware that Talia was watching her intently. She wore a black T-shirt with her jeans. She tossed the jacket on the floor next to her chair and sat down, retrieving her wineglass. “No need to bother hanging it up.”
Talia settled into the opposite chair, one leg tucked beneath her. Her gown clung to her thighs, opening enough to show a triangle of tanned flesh from her knee to the top of her leg. Sloan glanced down briefly, then looked up into her eyes, waiting.
“How did you find me?” Talia asked, cradling the wineglass in her palm.
“Phonebook?”
Talia laughed. “I don’t think so.” She sipped her wine and regarded Sloan over the top of the glass. “Unlisted.”
“Of course.” Sloan grinned. “This is an excellent red.”
“A modern classic.” Talia leaned forward to replace her wineglass on the table between them. The folds of her gown shimmered, affording a tantalizing glimpse of the inner curve of her breast. When she settled back, she ran her fingers casually from the base of her throat down the center of her chest and back up again. “I believe it’s your move.”
Sloan positioned her wineglass next to Talia’s and bent down to reach into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew an envelope and passed it wordlessly to Talia. Their fingers touched briefly as Talia accepted it. Talia’s long, tapered fingers were warm and soft. The only sound in the room as Talia looked through the prints, one after the other, was the crackling of the wood in the fireplace. At length, she replaced the photos in the envelope and handed it back.
“You’re better than I expected,” Talia said.
“You weren’t easy to track,” Sloan replied. “Cost me a few sleepless nights.”
Talia smiled wryly. “I suppose that’s some comfort.” She gestured toward the envelope that Sloan had dropped onto her jacket. “She’s very beautiful.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Zamora is quite taken with her.”
“If he touches her, I’ll kill him.”
Talia regarded Sloan intently. “Is that why you came? So that I could give him a message?”
“No. If he doesn’t already know that, he’s a fool. And I don’t think he is.”
“Then why expose yourself to me?”
Sloan chuckled. “Have I? You already know who I am.” Her smile disappeared and her voice dropped. “And you know what matters to me. What else is there?”
“Yes, but now I know that you know who I am. So you’ve lost the advantage.”
Sloan spread her legs, draped her arms over the sides of the antique chair, and watched the fire eat away at the substance of the wood. “On the surface it looks like a stalemate.” She glanced over at Talia. “But I have one more move to make.”
“What would that be?” Talia refilled their wineglasses. “You can’t prove I sent those images. I often have visitors. My computer is readily accessible.”
“I doubt any of them have the skill to infiltrate a highly protected computer network at Port Authority, intercept and reroute dozens of shipping containers, and alter the security programs set to track them.” Sloan was impressed with Talia’s nerves. Her expression didn’t waver. She gave no sign of being shocked or anxious. “But you do. And given time, I’ll be able to prove it.”
Talia crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. “An ambitious undertaking.”
“Do you want to bet against me?”
The silence stretched for several minutes until Talia sighed. “No. I don’t think so.”
Secretly, Sloan was relieved. Talia was good. Very good. And the odds were probably sixty-forty that Sloan would actually be able to prove her complicity in the human trafficking operation at the port. She had wagered that like her, Talia would bet the odds. And when losing meant decades in a federal prison, a smart woman would not risk coming up short.
“I should tell you,” Talia said, “that I am not in his employ. I’m a freelancer. I don’t have any information of value.”
Sloan and Rebecca had discussed the merits of arresting Talia and trying to force her into testifying against Kratos Zamora. They’d agreed that the evidence supporting her involvement in anything illegal was thin, and cyberevidence was often the least convincing to a jury because they didn’t understand it. Any good attorney would know that and advise Talia not to deal.
“I would imagine that your freelance enterprises must be very interesting. I’d really like to get a look at them one of these days.” Sloan spoke casually, but she knew that Talia would get the message. Sloan had the skill to chase her through cyberspace for as long as she wanted, monitoring her activities and making it very difficult for her to do business. Eventually, Talia would slip up, and when she did, Sloan would be there. She was not only a threat to Talia’s business, but her freedom.
“While I think you’re terribly attractive,” Talia said, “and I admit I had hoped we would have the opportunity to share some of our skills privately, I’m not interested in a long-term relationship.”
“No promises if your name surfaces in the future,” Sloan said, “but at the moment, neither am I.”
“Then what is it you want?”
“Nothing very complicated. I just want you to send your…client…a report with a little something extra from me.”
“You understand that if he discovers I’ve compromised him, he’ll kill me.”
“Fortunately for you, there are only a few of us good enough to prove it.” Sloan grabbed her jacket and stood up. She removed a jump drive from the front pocket and held it out to Talia. “I think you know what to do with this.”
Talia rose and closed her fingers around Sloan’s. She stepped so close their bodies touched. Skimming her palm over Sloan’s chest, she said, “It’s not too late for that private conversation. After all, we’ve already started, there’s still half a bottle of wine, and we both know it would be good.”
Sloan extracted her fingers and dropped the jump drive into Talia’s open palm. “You were quite a challenge, and I enjoyed the hunt. But make no mistake. If any harm comes to Michael, I’ll come for you too. And I’ll never stop.”
“I envy her,” Talia said.
Sloan shrugged into her jacket and started toward the door, Talia beside her. “Thanks for the wine.”
“You’re welcome. I’m only sorry I couldn’t offer you more than that.” Talia kissed her on the mouth, then opened the door. “Good night.”
*
As soon as Sloan turned the corner, she saw Rebecca’s Corvette parked across the street from their headquarters. She rolled into the garage, parked, and rode the elevator to the third floor.
“That was fast,” Rebecca said. Rebecca was alone in the conference room. “Should we have gone in wired?”
Sloan kicked out a chair and dropped into it. “No. She’s careful. We wouldn’t have gotten anything.”
“Did we get
something
?”
“Nothing you want to know about.” Grinning, Sloan checked her watch. By morning she expected to be walking around in Kratos Zamora’s virtual office. She’d be able to see who he e-mailed, his financial statements, his business plans, his real estate holdings, and anything else he did with his computer. The cybertap didn’t precisely fall under the investigative parameters the team was officially bound by, but then the laws regarding cyberinvestigation were still murky. “To be safe, we’ll need to corroborate anything we eventually want to bring to court, but we’re finally getting ahead in this game.”