Oh, this just got fucking better.
“Mr. Showalter, I am so sorry to intrude again, but Amber called and said Mr. Baxter is on his way down,” his assistant said.
“Thank you, Katie,” he said numbly. When he leveled his stare on Dave, it took all he had not to kill the messenger. “You got your money. There’s an extra ten grand in it if you keep this to yourself. You tell no one that you came to me or that you know what Shelby does for a living. I mean no one. You’re going to walk out of here, tell my assistant how nice I am to donate to your cause, and you forget this conversation ever happened. If I find out you ratted out Shelby or your wife to anybody else, your bookie will be the least of your problems. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” the man said nervously.
“Get out.”
He picked up the phone and gave Katie her instructions. Then he grabbed his other cell phone and those photos before marching right past Katie and Dave.
“Um, Mr. Baxter is on his way,” she said, scrambling to stop his retreat.
He turned to face her. “Cancel my meetings this afternoon. Let Mr. Baxter know something has come up that needs my immediate attention. He’ll understand.”
He’d assume it had something to do with the Culpepper Fund, but it would buy Mason some time. As soon as he was out of the building and in his car, he hit the number of his own connection.
“Looks like William Baxter has already taken steps to fix the mess he made for you. See, told you you had nothing to worry about.”
Fuck William. He didn’t give a shit about him right now. He peeled out of the parking lot, no idea where he was going, but knowing he had to get away. “Find out everything you can about Shelby Landry.” An agent. A goddamn FBI agent who was working him. And to think he’d fallen in love with her. He suppressed a roar. His heart was doing it already.
After several seconds of silence, the man asked, “Why?”
“Because I fucking said so! I want to know everything, and mean every-fucking-thing. I don’t care how long it takes or if you have to stop working on William to do it. This is priority number one. I want to know all there is to know about her.”
He sighed. “I won’t have to stop working on anything to tell you about her. I already know all there is to know.”
“Just what the hell does that mean, Parker?”
“Mason, you came to us because you found illegal activity and suspected William Baxter as the cause behind it. The SEC doesn’t have the ability to conduct a full-on investigation like this, not when we realized the scope. We had to get help. She’s one of the FBI agents assisting with the investigation, but I don’t know the details of her involvement. She’s a linguistics expert. I assume she’s going over the foreign documentation to ensure it meshes with what Fieldstein and Baxter is reporting in the U.S.”
His contact had assumed wrong.
It was clear to Mason just what her assignment had been.
“Mason, why are you asking about Landry? Fuck, is William on to the investigation? Talk to me, man. If she or any of her team’s been made, I need to report it.”
He gritted his teeth as he thought quickly. Mason had his secrets. Secrets he’d kept from Shelby, but the difference was he hadn’t known his secrets had involved her. She’d been the one to break his trust, lie to him, play him for the fool. If they’d kept her real involvement a secret, then they had their reasons. If he let Parker tell Shelby and her team that he knew the truth, what then? She’d just get to walk away, knowing her behavior had been acceptable.
Hell no. If anybody was going to tell Shelby he knew the truth, it was going to be him.
“No.” He forced a chuckle. “God, I’m losing my mind. She’d submitted a request for filings we made in Russia, and freaked the fuck out.” He took a deep breath. “It’s fine, man. But when this shit is over, I want an all-expense paid trip to a remote island somewhere. I need that vacation like yesterday.”
Parker chuckled. “Good luck getting the government to pay for that. You’ll get a clap on the back for a job well done when William is exposed.”
Mason laughed with him, though he felt little emotion inside. He did it to play along and get off the phone without causing any more damage. As soon as he was able, he’d be calling Shelby.
He had a little lesson to teach in double-crossing.
Chapter Seventeen
After showering and getting dressed for work, Shelby couldn’t stall any longer. She’d cried in the shower until the water had turned cold, and no amount of makeup would conceal her puffy eyes even though she’d given it her best effort.
She drove to headquarters in a daze. Her mind replayed the events at Mason’s apartment over and over, and no matter how she viewed everything, the various angles she attempted, the outcome was still the same. Mason was involved in criminal activity, and she was in love with him. Her breath hitched, and she swallowed down another sob. If she dwelled on this too much, she’d start crying again, and she couldn’t afford that right now. She’d sent Rick a text informing him she had an update, and he wanted to see her immediately. He was already gathering the rest of the team, and they’d be there waiting on her.
The office was bustling around like usual. Cyber crime division was cracking down on fraud and identity theft. Terrorism worked both domestic and international threats. Organized and violent crimes had been major areas for the FBI for decades, focal points that many agents worked, regardless of specialty. Then there were counterintelligence and white-collar crimes…cases Shelby typically was assigned. It was business as usual here. Everywhere she looked, her colleagues were diligently working. Dedicated.
Unemotional.
She’d been that way once. Until she’d been assigned to work the Fieldstein and Baxter case. Her first major field assignment. The massage parlor bust hadn’t required this level of involvement. She’d spent more time preparing than being on location, and she hadn’t been working it alone. It hadn’t been like this. If all of her major assignments were going to be like this, she wasn’t sure how she’d find that disconnect again.
The conference room door was closed as she came to it, and she had a fleeting thought of just going, leaving, pretending her life wasn’t where it was. She knew that wasn’t possible, but the idea gave her the strength to push through and face her teammates.
“…We’ll have to see about that. Oh hey, Landry,” Rick said, waving her in. “We were just talking about pulling the finances at Showalter’s club again and comparing them to any fluctuations in his personal accounts. Darrell seems to think if he’s stealing from F and B, then maybe there’s a trail with his club.”
“I don’t think he’d use his club to filter money,” Viola said. “He’s not the only owner. He’d have to get his partners in on the scheme if he’s using the club. I don’t see that happening. Four control freaks letting one man run the show? No way.”
Shelby sat down and listened quietly, biding her time.
“It happens every day in the corporate world,” Darrell said. “I still say we yank it all. The club’s accounts and their personal financial records.”