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Irritated didn’t begin to describe Tamilya. She felt the entire day had been a waste, other than finding out that a woman did, indeed, go up into Golubev’s room with him and exit about an hour later. They still didn’t have a face, or an ethnic background for her. She seemed to have disappeared off the earth the moment she left the hotel.
The meeting with Addie had her even more agitated. She spoke down to Tamilya like she was a first-year recruit. She had always respected her former boss, but Addie had put her in her place. She knew Addie was under pressure to get any loose ends wrapped up before she retired, but Tamilya refused to be the scape goat…again. Still, she had given both of them some information to look up and maybe they would have a list of female agents who worked with Li. Hopefully, she would get a call back soon about that, but she wasn’t holding her breath.
Just remembering the conversation sent her temper flaring.
“I can look for you, Tamilya, but I have a feeling you are barking up the wrong tree,” Addie said.
“I think the key is the woman. She might not be an agent, but she was definitely used to get him there.”
Addie said nothing, but Tamilya held her own. There was no way she was going to let Addie dictate her investigation.
“I can look for you.” The tone of Addie’s voice let Tamilya know she wouldn’t try very hard.
“I’ll put a few people on it here. That way we can eliminate the line of inquiry faster if it does turn out to be nothing.”
Tamilya was still pissed. It wasn’t her fault this fell into her lap again. It was really the fault of the FBI for not following up on her investigation or looking for other links after the bombing. It was also their fault Golubev was in Hawaii to begin with. If they had done their job and kept their eyes on him, the Russian would have never made it off the mainland.
And the third thing on the list, the CI. Amber had nothing for them. She could tell the woman was a junkie looking for a handout. She knew nothing about the entire mess that had been dropped in their laps.
“Stop grinding your teeth,” Marcus said. She glanced over at him and then back at the road.
“I am not grinding my teeth.”
He chuckled. “Sure.”
“It’s been a crappy day. Not one thing has helped. We have all these loose strings that we can’t tie up.”
“It’s frustrating, but it’s only the second day.”
He didn’t understand. Tamilya wasn’t sure anyone would be able to understand what she was going through.
“No. It’s been close to five years now. I’ve been hunting this sick bastard for five years.”
There was a long beat of silence where the only sound in the SUV was stupid Willie Nelson.
“That’s true.”
At least he agreed with her on that. The one thing thathadgone right was that her parents had not been at the house. She had already told them she was staying in Honolulu for work. Granted, they thought it was with Autumn. She didn’t actually lie. They assumed and she let them think that. Someday she would feel guilty about it, but at the moment, she really couldn’t care.
Right now, she had bigger issues on her mind than lying to her parents. Well, not really lying. She glanced over at her companion again. The fact that he was holding out was really starting to irritate her. From the moment the case had started, she had been worried about what was going on with the case. That had to be what she was most irritated about. Not the fact that she wanted to slide onto Marcus’ lap and take complete advantage of his magnificent body.
She sighed and rested her head on the headrest as her eyes slid closed. She didn’t need this case, or this man in her life. She needed a cool easy pace. Not a man who made her nervous—or a case that had her getting more and more anxious by the minute. In the years after leaving the FBI, she’d had some therapy to deal with the massive loss of her job. She thought she had worked through everything. Instead, she felt as if she were slipping again, becoming obsessed with the job and Marcus. Granted, she hadn’t gone over the edge with the job, but the man…well, the only reason she hadn’t woken up in his bed that morning was because he said no.
“What is going on in that beautiful head of yours, Tamilya?”
“Nothing,” she said without opening her eyes. If he would just shut up, she could pretend he wasn’t there and the fact that it was his house she was sleeping in tonight. Alone. Dammit.
“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Drop it, Marcus.”
“I don’t want to.”
“We don’t always get what we want,” she said rubbing her temple. A headache was starting.
He said nothing else as he continued to drive. He had the windows down, which she loved, especially driving on this road. Every now and then she would smell the plumeria and it always relaxed her. At least as much as she could be relaxed driving to town with him.
He slowed down as they hit town, but she kept her eyes closed as she thought back over all the information they had. A woman was at the center of it. Was she at the center of it previously? Had she been the one pulling the strings for Virginia Star Mall?
