Tough Justice: Burned

“The answer is most definitely yes.”

For a second, she’d forgotten the question. “Yes?”

“Your boss’s daughter is a target, a rather special target, in fact.”

“What does that mean?” Lara’s voice was louder than she’d wanted. She had to reel herself back in quickly. “What do you mean by a special target? What do you plan to do to her?”

The guard was already halfway in the visiting room. “Everything okay, ma’am?”

“Everything’s fine.” She waved him off. “I just need a few more minutes.”

Overhearing what she said, Moretti stated, “I don’t.” Moretti stood up and turned to the guard. “It’s time for my hot stone massage, courtesy of the FBI.”

Using her most menacing tone, she told him, “Leave her alone. You’ll never get your hands on Anna. Do you hear me, you son of a bitch?” But she was yelling at Moretti’s back, his broad shoulders stretching the material of his prison-issue jumpsuit almost in defiance of his circumstances.

The wide-eyed guard led Moretti from the room.

Lara sank into the chair, covering her face with both hands. Her false bravado completely gone, leaving a nauseous feeling instead. The man could cause pain and destruction with the snap of his fingers, and a trapped animal could be even more vicious than one in the wild.

She rose to her feet. She had the unpleasant task of updating her boss that Moretti did have Anna in his sights. If she knew Victoria, the woman would be all over this already, securing Anna, protecting her. Maybe she already had Anna on her way to a safe house.

In the bowels of the prison, cell reception was spotty. Lara didn’t want to spend another minute in this room, anyway. She imagined that she could catch the scent of Moretti’s aftershave, even though they’d been separated. It made her nauseous. How’d he get his hands on that expensive stuff in lockdown?

Probably another perk from the FBI for Moretti’s so-called information.

She slipped out of the visitors room, and the guard on the other side of the door accompanied her to the visitor reception area. The security detail in the front checked her bag—as if she’d take anything Moretti gave her—except maybe his balls. She’d take those gladly.

With a smile curling her lips, she pushed out of the building and stood in the courtyard gulping in the fresh air. She needed a shower.

She dug into her jacket pocket to retrieve her cell phone and glanced at two messages waiting for her. One was from her dentist and the other was from... Anna.

Her fingers trembled so much, Lara could barely unlock her phone. Once she did, she sagged against the wall, bracing her hand against the rough stone to stay upright.

She read the text again.

Tell my mom no worries, FBI agents just picked me up to take me to the safe house. I’m in the car now.

The words on the display socked her in the gut.

No way. Victoria would’ve never sent random agents to pick up her only child. She would’ve been there herself, in person, to verify her daughter’s safety. And why was Anna texting her instead of her mother? That made no sense...unless someone else sent that text from Anna’s phone.

She called Victoria again, and the call went straight to voice mail.

Her boots scuffing against the pavement, Lara exited the prison walls and headed to the car.

As she settled against the seat, she tapped the display for Victoria’s name and closed her eyes. Please, answer this time.

Victoria answered halfway through the first ring. “She’s gone, Lara. Someone took my daughter.”

Chapter Two (#ub7c572ee-4e9a-5000-b464-e3595e4cf385)

“What?” Lara’s eyelids flew open. Her fears about the text had just been realized. “You don’t have her?”

“I called and texted her as soon as I got off the phone with you, but she didn’t answer. I thought maybe she was in class and had her phone turned off. I continued to call her as I took a car to campus, fully intending to take her away with me and place her in a safe house—no matter how much she protested.” Victoria’s voice ended on a sob.

“No other agents contacted you?” She told Victoria about the text she’d received from Anna’s phone.

Victoria’s response to that bit of information came fast and hard. “Anna would’ve contacted me, not you, if some agents had picked her up.”

Lara took a deep breath and flattened the emotion out of her own voice. “Are you sure no other agents picked her up?”

If someone had told her a year ago that she’d be soothing Victoria for a change, she would’ve laughed hysterically.

“I’m sure, Lara. After your call, I only notified our task force, and I happened to be the closest one to Columbia. But by the time I got to her philosophy class, she’d left. What did he say? What did that bastard tell you?”

Lara pressed a hand against the butterflies in her belly. “He told me Anna was a target, a special target.”

Victoria growled. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him myself.”

She knew the feeling.

“Did you question anyone in the class?” Lara massaged her right temple. “Did you talk to her friends?”

“I flashed my badge and pulled her professor aside. He could only tell me that a woman entered the classroom, showed him a badge similar to my own and asked to speak to Anna. He pointed her out, and Anna left with the woman.”

“And her friends? Did you see any of her friends?”

“I didn’t recognize anyone in the classroom. I don’t know where she hangs out on campus. I’m back at the office. Where are you? Are you on your way? I need you here, Lara.”

As far as Lara knew, her boss had never needed anyone in her entire life, at least not since her husband died.

“I’m on my way. Take a deep breath, Victoria. We don’t know enough to panic.” She spewed that lie with all the practice she’d cultivated working undercover.

But Victoria wasn’t swallowing any of it.

“He has her, or at least the bastard’s crew has her.”

* * *

Controlled chaos greeted Lara when she slipped inside the taskforce office.

Cass, stationed at a computer, tapped away at the keyboard as if attacking it. Ty on the phone, smiling, charming, cajoling information out of some unsuspecting criminal grunt.

Mei hunched over a laptop, her long, black hair creating a veil around the display. Xander on the phone in the corner, arguing with someone and jabbing the air with his finger.

And Nick. Nick keeping up with Victoria as she paced the room, her usually impeccably styled hair sticking up in all directions, her eye makeup smudged across her face.

Nick met Lara’s gaze as she walked into the office, cocking his head, a quizzical look in his dark eyes.