Big Easy Temptation (18 page)

“My heart is not broken, damn it. Holland didn’t do this. I’m going over to see her
right now and we’ll get this sorted out. I’ll call you soon.” He hung up and practically
ran to get to the streetcar that would take him closer to Holland.

*   *   *

H
ello?”

“Good afternoon, Special Agent Kirk.”

Holland’s blood nearly froze in her veins. She knew that voice. How could she possibly
forget it? She’d heard that voice in her nightmares for the last few nights. She heard
him talking and then she would see Dax’s body cold and still on the streets.

She had to wonder now if the theft of her laptop had been random. It hadn’t been hard
to replace, but they could potentially have found out how far she’d gotten in the
investigation. They’d obviously known she’d been looking into the situation. They
likely had someone on the inside who fed them information.

She intended to find that person. Quietly. She might not be able to take on the
Bratva
singlehandedly, but she could find the backstabbing mole.

“What do you want?” There was no need for professional politeness with this asshole.

“I want what I’ve always wanted, Special Agent Kirk. Peace and quiet. My job is infinitely
easier when I have those things.”

“I’ve dropped the investigation.”

She’d been a good girl these past couple of days. Oh, she’d told Dax she was continuing,
but she’d kept to her own cases, her own desk. She wasn’t going to give that man any
reason to send someone else after him. And each night, she’d lied to Dax about her
progress. The guilt was starting to eat at her. She would lie in his arms and the
feeling of contentment she normally had with him washed away the second she remembered
she would have to crush his need to see his father exonerated soon.

Somehow, she had to tell him she was quitting the investigation. She would have to
convince him his father wasn’t worth the trouble.

“You might have dropped the investigation,” the man said grimly, “but your boyfriend
seems to have picked it right up where you left off.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Captain Spencer pulled a few strings and learned the names of Sue Carlyle’s former
cellmates. Additionally, he’s scheduled a meeting with the drug addict herself next
week. You didn’t do what you promised.”

Her heart did a flip in her chest. “He did what?”

He’d mentioned absolutely nothing about it. Not one word. As far as she’d known, he’d
been trying to wrap up the training protocols with Courtney. She’d dreaded that since
it meant he would be leaving soon, but it would also take him out of the reach of
the man on the phone.

“You heard me. I’ve had to take extra measures. I had two choices, Special Agent.
I could do what I’ve done or I could have eliminated the problem.”

Terror sparked through her. “If you touch him in any way, I swear I won’t ever stop
hunting you down.”

“I rather thought that would be your reaction, so I chose Door Number Two. I had to
sell it to my boss. The next time he’ll do what he wants to do. You won’t like his
choices, Special Agent.”

Her hand clenched around the phone. “What have you done?”

“I’ve ensured that the problem goes away. Unfortunately, you’re part of the problem.
Spencer is here in New Orleans for you as much as his investigation. I’ve ensured
he won’t want to be around you again. He needs a distraction, and a little betrayal
will do wonders for his focus. Once he gets back on his ship, he won’t have time for
things like investigations. Hell, he won’t have time to communicate with the outside
world and that’s how we like it.”

Yes, she could see where focusing Dax on something besides his father’s death would
be helpful. “Where do I come into it?”

“You’ll find your bank account is much healthier than once it was. I hope you enjoy
the hundred grand. It’s yours to keep from my gracious employer. Consider it a fair
exchange for your relationship.”

“For my relationship? Why would me breaking up with Dax cause him to stop investigating
his father’s death?”

A chuckle came over the line. “I’m sure he won’t, though he’ll likely take his time
getting back to it. But he won’t have NCIS access. He won’t have a law enforcement
professional smoothing the way for him.”

“He could have the damn president smoothing the way for him.” Did they forget who
Dax was?

“Your captain would never drag his friends into this,” the man replied smoothly. “If
that were true, he already would have. He can’t go to a reporter because that would
hurt his mother and sister. His only real option is you. If he can no longer trust
you, he’ll have nothing but hired hands to turn to.”

She shivered. “And hired hands can be bought.”

“Everyone can be bought, with the exception of a woman in love. I don’t trust you,
dear. I think the captain might get on his boat and you could rethink everything,
decide that maybe you can find the answers he seeks. You’re dangerous together so
I’ll tear you apart one way or another.”

Her blood chilled. “And you think a hundred thousand dollars can tear us apart?”

“Yes, I do. I believe this will work and even when Spencer comes home after his next
six months at sea, we’ll have had time to fix any leaks we might have. He won’t find
the same information again. He can look, but we’ll have done a better job this time.”

“Why not just show him those damn pictures?” She wouldn’t be able to. Just the sight
of them had made her sick, but she was so confused.

“I would in a heartbeat if I thought it would truly change things. No. I think I’ve
chosen the right set of moves. It’s like chess, you know. In a few moments Captain
Spencer will be confronted with your betrayal. He’ll also have to think about the
ramifications of the case being opened again. He thought he could do it quietly. I’ve
shown him that’s not likely. Even now someone will probably be calling him and throwing
around words like
scandal
and
exposure
and
optics
. Of all the men in the world, politicians and their ilk are really the most predictable.
He’ll go to his boat and lick his wounds and decide that perhaps his sister and his
mother and his friends are worth more than a dead man’s memory. The scandal will fade
again. The Hayes administration can stay on task instead of answering questions about
their employee’s family. And my boss gets to stay out of the spotlight as well. We’re
all happier with the investigation closed. Even the captain, as he never has to see
those photos. Everyone is better off. Well, except you.”

It could work. She still didn’t know what was going on, but Dax might shut down the
investigation if he thought it could hurt his sister. “I’ll talk to him about it.
I’ll get him to see reason.”

Dax would put his family first. Surely. She could make him see it was their only choice.

“I doubt that,” came the reply. “When the captain comes to confront you, I hope you’ll
remember that old saying: sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. Good-bye, Special
Agent. This is the last time we’ll speak. The next time, I’ll use more than words
to deal with the situation.”

She’d never felt more helpless than she did when she heard that line go dead.

What the hell had that man done? It couldn’t be good. Her stomach clenched, tears
starting to pierce her eyes.

A hundred thousand. Someone had paid a whole lot to set her up. But set her up for
what?

The door opened and Dax stormed in. His normally perfect hair was slightly disheveled
and his eyes wide. “Holland!”

She moved into his line of sight. “I’m here.”

He sighed and stepped toward her, pulling her close. “I was so worried about you.”

“Worried? Why?” She clutched him close for a long moment, breathing him in. She had
a sudden feeling that this embrace might be their last.

“Sweetheart, I need you to go and look at your bank account. I think someone’s fucking
with us, and we need to figure out who it is. I’m going to tell you something disturbing,
but I want you to stay calm. I need you to understand that I’m going to make everything
right. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She had to force herself to breathe. Not playing along with the mobster’s scheme meant
something terrible would happen to him.

She stepped back, her heart in her throat. “What are you talking about?”

She was fairly certain she didn’t want to know.

“Someone wants me to believe that you’re trying to sell photos of my father and Amber
Taylor together in bed,” he explained, his mouth a flat line.

“The girl he was accused of raping?” She could still see those photos. The hollow
look in the girl’s eyes would haunt her for the rest of her days. Dax thought he’d
known his dad, but those pictures reminded her that no matter how well she thought
she knew someone, she could never know the depths of their darkness.

If they got out into the public, the Spencer family might never recover.

A single brow rose over his left eye as he took another step back. “The girl he was
accused of sleeping with, yes. Apparently someone stole the pictures and whoever wanted
to destroy my father is now threatening to release them and blame you.”

God, her mystery mobster had released the original blackmail photos and set her up
to take the fall, hoping that Dax would be so overwhelmed by her betrayal he would
walk away from the investigation. They hadn’t sent them to Dax himself. Dax had made
it plain that he was investigating what he believed was his father’s murder. The potential
belief that his father was guilty of the crime hadn’t thrown Dax off.

But the idea of those photos being out in the world might. The idea that the woman
he loved had betrayed him utterly could derail him and send him right back to his
ship where he couldn’t cause trouble. Not any the mob couldn’t control. If he sent
private investigators, they would be bought off or blackmailed. They’d proven there
were very few people they couldn’t get to.

They’d put her in a horrible position. She’d meant to put him on a boat in a week
and then she would have had six months to figure out how to handle the situation.
She would have come up with something, some way to gently turn his mind away or to
try to prove to him his father really had killed himself.

Now she had nothing. If she defended herself, he could die.

“Where are they releasing the photos?”

Dax shook his head and headed for the bar. She had a decent bottle of bourbon there
and he poured out two glasses. “They’d intended to go to the papers with the pictures.
And the reporter who was going to break the story was finalizing a publishing deal.
Apparently they can’t take down my family with a single story. They needed a whole
book.”

“Was finalizing a deal?” How far had they gone?

Dax handed her one before taking a good swig of his own. “Yes. My friends found out
about the deal and it’s dead now.”

How would her man with no name take that? Would he be angry?
Or could she satisfy him by throwing Dax off the investigation? Panic warred with
anger inside her. She didn’t want to lose Dax but Holland was furious that she didn’t
see a way out. Or had that all been part of their plan in the first place? They had
to know Dax’s friends could kill that deal. This was all about making her look bad.
The “deal” would get quashed so the rumors and investigations wouldn’t be public again,
but one person would have to take the fall. Her. “How did they do that?”

“Zack handled it.”

When one of your best friends was the president of the United States, she supposed
one could accomplish a lot with a minimal amount of red tape. “What are you going
to do?”

Not that she could believe him. He hadn’t mentioned that he’d made plans to go to
the prison. Unless the man on the phone had been lying to her?

“I’m going to find out who’s setting you up and I’m going to make them pay. I’m not
an idiot, Holland. I know you wouldn’t betray me like this. Someone wants me to think
you would. They’re trying to drive a wedge between us, and I won’t let it happen.”

She fought back tears because how many men in his position would believe her? None
that she knew of. He loved her. It was the only reason he could possibly look at all
the evidence and still come to the conclusion that she was innocent.

It was sweet and touching . . . and heartbreaking. Clearly, he wouldn’t stop trying
to vindicate his father or her. Never. He would be a dog with a bone, and the mob
would take him down eventually. They would call it an accident, a tragedy. No one
would be able to prove anything, but Dax Spencer would cease to be.

She was the only one who could possibly stop it. She had to make him believe his father
was guilty. It was the only way to end this. That was her real job in all this chaos.

“He was guilty.” The words dropped from her mouth like a boulder that was suddenly
too heavy for her to bear.

“Connor is overseas right now, I suspect. I never really know where the man is.” Dax
continued on like she hadn’t said a thing. “I’ll leave him a message, but as soon
as I can I’ll talk to him about delving into your banking records. We have to be able
to figure out who sent you that money.”

“He was guilty, Dax.” She had to make him understand. “Your father committed statutory
rape and he killed himself because of the repercussions.”

He stared at her for a moment, his eyes not quite focused. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.
I don’t understand. What are you saying to me?”

This was going to be so much harder than she could have imagined. Dax wasn’t going
to simply accept that his father had possessed a dark side and move on, but then that
was the mobsters’ plan. The man on the phone had been explicit. He wanted Dax Spencer
back at his Naval post and without resources here at home. He wanted her separated
from Dax. He hadn’t counted on Dax believing she was innocent.