Chapter Four
Sam – not so much. When he saw the gorgeous female with her hand extended and a smile in place approach his sister, he leaned in close to the monitor, and his reaction exploded.
Son of a bitch!
What the hell kind of an agent had they sent to cover this case? She looked more like a model – tall, her legs shapely and slim, her eye-catching thick, pure white hair fanned out around her shoulders in a fashionable way the women wore today.
At first, because of the sleek silver mane, middle age seemed a reasonable assumption. Then she turned slightly his way, and her profile exposed young skin and perfect features that made him reassess. This girl couldn’t be older than late twenties, if that. She was a freakin’ baby agent they’d sent to take on a huge and possibly dangerous assignment.
What the fuck?
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as his appraisal continued. The black leather jacket worked with the slim black pants, and she’d matched the boots to the jacket which gave her an appearance of a chic female in a movie setting not a sensible agent whose job it would be to solve the mystery of his missing niece and nephew.
The various necklaces she wore caught the light and looked feminine, a style most women couldn’t pull off. On her, they looked attractive. As did the way she held herself.
He didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing until she turned fully toward the camera and he got the first real glimpse of her face. He flashed to his feet, his fists forming. Son of a bitch, the blasted woman could stop traffic.
They needed to keep a low profile, sneak under the radar to get information about Manos and his group of lowlifes. This girl was an attention magnet. He’d hoped he could work with the agent, join forces with their intel and back up each other.
After seeing Agent Dunne, it looked like he’d be working alone most of the time. He guessed he could pull a few of his own staff from the jobs they were on, but as it turned out, everyone was placed in hot spots around the world, doing double the work because one of his teams had been ambushed on a job in Jersey with three being outright killed and five still recovering from an explosion.
Understaffed and overworked, they’d carried on as best they could. He’d also left his own crew short in Tehran and it worried him. Not being one to brag, he knew his skills were such that to replace him, they’d have to send three people. And they didn’t have them. Jesus! He’d have to get the headhunters busy on a new recruitment process for more employees.
In the meantime, he had no choice but to plan a trip to Rhodes. And he’d have to find a way to interact with the princess the FBI considered one of their best.Fuckin’seriously?
He pulled his phone out, ignored the eight messages, and called the one person who got away with more bullshit than any of his other employees. When it came to researching anything both legally and illegally online, John, his tech genius, could be relied on. He’d skirted the law all his life, pulling so many underhand moves that it was only a matter of time before the authorities caught up to him.
When that happened, Sam had been notified. He’d been on the lookout for a man with John’s special skills and had shared that bit of information with his sister, then the district attorney.
Once Maureen informed him that a genius computer crook had surfaced and was awaiting trial, Sam had stepped forward with a job offer the crook couldn’t afford to refuse. Sam paid a top lawyer a hell of a lot of money to keep his new employee out of the slammer and over the years, he’d never regretted this decision.
He’d won the appreciation and admiration of the skinny, curly-haired gifted robot who never slept, very seldom ate, unless chocolate showed up in the food in some way or another, and had a romance going with a computer he’d built called Baby.
He’d put the guy on the payroll, set him up in a suite at the Hilton where the lazy sot never had to lift a finger to look after his own needs. A call to the hotel lobby took care of everything from room-service to whatever food cravings or other urges that might attack.
John claimed the privileged role of the most satisfied employee on his payroll. Protection from interference, or interruptions was kept to a minimum and he never did anything he didn’t want to. While he had the best equipment money could buy, he sat surrounded by dozens of computers and remained on duty answering incoming calls from all Sam’s people situated in all parts of the globe.
Lately, though, things had gotten so stressful; Sam had recently okayed the hiring of a younger guy genius to give him a hand with the constant onslaught. Unfortunately, they had the same first name and so the older one now became known as John-john. They switched the second name with the first for the younger employee who they now called David-john. Confusing, yes. But it worked for them.
“Hey, John-john. You got a few minutes to do a search for me?”
“Always. What’s up?”
“I need you to find out everything you can about an FBI agent called Sophia Dunne.”
“On it, boss. Shouldn’t take long. I’ll get back to you.”
“Just send me a report on what you come up with. And its top priority, so put Baby in the closet and concentrate.”
First John chuckled and then he said, “She’s sleeping in. No problem.”
Sam’s groan made his employee laugh before he hung up. The kid loved pulling Sam’s chain whenever he could and Sam let him because… well, because it gave John-john a few moments of enjoyment, and with his life being so limited, he deserved some fun.
During this whole time, Sam hadn’t taken his eyes off the couple on the screen. He’d listened to the agent’s discourse and watched his sister’s reaction. At first, he knew the shock of her gender had been a bit of a letdown, but Maureen was used to dealing with uncontrollable circumstances. Her recovery had been quick.
And being a woman who herself held a huge amount of responsibility; she never showed any deference to men over women. Not like he did. Though he had female soldiers on his team, and he’d worked with some of the best, he’d automatically assumed the FBI would send a male who could take on a snake like Manos Savas.
After all, the handsome face and muscular physique attributed to one of the reasons his sister had been conned, why any woman might be enticed. So why take a chance he’d sweet-talk Agent Sophia Dunne when his niece and nephew’s future depended on the outcome.
In this case, his animosity for the wavy-headed bastard’s treatment of sissy far surpassed his criminal activities for putting him behind bars. Only one thing would keep him from treating the man to the beating he deserved. When all was said and done, his father status to Jack and Casey had to be considered.