Covert Attraction (22 page)

Chapter 22

I
t was over.

Beth let Daniel tell her what to do as EMTs came and checked over the still-alive Preston.

Their opinion was that he would survive. Good. The jerk would pay for all he had done.

They went downstairs to the conference room once Preston had been whisked away in an ambulance. The two of them intended to talk with the executives who had planned to hold a meeting with the FDA at Preston’s orders. Instead, the execs were told only the minimum amount of information, but it was clear that investigations of the company would continue, and all of its executives would be interrogated to learn what they did or didn’t know.

Law enforcement officials, both local and federal, began to arrive to conduct their investigation.

And Beth called her parents outright. “It’ll be over soon, Mom and Dad,” she told them. “I’ll be able to stay in closer touch anyway. It still would be a good idea for you to take that vacation until things are all straightened out, but I think we’re all safe.”

Thanks to Daniel McManus, but she didn’t tell them that.

Eventually, after her information had been taken and local Moravo Beach detectives had interrogated her briefly, Beth was permitted to leave.

Daniel was waiting for her in the Corcoris main building’s lobby. “Are you okay?” he asked her. “You look tired.”

“Nothing that a nice dinner and a glass of wine won’t cure,” she told him. “I’m jazzed. That jerk is going to get his comeuppance at last. Not to mention have some nice scars where you shot him.”

Daniel laughed, then grew grim. “He could have killed you and stashed your body where he said he put Milt’s.”

“But he didn’t.” She paused. “Care to celebrate with me?”

“Oh, yeah.” His sexy smile made it very clear how he intended to celebrate, and that only made Beth want it all the more.

* * *

Later that night, Daniel lay awake in his bed long into the night.

Beth was breathing softly beside him, sound asleep.

Lovely, sexy, naked Beth. Their lovemaking had been extraordinary, topping even the memorable times they had engaged in sex before.

He wanted more. In fact, he wanted her beside him like this for the rest of his life.

But that wasn’t going to happen. They had discussed their futures a bit over dinner. She’d talked to Judge Treena about the possibility of taking back her former persona. It would still take a while to ensure she was safe from repercussions from any of Corcoris’s coconspirators, but maybe eventually, she could come back to Moravo Beach forever.

And Daniel? He felt utterly relieved that Beth was okay. Maybe it hadn’t been his job to protect her, but he had. At last he could put his sense of failure over Edie behind him. The situation had been different. He could never bring Edie back. But now he had to look forward.

With Beth? Unlikely. He enjoyed working for the CIU. He didn’t see how he could be headquartered here.

They might be around this town for another few days as things settled down. Maybe as much as a week.

But then Beth Jones would return to Seattle, at least temporarily.

And undercover agent Daniel McManus would go back to the Covert Investigations Unit of the Identity Division, U.S. Marshals Service, in Washington, D.C.

He sighed and took Beth into his arms again. For now.

Since it couldn’t be forever.

* * *

Sitting back in her narrow seat in the government plane and sipping a glass of wine, Judge Treena Avalon was pleased.

A week had passed, and she was finally returning home.

Oh, things hadn’t gone down exactly as she had planned. She had intended for Beth, formerly Andrea, to stay safely in Seattle while the first CIU undercover operative she’d sent, Daniel, gathered the evidence needed to bring that brazen jerk Preston Corcoris and his cronies down.

But things had grown more complicated with Beth’s arrival. It had been time to modify her strategy.

Now she was on her way back to D.C. on a government plane. So were her three operatives who’d also gone undercover and helped to precipitate a happy ending to this operation: Neva, Alan and Doug.

They had left Preston Corcoris in federal custody in California. Yeah, the guy had survived. He might be sorry.

For now CIU had a lot of physical evidence, not to mention eyewitness testimony, that could be used against him and some of his top-ranking coconspirators in court—not just the hearsay that was all Beth had had before.

The reports Beth had rescued from the to-be-shredded pile in executive Bert Jackson’s office had contained some pretty damning stuff. Preston’s threats against her were pretty damning, too, and they were all recorded on her phone and Daniel McManus’s.

There were indications that someone in the FDA had been accepting bribes—and warning Corcoris of pending raids. Whoever it was still hadn’t been identified, but that would come.

And that person hadn’t been Corcoris’s sole coconspirator. Several people within Corcoris Pharmaceuticals were now suspects, and evidence was being collected to use against them. That included his assistant Ivan Rissinger, manufacturing mogul Bert Jackson and more.

And there were even indications that Preston Corcoris, if he didn’t get the results in lab tests that he wanted, would sneak in at night and throw samples on the floor in a rage, although no one had ever proven—yet—that it was him.

But worst of all for him, and best for them? That somewhat secret door he had opened from his office and tried to get Beth to go through led down into the bowels of the headquarters building, someplace no one ever went. Except for Corcoris.

And on one of his trips months earlier he had apparently brought along Milt Ranich, ostensibly to show the guy some records that would exonerate not only Corcoris but his whole company. Or that had been the implication, at least, before Corcoris lawyered up and stopped talking.

Poor Ranich had instead been shown a gun, possibly the same one Corcoris had leveled at Beth. Remains believed to be Ranich’s were found buried down there. Forensics results and a coroner’s report were still pending.

Treena knew what they would show. She lifted her wineglass in a silent toast to Beth and Daniel and the three musketeers behind her.

“Hey, Judge, are you okay up here alone?” That was Neva, who’d taken off her seat belt and wended her way up the aisle of the small, noisy but fortunately smooth plane.

“Just fine, thanks. So, you think you might want to quit CIU and join the FDA instead?”

“Not unless you intend to fire me.” But Neva’s wide grin appeared confident that wasn’t in the cards. And she was right.

Treena unbuckled her own seat belt and went back to chat with Neva and the rest of her team, Alan and Doug. She thanked them again, yelling a bit over the engine growl of their compact jet.

But her mind had been percolating on a plan. She had two other people to stay in touch with and thank.

Soon she returned to her seat. An idea had come to her, and she made notes about it on her laptop.

She smiled when she was done. “Let’s see what happens with this,” she said aloud.

* * *

A month had passed since Preston Corcoris had been shot and subsequently arrested.

Beth was on a commercial jet heading from Seattle to Washington, D.C. Judge Treena had asked her to come. There were some things about the case against Corcoris that she wanted to discuss.

Beth thumbed through the magazine on her lap, not really noticing the pages. She looked forward to seeing the judge who had helped to save her life.

Even more, she hoped she would see Daniel, who had been right there beside her. Who had definitely saved her life, and more. Had celebrated with her and made sure she was okay as she gave her initial testimony to the investigators on the case.

And then left her after several more nights of incredibly hot and wonderful sex that she would never, ever forget.

She had finally remembered to check the lottery ticket she had bought all those weeks ago. Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t been a winner.

Beth hadn’t cared. She had been a winner in the ways that counted—saving her life and her family’s.

Her parents, her brother and his family—they were all fine now. They’d taken that planned trip while things were still being worked out. Since then, she had even been able to visit them briefly. And consider moving home.

But now...well, it would take more than luck to get her through the meetings to come, but she knew she could handle it.

Couldn’t she?

She sighed now as one of the flight attendants asked if she would like a glass of water. She said yes. But what she really wanted was something to help her deal with the next couple of days.

Would it be better if she saw Daniel to officially say goodbye?

Or would it be better if she never saw him again?

* * *

“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?” Beth was in Judge Treena’s office at the U.S. Marshals Service in the building occupied by the Department of Justice.

“Not hardly.” Judge Treena glared at her from across her standard-issue metal government desk with its pristine top bare except for her computer and two stacks of files. As always when Beth had seen her, Judge Treena wore a dark suit that contrasted nicely with her unkempt blond hair. “I don’t want an answer immediately unless it’s positive. But your working for us makes a hell of a lot of sense, Beth.”

Her voice had softened just a little. Startled, Beth looked at her. She was smiling with what appeared to be sympathy.

“What if I like proofreading online newspapers and magazines? When this is all finally over, I can move back to Moravo Beach and do that from my home, with my family around.”

But Beth’s mind was circulating around the job offer the judge had just presented: join the Identity Division, not as an investigator for the Covert Investigations Unit but as one of the people within the Transformation Unit who helped to create new identities for deserving victims who’d been menaced by awful, crooked people but hadn’t been able to collect a shred of usable evidence to get the crooks prosecuted and in prison where they belonged.

Just as she had been not so long ago.

She wouldn’t admit it to the judge, but she was extremely tempted. Helping people the way she had been helped. Having her life changed from hopeless to full of promise for actually having a future. She would be away from her family, but she could visit often.

But if she took the job, she would be headquartered in D.C.

And so was Daniel.

That was the crux of her problem. She had heard from him during the past weeks, sure. Now and then, when he’d had a few minutes to talk, not to see her.

He was on another undercover assignment. That made it a case of “don’t call me, I’ll call you.” He could get in touch with her whenever he felt like it, but she didn’t dare call or even text him. He had told her not to. Email messages? Sure. And he even responded to them occasionally.

How could she live in this area knowing that the man she loved was here but not here and not really interested in her—for, yes, she had admitted to herself, though not to him, that she had fallen for Daniel McManus. Hard. And she needed time to get over him...if she ever did.

“Well, it’s ultimately up to you,” Judge Treena said. “But I do have a little help on my side.” A huge smile lit her gracefully aging face, surprising Beth.

But only for an instant. When Her Honor looked over Beth’s shoulder to the door behind her, Beth knew who she’d see if she turned around.

Which she did.

Daniel stood there grinning sexily at her. Hungrily. Oh, heavens, why was he doing that in front of Judge Treena?

And what were the two of them still doing there, instead of rushing to the nearest hotel?

Okay. Time to get ahold of herself. But she stood quickly anyway and found herself running into Daniel’s arms.

His kiss was immediate and hot, and her insides, especially down below, simmered with need.

“I’ve missed you,” he muttered against her mouth.

“All right, you two,” the judge said from behind her. “I’ll give you some alone time right here, but it’s a good thing I don’t have a bed in this office.”

Feeling her face redden, Beth backed away from Daniel, but only a little.

“Save all that for when you’re by yourselves tonight,” Judge Treena ordered as she moved around them and out the door. “But I expect you to do your job, Daniel, and convince Beth to accept the position I offered her.” Then the judge was gone, closing the door behind her.

Beth heard herself giggle—and she couldn’t recall when she’d last giggled. “So are you going to try to convince me?”

“I sure am,” he responded, looking down at her with blue eyes so tender that she almost melted and accepted the job right there. “But, honestly, it’s up to you whether to take the job and move here. Although after all the evenings we spent together, I still owe you a home-cooked meal—and I’m a damned good chef. Right now, though, I have something else I need to convince you to do.”

Beth’s heart started pounding. Surely he wasn’t—

But in moments, Daniel was on his knees on the floor in front of her. “Beth Jones, aka Andrea Martinez, will you marry me?” He pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and opened it. A lovely engagement ring sat in it, and he pulled it out as he held her hand and stood. “Please? It’s been hell since we’ve last been together. I have to warn you that I’m keeping my job here, and that means I’ll be out in the field a lot, still doing undercover work. But if I have you to come home to...well, I’ll work a lot faster. I promise. So...?”

“Yes,” Beth exclaimed, and then she smiled. “Yes, I’ll take Judge Treena’s offer.”

The hope that was on Daniel’s face suddenly segued into worry. “But what about my offer?”

“Oh, yes, Daniel McManus. I will definitely marry you.”

He grinned as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It was gorgeous and a perfect fit.

And as they kissed, Beth knew that this, Daniel’s love and anticipating spending their lives together, made up for all she had gone through.

“I love you, Daniel,” she whispered against him.