The Puppeteer (6 page)

Pushing the emotional ‘stuff’ from her mind, she deliberately remembered the way he touched her, the way he felt against her hands—the physical, the easy—and a satisfied smile touched her lips.

After leaving Cotter, Dani led the way to the sunroom. The final stop of the tour. Though she'd dismissed the subject of ‘feelings’ from her mind, she didn't like the way his presence set her on edge. He wasn't doing anything but his job, but she wanted to be away from him. She wanted to be holed up with Marmie and the rest of the team digging into Getz, the Eagle's Wing, and their two primary suspects for drug sources, Sonny Carlyle and Joseph Savendra.

Shaking her head at herself, Dani stepped into the sun room. “Here,” she said, handing Ty a pair of high-powered binoculars.

“That's his house, out there on the point.” She took up her own set of binoculars. For a few minutes, they were both silent, lost in the surveillance of Getz's house.

“I never thought I'd see the front of his house,” Ty commented, eyes still glued to the binoculars.

“But you've seen the back?”

“From the ocean. I've gone by a couple of times in a friend's boat. It's a hell of a compound, even from a mile out in the ocean.”

Dani gave a little laugh of agreement. “Yeah, no kidding. His private peninsula, a huge house, clinging to the hill, almost camouflaged. There's a boathouse on the other side with mooring for his eighty-foot yacht and a couple of empty bays.”

“Is that how you think the shipment is going to come in? By boat?”

Dani lowered her binoculars and looked at the area, taking in the larger details. “Yeah, I do. We don't know for certain but I think it's going to come down the coast.”

“Down the coast? Why not up the coast?” Ty asked, lowering his binoculars and turning to Dani.

It was a legitimate question, and one she didn't have a solid answer for, just a couple of hunches. “All I can say is it's a hunch. Bradley Taylor, the head of the Eagle's Wing group has a cousin from his mother's side living in New Brunswick. We don't have any definite communications between the two, but the cousin, Martin Cassidy, has been known to share some of the same ideals as Bradley.”

“A Canadian? You don't meet too many anti-government Canadians.”

“He lives in Canada, but he's not Canadian. Cassidy grew up on the Texas plains. Has a girlfriend who inherited some property in Nova Scotia so they took off to live somewhere they didn't have to pay for.”

“Any problems with him?”

“Standard stuff you'd expect. Some poaching violations, some gaming violations. A couple of drunk and disorderly citations, but nothing to suggest he's helping to plan a terrorist attack on the US.”

“Then again, nobody suspected Timothy McVeigh, either,” he said. She could feel Ty studying her before turning back to the window. “Does Getz have any cousins in Boston or New York or New Haven?”

Dani knew what he was asking, wasn't it just as possible the drugs could come from another direction? With a connection as tenuous as a distant cousin, his doubt was reasonable.

“Like I said, a hunch.”

“But you're watching? You've got surveillance on the water.”

Dani sighed. It was the one sticking point of their surveillance, the one area where she wasn't satisfied with their resources or capabilities. “Not as much as we'd like. We've got the coast guard on the alert, but since we can't tell them what to look for and don't want to raise a lot of noise, they'll be as helpful as they can. As for our own, we have a couple of boats we send out a few times a day to get a lay of the land, so to speak. They aren't set up for serious marine surveillance.”

“Too bad,” Ty commented. It wasn't a judgmental statement, just commiseration on the lack of resources from one branch of law enforcement to another.

Dani shrugged in agreement and then swung around in surprise as the door opened behind them.

“Drew!” Dani exclaimed. They took a few steps toward each other and within seconds, she was enveloped in a huge hug. She pulled back and kissed him on the cheek. “What are you doing here so soon?”

“It's nice to see you, too Danielle,” he smiled down at her, one arm still wrapped around her shoulder.

“Did you see the family?” she demanded. “How's our new nephew?”

“Yes and he's great. Just like my brother. We can hope he gets your sister's looks,” he answered and Dani laughed as a gentle cough came from behind her.

“Oh,” Dani stepped away from Drew. “Ty, this is our team director, Andrew Carmichael. He's the lead on this case. His brother also happens to be married to my sister, Sammy,” she explained. It probably wasn't necessary, but by now she knew it would have piqued his interest when she asked Drew about ‘our nephew,’ and their association wasn't a secret. “Drew, this is our local liaison, Detective Ty Fuller.”

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Ty stepped forward and shook Drew's hand.

“Dani showing you around?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then you've met the team.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Call me Drew,” he said.

Ty nodded.

Dani watched the two men take stock of each other. They were about the same height and had the same air of confidence, but beyond that, they were about as opposite in looks as two men could get. Drew was lean and lanky, like a swimmer, and, even at the age of thirty-eight, his blond hair and smile made him look like a frat boy or member of a Hamptons yacht club. Ty, on the other hand, was dark—black hair, dark eyes, and mixed heritage. Drew looked like the product of years of breeding amongst the social elite of the East Coast. Ty looked like a mix of different races, bred to survive and thrive. Maybe some Asian or Native American, mixed with something of Celtic origin, Irish or perhaps Scottish.

“What are your thoughts?” Drew asked with a nod in the general direction of Getz's domain.

Ty picked up his binoculars again and turned to have another look. “Tactically, it's well positioned. Hard to plan a stealth attack on a place surrounded on three sides by water. Then again, that's old thinking. Not as true as it used to be with the developments in
underwater surveillance. I assume he has underwater security?” he asked, turning back to face Drew.

“We're working on the details,” Drew answered. Ty turned thoughtful for a moment, not really looking at her or Drew, but focused more on the empty space between them.

“And your visual surveillance?” he asked, picking up the glasses again.

“Cotter can go through that with you if you want the details. It would be good for your team to know where we are.”

Ty nodded. “Dani thinks the shipment is going to come from the north. Do you agree?” Ty asked.

“It's a hunch, we're not certain one way or the other right now. For all we know it could be coming by seaplane.”

“But you don't think it is, and you agree with Dani,” Ty commented.

Dani cast Drew a quick look and caught him studying the detective. A second later he flicked his gaze to Dani and she confirmed his snap observation with small nod. Ty wasn't the average cop.

“Yes, I do. I've known Dani long enough to know her hunches are more likely than not to be true.”

“So I see,” Ty replied.

Dani frowned at Ty's tone and then turned away when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket.

She took the call, keeping her eyes on Drew who was keeping his eyes on Ty. A few seconds later she ended the conversation and slid her cell back into her pocket.

“That was Marmie,” she said to Drew, whose eyes had flickered back to her when her phone snapped shut. “She says the house is too big to bother trying to find me,” she smiled and shrugged. She glanced at Ty then at Drew.

“I'll take Detective Fuller back down to Cotter when we're finished up here.” Drew's eyes held hers.

Drew had picked up on the tension between her and Ty and his silent disapproval was clear—casting a shadow over their initial pleasure of seeing one another. He was the team director, she reminded herself. He had reason to disapprove. They—she—couldn't afford to have any slip-ups on this one. Dismissing the urge to make excuses, she nodded before leaving the two men in silence.

Chapter 6

DREW STUDIED THE MAN
whose back was to him. Christ, he was going to be yet another victim of the Mack Truck that was Danielle Gabriella Williamson. He could see it already, the tension, the interest, Dani's refusal to acknowledge it. It was the last thing Drew needed on this case—hell, it was the last thing
Dani
needed on this case.

Of course, it wasn't Dani Drew had to worry about—it was never Dani. She was too tough for her own good. Whatever interest the detective had in her she would ignore. And while she was one of Drew's top agents, and had a scary ability to remember details, she was very good at ignoring anything she didn't want to deal with on a personal level.

Drew could handle her, but he wasn't so sure about the detective. His interest in Dani was about as obvious as the sun hanging high in the sky. Would he pursue it? Drew knew it wouldn't matter if he did. But how would he handle the rejection?

“What made you leave, soldier?” Drew found himself asking, curious about the man's character.

Ty turned from his examination of the compound, his eyebrows raised.

“The SEALs,” Drew clarified, as if Ty didn't know what he was talking about. “What made you leave the team?”

Ty studied him for a moment. “It was time.”

“You don't strike me as the kind of man to leave before it's time,” Drew pressed. “So what made it the right time?”

Ty regarded him for a long moment before placing the glasses on a nearby table. “I imagine you've seen my file, sir. It should tell you everything you need to know.”

Drew
had
read the file and it did give a reason, a bullet had caught him in the leg and almost killed Ty when it went through an artery.

“Most SEALs I know wouldn't have let that end their careers,” Drew said.

Ty was debating telling him the real reason, Drew could see it in his eyes. And, because he was more interested in letting Ty come to his own decision than forcing him to answer, Drew used the time to focus on the man in front of him, again.

He was similar in many ways to all the other men that had come and gone through Dani's life. Tall, well built, confident, and at the top of his game as a professional—Dani never did have good taste in men. Oh, they were all good men, but they were more like robots than humans. Most of them seemed to have some sort of checklist for life that included graduating from an ivy league school; entering either the CIA, FBI, or any of the other intelligence units; being top of the profession; and finding a wife who was the same so they could be a power couple together—which was why Drew never liked many of them, since they seemed more interested in how Dani made them appear, than in Dani herself.

“Are you going to tell me the real reason for this investigation?” Ty asked, interrupting Drew's train of thought. From most, the question would have sounded like a petulant demand. But there was nothing ill-tempered in it coming from Ty. His voice held too much experience. And his eyes conveyed a familiarity with secrecy that Drew recognized.

Drew had to respect the spirit. Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. But both men knew it didn't work that way.

“It's my investigation,” he answered. “I need to know if there's something we should know about you,” he added. The unspoken option he laid on the table didn't go unnoticed. Ty could tell him the story of why he left the SEALs and continue working on the team, or keep it to himself and kiss any ideas he had about being part of the investigation goodbye. It was true, Drew had promised the DEA he'd play nice, but not at any cost.

Ty's eyes narrowed as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. The room was silent, the air heavy with humidity from the sun glaring down through the glass.

And something shifted in Drew's assessment of the detective. Ty was like the others, but there was something a bit different, too. There was a quiet intensity about him, not like the frantic concentration of the others. He looked like a man who wasn't out to prove anything. He wouldn't have a life checklist; the thought had probably never even crossed his mind. Drew had seen Ty's type before, worked with a lot of them. He was the kind of man who wouldn't do anything because it was expected of him; he would do it because it was the right thing to do. Which meant that any interest he showed in Dani was genuine. He would be interested in
her
.

“Tell me, Sir, have you ever heard the sound of a mother's voice when she's just watched her child get blown to pieces?” Ty let his arms fall to his sides.

Drew blinked. He wasn't sure what kind of answer he'd expected, but it wasn't this. The rhetorical question went unanswered.

“I have,” Ty continued, looking a lot older than his thirty-six years. “Over and over again,” he added.

He took a deep breath and stared at something beyond Drew's shoulder. “I entered the service right out of college and left eight years later. Do you have any idea how many dead bodies I saw?” His eyes sought Drew's. “It was the kids that got to me the most. I know some people can compartmentalize,” he paused and shook his head. “I'm just not one of them.”