“I’ve been called worse.”
“Harley, what’s going on?” Hannah asked shakily.
Dante turned his dark gaze to Hannah, his smile softened the mood in the kitchen. “I work for the FBI, Hannah.”
Hannah turned her gaze to Harley. “This is your FBI guy?”
The corners of Dante’s talented mouth turned upwards, “I’m your FBI guy?”
Now it sounded silly to put ownership to him. Harley resisted the feeling of a blush. She avoided his eye contact, rolling her eyes; she looked back at her niece. “Obviously not.”
“Well, how do you know my name?”
“I know all about you, Hannah.”
Harley turned her gun sideways at him and squared her shoulders. “Okay, I am officially creeped out.”
“I’m here because of the creeping,” he said with a chuckle. This was no laughing matter. “The creeping, is it? Don’t you kids call it photo-bombing now?”
Squeezing the grip of her weapon, Harley cleared her throat. “You’ve got two seconds before I shoot you.”
“Stand down, Harley. I told you last night I am here on business. I work for the Organized Crime Unit. Your niece and her friends took some pictures last night and posted them to social media. They blurred out the alleged suspects but when the pictures came over the wire it picked up a hit.”
“Since when is taking pictures something the FBI monitors?” Thanks to a few whistleblowers, the FBI working Homeland Security Act disengaged themselves from any activity. Her unit handled surveillance and did the hard work. If the agency did well, politicians took the credit.
“It’s not a crime. I need to see the picture so I can verify things. My suspect is in town. My department’s involvement caught a facial recognition scan when his face was posted to Face Book. I need to view the source.”
At that moment Harley’s phone dinged, indicating it was finished downloading. She lowered her gun back into the front pocket of her robe. All three of them looked at the mobile device sitting on the countertop. “Well, let’s just take a look.”
Hannah sat back on the stool while Dante hovered over Harley’s shoulder. She was all too aware of Dante’s closeness, his hard chest and abs against her back. His breath smelled of sugary doughnuts, most particularly the cherry filled ones- her favorite. Harley tossed a glance over her shoulder and realized he’d broken in to the box of pastries on the island. Rolling her eyes, Harley cleared her throat and tried to focus on the phone in her hand.
An image slowly came into focus. Harley recognized Hannah right off the bat. She stood behind a table with two men smiling at a camera off to their right. Hannah stood to the left and was holding up her two fingers in a peace sign. Harley recognized the crimson color of the oxford shirt on one of the boys. And at the table sat two men, one in a black suit, and the other in white. They were in what appeared a very intense conversation. The guy in black was none other than Christopher Alfaro. Dante seemed to recognize the other guy seated with Alfaro. He pressed his index finger over the picture of the man in the white suit.
“This is my guy.”
“What does this mean?” Harley asked, stepping forward, away from him. The heat from his body unnerved her with sexual distraction.
“It means Leonardo is here in town and your niece and her friends have captured them on film when they photo-bombed this meeting.”
Shaking her head Hannah stood, leaned forward on her hands and stared at the picture. “Those guys were all serious. We had to creep in it.”
Dante shook his head and let out a sigh. “Yes, but you posted it to FaceBook.”
“Mine didn’t post.”
“Someone did. They tagged you in the photograph. The global positioning of this phone is what brought me here to you.”
Harley turned around and found herself in a half embrace. Dante’s strong arm leaned against the counter framing her body. Given her experience working with the Government, Harley did not have a lot of faith in the FBI. When did they get so concerned they sent a man to investigate? “Is Hannah in trouble?”
“I can’t press charges against her for taking a picture.”
“You know what I mean.” Then before she said another word she ordered Hannah to go upstairs and get Javier. When she and Dante were alone in the room she was able to look Dante in the eye. “Is Hannah safe?”
“I don’t know.”
The honest answer unsettled her. “How dangerous is this guy?”
“Remember the kid on the street this morning?”