The Edge of Obsession (Black Ops Confidential 2.5)

“That night…”

“The day you were rescued and taken to the hospital?”

“Yes. Later, at night, the police officer who rescued me worked overtime, serving as security for a visiting dignitary, a woman named Mukta Parish. Hoping to impress her, a wealthy woman who championed women’s rights, he told her how he’d arrested a man for killing his wife and then had saved a girl held prisoner all in the same day.

“Needless to say, when he told her the story, she was impressed—and curious about the girl he’d saved. So curious that, instead of going to the gala where she was scheduled to speak, she insisted he take her to the hospital to meet me.”

Someone walked over Sion’s grave, so said the gooseflesh rising across his body. “That’s the woman who adopted you, Mukta Parish?”

“Yes. Momma told me when she arrived at the hospital and saw me, gaunt and haunted, it was love at first sight.”

Pulling back from her, he ran his hands along her face. Her eyes shone with tears. His heart felt as if it might break. “Can’t rightly blame her.”

She smiled. “I never believed her. I didn’t believe in love at first sight.” She brushed aside a tear. “Until, as a love-struck young woman, I saw a man driving down the pitch. And a seed was planted. And then one day, you walked into my life and it bloomed.”

“I felt it, luv. Couldn’t name it then, but I felt it too. Feel it now.”

“I love you, Sion Bradford.”

He couldn’t breathe for love of her. “I love you too, Dada Parish. I love you.”

He kissed her, sweeping his tongue into her soft mouth, possessing and cherishing her with everything he had. The feel of her against him, her warm tongue, sent his head spinning and his heart sprinting. She was his miracle.

He cupped the side of her face. “Must’ve been odd, walking into your new life.”

“I went from the poorest, most base of situations to being adopted by the wealthiest woman in the world. I flew to a home where I was surrounded by love and understanding and healing. A home where I never longed for anything. Well, I longed for one thing, to help free others from situations similar to the one I had endured. And this too, Momma made sure I was given.”

“Ah,” Sion said, freezing as it all clicked into place. She hadn’t been overstating it. It was dangerous what she did. Dangerous in dealing with criminals. Dangerous in being outside the law. “You work for yourself. Your mum. Is that who pays for you to investigate these things?”

“Yes. Not just me. My siblings. And others.”

“Okay.” She was part of a global vigilante network. Un-bloody-believable. “We have two things going for us with Armand. One, he’s a stupid, sadistic bastard. And two, we have backup.”

She drew in air with a hiss. “Not really. There are rules against taking certain actions. Things like making assumptions, acting without hard proof, or leaving one case for another. And chasing someone who I have past ties with. All against the rules.”

So it was just the two of them.

Grabbing her hand, he put it over his heart. “Do you think it’s him? Armand. The one who took Rosa?”

“I do. And I think it’s likely he’s setting us up. He knows you’re not playing along with him.”

“I had the same thought when he told me his plan.”

“You mean his ridiculous plan to have you drug me and leave me in your car with your car keys? Like that wouldn’t end badly for both of us.”

“Aye. Tidy way to get rid of you and blame it on me.”

“We need a better plan. One that plays to his weakness and anger. Do you have the device?”

“Right. Yes.” He reluctantly pulled away from her and searched the floor for his hastily discarded jeans. There. He took the device from his pocket. It looked like a thumb drive. “So what does this do?”

She took it and palmed it. “It copies information from a cell phone or other technology. It has a short range, but you were close enough.” She held lifted it. “I can’t bring my family in on our plan, but I can get my sister Gracie to use her cyber skills to track where the phone has been. By narrowing down choices, we can hopefully discover where Rosa is being kept.”

The unspoken possibility of if she’s being kept echoed in the air around them.

“And they’ll help with this, your family?”

“I might have to call in a favor or two.”

“If they won’t help,” he hated to do this, “we could ask Geraldo.”

She put her hand on his arm. “He’s done enough.”

And this was another reason that he had fallen for her. She cared, even if it could cost her.

#

Because of the nondescript wall behind Sion’s bed, Dada sat there with her laptop and sent a text message to her brother Tony—as team leader he’d need to approve Gracie helping locate Rosa.

Transferring Armand’s phone records to her computer, she logged into the secure site. Keeping that window open, she searched through Armand’s records in a smaller window. The secure site beeped.

“My brother’s here,” she told Sion, so he’d remember to keep quiet.

Tony came on, black hair askew, blinking and rubbing his hazel eyes. “What’s up?”

Had he been sleeping? Dada looked at her clock. “It’s 10:30 there.”

“Forget what it’s like here. I’m teaching lessons tomorrow. Including yours.”

A stab of guilt worked its way into her chest. “There’s an issue.”

“Fill me in.”

She paused before answering, something in Armand’s text history catching her eye. There was a message from Walid. “A woman,” Dada began, trying to let go of the words of the text, “someone I had taken under my wing has gone missing. She left behind her child. I’m worried for her safety.”

“You sure she didn’t leave her kid?”

Why did everyone assume the woman abandoned her child? “Would I waste your time if she had? Give me some credit.”

Her eyes drifted again to the text message of Walid complaining about missing product. That was it. How Armand found his women. He stole them from Walid. Walid would not be happy to learn this. Could she could get one snake to eat the other?

Tony grunted what might’ve been an apology. “Fine. But the point is the same. We’re trying to take down a guy who does that to a thousand women a year.”

?

?I believe Walid’s head of security, Armand Stoker, kills women for his own pleasure. I found a tomb with at least thirty women buried.”

No longer looking the slightest bit tired, Tony leaned toward his monitor. “Shit, D. I’m sorry. You okay?”

“I’m alive, and would like to find this woman before she ends up dead.”

“I get it. I do, but you can’t divert from an intelligence-gathering mission to find one woman.”

“I have a wealth of information on Walid already. Tonight, I managed to copy information from the cell phone of his head of security.”

“Did you transmit it?”

She first needed to make sure Armand had never mentioned her. Her brother would never allow her to risk herself in what he would see as an unexpected and highly emotional situation. “I will. Meanwhile, I’d like your approval to act. A woman’s life is in danger.”

“Thousands of women’s lives are in danger. And you want to take out Walid’s head of security?” He shook his head. “Please tell me you’re joking. That’s not recon. That’s straight out attack. We don’t want to alert these guys before the actual attack.”

He had a point. One she needed to dispel. New plan. “If done right, Walid will never suspect me, but he will need a new head of security.”

Tony chewed on that for a minute. “You’re saying we could try to get our own person into Walid’s organization?”

“Yes. Two birds. One bullet.”

“Bullet? You’re an okay shot, but you’re not Justice.”

Insulting, but true. “Yes, but I won’t need a bullet.” Not now that she had this information anyway. “Armand is stealing from Walid, so what do you think Walid would do if he discovered proof of that? Say, a tomb with thirty women buried.”

Tony’s eyebrows rose. “If we alert Walid, he’ll take this fucker out, leaving us an opportunity to place an operative into his organization.”

“Exactemente.” And instead of planning Armand’s murder, she could concentrate on finding Rosa. “So, is it okay to move ahead with my plans?”

Tony’s eyes honed in on her. “This can’t be a trap, right?”