The Defender. Adrienne Giordano
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pen hit him in the chest and he snatched it up. Montblanc. For what that sucker cost, she shouldn’t be throwing it around. He set it back on the desk. “I’ll make you a deal. You don’t try to play me and I won’t remind you I saved your life.” He held out his hand. “Deal?”
If she agreed to this it would be the second miracle of the day. The first being that no one died in that hellacious shooting on the courthouse steps. She glanced at his hand and pursed her lips.
Russ dropped his hand. “You’re afraid you can’t do it.”
“Oh, please!”
So damned hot.
After what felt like another solid minute, she reached her hand out. “Fine. Deal.”
The handshake was nothing and everything he expected. Penny had a firm grip, but her hand was small and delicate and smooth, and he took a second to consider other delicate and smooth areas he’d like to touch.
Hokay. Rough day. Clearly, lascivious thoughts were a coping strategy. Russ cleared his throat.
Penny got up and asked, “Are you okay? Let me get you water.”
What he really needed was a Scotch. She strode to the minifridge in the corner and Russ’s gaze shot to her feet, where she’d lost the crazy heels she’d been wearing earlier. Now he wasn’t sure which was more of a turn-on: Penny in heels or Penny in bare feet. Either way, he had no argument.
She handed him a water bottle, then took the seat next to him. Interesting, that. Some women would stay behind the desk to remind him that (a) he was the guest and (b) she had control.
And suddenly, much to his consternation, he liked Penny Hennings a whole lot more.
Russ slammed half the water bottle—could really use a Scotch—and replaced the lid. “Elizabeth Brooks. I want everything on Heath and her involvement in the pump-and-dump scheme.”
The woman in question was the widow of a stockbroker involved in a hundred-million-dollar fraud scheme. The broker and his partner, Colin Heath, created shell companies and then issued the stock for themselves. They publicized how great their companies were through press releases, industry newsletters and any other form of communication they could find. When their victims went crazy buying their stock, thereby pumping up the price, the broker and Heath dumped their shares and made a killing. They also bankrupted thousands of innocent investors.
When the broker decided he’d had enough of screwing people out of their life savings, Colin Heath arranged for him to have a timely and torturous death. It was a murder carried out by Heath’s number-two guy, a real leg-breaker who’d been dumb enough to get caught. Only the guy wasn’t talking and the FBI didn’t have enough to nail Heath.
Nailing Heath was what Russ wanted. And apparently what Elizabeth Brooks, via Penny, could give him.
“She’ll talk,” Penny said. “She needs immunity. And protection.”
“Why is she suddenly willing to talk? Her husband’s been dead for months.”
Penny hesitated. Already their deal crumbled. Russ stood, set the water bottle on Penny’s desk, more than ready to walk away. He wanted Colin Heath, but Penny wouldn’t play him.
He took one step and she tugged on the back of his jacket. “Don’t go. I was thinking. That’s all.”
Turning back, Russ stared down at her, took in those amazing blue eyes and decided he was cooked.
* * *
DAMNED RUSSELL VOIGHT. Completely infuriating. Always brewing for a fight with her. At least, that was what it felt like. Still, Elizabeth Brooks was in trouble and had come to Penny hoping to make a deal with the FBI. It was Penny’s rotten luck that the lead agent on the Colin Heath case happened to be one she’d previously dismantled in court. Not that it had been his fault. During her research, she’d discovered an exemplary investigator and had prepared for him like no other witness.
Now, from his side of this deal, special agent Russell Voight could create all sorts of chaos for Penny’s client.
“I have a client to protect. As you know, Russell, Colin Heath is dangerous and Elizabeth has a son to raise.”
He gave her the hard stare. He probably didn’t like being called Russell. Too bad, because calling men by their given names with just a hint of sarcasm had been a trick Penny used to maximum effect. She called it the Mommy Game and she hadn’t met a man yet who could withstand it.
“Which is exactly why I won’t let you screw around. We’re either making a deal, Penny, or we’re not. No games. Are you in or out?”
Huh. Maybe the Mommy Game wasn’t so surefire with this particular man.
“Of course I’m in. You need to give me assurances, though. I won’t have the feds leaving my client—or her son—to face a murderer.”
“What’s with the son? That’s the second time you’ve brought him up.”
Because I’m terrified for him. Penny sighed. Blame it on the madman who’d opened fire on the courthouse today, but the plan she’d mapped out for this conversation had evaporated, simply imploded under the terror that came with watching those around her, including her father, drop to the ground. Standing on those steps, for a few brief seconds she’d thought her father was dead, shot down in front of her eyes. The panic from earlier whipped inside her, curling her stomach into tight knots, each one of them squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.
She glanced back at Russ, hands on his lean hips, all chiseled face and alpha among alphas, and her stomach let up. She’d guessed his height to be around five-ten, but he carried enough power and presence to fill a giant. With Russ came a sense of strength. Control. She didn’t doubt he could be a hothead, but he also understood how to maneuver a conversation.
She let out a breath. “I have to be able to trust you.”
“Be straight with me and you can trust me. I’ve been working this case for over a year. Don’t waste my time. Don’t waste the bureau’s time. If my guess is right, Colin Heath is running this scam in multiple states. We’ve got agents all over the country chasing leads on this guy.”
Penny held her hand to the chair, but he stared down at her, eyes a little squinty. “Please sit. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
He sat. Woo-hoo! At least she’d kept him from leaving. Back to work here. “As you know, Elizabeth Brooks is a licensed stockbroker.”
“Correct.”
“After the husband’s murder, Colin Heath realized there was money unaccounted for.”
“You’re telling me Sam Brooks was ripping off Heath?”
She nodded.
“Of course he was. What do these animals expect? They rip off innocent people and then expect their partners not to make off with the profits?”
Penny waited a moment. Russ remained silent. Her turn to speak again. “Right. So, Colin went to Elizabeth soon after Sam’s death and told her the money was missing. Obviously, he wanted it, but she didn’t know anything about it.”
“Come on, Penny.”
Seemed the FBI agent trusted no one. Probably a good trait in an investigator. “It’s the truth. She loved her husband. Maybe she suspected a few of his stock deals were off, but when she questioned him, he schmoozed his way around it. She made the mistake of trusting her husband. Women can’t be convicted for that.”
That got her the hard look he’d leveled on her five months ago from the witness stand. “They can when they’re involved in criminal activity.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Heath is as cynical as you are and thought she was lying about not knowing where the money was. He told her she’d have to work off her husband’s debt by doing trades for him. She refused and he