Page 78 of Shattering Dawn

“He promised me that he would text or phone to let me know he was safe,” Irene said. “I haven’t heard from him. I don’t know what to do.”

Gideon reached the landing. “What, exactly, did he tell you about his mission?”

“Just that his cover had been blown and he was in terrible danger. He said the cartel boss had discovered that he was a cop and had put out a contract on him.” She turned to Amelia. “See? You were wrong about him. He was telling me the truth.”

“Maybe,” Amelia said.

Gideon glanced down the stairs. Amelia followed his gaze and saw a tenant walking her dog on the garden sidewalk.

“The last thing we need is an audience,” Gideon said quietly. “Let’s go inside Amelia’s apartment and talk about this in private.”

Chapter Forty-four

Amelia took threebottles of sparkling water out of the refrigerator and carried them into the living room. She handed them out and then sat down beside Irene on the sofa.

Gideon had settled into the recliner. For a man who wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship, he was certainly making himself at home, she thought.

“One thing we can tell you about the man you call Falcon,” he said to Irene, “is that if he is an undercover agent, he did not stick around to introduce himself to local law enforcement in Lucent Springs.”

“How do you know he was the one who returned to the scene of the shootings to finish off those three men?” Irene asked. “Maybe it was another member of the gang.”

Amelia looked at Gideon. “I suppose there’s a possibility that someone else was involved, someone we never saw.”

“It’s possible.” Gideon did not bother to hide his skepticism. “But it doesn’t feel like it. Falcon was running the show. He came back to make sure none of his people survived.”

“That sounds so ruthless.” Irene shook her head. “I mean, I knew he was dangerous, but it’s so hard to believe he was conning me all along.”

Amelia kept quiet. There was no simple way to explain to Irene that the man who called himself Falcon had used her as a cover so that he could stalk his real target two doors down the hall. That would mean inviting Irene into the rabbit hole of a conspiracy theory involving people with dangerous psychic powers and bizarre experiments. As far as Irene was concerned, anything to do with the paranormal came under the heading of “entertainment.”

Irene looked at Gideon. “Do you think I might be in danger?”

“I doubt it,” he said. “If Falcon wanted you dead he would have murdered you last night when he stopped by to ask for cash and tell you that he was leaving town.”

Irene shuddered. Water splashed out of the green bottle. She grabbed a napkin and quickly blotted up the drops that had landed on her trousers.

Amelia glared at Gideon. “Really?”

He winced. “Sorry. I was thinking out loud.”

“He’s right,” Irene said. She swallowed hard. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’ve been thinking about calling the police all day, but what would I tell them? That I dated a drug dealer who claimed to be an undercover agent? They would probably conclude that I was involved in the drug trade, too. An arrest would ruin my career.”

“What do you know about Falcon?” Gideon asked.

“Just what he told me,” Irene said. “Now I don’t know how much of that was fiction.”

“Do you know his real name?” Gideon asked.

“No. He said it was safer if I knew him only as Falcon.”

“What about an address?” Gideon said.

“He’s renting a small house a few miles from here. I expect he’s gone now.”

“Have you ever been there?”

“Once or twice,” Irene said. “It’s very ordinary. Nothing special. Sort of run-down, to tell you the truth. We never spent the night there because he said it might draw the wrong attention. He preferred hotels. More anonymous, he said.”

“If you’ll give me the address I’ll drive by and check to make sure he really did leave town,” Gideon said.