"Sure. If you reached out because of Qadir⁠—"

  "I didn't," he said, cutting him off.

  Reza looked surprised. "You didn't?"

  "No. I'm working on something here in the city. Ashford's girlfriend was critically injured in a bomb blast on Monday."

  Reza nodded. "I read about that. And yesterday there was another bomb. Related?"

  "Absolutely."

  "And connected to Ashford?"

  "Still to be determined. There's a man who goes by the name Cal, well over six feet tall, black hair, black eyes, described as having a Middle Eastern accent. He works jobs for Elias Costa, who runs Forge Fitness, and possibly the Novik brothers, who run the Crimson Club. He's connected to a murder and a hit on a witness to the bombing yesterday. Anything about him sound familiar?"

  "You said this wasn't about Qadir."

  He looked at Reza in surprise. "It's not."

  "Caleb Azrani fits the description you just gave me. He's the younger brother of⁠—"

  "Malik Azrani," he finished, one of Qadir's best friends. "But how could Caleb be here? The Azranis have been on the watch list for years."

  "Only Malik. Caleb is his much younger brother. He came to the US with his mother when he was a child. Malik stayed with the father. Do you have a photo?"

  "There's a sketch, but I don't have it with me." A dozen thoughts raced through his mind. If Cal was Caleb Azrani, the brother of one of Qadir's best friends, it seemed likely that Qadir was involved in this. But there was no way he would set foot on US soil. However, that didn't mean he wasn't running things from afar. But the bombings weren't his signature, his style. Qadir liked chaos, mass hysteria, and explosions on a much larger scale. He wanted mass destruction, not single targets. "The two bombs don't sound like Qadir."

  "Cal might run his own group here."

  "Or be working for someone else. He seems more like a middleman to me. Can you do some digging?"

  "If these events are tied to Qadir, this is the last thing you should work on, Max. Qadir has already stolen so much of your life. Look what you've lost."

  "Which means I have little else to lose," he said harshly. "And this is more about Dominic, my employer, than anything else."

  "For now, but not if the group is tied to Qadir." Reza gave him a sharp look. "You can't tell me that Ashford isn't a cover to get you back into a region that you should not be going to again. Or that his money isn't fueling your obsession."

  "Can you help me or not?" he said.

  "I'll look into it," Reza said, then dug his hands into his pockets and walked away.

  His heart was still pounding as he watched his friend leave the park. There didn't appear to be anyone following him, but as his gaze moved around his surroundings, he very much hoped that no one had followed him here. He'd been careful. Hopefully, careful enough. But if these events were tied to anyone in Qadir's network, things were going to get a lot worse.

  He pulled out his phone and called Kara.

  Kara ignored her buzzing phone. "Is Whitney all right?" she asked Jason, who had just called the team into the conference room for an urgent briefing, which revealed an attack at the safe house.

  "Ms. Holden is scared but unharmed," Jason said tersely.

  "How the hell did this happen?" Tyler demanded.

  "Obviously, the location was leaked. The agent in the hallway was knocked unconscious. The gunman shot the lock off the door. Fortunately, the agent inside reacted quickly, hitting him with gunfire before he could get to Whitney. The attacker was injured and retreated down the hall, where he disappeared into the stairwell."

  "Description?" Alina asked.

  "Medium height, ski mask over his head and face, oversized jacket, dark pants, and he had a large ring on his left hand. Wes and Charlie are going through security cameras now. The jacket and mask were dumped down the laundry chute. We may get lucky with DNA evidence."

  "And Whitney?" she asked.

  "The U.S. Marshals will take over," Jason replied. "I'm meeting with Damon in an hour. The information about the safe house most likely came from either his team or ours. Going forward, we'll set up our own safe house, but in the meantime, we need to tighten the circle. Damon and I will discuss how best to divide up the work, but for now, continue on as you've been doing." He let out a breath, turning to Kara. "Are there any updates?"

  She hesitated, almost afraid to say anything now that she knew the safe house had been breached. Her team might be comprised of experienced agents, but she didn't know any of them well. In fact, she knew the agents at 26 Fed better, and she couldn't imagine one of them being a mole. But Jason was waiting for an answer, and she had to say something.

  "I've been digging into Samantha's case files, looking for a connection between her and James Cooper, but nothing yet. I also contacted Wexler Properties, the owner of the building in the second blast. He is in Tokyo with his executive team and will be back tomorrow. I'll speak to him then."

  "I've been researching James Cooper and his financials," Tyler interjected. "He's had several unexplained large cash deposits in the last several years. All for different amounts, all cash, none reported on his taxes. I spoke to his wife, who said she didn't handle the banking. She barely knew how to get into their accounts. I also talked to another woman in the Building Department, Grace Wilcox. She said James was a quiet man, kept to himself, did his job, and never had any arguments with anyone."

  "The cash deposits are interesting," she muttered. "Maybe someone was bribing him to sign off on work that wasn't quite right."

  Tyler nodded. "I haven't found a trail yet, but I'm looking into it. Also, followed up on Vincent Castellano. Hasn't been home or at work. But he used his credit card at a bar in Brooklyn yesterday, so I'm going to follow up on that."

  "Castellano's employer, Petrosyan Automotive, is under investigation for tax fraud by Samantha's team at the DA's office," she interjected. "But there's nothing to tie that case to James Cooper."

  "Alina?" Jason said.

  "I've been looking into the Novik brothers," Alina replied. "Sergei Novik has been in Prague for the last month. He's expected back in the US this weekend. Alex Novik has been MIA at the Crimson Club since Cray was killed. He's allegedly sick, but he's not at home, and he hasn't used any of his credit cards since Tuesday night when he bought dinner in Soho. Judging by the bill, the meal was shared by more than one person. I was just about to start looking at cameras by that restaurant to see if I can identify him or his companions."

  "And Cray's shooter—an individual possibly named Cal?" Jason asked.

  "The car he was using was dumped in Chinatown," Alina said. "He's in the wind."

  "All right. Let's get back to work," Jason said. "We need to figure out what connects those two bombings so we can prevent a third."

  After the meeting, Tyler followed her back to her desk.

  "I'm going to meet with a friend of mine at the ATF," Tyler said. "He's going to go over the explosive devices with me, see if we can find a signature, a part we can trace to a common buyer. After that, I'll follow up at the bar in Brooklyn, see if anyone knows Castellano. Do you want to come, or…"

  "I want to keep going through these files, unless you need me."

  "No, I've got it." He paused, looking like he wanted to say more.

  "What?" She gave him a searching look.

  "What's the situation with Malone?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "He was with you last night when I gave you the location of the safe house."

  Her eyes widened as she realized what he was suggesting. "Max didn't leak the information."

  "Are you sure? He drove you and Whitney to the building, right?"

  "Why would he leak the address?"

  "Because he's working for Dominic Ashford," Tyler said with irritation in his voice. "He has a conflict of interest."

  "There's no conflict. Max is trying to find out what happened, same as us. And I don't believe Ashford is involved in the explosions."

  "You don't know that for sure. Ashford could be responsible for everything that's happening. He worked with Cooper, and he was dating Samantha. He's the link between those two. And Max is his protector. Haven't you considered the fact that staying close to you keeps him in the loop on information that he can then feed to his boss?"

  She didn't like his tone or his question. "You need to back down, Tyler. I know what I'm doing. And you have reasons for disliking Max that have nothing to do with this case. If you want to share what those actually are, maybe I'll be more interested in listening to your opinion."

  Tyler's jaw tightened. "I can't tell you. But I know he doesn't always stay on the right side of the line. You're going to have to trust me on that."

  "And you're going to have to trust me not to make poor decisions."

  As the air grew heavy between them, Alina came over. "Everything okay here?" she asked, making Kara aware that several people in the room had stopped what they were doing to listen to their discussion.

  "It's fine," she said, sending Tyler a pointed gaze that he should think twice about contradicting her.

  "Fine," he echoed. "I gotta go."

  As Tyler walked away, Alina turned to her. "What's going on between you and Tyler?"

  "We're just getting to know each other," she said. "There's no problem."

  "Tyler can be a hothead, but he's a smart guy. If he's worried about something, you should listen."

  "I always listen, but his concerns are not valid."

  "Are you talking about Malone?"

  "They have a history, Alina. Neither one wants to tell me exactly what that history is, but something happened in the Middle East, when Malone was CIA and Tyler was Delta. None of that is pertinent to now." She took a breath. "And I don't like being second-guessed or accused of letting someone use me for information."

  "I'm sure Tyler didn't mean it like that."

  "I hope not. But none of us know each other well. We're going to have to give each other leeway, find a rhythm. I'm sure we can do that, but right now I'm only concerned with this case."

  Alina nodded. "Me, too, so I'll get back to it."

  As Alina walked back to her desk on the other side of the room, Kara let out a breath. She didn't need to get into fights with her team, not when they were in the middle of a case. But she also didn't need a fellow agent questioning her decision-making. She knew what she was doing, and she felt like she knew Max better than she knew Tyler. With what had happened at the safe house, the only person she was going to trust was herself and her own gut instincts. Those instincts told her that Max was genuine in his desire to help.

  Despite that affirmation, she couldn't ignore the tiny seed of doubt that Tyler had planted. Ashford was a link between Cooper and Samantha, and Max did work for him. But she could see no reason why Dominic Ashford would want to kill anyone or blow up two buildings.

  She needed to find another connection, something that would lead them to the bomber.

  Picking up her phone, she called Max back, wondering if he'd already found something, but his phone went to voicemail, so she hung up and got back on her computer.

  Several hours later, her eyes were blurring from reading through the lengthy files the DA's office had sent over. She still had a couple more years to go through, but it was almost five, and she needed to get out to Queens for her uncle's birthday. She sent the remaining files to an encrypted folder she could access from home and would dig into that after she spent a little time with her family.

  She had just gotten into the car when Max called her back. "What's up?" she asked. "Did you find anything?"

  "I have some information. It's not verified yet, but I want to talk to you about it."

  "That sounds a little mysterious."

  "Can we meet?"

  "I'm just leaving work. I have to go to Queens for my uncle's birthday bash."

  "Maybe after?"

  She hesitated. She didn't want to wait to hear what he had to say. "Or you could come with me…" She regretted the invitation as soon as it left her mouth, but it was too late to take it back.

  "Are you sure your family won't care?"

  "The family mantra is the more the merrier. Are you at home? I can pick you up. I'm just leaving work."

  "I'll be waiting."

  A little tingle of excitement ran through her. She told herself this was just about work, but she knew that was a lie. She just hoped he didn't know it, too.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Max was waiting in front of the Golden Dragon, looking so deliciously sexy in dark-gray slacks, a navy sweater, and a black coat that her heart flipped over in her chest. He hopped into her SUV and gave her a warm smile.

  "Hello," he said as he fastened his seatbelt.

  "Hi." She cleared her throat, feeling oddly uncomfortable, not by anything he was doing but the unexpected attraction that seemed to intensify every time she saw him. "Lots of traffic tonight."

  "Not surprising," he murmured. "How did your day go?"

  "It wasn't going great until about an hour ago. Tyler found Vincent Castellano."

  "That's great."

  "Castellano admitted to threatening Samantha at the bistro, but he has a rock-solid alibi for the café bombing. He was clocked in at work in Jersey during the blast. And he was out of town for three days before the blast at a family wedding. He said his threat was only about the fraud case Samantha was building against the auto shop. He was terrified of losing his job, and he didn't even know what the Meridien Tower was. He's a thug, but he's not our bomber."

  "Why did he run and hide then?"

  "After the bomb blast, he realized his threat might get him into trouble. When you think about it, his actions were not well thought out. He threatened Samantha in a public place with lots of witnesses and security cameras. He's not that smart."

  "No," Max agreed. "And I can't see a tie between Petroysan and Cooper. Anything else?"

  "James Cooper has unexplained cash deposits in his bank account. We're following the money."

  "That's good," he said with a nod. "If he was taking bribes, maybe someone didn't feel he held up his end of the bargain."

  "Which would go with what Whitney said about him needing to understand consequences." She paused. "Oh, there's another thing. Someone tried to break into the safe house. Whitney is all right. The agent outside is recovering from a concussion. The agent inside got off a couple of shots, striking the attacker, who unfortunately escaped. He ditched his clothes in a laundry bin, and there was blood on them. We're tracing the DNA now. Hope to have a hit soon. Things are moving along, just not as fast as I would like."

  "You've made some progress."

  "Some," she agreed. "What about you? You said you had news?" Her pulse was steadier now. Focusing on business had put her back on a more even keel.

  "I spoke to a friend of mine. He believes that Cal is Caleb Azrani. Caleb's brother, Malik Azrani, worked with Ali Qadir, who is⁠—"

  "On every most wanted list," she finished, surprised by his words and the connection of Cal to a terrorist. "I'm familiar with Qadir and his extensive network. We busted a small terror cell about eight years ago that was loosely tied to him."

  "This one may be as well. But the bombings don't exactly fit. Qadir's groups go for mass casualties, maximum chaos. These are too surgical, too targeted."

  She thought about that. The explosions didn't seem to match the work of a terrorist organization, but the precision strikes might just be the beginning of something bigger. "Do you think your contact can find Caleb?"

  "He's working on it."

  "Is your contact CIA?"

  "I really can't say, Kara."

  She frowned, giving him a disappointed look. "Because he's covert?"

  "Yes. And because he wouldn't give me information if he couldn't trust me to keep his secrets."

  "I really hate secrets."

  "Then you're working for the right agency," he said cynically. "Because my life has been one secret after another. Some days, I could barely remember who I was."

  She glanced at his hard profile, thinking that was one of the most revealing things he'd ever said to her. "That couldn't have been easy. I only did one undercover stint at the NYPD, and it lasted two days. I can't imagine having to keep up a cover for a long time."

  "It becomes a part of you. And when you live in filth, you get dirty. You can't see the lines anymore."

  There was a hard edge to his voice. "It sounds like you're glad you're out."

  "I have mixed feelings about it. But we don't need to discuss my career choices."

  "I'm curious about those choices."

  "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but why are you curious?"

  "You don't seem like someone who stops before the job is done. The man you captured and brought into the agency was turned into an asset and then disappeared. Now you know he's somewhere out there causing mayhem… That can't sit well."

  "I quit before he disappeared. I couldn't stand seeing his smug face when he told me he was on my side now. I knew he was never on my side or America's side. As for dealing with the knowledge that he's still out in the world running his network once more, it makes me sick, and I would like to bring him down, but I don't have the resources to do that." He cleared his throat. "And that's all I'm going to say about him. We're almost to Queens, and I want to know what I'm walking into."

  She didn't really want to change the subject, but Max was clearly done talking about it for now, and she needed to prep him for what he was about to walk into. "It's my Uncle Danny's birthday, and the party is at Hannigan's Pub, which is a firefighter bar owned by my uncle and two of his fellow firefighters, Jack Hannigan and Ray Connover. They bought the pub when Hannigan's father retired. They didn't want to lose their favorite drinking hole."

  "Sounds like a fun place."

  "It will be packed with family and friends. My uncle is very popular." She smiled. "Fair warning: They're going to ask you a million questions, so if you're having second thoughts, you can still bail and take a rideshare back to Manhattan."