Evasive Action (Holding The Line Book 1)

let on.” He traced a bead of moisture on the outside of his glass. “I get that you didn’t want to show your hand, but he didn’t, either. He may still think you took the flash drive, but didn’t want to get into a back-and-forth with you on the phone.”
April plucked the straw from her iced tea glass and nibbled on the end. “I wonder what’s on the flash drive.”
“What did he say? You asked him.”
“Business stuff.” She tapped the straw against her tooth, flicking droplets of liquid on the table. “I’ll bet it’s business stuff. I wonder who took it. One of his so-called friends probably.”
“You don’t think Adam stole it, do you?”
A feather of apprehension brushed the back of her neck. That had crossed her mind as soon as Jimmy mentioned the theft, but she’d pushed it away as disloyalty.
“Why would Adam steal info about Jimmy’s business?”
“C’mon, April. This is Adam we’re talking about. If he could get rich quick, he’d do it and damn the torpedoes. What better way than to butt in on someone’s drug trade.”
Heat flared in her cheeks. “Adam wouldn’t...”
She trailed off in the face of Clay’s hard stare. He’d never had any patience for her coddling of Adam. He would always take her side over Adam’s.
“You know he would, April. Didn’t he set you up with Jimmy? Why’d he do that? Why’d he facilitate a relationship between you and a drug dealer?” Clay slammed his fist on the table. “If I ever get my hands on that boy, he’s really gonna need the drugs.”
Sighing, April buried her chin in the palm of her hand. “You don’t understand him.”
“I know he found your mom in a pool of blood, stabbed to death.” Clay traced his knuckle down her forearm to her elbow planted on the table. “He went through hell, but he didn’t have to drag you along with him. You had your own hell to deal with.”
“I’m not saying I forgive him for setting me up with Jimmy, but that doesn’t mean he stole the flash drive. He’d have to know that Jimmy would think I did it.”
“Yeah.”
She fished some money from her purse, and Clay closed his hand around her fingers. “You’d better keep that until you pick up your debit and credit cards or get them replaced.” He pulled out his own wallet and tossed some bills on the table. “Any chance that brother of yours can send your stuff to you? ID, cards, clothes?”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen. As long as Jimmy believes me, I’m safe enough. I can take a drive back up to Albuquerque and collect my stuff myself. I have a debt to pay back up that way, anyway.”
“You’re not really going to reimburse Jimmy for the wedding, the dress and the cheap ring, are you?”
“No, but I used that cheap ring to buy a car, and now the poor seller is out a car and the cash. I’m sure he got a rude surprise when he tried to hock the ring.”
“You told me you borrowed that car from a friend.” Clay’s lips twisted into a half smile. “What other lies have you told me, April Hart?”
April kept her head down as she stuffed her cash back into the purse in her lap.
You have no idea, Clay Archer.
CLAY LEFT APRIL at her car with assurances from her that she wouldn’t head back to New Mexico without him. He had to question his own sanity for getting involved with April again, but he couldn’t just abandon her. She’d gotten mixed up with some dangerous folks and even if she were convinced Jimmy Verdugo had let her off the hook, he wasn’t.
When he got back to the office, it was still buzzing with the news that the head and body didn’t match. He didn’t want to think about where that other head was going to turn up. Maybe on another agent’s porch. And the other body? It could be anywhere in the desert.
He sat down behind his desk and two minutes later Valdez plopped down in a chair across from him.
“What do you make of it, Archer? There must’ve been two mules coming across the border.”
“Looks like it.” Clay kicked his feet up on the corner of his desk. “Two mules who were sent to intercept a shipment designated for Las Moscas. Two sacrifices. Whoever planned this had to know it was a death sentence for the mules.”
“Canaries in a coal mine?” Valdez steepled his fingers and gazed over the tips like some kind of drug muse. “They send these two unsuspecting women to do the dirty work to see if they could get away with stealing from Las Moscas. Next time they’ll try something else.”
“You’re probably right, Valdez.” Clay dropped his feet to the floor and flipped up the lid of his laptop. “I’m gonna do some work. Did you finish the report from last night yet?”
Valdez reddened to the roots of his hair as he pushed up to his feet. “I did not. I just got the sheriff’s report today. Do you want to check it over before I submit it?”
“Your last report was good. I trust you.”
When Valdez had tripped off with a smile engulfing the bottom half of his face, Clay began tapping away on his keyboard.
Surely, April had done a cursory search for Jimmy Verdugo. She wouldn’t date and then decide to marry some guy without doing a little research first. She didn’t have the same resources he did, but she would’ve been able to search for a criminal record.
The woman had impulsive tendencies, but she had a healthy dose of skepticism. The only way she could’ve wound up so deep with Jimmy is if Adam engineered the whole thing.
April made the mistake of seeing her brother as a hapless druggie with PTSD. Adam might be a junkie with PTSD, but he was far from hapless. He used April with a cunning that she refused to acknowledge.
Clay had no doubt Adam