Page 11 of Targeted By Desire

“Listen, Simone, I’m inclined to agree with you. I am. But, I just don’t want you to put all this work in and be disappointed.”

Too late for that, I thought. Gabriel and I spent hours creating the small portfolio to present to Logan, hoping he’d let us take on the case. If we managed to find so many deaths in one work session, I could only imagine how many we’d discover if we had more time and resources. The top of the pile may be criminals, but who knows what we might find when we get closer to the bottom. I had no doubts there were some innocents buried in there somewhere. Especially after I almost became one of them.

Logan held the folder out to me. “I’m sorry, Simone,” he said. “The most I’ll be able to press for is an assault on a federal agent, but-”

“Criminals attack us all the time, so they probably won’t even bother. I know.” I snatched the folder out of his hands. “Thanks anyway.”

Frowning, I stood up and made my way back to the door.

“Simone,” my godfather called to me before I could open it.

“Hm?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.

Logan leaned his elbows on the desk and propped his head atop his knuckles. “Rizzali’s death isn’t on you, so you don’t need to compensate for it. Understand?”

I nodded, the words going in one ear and straight out of the other.

“I need you to promise me you’ll drop this. No more research. No more theories. Can you do that?”

“Sure.”

“Promise me, Simone.”

“Okay, I promise,” I said, mentally twisting my index and middle fingers around each other.

One side of Logan’s lips curled in disbelief. With a subtle shake of his head, he quietly dismissed me from his office. I could practically hear the thought cross his mind as I passed through the threshold into the hall. She’s just like her father.

And he was absolutely right.

I was going to take down that arrogant bastard - with or without the FBI’s blessing.

THE ASSASSIN

Isn’t this cute? I thought as I parked on the street where my new target lived. All of the homes spread along the block were painted in modest variations of white with colorful shutters and roofs. Homemade sculptures and cushioned chairs decorated the porches. Welcome signs lay beside some of the wooden doors, and others hung wreaths in front of them.

In the middle of the afternoon, most of the driveways were vacant. A few teenagers walked down the sidewalk with their backpacks and earbuds. They barely spared a glance at my van, now disguised with a faux security system logo across the side. Inside, I wore my own uniform, posing as a security technician. Being in character was part of the routine. We needed to blend in to prevent any suspicion. Even if there wasn’t anyone around.

I grabbed the laptop off of the passenger seat and popped it open. Before Maria left for her boyfriend’s house earlier, she hacked into my target’s security system and gave me access to the cameras and the functions. She was also able to get me the woman’s personal file. I’d read it before I drove down here.

One of the few things that stuck out was her name.

Simone.

Beautiful and fierce, it fit her perfectly. I almost couldn’t wait to see her again so I could better match the name to her face.

The other was her long line of educational credentials. She graduated in the top ten percent of her high school class. Graduated college with degrees in criminology and psychology at Howard University. Went on to attain a Juris Doctor degree from University of Virginia. Passed the bar exam barely a month later.

The woman was following the yellow brick road towards the courtroom. How’d she end up in the FBI?

I doubted her home would give me an answer to that, but I was curious to see what else it might tell me.

With a click of a button, I unleashed the bug on Simone’s security system. I watched the screen mirroring the one inside her home scramble for a moment before settling in bold green letters.

Disarmed.

I was good to go.

Pulling my cap down as low as I could to hide my face, I stepped out of the van and walked a few meters down the street towards her home.