Notorious Read Free

the rental car shuttle stop.
    “Why?” David said.
    She didn’t answer his question. “Call Ginger. Tell her to find the letters the Hoffmans mentioned and get them to me, verbatim, before she leaves the office today. I want to know why I didn’t see them in the first place.”
    “Maybe she thought you had enough on your plate. Or maybe she didn’t see them at all. They could have come in when Ashley was still in the office. Or Josh.”
    Max didn’t want to think about Ashley. What a train w any other suspects. freck. And Josh? Every time she thought about him, she wished she could fire him all over again.
    Max didn’t have a great track record with office managers. David had been with her for eighteen months—in that time, she’d gone through six office managers. So far, Ginger had been with her for three months. Two more weeks and she’d win the prize for longest assistant.
    They stopped under the shuttle sign. David handed Max his cell phone. “It’s Marco.”
    “He’s calling you, not me.”
    “Because you haven’t been answering your phone. This is the third time he’s called me.”
    Max didn’t take the phone, so David answered. Max tried to ignore the conversation as she looked for any sign that the shuttle was near. It was nowhere in sight.
    “She’s right here,” David said. “No, she didn’t lose her phone.”
    Max swore under her breath and took David’s phone from his hand. “I didn’t answer my phone because I didn’t want to talk to you.”
    “You have to talk to me sometime, sweetheart.” FBI Special Agent Marco Lopez spoke low and clear, working double-time to control his Cuban temper.
    “Not today.”
    “You intentionally left before I saw the news.”
    “I told you yesterday I had a funeral in California.”
    “You didn’t tell me that you filed your article, and you had plenty of time to record a three-minute spot for the local news. You exposed my informant and jeopardized my case!” His voice rose in volume as he spoke.
    Max had a lot of experience remaining calm while talking to Marco. “Your informant put one of his hookers in the hospital for a week and thwarted the investigation into Candace Arunda’s murder.”
    “He was my only link to the Garbena cartel!” Though Marco was born and raised in Miami, his parents had both come from Cuba, and when he got angry and spoke fast, he adopted a hybrid Americanized Cuban accent.
    “I’m not rehashing this with you,” she said. “I told you why I was in Miami when you asked last week.”
    “You should have warned me.”
    “Last time I gave you an early copy of an article, your boss attempted to have it scuttled.”
    “That was nine years ago!”
    “Fool me once,” she said.
    “Dammit, Max! You avoided me because you know you overstepped this time.” She pictured Marco pacing his office, his free hand opening and closing.
    “Overstepped?” Max took a deep breath. Marco, more than anyone, could raise her blood pressure. “Is that what you call exposing the truth about the brutal murder of an underage prostitute? Is an ‘in’ with the cartel more important than justice for a seventeen-year-old girl?”
    “Don’t twist what I said! You know I care. You should have given me twenty-four hours to clean up this mess. Ramirez would have been in prison either way.”
    “Your team screwed up, another girl was in jeopardy, and I’m supposed to give you time to fix it because we’re having sex? Garbena is costing you your soul, M any other suspects. farco.”
    David cleared his throat. Maxine didn’t care about attracting an audience as much as her assistant, but she stepped farther away from the other travelers waiting for the shuttle.
    “You’re the most frustrating woman I’ve ever known!”
    “I’ve never lied to you, Marco. I wish you could say the same to me.” She hung up and returned David’s phone.
    Her stomach was twisted in knots. She wished she could have left things differently with