Tenderloin (Abby Kane FBI Thriller) Read Free

of awkward.
    I wasn’t sure what to say. I had been investigating Arnulfo Carson-Ballard since my first day on the job; he was the first case handed over to me. We discovered that the financial guru had been running a Ponzi scheme that bilked a small group of investors out of $175 million in only four years. That’s a lot of money in a short amount of time. The interesting thing here was that all of his victims were rich single women. Apparently, Ballard’s financial talents played second fiddle to his romantic ways. Right as I got close to nabbing him, he disappeared like a ghost. No traces, none whatsoever. The case had gone cold until I received Reilly’s call today.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” Stone said.
    No you don’t.
    He squinted at me, accenting the crow’s feet around his eye. “The fact that I found him was pure luck.”
    Of course it was. I bet you’re one of those people who always wins lottery scratchers, too . “How?” I finally managed, wondering if his smile could be any cheesier.
    Stone went on to tell me about a diving trip he took with a few buddies in the Caymans. While there, he met a girl. She had broken up with her boyfriend and had been drinking. A lot. Long story short, she wanted to get back at her ex by having sex with the first man she came into contact with. Stone got lucky. It didn’t take long before their pillow talk turned to talk about her boyfriend, Ballard, and his business. He had heard about my case, and a few checks the next day confirmed that the Ballard his bedmate spoke of was the same Ballard wanted by the FBI.
    “Where’s the girlfriend now?” I asked.
    Stoned stopped fiddling and looked up. “She’s in the custody of Cayman officials awaiting extradition back to the U.S.”
    “Is she involved?”
    “I believe she’s the one who befriended the women before making the introduction to Ballard. From then on, she defused any concerns the women had.”
    “So if they had questions about Ballard, they would ask her.”
    “She kept them calm. Their targets were lonely women, and the two played off of it.”
    “He must have really pissed her off,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.
    “Nah, I get the feeling it’s a love-hate relationship between the two. She picked the wrong guy for a one-nighter.”
    I watched him move his finger along the trackpad of the laptop. Projected on the HD screen in front of me was the desktop of his computer. The cursor arrow settled on a folder titled Ballard, and he clicked it open. A title card with our guy’s name on it appeared. “I think I got everything ready,” he said as he clapped his hands.
    I had more questions, but time had run out, and agents were filing into the room and taking seats. All told, sixteen personnel had shown up. At fifteen minutes on the dot, Reilly walked back in.
    “If I could have your attention, Agents. Thank you. If you haven’t already heard, we’re here today because we have located Arnulfo Carson-Ballard, a.k.a. the Prince.”
    Reilly allowed a brief round of applause before continuing. “We haven’t had eyes on him or heard one word from the Prince for eight months, that is, until a few days ago when Agent Stone had an off-chance meeting with the girlfriend in the Cayman Islands. I’ll let him fill you in on the details.”
    Stone motioned for the lights, and everyone focused on the large screen on the wall. A picture of a sultry woman appeared and enlisted a bunch of whistles from the peanut gallery.
    “This beautiful bombshell is Nina Vazquez. She’s a fashion model from Portugal and the long-time girlfriend of Mr. Ballard.”
    I interrupted Stone. “Excuse me. You said she’s the long-time girlfriend. How come I haven’t heard of her before?”
    “Good question. This is Agent Abby Kane, the agent officially charged with investigating the case. The reason nobody here, or you, Agent, has heard of her is because she spent almost all of her time living in Lisbon and