The questions hit her like a punch to the stomach. She nearly doubled over with the pain. She didn’t know what to think. Sean Cutter seemed like a straight shooter. But six months ago, so had Daniel Savage. The one thing she did know for certain was that she was not going to prison.
She took a final look at Cutter. He’d hung up the phone and was sitting on the sofa with his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands. He looked…broken. The need to go to him was great. But Mattie couldn’t let herself. No matter how painful—no matter how dangerous—she had to do this.
Quietly she eased the door shut and backed away from it. Looking around quickly, she gathered the clothes Cutter had bought for her when he’d picked up their dinner. She slipped into the parka and spotted one of two cell phones he’d bought lying on the night table. She snatched it up and dropped it into her pocket. Never taking her eyes from the sliver of light beneath the door, praying he didn’t walk in before she could get out, she crept to the window. The wooden sill creaked when she opened it.
Squeezing her body through the opening, she slid outside into the frigid night air and set off at a run.
CUTTER FELT LIKE HELL. Truth be told, he felt worse than hell. He felt as if he’d betrayed Mattie. That he’d made love to her just minutes before turning her in gave the situation a cruel twist.
After hanging up the phone, he sat on the sofa trying to come up with a way out of this mess. But all he could think of was Mattie. The way she’d looked at him when he touched her cheek. The heat in her eyes when he kissed her. The way her eyes had glazed in pleasure when he’d been inside her.
Martin Wolfe was right. He’d crossed a line with her. Put a black mark on his career. But the worst thing he’d done was betray a woman he cared for deeply. Too deeply, he thought.
The realization that he’d fallen for her frightened him. Cutter was a whiz at dodging bullets, but to be confronted with feelings so overwhelming was something else altogether—and a hell of a lot more terrifying.
Cursing, he rose. He looked at the bedroom door where she lay sleeping just beyond. The need to go to her and spend these last hours with her ate at him like acid. But he knew making love to her again after what he’d done would only make things worse. It would only make their inevitable parting more painful for both of them.
Better for him to get some sleep. He was mentally and physically exhausted. He needed distance from her. From all the things she made him feel. From the emotions boiling inside him.
He went to the closet in the bathroom and pulled out a pillow and blanket. Carrying them back to the sofa, he flipped off the light. But as he lay down in the darkness and stared at the ceiling, he knew sleep would not come.
MATTIE SAT in a booth of the coffee shop, looking past the cup of cold coffee in front of her. Outside fluffy snowflakes floated down from the night sky. It was a beautiful scene, and she wished she could have shared it with Cutter.
She wondered if he’d discovered that she was missing. If federal agents were on their way to pick her up. She didn’t have much time.
Judging from the conversation she’d overheard, Cutter’s superior wanted to use her as bait. That she had been right was little consolation. Evidently, the agency he worked for had deemed her expendable.
Over coffee she formulated a plan. A plan that was dangerous at best. Deadly at worst. The prospect of facing The Jaguar terrified her. But if she wanted her life back, she was going to have to do this.
Picking up the cell phone, she checked the outgoing calls. One call to a Washington, D.C., area code had been made. She could only assume Cutter had called his superior. Praying she got the right person, she hit the redial button and waited.
“Martin Wolfe,” came a curt male voice on the other end of the line.
“This is Mattie Logan,” she said.
The silence lasted so long that she thought they’d been disconnected. “Are you still there?” she asked.
“Where’s Cutter? And what are you doing with his cell phone?”
“He’s fine.” She took a deep breath and plunged. “I want to help you catch The Jaguar.”
Another long silence. “Put Cutter on the phone.”
“The Jaguar wants something I have. I want to help you catch him.”
“I don’t deal with—”
“Cutter won’t use me because he…he doesn’t want to put me in danger. I don’t think you have any such qualms, do you, Mr. Wolfe?”
“Put Cutter on the phone. Now.”
“I can help you capture The Jaguar. You know I can. Damn it, let me do this.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m innocent and I’ll do anything to stay out of prison.”
A brief hesitation. “Keep talking.”
“Daniel Savage was my coworker at the Department of Defense. Over a period of several months he stole confidential information from me and sold it to The Jaguar. Then he proceeded to frame me.”
“Savage was cleared.”
“Someone didn’t look closely enough at the evidence.”
Wolfe said nothing.
Mattie played her ace. “He’s going to sell the next phase of EDNA if someone doesn’t stop him.”