The federal agents stiffened.
Julian raised one finger.
Marcus stopped.
Again Leo had seen the escalation before anyone else.
Julian walked toward her.
“You said someone died protecting what was missing from those pages.”
Leo looked away.
“Who?”
“My team leader.”
The room quieted.
Leo continued before anyone could interrupt.
“Two years ago, our unit was attached to a task force tracking financial networks used by organized criminal groups.
We weren’t prosecutors.
We were the people sent in when investigations became dangerous.”
Julian’s expression hardened at the phrase organized criminal groups.
“Were the Morettis part of it?”
“No.”
He studied her face for deception.
She met his eyes without blinking.
“Our operation was compromised before we arrived.
Somebody knew our route, our timing, our identities.
We walked into an ambush.
My team leader got me out.”
She paused.
“He didn’t get out.”
Nobody spoke.
“Afterward,” Leo continued, “I was told the leak had been contained.
My operational record was sealed.
I could leave.
So I did.”
“And became a waitress?” Marcus said skeptically.
Leo looked at him.
“I wanted a job where the worst emergency was somebody sending back a steak.”
Marcus had no answer.
Julian looked toward the broken chandelier.
“That worked out beautifully.”
A faint, unwilling smile touched Leo’s mouth and vanished.
Then one of the agents called from the security station.
They had found another angle.
The robber Leo distracted had entered the lounge with something tucked beneath his vest.
When he fell, the object slid under a table before being kicked aside during the panic.
Investigators retrieved it from beneath table 7.
It was a small printed photograph sealed in plastic.
Leo’s photograph.
The same photograph clipped to Julian’s folder.
No one needed to explain what that meant.
Someone had supplied both the robbers and Julian’s source with material from the same buried file.
Marcus stared at his boss.
“We were fed this.”
Julian’s expression became lethal.
He understood immediately.
Whoever had leaked Leo’s identity had counted on the robbery creating chaos.
If Leo survived, the Moretti organization was supposed to discover what she had been and assume she was a federal operative planted inside the Onyx Lounge to watch Julian.
The intended consequence was obvious.
Julian would eliminate her.
The leak would disappear without whoever orchestrated it needing to fire another shot.
