Chapter 15: The Trap is Set
Miller was waiting in the SUV with the engine running. As Laura climbed into the passenger seat, he looked at her sharply.
"Did you get the information?"
"No," Laura admitted, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. "He wouldn't give it to me. But I bluffed him. I told him I already had the access codes."
Miller groaned, rubbing his temples. "Laura, if you bluff a guy like Julian, he's going to panic. He's going to use his one phone call to contact the syndicate and tell them you're about to steal their money. You just accelerated their timeline!"
"I know," Laura said, pulling a burner phone out of her pocket. "That was the point."
Miller stared at her. "You want them to come after us?"
"I want them to come after me," Laura corrected. "As long as I'm hiding in that cabin, they will eventually find me, and Maya will be in the crossfire. We need to draw them out on our terms. We need a trap."
Miller put the car in drive, shaking his head. "You are officially crazier than your ex-husband. What's the play?"
"They think I have the access codes to the Apex account," Laura explained, her mind working with lethal precision. "If Julian calls them right now and tells them I'm about to drain the fifteen million, they won't try to assassinate me. They will try to intercept me at the bank. They need me alive to authorize the transfer."
"Okay," Miller said slowly, catching onto her line of thinking. "So we pick a bank. We leak the location."
"Not just any bank," Laura said. She opened the burner phone and dialed Sarah Jenkins’s number. "Sarah, it's Laura. I need a massive favor."
"Name it," the lawyer's voice came through instantly.
"I need you to contact your buddy at the FBI. The one who froze Julian's offshore accounts. Tell him we found a new account. Apex Holdings, holding fifteen million in cartel cash."
"Good lord," Sarah muttered. "Done. What else?"
"Tell the FBI that I am walking into the downtown D.C. branch of First National tomorrow at exactly noon to attempt a wire transfer of those funds," Laura said, staring out the window at the passing city skyline. "Tell them to have an undercover tactical team waiting inside the lobby."
Miller laughed out loud, slapping the steering wheel. "You're setting up a federal sting."
"I am," Laura said. "The cartel will have people watching the banks. When Julian panics and tells them I'm going to drain the account, they'll show up at First National to grab me before I can complete the wire. But when they walk through those doors, they're going to walk right into an FBI ambush."
"And what happens if the cartel gets to you before the FBI steps in?" Miller asked, his tone suddenly serious.
May you like
Laura looked down at her hands. The same hands that had cooked Julian's dinners, washed his clothes, and trembled in fear every time he raised his voice. They weren't trembling anymore.
"They won't," Laura said coldly. "Because I have you, Miller. And I have nothing left to lose."
