Page 32 of Perfect Vengeance

“He killed his own dog?”

“Dunno.” Jack shrugged. “Could be he gave the dog away. Can’t say for sure.”

Bastard. Now she hated Psycho Fiori even more. She shook her head to clear it of the awful image and concentrate on the task at hand. “Interior sensors are easy to check on before I step into the room and easy to get around if they’re there. Most motion sensors are placed in such a way to detect people, not animals, and since Psycho had a dog, he would have placed the sensors up high or the alarm would be going off every five minutes. All I have to do is hug the floor.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ll have to watch for pressure mats.”

“What are those?” Jack’s brows rose.

“Pressure mats look like ordinary floor mats, the same kind you’d put just inside an exterior door to wipe your feet on. Only in this case, when you step on the mat, two metal strips are pushed together, completing a circuit and triggering an alarm.”

Jack’s lips quirked and amusement glimmered in his eyes. Gina suddenly felt as if she’d been whacked upside the head. “You already know all of this, don’t you?” She slumped back into her seat. “I’m such an idiot. You were testing me.”

“Don’t worry.” He grinned. “You passed.”

The man probably knew as much about breaking into a house as she did. Maybe more. When she’d broken into Rocco’s apartment, Jack was already inside and she hadn’t even known it. The rest of her team never even saw him go in. He was only using her because he was injured, on a deadline, and there were no other agents available for the job.

“Once you’re in,” he continued, “go downstairs and deactivate the front door alarm. Hit me on the radio, and I’ll come to the door and knock as if I’m a visitor so the neighbors or anyone driving by won’t be suspicious. You let me in, I plant the bug, then you let me back out the same way. Got it?”

“Yes, Dad.”

Other than arching a dark brow he ignored her sarcasm. “Then you’ll relock the front door, reset the alarm, exit out the balcony, and leave everything the way it was.” He gave her a pointed look. “I mean it. You have one mission and one mission only. No searching for cash and no safecracking. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly.” For now. Once Jack’s investigation was over, she could drum up a plan to return and grab more cash. “Except, I’m starting to think we don’t need to involve my friends in this.” More like didn’t want to involve them. The more she thought about it, she and Jack could tackle this one alone, giving her friends that much more of a buffer from all this.

“Countersurveillance. They’ll keep watch while we’re inside.” With his good hand, Jack gripped the wheel.

“Why aren’t you using other FBI agents for countersurveillance? You don’t need a special tech team for that.”

His knuckles cracked. “The fewer people who know about your involvement in this, the better off you are.”

“Does anyone besides you know about us?”

A long moment of silence filled the SUV. “No.”

“Why not?” She couldn’t keep the suspicion from her voice. “Don’t you have to do everything by the book? Reports? Government red tape?”

“Not this one.” His square jaw clenched. “It’s better this way. Trust me.”

She almost choked on his last words. Trust me. There wasn’t a single chance of that happening. “How do you know Psycho won’t be home tomorrow when I break in?”

“Good intel.” He scanned both sides of the street, then checked his mirrors.

Gina drew her brows together, realizing she had no firsthand intel on the target, something she normally made a point of researching herself. “What about Psycho’s wife? Any kids?”

“Psycho’s estranged wife grabbed the kids and moved to Florida, making him even more psychotic.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “I should have known you’d know all this. FBI informants and all.”

“Speaking of which, you never answered my question the other night. How do you know so much about the Falzones?”

The interior of the huge SUV suddenly shrank to the size of a mailbox.

“How do you know what targets to hit and when?” he pressed. “You’ve either got a crystal ball or some kick-ass informants yourself. And how did you pick up enough breaking and entering skills to get into this business in the first place?”

Gina sucked in her lower lip. She had no intention of answering his questions. Time to derail this interrogation train. “That wasn’t part of our deal.”