The woman caught her eye and sent her a smile which Yael returned. She was striving to appear calm and professional. Everyone must think she was crazed the way she’d run into that bar last night. Like someone out of a horror movie. And then there were her neighbors.

Gah. Her stomach churned.

Maybe she should cut her losses and move already.

She set her teeth. She didn’t want to keep running.

“Eric Pierce is awake following surgery but he’s refused to talk to law enforcement and his attorney is preventing us from even questioning him yet,” Sloan began. “Charlotte PD found his car and it’s being transported to the lab here. The bomb squad checked it out and when they opened the trunk, they found several kilos of uncut cocaine.”

Yael pulled a face. Presumably the guy was a drug dealer or some sort of mule. He could still be Evi1Geni-us and whoever attacked her last night could be a pissed off ally designed to make the FBI doubt their conclusions. Or Eric Pierce was innocent and being set up.

She frowned. If he was a patsy then Evi1Geni-us had chosen well because the guy apparently had a lot of reasons not to cooperate with law enforcement.

“There was nothing, apparently, to indicate he was a dealer at his house and we are still searching for a secondary residence or property where—”

Shane walked in the door with his boss from HRT, whose bed she’d slept in last night. Her cheeks did what they always did when it came to Shane Livingstone. They heated.

“Sorry I’m late. We had an HRT team briefing to discuss what happened last night so I can report any updates.” Shane took the seat next to hers, as always—everyone on the task force had fallen into a smooth working routine. Novak pulled out the chair on his other side and sent her a sympathetic smile.

Something cracked inside Yael’s chest.

“As I was saying,” ASAC Sloan repeated for them. “Local police found a significant quantity of Class-A narcotics in the trunk of Eric Pierce’s car last night.”

“Did Evi1Geni-us set Pierce up or is Eric Pierce Evi1Geni-us and not limiting his criminality to online torture and murder?” Shane asked.

“Or did Pierce hire someone to attack Yael—or maybe a list of potential someones—in the event he was arrested?” Alex put in.

“What do the profilers think?” Sloan asked Lincoln Frazer pointedly.