Forgoing the coffee, he went into the computer room and fell into the rolling desk chair. He shut his eyes tight, trying his best to quell the barrage of images barreling to the forefront of his mind at the very thought of her. He couldn’t do this now. He had a video conference call in two minutes. He needed to funnel all his energy into delivering a credible explanation of why things weren’t moving fast enough on this job.

Not that anyone at FinCEN had expectations that weren’t being met. It was his own internal timeline that was pushing him to work harder and stress over the fact that he hadn’t been able to breach Trendsetters’ security.

The lack of movement on this job—on finding even one solid lead—was driving him crazy.

Yeah, that’s not the only thing about the job that’s driving you crazy.

He needed to focus. Until he was able to get out of his own head and do his damn job, he wouldn’t be good for shit. He logged into the video conferencing software. Lowell Dwyer’s melon-shaped head took up the entire screen.

“Collins,” Daniel said, letting everyone know he was there.

“Hey, Daniel.” It was Thaddeus Mitchum. “My ex-sister-in-law said you’ve got to go to a restaurant called County Line. She said they have the best barbecue in Texas.”

“Bold claim for such a big state,” Daniel replied.

“Bring some back with you when you wrap up this job,” Thad tacked on.

Dwyer cleared his throat. “Now that Collins is here, that’s everyone. Why don’t we start with you, Daniel. What do you have for us on the Austin job?”

He fed them a short overview about the various Trendsetters employees he’d been looking into and how being put on the special project for the Leyland Group was both a help and a hindrance.

“The plus side is that several of those we had on the initial subject list are also on this special project team, so it gives me an opportunity to get a better read on them. There are a couple who have stuck out to me by virtue of their personalities. One guy, Jake Gorge, keeps talking about his fantasy football team and how he’s hoping to win the big prize at the end of the season. I’ve heard a bit of gossip that he may have a gambling problem.”

“One big enough that he needs to launder money to fund it?” his supervisor asked.

Daniel shrugged. “I haven’t gone deep enough to ferret that out, but I’ve flagged him.” He adjusted his monitor so that he could be more centered in the screen shot. “Of course, the drawback to being put on this new team is that I won’t be able to make a case to join the Cybersecurity Department.”