by Lisa Childs
Wendy was there, with Hart, giving her statement about everything that had transpired. Was one of those detectives working with Mills?
Who all had he got to? This had been a professional hit. Or a hit staged by a professional, like a lawman or maybe an evidence tech...
If an evidence technician could put a device back together after it had detonated, that tech could probably put one together before it had detonated in the first place.
Just who the hell had Luther sent to take out Wendy Thompson? And would Parker and his bodyguards find that person in time to save her?
Chapter 16
Wendy slammed the book of mug shots closed. Flipping through them was a waste of time that would have been better spent processing the evidence that had been collected at the scene. But she couldn’t touch it. From what she’d observed, though, the bomb had been sophisticated. Too sophisticated for one of Luther’s young crew to have assembled.
But she’d got a good look at the guy. And she knew he was not one of Luther’s usual minions.
Detective Spencer Dubridge pushed another book toward her. But she shoved it back across his messy desk. “I already told you that I didn’t recognize him.”
“That’s why you need to look through the books,” he pointed out. “To see if you can find him.”
“If he was in any of these books, I would have recognized him.”
Hart snorted. “Like you know every mug shot in those books.”
Wendy had a photographic memory. But that wasn’t something she shared with many people. She was especially good at facial recognition.
“When I started receiving those threats, I looked up all of Luther’s known associates,” she said.
Dubridge nodded. “That was smart, so you would notice if one of them approached you.” He glanced over to where his blonde bodyguard sat in a chair at another detective’s desk. “Makes a bodyguard unnecessary.”
Wendy couldn’t argue that hers wasn’t necessary. Hart had saved her too many times. But her bodyguard didn’t have to be Hart. In fact, she would feel much better if it was anyone but him, especially after what they’d done...to each other.
She couldn’t even look at him now without blushing. Ignoring him, she persisted. “If that guy was one of Luther’s crew, I would have recognized him.”
“Pretty much all of Luther’s known associates are either locked up,” Detective Dubridge said, “for the shootings. Or dead.”
“Then it was probably an officer or evidence tech,” Hart said. Obviously he didn’t care anymore if Luther’s mole knew they were onto him or her.
“I would have recognized an officer or an evidence tech,” she pointed out defensively.
“So he hired some outside talent,” Hart suggested. “Maybe he doesn’t trust his own guys to get the job done anymore.”
“He has every reason to trust them,” a female voice said.
The assistant district attorney, Jocelyn Gerber, walked into the bull pen, her heels clicking against the terrazzo flooring. “Not a damn one of them will turn on him, not even to save himself from a long jail sentence.”
“Maybe they figure it’s better to be in jail than dead,” her bodyguard, Landon Myers, remarked.
Despite how close he stood to her, Jocelyn ignored him as if he hadn’t spoken and focused on Wendy instead. “That’s why we need the guy who planted that bomb,” she said. “If he’s not one of Luther’s regular crew, he might not have any loyalty or fear of him.”
Wendy shivered as she remembered the cold look in the man’s dark eyes. “I can work with a sketch artist on a drawing of him,” she said. “Maybe it’ll come up in someone else’s database.”
Jocelyn nodded. “Good.” But she didn’t sound hopeful.
If Luther Mills had an inkling that this guy might turn on him, he’d probably already ordered him killed. Their only hope of taking down the desperate drug dealer was for the murder for which he was supposed to stand trial soon.
Wendy had the evidence that would prove his guilt. She just had to stay alive to preserve it.
* * *
Hart hadn’t needed the ADA taking him aside at River City PD to explain how important Wendy was to her case. He already knew how important Wendy was.
With every moment he spent with her, she became more and more important to him. He’d lost his professionalism when he’d made love with her. But he hadn’t lost his objectivity.
He knew he had to keep her alive. But it wasn’t just for Jocelyn Gerber and her damn case. He had to keep her alive because he couldn’t imagine a world without Wendy Thompson in it.
While he knew they had no future, he wanted her to have one, with a nice guy who wasn’t damaged like he was. Who still believed in love and happily-ever-after...
He wanted that for her. He also wanted her.
So damn badly that his hands shook as he swiped the card through the lock of the hotel room door. Taking her to a hotel felt romantic, like they were a couple enjoying a special getaway together.
The only thing they were getting away from were the people who wanted to kill Wendy.
Hart had had nowhere else to take her. The local safe houses had all been compromised. That was how he knew his daughter and Wendy’s parents weren’t anywhere near River City.
And knowing that let him breathe a little easier. At least his little girl was safe. He had no doubt that Wendy’s parents would keep her happy and healthy. They would take good care of her, just as they had their own daughter.
Now he had to take care of her—to make sure she stayed safe, even from him. He had to make sure that he didn’t inadvertently break her heart.
“I wish I was in the police lab,” Wendy said. “I wish I was working the evidence from the explosion.”
“You can’t process your own crime scene, and you’re not the only one who can process evidence,” he reminded her.
“Even the chief suspects that there’s a leak in the lab,” she said on a ragged sigh of frustration. “He thinks that another tech helped evidence against Mills for previous crimes disappear.”
“Do you believe it?” he asked. He knew she’d struggled to accept that anyone within her department could be working for Luther Mills.
But her illusions must have been shattered after all the attempts on her life because she grimly nodded.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It must be hard to think someone you work with could betray you.”
She nodded again then uttered another ragged sigh. “You must feel the same way.”
“Nobody at Payne Protection would betray me,” he said with utter confidence. All the Paynes were too good judges of character. They wouldn’t hire someone who was capable of betrayal.
“I meant someone you used to work with,” she said. “The chief thinks more people than that rookie cop are working for Luther. That other officers or detectives could be, as well.”
Hart chuckled. “I worked at RCPD when all the corruption was still going on within the station. We knew there were bad cops then. And it was never clear if every one of them had been caught.”
“Apparently they haven’t been.”
He hated seeing her like this, so bitter and disillusioned. Maybe she was just tired, though. While she’d slept in his arms, she hadn’t slept long.
“You should get some rest,” he said.
She glanced over at the bed. There was only one. But the single had been the only room available in the hotel just outside River City. Autumn was popular for color tours in Michigan. The hotel must have been booked solid with travelers. Maybe he should have picked another one.
“I’m going to watch the door,” he said. Or watch her sleep.
And remember what it had been like to touch her, to taste her.
His body tensed as desire gripped him.
“You must be t
ired, too,” she said. “You couldn’t have slept much if at all...”
She’d fallen asleep after they’d made love, so she wouldn’t know that he’d been awake the entire time. Worried...
Not just about her but about making love with her. He could not fall for her, not after what he’d gone through. His heart was too messed up. But her...
She had to know that he wasn’t the guy for her. She deserved someone as hopeful and optimistic as she was.
“I didn’t sleep,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. He needed to apologize for what had happened, for how he’d crossed the line. But when he opened his mouth to do that, she pressed her fingers over his lips.
“Don’t,” she said. “Please, don’t...”
“Wendy—”
“Please,” she implored again. “You’re going to make me feel like a bigger idiot than I already do.”
“I’m the idiot,” he insisted. “I’m supposed to be protecting you. And I took advantage—”
She laughed.
“What?” he asked. “I did.”
She snorted. “I took advantage,” she said. “I wanted you. I wanted to do that.”
He felt a twinge of regret. He was going to hurt her, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. “I know you had a crush on me in the past.”
She snorted again. “Lust,” she said. “That’s what I felt. That’s what I acted on.”
Now his face heated with embarrassment. She’d just lusted after him?
She shrugged. “It’s no big deal. We’d just been through a hell of a firefight. Having sex was just a way of reminding myself that we survived, that we were alive.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied her face. Was she really that okay with what had happened?
She held up her palms. “I really have no expectations,” she assured him.
He felt a strange twinge in his chest. But it must have been relief. She sounded sincere. So sincere that he wasn’t worried about hurting her.
“That’s good,” he said, “because I’ve been married once and that’s something I’m never going to do again.”
She exhaled a heavy breath. “I’m not proposing to you. And I’m not expecting you to propose, either. I know that what happened between us just happened in the heat of the moment and that it won’t happen again.”
“You’re wrong,” he said as he hooked his arm around her waist and dragged her up against his hard, needy body. Since she didn’t want anything from him but sex, he could give in to the desire he felt for her. “It’s going to happen again.”
She stared up at him, her green eyes wide with surprise. But her lips curved into a smile. A seductive one. “Oh, you think it is?”
“I know it is,” he assured her, and he lowered his head, kissing her deeply.
Her arms linked around his neck as she kissed him back just as passionately. Their tongues mated and they panted for breath.
His gut twisted as desire fiercely gripped him. He had never felt like this before, had never wanted anyone as much. “Wendy...”
It was a mistake. Just as it had been before. He needed to focus on protecting her, not on the passion between them. But that passion was too hot to be denied.
They undressed quickly. He wasn’t sure who removed what. She was as desperate for him as he was for her.
They fell onto the bed, a tangle of naked arms and legs. She moved on top of him, pressing her lips to his chest and his stomach before moving lower. Her mouth slid over his erection and he nearly came.
But that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to be inside her again, so close that it felt as if they became one person. He tumbled her onto her back and reached over the bed, fishing a condom from his jeans.
She took the packet from his hand and tore it open with her teeth. Then she rolled it over the length of him. He gritted his teeth, but a groan still slipped through. He wanted to thrust inside her—deep. But he needed to make sure she was ready for him. So he pushed her onto her back again and he moved his mouth over her body. He used his tongue to tease a nipple into a tight point. Then he moved lower and swiped his tongue across the most sensitive part of her.
When he touched her with his fingers, he found her ready. Hot and wet. She arched against his hand and cried as she came. She was that responsive. That incredible.
That greedy. She pushed him onto his back now and climbed on top of him, easing him inside her. He groaned again as he slid deep. Then she lifted herself up and nearly off him before coming down again.
Then she rocked.
And drove him out of his mind, to the brink of madness. He gripped her hips and together they found a rhythm. She matched his thrusts and his urgency. They went wild in each other’s arms. Then she tensed and screamed his name as her inner muscles gripped him and convulsed as she came.
He tensed right before the peak, the soul-shattering relief that had him pumping his hips as if he was filling her. Something filled him, flooded his heart. But he refused to let it stay.
Just as he didn’t stay in bed with her. He hurried into the bathroom to clean up and splash cold water on his face, hoping it would bring him to his damn senses. He hadn’t just lost his objectivity. He’d lost his mind, as well.
His mind he could afford to lose, though. His heart was what he would never risk again. He sucked in a steadying breath before stepping back into the room with her.
Fortunately, she’d pulled up the sheets to cover herself. But he knew she wasn’t sleeping this time. Her body was too tense.
Had he hurt her?
Had she been lying when she’d claimed to have no expectations? Was she really okay that it was just sex?
His cell rang, saving him from having to say anything to her. Maybe one of the bodyguards who’d followed them had heard her screams and wanted to make sure she was okay. Heat rushed to his face.
They would all know that he’d crossed the line.
“Hart, Nikki here,” the female Payne bodyguard greeted him. “You said that was a white van that tried running you over and then off the road later?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I found it on the surveillance footage from the cameras outside the department.”
“You got access to that?” Of course, Chief Lynch was her stepfather, so he might have willingly given it to her. But he’d also heard that she was quite the hacker, as well.
“That same van showed up on security footage taken outside your condo,” she said.
“So the driver must have planted the bomb,” he mused. He wasn’t surprised, though. The guy was obviously a pro. “Any way of figuring out who it’s registered to?”
“A rental company for commercial vehicles,” she said. “The company that leased it from them doesn’t exist. The paperwork was fake.”
He cursed, and Wendy turned toward him. “So the bomber is definitely a professional,” he said.
“I’d say so,” Nikki said with a heavy sigh that rattled his cell phone. “Especially since he must have followed one of us here. That van is parked in the hotel lot.”
He cursed again, more vehemently this time. “Can you take him?”
Preferably before he got anywhere near their hotel room and Wendy.
“The van is empty,” Nikki conceded. “He got away from us.”
Hart clicked the mute button on his phone and told Wendy, “Get dressed. We have to get out of here.”
Then he clicked off the mute and told Nikki, “The bastard could be setting a bomb somewhere in the hotel if he hasn’t already.”
It certainly hadn’t taken him long to set the one on his Payne Protection SUV.
“I know,” Nikki agreed. “Wait until we can get more backup—”
But Hart had already clicked off the cell. He couldn’t wait, not with the possibility that a bomb could detonate at any time. �
�We have to get the hell out of here,” he said.
Wendy nodded in agreement.
“It could be a trap,” he warned her. “Just a way to flush us out of the hotel.”
Why else would the bomber have driven the van here that had nearly run them off the road? He must have wanted him or another bodyguard to see it and to know that he was near.
He was a sick bastard, so it was no wonder that he worked for Luther Mills.
* * *
“You have to stop calling me,” came the protest, the voice rising with panic.
Luther smiled in enjoyment of the fear. That was how it was damn well supposed to be.
People were supposed to be scared of him. Too scared to cross him...
And damn well too scared to testify against him.
But neither little Rosie Mendez nor that CSI Wendy Thompson had backed down. They weren’t afraid of him yet. But they should be.
They would be.
“This is an untraceable cell,” Luther said assuredly. “Nobody will figure out that you’re working for me.”
Actually, they would once the evidence disappeared. But by then it would be too late.
Chapter 17
Fear gripped Wendy. She remembered the sound of the blast when Hart’s agency SUV had exploded. It was a miracle no one had been injured. But if an explosion went off in a hotel that was fully booked...
She shuddered to think of the number of possible casualties. “We need to evacuate the hotel,” she murmured to Hart as they exited their room. Or innocent people might die because of her.
Fortunately, the hallway was empty but for the two of them. Nobody would be caught in the cross fire in this corridor. But the bomber couldn’t know which floor they were on; Hart hadn’t registered under his name or hers.
“Backup is already in the parking lot,” Hart said. “They’ll take care of it. My job is to take care of you.”
He certainly had just a short time ago—when he’d made love to her. But it hadn’t been love. It had just been sex. She’d said it herself and she knew that was the only reason he’d touched her again.
