Exposed in Darkness

by Heather Sunseri

  “Of course.” I waved a hand as if to say I wouldn’t be caught in anything but. The truth was, they were a gift from Ty and James in their attempt to lift my spirits on my birthday. I’d always had a love affair with designer shoes, but couldn’t find the energy to care anymore after my life went permanently off course.

  “Where are the four of you headed this evening? Surely not home?” I asked playfully.

  Declan squinted his eyes at me as if to ask, What are you up to?

  “I don’t think we have any plans after this,” Darren replied. “I don’t often come to Midland myself; I prefer the Lexington nightlife. Where would you suggest we go tonight?”

  “Well, Ty and I were just about to head down to the Cellar. We would love it if you joined us.” I turned to Sasha. “It would give us time to talk shoes.”

  The lift to Sasha’s lips held a hint of skepticism. Who could blame her? I sounded like a babbling idiot—nothing like my usual self. But she turned to Darren and said, “We could do that, right? I’m not ready to go back to that boring apartment of yours.”

  Darren laughed, then turned to the group. “Sasha doesn’t like my minimalist approach to apartment living, including the fact that I’ve chosen not to have a television.”

  “Because it’s odd,” Aidan said.

  “You guys go ahead,” Declan said. “I’ll settle up here and meet you downstairs.”

  “I’d better settle up too,” Ty said, and headed back to our table.

  Darren, Aidan, and Sasha moved toward the door, and I started to follow, but Declan grabbed the elbow of my injured arm and pulled me back. “Ow,” I said, tensing at the harsh touch.

  He immediately loosened his grip. “I’m sorry.” He stared down into my eyes. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, you didn’t even know who my sister was ten minutes ago, and you managed to give me quite the cold shoulder when we spoke, yet you were Miss Bubbly during… whatever that was.”

  I swallowed hard, searching for the right words. “That was me doing my job.”

  “Which job is that?”

  His questioning of my tactics, when I was simply doing my job, annoyed me. Actually, it pissed me off. “I’m trying to solve several murders and prevent an attack on—” I stopped, realizing my slip. This enigmatic man in front of me made me lose my mind when he was around.

  “There’s another attack coming?” he asked. He squeezed my arm again.

  I glanced down at his grasp, then back up. “I’m only going to warn you one more time. That hurts. And if you don’t want a knee in your groin…” I didn’t have to finish that sentence.

  He dropped his hand, but instead of backing away, he surprised me when he threw his arm around me and brought me in flush with his body. “Again, I’m sorry. I would never intentionally hurt you. You know that. But what do you think is being planned?”

  A waitress approached with Declan’s bill, saving me from having to answer.

  My heart constricted, and I suddenly felt guilty for stalling his brother so that the FBI could question him. I didn’t know what it was about the man standing in front of me, but I knew in my heart of hearts that he wasn’t responsible for the deaths I was investigating—not even indirectly. If anything, he was a victim. Someone was trying to sabotage him and his companies. And by going behind his back, I was bound to make him despise me before the night was over.

  I stepped forward and placed my good hand on his arm. He looked at me, surprise in his eyes.

  “You need to call an attorney for your brother,” I said. “The FBI will question him tonight. You can’t stop that, but you can help him by making sure he has adequate representation.”

  His eyes ran through a range of emotions—anger, hurt, coldness.

  “I’m sorry,” I finally said. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt you.”

  I turned and walked toward the door, where Ty was waiting for me, to-go orders of food in hand.

  Chapter 25

  A band was already jamming in the Cellar, and a couple dozen people were dancing to classic rock covers. Ty and I walked up to the bar.

  Jenna threw a bar towel over her shoulder. “What happened to you?” she asked, nodding to my arm while leaning in close to be heard over the music.

  “I was doing my best impression of an Olympic gymnast, but came up short on the last double layout with a twist.”

  She smiled. “Good one. What can I get you?”

  “We’ll both have waters for now.”

  While we waited, I surveyed the room and spotted Ben and Danny at a table in the corner, huddled with two other men. Ben looked up at the door every few seconds—looking for Marti, most likely.

  Declan entered just as Jenna handed us waters. Our eyes met, but he quickly looked away and made his way over to Aidan and his two siblings.

  Ty leaned in close. “That was one cold look.” He drew back, studying me. “You told him that Mike and Carlos were coming for his brother, didn’t you?”

  Darren got up from their table and made his way over to Ty and me. He touched my waist and leaned in to my ear to speak over the music, his Irish accent thicker than usual. “Ya invited us to stay out. The least ya could do is come over and have a drink with me.”

  I smiled, but my smile fell when I met Declan’s gaze again.

  Darren grabbed my hand and led me over to their table. Ty walked with us. When we reached the table, Darren gave me a tug and I ended up on his lap, my left arm reached out to the side, looking for anything to grasp.

  Ty reached his hand—a lifeline—out to me, and I grabbed hold. He pulled me up.

  “Aww. Where ya goin’ now?” Darren called.

  Declan walked around the table. “Stop. You’re drunk.” A fact I hadn’t noticed until then.

  Darren stood toe to toe with his brother. “Funny. Yer one to judge me. Besides… I’m not even drunk. But Aidan here told me ya’d already had a piece o’ that, so I figured ya wouldn’t mind sharin’. Brotherly love and all.”

  I stiffened, and because Ty knew me well, he circled an arm around my waist. “Don’t forget that you’re a civilian in here,” he whispered in my ear. “No one knows you’re FBI.”

  I swallowed hard, and I didn’t even have a chance to blink before Declan threw a fist into his brother’s face.

  I hadn’t even seen Mike and Carlos enter. Carlos grabbed Declan from behind. “Don’t even bother trying to struggle.”

  Declan calmed, and Carlos let him go. Mike had Darren up and in an arm lock. He walked him toward the door, but I couldn’t hear anything he’d said to him.

  “What’s this shite?” Darren yelled. “I get clocked and you haul me away?”

  Sasha stood and turned; her face showed the level of surprise she had to have felt for what had just happened. When she made eye contact with me, my face softened.

  She grabbed her purse off the back of the chair and stormed out of the bar.

  “I’m supposing she’s not going to want to meet you for lunch when she finds out who you really are,” Ty said.

  “You think?” I asked over my shoulder.

  Aidan and Declan followed Sasha, but not before Declan looked back one last time with a look I couldn’t quite translate.

  “This might be a good time for us to take a break,” the singer in the band said into the microphone. “Y’all stick around, ya hear?”

  “Well, shit!” Ty said.

  “What is it?”

  I turned. The table where Ben and Danny had been sitting was now empty. They’d vanished while Mike and Carlos were busy taking Darren into custody. “Shit is right,” I said.

  Ty pointed to the hallway that led to the bathrooms.

  “You stay here,” I said. “I’ll check it out. I can play dumber than you.”

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  I set down my water, then reached behind me and grabbed my Glock out of its holster. I tu
cked it discreetly behind my arm sling while keeping my finger trigger-ready. I had a bad feeling.

  I eased along the thin corridor, passing the men’s restroom, then the women’s. With the band on break, I could hear voices from the bar, but they faded as I went down the hallway. A set of stairs in the back on the left looked to lead up to the Black Tulip—or maybe to the kitchen. The latter made more sense, as the smell of Italian spices drifted down.

  At the end of the hallway on the right, a door was cracked open. I could hear voices on the other side.

  “Who were those two suits?” a male voice yelled. Ben, maybe.

  “I have no idea. I’ve never seen them,” Jenna answered.

  “Why did they take Darren O’Roark out of here like that?”

  “Ben, honey, calm down. I don’t know. Everything is going to be just fine. I promise.”

  “It better be,” another male voice said. “We have a lot at stake this weekend. And the boss man is not going to be happy if anything goes wrong.”

  I leaned back against the wall to peer through the crack at a different angle, and saw that this second male voice belonged to Danny Ramsey.

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Ben asked.

  “And then it will be over,” Jenna said. “Right? You promised.”

  There was movement. I started to back away toward the restrooms.

  “One more thing…” Danny’s voice was closer to the door. “If that girlfriend of yours runs her mouth to anyone, I will finish her off myself, since you were too weak to do it.”

  Danny flung the door open just as I pushed into the women’s restroom. I closed the door behind me and gripped my Glock tighter. My heart pounded in my chest.

  At the FBI office, Ty and I stood in the viewing room where we could watch Mike and Carlos interrogate Darren O’Roark. They fired question after question at the man who looked so much like his brother. Darren was two years older than Declan, and his hair and eyes were different, but their facial structure, build, and mannerisms were so similar that I would probably have done a double take if I had seen him on the street.

  He stared straight ahead. His attorney sat beside him.

  “What did you do with the chemical you took, Darren?” Carlos asked.

  “You don’t have to answer that,” the attorney said.

  “You had to have made a lot of money on the sale. Where did you put the money?”

  “You don’t have to answer that.” The attorney looked up at Carlos, who was leaning into the table with his palms spread wide. “Are we almost done here?”

  Mike shrugged, ignoring the attorney’s question. “Tell us, don’t tell us,” he said. “Either way, we can build a case that puts tacin in your hands. And the fact that you were present the night Melissa Centers was killed gives you opportunity.” He flipped through papers in a manila folder that Brooke knew probably had nothing to do with Darren, just to make it to look like they had a file on Darren O’Roark. “Or maybe we’ll just argue that you supplied a murderer, say your brother, with the weapon that murdered at least three people.”

  Darren continued to stare straight ahead.

  “It will go so much easier for you if you help us,” Mike continued. “Cooperate early, and we can secure a better deal for you with prosecutors.”

  “We actually don’t think you’re responsible for poisoning the victims’ drinks,” Carlos said. “But you did supply the murder weapon—the tacin. That alone will guarantee that you, and whoever else is involved, will not see the light of day for many, many years. Unless you cooperate now.”

  Darren’s eyes twitched just slightly, closing briefly. If I hadn’t been staring at him, I would have missed it. He would suck at poker, I decided.

  “Yes, help us now, Mr. O’Roark, and we’ll work something out,” Mike added.

  “Did you see that?” I asked Ty.

  “What?”

  “He twitched when Carlos threatened prison time for supplying the murder weapon.”

  “So?”

  “Is that it?” Carlos said. “Someone else is involved? Are you protecting someone else? Is that it?”

  “Carlos saw it, too,” I said, folding my left arm into my right and jutting out a hip. “Darren’s smart enough to know the consequences for the charges Mike and Carlos have been threatening. But his eyes shifted from stone cold to fearful when Carlos mentioned the possibility of another person being involved.”

  “And that’s got you thinking… what?” Ty asked.

  “Maybe it’s just a hunch, but… I need you to take me to Declan’s.”

  I turned and exited the viewing room. Ty followed closely. When we were outside, he asked, “Are you sure about this? I’m not sure Declan will want to see you tonight. And I can’t imagine Mike will approve.”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass about Declan’s feelings. And I certainly don’t care if Mike approves. I care about justice and getting to the truth.”

  I stood in front of the intercom outside Declan’s main gate, pressing the little button over and over. I knew he was inside, staring at me on his damned video surveillance screen.

  More than five minutes passed before a voice spoke.

  “Hello?” It wasn’t Declan, but David, and he sounded as if I’d woken him. Until that moment, I had never questioned where David lived, or even if he lived on the farm.

  “Open the gate, David. Declan will want to hear what I have to say.”

  “Mr. O’Roark says that whatever you have to say can wait until morning.”

  “This is official business. Mr. O’Roark can either open this stupid gate and talk to me, or he can get in his car and follow me to the federal building for formal questioning.”

  Silence.

  I looked back at Ty. He gnawed on his lower lip. “I do like your style. Always have,” he chuckled.

  The gate slowly began to open.

  “You may enter, Miss Fairfax,” David said, as if I couldn’t figure that out.

  I skirted around the car and got in. I drummed my fingers against my thigh as Ty pulled through. Though I had the power of a badge and a gun behind my mission, I felt very much like I was about to enter the lion’s den.

  Ty pulled up to the front of the house and parked behind Declan’s SUV, which hadn’t been put away for the night. Interesting.

  I placed a hand over Ty’s. “I’ll be fine. You can go back to the cottage. I won’t be long.”

  “You sure? I can wait.”

  “No. My car is actually still in his garage. I’ll drive myself home. If you have trouble sleeping, though, feel free to poke around the chat rooms. Something is being planned for this weekend. I’m assuming it has something to do with either Declan’s charity gala on Friday night or the actual Derby on Saturday.”

  I slid out of the car and made my way to the front door. Before I could even knock, the door opened, and instead of facing David’s grumpy face, I was met by Declan, who stood there in jeans, a T-shirt, and bare feet.

  He backed up, allowing me to enter. I could hear Ty pulling away as I did.

  “You planning to stay the night?” Declan asked. All humor was gone from his demeanor.

  “You still have my car in your garage.”

  He nodded in acknowledgement. He’d obviously forgotten that little detail. “Do you feel comfortable driving?” He nodded to my arm.

  I angled my head, studying him. To say that I was surprised at his concern was an understatement after my betrayal to his brother—to him—earlier. I sighed. “What did you expect, Declan? You’ve known that I was here to do a job. To solve a case.”

  “I guess I expected that you would have better instincts. That you wouldn’t go after my family. That…” He ran a hand through his already messy hair. “I don’t know what I expected.”

  “Declan.” I lifted a hand to touch his arm, but he retreated backwards out of my reach. I pulled my hand back as if it had gotten too close to flames. “Fine. I’ll just say what I came to say. I thin
k your brother is covering for someone.”

  He narrowed his eyes.

  “I watched his questioning.”

  “And? What did my brother say that made you have Ty bring you all the way out here to see me at this hour?”

  I swallowed, ignored Declan’s sarcasm. “It wasn’t what he said—which was absolutely nothing. It was his involuntary reaction to the threat of prison time for him and whoever else was involved in supplying the tacin. Call it a hunch; I don’t know. But I think he’s more concerned for someone else than for himself.”

  Declan stared blankly at me, giving nothing away. “Is that all, Miss Fairfax?”

  “I’m trying to help you.” I lifted my good arm and let it drop in frustration.

  “Is that what you’re doing?” Anger flared across the stern features of his face.

  I drew back. “And I thought I was good at closing people out.” I cradled my arm, which was aching after a long day. “Look, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what tacin is worth on the open market. It’s not easy to come by. Whoever stole it from your lab either had a strong desire to kill, or needed a large sum of money.”

  Declan remained stone cold as I spoke, continuing to give nothing away.

  “Fine. Have it your way. But I am trying to help you.” I backed toward the door. “I assume my keys are in my car.”

  He gave me the slightest nod. “I’ll ask David to open the garage.” He walked toward me. “Take care of yourself, Agent Fairfax.”

  His sudden concern for me threw me off. I decided to throw out one more piece of information in hopes that he would talk to me. “Your chemist’s alibis have been verified. He’s being flown to the lab here in Kentucky to examine the poisons used in the crimes. He’ll be asked to identify exactly who created each chemical agent, or if they all came from the same batch. He’ll also be questioned on who had access to the stolen chemicals and what other laboratories had access to such chemicals.” I paused in front of the door. “Don’t you want to know why Donaldson and Salazar were so quick to pull Darren in? Why they pulled Darren in over you?”