by Lori Foster
Fury brought her forward so that she faced them all, one small woman challenging a trio of big men.
Yeah, he was sexist. Not the worst of his faults.
In a clipped but icily polite tone, she ordered, “Gentlemen, back inside if you please.”
For someone so diminutive, Rowdy noted, she carried herself with enough brass to back up the attitude. She strode into the room he and Logan had just vacated, and then stood there with the door open, waiting for them to join her as ordered.
Damn it, they did not have time for this.
Reese went in first, and Logan, the mistrustful bastard, stayed at Rowdy’s back until he entered.
“So.” She shut the door, crossed her arms and leaned back on it. “What is this?”
Reese looked at Logan. So did Rowdy.
“I don’t have enough to hold him.”
Her mouth firmed. “Did he tell you who killed the commissioner?”
“Apparently that story was blown all out of proportion by the reporter,” Logan lied. “He didn’t see much and remembers even less.”
“But the reporter—”
“Must’ve jumped the gun,” Rowdy interjected. “He offered to pay me for info, and I agreed. But he never came back, so I forgot about it.”
Unconvinced, the lieutenant narrowed her eyes. “The breaking and entering? The apartment you were using?”
“He just wanted to see his sister,” Logan said. “And since he wants to be helpful now, I’m letting that go.”
“I really do,” Rowdy told her, trying to sound sincere when every beat of his heart made him more anxious to get on the move. If he didn’t find Pepper soon, she’d get in over her head—or worse.
But first, he had to win over the lieutenant—so he’d turn on the charm and see where that got him. Not a hardship. She was sort of cute in a buttoned-up, too-rigid way.
When next the lieutenant glanced at him, Rowdy gave her his wickedest, most intimate smile.
Her attention snagged on him for a longer look. After a lengthy silence, she frowned. “And just how do you think to help?”
Since he had no clue what Logan wanted him to say, he shrugged. “However I can.” The way he said it, sort of low and suggestive, brought color to her face.
Reese coughed.
Logan stepped in front of Rowdy. “We’re going back to the apartment to go over the time line, dig out what paperwork I have on my computer, see if there’s any trail at all. We’ll try to match up dates, share some photos with him, and see if he recognizes anyone who was with Jack right before he was murdered.”
The lieutenant considered all that. Her big blue eyes met Rowdy’s again. “You worked at the club?”
“Bouncer.” Rowdy shifted to the side of Logan. “I saw a ton of people come and go. I remember many of the regulars. Maybe with some pics…” He looked at her mouth, then back up to her eyes, and he smiled again. “Who knows? Something might click.”
Her compressed lips softened, but she said nothing. After a start, she turned to Logan with renewed purpose. “His sister was here?”
Both Logan and Rowdy went still; neither of them looked at Reese.
“She was,” Logan finally said. “Briefly. When I told her I wanted to interrogate him before she could see him, she bounced.”
“Where did she go?”
“No idea,” he said with feigned disinterest. “Probably back to her apartment. Why?” Logan stared at her. “Did you want me to pick her up?”
The lieutenant waved that off. “No, no need for that. I’m sure she’s been through enough tonight.” She emphasized that with a frown at Rowdy. “Actually, I prefer you treat her with utmost respect and care. The last thing we need is for her to lawyer up.”
“She wouldn’t,” Rowdy stated. “Too costly, and there’s no reason, right, since I’m not under arrest?”
“And since he’s cooperating,” Reese added.
“Make sure.” The lieutenant encompassed them all in that order. “I do not want the press to get hold of this, not unless we get something concrete to go on.”
Rowdy let out a breath.
“I’m sure you understand the importance of keeping those under investigation in the dark as long as possible.”
“Absolutely.” Logan waited.
Still not satisfied, the lieutenant asked, “Does anyone else know he was here?”
“The three of us,” Logan told her. “That’s it.”
She scowled at Reese.
“Hey,” Reese said. “I can keep a secret.”
There were obvious bad feelings between the lieutenant and Detective Bareden. Later, Rowdy thought, he’d ask Logan about it. But for now—
“The night isn’t getting any younger,” Logan said abruptly. “Hell, morning will be rolling around soon. I’d like to get going. So if there’s nothing else…?”
The lieutenant opened the door and gestured for them to go. Reese headed out, then Rowdy. Before Logan could clear the doorway, she caught his arm.
“If Andrews has even a clue that we’re onto something, it could mean another death. Yours,” she said. And then with a look at Rowdy, “Or his.”
Or his sister’s, Rowdy thought, but he tried to keep his expression impassive.
“Keep him, and his sister, under wraps,” the lieutenant ordered. “Understand?”
Logan nodded. “Will do.”
She sent another frown toward Reese. “You better know what you’re doing, Logan. All this coming and going, dead ends and loose ends. You’ve had enough time. Wrap it up, and let’s move on.” And with that, she walked past them all.
Alone in relative privacy, Reese turned to Logan. “So what’s it to be? Leave me in the dark, or let me help?”
Rowdy knew how he’d prefer to leave it: trust as few people as possible.
When Logan’s phone rang, they all froze. Rowdy held his breath, but as soon as Logan answered the call, he knew it was Pepper.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AFTER ENDING THE CALL, Morton placed the phone on his desk and turned to pace the small confines of his office space. Even at this ungodly hour, the club remained in full swing, both the first and second floor crowded with men anxious to spend their money.
He expected his guest to show up any minute now. New ventures would have been cemented. More money made. More power acquired.
He did not need this new problem. And that’s what it was: a grade A, supernova problem. “Motherfucker.” Snatching the phone back up, he hurled it into a wall, narrowly missing one of his bodyguards.
The outburst did little to vent his rage but caused quite a reaction as others jumped, yelped and flinched. He paid no attention to them. They were disposable grunts, there to serve him, to protect him.
The idiots had failed.
But they weren’t the only ones.
Rowdy Yates was alive and in police custody. That meant the cop had failed him, too.
Glancing around at the bodyguards who, through orders, had a certain look—a look that mirrored his own—Morton knew what he had to do now. It was inconvenient but not as much so as prison. He’d handle this as he handled everything else.
He would destroy the problem, bury it and move on.
*
LOGAN STARTED everyone walking again while saying, “Pepper. Where are you?”
She ignored the question to say, “I’m really burning up the phone lines tonight, right?” She laughed, but he heard the strain and what sounded like fear. “I’m going to keep this really short and sweet, so pay attention. I’m going to the club.”
“No, don’t do that.”
“Too late. If you want Andrews, get your behind over here and you can catch him in the act. Rowdy can tell you how to get in. But no fanfare, Logan. Do not send in your police buddies, or you could get me killed.”
His heart lodged in his throat. While he walked fast toward the lot where he’d parked, he infused as much calm into his tone as he could drum up. “Listen to me, ho
ney. Your brother—”
“If they hear you coming, I’m screwed. So seriously, Logan. If you don’t want me dead—”
“You know I don’t, damn it!” He swallowed the ferocity and tried for another dose of calm reason. “I want to protect you, I want—”
“Great,” she said, cutting him off. “So don’t screw this up.”
And she disconnected the call.
His discipline shattered, Logan broke into a jog. “She’s going to the club.”
Both Rowdy and Reese kept pace alongside him as they maneuvered through the sally port and out to the lot. Rowdy grabbed his own cell but muttered, “Damn it, she’s not answering.”
“For the love of…” Reese grabbed Logan’s arm, pulling him to a halt. “This is insane. You go in through the park. I’ll circle around from the other side. Whoever finds her first can head her off from doing anything stupid.”
Rowdy started to protest, but Reese said, “Not a word from you! We don’t have time to argue about it.”
Logan agreed. “It’ll take twenty minutes to get there, but don’t use your siren.”
“Noted.” And with that, Reese jogged to his car.
*
FORCING ASIDE ALL uncertainty, every ounce of hesitation, Pepper studied the setting before her. She knew that guards protected Checkers not only from within but also from the exterior, every minute of every hour of every day. Morton Andrews spent a small fortune on security. Getting to him wouldn’t be easy.
After shutting Logan down midsentence, she’d set her phone on vibrate. The last thing she needed was a call in the middle of her setup. She’d already felt her phone buzzing, so that had to mean he was concerned, right?
Fortified by that thought, she started forward.
She prayed that she hadn’t entirely misjudged Logan, that deep down he was just a good cop trying to find justice.
She had to believe that, because anything else was unthinkable.
Anything else meant her brother might already be gone.
Several yards away from the club, she saw two goons, each wearing an earphone, no doubt armed, chatting to each other while keeping watch on all coming and going down the walk. In the business area, well-lit establishments lined the street, everything from liquor stores to tattoo parlors to restaurants and gas stations.
Neon signs flashed. Night owls laughed and talked, some outside their cars, others hailing cabs, a few just loitering. No one should have paid undue attention to a woman alone.
But with her gaze zeroed in on the men, they felt her approach—as she’d intended.
Without glancing away, Pepper walked right up to them. The one closest to her looked her over with appreciation. The other faded back a little, probably to keep the advantage.
Like a woman without a care, Pepper stopped before the biggest goon. “I need to see Morton.”
A mean smile curled his mouth. “Yeah, you and a dozen other women.”
Now, that was funny. Pepper copped a stance that she hoped hid her jitters. “I seriously doubt any of them see him by choice.”
The condescending arrogance darkened to irritation. “Get lost, honey.”
“Here’s what you’ll do, honey. Inform Morton that Pepper Yates is here, and if you behave, I won’t tell him that you tried to send me packing. Because you know, if he found out, he’d probably kill you for being so incompetent.”
Skepticism showed, but it couldn’t win out over the guy’s healthy respect for Morton’s ruthlessness. He gave a slight nod, and his buddy made the call. He spoke so softly that Pepper couldn’t hear him over the human congestion spilling out of the club, but she knew he spoke to Morton’s number one guy.
And judging by the look on his face, Morton had agreed to see her.
Few at the club had ever noticed her while she worked there, and the only photos available were the same that Logan had. Morton might not recognize her, but he knew the name.
Because she was Rowdy’s sister.
And Rowdy had set himself up to be the snitch.
Too many people wanted her brother, all because he’d tried to protect her. She had to do this.
“Let’s go,” the big goon said. He reached for her arm, but Pepper stepped back.
“Morton is inside?” She assumed he was, but she needed it verified. If she’d miscalculated, if they tried to stuff her into a car to transport her somewhere else, she’d scream bloody murder.
It might not save her, but at the very least, others would notice.
“He’s in his offices.”
“Above the club?”
Impatience shortened the goon’s temper. “Are you coming along or not?”
Pepper got her stiff lips to form a smile. “I am.” She stepped ahead of the guy and marched toward the club. Her heart beat in time to her every footfall. The closer she got to the hubbub around the club, the sicker she felt. Nausea churned in her stomach and her temples throbbed, making her almost light-headed.
In an iron grip meant to hurt, the goon took her arm to steer her around to a back entrance. Breathing too hard and too fast, Pepper willed her feet to keep moving, one in front of the other. She didn’t want to be dragged. She wanted, needed, to do this on her own terms.
Morton Andrews had plagued them long enough. If Logan didn’t get there in time, well then, she’d find a way to end the miserable cretin one way or another.
At the back of the building, beneath bright security lights, he stopped. One of the additional guards, stationed to keep anyone from intruding, scowled. “What are you doing? You can’t bring her back here.”
“Andrews’s orders.”
“Ah.” There was a pause as the men looked at her with carnal assumptions. They chuckled in shared appreciation of the situation.
The bastards.
Pepper didn’t look at any of them. She didn’t look at anyone until the goon turned to her.
She saw his slack-jawed expression, the intent in his gaze; he would frisk her, and she knew he would make it as unpleasant as possible.
Raising her chin, she feigned indifference—and suddenly a deafening boom sounded above the clamor of patrons, music and conversation. Gunshot? Where? Who?
Glass exploded from third-story windows, raining down around them. Acrid smoke clogged the air, burning her nostrils. No, not a gunshot. Then…?
Before that thought could fully form, a shrill alarm cut through the night.
Covering her ears, confused by the commotion, Pepper cowered. At that first loud blast, her nerves had shattered. A mingling of fear and confusion kept her heart racing double-time.
What had happened?
Weapons drawn, two other guards ran past them while talking into headpieces. Screams sounded out front, followed by a stampede of bodies fleeing the building.
Shoved to the side, Pepper fell to her rump, then scampered back farther. She crouched there until in the midst of shouted orders she heard the word bomb.
Oh. Dear. God.
Everything suddenly made sense. She looked up to see smoke pouring from the windows. Someone had exploded a bomb on the third floor of the club.
The floor Morton Andrews used for his office.
The office…where he’d been waiting to talk to her.
*
“WE MIGHT NOT be able to find her.” Rowdy, who rode with him, got more uneasy by the moment. “She knows how to hide.”
Logan had firsthand knowledge of just how adept Pepper could be at hiding. Hell, he’d had sex with her and hadn’t gotten a good look at her. “I hope you’re right.” Going a little too fast, he turned the corner. They were now only minutes from the club. “She can’t very well launch an attack on anyone while hiding away.”
A distant siren sounded, growing louder by the moment.
Rowdy sat forward. “Smoke.”
“What?” More sirens, joined by flashing lights.
“In the sky.” Rowdy’s shoulders bunched. He tunneled his fingers into his hair, and his jaw lo
osened. “Son of a bitch…”
A fire truck pulled up to the club just ahead of them. Another was already there. Firefighters launched into action. A small crowd milled outside, some sitting on the curb, others bent double coughing. An ambulance blazed onto the scene, but they didn’t see anyone injured.
“She wouldn’t,” Rowdy said. He grabbed Logan’s arm. “She wouldn’t.”
Acid burned in Logan’s gut. His jaw clenched so tight that his temples throbbed.
Smoke poured from the shattered windows of the upper floor of the club. Most of the damage appeared to be in the back of the building. From the look of it… “A bomb.”
Furious, Rowdy jerked Logan around. “Pepper would never do anything like that, so get that idea out of your head right now.” Then, breathing fast and hard, his expression bleak, he sank back. “Jesus, what if she was inside?”
“No.” Logan couldn’t bear that thought. At the moment, his brain felt almost numb. Possibilities chewed on his conscience, each one worse than the one before.
He had to think. He had to figure out what to—
Rowdy lurched against his door, trying to get it open, but Logan hit the locks.
Turning on him, Rowdy shouted, “She could be in there! She could—”
Logan’s cell rang.
Both men stalled. Logan jerked out the phone and opened it on the first ring. “Pepper?”
“Logan.” Her voice was high and shrill. “Oh, my God, Logan.”
“Where are you?” He scanned the area, looking for her, praying he’d find her.
“There was an explosion.”
He heard the trembling of her voice. He heard the shock. She needed him to take over, and that’s exactly what he’d do. “It’s okay now. Tell me where you are.”
“There were people inside,” she continued, as if she hadn’t even heard him. “Music and noise and I was…a guard was ready to frisk me, and then he was going to take me in to see Morton.”
“So you’re still outside?” Was she even now being watched by Morton’s men? “Is anyone with you?”
“The guards all ran off. At first, I wasn’t sure what had happened, but then someone mentioned…a bomb.” She choked. “I don’t know if anyone was hurt. I don’t know if Morton is still alive.”
