Relentless

by Vanessa Dare

  “Lived overseas? It was fucking boarding school and she’d been, what, twelve?”

  “Like I said, no due process,” Peters grumbled. He was as pissed off as I was about the corruption she’d faced with law enforcement.

  “She learned interrogation procedure firsthand. That’s how she was able to work over Werbler and Gossing. She’d been interrogated before, probably frequently, trying to get her to confess to something she didn’t do. I bet they used every trick on her, too, especially if they were crooked. Nothing worked since she was innocent.”

  If I had to spend forty-two days in jail for something I didn’t do because men in blue were on the take, I wouldn’t be quick to forgive either. Hell, I was one, which made it like a stab in the back, that there were men out there who had hurt Anna that way. Cops were supposed to protect, but she’d only met corruption, greed and manipulation.

  “No wonder she’s not a fan of the police,” I muttered. Great. Just great. The more I learned the more of a total fucker I was. A hypocrite. I wasn’t planning on holding her in jail against her will, but I was guilty of deception.

  I should tell her the truth, that I was a cop, not a bad guy working for Moretti, but I couldn’t. I had to keep her safe and doing that meant to remain undercover. If Moretti found out I wore a badge, I’d lose my leverage, my underground contacts. I might need those resources to help her. She couldn’t learn the truth, not until she was out of danger.

  I’d lose her over this, I had zero doubt, knowing how she’d been so cruelly used by cops in the past, but I’d rather have her walk away than be buried in the ground. It was worth the risk.

  “After all that time, she finally got in front of a judge who wasn’t being, shall we say, swayed,” Peters continued, unaware of the direction of my thoughts. “Ruled self-defense and she was free to go. Assets unfrozen. The papers say she left the courthouse in a taxi and was never seen again. It was a big deal in San Francisco. Headlines read Where Did the Heiress Go? and From Murder to Missing.”

  Anna hadn’t said where she was from. Scratch that, where her father lived. Where she lived until she was six. Shit. I clenched my free hand into a fist, ready to beat the shit out of her father. Her ex.

  “Hubby didn’t put out a missing person’s report?”

  “He served her divorce papers in jail.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me.”

  “Nope. His lawyer was good and it was done fast. Really fast. By the time she was released, they weren’t married anymore.”

  “In less than eight weeks?” The ex had to have some cash of his own to grease so many palms.

  “Less than eight weeks,” Peters repeated. “He’d washed his hands of her and didn’t care that she’d disappeared. Even with her money—which he couldn’t touch. One report said good riddance.”

  Good riddance was right. Anna was better off without that asshole. It just made her escape, however she did it, that much more clean of a break. Over ten years later, she didn’t have to worry about being legally married to the guy, to have that looming over her.

  “He was probably thrilled she disappeared. Was there any thought he might have had something to do with it? Something truly criminal? He had motive,” I pointed out. “She killed his brother.”

  “Seriously, man, the guy had enough connections to keep his wife illegally imprisoned. In the United States. This isn’t some third world country we’re talking about. Even if he’d killed her in front of the police station with dozens of witnesses, the slimy bastard still probably would have gotten off.”

  I ran a hand over my face, squeezed my eyes shut, trying to cool my anger. It wasn’t helping. Neither was this conversation. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  “The real story, when you look at the files, see the pictures, is that this guy David Lawton, attacked her. She wasn’t raped, she’d gotten lucky with just bruises, a cut on her arm.”

  A black eye, Anna had said.

  “He had a gun cabinet and she found it. Shot him, center of the chest.”

  “Bull’s eye,” I murmured. It was the first moment of satisfaction I’d felt since I dialed Peters. Good thing the bastard was already dead.

  “Military school paid off,” Peters replied, his voice bitter, yet I could hear some admiration in there, too.

  I didn’t wish military school on anyone. Marching in lines, hospital corners on the beds, zero privacy. For years. She never went home. Hell, military school was her home. It sounded horrendous for a young girl who was alone in the world, who got put there only because she’d wanted attention from her father, but I had to agree with Peters. If she hadn’t been there, hadn’t learned how to shoot, her life would have turned out much different.

  “No question dear old Dad and business partner had this planned for years, probably since she was six. No matter what boarding school she was shipped to, she would have been called home to marry,” I pointed out. “I’d say Daddy made a mistake when he put her in military school.”

  “Big time,” Peters agreed.

  ***

  An hour later, with my sister on her way home in a cab, I held Anna’s hand as we walked a few blocks to grab one of our own. I kept her on my right away from traffic. It was a simple thing, walking with a woman, holding her hand, but it was a novelty for me. In our marriage, Nadine and I hadn’t been ones for PDA of any kind. Perhaps that had been an early indication we were doomed, one that I only now saw in hindsight.

  Because I was so caught up in the mundane, enjoying a walk and holding hands, I missed the obvious, at least to me—a former military man and cop. Anna stiffened next to me, her fingers squeezing mine. By the time I glanced over at her in question, a guy had changed our little walk from a duo to a trio.

  “Keep walking,” he muttered, offering a fake smile as people passed us on the sidewalk.

  Mid-forties, salt-and-pepper hair, a little under six feet. Tan. Thin scar in his left eyebrow. Smoker, based on the rasp in his voice. I memorized him for later, when I would make him pay for this. Anna glanced up at me and I could see fear in her eyes, watched as she darted them down and behind her, and I knew the guy held something against her back.

  A gun? A knife?

  It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting Anna away from that weapon.

  "What do you want?” I asked, my voice deceptively smooth, guiding us around a group of teenagers staring at a person’s tablet, laughing at whatever was on the screen. A biker careened past down the narrow bike lane. A man paid a parking meter. I took in everything, processed it, rejected it as an option for escape. I couldn’t do much with the weapon on Anna. On me, the guy’d be dead by now.

  “This is just an introduction from Moretti.”

  Shit. Moretti. Some common street thug wouldn’t meander with us down a busy street at rush hour all la-di-da; they’d shake and take. A back alley, nighttime was more their MO.

  I knew what the guy looked like, could identify him to a sketch artist, pick him from a lineup, even after only a second’s glance. It’s what I’d been trained to do. No way was he going to pull something now. He didn’t have a clean getaway. The subway wasn’t near, taxis were scarce. From what I saw of him, which was only from the chest up since Anna blocked him, he wasn’t a desperate drug addict willing to risk everything for a score. I slowed my breathing, calmed myself so I could respond better.

  “Oh?” I asked as I slowly pulled Anna in to my side, ready to push her out of harm. My girl had a gun or knife in her back. I wanted her away from here and somewhere safe so I could beat the shit out of him.

  My alpha instincts were being honed on a daily basis these days. I hadn’t needed them much until now. Until Anna.

  “Moretti wanted me to introduce myself before Monday.” The stench of cigarettes clouded around the guy like he was Pigpen from Charlie Brown. “I’ll see you both then. Monday’s going to be fun. At least for me.” He sneered, then blended into the crowd, letting us walk on.

  My senses were
at heightened awareness like I was back in Afghanistan under attack. The enemy was the enemy, no matter where I was. Every sound, every smell, every person was scrutinized. He’d slipped in because my guard had been lulled, underestimating how ruthless Moretti really was, but not now.

  The guy was gone. I pulled Anna around and into my other side, my left arm wrapped around her, my right arm free and ready to pull the gun from my back. It wouldn’t have served any purpose before; the bastard’s weapon was already on its target. If he’d meant to kill her here on the street, he could have—would have—done it. Moretti was toying with me, sending me a message. It didn’t matter how far up in the ranks you were, he always had a backup plan in place.

  We were safe until Monday. I’d figured we had a few more days than that, but at least now I knew. That didn’t mean I didn’t assess everyone we passed as a danger, a threat to Anna. The jogger, the mom with the two kids, a businessman in a suit talking on his cell. I gauged them as dangerous, ruled them out one by one.

  We didn’t speak until we reached the corner, turned. We both looked back to verify he was gone, I also scoped the new street, then moved to stand in front of an electronics store. The window held a flat screen TV with a blockbuster movie playing. It was shady, cooler with a breeze coming down the street, but I was still sweating.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, looking Anna over for any injuries. She could have been shot or stabbed in the back. Dead either way. The tension I’d ratcheted down was back. Shit.

  I was pissed at myself, knowing there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, for not keeping her out of harm’s way. I willed my heartbeat to slowly return to normal since she was in one piece. Not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle on her clothes. Her pupils were dilated, her pulse frantic in her neck, but otherwise she seemed fine.

  At least one of us was.

  Adrenaline was still pumping and I wanted to go chase after the bastard, even though I knew he was long gone. I also wanted to grab Anna, yank her in my arms and kiss the hell out of her, confirm she was alive and breathing. What I had in mind wasn’t legal on a city street, unfortunately.

  “Was it a gun?”

  She nodded. “I felt it before I knew he was there. I’m sorry I didn’t do more, but I didn’t want to set him off, have him pull the trigger.”

  I saw red, tried to breathe through it, to hide my anger from her. “Smart. Glad you know when to fight”—I was thinking of the asshole at the bar in Denver—“and when to play along with an attacker.” The fact we were having this talk made me feel grim. “He was here for me, not you.”

  That pissed me off. Moretti didn’t trust me. Hell, he didn’t trust anybody, so I should have expected this. I considered my cover and if there was anything left of it. If it had been blown, I’d be dead in a trunk of my own by now. Like the guy said, it was a message.

  I had two days to save us both.

  “You’re wrong, he’s not here for you. Don’t you see?” Anna held her hands out in front of her in the way that said Really? “If Moretti wanted you dead, he’d have killed you in Denver. If he hadn’t sent you, he’d have sent this guy first and I’d be dead. I know karate, but I don’t have Wonder Woman bracelets that deflect bullets.”

  She didn’t have to remind me how vulnerable she was.

  Anna took a step back, then another. Her gaze shifted left and right, then back at me. “I’ve got to get out of here. If I don’t, he’s going to kill you, too. Collateral damage. I warned you this would happen. This way, you can go home and avoid a car trunk of your own. If I disappear, then no one kills me and you don’t have to die. I’ve got to hurry.” Anna scoped the street again as if she was formulating a plan. I saw no fear, just conviction.

  Oh crap. I didn’t want to be sexist and think that once a woman made up her mind there was no changing it, but Anna had been on her own for her entire life. She didn’t run ideas by anyone. Talk them through. Once she made a decision, she ran with it, because she’d only had herself. In this case, she was going to do exactly that. Run.

  I leaned in so we were eye to eye, placed my hands on her upper arms. I wanted to shake some sense into her, plus I wanted to make sure she didn’t bolt. “What the hell are you talking about?” In the past five minutes, I’d lost control of everything.

  “Just leave me alone.” She shrugged my hands off, stepped back again. “Go, Nick. Tell your boss you killed me, or I just disappeared into thin air. By the time you get back to Denver, Anna Scott will be gone. She won’t exist anymore.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Her disappearing, letting me save myself. Whatever. I didn’t know if I should strangle her or kiss her. My adrenaline made me feel several things at once. Her cheeks were flushed with determination, and I couldn’t stop seeing her pink bra in my mind. I shook it off. I couldn’t be distracted by attraction because she wasn’t making any sense. “Won’t exist anymore?”

  She took another step back, almost off the curb, looked up at me with her dark eyes and I saw it. The wall was back. Her look was the same as in the interrogation room in Denver.

  “’Bye, Nick,” she murmured.

  With that, she turned and walked off, head held high, moving quickly, stretching the space between us with long strides, leaving me standing there. It took me about two seconds of just watching her to realize she wasn’t coming back. Had no intention of even looking back. I knew, right then, if she got out of my sight, I’d never see her again. She had the money, millions from what she said. She had the means, she had the motive and the contacts, to disappear. To change her identity again. She’d done it once, she could easily do it again. Hell, she could even leave the country, go somewhere that spoke French or German and she’d blend right in.

  Shit. If I was smart, I’d just let her go. She was right, she’d be safe. But at a very high cost. Starting over again would isolate her even more, would ruin everything she’d spent the past ten years trying to achieve.

  I was also very greedy. I wanted her for myself and she couldn’t disappear on me. I’d only seen a hint of her bra. No way in hell was that enough.

  I jogged to catch up with her. I grabbed her arm, spun her around.

  “Don’t! Just go. I told you before, this is stupid. That guy,” she pointed behind her. “He’s proof. This isn’t a game. He’s here for me. You need to get away from me.” She pushed at my chest with both hands, shoving me back, her hair falling forward over her face. Anger, annoyance and frustration pulsed off her in waves. "I don’t want your help.”

  I knew she could karate chop the shit out of me, so I pulled my hands back. Didn’t mean I wouldn’t push her. “You’re lying.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “I don’t need you.” She shook her head roughly as she spoke, pushed her hair back behind her ears.

  Her cool control was slipping. Her words were becoming louder, more emotional. A few heads turned as people walked past.

  “You’re lying,” I repeated, standing my ground, hands on my hips. “At least tell me the truth, Anna. I deserve at least that, don’t I?”

  “I don’t want you to die, all right?” Her voice broke a little. “Now go.”

  She gave me a bigger shove, but I didn’t move. Couldn’t. I just stood there, my feet rooted to the ground, stunned. No way could I let her push me out of her life after those words. They slayed me. Ripped me open. She practically pulled my heart out, still beating, and held it in her hands. That’s what it felt like, at least. She was pushing me away to save me. Me. While sacrificing herself. What she’d become in the past decade on her own. Without any family. Without her ex. Scared of everyone and everything. Anna Scott. She was willing to walk away from being Anna Scott for what she knew me to be…a bartender, a two-bit enforcer for a loser like Moretti.

  I wanted to grab her, pull her into my arms and never let go. But that wasn’t what she needed right now. She was too raw, too exposed. Hell, so was I. I darted a glance left and right down the busy street. “People are startin
g to stare. We can’t talk about this here in the street. Let’s head back to your apartment.”

  “Then you’ll go?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously, her breaths coming out short and fast. “We’ll talk, but then you’ll go.”

  Anna was begging me to leave her, but she wasn’t going to win this fight. I ignored her question, her ultimatum, grabbed her arm again and hailed a taxi, which was, miraculously, passing by.

  Climbing in, we made it two blocks before we got caught in traffic—an impressive feat for Manhattan. Before I had a chance to stop her, Anna was out of the taxi in a flash, bolting down the sidewalk.

  What the fuck was she doing?

  It took me a few seconds of looking out the open door to realize what she’d done, as the taxi driver yelled at me in some foreign language I assumed was Eastern European in origin. Fumbling, I pulled out my wallet and tossed a few bills at him, leapt out and ran after her.

  She was fast and she had a solid head start. It took me a block to catch up with her. I grabbed her shoulder, pulled her back toward me, slowed her down. Stopped. She froze, but reacted in a way I hadn’t anticipated by pivoting on her heel and throwing a wicked straight punch. It would have popped me in the nose if I hadn’t deflected the strike with my hand. Using my own self-defense skills, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her into me, tightly. She was breathing hard, winded from her hundred-meter dash across the streets of New York.

  “Shit, Anna. What the hell was that for?” I asked, trying to catch my breath. Sweat poured down my face, made my shirt cling to my body. No way was I letting her go, even with her struggling in my grasp.

  “You grabbed my shoulder. I warned you not to do that!”

  I’d forgotten that was a trigger for her. Why, I didn’t know, but I should’ve remembered. “Right, sorry. You ran off. Jesus, are you insane?”

  “I told you,” she gasped against my shirt, her breaths coming short and fast. “You’ll be safer away from me.”

  “If you keep trying to deck me like that, you’re right.” My heart rate was coming down, but I had to make time to get back into the gym. I was too old for this shit. I forced her chin up to look at me. Her face was sweaty, her damp hair stuck to her forehead and cheeks. Her eyes were bright, her pupils dilated fully from the rush of adrenaline. “I’m not letting you go. No matter where you go, or how fast you run, I’ll find you,” I said fiercely.