“Good.”
He switched from happy-to-see-her to all business. The police officer in him, calm and in control, took the lead as he scanned the room’s damage.
“How did you get away from the guards?” She had lived every second in fear after she heard those gunshots. Not being able to see him killed her.
“Your stun gun helped.” Liam stepped around her and went to Hammer’s chair.
A haze hung over the room but it didn’t block her view of the damage. Bullet holes littered the walls. Furniture was shredded and turned over. It amazed her that two men had done all of this in a matter of a minute.
“You mean they’re dead.” She didn’t ask it as a question because she didn’t have to. The grim line of Liam’s mouth clued her in.
Searching down deep, she wanted to feel sorry for the guards, for their families, but she couldn’t muster a tear. Not after the last few days. Not after sitting hunched over wondering if the man she loved would survive the latest attack.
“So is your boss.” Liam stared at Dr. Hammer.
For the first time she noticed his wounds. Holes in his chest and blood on his shirt. It trickled out of the corner of his mouth. And those dead dark eyes.
Sorrow and relief warred inside her. “Is he?”
Liam let his fingertips drop from Hammer’s throat. “He’s gone.”
She bit back the confusing mix of feelings that assailed her. So much wasted talent and all of this over greed. But she could mourn for the Dr. Hammer she thought she knew later.
Right now she had a bigger problem. “Where’s Smithfield?”
“Running.” Liam hunkered down near the spot on the floor where Smithfield stood before the shooting started. Liam stared at a mark then picked up the cell Smithfield dropped.
“What are you doing?”
“Gathering intel.”
“What does that…” The auxiliary power blinked off. “Now what?”
“Smithfield. He’s covering his tracks.” Liam turned on his flashlight as he stood up.
“What else does he have to hide?”
“Blood.”
“Meaning?”
“I hit him. It’s all over the floor.”
“Do you think he’s dead?” It scared her how free and happy the idea made her.
She didn’t want to be that person or take pleasure in the slicing pain of others, but her heart yearned for revenge. Just thinking about all that could happen, all that still might, made any sympathy for the man evaporate. He and Dr. Hammer created the mess. She was stuck living it.
“I think he’s on his way to Dan and doesn’t want us to track him,” Liam explained.
The terror nearly overwhelmed her. She didn’t realize her knees had given out until she felt Liam’s strong arm wrap around her waist. “In all the yelling and gunfire I forgot about Dan. What’s wrong with me?”
“We’re going to get to Dan in time.”
“How can you know that?”
Liam brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “I feel lucky today.”
Chapter Sixteen
Detective Spanner stood in the middle of a stairwell when the safety lights turned off. He had tried the elevator, the phones and every door on the lobby floor. This place was locked down tighter than most prisons.
That part didn’t disturb him. It was the lack of noise. Even after hours he expected something. The buzz of the HVAC system, a radio from the security detail—something. Even turned down he could hear the chatter on the police radio hooked to his belt, yet from all these floors, not one sound.
The place felt abandoned, as if all humans had been wiped out and removed. Shouldn’t someone in a multi-billion-dollar company work late? Calls to the building—even using the back-line numbers—turned up nothing.
He was all for solid soundproofing, but this level of quiet went beyond that. This was a deadly silence. But something lived and breathed within these walls. He could feel it.
He wanted to write this off as a wild-goose chase, but he knew better. Liam had called him here for a reason. He needed help. He wouldn’t risk getting Maura caught if he didn’t.
Spanner unsnapped the radio and clicked on the button. “I need backup at Smithfield Enterprises. Now.”
LIAM KEPT THE BEAM OF LIGHT on the blood trail and his eyes straight ahead. Smithfield could jump out of any corner or doorway. He could swing around behind them and grab Maura. The only lead they had were the drops leading to the emergency staircase at the opposite end of the hall from where the dead guards lay.
Slow and steady they shuffled toward the door. Maura’s death grip on the back of his shirt made maneuvering rough. Normally, he would have complained and made sure he had as full a range of motion as possible. Since he’d almost lost her, stood right there and saw Smithfield aim at her, he planned to hold her close for a while.
“We’re almost there,” she whispered against the back of his neck.
She probably thought the running commentary of their location helped. It drove him nuts. Every time she spoke, it broke his concentration. And the warm breath blowing against his neck had him thinking about anything except killing bad guys.
But he understood. Sharing their body heat reminded her they were still alive. They both needed that comfort.
The relief that broke across her face when she saw him, the way she threw her body into his arms refilled the empty well inside him. Those same thankful feelings at seeing her uninjured swirled in him, too.
If they got out of this, he was going to change. No more dangerous assignments. No more letting her push him away. He planned to be a part of her life, to earn the right to be with her.
Those were the promises he made while he stood flat against that bedroom wall and bargained with the universe for her life. He still meant them, but they would both need to adjust. He wanted this Maura. The one that gave herself over to a cause and didn’t hide in a lab. The real woman, fresh and smart and beautiful and strong. He had to hope she saw it now, that she understood who she was and what she had to offer.
“Finally,” she said under her breath as they reached the door.
The blood dribbled here in a puddle as if Smithfield had waited for them to come out into the hallway and take a shot. For whatever reason, he abandoned his post.
Liam believed that meant he hadn’t gotten far. He pulled her away from him. “Step back.”
Instead, she slid her back against the wall and faced him. “I’m ready.”
She said it with such conviction that he believed it. Or he would have if the gun didn’t shake in her fingers.
“I go first.” He mouthed the words and waited for her to nod in agreement.
The sound of the door opening, metal clanking against metal, ricocheted down the stairwell. No way were they going to sneak up on Smithfield with that noise. He had booby-trapped the door somehow to warn of their coming. Who knew what other goodies they might find.
Liam stepped over the threshold and Maura swung in behind him.
“Up or down?” she asked in a voice that barely registered above a breath.
Liam saw the drops continue down the stairs. “Wait a second.” When he glanced up the stairs, he saw a line of blood there, too.
“What is it?” she asked.
“He walked both ways to throw us off.”
Maura inhaled as if weighing the options in her head. “He couldn’t have made a fake trail for very long before turning around.”
“I agree. You stay here.” He turned to jog up the steps. No need to be quiet now that Smithfield knew he was being followed.
She grabbed Liam’s arm before he could start his run. “We don’t have time for that. I’ll go up one flight and see. You go down.”
“Out of the question.” He’d separated from her once and they’d both nearly paid the price. “We stick together.”
“We’re talking about Dan’s life here. He could already be…”
“He’s not.”
<
br /> “How do you know?”
“Smithfield doesn’t have a way to communicate with his assistant. He gave you one phone and dropped the other. What are the chances there were three?”
“None.” She scooted around him and started up the stairs.
“Maura!”
She ignored his harsh whisper. “Just go.”
He hesitated, hating to be away from her again. Good thing he was fast and in good shape. Despite all the activity, adrenaline still pumped through him until the beats of his heart blended together.
“Liam, come here.”
He took the steps two at a time to get to her. On the landing of the sixth floor, the blood trail slipped under the door. Unless Smithfield spent a lot of time faking a trail, he was on this floor somewhere.
Opening the door only by inches, Liam glanced down the long hall. Being at the end of the corridor, he had one direction to cover. Only darkness greeted him. To call out Smithfield, Liam did a quick shine of the light into the hallway. If the man saw it, he might shoot or at least shift and give away his location. Nothing.
Liam pushed on the door and entered the empty corridor, holding it open long enough for Maura to slip in behind him. The blood trail went up and down the floor. This line threw drops on the walls and doors. From the shape, Smithfield had been running when he faked this clue.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“Dunno.”
Liam didn’t see any lights under any of the doors, but knew that didn’t mean anything. There were no cracks below, which meant he had to engage in old-fashioned detective work to reason out which door to open. He doubted he would get more than one chance.
She lifted up on her toes and brought her mouth close to his ear. “The floor schematics.”
He turned his head and frowned over at her, letting her know he had no clue what she was getting at.
She nibbled on her bottom lip before spilling her suggestion. “Look for an unoccupied room.”
The strategy made sense. Problem was he’d sacrificed the cell as a doorstop to get back into the lab. He tried to call up the building’s tech blueprints from memory but it didn’t work.
She picked her phone out of her pocket and handed it to him. The small readout was smudged but the crystal was otherwise fine. She breathed over his shoulder as he pushed the buttons searching for a dial tone. Something blocked the phone signal out, making calls for help impossible, but he could call up the memo function and look at the tech department’s layout of the floor.
Exactly one room on the sixth floor remained empty. Six-fifteen.
They stalked down the hallway and stopped in front of the door. The blood pool was thicker here. Wherever Smithfield got hit, he was losing blood and fast. He’d need to call in a doctor or ambulance soon. That meant little time to launch his elaborate plan.
This was one opportunity Liam would not squander. He motioned for her to duck down and mirrored her stance on the opposite side of the doorway.
Caught and trapped, Smithfield should come out firing. That was Liam’s hope. Give the man a target, then swoop in.
Liam pointed to the doorknob. He’d bet this one would be unlocked. Smithfield wanted an audience for this showdown. He wanted to flash his masterpiece then play the hero in his twisted fantasy by killing them all.
For him, that was the only way for the game to end. Liam preferred a different plot.
He held up his finger for a three count. When he reached one, Maura closed her eyes and pulled. The door shot open, actually knocked Maura over backward on her butt.
Light spilled out of the room as shots rang out above Liam’s head. They went wild and came in rapid succession. It was the gunfire of a man in full panic. A guy in the middle of a death spiral.
Liam waited exactly one second after the noise started before crawling into the room. His first shot hit Smithfield in the foot. While the man yelled and jumped, Liam stood up and fired the second shot right into the middle of Smithfield’s forehead.
He went from openmouthed shocked to dead. No fanfare or special effects. He just dropped to the floor behind Dan’s chair.
Dan. The battery-operated light in this room made it easy to see. Alive and swearing, his friend pulled against his bound wrists as if trying to communicate something.
Liam felt all the stress inside him let go. He hadn’t cried in decades, not since he lost his mom, but was on the verge for the second time in an hour today. The relief hit him that hard.
“I’ve got you.” He put the gun on the desk and barely got the gag off Dan when he started screaming.
“Maura!”
Liam whipped around in time to see a woman slip her slim arm around Maura’s neck in a choke hold. The edge of a knife pointed at her soft skin. Stunned, and his body exhausted from all of the activities of the last few hours, the sight didn’t register in his brain. He saw the furious blonde and the wide-eyed fury in Maura’s eyes.
None of it made sense.
“Who the hell are you?” He reached for the gun until the unknown woman shook her head.
Dan answered. “She’s Smithfield’s assistant.”
Liam took in the expensive clothes and fancy upsweep of hair. This was no hourly administrative assistant. This was a woman who likely had never worked a day in her life, except for hours between the sheets. She reeked of money and wasted time.
“I don’t think so,” Liam said.
“Patricia Hammer.” As soon as the words left Maura’s mouth, the woman tightened her arm and choked them off.
Seeing Maura in peril again brought Liam back to the present. The remaining fog cleared and his body switched to high alert.
If one more person pawed Maura today or ever, he was going to go off in a frenzy of fists and violence. He had seen enough for a lifetime. His muscles ached and a headache hammered away at his skull, but he could fight off anyone who hurt her.
Despite the fresh anger flooding through him, he reined it in. He needed to hold on for a few more minutes, or at least until he figured out how to pry the knife from the woman’s fingers.
“You’re the angry wife,” he said. “I guess we know why you were so upset about the bombing. It was all part of the plan.”
Patricia Hammer had the look of an animal, trapped and hunted. Possessed. The tension showed on every line of her face, pulling around her mouth and eyes. Liam had no idea how old the woman was, except that Maura described her as young. Whatever the number, the years were catching up by the minute.
“Stop moving or I will kill her.” Patricia spat out the threat.
“Okay.” He angled his body so that he could cut the ropes around Dan’s wrists.
The movement got Patricia’s attention. “What are you doing there?”
“Just letting him breathe a bit.”
“Stand still.” The knife hovered too close to Maura’s neck for comfort.
“You got it.” Liam made the cut and shifted back into his old position. “What’s your play here, Patricia?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“Smithfield is dead. Your husband is dead. There are dead guards all over this building.” The body count sounded overwhelming as he added it up.
“Only Langdon’s death matters. It ruins every thing.”
How romantic. “Where are you going and how do you plan to get there?”
“I’m taking her.” Patricia altered her hold.
“I don’t think so.” Maura said with a snort then winced when Patricia tightened her vise grip.
Liam tried to talk even slower. The alarms in his head kept ringing. Adrenaline pooled inside him just waiting for the chance to fuel his next move.
With his gun on the table and Maura in danger, Liam decided to take a little more time weighing his options.
“We can work this out.”
A crazed look crossed Patricia’s face. It was the desperate look of a woman with little left to lose. “It’s settled.”
“Patricia, yo
u’re a smart woman. You know this won’t work.”
“Maura knows Langdon’s formulas. She can recreate the experiments and keep the work alive.”
Just when he thought the situation couldn’t get stranger, Patricia lowered the bar. “You think Maura is going to work for you.”
“No way.” Maura’s words were cut off when the knife pricked her.
“Shut up!” Patricia’s shrieking scream echoed through the small office.
Liam froze at the sight of Maura’s deep red blood.
The only part of him that moved was his hand, which pressed down in what he hoped was a calming gesture.
“Easy now.”
Patricia’s wild gaze darted around the room. “I am going to take her and leave. I have all of Langdon’s notes at home.”
He tried for reasonable even though he knew that train had left Patricia’s station long ago. “You’ll need a space.
I saw all of that fancy lab equipment upstairs. It’s not going to be easy recreating that.”
“There will be plenty of people willing to bankroll the research. Finding Smithfield was the easy part.”
“You were behind all of this.”
“You think Langdon set this up?” Patricia threw her head back and laughed. “The man was inept out of the lab.”
Liam nodded. “I’ve heard.”
“Yes, she knows. Don’t you?” Patricia stared at Maura.
“He couldn’t do anything without us, could he?”
Maura glanced at Liam as if asking permission to talk.
Clearly the cut scared her. Made sense since it terrified him, and from the sound of Dan’s tapping foot, he was a nervous wreck, as well.
Liam gave her a slight nod and telegraphed a look he hoped Maura interpreted as telling her to tread carefully.
“He needed you, Patricia. You made him a better scientist.” Maura’s soothing voice did nothing to calm the crazed woman behind her.
“Of course I did.”
“But I’m not him. I don’t have his expertise. He told me all the time I was nothing more than an assistant, a glorified secretary. He believed I was beneath him and certainly not a threat to his work.”
Night Moves Page 14
