Liam’s heart ached for Maura. The words ripped out of her in a way that he knew they were true. Having sacrificed so much, she still had to fight so hard.
“He picked you,” Patricia insisted.
Maura grabbed on to the other woman’s arms when she started to drag them both backward. “But he didn’t ask me to come here with him.”
“That was Smithfield’s decision. He thought too many people in on the secret meant the secret would be harder to keep.”
Liam fought to keep his mouth closed. This idiotic woman actually thought she could pull Maura out of there and set her up in a lab. Turn her into a virtual slave.
Patricia’s panicked steps worried him but if she shifted a bit more, he should be able to get to his gun without it being so obvious. He just had to keep her talking. “He wanted to frame Maura for your husband’s death.”
“It was a practical solution.” Patricia’s slide continued as she closed in on the door frame. “But she’s shown her resiliency. I think your girlfriend and I will make a good team.”
Maura’s gaze shot to her brother.
Liam didn’t turn around to see his reaction to the news. They’d slap a name on their relationship after this lunatic was in prison.
Patricia leaned against the door frame. “We’re leaving.”
Liam shook his head. “I can’t let that happen. She means too much to me to let her walk away, even if it is for work.”
“I won’t go back to the way things were before. Scraping by and waiting. Langdon made me promises. We had a deal.”
The glimpse into the Hammer marriage made Liam shake his head. A lonely man locked in a studio. An aging woman worried she couldn’t depend on her looks much longer. The whole thing was pathetic and maddening. Whenever two limited people met and fractured, disaster followed. He’d seen it a million times. But the scene unfolding in front of him now was new.
“For every step you take, I’ll take one.” He stepped closer to Patricia, stopping when his back was to the desk, with his gun right behind him.
The knife wobbled. “One more move and I’ll kill her.”
Chapter Seventeen
Detective Spanner started panting by the time he hit the sixth-floor landing. He had ventured onto every floor, cracked the door and listened for any noise in the hall. Five times and nothing. This was the sixth. From the fourth until here his flashlight picked up a trail of blood on the floor. The line seemed to stop here. He hoped he’d get lucky this time.
After this, he planned to hit the gym more regularly. Climbing the stairs without making a sound and while keeping his breathing shallow made his heart thump.
He flicked off his light and listened. He thought he picked up muffled voices, but his imagination had taken flight in the dark building. He should have waited downstairs for backup. Would have, but the patter in his gut told him to get moving.
The door barely slipped open when the voices reached him. He recognized Maura and Liam. The third was the most interesting. After all of those threats to have his job and go over his head, he heard that husky tone in his sleep. Patricia Hammer wasn’t whining and bossing people around now. She was threatening them.
Turned out Ms. Highbrow could add something be sides trophy wife to her résumé. If Spanner had anything to say about it, and he would at trial, she’d also be a convict.
The thought made him smile.
He couldn’t see around the door or tell if Patricia was in the hallway. He didn’t want to rush in and get anyone hurt. He also didn’t want to wait one beat too long and have to explain to someone’s next of kin the reason for the body bag.
He slipped the toe of his shoe into the door’s edge and listened. Liam had brought him here for a reason.
Spanner didn’t intend to let him down.
MAURA THOUGHT HER NECK would break. This scrawny little woman must have spent some quality time in the weight room because she had the strength of one of Smithfield’s massive male guards. It didn’t help that she balanced Maura’s neck in the crook of her elbow. Every time Patricia shifted, Maura got a bone shoved into her throat. Several times she bit back a gag.
She tried to stay strong for the two men staring at her in horror. Dan’s normally tan skin had blanched chalky-white. He had a death grip on the edge of the desk and looked ready to jump up and throw his body in front of hers at any minute.
And Liam. Strong, loving Liam. He shifted his weight around and kept moving. He resembled a caged beast.
Maura loved them both so much. She feared Patricia’s knife mostly because of what her death or injury would do to the men in her life.
But she by no means was ready to die. Absolutely not. She would take this blond creature out with her if she had to. Even now, Maura plotted how to get the woman close enough to the wall to smash her head against it. That sort of thing worked in movies. Maura had no idea if it was a reasonable alternative in real life.
She listened to Liam’s calm voice. The gentle sound could lull even the wildest animal into a deep sleep. It seemed to have little effect on Patricia. The woman was lost in this strange money fantasyland.
Maura knew better than to be fooled by Liam’s demeanor. He might look almost disinterested in the horror playing out in front of him, but that wasn’t true. Liam wasn’t about to let this woman leave the floor.
Maura loved him for so many things. Strength she never knew she had flowed through her when she was around him. But mostly she loved his determination. For a man who professed to hang up his hero status, the role continued to fit to perfection.
Patricia slipped them around the door and into the hall before Maura could get enough of a grip to throw her off balance. Walking backward proved awkward. Maura helped the process by dragging her feet and trying to tangle her sneakers in the other woman’s high heels.
“Patricia, where are you going?” Liam asked the question as his head peeked around the corner. His hand stayed behind his back.
Dan followed, holding the only light in the entire building. He raised it, flooding the corridor and allowing her to see everyone’s hands and faces.
Maura had been with Liam enough over the last few days to know he held a weapon. He wouldn’t walk into the corridor unarmed.
“Do not follow us.” Patricia shook the knife right next to Maura’s nose.
She pulled back, trying to increase the distance between the blade and her skin. She’d already felt the sting of the knife and was determined not to do that a second time.
Liam held up both hands in mock surrender. “I told you I can’t let you take Maura.”
Maura lost track of the gun. Maybe that was the point. Keep Patricia guessing. Did Dan have it or did Liam? She had no idea but she drew comfort from watching them stand together not ten feet away. For every step back Patricia took, they took one forward.
Patricia shook her head. “You don’t have a choice.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. There’s always another option.” Liam directed his gaze right at Maura. “Right?”
She had no idea what Liam was trying to tell her, but there was a message in there somewhere. She searched her memory for a similar conversation. Anything about options that would give her a clue where he was trying to take her.
“Yes.” She agreed with his comment but tried to let her confusion show. Maybe he’d read it and drop another hint.
“Stop moving.” Patricia settled in the middle of the hallway.
By Maura’s measure they weren’t close enough to either wall to whack Patricia’s head into it. Maura could adapt. Instead of sideways, they’d go back. She’d been in enough self-defense classes to pick up some pointers. Tramp down on the instep. Heel to the knee. Go limp and drop. She knew them all.
She just had to push and then slide out of the way of the knife. Whatever it took to get her there she would do.
“You said it yourself, you need her alive.” Liam continued talking in the same voice she expected he’d use to talk spor
ts. The tone stayed even and clear. He didn’t make any moves. Just walked and talked.
The mood shook Patricia. Whatever she expected from Liam clearly wasn’t this. The calmer he got, the tighter she clenched her arm against Maura’s throat.
“I can still mess her up pretty bad.” Patricia delivered the comment like a promise.
Liam smiled then. “I have to admire you, Patricia. You have a contingency.”
“I didn’t have a choice after you killed Smithfield.”
“You aren’t the only one who walked in here with a couple of thoughts on how to get out again. I brought several weapons, thought about all of the exits and came up with strategies to get Maura out in case I couldn’t do it.”
Those sentences were meant for her. Maura analyzed every word Liam said, searching for the right answer. Something tickled at the edge of her mind but she couldn’t grab it. Usually her brain wouldn’t click off. Now she couldn’t get it to turn on.
But she could make her move.
Even without heels she could make this hurt. In one swift move she rammed her butt into Patricia’s stomach while stomping down on her heel as hard as possible. The move pitched their joined bodies forward and off balance. Most of Patricia’s weight fell against Maura’s back. The knife dangled loose in Patricia’s hand, waving right in front of Maura’s eyes.
Patricia’s grip finally broke when Maura hurled her body in the opposite direction and threw the other woman off her. Right before she smashed into the wall, a strange tingling sensation warmed Maura’s arm.
She saw the men rush forward, heard Liam’s shouts mix with a woman’s high-pitched squeal. Warm hands caressed her face but she could see Patricia hit the ground.
The woman landed on her back with her hands high above her head. Before she could lift the knife and launch a new line of attack, a black shoe tramped down on her wrist. She screamed as her fingers opened.
Through hazy vision, Maura dragged her gaze upward and saw Detective Spanner standing there with his gun aimed at Patricia’s curled form. Maura’s mind faded around the edges but she realized Spanner’s presence had something to do with Liam’s clues.
“Looks like I’m a bit late.” Spanner smiled at her. “Dr. Lindsey, you are a woman who can take care of herself.”
“Damn right.” Liam leaned down to lift her off the floor.
The minute his fingers closed over her forearm, she gasped. When he pulled his hand back, his palm was stained red. “Maura?”
Horror darkened his face. Those green eyes turned cold and venomous as he glanced over at Patricia. Her rantings hadn’t stopped. She swore about her husband’s weakness and her ruined plans.
Maura worried Liam would kill the other woman. To settle him down and keep him with her, she brushed her hand over his cheek. “It’s okay.”
The combination of the touch and her words brought him back to her. “You’re bleeding.”
“I think she got me, but it’s minor.”
Dan pushed his way in. “Are you sure?”
The tingling turned to numbness as all three men crowded around her. She saw their concerned faces and refused to faint. She wanted to but drew in big gulps of air and rested her head against the wall to keep her body upright.
“I just need a minute.” When her eyes eased shut, she forced them back open again.
Liam pushed Dan back as if he had the right to take over. “Here, let me see.”
A hiss of pain escaped her lips as he slipped her sleeve up with gentle fingers. Any pressure sent her nerves spinning. “I probably need a bandage.”
“You need an ambulance.”
Spanner nodded as he clicked his radio. “Sixth-floor landing. Send a medic and officers. Come in cold.”
Liam ripped the edge of his T-shirt and wrapped it around her arm. “You got my text message.”
While Liam worked on Maura, Spanner took care of Patricia. He dragged her to a seated position and handcuffed her. “Don’t be too happy about it. About a hundred police officers are going to storm through that door in a second.”
“What did you do?” Dan asked.
The detective actually blushed. “It takes a lot to get the kind of backup I thought I needed.”
Maura listened to the conversation. It happened around her and in a way that was disconnected from her, almost as if she were watching it on television. She heard the voices and saw the men hustle around. Except for a burst of pain now and then, she didn’t feel anything.
A weight she couldn’t identify forced her eyes shut. Her brain fogged over as her arm began to thump. But she couldn’t fall asleep. There was something important she needed to say. A point she needed Liam to understand. She had to say it before it drifted back out of her head.
She grabbed Liam’s hand and pulled him in close to her. “Thank you for saving me.”
He kept wrapping her arm in white material, playing nurse rather than boyfriend. “You saved yourself.”
“Liam.” The dryness of her voice caused it to crack.
He looked up then. “Are you in pain?”
She tried to shake her head but the headache bouncing around in there kept her from moving. “Remember that question I asked you?”
He frowned at her. “When?”
“When I was fifteen.”
He spared a brief glance at Dan then gathered in even closer with his voice pitched low. “Maura, none of that matters now.”
“It does because the offer still stands.” She said it. The words hung out there and he could take them however he wanted.
He froze with his hands in the air and white cotton wrapped around one of his palms. “What did you say?”
She mustered up a second reserve of energy and tried to be clearer this time. “I want you to be the one.”
“You’re…” Liam didn’t finish the sentence. He snapped his mouth shut instead.
Spanner turned away with his hand over his mouth.
Dan cleared his throat. “What is she talking about?”
Liam still didn’t move.
She worried in her slurred words and hazy state that he didn’t understand her. The words that once haunted her now came easy. “You’re the right man, always were.”
Then she passed out.
Chapter Eighteen
Liam paced the space outside Maura’s bedroom. She had refused to stay in the hospital for more than a routine checkup and some stitches. She insisted on getting home to her bed. That meant sending men ahead of them to clean up and make the place livable after the break-in.
Rather than fight her, he played along. Once Maura made up her mind, all the intelligence and common sense in the world couldn’t convince her. He told her to do one thing and she immediately did the opposite.
He tried to work up a sense of frustration for the habit, but her actions just made him smile. The awkward girl had grown into a confident woman.
“How is she doing?” Detective Spanner nodded a welcome to the two police officers stationed at her front door. “Was it just the one cut?”
“The doctor is looking her over one more time, but the wound didn’t go too deep. She lost some blood, but that’s about it.”
“She seemed ticked off in the hospital.”
“Apparently, doctors do make the worst patients.”
Spanner laughed. When the amusement left his face the turn was abrupt. “Patricia is being examined.”
Liam never wanted to hear the woman’s name again.
The idea of her getting off without any jail time sent his anger spiking. “You think she qualifies for insanity?”
“Only if an obsession over money can land you there.”
Liam pushed Patricia out of his mind. He vowed to stay positive for Maura’s sake. After all the horrible things she’d seen today, she deserved a few hours with out death.
And they had a lot to talk about. He had no idea if she remembered her words as she drifted off in that hallway, but he did. He lived for them. They kept him
from losing what little control he had left after Maura hit the wall with a thud.
“Thanks for making the charges go away.” Appreciation didn’t always come easy for Liam, but he meant this.
Spanner shrugged it off. “The prosecutor will work it all out in the morning, but the paperwork and forensics at Smithfield, combined with the conversation I overheard, made the complex scenario pretty clear.”
Liam knew Spanner did more than present a case.
He fought for Maura, put up his good name against the political pressure and rumors in the media to make sure she didn’t get a record or spend one night in jail.
“I owe you one.” Liam held out his hand in a heartfelt gesture of gratitude.
Spanner shook it. “The department gave you a raw deal. This probably doesn’t erase the debt, but it’s my contribution to the cause.”
“It’s enough.” In just a few sentences and with one act of trust in the face of incredible odds, Spanner made a dent in the anger that had been building inside Liam ever since he lost his job in a public furor.
“Call on me anytime.”
When Dan joined them, Spanner said his round of goodbyes. He escorted the doctor out and dragged the other officers along with him.
The resulting quiet made Liam jumpy.
Through all the activity, talking to police and medics, Liam had avoided this conversation. The one where Dan asked the tough questions.
Dan leaned against the back of the couch and crossed his arms in front of him. “Anything you want to tell me?”
“She needed help. I wasn’t about to let her down.”
“You let me think she was dead.”
“I really thought she was.”
“Uh-huh.”
Panic revved up inside Liam again. Dan was his best friend. They’d stuck by each other for years. When Liam’s father pushed him aside, Dan stood by Liam’s side. When everyone else abandoned Liam, Dan stepped up. The invitations didn’t taper off. When he said he believed Liam acted with honor, Dan meant it.
The idea of losing Dan as a friend made Liam sick.
Night Moves Page 15
