Deadly Rumors

by Cheris Hodges

  I’m in DC. Going to be out of touch for a while. Love you.

  Zoe turned the phone off and closed her eyes. Drifting off to sleep, she dreamed of putting a bullet in Singletary’s head.

  * * *

  Carver leaned back in his chair as he tracked Joe’s electronic footprint. The trail went cold in New York.

  “Where do you think he went?” Sarah asked as she slurped her chow mein noodles.

  “That’s what frustrates me to no end. We get a glimpse of him and then he disappears.” Carver slapped his hand across the desk.

  “You’re really upset, huh,” Ray said with a smirk.

  “Shut up.”

  “She’s really pretty,” Kenneth said. “I’d put my nuts on the line for her, too.”

  Carver glared at them. “Can we just get over how she looks?”

  “Nah,” Ray said. “Let’s talk about why we’re really here.”

  “Because Singletary is a fucking killer.”

  “Yeah, right,” Kenneth said. “That might be part of why the FBI is looking for him, but this little reunion is all about sweet pea back there.”

  “That’s a damned . . . Look, Zoe isn’t the only one at risk because of Singletary and she has—”

  “Calm down, cowboy.” Sarah grabbed two egg rolls and tossed one at Ray. “We all want to get Joe.”

  “Some more than others.”

  “Ray, shut the f—”

  “Guys, calm down. Now we need a plan to get Singletary. We can talk about the lovely Zoe later.”

  Everyone laughed, except Carver. “While you-all are cracking jokes, keep in mind that we have to figure out why Singletary was in New York. Was he the one behind the bombing of Zoe’s office?”

  “Got video on that,” Raymond said. “And it looks like someone dressed as an alarm tech set the devices. But he was smart enough not to show his face.”

  Carver released a frustrated breath. “How do you know it wasn’t Singletary?”

  “Was smaller than Joe and shorter.”

  “Maybe it was the mob, like the old man said,” Carver said as he rose to his feet.

  “Or,” Kenneth said, “maybe your girl has more enemies than you think. I looked at some of her older cases. She’s pissed a lot of people off and the NYPD is at the top of that list. She’s investigated some of the same officers that she worked with. Her old partner lost his job because Zoe uncovered some abuse.”

  “You think more than one person wants to kill Zoe?” Carver asked as he paced back and forth.

  Sarah snapped her fingers. “You said Zoe got her ex-partner fired, right?”

  Kenneth nodded. “I’ve checked to see if there is any activity on his credit or debit cards and we got nothing.”

  “But we do know he and Singletary were together in New York,” Ray said. “If they teamed up, Zoe is in trouble.”

  Chapter 27

  Zoe woke up in a cold sweat. She’d been spooked by her dream about Zach. She saw him in trouble, in a sea of fire, reaching out for her. His mouth was open but no words came out. Sweat dropped down her back like rain. Did that dream mean something, or had she allowed the fact that Singletary wanted to kill her make her paranoid?

  “Calm down,” she muttered as she sat up. But a feeling of impending doom kept her rooted on the sofa. Zoe could hear muffled voices coming from the other room. She figured the whole team must be back.

  Glancing at her watch, she saw it was after midnight. “Didn’t mean to sleep this long.” Rising to her feet, she stretched her arms above her head. Then she headed toward the main room.

  When she entered, all of the conversation stopped. Looking around at the new faces, she had to say that Carver surrounded himself with good-looking people. One of the men in front of one of the computers reminded her of the Rock, with his smooth caramel complexion and expressive brown eyes. Underneath his shirt, she could see the outline of his rippling muscles.

  The other man, who looked to be of Middle Eastern descent, with his jet-black hair and full beard, looked as if he could be a superhero. His coal-black eyes were mesmerizing. Zoe wondered how Sarah kept her wits, surrounded by these men.

  “Hello.”

  Carver rose from his chair and crossed over to Zoe. “You all right?” he asked.

  It didn’t go unnoticed by anyone that Carver wrapped his arm around Zoe’s waist in a possessive manner.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Didn’t mean to sleep that long.”

  “You obviously needed the rest. Let me introduce you to the other guys on the team.”

  They crossed over to the computers and Carver pointed to the Rock look-alike and introduced him as Raymond.

  “And this joker right here is Kenneth. A man of many faces.”

  Kenneth stood up and kissed Zoe’s cheek. “That’s how the French do it. Nice to meet you.”

  Carver glared at Kenneth and hip checked him as he walked Zoe over to Sarah’s monitor.

  “Singletary’s trail goes cold in New York. We have evidence that he linked up with your former partner, Lewis Martinez. But we don’t know where they went. All they really have in common is that they both want you dead.”

  Zoe shook her head at how matter-of-factly Sarah spoke. But if this woman was a Marine, she looked at death all the time. There was no need for her to get emotional about Zoe’s life.

  “Is there anyone else in New York with a grudge?” Sarah asked.

  “That could be half the city.” Zoe shrugged her shoulders.

  Kenneth grunted. “More specifically, have you heard from any of the other cops you investigated?”

  “Lewis is the only person I’ve heard from directly,” she replied. “Would be just like that damn prick to team up with Joe to get me.”

  “Guys, we got to shut down. Our hack has been discovered,” Sarah said.

  Kenneth hit a kill switch on the system and all of the screens went dark. Zoe felt as if she were in the middle of a spy movie. Part of her wondered, if these four people could get as much information on Singletary as they had in a few weeks, what stopped the FBI from bringing him down?

  “So, what are you guys? If you have access to all of this information, why is Singletary still free?”

  “Do we look as if we’re doing this within the confines of FBI protocols?” Ray asked.

  “What Mr. Sensitivity is trying to say,” Kenneth said, “is that what we do is deep, deep undercover and we don’t—”

  “We’re called Shadows for a reason,” Sarah said, and rolled her eyes. “We help each other with hard cases and sometimes we bring down rogue agents. We’re trying to figure out who else is helping Singletary, and the only people we trust are in this room.”

  Carver nodded. “Sometimes we break the rules.”

  “Oh,” Zoe said as she folded her arms across her chest.

  “And some of us use this space for personal reasons,” Ray said, then rose to his feet. “Are you worth it, Zoe?”

  Carver crossed over to Ray and pushed him in his massive chest. “You’re fucking out of line!”

  “We’re all taking a risk here. I’m not out of line at all.”

  Sarah moved liked lightning to split the men apart. “We decided to do this because this is what we do. You two need to take this beef and grill it, or I will shut it all down!”

  Zoe took a deep breath. “You know what, I’m not trying to cause problems and I didn’t ask any of you to take a risk for me. I didn’t know this was going on.” She shot an accusatory glance at Carver. “If you don’t want to help me, I can take care of myself. I’m not a damsel in distress.”

  “Zoe, excuse Raymond. He was obviously dropped on the head as a child.” Sarah punched him in the forearm.

  Ray rolled his eyes. “Twenty-four-hour protocol, right?”

  Sarah nodded. “We’re going to go silent for twenty-four hours and pretend we haven’t seen each other in months.”

  “Then I’m going to New York to see if they left any clues as to where they a
re now.”

  Zoe furrowed her brows, confused that Raymond would continue to work the case when he seemed to be so against it. Carver walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about him,” he whispered in her ear. “He’s the devil’s advocate of the group.”

  “And here I thought he was just the asshole.”

  “Let’s get out of here and go to sleep.”

  “Sure, though I am wide-awake. Maybe we should go over the information that I have on Singletary and see if there’s a pattern or something.”

  “No, you need to relax. Zoe, are you sure that you’re all right?”

  She looked deep into his eyes and was about to tell him about the dream she’d had when Kenneth walked over to them. “Hey, guys, we got to go.”

  Carver nodded. “Come on, we can talk on the way out.”

  Kenneth looked from Zoe to Carver. “I hope you understand why Ray was asking those questions.”

  “I really don’t care,” Zoe said.

  “Let it go, K,” Carver said. “We’ll deal with this in the morning.”

  “Breakfast at your place?” Kenneth asked.

  Carver nodded as he and Zoe walked out the door. She turned to him once they were on the sidewalk. “You cook breakfast?”

  “No, we’re just going to have a discussion about what we need to do to take Singletary down. There is a Dunkin’ Donuts about three blocks away.”

  “Ooh, apple fritters. Is it open twenty-four hours?”

  Carver laughed. “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”

  Charlotte, North Carolina

  Lewis parked his car across the street from the Harringtons’ house. He knew there wasn’t much time to make sure everything went well. It was two a.m., and in four hours, the Harringtons would be starting their day. Joe said that he was going to make sure Zach left the house first because of their bogus meeting. Picking up his night-vision binoculars, Lewis looked at the house. He didn’t see anything, but he imagined the couple inside making love.

  He remembered early mornings and late nights with his wife. She’d brush her taut ass against him and his dick would stand at attention. She’d always sleep in a sheer nightgown, giving him access to her wetness at all times. He’d slip his hand underneath the gown and stroke her until she purred. His little sex kitten had always been ready to please him.

  Lewis imagined that Chante was the same way when it came to Zach. That’s why he looked so happy all the time and so in love. That’s why Lewis was going to leave the ransom note. He’d done everything necessary to make sure he couldn’t be traced.

  Lewis had a separate cell phone and he left that number on the bottom of the note. He made sure when he wrote it that he used gloves and an envelope that was self-sealing so that he wouldn’t leave DNA.

  One of the last cases he’d been involved with at the NYPD had been a kidnapping, and the suspect got caught because he’d licked the envelope. Lewis knew that couldn’t happen. Leaning his seat back, he watched the dark house and thought of all he’d lost because of Zoe Harrington. He’d known the bitch was trouble the first time they’d done a stop and frisk together.

  “Put your hands up!” Lewis yelled at the hooded black man running away from him and Zoe. He drew his gun and she glared at him.

  “What are you going to do, shoot him in the back?” She ran up behind the man and pushed him into a pile of trash on the corner. “Why are you running?”

  “Because you motherfuckers are chasing me. I didn’t do shit! And that bitch with you is crazy! Always around here robbing people!”

  Zoe pulled the man to his feet. “What are you talking about?”

  Lewis walked up behind Zoe. “He has weed. I bet he tossed it.”

  “I don’t have shit and I didn’t have shit!”

  “Calm down,” Zoe said. “Against the wall. Let me just make sure you’re clean, then you can go.”

  “But he fits the description of—”

  “If he’s clean, he’s free to go!” Zoe snapped, then patted the man down. Finding nothing illegal on him, she nodded for him to take off. He ran away from them and Lewis jumped in Zoe’s face.

  “You’re supposed to have my back out here, not some—”

  “Some what? Some nigger? Some innocent guy?”

  Lewis shook his head. “You better figure out whose side you’re on or you’re not going to make it.”

  “I’m not working with a dirty cop, and if that guy is telling the truth about what you’re doing out here, then I’m going to the Internal Affairs Bureau.”

  “Oh, so you’re a rat?”

  “Call it what you want, but you can’t use that badge to terrorize people.” She strode off to the patrol car and Lewis knew that she was going to be trouble.

  “Bitch,” he muttered. “It’s time to make you suffer like you did me.”

  * * *

  Inside the house, Zach woke up and picked up his cell phone. Glancing down at the screen, he reread Zoe’s message and still didn’t understand it. What was she doing in DC, and why did she have to turn her phone off?

  “Babe?” Chante said, her voice husky with sleep. “Are you all right?”

  “Not really. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with my sister.” He set his phone on the nightstand. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “With all of your tossing and turning and your daughter’s kicking, I wasn’t sleeping anyway.”

  Zach inched closer to his wife and drew her into his arms. “Sorry about that, babe. I know you need your rest.”

  “Yes, because today is going to be my last day going into the office, and I’m not going to do a lot of working from home.”

  “I love the way that sounds. I guess that means I’m going to have to pamper you and start working from home as well.”

  Chante stroked his cheek. “Do you miss New York?”

  “Sometimes, but not enough to leave you here while I’m there.”

  Chante sighed and rubbed her belly, which had expanded overnight—in her mind. “If you ever wanted to move back there, I’d be willing to compromise with you.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  Chante shrugged. “You don’t seem as if you’re really happy here.”

  “Darling, I’m happy wherever you are. I’m worried about Zoe. Something just hasn’t been right with her lately, and my sister has been known to take risks.”

  “I get that vibe from her. But she’s a detective, Zach.”

  “Zoe used to be a cop and she quit because she had a dirty partner. After she quit, she took on those cops. Dad and I wanted Zoe to come into the family business and have a nice safe desk job. Maybe we should’ve let her play with those military boys during Fleet Week so that she could’ve gotten all of this out of her system.”

  “Wait, what does Fleet Week have to do with anything?”

  “Zoe wanted to go to Manhattan for Fleet Week when all the Marines and sailors come to the city.”

  “And you stopped her.”

  Zach laughed. “Locked her in the basement.”

  “Harsh!”

  “And that probably turned Zoe into the hardcore feminist that she is now.”

  “You say that as if being a feminist is a bad thing,” Chante said. “Your sister is probably saving the world and we’ll never know about it. I think Zoe is really some sort of superhero.”

  “Whatever. Don’t ever say that in front of her. She might believe it and start wearing a cape.” Zach kissed Chante’s cheek. “Should we go back to sleep or use this energy that we have for something else?”

  “Sweetheart, I will have to make it up to you later because I’m so tired.”

  “Party pooper,” he whispered as they both drifted off to sleep again.

  * * *

  Zoe couldn’t sleep. She found herself walking around Carver’s living room as the sun came up. He’d been sleeping ever since Kenneth left. But Zoe couldn’t turn her mind off.
She’d put her location out there and Singletary hadn’t taken the bait. Did he know she was working closer to the FBI now and was on to him? What was he waiting for?

  She headed for the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Gulping the cold liquid, she decided that she was tired of hiding. She was going to go back to New York and return to her normal life. If Singletary was waiting for her there, then she’d be ready.

  “Did you sleep at all?” Carver’s question startled her and she dropped the water bottle.

  “No,” she said as she kneeled down and picked up the bottle. Carver grabbed some paper towels to mop up the water.

  “Zoe, whatever you’re thinking, you shouldn’t do it.”

  “You can read my mind now?”

  “Yes, I can. Are you planning to go back to New York?”

  Zoe leaned against the sink as Carver dumped the wet towels in the trash. “I appreciate what you and your team tried to do, but I can’t keep depending on you guys. Especially when some of you don’t even seem to think I’m worth the trouble.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they think, Zoe. And Raymond obviously thinks you’re worth it, since he is in New York trying to trace Singletary. But the most important thing is, I know you’re worth it, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to watch you risk your life because you think you have something to prove.”

  “I never said that I had something to prove. But I don’t hide, and that is what this feels like. If he wants to get me, then I’m ready for him to come for me.”

  “And if he does come for you and you die?”

  “Why do you think I can’t take care of myself?”

  “This man is dangerous, and even if you can take care of yourself, you don’t know his plan. You don’t know if he’s going to have some little kid come up to you with a bomb in a box. Zoe, please. Let me help keep you safe. I can’t lose you.”

  “And I can’t keep hiding under your slacks! Had you told me the truth about what was going on when you came to my office that day, we could’ve come up with a plan and taken care of this.”

  Carver folded his arms across his chest. “When I showed up on your doorstep, you looked as if you wanted to kick me out of your space. Now, be honest with yourself—had I told you that someone wanted you dead and I was there to protect you, would you have listened?”