Hard to give her a flat look when her breasts were still bare. She quickly did something about that and put her bra back on.
“You know what I mean,” he insisted. “This complicates things.”
She nodded. Sighed. And then she put on her jeans and the peep show was over. “Because your family will never accept me. Because you’ll never accept me.”
Jericho’s flat look turned to a scowl. And because that last part riled him, he hooked his hand around the back of her neck and kissed the living daylights out of her.
“Trust me, I’ve accepted you,” he snarled. And gotten himself worked up again in the process.
Laurel’s mouth twitched. Maybe from the hard kiss. Maybe because she was fighting back a smile. Since she was a smart woman, she won. The smile didn’t.
“Just so you know. I haven’t been with anyone else since that last time with you,” she added.
The night he’d gotten her pregnant. The reminder hit him like a punch. “I didn’t use a condom.” A first. Oh, man. He was clearly losing it. “I don’t guess you’re on the pill?”
She shook her head and didn’t look nearly as alarmed as he did. “No need for it. Well, not until tonight, anyway. It’s okay. It’s the wrong time of the month.”
Maybe. But considering he’d used a condom the last time and Laurel had still gotten pregnant, then maybe there was no wrong time of the month when it came to the two of them.
“At least we’re married,” he said, because he had no idea what else to say.
Now her smile won out. Jericho didn’t join in on it.
“You’re a serious distraction, you know that?” He dropped another kiss on her smiling mouth and unlocked the break room door so he could go and do all the things he should have been doing instead of having sex with Laurel.
Too bad he couldn’t say it wouldn’t happen again. And soon.
Yeah, he was losing it, all right.
“Good news,” Levi said the moment Jericho glanced into his office, where Levi was working at the desk. A place Jericho should be. “We got a warrant for Herschel’s arrest for Rossman’s murder.”
That was indeed good news. Jericho needed a whole lot more, though. Because as long as Herschel and those hired guns were at large, the danger would still be there for Laurel and Maddox.
“And the FBI got a match to Herschel’s voice on the recording from those surveillance tapes involving the money laundering,” his brother added. “There’ll be a warrant coming for that, too.”
Levi glanced at him. Did a double take. Then stared at Jericho—specifically at Jericho’s rumpled clothes and not-quite-right expression.
“Want to talk?” Levi asked him.
“Not about that.” Jericho huffed. “Why, do you want to tell me how wrong it is to get involved with Laurel again?”
“No.”
All right. That was a surprise. “Then what do you want to tell me?”
“That you’re human.”
Jericho huffed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you and Laurel have skirted this attraction for years. Fighting it. Giving in to it. Cursing yourself. Did you curse her, too?”
Yeah, in an indirect way he had. He’d said that hell. No plans to admit it, either. “Is there a point to all of this?”
“There is. If you two decide to quit skirting, then the family will eventually accept it. Hear me out,” Levi added when Jericho was about to argue with that. “Laurel and you have a child. That’ll bring Mom around. She’s already said she wants a truce with Laurel, and I believe she means it.”
But that was only one piece of this messy puzzle. “What about Herschel killing Dad?”
“What about it? True, Herschel almost certainly did kill him. But there’s never been an ounce of proof that Laurel had any part in it either before or after the fact.”
“But I knew,” Jericho heard Laurel say, and he cursed himself for not hearing her walk up behind them. In addition to his mind, his ears were going, too. “I didn’t have any proof, but I knew he’d done it.”
“And without proof, there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it,” Levi reminded her. Something that Jericho should have been telling her.
Laurel shook her head. “Still, I stayed under his roof. I continued to work for him.”
Levi jumped right on that, too. “Because of your sick mother. I get that. I’d do the same if it were my mother.”
Jericho scowled at Levi. It was the right thing to say. Right time to say it, too. But those right words should have been coming from Jericho’s mouth.
“All right.” Levi held up his hands. Obviously, Levi hadn’t missed Jericho’s sharp look. “Then you tell her. And this time try it without scowling. Without cursing.”
It got so quiet in the room that he could have heard an eyelash fall, and it took Jericho a lot longer to gather his thoughts.
Too long.
Because Laurel leaned in and kissed him. Hard. “It’s okay. We’ll work it all out later. For now, we’ll work on keeping Maddox safe. Christmas is only a matter of hours away, and I’d like for us to spend that day with him. With all of us safe.”
Well, hell’s bells. Now she was saying the right thing, too. And she was right.
“You said something earlier about possibly setting a trap,” she added.
“What kind of trap?” Levi immediately asked.
One that could out and out fail. Still, Jericho hadn’t been able to come up with anything else to bring the danger to a quick end. Laurel was right. Time was ticking away.
Jericho made sure they didn’t have any visitors in the squad room just in case Herschel had sent in one of his spies pretending to need some kind of help. But the only people out there were the two reserve deputies who were both busy working.
“Earlier, while the deputies were looking for Herschel, I spoke to Sheriff McKinnon over in Sweetwater Springs about possibly leaking some false information.” Jericho hoped this made sense when he said it aloud. “Information about what was in the message that the Moonlight Strangler left at the crime scene.”
Laurel shook her head. “What kind of false information?”
“The press has made a big deal out of the fact that the Moonlight Strangler hasn’t gone after Addie. Or anyone else in the family since they found out that she’s his daughter. I’ve seen some reporter speculate that the serial killer is actually helping us on cases.”
Jericho wanted to put that speculation to good use.
“I want it leaked that the Moonlight Strangler has evidence that could prove who’s been trying to kill Laurel. Evidence he intends to send to the cops tonight.” Jericho continued, “It’d have to be something specific.”
“Like proof of payment to the hired guns,” Levi supplied. “Or photos of the person meeting with one of the men.”
“Exactly like that. Something that could be used to trace the thugs back to the person who hired them. And it’ll help that it’s probably already leaked that the killer left something on his latest victim’s body. We could say that a courier will bring the evidence to the Sweetwater Springs’s sheriff office tonight, where it’ll be prepped to be sent to the crime lab.”
Another headshake from Laurel. “But what if the person who wants me dead goes after the sheriff and deputies in Sweetwater Springs? Or what if he goes after the courier?”
“The courier will be guarded, and Sheriff McKinnon will be ready for an attack.” At least that’s what McKinnon had assured Jericho. He hoped that was true because he didn’t want this to turn out badly for the fellow sheriff who was trying to do them a huge favor.
“It might not work,” Jericho added. “The person responsible could see right through the ruse and attack us here or while we’re on the way to the safe
house. We have to be ready for that.”
More silence. But this time it didn’t last very long, and Laurel nodded. “Let’s do it. Anything to put an end to this.”
Levi stayed quiet a moment longer. Then nodded. “I’m in.”
Jericho added his own nod and took out his phone to call Sheriff McKinnon. He just hoped like the devil that this was the right thing to do.
And that he wasn’t about to set another attack in motion.
* * *
THERE WAS NOTHING to do but wait. Something Laurel had been doing for the past two hours. She just wasn’t good at it, especially when lives were on the line to save Maddox and her.
She was tired of the danger. Tired of hiding. Tired of being away from her son. And especially tired of people dying because of some stupid plan that’d been set in motion by her father. Maybe by Theo or Dorothy. They might soon know if the trap that Jericho set worked.
The sheriff’s office was quiet. For a change. The two deputies were keeping watch at the back of the building. Jericho and Levi were at the front. Laurel was in Jericho’s office, away from the wall of front windows. It would be a gutsy move for someone to attack a building with four cops inside, but the other attacks had been gutsy, as well. Added to that, the person might be as desperate as Laurel was to put an end to all of this.
She leaned back in the chair, tried to settle her nerves. No chance of that happening, so she used one of the secure phones to call Jax. But it wasn’t Jax who answered. It was Iris.
Laurel’s heart went straight to her throat. “Is something wrong? Why didn’t Jax answer?”
“Everything’s fine. Jax is eating, that’s all, and when I saw the number on the screen, I thought it might be you calling. Maddox is still sleeping,” Iris went on. “I think he got tired out from all the ride-the-horsey games he played with Jax. Maddox is such a sweet little boy, Laurel.”
“Yes, he is. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And I should have said it sooner. I should have said a lot of things sooner.” Iris paused. “Like welcoming you to the family since Jericho and you are married now.”
“I’m not sure how long that’ll last.” The moment Laurel heard her own words, she winced. “I mean, you know he only married me so he could keep my father from getting custody of Maddox. But it looks as if my father won’t stand a chance at doing that now.”
“Yes, Jax told me about that. It’ll be an answer to a lot of prayers if Herschel is stopped.” Another pause. “But that doesn’t have anything to do with Jericho and you and your marriage. You two have always been together, even when you weren’t. And you’re good together.”
Laurel got a flash of a naked Jericho with her in the break room, and despite everything else, she felt a trace of pleasure ripple through her again.
“I guess what I’m saying is I won’t stand in the way of making this marriage permanent,” Iris continued. “In fact, I think you should make it permanent.”
Laurel certainly hadn’t seen that coming. “You mean for Maddox’s sake.”
“No. For you and Jericho. Just think about it.”
She was about to assure Iris that she would. She was about to thank her, as well, but Laurel heard Jericho and Levi talking in the squad room. Their voices weren’t raised or frantic, but there was something in Jericho’s tone that put Laurel on full alert.
“I need to go,” she said to Iris. “I’ll call you back.”
Laurel clicked the end call button and went to the doorway so she could see Jericho and Levi. Levi was on the phone, but Jericho immediately turned to her. Yes, she could tell from the look on his face that something had indeed happened.
“Your father was spotted in town,” Jericho said. “Just a couple of blocks from here.”
All right. That required her to take a deep breath. Of course, she’d known he was nearby. Well, he was if Rossman had been telling the truth, that is.
“I’d faxed your father’s picture to all the businesses that were still open, and the security guard at a storage facility spotted him a couple of minutes ago. Not alone. There were two other men in the car with him.”
Hired guns no doubt. “Is he coming here?” she asked.
“Maybe.” But his expression said definitely. She was the reason her father had come here, and his spies had likely already told him exactly where she was.
Laurel wasn’t afraid. She was well past that point when it came to her father. It was pure anger now. In fact, if she knew that Jericho and the others wouldn’t be hurt, she would demand a showdown with him.
But maybe there was something she could do.
“I’m calling my father,” she said, and Laurel didn’t wait for permission from Jericho. Something he’d never give her, anyway.
“Laurel,” Jericho snapped, his voice a stern warning.
However, she had already pressed in the number, and when her father answered on the first ring, she put the call on speaker.
“Jericho?” Her father’s greeting was as frosty as Jericho’s glare. The one he was volleying between the phone and her.
“No, it’s me,” Laurel said. “I understand you’re in town. Are you coming to see me?”
“Right. As if I’d let you know where I am or where I’m going. You’d just tell Jericho, and he’d arrest me. Or kill me.”
“Jericho’s not a killer. But you are.”
Her father cursed, and like Jericho’s glare, some of it was aimed at her. “I didn’t kill Rossman.”
“That’s not what he said,” Laurel argued.
“Well, he was mistaken. I was there, yes, because I got a call from one of my men. He said there was something I needed to see. Turned out to be a trap. Somebody shot Rossman, and now I’m getting the blame.”
That was possible, for her father to have been set up, but it was just as possible that he was lying.
“Rossman isn’t the only death connected to you,” she said.
“Ah, now we’re talking about Sherman Crockett. Since I suspect your husband is listening to our every word, then that’s one topic that’s not up for discussion.”
Jericho opened his mouth, no doubt to return verbal fire, but Laurel lifted her hand, motioned for him to stay quiet. Yes, her father probably did know that Jericho would be there with her, but she figured she would get more information out of him than Jericho would.
Well, maybe.
At the moment her father probably hated her more than he hated Jericho, and she might be able to strike a nerve. One that would get him to blurt out a confession.
“First Sherman, then my mother,” Laurel said.
Silence. For a long time. “Your mother was dying.”
“Possibly. Did you help that process along by giving her an overdose of painkillers?”
More silence. “She was in a lot of pain. No matter what you think of me, I loved her in my own way. I couldn’t stand to see her suffering.”
It took her a moment to rein in her own temper just so she could speak. “You didn’t love her. And she didn’t love you. She was terrified of you, and so help me, you’ll pay for killing her.”
“I didn’t kill her!” he shouted. “What, are you recording this? You think you can use it against me?”
“There’s already enough evidence against you. And there’s already a warrant out for your arrest.”
“A warrant, yes,” her father agreed, “but they’ll have to find me to serve it. In the meantime, I’ve got my entire legal team working to clear my name. And it will be cleared... What the hell...”
Laurel was about to ask him why he’d said that, but Jericho’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and immediately stepped away and answered it.
Laurel hurried after Jericho. “What’s wrong?”
Jericho was already t
alking to the person on the other end of the line, but he paused to answer her. “Someone just fired shots into the Sweetwater Springs sheriff’s office.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
So, someone had taken the bait.
Jericho was partially happy about that, but he darn sure wasn’t pleased that Sheriff McKinnon and his deputies were under fire.
“Are they okay?” Laurel asked. The color had drained from her face.
He considered going with a lie so that maybe he could ease some of the fear in her eyes, but Laurel was right in the thick of this with him. “I don’t know,” Jericho answered honestly. “Sheriff McKinnon only had a few seconds to tell me what was happening. I heard shots in the background,” he added.
She nodded. And, yep, the fear stayed. “What if they don’t capture one of their attackers alive?”
“They will.” Okay, that was possibly a lie, one that Jericho had to believe. If they didn’t or if they couldn’t get the hired gun to talk, then all of this danger had been for nothing.
Well, except for the fact that if the hired guns were there in Sweetwater Springs, they weren’t anywhere near the safe house that contained Maddox. Jericho hated to put fellow lawmen’s lives on the line, but if their situations were reversed, Jericho would have done the same for them.
Jericho went back to the window to keep watch, but he also tipped his head to the phone she was holding. “Is your father still on the line?”
She shook her head. “He hung up.”
That was just as well. Herschel had come darn close to incriminating himself, but he was too clever to spill anything important. Especially anything that would get him the death penalty. Of course, he might not have to spill anything if they could get the murder charges to stick. Or if Sheriff McKinnon managed to get a confession from the thugs who were now shooting at him.
“Is anyone out there?” Laurel asked. Still too pale, and he was pretty sure she was trembling now. Jericho wanted to go to her, but the shooting at Sweetwater Springs could be a ruse to get them to lower their guard.
Harlequin Intrigue, Box Set 1 of 2 Page 15
