Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops)

by Duncan, Nikki

  When Aidan released her, Tyler was there for a hug. Then Breck and Ava and finally Kieralyn. They each welcomed her, and with every hug the tightness Liam hadn’t noticed released from around his heart. He’d known they would step in and help her, but their automatic acceptance of her meant more to him than he’d thought it could.

  When Kieralyn released Grey, she passed her back to Liam. He ran a hand along Grey’s arm. “Sorry I didn’t warn you.”

  “I’ve lived with enough lies. It’s fine.”

  His sisters had always been supremely pissed when claiming things were fine. Grey’s tone didn’t hold the same edge, but neither was she pleased. He would have to think about that later, though, because he wasn’t inviting an argument in front of the team. “They had to know.”

  “And they couldn’t know part without knowing all.” She nodded. “I figured that out in the stairwell with Kieralyn.”

  Tyler got down to business. He led Grey to the corner chair and placed his tablet in her lap. He tapped the screen a few times and called up a gallery of images. “Tell me if any of these men look familiar. To enlarge…”

  He trailed off when she double tapped the screen and then began flipping through the images with a flick of her finger. “I took the description Kieralyn gave me and ran it against known associates of Jessup.”

  “I didn’t see his men often, only once that I remember, but he gives off a kind of eeriness that’s memorable. And from what I heard, he was entirely devoted to Jessup.”

  Tyler left her to her search and talked with the team. “The warden says Jessup’s maxing out his Internet time each week, and he’s had an increase in people trying to visit.”

  “He’s running his business from inside,” Breck stated, “and damn if it doesn’t sound like he’s planning something.”

  “We need to know what, though.”

  “That’s easy,” Grey said from where she scanned images. “I’m the only thing keeping him in prison. He wants me dead.”

  “Well that’s not happening.”

  Liam looked over to Grey, who was still flipping through pictures. It wasn’t enough that she told them whom she’d seen. She needed to ID him visibly without any prompting. They needed evidence. “Marshal Carpenter said their entire case hinged on her testimony.”

  “Who?” Breck asked.

  “The U.S. Marshal assigned to Grey until she left the program. When she left Vegas to come here he called.”

  “Why?”

  Liam watched Grey, measuring her reaction to his answers. “When I ran her name a few years ago I triggered their system. He thought we’d been looking into Jessup so he gave me a head’s up. He didn’t seem to know we’re married.”

  “Why’d you run her name?” Aidan asked.

  “Because she left him as fast as she married him.”

  Liam’s gaze snapped to Ava. As an empath she was good at reading people, but not their minds. Grey spoke before he could.

  “I didn’t know he was a Fed when I married him. I saw his badge and Miami address and freaked.”

  “Because you and Jessup are from here,” Liam said.

  “I never mentioned you to Micah. To anyone.”

  Grey nodded and thankfully that seemed to be the end of the questions about their history.

  “So this is all a trap,” Breck stated. “Is that the theory we’re working on?”

  “Yes,” Grey answered without looking up from the tablet. “At least it’s Micah’s.”

  “And if he’s not helping Jessup, the man we saw could be vying for position of top dog,” Kieralyn tacked on. “And he’d need Grey out of the way as much as Jessup.”

  “Because he can’t know she won’t name him during the trial,” Ava finished.

  Tyler pulled out a second tablet, and set his fingers to work. “I read most of the file the Bureau has on Jessup—it’s a big one filled with circumstantial evidence. I’ve sent a request to the other agencies to see if they have anything.”

  “Is there anything we can use that we haven’t already discussed?” Aidan asked.

  Tyler shook his head. “Not that I’ve found. We need to focus on identifying the players and keeping these women safe so Grey can be at the trial.”

  Grey approached them and laid the tablet on the bed by Tyler with the full gallery showing. “Fifteen is the man I saw in the elevator and stairwell. If he’s not in charge, then number twenty-two would be my guess. I saw him more frequently. Number seven is also vaguely familiar. Maybe he ran a delivery or two at the shop.”

  “Delivery?” Breck asked.

  “Drugs.” Grey stuck her hands in her pockets and stood rigidly near Tyler. “They had a whole system worked out with the Matoots. I got in the way.”

  Tyler took the tablet and after a few taps had no doubt initiated detailed searches into the men she’d identified.

  Liam leaned against the wall, struggling with the boundaries he had to obey now that the team was looking into the case. He’d seen the lingering damage of whatever she’d seen, and he didn’t want to ask about it, but they needed to know and she’d have to talk about it at trial. “What did you witness, Grey? How often did you come across Jessup? Can you explain their system?”

  She turned to him but didn’t meet his gaze. “I told you about learning to work with chocolate in the pastry shop.”

  “Yes.”

  “Before that I mixed the batters for our products. Sometimes I helped package stuff for the retail outlets we sold to.”

  “And Jessup?”

  “The owners introduced him as a customer. We had several local stores that sold our mixes. He looked and acted the part, and all the men who did pickups for him wore the same uniform. There was no reason to doubt the story.”

  “What changed?” Liam prompted.

  “Everything we made for Jessup was for a standing order. Turns out he was the dealer and his product was hidden in the packaged mixes. An employee took one of the mixes and a kid died from an overdose. When the cops started looking at the Matoots they contacted Jessup and demanded he find another way to move his merchandise.”

  She rolled her shoulders, rubbed her neck. Liam’s palms itched to comfort her, but he resisted. She needed to know she was strong enough to get through the retelling, because that would help her move past anything else she faced.

  “I had gone back to clock out after making a delivery, and I walked in to see Jessup holding a gun to Mrs. Matoot’s head. He demanded that Mr. Matoot change his mind, that he agree to continue distributing. Mr. Matoot refused so Jessup pulled the trigger. He gave Mr. Matoot another chance to comply. Instead, he fell to Mrs. Matoot’s side and refused again. Jessup shot him the same way.”

  She spoke mechanically, as if she was divorcing herself from what had happened. If she could maintain that, it would help her stay calm on the witness stand when the day came. “From what I heard, the weapon hasn’t been recovered so there’s nothing to tie him to the murders. All the orders were verbal, payments were made in cash. There was no record of a store receiving those deliveries.”

  She didn’t mention the part about the woman being stabbed and raped. The evasion made Liam more certain she was the woman.

  Breck ended her retelling by standing and doling out tasks. “Tyler will do what Tyler does, running the men Grey identified. If there’s a paper trail he’ll find it. Aidan, do you mind talking to Lana?”

  Aidan scoffed. “Yes, but it won’t matter. This is the kind of story she’s most attracted to. If I bring her in I can at least convince her to hold off before writing anything.”

  Aidan’s willingness to talk about work with his journalist fiancée was becoming more commonplace, but it was strange. The only thing that made it seem normal was knowing they still argued at every turn about how cases and stories should be handled.

  “Ava, could you reach out to Simon? He’s good at finding information people don’t want found. Maybe he can help.”

  “He’s watching Ruby
tonight, but I’ll call him. Then I need to follow some leads on a few other cases.”

  Breck nodded. Simon was a private investigator who’d tracked down and then kept hidden some of the best-hidden people and then he’d tracked others through those connections. He’d also, unexpectedly, become close friends with Ava’s fiancé, H.

  “Kieralyn and Liam, you two keep an eye on Grey and Ruby. Liam, I’ll cover you on the cases you’ve been working. And I’ll talk to the director.”

  Breck, Aidan, Ava and Tyler gathered their things and with a final round of welcomes and assurances for Grey said good-bye. Grey stopped Tyler when he placed a hand of support on her shoulder.

  “Tyler, you’re already doing so much, but could I ask another favor?”

  “Name it.”

  She looked at her sister, licked her lips and asked, “Would you look into Ruby? I’m curious what her life’s been like. If she had anyone we should find a way to contact.”

  He flicked a glance at Liam before looking back to her. “We’ve already started. I’ll make sure to send Liam the latest information.”

  “Have you found anyone?”

  Tyler shook his head. “It appears as if she’s kept to herself the last several years. She works from home and aside from the grocery store she rarely goes out.”

  “So she’s been alone.”

  Sorrow pinched Liam’s heart at the guilt in Grey’s voice. Tyler didn’t tell her she’d made the right choice, that she’d kept Ruby and herself safe for five years. Kieralyn and Liam also remained silent, because they couldn’t really know she’d made the right choice. They could only hope for the best.

  Tyler nodded and made his exit, leaving Liam alone with Grey, Kieralyn and Ruby. Liam wanted to pace, to run, to pound his fist into someone until they were bloody and bruised. He wanted to release every ounce of hindering helplessness. But he needed to be steady for Grey, so he suppressed his wants and focused on the next step.

  Grey walked to Ruby’s bed and lifted her sister’s hand. She sat on the side of the bed, cradling Ruby’s hand in her lap. Her shoulders shook as she leaned forward and laid her head on Ruby.

  “I’m sorry I left you,” she whispered to her sister, “but I’m here now.”

  Liam swallowed the urge to go to Grey. Instead, he nodded for Kieralyn to follow him. Stepping into the hall, he left Grey to confront her guilt in privacy. When they got home, though, he would pull her close and find a way to begin putting her heart back together.

  Chapter Eight

  The ocean was about ten minutes away from Liam’s home, but its breezy scent reached clean and heady through the car’s open windows. Grey had asked about driving her own car, but Liam insisted on taking his, which left her little to do except watch him and the passing scenery.

  She inhaled, pulling the peace of the ocean’s scent deep into her—muscle, cell, bone. She’d missed the smell and the crash of the waves. Times like these she would have visited her favorite sandy haven to clear her head. Now, a visit was out of the question, since she had to avoid her favorite spot.

  Unlike the night before, when Liam neared the security gate to his division, the guard opened the gate automatically. Liam waved and drove toward the house.

  “Your team is pretty impressive,” she said in an effort to fill the annoying silence.

  “We’ve been through a lot together.” He rubbed the top of his fingers along hers. He’d been touching her with the same soft gestures all day and each time he did her skin popped with goose bumps. He’d said nothing, but every gesture suggested intimacy, which made her crave him while reminding her why they’d never last.

  “Which could tear you apart.”

  “Except it made us stronger. We’re good on our own, but together we’re unbeatable.”

  She understood the theory even if it wasn’t one she could say she’d ever witnessed. His claims about how wonderful his friends were had been confirmed with every hug she’d been welcomed by. And each hug had twisted painfully, because she would leave Liam. Now, that meant she would also leave his friends.

  “I know they can take some getting used to. Mainly how much we’re in each other’s lives, but you’ll get used to them.”

  “Liam.” She pulled her hand from beneath his and placed it in her lap. “I need to tell you something.”

  He pressed the button for the garage door. “You can tell me anything.”

  “I’m…” Her words fell away as the door rose. The convertible had been moved into the far spot and her dented up Corolla with its stained interior and two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand mile wear and tear sat in the spot beside Liam’s.

  The heap couldn’t be more out of place.

  Like her.

  “You’re what?”

  “What’s my car doing here?” She’d assumed it would sit in the hospital lot when he insisted he drive.

  “We couldn’t leave it in the lot. For all we know Jessup’s people would find it and tamper with it.”

  “So you had it brought here.”

  It was sound logic. Everything Liam did for the sake of her safety was based on sound logic. The quality was equal parts endearing and frustrating. His latest gesture of getting her car, ten years past its expiration date, to his house turned a spotlight on their differences.

  He was uptown. She was ghetto in a fading mask.

  Logic and focus drove him. Spontaneity and guilt drove her.

  He eased to a stop by her beater and put his machine in Park. “Where would you have rather seen it?”

  “An impound lot. The bottom of the ocean. In a scrap pile.” She waved at the eyesore that had barely survived the trip from Vegas. “I’d rather see it anywhere but here.”

  Liam studied her, long and serious. His silence wasn’t awkward, but neither was it easy. It was telling, as if he saw into her and could pull every insecurity to the surface with the lightest tug.

  “You don’t think you belong here.”

  “I know I don’t.”

  “You think my friends and my house are more than you deserve. Even for a short time.”

  She flinched. They were so much better than her, but the only way to make him understand would be to tell him everything. He would never know everything. She would never look into his eyes and see disgust looking back at her.

  “You intend to leave, Grey.” The stark acceptance in his tone stabbed at her. “I intend to make that very difficult.”

  “Why?” Her voice cracked. “Why do you want me here?”

  “I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you, so when you’re ready to stay, if you get ready, I’ll answer that question.”

  “Your answer may be what I need to change my mind.” It wasn’t, but the idea that it could be held appeal.

  He brought her hand up and placed a kiss on her wrist. “You have to want it for your own reasons.”

  “Why can’t you make things easy?”

  He was smiling as he leaned across her to open her door. His arm brushed her breast and a new round of goose bumps sprang to life. “The best things in life come with a little pain and heartbreak.”

  “And how do you define ‘best things’?”

  He kissed her cheek and kept his response to himself as he got out of the car and headed inside. Grey sat for a minute, stared at his retreating back and then the closed door as hollowness flooded her stomach.

  Since their reunion he’d opened every door for her and showered her with affection. She’d wanted him to ease up, to stop so she could think straight. He had and she found herself facing something that felt suspiciously like sadness. It weighed heavy in her heart and sat thick in her throat. His departure left her feeling…empty.

  Unsure what she’d say when she caught up to him she followed. Reconciliation with why she felt the way she did was far off, yet when she opened the door to the kitchen it became unattainable.

  “Of course I’m happy to see you. I only asked what you were doing here.” Liam held a sprite of a
woman in his arms and hugged her close.

  Dark hair and alabaster skin, with a frame so petite she looked fragile enough to crack beneath Liam’s large hands, the other woman had her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “I’m in town for a conference. You said the place was always open.”

  Nice. He’d acted like he’d only been interested in Grey, yet he’d given his key and security code to someone else.

  The woman, who even sounded like Liam, raised her head and smiled at Grey as she tapped Liam’s shoulder. “Hi.”

  He set her down. Despite her three-inch heels she barely reached his chest. She looked like a child. Rather, she had the face of a child and the body of a siren.

  Grey did not return the child woman’s greeting. She was too busy wrestling down the sadness that had quickly morphed and boiled toward rage. Or it could be jealousy.

  “Grey, come meet Gara, one of my all-time favorite people.”

  She didn’t want to meet Gara, or any other woman making herself welcome in his house. Considering Grey’d be leaving in a couple of weeks, however, she had no right to say anything. Spine stiff, stomach churning with dislike, she nodded a greeting.

  The girl didn’t look as young a little closer, but she still couldn’t be more than twenty-one. “Hello.”

  The right corner of Liam’s top lip twitched with an unrealized smile. He was laughing at her. There was some joke only he was privy to and his resulting humor made her the butt. In her eyes that made him an ass.

  “Gara.” He stepped around the other woman and took Grey’s hand. “Sis, this is Grey.”

  Sis.

  “You…” His sister’s mouth dropped. Knowing her name didn’t make Grey want to use it. Using it only stood to make her personable and that would not do.

  Gara’s gaze darted between Liam and Grey. “I’m not sure what question to start with.”

  Liam placed his palm at the small of Grey’s back. “She’s my wife.”

  “Your… You… Oh my God!” Gara squeed at an eardrum-shattering pitch. “When? Does Aidan know? Have you phoned home?”

  She squeed again and hand-flapped her way to Liam. Grey sidestepped. Gara grabbed Liam into a hug, bouncing. Then she released Liam and turned on Grey.