Slater's Revenge

by Claudia Shelton

  Like the detective or not, Josh could tell Cummings still held himself responsible for his squad partner’s death. That left questions as to why he held on to the blame. Because he hadn’t been there? Or because he’d been involved somehow?

  Josh felt like he was pulling teeth the way he had to keep asking questions to get even a short answer. “Why’s the frame being updated now?”

  “Because Detective Lynette Lawrence was killed working vice down on D Street a couple weeks back.” Cummings glanced at the door, then the pool table, then the wall of pictures. “I’m glad Macki wasn’t still working that beat.”

  “Me, too,” Grey interjected. “She got out of this field of crime fighting at the right time.”

  The scent of jasmine floating past Josh caught his senses off guard as Macki walked up beside him. Touching his arm, she smiled just enough to make it appear they were a couple. He gave her a soft nudge with his arm and a quirk of the corner of his mouth. Everything fell in place like cream and sugar. They were good as a team…an undercover team, if nothing else. Too bad they weren’t actually cream and sugar.

  “You said you had something to show me. What is it?” She followed Grey as he went to the wall behind them.

  Small individual photographs littered the space with a larger picture centered among them. Josh felt her tremble a second before she stopped walking. She tucked her arms against her body straight and tight.

  “What’s wrong?” He placed his hand against her back, rubbing lazy circles.

  “The picture…” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  “What do you think?” Lieutenant Grey beamed as he touched the side of the frame.

  What the hell?

  Staring back from the frame was a teenage Macki, her parents, and Grey, along with his wife and Peggy, posed in front of the Cessna jet her parents had owned. The jet that had crashed. Six others posed in the picture also. He knew them, too.

  The pilot and copilot stood at one end of the group, the stewardess stood at the other end. And three mechanics knelt in front of the families. The same mechanics who’d kept that plane running for four years—one grinning like there’d be no tomorrow, one bald with an oversize earring, and one who smiled through the slump of his shoulders and the droop of his eyes.

  His dad.

  After his mom had died, his dad had always looked tired.

  Macki stepped forward to get a better look. She brushed her fingers across the glass then pressed them to her lips. “This…this was the last time I was on the plane. Right?”

  Grey slid his arm around her shoulders. “Yes. That was a few weeks before the crash. The last trip we all went on. Remember? We flew up to New York for a baseball game and a show?”

  She laid her head on the lieutenant’s shoulder. “Everybody had such a great time.”

  Moments passed before she stepped back, slipping her hand through the crook of Josh’s arm. She hung on to him like a petal fluttering in the storm yet determined to hang on for one more day. The pinch line between her eyebrows caught his attention. That and her eyes—tired eyes just like his dad.

  “You okay?” He sure as hell wasn’t, but that didn’t matter.

  Seeing only quiet resignation in her face told him the past was closing in on her fast. Time to go. “You ready to leave, Macki?”

  She nodded then turned to Grey. “Sorry, I’m just not feeling well. Thank you for the memory.”

  “I didn’t realize you’d be upset by the photo.” He picked up a gift bag from beneath the table under the picture. “I know you don’t want this right now, but I had a smaller copy made for you.”

  Josh couldn’t believe how off this whole scenario felt, almost like a setup to see reactions. Whose, though? Macki’s? His? Others in the room? Even if he had a problem with Grey and Cummings, he had to admit they’d been there for her more than he had. They claimed to care about her. Even if the gesture had been sincere, why keep pushing the fact when she was clearly upset?

  He needed time to evaluate. Mostly he needed some fresh air—even the kind that soaked you to the core with sweat.

  She eased a hug around the lieutenant’s neck as she accepted the bag then focused her attention on the picture gracing the wall. “Do you think any of the crew or mechanics had something to do with bringing the plane down?”

  Her question hung in the air. She’d messed up. As far as he knew, no one else on the police force was aware the plane had been targeted to crash. In fact, only a few FBI confidants, Drake, and some highly trusted OPAQUE agents had the full story.

  The room sounded jarringly quiet as he watched for reactions to her words. Would they all think she knew something? Or believe she was so upset she had no idea what she was asking? He hoped the latter.

  Grey took her hand in his. “Mackenzie, it was an accident. One of them missed something, that’s all. Mistakes happen. Haven’t you ever made a mistake?”

  The tiny upturn of her lips accentuated the brightening of her eyes. “Of course I have.” She jokingly nudged the lieutenant. “Why, I bet a tough old bird like you has made a few in his life, too.”

  “Sure enough. Now you go home and get some rest. If you decide you want the crew or mechanics out of the picture, I’ll get them photoshopped out.” The lieutenant snapped his fingers. “Easy as pie.”

  The moment Josh saw the upturn of her lips, he knew she’d realized her mistake. That she needed to fix it. She had. He was proud of her comeback. Damn proud of the cop she must have been at one time. She hadn’t forgotten her training.

  He steered her outside the same way they had come in, but the woman who’d giggled earlier had deflated in that expensive, jacked-up man cave. He didn’t like that. Heading to the compound’s gate, he noticed quite a few people had already left, but the sound level had revved up. The bass beat was pumping loud. The beer flowing free.

  From the looks of things, the real party was just getting started.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Had they really parked this far away? Mackenzie didn’t remember the walk from the truck to the barbeque taking this long, but the return trip seemed like a million miles. Was it the lingering humidity with the fading light of day? Or the tension of the make-believe afternoon? Didn’t matter. She was tired. That was why she’d messed up and said something about the plane being brought down. “Sorry about—”

  Josh squeezed her hand, then leaned in as if giving her a peck on the cheek. “Be quiet,” he whispered as he brushed his lips across her ear. Then he moved back to his position by her side. “No need to be sorry, I never told you I like my steak rare. Well done was an interesting change.”

  What was he talking about? She turned her questioning gaze on his raised-eyebrows look. He swiped his palm across his chin, making sure to raise two fingers across his lips, then reached out and took the gift bag Grey had given her. Nonchalantly he clicked a button on his cell phone and swiped the display over and inside the bag.

  Surveillance? He thought the bag was bugged? Well, that was the most paranoid thing she’d heard lately.

  He opened the passenger-side door, and she climbed inside then turned to reach for the seat belt. There was Josh, pulling her seat belt out before leaning across to fasten it for her. With the other hand, he centered the phone in the middle of the truck cab, pushed a button, and waited until a green light flashed clear.

  After closing the door, he scrutinized the perimeter of the truck, stooping at each tire. Finally, he jumped in the driver’s-side door, slipped the key in the ignition, and had the engine revving before he even straightened in the seat and shifted gears. A block away, he nodded she could talk.

  “Do you trust anybody, Josh?”

  “Not many. Neither should you.” He glanced in the rearview mirror then the side.

  She found herself glancing in hers, also. The man was seriously making her as paranoid as him. Trouble was, she had no idea what to be looking for. Evidently, he’d worked so many cases involving Coercion Ten that he kn
ew their MO. Knew what to check for.

  “I understand things aren’t what they should be. But to think that Lieutenant Grey would give me a gift so he could listen in to our conversation is beyond disbelief.” She pulled the bag from the floor bed and laid it on the seat between them.

  “I don’t put anything past him. From what I saw, he’s already shadowing his yard and the surrounding streets. Did you know that?”

  “You mean surveillance? I had no idea. This is the first time I’ve been to his house since a get-together for New Year’s.”

  “Didn’t it seem strange that he’d seen us in my truck?” Josh grumped. “Didn’t take me long to spot his camouflaged cameras facing the yard. I spotted a couple facing the outside perimeter as we walked back to the truck.”

  Her own security system at the hotel involved long-range cameras for the lobby and hallways, including some on crucial spots along the exterior. All legal and aboveboard. From his response, she assumed Josh had some doubts about Grey’s. “Is that why you didn’t want me to say anything? Afraid they could read our lips?”

  “There are some high-tech things in the world. I just wanted to be sure we weren’t being bugged. By the way, when did the Greys get so well-off?”

  “After Peggy OD’d, Mrs. Grey spiraled into a depression. Then cancer. In less than two years, she died. Lieutenant Grey took their deaths pretty hard.”

  If it hadn’t been for Drake, there was no telling what Grey might have done. The two men had commiserated over what their families had endured and their pain.

  “Grey said his current wife is rich. What do you know about her?”

  “He got remarried about three years ago to a wealthy widow from New York. The rest is history.” She’d been surprised at how short a time the lieutenant had known the woman before announcing they were engaged. But who was she to say when someone should find happiness again? “You know…new wife, new house, new outlook on life.”

  “Sounds like an easy out on grief, but I guess some men like that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. Just talking.” He shrugged.

  Talking? She didn’t buy that for a moment. Josh never just talked. Everything he said had a purpose. Everything he did.

  “I still can’t believe you checked the gift bag.” She pulled out the picture of the Greys and her family, the plane and crew. What a great time she and her parents had in New York that trip. Her dad and Grey had gone to a couple of meetings, but other than that they’d played the tourist part.

  “What are you smiling about?” Josh asked.

  She smiled even bigger. “I don’t know. All of a sudden I’m happy with the memories this has brought back.”

  He nodded at the gift bag. “Looks like there’s something else in there.”

  She reached inside and pulled out something wrapped in tissue paper. A note taped on top read Hope you like it. Then a smiley face right above the names Grey and Cummings.

  “Feels like another picture frame.” She felt a surge of excitement as she unwrapped the tissue paper.

  Blake. Blake and her. Blake and her and their kiss. Not one photo, but a collage—two snapped before and two after, with the kiss in the middle. “Son of a—” She slammed the picture against her lap. “Will he and Cummings never stop?”

  She remembered that day, that get-together at Grey’s house. Just like every other time, everyone had been on the two of them about being so private. Never a kiss in public. Never a hug. When were they sealing the deal with a marriage ceremony? They had both hated that part of their platonic arrangement—the constant battering for a show of affection.

  That day, she and Blake had kissed, trying to get everyone off their backs. He’d leaned in to tell her that they might as well get it over with. Then as she’d turned in his arms, he’d whispered something about making the kiss one that would knock their socks off and shut everyone up for good. She’d agreed. But she sure hadn’t known what her agreement meant.

  She shoved the picture back in the bag. Out of sight. Out of her hands.

  “I want to see that photo when we get to the garage,” Josh said.

  She sighed loudly and pulled the frame from the bag then laid it on the seat between them. “I don’t know why they can’t leave it be.”

  She focused on the passing buildings outside the passenger window the rest of the way to Hotel MacKenzie. Heading into her private garage, she keyed her unlock code on her phone.

  The darkness of the garage glared into full light as the door opened outward. The moment the truck cleared the outer point, the doors started closing and followed close behind the bumper. Her phony taxi, red sports car, and silver SUV welcomed her. Josh parked his truck in one of the four empty spots.

  “Well, we’re home.” She hopped out, happy to be able to relax without worrying about someone having her centered in their scope.

  Josh beeped his door lock. “By the way, I ordered a new surveillance system for the garage.”

  “I already have a system linked with the hotel security.”

  He shook his head. “Too easy to compromise. All they’d need to do is bypass hotel security, and you’re a sitting duck. This one will have a screen inside the elevator, so you can see what’s happening before you open the elevator door into the garage.”

  “Just like when I go in the penthouse?”

  “Exactly. Drake’s having one tweaked for you to use on your phone from outside the building.”

  They might be right on that point. There had been times she’d felt uneasy pulling into the garage by herself. Those alone times had been few, and she’d always gotten a lecture from her chauffeur Ed when he found out she’d taken one of the cars out for an escape.

  “Remind me about the security currently in place.” Ever alert, Josh continuously scanned the garage as they made their way to the elevator.

  “First, there are systems in place to scramble anyone trying to tap into the entry pass-code.” She pointed to a couple of cameras. “Those are linked in to the hotel security, which is monitored at all times by my in-house team. Only four people have ever known the pass-code, and one of them is dead.”

  “Who?”

  “Me, Drake, Ed the chauffeur, and Blake. Oh, and now you. That’s five people.” The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, leaning against the mirrored wall for support. She needed a good long bath full of bubbles and warm water.

  Josh turned toward the interior of the garage, then stepped backward into the elevator car, pushing the close button as he went. “When’s the last time you changed the pass-code?”

  She rolled her head and sighed. “There are five pass-codes that get randomly rotated throughout the year. Codes Drake set up a long time ago. It’s automatically set to change every two months.”

  “Call down and change it when we get to the penthouse.”

  Deliberately closing her eyes again, she didn’t bother to respond.

  The elevator stopped, and she pushed the open button and followed him as he stepped off the elevator. “I’m going to clean up and put on some jeans for the evening. Call downstairs if you want anything sent up to eat.”

  She unzipped her shorts and started to push them down, then stopped and glanced at him before she rezipped. Didn’t matter. He was staring so intently at the pictures Grey had given her, she doubted he noticed.

  “Why all the concern about the garage security?” she asked, leaning against the bathroom doorway. “I doubt anything can get past you.”

  For a moment, he let his gaze drift from her face to her toes and back again. Then he blinked, and the other Josh reappeared. “Just trying to make sure you’ll be safe when I leave.”

  Her stomach reflexed inward with the implication. “That sounds ominous. Like you’ve already planned when you need to leave. You got a schedule you need to keep? Got another client who needs protecting?”

  “You’re my current client. Drake will give me a new assignment when I finish here.”


  “Assignment? Client? That’s what you said when you first arrived. After last night, I thought we were finally friends. Evidently not.” She ripped the zipper on her shorts down again and stepped out of them then whipped her top over her head. “And, if I’m nothing more than an assignment, you shouldn’t care if I’m standing stark naked in front of you.”

  “Macki…don’t—”

  “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m sure you’ve seen more than your share of half-dressed women on your jobs. What’s one more naked client to you?”

  Clutching the tank top in front of her, she unhooked her bra with one hand and let it drop to the floor. Let’s see where that takes you, Agent Slater. Are you still in control now?

  “Anything you’d like to say, Agent Slater?”

  “Far be it for me to interrupt your…irrational train of thought.” His breathing had increased, causing the rise and fall of his shoulders to betray him. But his grip on the pictures hadn’t lessened.

  She walked up to him until the only thing between them was the tank top clutched in front of her breasts. His eyes dilated with the clench of his jaw, the tilt of his head. She stepped close enough to feel his hardness pressed against her belly through his pants. Guess control had gone out the window.

  He didn’t move, but the clenching intensified with the glistening of his eyes. Her own pulsing breaths betrayed her composure also. Why? What could possibly be so bad that you can’t reach out and touch me? So bad it’s tearing us apart?

  She eased her fingers into the palm of his free hand and made easy, lazy circles, pressing deeper and deeper into his callused skin. As she pressed herself closer against him, she dropped the tank top to the floor.

  …

  Josh grunted as he jerked his hand from her hold and refused to look downward. She was killing him. This entire fucking assignment was killing him. Like a stab in his gut with a twist, this moment sucked the breath out of him, and he steeled his arm straight down against his side. Concentrating, he tried to keep all signs of passion or need out of sight.