Sliding her eyes back to the EMT van, Mackenzie blinked away the haze lingering in the night air. What was taking Josh so long?
“Who sent him?” Cummings invaded her space, staring her straight in the eyes.
“None of your damn business.” Mistake—she shouldn’t have acknowledged that he’d been sent.
Of course, the detective and Grey already knew Josh was an OPAQUE agent from Tessa’s insistence on getting a message to him. But Mackenzie sure as hell wouldn’t let slip the fact it was her uncle who had done the sending. Evidently, the world, at least for the most part, didn’t know Uncle Drake was the head of OPAQUE, and she planned to keep it that way.
The click of the ambulance door caught her attention, and she took a step in that direction.
Cummings blocked her path. “What do you really know about Slater?”
“Josh,” she answered calmly. “I know him as Josh. A friend.”
“Hell, I don’t care what you call him. All I’m saying is the guy you knew from high school is not the same Josh Slater now.” Cummings fell into step with her. “He could actually be the one you need protection from. Face it, you’re not acting like the Macki I knew on the force. The one who made sure she knew everything about everybody involved in a case.”
She stayed focused on Josh as he stepped from the ambulance. His expression seemed narrowed into anger. The moment he caught sight of her, he started in her direction.
“Where’s that tenacity now?” Cummings insisted on staying by her side. “Why are you afraid to ask him the same questions you’ve asked others a hundred times before?”
She walked faster toward Josh.
Cummings lagged behind. “What are you afraid of?”
She caught up with Josh, but he reached out, motioning her to keep an arm’s distance away. Then he stopped and turned toward the detective. She followed. They were not going to have private conversations while she was in the same arena. Not anymore.
“I don’t know why I’m trusting you, Cummings, but I need your help. I was sent to Riverfalls because Macki has been targeted by Coercion Ten.” Josh paused.
Cummings frowned. “I’m not gonna fall for that bullshit, Slater. You want my help, you tell me the damn truth.”
“Not a lie. CT’s launched an all-out threat against her. And it’s worse than I thought.” Josh never dropped eye contact with the detective. “I need your help, man. Macki needs your help.”
“Okay, let’s say I believe you. From what I’ve heard, their threats aren’t to be taken lightly.”
“You’ve heard right.” Josh slid his gaze over the upper-floor windows of the buildings on D Street. “Tessa says—”
“Who?” Cummings asked.
“The girl in the ambulance, the one who said she had to talk to me. She relayed a message from the men who beat her up.” Josh glanced at Mackenzie, then back at the detective. “They said I’m going down within twenty-four hours.”
She sucked in a gasp, which devolved into a coughing fit. Josh had been targeted? Targeted to be killed. No, not now. Not when he’d said he was sorry about their argument earlier. Wheezing to catch her breath, she forced herself not to reach out to shield him. First of all, she wasn’t big enough to be a shield. Second, he wouldn’t take kindly to her taking chances. Never mind his damn pride.
Cummings nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Before we left the penthouse, I notified OPAQUE that I need backup protectors. But they’re spread all over the world. The timeline I need them here by may not be possible.” He reached out and pulled her between him and the detective. “My main concern is Macki.”
Nodding, the detective’s gaze swept the street. “Do you think they’ll come after her as soon as they take you out?”
What the hell? She was standing right there, and they were point-blank talking about life and death. Hers. Josh’s. And no telling who else. They needed to get off this street. To go hide back in her penthouse. Never come out. Never. No, they couldn’t do that. This was their opportunity to strike first.
“Doubtful.” Josh nudged her to the left a bit then let her hand go. “They’d wait, but not long. Maybe a day. They’d want to see if they got their point across enough that their ultimatum is met. By then, my backup would be here. It’s those few hours in between that I have to trust you to handle.” He held out his hand, palm up.
Cummings clenched the outstretched hand in his grasp. “You can count on me.”
From what she could tell, the men seemed good with each other, so she stepped closer to Josh’s side. Easing her hand inside her purse, she rested it on her gun. The cold metal against her palm always brought her peace and strength. She had a permit to carry concealed, and she wouldn’t hesitate to pull and fire in a heartbeat if needed. “What do we do next?”
“Roxy looks lonely.” Josh grinned and started across the street. “Think I’ll go have a talk.”
Mackenzie hurried to match his long strides, but she failed.
“You know what this is about?” Cummings kept pace with her, but far enough away to not be involved.
She nodded.
“Has he got a valid reason?”
“Oh, yeah, he’s got a reason.” She wouldn’t pretend to protect Roxy from the onslaught of questions. The woman had targeted her with that listening device in the crystal. Time to find out why.
Cummings angled across the side street and took up a stance on that corner. Guess he figured he should hang around since most of the police had already left, but he didn’t plan to intrude on the “conversation” unless called for. Besides, he’d made a pact with Josh to protect her. One she hoped he didn’t have to keep.
Roxy straightened to her full height as Josh neared, her gaze darting around for someone she couldn’t seem to find. Mackenzie eased up beside them, backing against the brick wall of the building. They weren’t here to play good-cop-bad-cop or let’s-see-what-we-can-coax-out with friendly banter, they were here for answers. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“How you doing, Roxy?” Josh braced his elbow on the high-top and leaned in as if talking about the weather.
The woman glanced down the street again, both ways.
“You seem nervous. Looking for somebody in particular?” He turned and eyed the same directions. “Guess your friend cut out on you.”
“Why don’t you take a hike?” Roxy gave her hundred-dollar smile, stretching her neck as she twirled her dangle earring. “You’re bad for business.”
On the round, stained, cigarette-pitted Formica, Josh tapped out a beat in time with the strip club’s gyrating music from down the street. “Shame about Tessa.”
Roxy inched around the table to be directly across from Josh, as far away as she could get. “I didn’t really know her well.”
“Was she new to town?” Mackenzie questioned.
“No. She’s been around a while. Kept to herself, mostly. Worked closer to the jewelry store down the street.”
“Bigger tricks down there?”
Roxy nodded.
Mackenzie eased in on the side of the table, sliding onto the edge of the stool. “Bet that didn’t sit well with some of the women.”
“You’re damn right. We’re all one big happy family down here. And a family watches out for each other.” Roxy pulled her stool over and slid on top, crossing her legs so they bounced at the side of Josh.
He looked her invitation up and down. “How about you? Did it make you mad that someone was cutting in on your territory?”
“No. I’ve got plenty of business.” She made sure the next bounce of her foot slid up the side of his leg.
In a flash, he flicked her shoe off and turned it over to view the label. “How much you think these set Roxy back?”
Mackenzie didn’t blink, didn’t smile, didn’t show any emotion. “At least a grand.”
“I figured something like that.” Josh quirked the side of his mouth. “Well, Roxy, you must be doing something right
to be able to afford a thousand-dollar pair of stilettos.”
The woman held her leg out, arching her foot and wiggling her toes.
He slid his hand beneath her calf, and slowly slipped the shoe back on her foot. “You’ll excuse me for saying, but from what I can see, you ain’t got the assets to make that on the street anymore. Where you getting the money?”
Jerking her foot away, Roxy shot him a look that would have killed a normal man dead in his tracks. Not Josh. It would take a lot more than that to stop him. Still, Mackenzie had a difficult time biting back her emotions at the sexy-as-hell way he’d touched the woman.
“Who gave you the crystal to plant in Macki’s place?” Josh’s voice had lowered enough to strike fear with its edge of a snake’s hiss. “Whose blood money did you take to betray a woman who thought you were a friend?”
As he waited for an answer, his eye color seemed to change to steely gray. He was Agent Slater to the core now—don’t get in his way.
“How much did they pay you to bug her place? Fifty? A hundred?” He sneered. “Or did you hit the big time? A couple grand? Maybe five?”
Roxy jumped off her stool. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, you do.” Mackenzie slipped from her stool, leaning forward to invade the woman’s space. Her voice had roughened with the thought that the person in front of her hadn’t been a friend after all. “Remember the phone call? How you said you had something for me? That it had to be placed in a certain spot?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Sure you do. You’re the one who had Darla bring me the crystal. The one you said had healing powers.”
Josh eased to the other side of the aging woman. “We wanted to get one for Tessa. She’s going to need a lot of help healing.”
“It helped me so much, I wanted to do the same for her.” Macki cringed at the bile crawling up her throat with each passing word, knowing there was nothing they could do in the end, no matter what Roxy said.
“I don’t remember where I got it. And nobody paid me to do anything.” The woman raised her hand in Cummings’s direction and motioned him over as she bit the side of her lip. Smiling, she glanced at Mackenzie. “You’re all healed now. Give her yours.”
“Can’t.” Josh slammed his hand on the tabletop, making it reverberate with the strike. “I smashed it wide open. Shattered it into little pieces. Guess what I found?”
Her expression morphed to fear as she flitted her eyes up and down the street once again. Her mouth moved in quiet words.
“Sorry, I didn’t quite hear you.” Leaning into her personal space, he was tenacious in his words, his tone.
“They said it was unbreakable.”
“Who said?”
Roxy’s breathing intensified as she shook her head. “Nobody. Nobody said anything.”
Mackenzie sighed heavy and loud. She wanted off this street—now. A low-grade panic had taken hold again. She pushed it down. Shoved the fear to the bottom of her core, but she still wanted off this street. Something wasn’t right. This couldn’t be happening right before her eyes.
Whatever Roxy knew couldn’t be worth risking their lives, could it? Sure, the woman wouldn’t think twice about making a few bills by placing something. Still hurt like hell to think she’d been betrayed, but nothing could convince her that Roxy was any more than a pawn. A runner, so to speak.
Cummings stepped into the group. Flashed his look around and nodded.
“Detective, you didn’t say where Tessa was found?” Josh took a couple steps back, scrutinizing everyone in the circle with the same ease he’d use to watch a documentary on sailing or some such thing.
Cummings pointed to a dark alleyway.
“That’s the same one.” Mackenzie heard the words clear her mouth before she thought them.
Josh eased his hand in hers. “Who found her, Detective?”
“Roxy heard her scream.”
“That’s right.” The woman stared into Macki’s eyes. “Lucky I heard her. Otherwise, no telling what might have happened.”
Mackenzie tightened her grip on Josh, otherwise she might knock the woman right off her stilettos. She’d been set up. Turned on for a price. Never, ever in her life had she been so sure of anything. Nausea sucked the breath from her lungs. “Luck? Is that what you call it? How dare you. Was it also luck the night you found me?”
Cummings glanced between her and Josh. “What’s going on here?”
Josh turned to Mackenzie. “Your call. I’ve seen what I needed to see to get my answer.”
Anger shivered through her body, bursting to be released. Thinking of the future, the case that would be made later, she knew she had to watch what she did. What she said. “I was assaulted in that same alley a few years ago. Roxy heard my screams that night, too.” She grabbed Josh’s hand again. “Lucky coincidence? Or were Tessa and I both set up by Roxy and her friends?”
Flipping to face the accused woman, Cummings yanked out his cuffs. “Let’s take a ride downtown, Roxy.”
“What for?” She backed against the wall. “I didn’t do anything. Honest, I didn’t.” She stepped toward Mackenzie. “Honey, you know I always treated you like one of my girls on the street. Watched out for you like you were my daughter.”
Mackenzie shifted away from the outreached hand.
“I wouldn’t hurt you for the world,” Roxy said.
Josh waved off Cummings’s handcuffs. “We’re not filing charges.”
“Why the hell not?” The detective glanced at Mackenzie, but she shook her head.
“Roxy’s small potatoes.” Josh shrugged in Cummings’s direction. “She’s nothing but a little fish in the barrel. Probably couldn’t stop herself from getting used by some smart guys. Needed the money. You know how it is.” He glanced at the woman fluffing her hair for probably the millionth time while standing in the glare of this street corner. “Sometimes, that wad of cash in a person’s hand makes them do things they wouldn’t do otherwise.”
The image struck a wave of forgiveness in Macki for whatever the woman had done. No—no. Everyone made their own choices, there’d be no pity. People had been hurt. People could have died. People had had their trust shattered. She tugged on Josh’s hand. “Let’s go. It’s been a long day.”
“Sure.”Josh headed toward the truck with her by his side. He stopped and snapped his fingers. “Son of a bitch! That’s it.”
He kept hold of Mackenzie’s hand as he pointed at Roxy. “I should have thought of this sooner. You didn’t do it for the money, did you?”
“Leave me the hell alone.”
“They’ve got something on you. Something big. Really, really big.” Josh cocked his head to the side as if listening for the unspoken. “What is it, Roxy? What’s so hellfire important that you turned on your friend?”
Roxy looked straight into Josh’s eyes. “You want an answer, it’s gonna cost you.”
As one, Mackenzie, Josh, and Cummings closed in around the woman, blocking others from her view.
Mackenzie couldn’t believe they might be closer to having their answers than five minutes ago. The woman’s nervous glancing of the street started again, but every so often she’d look back at Josh and make eye contact.
Finally, Roxy walked into Mama’s Kitchen. “Detective Cummings, would you mind keeping watch at the front door?”
Josh and the detective exchanged glances as she walked inside and sat at the last booth. Mackenzie and Josh followed, taking seats at the small table a foot away.
“Mister Agent man, can I trust you?” Roxy’s voice quivered, the volume barely audible.
“Yes, I give you my word. But you need to give me some good answers.” Josh fingered the one-page menu, looking first on one side, then the other, as if deciding on dinner. “Answers I can use. Understand?”
The woman nodded. “First, you’ve got to do something for me.”
The smell of hot pastrami and fresh-baked bread and just-brewed
tea brought back memories of slow nights Mackenzie had spent with the working women. All of them huddled inside the restaurant to get out of the rain or snow. Times someone had a birthday and the others would chip in for a cake or ice cream or one of Mama’s Kitchen’s specialty desserts.
Those were the times Roxy truly smiled or laughed. But she never let anyone know her birthday or where she came from. Tonight though, Roxy wasn’t laughing or smiling. In fact, she looked scared as she fan-folded the paper menu.
“What do you need? Money?” Josh raised his eyes to make contact with hers as he tapped his fingers against the years-old tabletop.
She shook her head.
“A way off the street?” Still, he tapped.
She shook her head again.
“Protection?” His fingers slowed with the word. Stopped.
Roxy nodded so quick and so short that Mackenzie would have missed it if she hadn’t been watching. The woman flashed two fingers.
“You and who else?” Josh asked.
Roxy scribbled on the edge of her menu, then handed it to him as she stood. For a second, her fingers dug into his arm. “Don’t let me down, Agent Slater. And for damn sure don’t let the police see this.”
Chapter Twenty
The drive back to Mackenzie’s personal garage had been quiet. Too quiet.
Once she and Josh had gotten in the truck, he’d read the note Roxy gave him out loud: “Daughter, almost seventeen, lives out west someplace. Born—Chicago. Name—Sandy D. Street.” He’d made a call to Drake. Afterward, all he’d said was that OPAQUE would work out the details and get back to him.
Mackenzie couldn’t imagine being so cut off from her past that she’d give her child the last name of where she worked. But that’s exactly what Roxy had done. Questions whirled through her mind about where the woman had come from, and why she was so adamant about keeping herself unknown. Questions with no answers, except ones she didn’t want to consider right now.
“Roxy looked scared out of her wits.” She hated to see anyone in that predicament.
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