“What did I say about caller ID?” Wyatt asked with a grin. He was on a high from his successful mission, and his grin stretched from ear to ear.
“You said I should ignore your calls,” Darrell replied with a chuckle.
“Whatever, man. Did you get the photo?”
Darrell sighed. “I was attempting to look at it when you called. Give a guy a few seconds. I’m not as quick as I used to be.”
“You’re not old yet,” Wyatt said with a scoff. “Can I tell you what the photo is?”
“Sure, saves my eyes from squinting.”
Wyatt laughed. Darrell was a few years past forty, and hardly nearing retirement age. “It’s photographic proof of McCready’s right-hand men disposing of a guy they killed.”
Darrell was silent for a long moment. “Shiiiiiit,” he said eventually, drawing out the word.
“And if you get here quick, you could pick up the body before it goes into the ground. The gravedigger said he planned to bury it tonight.”
“I’ll work on getting a warrant right away.”
“You might want to expand that warrant to the whole gravesite,” Wyatt said.
“Why’s that?” Darrell asked, sounding alert.
“Because I think they’ve been doing this for a long time. If you want proof of McCready’s illegal activities, I bet you’ll find it right here in these graves.”
“Jesus,” Darrell murmured. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll wait until you arrive,” Wyatt replied.
Darrell agreed and hung up so he could get to work. Wyatt hesitated for a long moment, then called Kat.
“What’s happening?” she asked the second she picked up the call.
“I think I found the dump site. I’m waiting for the cops to get here.”
“So it’s safe to come out?”
Wyatt hesitated. “What?”
He turned in time to see movement in the dim light. It took a second for his eyes to adjust, only to see Kat stepping out from behind one of the other trees in the graveyard about ten feet away. Wyatt started towards her, and they met halfway next to an elaborate gravestone with a carved angel on top.
“What are you doing here?” Wyatt demanded. “I thought I told you to stay at McCready’s.”
She shrugged. “I followed you here. I want to be a part of destroying McCready. I deserve that much.”
Wyatt took a breath to berate her some more, but the fresh air in his lungs brought clarity. She was right, she did deserve to have a hand in bringing down the man who had essentially kept her prisoner for five years. As much as he wanted to protect her, he had to acknowledge that much.
Besides, she should be safe here, since Spider and Weston had left. He doubted the gravedigger could put up much of a fight. Only, they had to make sure they weren’t gone too long, or McCready would get suspicious.
“Okay,” he said simply.
She blinked. “Just like that?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.” Besides, he liked being with her. Liked her company, and liked that she didn’t seem loath to spend time with him.
She narrowed her eyes as if expecting a trick, but after a moment she grinned. “Thank you.”
Wyatt nodded, and an answering smile crept onto his face. He liked making her happy.
He glanced back at the building the gravedigger had walked into. He could come out at any second and spot them on the grass. Wyatt grabbed Kat’s arm and towed her back behind the tree for cover.
The movement brought them close, since the tree wasn’t that wide. To block them both from view, they had to stand in each other’s personal spaces. Wyatt didn’t move back, and neither did Kat.
He held himself still, waiting to see what she’d do. They hadn’t had a chance to talk about last night yet, and he desperately wanted to apologise, but couldn’t find the words. If she wanted to make the first move, to tell him everything was all okay between them, it would make it so much simpler for him.
For a second—a brief, shining instant—Wyatt thought she would. Their gazes locked and a moment of connection drew between them, settling deep into his soul. He drew in a breath in anticipation, bracing himself.
He kept his face neutral—his cop face—so he wouldn’t put any pressure on her to answer the way he wanted. She’d had enough of that from McCready and the other men. As tempted as he was to snatch her into his arms and kiss her, it wouldn’t be right, and he needed to remember to keep himself under control.
But instead of throwing herself into his arms as Wyatt had naively hoped, Kat cleared her throat, shuttered her gaze, and stepped back as far as she could go without exposing herself to the gravedigger’s view.
Wyatt swallowed his disappointment. Her shift away from him answered his unspoken question, only it wasn’t the one he’d wanted to hear.
He didn’t blame her, of course. It was no wonder she wouldn’t want anything to do with him, or maybe even men in general. But it hurt just the same; a sad ache in his chest he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was the ache of missed opportunities, and a wish that things could be different. That they could be different people, meeting under different circumstances.
But even if they had, there would be no guarantee Wyatt would feel the same way about her. The thing he admired most was the way she dealt with the shitty hand life had given her, and had stayed strong through the whole ordeal.
He was surprised at the depth of his sadness. He barely knew this woman, though he felt like he did. Their partnership against McCready had brought them closer, but even that wasn’t enough to explain his regret at their circumstances.
He liked Kat, a lot. Could even see himself falling in love with her. He couldn’t help but admire her strength and resilience. Her determination. The way she protected Ruthie, a girl she barely knew.
And, of course, she was stunningly beautiful.
Especially now. She wore no makeup, and only jeans and a hoodie zipped up over her tank top. But this natural look appealed to him far more than the skimpy gold bikini. Probably because it was more her.
He wanted to take her into his arms. Kiss her, devour her, claim her. Feast on every inch of her and delight in her cries of pleasure—real ones this time.
He shook his head. He shouldn’t be thinking such things, not now.
Not ever.
Chapter 15
Kat couldn’t quite meet Wyatt’s gaze, staring at nothing over his right shoulder. That closed look on his face had hurt her deeply. The way his gaze had shuttered as soon as a moment of connection between them began.
She’d known she was in trouble when it came to Wyatt, that her heart had almost been primed to fall for him. He was handsome, honest, heroic, and she’d been alone for so long surrounded by awful, corrupt people. He’d been like a beacon in the darkness.
But Kat knew now he didn’t feel the same about her. And no wonder. She was so tainted by what had happened to her over the last five years, what she’d done. No decent man could want her.
No doubt he’d always be thinking about what she’d done. Men tended to like innocent women, or so she’d been led to believe. Certainly, many of the men McCready had given her to had liked her to play a virginal kind of role. It was ridiculous and embarrassing, but something about it appealed to their primal instincts.
And no doubt Wyatt was the same.
“So, who were you on the phone to?” she asked desperately, grasping on to the first thought she could to change the topic of conversation.
“My former partner.”
“Like, a girlfriend?” Kat asked, confused by the wording. Her chest tightened as she waited for his answer.
Wyatt scoffed a laugh. “No. My cop partner. His name’s Darrell Albany.”
Kat’s eyes widened. “You were a cop? You didn’t tell me that!”
Wyatt shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t want you to have to lie to McCready about it. But now we’re so close to bringing him down...”
“Oh my God.
Were you really on an undercover assignment the whole time? Do you even have a brother? What were you? Vice?” The questions tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them.
The light was completely gone now, and Kat moved closer to see his expression better. Her breath hitched at the heat radiating from him, at the soft exhales from his lungs. Despite everything, she still wanted him.
Wyatt’s eyes looked like mysterious dark pools in the gloom, but his white teeth were visible when he grinned.
“I was homicide,” he said eventually. “But I quit after my brother disappeared. Everything else I told you about why I’m here is true.”
Kat took a deep breath and nodded. “I never knew. You didn’t fight like a cop, so I figured…” She trailed off with a shrug.
“My brother and I learned martial arts together since we were kids. We got quite good, competed in tournaments and stuff. That’s why we both knew how to fight when we found ourselves in McCready’s ring.”
Kat nodded slowly. It all made sense now. She’d never questioned how both brothers had known how to fight.
They fell silent for a long moment, the sounds of the night animals coming out of their burrows filtering to them. Kat glanced around at the graves and shivered.
“Cold?” Wyatt asked.
Kat shook her head. “Not really. It’s just a bit creepy being here after dark.”
Wyatt nodded, following her gaze to the gravestones reflecting the moonlight. “I felt it, too. It’s worse knowing McCready dumped people here.”
“Yes,” she agreed. They fell silent again. Awkwardness brewed between them, heightened in the intimate darkness. Kat wasn’t sure what to say that wasn’t “Can you forgive me for who I was forced to become?”
Tears sprang to her eyes and she blinked them away. She was so aware of him standing beside her, warm and alive. She wanted to slip into his arms.
She wanted to be held.
She sighed. “How long does it take to get a warrant?”
“That depends,” Wyatt answered her. “Could be an hour, could be days. Depends on what the judges think of the photos I took, whether they are solid enough evidence.”
“Days?” she hissed. “The body will be buried by then.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. I figure if I stick around, I can follow the gravedigger and see where he puts it. Let me tell you, I’ve never missed my badge more than I do now.”
“I can imagine. You must have wanted to arrest McCready so many times.”
Wyatt let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Yep. I couldn’t even try, though. A good lawyer would get him free.”
“Did you always want to be a cop?” she asked, curious about this man. In some ways, she knew him so well. Knew the heart and soul of who he was, what he stood for. The big and important things about him. But in another sense she didn’t know anything at all, all the small details that made up his life were a mystery to her.
“Yeah, pretty much. It was cop or army for me.”
“You wanted to protect people,” she mused.
He slanted her a look. “I never thought of it that way, but I guess so.”
She smiled. He really was a good man.
Her smile faltered as their eyes caught. Her breath quickened. His expression was different this time. Not closed off, guarded. Emotions were written across his face, and Kat swore she saw admiration there. Affection, even.
Kat didn’t know what to make of it, but hope leapt within her. Maybe she’d been too hasty. Maybe—
A sound rattled from behind the tree, interrupting the moment. Kat’s eyes went wide with fear. Wyatt pressed his finger to his lips and then slowly craned his head around the tree. Kat did the same on the other side.
The old man from before was pushing a wheelbarrow over the gravel, causing the rattle. Kat peered closer at the contents of the barrow. Was that a dead body?
She gasped, then clapped her hand over her mouth. Thankfully, the gravedigger didn’t seem to have heard her, as he pushed the barrow off into the darkness, with the flashlight in his hand bobbing with each step.
A firm hand pressed against her back and Kat glanced up. Wyatt tilted his head, indicating they should follow, a slight question in his gaze.
Kat nodded enthusiastically.
They crept out from behind the tree and carefully followed the flashlight’s beam as it moved farther away from them. Eventually, it stopped, and Kat froze as her eyes adjusted. The old man stood at the foot of an open grave. As they watched, he hefted up the wheelbarrow and toppled the body into the grave. It landed with a thump.
Kat made a sound at the sight of the young man tossed away like so much garbage. The old man stiffened at the sound, and Kat’s eyes widened at her mistake.
Wyatt stepped between her and the gravedigger. “Freeze!” he said in his most authoritarian voice. For the first time, Kat fully believed he’d once been a cop. A good one, she had no doubt.
But the old man didn’t obey Wyatt’s command. Instead, he spun around. The moonlight reflected off something in his hand, but Kat’s brain didn’t register what it was. Not until Wyatt’s body slammed into her a millisecond before a loud report echoed through the air.
Kat landed flat on her back, the wind knocked from her lungs. Wyatt was heavy on top of her. For a brief, awful second, she thought he’d been hit by the bullet. He was so still on top of her.
But a moment later he levered himself up and gave Kat a once-over to check she was unharmed. Apparently satisfied, he leapt to his feet to face the gravedigger, who no longer looked like a harmless old man.
He raised the gun again, but before he could pull the trigger, Wyatt charged. He knocked the man’s gun arm away and tackled him to the ground. Kat sat up, gasping for air but determined to watch the struggle.
It didn’t take long before Wyatt subdued the other man. Age and training were on his side. He collected the gun and trained it on the old man, who lay panting on the ground glaring up at Wyatt.
“Fucking cops,” he spat.
Wyatt didn’t correct him.
A jaunty tune sounded, shattering the quiet of the night. Kat looked around, wondering what was making the sound. It wasn’t until Wyatt pulled his cell phone from his pocket and answered the call that she realised what it was.
He greeted whoever was on the other side of the line, and explained their exact position. A few minutes later, a roar sounded in the distance and the graveyard lit up.
Cars and trucks appeared from the darkness, blinding Kat with their headlights. She shielded her eyes, trying to discern who the newcomers were. Then, she saw the distinctive decals of the city’s police department and it became apparent the cavalry had arrived.
The cars stopped, but the headlights stayed on to illuminate the scene as people—many of them in uniform—exited the cars.
From the leading vehicle stepped a handsome Black man in his early forties with close-cropped greying hair. His suit was rumpled and he clutched a takeaway coffee cup like it was a lifeline. But he took one look at Wyatt and burst out laughing.
“You couldn’t resist, could you? Once a cop, always a cop.”
“Look who decided to finally show up,” Wyatt teased. “Want to take over?”
The man who could only be Darrell rolled his eyes, but was clearly suppressing a smile. He stepped forward and handcuffed the gravedigger, then frisked him and dragged him off to the back seat of a squad car, sucking down coffee the entire time. A man in a CSI windbreaker gingerly took the gun from Wyatt after he clicked the safety on.
Unnerved by all the activity, Kat crept closer to Wyatt. When she got within reaching distance, he slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Her heart flipped at the casual gesture and her body stirred to life from being pressed against his hard chest.
“Are you okay?” he murmured.
She nodded, staring at all the people and vehicles and equipment. “Yeah. This is your world, huh?”
“It used to be.�
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“It suits you. But why are there so many people?”
Wyatt smiled at her. “Well, they need to process this crime scene,” he said, indicating the grave where the old man had so unceremoniously dumped the body. “But I think they’ve got a warrant to search the whole place.”
He looked so pleased Kat couldn’t help but smile in return.
“That’s right,” said Darrell in a booming voice from over her shoulder. Kat spun around quickly and tried to pull out of Wyatt’s grip, but he held her more tightly to him. She instantly relaxed into him.
Darrell continued. “I knew Judge Conner had a hate-on for McCready, but I didn’t know how bad it was. As soon as I said I had evidence that could bring him down, the guy couldn’t sign fast enough.”
“Judge Conner?” Kat squeaked.
Darrell swivelled his gaze to her. “Yeah, you know him?”
She pictured the rotund man she’d met a number of times. “Um. Let’s just say you might find some evidence disappearing with regards to him. Though I can see why he’d jump at a chance to get rid of McCready.”
Wyatt squeezed her shoulder. “Well, that explains a lot. Did he ask you to arrest McCready quickly?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Darrell asked, looking puzzled.
Wyatt shook his head. “Never mind. Will you?”
Darrell shook his head. “We can’t yet. We need to prove all the evidence here leads back to him. The more, the better. Since he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who gets his hands dirty, I’m afraid all the evidence will be circumstantial. I don’t want him wriggling out of this, so I’ll make it as airtight as possible.”
Wyatt sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“Why’s that?” Darrell asked.
Instead of answering, Wyatt turned to Kat. Her heart plummeted at the expression on his face.
“We have to go back, don’t we?”
Wyatt nodded. “Hopefully just for tonight, if Darrell can work quickly enough.”
Darrell huffed, offended. “Hey, now—”
Wyatt ignored his affront. “Think you can handle it?” he asked Kat.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Freedom was so close she could taste it. She’d believed it was over. She didn’t know if she was strong enough to go back, not after that.
Underground Fighters Trilogy Boxed Set Page 42
