by Pat White
Max forced a smile.
“That’s it, then,” Jeremy dismissed the team. “Enjoy the day. Take in the sites, ride to the top of the John Hancock. Be a tourist and we’ll meet back at five to make final plans.”
The group split up and Max sought out Agent Spinelli. “Have you heard of this place, the Ba’hai Temple?”
“Yeah, it’s up on the north shore,” Spinelli said.
“Does the tube take you up there?”
“You mean the train? Yeah. Drops you off at Linden about two blocks from the temple.”
“Excellent, thanks.”
Max turned and nearly bumped into Jeremy.
“Taking in the sights?” Jeremy said, disbelief in his voice.
“What of it?”
“Mind if I join you?”
“I’d mind very much.” He brushed past Jeremy and went outside to compose himself.
Hold it together. She’s depending on you.
IF HE WEREN’T looking for a killer Max would be having a grand time strolling the gardens surrounding the temple. As each minute passed, he grew more and more anxious. There was no sign of Cassie, no sign of anything out of the ordinary.
His mobile beeped with a text message.
Inside. Movie room.
He snapped the phone closed and headed to the lower level. As he approached the film room, something caught his eye on the floor: a gold locket.
Cassie’s necklace. He bent down to pick it up and a wave of dizziness filled his head.
“God, no,” he said, fear stabbing his shoulders.
He tried to focus, but his mind spun with panic. He’d done this, put her in the path of a killer. He’d subjected her to the brutalities of a murderer’s games, and now, the love of his life would die. He was having another attack, brought on by grief.
No, it didn’t mean she was dead. It meant the killer wasn’t done with him.
“Sir? Are you all right?”
Someone spoke to him, but he couldn’t get his bearings. Still off, losing balance. Opening his fist, he studied the locket in his palm.
Fairy dust, to fly away.
“Agent Templeton?”
Max glanced up at Agent Kreegan standing beside him, a concerned expression on her face.
“What are you doing here?” he said.
“Agent Barnes sent me. He was worried so we followed you.”
“That bastard.” He struggled to breathe against the assault of his panic attack. “We’ll never find her now.” He pushed away from the wall, but wavered.
“Take it easy, sir. Let me help.” She grabbed his arm and steadied him.
They walked outside into the sunshine, but he felt no warmth. Cassie would die because of him.
“Where is…he?” Max asked, struggling to form words. This was the worst episode to be sure. And he felt himself succumbing to it, giving up.
Cassie was gone.
“No,” he said, his voice weak.
“Agent Barnes is waiting in the car,” Kreegan said.
“That sonofabitch. I swear…I’ll kill him.”
A few more steps, floating, drifting, Cassie was gone. His heart was being ripped from his chest. He loved her, had to tell her now. But there was no now, only blackness.
Death.
He’d failed again, only this time, Cassie would be the one to die.
Chapter Sixteen
“My daughter barely speaks.”
Max heard the woman’s voice, but couldn’t open his eyes: so tired, as if he’d taken too much Vicodin. He’d been tempted once, tempted to swallow a dozen instead of one.
To go to sleep and never wake up.
But that was before Cassie had come into his life.
He struggled to focus. Where was he?
“She’ll never be the same.”
That voice, familiar, but not Cassie’s.
Cassie. He’d gone to save her. Went to…the temple and found…her locket.
“Cassie?” It came out in a whisper. An ache. He’d die if anything had happened to her.
“You wouldn’t leave it alone, even though you had the perfect suspect.”
He opened his eyes, but couldn’t quite focus.
“Cassie?”
“She’s gone.”
“No!” he howled. He pulled on his wrists. They were pinned in place. “Cassie!” Adrenaline shot his vision into focus.
Ruth Kreegan, the Blackwell forensics expert stood over him.
“Agent Kreegan?” he said, confused as hell.
“Those boys? They sexually assaulted my daughter,” she said. “There was no remorse, no regret.”
He was sitting in a car, his wrists bound to the steering wheel.
“Themis, the Goddess of Justice,” she said. “That’s me. I had to do it. We both know how flawed the judicial system is.”
“No,” is all he could say. He was so weak, so confused. She’d drugged him, probably with the same substance she’d used on the murder victims.
“Cheryl couldn’t defend herself so I had to do it for her. Those arrogant, spoiled college boys destroyed my baby girl.”
“Ruth,” he croaked.
“I thought you’d want this.” She placed something in his hand.
Cassie’s locket.
His chest tightened with grief.
“No!” He opened his hand and the locket bounced off the seat and hit the floor.
Breathe, come on, mate. But his lungs had tightened to near paralysis. He struggled against the effect of the drug she’d given him.
“What did you do?” he demanded.
“What was necessary.”
But she hadn’t murdered Cassie. He simply couldn’t accept it.
“Why?” he said, hoping to buy time, struggling to think.
“Justice,” Ruth said. “Honor.”
“Where’s the honor…in killing an innocent woman?”
“Where’s the honor in what they did to my baby girl?” she cried, her voice shrill. “But I made it right,” she said, her voice more controlled. “I maneuvered my way onto your team and kept you off track. I even set up that bastard Barker as the murderer. I’ve wanted to get rid of him ever since he paid me off to falsify lab results. I needed the money for my only daughter, my princess. It’s just the two of us since my husband left. She’s my whole world.”
She stroked his forehead and he jerked away.
“I knew you’d never stop, and I’m not done,” Ruth said. “I have to kill the Cooper boy. I’d almost finished, but you went to the bar where I’d snatched him. You’re good, Templeton. Too good.”
She stroked his cheek and he thought he’d be sick. “Don’t.” He yanked on his bindings.
He felt her reach across him and turn on the car.
“No!” a woman shrieked.
Kreegan was pulled out of the car. Max struggled to clear his head. It was no use.
Someone jumped into the car beside him. “Drive!” Cassie ordered.
“Cassie?” His heart ached. He wanted to tell her he loved her, wanted to make sure she knew.
“Drive!”
“Drugged, blurred vision,” he croaked.
She shifted next to him and grabbed the steering wheel. “Hit the accelerator.”
He pressed his right foot to the accelerator and they jerked backward.
“Brake!” she cried.
He hit the brake, shoving Cassie against the dash. He heard her shift gears.
“Go!”
He pressed the pedal again and they took off, across rugged soil. A sharp turn shoved her into his chest, then she spun the wheel and they straightened.
Shots rang out behind them.
“Faster,” she ordered.
He shoved his foot to the floor, picking up speed.
“Jeremy!” she cried.
She jerked the wheel and they spun in a circle.
“Brake!”
They knocked up against something. Everything went still.
He couldn�
��t feel her against his chest anymore.
“Cassie?”
A hissing sound answered him. He opened his eyes; saw the blurred images of people running toward him. He thought he saw Cassie slumped against the passenger door.
He was desperate to reach out. Couldn’t move. His wrists still bound to the steering wheel. He struggled to stay conscious. Make sense of it all.
Agent Kreegan was the killer?
Men’s voices mumbled outside the car.
“Cassie?” he said.
“It’s okay, guv,” Bobby said. “They’re taking her to the hospital.”
Max had to get to her. Had to tell her.
More voices. Explosive device…timer…steering wheel.
“Max, it’s Jeremy. Cassie is fine. We’ve got to get you out of this car, but it’s a tricky proposition. Can you hear me? Can you do what I tell you?”
“Never.”
“No joking, guv.” Jeremy’s voice sounded deeper than usual. “Kreegan’s ex-husband was an explosives expert and we think she’s rigged the car. You have to focus and do exactly what I tell you.”
“Guv?” Bobby said from the door. “We’ve got five, maybe ten seconds so I’m going to pull you out and then run like the wind.”
Bloody hell, they were all going to die.
“Jeremy, don’t—”
“Listen to Bobby,” Jeremy said. “On three he’s going to pull you to safety. One, two…three.”
Max felt something tug at his wrists, freeing them. Bobby pulled him from the car, put Max over his shoulder and ran. Sirens wailed, piercing his eardrums. Bobby grunting. Running. Holding on to Max.
An explosion rocked the ground and they fell against the hard earth.
Chapter Seventeen
Cassie awakened and struggled to get her bearings.
Oh God, Max. He’d been in the car, and they’d been speeding away from that crazy woman who kidnapped her and shot at them as they made their escape. Then she’d seen Jeremy and the team, and she’d spun the wheel, hit a tree and—
“Max!” Her eyes shot open and she sat up.
“Shh.”
She snapped her gaze to the man sitting beside her on her bed. Max.
“You’re okay.” She reached for him and he wrapped his arms around her. She held on, rocking a little, feeling his strength and inhaling his scent. She wanted this man in her life until the very end.
“Relax,” he said. “You need your rest.”
Something in his voice bothered her. She leaned against the pillow and studied him. He looked unusually controlled today, almost too much so.
“I’d like a few details, if you’re up to it,” he said in a businesslike tone.
“Sure.”
“How did you end up with Agent Kreegan?”
“She woke me at five. Said you were having trouble and needed me, that she couldn’t do it alone. I was pretty sleepy, from the night before.” She glanced at him and blushed. “I automatically went with her. I thought maybe you were having a spell and needed me.”
His grip tightened on the brass handle of his cane. “Yet you managed to get away from her?”
“All that self-defense training finally paid off.” She smiled.
He didn’t.
“So, she was the killer all along?” she said.
“Yes. Apparently the boys sexually assaulted her daughter. The girl has not recovered.”
“Wow.” Cassie studied him, but he wouldn’t make eye contact. “How are you feeling?” This case couldn’t have eased his post-trauma anxiety.
He jumped to his feet, pacing to the foot of the bed. “How am I feeling? she asks.” He stared her down. “Did you know the car was set to explode?”
“Yes, before I got away, Agent Kreegan told me her plan to kill you, us, by sending the car into the ravine and blowing it up to destroy as much evidence as possible.”
“Yet you climbed in beside me.”
“Of course. I…” She hesitated, not sure if she should say it. “I love you.”
He squeezed the handle of his cane and leaned into it slightly. “You put yourself in grave danger because of me. I can’t have that.”
She sensed where this was going. Tough, she wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
“I’m a big girl, Max. I make my own decisions.”
“And they land you in the hospital. You’ve got stitches across your forehead, and cracked ribs. You were nearly killed, for God’s sake. Because of me.”
“I’m fine. It isn’t nearly as bad as what Karl did to me.”
The moment the words escaped her lips, she realized her mistake. She’d compared her injuries from saving Max to her abusive husband’s beatings.
She closed her eyes. That’s not what she’d meant. She’d meant that she was tough, damn it. She’d defended herself against her kidnapper. She’d used self-defense skills to get away from Agent Kreegan, then she’d slid down the ravine and waited. She knew Kreegan planned to kidnap Max, and Cassie had to help him.
Cassie, a formerly abused wife, was now a tough woman who could defend herself against a murderer. That’s why Cassie was perfect for Max—she was strong, and Max needed a strong woman who could deal with his line of work, and help him work through his post-traumatic stress.
“That didn’t come out right.” She opened her eyes.
He stood by the window, looking outside. “I won’t leave Chicago until you’re ready. But you need to know, this thing that’s started between us,” He turned to her, “it has no future.”
She wanted to slap him, jump from her bed and whack him over the head with his cane. “Why not?”
“I can’t bear the thought of putting you in danger,” he said. “You deserve better.”
She deserved Max. That’s what she knew, deep in her heart.
She also knew that every second he looked at her bruised and scratched up face he blamed himself. And that tore him apart.
Because he loved her.
She couldn’t force him to accept that, any more than she could force him to see how perfect they were together. As he stood there, that tortured look in his pale-green eyes, her chest ached. It broke her heart to think he was going to walk out of her room and out of her life.
Because he cared so much about her.
“How’s Jeremy?” she said, making small talk.
“He’s recovering. Bloody fool nearly got blown up.”
His gaze drifted to the floor, as if he were uncomfortable.
She closed her eyes, exhaustion taking hold. Emotional exhaustion.
“Right, well, I’ll head up to see Jeremy.” He walked to her bedside. “I’m so sorry.” He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft, tender kiss.
She relished the feel of his mouth on hers, and she was determined to feel this again. He broke the kiss, their lips still inches apart.
“Take care,” he said.
I love you, she heard.
He left the room and she wrapped her arms around her midsection. “You’re not getting away that easily,” she whispered. But today she was too tired to fight.
“I SHOULD bloody kill you for pulling that stunt.”
Even without his glasses, Jeremy knew the voice belonged to Max.
“It’s my job.” He reached for his glasses, his shoulder aching in protest. The blast had thrown him against an unforgiving tree.
“Here.” Max handed him the rimless specs.
Jeremy placed them on the bridge of his nose and studied his boss. “You’re here to torture me, then?”
Max stared at Jeremy with anger in his eyes—and something else. Something like concern? It must have been Max standing at his bedside in the middle of the night. Jeremy had awakened with a start to a man standing over him. But when he’d asked who was there, the form had dissolved into the shadows.
Max probably didn’t want Jeremy to know how much he cared.
“I should fire you,” Max said.
Jeremy smiled. “We’re not a
t Scotland Yard anymore, remember?”
“Of course I remember. My brain’s not completely addled from that drug.”
“So,” Jeremy narrowed his eyes. “You’ll lead Blackwell?”
“Not if you can’t learn to take orders.” He leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on the top of his cane. It suited him today, looked like he’d grown into it.
“How did you find us?” Max said.
“I thought about what you said, about Barker not being our murderer. I grilled Eddie about the abduction and he remembered some odd things like chasing purple turtles on his grandparents’ farm, stealing cupcakes from the corner store, and Agent Kreegan smashing his computer. He thought it was an effect of the drug. It bothered me how the killer was one step ahead of us. I dug into Kreegan’s background and discovered that her daughter’s name is Cheryl, the same name as the girl the Cooper boy had the affair with. Made some calls, found out Cheryl hadn’t been to school this term. A friend told us she’d been attacked by some college boys and hadn’t recovered. We pieced it together.”
“You had a busy afternoon.”
“Eddie checked phone records. She and Barker were in contact. It all fell into place. I called her cell phone and kept her on the line with questions about the case. Eddie traced the call to an area in Winnetka. We were driving around when we heard gunshots. We found you, pulled Cassie from the car and took Agent Kreegan into custody. Cassie said something about a bomb.”
“Aren’t you the smart one?” Max said.
Jeremy eyed him. A compliment? “Thanks.”
“Book-smart, not street-smart.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You jumped into a car you knew was set to explode.” He stood, pacing to the foot of the bed. “You should have waited for a bomb unit.”
“We had to get you out of there.”
“So you climbed inside and ordered Bobby to help you?”
“I didn’t order Bobby. He insisted.”
“And you all think I’m mad.”
Jeremy smiled.
Max sighed. “I’m still stunned about Agent Kreegan, a killer, right beside us all along, throwing us off track, knowing our next move. She was a chemist, did you know that?”
