Anything. Even if it meant saying that she loved him?
Could she have lied?
Cooper refused to believe she had. Not Hayley. She might be able to keep things inside, but she’d never been able to lie worth a damn.
She had said that she loved him, and he’d seen the truth in her eyes. He’d felt it in her touch. The woman who had lived in his home, who had slept in his bed and had come apart in his arms again and again would be incapable of lying about love.
And what he felt was real. Despite knowing what he did now, his feelings for Hayley hadn’t changed. He couldn’t push them back inside. Whatever it cost, he still wanted her.
Whatever it cost…
He moved his gaze around the room, looking at the place that had been more than a home to him for four years. He was so close to fulfilling his dream. He didn’t want to lose it now.
But he didn’t want to lose Hayley, either. He would do anything to make her happy.
Anything.
He snatched up his drink, gulped the whiskey down and pitched the glass across the room. It shattered against the wall, sending fragments of glass skidding over the hardwood floor. Before the noise could fade, Cooper had moved to the corner of the bar, picked up the phone and punched in Tony Monaco’s number.
After four rings, there was a series of clicks as the call was transferred and the ringing started again. It was answered on the seventh ring by Tony himself. The velvet baritone voice that came through the line sounded annoyed. “This better be important.”
Cooper could hear music in the background, some quiet, classical stuff, along with the clink of crystal. He had no way of knowing which of Tony’s houses he’d reached, so he couldn’t guess what time zone the man was in. “Yeah, it’s important.”
“Cooper. I hope you’re calling to tell me you’re finished.”
“Not in the way you think. Our deal is off, Tony. I’m dropping out of Payback.”
“Do you need more time?”
“Time isn’t going to change my decision. I’m giving up on Sproule.”
“What about the Long Shot?”
Cooper took one last look around, a hollow ache settling in his gut. “Take it. It’s yours.”
There was a pause, followed by the sound of footsteps on marble. The music faded. “What’s going on, Cooper? I heard you were making progress.”
“Yeah, well, something came up.”
“Tell me.”
“Look, Tony, if I could pay you back, I would. I know I still owe you. You gave me a break when no one else would.”
“I wasn’t giving you a break. We had a bargain. Now I’d like to know why you’re reneging on it.”
He put his free hand on the edge of the bar, splaying his fingers over the varnished pine. He had done the action so many times, the feel of the wood was imprinted in his memory. “It was good while it lasted but it’s time to move on.”
“This is about the woman, isn’t it? Hayley Tavistock.”
There was no point denying this. If Tony wanted to know something, he had a way of finding out. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“If I get Sproule like you wanted, it’s going to destroy what’s left of her family. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“So that’s it? You’re walking away from something you’ve sweated toward for four years because of a woman?”
“That’s the way it has to be.”
“I hope she’s worth it.”
Cooper didn’t even have to think about his reply. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “She’s worth it.”
Through the phone line came the chink of glass against crystal. The volume of the music increased. “All right,” Tony said briskly. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours to clear out before I send someone over. You know the deal. Make sure you leave with no more than you brought.”
“Understood.”
“The number you dialed will be disconnected as soon as you hang up.”
“Right.”
“Good luck.”
Cooper replaced the receiver. Now that things had been set into motion, there was no stopping them.
He was officially out of Payback. He wouldn’t be talking to Tony Monaco again because he would have no way to reach him. The twenty-four hours Tony had given him had been only a courtesy—it wouldn’t take that long to pack the two sets of clothes and the $532.00 that Cooper had arrived here with four years ago.
He didn’t waste time with regrets. They were useless. He still had one more call to make. He pulled the phone closer and dialed another number.
“Sproule residence.”
The voice of the man who answered had the trace of an English accent. No doubt one of the servants at the estate, Cooper thought. The rest of Sproule’s men must be busy. “It’s Webb. Let me talk to him.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Webb, but Mr. Sproule is out for the evening.”
“Yeah, establishing an alibi.”
“I assure you, I don’t know what you mean. Do you wish to leave a message?”
“Tell him to call me.”
“And may I inquire to what this pertains?”
“Sure. I—” Cooper paused and tilted his head to listen. He thought he’d heard a noise from the back hall. Had Hayley come downstairs to look for him?
“Sir?”
He turned his attention back to the phone. He wanted to have this settled before he saw her. They were going to have little enough time as it was before they would have to clear out, and he wanted their last night here to be—
The noise came again. It was a clunk of metal on metal, a heavy, full sound, like two large cans knocking together.
Cooper dropped the phone and vaulted over the bar to reach for the strongbox.
Before he could work the lock, the back door of the barroom flew open and slammed against the wall. A familiar gaunt, silver-haired man was framed in the opening, a gun gleaming in his hand.
Cooper had a moment of disbelief. How could Sproule be here? How could anyone have gotten inside without tripping the alarm?
The answers burst across his mind: the open front door, the confusion in the parking lot after the shooting. Izzy had served as a distraction while someone must have disabled the alarm. If they’d had enough time, they could have sabotaged the locks, too, to make it easier to get inside. Sproule hadn’t gone far, he’d only been waiting for his opportunity. His primary target hadn’t been Izzy, it had been the Long Shot.
And the people who were in it.
Hayley! Oh, God no!
“Sproule, don’t!” Cooper said. “It’s over. You win.”
“Of course, I win, Webb. The outcome of this little war you started was never in doubt.” Sproule gestured with the barrel of his gun as he walked past the pool tables. “Hands where I can see them.”
A red-haired man moved into the barroom behind Sproule. He didn’t look familiar to Cooper; he couldn’t be one of Sproule’s regular men. He was wearing coveralls and gloves, and he was carrying a pair of square metal containers. Cooper caught a whiff of gasoline.
The lock of the strongbox finally clicked. Cooper slipped his hand inside. “Listen to me, Sproule! I’m backing off. The war’s over. You don’t have to do this.”
“On the contrary. If I want something done right, I need to do it myself. Hands up. Now!”
“I swear. We were pulling out tomorrow. Just let us walk out of here and no one has to get hurt.”
“You’re wasting my time.” Sproule glanced at the red-haired man. “Bring in the rest of the gas cans. You’d better use enough to make sure there won’t be any survivors this time.”
The instant the man moved off, Cooper closed his hand around the butt of his pistol and swung it toward Sproule.
Pain exploded in his left shoulder. The impact of the bullet knocked him backward into a row of beer mugs, sending them crashing to the floor. He fought to keep his grip on his weapon, but before he could aim it, Sproule levelled his gun at Cooper’s head.
/> “Drop your weapon and come out from behind the bar, Webb,” Sproule ordered. “I’d prefer to have you alive to see this, but if I have to shoot you again, I will.”
Cooper staggered through the opening of the bar, his boots crunching on glass shards. He let the gun slide from his fingers so that it dropped to the floor at his feet.
“Very good. Now kick it over here.”
With Sproule’s gun pointed at his head, Cooper decided it wasn’t the time to try anything. He hung on to the bar for balance and drew back his foot to send his pistol skidding to the opposite side of the pool tables from Sproule. “Leave Hayley alone, Sproule. Let her go. I started this, not her.”
“She’s been a thorn in my side for seven months. Don’t insult my intelligence by expecting me to let her go.” He kept his gaze on Cooper, his gun never wavering. “I watched your friends leave. They’re busy chasing my men all over town, so I know you won’t be pulling any surprises on me this time. There are only the two of you left here. This is my night for tying up loose ends.”
“Then let Hayley walk. That’s what she wants.” He could feel blood pulsing from his shoulder to run down his arm. He pressed his palm over the wound and white-hot agony knifed to his bones. The room spun for a minute before he was able to speak again. “She’s had enough.”
“So have I, Webb. You and your girlfriend and this dump you run are all finished. It will serve as an example of what happens to people who oppose me.”
The coveralled man returned with more cans, set them down with the others, then opened one and moved around the room, methodically pouring gasoline along the base of the walls, on the wooden tables and upended chairs and on the hardwood floor. He picked up another container and disappeared down the back hall.
Cooper shook with helpless rage. Not because Sproule meant to destroy the Long Shot, but because he was going to hurt Hayley. More than hurt. He planned to have her burned alive, just as he’d tried a week ago.
Gritting his teeth, Cooper ground his palm against his wound, using the pain to keep his temper in check and focus his thoughts. He wouldn’t be any good to Hayley if he got himself killed before he could help her.
“Go ahead and torch the place, if that’s what it takes,” Cooper said. Careful to keep out of the puddles of gasoline, he managed to take a few steps in the direction of the pool tables. “But leave Hayley out of this. She’s no threat to you now. She found out that her brother was on your payroll, so she doesn’t want to see you in prison.”
“Ah, so she already knows.” Sproule’s mouth twisted in an expression that was too tight to call a smile. “What a shame. After the slanderous comments she made to the press about me, I would have enjoyed seeing her face when she found that out.”
“She’s no threat,” Cooper repeated. Feigning more weakness than he felt, he wavered on his feet, then stumbled backward and fell on a dry patch of the floor.
Sproule fired a round at the pool table to Cooper’s left. The bullet ricocheted from the slate top and struck the rack of pool cues. “Don’t even think about going for the gun you dropped,” Sproule said. “I’m in control now, Webb. Get back on your feet. I don’t want you to miss the main event.”
Cooper got to his knees, pausing to catch his breath. Damn, if he didn’t make his move soon, the weakness wouldn’t be faked. He needed to get closer if he was going to have any hope of reaching that weapon, but it was good to know the table would provide cover…
His thoughts lurched to a stop. He glimpsed a movement in the doorway behind Sproule. It wasn’t the red-haired arsonist. It was a blond woman.
No, Hayley! Cooper thought. Leave now! Run!
Hayley stepped over the threshold as silently as a shadow. Her face was drained of color, her eyes were clouded with horror…and in her hands she carried her father’s old Winchester.
Chapter 15
No nightmare could have been worse. There was so much blood. It glistened from Cooper’s sleeve, it ran down his arm and it was dripping on the floor where he knelt.
But his ice-blue gaze was more intense, more beautiful and more vital than Hayley had ever seen it. She could feel his presence reach across the distance between them, strengthening her as it always did.
Somehow, she managed to swallow the bile that rose in her throat and took three quick sideways steps that would place the wall at her back. She had slipped out of the storeroom just as the man with the gas cans had gone into the stairwell to the loft, but she knew he could return at any time.
“Put the gun down, Oliver,” she said.
Sproule jerked. He lowered the gun to his side but he didn’t drop it. Instead, he turned slowly toward her. “I’m glad you could join us, Hayley. I was concerned you would miss the party.”
At the sight of his face, Hayley trembled with an echo of the fury that had propelled her through the last seven months. This was the same way he had looked at her in the courtroom whenever their eyes had met. His gaze was chilled with arrogance, his mouth twisted with disdain.
This was her brother’s killer, the monster who had gone back to kick the man he had run down.
But it wasn’t hate for Sproule that had brought her here. Her urge for revenge wasn’t what had made her pick up her father’s rifle. She was here because she was in love with Cooper.
“Hayley,” Cooper said. “For God’s sake, get out of here while you can.”
She tightened her grip on the rifle, pressing the butt snug against her shoulder. “I’m not leaving you, Cooper.”
“What do you expect to do with that relic?” Sproule asked, tipping his head dismissively at her rifle. “You don’t even have the strength to hold it.”
She ignored Sproule’s taunt as she used her right hand to work the bolt, then curled her index finger around the trigger. “I called the police. They’re on their way.”
Sproule sneered. “The police won’t touch me. You don’t think your brother was the only one in my pocket, do you?”
At Sproule’s remark she reflexively flicked her gaze to Cooper. She didn’t see surprise on his face, she saw…sympathy.
The truth flashed through her mind. He knew about Adam.
Hayley wanted to explain, to apologize and to beg his forgiveness for what she had kept from him. It had been madness to ask him to quit. She’d known it even before the words had left her mouth, but then Cooper had repaid her selfishness by opening his heart. He had shown her his vulnerability, he had let her see the goodness in his soul.
Oh, how was it possible to love him more?
Yet what he thought of her, or whether he could ever forgive her, was of no importance right now. Cooper’s life was seeping out of him as she watched. She wanted to stall Sproule until the police got here, but how much time had passed since she had heard the shot? She prayed Cooper could hang on until the ambulance arrived.
It couldn’t be over. Dear, God, it couldn’t end like this.
“It will all come out at your trial,” Hayley said. “You’re going to pay for what you did to Adam. You’re going to be charged with murder this time.”
“It’s all right, Hayley,” Cooper said. “He knows we’re giving up. I told him we’re quitting.”
Was Cooper trying to bluff? She didn’t want to risk taking her gaze off Sproule to look at him again. “It’s too late, Cooper. I’ve already put it into motion.”
“Hayley…” Cooper began.
“That’s what I was doing when I saw you and your friend arrive, Oliver,” she continued. Was that a siren? Her pulse was hammering so loudly in her ears she couldn’t be sure. “I was on the phone with the state police. I’ve told them where to find the evidence against Adam. The trail of bribes leads right back to you.”
“Don’t expect me to believe that,” Sproule said. “The high and mighty Tavistocks wouldn’t want their dirty little secrets aired in public.”
“Nothing can stop it now,” Hayley said. “Killing Cooper and me won’t do you any good. I e-mailed the files I�
��ve collected on your businesses to the FBI. The truth is going to come out.”
“You don’t have anything.”
“But the investigation into my brother’s death is sure to justify warrants that will expose everyone else who is on your payroll,” she said. “Drop your gun. You’re finished.”
Sproule laughed. It was a sharp, grating sound. “I still don’t believe you, Hayley. And you’re not going to pull that trigger. That gun probably isn’t even loaded. You’re as spineless as Adam.” His hand twitched. Light glinted from the barrel of his gun. “Do you want to know why I killed him?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Cooper said. From the corner of her eye, Hayley saw him push himself backward along the floor. “Hayley, you don’t need to do this. Just leave.”
“Your brother wanted to leave, too,” Sproule said. “He didn’t approve of my new business partner. He was going to foul up the whole deal, and this after I had invested so much in him.”
Hayley’s arms were beginning to tire from the weight of the rifle. Her palms were sweating so badly that the stock slipped. Were those footsteps in the hall or her own heartbeat? “My brother made mistakes, but that doesn’t change how I feel about him. Real love doesn’t come with conditions.”
“Oh, spare me the sentiment. You’re wasting my time.”
“But even though I love Adam, I’m not going to live in his shadow. I won’t let him stand between me and—”
“This has gone on long enough,” Sproule snapped. “Let’s get on with business.” He lifted his hand with a flourish. The barrel of his gun pointed not at Hayley, but at Cooper.
Hayley’s mind froze on a silent scream. No, no!
Time slowed to a crawl. It had been more than two weeks since Hayley had held this rifle, over sixteen years since she had fired it, yet as she saw Sproule take aim at Cooper, all her father’s lessons came back to her.
Keep your eye on your target. Breathe slow and easy. Concentrate and squeeze.
She hadn’t been able to do it to avenge her brother.
But to save the man she loved, she would do anything.
Hayley’s shaking hands suddenly became rock-steady and her grip firmed. She focused on Sproule, exhaled slowly and pulled the trigger.
The Angel and the Outlaw Page 20
