“Thanks again, doc.” He shook the man’s hand once more.
Leaving the office with her, Vincent shot her a look. “How’s it feel?”
“Weird. God, I need a toothbrush so badly,” she muttered. Her voice sounded really hoarse, and every couple of words she had to stop, clear her throat and swallow.
He snickered at that, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get back to the cabin, I have two brand new ones just sitting there waiting for you.”
That earned him a huge smile, with a bit of a wince, before she started rubbing at her jaw.
****
“He’s hired our guy,” Shawn told them late the next morning during their phone check in.
“Who’d we stick in for the job?” Vincent asked, kicking his legs out under the kitchen table they were sitting at for the call.
“Adam,” Shawn named one of the C&M bodyguards. “He had most of the resume that was wanted anyway, and with a bit of tweaking from Denise, became the perfect candidate. He had to go through six interviews. Never saw another living soul either, which means we don’t know who’s also working on this for Moreau. Adam told me that he received a text with instructions, showed up to a building he was buzzed into, and then more directions to the office. In the office he spoke to someone over a speakerphone, the person on the other end using some form of voice distortion so he can’t be sure if it was a man, or a woman. He was pretty damn sure he was being taped.”
“Why do you say that?” Vincent asked.
“He told me that on one of the questions, he hadn’t verbally responded, but rolled his eyes. The person on the other end of the line replied like they were right there in the room.”
“What’s the price tag?” Rhonda asked.
“Damn, good to hear your voice again, Ro,” Shawn said with a laugh. “It’s sitting at two and a half million.”
“Fuck me,” Vincent muttered. “That’s a lot of coin for someone that doesn’t know anything to be brought in.”
“I know. Moreau wants her brought in alive too. He didn’t specify the condition, just that she had to be breathing and capable of answering questions. He did mention to Adam that the last guy had been a little zealous in his questioning, and made it hard to get anything from her. I’m guessing he figures she got medical care and can talk now.”
“There are other ways to get information out of someone,” Vincent said quietly. He shot her a worried look, he didn’t like the idea of anyone hurting her that way, or any way for that matter.
Rhonda must have figured out his thoughts. She reached out to grip his hand and squeezed it tight. Flipping his hand over, he held hers as he took a slow breath.
“We’re not going to let it get to that point,” Shawn said. “We now have someone on the inside again, which is damn good. I just wish we had someone closer to Moreau to get the raw info instead of this filtered shit.”
“We might not be right next to him, but at least we have something,“ Vincent said. “Unfortunately, we still have to figure out what the fuck he thinks Ro knows that’s so damaging to him, he’s put a bounty out on her.”
“Any ideas on what you might know, Rhonda?” Shawn asked.
“No, I’m trying, Shawn, but I have nothing.”
“Shit. Well, keep thinking on it,” he told her. “I have to go, I’ll check in with you in a couple of days unless something breaks at this end.”
“Thanks, Shawn,” Vincent said softly. Hanging up the phone he looked to her. “We need to go through everything, start to finish, and figure out what you might have heard, or seen.”
She made a face but nodded slowly.
“Go and get comfortable, I’m going to grab the recorder. We need to get this down so that we can ensure there are no holes in any of it.” He stood, pulling her gently up from her seat. “After that, you and I are going to talk,” he said, a warning really.
“About what?” she asked, her voice husky as she stared up at him.
“About us.” He appreciated the “O” she made with her lips. Smiling, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Grab a drink; I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
Leaving her in the kitchen, he went to his room. When he re-entered the living room she was sitting on the sofa, her feet tucked up under her, and a glass of something with ice in hand.
“I grabbed you some water.”
“Thank you,” he said. Easing down next to her on the couch he cracked the water bottle open and took a drink. After setting it aside he pulled out the recorder. “Okay, so we’re going to start from the beginning. First interview through to the day he grabbed you. I want you to go slow, describe the people you saw, the places you were at, anything you heard. Stop whenever you need to. This is going to be hard on your jaw, but it needs to be done. Somewhere in those days you were around Moreau, you saw or overheard something that makes you his number one target.”
“Right.” Rhonda shifted on the sofa, leaning against him, and gave a nod. “Let’s do this.”
He started the recorder and slipped his arm around her shoulders.
Over the next hour she described everything to him. Conversations, places, and people. When she had finished, he turned the recorder off to give her a moment to relax. He had questions. Quite a few, truth be told. Vincent just didn’t know if she had any of the answers.
Stroking a hand across her hair, he rested his chin on her head. He’d tried to pick out one defining moment, one incident, anything at all that would explain why Moreau was after her. He couldn’t, though. There didn’t appear to be any reason for the man’s sudden anger toward her. No reason for him hunting her down. No fucking reason for a two and a half million dollar bounty to be on her head.
Nothing about this made any sense at all. Which made it all the more mystifying and frustrating for him. He was missing something. They both were. Moreau wasn’t the sort of man to tip his hand before he had to.
Rhonda moved, leaning away from him slightly. “You’re frowning, Vincent. What’s going on in your head?”
“Everything you told me says there should be no reason for Moreau to suspect you. You were playing your part perfectly, keeping your head down and gathering intel. So why the fuck did he suddenly grab you?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
Drawing her back to him, Vincent rubbed his hand up and down her arm. Her skin was so damn soft, so touchable, and made him wonder if the rest of her was as soft. He turned the recorder back on and set it on his thigh. “How was Moreau behaving the last day, before he grabbed you?”
“The same as always. He had his morning meeting with those of us in security. After it was done, we left his office with the details of the day. He asked Donny to stay behind. I was the last one out of the room so I shut the door behind us all before heading to grab my gear.”
“Did you see anything as you shut the door?”
“Vincent, I told you everything.”
“Okay, but maybe you don’t realize you saw it. Close your eyes for a second, Rhonda.” He waited for her to do as he’d asked. “Good. Now, you’re leaving the office when Moreau calls out to Donny and asks him to stay behind. Do you look around?”
She was chewing on her bottom lip as she nodded. “Yeah. I glanced back when he called out to Donny, who was right behind me. Donny nodded to Moreau, looked to me and said to go ahead, he’d be along in a moment. I kept going to the door, stopped to pull it shut, and then went for my stuff.”
“When you were pulling the door shut, where were Donny and Moreau? Were they talking at that moment? What were they doing?”
“Moreau was in front of his desk, arms crossed over his chest and Donny was right in front of him. Moreau was saying something,” she said slowly.
“What was he saying, Ro?”
“Is everything in place? He asked Donny if everything was in place.”
“In place for what?” Vincent asked.
“I don’t know. Donny said it was all set. Moreau reminde
d him that nothing could go wrong. Said something about it being the first steps, that everything had to be perfect. Then I had the doors shut and didn’t hear anything more.”
“Okay, okay,” he nodded. He didn’t think that was it. It was too innocuous to be what set Moreau off. Besides that, he would have seen her still there, so he wouldn’t have said anything incriminating. Which he hadn’t, given what she’d just told him.
“After you geared up and left the house, your first stop was where?”
“We went to his office first. He went in with Donny to get some papers. They were gone maybe ten minutes, not much longer. They came back out and got in the vehicle. After that we went to a restaurant he is renovating. A couple of us on the security detail went in with him. He talked to the contractor, went over some of the plans, made a couple of minor alterations because some materials weren’t available for his time frame, and we left.”
“No arguments or anything like that with the contractor?”
“No, nothing,” Rhonda said. “They were joking around a bit before they got down to business. It was all on the up and up. I was close enough to hear, but really wasn’t paying them much attention once they started to talk about the pros and cons of marble. I was leaning on a half wall that splits the entry from the main dining room. They were maybe six feet from me at a table they were using to roll out all the plans.”
“I’m assuming there were some workers in there too.”
“Yeah, I saw three doing the floors for the main area. Cutting the wood and laying it in place. There were another couple in the kitchen, doing some mudding, I’d guess. Another was up a ladder working on the wiring over the bar area. I could hear more saws being used but I couldn’t see anyone else.”
Well, shit, that sounded completely boring. “Where did you go after the restaurant?”
“Like I said, we headed over to one of the warehouses. I can’t remember which one, though. I think it was one of the ones in the middle of the group he’d bought, but honestly, I can’t be sure. I was watching out the window, keeping an eye on a group of kids, hoodlums really. They were acting suspicious and I was sure I’d spotted a weapon. I pointed them out to one of the other security guys with us, and he radioed up to Donny in the lead vehicle. We were told to keep an eye on them but leave them be unless they made a move for Moreau. Which they didn’t.”
“All right. So you reach the warehouse, you get out of the vehicles and head inside. Are you still keeping an eye on the kids?”
“Yeah, I watched them as I walked to the warehouse door. Probably why I’m not sure which one we went into. As soon as I cleared the doorway I looked around. There was a table in the middle of the space, sitting on a big ass carpet, expensive I’d say. It had chairs all around it, like you’d see in a conference room. At a guess I’d say Moreau was preparing for a meeting of some sort. He was talking to a man as I entered, the man looked nervous, was sweating and playing with his cuffs. Donny was at Moreau’s back, his back to me too, as Moreau spoke with the guy.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No.” Rhonda didn’t sound sure, her next words confirmed the suspicion. “At least, I don’t think so. Fuck, maybe.”
“We need to get you to talk to a sketch artist,” he said. “See if we can’t figure out who that guy was. What else happened?”
“They talked for a while. The guy was twitchy, which had a lot of us on the security detail watching him closely. We couldn’t hear anything though, their voices were too low, and they were in the middle of the warehouse while we were by the doors and windows.”
Vincent frowned as he thought about it. Then an idea hit him, his gut clenching tight. “Maybe it wasn’t what you saw. Maybe it was someone that recognized you.”
Chapter Nine
“The twitchy guy,” Rhonda whispered. Shit, she hadn’t thought of that. Maybe the guy did know her from somewhere. Fuck! Had the little shit blown her cover? Was that why Moreau had been so intent on figuring out who she worked for?
“It fits,” Vincent was saying. “Now all we have to do is figure out who he is, and how the hell he knows you. If we can figure that out, maybe we can find something to nail Moreau with.”
She gave a nod, only half listening to him as she tried to remember the guy. Desperate to remember where she could have possibly seen him. The entire day had been innocuous. Boring, even. It was the only time she’d seen anyone that had paid her any amount of attention beyond a quick dismissive glance.
“Ro? Rhonda?” Vincent was squeezing her shoulder lightly. “Hey, you okay?”
“What?” Shaking away her thoughts, since nothing was coming to her anyway, she looked at him. “Yeah, no, I’m good. Sorry. I need to get my hands on my case files. If he was ever a part of any of them, even peripherally, I’d have a note in there.”
He didn’t look happy at that. She understood why too. They’d have to go back to the city to get them, since only she or her boss could sign them out once they were closed and filed. Well, anyone on the case could sign them out, but she didn’t want to drag anyone else into this mess.
“Vinny, you know we have to,” she said. “If this guy is the reason Moreau is hunting for my highly toned and perky ass, then we need to go back to San Fran.”
He grunted and shot her a look. “Your ass is very toned and perky,” Vincent grumbled.
She had him, she knew it, and he knew it. He wasn’t happy about it. She could accept that. She wasn’t exactly thrilled either. With Moreau hunting for her, going back to the city was a huge risk. A calculated risk that she hopefully wouldn’t pay for with her life.
“It’ll be alright, Vincent.”
“I know it will be, because I’m not letting you out of my sight even once while we’re there.”
“I can handle that. In fact I prefer it. I’m not an idiot, Vincent, I know this is fucking risky as can be. We have to do it though. If that little twitchy shit identified me to Moreau as a cop, then I need to know who he is. We need to know.”
“You’re right. As much as I hate saying those words, you are right, Ro. If twitchy did ID you to Moreau then you have Moreau by the balls. And not just for abduction and assault.”
For a hell of a lot more, given the man would have known that Rhonda was law enforcement. That was huge, epic, and was what could knock Moreau off his shiny pedestal. “I know,” she said.
“Shit.” She watched him run his fingers through his hair before rubbing his jaw. “Okay. I need to call Shawn and have him set us up somewhere secure. Then you need to call your boss and arrange to have all your case files pulled. We don’t need, or want any delays getting the files.”
“I can do that.” She was in agreement on all he’d said. With Moreau setting the dogs to hunt her down, she wanted and needed to be careful. “When are we going back?”
“Let me talk to Shawn first. Once we know when he’ll be ready for us we’ll make that call.”
Nodding, she pressed a kiss to his jaw. Rhonda had to grin when he jolted.
“What was that for, woman?”
“Just showing you a little appreciation for taking such good care of me, Vincent. You have been going above and beyond this last month to keep me safe and happy.”
His cheeks went pink under his tan and he ducked his chin. “It wasn’t anything.”
She smacked his chest. “It was everything. You saved my ass, Vincent Bradley. You came for me, without any backup, and saved my fucking ass. You have been taking care of me since then, watching over me, helping me get back on my feet, doing everything for me. Some of which will never, ever be mentioned outside of this cabin. Ever.”
His chuckle rattled her around a little.
“I can never thank you enough, Vincent. I owe you my life. Quite literally.”
“Ro, stop.” He interrupted her not-very-well-thought-out speech. Thank God, because she’d had no clue where she was actually heading with it.
“Okay.”
Vincent took
her good right hand in his and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “I had some purely selfish reasons for saving your ass. Not only are you one of my best friends, but I’m hoping you’ll be so much more than that.”
Oh, boy. This was it. This was the talk they’d been skating around since she couldn’t actually talk for most of their stay in the cabin. Butterflies took flight in her stomach, her hands suddenly felt clammy, and she wasn’t sure if she was actually breathing. All she could manage was a very squeaky sounding, “Oh?”
“Yes, oh,” he muttered. “Ro, when I found out you were in trouble, I freaked. Completely, totally, freaked. I have never once had a reaction like that. I was in the Marine Corps, working with fucking bombs, which gave me nerves of steel because I had to have them to survive that shit. In the minute that it took to listen to your voicemail, ever nerve of steel I had shattered, just crumbled into nothing. I was a wreck. I was sweating, my pulse was racing like nothing I ever felt in the Corps handling a bomb, and I couldn’t catch a breath.”
Tears welled in her eyes, her vision wavering as she stared up at him. The emotion in his voice was killing her. Swiping a hand over her face, Rhonda sucked in some air.
“Once I found you, everything fell away, my only focus was you. I have never been so, so...” He gave a shake of his head and frowned. “I was beyond angry. All I could see was red, all I was feeling was rage over what they had done to you. My brain gave me all this information, where the guard was, best approach, how to take him down with minimal noise. All I could see through that wave of information was your face, the bruises and swelling. I have never, in my life, wanted to kill someone so badly before that. When I snapped his neck, though, I felt nothing but the need to get you out of there. Do I feel bad? No. Would I do it again? Hell, yeah.”
She’d figured as much. Vincent didn’t dwell on things. He did what needed to be done and moved on. Rhonda tried to be like that, but she wasn’t wired quite the same. Some things she could let go. Others, not so much.
Dangerous Lines Page 5
