by Jodie Bailey
“So? It’s like a train wreck. They want to see what happens next.”
“Right.” Travis chuckled. “More like they want another chance to ogle the hot chick who defended herself against a trained soldier. Your girlfriend’s going to be legendary.”
“Not my girlfriend.”
“I know. And you can say it all you want, but they’re going to keep thinking it. Your street cred’s headed through the roof, Murph.”
Enough. “Is that what you came in here to tell me?”
“No.” Travis grew serious again. “All of your guys are out there except Cronin, naturally. And Lacey.”
Lucas’s muscles froze. All this chaos was roaring and Lacey, the one who’d shown the most interest in Kristin, the one who’d received a package from her brother, was the one missing? “You’re sure?”
“Dead certain. I poked around. Nobody’s seen him since right after lunch, when he was sawing away on that violin. Last I heard, he broke a string and headed to his room to grab another. Do you think—”
“Do I think he’s in on this?” Most definitely. If Lacey had disappeared shortly before Kristin was attacked, then he could be anywhere by now. On the run, watching Kristin...
Her voice drifted to him. “I’m certain this is a different man. The other man had a tattoo on his leg. Specialist Cronin’s wearing shorts, and there’s no snake crawling up his shin.”
Lucas straightened, forgetting Travis’s words as his face slackened. He hadn’t heard right. It was impossible. He should have listened to her statement at the lake, should have asked for every detail sooner. This would have ended before she ever got hurt the second time. He’d blown it.
Kristin was still describing the tattoo, but Lucas already saw it in his mind. “It wrapped around his shin. The fangs were bloody and aimed at his knee.”
Lucas’s jaw clenched so tight, he had to strain to speak. “I know who’s after her.” The only person Lucas knew who had a tattoo like that was in the wind somewhere, cut loose from the unit last week after a positive drug test overseas. It all made sense. Specialist William Morrissey had been friends with Kyle Coleman and Brandon Lacey overseas, a good soldier until Coleman was killed. Then the problems started. After the drug test, he’d redeployed with the unit and been confined to quarters until he chaptered out of the army last week.
Just in time to start harassing Kristin.
“What did you say?” Travis straightened as well.
“I know who’s doing this, and if I’m right, Lacey’s probably involved.”
Lucas straightened and glanced at the MP questioning Kristin. She’d be safer with him than she’d be if he spouted off his suspicions. He marched for his office, where he snatched the keys to the barracks rooms. If Lacey was hiding himself or anything else upstairs, his time was running out. “Go outside and tell the MPs William Morrissey is the ringleader.”
“Morrissey?” Travis’s face mirrored Lucas’s emotions.
“The tattoo. Morrissey got that snake after he took shrapnel to the knee two years ago.”
Travis blocked the door. “Let the cops handle this, Luke. Don’t go rogue now, not this close to the end.”
“No.” Lucas went toe-to-toe with his friend, all of his frustration unleashing in one direction. The wrong one, sure, but he was a volcano with nowhere else to blow. Nobody, not even Travis, was keeping him from putting a stop to what was happening to Kristin. If he didn’t move now, Lacey could vanish along with Morrissey, and no one would ever find them. “You go tell the MPs and they’ll be upstairs right behind me. But I want to see him face-to-face before he has a chance to put on his game face for the cops. I want to surprise him with the question about Morrissey’s involvement.”
He shoved Travis aside, hating to leave Kristin behind but unwilling to wait any longer to confront Specialist Lacey. Everything was falling into place, and he wasn’t letting one detail slip through his fingers.
Travis didn’t hesitate any longer, but turned and headed for the building’s entrance at full speed to bring the MPs running.
At this point, Lucas was past caring. He wanted Kristin safe. Then she could focus on getting her head on straight with God and then maybe, just maybe, getting her heart straight with him.
On the third floor, Lucas stopped and pounded his balled fist on a heavy wood door. “Lacey, open the door.”
Silence.
He pounded the door again, determined to make this the last play of the game. “Last chance, Specialist.”
Again, nothing.
Tensed and ready for a confrontation, Lucas slid the key in the lock and threw the door open.
The metallic smell smacked him immediately, familiar and stomach churning. He inhaled sharply, his face tightening, and shoved the door open farther.
Everything in the room was tossed, the destruction complete, the smell of blood overwhelming.
Lucas edged into the room and pulled his T-shirt over his nose, eyes watering, heart pounding with the kind of sick knowing years of battlefield experience brought. He turned to the left and tried not to gag.
In the center of the room, Lacey lay facedown, his head at an odd angle, blood pooled and running from the deep cut in his neck.
SIXTEEN
“At what point did you lose the common sense God gave you, Murphy?” Major Anderson slammed the door to his office and walked around his desk to face Lucas and Travis, who stood like privates called out for mischief in basic training.
Lucas couldn’t decide if he was more humiliated by the trouble he was in or disgusted by the image of Lacey’s body, head practically severed. If there was a way to turn back time, he would, and he’d have gone with Travis to send the military police to Lacey’s room. He definitely wouldn’t have gone rogue and dragged Travis with him. “Sir, this is all me. Sergeant Heath was trying to talk me out of—”
“No.” Travis stood straighter. “I let him go.”
“Well, you’re both loyal, even when you’re stupid.” The major eyed the two of them, then sank into his chair. “Sit. Both of you.” He waited for them to obey, then simply sat there, eyeing them with the same fierce expression that made privates curl up like armadillos. “I had to stop the MPs from taking you in, Murphy. You’d better be glad there’s accountability for you every single minute of this day until you found Specialist Lacey. If you’d been out of sight at any time, you’d be in custody right now.”
It was true. Lucas had found the body, was away from the group. And if Lacey was truly involved, he had a motive.
“If Lacey is a part of this ring CID is investigating, do you realize your presence outside today is the one thing keeping you off the hook for his murder? Especially after the way you went after Cronin this afternoon. You lost your head.” The major kneaded his forehead, probably fighting the headache they’d caused. “Women can make the smartest man stupid.” He aimed a finger at Travis. “And somehow, it always comes back to you.”
Lucas clamped down on his tongue. He was in enough trouble without trying to defend Travis or his own relationship with Kristin. Nobody here would ever again believe they were only friends. Not after today. If he was being honest, even he didn’t believe it anymore. “Sir, where is Kristin James right now?” He hadn’t seen her in over an hour, not since they’d called the MPs to Lacey’s room. The major had ordered them to his office and made them wait while he and the first sergeant ran interference upstairs. The worry in Lucas’s gut competed with the seared-in image of Lacey’s body to turn his stomach inside out. He had to get to her, to make sure Morrissey didn’t do to her what he’d done to Lacey. Lucas had no doubts he was behind the murder and everything else.
“She’s fine. Friend of hers, a Staff Sergeant Jordan, took her home.”
Casey. At least she was safe. Relatively. As long as the MPs found Mo
rrissey quickly, Kristin would be fine. If they didn’t...
Lucas squashed the thought. Right now, he had to hold himself in neutral if he wanted to get out of here and back to her side, the one place he felt his presence was doing any good.
Major Anderson studied Lucas’s reaction, then turned to Travis. “Specialist Lacey is definitely dead, but you probably knew on sight. Somebody was waiting for him. Whoever killed him found some leftover violin string in his room and made themselves a garrote. Lacey didn’t have a chance. Severed his neck to the spine. Hard to say, with the weapon being fashioned in his room, if it was related to CID’s investigation or if it was a crime of passion. Half the barracks was tired of him sawing on that violin of his.”
“A weak motive for murder.” Travis wasn’t biting on the dark battlefield humor the major threw out as a coping mechanism. “Are they searching for William Morrissey?”
“They are in connection with the attack on Kristin James, but without a motive, they aren’t prepared to say he killed our soldier.”
Lucas tightened his grip on the arm of the chair. They had to find Morrissey and stop this. “What about the box Kristin delivered to Lacey?”
“In the room. A cheap tea set and some jewelry in it.”
So it really was a gift for his mom. Lucas wasn’t sure he could handle many more punches to the gut today.
Major Anderson leaned forward. “You know, Murphy, Major Draper is itching for a reason to take you into custody right now. Says you’re in deep, too close to Kristin James. Seems like everything that happens to her, there you are. He wants you out of the way, and he’ll use any excuse to do it.”
They couldn’t order him to stay away from her. Not now. He’d never violated a direct command before, but if it meant the difference between Kristin’s safety and leaving her to the wolves...
The commander waved off Lucas’s coming argument. “Somebody has to keep an eye on her until the authorities locate Morrissey, and I can argue with you all day, but it’s going to be you. I’m no fool. But you listen to me.” He leaned across the desk, gaze hard on Lucas’s. “Let the investigators do their job. You make sure she’s safe. But no digging for evidence. No going rogue. And no more running ahead of the authorities like you know more than they do. You hear me?”
“Yes, sir.” As far as Lucas was concerned, he was getting off way too easy. Almost made him wonder if there was something going on he didn’t know yet.
The commander turned to Travis. “Heath, you keep him in line. Between the two of you, you’re the one without a dog in this fight.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go home. I’ll call you if there’s anything you need to know. And for the sake of all of our careers, stay out of trouble.” The major stood and waved them toward the door.
Lucas reached for the doorknob, glad to still have his rank, his job and his freedom.
“Murphy.”
He stopped and turned, trying not to wince. “Sir?”
“Good to see you found somebody.”
Travis choked.
Lucas didn’t find it one bit funny. He stormed out the door and was halfway down the hall before Travis caught him. “So, Luke, did you find somebody?”
“Shut up.”
“Sorry. Bad timing.” Travis fell into pace with him as they headed for the front doors. “You’re not finished with this yet, despite what Major Anderson said, are you?”
Lucas didn’t even stop walking. There was no reason to explain himself, not when Travis already knew the truth. Until Lucas knew for sure Morrissey was the bad guy, he wasn’t going to stop searching. Kristin needed to be safe. For good. No doubts. He shoved out the front door into the dark evening.
“Not on your life.”
* * *
Kristin paced from the back door, through the kitchen and into the living room, the hardwood creaking beneath her feet. It had been radio silence since Lucas disappeared three hours ago while she was giving her statement, a man on a mission. His phone went straight to voice mail, and she had no one else to contact concerning him.
Everything had been fine until the MPs bolted into the building, leaving Kristin with one officer until Casey came to bring her home. When the ambulance arrived right before Casey did, no one would say a word about whom it was there for. She’d been blocked from any information, though she’d heard a brief smattering of radio traffic. A brief burst that had included Lucas’s name.
She dug her teeth into her lower lip. If anything had happened to Lucas because of her...
“Stop pacing. You’ll have to replace the hardwood if you don’t.” Casey sat in her customary chair, trying to come across as relaxed. Her rigid posture and the tight measure in her voice said she was as worried as Kristin.
Stopping in the middle of the room, Kristin stared at the curtained front window, where the dark of an early-spring Carolina evening peeked black around the edges. She needed something to do. Some distraction to keep her mind off wild imaginings featuring Lucas being loaded into an ambulance and rushed away. Her hands were too shaky to paint the bathroom. Her legs too weak for a workout. And she definitely should have skipped the three cups of coffee she’d tossed back since she got home.
Helpless, she could only stare, keenly aware of her lack of place in Lucas’s life, even though he’d overtaken every aspect of her own. “I don’t know what to do. There’s nobody to tell me if something happened. I’m a friend, nothing else. So how long do we wait before we go to post?”
“If something had happened, Travis would have called.”
“He doesn’t have my number, not unless Lucas gave it to him.”
Casey cleared her throat and shifted in her chair. “He has mine.”
Well, there it was. Kristin had asked for a distraction. This one was as good as any.
She pivoted slowly on one heel and faced her friend. “Do tell.”
“You know it’s no big deal.” Casey shrugged off the question in Kristin’s voice. “The night we went for pizza, he asked for it. We’ve talked once since then.”
“I see.” Kristin sank to the edge of the coffee table, relieved to have something else to talk about. If Travis was into Casey, this might be just what her friend needed to realize she was more amazing than she thought. “The night you went for pizza was last night.”
“And we’ve talked once. Like I said, no big deal. He was probably bored.”
“Probably bored? Are you—”
“Let’s talk about you instead.” Casey leaned over and poked her finger into Kristin’s bicep, her smile widening, probably because she was about to go on the offensive. “You’ve paced this house for almost two hours. And you’ve dialed Lucas Murphy’s phone number how many times now?”
“Because he’s my friend and I’m worr—”
“No.”
“He’s—”
“No. Have you ever paced the floor for two hours over me? I’m your friend, too.” Sitting back, Casey flattened her hands on the table, her smile smug. “Something more is going on here. Maybe you should be the one talking, not me.”
There wasn’t much to tell. He’d kissed her. She’d pushed him away. Things had been slightly off between them ever since, closer yet farther away all at the same time. The one certain thing in her life right now was the way Lucas made her feel safe, and she was terrified that safe place was gone forever.
“I don’t know what you’re afraid of, Kris. Lucas isn’t your dad. He’s not your brother, either.”
“He scares me.”
Casey laughed. “Lucas doesn’t scare you. You scare you. You let him in and now you don’t know how to kick him out. I’m not even sure you want to.”
The thud of footsteps on the porch kept Kristin from answering. She glanced at Casey, her heart thumping. This was about to be v
ery, very bad or...worse. She was on her feet and at the peephole before anyone could knock, Casey right behind her.
Lucas’s face on the other side weakened her muscles in relief, and she pressed her hand against the door to keep her balance. Him safely on her porch was the most amazing sight she’d ever seen.
She pulled the door open and stared at him through the screen, wanting to throw herself at him and confess... What? That she didn’t want to contemplate life without him? No. That wouldn’t work, especially not with an audience like Casey and Travis. “Why didn’t you call?”
The accusation in her tone jerked his chin up. “My phone’s on my desk at work. We had to shut them off when...” Their eyes locked through the screen. “Honestly, all I could think about was getting here as fast as I could.”
Kristin’s stomach dropped in a way she’d never felt before...in a way she hoped to experience again. Maybe. It was almost too good. Problem was, it took her ability to form words with it, and she couldn’t stop staring at Lucas, sinking into the implication behind his words.
“Okay, let the men in the house.” Casey reached around her and shoved the screen door open. “They didn’t come here to stand on the porch all night.”
Kristin had almost forgotten anyone else was in the house. She pushed the door open and gave Lucas enough room to come through without touching her. If he did, she’d—
Well, she had no idea what she’d do, but it would definitely be something she could never take back.
“What happened?” She found her voice somewhere around her feet. “What was with the MPs and the ambulance? We thought...” Never mind what she’d thought. Confession would tip her hand about feelings she wasn’t even certain of herself.
“Have you got coffee ready? I could really use lots of strong coffee.” Without the screen to mask his features, Kristin got a good look at Lucas’s expression for the first time. His face was pale and tight, almost like he’d encountered something he never wanted to see again.
