Assumed Identity

by Julie Miller

  “I drink coffee and bourbon,” Montgomery called after him. “Stick around town at least until my task force catches its man, and I’ll buy you a drink and listen to that story.”

  A few minutes later, Jake was in the Fourth Precinct parking garage, keeping watch while Robin buckled in the car seat. Her movements weren’t as efficient as usual and that worried Jake. “Tired?” he asked.

  At first Robin shook her head. “Yes, but...”

  But that wasn’t what was bugging her.

  “What is it?”

  “Look at how that assault affected Tania Houseman, and the terrible things her brother did because of it.” She pulled a blanket up over Emma and tucked it beneath her chin. Her hand lingered at Emma’s round cheek. “If he is her father, if Emma is the product of a brutal rape—will she ever have to find out?”

  Jake wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her temple. He reached inside the SUV and lay his hand over Robin’s to cup Emma’s cheek. “A person can handle anything if she has love and support in her life.” A hell of a lot better than by isolating oneself from the world, he was learning.

  “She’s got you to protect her, right?” Robin nestled her head beneath Jake’s chin and an unexpected warmth filled his chest.

  Was this thing real between them? Or was a real relationship, a real family, ever in the cards for a man like him?

  “No, honey. She’s got you. She can’t have a stronger, stauncher ally than her mother.”

  * * *

  JAKE KNEW SOMETHING was wrong as soon as he turned onto the long gravel driveway. Even with the moonless sky and drizzle of rain misting the air, there should be some light beyond the SUV’s high beam headlamps to guide their path. But there was no yard lamp, no security lights, no night-light burning through the kitchen window.

  “Power’s out.”

  Robin roused herself from where she’d been dozing against the headrest and sat up straight. “I didn’t think the storm was that bad. What time is it?”

  “After midnight.”

  She pushed the tumbled waves off her face and scanned the countryside with him. “I can’t even see the barn, much less the trees behind it.”

  “Or what’s over the next hill on either side of the road.”

  He checked the rearview mirror when she looked in the backseat to ensure that Emma was still sleeping. “I’ve got flashlights in the kitchen and bedroom, and camping lanterns in the basement.”

  Jake nodded, wishing he could believe that a lightning strike had taken out a local transformer. But he’d been in survival mode for too long to not be suspicious. “I’ve got a flashlight in my go-bag, too.” Instead of pulling around to the garage behind the house, Jake stopped at the sidewalk leading up to the front door. “Let’s get the kid out and put to bed first, and then I’ll go downstairs to double-check that we haven’t thrown a breaker.”

  Leaving the headlights on to light their path, they unloaded Emma in record time and dashed up to the porch before they got too wet. Jake peered into the darkness for any signs of movement while Emma pulled out her keys to unlock the door.

  “Jake?” He turned around to see the front door floating open. Robin’s key was still in her hand. “I never forget to lock it.”

  “Stay behind me.” Something was definitely wrong. And it wasn’t any power outage.

  He pulled his Beretta from its ankle holster and nudged the door open. He sniffed the air and picked up a faint scent that was neither perfume nor baby powder. No, this one was more tobacco and man sweat.

  Maybe she smelled it, too. “I’ve had a break-in?” she whispered.

  “Looks like it.” With one hand clutching the back of his shirt and the other holding Emma’s carrier between them, Robin followed Jake through the living room into the kitchen. There were no other signs of broken windows or forced locks. Her CD stereo system was still on its shelf; a small television sat on the kitchen counter. “It’s not a robbery.”

  “Then what? Someone getting out of the rain?” They paused for her to get a flashlight and hand it to Jake. Crossing the gun and flashlight at his wrists, Jake led a quick search through the rest of the main floor, ending up in the family room, where the quilt from this morning still lay in a clump at one end of the sofa. “I thought these threats against Emma and me were done.”

  “They are. The Housemans aren’t going to bother you anymore.” His stomach fisted in his gut. “This is about me. I’m sorry, honey. I think my nightmare followed me here.”

  She moved up beside him. “How do you know?”

  “That.” He pointed the beam of the flashlight at the square coffee table and heard her gasp.

  Jake’s fake passports and IDs were spread neatly across the top of the coffee table. In the middle of them all, the intruder had carved a symbol into the dark wood and jammed the knife he’d most likely used into the middle of it.

  Robin’s fingers pinched into his forearm. “What does that mean?”

  Jake didn’t know, but he had a feeling the capital G with all the extra curlicues wasn’t anything good. “Give me the kid.” He hoisted the carrier in one hand and nodded to the front door. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The red targeting laser dotted Robin’s chest and he had no time to do more than to shove her out of the way before the front window shattered and a white-hot poker ripped through his left shoulder.

  “Jake!”

  The impact of the bullet knocked him back across the table. “Get down!”

  A trio of shots peppered the brick fireplace, spraying chips of shrapnel across the room. He heard the reports a split second later and tried to gauge the distance of the shooter, but three more shots zinged over his head before he could crawl back to the sofa to kill the flashlight and pull Robin and Emma down to the floor beneath him.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  They were all going to be bleeding soon if he couldn’t get a bead on this guy and take him out. “It went through. That’s better than having the bullet inside.”

  He felt Robin’s cool hand at the scar on his temple an instant before he felt the pain webbing through his shoulder. “Ow!”

  “Sorry. No, I’m not. Not really.” She’d dumped Emma’s bag and was pressing a diaper against the wound to stanch the bleeding. Oh, yeah, this one was smart. But tending to the injured wasn’t going to keep them alive over these next few minutes. He checked the magazine in his gun and the one in his pocket. Thirty shots. The shooter had already fired off at least half that number.

  Right now their best move was the phone, not more guns. He dug Robin’s cell out of the mess on the floor and thrust it into her hands. The diaper fell and warm blood trickled down his arm again. “Call Montgomery for backup.”

  Six more shots. He palmed the top of Robin’s head and pulled her into his chest to shield her as chunks of wood and plaster rained down on them.

  Jake’s go-bag was missing. That meant whoever was out there was armed to the teeth. And judging by the message on the coffee table, he knew how to use any weapon Jake could.

  “Can you take a picture with that phone?”

  “Yes?”

  “Send a picture of that carving to Montgomery. Tell him to show it to Agent Nash to see if it means anything to him.”

  Robin nodded and raised the phone to capture the image. Jake pushed up from his position to fire three random shots to give her some cover. “Got it.”

  “Texts only. I don’t want any phone ringing to give our position away.”

  “Who’s Agent Nash?” Robin huddled back against his chest and sent the text. “What’s going on? Who are those people?”

  “It’s just one guy. Somebody like me.”

  “Who is Agent Nash?”

  “Robin, you know all that talking you like me to do?” The laser-targeting light swung away and Jake saw their chance to move to a more secure location. He pushed the carrier into Robin’s hands and pulled her to her feet, urging her to keep low
as they ran toward the back door. “It’s going to have to wait until later.”

  A flash-bang grenade lit up the room they’d just vacated. Someday, he’d think about how angry it made him to think the place where he’d first made love to Robin was now burning. But right now, Jake could only think about getting them all to safety. “He can’t find us in the house. Let’s move.”

  A second flash-bang hit the kitchen and startled Emma into a screeching panic. Jake opened the back door and pulled Robin along the side of the house behind him. “If we can get to the barn, you and Emma can hide out inside the wall of hay bales. That should give you a little more protection.”

  “You’re coming with us.” Robin accidentally tugged on his wounded arm and Jake cursed.

  “I’ll get you to the barn.”

  Their attacker had found Jake’s semi-auto and was cutting a line of bullet holes through the front room now. With every new loud sound, Emma cried out. “Can you keep her quiet? Hiding won’t do us any good if her crying gives us away.”

  Robin pulled Emma from her carrier to hug her right up against her chest. “Shh, sweetie. Mommy needs you to quiet down.”

  A knot of dread formed in Jake’s stomach as nightmare and reality blended together. Darkness. Burning. Explosions. Somebody wanted him dead.

  “Jake?” Robin’s touch startled him and he looked over the jut of his shoulder at her. “Stay with me. Don’t go to that place. Here.”

  She placed Emma into the crook of his good arm.

  “Feel the rain? It’s cool.” Another burst of gunfire made him jump. “Listen to Emma. See?” The infant’s shrieks had quieted to a few intermittent sobs. Robin stroked her hand across his brow and quieted the nightmare. “Are you with me?”

  Squeezing the haunting images from his mind, he looked down into her sweet, gray-blue eyes and nodded. “Honey, I’m supposed to save you.”

  A flash-bang detonated in the bedroom behind them and all three of them jumped. “I think you’ll still get your chance.”

  He hugged Emma as close to his chest as he dared. “Stay low to the ground. And run.”

  Once he had Robin and Emma secured behind triple hay bale stacks in the barn, Jake pulled out his half-spent Beretta. “You know how to use a gun?”

  “No.”

  He placed the gun into Robin’s hands and gave the quickest lesson of his life. “Safety’s off. Squeeze the trigger—don’t jerk it. And don’t shoot me.”

  She grabbed hold of him, curling her fingertips into his chest. “Where are you going? Backup’s coming, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe not soon enough. If this guy’s like me, only one of us is getting out of here alive.” Her skin paled and Jake leaned in and kissed her. This is who he was, who she needed him to be. “I intend it to be me.”

  “I love you,” she whispered as he pulled away.

  Jake nodded and kissed her again.

  The lights of the approaching sirens finally diverted their attacker’s attention away from the house. With the rain muffling his footsteps, Jake snuck up on the man’s flank. The light wasn’t good, but it didn’t have to be at this distance.

  Jake pulled his knife and flipped it in his hand. And when the perp in the trilby hat finally realized he wasn’t alone, he swung around with the semi-automatic. But Jake was quicker.

  Twenty seconds later he was standing over a dead man with a knife stuck in his heart. Robin and Emma were finally, truly safe.

  He kicked the stupid hat aside and looked back toward the barn. “I love you, too.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Joe! Hey, Joe!”

  Jake looked up from the baby cooing in his lap on the gurney where a pair of EMTs had bandaged the through-and-through in his shoulder. The guy, blond-haired and long-legged, was chasing the ambulance in his jeans and cowboy boots, trying to catch it before the doors closed and they drove him away for a routine check and some stitches in the E.R.

  The man wasn’t much older than Jake, but the badge and sidearm on his belt demanded that he didn’t just blow him off for a private ride with the Carter girls and, he hoped, one of those conversations that Robin liked.

  “Detective Montgomery said you’d been avoiding me. If you aren’t the cagiest son of a gun to track down. The rest of the squad thought you were dead.”

  Robin got up from the side bench and sat on the edge of the gurney beside Jake. Did she think he was in trouble with this cop? He grinned at how protective a mother could be, even with someone who didn’t need protecting. “Who are you?”

  “Ma’am.” He extended his hand to introduce himself. “I’m Nash. Agent Charles Nash. DEA.” He pulled his badge off his belt to show her, and she passed it along to Jake. Hell. He sat back a little. It looked just like the badge he’d kept all this time—with a different name, of course. When Jake returned the badge to the officer, he made a face. “It’s Charlie. Your handler?”

  “Charles Nash?” Jake repeated, waiting for some sort of recognition to kick in. “I work for you?”

  “Yeah, Joe. What kind of game are you playing?” Agent Nash snapped his fingers at whatever revelation he was about to share. “Oh, man. I knew you’d been hit, but I had no idea it affected your memory.”

  “You know me?”

  “Yeah. Joseph Lonergan. DEA agent. Best undercover man I ever worked with.” He climbed up into the ambulance to take the seat Robin had vacated. “We lost you on a mission to Tenebrosa. You infiltrated Diego Graciela’s cartel. Killed the don yourself to save some girls he’d kidnapped to use as prostitutes. Blew your cover, of course. I tried to pull you out. But the compound got leveled by a rival cartel’s truck bomb, and the agency assumed you were dead.”

  Explosions. Heat raining down. The nightmare was a real memory.

  “I didn’t give up on you, though. I know how resourceful you are. I figured if there wasn’t a body, then you’d gone underground. I’ve been looking for you ever since. Thought I’d warn you about the hit Graciela’s brother put out on you.” He pointed out the door to the coroner’s wagon that was hauling away the shooter KCPD had identified as Johnny Cortez. “The symbol carved into this lady’s coffee table was Graciela’s—I’m sure that was a message from the brother. But I gather you already figured that out.”

  Unfortunately, Jake followed the information about the cartel and hit man better than a couple of other things. “I’m Joe Lonergan?”

  “He goes by Jake now,” Robin volunteered.

  “Your head really is scrambled, isn’t it?” The perpetual grin faded from Nash’s expression. “So no memory of killing Graciela or feeding us enough intel to close down his pipeline into the U.S.?”

  Jake shook his head. “The doctors say my memory may never return.”

  Agent Nash nodded. “I’ll send you copies of the mission briefings and your reports up until the day we lost contact. You can read up and see what a pain you were—and see all the good work you got done for us.”

  “Thanks.” Jake laced his fingers together with Robin’s. “So I’m a good guy, after all. Is that a deal breaker?”

  She tightened her fingers around his. “What deal are you talking about?”

  Whatever Nash was to Jake—boss, friend, coworker—he was a little slow about picking up the signals that Jake wanted some time alone with this very brave, very special woman.

  “Your job’s waiting for you if you want to come back,” Nash offered.

  Jake nodded his appreciation. “I’ll need some time to think about it. My brain has a lot of catching up to do.”

  And he knew he wouldn’t be leaving K.C. until the potential threat to Robin and Emma was resolved and the Rose Red Rapist case was finally closed.

  Agent Nash shook hands with Jake and stood. “Take whatever time you need. But we’ll keep in touch this time. No more going into hiding and covering your tracks. Come see me in Houston. And I’ll check in next time I’m in Kansas City. Ma’am.” He nodded to Robin. He tapped his finger against Emma’s no
se and she giggled. “Cutie.” Then he was hopping off the ambulance. “Take care. If you need anything, call.”

  “Agent Nash?”

  He turned. “It’s just Nash. Or Charlie if we’ve been drinking.”

  Jake nodded. Nash. Still not ringing a bell, but it was hard not to like the guy. “Can you answer a question for me?”

  “Anything.”

  “Am I married? Do I have kids?”

  Nash shook his head. “Your philosophy was that the work you did was too dangerous to have any kind of family. Your parents are both gone. You’ve got no siblings—some cousins and an aunt in San Antonio, I think. But that’s one of the reasons you volunteered for the long-term deep-cover op. You were a free man.”

  Jake tunneled his fingers into the silky waves at Robin’s temple. “Not anymore.” He couldn’t take his gaze away from those pretty eyes that seemed to like looking at him. “Thanks for finding me, Nash.”

  “Yeah, well next time you get shot in the head, don’t make it so hard to track you down.”

  Nash left and Jake scooted forward on the gurney, slipping his good arm around Robin’s waist and pulling her closer. “I don’t want to be a free man. I want connections. I want to be tied to a home and a family.”

  She lay her hand against his scarred face. “Anyone in particular?”

  “The Carter girls. If they’ll have me. I happen to have fallen in love with both of them.”

  “All right, Joe.”

  He frowned. That didn’t sound right. “Call me Jake.”

  “Okay. Jake.”

  He pulled her up to his chest and covered her mouth with his, claiming her lips, claiming her heart, claiming this family. They traded a dozen more kisses, some hard and fast, others sensual and lingering, and still others that were gentle and healing and perfect.

  The doors closed and the ambulance shifted into gear. Jake settled both the Carter girls into his arms. He was dozing off toward a peaceful sleep when he realized the unthinkable and sat up. “Hey. Did I just win an argument?”