Negotiation Tactics (Sutton Capital Series Contemporary Romance)

by Lori Ryan

  Jennie felt tears burn behind her eyes as she kissed Chad good-bye.

  “Hey,” Chad said, tilting her head to force her to meet his eyes. “I’ll be right back, Jen. I promise. A couple of hours and I hope all this will be over.”

  Jennie nodded, but she could tell she was about to lose her battle with the tears. When she tried to speak the tears fell.

  “I can’t lose you, too, Chad. I can’t go through that again,” she said, panic rising in her lungs, threatening to suffocate her if she didn’t get it under control.

  Chad wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the floor, holding her tight.

  “You won’t lose me,” he whispered in her ear, his voice husky. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise. I’ll be back here, forcing you to eat healthy meals and bugging you about having too many pastries before you know it. Hell, you’ll be so tired of me, you’ll probably be kicking me out of my own house by tomorrow night. I promise.”

  Jennie nodded but held tight for a few more minutes, arms and legs wrapped around him, memorizing the feel of him, his steady, quiet strength.

  She kissed him hard and let go, letting him walk away, but praying he’d be back and this would all be over soon.

  ***

  Chad pulled into the hotel parking lot. They’d fed the location to Burke the day before so Burke would have plenty of time to get the false lead to Bandon. Only Burke’s direct supervisor, AUSA Waters and those involved in the sting knew the location was a setup and Jennie would be hiding at Chad’s house instead of showing up for the meet. The agents at the sting had been handpicked by Mike, and Chad trusted Mike not to use anyone he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about.

  Chad knew that Burke and Mike should already be waiting in the room the bureau had rented for the meeting. Since Burke and Bandon had never met Jennie, it had been easy for Mike to find a smaller female agent with red hair to play the part of Jennie.

  Agent Kirsten Danners sat next to Chad in the cab of his truck, a bullet-proof vest under her clothing, ready to put her life on the line to draw out a killer. Her hair was too red to be Jennie, but it would have to do. It would be close enough to fool anyone who had a general description of Jennie and happened to be watching them enter or exit the building.

  Chad scanned the parking lot as they entered the building and he knew Agent Danners would do the same. His eyes flicked to rooftops, windows, and surrounding cars. No sign of anyone suspicious, but he did spot the two backup agents they had planted outside. One agent was up on a telephone pole, his position as a fake repairman giving him a good eagle-eye view of the surrounding area. The other was dressed as a maintenance worker and pushed a cart from trash can to trash can emptying the garbage liners and picking up any litter on his route.

  The arsonists Bandon had sent to Jennie’s parents’ house were pretty inexperienced guys. Just hired muscle following directions, but so far, they weren’t spilling anything to the police. Chad was hoping Bandon would show up to do the job himself this time instead of sending anyone else who could screw it up again.

  As Chad walked across the parking lot with Danners at his side, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Something didn’t feel right about this, but Chad couldn’t put his finger on what it was. His eyes roamed the area once again. Nothing had changed. No signs that anything had gone wrong, but Chad couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

  Chad and Agent Danners knocked on the door to the hotel room and waited for Mike to open the door. When he did, Chad stepped through first, quickly taking in the room. Only Agent Burke sat in the room. The curtains had been drawn and Burke had a notepad in front of him ready to take notes.

  “You cleared the room?” Chad asked Mike, knowing the answer but needing to ask anyway.

  Mike nodded and then introduced Chad and Danners to Agent Burke, introducing Danners as Jennie Evans. Chad kept a protective hand on Danners as he guided her to the sofa, as he would have if Danners were Jennie.

  Chad watched Burke closely, assessing his body language. Burke didn’t bat an eye when the agent was introduced as Jennie. Burke appeared to have no idea this wasn’t the real Jennie.

  Mike and Agent Danners sat on the sofa across from Burke but Chad stood, watching Burke.

  Burke leaned forward, appearing earnest as he started his interrogation. He didn’t bother to try to set his witness at ease before jumping right into questioning her, but he was gentle in his questioning.

  “Before we go into the details of your trip to Florida, I want to talk about last night a bit, Jennie. We need to get to the bottom of who tried to set your parents’ house on fire,” Burke said. When he continued, he looked up at Chad and then back to Agent Danners. “Who knew you were coming home last night?”

  As Agent Danners answered him, feeding him the information she’d been given for her role, Chad watched Burke. There wasn’t a single clue that he was being anything other than honest in his line of questioning. No eye-blocking behavior like lowering of his eyelids or rubbing an eye. He didn’t engage in any pacifying behaviors like tugging at his collar or rubbing the back of his neck. It didn’t mean he wasn’t lying, especially since he would have received training in the area of body language and deceit as an FBI agent, but Chad was pretty damn good at spotting a lie. He wasn’t seeing anything but honesty as he looked at Burke.

  Chad caught Mike’s eye and he knew Mike was thinking the same thing. Burke was questioning Agent Danners as if he genuinely wanted to get to find out who was behind the attempted arson the night before. If he’d been the one to leak the information, it was unlikely he’d raise the issue first. It was more likely he would have had an ambush out in the parking lot that Danners and Chad would have had to deal with on the way in.

  Mike spoke up, breaking into the conversation Burke was having with Danners. “If you don’t mind my asking, Agent Burke, I think we need to follow all possible avenues here. Who did you contact after hearing from Chad about Jennie’s whereabouts last night?”

  Burke’s eyes shot to Mike first then to Chad and all Chad saw was genuine shock, followed by anger. Mike diffused his anger by holding up a hand in appeasement.

  “I only ask because we need to trace all possible avenues of a leak. We need to know who you passed the info on to, so we can track those leads,” Mike said.

  Burke nodded and the anger seeped from him but you could still see a hint of indignation at having another agent question him. Mike outranked Burke as a Supervisory Special Agent, so Chad knew Burke wasn’t likely to argue.

  Mike’s phone rang as Burke opened his mouth to speak. Mike glanced at the screen before taking the call with an apologetic look to the group. They listened as he grunted a couple of responses then looked up at Chad with startled eyes.

  “What is it?” Chad asked as soon as Mike ended the call.

  “I had one of my people running down anything we could find on the two men who tried to start the fire at Jennie’s parent’s house. They’re out on bail on charges of grand larceny in an auto theft ring in Florida. The AUSA on their case is Caroline Waters,” Mike said.

  Agent Burke cursed. “I only told three people of your whereabouts. I left a voicemail for the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven field office to see if she could send a field agent out to Torrington to take Jennie’s statement. I sent an email to my supervisor and I copied AUSA Waters on the email. If she gets her emails on her phone like I do, she would have seen it shortly after you contacted me,” Agent Burke said.

  Chad didn’t wait to hear any more and neither did Mike. They moved in tandem toward the door as Chad took his phone out of his pocket. “We need to get to Jennie.”

  As Mike drove, Chad tried to reach Jennie on her phone, but she didn’t pick up. He hung up and sent a text telling her not let anyone in. As soon as that went through, he tried calling again.

  He couldn’t lose her now.

  Not now. They’d only really just found each other.

  Chapter
Thirty-five

  Jennie paced Chad’s condo, walking from one room to the next. She’d settle for a bit in one room, pick up a book and try to read or pull out a carton of milk and a glass to pour a drink, before abandoning it and moving to another room. She couldn’t seem to settle herself at all. She knew the smart choice had been for her to stay behind, but waiting for Chad to come back to her wasn’t easy. It was probably the hardest thing she’d had to do in the nightmare that had become her existence since she’d met the Masters brothers.

  She knew Chad would call or text as soon as they had either Burke or Bandon or both men in custody so she stared at her cell phone relentlessly. Realistically, she knew it wouldn’t ring for at least a couple of hours, if that soon, but she watched it just the same, willing it to ring. She just needed to hear his voice and know he was safe, know he was coming home to her.

  Jennie startled when the landline rang in Chad’s condo a half hour after he left. Jennie knew the landline was actually only there for the doorman to call up to Chad’s condo. Though it wasn’t used for anything else, she still worried that someone was calling that number to tell her something had happened. That things had gone wrong and Chad wouldn’t be coming home to her.

  Fear clenched in her stomach as she crossed to the wireless phone that sat in its cradle on the kitchen counter.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “Ms. Evans? It’s Bernard from downstairs.” Jennie let out a breath as she recognized the doorman from Chad’s building. “There’s a Caroline Waters here to see you. She’s with the United States Attorney’s office. She has credentials and she said Mr. Thompson sent her to sit with you. She said you would understand why. Do you want me to send her up, Ms. Evans?”

  “Oh.” Chad hadn’t told her he would be sending anyone, but it made sense that the attorney for the case would want to speak with her. “Are you sure she has identification?”

  “Yes, ma’am, but I can tell her to wait until Mr. Thompson returns, if you’d like.”

  “No, no. That’s all right. Send her up please.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The phone went dead and Jennie put it down on the counter and went to open the door to the condo. The ping of the elevator door came a minute later and a sharply dressed woman a few years older than Jennie came down the hall.

  “Hi,” Jennie greeted her as she came to a stop outside the door to Chad’s condo.

  “Hi Jennifer, I’m Caroline Waters.” The woman glanced around the hallway as she spoke and Jennie wondered if she were nervous. Maybe something had happened with the meeting and Chad had sent this woman because Jennie was in danger.

  “Come inside. We can talk in here. Is everything going okay at the meeting?” Jennie asked as she opened the door to Ms. Waters.

  “Oh, yes. Just fine, I’m sure,” Ms. Waters said. “I’m only here to take your statement. I’ll get the details from you and then my office will write everything up in affidavit form for you to sign later.”

  Jennie nodded, leading Ms. Waters to the couch in the living room.

  When they were settled on the couch, the attorney took a notepad out of her bag and began to scribble notes as they talked.

  “So, Ms. Evans, I understand you went to the Masters’ resort to investigate the resort for a potential purchaser, is that right?”

  Jennie nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “Tell me what you witnessed at the Masters’ resort during your trip to Florida,” Ms. Waters said, looking at Jennie expectantly. Even so, something in the woman’s eyes was cold and dead. Jennie didn’t know if she was being foolish or if she should listen to whatever it was that was telling her this woman wasn’t here for the right reasons.

  Jennie shook off her hesitation. The lawyers at Sutton Capital had gone over her statement with her and told her what to expect. This conversation didn’t seem all that far off the mark. Jennie described the conversation she’d overheard in the hallway outside the Masters brothers’ office, staying with a factual description rather than any narrative or opinions, as the Sutton lawyers had told her to.

  “I see. And was anyone else with you at this time?”

  The tone of Ms. Water’s voice was calm, but Jennie could tell it was forced. There was now something very ‘off’ about the attorney’s whole demeanor. It looked like the lawyer was feeling more anxious than Jennie felt, which didn’t seem right at all. Why would the lawyer on the case be so nervous? There was nothing Jennie could pinpoint to tell her for sure that something was wrong, but she felt it just the same.

  Jennie heard her cell phone ring and rose to pick it up, but Ms. Waters’ hand shot out, gripping Jennie’s arm. Jennie’s head whipped around to look at the woman and Ms. Waters released her hand as if she realized how much she’d overreacted. But, the damage was done. Jennie was sure something was wrong.

  “I’d really like to finish this quickly, Jennie. If you could talk me through this I’ll be out of your hair in no time,” Ms. Waters said. “I need to be sure no one else was with you when you heard these statements. I mean, was there anyone else with you that I need to be speaking with?”

  Cold shivers ran up Jennie’s spine and she felt the urgent need to get away from the woman who was staring intently at her. Every cell in Jennie’s body seemed to be screaming at her, telling her to get away. Jennie’s hand dropped to her stomach, as if she could somehow cover the baby to protect it from whatever was about to happen.

  Jennie’s phone beeped, indicating an incoming text message and almost immediately began to ring again. Jennie stood up, not knowing what she should do, but knowing she needed to put some distance between her and this woman.

  “I’m going to get that—”

  In that moment, several things seemed to happen at once. Chad and Mike burst through the door at the same time that Jennie saw Caroline Waters shoot to her feet, pulling a gun out of her purse. Jennie’s blood ran cold. Somehow in that moment, she wasn’t frightened for herself; she was terrified for Chad. If she lost him, she knew she wouldn’t live through it. She wasn’t strong enough to go through that again. Not this time.

  Jennie was vaguely aware of Mike talking to Caroline. Caroline’s arm shook as she tried to hold the gun on all three of them. Chad was talking to Jennie, reaching for her, telling her to come to him. At the moment, she stood several feet from Caroline and across the room from Chad. Jennie knew Chad wanted her near him so he could protect her. She could see he had turned from the Chad she knew into a highly trained warrior, ready to fight for her, ready to die for her. But, Jennie knew she couldn’t let that happen.

  The world seemed to slow down in that moment. The tension was almost palpable and Jennie knew this would end badly. She could feel it in the cold dread crawling up her spine. Jennie looked from Chad to Caroline and back again. Chad was still talking but Jennie couldn’t hear what he was saying. She knew Caroline would start shooting her way out of the room if the desperate, cornered look on her face was any indication.

  “No,” Jennie whispered. She wasn’t speaking to Caroline or Chad or even herself, for that matter. She was speaking to the universe in general. To whatever it was that thought it was okay to take two men from her. To take first her husband and now the father of her unborn child. Jennie’s fists clenched and she felt the bite of her nails breaking the skin of her palms.

  “No.”

  She wouldn’t let this happen. Kyle was gone, but there was no way Jennie would lose Chad, too. Jennie lunged at Caroline, aware in the back of her mind that Chad was screaming at her and charging for her. Jennie heard a gunshot but didn’t feel anything as she tackled Caroline to the ground. The gunshot was louder than she expected it to be. Jennie’s ears were ringing and she thought to herself that the whole world seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything sounded fuzzy.

  Jennie felt Chad’s arms around her, lifting her as she saw Mike subdue Caroline. He secured the gun Caroline had dropped when she fell to the ground as Chad reached Jennie
and pulled her into his arms. Jennie turned to Chad and ran her hands over him, frantically trying to figure out where he’d been shot. As she ran her hands over his chest, his arms, desperate to know where he’d been hit, Chad lifted her up. He ran through the door with her, holding her in his arms. Jennie saw other agents in the hallway and heard someone call out that an ambulance was waiting downstairs.

  Why is Chad carrying me if he needs an ambulance? This is so silly.

  Jennie looked into Chad’s face as he entered the elevator and pushed the button. He cradled her in his arms and was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her ears. Jennie must have been closer than she realized to Caroline’s gun when it went off. She followed Chad’s line of sight to her arm and stared in shock at the blood pouring down her arm and dripping onto her hand. Chad’s hand was wrapped around her forearm, applying pressure to try to slow the bleeding. It was only after seeing it that her body seemed to register the sensations, the pain.

  The blood was hotter than she’d thought it would be as it dripped over her hand and onto the elevator floor. And her arm felt numb, except for the back of it. The back of her arm felt like someone had dug into it with a stick made out of salt. It burned like nothing she’d ever felt before. The pain was so intense, her breath seemed to stop and she stared up at Chad, finally understanding.

  Chad hadn’t been shot.

  She had.

  ***

  Chad tried to calm himself as he waited for the elevator to make the interminably long ride to the lobby of his building. He knew the truth about gunshot wounds. It was a myth from the movies and television that you could get shot with a through and through in the arm and not have any real damage. In reality, the arm was full of arteries and nerves. Jennie could bleed out or lose enough blood to harm the baby in a matter of minutes if the bullet hit the right spot. She could permanently lose some of the use of her arm or the feeling in her hand. If the bone was shattered, fragments of that bone could have hit other arteries and nerves, multiplying the damage.