They stopped at the attic door. There was a trip wire. Nick squatted to inspect it.
“Do you know what to do?” Marco whispered.
Nick leaned over and smelled the cylinders.
“It’s rubbing alcohol with no trigger,” he said. “They’re good fakes, but they’re fake.”
“The rubbing alcohol will add fuel to the fire,” Marco said.
“As if this house isn’t fuel enough,” Nick said.
A gunshot from the attic had Nick and Marco on their feet. Nick opened the door and Marco covered him. The narrow stairs went straight up; potentially, a deadly trap.
Another gunshot sounded.
“Cover me,” Marco said to Nick.
“As soon as you reach the top, get away from the door,” Nick said.
Marco nodded. It was a distraction technique and might not work, especially since they didn’t know the layout of the attic. But they didn’t have time to plan.
Nick trained his gun on the opening above as Marco quickly walked up the stairs. There was no being quiet now.
As soon as Marco got to the top, Nick started up. Then he paused and listened.
Marco put three fingers up. Then two. Then one. Nick nodded.
* * *
“Put the gun down,” a voice behind them said.
Max’s heart nearly stopped. It was Marco. He’d walked right into Duvall’s trap.
Duvall turned slowly around, holding Max close. He’d put the rifle down, and now held a knife which he pressed into her side. He didn’t seem surprised or concerned that the FBI was in the house.
Max smelled smoke.
“I told you, Maxine. Someone would come for you. Now we can all die together.”
“You don’t want to die,” Marco said, his gun trained on Duvall. He walked toward them. The attic was dirty, but empty except for boxes stacked along the edges, and the old worn couch that Ava had been sitting in. “Put the knife down.”
“I’m ready, Agent Lopez. I’m ready to die. I think Maxine here understands that now. And you’re the lucky one who gets to join us.”
Max was not going to stand here and watch anyone she cared about die. She wasn’t ready to die.
She caught Marco’s eye and mouthed, “Shoot him.”
Duvall stepped aside half a foot and, using her as shield, threw the knife at Marco.
He tried to move out of the way, but Duvall’s technique was flawless. The knife hit Marco in the leg and he crumbled. He couldn’t shoot because Duvall held Maxine right in front of him.
Nick appeared in the doorway, gun on Duvall.
“Good,” Duvall said, “we’ll all die today. Too bad your friend David Kane couldn’t join us.”
Max didn’t think, just kicked backward as hard as she could into his groin, then dropped to her knees and held her breath.
Gunfire erupted as bullets hit Duvall’s body. She didn’t know if Marco or Nick or both had shot him, because she wasn’t watching, but he fell, dead, to the attic floor.
Nick strode over to Max and pulled her up. “We have to—” he saw the handcuffs.
Marco reached into his pocket and tossed Nick his own handcuff keys. Universal, Max thought, lucky for her. “Get her out,” he said.
“Like hell I’m going to let you play the martyr,” Nick said as he unlocked the cuffs. He touched her face. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m okay,” she said. “I’m alive.”
“And we’re all going to stay that way.”
The sound of sirens filled the air. The smoke was getting thicker, and the house began to creak.
Into his radio, Marco said, “Suspect down, hostage safe, we’re coming out.”
Over the radio, Shaw said, “Get out now. The building is going to collapse any minute into the basement.”
Nick went over to Marco. He said, “This is going to hurt.”
“Just do it.”
Nick pulled out the knife. Marco winced and squeezed his eyes shut.
Blood poured from the wound. “He hit an artery. You’ll bleed out if I don’t stop it.”
“We don’t have time,” Marco said.
“Thirty seconds.”
Nick pulled out a tourniquet from one of many pockets and quickly tightened it around Marco’s leg. He helped him up.
“Get his other side,” Nick told Max.
She complied.
Nick led the way down the smoke-filled stairs to the second-floor landing. The house creaked and groaned and shuddered as they walked down the hall to the stairs. They were all coughing, and Max’s eyes burned. The boot on her foot slowed her down.
The stairs were on fire from the bottom up.
Nick turned them around and they walked to the back of the house. In the rear bedroom, Nick grabbed the nearest heavy object—a nightstand—and broke the window. Max pulled the comforter off the bed and tossed it over the windowsill.
Marco shouted into his comm, “We’re jumping out of the second story into the back. Shaw, copy?”
“Roger.”
The entire house sagged, dipped toward the center. Everything on the dresser crashed to the floor. Nick told Max, “Help Marco get over the ledge. It’s about fourteen feet.”
“I’ve jumped from higher,” Marco said. “Get her out right behind me.”
Marco jumped out of the window, cried out when he hit the ground. Max leaned out the window. The sides of the house were on fire at the base, smoke billowing up. Three men dressed in SWAT gear grabbed Marco and dragged him away.
“Go,” Nick told her. “Now.”
She climbed on to the ledge. The house groaned heavily and sagged, then didn’t stop. It kept collapsing and she screamed, “Nick!” as she jumped. The heat was unbearable, and she fell heavily on the hard earth. The fire was so close she thought she was in the flames. Then arms picked her up.
“Nick!” she called through her scratchy throat.
He jumped from the window as the house dropped away behind him. Firefighters were running through the yard. Nick landed in a crouch and rolled, then jumped right back up. How’d he do that?
The earsplitting noise as the old Victorian collapsed into the basement made her heart skip a beat.
It had been close, much too close.
Nick caught up with the firefighter who carried her. “I got this,” he said and took Max from the man. He settled her at the base of a tree in the neighbor’s yard, and inspected her. “You are okay.”
“How did you do that?”
“What?”
“Jump as if you jump from burning buildings all the time?”
“I was in the Marines. I’ve jumped from airplanes and helicopters and buildings. I usually had a parachute, but I know how to jump.”
She spontaneously hugged him. And for once, she was at a loss for words.
* * *
Marco swore as the paramedics adjusted him on the gurney. “Watch the leg,” he said.
One of the medics said, “That tourniquet saved your life.”
He knew that. Marco didn’t want to be grateful for the other man in Max’s life, but he was. Not only for being competent—more than competent—but for being good to Max.
He saw David watching from the end of the gurney. Max’s bodyguard had his own bandages over cracked ribs, but wasn’t sitting down.
David smiled. He still looked dangerous, but Marco had done a complete background check on him when Max hired him. The man was a hero and never talked about his past. Marco doubted even Max knew much about David before he left the Rangers.
“I’m glad you’ll live.”
Marco grunted his response. He wanted to ask David to put in a good word for him with Max … or something. Maybe that’s not what he really wanted. Hell, he didn’t know what he wanted. Max’s happiness.… but he wanted Max to be happy with him. And she wasn’t.
Max was talking with Rose Pierce near the SWAT tactical station. Santini was at her side.
“You know, Kane,” he said, �
��I didn’t want to like that guy.” Marco hadn’t wanted to like David, either. What did that say about him? That any man in Max’s life—gay or straight—was a threat?
“I know.”
“I want her back.”
“Not my place.”
“I hear a but in your tone.”
“Oil and water.”
He wanted to argue, but David was right.
“We’re ready to go,” one of the medics said. He and his partner slid the gurney into the back of the ambulance.
Max saw Marco being loaded into the ambulance. “Nick—give me a minute?”
He glanced over to where she was looking and nodded.
She squeezed his hand and let it go. Her foot ached, and all she wanted was to sleep for two days. She limped over to the medics and said, “One minute?”
“One minute.”
She climbed into the ambulance and sat next to Marco. She took his hand. “I never thanked you for coming up here. David called, you came. You always have.” This man had made her happy and made her miserable, but he was dependable.
“I’ll wait for you.”
Tears burned behind her eyes. “Don’t.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Marco … please…”
He squeezed her hand. “I know.”
What was he talking about? Were they having two different conversations? Maybe it had always been that way with them. “I haven’t always been fair to you. But I appreciate you, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that.”
“You have. Maybe not in so many words…” He winked. He was trying to make light of the emotional situation, and she was relieved.
“Good. I just want you to know that I’m sorry if I ever took you for granted. I have never forgotten what you’ve done for me since you investigated Karen’s disappearance. And even when you don’t want to, you always came through for me.” She kissed him lightly on the lips. She didn’t want to give him hope that there was going to be a future between them. But as she kissed him, she remembered they had a past. And that past would always bind them.
She pulled back.
“Um,” she said, momentarily flustered and emotional, “Rose Pierce was filling us in. Ava Raines was apprehended at the end of a sewage tunnel, half a mile from here. She’s totally indifferent that Duvall is dead or her house is destroyed. According to Pierce, she didn’t even bat an eye when she was arrested for kidnapping, perjury, arson, and accessory to murder. Probably more—Pierce said they have a lot to go through.”
She paused, looked out the back of the ambulance to where the collapsed house still smoked from the ground. “She was a piece of work. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like her before.”
The medic said, “Ms. Revere, we have to go.”
She nodded and allowed the medic to help her from the back. “See you, Marco.”
“We’ll talk later.”
Max watched the ambulance leave, wishing she could have said something more. Wishing she could be the person Marco wanted.
But she couldn’t.
She turned to look for Nick and found both he and David standing on the sidewalk, watching her. She limped over to David and hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Right back at you.” He looked her over, then looked at Nick. “Keep an eye on her tonight.”
“I will.”
Pierce came back over and said, “I have a few more questions—”
Nick cut her off and put his arm around Max’s shoulders. “They’ll wait until tomorrow.”
David said, “Agent Pierce, I need my gun back.”
“Follow me. And Ms. Revere, we’ll talk tomorrow.”
They walked back to the tactical truck and Max leaned into Nick. He sat her down on a short rock wall separating the sidewalk from a house.
Max looked up at Nick. “Thank you for that.”
He touched her cheek. “I can’t convince you to go to the hospital, can I?”
“No. I want my own bed.”
“Let’s go.”
But she didn’t move. “You risked everything for me.”
“It’s my job.”
“This wasn’t your job. Thank you.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t thank you?”
“Don’t say good-bye.”
She was confused. Maybe it was the blow to her head. “I wasn’t.”
“Good.” He kissed her. “Let’s go have that dinner you promised me.”
“I’m not very presentable right now.” Her stomach growled. “But I’m starving.”
He grinned, looking handsome even through all the dirt and soot. “Good thing for you that I know how to cook.”
Chapter Thirty-five
TWO DAYS LATER
David and Max walked along the Hudson River. Slowly. Max still wore the boot. David’s ribs were still sore. They were a pair. But they were alive.
And Max had to make sure everything was okay between them.
“Nick said you were thinking about quitting.”
“He shouldn’t have told you that.”
“We agreed that we couldn’t have secrets. But, more than that, he knows how important you are to me.” Her voice skipped and she didn’t want to get emotional, but this had been an emotional week. She wasn’t used to it. She was used to the indignant anger, justice, and pride in her work. Now she was so sad, bordering on depressed, most of the bad guys were dead, and the deaths that preceded them seemed to have been for nothing.
She’d talked to all three Palazzolo children last night via Skype. They were having a funeral next week in Ohio, and Max promised to attend. She wanted to—for herself, and for them—but the conversation had left her emotionally drained. Jim and Sandy were still dead, and there was really no good reason why. Ava Raines was talking, but Max hadn’t pushed to read the transcripts. Soon, but not today.
“David?” she questioned.
“I thought about it, but I’m not leaving. I just need to work through a few things. I don’t take failure well.” He glanced at her. “I’m worse than you.”
“You didn’t fail anyone or anything.”
“You.”
“No.”
“He should never have gotten to you a second time. The first time—I didn’t see the threat. The second? I knew there was a threat, and I didn’t act accordingly.”
“The FBI was sitting on Duvall. He had this planned out to the last detail. He knew how to get out.”
“And then Riley didn’t come to me because she was scared of me. She didn’t trust me, because I didn’t like her and she knew it.”
“David, if you’re talking blame, I’m as culpable as anyone. More so. I didn’t train her properly. I was enamored with the idea that I had a mini-me, someone to send into the field because I couldn’t be in two places at once. I’m going back to an office assistant. I don’t know if I’m ready for someone in the field, someone who isn’t you.”
She took his hand as they walked. “I’m glad you’re staying. I need you. I don’t like to admit it. If anything good has come from this last week, it’s that I realize I have the best, most reliable, most loyal people in my life. People I haven’t appreciated like I should. Even Ben surprised me.”
“He surprised me, too.”
She smiled. “We both need a break, before we go to Oregon. I already talked to Ben and he’s going to send a research team before me.”
“That’s stunning.”
“That Ben is giving me time off?”
“That you’re giving up that control.”
“We have a good team at Maximum Exposure. I see that now, the strengths and weaknesses. I am a control freak; I know that. I’m trying to delegate more. If I’m going to keep this show going, I can’t do it all myself. I miss what I used to do. The undercover investigations. The research. The puzzle. And it’s not like I’m giving up all control.”
He smiled. “We’ll see how far this goes.”
�
�For now, it goes. I’m going to see Nick. He had to juggle shifts, so he doesn’t have any time until July, but he’s going to take a week off. We’re going to Lake Tahoe and doing nothing.”
“You? Do nothing?” He grinned.
“I want you and Emma to come.”
“I don’t think Nick wants a third wheel. Especially me.”
“I’m renting a huge house, and Nick is bringing Logan. It’s his week to have his son.”
“Are you sure you’re not inviting me because you want to keep distance between you and Nick?”
“What does that mean?”
“One week with one man, isolated? That’s bordering on commitment.”
“I need to start somewhere,” she said. “Thinking about my mother’s life for the ten years I knew her … the constant moving around. She said all the different people we stayed with were her friends, but they were freeloaders. She blew the equivalent of twenty-five thousand dollars a month, every month. She had different guys in different ports, so to speak. She might not even know who my father is.”
They stopped walking and sat on a bench near the Hudson River Park Pier, looking out to the river. A warm wind whipped around them.
“I don’t want to be her. Duvall said something that is true.”
David tensed. “You have got to get him out of your head, Maxine.”
“I’m trying. But he was right in that I have a deep fear of being abandoned. I thought I had addressed that, that I recognized my flaws because of my mother. But I think it goes deeper than that. I need to battle it; I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life. I don’t know if Nick is the one, but I need to put forth more of an effort than I have in the past. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. But maybe you’ve never put forth the effort because you never found the right person.”
“Maybe.”
“Marco still loves you.”
“He thinks he does.”
“He dropped everything when you disappeared.”
“I appreciate everything he did.” She frowned at him. “I thought you would be happy. You like Nick.”
“My opinion is irrelevant.”
“Hardly.”
“You’ll always have me, Maxine. I’m not going anywhere.”
Compulsion (Max Revere Novels Book 2) Page 39
