Lisa had called the man to arrange a meeting whereby she would give him the documents and hopefully capture audio of him threatening her. Although the information in her folder was enough to allow the detective to obtain a search warrant, depending on what they found when they actually searched the man’s house there might not be enough evidence to convict him of any crime.
Cindy was proud of Lisa for doing the right thing and agreeing to try and help put the man away. She just prayed that Lisa didn’t get hurt in the process.
“I don’t like this,” she muttered to Jeremiah.
“Neither do I, but it’s not our call. We’re just here as spectators.”
“Yeah, but I just can’t shake this feeling that something’s going to go wrong.”
“All we can do at this point is pray for the best,” he said.
She had prayed a dozen times at least already. Just sitting was going to drive her crazy, though. They’d been there for two hours already.
“Isn’t taking down a mobster the kind of thing people get put into protective custody for?” she asked.
“Maybe. It probably depends on a lot of factors.”
“Because if that happens, can you imagine? It would end Kyle’s career. He might even have to have plastic surgery or something since his face is so easily recognizable.”
“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself,” Jeremiah said softly.
She knew she was winding herself up, but she was scared for Lisa and scared for her brother. The next few minutes had the potential to change their lives forever.
“You’re assuming that your brother is still going to want to be with Lisa when this is all over,” Jeremiah said.
“Why wouldn’t he want to?” she asked impatiently.
Jeremiah chuckled. “Not everyone is okay with their significant other having skeletons in the closet.”
Cindy’s nerves were jangling and she realized she should stop talking before she started talking about Jeremiah’s past instead of Lisa’s. Now was not the time. Not when she felt like she was going to jump right out of her skin and she thought for sure gunmen were hiding in every shadow.
She’d seen way too many movies about the mob. That much was clear. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, but it wasn’t working.
Jeremiah reached over and grabbed her hand. He squeezed it hard. “It’s going to be okay,” he said softly.
She nodded and felt herself relax slightly. If Jeremiah said so a part of her believed it, no matter what nightmare images were racing through her brain.
Finally a car pulled into the parking lot and drove slowly toward Lisa. Cindy held her breath, hoping that whoever was driving wouldn’t just run her down. After all, there was nothing to stop them from doing that. The car came to a stop, though, a few feet from her.
Several seconds passed and then a man with silver hair stepped out of the back seat. He walked forward until he was standing in front of the car. Cindy wished they were close enough to hear what was being said. She hoped that the microphone Lisa was wearing was functioning properly and that the detective would get everything she needed.
She saw the man gesture to the envelope. Lisa held it out. He stepped forward and took it.
And suddenly police officers burst forth from their hiding places and surrounded them, guns drawn. The man lifted his gloved hands into the air, the file clenched in one of them.
“It’s almost over,” Jeremiah said.
But Cindy knew from experience that was when things could go horribly wrong and the best laid plans fall apart. She kept scanning the area, looking for danger.
Suddenly she saw a figure step out of the shadows. He was holding something up. Whatever it was, it made Detective Sanders and the other officers lower their guns.
“No,” Cindy said, reaching for her door handle.
“What is it?” Jeremiah asked.
“That’s one of the fake cops who pretended to arrest the guy who snatched my purse,” she said.
“Are you sure?” Jeremiah asked.
“Positive,” she said as she got out of the car. She had to warn the detective and the others before something awful happened.
She sprinted forward. “Detective! Don’t trust that man!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Detective Sanders turned to look at her and she tried to wave her back, but Cindy wasn’t going to let the man get away.
The fake cop grabbed the mobster by the arm and pulled him back to the car. Why weren’t the police stopping him?
The mobster climbed in the car and the fake cop started to get in after.
“No! You have to stop them!” Cindy shrieked, aiming straight for the car. She was almost there. Just another twenty feet or so.
She heard footsteps pounding behind her. Suddenly she felt something grab her around the waist and pull her backward. Her entire body jolted and she started to fall. Arms wrapped around her, picking her up from behind as she kicked and flailed.
“They’re getting away!” she wailed.
The car reversed rapidly as the fake cop was closing his door. It turned and a moment later the driver hit the gas and with a squeal of tires it rocketed out of the parking lot.
Lisa collapsed to her knees, sobbing, while Detective Sanders and her men looked grimly on.
“Put me down!” Cindy shouted.
“Okay, but you have to calm down.”
It was Jeremiah’s voice. He was the one who had stopped her from reaching the car in time. Why on earth would he have done that? As soon as her feet touched ground she turned on him, furious.
“Why did you stop me?”
“Because I care about you too much to let you get killed,” he said, looking deeply shaken.
His words penetrated the haze of rage and fear that had enveloped her brain. She teetered for a moment on her feet before regaining her balance. Then she spun to face the officers.
“That man!” she shouted, pointing in the direction the car had gone. “He was one of the fake police officers involved in my purse snatching. He was one of that guy’s men. Why on earth did you let him get away?”
“It was out of our jurisdiction,” Detective Sanders said, lips pressed tightly together.
Cindy stomped forward. “How is that even possible?”
The detective grabbed her arm and pulled her away from her officers and toward Jeremiah. She finally let go of her. “He was a federal agent, that’s why.”
“He was a fake cop a couple of days ago. He’s faking being an agent, too,” Cindy said.
Detective Sanders shook her head. “I don’t think so. There’s something bigger going on here. Don’t worry, though, I intend to get to the bottom of it.”
“How does that help her?” Cindy asked, pointing to Lisa.
“Well, he does have the file, and that’s what he really wanted all along. I’m guessing he’ll leave her alone now,” the detective said.
“You guess? That’s not good enough!”
It took half an hour for Cindy to calm down enough for them to get back in the car and head for their hotel. Between Jeremiah and the detective they were finally able to convince her that the man she had recognized was a real federal agent. What finally clinched it was a call from Detective Sander’s boss asking her how she’d gotten into the middle of a federal investigation.
Exhausted and emotionally spent Cindy had her head back against the headrest in the car. “I’m sorry I snapped at you,” she said.
“It’s okay. It was completely understandable given the circumstances.”
He had more he should tell her, but she was too exhausted and out of it at the moment. It could wait for the morning.
They made it back to the hotel, exhausted and ready to drop from the physical and emotional strain. They were about to head upstairs when Jeremiah’s phone vibrated. He pulled it out and saw that he had been texted from an unknown number.
Restaurant. Now.
20
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��Everything okay?” Cindy asked with a yawn.
“It’s fine. I’ve just got to take care of something. I’ll be up in a minute,” Jeremiah said.
Cindy nodded and got on the elevator. As soon as the doors closed he turned and headed for the restaurant. He quickly discovered that Martin was sitting at the same table in the restaurant where he had met him before. Jeremiah warily took a seat.
“I thought you were leaving town.”
“Unavoidable delay as it turns out. I’m sure you’ve encountered one or two of those before,” Martin said.
“Slick way you intervened last night.”
“A necessary evil, I’m afraid. We couldn’t allow Mr. Russo to be arrested.”
“So, he goes free.”
“It’s important that he does so. For now at any rate.”
“You’re running the man in some bigger game,” Jeremiah realized.
“Give the man a prize. Truth is I was on my way to the city for a meeting with the man after a quick stop in California to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a certain terrorist who had popped up on the radar there. When I realized I was hitting a wall there I decided to catch the same flight out as Cindy. Two birds and all that.”
“What’s he doing for you?”
Martin shrugged. “Let’s just say that Mr. Russo has few virtues. One of them is that he’s a patriot. When he became involved in a business deal involving some very specialized weapons and some extremely unsavory characters he figured he had to do something about it. Being a savvy businessman, he made quite the deal for himself. He was afraid that the more we knew about him the more likely we were to cut him loose. Poor man didn’t realize that the Feds had copies of everything in Lisa’s folder ten minutes after she assembled it.”
“And now?”
“Now we’ve made it clear to Mr. Russo that while we can be quite generous and forgiving business partners, if any harm comes to Ms. Taggart that will change. She should be safe. We’ll find a way to let her know that so she doesn’t have to spend her life running.”
“Thank you.”
Martin shrugged. “It’s actually got nothing to do with you guys. She designed my boss’s home theater a couple years back and his wife’s been bugging him to have the kitchen and dining room redone next.” He looked at his watch. “Gotta fly.”
He stood and walked away. Jeremiah sat for another minute before getting up and heading upstairs.
In the room upstairs the curtains were open showing the Vegas nightscape. It let so much light in that he didn’t need to let his eyes adjust very long. Cindy was already in bed, and, from the looks of it, asleep. He didn’t blame her. It had been a long, stressful few days.
At the foot of her bed was a rollaway cot that her parents must have had delivered to the room. He was appreciative since it would cut down on the awkwardness of the situation. He took off his shoes, settled down, and he, too, was asleep in moments.
The next morning Cindy and Jeremiah ate a leisurely breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. She was worried for Lisa, but relieved that the nightmare was coming to an end. She was still struggling to piece it all together in her mind, though. They were sitting at a private table in the far corner of the restaurant with no one else around.
“You know, there’s one thing I don’t understand,” Cindy said.
“What’s that?”
“I’m assuming it was Russo who was behind that whole purse snatching incident. What did he want with my purse? Did he somehow think Lisa would have given me the documents?”
“Actually someone else was behind that,” he said.
“Who? Was it the guys who took him?”
He was silent for so long that she finally looked up at him. She could see that he was struggling with what to say.
“I’m pretty sure this would be a good time for the truth, just in case you were wondering,” she said with a hint of sarcasm.
He sighed. “Martin was behind that.”
“Martin? What on earth for?”
“He’s not a salesman. He works for the C.I.A. and he was investigating the man who I told you about, the one who was coming after you last week.”
“The one you wouldn’t just come out and tell me you had killed?”
He looked at her in surprise.
“Come on, it was kind of obvious from the way you phrased things.”
“Yes, that man,” Jeremiah said with a sigh. “He was an especially bad man with ties to terror groups and they were investigating what he was doing in the country and what happened to him.”
“So he was spying on me?” she asked, feeling weird. It was like being told she had her own personal stalker. Her privacy had been violated and it made her anxious and vulnerable feeling.
“He was. Not anymore. He and I had a brief discussion, enough to satisfy his curiosity and get him to back off.”
“That’s just...creepy,” she said.
Jeremiah shrugged and she realized that this kind of thing was part of his world, or, at least, was. They were going to have to have a much longer conversation about that, but it could wait until they were somewhere completely private.
They finished breakfast and headed over to visit Kyle at the hospital. In the lobby they ran into her parents who were headed over to his room at the Excalibur to pack up all of his stuff and check out for him.
“The doctors say he’s going to be here a couple more days before he can be released. He’s going to need a lot of physical therapy, but he’ll recover. We’re going to stick around and help him get home and set up,” her father said.
Cindy nodded. “I’m just glad everything’s going to be okay.”
“Since he’s out of the woods, you guys can head back home whenever you like,” he said. “No need to take any more time off work than you already have.”
“We’ll make sure everything is cool here and head home tomorrow morning I’d imagine,” Cindy said.
Jeremiah nodded.
“Okay.” Her dad hesitated and then continued. “Lisa came by this morning and let us all know what had happened.”
“Is Kyle okay?” Cindy asked, knowing that couldn’t have been an easy conversation for any of them.
Her dad grimaced. “I don’t think so. Well, we’re off. We’ll see you two a little later.”
After they had gone Cindy turned to Jeremiah. “Maybe I should go alone and talk to Kyle for a few minutes before you come up.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be down here in the lobby for about half an hour or so and then I’ll come on up.”
“Thank you for understanding,” she said, spontaneously hugging him.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight for a minute. She closed her eyes and wished that the rest of the world would just fade away. When they finally broke free she steeled herself to go and face her brother.
A minute later she was walking into his room. Kyle had his head turned to the side and was staring out the window at the skyline.
“Good morning,” she said cheerily.
“Hey,” Kyle said, sounding tired and strained.
“You okay?” she asked as she pulled up a chair.
“The doctors say in a few months I’ll be good as new.”
“I heard, and that’s great news, but that’s not what I meant.”
Kyle looked at her. “What do you do when you find out the person you love is not the person you thought they were? That they have this whole past that’s full of darkness?”
Cindy thought about Jeremiah. “I think that depends on you. How much do you love them and how much are you willing to just accept?”
“I’ve been dating her for a year-and-a-half. You’d think there would have been some sign, some clue. I feel like such an idiot.”
“You opened your heart up to someone. That doesn’t make you an idiot. It does make you blind sometimes, though.”
“I guess.”
Cindy took a deep breath. “I think the question is not abou
t the last 18 months but about the next 18 minutes. Can you look her in the eyes and tell her that you forgive her, that her past doesn’t matter to you and all that matters is your future together?”
“You’re right,” he said slowly. “You know the thing about nearly dying? It suddenly makes everything crystal clear. It strips away all the garbage, all the crap that isn’t important and helps you really understand your life, your past, and what it is you want most. It’s powerful. It’s just sad that it takes something so awful to help you change your life.”
“It’s true, facing your own mortality does make things clearer,” Cindy said. She knew that from experience. “So, can you forgive Lisa?”
Kyle’s hands slowly curled into fists. “No, I can’t.”
Given his lead-up, that was not the answer she had been expecting. Obviously, though, it was one of the things that had been made clear to him. Cindy nodded slowly, her heart aching for him.
“Is that wrong?” he whispered.
“No,” she said, reaching out to take his hand. “Everyone has different things they want, and different things they can accept when it comes to a spouse.”
Kyle laughed a short, bitter laugh. “Want to hear something funny?”
“Sure.”
“I just want a normal girl. A girl with no deep, dark secrets. Someone I can love who loves me.”
His friend, Bunni Sinclair, popped instantly into her mind. She wasn’t sure what she should say, though. “I think you’re going to get exactly what you’re looking for,” she said.
“How can you be sure?”
“It’s not my place to say,” Cindy said, not wanting to interfere. Still, he needed some hope and it was clear that Bunni cared deeply for him. “I just think you might one day turn around and find that a girl you’ve known for a while, a friend, is the one you’ve been looking for all along.”
“Thank you,” he whispered.
She sat and talked with him for a little while, catching up on what they had each been doing for the last few months. Finally Jeremiah joined them.
Walk Through the Valley Page 18
