Dangerous Deceptions: A Christian Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Collection

by Lisa Harris

  He stopped by Case’s desk. “Wright is awake. We can have five minutes with him this morning.”

  Case was already grabbing his coat from the back of his chair. “Sheila came through? I confess I didn’t think she would. With the new COVID precautions, I didn’t think they’d let us talk to him till he was released.”

  Damien pumped his brows. “Helps to have an insider who happens to like me.”

  “Miracles still happen,” Case offered dryly as he followed Damien to their car.

  Sheila met them at the ER entrance and led them through the ICU. She paused beside a curtained bed. “This is it. Just be quick about it and call me when you need to leave. I’ll escort you out.” She sent a soft look in Damien’s direction.

  “Thanks.” He squeezed her arm and reminded himself to ask her to dinner. He knew she’d broken several hospital rules to allow them in here.

  Gandry’s eyes widened when he saw them step through the curtain that separated his bed from the others in the ICU. He scrabbled for the nurse’s call button.

  Damien lifted his hands. “Relax man. We aren’t here to finish you off.” He kept his voice quiet enough that the hum, whir, and beeps of the hospital machinery throughout the room would keep their conversation private.

  Case sank casually onto the end of the man’s bed. “We are here to give you a chance to tell us what you know about the hit on Treyvon Johnson the other night.”

  “How do I know you aren’t here to kill me?”

  Damien folded his arms. “We’re cops. We aren’t here to kill you.”

  Gandry tossed down the call button and pressed his lips together. “Man, you don’t know anything.”

  Case walked him methodically through what they did know. Him borrowing the GTO. It being used in the hit and run. Him getting into it a block away and ending up in the same alley where Ryan Skelly, an officer who’d handled Treyvon’s phone, had also been killed. “All this could end up pinned on your shoulders, Wright. Unless you decide to tell us the full story.”

  “They already tried to kill me. I’m not talking.” He rubbed at the surgical bandaging on his chest and seemed to be battling for oxygen.

  Damien stepped closer. “That’s right. They did try to kill you. But if you talk to us, we’ll keep you safe. Put you in protective custody. Make sure they can’t get to you.”

  “Protective custody is exactly where they can, and would, get to me.” Wright’s eyes widened, as though he realized he’d said too much.

  Case maintained his casual position on the end of the bed. “Listen, Wright. We know there are dirty cops involved. But we can’t do anything about them without proof. You got the proof we need?”

  Gandry maintained his silence, but he at least appeared to be thinking. His mouth worked like he might be thirsty. “I still don’t know whether to trust you.”

  “Would we be conversing with you if we wanted you dead?” Damien picked up the pink water pitcher and poured the man a drink. He handed him the cup. “They tried to kill you. You owe them no loyalty.”

  Gandry took a couple sips of the water, then set the cup back on his tray. “I’d need immunity.”

  Damien looked at Case. This could get tricky. In order to get him immunity, they’d need to file paperwork. Paperwork that would let the very cops they were trying to get evidence on know that Wright was talking. “You’re going to have to trust us on that, Wright. At least if you want to live.”

  “Fine. But you have to move me. Right now. Somewhere that only you know the location of.”

  “We can’t do that. You took two bullets through your lungs and had lifesaving surgery. If we move you, you could die.”

  Gandry shook his head. “You leave me here, and it’s only a matter of time before they come for me again. How hard you think it’s going to be for them to get to me when I’m moved out of the ICU? The only thing still keeping me alive is that there are too many witnesses in here.”

  Case lifted a shoulder to Damien as if to say he might agree with that.

  Damien pondered as he glanced through the curtain to the nurse’s station beyond. Two medical personnel with their backs to him, wearing full protective gear and masks, were speaking to Sheila. She handed back an ID badge with a nod, then jutted her chin their direction.

  Case followed his gaze. “Will she do it?”

  Damien lifted a hand. “I think so. If I ask. But it looks like orderlies are coming to take him for tests or something. So, it’s now or never.”

  Case stood. “I’ll delay the orderlies while you talk to her. Just help me get him out of the bed first.” He scooted Gandry’s hospital table away and grabbed the wheelchair sitting to one side. “Come on, Gandry. Let’s get you out of here.”

  “Not so fast.” The words were spoken softly by one of the orderlies as they stepped through the gap.

  Damien froze.

  Ed and Gray stood inside the curtain, guns drawn.

  Ed’s eyes crinkled above the edge of his blue mask. “Howdy, fellas.”

  Gray focused on Case and Damien. He swung his gun to indicate the curtains that cordoned them off from the rest of the room. “Better cooperate, boys.” His threat was clear.

  If bullets started flying, any number of people in this unit could be hurt.

  Chapter Seventeen

  While Holden waited for Jay to arrive, Camryn went down to the office and retrieved the laptop. Back upstairs, she settled on her bed and plugged the flash drive into the port.

  There was only one file on the drive.

  A video.

  She frowned. Where had this drive come from? She double-clicked the file.

  It was footage from what looked like a dimly-lit warehouse. A small group of people, huddled close together, spoke furtively to one another, checking over their shoulders often. Whoever recorded this hid from a perch much higher than the group of people, making the audio too quiet to hear.

  She pumped the laptop’s volume to its max and restarted the video at full screen, leaning closer to try to make out faces of the little group.

  Did she know any of these people? She still couldn’t figure out how this had come to be in her pocket.

  There was a soft scratching sound, like a piece of cloth dragging across a mic, and then the audio rose to an understandable volume.

  “…paid and ready to rumble.” The speaker was a tall, handsome man with graying hair who was wearing a gray suit. He arched his neck to adjust the red tie at his throat, and for a split second, he faced the camera.

  Camryn reached for the trackpad. She stepped the footage back and paused on the man’s face. Her lips pursed. Where had she seen him before? He looked so familiar. She snapped a screenshot and uploaded the face to Google’s reverse image search engine.

  Immediately the site spit out several news articles. The top headline read, Washington State Republican Senator, Carter Cranston, Reelected!

  Her curiosity spiked. She’d never met the man. What was a video of him doing in her pocket?

  She clicked play again. A second man was speaking now. “My people too. Businesses in those blocks will realize it will be foolish to rebuild.”

  Camryn took a breath. She didn’t have to look that man up. She would recognize his voice anywhere. He was a regular at D and J’s. Democratic Senator, Soren Bane.

  What were those two men doing in a shady meeting together?

  The video was only a few minutes long. None of the other four attendees looked up, so she never did get a good look at them. Three were also men. Two in suits and one in a dark uniform of some sort. Police? Security? She couldn’t quite tell on the small screen of the laptop, especially in the poorly lit warehouse.

  The sixth person at the meeting remained featureless in the shadows, speaking so low that Camryn couldn’t make out the words. But all eyes turned toward whoever it was as if looking for instructions.

  Camryn wished the audio was better because she kept missing parts of what was said. But she caught ment
ion of October twenty-fifth and realized, with a jolt, that was today!

  Her eyes widened. Ready to rumble…businesses in those blocks…foolish to rebuild.

  Could this be about the riots going on in the city right now? They’d planned this?

  Another memory flashed. Her kneeling by the injured undercover officer in the street and tugging his hand from her jacket, his fingers tangling with the flap of her pocket.

  He had put this in her coat!

  A shiver slipped down her spine.

  Could this be the reason he’d been killed in the first place?

  She had to show this to Holden right now!

  Damien thrust his hands into the air, seeing Wright do the same. “Easy guys.”

  Wright cursed softly.

  Case straightened from where he’d been unfolding the wheelchair, hands up.

  “That’s right. Keep your hands where we can see them,” Ed spoke softly.

  Ed and Gray? Damien felt the betrayal like a gunshot. Miller yes. But he hadn’t seen anything suspicious from these two.

  He clenched his jaw. This could get tricky. “This is a no-win situation for you, boys. You just going to shoot all three of us and then walk away?”

  Ed and Gray exchanged a look.

  “What do we do now?” Gray asked. “We were supposed to wheel him out of here under cover.”

  “We don’t panic, that’s what,” Ed whispered. “We keep to our orders.”

  “And what are your orders exactly?” Damien asked, edging his voice a little louder.

  “Keep your voice down!” Ed’s eyes glittered.

  Gray gingerly parted the curtain, presumably to see if anyone had heard Damien’s words and might be checking on them.

  Sheila glanced up from where she was huddled at the ICU desk, talking with several other nurses. Damien met her eyes briefly above Gray’s head. She froze. Then the curtain fell back into place.

  “I don’t like the way that nurse is eyeing us, Ed. We need to get out of here.”

  Damien swallowed. How much had she seen? He hoped she wouldn’t try to come in to see what was going on. He also hoped she’d be concerned enough to at least call hospital security. They needed backup.

  Meanwhile they needed to try to get some information. At the very least, keeping the partners talking might throw them off their guard a little and give him and Case a chance to try to regain control.

  Ed paced and swore. “This is bad, Gray. How are we going to get out of this one? We can’t march all three of them out past the nurse’s station.”

  Case eased a couple steps toward one side of the partition.

  Damien took his cue and slid toward the other. Making them split their focus would give the best advantage. If not for putting others at risk, they could fight back. But as it stood, any resistance they might offer would end up getting innocent people hurt.

  “Both of you freeze,” Ed snapped quietly. Sweat glistened on his forehead, despite the comfortable temperature of the room. “Packard, don’t move. Lexington, hand me your gun, nice and easy.”

  Case met Damien’s gaze as he eased his Glock from its holster.

  “What made you boys come by, anyhow?” Damien threw out the dry question, hoping to distract them and maybe give Case a chance to act while he still had his gun, but neither of the officers fell for the ploy.

  Gray kept his gun trained between Damien and Wright, while Ed secured Case’s gun. And then both men turned their focus on him.

  Damien cringed and carefully tugged his gun from his holster.

  Once his weapon was secured, Gray smiled. “The reason we stopped by is easy,” he said, gaze swinging to Wright. “Our orders were to make sure Wright here didn’t rat us out.”

  “Which, it seems, is exactly what he was doing.” Gray glowered. “So it’s a good thing we arrived when we did. We paid you well, Wright. You weren’t going to rat on us, were you?”

  Gandry flopped his head back against the pillow. “Doesn’t matter if I was or wasn’t, now does it? You boys are gonna do what you’re gonna do.”

  Damien took a step forward. “Well, it seems we are at an impasse. You can’t just shoot us and walk away. You’d be gunned down before you even left the premises. Besides, you know there are security cameras all over in here.”

  Ed offered a thin smirk. “Don’t get too cocky. You have no idea how high our friendships go.”

  “Miller?” Damien took a stab in the dark. “If he’s as high as your friendships go, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not very high.” He held his breath. Would the ploy work?

  Gray chuckled. “Miller is low man on the totem pole.”

  “Gray, shut it!” Ed’s whisper was furious.

  Gray’s face turned serious as he must have suddenly realized what he’d given away.

  Damien met Case’s gaze. So Miller was part of all this. And by their “high friendships” did they mean the captain? His gut ached at the thought. How many investigations had he and Case worked with the man?

  The curtain to the cubicle was suddenly swept aside. “Okay Mr. Wright, time for your— Oh!” Sheila focused on the guns, eyes shooting wide.

  Damien’s heart fell at the same time curiosity tugged at his brow. He’d hoped to keep her out of this, but if she’d thought Ed and Gray were orderlies who’d come to take Wright for some assessments, why would she come in as she had?

  With a clipboard in one hand, she lifted her palms. She stepped to Damien’s side of the now partially-revealed cubical, putting her back to him while keeping Ed and Gray before her.

  At the desk, one of the other nurses looked up and cried out. “Guns! They have guns!”

  Ed was quick to act. “That’s right we do.” He swept the curtain all the way open and stepped into the center of the ICU, weapon raised. “I’m a police officer. Everyone, stay calm.”

  No one did.

  Screams and gasps emanated from all the staff. People dove for whatever cover they could find. Across the room, one of the patient’s machines sent a piercing alarm through the unit.

  Ed put his gun in the face of a screaming nurse and yelled for her to shut up.

  Gray demanded another nurse deal with the alarm.

  Damien felt a warm hand on his and looked down to see that Sheila had reached behind her to grab his hand. She kept her back to him and guided his hand to the waistband of her scrubs where he felt a cool, round cylinder.

  He tugged it free and a quick glance showed that it was a can of mace.

  Bless her. The woman was a genius.

  Damien didn’t waste any time. He swept Sheila behind him with one arm and strode up behind Gray, who was nearest. “Hey, Gray.”

  The man turned and Damien gave him a good dose of the spray right in the eyes.

  He screamed and clawed at his face, dropping his gun.

  Damien swept it up and leveled it on Ed, who was turning to see what Gray was screaming about. “Drop your gun, Ed. Do it now.”

  “Like he—”

  The screaming nurse went suddenly quiet, whipped out her own canister of mace, and sprayed Ed’s face.

  The bellow Ed loosed was loud enough to rival a boisterous woman in labor.

  Case was on him inside a second and stripped him of his weapon. “On the floor, Ed. Hands behind your back.”

  Damien did the same to Gray, and within moments, they had both men restrained.

  Damien turned to Sheila. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and tugged her close. “That was some quick thinking.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder for a brief second. “Thanks. We have to be quick thinkers around here.”

  “How did you know we needed help?”

  “Please.” She grinned up at him. “A woman always knows when her man needs help.”

  “Her man, huh?” He arched a brow.

  She offered a cheeky grin, then patted his chest in farewell. “Their badges checked out, but I’d never seen them before and neither had any of the
other nurses. One orderly might be new, but they’d never send two brand new guys together. Then, when I saw your face, I knew something was wrong.”

  “You’re a genius. How about you let me take you to dinner as thanks?” He held his breath. Would she turn him down?

  She smiled. “I’d like that. Text me the time and place. Meanwhile, I better get these two treated.” She resumed her all-business attitude as she squatted next to the still moaning and sniffling officers.

  Damien assessed Gandry. His heartrate monitor was beeping so fast that it was difficult to tell one beat from the next. His bandaged chest heaved, and his eyes continued to dart around the room like he still wasn’t one hundred percent certain he was safe.

  Damien stepped to the side of his bed and dropped on hand against his shoulder. “You’re safe now, Wright.”

  Maybe now the man would be less reluctant to tell his story.

  Damien met Case’s gaze across the room.

  They both released a breath.

  This had been too close for comfort.

  Jay hadn’t arrived yet when Camryn went downstairs to see if Holden was free.

  She found him pacing in the living room. “Everything okay?”

  He glanced up. “Jay said he was leaving the office when he called. He should have been here thirty minutes ago. No answer on his cell. And no answer at the office either.”

  “I’m fine to stay here alone if you need to go look for him.”

  He swiped away the offer. “Could be any number of explanations. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

  “I need to show you something.” She explained how she’d found the USB drive in her coat pocket and that she thought the murdered undercover officer had put it there.

  His brows shot up.

  She turned the laptop toward him. “It only has this video on it. I think it’s about today’s riots.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah.” Her heart sank. If only she’d found the drive earlier, she could have probably prevented a lot of destruction. “Just watch it.”

  Holden plugged in a pair of headphones and then watched the video while Camryn paced and studied him for his reaction.