by Cynthia Eden
Her temples were throbbing. “Spell things out for me. Now.”
Antony was quiet. Just typing away on the keyboard.
“I thought Heather was you when she fell. Because she was wearing your coat. Because her hair looked like yours. Because the scarf and cap were even yours.”
Wait, they had been? She hadn’t noticed them.
“But, no, I don’t believe the killer thought she was you, baby. I suspect the killer is the one who gave her the coat, the hat, and the scarf. He’s the one who broke her out of holding downstairs. She probably thought he was there to help her, but he wasn’t. Instead, he dressed her up like you, and then he killed her right in front of me.”
“That’s one damn brutal message,” Antony noted.
A shiver slid over her body.
Dex never took his attention from her. “I thought you could be used against Roman, so I gave you my protection. The problem is…you can also be used against me. That’s what the perp knows.”
“Roman is the perp.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “You already had your agents take him into custody. He was on the second floor. Right beside the gun. He was—”
“Your brother is many things. Not all of them are good, but I don’t think he would kill you. He’s looked for you too long.”
“But he wasn’t killing me. He was killing Heather. And making you think it was me.” All so messed up and crazy. Yet she could see in Dex’s eyes, he truly didn’t think Roman was guilty. “How can you be so certain of him?”
“We were partners once.”
They had been?
“He was a double agent who worked secretly with the CIA. A mission went to hell.” Dex lifted his right hand. The sleeve fell back and he stared down at his wrist. The scars. “Roman’s real allegiance was discovered. The people holding him used Roman to get to me. Said if I didn’t turn myself over, he’d be sent back to the CIA in pieces.”
Her throat had gone dry.
Antony had stopped typing.
“I turned myself over. They cuffed me. Anchored the cuffs to a weight and shoved me in a fucking river.”
OhmyGod.
“They thought I was dead. But you should never try to take a former SEAL out by throwing him in the water.”
He’d been a SEAL? That was news.
“I got out, but I needed backup to free Roman. I was hurt because they’d shot me before dumping me in the water. You know, more fun that way.”
Nausea rolled in her stomach. “Fun?”
“Roman didn’t know that I’d turned myself over for him. He was told that I never showed for the exchange. That I deserted him when he needed me.” A slow exhale as his hand fell back to his side. “They tortured him for hours.”
Her skin felt so cold. “But when you and your team came for him…”
“By then, he didn’t care anymore. Was convinced that he didn’t matter to me or anyone at the agency. In fact, since that day, I don’t think he has cared about much at all. At least, not until the night when he came to me and called in the debt he said I owed to him.”
Why was it so cold in there? Goose bumps seemed to cover her. “I was the debt.”
“He wanted you found. In the years since he worked with me, Roman has slipped deeper and deeper into the shadows. If you were out there, I knew you’d be the key.”
“The key to bringing Roman back to your agency?”
“Lacey, you are the key to everything for me.” His hand lifted and the back of his knuckles brushed over her cheek.
She realized what he was doing. She’d said that she didn’t know anything about him, and he was giving her pieces of himself. Telling her how he’d known Roman before. Revealing his past as a SEAL. He was trying to give her what she wanted, Lacey could see it in his eyes. And she kept hearing his voice in her mind, telling her...I. Fucking. Care.
She cared, too. So much. Far more than she’d ever believed she could about a man who tangled her up in twisted knots.
“He’s here.” Antony cleared his throat. “Not talking about whoever took Roman all those years ago. Talking about the mystery perp we are after now. The bad guy is at the lodge. Bad guy, boss, super perp. Whatever you want to call him. I just sent out some bait, he took it, and I can tell you that he is using a computer owned by the lodge. I’m tracking him, and the guy is downstairs, lobby level. He’s online right now—”
Dex whipped his head toward Antony. “You can see him?”
Antony kept typing. “I can lead you straight to the bastard, right now.”
***
Dex and his team went in with guns blazing. Because how else would they do anything? They followed the trail Antony had set up and when the agents surged into the back office on the first floor…
They found Charles Hatch hunched over his computer.
Lacey was there for the takedown. Dex had insisted she come with him. Part of his strategy to protect her? She figured it was. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight because he thought he was her bodyguard. Or something.
“Put your hands up,” Dex shouted at Charles.
Charles squeaked, and his hands immediately flew into the air.
“Did you think we wouldn’t find you?” Dex demanded. Two agents closed in on Charles. One of the agents was Larry—no last name. Just Larry. That was how he’d been introduced to Lacey moments before. An intimidating fellow, he immediately did a rough pat-down on Charles before he yanked Charles’s hands behind his back.
“What is happening here?” Charles asked. “What are you doing? I’m on your side.”
“No matter how hard you try, you can’t find good help these days.” Dex headed toward the computer. Flipped the screen around. “Hire any mercenaries lately, Charles?”
“This is not what it looks like! I swear it! I’m doing research for a book and a friend told me how to access—”
Larry slapped cuffs around his wrists.
Charles let out a high-pitched cry. “This isn’t what you think! I haven’t done anything. I am on your side.”
Dex didn’t appear to believe the other man. Lacey’s gaze darted around the office. Her stare lingered on the framed photos. Charles and his wife on their wedding day. Charles and a little boy with a wide grin and two missing teeth wading into dark water as they went fishing.
She picked up the fishing photo from where it rested on his desk.
“I swear, I was just on this site because I’m doing research! You know…you know I always wanted to write a spy book!” Charles was frantic.
Larry was leading him away.
“Dex, please!” Charles cried.
“You’ll have plenty of time to tell me your story while you’re in custody.” No emotion was in Dex’s voice.
No emotion.
But he’d shown her plenty of emotion only moments before.
This feels wrong. No, worse than wrong. It felt too easy. Taking the photo, she stepped into Charles’s path. “You told me that Dex saved you and your family.”
Charles looked as if he were about to cry.
“How did he do that?” Lacey pushed. She was missing something here. Dex was acting off. And I can tell it. I can tell when something is different with him now. And Charles—he’d seemed so sincere when they’d previously spoken.
“He…there was a bomb at my wife’s work. She’s a medical researcher. I was going there to have lunch with her. She—she was pregnant with my son. Dex found out about the attack. Got us out…right before…” He licked his lips. His head swiveled back toward Dex. “I don’t know what you think is happening here, but I swear, I didn’t do anything against you! I wouldn’t.”
She didn’t believe that he would. “Who was the friend who told you about the site you were just on?”
“Ah…it was Roman.” A quick nod. “Roman Valentino. He even gave me his username and code and everything to use. Said I should get on today around this time because that’s when the real players are on, and I could get the best
intel—”
Roman. Why wasn’t she surprised to hear his name?
“Dex?” Charles shuddered. “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I haven’t made any move against you or anyone you care about. I would never do that.”
Dex sidled closer. Stared at Charles with expressionless eyes.
Lacey caught Dex’s hand. She pushed the framed photo against his palm. “I believe him.”
“We just caught him red-handed—”
“Look what you gave him, Dex. Look.” She forced him to hold the photo. “You think he’d turn on you? It’s not blackmail keeping him loyal. I don’t think it’s blackmail keeping any of your people in line, not really. You might believe that. You might think that you’re controlling people but maybe people are on your side because they’ve seen the real you.”
“You…you wouldn’t leave that building without me and my Sarah,” Charles whispered. “We were the last ones inside. I heard the others shouting for you to get out. You wouldn’t. You carried Sarah out of there.”
Because Dex wasn’t the bastard that he wanted the world to believe he was. Lacey was realizing that he was so much more.
“Where is Roman right now?” Lacey asked.
Dex stared at the photo.
“I think we need to talk to him.” Because I’m worried it might be too late for the brother I never knew. I think he may be trying to destroy us both.
“Talk to him!” Charles urged. “Yes, yes, do it! He can tell you the truth! He had his girlfriend Heather come to me yesterday. She wrote down all of the info that I would need. She gave me everything!”
Well, damn. Heather, huh?
An absolutely dead end.
Chapter Eighteen
The Whisper Floor. He was really starting to hate this damn place. Dex had gone back to the scene of Heather’s killing because he knew there was more evidence to be found.
“You’re not going to arrest Charles, are you? Because I truly don’t think he’s turned against you.” Lacey’s voice was halting as she stood a few feet away.
He didn’t want her out of his sight so wherever he went, Dex was dragging her with him. Probably not a rational response, but he wasn’t exactly feeling rational. Not where she was concerned.
He glanced over the edge of the balcony. Saw the roped off area below. The blood had been cleared away. The body removed…
Not Lacey. It wasn’t my Lacey.
But he’d never forget the fear that had filled him. The absolute terror and the soul-jarring realization that…
I can’t lose Lacey. I love her.
Love. The worst of the four-letter words. A word he’d never used with another woman in his life. Well, okay, fine. He’d loved his mom. Absolutely, he had. She’d been amazing. Strong and determined as she battled cancer until the very end. He’d loved her with the complete love that a son feels for his mother.
When he’d lost her, the world had been darker. He’d been darker.
His father had been in and out of his life as a kid, before he’d disappeared entirely when Dex was ten. A few years ago, Dex had, uh, used his resources to find the man.
Resources…AKA…Antony.
Dex had realized he’d been far better off without the fellow. What he’d learned from Antony—and what he’d seen first-hand himself when he made the mistake of getting up-close for some surveillance—had been enough to shut that door.
“To me,” Lacey continued, “it sounds like Heather might have been setting up Charles. But we should still question Roman and see what he knows.”
Dex turned away from the balcony and tried to block the memory of the falling body. Of the thud when the body had hit the floor. His gaze zeroed in on the alcove on the right. Roman had hidden in that spot the first time he’d warned Lacey to stay away from Dex. Now, Dex marched into those arches.
“Are you listening to me?” Lacey’s whisper drifted to him.
He stiffened.
“Because I could swear you’re not. In fact, it feels like you are shutting me out.”
Dex whirled and marched to Lacey. He found her in the other set of arches. “I am not shutting you out. I have let you into my life, I’ve opened myself more to you than I have to anyone else in years.”
Her head tilted back. “Then why aren’t you talking to me? Something has changed. I swear, I almost feel like you are barely looking at me.”
“Because…I keep seeing you on the floor.” He threw his hand out toward the balcony. “I know it was Heather, but I keep seeing you, and that is what the SOB who killed her wanted me to do! He wanted to get in my head, and he did. Now I can’t think straight. I can’t figure out my next move. He has me tearing apart on the inside and I can’t—”
Her hands curled around his jaw. She shot onto her tiptoes even as she pulled him toward her. And Lacey kissed him.
A soft, gentle touch of her lips.
Fuck that. He was way past the gentle point.
His arms curled around her in a too-tight grip. He hauled her against him, making sure their bodies were pressed intimately together. His mouth opened, so did hers, and his tongue thrust past her lips. He kissed her with a ravenous hunger. With the desperate need that clawed at him.
He kept thinking of her dying. He couldn’t have that. He didn’t want a world without Lacey in it.
Maybe because she was becoming his world.
Her soft fingers were still pressed to his jaw. Her mouth and tongue met his eagerly. He wanted to strip her. Wanted to take her. Wanted to wipe away the fear and know nothing but her. Yet…
“Not here,” he rumbled against her mouth. Then he had to kiss her once more. Twice more. Dammit, three times. “Can’t…my control isn’t strong enough. Others will see.” He finally managed to lift his head.
Her lips were plump. Her cheeks flushed. He could read the desire clearly in her eyes. The desire and—
“See,” Lacey repeated. Her eyebrows scrunched. “See,” she said again.
Um, yes. “I want you. But I don’t want anyone else watching us.” Watching you. “The floor looks empty, but with the way things are going, shit, it’s not a chance I can take. My control doesn’t last with you.” A soul-true confession as he backed away. “If I don’t keep my hands off you, there will be no stopping.” Because the adrenaline that fueled him was making him even weaker.
He wanted to claim her. To thrust deep and hard into her as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. Only then, when he had her that close, when they were that close, would the fear he felt ease.
She’s not dead. I didn’t lose her. She’s right here.
“See,” Lacey said yet again.
“Uh, sweetheart? You okay?”
But her hands dropped to her hips. “I was right up here. Moments before Heather fell. I didn’t see her.”
“There was a lot of confusion,” he pointed out. “The alarms were blaring. People were running.”
“I was the only one up here. Well, me and Elizabeth. But she left when she saw Jonathan down below. Then it was just me. I didn’t see anyone else.” She began to slowly walk toward the nearest set of arches. “The first night I was here, I didn’t see Roman, either. I was sure I’d searched the area, but I didn’t know he was close by, not until I heard his whisper.”
“There are lots of nooks and crannies up here. It would be easy enough for someone to hide.”
A nod as she kept poking around. “But I learned my lesson after Roman. I checked. Thoroughly. I didn’t see anyone.”
“Heather probably came up here after you left. That’s why you didn’t notice her—”
“I was near the stairs. You’d seen me on the second floor—I know you did.”
He had seen her. Right before he’d raced down to the basement level to discover Heather was gone.
“So I stayed close by to wait for you. I never saw Heather go up the stairs.”
“She was disguised, remember, wearing your clothes?”
Lacey didn’t a
nswer. She was in the corner, under the thick arch. Her fingers slid over the ornate wood carvings. “Do you know what my favorite show was, back when I was a kid?”
“Scooby Doo,” Dex answered immediately.
Lacey gave a little jerk. “Ohmygosh.” Her head angled toward him. “Antony found out that for you, too?”
Actually, no. “When I was at your place, I saw the Scooby Doo cookie jar you had in your kitchen.”
A fleeting smile came and went on her lips. “Do you know what was often in those cartoons?”
Other than a talking dog and some sleuthing kids?
She went back to pressing on the wood. “Secret passages.”
He’d been approaching her, but at those words, Dex stopped.
She slid her fingers over the carving of an owl. “This building is old. Historic, right? Huge and sprawling. I’m sure it holds lots of secrets, you know, like a secret underground CIA lair.”
He had actually wanted to use the lodge because of the array of rooms but… “I’ve seen the design plans for this place. There isn’t any secret passage on this level.”
Lacey glanced back at him. “Historic building. Maybe you saw some of the plans, but did you see them all? I read the plaque in the lobby. This place has been here since the early 1900s. Perhaps there are a few things about it that even you don’t know.” Her eyes widened. “Our suite.”
“What about it?”
“You said you questioned the agents and they didn’t see anyone get in our room. You probably thought they were lying or that they’d left their post, and you are planning some sort of horrible interrogation or grilling for them—”
Already occurring, actually. He’d given that task to Larry. Larry excelled in those situations.
“But what if another secret passage was up there? Maybe a little corridor that connected one suite to another? Or, hell, it could just be a large air vent running along the suites on that level, and someone flexible enough was able to slip inside. I don’t know, but I think I am on to something.” She turned back to the wood. Kept pressing. “I really do.”