Fatal Exposure

by Gail Barrett

  But a sharp knock came from the door. Then Sergeant Delgado strolled in, accompanied by several guards. Delgado’s gaze met his, and his mouth kicked into a smile. “I figured I’d find you here.”

  Parker frowned and released Brynn’s hand. Of all the people to show up now... He gave him a reluctant nod. “Have you met Brynn?”

  “Not officially.”

  “This is Sergeant Delgado,” Parker told her.

  The sergeant swaggered over to Brynn, an interested gleam in his eyes, and clasped her hand. Parker’s eyes narrowed, his face heating when Delgado didn’t let go. But the sergeant was in Don Juan mode, puffing out his chest, flashing her the smile reputed to make women swoon.

  Two seconds, Parker decided, working his jaw. And then he’d wipe that smirk off his playboy face.

  Brynn extracted her hand, then shot Parker a questioning look. “He’s been working undercover,” he explained, wishing to hell he’d back off.

  But Delgado cocked one hip and folded his arms across his chest—to better display his biceps, Parker guessed. “One of our informants gave us a tip,” Delgado told Brynn. “He said there were rumors that a senior officer was involved with child pornography, but he didn’t know who it was. The trail seemed to lead to Colonel Hoffman, but we didn’t have any proof. So internal affairs sent me to the cold case squad, thinking I could monitor him better from there.”

  So Delgado hadn’t gotten his position through brownnosing. Parker’s faith in the police force rose. “What the lieutenant said—that something big was going on—any chance that’s true?”

  Delgado switched his gaze to him. “Yeah, we think so, but we don’t have any leads yet. We were trying to bring her in alive, to interrogate her.” He shrugged. “About the only thing we know right now is that whoever this mastermind is, he has power.”

  Power? “You mean like another cop?”

  “Maybe, but our sources are all tight-lipped. Whoever this guy is, he’s got them running scared.” Delgado turned to Brynn again. “And until we catch him, you’re in danger. As soon as the hospital discharges you, we want to put you in protective custody.”

  A startled look entered Brynn’s eyes. “You mean a safe house?”

  Delgado gave her a nod. “Probably some place out West. Wyoming, maybe. Just until we figure out what’s going on.”

  “But why would he want to kill me? My stepfather’s gone. Lieutenant Lewis and her cousin are dead—and they’re the ones I saw in the warehouse. I thought I was safe.”

  To Delgado’s credit, sympathy filled his eyes. “I wish you were. But someone ordered Lewis to kill you. Both of you. And this mastermind appears to have a lot of influence, even within the police department. Until we bring him in, we need to put you somewhere safe.”

  But Brynn’s mouth turned flat. A stubborn look entered her eyes. “I’m not hiding out again.”

  “I know it sounds drastic,” Delgado said. “But—”

  “No, absolutely not. I’m not going into hiding again.”

  Parker caught his eye. “Listen, Sergeant. Give her some time to think about it, okay? She just got out of surgery.”

  “Fine. We’ll talk about it later.” He looked at Brynn again. “We need another statement from you, too, but that can wait until you’re ready.” He gave Parker a nod and left the room.

  For a minute, neither spoke. Parker finally broke the silence with a sigh. “As much as I hate to agree with Delgado, he’s right. This isn’t a joke. They don’t put people into protective custody unless there’s a good reason.”

  “I don’t need to think about it. I’m not going.”

  “Brynn—”

  “Listen, Parker. I know you think I’m being unreasonable. But I’ve spent most of my life on the run. Ever since I left home I’ve been hiding, always looking over my shoulder, always worrying that Hoffman would catch up to me. And when Tommy got shot it was even worse. I had to keep moving all the time. When you showed up, it was the first time I’d allowed myself to do anything even remotely permanent—to own a house, to have a garden, to have even a hint of a normal life. And I can’t go back to hiding out again. I’m not going to keep living in fear.”

  “It’s only until they track this guy down.” He shifted forward, taking hold of her hand again. “For God’s sake, Brynn. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you. That moment when Lieutenant Lewis shot you...” His voice broke. A huge lump blocked his throat.

  Her eyes softened, all trace of her temper gone. “I know,” she whispered. “I felt the same way in the cabin when Hoffman shot you.”

  “Then you can see why...”

  “I can’t do it, Parker. It would kill me to hide again.” Her gaze held his. “Are you going to do it?”

  “I can’t. I need to stay here and help track him down.”

  “Then you’re not quitting your job?”

  “I thought about it,” he admitted. “First Hoffman, then Lieutenant Lewis...”

  She squeezed his hand. “I know how much that hurts.”

  “Yeah.” Their betrayal hurt all right. Even after his father’s arrest, he’d believed in the integrity of the force—an idealism he’d now lost for good. He’d become more realistic over the past few days, more jaded. The blinders he’d worn were gone.

  “I might switch to internal affairs, though. There seems to be a need for that.”

  Her eyes warmed. “You make a wonderful knight in shining armor, Parker McCall.”

  “Hardly.” He’d nearly failed her. “But the bad guys are still in the minority. Most cops are good.”

  “Like Delgado.”

  “Yeah.” He shook his head. Delgado had turned out to be one of the good guys, even if he was still obnoxious as hell. “But the main thing is that I can’t give up. You taught me that.”

  “I did?” She looked surprised.

  “Yeah. Your courage... You never gave up.”

  “How can you say that? All I’ve ever done is run.”

  “You survived. There’s a difference. And you stopped running when people needed you. You risked everything to help them, even when no one believed you. You’re the most courageous person I know.”

  Her face turned pink. Her gaze dropped to their joined hands. “You took risks, too. You didn’t hand me over to Hoffman, even when you thought I’d caused Tommy’s death.”

  The corner of his mouth edged up. “Yeah. I’ve been breaking the rules since I met you.” But he no longer cared. He didn’t need the regulations to guide him. He knew who he was inside.

  And he knew who he needed. Brynn.

  His heart drummed hard. His throat turned parched, nerves stampeding around in his chest. Now or never. “I love you, Brynn.”

  Shock flickered through her eyes. Then she covered her face with her hand, her sudden silence damning, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him.

  His heart plummeted. He’d waited too long. She wasn’t going to forgive him. He’d destroyed any chance he’d had at love.

  Desperation clawed through his gut. He had to convince her. He couldn’t stand a lifetime without Brynn. “I need you,” he said. “I love you so much.”

  She opened her eyes, and the joy in them crashed through his heart. “I love you, too. I didn’t want to. I was scared. I’ve spent my entire life trying to keep people out. But you snuck through all that. I couldn’t keep you out of my heart. And I fell in love with you.”

  Happiness swelled in his chest. Lightness flooded through him, demolishing years of loneliness. “I know this isn’t romantic. The hospital. These machines. I don’t even have a ring. But I promise I’ll ask you again, someplace better. With flowers, champagne, whatever you want. But I have to know... Will you marry me?”

  Her lush mouth trembled, her eyes shining with tears. “I don’t want champagne. I just want you.”

  His heart went berserk. “Is that a yes?”

  “Parker...” Tears brimmed in her eyes. “You gave me hope. You taught me to dream again
. Do you have any idea how precious that is? Of course I’ll marry you.”

  He surged to his feet. Hardly able to contain himself, he perched on the edge of her bed, careful not to tangle her cords. Then he cradled her jaw and stared into her gorgeous eyes. “I’ll keep you safe. I promise, Brynn. No one will hurt you again. If you won’t go into protective custody, then you can stay with me.”

  “Forever?”

  “I promise.”

  She lifted her hand to his face. He slanted his mouth over hers, ignoring the bandages and bruises and pains. Focusing on her taste, her incredible feel, the miracle of the woman he would love for all time. The woman his brother had brought to him. The woman who’d healed his heart.

  And knew he was exactly where he wanted to stay.

  * * * * *

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  Chapter 1

  Grayson Pierce looked at his watch impatiently. The plane was late. Either that or his Rolex had suddenly lost its orderly Swiss mind. How he was supposed to help with this very, very off-book investigation, he had no idea. But his old fraternity brother from Stanford, Jeff Winston, had asked for help, and that was enough for him.

  The way he heard it, Jeff had been doing the U.S. government massive favors left, right and center, and Uncle Sam owed Jeff one back. Gray frowned. What kind of debt merited pulling a senior field agent like him out of deep cover on no notice and sending him to West Virginia, of all places? What crisis of national security significance could be afoot in this bucolic setting?

  Finally. The whine of a jet became audible in the distance. Gray picked out the white speck, which rapidly grew larger, descending on final approach into the Elkins-Randolph County Regional Airport. Jeff was sending some guy named Sam Jessup here to help with whatever was brewing around a local cult leader named Proctor.

  The thrust reversers of a sleek Learjet bearing the Winston Enterprises logo screamed as the plane came to a stop at the far end of the runway, did a one-eighty, and taxied toward him. He was parked in a vintage 1972 Ford Bronco outside the gold, two-story box of a terminal, such as it was. Chicago O’Hare, this airport was not. He pulled up beside the low jet and hopped out as the hatch popped open. A pilot wearing a crisp uniform trotted down the steps.

  A pair of high-heeled, black leather boots with chrome ankle chains and stiletto heels that looked like lethal weapons appeared on the top steps. Slim calves came into view. The shapely legs turned out to be a mile long and sheathed in leather that looked painted on. A black leather jacket with slashes of red leather under the arms emerged from the shadows. Good Lord, the jacket was unzipped down to...well, that was an impressive flash of cleavage. What did the woman have on under the jacket to cause that gravity-defying display? An urge to tug the zipper down and find out made his fingers itch.

  A swirl of flaming red hair swished over her shoulder. It was the color of strawberries and oranges if they got together and made a baby. A slender, porcelain-pale neck came into view, and then lush lips painted the most improbable shade of scarlet he’d seen in a long time.

  The asymmetric triangles of her black sunglasses wrapped around her head like something straight out of a science-fiction movie. He’d lay odds she had body piercings in places he did not want to know about, too.

  Who the hell was she? Surely Jessup didn’t bring his sex-kitten girlfriend on whatever mission this was. Maybe she was some sort of contact who would take him to Jessup. Gray frowned as no one else was forthcoming from the jet. The goth chick was looking at him expectantly, so he stepped forward and held out his hand. “Welcome to West Virginia. I’m Grayson Pierce.”

  She took his hand in the firm grip most American women used, and which still startled him. “Sammie Jo Jessup. Nice to meet you.”

  “Sammie Jo—” Oh, dear God. No. “As in Sam Jessup?”

  The woman’s lips curved into a dazzling smile that almost, but not quite, redeemed her extreme attire. “Let me guess. Jeff didn’t tell you I’m a woman. He thinks that’s hilarious to spring on people.”

  “Right. Hilarious,” he replied dryly.

  “So let’s blow this popsicle stand,” she declared, “and you can brief me in. Call me Sam if you like.”

  He didn’t like. The name made her sound like a man. And despite her...avant-garde...fashion choices, she was anything but masculine under all that leather and chrome.

  He slung her black duffel bag in the back of the Bronco, and with a word of thanks to the pilot, she climbed in next to him. Oddly, she smelled like roses. The old-fashioned kind with undertones of Earl Grey tea and cinnamon. A dim memory of his grandmother’s formal rose garden flashed to mind. Acres of manicured green lawns and white-linen tablecloths covered with Royal Albert china rolled through his mind’s eye unbidden. Bemused, he guided the Bronco out of the airport and onto an asphalt road that wound up into the Blue Ridge Mountains.

  Although they weren’t blue at all. Fall was just starting to paint the rolling hillsides in splashes of gold and crimson, oranges and maroons that were rapidly overtaking the carpet of green.

  “Wow. Pretty,” Sammie Jo commented at random.

  He glanced over at her and was startled that she appeared to be studying him and not the scenery. It was hard to tell behind those dark sunglasses of hers. Had she just called him pretty? He chose to pretend she’d been referring to the scenery. “I’m told it’s spectacular when the colors peak around here.”

  “Mmm. So why am I here?”

  Direct, this woman. “I have no idea. Jeff Winston called me and said he needed my help figuring out what some local nut job is up to. Guy named Proctor. I assumed you would know what’s going on since you work for Jeff.”

  “Nope. He didn’t tell me anything more than that. But Jeff never does anything randomly. He clearly wants you and me to have a look around the local area. Turn over a few rocks and see what we find.”

  “That seems damned random of him.”

  “Agreed.” She nodded. “There’s clearly something going on. He must want us to take an unbiased look at it.”

  Frustration rattled through him. “Look. I have other responsibilities to get back to, and I don’t have time for chasing shadows and vague rumors.”

  An eyebrow climbed above the upper rim of one tilting triangle of her sunglasses. “Like I do have time for games?” she demanded.

  “Hey. He’s your boss. Take it up with Winston.”

  They fell into silence and drove for some miles before he felt the least bit inclined to be civil again. Dammit, Jeff was his fraternity brother and had been a loyal friend through some rough times. He owed the guy at least a shot at making this investigation, or whatever it was, work.

  Gray sighed and said, “Jeff rented us a motel room in a burg called Mapletop. It’s smack-dab in the middle of the National Radio Quiet Zone. Are you familiar with that?”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “It’s an area en
compassing 13,000 square miles and straddling the Virginia-West Virginia border. It was set aside in the 1950s to surround the world’s largest radio telescope, which is an incredibly sensitive instrument. Inside the Zone, only very limited radio emissions are allowed. There are no cell phones, no Wi-Fi and only a handful of low-power radio stations. All electronic emissions generated in this area have to be approved so they don’t interfere with the telescopes.”

  She nodded as if she already knew all that.

  “We’ll enter the NRQZ in a few miles, and your wireless devices will lose signal shortly thereafter. If you have any last-minute phone calls to make, email to check, or texts to send, now’s the time to do it.”

  “No one to call,” she said grimly.

  His finely honed intuition sensed a story, but he didn’t pry. She wasn’t here to overshare her personal life with him, and he didn’t want to know, anyway. He had a job to do—assuming he could figure out what the damned job was.

  What had Jeff been thinking to send this woman, who was as clueless as him, out here? It wasn’t like she was going to blend in with the locals in the least. This region was about country music, log cabins and outdoor sports. Sammie Jo Jessup looked like a character from a science-fiction movie.

  As they turned into the parking lot of the motel, his alien-wannabe companion broke the silence. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here,” she prodded. “Who are you?”

  “I’m an old buddy of Jeff’s who owes the bastard a favor,” he retorted. “Why he chose to collect it like this is beyond me.”

  He assumed she was looking at him. Her sunglasses were pointed at him, at least. “What kind of work do you do?” she asked.

  Caution kicked in and he said carefully, “I work with computers.”

  “Hmm. Why would Jeff bring you here, then, where you’re useless?”

  He knew all too well the feeling of being useless. It had ripped out his soul, burned every last bit of the humanity out of him and left him the hull of a man he was today. But to be told he was useless by this impertinent female didn’t sit well with him.