The Negotiator

by Dee Henderson

  “I open this door, the only person I want to see on the other side of it is her. Her hands better be in the air, and she better be motionless. I see anyone else and I’m going to shoot.”

  Kate flipped back to the command channel. “Got it, Chris.”

  The others with Graham had been listening in. Given the way the door would swing open, they didn’t have to shift far to be out of the line of sight. Dave put himself within reach of her.

  She calmly took a breath and keyed her mike. “I’m in position.”

  The doorknob turned with a sound as if it needed to be oiled. Thompson held the small display so she could see Tony stepping back to the center of the room, gun raised, pointed at the door. Chris gave the green light. “Any time you’re ready, Kate.”

  She opened the steel door with her left hand, as it would let her right hand be in the air when he first saw her.

  He took another step back, both hands coming up to grip the gun. “So you’re my sister.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a pleasure to meet you or not, but yes, I’m your sister.”

  Her calm words surprised him. When she said nothing else, she saw a puzzled look and his hands adjust themselves on the gun grip. He could only keep the gun sighted like that thirty to forty seconds before the fatigue would force him to either get mad and create some more adrenaline or lower his arms and the gun. His body couldn’t produce more adrenaline, a simple fact of how long the crisis had been going on. She waited him out.

  “How come you never came back home and bothered to tell anyone you were alive?” The gun lowered a fraction as his arms began to tire.

  “I hated our dad. And no one bothered to tell me about you.” She looked past him into Devlon’s office and nodded toward Devlon. “Would you believe he was the one to first mention your name? That was not a pleasant experience, thank you very much.”

  “You really are my sister?”

  “Yes. I haven’t been called Emerson since going on forever. My name is legally Kate O’Malley, but I’m not dead, despite what Tony Sr. said.”

  He pulled the desk forward several inches, keeping the gun aimed at her. She watched him and made a simple decision. She took one step inside the room.

  “Kate, get back here!” The words were hissed at her over the earpiece.

  She moved to the left, past the desk, and sat down against the wall. “Close the door, Tony. I think it’s time you and I talked.”

  “Kate, when you get out of this—” Dave sounded more than just angry.

  “What are you smiling at?” Tony demanded, nervously shutting the door.

  “My boyfriend is yelling in my ear.”

  “Take that mike off.”

  “No.”

  He stared at her. Kate calmly stared back.

  “Tony, sit down,” she said mildly, just to give him the means to save face. She leaned her head back against the wall, relaxing to make herself comfortable for what might be a long day. “I hate that name, by the way. You got a nickname?”

  “What?”

  “I have no intention of calling you Tony.”

  “Junior.”

  “Get real. You’re related to an O’Malley. Have some class.” Marcus tried to cover his laugh with a cough and nearly made her deaf. She turned down the volume on the command circuit with her thumb.

  “Mom used to call me Will.”

  “Will.” She tried it on for size and found she liked it. “Not bad. Okay, Will. Rule one in the O’Malley world: Don’t mess with your older sister.”

  “That’s you.”

  “Since I’m the one who believes you’re innocent, lose the sarcasm. Why did you run? It made you look guilty.”

  “I didn’t. I heard about the bomb, and I went to Ashcroft’s to try and recover the video he had. Only Devlon here got there first. I couldn’t come forward after that because everything I needed to prove Devlon was Ash-croft’s partner was on that video.”

  “So you came here today to get it.”

  “He has it.”

  “Tony, Devlon would have destroyed it the same day he got his hands on it.”

  “Then give me one reason I shouldn’t just shoot him now.”

  “You may have moved drugs because of pressure from our dad; you may have been stupid enough to let Ashcroft blackmail you; and today is going to give a prosecuting attorney a delight, but you have not killed anyone. Devlon in that office has killed 214. I need justice, not your idea of vengeance, thank you very much. He screwed up my life, too, you know.”

  “I’ve turned over a new leaf. You can ask Marla. I haven’t even had a parking ticket in years. It was just easier back then to do what Dad said than to fight him. And Ashcroft was framing me with it. He stole explosives from the construction site. Everything pointed to me.”

  “You only look guilty. I figured it out.” She looked at him, trying to decide the best tactic. “Ashcroft knew more about O’Hare security than you did. The cops investigating his organization sent eight people to jail, got you and two others fired, but the evidence they have developed suggests Ashcroft was rebuilding his network since he got out of jail. He didn’t need you to get the bomb into O’Hare, but you were a great fall guy. He was already blackmailing you; why not frame you, too? Who set up that Tuesday morning appointment at the airport?”

  She smiled as she saw his eyes narrow. “Yes, I thought so. Devlon. There will be a phone record of the call he placed to you, showing it was Devlon and not you that set up the meeting at the airport. What about that fax the bank manager received, extending your loan—who stood at the fax machine and sent it, you or Nathan?”

  “I did.”

  “From the business lounge.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you know you are on tape doing so?”

  “Security cameras are there?”

  “Yes. The fax came through at 10:48 A.M. It’s there in black and white on the top of the page. But someone else had just called in the bomb threat, and I wrote down the time we were paged about it. 10:48 A.M. You were busy, Tony, and you’re on tape being busy.”

  “That’s not much.”

  “There are electronic fingerprints on the money Devlon had been handling for Ashcroft. It’s pieces of a puzzle, Tony. We’ve only been looking at Devlon a short time, and we’ve already turned over some ugly things under the rocks. You’ll have to trust me when I say there will be more.” She was pleased to see him lean against the desk, relax ever so slightly. “Why were you letting Ashcroft blackmail you? Why were you paying him off?”

  “It wasn’t for me. It was for Marla. She’s on one of the security tapes with Ashcroft. She didn’t know. She was just delivering a package. She had no idea what was in it.”

  “I believe you.”

  “I couldn’t take a chance a jury might not. She’s the best thing that ever happened in my life. And once I paid the first blackmail money, Ashcroft had me.”

  The phone began to ring.

  “You had better get that, Tony. And listen to what they have to say, okay?”

  Tony took a step toward the phone.

  She heard something fall. She came away from the wall and to her feet in less time than it took Tony to turn toward the office, but the error had been made. They had been talking too long without either checking on Devlon, and his chair had been on rollers. She heard a faint whisper in her ear that was someone screaming for her to get down and felt her heart stop. She’d turned her mike down too low for them to warn her when Devlon began to move. Her own instincts now screaming at her, she hit Tony with a blindside tackle just as gunshots split the wood of the desk.

  Devlon was shooting at them.

  Tony tried to bring his hand up with the gun to return fire, and Kate did the thing that seemed most logical. She hit him.

  She knew enough to shut her eyes. The flash grenades went off as brilliant repeating strobes, and the decibel level of their noisemakers made her ears ring. Two figures in black came across the desk still
partially blocking the stairway door, took firing positions by Devlon’s office, and in went another flash grenade.

  The assault was finished before Kate could sort out the players. She sat up, wincing with pain she didn’t bother to mask.

  Lord, this wasn’t in my plans.

  She coughed up blood.

  “Don’t move.” Dave’s face wavered in and out of focus.

  “Broke a rib.”

  “And a few other things.”

  “The vest took the hit.” She could feel the radiating bruise, had to suck in air to make the world stop swimming. “I told you a younger brother was trouble.” She tried to laugh at the observation but couldn’t. The vest that had saved her life was too tight. She reached for the straps with hands that didn’t seem to want to coordinate their movements.

  “Kate.”

  She looked up. “Marcus, I’m not dead.” He was pale as a ghost.

  “Get Jennifer up here.” The order from Marcus over the command circuit made her grimace.

  “I don’t need the full family for a busted rib.”

  “What you’re going to get is a doctor, so shut up.”

  “You may have punctured a lung,” Dave said quietly, supporting her against his shoulder.

  She was beginning to get her breath back. “I bit my tongue, rather badly, with that blindside tackle. The slug hit nothing but Kevlar, but it packed a punch. I need my ribs strapped and something cold to drink.” She saw the relief cross Dave’s face. “Remember to tell Jennifer I want the cherry lollipop.”

  He kissed her forehead. “I’ll do that.”

  “Good.” She looked at Tony Jr., now coming around with a groan. “He’s got a jaw like a rock. I nearly broke my hand.”

  “Be glad you did. If he’d had that gun in his hand when the team came through, there would have been little choice.”

  “I know. I guess I’ve now officially got more family.”

  “I know a good lawyer.”

  “He’s going to need one.”

  “Don’t scare me like this again, Kate.” Dave ordered. “You weren’t supposed to enter the room.”

  “I don’t take chances lightly. I figured this time the stakes were high enough.”

  Dave brushed back her hair. “Maybe.”

  “You’re just annoyed you couldn’t take a bullet for me.”

  He grinned. “I’ve already got my scars.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Forget to duck?”

  “Insuring someone else did.”

  Jennifer had joined them, and Kate didn’t want to lose this moment. “Jennifer, come back in about an hour.”

  Dave choked back a laugh. “Would you behave? I’m not going anywhere. That’s a promise.”

  Twenty-five

  Kate speared an olive from the dish with her toothpick. They had a beautiful day for their Fourth of July bash. The park pavilion was perfect for the massive spread of food they had brought with them. There was something about a family picnic that restored her faith in the better things about life. She looked over at Jennifer, and then back at the rather brutal game of horseshoes going on. “I really think you should just plan to elope with Tom before the family scares him off.”

  “No need. He’s winning.”

  Kate turned to pay more attention, her hand cushioning her taped ribs. She had a hairline fracture, a nuisance, but it was going to bench her from the baseball game that afternoon, and that had her really annoyed. In the last decade she had missed only two O’Malley baseball games, and both of them had been due to pages. “Really? No one is throwing the game?”

  “Tom just nailed another ringer.”

  Kate grinned. “I bet that’s giving Stephen fits.”

  It felt good to finally have a day to just hang out with the family and not have to worry about what was going to hit her the next day. Tony Jr. was working on a plea bargain with the DA, and Peter Devlon would eventually be facing one of the biggest trials in U.S. history.

  She was still getting used to the reality she had a brother. Will, she refused to think of him as Tony Jr., was still very much of a mystery to her. They had forged a tentative acceptance of the fact they were related, but any sense of a personal relationship was going to take time. She had met Will’s wife, Marla, and had liked her immediately. Time. She would need a lot of it, so would Will.

  Dave dropped his arm around her shoulders. “Hey, beautiful. What’s happening?”

  “Just chatting. I thought you were watching Jack and the steaks.”

  “He’s burning them,” Dave replied cheerfully.

  Jennifer got to her feet with a laugh. “I’ll go.”

  Dave nudged Kate over, and she made room for him on the bench. She smiled at his slight sunburn and feathered her hand through his hair. “Is the day everything you expected?”

  He slowly leaned in against her, invading her space, before kissing her, taking his time to purposefully drive her crazy. “Pretty much.” He grinned. “What’s the blush for?”

  “My family is watching.” And you’ve been driving me crazy the last few days.

  “They’ve unanimously decided I should stick around.”

  She grinned. “Have they?”

  “Yes.” He interlaced his fingers with hers. “What about you?”

  “You mean I have a choice?”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t think so.” She rolled a shoulder, pretended to think about it, and finally caved in. “You can stick around. I’ve decided I rather like your company. Besides, I know better than to go against the family.”

  He studied her for a moment, and the smile became tender. “I was thinking along the lines of something serious.”

  “How serious?”

  “How about, for now, a promise that you’ll be my girl for at least the next year? The guys think it’s a good idea.”

  “What?”

  “Is it the proposal or the fact I asked their permission?”

  She blinked, hard. Jesus, I was expecting this question in a few months, not now. Dating a cop is a big deal.

  Dave was God’s man. And she had learned to trust Him.

  She knew what she wanted.

  She turned toward him and leaned her arm back against the picnic table. “We have an unwritten rule in the family, you know.”

  “What?”

  She smiled. “Never turn down an invitation to an adventure.”

  He relaxed. “Good. We’ll have one.”

  “That’s a guarantee?”

  “You can take it to the bank.” He looked at her. “Not First Union.”

  “I already don’t know if I can handle your sense of humor.”

  “You’ll learn.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.” She leaned her head against his shoulder, made herself comfortable. His arm settled around her shoulders. “You can handle the pages?”

  “I’ve survived three. By my calculations, I’ve only got about a thousand to go before you retire.”

  She chuckled. “You’re going to count them?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Do I get keys to the jet?”

  “Is it a deal breaker?”

  She grinned.

  He ruffled her hair. “Okay, they’re yours. Along with lessons.”

  “Thanks.” She rested her hands against his chest, watching his eyes as he studied her, as he smiled. “I love you, you know.”

  His hands cupped her face. “I know.” His arms comfortably encircled her waist. “I love you, too.”

  Hearing the words still made her blink; no man had ever said them to her with that confident certainty. She studied him, feeling for the first time uncertain, and trusting him enough not to mask what she was feeling. His expression softened, and the growing warmth in his gaze flooded over her. He barely had to lean forward to kiss her. “Trust me, Kate. I love you.”

  His reassurance settled deep inside. She rested her hands against his chest to give a
cheeky grin. “Good.”

  “You haven’t actually answered my question yet,” he pointed out.

  She wanted to laugh. “Yes, I’ll be your girl.”

  “Good.”

  “That’s an awfully smug look.”

  “Marcus said if I could get you to agree before game time, I could be team captain.”

  Her elbow caught him in the ribs as she moved back.

  “Hey!”

  “Where’s Marcus?”

  He rubbed the sore spot. “Probably getting out of the line of fire.”

  “He should.”

  “I’m unofficially part of the family, Kate. Leave your brother alone.”

  “I don’t need him arranging my life.”

  He caught her as she moved to get up. “As if anyone could. Sit.” His arms closed around her ribs below the wrap to make sure she did. “He’s got a party planned for tonight for Tom and Jennifer. He thought I might like to come celebrate with you.”

  She blinked and what had been annoyance changed to a concerted effort not to let a tear fall. “Marcus planned a party?”

  Dave gently hugged her. “Yeah. He thought it would be a nice O’Malley tradition.” He kissed her softly. “I agree with him.”

  Kate leaned into the kiss. “There will be fireworks at the party.”

  He smiled. “I think we’ve got some fireworks right here.”

  “Fireworks and love. Nice combination.”

  “Break it up, you two. It’s lunchtime.”

  Kate leaned back, blinked, and realized the family had joined them. She smiled. “Jack, did you burn my steak?”

  “I tried my best.”

  She laughed. “Dave, are you sure you’re ready for this family?”

  “I wouldn’t miss this adventure for the world.”

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading this book; it was such a pleasure to write. I fell in love with Kate O’ Malley. After spending time with Dave in Danger in the Shadows, I knew he was one of the few people who could handle Kate! They have a bright future together.

  A cop is driven by a need for justice. I was curious to find out which would be more poweful—a need for justice or a need for mercy—if the dilemma became very personal. I sketched a story that let me explore the subject, and found Kate’s journey through the questions fascinating. Even I found the solution to her dilemma a surprise. Any time the character of God becomes the basis of a story, I have found it to be a wonderful book to write. I hope you enjoyed the story.