At Any Cost

by Mandy Baxter

  He’d fallen in love with Livy. Nick wasn’t sure he could bear to know the truth about her.

  “What did you find?” His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for Morgan to drop the hammer. Please God, let it be something small like petty theft....

  “Well, we did find out that Hanson had a rough childhood despite the fancy ski medals. It looks like she and her mom were pretty poor from what we managed to dig up. Six or so years ago, her mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer. It’s been in remission for a while.”

  All information Nick already knew. He relaxed a tentative degree.

  “Did you know that Kari Hanson’s father was murdered?”

  And just like that, Nick’s heart sank to the soles of his feet. Through the dryness in his throat, he croaked out, “No.” How could he have missed something like that? He’d done his homework on Meecum and Kari both, but had never found even a scrap of information on her father. “What do we know about it?”

  “Not a whole hell of a lot.” Tension radiated from Morgan’s voice and it pulled Nick’s shoulders taut. “The deeper we dig, the more of a clusterfuck it becomes. Kari’s dad, Steve Barnes, has a rap sheet a mile long and several aliases to go along with it. He was a con man and pretty top-notch. He posed as an accountant in several different states under different names, an investment banker a couple of times. From what we can tell, he swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from people over a period spanning a couple of decades. We don’t think Kari was privy to any of it. It looks like her parents were never married and she lived primarily with her mother. I doubt she saw her dad much, if at all.”

  Jesus. He’d known that Livy’s dad was a loser but he never could have imagined just how bad it had been. While she and her mom had been scraping by, making sacrifices, her dad had been hopping from state to state, conning people out of their hard-earned money. What a son of a bitch.

  “What do we know about the Barnes murder?” Nick wasn’t sure he really wanted to know anything about it.

  “He was found beaten to death four years ago in the office he’d been renting in a strip mall in Oakland.”

  Jesus. It fit the timeline for Livy’s disappearance and a wave of anxiety stole over Nick. He reached out and gripped the edge of the table as if it would keep his world from careening out of control. His chest burned, his heart hammered. He didn’t want to hear another word and yet, he had to.

  “How did we not know any of this?” True, Livy had been going by her mother’s maiden name at the time, but it seems they would have found some sort of connection in their investigation.

  “The body was identified by a girlfriend.” In the background, Nick heard the sound of keys clicking on Morgan’s keyboard. “She said his name was Mel Owens and the local PD investigated it as a robbery gone south. Those guys are swamped down there; it doesn’t surprise me this got swept under the rug.”

  The story got more tangled by the second. “What about Meecum? How does he fit in?” Morgan had connected the dots somehow. Nick wanted to know how he thought Livy’s dad’s murder pointed any fingers at her or Joel.

  “Metcalf contacted the chief down there and he sent a couple of deputies to question the girlfriend. She gave them a hard time at first but they shook her down and she caved. She told them that Owens—who was actually Steve Barnes—had been laundering money for a local motorcycle gang and that he’d found a way to skim without them knowing it. He claimed the scam was going to make them rich.”

  Son of a bitch. Nick blew out a breath but it did nothing to slow the racing tempo of his heart. He didn’t need to ask Morgan what club Livy’s dad had been working for. They all knew that even though they did business all up and down the West Coast, the Black Death was chartered out of Oakland.

  “My guess is Kari introduced Meecum to her dad. They struck a deal and the dad screwed over Meecum, and maybe even Kari. They find out, beat the dad to death, Kari gets spooked and takes off. Joel could have ratted her out. He could have set her up for the whole thing but he doesn’t, which means that they’re working together, or he wants her to know that he’s got her back. He puts the word out that he’s looking for her. It makes a hell of a lot of sense.”

  No. No fucking way. There was no love lost between Livy and her dad but there was no possible way she’d had anything to do with his death. Even less likely was Morgan’s assumption that she’d conspired with Meecum to do the deed.

  “I don’t buy it.” Nick might have sounded like a stubborn SOB, but he didn’t care. “It’s obvious that she had hardly any contact with her dad over the years. They had to have been estranged. There’s no way she knew about his scams or planned to rip him off. It’s too farfetched.”

  “Is it?” Morgan’s tone hardened. “Think about it, Brady. Kari lives her entire life being resentful of her deadbeat dad who didn’t do a goddamned thing for her or her mom growing up. Her mom’s beat cancer, but the bills are piling up. She hooks up with Meecum while all of this is going on. He’s got money, clout, and muscle and maybe that’s what she’s looking for. Somewhere down the line, the dad gets involved. Maybe Kari suggested him to Meecum, maybe the dad pressures her for an intro. Either way, Barnes and Meecum form a business relationship but what they don’t realize is that Kari’s dad is planning to rob Meecum blind. Shit goes south when Meecum finds out and he kills Kari’s dad. Kari takes a page from her dad’s book and takes off with a new identity and leaves Meecum to clean up the mess. Hell, maybe they planned to kill him all along and they’re just waiting for the heat to die down like we’d initially assumed. Kari knows where Joel Meecum is. I’d bet my badge on it.”

  It was a bet he’d lose. Anger churned hot and thick in Nick’s gut. Morgan’s assumptions about Livy couldn’t be more wrong. The urge to pick a fight with the deputy was almost more than Nick could resist. “How many people know about this?”

  A pregnant pause stretched over the line and a burst of adrenaline dumped into Nick’s bloodstream. “So far, you and me and Metcalf. And of course the guys down in the Northern California office but they’re going to let us run point since we did the leg work and there isn’t a state on the West Coast Meecum isn’t wanted in. The deputy chief is ready to roll on this, Brady. He wants to assemble a task force. All he’s waiting on is for you to fill in the blank on Hanson’s location.”

  Absolutely not. The last thing he wanted was for an army of U.S. marshals to converge on Livy’s cabin, guns drawn. If Morgan considered her a murder suspect, they wouldn’t go easy on her. Nick would be forced to watch as she was hauled out of her house, shoved to the ground, and cuffed. His stomach heaved at the thought and he swallowed down the fear that threatened to choke him.

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?” Morgan barked. “Why the hell not?”

  “Like you said, we need to play this close to the hip.” Nick needed to make a compelling argument for not sending a team of armed marshals to Livy’s door. “It took us years to get this close to Meecum. I have a feeling she’s getting ready to run again. We don’t want to spook her.”

  “All the more reason to send a team in now, don’t you think?”

  “She’s evaded not only us, but Meecum for four years, Morgan. Do you think that’s just dumb luck?”

  “No,” Morgan said with a sneer in his voice. “I think it’s a very clever daughter following in her father’s footsteps.”

  If Morgan had been standing in front of him right now, Nick would have been hard-pressed not to coldcock him. He knew dick about Livy.

  And you do?

  The niggling voice of doubt scratched at the back of Nick’s brain. Could she have possibly conned him? Could her innocent eyes, soft body, and seemingly fierce loyalty have lulled him into a false sense of security? She knew he was a cop. Could she have played him all along?

  No. Damn it, Nick refused to believe that Livy was anything other than who she was. She might not have given him the entire truth, but she’d bar
ed her soul to him. She wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer. Livy wasn’t on the run, she was running. And he’d be damned if he let Morgan and a squad of the USMS’s most stalwart man hunters show up on her front porch and haul her off to a cell somewhere.

  “Give me three days,” Nick said. “Let me do this my way. I’ll confront her, let her know we’re on to her and give her the chance to come clean. She trusts me, Morgan. Let’s try to avoid a potential disaster.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been a hell of a lot busier than you’ve let on,” Morgan replied with disdain. “I can maybe buy you two days. But this isn’t your show anymore. It isn’t even mine. Metcalf is calling the shots from here on out. You might not be concerned about your job, but I am. We need to get the ball rolling and have people in place in case she doesn’t trust you like you think she does. We can’t take any chances. This might be our one and only opportunity to get our hands on Meecum.”

  Nick had no other choice but to agree to Morgan’s terms. Even if Nick didn’t see the situation the way everyone else did, Morgan was going to do what he thought was right. “Fine. Get the ball rolling on your end. I’ll take care of Livy.”

  “Kari,” Morgan corrected. “I don’t know what’s been going on during your vacation, but you need to get your head out of this fantasy she’s constructed. You need to get back in the game.”

  What if Nick didn’t want out of the fantasy? “I’ll take care of Kari,” he said. “Keep in touch.”

  “Will do,” Morgan said before he ended the call.

  Fuck. Nick set his phone down on the counter. His palms were slicked with sweat and his heart pounded in his chest. Of all of the things he’d done since becoming a cop, this would be by far the hardest. When he confronted Livy, he knew it would break both of them. Maybe permanently.

  * * *

  “Are you sure you won’t reconsider, Livy?” Stacy, the ski instruction supervisor asked. “Good ski instructors are hard to find and the kids love you.”

  Stacy’s sad expression caused Livy’s heart to clench. She didn’t want to leave. She liked it in McCall. Liked her job, the town, the lake, not to mention some of the best powder she’d ever skied in her life. She liked living somewhere with four seasons and plenty of space. But this life was a lie. And Livy had decided once and for all that she was tired of living a lie. She wanted to be a better person. For herself. For Nick. It was time to fix everything she’d broken and whether it would put her in danger or not, Livy was prepared to face the music.

  “I wish I could stay, Stacy. I feel like I need to be with my mom, you know?” Even though the cancer was in remission, Livy wasn’t lying to her boss. She was through with deception. She’d talked to her mom sixteen times in four years. She couldn’t isolate herself from the only family she had. Livy didn’t want any more regrets. Being with Nick had shown her that she was wasting her life by hiding in fear of what might happen and she was sick and tired of being afraid.

  “I understand. We’re going to miss you, though. And if you decide to come back, you’ll always have a job here.”

  “I appreciate that. Thanks.” Leaving was so much harder when everyone was so damned nice. Livy had so many regrets from the past few years. One of them being that she’d been too guarded to make lasting friendships with some of the people she worked with.

  Livy left Stacy’s office with a heavy heart. She would have liked to have given at least a week’s notice before leaving, but when she told Nick the truth about who she really was and what she’d done, there was a pretty good chance he’d arrest her on the spot. She’d rather Stacy had a day’s notice that she wasn’t coming back to work than no notice at all.

  Every footstep walked through the snow toward her car was a slog. Lead weights wouldn’t have weighed more than her boots as each reluctant step took her closer to the beginning of the end. As much as she didn’t want whatever this was to end with Nick, it was going to happen. Even if she’d decided not to tell him the truth, he was leaving. Admitting to someone that you loved them didn’t magically make everything perfect. In fact, those three little words usually made things more complicated. They sure as hell would as far as she and Nick were concerned. A fugitive in love with a cop. Could she get any more cliché?

  By the time she pulled up to her house, Livy was shaking. Sweat beaded her brow and her heart raced as though she’d just sped down an icy downhill run at eighty miles per hour in a low tuck. Her mouth had gone bone dry and her brain buzzed with so many thoughts she couldn’t narrow them down to a single one. She hadn’t even confronted Nick yet and she felt as though she might pass out. God, she’d worried that he would let her down? She was about to drop him from a fifty-foot cliff. Splat!

  Livy killed the engine, but she didn’t get out of the car. Who would take care of Simon if she was arrested? He was a fat, spoiled, inside cat that’d never make it on the outside. Bitter laughter rose in her chest and came out in a splutter. She was worried about Simon making it? What about her? She’d never so much as gotten a speeding ticket. Now she was contemplating the possibility of jail time. Dear God. Her head smacked against the steering wheel as another crippling wave of anxiety hit her. Would she have to pee in front of a hundred other women? She could barely use the bathroom when Simon stuck his paw under the door.

  “Hey! You okay?”

  The sound of Nick’s voice sent a super jolt of shock through Livy’s body. She bolted upright with a squeal and her hands came down on the horn in the process. Nick jumped back at the sudden sound, his own expression as pinched and worried as she felt.

  “Son of a bitch!” she exclaimed on a sharp exhale. “You scared the shit out of me, Nick!”

  His brows came down over his dark eyes. The days were getting longer as February was drawing to a close and there was still enough of the gray twilight remaining to allow Livy to take in every beautiful detail of Nick’s face.

  Goddamn, he was gorgeous.

  And for a couple of weeks he’d been hers. Next to skiing and her mom, Nick was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Livy didn’t want to lose him, but she had no choice. It was time to come clean.

  “Someone’s jumpy,” Nick said as Livy got out of the car. His expression, though relaxed, sent a shiver of trepidation through her body. He didn’t seem to have the energy he usually did, as though he’d been dealt a hard blow. Maybe this was how he looked after a particularly bad day on the job. Which made her wonder what had happened today. “Did those rug rats give you grief today?”

  “What?” Livy’s brow furrowed. “Oh, no. My day wasn’t too bad.” Aside from the total collapse of her life and current happiness. “How was your day?”

  Nick cupped the back of his neck. He appeared at ease but Livy knew him well enough now to sense the tension that he tried to hide. “Good. I lounged around and binge-watched Hill Street Blues on Netflix.”

  “That’s a little dated,” Livy said with a laugh. “Eighties cop dramas do it for you, huh?”

  “No.” Nick’s gaze smoldered and Livy’s intentions were incinerated by the heat. “Former junior Olympic ski racers do it for me.”

  Livy also knew Nick well enough to realize that within the next few minutes they’d both be naked and in bed. He reached out, took her hand in his, and led her up the snowy steps to her front door. Her confession could wait until the morning, couldn’t it?

  “It feels like you’ve been gone for weeks,” Nick murmured in her ear as Livy unlocked the front door. A round of delicious chills broke out over her skin. “I’m glad you’re home.”

  So was she. Even a few minutes away from Nick felt like hours. Today had lasted at least a year. “So, what do you want to do tonight?”

  He kissed her neck and then the corner of her mouth. “I don’t care as long as it involves you being naked and on my cock.”

  He got her with the dirty talk every time. She didn’t think she’d ever not want Nick.

  One last night with him. A few more hours where she could l
ive Livy Gallagher’s life. “I think that can be arranged.”

  Livy would be sure to make their last night together count.

  Chapter Twenty

  Joel’s lip curled. “This place is a snow-covered shithole.”

  Shorty snickered. “The touristy types seem to like it.”

  Joel cut him a look and said, “Yeah, well, they can keep it. I’m freezing my fucking ass off.” People actually enjoyed this shit? He wanted out of this cold-as-fuck town as soon as goddamned possible. Joel lit a cigarette and the smoke mingled with the steam that rose from his breath. The steel toes of his boots had turned them into refrigerators and his flannel shirt and plain denim jacket weren’t doing shit to keep the chill of the wind away.

  Kari Hanson had made herself a ghost. Joel wanted her to stay that way. You’d think there’d be tons of places to stash a body in the middle of fucking nowhere, but with all of the goddamned snow he doubted he’d find anywhere to dig a hole. His best bet would be to bury her body in a snowbank somewhere. It’d likely be a few months before anyone found her and even then, he’d like to see anybody try to connect him to the murder.

  First, though, he had to get his fucking ledger back. Then he’d make the bitch pay for taking it from him.

  They’d blown into town late in the afternoon. He wanted to wait until dark, rip the bitch out of her bed by the hair. Make sure she was good’n scared before he laid his fist into her. Ambushes were Joel’s favorite means of attack. Catching his enemy off guard filled him with a perverse sense of satisfaction and power. He might not be in this fucking mess right now if he’d ambushed Owens at his home in the middle of the night. Instead, he’d let his temper get the best of him and beat the son of a bitch to a bloody pulp right there at his desk. If he’d kept his head cool, he would have checked the closet beside the office. He would have known that little bitch had hidden herself inside with his ledger. And he wouldn’t be standing in the middle of this tiny as fuck town, freezing his balls off, and wishing he’d kept his head on straight.