She waited. When he didn’t return, she sped up the recording. According to the time stamp, forty-five minutes later a resident she recognized from the gym approached. Shaking his head, he placed the phone back in its cradle and used his fob to enter. This had all happened yesterday evening at midnight when the front door was fairly quiet. And she’d been at her most vulnerable. Sound asleep.
When finished with her review, Kelly switched off the fourth monitor and sat back, her gaze falling to the current view of the building’s main entrance. No one was currently visible, but her gut told her Chandler had been here yesterday.
She took another long drink of her water.
Jason’s kidnapper hadn’t left the area, and he still wanted to eliminate her as a threat.
The FBI needed to know. Kelly grabbed her phone and punched in Ballard’s cell. He answered immediately.
When she told him the reason for the call, he sounded doubtful, but promised to send an agent to retrieve the video for review.
“Wentworth wasted his money,” Ballard said.
“I don’t think so,” Kelly replied.
“If Chandler is still in Miami, he’s gone to ground,” Ballard said. “Somewhere deep that Maria didn’t know about.”
“What about his cousin?” Kelly asked, her gaze still on the monitors. She blinked as a familiar figure at the main entrance caught her attention.
“Caleb has regained consciousness, but he’s not giving us anything useful.”
Only half listening to Ballard, Kelly stared at the monitor. A man had been standing off to the side, out of the visual field. When a female resident she didn’t know moved into the frame carrying grocery bags, he stepped forward to speak to her. He held a bouquet of flowers in his right hand.
He also wore a cast on his wrist.
Ballard said, “Caleb insists they didn’t know we were coming, but I—”
“Hold on,” Kelly interrupted. “Adam Chandler is downstairs right now.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes,” she said, her heart hammering. The cast confirmed it. He’d been wearing long sleeves last night.
“Oh, no,” she moaned.
“What?” Ballard demanded.
Kelly’s breath caught as she watched the resident awkwardly juggle her bags so she could raise her key fob and release the lock. Smiling, Chandler pushed open the door for her and slipped in behind her.
Adam Chandler had found his way inside.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
MOVING FAST, KELLY disconnected with Ballard and phoned dispatch on the way to her bedroom. Yeah, Ballard claimed the FBI was en route, but her department could respond much quicker.
And by God they were going to get Adam Chandler tonight.
She donned her Kevlar vest, retrieved her service weapon and moved back to the monitors, barrel pointed down.
Did Chandler know her unit number? She wasn’t listed anywhere, but he’d somehow unearthed this address.
She focused on the monitor showing her empty hallway. Would he come up the stairs or use the elevator?
The bigger question was if he was armed. She had to assume so. He’d had a weapon that day in the park. She’d disarmed him with a kick. She’d broken the jerk’s wrist.
He wouldn’t come here without his Glock.
Her phone clattered as it vibrated on top of the monitor where she’d placed it, startling her, kicking her heart into overdrive. A split second later her ring tone sounded.
After a deep breath, she averted her gaze from the screen and read caller ID.
Dispatch had notified her lieutenant.
She pressed the speaker button and refocused on the monitor. “Jenkins.”
“What’s your status, Officer Jenkins?” Lieutenant Marshall demanded.
“I’m in my home waiting for Chandler to bang on my front door.”
“Good. Do not leave your apartment. That is a direct order. You’re far safer inside. Is that understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Multiple units are minutes out. We’re coming in silent to surprise him. We’ll cover all exits so Chandler can’t escape.”
Kelly nodded. “Good.”
Nothing yet on the monitor. She rotated her neck to release tension.
“Listen, Jenkins, I know you’re a rookie and haven’t seen much action, but you’re well trained. You were top of your class. You’ll do fine.”
She swallowed hard. She could actually use a pep talk about now. Waiting for someone to come shoot you pretty much sucked. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“You’ll be ready for him,” Marshall said confidently.
“Yes, sir.” She tightened the grip on her weapon.
“Don’t try to be a hero if he shoots your lock and comes in firing. Take your best shot. I don’t want to lose an officer tonight.”
“And if he knocks?”
“Don’t do anything unless he tries to breach. We’ll nab him when he exits. I’m in front of your building now. Stay frosty.”
The phone went quiet. Kelly waited, her gaze glued to the monitor showing the hallway, her breath ragged and harsh in the quiet of her apartment. She sent a silent thank-you to Trey for installing his security system. Without it, Chandler could have accessed the building last night and caught her asleep.
It had been ten minutes. Where was Chandler? Maybe he didn’t know her unit number. Had her fellow officers already nabbed him or—oh, God. Had he done something to the woman who’d let him inside? Would he have followed her and killed her so she couldn’t identify him?
No, that made no sense. But nothing Chandler did had any logic to it.
The elevator doors slid open. Kelly tensed.
Chandler exited still carrying the flowers, a prop to make him appear harmless. Striding toward her door, he reached into the arrangement and extracted a weapon. With a silencer attached. He dropped the bouquet.
Kelly bit her lip. This was it. What would he do? Where was backup?
She raised her own weapon, held it steady in a two-handed grip and aimed it at her front door.
She glanced to the monitor. Chandler leaned forward and peered in the safety peephole. He nodded, raised the gun and fired at her lock.
He kicked the door open, making more noise than the gunshot. Chandler entered fast, holding his weapon in one hand.
“Freeze. Police,” Kelly shouted.
Chandler swung his gun toward her.
Take your best shot. Kelly squeezed the trigger. She aimed for center mass. Exactly as she’d been taught.
She hit Chandler in the right chest, and he went down.
She heard a crash in the hallway but didn’t move her weapon or focus from Chandler. He lay moaning on her carpet.
Uniformed officers in riot gear holding shields appeared in her doorway.
“Stand down, Officer Jenkins,” one barked.
Kelly lowered her weapon.
She’d shot a man.
She didn’t think the wound was fatal, but still. She released a breath. She had a long night ahead of her.
But she’d done her job. A dangerous man was off the streets.
It was finally over. She couldn’t wait to tell Trey.
So maybe it wasn’t over after all.
* * *
I SHOULDN’T BE doing this. This is a really bad idea.
Repeating that thought over and over, Kelly drove Trey’s SUV off the Collins Island ferry and into the spray of water that washed away any salt residue from the short ride. She wished she could flush away her nerves as easily.
She should have stuck with her original plan to dump the car on the Miami side and let Hans retrieve it. Trice promised a ride to the car rental agency
, or she could call a taxi.
But Trey had asked her to come to the house. She’d heard hesitation in his voice, but the rat had allowed Jason to grab the phone. When Jason had begged her, she couldn’t say no.
Kelly used the wipers to clear the windshield as she drove away from the spray. So she now spoiled the little prince just as much as Trey did.
All she had to do was get through a brief recitation of the arrest and thank him profusely. She nodded to herself. She could do that. She’d have to keep the story G-rated, though, because she didn’t want to be alone with Trey. She definitely needed the little dude around as a buffer.
Besides, she owed Trey a personal visit. He’d saved her life. If there had been no security system to warn her, who knows what would have happened when Chandler had come to her door. For sure nothing good.
Chandler would live, but would spend the rest of his miserable life in jail.
And Trey deserved to know details about Chandler’s takedown. She could just imagine the terse version Ballard had given him. He had been none too happy to arrive on the scene and discover the Miami-Dade PD had gotten the collar. Kelly grinned. Score one for the local guys.
Although Ballard wasn’t such a bad sort. He’d actually invited her to apply for the FBI, telling her she had fine instincts and would be an asset to the Bureau. That had made her feel good, but she had found her home with the PD.
She braked to a stop in front of Wentworth Villa and found Jason and Trey waiting for her on the marble steps.
Almost, but not quite.
Jason wore his bathing suit. Trey looked like a Greek statute come to life in shorts and a light blue knit shirt.
When she exited the vehicle, the kid jumped up and ran toward her. She raised her gaze to Trey’s and went still at the emotion she read in his eyes.
* * *
AS JASON LEAPED into Kelly’s arms, Trey resisted the urge to move toward the pair and hug them both tight. Sometimes he thought the two of them were all he needed in the world to make him happy.
Unfortunately, life was never that simple. At least not his life. And definitely not today. He shoved away disturbing thoughts. He’d deal with that when the time came. Kelly was here. He’d enjoy her company for whatever time they had.
She lowered Jason to his feet, grabbed his son’s hand and moved up the steps toward him, her blond hair shining in the sun. Why was it that each time he saw her, she appeared more lovely than even his most vivid memories?
“Daddy says you arrested the bad guys,” Jason told Kelly.
Kelly flashed Trey a look, eyebrows raised.
“Dr. Barth said to be honest with him,” Trey told her.
“Well, thanks to your daddy,” Kelly said, “the mean man is in jail now and can never harm anyone ever again.”
Jason screwed up his face. “What did Daddy do?”
Kelly knelt in front of Jason and pointed to a video camera over the wrought iron gate. “See that little box?”
Jason nodded.
“That’s a camera. Your daddy put lots of boxes like that at my house so the bad guys couldn’t get in.”
Trey’s heart lurched when his son beamed at him with wide-eyed approval.
“Wow,” Jason said and ran over to hug his daddy’s legs.
With a hand on his son’s head, Trey met Kelly’s gaze and mouthed, “Thank you.”
She shook her head and said, “Thank you.”
Trey stared at her, committing every feature on her face to memory. He’d expected fury from her over the security system. What a surprise that she was actually grateful. He wanted to tell her so many things—most of all how he felt about her—but knew that he shouldn’t. Couldn’t.
Jason pulled back. “Do you want to watch me swim, Kelly?”
“Of course I do,” Kelly said, as if there were nothing else in the world she would enjoy more.
And he loved her for how good she was to Jason, for Jason. He knew asking her to come in person had been unfair. Unfair to everyone, but when she’d called to tell him the news, he hadn’t been able to stop himself. He’d had to see her one last time.
Chatting about how far Jason could swim underwater with one breath, the three of them moved into the house and out onto the patio where Jason immediately jumped into the pool. He and Kelly sat at a table where, in anticipation of Jason’s wanting to swim, Trey had arranged for a chilled bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.
She cocked an eyebrow. “It’s five o’clock somewhere?”
“Don’t you think we deserve a celebration?” Trey asked.
She grinned. “Indeed, I do.”
Trey busied himself opening the wine, loving the idea that he’d gotten such a beautiful smile from her. He wished he could be the one to make that happen more often.
Olga, his new housekeeper, appeared asking if they needed anything. Trey requested a cheese-and-fruit plate.
“Still trying to fatten me up, Mr. Wentworth?”
“You’ve lost weight,” he said tersely.
She shrugged and motioned with her chin toward the bodyguard sitting on the other side of the pool watching Jason.
“Are you going to keep the Protection Alliance around now that Chandler’s in custody?”
Trey poured wine into the glasses and said, “I’ve cut down the operatives to two and will leave it at that for another month. I’ve decided to keep one on duty at all times.”
“Just in case,” she said, raising her glass.
He raised his glass to her. “Just in case.”
“Kelly, watch this,” Jason shouted from the pool.
“I’m watching, sweetie,” she yelled back.
“Tell me now while he’s in the water,” Trey said, leaning forward.
Starting with her review of the video, Kelly detailed for him how they’d nabbed Chandler. When she’d related how he’d been cuffed and wheeled away on a gurney still breathing, Trey sat back and took a long satisfying drink of very delicious champagne. How fitting that Kelly had been the one to take down Jason’s kidnapper, although she seemed uncomfortable with the idea that she’d shot a man.
She was a smart woman, a good cop, careful and alert. He shouldn’t worry so much about her on the job.
Olga appeared with the cheese, and Kelly eyed the display appreciatively.
“Thank you, Trey,” she said, reaching forward for a cracker. “I mean that. Without your cameras in place, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“Actually, Kelly,” he said, “I think you’d have managed to take down Chandler without them.”
“Oh, right,” she said, grinning again, pointing the cracker at him. “I definitely have some sort of weird Spider-Woman sixth sense while I’m sleeping.”
He shrugged, watching her as she topped her cracker with a slice of cheese and took a bite.
“So it’s finally over,” he said.
A shadow crossed her face, erasing her smile. “Yes. All but the paperwork.”
She glanced at Jason, then back to him. “I heard you fired your father from Wentworth Industries. Is that true?”
He’d been tempted to call Kelly and tell her about the changes, but had decided against it. He needed to cut the connection between them. Why couldn’t he?
He didn’t want to waste this precious time with Kelly discussing his father, but she should know the truth, not the speculation in the tabloids.
“He can remain on the board, if he wants, but he’s no longer chief executive officer.”
“You are?”
Trey nodded.
“How did Senior take it?” she asked.
Without answering, Trey leaned forward and took her hand, linking their fingers together. He was relieved and more than a little surprised when another lov
ely smile bloomed across her face.
“I know what that means,” she said. “The old man was well and truly pissed.” She laughed and raised her glass to his. “Good work, Mr. Wentworth.”
After they’d clinked glasses, Trey said, “The truth is my father and I haven’t spoken since the vote.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
TRYING TO SORT out the sequence of events, which seemed beyond confusing, Kelly stared at Trey. “Your father wasn’t at the meeting?”
“Yes, but he stormed out, shouting we hadn’t heard the last from him.”
She nodded. That sounded like Senior. “Is there anything he can do?”
“He can try, but the articles of incorporation are clear.” Trey raised his glass and took a swallow. “He’s out.”
Kelly fell silent, twirling the wineglass. She couldn’t stand Senior. The man was mean and the worst kind of bully. But he was Trey’s father.
She’d never even met her father, and although what she’d heard about him suggested he was far worse than merely a bully, she could now admit to herself she would still love to meet him just once.
She glanced at Trey, who was deep in thought.
“Have you reached out to him?” she asked.
“He won’t return my calls. We delayed the announcement so I could ask him how he wanted to spin it. In the interim, the truth leaked to the press.”
Kelly nodded. “And now he’s hurt.”
“Hurt?” Trey made a dismissive sound. “The man doesn’t have feelings. He’s angry. To punish me, he tried to visit my mother.”
Kelly reached over and touched Trey’s hand. “Oh, no. Did he upset her?”
Trey enveloped her hand in his and squeezed. “Fortunately, I anticipated that move.”
“So he didn’t get in to see her?”
“Not this time.”
Kelly heaved a sigh. “Good. If he’s that vindictive, maybe you should move her.”
Trey nodded. Looking down, he focused on where their hands were joined. After a long moment, he raised his gaze to hers. She read a bucketload of pain in his dark eyes.
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