Spanner shook his head. “Your girlfriend can get out on bail. But not if you pull this stunt. Let me go now and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
Maura nibbled on her lower lip. “Liam, maybe you should listen to him. I don’t want you in this much trouble.”
“He’s lying.” The choice had been made. It was too late now. “I’m holding a gun on a police officer. Trust me, he’s not going to forget it. The entire department will jump on me for this one.”
“Not true.” The detective sounded sincere, but his cold eyes hinted to the anger bubbling just under the surface. “We have an understanding. You’re former police. I’ve seen your file. You were decorated and got a bad rap. We all know it.”
Liam wondered when Spanner would get around to that form of bargaining. “So, now we’re friends?”
“I know what it’s like to have a woman turn your head.”
Maura snapped out of her stunned state. “That is not what this is about.”
Spanner shrugged. “Then tell me.”
“No.” Liam knew if he let her launch into her science speech they’d never get out of there. Worse, Spanner would know where to start looking. Liam didn’t want to give the other man that much of an advantage. “We’re going to tie you up and take off.”
Spanner shook his head. “You’re walking into a lot of trouble. I wasn’t kidding about the feds.”
Through all of the other lies, Liam recognized that bit as fact. “That’s why we need to go now.”
“Ma’am, talk some sense into him.”
Enough talking. “Maura?”
“Yes, Liam?”
“Grab the detective’s handcuffs.”
PATRICIA HAMMER PACED around Rick Spanner’s office a few hours after his fellow officers released him from the kitchen chair. He was tired and more than a little pissed that he let Liam get the jump on him. Having to deal with the paperwork about the incident and babysit an irate trophy wife only made the situation worse.
He knew the jokes from his fellow detectives would come later. Liam would pay for that alone.
Patricia’s high heels clicked against the tile and her thin skirt inched up with every step. Spanner assumed some men found the fake-tan, big-boobs type attractive. To him, she looked like a predator. Being fifty and married, he wasn’t impressed with the type of woman who picked her husband by his bank account. Mrs. Hammer struck him exactly as that woman.
She stopped on the other side of his desk and tapped her long nails against the wood. “How did you let the woman get away?”
He inhaled for the third time. The first happened when his boss asked the same question. “Dr. Lindsey has help.”
“Some washed-up former police officer.”
Looked like on top of everything else, Dr. Hammer’s wife was the judgmental type. “A man who knows how to use a gun.”
“This is unacceptable.”
Spanner actually agreed with that part. “We’ll get her.
She doesn’t have that many options.”
“You don’t know that. Someone could have paid her to blow up the building.” Mrs. Hammer waved her hand in the air in a dismissive gesture. “She could have backing or resources.”
“Not the woman I saw.”
“You mean the same woman who was smart enough to escape while you were watching her?” Mrs. Hammer stabbed her finger into the desk.
He ignored the shot to his ego. “Right now, it’s equally as likely she’s another victim.”
“Ms. Lindsey killed my husband.”
“Doctor.”
“What?”
“Dr. Lindsey and we don’t know if she killed anyone.”
From what he’d seen, Maura followed directions well and everyone kept talking about her big brain. He could see her pulling this off. He just didn’t know where she put Dr.
Hammer since the guy wasn’t at Liam’s house. “There is no evidence to suggest your husband is dead.”
“He is. I can feel it.”
Spanner doubted the Hammers had the romantic connection the woman tried to portray. Her husband worked for the government, yes, but he had written several books and won many prestigious professional prizes. From Spanner’s research, the man did just fine in the income department. Maybe he didn’t earn enough to keep this woman happy, but they sure could live comfortably.
“Your husband is considered missing.”
“You have twenty-four hours to find her.”
“Ma’am?”
“The FBI is supposed to take over today. I give you all one day to figure this out before I go to the news papers.”
“And say what?”
“Offer an award to bring in Ms. Lindsey.”
“You mean a bounty?”
“That sounds accurate.”
The thought of vigilantes roaming the streets tracking a young scientist sent an icy-cold wave washing over him. “That’s not wise.”
“You have a choice.”
“Which is?”
“You handle it or I will.”
Chapter Six
Maura sat on the motel-room bed with papers spread out in front of her and Liam’s laptop off to the side. The information Dr. Hammer submitted to NIH differed from the documents she’d drafted. Looking back now, every time she completed an interim report on their research, he edited it to falsify the findings. The document copies she had didn’t match anything he submitted to his superiors.
“Any clearer?” The mattress dipped when Liam eased his leg on to the edge.
“Less, actually.”
“Maybe Hammer thought he had to lie about the results in order to keep the money flowing. You know, make things sound better than they were.”
“That’s not it.”
“Once he feared you might be onto him, he had no choice but to destroy everything or risk being caught.”
Her mind ran in the exact opposite direction. False reports. Inaccurate findings. It all pointed to Dr. Hammer trying to ruin his work. She had no idea why he would do something like that. “No.”
“No?”
She shuffled through the stacks, sending papers flying in every direction. “I’m missing something. Something outside of NIH.”
“You lost me.” Liam picked some pages off the floor and added them to the pile in front of her. “Again.”
“You’re making the wrong assumptions. We were successful.” The news used to fill her with unbelievable satisfaction. She woke up and rushed to the lab just to get started again. She couldn’t focus on anything else.
Now it was all tainted.
Liam exhaled hard enough to rock the mattress. “Since I don’t know anything about your work except the parts I already want to forget, you need to explain this in a more basic way.”
All of her research was top secret, owned by the government and subject to release at its discretion. She had no right to talk about the work, but Dr. Hammer’s actions changed everything. “We did the impossible. We grew human organs for harvesting.”
“The animal thing.”
“Transplanting organs from—”
“Stop.” Liam held up his hand. “I’m with you. Well, not really, but at least I understand what topic we’re discussing.”
“The point is we didn’t fail.” Energy pounded through her at the thought. She remembered those initial moments of pure discovery when she saw the beginnings of the cure for diabetes.
“How could Hammer not understand that?”
“He did. The man is brilliant. He had trained his entire life in this field. Of course he understood the gravity and importance.”
Liam used his thumb to flip through the pile closest to him. “Then something else is going on.”
“Except for his choice of a wife, Dr. Hammer was so practical.”
“We don’t like her?”
Maura heard the smile in Liam’s voice, saw the tug at the corner of his mouth. “She’s all about makeup and shoes. Really not his type at all.”
Why should today be any different? She spent her entire life trying to care about the things other people cared about. And men? There was a topic she had very little experience in. Almost none, actually. She’d tried to live the moments others talked about, but her plans never worked. Not the one with Liam, and not many others.
Rather than dissect all the ways her social life went astray, she stuck to the topic of Dr. Hammer. “If he got on a path it could be days before I heard him do anything but mumble.”
Liam’s smile fell. “Sounds crazy.”
“He’s a dedicated genius.”
“You sure that’s not an excuse?”
Liam’s words hit her like a smack to the face. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
“I think you’re strong and beautiful and in a hell of a lot of trouble.”
She wanted to ignore the last one and concentrate on the others, but she couldn’t. “Which is the reason I have to figure out why Dr. Hammer would say his work was flawed when it wasn’t.”
Liam nodded as he glanced around the bed. “I’ll take a look.”
“No offense, but you don’t understand the science.”
“Not even a little, but we don’t need additional I.Q. points on this. We need to figure out what doesn’t fit.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
“Not that I could tell.”
“Why do you think you’re qualified to…” She stopped when Liam’s eyebrow lifted. “Never mind.”
She winced over the shortness of her tone. Dan warned her about her tendency to brush aside suggestions and sound superior. She never saw herself that way and she didn’t want others to, either.
“I can read, you know,” Liam said.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“My father was a college professor. He kind of insisted I go to school now and then.”
That news wiped out all of the other thoughts ricocheting through her brain. “A professor?”
“Yeah.”
For years, she’d made a concentrated effort to know as little about Liam’s personal life as possible. It was the best way for her to stay disconnected from him and keep an emotional distance. The teenage version of her hadn’t cared about his parents. The grown-up version felt a flood of sympathy for Liam when Dan explained how Liam’s dad suffered a heart attack at the desk in his office. The death had hit Liam hard since he’d lost his mother to breast cancer when he was very young. Maura related to the loss of a parent since an accident had grabbed both of hers and left her reeling.
“What did your dad think about you being a cop?” she asked.
“Not much.”
From Liam’s no-nonsense tone, she’d expected that answer. “He wanted you to follow in his footsteps?”
“Guns didn’t really have a place in his world.”
She tried to come up with a good way to discuss this subject. “I’m sure he was proud of what you accomplished.”
“Not really.” Liam finally met her gaze head-on. “He died one week after I was suspended from the police force.”
The stormy pain behind his eyes made her heart ache for him. “I’m sorry.”
He grabbed a handful of papers. “These are the documents with references to places other than NIH. If you’re trying to get an idea of what Hammer was doing outside of NIH, this is the best place to start.”
A dark heaviness moved into her chest. The sharing took her mind off her job and the mess her life had become. For a few precious seconds, having that weight lifted brought relief. After years of running from Liam, running with him felt right.
But as quickly as the window into his life opened, he shut it again. She wasn’t sure if she’d get another peek into what made Liam the man he was. After pushing him away, avoiding him, she wasn’t sure she deserved another chance.
“Hammer consulted with experts at Lancaster Labs, Smithfield Enterprises.” Liam flipped through the pages. “Should I go on?”
“Can I stop you?”
“I’m a security expert. I have the resources to track these leads down. Do a bit of snooping.”
“Like how?”
He tapped the end of her nose. “You’ve got your big brain. Information is my secret weapon, gathering it and analyzing it.”
“Can you tap into the government’s computers?”
“Of course.”
She eyed him up, not sure whether to believe him. He sounded pretty confident. From everything Dan said about him, Liam had contacts everywhere and spent a lot of time figuring out how to get into places other people couldn’t access. Not the most legal skill set, but probably very helpful for what she had in mind.
He sighed at her for about the fifteenth time during the conversation. “Look, all I’m saying is that you probably can’t see the one wrong turn because you’re on top of the information. You read through and see your boss’s lies and spin off from there.”
In a flash she switched from hopeful to insulted. She’d spent her entire life trying to overcome preconceived notions. Her age. Her gender. Some people even claimed she was too pretty to work in science. She despised the stereotypes.
“I am perfectly capable of reviewing documents,” she pointed out, not even trying to hide the anger in her voice.
He had the nerve to smile at her. “You are too emotional on this.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m focused and determined and, and…”
He caught her hand in midwave and trapped it against his leg. His thumb drew a lazy pattern over her knuckles as his lips turned up in that sexy little way that had gotten to her since she was in high school.
“We’ll both look,” he suggested.
“I still don’t see—” The words got trapped in her throat when he cupped her cheek in his palm.
“Tell me something.”
“What?” The question came out as little more than a whisper.
“Is the offer from nine years ago still open?”
She pulled her hand away from him. “Is that supposed to be funny?”
“Of course not.”
She pushed up and off the bed. Sitting near him at the moment filled her with a killing heat. “I was a teenager.”
“And I was eight years older, in my twenties.”
“So?”
“You were off-limits back then.”
“You made your opinion quite clear.” She folded her arms across her stomach.
“Admittedly, I could have handled the situation better.”
“Gee, you think?”
“I was a kid myself. Ravaged by hormones and dumb about women. You were a guaranteed way to get my butt kicked or to land in jail. I didn’t get smarter until many years later.”
“Is that what you are now?”
“I’m determined.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that except to get as far away from him as possible. “I need a shower.”
“Excuse me?”
“I think best in the shower.”
“We were talking about us.”
“There isn’t any us.”
Liam sighed. “I see you’re still running from me.”
“You’re not the only one who’s learned a few things over the years.”
RICK SPANNER LEFT LIAM’S study for last. He had searched every other room in the house. Despite having a vibrant security business, the man didn’t have an actual office. As far as Spanner could tell, the business property consisted of a five-screen computer setup and a walk-in safe.
A locksmith was on his way over to break the combination, but the man didn’t sound too reassuring. Once he heard the make of the six-foot metal structure, the locksmith suggested Spanner find Liam because that would be easier than getting the door open.
But Spanner knew he didn’t have that kind of time. The feds had moved in and were working the case. High-ranking government officials checked in almost hourly about Dr. Hammer
and his findings. Whatever this man did, it was damn important.
Spanner sank into the tall desk chair and stared at the keyboards. He enjoyed computers, but not being a technology wizard, he was way out of his league. Normally, he would call in the experts on his team and let them comb through the computer hard drives looking for whatever might provide a clue as to Liam’s location. Spanner didn’t have that luxury today. He was officially off the case. It was one thing for him to put his career on the line. It was something else to insist that a colleague do the same.
Hitting one space bar brought the entire system to life. Also showed the lack of password protection. The choice didn’t make much sense for a guy who paid the mortgage based on his expertise. Spanner figured Liam left in a hurry and without locking down his system. That’s what happened when you kidnapped a police officer and fled the scene. Spanner refused to feel sorry for Liam’s bad choices.
A few clicks and he got to the most interesting pro grams, the ones separated for the security business. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for other than any hint as to where Liam might have taken Maura.
Spanner opened the business files, and the screens flipped to a bright blank blue. “What the hell?”
He tried to escape and restart, but the screens didn’t change. Then the countdown began. In the lower right corner, a counter ticked off the files as the system deleted them. When shutting off and rebooting didn’t work, he banged on the keyboard. Then swore. Anything to make the file destruction stop. The more options he tried, the faster he lost the information.
Finally, he gave up and leaned back in his chair. It looked as if Liam knew what he was doing, after all. That made him very dangerous.
Chapter Seven
Maura turned off the lights and slipped into bed after a day spent bent over documents. She didn’t even ask Liam if he was done reading the pile of papers in front of him. He wasn’t, but she stuck to her schedule anyway.
Since she stepped out of the bathroom an hour before, she’d been almost embarrassed. She avoided eye contact and focused on the papers. When he started a conversation, she brushed him off with a noncommittal “hmm” without lifting her head.
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