Night Moves

by HelenKay Dimon

  It was the pause Liam needed.

  He rammed the stun gun into the neck of the guy kneeling on the floor. The prongs made contact for less than a second before Liam pivoted. He shifted his weight and brought his elbow up under the armed guard’s hand. A shot rang out, going wide and lodging in the wall behind Liam’s head.

  While the man on the floor crawled around dazed, the one on his feet didn’t stop fighting. Liam tried twice to land the stun gun prongs on the side of the other man’s neck, but the guy blocked both attempts.

  They grunted and twisted. Both men’s hands went to the gun. Liam spun around, putting his back against the man’s front in an attempt to get the leverage he needed to pry the weapon from the other man’s fingers. He threw his elbows and kicked his shins. The man grunted but did not go down.

  Then the guy got in a shot of his own. His knee landed in the center of Liam’s back. He heard something crack just before he flew across the hallway and into the far wall. His head spinning, he managed to duck just in time to clear another bullet. It kicked up drywall when it landed. From the look of the spot it would have torn right through his chest.

  While in a crouch, Liam slipped his second knife from the band inside his sleeve. He spun around and jabbed the blade deep into the other man’s upper thigh. The resulting shout almost blew out Liam’s eardrum. The big man wailed as he grabbed his leg.

  With his attention scattered, Liam stabbed him a second time, this one in the stomach, just under the edge of his bulletproof vest. To be sure, Liam jabbed the prongs of the stun gun into his shoulder. The zapping didn’t stop until the man fell in a heap on the floor.

  This one wasn’t awake and in pain. He was out. Liam intended to keep it that way.

  He lifted the gun out of the man’s open palm as the other guard’s hand found Liam’s weapon on the floor. Liam saw the move out of the corner of his eye and was ready. The off-balance shot hit the guard in the neck. The guy dropped his gun as his hands flew to the spurting wound.

  He fell back against the wall. The man’s skin was slick from the wetness and his eyes wide and glassy as he fought to breathe. Sitting there, his legs and arms moved and he fought for his life, silently begging for help.

  The choking sound, the gurgling of blood. Liam had seen a shot like that before, had lost his job over it. For a second it paralyzed him. The memories flooded his brain, taking him back to that horrible day when a man snapped right in front of him.

  When the guard kicked out at Liam, the mental coma snapped. Liam stripped off his shirt, leaving behind only a tee, and pressed it to the wound. When the blood immediately soaked the material, Liam knew the truth. There was nothing he could do. The guy would bleed out in seconds.

  Fighting with his conscience, Liam stood up. He tried to ignore the gagging sounds coming from the dying man. He fought to remember all of the threats this guy made to Maura and believed he deserved this vicious end. It was the guard or Maura, and Liam picked her over everyone.

  He felt for a pulse in the guard with the leg wound. Nothing. By the time he turned around to see if he could do anything to ease the bleeding man’s pain, both men were dead. He stared at the mixing pools of blood and thought about Maura. She would not end up like them. He would die first.

  He stepped over the bodies and felt for a crack in the door, an opening of some sort. His fingers fell on a small space, just enough to slip his fingertips through. He wanted to grunt and yell and make whatever noise helped tighten his grip and give him better leverage, but he closed his mouth to keep from making a sound. He did not need another guard showing up to save the day.

  The thing weighed a ton. He grabbed and pulled. It moved by fractions of inches. It was as if the metal came alive and fought back. With each strained yank, his muscles grew weaker. He wrenched his shoulder, thought he heard something tear in his wrist right before pain shot down into his fingers.

  His body begged for mercy, but he couldn’t concede. He inhaled one last time and pictured her smiling face. He would throw every ounce of energy into this tug and pull out with all his might. If he fell over doing it, fine.

  At first the door didn’t move, and then it started to swing. Momentum worked on his side. Whatever spring mechanism worked this thing went from fighting him to helping him open the door. He was able to get enough space to slip through.

  As he stepped, he heard a crunching beneath his foot. He looked down at his broken cell. That wiped out some of his gadgets. It also took away his only access to the outside world. He hoped like hell Spanner got the earlier message and had started rallying the troops to storm the building.

  That left one piece of electronics. To keep from giving Smithfield additional help, Liam smashed the earpiece under his foot. If Smithfield wanted to talk to him, he could do it to his face.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Detective Spanner pulled up to the circular driveway in front of the towering Smithfield Enterprises building. It was a modern monstrosity with floors of glass and an intricate angle at the top to set it apart from the three that surrounded it.

  Spotlights usually lit the marble sculpture and garden and water fountains in the circle out front. Tonight, neither worked. For the first time he could remember, the water didn’t dance. The place was completely dark. All those floors and not a single light shone in the windows.

  He glanced at the businesses nearby and saw that all had at least some lights on. Many had entire floors lit. Not this one.

  Seeing the black outline of the building and no life within it had him grabbing for his gun. There was no law against quiet or darkness, but it felt wrong to him.

  He pulled out his phone and read the texts again. First a message from Liam: Hammer at Smithfield Enterprises and Maura in danger.

  Then a blueprint of the office building.

  Liam sent them for a reason. Picked Spanner over anyone else in order to send a message. Maybe Liam knew Spanner wanted a bit of revenge for getting the jump in the kitchen. Liam had to know Spanner would track him for that one. That meant this was a setup and Spanner was giving Liam one more chance to screw with him.

  Or this was a request for help between law enforcement officials.

  The feds had taken over the case. They thought Liam and Maura had teamed up to steal Dr. Hammer’s findings and make billions in some sort of underground transplant ring. The forensics found in the lab pointed to Maura. Her fingerprints were on the explosive device.

  What little could be recovered on the office computers showed Maura changing data. A quick look at Liam’s house made it clear he had been harboring her. Not that Spanner needed proof of that one. He saw it with his eyes.

  But the pieces fit too neatly for Spanner’s comfort.

  Maura was so clean she squeaked. There was no explanation why she’d turn so far and so fast into another life after all those years of studying. And with her brain, surely she’d know how to hide incriminating evidence.

  If she didn’t, Liam did. He had worked undercover in narcotics for years and only been back in regular rotation for three weeks before he got stuck in the middle of a domestic shoot-out. Despite the career-ending accident, the man was a good cop. Nothing in his file suggested he was dirty. Most of the guys on the force thought he took the fall for a supervisor who wouldn’t let Liam do his job during a domestic violence call.

  And a third person stepped into the fray. Dan had gone missing. He had two policemen on his house at all times, yet he slipped out. For a businessman, he had serious covert skills. They all did.

  Either the three of them had pulled an incredible con and fooled everyone around them, or they were being set up to take the fall for a mess they didn’t create. If the latter were true, Spanner didn’t expect any of them to survive the night. Instinct told him Liam had tried to save his girl and landed butt deep in trouble.

  An earlier phone call to the Smithfield offices took Spanner to the after-hours voice-mail system. Everything sounded in order. Still, his mouth we
nt dry at the thought of leaving the premises. He could do a short look around and then head out—to satisfy his curiosity.

  He jogged up the first set of steps, past the dead fountain, and walked up to the double front doors. First thing he saw was a dead alarm panel. Then he noticed the empty guard station in the lobby.

  He called dispatch.

  THE SHOTS REVERBERATED throughout the entire floor. When Maura heard them bounce and echo, her body went numb. Every nerve cell stopped firing. Even her heartbeats slowed to a crawl. She hadn’t been hit, but she may as well have been. She waited for her blood and vital fluids to puddle on the floor beneath her.

  She could see Smithfield’s lips move but everything sounded muffled, as if she had lost her hearing. Shaking her head, she cleared out some of the clouds covering her senses.

  “Dr. Lindsey?”

  She wanted to crawl into a ball and cry. Better yet, to race up to Smithfield and punch him until he fell or her fists bled.

  She wanted to shoot Hammer in the middle of his big head for taking them all down this path.

  “Do you believe me now?” Smithfield asked with what she assumed was his version of a smile.

  It creeped her out. Everything about this man made her skin itch.

  “I can have my men bring your boyfriend’s lifeless body in, if you would prefer.”

  The thought of seeing Liam bloody and broken made her gag on a rush of vomit. She bent over to fight it off then shot straight again to keep her gun on Hammer. It wavered in her hand, but was close enough to do a lot of damage if she fired.

  Smithfield laughed. “I guess not.”

  Still, through all the pain and everything she heard and saw she didn’t feel the end. It was as if Liam’s life force pumped inside her, reassuring her he was fine. Hope blossomed in her heart. Her head had gone into shutdown mode, but something inside her soared with a surety his blood still pumped.

  She either waded in a full pool of denial or Liam pulled off a miracle. She prayed for the latter.

  “You are not any better off now than you were two seconds ago,” she said in a voice she didn’t recognize. The firm tone suggested far more control than she felt from her quivering insides.

  “Your boyfriend is dead and you show very little reaction.” Smithfield pursed his lips together. “Interesting.”

  “The countdown to Dr. Hammer’s death is still on.” She now knew she could do it. If it meant staying alive and getting Liam the medical attention he needed, she would do it. If she could only have one choice, she’d pick him. She wanted him safe. Putting a bullet right into Dr. Hammer’s impressive brain wasn’t too big a price to pay to make that happen.

  “Do something, damn you,” the doctor hissed out at Smithfield.

  Smithfield’s gaze stayed locked on her. “It would seem to me you underestimated your assistant, Hammer.”

  People had been doing that her entire life. She hated it, but it never surprised her. Dr. Hammer had never hidden his distaste for her. She was female and young and inferior. At the time, she viewed the job as an opportunity to prove him wrong. Now she saw that his ignorance might have, in some strange way, saved her.

  She vowed not to blow that extra chance at life now. “You need to make a choice, Smithfield.”

  “Call me Rex.”

  “Never.”

  Smithfield shrugged. “Well, then, I feel I must point out if Hammer dies, you die.”

  “Fine with me.”

  In a first real show of emotion, Smithfield’s eyebrows lifted at her terse response. “I doubt you are so cavalier about your life.”

  “I have nothing left to lose. You took the one man who meant everything to me.” When Smithfield tried to butt in with his pontificating crap, she talked over him. “You, however, have everything to lose. Your pet project and all the money that comes with him will be gone. The research won’t do much good without Dr. Hammer to interpret it.”

  “Smithfield.” Hammer called out the warning but stopped after one word.

  Smithfield gave her an abbreviated bow. “Very well reasoned.”

  “Then put down your gun.”

  “I would, except for one small thing.”

  He was too confident, too convinced he would win this battle. Maura braced for the bad news she knew he held back until the time came to pounce.

  “What?”

  “My trump card. His name is Dan, I believe.”

  Her blood dripped icy cold. She had just tricked her brain into thinking Liam crawled out of the ambush and was fine. Now she had to worry about Dan. Poor innocent Dan who sat in his house grieving while all of this spun out around him.

  “What have you done?” she asked as panic filled her voice.

  “Nothing yet.”

  It had to be a trick. There was no way Smithfield was in the business of plucking innocent citizens right off the street. Not when the police had staked out Dan’s house looking for her. He had to be safe.

  “I am willing to offer proof.” Smithfield took a cell phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons before sliding it across the floor to her.

  She caught it under her foot.

  Smithfield watched her every move. “Do not get excited. You cannot call out. This is for example purposes only.”

  Without taking her eyes off him, she bent down and grabbed the phone. A brief glance told her what she needed to know. Dan sat in what looked like a bare, empty office tied to a chair and struggling to get free.

  The phone dropped from her hand.

  “Do you believe me now?” Smithfield took a step closer, shortening the gap between them to about five feet. “If you do manage to get a shot off and into Dr. Hammer, which I do not think you have the nerve to do, I will kill you and then go after Dan. You cannot win this fight.”

  She glanced at Dr. Hammer. Even though his benefactor had the upper hand, terror all but streamed out of his pores. His beady eyes scanned the room as if looking for an easy escape. Maybe Dr. Hammer crawled into bed with Smithfield, but he was smart enough to know the man could turn on him at any second.

  “How are you going to hide all of the bodies?” she asked.

  “Simple. You and your renegade cop kidnapped Dr. Hammer in an attempt to financially benefit from his findings. You had been changing the research results to hide the doctor’s success so that you could claim it as your own. When Hammer finally emerged from his seclusion, he realized what you were doing and you kidnapped him.” Smithfield ran through the plot with such clarity.

  Maura wondered if the man now believed his outrageous tale. “The evidence all points to me.”

  Smithfield nodded. “Of course. Your brother tried to stop you, a shoot-out occurred. All of the forensics will support the story, but I am sure you understood that part already.”

  She went for the last card she had. If she could break them apart, get Dr. Hammer panicked and working for her, if only so he thought he had a chance to live, she might be able to stall long enough to figure out a way out of the room without getting shot.

  “You’re going to kill him after you’re done with us.” She stared at Dr. Hammer while she said it.

  “In name only. Langdon Hammer will die a scientific hero. One of my employees will take over the research on a private level.”

  She shook her head. “Once you have what you need, you will kill him.”

  Dr. Hammer started shifting and fidgeting again. “Untie me.”

  “He can’t take the risk of letting you live and spoil his scheme.” She shifted until she stood directly behind Hammer, whispering the heavy dose of reality into his ear.

  The position gave her a good view of both doors. She almost did a double take when she realized the door from the bedroom to the lab was open halfway. A few minutes ago, she glanced over and tried to see what was happening with Liam. At that point, it was closed.

  Relief soared through her. Liam was alive. She felt the truth with every part of her body. One of the guards would have w
alked in and taken the gun from her. No, this was Liam. He’d somehow dodged the bullets and come back for her.

  “You will lower the gun or I will tell my assistant to kill your brother.” Smithfield nodded toward the phone on the floor in front of Dr, Hammer’s feet. “You can even watch as it happens.”

  Smithfield slipped another phone out of his pocket. “Well, Dr. Lindsey? Have you made a decision about what means more to you?”

  “Get down!” Liam’s shout filled the room just before the gunfire.

  It all happened so fast. Smithfield started shooting in the direction of Liam’s voice. Bullets passed over her head and in every direction. She ducked behind Hammer’s chair when shots smashed into the coffee table behind her.

  The booming blasts deafened her. She wanted to throw her hands over her ears, but she kept them on the gun instead. The smell of sulfur filled the air. The room shook as if it were breaking apart from the inside out. If Smithfield came around Hammer, she would shoot them both.

  She strained to listen and figure out where everyone stood. Drywall dust kicked up in every direction. Glass shattered then rained down in pieces on the hard floor. Furniture fell. She blinked to keep her vision clear.

  She heard the shuffling of feet, felt Dr. Hammer’s body flinch a few times as he yelled for the shooting to stop. Then nothing.

  The fight stopped as fast as it had started. When the quiet descended, Liam grabbed her arm.

  She almost shot him.

  The touch of his fingers warmed her from the outside in. She flew into his arms before he could brace for the blow. “Liam!”

  Dragging her hands over his head and face, she convinced herself he’d stayed in one piece through the battle. She kissed him, forgetting all about the lurking danger and gun at her side.

  “It’s okay. It’s me.” He said the words over and over against her lips before pushing back and looking her up and down. “Were you hit?”

  She glanced down. Didn’t see or feel anything. “Except for getting showered with some glass shards, I’m fine.”