by C. J. Miller
He peered around the corner and scanned for the source of the gunshots. It couldn’t be a police or FBI raid. Their FBI team was outside, but they wouldn’t storm inside the building and start shooting without warning with two of their own inside.
It took Cash a moment to process the scene.
Preston Hammer was holding a gun and waving it in the air. The man’s body language was telling a violent and dangerous story. He was stressed out to a breaking point, he was possibly high and he was on the edge of snapping. Threatening the people in the casino was a suicide mission. If it wasn’t for the off-hours appearance, Cash guessed one of Anderson’s men would have gunned Hammer down where he stood.
Hammer leveled his gun at Kinsley and strode toward her. Cash weighed his options. If he stepped out from the hallway and Hammer saw him, it would blow his cover. Mitchell and Anderson knew Cash was working for the FBI, but they didn’t know he was working the Holmes and White case. If they did, it wouldn’t take them long to realize they had been right and Cash had inserted himself into their organization to dig for information about the stolen money.
Could Cash con Hammer into believing he was on his side? Hammer was swearing at Kinsley and when he moved close enough, he’d kill her. He might even turn the gun on himself.
Cash started into the casino and Lucia grabbed his arm. “I’ve already texted Benjamin. Wait here for help to arrive.”
They couldn’t wait. Hammer was on a hair trigger. If no one intervened, Kinsley’s life was at stake.
“Trust me.” He kissed Lucia’s cheek and stepped away from her.
“Hey, man,” Cash called. As long as he wasn’t too friendly with Hammer, he could play off the interaction as if he was a stranger interceding. “I’m Cash Stone. Tell me what’s going on here.”
Cash took a drink from a slack-jawed waitress staring at Hammer.
Hammer turned, swinging the gun in Cash’s direction and Cash prayed Hammer’s trigger finger was steady and not poised to twitch at the slightest disturbance.
He’d get Hammer talking and do what he could to diffuse Hammer’s intent.
Cash didn’t want anyone to die today and that went double for him and Lucia.
Hammer narrowed his eyes in confusion. He was trying to place Cash. Cash knew the moment he did because annoyance screwed up his features. “What do you want?”
“I’m wondering if we can take a break for a second.” He gestured to the gun. “Maybe you forgot where you were, but believe me, that will get us killed.”
It was too soon to make a play for the gun. Cash was close, but not close enough. He intentionally slurred his words and tried to appear as calm and nonthreatening as possible.
“This doesn’t involve you,” Hammer said. He looked around nervously. “Did you call the police?”
Cash waved his hand dismissively, grateful Hammer had said police and not FBI. “The last people I’d want to see are the police. I don’t have a good explanation for what this is or why I’m here.” He laughed softly and lowered his voice. “And as a convicted felon, my word is the last one they’d believe.”
Hammer twisted his lips in thought, perhaps trying to remember what Cash had said about himself the first time they’d met. Hammer had been drunk then and was on something now. Cash was using his confusion to lead the conversation where he wanted it to go, to protect Hammer’s life and maintain his and Lucia’s cover. “I have something to finish here,” Hammer said, pivoting to where Kinsley had been standing.
When Hammer realized she was gone, he let out a howl of frustration and a litany of curses. “I need to talk to her. She left me. She took everything from me and then she wouldn’t even return my calls.”
Cash didn’t have to feign sympathy. The wrong woman could turn a man’s world upside down, shake it and slam it back down shattered and broken. “I know, man. I’ve been there.”
Hammer lowered his gun. “You?”
“Every man has. I could tell you how I landed in prison, and you’d hear all about how a woman played a vital role in getting me there.” A lie. Britney had had nothing to do with the scam he’d run to get the money for Adrian’s treatments. But Cash needed Hammer to see him as a friend and someone who could sympathize with him.
“This is the wrong way to do this,” Cash said. “There are cameras here. There are people who would kill us, not because they care about protecting some woman, but because this place is run by businessmen serious about making a profit and they won’t let anyone stand in the way.”
Hammer scratched his head. “I know.”
His arm lowered a few inches.
“Let’s grab a drink. Not here. Somewhere we can talk in private,” Cash said.
For a moment, he thought he had Hammer. He thought the man had given up on this murder-suicide mission. Then Hammer’s face switched from relaxed to angry. He lifted the gun. “This ends now. I can’t do this for another day. I can’t wake up and know I’ve lost everything. Everything.”
“It’s not everything that’s lost. You have family. Friends.” Cash couldn’t show too much familiarity or Mitchell would want an explanation for how Cash knew Preston Hammer.
Hammer looked around. “I’m dead. I came here with a gun and I knew I wouldn’t make it out alive.”
Cash heard the conviction in his voice. The next few seconds were critical. He needed to stop Hammer from making a huge mistake. People around them were backing away but Hammer didn’t seem to see anything except the small space around him. His world was closing in and Cash knew he’d end it. “I’ve been where you are. I’ll walk you out of here. No one will shoot us.”
“Hammer, we told you to stay away.” Cash heard Mitchell’s voice behind him.
Cash looked over his shoulder at Mitchell who was pointing a gun at Hammer. Now two guns were in play and Cash was standing between them. He took a step out of the line of fire.
“He and I are heading out,” Cash said.
Both Hammer and Mitchell answered in the negative.
“He stole her from me,” Hammer said, glaring at Mitchell with rage in his eyes.
“Stole? I didn’t steal her. She was working with you because I asked her to. Because we needed someone inside to keep you distracted. Turns out, it was easier than we expected,” Mitchell said.
Cash inwardly cringed at the condescension in his voice. Belittling Hammer was a mistake and would add to his fury.
“I figured out what Anderson was doing,” Hammer said, sounding defensive.
Mitchell nodded. “You did and you agreed to shut your mouth for the right payday.”
“Which I never got!” Hammer screamed.
“You should have walked away and forgotten about the money and about Grace,” Mitchell said. He fired at Hammer. His aim was off, but in the split second it took for Mitchell to realize that, Hammer returned the shot.
Hammer might have been a man with a death wish, but he was a good shot. Or a lucky one.
Mitchell stumbled back and lifted his gun again. Cash dove to the ground. Mitchell shot wildly in Hammer’s direction.
Hammer finally fell to the ground and the shooting stopped. Lucia appeared, pressing her hand over Mitchell’s chest. She was shouting something, but Cash couldn’t hear her over the screaming around him.
Cash wasn’t hit. At least he didn’t think so. Hammer was on the ground bleeding from a head wound.
Horror washed over him. He’d failed to stop either of them from shooting. He’d needed the right moment to redirect the situation and it hadn’t come.
Cash checked Hammer for a pulse and couldn’t find one. He fumbled in his pockets for his phone. Forget the operation. The money Anderson had stolen was nothing compared to someone’s life.
Before he could dial any numbers, paramedics and the police burst through th
e doors.
* * *
“We need to run,” Lucia said into Cash’s ear, pulling him away from the scene.
“What?” he turned to her.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Hammer and Mitchell. They were both unmoving on stretchers and being loaded into an ambulance.
“The police will question people. We won’t be able to explain to Anderson why we weren’t arrested. We have to flee.”
Cash closed his eyes. “Isn’t this over?” The mission had to be over. How could they keep going? Someone had died. He wasn’t naive. He knew that violence and death were part of Anderson’s life, but Cash had thought he could somehow avoid it. That he could prevent anyone from being hurt or killed.
Lucia shook her head. “Of course not. Do you want it to be over?”
Cash had been involved with criminals from the time he was a teenager. He’d been involved with them his entire life, but it had taken him that long to understand that the lives his father’s associates led were not on the up-and-up. His friends’ parents had had jobs where they went to an office or a store and clocked in for the day. Not his father.
Cash hadn’t saved Hammer. He hadn’t saved Mitchell. He had intervened and gotten in over his head, and now two people were dead.
He let Lucia lead him away because he didn’t have the strength to stop her. They got into her car and drove for several minutes before either of them spoke.
“Can you turn here?” Cash asked, pointing to the next right turn.
Lucia did as he asked. She didn’t question him.
“You did everything you could,” Lucia said.
“It wasn’t enough.” It was starting to feel as though it never was. When it came time to make critical life decisions, he almost always chose wrong.
“Cash, I’m sorry,” Lucia said, slipping her hand into his.
He pointed to another road and she turned, following his directions.
“Can you let me out here?” he asked.
Lucia glanced at him. “The last time I let you out of the car, it exploded.”
There was nothing humorous in her tone, but Cash understood the warning. They were being watched and followed. Whether it was the FBI or Anderson’s crew or someone who was targeting Lucia, they were not safe.
He hadn’t been certain of where he was going while they were driving, but now that he was here, he got it. Death had a way of dragging him to the darkest place in his heart. The graveyard where Britney was buried was acres of headstones, open fields and quiet.
“We’re safe here. We’ll see someone coming.” At least he hoped they would. He’d seen enough death.
“Is this where your wife is buried?” Lucia asked, getting out of the car after him.
“Yes.” He knew the exact location, even if every grave marker looked alike.
The metal vase next to her headstone held a bouquet of pink roses. Cash was happy to know someone remembered Britney and her favorite flowers fondly.
Lucia stood a few steps away.
“I didn’t plan to come here,” he said.
“Do you want some privacy?”
“No.” He wanted Lucia with him. He wanted her to understand a part of him that no one else did. He extended his hand to her and she joined him, slipping her arm around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder.
“My marriage to Britney would have ended in divorce. I know that. It makes me feel guilty. She was angry at how I had tried to help our son.”
“What does that mean?” Lucia asked.
Cash hadn’t wanted Lucia to know about Adrian or how screwed up the entire situation was. Talking about the scam that had landed him in prison made him feel worthless and pathetic. It had been the one thing he knew how to do, and when the stakes were highest, he hadn’t been able to do it right. “My son was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The doctors we consulted told me it was untreatable. I refused to accept that.” He couldn’t let his little boy die. He had done everything he could to prevent that from happening. “I found a doctor who was running an experimental procedure on adults with a similar type of cancer. I convinced him to treat Adrian, but I needed money.”
Lucia inhaled sharply. “So you scammed the senator’s real estate company for the money.”
“Yes.”
“Your son lived,” Lucia said.
“Yes. But Britney refused to trust me after that. I told her I was finished conning people and then I went back into that world.”
“What did she want to do instead for Adrian?” Lucia asked.
Cash rubbed the back of his neck. “She thought we could try other treatments even though the doctors said it would have been useless and would have caused Adrian more pain. Radiation. Chemotherapy. Surgeries. I couldn’t put Adrian through that, through round after round of hell. He was so small. I stole the money and then Adrian and I lived in Europe for six months while he was treated. Afterward, we returned to the United States. The experimental treatment had ravaged his body. I stayed home with Adrian, helping him grow stronger, but the police were unraveling my scam. Britney and I fought all the time and she filed for separation.”
His life had fallen apart quickly after that. He was convicted of fraud and robbery. He’d only been in prison for a week when Britney was killed in a car accident on her way to work after she’d dropped off Adrian at daycare.
“After Britney died, her mother flew in to take custody of Adrian. Helen didn’t want Anderson to have guardianship.” Helen and Anderson hadn’t spoken in years. Britney had been the result of a brief affair they’d had years before and Helen’s hate for Anderson fueled Britney’s anger for her biological father.
“I’m so sorry, Cash,” Lucia said. “After all you did to save your son, you still aren’t together.”
The lost years were killing him, but he wouldn’t give up. “I will find a way to make him part of my life. I can still earn his love. I can still show him that I am a good man.”
Lucia put her arms around Cash’s waist. “You are a good man. You should have told me this sooner.”
“I don’t like talking about it. It didn’t help at my trial.”
“I’m so sorry, Cash.”
For a moment he felt the impulse to push her away. He didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him. But he met Lucia’s gaze and something clicked. Britney was part of his past and Lucia was his bridge to the future. A future that didn’t include scams or lying or fraud.
But could that future include both Lucia and Adrian?
* * *
Lucia’s stress level was through the roof.
Benjamin was smoothing things over with the police. Having an FBI special agent and a consultant undercover was enough to keep the police from sending out an APB for them. He’d also sent a team of agents to take Audrey somewhere safer. Mitchell had been too interested in Cash’s relationship with her and they didn’t trust that someone in Anderson’s organization wouldn’t come looking for her to confirm Cash’s story.
After leaving the graveyard, Lucia witnessed a change in Cash. Maybe it was the shock of seeing two men killed or perhaps he’d gotten some closure unburdening his soul to her, but Cash seemed freer, which was a strange thing to think about a man in his position.
Lucia had to hold herself back from mounting a full-scale campaign to help Cash find justice. He had broken the law. He’d had a trial. He was serving his time. It still didn’t seem right that he wasn’t with his son. He had done the wrong thing for the right reasons.
When they’d returned to her condo, she’d convinced Cash to lie down with her for a few minutes and he’d fallen asleep. Though whirling thoughts had kept her awake longer, the heat of his body and the comfort in his embrace had lured her to sleep, as well.
Lucia’s eyes popped open when a creak interr
upted her sleep. Was someone on her balcony? Lurking in the hallway? Attempting to break in? Or had she dreamed the noise?
Lucia rose from the bed and her leg muscles tightened and twitched. Her gun in hand, she left the lights off to keep the element of surprise. Checking her condo, she found each room empty. She peered out the two sets of French doors that opened to the balcony. The lights atop the cement pillars surrounding the balcony didn’t leave many shadows. Watching for several minutes, she felt content no one was outside. She checked the hallway and then returned her gun to its place inside her bedside table.
Cash’s phone rang and Lucia reached for it, wanting to silence it before it woke him. If their team needed him, it could wait a few minutes. He’d been through a lot that day.
It was a blocked number. Wondering if it could be Adrian, Lucia hesitated and then decided to answer. “Hello?”
“Who’s this?” A male voice.
Lucia was momentarily taken aback by the rude question. Then she realized he could be someone from Anderson’s group. “It’s Lucy. Who’s this?”
“Cash around?”
No answer to her question. She couldn’t be sure, but Lucia had a strong sensation she was speaking to Clifton Anderson.
Chapter 11
Cash took the phone from Lucia, clearing his head and focusing. Images of Britney and Adrian and Mitchell and Hammer and Lucia spun through his mind.
“This is Cash,” he said.
“Cash, my long-lost son-in-law,” Anderson said. “I saw you at Britney’s grave today.”
Anderson had been at the graveyard. It confirmed the FBI’s hope that Anderson was still in the United States. “It was a bad day.” He hadn’t spoken to Anderson in years. His father-in-law had helped with Britney’s funeral plans. Cash had allowed it, knowing that despite Britney’s feelings toward her father he’d needed closure, too. By then, Cash had been incarcerated and could not attend the funeral.
“You brought your girlfriend,” Anderson said.
“Yes.” If Anderson had seen him, there was no point in denying it. “I tried to stop Hammer.” He wanted to explain to Anderson, who undoubtedly knew about the shooting inside the casino, to make him understand that what had happened to Mitchell wasn’t his fault.