Cold in the Shadows 5

by Toni Anderson

  Killion kept his expression neutral as he leaned closer to Devon. “She says you’re the one who set the cartel on Audrey.”

  Devon held his stare. Swallowed noisily. “She wanted to kill Audrey as soon as Burger died, but I wouldn’t let her. I saved Audrey from Tracey.”

  Killion’s fist piled into Devon’s face, and Brightman’s nose exploded all over the wall.

  “That’s for Audrey by the way. And she says you were a lousy fuck on account of your small, limp, self-absorbed dick.”

  While the guy was sprawled on the floor he stuck another needle in Devon’s naked white ass and pressed the plunger home.

  * * *

  AUDREY SAT QUIETLY on a dingy love seat in the corner of a small office they’d set up to watch the interrogation, but her mouth was full of sawdust, and her pulse was revving like that motorcycle Killion had put into storage down in Tennessee. Devon and this woman, June, had murdered a sitting vice president and tried to set Audrey up to take the fall. No wonder the CIA had come after her. Just thinking about it blew her mind. Rebecca and Gabriel would have been devastated by the extent of Devon’s treachery. She couldn’t believe she’d been so easily duped.

  “I was hoping for at least a little good cop bad cop routine.” Logan joked as Killion came into the room. “Or some ‘you can’t handle the truth’ action.” He did his best Jack Nicholson impression.

  “I’ll bear that in mind for next time I have an audience.” Killion stopped short when he saw her sitting there. “The things you just heard—”

  “Yeah, we know. Everyone thinks Burger died of a heart attack and a cover-up looks bad to all the conspiracy nut jobs,” Logan told him.

  “You have no idea,” Killion said. His eyes never left her, though he didn’t come any closer.

  “It would take more than that brilliant display of bullshit to get anything out of me, mate.” Noah thumped Killion’s arm.

  “You liked that?” Killion grinned.

  “Fucking A. Especially the last bit.”

  Killion’s smile vanished.

  Part of her was in shock at how easily he’d manipulated Devon into his confession. Part of her was thrilled at how he’d stood up for her at the end.

  Parker shouldered his way in the door with his laptop open. “This is our assassin.”

  Audrey walked over to look at the screen.

  Killion followed more slowly. “She’s the woman I told you about although she’s altered her appearance,” he told Parker. “She obviously changed her name to try and outrun her shitty reputation.” His expression grew more troubled, which Audrey didn’t understand. What had happened with Devon felt like a victory. Now it was turning sour. “She’s gonna come after me. She hates my guts, and I just ruined her life—again.”

  Parker nodded. “I agree.”

  Audrey couldn’t breathe. For some stupid reason she’d thought this would be over now.

  “I already called Frazer.” Killion worked at a muscle in his shoulder. “He’s doing what needs to be done.”

  They were still talking in code, but after what she’d heard that was just fine. She’d mourned Ted Burger along with the rest of the country and had been saddened by his death. But it didn’t sound like he’d been a very nice man.

  “What happens next?” Audrey asked, breaking her silence.

  Parker’s cell rang, and he put it to his ear. “Frazer says to turn on the news.”

  Noah found the latest breaking news on his laptop and there was June Vanek’s picture front and center. The newscaster was declaring that police had discovered evidence pointing to Gabriel Brightman’s head of security and son both being the prime suspects in the man’s murder, and that Audrey Lockhart and Killion, although wanted for questioning, were no longer suspects.

  She covered her mouth but must have let out a sob. Killion turned and pulled her into his arms. She clung to him, almost embarrassed by her need to touch this man. It felt so good to be wrapped in his arms. After a few seconds she stood on tiptoes and tried to kiss him. He pulled back.

  “Thank you,” she said. She pushed away her confusion. “You told me you’d do it. You told me we’d get our lives back.”

  Noah and Logan exchanged a look.

  “Yup, I’m that good.” Killion smiled into her eyes, not blanking his features the way she hated when he was hiding something. She relaxed.

  “But you’ll still need security until I can go talk to Manuel and make some arrangements,” he told her.

  “Can I see my family?” She was desperate to see her parents, sister, and nephew. “My mother will be beside herself. I’m surprised she’s not in the hospital.”

  “Sure.” Killion released her and stood back. “Noah and Logan can go with you. I have to wait for someone to take custody of Brightman. Cops can interview you at home. Frazer will arrange a US Attorney to be present. Don’t say a word without him. Don’t mention picking up Brightman or anything you overheard today.”

  She nodded. “Are you going after this woman, June?”

  Killion shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the wall over her shoulder. “I doubt Vanek will hang around here.”

  “But I thought you said she’d come after you?” Audrey said. His manner was decidedly off.

  “She will eventually when she thinks the heat has died down. But the cops will pick her up long before that. I’ll have to lie low for a while, that’s all.”

  “But I’ll see you again, right?” Her voice climbed a little higher. “Before you go on your next mission?”

  “Ah…” He took a half step back and gave her a small too-bad-but-that’s-how-it-goes-sometimes shrug. “Probably not.”

  A cold draft blew over her skin. She looked around at the other men’s faces. They were all staring awkwardly at their boots, obviously embarrassed for her. “You’re saying goodbye to me here? Like this?”

  Logan went to open the door to leave.

  “Stay. We’re nearly done.” Killion looked pained. “Don’t make a scene, Aud. You knew this was how it was going to be. It’s over. You said you got that when we started up in Jamaica. Now you get to go back to your frogs.” He laughed but it was a horrible grating sound. “But I’d avoid Colombia if I were you, even if I can get the cartel off your back.” His tone turned patronizing like she was a little slow on the uptake.

  She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out if he was joking about this giant public brushoff. He looked deadly serious though—a little bored, a little impatient, like he had more important things to do.

  Her fingers clenched. Emotion swelled inside her, and her blood roared in her ears. God. He was serious. This was it. He was saying goodbye in front of his buddies as if she really were just another cog in the wheel. Tears started to burn, but she refused to let them fall. She was making a fool of herself.

  “Come on, sweetheart.” Noah took her by the shoulders and started hustling her out the door.

  “Keep your eyes peeled for that bitch, Vanek,” Killion shouted after them.

  Logan gave him the finger. Audrey wanted to give him the finger too. She’d never told him she loved him. She’d never had a chance. But as her heart shattered into a million pieces inside her chest she was glad. One less awful humiliation to deal with.

  * * *

  “YOU OKAY?” PARKER asked when Killion slumped down to the love seat and put his head between his knees.

  Fuck. “Yeah. Great.” If he didn’t count letting the best thing that had ever happened to him walk away thinking he was a fucking piece of shit. He wanted to smash something, preferably Devon Brightman’s face.

  “I take it you did that for her sake?”

  His lip curled in self-disgust as he looked up at the other man. “I’m not that noble. I can’t do the work I do with Audrey in tow.”

  “If that’s the lie you need to tell yourself, go for it. We all do what we have to do to get by.” Parker’s phone rang before Killion had the chance to reply. “Cops ar
e on their way. Let’s clear out.”

  “What about Brightman?”

  Parker showed him a live feed on his laptop. Someone had dressed Brightman in his clothes, laid him on a dirty looking mattress. They’d cleaned up the blood, removed the chains and hood, but left drug paraphernalia beside him. “We’ve got enough evidence for the locals to charge him with conspiracy to murder his father and Audrey, and I’m pretty sure they can probably try him for the murder of his sister, Rebecca, too. And that’s not even touching on the narcotics trafficking and other people he and Vanek killed to build their smuggling network.”

  “What about me kidnapping him and forcing out a confession?” asked Killion.

  “Never happened. The drugs we gave him will make him pretty spaced for a while. Come on, I have to figure out a way to get into his safe deposit box before the cops do.”

  Killion grunted and stood. “Let’s get out of here then.” He kept his eyes on Parker’s back. He ignored the way his brain screamed at him to go after Audrey. She was a weakness he couldn’t afford. He had to catch Vanek, and then go arrange a little chat with Manuel Gómez inside Atwater. Audrey wasn’t in the clear yet. Not until he tied up all the loose ends. Noah and Logan could keep her safe. Him being an asshole made it easier for her to hate his guts, easier for her to move on. Then he’d have to figure out what the hell he did with his life next.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  IT HAD BEEN three days since they’d arrested Devon and cleared Audrey Lockhart’s name. Tracey had known as soon as she figured out they’d lifted Devon that Patrick Killion would get her name out of him eventually. Devon might be a computer genius, but Killion had been trained by the best, just as she’d been. He was the master of manipulation.

  She didn’t blame Devon, but wasn’t going to get caught by trying to save his ass, no matter how much she loved him. He’d betrayed her, and it wasn’t something she forgave.

  Seeing her picture on the news had been infuriating, but she’d prepared for this eventuality. She’d stashed her BMW away and was driving a non-descript silver sedan registered in a fake name. She’d changed her looks, had new ID, cash, credit cards. She also had access to that bank account in the Caymans that she and Devon had set up to make Audrey look guilty.

  She could run.

  But every time she started driving out of the city she found herself circling back around.

  If Audrey had died the way she was supposed to, Devon would be the head of Brightman Industries and he and Tracey would be together. She needed to punish the bitch for ruining their plans. She also wanted to destroy Killion both personally and professionally. Blowing up his pet analyst had been a start, but killing Audrey Lockhart—who he’d made it his personal mission to keep safe—would devastate him.

  She knew Lockhart would be guarded for now, but what about the sister? She smiled. Over the last six months she’d spent many hours tracking Sienna, figuring out her dealer, her routine, the time of the day when her craving overwhelmed her desire to stay clean. Instead of staking out Audrey, she staked out Sienna’s dealer. It was only a matter of time before the shallow flake turned up.

  It wasn’t the best neighborhood, which was good for what she had in mind. People kept their mouths shut in places like this. No one would report her to the cops.

  Killion had disappeared off the scene.

  She got quite the thrill knowing she’d destroyed his chance of going back undercover in the field again. During their training at the Farm that had been his dream. She yawned widely and opened a bottle of soda, taking just a sip so she didn’t need to go pee. As the night grew quiet the players started coming out of the woodwork.

  Finally a small Toyota Prius pulled in front of the dealer’s house. Sienna Lockhart got out and dashed up the front steps.

  Tracey watched. She wasn’t in any hurry. The loser wasn’t going to go home to get high. Sienna came out of the house and trotted back to her car. Jumped in and drove quickly away. Tracey followed her out of town and down by the river to Cox’s Park. Sienna pulled up in a deserted parking lot and cut her headlights. Tracey waited at a distance for ten minutes, and then drove closer, stepped out of her car, pulling out her pistol and tapping a false badge on the glass so the girl would think she was a cop.

  Slowly the window rolled down. Sienna’s eyes were huge and pupils dilated as Tracey ran a flashlight over her face. The girl swayed in her seat.

  “Out of the car, Miss.”

  Sienna muttered an obscenity and awkwardly pushed open the door. “You can’t charge me.” She sniffed. She and Audrey looked very alike, but Sienna was a few inches taller and rail thin. And she lacked Audrey’s smarts, probably because she’d fried her brain with chemicals.

  Tracey patted her down and pocketed the rest of her stash and her cell phone. Then she snapped on handcuffs and helped the strung-out junkie into the passenger side of her sedan.

  “I haven’t done anything.”

  Tracey got in the driver’s seat and pulled her weapon. Pointed it at the girl who shrank into the farthest corner against the door. “Call your sister.”

  Sienna’s blue eyes bulged. Sweat beaded her forehead. “Oh, God. You’re that woman. The security guard from Devon’s company.”

  Tracey grabbed Sienna by the hair and slammed her head against the window. “I was the head of security, you stupid bitch! Devon was only fucking you because I told him to.”

  Snot and tears smeared the woman’s cheeks. Her face was bright white. Eyes terrified.

  Tracey dragged out Sienna’s cell phone. “Call your sister. Tell her you’ve done something stupid. Cry and blubber as much as you want. Tell her you need her to pick you up from here. Beg her not to tell your parents.” She dug her fingers harder into Sienna’s hair.

  “You’ll kill her. Kill us both.”

  “I just want to talk to her, but if you don’t do it? I’ll kill you right now. And later, when they think it’s safe, I’ll kill that little boy of yours. Shoot him in the head like a fucking rat.”

  Sienna sobbed and dialed the number. Tracey held the gun beside the girl’s nose and never dropped her gaze. As soon as Sienna delivered the message she took the phone and hung up before the woman could betray her.

  “Well done, Sienna. You finally did something right.” Then she slammed the butt of the weapon into her temple and looked for somewhere to hide the car.

  * * *

  AUDREY WAS ESCAPING the nightmare her life had become by putting her favorite nephew to bed. The fact he was so darn cute was probably a biological imperative—a reason women stuck around even though they knew boys grew into men, and men broke women’s hearts.

  God, she missed Killion. Missed him and hated him in equal measure.

  Redford’s warm body curled into hers as they sat in a rocking chair in his room. She’d just finished reading her favorite children’s book, “The Wide-Mouthed Frog” to him for the fourth time, and he’d finally fallen asleep in her arms. She carefully lowered the book onto a nearby table, picked him up, and slid him into his cot.

  She mentally steeled herself and went to find her parents. “Anything left to clean up?” she asked as her mom wiped down the stove.

  “I’ve got it, honey.”

  She wanted to rip out her own hair. She’d become “honey.” That’s what happened when your mother mistakenly thought you’d killed two people in cold blood.

  She tried not to grind her teeth. “Is Dad in the lounge?”

  That she’d been reduced to a virtual prisoner in her parents’ home because her mother refused to let her out of her sight was wearing on her nerves. Noah and Logan were camped out at a neighbor’s house across the street with a great view of her parents’ home and a surveillance system set up to monitor the back yard. She had a walkie-talkie she carried around with her wherever she went.

  Killion was gone. No phone calls—despite the sleek new cell phone Noah had handed her that first awful day when the press had refused to leave her alon
e. No emails. No messages. Just gone. Poof. Like she’d meant nothing to him at all, while her heart lay scattered in pieces between Colombia and Kentucky.

  “He’s watching the football. Are you sure you’re okay? No bad dreams?”

  “No, mom, I’m fine.” She went over and hugged the woman who’d given her life. She hadn’t realized a person could cry so many tears until she’d come home. Her poor mother had been through the wringer. Her dad, thankfully, was much more even-keeled. Audrey had shed her own tears—for Mario, for Gabriel and Rebecca. Most of all she’d cried because she knew Killion wouldn’t be coming back. She’d never see him again. Her heart would never race at the sight of his confident grin. She’d never groan at another stupid frog joke. Or lie in his arms and stretch out, trying to touch every inch of her body to every inch of his.

  It had been galling to realize she’d been just another job. That when he’d warned her he’d ruin her for any other man he hadn’t been lying.

  Time to snap out of her funk before her mom latched onto her sadness. She couldn’t take another round of over-anxious parenting. Audrey checked her watch. “Sienna not back yet?”

  Her mother looked up at the kitchen clock, then straightened the tea towels that hung on the stove handle. “No, but the lines in the grocery store can be bad even at this time in the evening.”

  Audrey smiled reassuringly but they avoided each other’s gaze. It was hard to have faith in someone who’d fallen off the wagon so many times, but they needed to try. “I’m going to go watch the game with Dad.” She headed down the corridor toward the den. The university had reinstated her—she’d actually been sacked, which she found kind of horrifying—but they’d insisted she take six-months paid leave to let this whole thing settle down.

  She wouldn’t last six months doing nothing. She didn’t think she’d last another day—not with her heart breaking every time she thought about a certain CIA agent.