Trouble with a Badge

by Delores Fossen

  “How do you know who the killer is?” Lockwood asked.

  Scottie smiled. “Connections. Let’s just say a friend of a friend put me in touch with him. The Moonlight Strangler and I have had some interesting conversations. I think he might be a fan of mine. I’ve offered him my assistance if he ever needs it. Like going after Alexa for example.”

  That sent a new chill through her. “He doesn’t want me dead.”

  “So he said. A pity. But I’m there for him if he ever changes his mind.”

  It sickened her to think of Scottie in any kind of alliance with the Moonlight Strangler. And maybe he wasn’t. There was no proof that the Moonlight Strangler had ever worked with an accomplice.

  “Scottie’s lying,” Tasha said to Lockwood. “Let’s just go.”

  But Lockwood still didn’t move. The odds were that Scottie was indeed lying and this was all a ploy to get the marshal to hand over Tasha. However, it had to be tempting for Lockwood to get a shot at collaring a vicious serial killer.

  Once, Alexa would have felt the same way.

  Not now, though. All she wanted was for them to get out of there alive so that Tasha and Mack could be taken to the hospital.

  “Well?” Scottie pressed Lockwood. “Do you want the info or not?”

  Either way this wouldn’t turn out good for Tasha. Or for them. The only winner in this scenario would be Scottie himself.

  With his hand still behind his back, Jericho looked up, snagging Levi’s gaze. Levi, in turn, snagged hers. Alexa wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but she knew she had to get ready to move.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  Jericho whipped out his backup, but he didn’t aim it at Scottie. He pointed his gun at the man holding Levi. Levi elbowed the guy again and then lunged to the side.

  Just as Jericho fired a shot.

  The gunman, too, darted to the side, and the bullet slammed into the wall. Levi didn’t waste any time tackling him, and the two fell on to the floor just a few inches from her. Unfortunately, the thug managed to keep hold of his weapon, and he landed on hers so that she couldn’t get to it.

  Yelling like a crazy man, Scottie ran toward Lockwood and Tasha, battering right into them. Tasha screamed out in pain. Probably because her wounded arm had gotten crushed in the assault.

  “Here,” Mack said, and he tossed Alexa his gun.

  She caught it, turned but quickly realized she didn’t have a clean shot. Levi and the hired gun were fighting, maneuvering all over the floor and were wedged in the doorway between the two rooms. No way could she risk firing a shot because she might hit Levi.

  Jericho didn’t have a shot, either, because Scottie had maneuvered Tasha so that she was in between Jericho and him. Worse, Scottie had clamped his hand around that raw cut, and it was clear Tasha was in excruciating pain.

  Scottie didn’t waste any time creating yet more pain. He bashed Lockwood in the head with his gun. Lockwood cursed and tried to scramble out of the fray, but Scottie would have no part of that. Scottie hit him again.

  “Alexa, I was just trying to help you,” Lockwood called out. “Now you need to help me.”

  She wasn’t sure she believed him. Nor could she help. However, Jericho did something about that. He tried to latch on to Tasha to pull her out of the way, so Alexa went to help Levi.

  Not that there was much she could do.

  They were still in a life-and-death fight, and she didn’t have a clean shot.

  She dropped down on the floor to get herself in a better position, and when Levi punched the man in the face, his head dropped back just enough for her to bash him with the gun.

  The shot blasted through the room.

  And for several heart-stopping moments, Alexa thought the gun she was holding had gone off and she’d shot Levi. But then she heard the sound behind him and glanced around to see that it wasn’t Levi who’d been shot.

  It was Lockwood.

  Clutching his chest, the marshal fell back. He slammed into the wall before sinking to the floor.

  Scottie didn’t waste any time. He latched on to Tasha’s hair and dragged her to her feet. He also put the gun to her head.

  Levi sprang into action, too. The gunman she’d hit was still dazed, and Levi punched him again. And again. Until the guy quit moving, and Levi ripped the gun from his hand.

  “Get down and shoot him if he tries to move,” Levi told her. And Levi took aim at Scottie. “You aren’t leaving with Tasha.”

  “Not much you can do to stop it,” Scottie said, and he smiled.

  Tasha looked at Alexa and shook her head. Now, Alexa saw surrender in the woman’s eyes. “Take care of Violet,” Tasha mouthed.

  Alexa nodded, but she didn’t want Tasha to give up the fight. Not yet.

  “Take me with you,” Alexa told Scottie. “That’s the only way you’ll get the baby.” And it was also a way for Alexa to get Tasha out of this.

  Jax was probably somewhere close by, and now that Levi had disarmed the hired gun, it meant both Jericho and he could help stop this disaster in the making.

  Scottie stared at her a moment as if considering it. Then, without warning, he lifted his gun.

  And fired it.

  At her.

  Alexa scrambled over the thug, and the bullet slammed into him instead. The man didn’t even manage to make a sound. The shot killed him instantly.

  If Scottie had any reaction to that, he didn’t show it. He glanced over his shoulder and started backing out of the room with Tasha in tow.

  Levi clearly didn’t have a kill shot for Scottie, but he hurried to the door, only to have to duck back in when Scottie fired at him. The bullet slammed into the doorjamb.

  “We can’t let him get away,” Alexa insisted, but it was something Jericho and Levi already knew.

  “You’re not getting out this way!” someone shouted. “Scottie, put down your gun now.”

  Jax.

  Judging from the sound of his voice, Jax was in the same part of the hall where they’d first found Tasha.

  Scottie cursed and with his eyes widened he volleyed glances among Levi, her and Jax. His eyes widened even more when Jericho doubled around and came out the door where the thug had entered and grabbed Levi.

  “This isn’t over!” Scottie yelled, and he started shooting.

  Levi hooked his arm around Alexa and dragged her down to the floor, but Scottie just kept shooting. This time at Jax.

  Jax didn’t return fire, probably because he didn’t want to risk hitting Tasha, and Scottie started moving toward the east side of the hall. Alexa already knew from Dexter that there were escape routes there.

  Levi moved to the side of the door, no doubt hoping for a better angle for a shot, but before he could even attempt it, Scottie shoved Tasha right at them and took off running.

  Tasha landed hard on them, knocking them all back to the floor. Levi quickly maneuvered himself away from them, but before he could take aim, someone else fired.

  Oh, mercy.

  Had Scottie shot Jax?

  Alexa was almost afraid to look. Not that Levi gave her a chance to do that. “Stay down,” he warned her again.

  And then Alexa heard something she definitely didn’t want to hear. Jax’s shout.

  “Scottie’s getting away!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Levi wanted to do something to erase the troubled look in Alexa’s eyes. In Tasha’s eyes, too, but until they found Scottie and put him behind bars, that wasn’t going to happen. And everyone in the sheriff’s office knew that. All they could do was wait some more, but they weren’t doing a good job of it.

  Not for the entire three hours they’d been there.

  Despite the fact she was sporting thirty stitches in her
arm, Tasha was pacing Jericho’s office where Levi was waiting with Alexa and her. Every time the phone rang, Tasha held her breath. Of course, she had an even greater reason for wanting Scottie caught.

  Violet.

  The baby was still at the safe house and would need to stay there until they were sure Scottie was no longer a threat. That meant Tasha wouldn’t be able to hold her daughter for the first time in days.

  But she would eventually hold her.

  Take Violet, too.

  Levi wasn’t sure why that made his chest ache. Okay, he did know. He’d miss the little girl even though he knew she’d be fine with her mother. From everything he’d seen from Tasha, she loved the baby and desperately wanted her back.

  “It’ll be okay,” Alexa told Tasha. She took her hand, tried to ease Tasha in to one of the chairs, but Tasha only shook her head.

  “I can’t sit still.”

  Levi got that. He wasn’t sitting, either, though he had finally managed to talk Alexa into doing that. She wasn’t relaxing, though. She was waiting on the same pins and needles as the rest of them and worrying that the security measures they’d taken weren’t enough.

  After leaving the hospital, Levi had called in every available deputy and even two Texas Rangers to help guard Tasha and Alexa.

  All but Jax and Mack.

  Mack and Lockwood had both been admitted to the hospital where both were in stable condition, and Jax had insisted on going after Scottie. Jax thankfully requested backup from the county sheriff’s office. Maybe Jax and the other lawmen would get lucky and track down Scottie.

  But there was no need to worry about Marcos. Because he was indeed dead. A jogger had found the bodies of Marcos and his attorney in the park. Gunshot wounds to the head. And since Scottie had already confessed to those two murders, he’d be arrested for those, as well.

  Once they found Scottie, that was.

  “How many people do you think Scottie killed or had killed?” Levi whispered to his brother.

  Jericho blew out a long breath. “Probably a lot more than Marcos, his lawyer and Todd.”

  Yeah, and maybe there’d be something in his house to prove it. The Rangers were going through the place now.

  “You think Lockwood was working for Marcos?” Alexa asked.

  “No,” Tasha quickly answered. It was yet something else she’d insisted on since they’d gotten out of the hospital. “Scottie told me he’d used a PI to frame him so that Alexa wouldn’t trust him.”

  And it’d worked. “But what about Lockwood holding you at gunpoint and tying up Dexter?”

  “Lockwood did both of those things, but the whole time he was doing that he kept saying he wanted to help. He had plenty of opportunities to kill us, and he didn’t.”

  That was true, and if Lockwood had indeed been dirty, taking Tasha hostage wouldn’t have solved his situation with Alexa. Or rather the fake situation that Scottie had apparently managed to set up with the PI’s false information.

  The phone rang, the sound shooting through the room. Jericho snatched it up right away, as he’d been doing with the other calls, but that wasn’t exactly a good news expression Levi saw on his brother’s face. Jericho stepped into the hall to continue the conversation. Yeah, definitely not good.

  Since Alexa looked as if she couldn’t handle any more bad news, Levi sank down in the chair next to her and put his arm around her.

  “I didn’t thank you for saving my life,” Alexa said.

  Levi shrugged. “I think we’re even on that score. I’m pretty sure you saved mine, too.”

  Her breath broke just a little, and he could see her trying to corral the emotions and spent adrenaline. The tears, too. It’d be a while before she won that particular battle.

  Because he felt they both could use it, he brushed a kiss on her cheek, then her mouth. Her breathing became uneven again, but this time Levi didn’t think it was from the adrenaline. Despite their dark cloud situation, it gave him a rush to see the heat in her eyes.

  Soon, he wanted to do something about that. Something more than the obvious of just hauling her off to bed. But Levi was still mulling over exactly what that something should be.

  “I don’t want to risk losing you again,” he told Alexa.

  Though he did say it a lot louder than he’d intended. Tasha’s gaze quickly darted away, and she moved her pacing further away from them. Not that she could go far. The room wasn’t that large.

  Alexa didn’t dodge his gaze. “Does this have to do with what happened between us? The sex, I mean,” she added in a whisper.

  “Yes.” But Levi immediately shook his head. “Maybe not, though.”

  Maybe it had to do with the feeling that he should be discussing this with her in private. This was clearly making Tasha uncomfortable, and the woman had had to deal with enough without having to listen to Levi say...

  Well, he still wasn’t sure what to say, but it would probably involve something for Alexa’s ears only. That meant it was time for a change in subject, and there was only one subject that would help with the tension in the room.

  “You think Violet’s keeping the protection detail up tonight?” Levi asked. “Your daughter doesn’t sleep that well,” he said to Tasha.

  That got the reaction he wanted. Alexa smiled. Tasha, too, though hers was very short-lived. “I can’t ever thank you both enough for saving her and taking care of her.” Something she’d been repeating a lot for the past couple hours.

  “We were glad to do it,” Alexa insisted.

  Levi was surprised that it was true for him, as well. He only hoped he got a chance to see the baby one more time.

  Tasha paced some more. And Levi figured he could do something to give them all a little peace of mind.

  He texted Marshal Walker at the safe house and asked him to use the secure computer to set up a temporary feed between them and the sheriff’s office. Once that was done, Levi turned Jericho’s laptop in Tasha’s direction and the baby’s image popped onto the screen.

  Violet was awake all right.

  Marshal Walker had the baby in his arms and was rocking her.

  Despite the horrors Tasha just endured, the pain and worry vanished from her face. Though tears did spring to her eyes, Levi was sure they were the happy kind. While smiling and crying, Tasha leaned closer and touched her fingers to the screen, caressing her baby’s face.

  Levi saw the love in Tasha’s eyes. Not that he’d doubted it. When they’d first arrived at that abandoned hospital where she was bleeding and being held captive, the first thing Tasha had done was ask about Violet.

  Jericho stepped back in the room, his attention not on them, but on someone in the squad room. A moment later, Dexter came in and handed Jericho what appeared to be a fax.

  “They found Scottie,” Jericho said when he turned back toward them.

  That got their attention, and Levi issued a quick apology to the marshal, telling him he’d text him when it was okay to resume the video feed with Violet. Even though Violet was way too young to know what was going on, Levi didn’t want her to hear this. Or to pick up on her mother’s fears if Tasha broke down.

  “Scottie’s dead,” Jericho added.

  The relief was instantaneous. Alexa collapsed against Levi, and Tasha finally sat down and buried her face in her hands.

  “Thank God,” Tasha prayed, and she just kept repeating it.

  Levi was saying some prayers of thanks, too, but that wasn’t exactly a thankful look Jericho was giving him. “What’s wrong?” Levi asked his brother.

  Just like that the relief vanished, and both Alexa and Tasha snapped their attention in Jericho’s direction.

  “Scottie was already dead when Jax found him,” Jericho continued. “He’d been strangled and had a crescent-shaped cut on his cheek.�
��

  Levi knew that MO. It belonged to the Moonlight Strangler. Alexa knew it, too, because the color drained from her face.

  “Yeah.” Jericho looked at Alexa. “The Moonlight Strangler left a message for you on Scottie’s body. Are you up to seeing it?”

  “Of course.” Though she didn’t sound exactly sure of that.

  Nor did Jericho jump to hand her the fax. “The message isn’t written on paper.”

  Hell.

  Levi took the fax, had a look for himself, and he saw the words carved on Scottie’s chest and stomach.

  “A favor for you, Alexa,” the message said.

  Alexa read it, as well, and Levi braced himself for the fallout. But it didn’t come. She looked up at Jericho. “Did anyone see the Moonlight Strangler at the scene?”

  “No,” Jericho quickly answered. “Scottie had been dead at least an hour before Jax found him.”

  “Good. Scottie deserved to die,” she said. “At least this way, Scottie wouldn’t have had a shot at hurting Jax or the other lawmen after him.”

  Levi was thankful for that. They’d all been through way too much for Scottie to have hurt anyone else. Still, Levi hadn’t expected to have the Moonlight Strangler as an ally in any situation, including this one.

  “So, it’s over?” Tasha asked.

  Jericho nodded. “Jax was able to make a positive ID of the body. Scottie’s really dead.” He paused a heartbeat. “Would you like to see your daughter now? I can drive you out to the safe house?”

  Tasha sprang to her feet before Jericho even finished his offer. “Yes, please. Take me to her.” She turned as if to hurry out of the room, but then she stopped and looked at Alexa and Levi. “Would you like to go, too?”

  Alexa glanced at him, obviously trying to figure out what to do, but then she shook her head. “This should be your moment with Violet, but after you’ve picked her up, maybe you can bring her back here so we can see her?”

  “Of course.” Tasha moved again but then stopped. “I guess I’ll need a hotel room. I don’t have a place nearby to take her.”