Harlequin Intrigue May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2
Page 19
Fisher’s eyes seemed to focus for a second before his gagging ceased, and Kyra could’ve sworn the bastard smiled.
EPILOGUE
Billy kicked his feet up on his desk, tipping his chair back at a dangerous angle. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would the guy off himself? He didn’t even know whether or not we actually had his prints from any of the crime scenes.”
“He saw me when he drove away, and must’ve known at that point he was in trouble.”
With a lump in her throat, Kyra raised her hand, wiggling her fingers. “That was my fault. I opened the door before Fisher drove off, and my dome light attracted his attention. He didn’t know me, of course, but he recognized Jake and circled back to the restaurant.”
“Okay, I get why he went back to see what was up, but why the confession on the sidewalk? He didn’t know what we had. He could’ve gone home, cleared out any evidence he had at the house and claimed he had no idea how his print wound up on that piece of tape. The DA would’ve required more from us than that for a big case like this.”
“Billy, my man, maybe he just recognized our superior detective skills in the interview and figured he was done for.” Jake kicked Billy’s shoes off the desk and his chair thumped to the floor.
“Yeah, I’m sure that was it.” Billy slid his jacket from the back of the chair and grabbed his laptop case. As he looked around the room, he said, “I hope this means we can finally dismantle the task force. Castillo is beaming. Chief can’t stop smiling for the cameras, and Mayor Wexler is ready to hand us the keys to the city. I’m going to go home and relax for a change.”
When Billy left the war room, Kyra took his chair next to Jake’s and twisted her ponytail around her hand. “That was a horrible way to die, quick but far from painless. Fisher would’ve rather met that end than spend his life in prison? I’m with Billy. I don’t understand why he did it.”
“He’s a killer, Kyra. Do you understand anything he did?”
“We do have profiles of serial killers. We understand a lot behind what drives them. Did the suicide pill even make sense for Fisher’s personality? I’m not sure it did.”
“He took it. We both saw him, and the prints we took from his trash matched the print on the tape in Mindy’s bedroom. We also found the victims’ locks of hair hidden in his home. He killed those women, and we had him dead to rights. Maybe he couldn’t face the shame.” Jake circled his finger in the air where several cops on the task force were still working, despite the fact that Fisher had died a week earlier. “I’m sure we’ll find out more as we sift through the rest of his belongings. We got him. I’m just sorry he died before he could tell us anything about why he copied The Player.”
“Me, too.” She flicked her ponytail behind her. “Do you think Fisher was La Prey?”
“I guess we’ll find out.” He glanced over his shoulder at the preoccupied task force members, then leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers. “I’m sorry you didn’t get your answers.”
“It’s almost like they don’t want to be questioned, isn’t it?” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “I mean, Jordy had to know you were going to shoot to kill when he tried to stab me.”
“Yeah, it is.” He wheeled his chair back to his own desk and started packing up. “We’d better get going if we want to pick up dinner and get to Quinn’s before he falls asleep. He’ll want all the latest.”
She rose from Billy’s chair and placed her hands lightly on Jake’s shoulders. “Thanks for keeping Quinn in the loop. He loves it more than he lets on.”
“I know he does.” Squeezing her fingers, he whispered, “Dinner at Quinn’s and then dessert at your place?”
A pulse throbbed in her throat and she purred, “Too bad we’re at the station, or I’d straddle you right now.”
“Now I really want to get going.” Jake jumped from his chair just as Brandon Nguyen burst through the conference room door.
“I’m glad you’re still here, J-Mac.”
Jake rolled his eyes at Kyra. “Not for long, son. State your business.”
“Oh, you’re gonna want to hear this.” Brandon stood at attention, clutching a folder to his chest, which looked about ready to burst.
Kyra grabbed Jake’s sleeve and she didn’t care who saw.
Jake’s body stiffened beside her. “What did you find, Brandon?”
Brandon waved the folder in the air and crowed. “We found a connection between Jordy Lee Cannon and Cyrus Fisher. They were in contact.”
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488072826
The Decoy
Copyright © 2021 by Carol Ericson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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“Lianna, I’m going to need you and Henry to come with me.”
Go with him? She forced a caustic laugh out of her mouth even though she felt shaky with fear. What was he doing here? What was he playing at? “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Your new guest isn’t safe.”
It sent a bolt of icy fear down her spine, but she refused to show it. “And you are?”
“I know you don’t believe me, but yes. I am.”
“I told you to go, Reece. If that’s your name.”
“It’s my name.”
“Sure.”
“Lianna... The man who made this reservation... There’s too much of a coincidence to the timing. I didn’t find any listening devices outside, but maybe he overheard our conversation.”
Lianna stilled. She had taken the listening device off the smoke alarm and shoved it into her desk drawer. Would whoever was listening know she’d tampered with it? Obviously. It would have changed what they could hear.
Summer Stalker
Nicole Helm
Nicole Helm grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in
Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.
Books by Nicole Helm
Harlequin Intrigue
A North Star Novel Series
Summer Stalker
A Badlands Cops Novel
South Dakota Showdown
Covert Complication
Backcountry Escape
Isolated Threat
Badlands Beware
Close Range Christmas
Carsons & Delaneys: Battle Tested
Wyoming Cowboy Marine
Wyoming Cowboy Sniper
Wyoming Cowboy Ranger
Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Reece (Conrad) Montgomery—One of North Star Group’s lead field operatives, sent to find out what Lianna Kade knows about her late husband’s murder.
Lianna Kade—Bed-and-breakfast owner and mother, trying to rebuild her life after her husband was murdered and she discovered everything he told her was a lie.
Henry Kade—Lianna’s seven-year-old son.
Todd Kade—Lianna’s dead husband, just one of his many aliases.
Granger MacMillan—Former North Star Group leader. He hired Reece when he originally signed on.
Shay—Current head of North Star Group.
Sabrina Killian & Holden Parker—Lead field operatives with Reece who help in his missions when necessary.
Elsie Rogers & Betty—Support staff for North Star Group.
To back roads and the strange places you find on them that inspire whole books.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
Two years ago
Reece Montgomery had seen many a man injured. Shootings. Explosions. He’d watched men die before he’d grown into a man himself.
But there was something particularly poignant about Granger Macmillan—the man who’d taught Reece how to be a good one—being confined to a wheelchair and looking gaunt and weak.
Granger sat in said wheelchair in front of the entire body of North Star, a secret group set up for the sole purpose of taking down the Sons of the Badlands, a powerful gang who’d caused destruction and death across the whole of South Dakota.
Reece would know. His parents had been Sons groupies for several years before the state had permanently taken him away from them. They were probably both dead now, though Reece refused to look into the matter.
They’d been dead to him too many years to count.
Reece wouldn’t say he blamed the Sons of the Badlands for his unfortunate childhood, or for being bounced from foster home to foster home, but he was determined to take them down all the same.
The fact that they, in collaboration with another organization of morally bankrupt men, had set a bomb off in the heart of the North Star headquarters ate away at Reece. Also, the fact that Granger had been shot in the midst of said explosion, leaving him weak even all these weeks later, felt like a particular failure.
Reece didn’t know what exactly he’d failed. He’d been hurt in the blast himself, but was mostly healed now. He just knew...this wasn’t right. Nothing that had gone down the day of the explosion was right.
Never mind the fact that, with some help, North Star had won—catching the man who’d left the bomb. Winning was so much less satisfying when he was in a room filled with the collateral damage from that victory.
“As you can see,” Granger continued, “I’m not going to be physically capable of taking the reins back for quite some time.” Even his voice sounded tired. Still, he was here and clearly determined to give the speech, and the room of about fifty field operatives, IT people and medical staff stayed very quiet in order to hear him.
“Shay will be my replacement until I’m able to return.”
No one spoke a word. If there were concerns or doubts, no one voiced them. No one would dare. Even in a wheelchair, recovering from both a bullet wound and the injuries due to the blast, Granger Macmillan was their leader.
Shay could take over for a while—Reece figured she’d do well enough. She too had been hurt in the explosion—burns, mostly. She was recovering quickly, much like Reece and the others who’d been in the building and injured, but not shot like Granger had been.
Shay was a rarity in North Star. She’d lasted more than the prescribed four years. She had experience in each of North Star’s many areas of expertise. No one could replace Granger, to Reece’s way of thinking, but Shay could certainly step in and hold things together while he got his strength back.
If Reece had been thinking about it over the past year, he might have noticed Granger was grooming her to be his replacement. She was given missions in every aspect of North Star’s operations. Granger sometimes asked her advice. Despite multiple instances where she hadn’t followed orders, or even some where she’d gone directly against them, Shay was always a part of North Star. In retrospect, it was clear she was Granger’s second-in-command, ready to take over at a moment’s notice.
Reece had just never considered Granger bowing out or getting injured, or anyone needing to step in.
Shay took the floor next to Granger.
“You all know me well enough. I’ve been here longer than any person here except Granger himself. I hope you know, no matter what it may look like on the outside, I’ve always been dedicated to eradicating the Sons. Like most of you, they are responsible for the deaths of loved ones of my own. As acting temporary head of North Star, I can assure you we won’t slow down or stop until our mission is done.”
She looked down at Granger in his chair, something odd passing over her expression. Reece didn’t know her well enough to figure it out.
“We won’t quit now. Not when we’ve made real progress. I know some of you will balk at a new leader, but I hope you’ll do me and Granger the courtesy of bringing it to me and letting us try to work it out. North Star will go on as it always has while Granger recovers. That I promise you.”
Reece watched Granger’s face. It was impassive. Something about that lack of expression or emotion, no matter how common for Granger, made Reece wonder if there really was a recovery expected—at least one that would bring him back to lead an elite group dedicated to taking down a gang as dangerous as the Sons.
“Our fight doesn’t stop with one setback. As we all heal, we’re going to keep working, keep fighting, and we’ll make sure the Sons are wiped out forever.”
There was some applause, some shouts of assent and encouragement. No one looked particularly defeated or upset about the change in leadership.
Because North Star had always been about one thing, and one thing only.
Wiping out the Sons.
Reece wouldn’t stop until he’d helped bring that eventuality to fruition.
CHAPTER ONE
Present day
Reece was not a fan of meetings. He preferred for his duties to be communicated through one-on-one briefings or, even better, the written word. Still, with the Sons of the Badlands essentially decimated in every way that mattered to the North Star Group, Reece figured a meeting was necessary.
&nb
sp; He arrived at the sprawling ranch house in eastern Wyoming that now acted as the headquarters of North Star. Though they had been moved in for well over a year, Reece still wasn’t used to the change.
North Star was, in fact, his north star, orienting him and giving purpose to his life. He’d long ago given up hope of any kind of stability, but his work at North Star headquarters under the guidance of his mentor had started to get past the wall he’d built around himself, until the explosion two years ago. The blast had taken both from him—the headquarters, as well as the leader who had recruited him.
Granger Macmillan had retired. Reece still didn’t know how to fully accept that a man he’d so respected had given up the fight for good and right and opted for...domesticity.
However, Shay was a fine enough leader. She was smart and firm like Granger, but she had her own ideas, and she implemented them as she saw fit. Reece didn’t always agree, but he’d honed himself into a soldier long ago. He knew how to take an order.
And his mostly solo missions out in the field gave him the chance to go by his own internal sense of right and wrong.
Missions. They’d be over now, with the Sons of the Badlands completely and utterly annihilated. What little factions remained were of absolutely no consequence.
Now what will you do?
Reece didn’t much want to figure that out, so he’d decided to go to this meeting and hope it wasn’t about what he’d been dreading.
You’re free to go, Reece Montgomery.
No one stayed in North Star for long. Even with Shay allowing people to stay beyond Granger’s four-year rule, the explosion had cost them some good people who’d decided to move on. Since then, some others had left for law enforcement or other careers where they thought they could do more than grind the Sons of the Badlands into the South Dakota dust.
Now the Sons were dust, and what did that leave for North Star to do?