Casey had blanched. Lucan could see she was frightened at the very idea. “I don’t want you to actually meet him. I want you to call him back and arrange to meet him.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to meet me,” Casey protested weakly.
“He probably doesn’t.”
“He wants the money that was in the house and the jewelry that can tie him to the murder,” Kyra interjected.
“Jewelry?” Casey asked weakly.
Lucan nodded agreement. “I’ve already turned it in, but he doesn’t know that. All he knows is that if he goes down for this, he’ll never get out of prison again.”
“He’s probably only still hanging around because he’s broke,” Kyra offered. “Call him back.”
Casey blanched. “But I wouldn’t know what to say!”
“Tell him you’re staying with friends and you want a divorce,” Lucan suggested.
“He won’t care about that,” Kyra protested.
“No, he won’t,” Lucan agreed. “But the point is, if she can act like he doesn’t matter at all and implies she’s going out of the country, he’ll think she found the money.”
Kyra’s eyes widened. “But then he’ll come after her!”
“He’ll agree to meet her,” Lucan corrected. “And we’ll be waiting. You can do this, Casey.”
The woman surprised him by nodding. “If it means getting that bastard out of my life for good, I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“Casey! No! You have the kids to think about!”
“That’s exactly what I am thinking about. I have to get my children out of this situation.”
“Then let me take your place,” Kyra offered.
“He’ll know you aren’t me,” Casey protested.
Kyra shook her head. “Not from a distance, he won’t. He doesn’t know you were injured. No one does.”
As much as it went against his every instinct, Lucan knew Kyra was right. If Casey set Jordan up, Kyra could lure him in. But it was dangerous.
He held her gaze for a long second. “You aren’t going to take any unnecessary risks,” Lucan insisted.
She nodded quickly, seeing his capitulation. “Call your captain. Let’s set this up.”
CASEY CALLED JORDAN BACK from the captain’s office the first thing Monday morning. Kyra was impressed by her sister’s acting ability. She’d been coached carefully, of course, but Casey had the smug tone of voice down just right. Even Kyra could believe Casey had found the money and was planning to keep it for herself.
Casey explained that she’d taken the children and left after Jordan had called to warn her. When she returned home she found the house trashed. She decided to quit her job and take the kids somewhere warm for Christmas. And by the way, she wanted a divorce. She intended to make some sweeping changes in her life. Whatever Jordan was involved in, she wanted no part of him or the police. Jordan could have everything in the house except the passports. She was going back to pick them up in a little while. He begged her to meet him and she refused, cutting him off and telling him goodbye.
Walsh congratulated her. “Nicely done, Mrs. Fillmont.”
Flushed, Casey nodded before turning to her sister. “Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe I could—”
“Not a chance,” Kyra interrupted. “You need to get back to the kids. They’re going to be anxious every time you leave them for some time to come.”
“They’ll have to get over it. Assuming I still have a job after this, I have to work.”
“There’s a ten-thousand dollar reward for the person who helps us find those responsible for the murder of Shereen Nestler,” the captain interjected. “Her husband put up the money, and I think you’ll qualify.”
“Oh!” Casey’s expression brightened. “I could take the holidays off then.”
“You can anyhow,” Kyra assured her. “I’ll help with any bills.”
“I can’t ask you—”
“You aren’t asking. I’m offering.”
“I believe the insurance company is also offering a reward for the necklace and ring you turned in,” Captain Walsh added.
Kyra grinned. “There. See? We’ll be fine. How soon before you want me to go over to the house?” She carefully did not look at Lucan. She knew he still didn’t like the idea, but he’d helped set up the plan despite his concern for her safety.
Kyra loved that he cared. She was glad to see that while he wanted to protect her, he was still willing to let her take risks. Loving him was easy. She was starting to believe he felt the same way. But she wouldn’t put up with someone trying to run her life. Simon had already tried that.
“I’m going over with the team now,” Lucan told her. “Give us thirty minutes, then you go in. The plan is to nab him outside before he ever reaches the front door. However, the best-laid plans can go wrong for reasons no one foresees. Keep your pepper spray where you can grab it just in case. If he gets close enough to see you, he’s going to realize you aren’t Casey.”
“So what? Even if he does, he’s going to want to talk to me to find out where she is.”
Lucan nodded, holding her gaze. “That’s why you’re going to wear a wire as well. We’re covering all contingencies. But I still want you to be careful.”
He gazed at her steadily. Her heart turned over. Then he turned and walked out the door. Kyra stared after him.
“He isn’t going with you?” Casey asked anxiously.
“No. Lucan’s going to sit in the command unit with the lieutenant in charge,” Todd replied. “He’ll be able to hear anything she says, but she won’t be able to hear him. You okay with this, Kyra?”
“Fine. I’m fine.” Lucan wasn’t leaving her. He’d be there, a shout away. She tossed back her head. “Let’s get the wire on.”
Thirty minutes later her nerves were jumping as she pulled into her sister’s driveway and got out of her sister’s car. If Jordan had arrived ahead of her, they would have taken him down and called it off.
Without looking around to try and spot the hovering officers, Kyra headed straight for the front door. Her heart beat a rapid tattoo as she stepped inside.
Even knowing there were officers all around out of sight, there was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. The house was so silent, so dark and gloomy. Evidence of the earlier destruction was still everywhere.
Kyra wandered aimlessly about the rooms downstairs, silently urging Jordan to hurry and get this over with. She couldn’t think of him as Ronnie White. And his name didn’t matter. If only he’d hurry and take the bait, Casey and the kids could not live in fear for the rest of their lives.
Kyra decided she should probably make a pretext of gathering up items her sister might want, but her concentration was shot. She wandered into the kitchen. The high heels on her boots clicked loudly in the silence. She opened cupboards aimlessly, staring at the meager contents they had salvaged. She doubted there was anything in here her sister would truly want.
Opening the refrigerator without thought, she stilled. It should have been empty. Instead, an open six pack of beer, cold cuts, cheese, bread, lettuce, tomatoes, onions…
Fear twisted her insides. “Uh, Lucan, there’s food in the refrigerator.” The police wouldn’t have put this here. “I think someone has been living in the house.”
She shut the door and turned. A man with a gun stood in the open basement doorway. He shushed her with a shake of his head and a finger to his lips.
Kyra had barely glimpsed him at the mall that day, but when he crossed to her side, she knew this was the same man who had chased after her and Kip. His eyes were deadly cold hard slits. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he would pull the trigger before she could draw her next breath.
“Good,” he whispered. “Don’t make another sound.”
She could smell the onion and beer on his breath.
“You’re going to get me out of here and take me to your husband.”
He thought she was Casey! She prayed
Lucan was hearing this. Dare she tell them he had the gun aimed at her head? The bulletproof vest under her clothes wasn’t going to do a thing to save her if he fired now, and her pepper spray might just as well be out in the car.
“Jordan’s coming here,” she told him, following his example and whispering. Her voice didn’t break although she was visibly shaking.
“You’re wearing a wire, right?”
Kyra didn’t hesitate. “Yes.” Lying to this man would definitely get her killed and no doubt he heard her talking to Lucan.
He raised his voice. “The first gun I see, we’re both going to die.”
She stiffened. An officer in full gear had appeared in the doorway to the dining room. “Don’t do anything! Do what he says,” she ordered, amazed at how calm she sounded.
The man holding the gun to her head regarded the officer. “You heard the lady. Drop your gun.”
There was a split second’s hesitation before the officer dropped his weapon.
“Kick it toward the table and back away. I only want White.”
“You can have him,” she vowed.
He snorted a surprised laugh, but his eyes remained colder than the Antarctic. “You’ve got guts, lady, I’ll give you that. She’s my ticket out of here,” he said loudly, probably for the people listening to her wire. “Now, back into the living room,” he told the cop. “Move!”
The man moved out of sight.
“Okay, Mrs. Fillmont. We’re going to walk out of here. The next gun I see pointed my way is going to mean your death. This trigger has a very light pull. If they shoot me, they kill you as well.”
“I believe you.” And she did. “Lucan, you heard him? No guns. We’re walking out.”
A smile flitted past his lips. “You know, I’d really hate to have to kill you. Let’s hope no one is feeling stupidly heroic.”
She started to take a step and heard the front door open. He pulled her tight to his chest. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
There were several moves she could probably make to counter this hold, but she fully believed he’d shoot her before she could get away. Kyra froze.
“Casey?”
Jordan’s voice caused the man’s grip to tighten even further. How had the cops let Jordan get inside?
“Answer him,” the man prodded. And why hadn’t they searched the house before setting up and trapping this man inside with her?
“In the kitchen, Jordan.” She used the distraction to slide her hand into her pocket and grip the pepper spray. If she was incredibly lucky, she might get one chance at this.
LUCAN THOUGHT HIS HEART would stop when he heard a masculine whisper and Kyra’s reply. The car at the corner reported a man matching Fillmont’s description approaching on foot from the side street.
Lucan left the van, breaking cover to run through the neighbor’s backyard toward the back door. Kyra would be killed along with Jordan the moment the man inside thought he could get away clean. As he ran, Lucan prayed as he never had before. If Kyra was killed he wasn’t sure he could survive. He loved the stubborn, reckless woman. He wanted a chance to tell her so.
He waved back the officers in full gear who started toward him. He made his way silently onto the porch. They had left the back door unlocked so officers could move in when told to do so. He eased it open.
“Answer him,” the man’s voice demanded from inside.
“In the kitchen, Jordan,” Kyra replied.
With no warning there was a pfft of sound as a silencer spoke.
Lucan had time to see Jordan falling. To bring his own weapon up even as Kyra brought her hand from her pocket and the man started turning his gun back toward her. She fired point blank in his face. He jerked his head back with a startled yell.
Lucan fired. So did a uniformed officer now standing in the dining-room doorway to the side of him.
And so did the man with the gun.
Kyra dropped to her knees on the floor.
Chapter Fifteen
Lucan rushed to Kyra, coughing and choking at the potent fumes from the pepper spray filling the room. Tears streamed from her tightly closed eyes. She was alive!
His own eyes began to burn as Lucan pulled her into his arms, barely noticing the officers in full gear rushing into the room. He carried Kyra to the back porch away from the potent fumes.
“Where are you hit?” he demanded.
“I’m not.”
He offered up a quick thankful prayer. “Blink as much as you can. You need tears to wash out the chemical.” He followed his own advice.
An officer appeared with water and a wet dishrag. “Wash your skin off wherever the spray touched and don’t rub it,” he advised. “Reggie,” he called to someone inside, “Get me some ice. The ice will give you a little relief until the effects dissipate. Looks like it got you, too, Detective. You should have had full gear on.”
“She didn’t.”
His eyes burned like fury, but Lucan squinted through his tears and tended to Kyra.
“I can’t see!”
“It’s okay. The capillaries in your eyes are dilated. Keep blinking! The effects dissipate after about forty-five minutes. Hold still while I pour this water in your eyes. We want to flush them out.”
“Did they get him?” she gasped. “Jordan. Did they get him?”
“I’ve no idea. Try to relax.”
“I’m trying! God, that burns.”
“Tell me about it. I told you this was a bad plan.”
She took a half-hearted swipe in his direction.
Todd showed up to inform him that both men inside were dead. Lucan felt no remorse as he and the other officer who’d fired surrendered their weapons for ballistics testing. Paramedics arrived to treat them, but both he and Kyra refused a ride to the hospital.
Her face was red and puffy, and her eyes, when she could finally open them, were swollen a fiery red that was painful to look at. Still, Lucan counted them both extremely lucky. His hand seldom lost contact with her to reassure himself she was alive and basically unharmed.
Eventually, Todd volunteered to run them home.
“My house,” Lucan commanded. “Not my mother’s.” He thought Kyra might argue, but she didn’t say a word.
“No problem. The captain didn’t say anything except that I should give you a lift home. But you might want to let your mom know you’re both okay. I’m sure Flynn heard the ambulance call.”
“I’ll call her.”
Kyra was unnaturally silent. Lucan hoped it was because her eyes still smarted, but he didn’t think so. Was she upset with him? There was a good chance it was his shot that had killed a man today. He regretted the necessity, but there had been no other choice. She had to know that.
Then again, she was probably upset because it had been her idea to lure her brother-in-law into the trap that had resulted in his death. Kyra was a sensitive woman for such a strong person. Was she regretting her choice?
“You should take a shower,” he told her once they were inside his house. “Wash your hair to make sure you get all the pepper spray cleaned off. I’ll wipe your coat down for you.”
“Thanks.” She handed him her coat and headed for the stairs. “I need to call my sister.”
“Captain Walsh will tell her what happened.”
“She should hear it from me first.”
“Kyra? Are you all right?”
She turned with a troubled expression. “It isn’t over.”
“What do you mean?”
“Two men shot at me the other night. That means there’s another one still out there, and now we can’t ask Jordan who he is.”
KYRA’S THOUGHTS CONTINUED to spin as she toweled her hair dry and put her clothes back on. Casey had sounded relieved when they’d spoken, but Kyra knew the grief and anger would come once her sister had time to think about everything.
While she had Casey on the phone, Kyra had pumped her for information about Jordan’s friends.
“I only met a cou
ple of the people he worked with. I know he hung out with Robby Krinegolt a lot. He runs errands and stuff at the country club. He’s called the house a few times, but I don’t really know who else.”
Kyra studied her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes still looked irritated, but there was nothing she could do about that. She headed downstairs to talk to Lucan.
He’d cleaned out the fireplace and was setting logs on the grate to light a fire. She watched the play of muscles beneath his shirt as he worked. For a lean man, he was surprisingly strong. He’d lifted her back at her sister’s house as if she’d weighed nothing at all. And that had to have cost him. He was hurt, after all. But there was strength in his character as well as his body.
Lucan could be bossy and arrogant in his cop mode, but tender and loving otherwise. She’d watched him interact with her niece and her nephews as well as his own family. All the children adored him.
She adored him.
He’d been divorced for years now. Was he willing to try again?
Was she actually thinking in terms of marriage and forever? With Lucan?
He turned and saw her. “Hey.”
There was welcome and tenderness in the look he gave her.
“Hey yourself. Planning to light that?”
“That depends.” He watched her closely. “You planning to stay?”
He wasn’t only asking about her immediate intentions and she knew it. Kyra drew in a breath. She held his gaze and nodded. “I’m planning to stay.”
“C’mere.”
She smiled. “How about I meet you halfway?”
Laugh lines appeared in the corners of his eyes. He dusted off his hands. “Sounds perfect.”
“YOU KNOW, ONE OF these times we’ll have to try this in a bed,” Lucan grumbled, reaching for his pants.
“Just for the sheer novelty?”
“Precisely.”
He watched her step into her panties and felt a shaft of renewed desire.
“Get that look out of your eyes,” she warned.
“What look?”
She glanced down at his pants. “That look. We have a few other things to take care of first.”
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