by Julie Miller
He heard the creak of leather, the solid clack of metal on metal. Eli had holstered his weapon and pulled out his handcuffs.
“I’ll be interested in meeting them, too. But first, I want to know how a decent cop like you could sell out to Sanchez. Wrists, please.”
“Why don’t you ask your partner.”
Julia spoke again. “Mac, don’t let him take you. Tell him the truth. Tell him how Joe Niederhaus has been blackmailing other cops. How he used his I.A. connections to know which cops were in trouble and could be coerced into helping him.”
“Hold it right there, lady.”
Mac’s blood turned to ice in his veins.
In his ear Mac heard the metallic double click of a bullet being loaded into the firing chamber of a semiautomatic gun.
Then he heard Joe Niederhaus’s breathy voice whisper right into Julia’s ear. “We’ve gotta find your boyfriend and convince him to turn himself in. Tell him to confess to taking the bribes and destroying all that evidence himself.”
“Jules!”
Cold metal hit his wrist as Eli locked one arm into the cuffs. “Now, Taylor.”
“Your partner is guilty of taking bribes. Arnie Sanchez just confirmed it on tape.”
“That’s desperation talking.”
“He’s holding my girlfriend hostage.”
“He’s bringing in your accomplice.”
“With a gun to her head?” Mac was beyond reason now.
“I won’t do it!” Julia grunted as if she’d stifled a yelp of pain.
“There!” Mac backed away from Eli and pointed over the railing. Julia was down there somewhere, and Niederhaus better hope to hell he didn’t hurt her.
“If you resist arrest, Taylor…” Eli advanced.
Julia shouted. “He sees us.”
“Joe?”
Taking advantage of Masterson’s startled assessment of the situation, Mac swung out. The handcuffs had only been locked on to his right wrist, and the loose metal flew out and clipped Eli in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground.
“Jules!”
Mac whirled around and took off running. He plowed into someone, knocked them down, tripped over them and rolled. He apologized and cursed his handicap all at the same time. And then he was rolling down. Down the ramp. He rose to his hands and knees and crawled to the edge. If he could find the railing, he could orient himself. He could get down to the first level and help Julia.
Hell. She might not even be there anymore.
More people streamed by, blocking his path. But he crawled on, until his shoulder hit the plexiglas side beneath the railing. He pulled himself up onto his feet.
“Josh? Mitch? Ginny?”
“We’re on it.” That was Mitch.
“Can you see her?”
“No, I’m on the wrong level. I’m working my way down now.”
“I’m coming.” That was Josh. “Ginny has Sanchez. Where are you?”
“Bottom of the catwalk ramp. She was in the food court with Niederhaus.”
“I’m there now,” said Josh. “I don’t see her.”
“Find me,” he commanded.
Mac stood in place, helplessly lost in a spinning world of noise and crowds and…
“Taylor!”
Mac swung around toward the voice. Apparently, Eli Masterson didn’t appreciate being smacked in the head.
“Got ya, bro.”
Josh snatched his arm the same moment Eli reached him. Josh was on the other cop in a heartbeat. “Back off.”
“I’m doing my job,” argued Eli. Josh was a big man, but Eli had the strength to shove him back a step into Mac.
Not to be outdone, Josh shoved back. “Your job is to bring in crooked cops. Start with your partner.”
“Enough.” Josh’s defense, his absolute trust, made him proud as hell, but he didn’t have time to thank him. “We have to find Julia.”
And then in his ear he heard it. Mac squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on the sound. He tuned out the harping noise of curious onlookers passing by. He tuned out the sounds of laughter and conversation from the food court below him. He tuned out Josh and Eli arguing over the evidence piled up against Joe. He even tuned out the sound of Julia’s shallow, rapid breaths as Niederhaus pushed her along to some unknown destination.
Carnival music.
“The carousel.” Mac clutched at the sleeve of Josh’s coat. “He has her at the carousel.”
“You coming?” Josh dared Eli.
“If you’re wrong about this, I will have the badge of every one of you Taylors.”
“Done.” At this point, Mac would agree to anything.
He latched on to Josh’s arm and followed his brother toward the sound. “Jules, can you hear me?”
“Yes.” If his hearing hadn’t been sharp, he would have missed her breathy reply.
“Don’t make any sudden moves. We’re coming for you, sweetheart.”
“Okay.”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Damn.”
But it was too late. “Give that to me!”
He heard the struggle. He heard Julia scream. He heard the shouts of people scattering around them.
“Jules!”
Then he heard Joe Niederhaus’s voice, loud and wild right in his ear. “You stay away from me, Taylor. Or your little sweet-assed girlfriend is gonna take it right in the head. You understand?”
Mac winced at the high-pitched squeal in his ear. He snatched the transmitter out of his ear. There was nothing to hear now but static.
Josh and Mitch were still connected, though.
“We’ve got more trouble,” warned Josh. “Mall security spotted Niederhaus’s gun. They’re swarming down in the children’s area.”
“Evacuate it,” Mac warned. “Get everyone out of there.”
“Mitch is on it.”
“Good.” If Mitch Taylor couldn’t take charge and control a potential riot, no one could. “But how the hell are we going to find her now?”
Niederhaus could simply pocket his gun and walk out, undetected, with Julia and the rest of the crowd.
“I’ll circle around and come down by the escalators.” Could Eli’s offer be trusted? “I don’t want anybody to get hurt. And I want to hear Joe’s side of the story before I decide who I believe. He’s been the best there is at a thankless job for over forty years.”
Mac appreciated the honesty of Eli’s request. “Maybe he finally decided he wanted some thanks.”
“Maybe.”
When Eli left, Josh and Mac hurried on down to the first level. The chaos he’d heard over Julia’s microphone was nothing like the real thing. The movement of people. Nervous mothers shouting for their children. Children crying for their mothers. Mall security giving commands.
“And a desperate man with a gun in the middle of all this.”
He could feel Josh’s movements as he scanned the crowd. “You’re the idea man, big brother. What do you want to do?”
Mac closed his eyes and thought of Julia’s clear, patient voice, with just enough huskiness to its tone to make it irresistibly sexy. He thought of her clean, sweet scent and how she’d brought sunshine into his dark world.
His eyes popped open.
“Seal off all the ramps and stairwells. I want to funnel people onto the escalators.”
“Okay.” The hesitancy in Josh’s voice was clear. “You’ve heard of a stampede?”
“There’ll be a few seconds of shock first. That’s all I need.” He waited the few seconds it took for Josh to call the directions in to Mitch. “Now take me to the power relay grid.”
Josh might not have Julia’s patience, but after a few missteps and cuss words he followed Mac’s directions to the letter.
“Now.”
Josh threw the switch at Mac’s direction, and suddenly the Independence Center Mall came grinding to a halt. Escalators became frozen steps. Elevators became suspended boxes. Music stopped. Games stopped.
People stopped. Mac recognized the sudden blackout by the one stunned moment of absolute silence.
“Generators are kicking on,” said Josh.
“Now. Get me there now.”
It was a simple plan really. Throw everyone into a state of panic. But one man would panic more than anyone else.
Mac kept pace with Josh’s running jog.
“I see him!” shouted Josh. “He’s breaking through the crowd on the escalator now.”
“Coming up toward us?”
“Going down.”
“No!”
“I lost him.”
And then plans didn’t matter. Mac shoved his way into the crowd, with Josh a step behind. He didn’t need to see to pull his way past people. They were all facing forward, climbing up the stairs. He was going down.
“Julia!”
“Mac!”
He was closer. He could hear her.
His foot left the hard metal stair and hit soft carpet.
“Jules!”
“Stay away!”
He could smell him now. Stale cigar smoke. Boozy breath.
Mac shifted directions. His world spun on its own axis, made no sense. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t functioning in the world like anyone else around him.
“Mac! Ow!” Julia’s yelp of pain turned him to his right.
“Get your hands off her!”
Sunshine. Crisp autumn sunshine.
Mac sniffed the air as he shoved his way past people who had already been shoved aside.
He was close.
“Jules!”
The path cleared. Mac’s momentum pitched him forward, but he caught himself with an extra step.
“That’s far enough, Taylor.”
Mac tilted his nose. Niederhaus was to his left. He tilted his face to the right. Julia. Clean. Sweet. Fresh. Frightened. Gutsy enough to be on her feet from the sound of her voice.
“Mac, don’t let him hurt you.”
Niederhaus inhaled a wheezy gasp of air into his lungs. “I know this place is swarming with cops. But I’m walking out of here, understand?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m the one with the gun, lab boy. I’m the real cop here. You’re the one with the girlfriend who’s gonna die.”
“Jeff Ringlein and Wade Osterman died for you already, Niederhaus.” Mac’s voice was as cold and devoid of emotion as it had ever been. “I think that’s enough.”
And then he heard it. The shift of crepe soles, the steadying breath of air.
Mac threw himself at the rancid smell of Joe Niederhaus. He hit his soft belly and they went down with a thud as his gun went off.
Niederhaus was too out of shape and Mac was too angry for it to be much of a fight. Mac shook the gun from Joe’s hand and turned him onto his stomach. He took the man’s own handcuffs from his belt and anchored them around Niederhaus’s wrists.
When he fell back onto his knees, Julia was there, hugging him from behind. He turned and gathered her into his arms, holding her close, running his sensitive fingers along every part of her he could reach without letting her go. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine.”
“But I heard you with him.”
“Maybe a few bruises. They’ll go away.”
Mac smoothed back her hair and tried to look at her face. “Anyone else?”
“No.” She covered his hands with her own. “His shot hit the carousel.”
“I love you, Julia Dalton.”
He gathered her close again, burying his nose in the sweet smell of her hair that had led him straight to her time and again.
It didn’t bother him that she hadn’t said the words back to him. For now it was enough to know that she was safe.
Chapter Thirteen
The next two weeks passed by in a blur for Julia.
Eli Masterson took over the sad duty of arresting his own partner, and a system-wide investigation of all of Joe Niederhaus’s contacts ensued. A man with forty-plus years of experience on the police force knew a lot of people on both sides of the law, and as retirement approached he’d come up with a foolproof plan to walk away with a lot more than a gold watch.
Fortunately, Mac was no fool. By piecing the seemingly unconnected clues together, and testing his theory against the dismissed cases in Dwight Powers’s office, he’d figured out Niederhaus’s system. He’d taken money from criminals, and used the talents of cops in trouble with Internal Affairs—Jeff Ringlein’s lab connection, Wade Osterman’s muscle, countless others—to destroy cases that good cops and the district attorney’s office had built against them.
Like Mac, she’d been interviewed time and again by the police, though she avoided contact with the media. She let Captain Mitch Taylor handle the public relations on this one. She was content to stand back and let others deal with the spotlight.
And she was out of a job again. Almost as soon as they got home, Mac received a call from his doctor. They were ready for his lens transplant—if he was.
At the hospital there were other nurses who saw to his daily care. And his wonderful family was always there with him, if not en masse, then his mother or father, or a brother, his sister Jessie, or cousin Mitch. And then there were friends to support him. Fellow cops who wanted to thank him for getting the bad cop out of their hair. The chief of CSI who promised Mac a job would be waiting for him when, not if, his sight returned. Dwight Powers stopped by, and in his terse, cold way thanked Mac for making his job a lot easier.
Mac, uninterested in staying in his bed the entire recuperative period, visited Merle Banning every day. Julia did, too. There didn’t seem to be enough ways she could thank the young detective for saving their lives.
She was searching for a lot of ways to keep busy.
She was slowly, intentionally, distancing herself from Mac. He had so much to look forward to, so many people who loved and needed him. He didn’t seem to need her the way he had those few days they were on the run for their lives.
Why would he?
She was that plain Jane tomboy who’d lived across the street. The one with no common sense where men were concerned. The one a blind man thought was pretty.
But when Mac regained his sight…
Julia hugged her arms in front of her chest and looked out across the Kansas City skyline from the waiting room on the tenth floor of St. Luke’s Hospital. Autumn had its grip on the city now. The leaves along the trees in the Plaza had turned from golds and reds to a dull brown and were ready to fall to the ground. The sky itself was a dingy gray at twilight.
And though she had prayed, in almost every waking moment, for Mac’s surgery to be a success, there was a tiny selfish part of her, where that Pandora’s box around her heart used to be, that wanted things to stay the same. She didn’t think she could stand it if Mac opened his eyes and a flash of disappointment crossed his face. He wouldn’t be cruel to her, like Ray or Anthony. But she’d disappoint him all the same.
The possibility sat like a crushing weight deep in her heart.
“I flew in from the coast for this unveiling. What are you doing out here? You’ll miss the whole show.”
She turned her face to the dark-haired man who’d come up beside her. “Cole!”
Julia threw her arms around his neck and was swallowed up in a crushing bear hug by one of her favorite childhood friends. When he set her back on the floor, she stepped back and took a good look at him. Part of her couldn’t help but feel better. He’d matured into a handsome man, taller and broader than she remembered, but with the same killer smile. The extra lines beside his eyes worried her a tad, but he was still her best buddy.
“When did you get here?”
“This morning.”
She reached behind him and flicked the long ponytail that hung down his back. “And what’s this?”
“Fifteen years of hard living.” He captured her hand between both of his. “Don’t change the subject. They’re about to take off Ma
c’s bandages. Don’t you want to be there?”
Her gaze flitted out the window and back to Cole. She had no way to explain how torn she was, no way to make him understand the depths of her feelings for his brother, no way to tell him how badly she could be hurt.
“He’s asking for you.”
With that, something flip-flopped inside her heart. If Mac needed her, she couldn’t stay away.
MAC KNEW THE instant Julia entered the room. It wasn’t the sound of the door opening and closing, or the hushed welcomes and good wishes as his family greeted Cole.
It was sunshine. Pure and simple.
Mac breathed in deeply and felt a sense of calm sweep through him. Today was the day. He’d find out if the transplant was a success. One eye couldn’t be saved, but maybe—maybe there’d be enough of a man left among all the scars for Julia to love.
“You ready, Mac?”
Mac liked Dr. Perulakhar. The man didn’t mince words, and he knew his business. He’d made it clear from the beginning that the lens transplant wasn’t a guaranteed success. And though the surgery had gone well, there was a possibility that his body could still reject or refuse to adapt to the new eye.
“I’m ready.”
“I’ll have to ask everyone to leave.” His family lined up for hugs and handshakes and prayers and then filed out of the room.
“Wait.” Mac reached out his hand. He couldn’t do this alone. He needed Julia. Sight or no, he needed her.
“It’s not customary to have an audience for this. Sometimes their reactions can affect a patient’s recovery.”
“She’s a registered nurse.”
“Very well.”
His hand seemed to hover in the air for an eternity. Mac frowned. An unexpected sense of loss sabotaged his preparation for this last step of the operation. Had she left despite the doctor’s approval?
“I’m here.” Julia’s fingers touched his. He turned his hand and gripped hers tight, pulling her to his side at the edge of the hospital bed. He breathed in deeply, calmly. All was right with his world again.
“I’m ready now.”
“I’ll just dim the lights.”
Mac held his breath. He pumped his hand around Julia’s, then held her with both hands.
The doctor cut the bandages from his eyes. “Keep them closed for a moment.” He dabbed at his eyelid with a cool compress of some kind, did the kind of checking that doctors do. “All right. Open them slowly. Slowly.”