by Dianna Love
Leanne pulled back to the left, but at ninety-plus miles per hour, tires screeched, and the car spun out of control.
Momentum tossed Trish backwards.
Leanne stomped the brake, throwing Trish against the dash, and landed a fist to Trish’s jaw.
Trish used the dash as a brace and flung a backfist to Leanne’s nose.
While they fought, the car careened over the side of the shoulder, diving down into the canal.
Trish’s shoulder bounced against the dash when the car slammed the water that gushed up over the hood and windshield.
Then everything stopped at once.
She looked over at Leanne who was leaned forward against the steering wheel. Dash lights still lit the interior and the engine continued to hum.
The car had hit at an angle, leaving Leanne’s side out of the water and Trish’s sinking into the canal.
“God I want to kill you.”
Trish whipped around at the sound of Leanne’s voice to find the crazy bitch awake and with a murderous glint in her eyes. She had the damn gun again. “We’re going to get out and I’m going to find us a ride. If you try anything, I will make you wish you’d never drawn your first breath.”
Trish just shook her head. “What fucked you up this bad?”
“Shut up and get out.”
Leanne opened her door, keeping an eye on Trish as she backed out and leaped away to the bank. She called out, “This water’s full of moccasins and my door will sink to the water in about thirty seconds.”
Trish struggled to pull herself up to Leanne’s door. She didn’t make much progress until she heard something splash in the water. She knew it was irrational, but a reptile with big teeth scared her more than Leanne with a gun. She scrambled out the door and leaped to the bank, then climbed up to the pavement.
Not a car in sight, but an almost-full moon shed enough light to see where she walked.
Leanne shoved the barrel of the gun against Trish’s head. “You deserve to die.”
Not as much as you do, bitch. The only thing in Trish’s favor right now was the element of surprise, and the fact that Leanne still wanted to keep her alive.
What would Arnie say? Watch for an opening and attack.
When Leanne pulled the gun away, Trish took a step and spun around, kicking Leanne’s wrist to knock the gun loose. Didn’t happen. Dammit.
Trish punched Leanne twice, aiming for the throat but catching her jaw and her chin, then she ran. Leanne staggered, spun around and came after her.
Fight dirty, and fight to win.
Trish ran for the shoulder, stopping at the last minute and turning back toward Leanne, praying for the right timing.
Leanne was nearly on her when Trish dove toward Leanne’s legs. Leanne couldn’t stop her momentum and flew forward, off the shoulder and down onto the rocky bank.
Leanne landed hard on her back and the gun flew out of her hand as she rolled toward the water’s edge, screaming obscenities. Trish heard the splash when Leanne landed in the water.
Trish hesitated for a few seconds. Could she outrun a woman with five inches on her and a much longer stride? No.
What would Arnie say?
When your enemy is down, strike hard.
But Leanne was a human, after all.
A human who tried to kill a US Senator and wants to send your brother to prison.
Trish started down the bank.
The water splashed. Leanne pushed up on her knees then screamed and yanked backwards. She screamed again, “Alligator!”
Terrified, Trish looked around for the gun but Leanne clawed at the bank, fighting to hold on and slipping backwards even more. Trish raced down the bank and grabbed Leanne’s arm, sitting back and shoving her feet in for purchase. Dammit. She wanted to stop Leanne, but not this way. She strained to hold on as Leanne cried and screamed, her body jerked back and forth.
Trish saw the alligator’s eyes, reflecting yellow in the moonlight. He was huge and had Leanne by the thigh.
The whump whump whump of a helicopter came out of nowhere. Wind from the rotors buffeted Trish and a floodlight blinded her as it swept the area.
She turned her face away from the flying dirt and debris. The crack of a gunshot made her drop onto the rocks but still, she held onto Leanne’s arm. The alligator jerked once. A second shot killed it.
Leanne was sobbing and moaning.
Trish couldn’t let go. She risked a quick look around. The helicopter landed on the highway and figures were running toward her.
“Trish!” She heard the shout over the noise of the rotors.
Josh.
He came for me.
Trish’s heart did high jumps.
He scrambled down the rocky bank,
“Are you hurt, baby?”
“No, but Leanne...” Trish couldn’t breathe.
Ryder appeared on her other side with a mean-looking rifle in his hand. “Let me have her.” He took Leanne’s arm from Trish.
Josh pulled Trish back from Leanne and the alligator. Ryder used the muzzle end of his rifle to push the alligator’s jaws open and pull Leanne free, but her leg had been severed. Blood turned the murky water black, and spread onto the rocks at the water’s edge.
Ryder looked up at Josh and shook his head. Dead.
Trish said, “I tried–”
“You couldn’t save her from that.” Josh pulled her into his arms. He was trembling. I’m so fucking glad you’re alive.”
“She’s the mole.”
“I know. We figured it out about the time she drove off with you.”
That meant his job was done.
Josh would be leaving Miami.
Chapter 53
Sabrina’s cell phone rang as she’d just pulled off her clothes to step into the shower. She wrapped a towel around her body and answered it. “Slye.”
“I just opened the box with what’s left of the laser weapon used on the airliner.” Gage stopped there, offering no hint of whether he was angry or pleased.
“We don’t have Rikker.”
“I know.”
How could he know? She’d find out later. “But we will.”
“I know that, too.”
This time, she let the silence grow until he said what he had on his mind. Talking to him with no clothes on brought back memories of erotic phone calls when they’d been on opposite sides of the world.
There were times when their conversations had been as languorous as their bed play. This one needed to end before it began to live and breathe.
He gave in first. “Have I earned back any of your trust?”
“You scuffed the surface. Takes more than a shot at Rikker.”
“That’s all I needed to know. Enjoy your shower.”
Click.
Chapter 54
“What do you think Leanne meant by Czarion?” Ryder asked, driving along the beach highway toward their hotel suite headquarters.
“I don’t know. Never heard of it.” Josh had hoped for closure with this mission, not to open up a whole new set of questions. He still wanted Rikker, but he accepted, now, that finding the agent would not fix what had happened with Chelsea.
Like Sabrina tried to tell him. Chelsea was gone and Josh was still here. If it had turned out the other way around, he wouldn’t have wanted Chelsea so focused on finding Rikker that she’d let her life slide by unlived.
“What are you going to do about Trish?”
Josh tensed at just hearing her name. “Nothing.”
“After all this, you’re just gonna let her go?”
When did the FNG decide Josh and he were BFFs who talked about relationships? “Look, I appreciate what you did at the airport, and your help finding Trish.” Josh waited for Ryder to look over and he said, “I mean it.”
Ryder nodded.
“Trish needs to be with her family and live a normal life with a man who can have a normal life.”
“She told you this?”
She d
idn’t have to.
Ryder raised an eyebrow. “I see. So now you read minds?”
“No.” Josh really did owe the son of a bitch. Maiming Ryder at this point would be dishonorable.
“How would you take it if someone made your decisions for you?”
Not very well. Which was exactly, he realized, why Trish was always fighting Zane so hard.
Shit. Josh had the sudden insight that he’d been doing it too. The very thing he’d told Zane would undermine Trish. .
Was he shortchanging Trish by deciding for both of them? “I can’t bring her into this world.”
“Her fucking brother lives in this world. What would be any different with you?”
“I made a vow to someone to never get involved with a woman as long as I’m in this line of work.” A vow that felt as hollow as the inside of his chest. That vow had made sense in his life at one time. Back then. Not now.
“Is that someone going to keep you company in your old age?”
“No. He’s dead.”
“So you’re willing to walk away from Trish for some vow to a dead guy? You’re a dick, you know that?” Ryder grumbled, turning the truck off the main highway.
Maiming the FNG was back on the table. But damn if he didn’t have a point. “Got any other pearls of wisdom or is that it?”
Ryder pulled into the hotel parking lot and left the truck running. “Yeah, I got one more. If I had someone like Trish who was in love with me–or did I misunderstand the way she was looking at you?–I sure as hell wouldn’t quit on her.”
Josh had thought his moment with Trish had been private when he and Ryder had dropped her at home. He’d kissed her, several times, and it would have turned explosive if the FNG hadn’t been there and Trish hadn’t been in a rush to get to Zane and Angel at the hospital.
Ryder turned off his truck. “Or is she not worth the trouble it would take to keep her?”
That struck so hard Josh should have doubled over. The idea of giving her up sucked all the air from his lungs. He realized in that moment just how much he would do to keep her.
Trish was worth everything.
Breaking a vow to a dead man was the least of what he would do.
Josh waited to feel a moment of guilt, but instead he felt a strange calm blanket him at accepting that.
Ryder tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Your loss.”
It would be. Josh would never get over wanting to keep her, but Trish would want to know everything about him, including who his parents were. He wanted to continue with Sabrina and Dingo, but he didn’t feel the passion for what he’d always done. Like seducing women. He only wanted one woman.
Lots of wanting and not enough having.
Ryder hadn’t gotten out of the truck. Worse than a dog after a squirrel. He wouldn’t give up. “Life’s short, especially in our line of work. I signed on with Sabrina for freedom. I can accept or turn down an assignment. I can have a life. That’s all I want. The only thing that would make it any better would be finding a woman who likes the outdoors as much as I do. I find that, I’m not turning her loose.”
The FNG was starting to grow on Josh, but there was also the question of Trish tying herself to a man who spent more time in the bleak underbelly of the world than in the light. Would she be willing to do that? Did he still want to do that?
If not, could he tell Sabrina and Dingo goodbye?
He had a decision to make.
Josh didn’t want to talk about it any more with Ryder. He wanted to pack up and find Trish. “I know what you’re saying. I’ve always had to do the right thing and I’ll do it this time.”
They both got out and Josh caught up with Ryder in front of the truck.
Sirens screeched.
Cars pulled up around them, coming from every direction.
Ryder’s hand moved toward his weapon.
Josh warned, “Don’t. This is the real FBI. Let me find out what’s up and see if I can get us out of here.”
A crowd of FBI personnel wearing black windbreakers and with weapons drawn had Josh and Ryder encircled in seconds. “Hands in the air.”
Josh complied, but said, “I’m FBI, too.”
Agent Theron showed his badge and checked Josh’s, then turned to Ryder. “Ryder Van Dyke?”
“Yes.”
“You’re under arrest for the murder of J. K. Kearn.”
Josh turned to Ryder whose imperturbable face was slack with disbelief. Ryder asked, “Kearn’s dead? What happened?”
The agent started reading Miranda.
Ryder ignored him and met Josh’s gaze. “Didn’t do it.”
Josh couldn’t stop this train wreck right now, but he gave Ryder a nod that he hoped conveyed their team rule. Slye never gives up their own.
What the hell had the FNG gotten into?
Chapter 55
Trish smiled at her brother who sat beside Angel’s hospital bed, staring at his wife and daughter with such a look of raw love she wanted to cry. But a happy cry. “Aren’t they beautiful, Zane?”
He raised the happiest proud papa face to her that Trish had ever seen.
Her sister-in-law gave a little headshake. “Jacey is beautiful, but I’ve spent twelve hours in labor. I haven’t brushed my hair or my teeth and I still have a baby belly.”
“Let me tell you what I see,” Trish said. “You have that new mother glow. Zane has always loved your hair, because he’s constantly touching it like he is right now.”
Zane laughed sheepishly. “She’s right.”
“And as for a little pooch at your middle,” Trish continued. “You’ll be out running that off before you know it.”
Angel heaved a relaxed sigh. “True. I can’t wait to get back in shape.”
“Which is why my baby gift to you is one of those cool three-wheel jogging strollers.”
Angel’s eyes lit up. “Really? I was thinking about one.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Trish nodded, happy to see that she’d chosen well. “But when you need to go on those really long runs, Heidi and I will have an auntie day.”
“You’re going to be the best aunt, but a very busy one.” Angel grinned. “Hey, what happened with the filming?”
“Senator Dixon is rescheduling.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” Angel looked heartbroken. “Did you lose the competition?”
Trish’s smile came from deep inside her soul. “Xavier had a much sexier Hollywood celebrity, but he embarrassed her by not really being an expert.”
“Who?” Angel’s eyes lit up at the possible gossip.
“The producers aren’t revealing the name. I just heard that around the studio.”
“You’ve been back?”
“Yes. I am one of the two new consultants.”
Zane grinned. “Way to go, honey. I never doubted you.”
Angel rolled her eyes at her husband and winked at Trish who’d already forgiven her brother for worrying himself into a frenzy over her.
Trish checked her watch, but only for show. She had nothing to do for three days. Heidi had run her off from ReSolution, claiming Heidi and Bunko had everything under control. Trish was warned to not return without a tan. “I need to get moving.”
“Wait,” Angel said, shifting the baby in her arms. “What about Josh?”
Trish shrugged. She didn’t think she could say he was supposed to leave today and she never expected to see him again. Not without crying, anyway, so she kept her lips pressed into a campaign-worthy smile.
If Josh’s decision was to walk away, then so be it.
She’d made a deal with herself that she could love him enough to let him go. He held a part of her she’d never be able to share with another man, but she was not the woman she’d been before meeting Josh. She’d survived murders, assaults and lunatics. All without taking a sip of alcohol.
To still be sober after all that gave her the confidence she’d been only pretending to have until now.
Zane got t
hat dark I-hate-any-men-around-my-baby-sister look. “Josh is gone, right?”
Angel gave him an elbow.
Zane oomphed. “Hey. Just watching out for my kid sister.”
“What makes you think Trish needs it or that Josh can’t take care of her?” Angel countered.
Trish was lucky to have Angel. She’d become Josh’s biggest fan a few hours ago when Trish had shared what had really happened in Alligator Alley. She had not told Zane the whole story. He’d find out soon enough. Hopefully when she wasn’t around.
Zane had been out getting coffee and making Angel’s snack run, so the two women had been able to talk freely. But Trish had also told Angel that Josh was protecting someone, and until he could share that world with Trish, she couldn’t live in the shadows of his.
Neither would she live in any other shadow, even if it was the shadow of her own brother’s fear. She was done with that.
When Zane came back into the room, carrying a sack of contraband goodies that smelled suspiciously like pizza, Angel’s personal poison, Trish bided her time.
“I just heard back from my buddy Randall,” he said as he started unpacking the sack. “He said he’ll be at your house at seven tomorrow evening.” He set down a Styrofoam cup of coffee and looked at Trish. “He’ll meet with you to get your regular itinerary, then check out your house and let me know what kind of security system you need. Plus he’s just hired a new team out of Tennessee. They’re former Army Special Ops, which is perfect. He says they can follow you from home to work in the mornings, then back in the evenings, and they’ll set up a system in ReSolution and one at your house.
He kept talking as he pulled out a pizza slice-shaped box from a local mini-mart chain. Trish walked over to Zane and put her hand on his chest. She heard Angel snicker behind a bite of pizza. Zane stopped talking and both eyebrows shot up. “Problem?”
“Not as long as you pay attention to what I have to say.” She really loved this big idiot. “This is the last time we’re having this conversation, because I’m done with being coddled and smothered. Why do you think I train so hard with Arnie? I can take care of myself. I need your love, not your protection. Got it?”