by Wilde, Lori
“Confederates? Like the Civil War? I’m from Philadelphia, lady.”
“No, I meant—never mind.”
“Who is this Tucker guy?”
“You don’t know him? He’s not working with you?”
“Nope. But I do know that you saw into my box the other night.” He took a threatening step toward her, his hammy fists clutched at his sides.
July’s pulse climbed on a rocket to outer space. “Box, what box?”
“There you go playing dumb again.” He wagged his pit-bull head back and forth and came closer.
She backed up. “You fell. I came to check on you. I don’t know anything about any box.”
“See, here’s the thing, I don’t believe you.” Another step.
“I believed you,” she said, trying her best to stand her ground, but his big feet were almost touching her toes, and she had to crane her neck up to meet his stare. “About the kitten.”
“That’s on you, Rosy.”
“Were you the one who made a threatening call to me this morning?”
“Wasn’t me.” He looked bored as if he threatened people as a matter of course, and she was just another in a long line of yawn-inducing victims.
Anger surged through her. “All right, then it was your brother.”
Stravanos shrugged. “I can’t account for what Mikos does.”
“Listen here,” July shook her finger in Leo Stravanos’s beefy jowls. “I know what you’re doing, and it’s got to stop.”
“Excuse me?” To July’s irritation, he broke into a grin. “Let me understand this. You’re issuing me ultimatums?”
“Yes.” Despite the rapid thudding of her pulse, July lifted her chin and met the big man’s stare. “I know you and your brother are dealing in stolen or forged passports and driver’s licenses.”
“I thought you didn’t see into the box.”
“Yes, well, that’s when I was hoping we could forgive and forget. But I can see you’re stubborn.”
“I’m stubborn?” He laughed a rough bitter sound. “Lady, you take the cake.”
“I’m calling the cops on you.”
“You’re really brave or really stupid, and I’m leaning toward stupid.”
“I’ll give you a chance to turn yourself in.” July kept yammering to buy time as she tried to figure a way out of this that didn’t involve her ending up in a body bag.
Bemused, he said, “How generous of you.”
“What’s going on in here?” Mikos Stravanos emerged from the bedroom carrying two large suitcases.
Fresh fear shook July’s spine. Things just kept getting worse. Now she had to figure out how to get away from two of them.
Leo jerked a thumb at July. “Gladys Kravitz here says you called and threatened her.”
“Yeah? So?”
“It was you?” July exclaimed.
“I wanted to make sure you minded your own business. Obviously, it didn’t work,” Mikos replied, setting the suitcases down and planting his hands on his hips.
“You’ve put us in a difficult position,” Leo added. “We can’t let you leave.”
“If only you’d minded your own business.” Mikos clicked his tongue.
“Wh...wh...what are you going to do to me?” she stammered, hugging herself hard.
“Good question,” Leo Stravanos said. “Mikos, you got any ideas?”
Mikos giggled. It was a high-pitched, awful sound coming from such a large, ugly man. He rubbed his palms together gleefully. “I got a few suggestions…but I don’t think she’s gonna like any of them.”
For the first time in her life, July knew true terror. It grew like a cancerous tumor, swelling huge in her chest, stealing her breath, spreading rapidly throughout her entire body.
The urge to flee gripped her. Escape! Run! Hide! But how to get past the two giant redwood trees that were the Stravanos brothers? Leo stood in front of her, Mikos behind her. No matter which way she darted, she was caught.
Suddenly, all the things Tucker had said came back to haunt her. She remembered his negative attitude and the way he always seemed to see the worst in people. At the time she’d thought him embittered, burned by life. She hadn’t considered the possibility that he might have a good reason for his views. Evil did exist.
Tucker had been right. She was foolish and naive to believe that everyone could be her friend, that anyone could be redeemed.
“You certainly are a pretty little thing,” Mikos Stravanos said. “I wouldn’t mind stealing a kiss from you.” He touched her hair with his pudgy fingers.
She flinched, her heart lurching. Oh, merciful heavens, not this!
Stay calm!
Easy to say, much harder to do with this wildfire panic blazing through her. She thought again of Tucker and swallowed hard. What she wouldn’t give to have him here right now, holding her, protecting her in the sheltering comfort of his strong arms.
“Knock it off, Mikos,” Leo growled. “We don’t have time for that.”
“Aw, you never let me have any fun,” the younger Stravanos complained, an unsavory gleam in his eyes. He continued stroking her hair.
July steeled her jaw and tried not to shudder. She refused to let these men know how frightened she was.
“Would you rather mess around and get busted?” Leo asked.
“No,” Mikos mumbled.
“Then leave her alone.”
Reluctantly, Mikos dropped his hand. “Too bad, sweet thing,” he murmured in July’s ear, his breath smelling atrociously of sardines and mustard. “You and I could have a real good time.”
Slinking back, July shuddered, unable to control her revulsion one second longer. “If you let me go, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Leo Stravanos snorted. “What do you take us for, girlie? Idiots? Nope, either we take you with us or...”
Or what?
July felt the color drain from her face as she stared at the two imposing men. Her knees swayed like sapling willow trees. She curled her fingers into fists, nails biting into her palms. Were these men cold-blooded enough to kill her?
The world stopped spinning. A momentary silence elongated into eternity as the two criminals stared at her.
She heard their rugged respirations like air gusting through a windsock. Saw the stony expressions on their coarse faces. Tasted fear, sharp and bitter, and smelled their body odor. Felt her own skin contract in terror.
“You fellows don’t want to hurt me.” She forced a smile. “I know deep down inside you’re good men.”
Leo stared at her.
Mikos snorted a laugh.
“I know something must have happened to you as children that caused you to get off on the wrong track,” she continued in her most professional social worker voice. “But you don’t have to lie, cheat, and steal. You can change your life. You can become responsible, honorable men.”
“Well, well, you’re a regular Mother Teresa.” Leo shook his head.
“Get with the program,” Mikos added. “We’re outlaws because we like it. We don’t want to trudge to no nine-to-five, straitjacket office job like the rest of you jerks.”
“And we weren’t raised in no dysfunctional, twisted family either. So, stop with the psychological bull,” Leo growled.
July was out of tricks. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this fix.
“I say let’s take her with us.” Mikos panted, doglike. “We could show her how our people live.” He traced his finger along her cheek. “Who knows, sweetheart, you might like the outlaw life.”
“We don’t need the hassle,” Leo said.
“We could use her as a hostage. Something to think about.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “We don’t need a hostage, lame-brain. Nobody’s following us. She’s the only one who knows about the passports and driver’s licenses. And she hasn’t already gone to the police because she thought some guy named Tucker was with us.”
“Really?” Mikos squinted at her.<
br />
July nodded, too shocked to do anything more.
“Still,” Mikos said with a lingering leer. “It wouldn’t hurt to have her along, just in case.”
“By the way.” Leo leaned forward in a menacing stance. “We never got around to this earlier, but who is this Tucker character and why did you think he worked with us?”
July shrugged. “Nobody. My mistake.”
“Come on.” Leo chucked a finger under her chin. “You can do better than that.”
“Really, I goofed that’s all.”
“Yeah, lady, I’d say you made a pretty big mistake,” Mikos said. “But that doesn’t answer my brother’s question.”
Leo Stravanos laid a paw on July’s shoulder and squeezed so hard she couldn’t breathe. Hard. He flashed his gaze to Mikos. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not taking her with us. We’re going to deal with this dolly right here, right now.”
14
Tucker was beside himself. Five minutes had passed since July disappeared into the Stravanos brothers’ apartment. Five minutes of prolonged torture that felt like five hundred years.
He’d never been so worried, so frustrated in his entire life. The woman he loved was in that apartment with two unpredictable felons who had a lot to lose and nothing to gain by keeping her alive.
The woman he loved?
Where had that thought come from?
Was he in love with July Johnson? How could he have fallen in love with her in only three days?
Impossible, and yet. he couldn’t deny what he felt.
He’d been shocked but intrigued by the cute little do-gooder so unafraid of inviting a man like him into her apartment for breakfast. She’d touched him deeply with her concern.
And now she was in grave danger.
Because of him.
It was all his fault! He should never have involved her in this mess. Never stayed at her place.
What to do? He’d been standing out here in the freezing cold, peering uselessly through the window, waiting for inspiration to strike. When all he wanted to do was bust through the door like a superhero and separate those two goons’ heads from their bodies.
He could run back into July’s apartment and grab his phone and call Matt Forrester for backup, but he feared the Stravanos brothers would leave with July before help arrived. He couldn’t risk letting them out of his sight. Not for a second.
Tucker peeked through the curtain slit once more. The Stravanos brother had shifted away from the window, at last, giving Tucker a clear view of July.
What he saw stilled his heart.
Mikos Stravanos was stroking her hair, a lecherous expression on his repulsive face. July appeared so tiny, so pale, so helpless beside the big brute. She trembled, utterly alone, and at the brothers’ mercy.
Rage unlike any he’d ever experienced charged through Tucker. That was his woman in there. His lady those thugs were bullying. His heart pounded. His palms grew slippery with sweat, and he almost dropped his pistol. Adrenaline surged through his system—strong, powerful, feeding him with invincible energy.
Gone was any indecision. He had to get July out of there. Now. Immediately. This minute. Tucker aimed his boot at the apartment door and kicked it with all his might.
The door collapsed inward.
Metal clanged as the lock dislodged from the hasp. Tucker burst into the Stravanos apartment. With his feet wide apart, he crouched, his gun pointed at the startled brothers and an even more surprised July.
“El Paso PD,” he shouted. “Hands in the air. Now!”
* * *
El Paso Police?
July blinked at Tucker positioned in the middle of the living room, a gun clutched in both hands, the look in his brown eyes wild and angry.
Tucker was a police officer?
Her mouth fell open in disbelief. Suddenly, everything made perfect sense—his furtive behavior, the way he distanced himself from her, the reason he would never talk about himself. He’d been undercover all along.
July’s respirations quickened at the sight of him. A needful longing throbbed in her lower abdomen. Her fingers ached to thread through his hair. She wanted more than anything to fall into his arms and never leave.
“Drop it!” Tucker shouted at Mikos Stravanos, who’d yanked a gun from his coat pocket. “Or I’ll shoot you dead.”
Mikos growled but dropped the weapon. It hit the carpet with a muted plunk.
“Palms on the back of your heads,” Tucker barked. “Both of you.”
The brothers hesitated and shot each other glances.
“Do it!”
A thrill raced through July as she watched Tucker in action. He was so strong, so masterful, quite unlike the noncommunicative homeless man she’d believed him to be. Seeing him like this, learning that he was an undercover policeman and not a criminal, sharpened her admiration...and her adoration.
“On the floor.” Tucker waved his gun at the two criminals. “This minute.”
Grunting, Leo and Mikos sank to their knees.
“Are you all right?” Tucker asked, turning slightly to July.
For the first time since entering the apartment, his attention was trained on her. Looking up, July met his brown-eyed gaze. She gulped at the concern she saw there.
“I’m fine,” she whispered.
He nodded curtly, not revealing a clue to his emotions. “I’m glad.” Stepping past her, he moved over to the prostrate brothers. “You have the right to remain silent…”
“Put your gun down, Tucker.”
Gasping, July’s gaze shifted from Tucker to the man standing in the doorway.
She’d never seen him before. He was older, in his fifties, with a bloated face reddened by the ravages of alcohol abuse. In his hands, he also held a gun and was pointing it at Tucker’s head.
“Lieutenant Petruski?” Tucker looked puzzled. “What’s going on here?”
Lieutenant? Was this older man a cop too? Was he Tucker’s boss? Confused, July struggled to reconcile what was transpiring between the two men.
“Put your weapon on the floor.” Lieutenant Petruski’s expression was impassive, his eyes icy cold.
“For the love of Pete, don’t tell me you’re behind this.” Tucker’s voice cracked, but he hung on to his gun like a lifeline.
“Don’t make me shoot you, Tucker. Put the gun down. Or I will kill you.”
“Please, Tucker,” July cried. “Just do it. He means what he says.”
* * *
“You’re their boss,” Tucker said to his lieutenant, his mind totally boggled as he started to put two and two together. “You helped them jump bail in the first place.”
“Now you’re getting it.” Petruski sounded almost cheerful.
“Lieutenant, why are you doing this?”
“Stupid question, Haynes.”
“For money?”
“What do you think? Providing new identities to people looking to disappear pays far better than the EPPD.”
“We offer our own version of the witness protection program.” Mikos Stravanos chuckled, getting to his feet. “For people all over the world looking for a fresh start.”
“You mean criminals,” Tucker ground out the words through clenched teeth.
“Not just any criminals,” Leo said, coming to stand beside his brother. “The crème’d’crème of criminals. We cater to the elite.”
“So, Ramon Sanchez isn’t involved in this.”
“Oh, he’s involved,” Leo said. “He’s our latest client. He’s about to disappear off the face of the earth.” Leo clapped his hands so loud that July jumped.
Tucker swung his gaze back to Petruski as things started adding up in his head. “That’s why you picked me for this ‘special’ undercover assignment. Why you didn’t want to involve Homeland Security and ICE. Why you got ticked when I talked to Sheriff Forrester. You planned on framing me for this.”
Petruski grinned and shrugged. “You got me there. Who better to frame t
han a loner cop with no family ties?”
Tucker looked back at the Stravanos brothers. “You two knew all along that I was staking you out.”
“You made it so easy,” Leo said. “Throwing in your lot with Gladys here.” He jerked a thumb at July. “We threaten her, you come running. So easy.”
Tucker glared at Petruski. “Let July go; she’s got nothing to do with this.”
“You’re the one who involved her, not me. That’s on your head,” Petruski said. “No one told you to get friendly with her. Believe me, I didn’t expect you to do it, but when Leo told me you’d taken up with her, well, as he said, you made it so easy.”
Tucker’s gut wrenched. He couldn’t believe his own boss had betrayed him. On second thought, maybe he could. How many times had his own family disappointed him? He should be used to being deceived by now.
But Petruski? He never saw it coming.
Tucker sneaked a glance at July. Her face, drawn and pale, had him wanting to punch somebody. Hard. How dare they drag her into their ugly world. Fresh anger fueled his wrath, and he clung tight to his duty weapon.
They were going to kill them both. He knew it. Petruski couldn’t afford to let him live. Had never intended on letting him live. The lieutenant had cherrypicked him from the beginning for the fall guy.
Frame Tucker for Petruski’s crimes. He had no doubt that evidence had been planted in his locker at work and/or at his apartment in El Paso.
All evidence would point to him as the person in charge of the counterfeit identities ring.
Petruski was wrapping up his operation, cleaning up loose ends. His coup de grâce was helping Ramon Sanchez disappear with a new identity. After that, all he had to do was pin everything on a very dead Tucker, wash his hands of his past, and accept his promotion.
But Petruski needed someone to pin Tucker’s murder on, and July was collateral damage.
A tiny sliver of hope beat in Tucker’s chest.
“You know,” Tucker said to Leo Stravanos. “He’s framing me for his crimes, but he needs someone to take the blame for my death. You two are looking like prime candidates to me.”