One thing was certain, his peaceful life was screwed until this was over. He thought of Anna, and how her world had once again been shattered by bad guys who played fast and loose with other people’s lives. He remembered the letters she’d written as little more than a child. She was innocent. She didn’t deserve any of this and he’d do his damnedest to make it go away. Even if it meant venturing into the world he’d done his best to avoid all these years.
“Suck it up,” he told himself and dialed his PI.
It was answered on the fourth ring. “Chicago PD. Who’s speaking?”
Shock rocked through him. It was turning into a hell of a day for the unexpected. Brent cleared his throat. “I was trying to get through to Jack Panetti—maybe I have a wrong number…”
“You are…?”
Shit. If he hadn’t used his own phone to call he would have already hung up. “Name’s Brent Carver. Jack Panetti is doing some work for me.”
“Regarding?”
Nice try. “Just trying to track down an old girlfriend.”
The heavy pause. “Mr. Panetti was involved in the fatal shooting incident of a police officer last night. He’s in the hospital.”
Fuck. “He gonna make it?”
“I hope so.” The voice grew barbs. “We’re trying to figure out if he’s a victim or part of it.”
“Jack’s a straight-up guy.”
“So we hear.”
Christ. Jack had been in Chicago looking into Davis’s firm. What were the chances of this shooting being unrelated?
“Did you catch the shooter?” Brent asked.
“Not yet. You have any information, we’d appreciate it, Mr. Carver.”
“Sure thing.” He hung up and dialed Jack’s secretary, who was already at the hospital in Chicago. Jack was stable, but hadn’t regained consciousness yet. He’d sideswiped a police cruiser and then thrown himself from a moving vehicle. The shooter had murdered the cop, shot Jack in the back, and run like a motherfucker.
Brent sat in his truck in the Walmart parking lot as a feeling of dread settled around him. What the hell was going on? Exactly who had Davis ripped off? People who killed cops weren’t the sort you wanted on your tail. The stakes were getting higher, and slap-bang in the middle was the woman walking toward him with tired eyes and a worried expression. She climbed in, pushing the bags into the back.
Her smile faded. “What is it?”
He watched the way her lips parted and wished that was all he had to worry about—lusting after his best friend’s daughter.
“Someone killed a cop last night. Same guy shot the PI I hired to check out your dad’s firm.”
“Is he OK?”
“He’s alive.”
Her pupils widened until her eyes were completely black except for a tiny rim of emerald. “I need to go back, don’t I?”
“You could head to Tahiti or Australia. Take a year off.” Fear and frustration ramped up the tension in the cab. The electricity that snapped between them shorted out his nerves.
“I can’t run away from this forever,” she said quietly.
He watched her for a long moment, his mouth so dry he could barely speak. “Then, yeah, we need to go back.”
“We?” Sunlight glistened in her hair. “You’re coming with me?”
He wanted to put his hand over hers. Knew it would be a mistake. He wasn’t the touchy-feely type unless you counted sex, which seemed like a long-forgotten memory. But he kept his promises. Always. He put the car in gear and took Highway 4 to Nanaimo. “I promised Davis if anything ever happened to him, I’d look out for you.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“No, but something tells me you might need someone to watch your back before this is over. Right now, I’m it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, which unfortunately distracted him from his driving and he nearly ran a red light. He slammed on the brakes and they both lurched forward. Another example of weakness getting you killed. And Anna Silver might prove to be the biggest weakness of all.
“Do you want me to drive?” she asked, the whole schoolteacher vibe doing it for him in a big way.
He shifted uncomfortably. Fuck. It wasn’t like he could admit the truth—that he’d been distracted by her pert breasts outlined in fresh cotton. Nice, Carver. She was fourteen years his junior and made driven snow look dirty. Sick bastard.
He cleared his throat. “We have to go to Victoria to pick up those travel documents I mentioned, and I asked my brother to get his fiancée to check your mother’s house. See if the bastards are still there.” He had a plan but he needed help. He just wished he could stash Anna somewhere nice and safe until it was all over. Trouble was, if they’d found him in his remote corner of the Pacific Rim, they could find her anywhere on the island. She had more chance with him than alone. And right now that was the only thing that mattered.
CHAPTER 7
Katherine couldn’t see over Ed’s shoulder. He had his camera glued to his eyeball and was in full paparazzi mode as he shoved his way to the front railing at the stern of the massive cruise ship. She shivered under the bleak sky and wished she’d worn socks and sneakers rather than sandals. She tried to inch her way forward as another rush of air signaled a whale had surfaced not far from the bow, but even when she danced on tiptoes her view was blocked by a solid wall of shoulders. Someone grabbed her arm and drew her in front of them next to the railing—Harvey.
“Thanks.” She smiled up at him, surprised by the expression of joy on his face.
“You can’t miss this.” A sparkle lit his eyes.
Another whale broke the surface directly below them, so close Katherine couldn’t control a shiver of pure awe that wracked her body. She held back her hair with one hand and stared, rapt.
“She’s looking right at us,” Harvey whispered in her ear.
“She?” Katherine questioned, unable to look away from that intelligent black gaze.
He laughed. “Looks too smart and sensible to be a male, but I’m no expert.”
The brisk sea breeze numbed her skin, but she wouldn’t have missed this for anything. She was grateful for Harvey’s warmth at her back. The contact was innocent, but she knew Ed wouldn’t approve. She frowned, gripping the railing tighter. Come to think of it, Ed didn’t like her being friends with any man. He even had strong opinions about which women she spent time with. The vague feelings of disquiet about their relationship had been growing stronger lately, at times morphing into flat-out resentment. She wasn’t the type of woman to cheat, so why treat her like she was? He’d been treating her that way for years, she realized. It had taken her a long time to notice because she’d been so emotionally shattered when they’d gotten married. She’d been desperate to hide from the world and avoid conflict of any kind.
It was a time she’d never have gotten through without Ed, but lately…
She shrugged it off. Davis’s death had hit her a million times harder than she’d expected. She needed a little time to get her head back on straight, that was all.
A strong odor blasted her, and she pulled a face and turned with a raised eyebrow to Harvey.
“Not me,” he told her with a laugh. “Whale breath. It was how the whalers knew there was a whale around, even in a thick fog.”
“Ew.”
“But worth it?” he probed intently.
She turned back to the enormous creature, so elegant and powerful. So magnificent and threatened. Their vulnerability suddenly made her sad. “Definitely worth it.”
The whale disappeared, and then breached farther away from the ship—a thirty-four ton ballet dancer in all its glory. Water splashed up in great waves. The whale did it again and again, dazzling them with its exuberant glee.
Davis would have loved this. The thought made her heart hurt.
Katherine’s eyes grew misty with wonder even as she shivered from bone-numbing cold. It was so beautiful. So majestic. They were so free and so hunted. She’d ne
ver given them much thought really, but now their plight called to her in a way it never had before. Harvey was jostled against her by the crowd. Her teeth chattered. He slipped off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, the thick material holding his warmth and keeping the wind at bay.
“Thanks.” She tugged it gratefully around her body.
A plume of water hissed about twenty yards to their right as the humpback once again moved closer. A sleek black back appeared, a small hump, and then the long smooth curve of shiny body. It seemed to move in slow motion, uncaring of the massive ship and the infinitesimal passengers. The tail fluke glided slowly up into the air and hung suspended for a moment before disappearing beneath the waves. Gone.
“Got it.” She heard Ed shout with triumph.
She gazed helplessly after the whale, wondering why she suddenly felt so bereft.
The crowd continued to stare at the flat water, but the whale had moved on and after a few minutes people started to disperse. “Where’s Barb?” she asked, turning slightly toward Harvey.
“Decided the shops were more exciting than the wildlife.” His voice deepened, and there was an edge to it that suggested he was angry. She heard Ed calling her name and pressed her lips together. She should go. He hadn’t seen her standing beside Harvey, and she was a little ashamed at how much she wanted to slink off in the opposite direction.
Just because she was in a mood didn’t mean she should spoil his vacation. Ed worked hard and deserved a break.
Harvey watched her closely.
“I better go,” she said, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Yeah.” His eyes searched hers for something she couldn’t name. “I’m going to stay here and see if our friend reappears.”
She slid the jacket off her shoulders and handed it back. A weird gripping sensation took hold inside her chest. “I’d better go find Ed.”
His expression went carefully blank. “Yes, of course.”
She headed to where she’d seen her husband go inside the ship looking for her. At the doorway, she glanced back and Harvey was staring off over the pewter waters of Alaska’s Inside Passage, lost deep in thought.
A stab of envy pierced her.
Harvey was doing exactly what she wanted to do. Spending some time alone, staring at the beauty of the ocean, and remembering a past she’d tried so hard to forget.
The sun was low on the horizon by the time Brent drove down a quiet street in an area of Victoria that Anna was unfamiliar with. He pulled into the parking lot. An elegant blue and gold sign above a leafy hedge declared the large square building RCMP headquarters.
“What are we doing here?” She gripped the dash as her mouth went dry. She didn’t want to deal with the police any more than she’d wanted to deal with the disreputable-looking character who’d taken her photograph earlier and made her a false driver’s license and passport. She especially didn’t want to deal with cops with those falsified documents tucked in her purse.
A tall, good-looking guy opened the back door and climbed in, followed by a serious-faced woman in full cop regalia.
Anna turned to confront the newcomers. Her heart thudded. Crap.
Brent twisted in his seat and lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize this was going to be a family party.”
“Stow it. She’s already pissed at you for getting involved in a situation,” the blond guy said without heat. The face had broadened and matured, but Anna recognized the boy from the photo. Brent’s younger brother, Finn.
She started to defend Brent, but he silenced her by dropping a hand to her thigh. The touch sent a lightning shock of awareness through her system that left her mute.
“Who’s coming after you?” the cop bit out. She looked pretty damn scary with her steely gaze and rigid air of authority. “I want them off the streets before you end up back inside.”
“I don’t know who it is.” Brent pulled smoothly out of the parking lot and headed west, following signs for Douglas Street. “In case you’re wondering, Anna, that’s my brother Finn and his sweet fiancée, Holly Rudd, supercop.” Brent introduced them grimly.
“Anna Silver?” Holly’s sharp eyes assessed her.
“That’s right.” Anna hunched her shoulders, automatically defensive around the law.
“I spoke to the warden,” said Holly. The cop hit Anna with the brightest gray eyes she’d ever seen. They were beautiful, but also clinically cold. Her wide mouth thinned. “I’m sorry about your father.” If anything, her expression grew sterner. “But if whoever called the prison this morning is after you, and therefore Brent, I want to know why.”
“I really don’t know what’s going on.” Anna’s stomach swirled uneasily. This was getting much bigger and more complicated than she wanted. What if her father had stolen that money? Now she was involving Brent’s family? Cops? She shrank in her seat.
Holly raised unimpressed brows. “After Brent’s call I sent two plainclothes officers to check out your mother’s residence. No one was there.”
Finn’s mouth took on an uncompromising line.
Holly turned her attention to Brent. “Freddy Chastain has your place staked out. He doesn’t have enough resources to cover the town, the logging road, and the house, especially with no tangible threat, so he concentrated on your cabin. He better not find anything out of order.”
“He won’t,” said Brent mildly. Anna figured it was more for her benefit than Holly’s. He knew she’d be worried about the handgun, but he must have concealed it, maybe even brought it with them in the truck. The thought made her hands start to shake.
“I’m so sorry for everything.” This was not what she’d wanted when she’d gone to Brent for help. She shot him a glance, but he wasn’t looking at her, he just gripped her thigh like he owned it and carried on driving. A slide of something sexual shimmered, just inches from his large warm hand. A warm wave of arousal that rushed over her body. Where the heck had that come from? Because she didn’t lust after guys like Brent unless they were on the big screen and therefore safe—and that self-revelation sat like a lead ball in her stomach.
“Do you know who these people are or what they want from you?” Holly asked again.
The pressure on her leg increased a fraction. She swallowed hard as liquid desire hit dry, dusty erogenous zones. The timing sucked. What else was new?
“I, um, no.” She squirmed in her seat. God, what was wrong with her? “After the police told me about my father’s death, I received a voice mail message from him. He told me to get out of town, so I went to Brent’s.” As if they were old friends rather than complete strangers.
He doesn’t feel like a stranger anymore.
No kidding.
“And your father claimed to have taken money from the charity he worked for because he thought someone was trying to steal it and set him up?” Holly had obviously listened to her father’s 911 call, and her father’s story sounded ridiculous even to Anna.
“If you know that, you know as much as I do.” Except this supposed evidence he’d mailed to her. Damn you, Papa.
“US authorities aren’t investigating the firm at this moment.” Holly’s voice was flint. “I spoke to Chicago PD, and they say they have no grounds except the word of an ex-con who stole money and then committed suicide rather than face his actions.”
They’d reduced her father to less than nothing. Anna sank lower into the leather. “So what do you want from me?”
“Is this about money, Anna?”
“Leave her the hell alone,” Brent snapped.
“Your daddy dies and you turn up on the island. Brent calls Finn for help for the first time in his life?” She gave her a flat cop stare. “I think you’re not telling me everything I need to know, and if you get Brent involved in anything illegal, I will hang you out to dry.”
A fierce sense of injustice rose up inside Anna. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet this woman was attacking her like she was a criminal. She’d been here before and it reinf
orced all the reasons she’d kept her personal nightmares to herself. Brent’s hand tightened on her thigh, almost bruising in intensity. She welcomed the pressure. It grounded her.
“You’re making me wish I hadn’t called you,” Brent said dryly, looking at his brother in the rearview.
“You can’t do everything alone, bro.”
“Actually”—Brent’s voice dropped two octaves and she felt it rumble through her bones—“I can.”
“This could land you back in prison—” Holly began.
“We haven’t done a damn thing wrong.” Brent snarled.
“Stop it!” Anna pushed his hand aside. “I truly don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even know if I’m really being followed or if anyone will turn up at Brent’s house looking for me or if this is just some big misunderstanding or a hoax or someone trying to scare me. I don’t know. But I do know I didn’t ask for your help.” There was a brief awkward silence when all she could hear was her own hoarse breathing. “This isn’t Brent’s problem. It’s mine. I don’t want to cause friction between you.” She could only imagine the complexity of their relationship, given the circumstances.
They sat in silence for about three whole seconds.
Finn leaned forward between them. “You caught a live one, Brent.”
Brent’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel, but he held his silence.
Holly snorted. “She should have more sense than to get tangled up with the Carver boys. Unlike some people,” she muttered darkly, and both Finn and Brent shot her a look.
They were passing Beacon Hill Park, heading toward mile zero on the Trans-Canada Highway. They waited for a horse and cart carrying tourists to pass on by and then turned down Niagara Street.
“It’s just up ahead,” Anna told Brent quietly. He pulled up a few houses away from where her mother and stepfather lived. It was gorgeous, all quiet and leafy in the heart of the old city. Deep shadows grew as the sun slid ever lower into the Pacific.
“You grew up here?” Finn asked.
Dark Waters (2013) Page 11