Riley hunched over his coffee, peering into the steaming, dark liquid. Coming clean about April had scattered the fog that had swirled around his relationship with Amy from the beginning, but he hadn’t minded the murkiness.
He’d rather be tarred and feathered than peel back his armor to reveal his weaknesses and fears to anyone, especially a woman he’d vowed to protect. But Ian had forced him into it with his surprise visit. Riley didn’t know what he’d expected after his confession, but it hadn’t made Amy distrust him with her safety.
Opening up hadn’t lessened his guilt any, either. He’d carry that with him always.
“Don’t you think?”
“Huh?” Riley glanced up from his mug.
Jabbing the air with her pencil, Amy said, “Access to the money. Where did Carlos leave the money and what did he leave in my house that would give him access to it? That’s where I’m going with all this.”
Riley sipped the strong brew and nodded. “I think you’re right. Carlos wasn’t going to haul around bags of cash with him. He stashed it.”
“Do you think my brother could’ve been in on it? Maybe he and Carlos decided to double-cross the clients together, and then Ethan double-double-crossed Carlos.” She swirled the pencil with a flourish.
Riley raised one eyebrow. When Amy attacked something, she went all out. He’d have to remember that. “That could be a possibility, but Carlos came back to your place, not your brother’s.”
“You have a point, but I gather you didn’t question Ethan very closely.”
“Uh, no. Once he told me the terrorist cell had its sights set on you, I left the party.”
“I’m glad you did.” One corner of her mouth tilted up and Riley had a strong inclination to kiss it where it dimpled. She continued, oblivious to his desires. “But maybe we should pay another visit to Ethan to find out what he knows.”
Riley choked and sprayed the countertop with coffee. “You want to see your half brother after all these years?”
“I think the situation warrants an impromptu family reunion. I visited my father in the federal pen. What’s one more disgraced family member?”
“I don’t know, Amy.” Riley grabbed a paper towel and blotted the drops of coffee. “You go to your family looking for answers and they turn against you. Why should Ethan tell you anything?”
“Couldn’t you threaten him with something? Tell him you’ll bring the FBI down on his head if he doesn’t cooperate with us.” She jabbed her chest with her thumb. “Ethan loves the FBI as much as I do.”
Riley swept the soggy paper towel from the counter and tossed it into the trash. “I don’t have anything on Ethan. I didn’t have a recording device on me when he confessed to working with Carlos and the Velasquez Cartel. And, believe me, the FBI already has your brother on its radar, and he knows it.”
Amy uncurled her long limbs and jumped to her feet. “Then I’ll just use the old blood-is-thicker-than-water plan. What does he have to lose by telling me what he knows?”
“His life.”
Amy’s big eyes got bigger. “Do you think so?”
“If Velasquez’s client believed your brother knew the location of that money, he’d be a dead man. Ethan wants to keep as far away as possible from you in case someone is watching him. He warned me not to return and definitely not to return with you in tow.”
“Then we need to find a way to get to Ethan. You don’t happen to have his cell phone number, do you?” Amy dug her teeth into her lower lip.
“No, we didn’t make it to the let’s-be-friends-and-exchange-numbers stage. But if you’re serious, I can pay him a visit without anyone the wiser.”
“You can pay him a visit? No, no, no.” She waved her hands, the line of her jaw hardening.
Riley had hoped she hadn’t noticed his use of the singular pronoun, but Amy had her own agenda now. And she was hell-bent on putting it into action. “It’s safer if I go alone.”
She cut him off, slicing her hand through the air. “I don’t believe I’m safer away from you than with you, Riley. You’re not some walking jinx. And I’m not April.”
He flinched. The woman played hardball, but her stripping away of his private thoughts felt like a bracing blast of fresh, clean air. He filled his lungs.
“So let’s pay Ethan that visit.” She tossed her head, her dark hair whipping over her shoulder and her gold locket winking in the morning sun.
Riley nodded and held out his arms. She came to him, wordlessly and without hesitation. They held on to each other like a drowning couple clutching their last lifeline.
Then he kissed her temple and stared out the window over her head.
Riley Hammond, you just met your match.
* * *
AMY HUNCHED FORWARD, the black knit cap scratchy against her cheek. She tucked a finger inside the edge and ran it along the curve of her face. Riley hadn’t been kidding about paying a covert visit to her half brother.
She twisted her head toward the dark street and swallowed. Did he really think some terrorist might be watching Ethan?
The white columns of Ethan’s house gleamed in the moonlight, and a few windows from the upper story glowed with a faint yellow light. They’d been lucky Ethan hadn’t been in full entertainment mode tonight. They still didn’t know whether or not he was home, but if not, they’d wait for him.
She’d wait a long time to get answers from her half brother.
Riley whispered, his words tickling her ear. “The street looks clear from here. When I ran a perimeter around the house, I spotted the box for the security system. Wait here while I disable it.”
She twisted her hands together as Riley crouched and traveled swiftly across the lawn, barely disturbing a blade of grass.
She didn’t want to stay ensconced in the bushes ringing Ethan’s palatial house, every rustling leaf, every chirp from a cricket making the hair on the back of her neck quiver with fear. But hadn’t she disassociated herself from April earlier?
Clamping her chattering teeth, she felt a strong kinship with Riley’s fearful wife. Bravado caused you to do stupid things. She wasn’t even sure if her plan was an effort to confront Ethan or just a ruse to gain Riley’s admiration and undying respect.
She’d focus on undying for now.
A twig snapped beside her and she almost jumped out of her skin until Riley’s face hovered in front of her. The man moved as stealthily as a panther. She hadn’t even tracked his return to the foliage.
“Shh.” He held up one hand. “It’s done. We’re going around to that back door I pointed out to you earlier.”
Riley hadn’t known if Ethan lived alone, had a wife or children or had twenty-four-hour bodyguard protection. Guess they’d find out soon enough.
Doubling over, Riley emerged from the bushes again, and this time Amy followed him. He hadn’t trusted her with a weapon since she’d never fired a gun before, but he had his weapon. A big one.
She held her breath as Riley tinkered with the sliding door, slicing out a portion of the glass with a glass cutter. When the door slid open without a clanging alarm bell sounding, Amy released her breath in a gush of air.
They stepped into the kitchen where circles of lights from the various gadgets and kitchen appliances winked at them from the darkness. The ice maker cranked, and Amy clutched Riley’s arm.
He looked at her over his shoulder, raising his eyebrows to the folded edge of his knit cap.
She released her death grip and shrugged as if ice makers terrified her every day.
They tiptoed from the kitchen into the great room where a shaft of light from the entryway beamed across the carpet. An empty chair stood sentry in the foyer and Riley’s brow furrowed as he pointed toward it.
Amy gulped. Looked like a good place for a bodyguard to stand watch but, if the bodyguard wasn’t occupying the chair, where was he?
Riley placed one gloved hand on the banister of the curving staircase while his other hovered over the gun in
his waistband. He tested the first step with his running shoe, and meeting no resistance or creaking, he began his ascent.
Amy trailed after him, keeping watch behind them. She didn’t want some thug to come barreling out of the shadows. On the one hand, she wanted to find Ethan home and tucked into his bed so they could question him and get the heck out of there. On the other, she dreaded the encounter and wanted more time to shore up her nerves while they waited for him to come home.
Several rooms lined the hallway upstairs, most with their doors gaping open. The lights they’d seen from outside spilled from two rooms next to each other, their doors ajar.
Would they find Ethan reading quietly in bed? It seemed so out of character for him, and the eerie silence of the house indicated emptiness. Surely they’d hear a cough, the rustle of a page, the clinking of a glass if Ethan occupied one of those rooms.
Riley held a hand out behind him as he crept down the hallway, gripping his weapon in front of him. Her muscles stiff with tension, Amy followed behind him.
Grabbing the doorjamb of the first room, Riley poked his head through the doorway. His shoulders stiffened and the muscles of his back beneath his black T-shirt rippled.
He cranked his head over his shoulder and mouthed, “Wait here.”
Amy’s blood thundered in her ears. Ethan must be in there, but he obviously hadn’t spotted Riley yet. He had to be sleeping.
Riley disappeared into the room and panic washed over Amy’s flesh. She tripped toward the door and grasped the doorjamb. The king-sized bed looked like a raft afloat in the ocean in the cavernous bedroom decorated in dark blues and greens.
Riley’s body blocked her view of Ethan, but a pair of bare feet pointed inward at the foot of the bed. Tilting her head, Amy drew her brows together. Ethan lay on top of the covers, not beneath, so maybe he had fallen asleep reading.
Ethan hadn’t yet made a noise. He’d have a nice surprise waking up with a big gun in his face. Served him right.
Riley leaned forward, his weapon dangling at his side. Amy scratched her head beneath the cap and sighed as she drew closer to the bed.
Riley spun around with his arms splayed at his sides. “Stay where you are, Amy.”
Did he think Ethan might wake up with guns blazing or something? She took a few more steps. Suddenly, her nose twitched, and then her nostrils flared. A sickening odor wafted from the bed, engulfing her, invading her nostrils and triggering her gag reflex. Her gut rolled as she clapped a hand over her mouth.
She staggered back and hissed. “What is that?”
Riley stepped to the side, revealing Ethan’s prone form on the bed. Amy’s gaze traveled the length of Ethan’s body, clothed in a blue silk dressing gown splashed with red and black. Her examination ended with his white feet, toes oddly pointing inward.
Something nudged her brain and her eyes shifted direction, gaining focus as she scanned Ethan’s robe with its strange color pattern. She studied his face, his eyes closed and his head resting against a pillow, a pillow soaked in blood.
Chapter Twelve
Amy screamed, the sound ripping through the room and banishing the silence in the house. The scream died in her throat and she gathered breath for another one, her gaze pinned to the deep slash across Ethan’s throat.
Riley lunged forward and pulled her into his arms. He cupped the back of her head with his hand and crushed her face against his T-shirt, now damp with sweat. She inhaled his masculine scent, anything to get the rancid smell of blood and death out of her nose.
He shushed her. “Quiet, Amy. They might still be here.”
His words sent a spike of fear to her heart, and she bucked in his arms.
He clasped one arm around her waist and half dragged her toward the door while thrusting his gun before him. He stalked to the other lighted room, peered inside and cursed.
Amy peeled her head from his shoulder, but he clamped it back down. “You don’t need to see that.”
She licked her lips, her tongue meeting his rough T-shirt. She didn’t need to see whatever lurked in that room, but she prayed to God Ethan didn’t have a family.
“We need to get out of here.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Are you okay to walk?”
She jerked her head up. Did Riley think he needed to carry her away from the carnage? She realized she hadn’t stood on her own two feet since she saw Ethan’s body. She steadied her rubbery legs and drew a deep breath. “I’m okay.”
Still holding his gun, Riley grabbed her hand and charged downstairs. They flew across the great room, burst through the sliding door of the kitchen and stumbled into the backyard. Their soft shoes squished against the damp grass as they made a beeline toward the foliage ringing the yard.
They scrambled through the bushes and hopped over the fence of the next-door neighbors. Amy had been so worried on the way over about meeting a pit bull in this yard; now she’d take on five pit bulls just to get away from that grisly scene in the house.
When they made it to Riley’s car, they both sat panting in the front seat. Amy’s heart pounded in her chest like she’d just made an ocean rescue. Except this time she hadn’t rescued anybody.
She gripped her bouncing knees with gloved hands. “Riley, what was in that other room? N-not his family?”
He slipped off his cap and bunched it in his fist. “No, thank God. His bodyguards—two of them.”
Amy choked and covered her face. “Why?”
“His attackers must’ve figured he knew something.” His fingers inched inside her cap and massaged her scalp. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
She peeked through her fingers, the streetlights blurring through her tears. “Do you think Ethan told them anything? Maybe he did know where Carlos stashed the money. If so...”
“If so, then they’ll have what they want and leave you alone.”
“And if Ethan didn’t know anything, they killed him anyway. I don’t know anything.” Amy pulled off her gloves and hugged herself against the cold fear that touched the base of her spine.
“They won’t get to you, Amy. I won’t let them.”
She met his eyes and, even in the darkness of the car, she could see the fierce protective light gleaming from their depths. Dropping her eyelids, she rolled her shoulders. She had faith in Riley.
He picked up her hand and traced the lines of her palm with his fingertip. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
She curled her hand around his finger. “Okay. Let’s go back to your place. Should we call the police or something?”
“I have someone I can call at the sheriff’s department. I know Ethan’s your brother, Amy, but the police aren’t going to be choked up over his death.” He slipped his hand from hers and cranked on the car’s engine.
“He wasn’t a good person, even as a teenager. I suppose the authorities will notify Dad. I’m not going to be the one to tell him his favored son is dead.”
“I’m sure your father will be notified. It’ll be reported as just another murder due to drug trafficking.”
“Now I’ll never get any information from Ethan. I hope his killers had better luck and they have what they want now. Otherwise, we’re back to square one trying to figure out where Carlos hid that money.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Riley cocked his head as he took the next turn.
“You think Ethan gave it up?”
“No, not that. I said you need to leave.”
Her nostrils flared as she studied his profile, the ends of his long, sandy blond hair highlighted by the headlights from the oncoming cars. “You mean leave leave?”
“Yeah. Leave the area. Where’s that EMT school you were going to attend?”
“Right here in San Diego.” She sat up and yanked off the itchy cap. “Where do you propose I go and for how long? If the client never gets his money back, they’ll never leave me alone. What am I supposed to do, join the Witness Protection Program?” She slammed her hands against the dashboard. “I already
went through a similar experience when I was ten years old— uprooted, taken away from everything I’d ever known and loved, thrust into an alien environment. I’m not doing that again.”
He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “It won’t be like that, Amy. I can send you to stay with a friend, Ian’s ex-wife, in Colorado. They wouldn’t be able to track you there. When all this blows over...”
“How’s that going to happen?” She ducked out of his reach. “Carlos left the means to that money with me, somehow, somewhere. How are you going to find it without my help? And if you never find it, they’ll never stop looking for me. I don’t want to permanently settle in Colorado. I don’t like the snow.”
Tears pricked her eyes, and she turned her head to rest her forehead against the cool glass of the window. She’d been an idiot to expect Riley to whisk her away to his dive boat in Cabo. The excitement and the thrill of the chase had fueled his attraction for her. Nothing more. Maybe he wanted to prove to himself that he could protect someone and do it right this time.
And what did she want to prove?
She’d been fooling herself all these years thinking she could settle down with a stable man—no excitement, no drama. Then this situation had fallen into her lap like a ripe fruit, and she’d grabbed it with both hands and sunk her teeth into it.
Riley swung into his parking slot and cut the engine. “I have to call my friend at the San Diego Sheriff’s Department to report that carnage.”
“Will you tell him the truth?”
“As much as I can. Ethan Prescott was involved in a drug deal that took a wrong turn, and he paid with his life.”
After they’d locked the doors behind them in Riley’s apartment, Amy watched Riley end his call to the sheriff’s department. “No questions asked?”
He shook his head as he pocketed his phone. “That was my contact, Walt. He’s a former Navy SEAL and he doesn’t ask questions.”
“Why’d they do it, Riley?” Amy twisted her fingers in front of her. “Why would a bunch of terrorists kill Ethan?”
Trap, Secure: Navy SEAL Security Page 31