by Karen Foley
Pulling up a chair, he set his mug down and began methodically going through the files. Steve Anderson had done him a favor by segregating the worst offenders out of the pile of possible suspects. Flipping through the documents, Jason discarded one and then another file. He set two of the files to one side, believing they warranted a closer look.
The first was the Sanchez case, and while Jason knew the leader of the drug-smuggling gang was more than capable of putting a hit out on the judge, he wasn’t sure that would be his style. Sanchez would lose any hope of serving out the remainder of his prison term in Mexico if the authorities even suspected he was behind the shooting. But it was possible that one of his henchmen had acted in retaliation. He set the file aside for further investigation.
He reached for the next file, and then hesitated when he saw the name that was written across the top. He told himself that Edward Green was a common enough name, but when he opened the file, he recognized the man in the police photo. Eddie Green was one of the most notorious gang leaders in the Hunters Point region of San Francisco. He’d been charged with numerous offenses, including drug distribution, operating a prostitution ring, weapons possession and murder. Jason recognized him from his own childhood. They had grown up together in the projects, and Jason had been one of Eddie’s earliest recruits into his violent Hunters Point gang.
He closed his eyes briefly against the unwelcome memories. He’d been twelve years old to Eddie’s sixteen, and he had worshipped the older boy, for both his cunning and his reckless attitude. Eddie Green didn’t take crap from anyone, and if someone did him wrong, he meted out his own form of brutal punishment. When he was seventeen, he’d been suspected of beating his mother’s boyfriend to death, but no charges had ever been pressed.
Jason couldn’t think about those days without a degree of self-loathing. He’d had a crummy homelife, with a grandmother who worked too much to really be an influence in his life and a father who was a drug addict. His grandmother had died when he was fifteen, and after that, Daryl Cooper had been too concerned about where his next fix was coming from to worry about what illegal activities his kid might be involved in. Jason had never known his mother. She’d been gone long before he was old enough to remember her. Eddie Green and his budding gang had seemed like family to Jason, and he’d looked up to Eddie as he would have an older brother.
Even when Eddie had demanded he commit petty crimes in order to prove his loyalty and commitment to the gang, Jason hadn’t stopped hanging out with the group. He’d deluded himself into thinking that it was okay to rob a convenience store or break into someone’s home when they weren’t there and steal their jewelry and electronics. He’d told himself that society owed him something for dealing him such a lousy hand. Still, on some level, he knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be told to kill someone. But by then he was too deeply entrenched to get out. Then his grandmother had died, and Jason had realized that if he didn’t extricate himself, he was going to end up dead or a junkie like his father. He’d been arrested three days later for jacking a car and had ended up in Judge Banks’s courtroom. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened to him.
He flipped through Eddie’s file, noting that his former friend had been released from prison about fourteen months earlier, having served six years on a murder conviction. But Eddie’s younger brother, Mikey, along with another key gang member, were on death row, charged in the murder of two police officers. Eddie’s gang had threatened to take down everyone involved in the sentencing if Mikey’s conviction wasn’t overturned. Judge Banks had been the one who had sentenced the two men.
Closing the file, Jason sat back in his chair, feeling as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him. He knew what Eddie and his men were capable of. They were ruthless criminals without consciences, and they would absolutely destroy anyone who got in their way. But would they go so far as to shoot a superior court judge in his own home? Jason didn’t know. He thought again of what Steven Anderson had said about seeing an old car parked in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, conspicuous because of its age and condition. Could it have been Eddie, or one of his gang members, in that car? Just thinking about that scumbag coming anywhere near Caroline made his blood run cold.
Jason no longer identified with the troubled youth he’d once been, and he’d done his best to put his past behind him. But there were times, like now, when the memories of his upbringing clung to him like a dirty second skin that no amount of washing could remove. As much as the idea repulsed him, he knew he’d have to return to Hunters Point and get whatever information he could about Eddie Green and Judge Banks.
He looked up when he heard footsteps on the stairs and saw Caroline slowly making her way toward him. She wore his discarded T-shirt and a pair of shorts, and she hadn’t bothered brushing her hair. She looked so sexy that Jason felt his heart thud in his chest.
“Good morning,” he murmured, rising to his feet. “Did you sleep okay?”
She nodded and moved into his arms as naturally as if they’d been lovers for years. She was warm and supple and she smelled good enough to eat. Jason closed his eyes and hugged her tightly, unable to believe that this woman wanted to be with him.
“I missed you when I woke up,” she said and pressed a kiss against his jaw.
“I wanted to let you sleep, and it gave me time to start going through these case files.”
Caroline inspected the open file on the table. Jason wanted to slap it shut and prevent her from reading about the sordid details of Eddie Green’s history.
“I remember overhearing my father talking about this guy when I was a kid,” she said, picking up the photo of Eddie and inspecting it. “He sure is a scary-looking guy.”
Standing behind her, Jason studied the photo she held in her hand. Eddie had changed in the years since Jason had known him. He’d shaved his head, and the exposed skin was covered with intricate tattoos that extended down his neck and over his shoulders and chest. He had gauges in both ears and a piercing in one eyebrow, but it was none of these things that made him look frightening. It was the utter deadness of his eyes.
“He lost his way a long time ago,” Jason said.
Caroline replaced the photo in the file and picked up the written report, scanning quickly through Eddie’s rap sheet.
“He’s one nasty character.” She turned and looked at him. “He’s from Hunters Point, too. Did you know this guy?”
“I’d rather not talk about it.” He didn’t want to share his troubled youth with Caroline. He’d worked hard to put it behind him. He’d dedicated his life to putting creeps like Eddie Green behind bars. He didn’t want her to even think of him and Eddie in the same thought. “Like you said, he’s a bad character.”
She reached up and gently traced one of the scars on his face with her fingertip. “I remember when this was brand-new,” she said. “You had so many scars back then. I asked my father about them once, but he wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Because he wanted to keep that ugliness out of your life,” he said, brushing a strand of hair back from her face. “You were so young and so damned sweet. I’m still surprised that he even let me into his house, considering what he knew of me.”
“Because he has a unique ability to see the true character of people,” she said, rubbing her finger over his lower lip. “He knew that you were a good person. Just like I knew.”
Her words grabbed hold of something in his chest and squeezed hard, making it difficult for him to breathe.
She’s not yours to keep. He told himself again that this was only temporary, and he’d do better if he remembered that. Caroline Banks would never commit herself to a guy like him, at least not permanently. But it was difficult to think straight when she pressed her mouth against his and kissed him slowly and languorously. Her lips were soft, and she tasted faintly of toothpaste. For just a momen
t, Jason resisted. But his body had other ideas, and before he could prevent himself, he slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face, fitting his mouth over hers. He pushed her back against the table before cupping her rear in his hands and lifting her onto the surface, heedless of the papers that went scattering.
He swallowed Caroline’s surprised gurgle of laughter and situated himself between her thighs, pressing forward until she couldn’t help but feel his growing arousal. Her laughter died, and she deepened the kiss, clutching him with a new intensity. Jason knew they couldn’t do this now.
Reluctantly, he broke the kiss, smoothing his thumb along the clean line of her jaw. “We should probably head back to San Francisco.”
Caroline nodded and rolled her lips inward, as if she could still taste him. “Okay. Give me fifteen minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“I’ll make us something to eat while you shower,” he offered and lifted her from the table.
“Someday,” Caroline stated, glancing at Eddie’s file, “you’ll tell me about your past and how you got those scars.”
Jason tried to keep his tone light. “Don’t count on it.”
Leaning up, she kissed him briefly. “Oh, but I will. You won’t stand a chance.”
After she left, Jason sighed, knowing she was right. He didn’t stand a chance. While he might want two uninterrupted weeks with her in the bedroom upstairs, now wasn’t the time. But he promised himself that when this was all over, and if Caroline was still interested in him, they’d find a quiet place to hole up and get to know each other better. He just hoped when they did, she wouldn’t be disappointed with what she discovered.
8
CAROLINE SAT NEAR her father’s bed and watched his chest rise and fall. The only sounds in the room were the rhythmic whir of the ventilator as it pumped air into his chest and the steady beep of the heart monitor, reassuring her that he was still alive. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there, willing him not to die. She only knew that she couldn’t lose him.
After a moment, Caroline dropped her head into her hands. Why hadn’t she visited him when she’d had the chance? Why had she stubbornly insisted on remaining so far away for so long? Her reasons now seemed so ridiculous and unimportant.
Let him live, and I’ll come home. I’ll be a better daughter. I’ll make sure he knows how much I love him.
Raising her head, Caroline swiped at her damp cheeks and dragged in a deep breath. Then, setting her shoulders, she pushed herself to her feet and crossed the room to where Jason had left the box of case files on a small table in the corner. She needed to do something to stay occupied, and when she’d suggested to Jason that she could review her father’s case files, he’d been more than happy to let her do that. He’d seemed to understand her need to be useful.
Sitting by her father’s bedside gave her too much opportunity to think, and she didn’t want to overanalyze whatever it was that she and Jason shared.
Despite the fact they’d been as intimate as two people could possibly be, and even though he’d been incredible in bed, ensuring she reached her pleasure before he found his own, he remained emotionally detached. She hadn’t expected a declaration of love, but she’d thought he might have given her some indication of how he felt. But he’d been distant and preoccupied on the ride back to San Francisco. Still, she hadn’t been too concerned until he’d told her that he wouldn’t be staying with her at the hospital that day. Instead, he’d turned his protection detail over to Deputy Black and had left. He hadn’t even given her the courtesy of an explanation or an idea of when he would return.
If Deputy Black knew where Jason was going, he didn’t tell Caroline. She couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with her, if perhaps he’d needed some time to himself. They hadn’t spoken about the previous night, although it consumed all her thoughts.
After he had returned to bed, they’d taken their time exploring each other. He had known just how to touch her, so that before long she was squirming in his arms, desperate for release. They didn’t have a second condom, so he’d used his fingers and mouth to torment her and finally bring her to completion. After that, he’d let her reciprocate, and she didn’t think she’d ever seen anything as erotic and thrilling as Jason Cooper losing control.
But in the morning, his law enforcement persona was firmly back in place, and he was all business. She thought about the file she had seen on the kitchen table for a career criminal named Eddie Green. She only vaguely recalled hearing stories about him when she was a teenager and wished now that she had paid closer attention. What she did know was that her father had sentenced Eddie Green’s brother to death, and Eddie had promised retribution unless his brother was released. That made him a top suspect in Caroline’s eyes.
She quickly examined the folders in the box and then scanned through them a second time. To her dismay, the file for Eddie Green was missing. Had Jason taken it with him? Did he believe that this man was somehow involved in her father’s shooting?
And then she knew.
Jason had gone to see Eddie Green. The file had listed his address as Hunters Point, which was also where Jason had grown up. Caroline wondered if they had known each other, and recalled how Jason had deliberately shut her down when she’d asked that very question. Had their paths crossed when they had both lived in Hunters Point? It would make sense that Jason might have fallen in with Eddie as a kid, which had led to him getting into trouble.
Curious, Caroline went in search of Deputy Black and found him standing outside in the corridor, speaking into his earpiece. When he saw Caroline, he turned away from her and lowered his voice, then abruptly ended the conversation. When he turned around again, she could see the concern on his face.
“Everything okay, ma’am?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Is it?”
He narrowed his eyes, as if trying to decipher the meaning behind her words, before drawing her a little away from the door and the guard who sat outside.
“What is it?”
“Did Jason go to Hunters Point?”
His voice grew cautious. “Why would you think that?”
Caroline gave him a tolerant look. “Because he took the file on Eddie Green. I know that this guy had a thing against my father for putting some of his gang members—including his own brother—on death row, and that his last known address was Hunters Point. Is that where Jason went?”
Deputy Black’s lips compressed into a thin line, and he considered her for a long moment before he spoke. “Jason knows that area well, and he knows what he’s doing. He’s a U.S. marshal.”
“Has he even been back there since he was a kid?” Caroline demanded. “Well, has he? That place hasn’t gotten any better over the years, Deputy. At least tell me that he brought backup.”
Deputy Black nodded tersely. “We have support from the local P.D., and there are undercover guys tailing him. He’ll be fine.”
Caroline wasn’t convinced, but knew she had little choice but to accept what he said. He was right; she needed to trust that Jason knew what he was doing. He might be the youngest U.S. marshal in California, but he’d been in law enforcement for over ten years. He hadn’t been appointed to his position because he was afraid to take on guys like Eddie Green. He’d gotten the job because on some level, he understood men like Eddie Green. And maybe, deep down, he was even a little bit like them.
“Okay,” she finally said, turning back to her father’s room. “But let me know the second he returns.”
Without waiting for a response, she closed the door quietly and returned to the small table where she had been working. She knew Jason wanted to evaluate every possible suspect, and she could help him with that. After sitting down, she pulled the first file from the box. She’d go through every case her father had been involved in and make her own ass
essments about whether or not the claimants might have had reason to hurt him. She glanced over at William, who lay unresponsive in his bed, surrounded by the sounds of the medical equipment that helped to keep him alive. Straightening her spine, she opened the first folder.
* * *
HUNTERS POINT HADN’T changed since Jason had been a teenager. Now, driving through the streets and seeing the evidence of poverty and neglect, he knew why he had never been back. There was nothing for him here. As he turned down several side streets and saw groups of inner-city youths on the street corners and congregated on the front steps of the tenement buildings, he thought that could easily have been him. That had been him, some twenty years earlier. He’d preferred to hang out with the older boys in the neighborhood than go to school. At least until his father had gotten a call from the principal about his absences.
Jason absently fingered the scar on his cheekbone, where his father’s ring had caught the skin and laid it open. The old man had always had a hell of a backhand. The kids watched as he drove past, and Jason knew they were looking at the distinctive U.S. Marshals insignia on the doors of the silver SUV and were taking bets on who he was after. Jason wondered how many of the youths were actually undercover police officers, trying to infiltrate the narcotics ring that purportedly operated out of the Point.
Glancing at the computer screen of the dash-mounted laptop, where he’d keyed in the last known address of Eddie Green, he turned down another side street, this one lined with what looked like abandoned warehouses. Furtive movement in the alleyways between the buildings told him he was being watched, probably by Green’s men. He also knew that Eddie and his gang members had been under surveillance by federal law enforcement for some time, and that he was likely being observed by undercover agents. Nevertheless, he had his service revolver in his shoulder holster and another in the back of his waistband, concealed by his sports coat. He had no illusions that he’d be allowed to keep either once he found Eddie.