Her face paled. “He really thought that?”
“I think deep down, he didn’t, but was afraid if the pictures were leaked or something, it would look bad. That’s why he was at the warehouse the night Kevin was killed. He’d found Bianchi and was keeping an eye on things. I think he thought you were meeting him that night.”
“I was supposed to. Bianchi called it off.”
“So … why?”
Izzy’s phone buzzed and she sent the call to her voice mail. She didn’t want any distractions.
“When the risk is as high as it is with Bianchi, I’d rather be the one taking the risk. Mayor Cotterill is a good man. I’m not going to have his family threatened by a thug, even a powerful one.”
“Does this have anything to do with the mayor’s silence during all this gang violence and the election?”
Her mom shoved a strand of hair behind her ear. “We needed to give Bianchi enough rope to hang himself with. Eric wanted Bianchi caught more than he wanted to win an election, and so he stayed ‘ineffective’ while all this was getting set up.”
“Wow.” Izzy sat back with a thud. “Just, wow. Mom, he’s killed cops for looking at him wrong, and you just go meet with him?”
She let out a sigh. “I had surveillance on me at all times. If I was ever to run into trouble, help was only seconds away. And I never had any trouble.”
“Because he knew,” Izzy murmured.
“Or at least suspected.”
Izzy’s phone rang again just as someone knocked on the door. Her mother rose. “Take your call while I get this. Come in.”
Izzy sent the call to voice mail once more. In spite of her mother’s all clear to take the call, she didn’t want to be on the phone if she needed to have a conversation with someone in her office.
Felicia stepped back inside. “Melissa Endicott came back clean. There’s nothing in her background that would suggest she had anything to do with putting a hit out on you. And really, what reason would she have?”
Her mother pressed her fingertips to her mouth and Izzy frowned. “Maybe she didn’t,” she said. “Maybe Freeman did. It was clear he was the one in charge at the house.”
“But why?” her mother asked.
Izzy rubbed her head. “We have to look at it like this. Who has the most to gain if you’re dead?” Just saying the words made her wince, but they had to come at this from every conceivable direction. “But we’ll know soon enough. Ryan, Charice, and David have Mick’s iPad. It won’t take long to get into it and find out why he was so desperate to have it that he’d have me bring it to him.”
Felicia frowned. “They have Mick’s iPad?”
Izzy nodded. “Yes.” Her phone buzzed. With a sigh, she looked at it. Someone was trying very hard to get in touch with her. Ryan.
It’s Felicia. She put the hit on your mother. Call me.
Izzy froze. Felicia? Her mind spun. She could make an excuse and slip out of the office but didn’t want to leave her mother alone with the woman who wanted to kill her. Then again, if she left, she could call her mother and fill her in and her mother could make an excuse to leave. Then they could trap the woman in the office and wait for backup.
It was the best plan she could think of.
“Izzy?” Felicia asked. “Is something more interesting on your phone than this conversation?”
She realized Felicia had said her name several times. Izzy blinked. “Oh, sorry. That was Ryan.” She met her mother’s gaze and tried to convey her silent panic without showing emotion. “His … uh … his mother’s taken a turn for the worse. He’s going to be a while. I think I’m going to go up to the hospital and sit with him if that’s all right. I’ll watch the election results from there.”
“Of course, darling. Give him my best.”
Izzy backed toward the door.
Felicia moved quickly, pulling a gun from her shoulder holster. She aimed it at Izzy and stepped in front of the door, blocking Izzy’s escape.
“Felicia!” Her mother gaped. “What are you doing?”
Felicia waved the weapon at Izzy, who stilled. “What gave me away?” Izzy asked.
“You backed toward the door. Good training when there’s someone you don’t trust in the room. And we both know that someone isn’t your mother. I’m guessing that text wasn’t about Ryan’s mother.”
Izzy didn’t move, even though she mentally kicked herself for the tell. She might have just signed her mother’s—and her—death warrants. “You’re behind it all, aren’t you?” Her gaze slipped to her mother, who was still staring at them, shock on her white face. “She was working in conjunction with Bianchi to have you killed today.”
Her mother sank into her seat. “What?”
Felicia’s pleasant façade was stripped from her features. She snarled like an enraged animal. “And you ruined everything!” She drew in a deep breath and the anger passed as quickly as it appeared. “If Ryan and David found something on Sinclair’s iPad, it looks like my job here is done and it’s time for me to make a hasty exit. One thing I do know is I’m not going to prison.”
She walked to the window and glanced out, while keeping her weapon expertly trained on Izzy. “They’re already moving. The building is covered with cops.” She drew in a deep breath.
“Cops that won’t hesitate to shoot you,” Izzy said. “You can end this now and we can all walk out of here alive.”
“I’m not interested in being alive if it means going to prison. I’ll just be killed there anyway. I need to think.” She checked the window again, then crossed the office to check the other one. She never took her eyes or the gun off Izzy and her mother long enough for Izzy to consider acting.
“You know Bianchi is close to death,” her mother said. “If you run, how will you live? It’s not like he can transfer money.”
Felicia clicked her tongue. “He already has, sweetie. It went in an hour ago. I told him it had to be pending before I’d agree to our partnership, so to speak.”
“Why was Bianchi so willing to contribute?” Izzy asked, even though she knew the answer to the question. She just needed to buy time.
Felicia raised a brow. “Really?”
“You were going to look the other way. He was going to have the chief of police in his pocket,” Izzy said. “But what about Freeman and Mick Sinclair?”
“That was money for making sure Endicott got elected. A down payment. He would get the rest once the deal was done.”
“And if Endicott lost?”
“Then Eric’s family would die. He was to stick it out to the end of the election, but do nothing to win. He was to look weak, swaying votes.”
“Yes, that’s what he agreed to do,” her mother said. “Until we could expose the people behind it.”
“So he was doing it on purpose,” Izzy said.
“Yes.”
“Why do you want me dead?” her mother asked. “You could help Bianchi in your current position almost as much as in mine.”
“It’s called power. I want it. True, being the deputy chief isn’t so bad, but Endicott made a comment at one of her fundraisers to Mrs. Tollison, a supporter, and I overheard it. It got me to thinking.”
“What did she say?” Izzy asked while her mind spun. How were they going to get out of this one?
“She said that if she won, she’d keep Tabitha as chief of police, but if something happened and she was no longer the chief, she’d ask me if I wanted the job. And I do. Simple as that.”
“So, you had to make sure Endicott won and that I was out of the picture,” Izzy’s mother said. “What were you going to do after Endicott won and I was dead? Kill Eric too? Because there’s no way he would have kept quiet about it.”
“Exactly. Now, it’s time for us to move. I think I’ve managed to come up with a plan to get out of here. Put your weapons on the desk and head out the back door.”
Her mother’s office had two entry doors. The one that was used most often and the other one that
led down to a side exit.
Felicia gestured with the weapon. “Move.”
Izzy met her mother’s gaze.
“Now!” Felicia shook the gun at Izzy. “Or she’ll die. After all, I only need one hostage.”
“No!” Her mother rounded the desk and held up a hand. “I’ll do it.”
Pulling the gun from her shoulder holster, Izzy’s mom then placed it on the desk, never taking her eyes from Felicia.
Izzy did the same. “Ryan knows it’s you. They have Mick’s iPad. All of your group text messages are on there. He also recorded your phone conversations.”
“Which means I’m a desperate woman now, so don’t mess with me.”
Now weaponless, fear wanted to smother Izzy, but she knew she had to control it. To think. “How do you plan to get out? All of the entrances will be blocked.”
“But they won’t shoot if I have you as shields.” Felicia motioned toward the door. “Go.”
“Izzy, you first,” her mother said.
“No.” Felicia turned the weapon on her boss. “You first. You won’t try anything with a gun on your kid’s head.” And Izzy realized why the woman was keeping them both alive. She knew they’d each do whatever she wanted to keep her from hurting the other.
36
The trip from the hospital to the station took a little under ten minutes. Already the chief’s office had set up a mobile command unit parked diagonally to the building. They had snipers on the outside and across the street, ready to do business. He’d never seen them move so fast, but this was their chief and her daughter in danger and they weren’t playing around.
Brady paced in front of the command truck. Ryan raced over to him. “Have you seen them?”
“No. And they’re not answering the phones.”
Ryan told him about his last conversation with Izzy. “The plan was for her to get out and get her mother out. Obviously, she couldn’t do that. Somehow Felicia guessed that Izzy knew something.” He rubbed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“No, Izzy had to know. And so did Mom.”
“Is someone covering the back entrance?”
“Yeah. We’ve got guys all over this building. There’s no way they’re coming out without us seeing them.”
“She’ll have them as hostages.”
From the corner of his eye, Ryan saw Linc approaching. The man’s tight expression didn’t bode well. “What’s the status?”
“Your mother and Izzy are still in the building. We’ve had no contact.”
Linc looked around. “All the right people are here. We need eyes in the building.”
“Already working on it.” Special Agent Josiah Lewis—and technical analyst genius—looked up from his seat in the Mobile Command Center, then back at his keyboard. He clicked a few more keys and then gave a grunt of satisfaction. “There. I’m in the security video system.”
“Not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” Linc muttered.
Josiah smiled. “Normally, it wouldn’t be that easy. I have the passwords, so that helped speed things along.”
Ryan watched the monitors as Josiah brought up the chief’s office. “It’s empty.”
“Check the exits.”
The fourth try was the charm. “There, in the stairwell. They’re getting ready to exit through the back.”
Ryan raced for the rear. He was going to be within shouting distance when the door opened.
Felicia stopped them just short of opening the door. “When Tabitha pushes the door open, you stay in front of me. Keep your hands on your mother’s shoulders, understand?”
“I understand.” Izzy had an idea of what the woman planned. She’d keep her back to the building while having Izzy and her mother in front of her as human shields. They’d inch down the building and to her car, which was parked next to the exit.
She’d moved it when she realized things might be going south and she’d need to escape. Izzy figured she’d done it when she excused herself to go check Endicott’s background. A plausible ruse to set up her escape route. “Why did you come back? You could have just gotten in your car and left.” Izzy noticed the weapon was now lower, centered on her back and not her head. She guessed the woman’s arm was tiring from holding it so high. A fact that brought her a surge of relief.
“I knew you didn’t suspect anything yet. If there was the slightest chance that I could make it work, I had to try.” She paused. “I didn’t know about the iPad or I would have left. That bit of information came a bit too late. Now shut up and open the door.”
Izzy’s mother pushed on the bar that would free them from the building. As soon as the door was open, Izzy gave her mother’s shoulders a hard shove. The woman stumbled through it and fell to the ground, even while Izzy dropped to the floor. The bullet hit the tile beside her waist and she rolled.
Three pops sounded.
Izzy waited for the pain to hit. Then realized it was Felicia who’d taken the bullets.
And then Ryan was there, pulling her to her feet and away from the woman who’d betrayed them all and everything they believed in.
Ryan walked Izzy over to the ambulance where paramedics were treating her mother for a sprained wrist. She looked up when he and Izzy approached. Tears gathered in her eyes and she held out her good arm. Izzy slid from his hold and into her mother’s. For a moment they simply held one another. Then Izzy sighed and pulled back. “Sorry about your wrist.”
“You saved us.”
Izzy grimaced. “Well, it’s nothing you weren’t planning to do if you’d been in my position.”
She brushed a tear from her cheek. “You didn’t see that.”
“See what?” Ryan asked.
“I was just extremely worried about Izzy.”
“I know.” He could tell she wasn’t really afraid the tears would make her seem weak. She was human. She and the daughter she loved had almost died today. A few tears could be expected.
She turned to Izzy. “Remind me to give your self-defense instructor a raise.”
They smiled at one another. Then Izzy turned to Ryan. “Want to take me to the hospital to check on Derek and your mom?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then we can go to my parents’ house and watch the election?”
“Sure.” He looked at Izzy’s mother. “I’m glad you’re all right, ma’am.”
“Me too, Ryan. Thanks. How’s your mother?”
He held up his phone. “Dad texted. She’s doing fine. They got her heart back in rhythm and are sending her home. She’ll follow up with a cardiologist in the next week or so.”
“Very glad to hear it.” She sighed as Izzy’s father broke through the crowd.
“Izzy!”
Izzy slid from the ambulance and was enveloped in his massive hug. “Hi, Dad.”
“Are you okay? Tabitha?”
“I’m fine—thanks to our girl.”
He leaned in and kissed his wife, then looked back at Izzy and the ongoing organized chaos. “I saw all the commotion going on and heard some rumors floating around. I don’t want to know the details right now, do I?”
“Not today,” she said.
He nodded. “I’m just going to be glad everyone is okay.”
The paramedic finished taping the chief’s hand and she thanked him. To her husband, she said, “I’m going to be a while. Why don’t you go home and fix dinner? I don’t think I’m going to get around to it tonight.”
He laughed, a strained sound, but at least it was a laugh. “How does pizza sound?”
“Divine.”
“Get enough for Ryan and me too,” Izzy said.
“And me,” Chloe said. Ryan turned to see her with Hank at her side, looking pale and shaken. Izzy went to her and hugged her. “They got Lamar Young and a dozen gang members at the speech site,” Chloe said. “A lot of them had the fake tattoos.”
“Oh good, I’m so glad,” the chief said.
So, it was over. Really over.
One by one, the rest of her siblings approached to embrace her—except Brady and Derek.
“Word spreads fast,” Ryan murmured.
“Too fast sometimes.”
Finally, after Izzy finished giving her statement and answering questions, they were on their way to the hospital.
After a quick visit with a recovering Derek, who was celebrating the fact that he was going to get to keep his leg, they were on the way to her parents’ house.
“I’m so relieved for Derek,” she said. “Working undercover and being on the SWAT team … that’s all he’s ever wanted. If he lost a leg, that would severely devastate him.”
“He’s got a long road ahead of him,” Ryan said.
“Well, he won’t travel it alone,” she said as he pulled to a stop on the curb.
“You’ve got that right.”
They stepped into the foyer and Ryan flipped on the light. “Guess it’s just us for a bit. When is your house going to be ready?”
“Not for a while. The insurance adjuster left a message on my voice mail that everything was covered. I guess as soon as I get the check I can start renovations.” She sighed. “Poor Mrs. Spade, I’m not sure she wants me for a neighbor anymore.”
“She wants Mozart for a neighbor, therefore she’ll probably keep you.”
“Funny.”
“I try.”
What was funny was that he had a bunch of words he wanted to say to her but couldn’t seem to get them past his lips. He cleared his throat. “You’re beautiful, you know that?” Okay, maybe that would work.
A warm flush worked its way up her neck and into her cheeks. “Well … thanks.” She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He followed her slowly, with soft measured steps. It made her nervous. In a good way. Two swigs later, she capped the water and his eyes caught hers.
He gave her a crooked smile. “Sorry, I guess that was kind of out of left field.”
“A little. But … not completely.”
Ryan settled his hands on her shoulders. “I like you, Izzy. A lot. We’ve known each other forever, but each time I’m with you, I find out some new facet of your personality that either makes me smile or want to strangle you.”
Oath of Honor Page 28