This had to be the oddest conversation he’d ever had, challenged for Sara’s affections by the man he hunted. “What do you mean by step up?”
“People lean on a hero for protection because he’s strong. He goes after what he wants and he gets it. Wine and roses, man. You were married. You have to know the drill.”
Jesus, this guy knew a lot about him. And the more contact he had with Holt, the more Holt was learning about him. “Why do you care what I do or don’t do with Sara?”
“I just do.”
Was he seriously ordering him to date Sara? “What if I don’t follow your directives?”
“I’ll show her what she truly deserves in a man. Someone who will take care of her. Show her a good time. Protect her.”
That was the second time he’d used some form of the word protect. It couldn’t be a coincidence. “Protect her from what? From you?”
“From John Rochard.”
Alarm coursed through Holt. Toxin really had kept a close eye on Sara. He’d have the private investigator go back through the Academy employee records. He must have missed something. “Rochard?”
“Sara didn’t tell you, huh?” Toxin chuckled as if they were two old friends sharing a joke. “He’s threatening her job.”
Shit. Sara had said she’d handle the issue of John Rochard. When he hadn’t heard any more about it, he’d assumed she’d taken care of the matter. Of course, he hadn’t given her a whole lot of incentive to come to him if she needed help.
“He needs to be taken care of,” Toxin continued. “And this time, I do mean the other kind of taken care of.” He paused. “On Sunday, there’s a banquet honoring veterans. Fancy dinner. Black tie. Be there, and take Sara. She deserves a night out.”
“And if I don’t, or Sara doesn’t want to come?”
“You’ll see. Convince her to go.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Besides Sara and an expensive meal?” There was a pause. “A hero does things out of a desire to help. But if you need more, I have something that might interest you. Information about Samantha Manchester.”
Holt went still. How had Toxin known about Damian’s daughter? More important, how could he have information that Damian didn’t already have? It had to be a ruse. “There’s no way you know things we don’t about her disappearance.” Not only had it been twenty years since her murder, but Holt had seen Samantha Manchester’s file. The CPD and Damian had used every resource possible to track down the serial killer responsible—to no avail. The killer was still at large.
“You willing to take that chance? I’ll give you the information after you take care of Sara. I’ll be watching.”
* * *
Toxin smirked as he disconnected and threw the cell phone into a trash bin at the edge of the park. That should do it. The call couldn’t have gone smoother, and despite wanting Sara for himself, now Toxin would know exactly where she was all weekend. He’d need that time to set the wheels in motion for the final stage of his plan.
Soon, Sara and Theo would be his.
* * *
Immediately after Toxin disconnected, Einstein assured Holt he would receive the recording of the call ASAP. In the meantime, Holt summoned Max and notified Noah.
Twenty minutes later, Einstein and Max arrived in Holt’s office. Twenty minutes was a long time to mull over the conversation, and to consider how to handle things with Sara. First, though, Holt wanted to analyze every nuance, every word, every pause of the recording.
Max dropped into the seat opposite Holt. “Noah’s looking into the cell phone number, and has someone heading to the location from which the signal came.”
“But I suspect it’s another burner phone and Toxin will be long gone,” Einstein added.
Holt cursed. “Unless the call came from the prison, it looks like we definitely have the wrong guy, although I already suspected as much. Noah will have to set Brady Flaherty free.” He rubbed at his temple, where a headache was beginning. He’d held out hope his gut had been wrong—for Sara’s safety. At least he’d had a bodyguard nearby, just in case. “What the hell could this banquet be about?”
Einstein held up a flash drive. “Recording’s on here.”
“How much?” Holt asked, hoping they’d at least gotten the last couple minutes.
“We got the whole thing.” Einstein’s grin was triumphant. He moved to Holt’s side, neatly inserting the drive into his computer and pressing a button. Catherine’s voice answered the call with friendly politeness and Toxin announced his identity.
“How’d you manage to get the whole thing?” Max asked.
“I can’t take all the credit. Catherine thought it might be a good idea to start recording all calls that come in. Since SSAM is known for hunting criminals, she thought we might get threats, and some day it would come in handy.”
Holt held up a hand to signal quiet and they immediately hushed. “There it is.”
“What?” Max asked.
“He mentioned the word hero. And protect. Several times, actually.”
“And that’s important?”
“Absolutely. He’s giving us clues, whether he intends to or not. He’s got a hero complex. He wants me to be a surrogate hero. Kind of like filling his shoes, probably because doing it himself risks his freedom.” He listened another moment, then paused the recording. “That part about wine and roses. He lets me know he knows I was married, and that I should know the drill. Which means he probably knows the drill too.”
“You think Toxin is married?”
“Is or was—some kind of committed relationship, like I’d thought before. I think that part of my profile is correct. And the fact that he refers to it negatively, as a drill, leads me to believe that relationship is definitely over. Yet he wants me to pursue Sara, in his stead.”
Sara was a key. He’d tried to leave her out of the investigation, tried to forget about her entirely, though she continued to invade his thoughts, day and night. It looked like he was going to have to include her after all.
“Better get on the phone,” Max said, standing. “In my experience, women like some advance notice if they have to get ready for some fancy shindig. That banquet is supposed to be full of big names and big egos—not the vets, but the politicians who’ll haunt the place looking for good press.”
Holt hadn’t heard of the thing. “Then we’ll need extra eyes and ears there.” He compiled a to-do list in his head. He’d have to depend on Max to handle things from SSAM’s end while he kept Sara safe. She might object to spending time with him, but he was going to plant himself on her doorstep until she understood how important this was. “We’re going to have to get organized fast. The banquet’s only a couple days away.”
“I’ll tell Damian,” Einstein offered.
“No, I’ll tell him,” Holt said. “I need to warn him about Toxin mentioning Samantha, anyway. I don’t want to get his hopes up about any so-called new information.” The man had seen them dashed too many times.
* * *
Damian looked up as Holt knocked at his open office door. The haunted look in the other man’s eyes immediately put Damian on alert. “What is it?”
Holt entered and closed the door behind him, ratcheting Damian’s alert status up another notch. The man taking the seat across from him had some bad news to share. “We heard from Toxin.”
“Just now?”
“About an hour ago. Einstein got me a recording of the conversation and I wanted to hear it a couple more times before speaking with you.”
“A recording? That’s good, right?”
“It is. But the trace didn’t lead anywhere.”
“Has there been another murder?” Maybe that was why Holt looked so grim.
“No, but Toxin wants me to jump through som
e hoops.”
“You don’t have to do anything he says, you know.”
“But if I do...”
“What did he promise you in exchange?”
Holt scrubbed a hand across his jaw, then pinned Damian with his gaze. “Information on Sam’s murder.”
The air left Damian’s lungs in a whoosh, as if someone had punched him in the gut. He sat back in his seat, as if it would help absorb the shock. “My Sam? What could he possibly know? You profiled him as, what, thirty-five or so? He would have been a teenager at the time of Sam’s murder. Hell, he would have been about Sam’s age.”
“He says he knows something. And he’s willing to offer it in exchange for my cooperation.”
“What does he want you to do?”
Holt huffed out a breath. “Take Sara to some banquet.”
“That’s odd, isn’t it? Why would he want you two in a public place?”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet.”
“If it’s too dangerous...”
“It’s probably the safest way to try to catch him.”
“Right. We could have SSAM agents and CPD in place. We’d scope the perimeters, not get caught unprepared...”
Holt’s gaze was unrelenting. “I wanted you to hear about this guy’s bait from me...but he could just be yanking our chain.”
Damian smiled grimly. “Don’t worry about me. He can’t promise anything I haven’t already hoped for. Funny thing about hope...it never completely dies.”
* * *
“There’s someone here to see you,” Cheryl said from the doorway.
Sara glanced up from the computer screen where she’d been looking over the spring schedule. It was always strange to think about spring break and matriculation dates when there was frost on the lawn and Thanksgiving was around the corner. Of course, if next Friday’s visit from the board didn’t go well, she might not be here in the spring. “Who is it?”
Her secretary’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Dr. Patterson.”
She experienced the same reaction whenever she heard his name—a stutter in the pulse, a rush of blood to her cheeks, a hitch in her breath. She liked to think it was from extreme annoyance, but she was afraid it was so much more. That the man could still have such an effect on her after all these years...well, she didn’t want to consider what that meant. She stood and smoothed her hands over her skirt. “What does he want?”
Cheryl glanced over her shoulder into the outer office area, then stepped aside.
“To apologize.” Holt filled the doorway, a bouquet of bright spring flowers in his hand. Did everyone have spring fever? The dreary fall weather should have smothered those impulses. October’s Indian summer had given way to a chilly, damp November that finally fit her mood. There were even rumors of a big pre-winter snowstorm headed their way next week.
All these thoughts were an attempt to distract herself from the visual impact of Holt. He seemed thinner, more jagged around the edges. Her fingers twitched, wanting to smooth the lines that bracketed his eyes.
Holt walked up to her and held out the bouquet. “I need to talk to you. Alone.” He’d dropped his voice so that Cheryl couldn’t hear. While Sara could ignore the flowers, the entreaty in his eyes was hard to resist.
Sara looked over Holt’s shoulder. “Can you close the door behind you, Cheryl?” Still grinning, Cheryl did as requested, leaving Sara and Holt facing each other, so many words unspoken between them. She tried to remain impassive, but Holt shifted his weight and looked away as if nervous, and part of her was hopeful. Had he come to beg forgiveness? “What did you need?”
“You.”
Her pulse fluttered so wildly she was sure he could see it jumping at her neck. She fisted her damp palms to control her reaction, but was forced to uncurl her fingers to take the flowers Holt suddenly thrust toward her.
“These are a peace offering.”
She laid the bouquet on her desk. “You wanted to take things slow, and then I never heard from you again. Was that slow enough? Or are you just here to pick up Theo and knew you’d bump into me? Don’t worry. I wouldn’t have made a scene.”
The intensity in the set of his jaw, in the line of his shoulders, told her he was primed for battle. With her? “I’m here to pick up Theo, but I need you to come home with us too.”
Her head was dizzy from trying to read between the lines. “After weeks of not hearing from you, you want me to come away with you for the weekend?”
“No, I need you to come.”
“I don’t—” She stopped as he gripped her shoulders. His nostrils flared, his eyes dilated. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was panicked that she might say no. She should say no. She would say no.
Absently, his thumbs stroked along her collarbone. “Come home with me and Theo for the weekend. Stay with us. His birthday is tomorrow. It’ll be fun. A new start.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You want to go from no contact to staying overnight at your house?” His invitation wasn’t one born of passion and excitement. Everything he’d done to date told her he clearly wasn’t ready for a relationship, at least not with her. The whiteness around his lips made it clear he was issuing the invitation against his will. But why? She planted her fists on her hips. The movement had him dropping his hands to his sides. “I think you’d better tell me what’s going on.”
He looked so lost she almost agreed to go with him just to relieve his pain. “Toxin requested our presence at a banquet in downtown Chicago.”
She sank onto the desk. “Toxin? I thought he was in jail.”
“Brady was framed. He’s been released. The real Toxin decided to step forward and contact me—a phone call this time. He’s getting braver. We just need to do what he wants until we can trip him up.”
“We? You and me?”
Holt sat down. He suddenly looked tired. “Believe me, it wasn’t my idea. He’s insisting I wine and dine you.”
A bubble of laughter moved up through her chest and lodged in her throat. “Wine and dine?”
“He’s got it in his head that I should be your hero, and that you deserve a good man.”
“Well, at least he got that last half right.”
He looked even more miserable. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this, Sara.”
“You’re not the one demanding my presence.”
“In a way, I am. His connection to me, his comfort level with me, is our best lead yet. I need to exploit that to catch him. He’s expecting me to take you to the banquet.”
“And if I say no?”
“I can’t say I’d blame you. Hell, half of me hopes you will. It might keep you safe.”
She mulled that over. He cared enough to worry about her safety. That was something, anyway. Not exactly what she’d wanted from him, but...something. “But then you wouldn’t catch Toxin.”
His gaze met hers and held. Beyond the misery, there was determination. “We’ll catch him. Eventually.”
Possibly after he’d killed again. Or several times. How many people would die before they got another lead like this?
The thought of spending all weekend in close contact with Holt did strange things to her insides. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea while her heart was still healing. “Why would I have to be there all weekend? I could meet you for the dinner. Or I could stay at a nearby hotel.”
He started shaking his head the moment she’d asked the question. “I want to make sure you’re safe. Toxin is watching. He said as much.” His gaze went to the flowers. Her stomach plummeted as she realized what they represented—not Holt’s contrition, but that he was currently at the mercy of an evil puppet master. “He could have followed me here. He seems to be watching my every move. Some of the things he said...he’s close enough to have been watchin
g you for weeks now too. The school will be empty for the weekend. I don’t want you here alone.”
“What about Becca?”
“She has a prior commitment this weekend. I’ve had a private bodyguard nearby for the past few weeks—”
“You what?” She hadn’t had a clue he’d been that worried.
“—but I’d rather have you near me so I can be sure you’re safe.”
The seconds ticked by as he waited for her to respond. If Toxin wasn’t caught soon, the killer could remain near her school, possibly a threat to her boys. If she could stick things out with Holt for a few days, they might catch a killer, but at what cost to her heart and her pride?
The door to her office opened a crack, then all the way. “Jeremy told me he saw you come in here.” Theo entered, but didn’t move to greet Holt.
Cheryl appeared behind him. “I’m sorry. I asked him to wait outside.”
“It’s okay.” Sara smiled at Theo. “Bet you’re looking forward to the weekend, with a birthday and all.”
He shrugged. “We’re supposed to paint my room.” He glanced uncertainly at Holt. “If we can find the time.”
“Oh yeah, you mentioned that. Sounds like fun. You’ll be ten?”
“Finally.” He rolled his eyes as if he’d suffered some long wait. “I could bring you a piece of birthday cake, if you want.”
“No need,” Holt said. “She’s coming home with us. We’ve got big birthday plans for you, bud.”
Sara raised her eyebrows.
“You do?” Theo looked at Sara and grinned. “Really?”
She swallowed her anger at Holt. “Why don’t you go outside while your dad and I finish our conversation. We’ll have our chess game later.”
“Yeah, okay, since you’ll be at our house and all.” Theo seemed confused but interested in the prospect. He left her alone with Holt.
“You’ll come?” Holt’s hazel eyes were laced with concern again.
“I don’t see as I have any choice.” He’d found her one weak spot. She wouldn’t break Theo’s heart now.
“I’m sor—”
“No, please, don’t say it. We’re not going back to that routine again.”
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