by Lori Foster
Taking the seat next to her, Dash handed over the big cat. He was now more dry than not and began grooming himself.
Logan went to her other side. “Someone wanted us to assume the perp was hired by the same men who visited the pawnshop.”
Margo shook her head. “I don’t like assumptions.”
“It does feel off,” Logan agreed. “The thugs from the pawnshop wouldn’t care about a cat.”
“Agreed. So what are you thinking?” Reese considered things. “We all agree it’s not part of the underground porno operation, but because of the kerosene, it was made to look as if it is.”
“Someone,” Rowdy said, “is conveniently using one thing to instigate another.”
That cryptic comment could have been confusing, but Dash knew exactly what he meant. “Someone on the inside track is working against you.”
It gave him a very bad feeling, but Margo only seemed thoughtful.
He didn’t want to voice the possibility, but more than that he wanted Margo protected—even if that meant protecting her from those closest to her.
“How did the guy get in?” He knew he would have heard the crash of breaking glass, but if someone picked a lock...
“Through the bathroom attached to her bedroom,” Reese explained. “The window was jimmied open. He must have crawled in after you two were already in the lieutenant’s office.”
Margo stared down at the cat as she stroked him. “The window locks securely. There’s no way to ‘jimmy’ it open.”
“The lock wasn’t broken,” Logan said.
Rowdy couldn’t understand the ramifications as he pressed her. “Lieutenant?”
She glanced at Dash, then away.
Did she want him to keep quiet? Was that her way of saying to stay out of it?
Like hell.
“If you two have something to share,” Logan said, “now would be the time.”
“I have to wonder,” Margo said, all business again. “Any chance you two were followed when you came to visit?”
Immediately Reese and Logan objected.
“Definitely not.”
“Hell, no.”
She held up a hand, silencing them. “I didn’t really think so. Even if you had been, it wouldn’t explain the open window.” She took a really big breath—and turned to Dash. “When my dad was here...which bathroom did he use?”
He should have known she’d have the same suspicion. Margo wasn’t a dummy. She was, unfortunately, tough as nails, in part due to her father’s never-ending hostility.
“I didn’t follow him in.” Dash wanted to hold her, but she’d hate that. With the others present he knew she’d insist on showing her strength. “I just waited at the door.”
Logan sat forward, his elbows on his knees, his hands hanging loose. “Your father was here?”
“He and West came by to...check on me.”
Cursing softly, Reese pushed away from the wall.
Dash and Rowdy were left in the dark. He wouldn’t ask her now, not in front of everyone.
Rowdy didn’t have the same reserve. “Someone want to fill me in?”
Silence. Dash felt the tension mounting—until Margo shook it off. She faced Rowdy with cool composure. “This goes no further.”
“Who the hell would I tell?”
She smiled as if she saw the humor in that. “My father was chief of police before he retired.”
“I knew that.”
“But you probably didn’t know that I forced him to retire. And unfortunately, he’s never forgiven me for that.”
* * *
BREATHING HARD, EXCITEMENT making him clumsy, Saul ran down the polished hallway and into his brother’s posh office. It had taken him thirty excruciating minutes to get there, the drive feeling endless. He’d wanted to speed, but Curtis was strict about things like that. Other than their playtimes, which they deserved—and the occasional need to snuff someone who got in the way—they were to live as law-abiding citizens, the same as the good, ordinary, insignificant people.
As slow as the drive had been, the elevator to the twenty-sixth floor seemed more so. By the time Saul got to the posh office that encompassed the entire floor, he forgot the general rule about always knocking first.
Curtis was on the phone behind his massive mahogany desk when Saul literally fell in through the doorway with a lot of noise and fanfare.
Toby, sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, lurched forward, his gun already drawn. Seeing Saul, he scowled and put the gun away, then cursed over the coffee he’d spilled everywhere.
“I’ll call you back,” Curtis said into the phone. Frowning, he stood as he placed the landline phone back into the cradle. “What is it?”
Trying to catch his breath, Saul hung on the doorknob. This was his opportunity to redeem himself and he almost pissed himself in his excitement. “I know where she lives.”
Curtis circled around his desk. “She who?”
“That nosy cop. The one that got away.” Why couldn’t he ever remember names? It infuriated Curtis when he had to dance around without details. “The one Toby tried to follow today.”
Toby narrowed his eyes. “The one you let get away!”
Curtis raised a hand, silencing them both. “Get in here and shut the goddamned door.”
Saul slammed it behind him, wiped the sweat off his bald head, then pressed his damp palms to the front of his slacks.
Curtis rested a hip on his desk, studying Saul. “You’re talking about Lieutenant Margaret Peterson.”
“Yeah, her. Someone broke into her house. Someone acting like us!”
Curtis’s frown darkened more. “Calmly, Saul, tell me what you mean. Who acted like us? How?”
Saul drew a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “Someone tried to burn her house down with kerosene, but she and the dude stopped him.”
Curtis and Toby shared a look. “You’re not making any sense.”
God, why couldn’t Curtis ever understand him? He took another step forward. “The cops arrested him. I was watching the TV and I saw the whole report. They said some masked guy broke into her place and dumped kerosene everywhere.”
“But he didn’t light it?”
“No. Something about there being a cat and he didn’t want it hurt—”
“Jesus,” Toby interrupted, glancing worriedly at Curtis. “What the fuck?”
Looking very unhappy with the information, Curtis asked through his teeth, “Was anyone hurt?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Why did Curtis care about that? He wanted the bitch dead anyway. “They said the dude staying with her restrained the guy until the cops got there and arrested him. But it had happened at the bitch’s house. They showed her picture! It’s her!”
Toby stood. “I don’t like it. First the cops say they found something at the scene of that damned garage—”
Curtis slashed a hand through the air, making Saul duck in reflex. Curtis wasn’t within striking range, and still his heart lodged in his throat and refused to budge.
Quietly furious, Curtis said, “We didn’t leave any clues. The kerosene was everywhere. Regardless of the rumors we’re hearing, I know it all burned. Every last single shred of evidence.”
Often they had to get rid of evidence. Saul and Toby both knew Curtis’s preference for burning it. After that damned druggie had let him down with the driving the night he tried to get the bitch, Saul had no choice but to kill him. He’d dumped the body at a current construction site where it would end up buried. Everything else had been burned in the garage.
Toby didn’t look convinced, and that worried Saul. He didn’t want to go to jail. Just the thought of it gave him nightmares for a week. It wasn’t enough to discourage him from taking part in playtime. B
ut close. “They found something at the garage?”
“No!” Curtis bunched up in that dangerous way of his. “I just fucking told you they couldn’t have.”
Still worried, he glanced at Toby, who gave one small shake of his head.
“I was on the phone when you burst in here,” Curtis explained, “verifying that there was nothing but ash.”
“Oh.” Saul swallowed hard, but his throat felt restricted. “Well, I just wanted to let you know. About the break-in at her place, I mean. And...and that they arrested someone.”
Eyes narrowed and mean, Curtis turned to Toby. “Find out what the fuck is going on.”
“Right.” After giving Saul a pitying look, Toby walked out of the room.
Staring at him with laserlike intensity, Curtis said, “You came here, to my office.”
“Well...yeah. I didn’t think you’d want me to use the phone. I mean, in case it was—”
“You burst in here, drawing notice. You know how important it is to keep business separate from pleasure.”
“Yeah, I do.” Saul didn’t understand. “But I thought you’d want to know where she lives.”
Curtis turned away. “I would have found the woman eventually, at the right time, when it suited me. But now I know that someone is daring to copy me, to mock me.”
“Oh, well...I guess.” Saul chewed the side of the mouth, backing up a little. “I can see where that’d piss you off.”
“And now.” His voice went gravelly and deep. “Now that bitch will be watched more closely. She won’t stay at her house or travel freely, giving me the opportunity to get to her. No, she might even go into hiding somewhere. It’s going to make everything very difficult.”
Saul looked behind him, but unfortunately Toby had pulled the door shut again when he left.
No escape.
Curtis’s hand curled around a heavy paperweight on his desktop. “Now, thanks to some fucking copycat, she’ll have protection all around her.” He turned suddenly and threw the weight with precision.
Gasping, Saul tried to cover up, but it bounced off his hunched shoulder, a solid hit that felt like it broke a bone. Better than hitting his head and cracking his skull, but still he cried out, cowering, closing in on himself.
“I know how to get to her, though. Because I always have a plan.” As Curtis advanced, he seemed deaf and blind to Saul’s panic, his pain. “The fucking whore is going to pay for causing me so much trouble! Do you hear me?”
But Saul couldn’t hear anything.
He was crying too loudly.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
RELIVING THE SHAME all over again, Margo forced herself to face one and all during her admission. “My father, along with a few others in supervisory positions, was involved in a nasty little game of using female informants for more than information.”
Logan and Reese, she knew, had heard the rumors. Who hadn’t? But true to her word, she’d kept quiet about those involved—as long as they left the force. None of them could be trusted to protect the public.
Not when they’d already breached that trust in the worst way possible. Not when they’d already taken advantage of vulnerable women under their protection.
“I knew there was some bad blood....”
She gave Logan a humorless smile. “You always know when something is happening. And no doubt Reese gleaned the whole story through his different sources.”
Reese didn’t look happy, but he shrugged an affirmative.
“I should have had them all prosecuted,” she said, struggling once again with her conscience. “Unfortunately, for some of them, it would have been very difficult to prove.”
“For your father?” Rowdy asked.
“Far as I know, he didn’t actively involve himself, but he did turn a blind eye to what was happening. That’s just as bad. I should have—”
“No,” Logan disagreed. “An investigation would have just dragged it out and divided the department more. The locals already had enough to chew on.”
“We’d all but lost their trust,” Reese added. “You took care of it without stirring up the muck more than necessary. And by doing so, you protected everyone else in the department.”
What they thought of her mattered, she admitted. It always had. They were good cops, good men, and as such she wanted—craved—their approval. It made her heart feel better to know they didn’t judge her harshly.
But what Dash thought mattered most of all. So many times he’d told her how she impressed him, how he admired her. She didn’t want to now see disappointment in his eyes.
She didn’t want to let him down.
It wasn’t easy, but she faced him.
He surprised her by taking her hand, then kissing her knuckles.
He said nothing, but then, he didn’t really need to. She let out the breath that had caught in her lungs and finally felt a little of the strain ease from her shoulders.
Earlier, when she’d realized how easily she could have lost him...
Rowdy interrupted those dark thoughts. “So how many got the boot? Besides your dad? Who else was involved?”
Leave it to Rowdy to take it all in stride. But then, he never had much faith in the police to begin with.
Dash didn’t give her a chance to answer. “You’re thinking someone else could have a vendetta against her?”
“It’s possible,” Reese agreed. “An ex-cop would make more sense than anyone else, because he’d possibly still have ties to people at the station. That’d give him access to current information. He’d know how to attack her in a way that just tied in with another case.”
“The world is overrun with idiots who do wrong, then blame others for busting them.” Rowdy realized what he’d said and turned to her. “Not to call your dad an idiot—”
Margo waved that off. “To this day, he doesn’t see the big deal in taking advantage of women who were trying to get their lives together. Believe me, I’ve called him worse.”
“So many people were shuffled around,” Logan said. “I’m not sure who retired, who left under duress, who was implicated.”
She remembered well. “My father, serving as the police chief, two sergeants, a lieutenant, a dozen officers and a civilian crime-lab tech.”
Rowdy whistled. “That’s quite a haul.”
In a protective gesture, Dash moved closer to her. “How many female informants were there?”
“Five.” It sickened her still. “One of them was only nineteen.” When she’d given her father his ultimatum, she’d been completely alone. Her department, as well as her family, had turned on her. Even West hadn’t entirely understood her position. Oh, he’d known it was wrong, and he was all for shutting it down. He even agreed that some reprimands were in order.
But to kick out “good” officers? Their own father?
No, that he hadn’t supported. After all, to him the women were criminals, prostitutes who’d been busted.
He hadn’t been alone in that opinion. Most everyone had seen them as “less” than the men involved. It didn’t matter that they’d been coerced into sexual situations, that they’d possibly been raped, demeaned....
She pulled in a deep breath, calming herself.
This time she knew she wasn’t alone. As she’d retold it all, she had Dash with her. And she knew 100 percent that he backed her—whatever she wanted to do—because he trusted her to do the right thing. Somehow that made it all so much easier.
But it was more than that. She now knew Logan and Reese well enough to know they would never turn away from that type of injustice, the abuse of others. They were honorable cops, through and through.
And Rowdy... No, Rowdy would have defended the women, the same as she had.
Reese folded his arms over his chest and
studied her. “From what I’ve heard, the commander had some say in how it all went down.”
“Yes. Dan insisted on keeping things quiet,” she confirmed. “He and my father were close. Together, they had a lot of influence.”
“They pushed for you to take the lieutenant’s position?” Rowdy asked.
“Yes.” She shook her head. “I even had the mayor breathing down my neck. I think they had some misguided notion of controlling me through a promotion.”
Logan’s grin went crooked. “You’d damn well earned the promotion and you know it.”
Dash said, “That was probably just their way of getting you on the inside circle.”
“The boys’ club,” Rowdy added with disdain.
True, all of it. Except... “It didn’t work.”
“No,” Dash said, confident. “I’m sure it didn’t.”
She wouldn’t sugarcoat the truth. “I suspected others of being involved, but I couldn’t prove it. Not without going through an official, department-wide investigation.”
“What you did was cleaner and quicker,” Logan assured her.
Dash’s thumb moved over her knuckles. “You remember the names of everyone that was involved?”
“Yes.” She would never forget—and they all knew it. It was one of the reasons so much strife remained between her and the commander. And one reason she could ignore his edicts when she chose to.
“So now,” Rowdy said, still in an analytical mind-set, “you think your dad might’ve dicked with the window lock? You think he’d use the details of this current cluster-fuck to set you up...for what?”
She just didn’t know. She couldn’t imagine her father wanting her dead, but... “The window got open somehow.”
Reese began to pace. “Maybe he just wanted to scare you off.”
“Surely he never intended for an actual fire to be set,” Logan added.
Dash pushed to his feet and stood in front of her. “You’re not safe here.”