by Addison Fox
Landry nodded, the underlying meaning of his words a strange echo for her thoughts earlier about Whit and Elizabeth’s baby. She knew she’d love her nephew, but with all that was going on, that innocent baby had begun to represent something more.
The restoration of her family.
A new life for them all to nurture and help grow into the next generation of Adairs. A stronger generation, if she had anything to say about it.
“That child stands for all that’s not right with the world around us. She’s the reason I do what I do and she’s the reason I hate that my very job even exists.”
“Humans can do terrible things to each other.”
“Terrible, horrible things. And as long as they do, it’s my job to make sure I can save as many as possible.”
His comments matched the very same strains he’d mentioned earlier when he finally told her about Rena. But still, she sensed that wasn’t the entire story.
“Isn’t there something else?”
“Maybe she’s—”
Derek was an action-oriented man—she’d witnessed it several times over the past week—so it was odd to see him hesitate.
“Rena’s kidnapping forced me to look at my life differently. Where I was going. What I wanted. Who I wanted to share it with. People talk about cases that are turning points in their life, and this case has been one for me.”
“Sarah?”
“Among other things.”
“What happened?”
“Hell, Landry!” His voice bounced off the confines of her SUV, even the high-end leather not thick enough to absorb his upset and pain.
She wanted to lash out. Might have even a week ago. But she was a different person now. The woman who had stripped away every defense—every pretense—in this man’s presence had changed. And she’d grown into someone who expected the same in return.
A wash of oncoming headlights lit the interior in harsh detail while highlighting a sign indicating they were about thirty miles outside Los Angeles.
Thirty miles until he headed straight into danger.
“Damn it.” He shifted in his seat, his large shoulders rocking the back of it as he maneuvered.
“Damn. It.” He muttered the words once more before he turned to face her, twisting against the confines of his seat belt. “How can you ask me questions about Sarah when we were in bed an hour ago?”
“It’s a simple question.”
“No, actually, it’s not.”
Now it was her turn to shrug. Yes, she wanted to know more about the mysterious Sarah, but she also wanted him to know he had a safe space to share. Whatever had come before they met, Derek had made it more than clear he wasn’t in love with his ex-fiancée any longer. Landry knew most women would still find the circumstances a threat, but strangely, she didn’t.
“She’s a good part of the reason this situation with Rena is so upsetting to you. Whatever else might have come between us this past week, I hope you consider me a friend.”
“Of course I do.” And then, “I consider you more than a friend.”
“So talk to me.”
“You are persistent.”
“I’m an Adair. It comes with the territory.”
“You don’t say.”
When she made no move to say anything further, he let out a small sigh. “I never saw the signs. Not once until it was too late. I think that’s the part I can’t quite get past.”
She caught the tense set of his body from the corner of his eye. How he shifted against the seat once more, hands clenched into hard fists on his knees.
“Relationships come and go, and while I was planning on making a life with her, it’s not the relationship itself I’m upset about.” A hard laugh rumbled from his chest. “Which is part of the problem, I’m sure.”
“What signs didn’t you see?”
“How unhappy she was. How she resented my job. How she quietly and deliberately tried to manipulate me day after day. I was oblivious to it all.”
“Relationships are hard. And we all check out from time to time. Sometimes it’s easier that way. To let the things you don’t like swirl around you while you focus on the other things in your life you can control.” She reached out and laid a hand on his arm. “I’ve dubbed it the Landry Adair Relationship Method. It’s been rather effective up to now.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I think you’ve done an incredible job with what you’ve had to work with.” His hand crossed his body to cover hers, the gesture warm and intimate in the darkened car. “Besides. I’m a cop. I should have seen the signs and known how to deal with the situation.”
“Ah, yes.” She nodded sagely, and purposely pushed bite into her tone. “The Derek Winchester Relationship Method. My profession makes me bulletproof and nothing can hurt me.”
“Landry—”
The traffic was light, not a car nearby for hundreds of yards, so she risked a glance his way. “Am I wrong?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Oh, hell, Derek. It’s all the same. Life. Relationships. Human interaction. It doesn’t suddenly get easy because you have a certain job or a given amount of cash in your bank account. Life’s hard and we all deal with our own fair share of crap.”
She slid her hand from his arm, tired of trying to make him see reason. Whatever pain he carried, he was obviously more content to hold it close and allow it to continue eating away at his soul than to get help or share the load.
* * *
A dull wash of gray reflected back at them through the windshield as Landry pulled up to a warehouse several blocks down from the one he and Mark had targeted. The dynamics of the area changed block by block, and he knew this corner to be one that was well maintained by the building owner, who also believed in a strong security system. He’d made peace with Landry coming along, but there was no way he was putting her in the line of fire.
An unmarked car sat down the street and Derek knew it to be one issued by the department for sting operations. Even with the seventy-five yards that separated them, the car’s inhabitants could be there in a moment if needed.
His gaze drifted over the woman next to him. Strong. Sure of herself. And altogether too determined to have her own way. She’d refused to be shaken off, and he’d already exacted a promise that she’d go straight to a hotel room that had been prearranged and wait for him there.
Anxiety aside, if he were honest with himself, he had to admit her cool head and reasonable logic back at Adair Acres had rung true. The car ride up had given him time to call Mark and work through the details of the operation.
The end of the ride, however, had been a different story.
Was the woman mad?
How could she ask him questions about another woman when he could still feel the heat between the two of them branding his skin? They’d made love for hours and she wanted to know about his ex-fiancée?
Worse, she wanted him to talk about where he’d gone wrong with his relationship. How he’d ignored the signs, or worse, didn’t even bother to look at how unhappy Sarah was. Instead, he’d been content to live his life and drag another person along the path of his life choices.
Sarah had hated his life as an FBI agent. Oh, she enjoyed telling her friends what he did, but beyond that, she resented his time in the field. His time away from her.
How had he missed that?
He knew plenty of people who juggled a life in the Bureau with marriages and families. At one time, he thought himself capable of the same, but now...
Now he wasn’t quite so sure.
The Rena Frederickson case had put more into focus than just his career. Maybe that was why, on a visceral level even he couldn’t describe, he needed to save this child. For her own life and future, yes.
But som
ehow she’d become the redemption for his.
“Do you have what you need?”
Landry’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. That Zen place he always went to before an op where the things around him faded away, replaced by a focus on what he needed to accomplish. “I’ve got it all.”
His sidearm was in its holster against his ribs, and he knew Mark had an arsenal of backup already with him. With the added men Mark had worked to line up, Derek knew they were set.
“I’m good.”
“Then I’ll let you get to it.”
The limited lighting in this part of town kept the SUV fairly dark, but there was a sliver of moonlight that filtered through her driver’s-side door, reflecting off the blond strands of her hair.
Since they’d already agreed she’d wait at one of the luxury hotels downtown, he focused on that simple bit of reassurance. She’d be safe as soon as she drove away. Away from the wash of darkness that had clouded his life for far too long.
“I’ll have Mark bring me back to the Bureau when we finish the op and then we’ll come to the hotel after we get everything filed. Try to get some sleep as it’ll probably be around ten or eleven tomorrow morning before we’ve got everything wrapped up.”
“I’ll see you then.” She closed the gap between them and pressed her lips to his. The quiet of the car closed around them like a cocoon, and for the briefest moment, Derek allowed himself to sink into her.
He’d been unable to resist her, but in that moment he needed her with a raw hunger that sent a shiver of fear through his midsection.
When had he gotten so vulnerable?
Landry lifted her head and pressed a hand to his cheek. “Be careful.”
Although it was dim, a small swath of light reflected from a street lamp at the end of the block. The angle of the beam framed her gaze and he took the moment to stare into those bright blue depths.
Derek braced for the thinly veiled censure that he was leaving, but all he saw was support.
He slipped from the car, unable to spend another moment waiting. He needed to focus on the op. On the need to protect and defend and finally—finally—bring Rena Frederickson home.
Landry drove off as they’d planned and Derek waited, watching the back of the car until her taillights faded fully from view. He’d deliberately selected their stopping point because it put her two simple right turns back to the freeway. She was a competent woman who knew where she was going, and he had to trust she’d find her way.
He’d also reassured himself by punching the hotel address into her GPS, reviewing every prescribed turn on the navigation system in advance.
Landry would be fine. And when he picked her up tomorrow they’d figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.
A hard breath caught in his throat as that image took root.
The rest of their lives.
When had he started thinking about her in terms of something permanent?
And with another dose of reality crashing in, he had to admit it was about ninety seconds after he met her, her blond hair slicked back as she stared up at him from the pool. Even now, he could picture it as vividly as if he were standing there. Sun backlit her features, framing her like a goddess rising from the pool as rivulets of water ran over her face and chest and down her impossibly long legs.
She was beautiful. And in all the moments since, he’d seen how her external beauty was dwarfed by the woman she was inside.
Her care for her family and friends. The focus, attention and devotion she lavished on the charities she was involved with. Even her fierce protection of her mother’s name, despite her very real acknowledgment that Patsy didn’t deserve it.
Landry Adair was amazing.
And he loved her for all of it.
That sense of vulnerability slapped at him once more but Derek pushed it back. He’d thought himself in love before, only to discover it was a mirage of poor expectations and veiled frustration.
What he had with Landry was different. Her willingness to bring him here was only one example that set her apart. And set apart what they felt for each other.
With one last glance in the direction she’d driven away, Derek shifted his focus inward. He might have just had the revelation of his life, but it was time to do what he’d come for.
There’d be time soon enough to tell Landry how he felt.
The target location was about a hundred yards away and he kept to the shadows, walking against the outer walls of each building between his drop-off point and the warehouse entrance. He patted the tools in his pockets and sensed the reassuring weight of his gun under his arm and another piece strapped to his leg.
Satisfied with his preparations, he moved on to the next phase. An image of the building’s layout filled his mind’s eye. Mark said their intel pinpointed Rena on the first floor behind a row of old office cubicles.
Derek kept that image firmly in place and slipped into one of the building’s required fire exits. The door had already been identified as a weak spot on their first reconnaissance, and it only took him a few minutes to work his pick tools before a hard snap on the frame finished the job.
A light breeze wafted over his neck, chilling him.
They were almost done.
An eerie stillness descended over him as he moved through the back side of the warehouse, gun in hand. Large, dirty windows filtered what little light was outside, but it was enough to give him a dim picture while his eyes further adjusted to the interior of the building.
The layout was much as he remembered, and he passed several rows of abandoned cubicles. The fabric that lined each cubicle showed its wear, the evidence of rodents chewing through the cloth visible in the frayed fabric and small holes at the base of the various frames he passed as he moved.
When he reached the end of a row, he stilled, doing his level best to orient himself to wherever Rena might be. While he knew there wouldn’t be a parade in his honor, he expected some sort of noise, even if it were just the muffled noises of her sleeping.
But no matter how hard he strained, his body still, he couldn’t detect a bit of sound that indicated another human was anywhere in the vicinity.
Another frisson of unease skittered over his skin and he glanced back the way he came. The door had been awfully easy to get through, and the lack of noise persisted. More than the lack of noise, the overarching stillness of the space felt unnatural.
He slipped a small, high-powered flashlight from his pocket and swung it low, illuminating layers of dirt and animal droppings on the floor. The evidence of such filth added a layer of anger over the anxiety and he fought to keep his calm. He’d do Rena no good to get upset now.
There would be plenty of time for anger later.
He kept tight to the cubicle wall and knew he’d pass one more row before he hit the wall of physical offices. Rena would be there.
She had to be there.
On the signal he and Mark had practiced, he tossed a beam up toward an exterior wall of windows, flashing three times. The tomblike stillness wrapped around him as he waited for Mark’s response.
Nothing.
He waited, counting off his breaths, then flashed the signal once more.
After several beats, again. Nothing.
An image of Landry wavered before his eyes. She was waiting for him. She expected him to come back. To meet her at the hotel tomorrow morning so they could drive together back to Adair Acres.
Even with the image of her pulling him like a lodestone back the way he came, he pushed himself forward. Toward the wall of offices and the child he knew was there. In life or in death, he needed to go to her. Needed to see for himself.
He stepped forward, his only focus on the office door that sat ajar halfway down the hallway. It was the only reason he stepped int
o the pool of blood that lay around the scrawny figure of Big Al Winters.
Chapter 15
Time passed in a blur of action and image. Derek dropped to his knees to check for Al’s pulse, knowing full well he was too late. The body was still warm, but all evidence of life had drained along with the man’s blood.
Derek screamed for help, the remembered protocols flashing through his mind as he hollered out the commands for all clear and victim down, before he searched for the gunshot.
He found two neat, clean holes at the chest and throat.
The shots were precise—and lined up in a familiar pattern—and he stilled a moment to simply catalog the wounds for himself before moving on to the rest of the body.
Al was obviously unarmed and by the look of him, hadn’t washed in days. Derek shifted away from the body, determined to investigate the rest of the warehouse. It was only when he glanced down to find himself covered in blood that he stilled.
There was no way they’d recover any additional evidence if he layered the place in bloody footprints.
So he waited.
And watched as Mark came through the door first, gun drawn.
“All clear!” Derek hollered the words, his hands up so Mark would connect the words with the body language. He waited and saw the moment his partner shifted from on guard to aware.
A pained expression filled Mark’s face, his eyes dark with worry. “Why the hell didn’t you wait for me?”
Derek lowered his arms, his movements slow as the others began spilling in the doors. “Why did you miss my signal? I flashed it several times, just like we arranged.”
“Signal? I’ve been waiting outside for you for the last hour. There was no signal.”
Mark was waiting?
Derek ran through the moments when he flashed his light at the exterior windows. He’d made the signal, then waited. Then he’d made it again.
He knew he had.
Their team lead, Leo Manchester, came in and took his place behind Mark, interrupting Derek’s mental backtrack through the past several minutes. “Winchester. You okay?”