Criminal Promises

by Nikki Duncan

  The hallway light flicked on. Blinking rapidly to adjust her sight, her hands shook when Adalia stepped into the doorway holding a gun at her side.

  Still beautiful, but more sadistic looking than when she’d been sentenced to life—she’d lost weight and her eyes were empty—cold and without a flicker of conscience. Prison rehabilitation had failed.

  Jutting out her chin, Maggie stiffened her spine. She would not cower.

  “At last, I officially meet the cherished Mrs. Sullivan.” Adalia flipped on the overhead light. “Or are you hoping to make it Mrs. Harte? You’ve been very chummy with the detective.”

  “At last, I meet the cowardly Adalia Wood.” Oddly, her pulse settled and her racing brain slowed. She had been chummy with Harte. Nothing Adalia said would defile their time together. “Hiding behind games. Too afraid to face a cop.”

  “Your cop can’t help you now.”

  “I don’t need a hero.” Come on, Burke. I need you! “You might need a savior though.”

  “Nah. That little crash you heard has taken care of Harte and Harrison. But should they get out of it, I have another surprise for them.”

  Her partner. Where was he? What had she done to Burke and Craig? They couldn’t be hurt. Or worse. They had to be on their way. “So you’re a desperate coward unable to finish a job on your own?” That her voice sounded calm while her brain raced and her heart thundered with fear was a massive miracle.

  How far could she push this? How was she going to get away?

  “I saw your kid’s picture.” Adalia moved into the room and stood on the opposite side of the bed from Maggie. “I know you have the papers.”

  “That’s nothing more than a pretty picture of a really cold place. And the papers are scrolls written in an ancient language. Pity Mike’s dead. He could’ve translated them.”

  “Your husband had time to translate them and find out where the diamond is.”

  “Diamond? Why would scrolls talk about diamonds? And neither will do you any good in hell.” Maggie snapped her fingers. “Wait…there was something to do with the North Pole. I saw a movie once… The Earth is hollow and you get there by going through a portal at the North Pole. Do you believe that? Is the diamond your key?”

  Laughing, Maggie scanned the room for potential weapons. Burke’s laptop and the desk lamp were the closest. Not exactly something she could grab on the sly. And they weren’t very effective against a gun.

  “And I thought you were smart.” Adalia took another step. “The papers lead to the Gryphon Diamond. It’s far more valuable than any kind of science fiction crap.”

  “Right.” Think, Maggie. You can do this. “What girl doesn’t want an awesome diamond, but isn’t the Gryphon Diamond supposed to be an extraterrestrial diamond? Doesn’t that strike you as a little science fiction-like?”

  “Clearly Mike translated some of the scrolls.” Adalia cocked her hip and lowered the gun slightly. “That diamond is a powerful conductor.”

  “What are you going to conduct with it?” Come on, BD. Maggie relaxed a little, hoping Adalia would follow suit.

  Adalia rolled her eyes. “I thought you read the papers.”

  “Translations of ancient languages take longer than translating something written in a currently spoken language.” Maggie shrugged. “Mike didn’t finish with the scrolls. I’m not exactly the expert he was.”

  “The diamond landed at the North Pole thousands of years ago during a meteor shower.”

  “So it’s worth a lot of money.”

  “Well, yeah.” Adalia waved the gun in the air as if brushing off some stupidity. “But it magnifies nuclear power by untold measures. I want to know who hid it and where.”

  “Oh, well since you seem to want to wipe out the world…” Maggie pointed at the bedside table. “It’s in that drawer.”

  Adalia glanced toward the nightstand.

  Did this woman really take her for an idiot? Mike hadn’t finished the translation, but he’d done enough to put Maggie, BD and Craig—with the help of a few military contacts, including one of their captain's—on the right path.

  The Hyperboreans had discovered an extraterrestrial diamond. A Greek god had foreseen it as a destructive force that could destroy all life, so the Hyperboreans encapsulated the stone into the heart of a Gryphon—the mythical creature of protection—statue carved from marble. Thousands of years later, the military had gotten hold of the diamond and used it during some nuclear weapons testing in the forties. The destruction during those tests had been too great, so they disposed of the diamond. Good to know Big Brother had some scruples.

  They’d found nothing to tell them where it might be today. Even if Mike had translated the scrolls completely, the location wouldn’t have been in them given the timeframe. The trouble lay with the secret group hunting the diamond.

  “If an ancient people had this diamond,” Maggie went on, “why do you think it has anything to do with nuclear power? That’s not exactly something that’s been around forever.”

  “It was like a prophecy.”

  “And here I thought you didn’t buy into science fiction or paranormal type stuff.” Gripping the laptop, prepared to hurl it at Adalia’s face and end this, Maggie caught BD’s spicy scent. “There’s no mention of the diamond’s location.”

  Adalia shrugged and raised her gun. “The scrolls may not tell where the diamond is now, but they will chronicle who the Hyperboreans gave it to and how to use it. I’ll track it down.”

  “How can you know about the diamond but not know who had it?” Holding her makeshift weapon behind her back, she stepped away from the desk. Closer to the bathroom, to Adalia, and hopefully closer to BD where he would come in through the hallway.

  “My grandfather told me about it.” She rolled her eyes and waved her gun. “But he was out of his mind thanks to old age and disease. He said the scrolls led to the diamond.”

  “You need to know who it’s been passed to so you can trail it to the hiding place.”

  A grunt behind Maggie had her turning to see a strange man—Adalia’s partner—climbing in through the window. Damn.

  Choking back fear, ignoring the slippery grip of her sweaty palms, she assured herself she could do this. Throw the computer at Adalia, dive into the windowless bathroom away from her partner, and run like hell out the other door.

  “You won’t have any of it,” Maggie retorted. An almost silent hiss came from the bathroom beside her. BD was there. Thank you, God! “We’ve re-hidden the scrolls and the translations.”

  “I’m not wasting time with you.”

  “Give her the papers, bitch.” Adalia’s partner demanded. “Harte isn’t here to save you this time.”

  Telling herself to stay calm, Maggie turned to Adalia’s partner. “Tell me. What’s it like?”

  “What’s what like?”

  “Deluding yourself into thinking you’re doing the right thing by helping her murder innocent people? How does it feel to know you’ll never measure up to a real man?”

  “That’s why he drinks and beats his wife.” BD stepped out of the bathroom with his weapon trained on Adalia. “It’s the only way he can feel powerful. Hello, Pritchett.”

  BD! Yes. He’d kept his promise.

  Craig stood in the hallway slightly out of Pritchett’s view. His gun was trained on Adalia’s back.

  “You’re wrong, Harte.” Pritchett pulled his gun and pointed it at BD.

  “I should have known you were the one helping Adalia.” BD shifted his aim to Pritchett and stepped farther into the room. “I do know that while the scrolls would be a tremendous academic discovery they will remain officially undiscovered.”

  Keeping her gaze steady on Adalia and the weapon still pointing at her own heart, Maggie sidled closer to BD and slightly out of the crossfire path.

  Adalia and Pritchett remained oblivious to the gun pointed at the back of her head.

  “You know, I’ve had about all the fun I can stand for one
night.” Maggie stepped closer still to BD. He took her hand and pulled him behind her. Now he had Pritchett and Adalia’s guns trained on him.

  Adalia took a step closer and pointed the gun at BD’s forehead. Pritchett lowered his to BD’s chest. Maggie’s heart slammed her ribs with knowledge. He wouldn’t survive this.

  She widened her eyes and stared over Adalia’s shoulder at Craig. Do something! Craig stood frozen. Unmoving. Unreadable.

  “Mags, bathroom.” Totally grateful to have BD there to be demanding and arrogant, she wasn’t able to obey. She’d claimed she didn’t need a hero, but as he backed her toward the bathroom she loved knowing she had one.

  “Oh, screw this,” Pritchett sneered.

  In surreal slow motion, he and BD squeezed their triggers. Five pops resounded through the room followed by two more. BD jerked backward knocking Maggie into the bathroom.

  Blood splattered her face. She screamed. Burke stumbled and took her to the floor. Two other thuds hit the floor—one in the bedroom, one in the hall beyond—before a buzzing silence reigned.

  Maggie struggled to get out from under Burke. Her slamming heart plummeted at the sight of his blood covering his shirt.

  “Mags.” He tried to push her back, but his hands fell away.

  Craig leapt to Adalia’s side and kicked her gun away. Pritchett came into the bathroom. Craig was on his heels. Tense, but otherwise stone-faced. “They’re dead.”

  “Good.” Burke’s voice, raspy and strained, was followed by a gasp.

  Hot tears rolled down Maggie’s face as she knelt at his side. Blood poured from his shoulder, staining his shirt and the white carpet.

  “We need to move him to the bedroom so we have more room to work.” Craig reached for him. “You with me, BD?”

  “Yeah.”

  After thirty seconds of cussing, groaning and more bleeding, Craig and Pritchett had Burke on the bedroom floor. Maggie focused her vision on him, trying to block the other two bodies from her peripheral.

  “I’ll deal with the bodies,” Pritchett said.

  “Bodies?” Burke’s voice was fading with his color.

  “It was Cap,” Craig said. “He stopped the dispatcher from calling Mac.”

  “Craig, towels.” She couldn’t care about who lay in her hall or other details with Burke bleeding in her arms. He couldn’t die. “Burke, stay with me.”

  “Ambulance.”

  “I know.” She pushed a hand against the chest wound and grabbed her phone with the other to dial 9-1-1. He’d be fine. He had to be fine. She pushed on his chest to stop the blood flow and propped the phone between her ear and shoulder. He moved away from the pain. “Damn it! Don’t move. You’ll be all right.”

  The seconds of waiting for a dispatcher to pick up dragged like hours. Burke was going to bleed to death if they didn’t answer.

  “Mags…safe.”

  Her throat closed. Her stomach and chest lurched with the effort to breathe. Stop it! She ordered herself to calm down before she hyperventilated. He’d been shot, but all he worried about was her safety.

  “I’m here. Shh.” Apparently taking her at her word, he passed out.

  “9-1-1. What’s your emergency?” He was still alive. He wasn’t going to die.

  “An officer’s been shot. In the chest near his left shoulder.” Craig stepped up beside her. She yanked the towel from him and shoved it against Burke’s chest. She would not break down now.

  “Ma’am, what’s your address? I’ll get you help.”

  She rattled off her address.

  “How much blood has he lost?”

  “I’m not exactly measuring it. He’s as white as my carpet was.” Belatedly, she remembered the speaker feature on the phone and, after pushing the button, laid it on the floor. With both hands free she could be more help.

  The dispatcher’s irritatingly calm voice sounded tinny over the speaker as he repeated questions and instructions.

  “Maggie, you’re shaking too badly. Let me.” Craig covered her hand, applied steady pressure to Burke’s chest, and handed her a smaller towel to wipe her hands off. Keeping pressure on Burke’s chest, he took over dealing with the operator.

  She pushed Burke’s hair off his forehead, worried at how white his normally tan skin was turning. The metallic stench of the blood, the slickness of his life on her hands and splattered on her face, threatened to take her out.

  Swallowing the rising bile, she ran her hands over the man she loved. He’d ended the threats she’d faced, but he’d risked his own life. It had likely been a replay of the scene with Samantha, only he was the one with the bullet.

  Sirens sounded nearby. He paled more. His breathing grew shallower with each dragging minute.

  “Stay with me, Burke.” She brushed the hair away from his forehead and leaned close, resting her cheek on his. He was passed out, but she couldn’t stop talking. She whispered in his ear, hoping he could hear her. “The ambulance is close. You’ll be fine.”

  “He’ll beat this, Maggie.” Craig met her gaze over Burke, each of them doing their best to comfort him and prevent too much blood loss. “Stay strong.”

  “How can you know that? This is not okay. He has a bullet in him.”

  “It’s not the first time. And he has too much to live for.”

  In a flurry of movement, a group of men crowded the bedroom, efficiently moving her away from Burke, so she was forced to watch from the side. When they lifted him on the stretcher, he moaned. She dived back to him. Ignoring their insistence she stay back, she grabbed his hand, assuring herself he could feel her.

  He would survive.

  “Ma’am, you need to move back,” an EMT said.

  Her eyes flashed to his.

  He waved a hand in surrender. “Or not.”

  “Hurts like hell.” Burke’s slurred voice had her whipping her face to his.

  “I know, baby. Stay with me.”

  He groaned and slid back under. She followed the EMTs as they wheeled her wounded hero to the ambulance. His lashes rested lifelessly against his cheeks. Her tongue thickened. She couldn’t swallow or get air.

  He had to be okay. Her heart beat twice its normal speed. The throb of each pulse point drummed in her ears. His blood stained her hands.

  Cold. She was so cold. She couldn’t see another man she loved die.

  Chapter 13

  Maggie twisted her wedding ring around her finger and paced the overly disinfected floor, waiting for an update on Burke’s surgery. Whispers floated eerily down the hall, but once the nurses and doctors had given her clean scrubs to change into, finished poking at her, and asking annoying questions, no one else had spoken to her.

  Craig and had stayed at the house to deal with Adalia and their captain. Maggie had called her parents and Grace before they could hear the story on the news and after assuring them she was fine, she begged them not to come to the hospital. She needed to be alone for a while.

  She looked down at Burke’s blood staining her cuticles and broke into fresh sobs. Dropping onto a chair, she covered her face with her hands. Why wouldn’t someone come tell her something? Anything? What was taking so long?

  “Maggie, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like hell.”

  She jumped up to see Craig watching her. She hadn’t expected to see him so soon.

  “Have you heard anything?” She squeezed the bridge of her nose. The pressure that had been building all night refused to ease off. She had to hold it together. She couldn’t fall apart again until she was alone and knew Burke was recovering. “No one’s talking to me.”

  He stepped in her path and put his hands on her shoulders. “He’ll be all right.”

  “Can you guarantee me that? Can you give me a one-hundred-percent guarantee he’ll be okay?”

  “Yes.” Craig kissed her cheek.

  “I’m not so sure.” When she’d pressed her hands against Burke’s chest, stopping his blood from spilling out, she’d been useful. Now, t
he doctors and nurses cared for him. Her only purpose was to fiddle her hands and wait.

  “He’s lucky to have you, Maggie.”

  “But I don’t have him.”

  “Not true.”

  “How? He’s lying on an operating table with a bullet in his chest because of me.”

  “He’s going to run faster than ever when he’s healed. Maggie.” Craig took her hand and led her to a chair in the corner. “If you’d seen him trying to get to you after your texts you wouldn’t have a doubt.”

  Calming enough to think, she remembered the crash and Adalia’s laughing taunts about it. “Adalia did something to hold you two up. What?”

  “She paid a teenager to crash into the car.”

  “Holy shit!”

  “We were already out. As you can see we weren’t hurt and it only slowed BD down long enough for him to call it in.” Craig leaned forward, braced his elbows on his knees, and sighed. “I’ve known him all my life, but I’ve never seen him this way. Not even with Sam.”

  “You knew her well?”

  “She was my sister. He and Sam loved each other like crazy.” Craig turned his head and looked at her. Sadness clouded his eyes. “But Maggie, he adores you. He would cut his arm off if it was necessary to protect you. And don’t get me started on what your kids do to him.”

  She creased her brow and studied Craig. As kind as he was he would never compare to the man she now thought of when she woke up and before she fell asleep.

  Only Burke could claim the part of her heart she’d thought would be impossible to give away again. The giving hadn’t been her choice to give it away, but it would be her choice whether or not she admitted it. “Do you mean that?”

  “Yes. So when he gets out of here I hope you’ll think about giving him a chance without the secrets in the way.”

  Craig sat with her until he got called back to the station, leaving her alone in the waiting room. Though Pritchett had helped stop Adalia he’d apparently shifted back to useless cop mode and was leaving details and follow-ups to Craig. And like Craig said, he’d been the one to shoot Captain Winchester. He’d have to face the resulting headaches.