Where the Lies Hide

by Renee Roman

  “No. I did it out of spite, but it’s a living.”

  Sarah didn’t find the humor in it, and again, she searched for something to say. “Why out of spite?

  “My parents wanted me to be a suit, but that didn’t really suit me.” Brace laughed at his own condescending joke.

  “I can’t do the same for you, but it would be nice to meet your parents sometime.”

  And just like that, the darkness in Brace’s features returned. Is he angry with me?

  “I don’t think so. I like my life the way it is.” Suddenly, he leaned forward and stared her down. “What do you want from me?”

  Sarah recoiled, unable to hide her reaction to what had felt like a slap in the face. “I don’t want anything. I thought we could get to know each other and bond. You know, like a brother and sister.” She knew she sounded curt, but she couldn’t help it. The more time they were together, the less enthusiastic she became on forming a relationship.

  “What’d that dyke you hired tell you? My family isn’t going to be a part of whatever scheme you’re cooking up. You’re not going to get anything from us.”

  “I swear I only wanted to find you.”

  Brace was expressionless. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.

  “Well, this has been enlightening, but I’ve got to go to work.”

  Obviously, he had his own agenda when he’d called, but for the life of her she had no idea what it could have been. She looked at the empty glasses in front of him and wondered if he always drank before his shift. “Maybe the next time we could have dinner.”

  “Unlikely.” Brace sneered, then stood and threw a one-hundred-dollar bill on the table. “The beer’s on me.”

  “Thank you.” She felt more awkward now than when she’d arrived. She made an excuse so that he could get away without making her feel any more like an inconvenience he was bored with than he already had. “I have to use the restroom, so you go ahead.” She turned toward the dark paneled hallway and hoped she didn’t get lost.

  “Hey?”

  “Yes?” Maybe he’d changed his mind about dinner.

  “It’s this way.” Brace pointed to the opposite direction.

  “Right.”

  * * *

  Sarah leaned back against the headrest. She’d hung out in the restroom until she felt steady enough to drive. Her second visit with Brace hadn’t gone any better than her first, and she’d had a glimpse of something darker in his nature. So far Cam had been right. Maybe seeking him out had been a colossal mistake.

  She looked around, trying to remember which of the entrances she’d turned in, when she saw a familiar vehicle parked at the farthest end of the lot.

  “It can’t be.” There were lots of Chargers the same color as Cam’s. She was being paranoid. Then there was movement inside. After turning the key, she put the car in gear and looped around the lot in order to come up from behind. As she got closer, there was no mistaking the license plate. It read STARK911. She jumped out and stormed up to the passenger door.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Cam flicked her eyes from the computer screen to Sarah. “If you must know, I’m on a stakeout.” She shoved some papers around.

  “Don’t give me that crock of shit. Are you following me?” She wanted to be pissed more than surprised, but she was also glad to see her. She missed Cam.

  “Did you see me following you?” Cam stated in such a way she was questioning her own judgment.

  “No.”

  “And if, notice I said if I was tailing you it would only be because I’m worried and I care about you. Even though you don’t know what people like Archer are capable of. But I wasn’t, so you needn’t make a fuss.”

  “Really? And you do, I suppose. Because you grew up among people who didn’t give a fuck about you. Who only took you in so they could collect a fat check every month.” She stared Cam down, convinced she’d been right about Cam following her. “That wasn’t my life, and I don’t think it was Brace’s either. You don’t know what it’s like to have your family ripped from you.”

  “You’re right. I don’t know and I probably never will.”

  The flat look in Cam’s eyes and her lack of emotion confirmed how deeply Sarah’s words had hurt her. She’d let her anger take control and now Cam was paying for her rush to judge. Sarah reached through the window, but when Cam flinched, she stopped. “Cam, I didn’t mean—”

  Cam looked at her with dead eyes. “I think you say exactly what you mean.”

  “I’m sorry for everything I said.”

  “Good-bye, Sarah.” Cam stared through the windshield. “You’ve made it clear you want Brace in your life and nothing else matters, not even your own safety.” Cam’s knuckles showed white, her jaw bunched. “You won’t see me again.”

  She’d brought this on herself. The realization was a hard pill to swallow. Even if Cam had followed her, Cam’s intentions had always been to keep Sarah safe; there was nothing else. No other underlying scheme to keep her away from her brother, and Sarah had thrown her caring in her face as though it meant nothing.

  “Cam…” Sarah’s attempt to make eye contact failed. There wasn’t much she could do in the way of damage control.

  “Please just go.” Cam’s eyes were shut, as though trying to shut her out, too.

  Sarah backed away and the Charger roared to life. She hoped for one last look between them, but the proverbial wall was back up. It left her feeling isolated, the same way Cam had grown up, and Sarah knew she’d lost her. Cam put the car in gear and sped out of the parking lot and, ultimately, out of her life.

  * * *

  Cam pulled up behind a darkened business the first chance she got. She’d been careless letting Sarah see her car. After watching Brace leave, Sarah had remained inside so long she thought she might be having a drink or perhaps eating and was confident she had time to move. Then Sarah came out, and it was too late. She stayed put, hoping Sarah would leave without noticing her.

  She hadn’t been prepared for the verbal assault Sarah had hurled at her. The pain had sliced her like a knife driven deep inside and then twisted for extra measure. Sarah would never understand how much she was hurting because she hadn’t experienced abandonment and abuse. There hadn’t been anything she could say in her own defense, and she didn’t have the strength to fight anymore. She was bleeding out and no longer convinced love could heal all. She’d refused to let Sarah see her flesh stripped away by Sarah’s cutting words. There would never be a woman she could trust. Up until a few minutes ago, she thought that woman was Sarah. How very wrong she’d been. It was Sarah’s choice, Sarah’s life. She’d done what she could, and it hadn’t been enough. Liv was wrong. Sometimes love wasn’t worth the pain.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Cam pressed her earbud to connect to her phone. “Camdyn Stark.”

  “Something’s going down,” Jimmy said in a hushed tone.

  She straightened in her chair. “Where are you?”

  “In the car. I can’t take a chance calling from the office, he’s got moles everywhere.” Whatever the new development was had to be important for Jimmy to break his own promise of not contacting her.

  “Talk to me.” Cam pulled a pad toward her and poised her pen over the paper.

  Jimmy told her Brace had been unusually busy at his desk and spending a lot of time on the computer, a habit he hadn’t exhibited since his first few months in the division. Word on the street was he was demanding a hit be made, but his usual eager beavers were backing off, saying it wasn’t the kind of target they wanted to be involved in.

  Her stomach knotted, her bowels turning liquid. For once she hoped her instincts were wrong. “Do you think he’s after Sarah?” She’d kept track of her from a distance and through the GPS that was still working. Sarah had briefly met Brace once in the ten days since their last confrontation, but she had no idea how that conversation had gone or whether Sarah and Brace were still talking.
She wanted to believe Sarah had given up, but that wasn’t who Sarah was. She didn’t back down from challenges. Except for building her and Cam’s relationship, and that’s what really hurt. She pushed her disappointment away and refocused. She loved Sarah too much to turn a blind eye to any apparent threat. Sarah would just have to deal with it.

  “Hard to tell, but the activity isn’t his usual MO, so I’d have to guess neither is his target.”

  Cam heard the police dispatch come over Jimmy’s car’s radio.

  “I gotta go. Watch your back.”

  She remembered the shifty look she’d gotten when she’d challenged Brace. “You do the same.”

  The line went dead, and Cam clicked off.

  “Mags,” Cam yelled out her open office door.

  Maggie leaned against the frame. “What’s up?”

  “We’ve got some work to do. Pronto. Get your pad…” Maggie held up her ever-present steno pad. Cam swore she must have a case of them hidden in her pockets. “Right.” She gestured to one of the chairs facing her desk. She needed that elusive ammunition she’d been hunting for if she was going to take Brace down and Maggie, bless her heart, had garnered lots of connections over the years. She didn’t like to call in favors, preferring to do the legwork herself, but time was of the essence, and if she had any hopes of getting Brace permanently away from Sarah, she had to move quick.

  Maggie tapped her pen on the desk to get her attention. “Let’s get to it.”

  Cam grinned at her. She’d never regretted hiring Maggie, not only for her keen sense of right and wrong, but for keeping her on track.

  “It’s time we pull out the big guns and take Brace Archer down.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  * * *

  “Where the hell do you hide your shit?” Cam asked the empty car. She’d been trying to connect the dots between Brace and known drug felons, but she kept running into dead ends. Her hope was to find his stash of either money or drugs, but everywhere she looked left her frustrated. Brace had so many connections in his criminal world he rarely spent enough time with any to give her a chance to follow. Cam tapped her fingers on her thigh as she stared absently out the window. She was missing an important link to the self-proclaimed drug lord. For the life of her she couldn’t grasp what it was.

  The blip on her computer started flashing, but something was wrong. Sarah’s car was traveling in the opposite direction from home. A text message came through her phone at the same time, jerking her attention momentarily away. It was from Jimmy. It glared back at her in capital letters.

  SHIT’S GOING DOWN TONIGHT. DON’T KNOW WHERE OR WHEN.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  She turned the key, and the engine roared to life. The tires kicked up loose gravel as she sped out of the parking lot. Once she hit pavement, she reached into the glove box and pulled out her handgun. She rummaged in the console until she found her backup and the extra clip she always had with her. If she needed more fire power, she could rely on the semiautomatic hidden in the tire well of her trunk, but hopefully she wouldn’t need it. She was five minutes behind Sarah. If she went into an area where she lost the signal, she might lose precious time. She had to close the gap.

  Cam turned on her radar detector and pressed the accelerator, whipping past cars as though they were standing still. She glanced at the speedometer and eased back. Going ninety in a forty-five was a surefire way to earn a ticket and blow her chances of getting to Sarah. The voice in her head didn’t back down. She had to catch up with her. There wasn’t any proof Sarah was headed to meet up with Brace, but she couldn’t take a chance. Sarah had given up on their relationship, and if that’s what fate held in store for her, so be it. Cam couldn’t dismiss her emotions that easily. Not since she’d opened herself up to Sarah. She still pictured their future and all the adventures they would have together. If what she believed about Brace was wrong, she’d accept his being in their lives. Her heart told her Sarah was worth a bit of acquiescing on her part. That’s what people did for those they loved.

  A car honked, bringing her to the present. As luck would have it, the traffic in front of her came to a crawl. Sarah had been far enough ahead that she was still moving. Cam narrowed the screen for a wide-angle view of where she was headed. She glanced up in time to avoid rear-ending the car ahead of her. Sarah was heading into the edge of a drug-infested part of the city. The worst part was she was likely unaware of the danger that lay ahead of her. She had to do something. And quick. She pressed the Bluetooth sync button on the steering wheel and told it to “Call Sarah.” The mechanical voice sounded hollow in her ears, matching how her stomach felt. One ring, then another, and another. On the fifth ring, voice mail picked up, and she disconnected.

  Cam looked to the right, then left. An opening with barely enough room for her car came into view and she gunned into the lane, then onto the sidewalk. She took the first left and got back on the road, not sure where she was. The map re-centered itself, and she shot through side streets, missing pedestrians by mere inches. She mouthed sorry as she kept her eye on her destination. Sarah’s car had stopped moving. She was three blocks away.

  She prayed she’d been wrong as to where Sarah was headed, however, tailing her for the past few weeks and keeping track of her whereabouts via GPS told her Sarah stuck to routines. Work then home, or work, garage, and home. She rarely ate out or made more than one trip a week to the grocer’s.

  Jimmy’s warning drowned out the other random thoughts bouncing around in her brain. If Brace was as ruthless as Barnes had intimated, there was no telling how many of his thugs were with him. She’d be out-muscled and out-armed, but maybe she could surprise them by drawing down on them first. She hoped it didn’t come to that. She didn’t want to die, but the alternative wasn’t an option. Sarah deserved a full, happy life…with or without her.

  Cam slowed as she made a right turn that brought her into a back alley, the walls lined with gang graffiti, trash, and rotting garbage. Sarah should have known better than to be here, but how could she? She hadn’t been raised on the streets. Cam doubted she’d ever had to fight for her survival or face a street gang. Sarah’s family life had sheltered her from the abominations of the world that Cam had grown up in. It was Cam’s turn to save someone, and that someone was Sarah.

  * * *

  Sarah waited at the red light impatiently. Her phone buzzed on the seat beside her and she glanced over. Cam. They hadn’t spoken since she’d confronted her in the parking lot, accusing her of following her and lashing out at Cam’s vulnerable place. She really needed to try to apologize again. She didn’t want things to be over between them, and she’d been naïve to think she wasn’t in too deep to end what they had. She’d been so wrong. Sleepless nights and lack of appetite told her Cam wasn’t just a diversion or a passing fancy. Sarah had too much on her plate and her mind was muddled by the never-ending decisions she had to make. What bills should I pay? How many extra hours can I work? What should I do about the gallery owner wanting to see more of my work? How do I deal with Brace and Cam? Unfortunately, Cam had been the sacrificial lamb of the equation because she had refused to believe Brace was the ass she’d tried to warn her about. She’d convinced herself that the sex had been fun…okay, mind-blowing, but there was no future with Cam and the past that made her leery of relationships. It had been an easy out. At the time, Sarah had thought that Cam was the easiest tie to cut. She swallowed around the lump in her throat. She’d made a huge mistake. Cam hadn’t contacted her since, and she had no one to blame but herself.

  Still, Sarah couldn’t deal with her at the moment. She was heading to meet Brace and she’d finally decided she didn’t want him in her life if he didn’t want Sarah in his. It felt too much like work. She wasn’t willing to entertain how intelligent it had been to let him pick some secluded location. A lot of her recent actions had been out of character. She’d rushed to judgment about Cam. And on several recent occasions, she’d treated
her terribly. They were both behaviors she’d never exhibited to anyone, so why Cam? No matter. Her phone buzzed again and she ignored it. You think I’m being foolish, but I have to tell him in person. The light turned green and she sped off, her goal clear even if her conscience wasn’t. She slowed as she entered a part of town she’d never been in. The chill that ran up her spine was foreboding. If her brother cared at all he would have never suggested she meet him in such a horrible location. She’d tell him she’d been wrong to pursue him and leave as soon as she could.

  The numbers on the abandoned-looking buildings were worn. She took her time as she cruised down the deserted street. The few parked cars she passed were missing parts. Gone were tires, hoods, and doors on the ones she could see. Where the hell am I going? The voice in her head, mainly Cam’s, urged her to turn around. To get out of there while she could. Even with the doors locked, Sarah was convinced she wasn’t alone, and her skin prickled with fear. Then she caught movement to her left. Brace appeared in the doorway of a storefront. He smiled at her and she let out a relieved breath. She was going to be okay.

  * * *

  Cam had lost valuable time. She was five minutes behind. She had to find her. She slow-rolled along the darkened street, praying she wasn’t too late. The dot on the screen no longer blinked. Where are you? Cam peered down narrow alleys and places where the few functioning streetlights cast long shadows. Sarah shouldn’t be here. Her heart beat faster as her chest tightened. Desperation threatened to take over, but losing control wouldn’t help Sarah. She doused her headlights. First, she had to find her, then she’d worry about her next move. There. Halfway down the next block on the left sat the aging car, and Sarah was walking toward a shadowed figure. Her gut soured. It had to be Brace. She stopped the car and waited. Cam fought hard to maintain control. She was used to acting logically. Weighing action versus inaction, and the possible outcome of each. She’d never functioned on pure emotion. Never had a need to rely on anything other than her investigative skills. She picked up her cell. Maybe Sarah would answer it this time. Cam stared at the instrument that had previously kept her and Sarah in touch, but that was before she’d lost Sarah’s faith in her. Before Cam had let her emotions win over professionalism. She tossed it down as though it had physically burned her.