* * *
Anytime the phone rang in the middle of the night, it wasn’t with good news, like Luther Mills had been shanked in jail and nobody was in danger any longer.
Parker reached for the cell phone vibrating next to his bed with the expectation of only bad news, especially with as determined as Luther seemed to be to take out the eyewitness. Suspecting it was Clint calling, he didn’t even look at the phone before answering, “Tell me you’re alive.”
The caller’s gasp sounded soft and feminine. “Who do you think could be dead?”
He swallowed a groan as he recognized Jocelyn Gerber’s voice. The assistant district attorney already seemed on edge. Woodrow had warned him that she also didn’t trust his team. Parker had chosen not to share that information with his team, who he already knew didn’t trust her either.
Especially the man protecting her.
“Tell me!” she demanded.
“Nobody’s dead,” he assured her, although he couldn’t know for certain, not with all the attempts Luther had already made on the eyewitness.
“Then why did you say what you did?” she asked, as if she had him on the witness stand and was going to interrogate him.
“Because usually when the phone rings at this hour, it’s not good news,” he pointed out. “Why are you calling me now?” If there had been an attempt on her life, Landon would have called him—unless he’d been injured during that attempt. “Is Landon all right?”
“No,” she said.
And Parker gasped now. “What’s wrong?”
Sharon murmured in her sleep and turned toward him on the bed. So he slipped out of it and moved to the hall to finish the call.
“What happened?” he asked.
“He snooped through my office,” she said.
And Parker’s brow furrowed with confusion. “What? I thought you two were going to your house after the meeting.”
“We did,” she said. “He went through my home office, even broke into my desk.”
Parker swallowed a curse. Damn it. What the hell had Landon been up to? But he could guess—trying to find evidence that Jocelyn Gerber was Luther’s mole in the DA’s office.
“I want a different bodyguard,” she demanded. “I’d prefer not to have one at all, but the chief insists that everyone involved with the trial has one.”
Parker swallowed a groan now. Had she called the chief? Hopefully, she was just going by what he’d said during the meeting when everyone had been arguing against having protection.
“That’s not possible,” Parker told her. “Everyone else has already been assigned to another principal.”
“Principal?”
“Person to protect,” he replied.
A frustrated-sounding sigh rattled his cell phone. “What about one of your brothers’ agencies? I’d prefer to have someone who hasn’t worked in vice anyway.”
“And the chief prefers that you do,” Parker reminded her. “You and Landon will need to work this out.” Before the lawyer could argue with him any more, he clicked off his cell.
Why was she so angry with Landon? Because she felt like he’d invaded her privacy? Or because he’d come close to finding whatever she might be hiding?
Could Landon be right? Could she be working for Luther Mills?
Parker hoped like hell Landon was wrong—because Jocelyn Gerber was too close to everyone else involved in the trial. She could help Luther get to any of them at any time.
And Landon.
She would be able to get to him all the time. Instead of protecting her, he might wind up needing protection from her. Especially now with as furious as she sounded with her bodyguard.
Parker had been worried that the eyewitness might not survive the night. Now he was worried about Landon.
CHAPTER 4
His friend was in pain, and Landon hated seeing him like this. It wasn’t the shoulder Clint had injured jumping out a window to save Rosie Mendez the night before that was hurting Clint—it was the guilt. That had been weighing heavily on him since Javier Mendez had died.
Clint blamed himself for the kid’s death, and he was not the only one. Rosie Mendez blamed him, too. She thought Clint had forced the kid to become an informant for him. She thought he’d planted the drugs on her brother that he’d found when he’d busted the kid. But that wasn’t the case. Landon knew the kid had wanted to bring down Luther as a way to make amends to his sister. Despite all her efforts to keep him away from the drugs that had ruined their mother’s life, Javier had been selling for Luther.
But Landon doubted Clint had told Rosie that. He wouldn’t have wanted to add guilt to the pain of her loss. Watching Luther murder her brother had already traumatized her.
But it hadn’t scared her like it should have. She was insisting on working her shift as an ER nurse, which was why Clint had called Parker with the request for Jocelyn to talk some sense into her.
So Landon had brought Jocelyn to the safe house where Clint was staying with Rosie. The condo was in a converted warehouse in the nearly abandoned industrial area of River City. With metal-and-brick walls and a security system even better than Jocelyn’s, it was safe.
Or it had been, until Landon had brought Jocelyn there. “You sure about this?” he asked as he stepped closer to where Clint leaned against the kitchen counter. The condo was open concept, almost like a loft, except for the bedroom, which was closed off with the door shut. Rosie Mendez must have been in there because Landon hadn’t seen her since Clint had let him and Jocelyn in a few moments ago.
Clint cocked his head. His blond hair was mussed as if he’d been running his hands through it, and his green eyes were rimmed with dark circles as if he hadn’t slept at all. Landon knew the feeling. He hadn’t slept at all the night before either, and nobody had been shooting at him.
“Are you sure?” Clint asked.
And it was clear he was asking about Jocelyn. He shared Landon’s suspicions. But those threats Landon had found had gone a long way to assuage his doubts about her. At least some of those had to have been from Luther’s crew. And none of his crew did anything without his ordering it. He nodded.
But his finding those threats had made Jocelyn distrust him. She eyed him even more suspiciously than she already had. And he’d overheard her call to Parker.
His lips curved into a grin. Too bad for her that Parker hadn’t replaced him. Then he remembered how close he’d come to nearly kissing her last night. And his grin slipped away. No. It was too bad for him that Parker hadn’t replaced him.
It wasn’t easy being so close to Jocelyn Gerber—not with as gorgeous as she was. She wore another of her suits with the tight skirt that molded to her curves. Her black hair hung like a silk curtain around her shoulders. She looked more like a model than a lawyer. Maybe she modeled on the side and that was how she afforded her house and furnishings.
A door creaked open and Rosie Mendez stepped out of the bedroom. The young woman wore scrubs with her hospital badge pinned to one of the pockets. That was why Clint had wanted Jocelyn to talk to her. But Rosie didn’t know because she asked, “Why are you here?”
“You need to stay here,” Jocelyn told her.
Rosie’s brown eyes narrowed in a glare directed at Clint before she turned back to the ADA. “What about you? Are you staying in a safe house?”
Jocelyn shook her head. “It’s not necessary for me,” she replied. “You’re the only witness. If you die, the case is over. If I die, someone else will just take over the case. So it makes no sense for Mills to kill me.”
“Unless the DA on his payroll takes over the case,” Landon said. Maybe that was why she’d been sent all those threats, so she would give up the case to whoever really was working for Luther. Jocelyn glared at him now. Despite the chief’s meeting, she still refused to accept that anyone within her office could be working
for Luther. Landon had thought that was because she was the leak and didn’t want her department investigated.
But now he wondered if she was just naive.
“We’re not talking about me,” Jocelyn said. “We’re talking about the key witness for the prosecution.”
“We’re talking about me,” Rosie Mendez interjected. “I’m a person—with a life.”
“A life you’re going to lose if you don’t stay safe,” Jocelyn said. She looked around the condo. “And you’re safe here. Far safer than you were staying in your own place, where Luther knew where to find you whenever he was ready to get rid of you.”
Rosie snorted. “You better get to know Luther better if you intend to prosecute him. He can find me anywhere. He has people in the police department and in your office. You don’t think that he already knows where I am? Where you are?”
Jocelyn shivered. She was probably thinking about all those death threats Landon had found locked in her desk drawer.
“She’s right.” Clint surprisingly came to Rosie’s defense. “Luther probably has eyes on this place already.” But then he added, “That’s why you can’t leave, Rosie.”
“No, you can’t,” Jocelyn agreed.
Thinking about all those threats he’d found, Landon felt compelled to agree with Rosie. “So you should stay here, too, Ms. Gerber.”
She glared at him again. “You said that the guards outside haven’t seen anyone watching the place. You said no one followed us,” Jocelyn fired back at Landon. Then her face flushed as she must have realized she’d just contradicted what Clint had said. She turned toward Rosie now. “That doesn’t mean that Officer Quarters—that Clint—isn’t right. You said so yourself that Luther probably already knows where you are.”
Rosie nodded. “So there’s no more reason for me to stay here than there is for you.”
“You have to testify,” Jocelyn said, and only now did she sound frightened. She wasn’t worried about losing her life. She was worried about losing her case.
“I will testify,” Rosie assured her.
“Not if you’re dead,” Jocelyn told her. “If you leave this place where you are safe, you’re risking your life, but most of all, you’re risking justice for your brother. Do you want his killer to go free?”
Seeing her in action like this, arguing her case, Landon was surprised that she’d ever lost, let alone as many times as she had. And those niggling doubts grew again.
But maybe she’d pushed too hard, because tears pooled in Rosie’s eyes just before she ran back into the master bedroom.
“Damn it!” Clint cursed.
“I’m sorry,” Jocelyn said, but she sounded unapologetic. “She needed to hear it, though.”
“It’s too much,” Clint said.
“Parker told us that you wanted Jocelyn to come here and talk some sense into the witness.” Landon reminded him of the reason for their visit. After those threats, he would have preferred to bring her to a safe house to stay, not just visit.
“I wanted ADA Gerber to talk some sense into her,” Clint said, “not manipulate her and make her feel guilty.”
“It will be her fault if Luther Mills gets away with her brother’s murder,” Jocelyn said.
Thinking he might need to protect his principal from his best friend now, Landon stepped between them. But then he realized what she was doing—taking no responsibility, just as she had when she’d failed to get those other indictments against Luther or some of his crew. She’d blamed sloppy police work then.
He snorted his disgust. “You’re already setting up someone else to blame if you lose this case, too.”
She bristled with righteous indignation. “I don’t do that,” she protested. “I just want my witness to make it to the stand.” She turned toward Clint now. “And if she doesn’t, then that’s your fault.”
Landon opened his mouth on the curse word he was tempted to call her, but Clint cut him off. “She’s right,” he said. “It’s my job to protect Rosie Mendez.”
“Make sure you do your job,” Jocelyn told him as she headed toward the door. “Because with her testimony, I won’t lose.”
“This time,” Landon muttered as he trailed her toward the door. He reached around her and pressed the security code into the panel to open the big steel door. Jocelyn had turned back to glare at him, so he didn’t think she saw the code he inputted. But as he walked out the door, he could see his friend was concerned that he’d made a mistake.
Clint had obviously wanted Jocelyn to convince the young woman to take no chances with her safety. But after having Jocelyn come to the safe house, Clint was clearly worried that he might have put Rosie in danger himself.
But Landon was the one who’d brought the ADA. If something happened to Rosie, Landon would take the blame for it. His friend already carried too much guilt.
* * *
Despite the cool breeze swirling around the sidewalk as they stepped outside the condo, Jocelyn’s face stayed hot. She wasn’t embarrassed, though. She was angry. How could Landon think she was to blame for failing to get indictments or losing cases?
It was clear that he’d thought it was her fault, and he wasn’t the only one. Clint Quarters had seemed to share Landon’s low opinion of her.
Did they think she was incompetent? Or worse?
Landon wouldn’t even look at her as he held open the door of the black Payne Protection Agency SUV for her. His attention was on the bodyguards protecting the perimeter of the condo. “Be extra careful,” he advised them before he closed her door and walked around to his side.
“You’re worried,” she said after he slid beneath the steering wheel. He was such a big man that despite the size of the vehicle, his shoulder nearly touched hers over the console between them. She was worried, too, but even more so after realizing he was, as well.
Despite what she’d told Rosie, she didn’t think she would lose the trial if she lost Rosie’s testimony. There was evidence, too, that would impact a jury even more than eyewitness testimony that the high-priced defense lawyer would tear apart on cross-examination. But she didn’t want anything to happen to Rosie Mendez—anything else. She’d already been through enough with losing her brother.
Jocelyn knew what it felt like to lose loved ones to violence. All these years later, her heart still ached with loss.
“We shouldn’t have come here,” Landon said.
Jocelyn shook her head. “No. Rosie needs to know how much danger she’s in.”
“You don’t think she knows?” Landon asked. “She saw her brother gunned down in front of her. She knows better than anyone else what an animal Luther Mills is.”
She shivered. While violence had affected her and still did because of the career she’d chosen, she hadn’t personally witnessed it happen. She’d only seen the aftermath. “He is an animal,” she agreed.
“And anyone who works with or for him is an animal, too,” Landon said, and his deep voice rumbled with emotion.
Had she been wrong to suspect him? She had no doubt that someone in the police department had helped Luther over the years, though. According to the chief, someone was still helping him now. She could believe that. But to think someone within her department...
She knew everyone too well. Nobody worked in the district attorney’s office for the money. Maybe some did for politics—to move up. But most, like her, did it because they wanted to take criminals off the street.
That was why people became police officers, too. “Why did you leave River City PD?” she asked.
He shrugged, and his broad shoulder bumped against hers. “Parker offered me the job. Clint was leaving, too. And Tyce and Hart and Keeli...”
She winced as she thought of all the bodyguards. Luther’s mole in the vice unit could have been any of them. And now each of them was protecting one of the people he’d threa
tened. Which one was the mole?
She was beginning to believe it wasn’t Landon. He seemed to want Luther off the street as badly as she did.
“You’re that close to them?” she asked. “That you would leave a job you loved...just because they did?”
He snorted. “I wouldn’t say that I loved it.”
“You didn’t enjoy working in the vice unit?”
He glanced across at her, and his brown eyes were hard. “I didn’t enjoy watching perps I arrested walking away with no charges.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you blaming me for that?”
He cursed, but it wasn’t at her. His focus was on the rearview mirror.
“What?” she asked.
“We’re being followed.”
She whirled around in her seat, but there were so many vehicles behind them, as they headed downtown to her office, that she couldn’t tell which one he was talking about. “Where? What one?”
But instead of answering her, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number. A deep voice emanated from the speaker. “This is Parker.”
“Landon,” her bodyguard identified himself.
“Everything all right?” his boss asked, and his voice sounded as tense as it had when she’d called him late last night. “What?” he asked anxiously. “What is it?”
“I—” Landon kept glancing into the rearview “—think we’re being followed.”
“You have backup,” Parker reminded him. “I’ll have them intervene.”
“I can lose whoever this is tailing us,” Landon said. But he hadn’t sped up. He hadn’t switched lanes. It was almost as if he wanted the vehicle to follow them.
She shivered again.
“Good,” Parker said. “So what’s the problem?”
“I’m not sure where I picked up the tail,” Landon admitted, and a muscle twitched along his tightly clenched jaw. “They’re good.”
Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set Page 45