by Dena Blake
* * *
Drew opened the door and turned on the light. Sam was sitting on the floor propped up against the bed, and her mood perked. When Sam raised her gaze to meet hers and Drew saw her red swollen eyes, she rushed in and dropped to her knees beside her.
“What is it? Did something happen to Paddy?”
“Paddy’s fine.”
“Tommy?”
“He’s fine.”
“What’s going on?”
“I came here tonight to tell you I was wrong about what I said this morning about not wanting to live without you.” Drew moved toward her, and Sam threw her hand up between them. “But now I’m not even sure who you are.” As Sam roughly wiped the tears from her cheeks, she shuddered and let out a ragged breath. “There’s a text on your phone from someone at the crime lab.”
Drew closed her eyes and shook her head. “I forgot it.”
“I was here waiting for you when it started buzzing.”
She spotted the case file on the bed and raked her hand through her hair. “You weren’t supposed to see that.” She reached over and picked it up.
“Not part of your plan?”
“I don’t have a plan, Sam.”
“You actually think I could’ve hurt those people?” Tears welled in her eyes. “I was—”
“I know. You were involved with them.” Drew saw the pain in Sam’s eyes, and her heart clenched. She wanted to hold her, touch her, take away all Sam’s doubts about her. Sam wouldn’t let her now, so the only other thing to do was to find out the truth. “But you were engaged to Brad.”
“I’ve been engaged to Brad on and off again for five years now.” The hurt in her voice turned to anger. “We’re never getting married. He just doesn’t want anyone else to have me.” She rummaged through the drawers, pulled out a few of her shirts, and stuffed them into the plastic laundry bag she found hanging in the closet. “I was his in with Paddy.” She shook her head and let out a short breath. “Brad thought keeping the boss’s daughter happy would keep him in his good graces. I only accepted to piss off Paddy.”
“You’re not going to marry him?”
“Of course not.” She stopped and stared, her red, bloodshot eyes burning into Drew’s. “I don’t love him.”
There, she’d done it. Sam had finally told her what she wanted to hear, and now it was too late. She would never trust Drew again. “Sam, this all started as a job.”
“And I’m sure it was a difficult one for you. Seducing this poor, lonely girl.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Her gaze snapped back to Drew’s. “As I recall, you were going to take me to bed the first night we met.”
“I didn’t even know who you were then.”
“And now?”
Drew swept her fingers through Sam’s hair, catching them in her thick red curls. “I think you know how I feel about you.”
“No, I really don’t.” Sam’s voice softened. Maybe she understood her dilemma.
Drew brushed her lips across Sam’s ear. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Sam. I think I’m falling in love with you.”
Sam reared back, and her deep-green eyes darted anxiously. “I don’t believe you.” She tried to push past her, but Drew clamped her arms around Sam’s waist and held her tight.
“God help me, I am.” Drew let her mouth meld onto Sam’s, and the salty taste of her tears burned her lips. Seeing Sam so vulnerable, so fragile, made Drew question who she really was. Sam had an effect on Drew like no one else ever had, and it scared the hell out of her. She knew what her mission was, but somehow it had become unclear as to who was her suspect. How she could hurt someone she loved?
“I have to go.”
“Not until we get this straight.” Still holding her tightly, Drew stared into Sam’s eyes.
“I’ve got it straight.” Sam’s voice was steady. “You had a job to do, and I was one of the perks along the way.” She broke away, and Drew spun her back around.
“Don’t walk away from me.” Drew’s voice deepened. “That’s not what happened, and you know it.”
“Oh, now you want to fight, huh!” Sam came at her hot and slapped her across the face. Pain seared through Drew, and she fought to keep tears from welling in her eyes. “Come on. Give me all you got. That’s the kind of love I’m used to anyway,” Sam said.
Drew sucked in a slow, unsteady breath, burying the pain piercing her face and her heart. “No, I don’t want to fight with you, Sam. Especially not like that.” She saw something in Sam’s eyes, a glimmer of hope, but Drew had to forge on. “Can you honestly tell me you didn’t rig that car today?” Sam balked, and Drew thought for a moment that maybe she had, but it didn’t matter. Drew tugged her back and pressed her mouth hard to Sam’s. Instead of her soft, welcoming mouth, her lips quivered, and Drew broke away, remaining forehead to forehead. “I just want to keep you safe.”
“I don’t need you to protect me.”
Drew released her and moved aside.
“I don’t need anyone.” Sam stuffed the rest of her clothes into the bag and went to the door. “That’s the way it’s always been. That’s the way it’s going to stay.”
Drew didn’t try to stop her this time. After the door closed, she turned to the cell phone on the night stand and read the text message. The message had been sent to her personal cell, to which only a few people had the number, and she hadn’t given it to anyone at the crime lab. The man who’d blown her cover had to be Jack Barnes.
Chapter Twenty-five
Sam flew out the door as fast as she could. Drew was close, too close again. She loved her and hated her all at once. She wanted to run back inside and let Drew protect her. She swiped at the hot tears still streaming down her cheeks. She couldn’t stand much more of this.
Drew was right about one thing. Someone needed protection around here, but it wasn’t Sam. She needed to protect Drew from herself.
She headed straight to the track to see Paddy. Her anger reaching a boiling point along the way, Sam threw the office door open, and it cracked as it slammed against the wall.
Paddy pushed back in his chair and stood up. “What the hell’s the matter with you, young lady?”
“Drew Thompson is a cop.”
“Humph. You don’t say.” Paddy slid back down into his chair and focused back on his paperwork.
Sam clenched the edge of the desk with her hands. “You already knew!”
He rocked back in his chair and nodded. “I did.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Her voice wavered.
“Someone is destroying my racing team, Samantha. I have to find out who it is.”
“Did you know I’m Drew’s prime suspect?”
He glanced up at her without responding.
“You did.” Her voice was just a whisper now.
“You never let anyone else work on the cars.”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh, but it is.” His face reddened. “You might let Ray clean up after you once in a while, but you’re always in control of them.”
“Do you actually think I could do that to them? To you?” She sank into the chair across from him. “Do you know anything about me?”
“Samantha, I know you didn’t do any of it.” Paddy’s voice slipped into the fatherly tone he always used when he was trying to appease her. “But the detective said she needed to keep total anonymity to gain everyone’s trust, including whoever has been causing these accidents.”
“Well, she got that. So much so that I’ve been sleeping with her for the past week.”
“With Drew Thompson?” He scratched his head. “What about Brad?”
Sam let out a short breath. “You should really open your eyes around here a little more, Paddy.” She plucked the framed trophy picture of Brad from the wall behind her and tossed it at him. “He’s been bedding me and every other woman at the track for longer than I can remember.”
“That bastard. I’ll kill him.”<
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“You can’t do that.” Her voice rose. “He’s still your number-one driver.” There was always another number-one driver besides her.
“I’ll take care of this, Samantha. I promise.”
“Do me a favor, Paddy. Don’t attempt to be a father now. Save it for after the race. Just do what you do best. Make sure he wins.” On her way out of the office, Sam slung the door closed and heard it bounce back open behind her. She swung back around and pulled the door closed until she heard it latch, then let her forehead drop against the weathered wood between the door frame and the window. Through the corner of her eye, she saw Paddy spring up and pace across the office.
Paddy had spent most of his life winning car races, not raising daughters. He’d had women in his life from time to time, but they didn’t always take to her and Faith. They had learned most of life’s facts on their own, and it hadn’t always been a pleasant experience. The racetrack might not have been the proper place to raise them, but it was Sam’s home, and she loved it. She hated Paddy for it sometimes, but he’d done the best he could at the time.
Sam pushed away from the door and headed out of the garage. She couldn’t watch Paddy pace. If she stayed much longer, she’d lose her resistance and end up back in there apologizing for something she’d had no control over.
* * *
Drew gave the door a light knock and waited for Jade to open the door. “You alone?” she asked, glancing around the room.
“Yeah. Tommy went with Brad to the drivers’ meeting. Why aren’t you there?”
“She knows.” Drew pushed through the doorway and closed the door behind her.
“Who? Sam?”
“Yep. She found my case file.”
“Under your mattress?” She raised an eyebrow. “You should really find a better place for that.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Some idiot from the lab sent a text to my personal cell, and that started her searching.”
“How’d they get that number?”
“Don’t know. No one should be using it except Captain Jacobs.” Drew knew who the culprit was, but she didn’t want to alert Jade until she could prove it. Only a few people on the inside were privy to the information, and if the leak was who she thought, Jade wouldn’t believe her anyway.
“Does she know about me?”
“Not yet, but it won’t take her long. She’s a smart girl.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“What I came here to do. Find out who’s rigging those cars.”
“And if it turns out to be her?”
“It isn’t her.” She knew what Jade was thinking, yet she still trusted Sam with her life. “It can’t be. My instincts have never been that far off.”
“Why don’t we go do another inspection?”
“Of the car?”
Jade shrugged her shoulders. “Couldn’t hurt.”
* * *
Sam slid her hand across the smooth, cherry-red finish as she circled the number-fifteen car. Paddy had made one point. Sam was the only one who worked on the team’s race-car engines. If she wasn’t rigging them, who was? She dropped down and let her chin rest on top of the cold fiberglass door panel. These cars were her life. How could Paddy think she would ever do anything to destroy them?
She reached inside and traced the steering wheel with her fingertips. Her heart ached as she thought about all that had happened during the past week. These cars had always been her number-one priority. They were her passion, her livelihood, and now they seemed unimportant—because of Drew. A lying, sneaking woman who thinks Sam’s a cold-blooded killer. The ache inside her suddenly morphed into anger, and she plunged through the window opening. She scanned the dash. Everything looked right on the outside, what she expected. Changes deep inside the engine were causing the problems. It had to be someone with access and knowledge of race cars. She slid back out of the car and headed to the bus. Kneading the back of her neck with her fingers, Sam knew this was only the beginning of a very long night.
As she rounded the outside corner of the garage, her eyes didn’t adjust to the darkness fast enough, and she ran smack into someone coming the other way. She grabbed at whoever was tumbling into her, and they both flew up against the wall.
“Sorry,” she said after realizing who it was. Jade! Then she shivered as fear for her brother tore through her mind. “You could’ve done it.”
“Done what?”
“Rigged the cars.”
Backing up, Jade seemed stunned as her gaze skittered across Sam’s face. “That’s crazy. Why would I do that?”
With her eyes adjusted to the darkness now, Sam moved closer demanding contact. “Or maybe you’re crazy.”
“What the hell, Sam?” Drew took her arm and spun her around, and Jade disappeared around the corner of the building.
Her heart sped wildly at the sound of Drew’s voice. She hadn’t seen Drew trailing her in the darkness.
“Let go of me.”
“You need to settle down.”
“Settle down?” She clenched her fists and pushed hard at her chest, but Drew stood firm. “You just told me I’m a suspect in a murder case, and you want me to settle down?” As Sam spun to leave, she grabbed Sam’s wrists and pulled her around the back of the garage with such force that, for the first time, she was truly frightened of Drew. “Let me go,” she demanded, forcing her voice to remain steady.
Drew released her and raised her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, but I’m undercover here, Sam. You can’t go spouting that fact off to everyone, or you’re gonna get me killed.”
“She’s going to get away.”
“Who?”
Drew wasn’t getting it. Sam could see in her eyes that she thought she was crazy. “Jade! She’s the one who’s been sabotaging the cars.”
Drew raked her hand down her face. “No, Sam, she isn’t.”
“She has access. She could’ve done it.”
“She could’ve, but she didn’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Wait here.” Drew sucked in a deep breath and pinched her lips together before walking back around to the side of the building.
Sam didn’t do as Drew demanded. As soon as Drew was out of sight she followed her to the corner and peeked around. She couldn’t hear Drew and Jade whisper, but something was going on between them. Drew swept her hand down Jade’s arm and squeezed her wrist as she turned to go.
“You can’t just let her leave.” Sam took off after her, pushing Jade into the side of the building.
In an instant, Sam found herself with her face forward, pushed up against the building. The sting from the metal scraping against her cheek began to match the pain shooting up the arm Jade had twisted up behind her back.
“Don’t do that again.” Jade released her and turned to Drew. “Now, tell her.”
“What the hell is going on here? Are you sleeping with her too?”
Drew shook her head. “She’s my partner.”
Sam’s mouth dropped open. This was unbelievable. “You’re not even a therapist?” The fear gone now, and Sam’s anger took over. “What about my brother? Does he know?”
“No. Tommy doesn’t know.”
“What are you going to do when you’re finished here? Rip his heart out?”
“It’s not like that and you know it,” Jade said.
“I don’t know anything about either one of you, except you both seem to find it very easy to lie about everything.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just remember, I warned you.”
Jade didn’t respond, and at this point, nothing she could say or do would make Sam understand.
Drew jerked her around by the arm. “Sam, get a grip. Don’t you want to stop this killer?”
“I want to be done with all of this.” She jerked her arm out of Drew’s grip. “To be done with you.”
With her adrenaline on the verge of topping out, Sam rushed into the bus, yanked open the cabinet doors, and rummaged through
the defective parts. The only thing she could do now was find out what the hell had happened with the cars that had issues, starting with the one she drove in the trials. Per standard procedure, Ray had changed out the fuel injector, but hopefully he hadn’t torn the whole thing down yet. Sam needed to do that herself.
She found it right where she’d put it, still in one piece. After she pulled open a few drawers to check her tools, she went back to the door and locked it. She didn’t want anyone walking in on her, especially Drew. Trusting anyone could be deadly at this point, even if she was a cop.
It didn’t take Sam long to dismantle the injector, and she knew exactly where to look. The pop pressure-release valve was glued shut, altering the fuel mixture to make the car accelerate. She was damn lucky the engine hadn’t blown.
Whoever was involved knew exactly what they were doing. Pop valves were an old-school way of turbo-charging engines, and not everyone, especially an amateur, knew how to deal with them. She squirted some solvent onto the valve and pried it loose with a screwdriver. She’d checked and double-checked all the moving parts the night before the race. Even with her head in a fog, she couldn’t have missed this, and it certainly would’ve been caught at inspection. No one was allowed to touch the car after inspection, yet somehow, someone had gotten to it.
Chapter Twenty-six
Drew’s stomach churned as she sat at the darkened poolside watching Sam go into Brad’s hotel room. Sam had laid it all out, plain and simple. She wanted Drew out of her life, and in just a few short days that would happen. She would never have to see her again. Drew had deceived her, taken her to bed, and worst of all, she’d let Sam fall as hard for her as Drew had fallen for her. She deserved Sam’s anger, her hatred, and everything else she wanted to spew at her. And if that hadn’t been enough today, Paddy had called her in for a meeting and told her the racing commission was investigating a Tweet sent from her account about Brad’s drinking habits, which she hadn’t sent. Someone had hacked into her account, and the whole incident could get her suspended from the race, something that couldn’t happen at this point.