by Lisa Childs
People had come and gone in their lives.
Javier was gone.
And because of that, he doubted he could ever have anything permanent with Rosie. Javier would always be between them. But that was as it should be. Clint was to blame for the kid dying; he didn’t deserve to be happy with, of all people, Javier’s sister.
He uttered a ragged sigh.
“Are you okay?” she anxiously asked him. “Are you hurting? You probably didn’t take a prescription for painkillers, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.” But not for the reason she thought. He wasn’t worried about becoming an addict. He was worried about losing his focus with her. But he’d already done that without the drugs.
She was like a drug to him, though.
He could easily become addicted to her, to making love with her. To being with her.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“For now,” she said. “But Luther will try again. He’ll find us.”
Clint pulled her closer and stroked his fingers down her back. “I will protect you,” he promised.
“Or die trying...”
“Rosie—”
“I want to see Luther,” she said.
He tensed. “What?”
He must have fallen asleep. He must have been dreaming. She couldn’t really want to visit the man who had murdered her brother right in front of her.
But then she’d just slept with the man she blamed for her brother’s death: him.
He shook his head. “No. That’s crazy.”
He wasn’t even sure it would be allowed. The eyewitness visiting the murder suspect?
“I have to,” she insisted.
“He’s trying to kill you,” he reminded her.
“He can’t do that in jail,” she said. “I will be on one side of the glass, he’ll be on the other. I’ll be safer there than anywhere else.”
Clint doubted that. He doubted she would be safe anywhere while Luther Mills was alive. Even after the trial, he probably wouldn’t give up. He would want her dead out of vengeance for sending him away.
“Rosie, it’s a bad idea,” he said. And he was understating it.
“I know Luther,” she said. “Maybe I can get through to him.”
“How?” How could she get through to a man who had no conscience? No soul?
But she persisted. “Maybe I can get him to accept the responsibility for Javier’s death.”
He snorted. Luther Mills wasn’t him. He wasn’t going to take responsibility for any of the horrible things he’d done. And if Rosie truly knew him, she knew that. So what was she really up to?
“I want to try to talk him into taking a plea deal,” she said.
If she could, then it would all be over.
But he doubted Luther would ever back down.
“That’s the prosecutor’s job, not yours,” he said. And he doubted ADA Jocelyn Gerber would be very damn happy if Rosie visited the defendant.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
Clint would rather die than let Rosie get anywhere near the man determined to kill her.
* * *
Luther had had a lot of visitors during his stay in jail. But he’d never expected this person to visit him. He wasn’t even sure it was allowed. He picked up the phone on the other side of the glass and gestured for her to do the same. Once she held it to her ear, he asked, “Does ADA Gerber know you’re here?” he asked.
Rosie shook her head.
“Does Clint Quarters know?” he asked. Or was the man dead like his crew had claimed? He hadn’t seen anything on the news to indicate they’d told him the truth, though. But maybe it had been kept quiet.
Chief Woodrow Lynch was somehow related to the Payne Protection Agency. He might have ordered the deaths kept out of the media. But then the chief was new to River City. He didn’t have the resources that Luther did.
He should have heard something by now if Clint and Parker Payne were really dead.
“Clint brought me here,” Rosie said.
And Luther cursed. Apparently that damn bodyguard hadn’t used up all nine of his lives yet. But Luther wouldn’t rest until he’d taken every last one of them.
“You thought he was dead,” she surmised.
Rosie had always been smart. The smartest girl in class when they’d gone to school together. Not that Luther had gone to school for very long.
He’d found easier ways to make money. But Rosie had never been impressed with that—with him—like he’d wanted to impress her.
“Stop,” she told him. “Stop trying to hurt Clint.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied her. Was she trying to trap him? Trying to get him to say something incriminating? Was that the reason she was here?
Now he didn’t feel so damn bad about having to kill her. He even wished he could have the satisfaction of doing it himself—of doing it here. But he couldn’t get through that glass to wrap his hands around her neck like he wanted. To squeeze the life from her beautiful body.
“I would have thought you’d want Clint Quarters hurt,” Luther said. “That you’d want him dead for what he did to Javier.”
“You killed Javier,” she said with a dead-calm certainty that would have every juror voting guilty. If she made it to the witness stand...
She could not make it to the witness stand.
“But it was Quarters that made Javi a rat,” he said. “And you know rats always get exterminated.”
She flinched and blinked hard, but she didn’t cry. Rosie was tough. That was another thing he’d always admired about her. Until now.
Now he wished she were scared, scared enough to take back her testimony.
“Clint Quarters isn’t a rat,” she said.
“Every cop is.” Even the ones who helped him out. Maybe especially them.
“He’s not a cop anymore,” she said.
“Once a cop, always a cop,” Luther said.
She shook her head. “Leave him alone. Stop trying to kill him.”
So she was here about Quarters, not about herself? Luther felt a punch to the gut as jealousy twisted his stomach into knots. Had she actually fallen for a cop?
Or had she fallen for the bodyguard who kept saving her life? That was Luther’s fault; he’d given Clint the chance to play her hero. He had to end this now. “You know what it’ll take for that happen.”
She shivered. “You don’t want me to testify.”
“You’re a smart girl, Rosie. I don’t have to spell it out for you.” And he damn well wasn’t going to when she might have been recording him.
“I won’t,” she agreed.
Too easily.
He knew how much she had loved her brother. There was no way she would let his killer go free. And now she didn’t see that his killer was Quarters. She saw that his killer was Luther.
He chuckled. “Yeah, right...”
“No, I swear I won’t,” she said. “If you stop trying to kill Clint, I’ll go to Ms. Gerber and tell her I won’t testify against you.”
He snorted at her blatant lie. How stupid did she think he was?
“You have someone in her office,” she said. “You’ll know that I’m telling the truth. I’ll go right to her and tell her I refuse to testify.”
He would know right away. But now he knew something else. As much as Rosie had loved her brother, she loved Clint Quarters more. And now, with jealousy twisting his stomach into knots, Luther was even more determined to kill the man.
But the deal she was offering...
He could get out sooner once he got rid of that other evidence. He sighed. “He’s not going to appreciate your gesture, Rosie,” he warned her. “All Clint Quarters has ever wanted is me behind bars.”
She flinched now, so he knew she knew about that stup
id cousin of Clint’s. The boy had been skimming product. So Luther had forced him to shoot up all of it he’d stolen. He’d needed to set an example, especially back then when his operation was just really starting to take off.
“That’s all he’ll ever care about, Rosie,” Luther warned her. “He doesn’t care about you. He only cares about making sure you make it to that witness stand. If you refuse to testify, you’ll be of no use to him anymore. He’ll want nothing to do with you.”
Her face flushed, but she denied her intentions regarding her bodyguard. “All I want is for you to stop trying to have him killed.”
“And you know what I want,” he told her.
But even if she went to the assistant DA like she was promising, Luther had no intention of holding up his end of the bargain. He wanted Clint Quarters dead even more now than he had before.
He wanted him dead more now because Clint had the one thing Luther had never been able to get, despite all his money and power: Rosie Mendez.
But Quarters wouldn’t have her for very damn long.
Once Luther had her bodyguard killed, his crew would have no problem getting to Rosie. And she would learn just what her sacrifice for Quarters cost her—not just justice for her brother but her own damn life as well.
Chapter 21
Rosie was more fearful about this meeting than she’d been about the one with Luther Mills. She knew Luther. She knew what to expect.
She didn’t know Jocelyn Gerber. Maybe the woman would be secretly thrilled because she actually was one of Luther’s crew. Or maybe she would be furious because she was all about winning—as Rosie had suspected earlier.
Clint had gone along for this meeting with the same begrudging agreement as he had the last. He hadn’t been able to go with her inside the visiting room to talk to Luther, though. And she’d been happy about that.
She didn’t want him to sit in on this meeting, either. “Please,” she implored him. “Can you give us a minute alone?”
Clint shook his head. He clearly didn’t trust Jocelyn Gerber any more than she did. “That’s not possible.”
“I’m not leaving, either,” Landon Myers told her.
And Jocelyn grimaced. “Bodyguards don’t understand that sometimes we need to be alone.” The assistant district attorney sounded like she really needed to be alone.
So she could talk to Luther?
Or had she already?
Rosie shivered as she noticed the coldness in the woman’s icy blue eyes. And she knew that she already knew...
“What the hell were you thinking?” Jocelyn asked. But she directed the question at Clint instead of her. “Why would you take her to the jail?”
She didn’t wait for his response before she turned on Rosie. “And what the hell were you thinking? You might have jeopardized the whole case!”
“What?” Landon asked. Clearly, he didn’t know what had happened.
So Jocelyn informed him. “She went to see Luther Mills.” She pointed a shaking finger at Clint. “And he took her!”
Landon turned to Clint, his brow furrowed with confusion. “What was the deal? Did you have her wear a wire?”
“Like Luther Mills would have said anything incriminating!” Jocelyn exclaimed. But then she turned back to Rosie and asked, “Did he?”
She shook her head. Luther had been careful. But he’d gotten his point across. She knew what she had to do for Clint.
Jocelyn shook her head, and her curtain of black hair swung back and forth across her shoulders. “His lawyer could have a field day with this—with you—when he cross-examines you on the witness stand.”
“He won’t,” Rosie told her.
“The man is a shark,” Jocelyn said. “Of course he will. He’s going to tear you apart.”
And Clint tensed, his hands curling into fists, as if he’d taken the ADA literally.
“No, he won’t,” Rosie said, “because I have no intention of testifying.”
“What!” Clint beat Jocelyn to the exclamation.
And the ADA turned on him again. “That’s why you shouldn’t have taken her there. He intimidated her into changing her mind.”
“You don’t think all the attempts on her life were intimidation enough?” Landon asked.
Clint stared at Rosie. “I promised I would keep you safe.”
He had. But she knew what that could and probably would cost him: his life.
And that wasn’t a sacrifice she was willing to let him make. Not for her and not so he could keep his promise to her dead brother. Javier wouldn’t have wanted that, either. He’d cared too much about Clint.
“Now there’s no need,” she said. “I’m safe now.” And more importantly, so was he.
Clint snorted. “You really believe that Luther Mills will keep his word to you? That he won’t have you killed the minute you walk out of here with no protection?”
She shivered. Would Luther keep his word? Surely he knew that if he sent any more of his crew after her and Clint, their deal was off. She would gladly testify then.
“Quarters is right,” Jocelyn said. “There is no way that Luther Mills will let you stay alive—not when you are the greatest threat to his freedom. You have to testify.”
“You should be glad that I changed my mind,” Rosie told her.
And the woman’s smooth brow furrowed. “Why the hell would I be happy?”
“Because now you’re safe, too,” she said. “He won’t have any reason to threaten you or the others if there’s not enough evidence to bring him to trial.”
Jocelyn gasped, as if horrified. “There’s still enough evidence.” She glanced at Landon. “The CSI tech—Wendy.”
“Wendy Thompson,” Landon said. “Hart Fisher is protecting her.”
“She hasn’t changed her mind about testifying, has she?” Ms. Gerber anxiously asked.
Landon shrugged.
“We need to talk to her,” Jocelyn said, and it was clear she was scrambling now to save her case. She was definitely not on Luther’s payroll like Rosie had wondered from time to time. “We need to make sure Mills hasn’t gotten to her like he has this witness.”
Jocelyn turned back to Rosie, and her lips were pursed in disgust. “What did he give you?” she asked. “Money? What did it take for you to sell out? To sell the justice your brother deserves?”
Rosie flinched with regret. “You don’t know my brother,” she told the other woman. “Don’t act like you know what he deserves or wanted.”
He wanted her and Clint to be together. That was the dying wish Javier had expressed to her. She didn’t expect that to happen now. Clint couldn’t even look at her. But she knew that Javier wouldn’t want his idol or her to die for that justice for him.
The woman turned on one pointy heel and headed toward the stairs leading down to the garage. Landon hurried after her, but he had one comment for Clint before he headed down the stairwell. “What the hell?”
Clint shook his head. But the minute they were alone, he repeated his friend’s question. “What the hell?”
* * *
Clint could barely contain his fury. He had never been so angry with Rosie—not even when she’d tossed him out of her brother’s funeral. That, he’d understood. She’d blamed him for Javier’s death.
And she was right. He blamed himself, too.
But this...
His stomach pitched, churning with anger and regret. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken you to the jail.”
But he’d given in because she’d been so determined that he’d figured she would have sneaked away from him had he refused to take her. And he hadn’t wanted her to go alone.
He hadn’t wanted her out on own. He hadn’t wanted her in danger. But he’d put her in even more than he’d realized when he’d sneaked past the guards at the lakeshore condo and taken her
to the jail in River City.
“What did he say to you?” Clint asked. If only he could have gone into the visitation room with her...
Then he would know.
What threat had Luther made that had her this scared? Scared enough to let the drug dealer get away with murdering her brother?
“He didn’t threaten me,” Rosie said.
And Clint snorted his disbelief. “Of course he didn’t. He didn’t have to. He’s been threatening you for days every time he sent his crew after you.”
She shivered.
“I can’t believe this,” he said. And he shook his head in disbelief. “You were so angry about your brother’s death. What happened to that anger? To that determination to get justice for Javier?”
“Javier wouldn’t want me to get killed,” she said.
And he couldn’t argue with that. Javier had wanted to keep his sister safe. But he’d given that responsibility to Clint. “No, he wouldn’t,” he agreed. “That’s why he made me promise to protect you.”
She nodded. “I know that’s why you’ve been so determined to be my bodyguard, because you already feel so guilty about not keeping him safe.”
That had been his reason in the beginning. But then he’d fallen for her. Hell, he’d fallen for her even before he’d made that promise to Javier.
But now he wasn’t even sure he knew who she was. The woman with whom he’d fallen in love would have never let her brother’s killer go free. Now he didn’t know how he felt about her. So he just shrugged in response to her statement.
Then he added, “And it is my job. I’m a bodyguard.”
“It’s hypocritical of you to say I’m giving up on justice for Javier,” she said. “You did that when you quit the River City PD.”
“I quit because I thought you were going to follow through,” he said, “that you, of all people, would make sure Javier got justice.”
She snorted disparagingly at him. “You thought I was going to get Luther for you...” She shook her head. “He’s your white whale. Not mine.”