by Julie Miller
A giant of a man walked into the kitchen, pocketing his phone as he bent down to kiss Melanie’s temple. “She has. Can you imagine how much more protective I’m feeling now that she’s carrying our son?”
Melanie reached for her husband’s hand. “We don’t know it’s a boy yet, Tom. What if she’s a little girl?”
Although Laura was confused as to why everyone called the big man Duff, but his wife called him Tom, there was no mistaking the love they openly shared. He covered Melanie’s hand where it rested on her belly and kissed her again. “Oh, you don’t even want to go there. A daughter? Can you imagine what kind of overprotective daddy I’m going to be? Conor gets it. The one thing we manly men can’t handle is the people we love being in danger.”
Conor’s gaze slipped over to Laura without comment. Either he was so uncomfortable with their audience that he didn’t want to reveal anything too personal, or he plain ol’ wasn’t ready to deal with the L word. “Right. Big scary daddy. I promise never to date your daughter. Did you make the arrangements we talked about?”
“Don’t sweat it, Stringbean.” Other than his musclebound build and darker hair, Duff Watson was the spitting image of his father. Thomas’s oldest son proceeded to report on the deal he’d been negotiating with the owners of a local bar. “I’ve set up the meeting at the Riverboat Bar and Grill. Used to be a casino until it got shut down for illegal activities. The new owners tried to revive it as a sports bar but went belly up. I’ve got the blueprints for the place printing out on the computer now.” He narrowed his gaze at Conor. “You sure you want something that big? That’s a lot of area to try to control.”
Conor tucked his T-shirt into his jeans. “It’ll work for what we need. Besides, we don’t want these guys to think they’re walking into a setup. Cobb might buy it, but Boltz isn’t stupid. He’ll like the remote location.”
“All right.” Duff splayed his fingers at his waist, near his gun and badge. “We’ll be there to back you up.”
Thomas’s youngest son, Keir, walked in with a button-down shirt he tossed to Conor. Although Conor topped him in height, the two men wore about the same size, and shared an affinity for suits and ties. “Try not to get any blood on this one, okay?” After Conor thanked him for the loaner, Keir reported on his latest phone call. “Hud’s a go to help out. He always likes a good party.” He glanced down at Laura. “Hud’s my partner at KCPD.”
A knock at the front door turned everyone’s attention to the entrance of the house. “Hello?” a woman’s voice called out.
Keir smiled at the sound of high heels clicking across the wood floor before he moved to the kitchen archway to meet his wife, Kenna. Today, the older blonde looked more like the crackerjack attorney Conor said she was than she had last night when she’d been playing cards with the family’s eighty-two-year-old patriarch, Seamus. After exchanging a kiss with Keir, Kenna Parker-Watson turned her attention to the rest of the Watson family. “I called in the favor you asked for. My friend—” she rolled the word around her tongue as if it tasted unpleasant, before continuing “—Vanessa, is willing to help. Ever since she got fired from her network job, she’s been looking for a legitimate story to bring her back to the spotlight.” She offered an apologetic smile to Laura. “I had to promise an interview with you after all this is said and done. But she’ll supply the equipment we need.”
Laura wasn’t looking forward to having her face splashed across a news screen again, but if she survived this, she would gladly suck it up and make an appearance. “Thank you.”
Thomas spoke again, and all eyes turned to him. “I’d have been surprised if Vanessa Owen had said no to the story. Adams is on the Senate Subcommittee for Crime and Terrorism. He has access to all kinds of legal entities. That’s how he can call in favors across state lines. We’ll have to make sure all our ducks are in a row to make this happen.”
“Will my idea work?” Laura asked. “Will Cobb and Boltz still go for the deal I proposed?”
“We’ll make it work,” Conor promised.
She tipped her gaze up to his. “You said my idea stunk.”
“It stinks because you’re smack dab in the middle of it.” He brushed a lock of hair off her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “But I haven’t been able to stop you from getting more deeply involved with any of this. It’s always do-or-die with you.”
Thomas clapped Conor on the shoulder. “We’ll make sure it’s a do.”
Laura summoned a smile. “Thank you all for helping me.”
Thomas grinned. “Hey, I don’t like having bad guys out there giving cops a bad name.”
Keir agreed. “I don’t like the idea of bad guys thinking they can run my city or country without there being any consequences when they break the law.”
Duff shrugged. “I just don’t like bad guys.”
Everyone except for Conor seemed to be laughing as the cops and Kenna left the kitchen to study the map Duff had printed out. Melanie excused herself to use the restroom while Millie went to check on Seamus, who’d been taking a nap.
Laura was two steps away from joining the others when Jane spoke to her. “Conor’s easy to love, isn’t he?”
Were her emotions so readable to everyone except the tall, stubborn boy next door? “Not really.” Laura returned to help Jane pack up her medical supplies and clean the counter where she’d worked. “But I do. He fights me every step of the way. He talks about losing people—I think he wants to stop what’s happening between us before he gets hurt again.”
“He saved my life, you know. He’s like my kid brother, and Thomas treats him like another son.” Jane’s friendly smile faded. “But I’ve always had a sense that he doesn’t think he’s worthy of love, that he’s the reason he’s lost so many people. If he was a better man, a better son, a better fiancé, then the people he loves wouldn’t leave.” She followed Laura to the sink. “It’s a little irrational, but when you’ve been wounded like that inside, you don’t always think rationally. Your instinct is to protect yourself from being hurt again.”
“He’s always been there for me—as a kid, a teenager, now. My sister wasn’t the right woman for him. She loved the man she wanted him to be. I love him—irrational, sarcastic, overprotective, caring Conor.” Laura rinsed out the dishcloth she’d been using and hung it over the edge of the sink to dry. “We have history. I get his stupid jokes and he gets mine. I think the big galoot loves me, too, but he’s afraid to say it. That saying it somehow makes it real. And more fragile. Can we really have a good relationship if he’s always worrying about when it’s going to end?”
Jane laid her hand over Laura’s. “I don’t know that I have the answer for you. I’m sure what you’re planning for tonight isn’t helping.”
Laura turned her hand into Jane’s, silently thanking her for the comfort. “It’s the only way. Your husband and stepsons and stepdaughter all agree. I don’t think I’m being particularly brave to do this. I just want my life back. I want to protect my family. I want a life with Conor. If he’ll let me.”
“Let’s get through tonight first.”
Conor reappeared, rearmed and wearing his badge on his belt now. His gaze darted suspiciously between the two women, but he dismissed whatever he was thinking and reached for Laura’s hand. He walked her out to the living room and gave her one of his disposable cell phones. “You ready to call Cobb? Remember, he needs to believe that he’s calling the shots.”
“You’ll be with me?”
“Every step of the way. I’ll get you back home to your family. I promise.”
“Conor...” Was that what she wanted? To return home to Arlington? Without him?
He bumped his shoulder against hers in a nudge of encouragement, misreading her uncertainty, perhaps on purpose? “Don’t worry, Squirt. I’ll keep you safe.”
Chapter Thirteen
This was the stupidest p
lan in the history of plans.
Conor eyed the four men climbing out of the two rental cars and walking toward the gangplank from the parking lot onto the old steamboat that had once been the Riverboat Bar and Grill. Since the parking lot was dark, and there were no working lights on the boat, the men carried flashlights, giving off enough illumination through the bar’s darkened windows for him to assess the approaching enemy. The two men with Boltz and Cobb might not be as hefty as Hammer and Rico had been, but the weapons they were packing beneath their jackets were legit. Four against two—with one of those two being Laura—weren’t good odds. Bringing the hired help meant that Cobb wasn’t going to pretend that he’d come to Kansas City to interview him and Laura as suspects.
He wanted the flash drive.
And he wanted them dead.
Conor carried the camping lantern he’d borrowed from Duff to the bar and set it beneath a television screen that had once broadcast Royals baseball and Chiefs football games. There were a dozen more screens around the main room, all of them dark and draped with cobwebs. A thick layer of dust coated the broken tables, stacked chairs and bar top, giving the place the feel of a forgotten landmark, frozen in time.
“Looks like their connections stretch all the way to Missouri.”
Laura got up from the dusty barstool where she’d managed to sit for about thirty seconds. “Maybe Cobb brought them from Virginia when he flew in.”
He supposed it didn’t really matter where the muscle had come from. All Conor had to face them down was the Glock he suspected he wouldn’t get to keep for very long, and the other weapons he’d hidden around the bar’s interior. He couldn’t guarantee that they’d be within arm’s reach should he need a gun, but at least he’d have a fighting chance at evening the odds, so long as Laura didn’t get caught in the crossfire.
He’d suggested Kevlar vests, but suspected those would be quickly removed, as well, before the negotiating began. He knew Thomas, his sons and several other members of KCPD were hidden on the riverboat’s upper floor and in the shadows along the Missouri River bank. But that backup would be too far away if Marvin Boltz decided he wasn’t in the mood to talk and started shooting. Conor breathed in deeply, reminding himself the sound equipment was all in place, and that he and Laura had rehearsed several possible scenarios for how this meeting would go.
“Do you think this place was a dump before the owners abandoned it?” She shook the curved brass railing that circled the front of the bar, rattling the loose connections to the dried wood and sending a shower of sawdust to the floor from every remaining screw hole. “Or are we going to end up dead and rotting away here, too?”
“You’re not going to end up dead.”
“We’re not.” she insisted. He couldn’t guarantee that. Laura resumed her pacing, giving herself a pep talk in between eyeing Conor and the front door. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and get her out of here, as far away from this risky game as he could. But Laura Karr had never backed down from a challenge. She never backed down from caring about a friend or doing what she thought was right. “I’m nervous. Are you?”
He grabbed her when she came close, splaying his hand against her freckled cheek and kissing her. “Terrified. But nerves will keep us sharp. Don’t turn your back on any one of them if you can help it.”
She rested her hand over his and was nodding her understanding when the front doors swung open.
“Isn’t this quaint.” Marvin Boltz directed the two thugs who were already pointing guns at them to enter the bar first.
Cobb laughed at the romantic moment of reassurance. As Boltz set his flashlight on the bar top, Cobb and the other men walked past him. Not surprisingly, the two muscle men grabbed Conor by the arms and pulled him away from Laura. The deputy didn’t waste any time putting his hands on Laura and patting her down. Conor’s blood simmered as the man’s big hands lingered beneath her coat longer than necessary. When she slapped his hand away, he laughed again. “Just want to make sure you two aren’t wired.” He turned his attention to Conor. “Or armed.”
He removed Conor’s Glock and tucked it into his waistband. Then the deputy straightened, grinned and slammed his fist into Conor’s gut. Laura cried out as he doubled over with a whole new kind of pain blooming through his injured ribs. The only thing keeping him on his feet was the rough grip of the two men holding him.
“You ain’t so tough now, are you, Mr. Detective,” Cobb taunted. “Don Urbanski was a friend of mine.”
When Conor could catch his breath again, he looked the worthless cop straight in the eye. “Coward.”
“T.J.” Marvin Boltz motioned Cobb to lower his fist and pay attention to the woman standing between them. “You led us on quite the merry chase, Miss Karr. Once you surfaced in Columbus, Ohio, we suspected you were heading here to Kansas City. But we couldn’t confirm that until we got an anonymous tip from a helpful citizen in Illinois who was worried you might be in danger.” He turned his dark eyes to Conor and raised a fuzzy gray eyebrow. “The woman who called thought you looked a little scary.”
Cobb rolled the toothpick between his lips from one side of his mouth to the other and leered at Laura. “Why, I’d be doing my civic duty to rescue you from this dirty cop.”
Her chin came up and her back was ramrod straight. “If you hit him again, I won’t tell you what I did with the flash drive. I wasn’t foolish enough to bring it here with me. You need my cooperation.”
Boltz considered her proposal before nodding to Cobb. “He’s a cop. He got handcuffs?”
Cobb flipped Conor’s coat back. “Yep.”
“Put them on him.”
Cobb pulled the cuffs from Conor’s belt and locked the first one around his left wrist. Then he smacked his lips around that toothpick and dragged Conor over to the bar, looping the handcuffs around the brass railing before securing his right wrist. He pinched them tightly into his skin and grinned before pulling away. “That ought to keep him out of my face.”
Don’t count on it.
“All right.” Boltz nodded to the men still holding him. “You two, outside. Make sure we don’t have any company showing up to surprise us.”
The odds were a little more even now that the two men had left. Conor hoped Thomas or Duff or one of the other cops lying in wait would pick them up without alerting Boltz and Cobb to their disappearance. Now he could focus his attention fully on Laura, and the two men circling her.
“I don’t like being inconvenienced,” Boltz said, in a charming voice that had probably swayed juries in courtrooms. “You, my dear, are an inconvenience.”
Too late, he saw the menace changing the shape of his smile. Conor shouted a warning, but the older man’s fist connected with Laura’s cheek and knocked her to the floor. “Boltz! You son of a bitch.” Rage blinded Conor. He jerked against his bindings, jiggling the brass railing, the cuffs cutting into his skin. “You’re all over beating up a woman. How about unlocking me and taking on somebody your own size.”
“Shut him up.”
Cobb happily obliged, swinging his fist and connecting with Conor’s jaw. The blow knocked him back several steps and stars swirled behind his eyelids. But he quickly blinked them away, ignoring the blood of the reopened wound dripping down the front of his shirt, along with the urge to ram that toothpick straight down Cobb’s throat. “Laura? I need you to talk to me.”
Conor realized his momentum had carried him farther down the brass rail, closer to the gun he’d taped beneath the bar top. He calculated how far he could stretch his long fingers to reach the hidden Beretta. He came up a little short. Just a few centimeters away from rearming himself and putting down these two killers and saving Laura.
But he’d forgotten how strong that little spitfire could be. Her cheek had split open and was oozing blood. But she stood up. She snuck him a reassuring glance before tilting her gaze up t
o Boltz. “I’m okay.”
“For now.” The attorney wasn’t nearly as impressed by her courage. “Where’s the flash drive? Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me?”
“Not as much as I intend to. Someone has to pay for my friend’s murder.”
“That dumb little blond bitch thought she could bargain for a proposal from Vinnie. Now you think you can bargain for you and your boyfriend’s life?” The older man took a step toward Laura, drawing back the front of his coat to rest his hand on the gun holstered beneath his suit jacket. “I don’t bargain. I make problems go away.”
“I’m sure Vinnie’s given you plenty of problems to deal with.” Laura held her ground. “Did you kill Chloe?”
“I did. Now I’m going to kill you, too. Which one of you wants to go first?”
“Marv, just do it,” Cobb whined, perhaps finally realizing the threat behind Conor’s unblinking stare. “This isn’t my home turf. I don’t have the backup here I do in Virginia. Let’s take care of business and get back on the plane.”
“I pay you enough money to do whatever I tell you.” He nodded to Conor. “Better get rid of the cop first. I can take this little one all by myself.”
Cobb was smiling again as he pulled out Conor’s own weapon and pointed it at him.
“Wait.” Laura looked from Cobb back to Boltz. “How do you know I didn’t mail the flash drive to a reporter?”
“Did you?”
“That would be very bad press for Senator Adams and his wife.”
Cobb’s aim wavered and Conor saw the first hitch in Boltz’s cool façade. “You know about Adams?” the attorney asked, pulling his own weapon.
“I know about everything. Chloe told me some of it. I figured out the rest. With Conor’s help.” She looked to Cobb again. “He’s a smarter cop than you’ll ever be.”
Boltz closed his hand around her arm and pulled her back to his side. “You don’t understand a bargaining chip, do you. You’ve just given me one more reason to kill you and your boyfriend.”