A Kiss to Die for, page 8
Haley snorted. “On the contrary. They’ll be anxious to talk about it and spread the news.”
“What time do they leave the house?”
“Around eleven. They’re usually gone for a couple of hours.”
He checked his watch. “We’ve got time. We can stop for breakfast on the way.”
She paused. “Speaking of breakfast, I called Brynn while you were taking a shower. Parker wants to meet at a restaurant in Chevy Chase at nine. He’s bringing someone from the gang unit and the ATF.”
“You think that’s a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Your friends knew we were going to that gala.” He raised a pointed brow. “They were the only ones who knew.”
She sat up straight. “No way. They’re not involved. They can’t be. Brynn’s a target, too.”
“And her boyfriend?”
Haley opened her mouth to defend him, then stopped and forced herself to think it through. She didn’t know Parker well. But she trusted Brynn’s judgment. They’d relied on each other for years. And Parker’s brother had died in the warehouse, protecting them. He wanted to catch the man responsible for his murder as much as they did. “I’d trust him with my life.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing. We can’t afford to make a mistake.”
“You don’t need to worry. He’s on our side.”
Sully drummed his fingers on the table, doubts flickering through his golden eyes. At last, he gave her a nod. “All right. We’ll trust him for now. But we’d better go. I don’t want to hang around here long.”
Her heart changed its beat. “You think the bomber might catch up?”
“I don’t know.”
But he could. She rose and went to the window, then inched aside the drape and peeked out. An SUV was warming up in the parking lot. A young couple walked past, pulling their suitcases behind them as they headed to their car. Somewhere in the building, a door slammed shut, the absolute normalcy of the scene at odds with the mounting threat.
The killer was out there, hunting them down. But she couldn’t let him win. She couldn’t let him destroy the shelter she’d worked to build, the safe haven she’d created for those runaway girls. She couldn’t let him harm her friends. And she especially couldn’t let him hurt Sully—not when his only crime was protecting her.
Sully clamped his hand on her shoulder. Startled, she lifted her gaze to his. And for an eternity, she couldn’t breathe, his cognac-colored eyes holding her in place.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find him,” he finally said, his gravelly voice echoing her thoughts.
“I know. I just hope he doesn’t find us first.”
* * *
By the time they arrived at a chain restaurant on the outskirts of D.C. two hours later, second thoughts threatened Haley’s resolve. Was Sully right? Could they really trust Parker? Or were they walking into an ambush? And what about the two men Parker was bringing along—could they rely on them?
She scanned the area around the restaurant, her tension ratcheting higher as Sully backed into a parking space, angling the truck for a quick escape.
“Listen, Haley...” The urgency in his voice echoed hers. “I’m going to leave the truck unlocked. If there’s any sign this is a trap...”
“We run.”
“Right.” His flinty gaze stayed on hers. “I mean it. I don’t care how much you trust this guy. We’re not going to take a chance.”
“I understand.” They had to attend this meeting. They needed help if they hoped to identify their assailant before he caught up with them. But given his connections, they had to stay on guard—even from the police.
Praying they wouldn’t regret this, she opened the passenger door and climbed out. The cold wind caught her hair, whipping it around her face, and she shivered inside her new coat. She took another close look at the parking lot, but nothing seemed out of place.
Still, she had a hard time relaxing as she followed Sully into the restaurant and spotted Parker at a corner booth. “Over there,” she said.
The detective rose as they approached and introduced them to the other men. Special Agent Roger Foley was from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He looked about her father’s age with a broad nose, thick, black-framed glasses and a comb-over that made her cringe. But his eyes were sharp in his ruddy face, his gaze assessing as he shook her hand.
The other man was Sergeant Enrique Delgado from the gang unit in the Baltimore Police Department. Delgado had dark hair, dark eyes and a handsome Latino face—a fact he seemed to be aware of, judging by the way he lingered over her hand. Exasperated, she pulled away.
Sully slid into the booth beside her when she took her seat. Her nerves still edgy, she scooted as close to him as she dared, reassured by his solid strength.
A waitress deposited a stack of menus on the table and filled their coffee cups. After promising to return for their orders, she hurried away.
Parker cleared his throat. “To begin with, we need your statements about last night. Our phone’s ringing off the hook—every law-enforcement agency and media outlet on the Eastern Seaboard wants details, especially since that kid got killed. You’ll have to give a formal statement later, maybe a couple of them, depending on what agencies end up involved, but this should give us a start.”
“Right.” Sully went first, telling Foley and Delgado about the shooting near her shelter, as well as the previous night’s events. Haley added several details, including the warehouse execution that had started it all. She finished after they’d ordered and their food arrived. Ravenous, she dug into her scrambled eggs.
“What makes you think that car bomb was meant for you?” Sergeant Delgado asked.
“Who else would it have been meant for?” Sully answered. “You heard what we said. There’s a price on Haley’s head.”
“Yeah, but a car bomb?” Delgado didn’t look convinced. “That’s not typical for the Ridgewood gang. The street shooting is more their style.”
“Who knew you were going to be there?” Parker asked.
Haley swallowed a mouthful of eggs. “You did. I don’t know who took my call when I RSVP’d for the gala. Someone on the senator’s staff, I guess.”
“I’ll check on that.” Parker took out a small notebook and wrote it down.
“How about you?” the ATF agent asked Sully. “You have any enemies?”
“Not that I know of.”
“You were the one who won that car.”
“Yeah, but I was Haley’s guest. And I didn’t know anyone there. What would they have against me?”
The ATF agent tugged on his bottom lip. “They must have arranged for you to win the raffle. That couldn’t have been easy to do.”
Parker jotted down something else. “I’ll find out who set up the raffle and had access to the ticket stubs.”
Her mind on the raffle, Haley polished off her eggs, then started in on a slice of toast. But she’d spent a sleepless night mulling over the logistics and still didn’t have a clue.
The ATF agent looked at Sully again. “By the way. We got confirmation from ballistics that the weapons you saw were E-13s. They were manufactured by Walker Avionics at their West Virginia plant, part of a shipment that went missing a few weeks ago.”
Haley blinked. “Walker Avionics? As in Dean Walker?”
The ATF agent turned to her. “You know him?”
“Not really. I mean, I can recognize him. He attends a lot of charity events. I saw him at the gala last night.” Her mind raced. Could there be a connection between the weapons and the attack on her? But how could there be? It didn’t make any sense. Fifteen years ago, those experimental weapons didn’t exist.
“We’re still trying to track down Markus Jenkins,” Delgado added. “He’s the leader of the Ridgewood gang, the one who got released from jail around the same time those weapons went missing. Once we bring him in, we’ll try to strike a deal, see if he’ll tell us who’s involved in this.”
“Any idea where he is?” Parker asked.
“No. He vanished. And none of our informants will talk.”
“Can you blame them? Everyone associated with this case so far has died.”
A chill scuttled through Haley at the thought. But Parker was right. This wasn’t a game. Their assailant wanted them dead.
The ATF agent slid her his business card. “If you think of anything else, let me know. We need to get those weapons off the streets.”
“I will.” Although she didn’t see how she could help.
Sully glanced at his watch, then caught her eye. “We need to go.”
They had to get to her parents’ house. Wishing she could avoid it, she took her leave of the agents and followed Sully outside. But while she dreaded visiting the site of so much of her childhood suffering, they desperately needed clues. And if Sully could face his ghosts, defying a gang to safeguard her, she could do the same.
“Wait!” She turned at Parker’s call. Catching up, he tugged out a set of keys. “Take my SUV. It’s the black one over there. I’ve got a meeting at Hunter Hall, so I’ll return the truck and bring back my other car.”
Haley released her breath. “Thanks.” At least one good thing had come from the meeting. They didn’t have to keep driving a stolen vehicle.
“There’s a sports bag in the backseat,” Parker added while Sully retrieved their shopping bags from the truck. “Brynn packed some clothes and stuff you might need.” He took the truck key from Sully and turned to go.
But then he stopped. “I can still arrange a safe house, you know.”
Haley hesitated, tempted. A safe house sounded good right now. She’d been shot at twice and barely escaped a car bomb. What if her luck didn’t hold? Or worse, what if Sully got killed, instead?
But she couldn’t run. She’d never be safe, not really, not with the police involved. No matter where she hid, no matter how many times she changed her identity, her pursuer would eventually catch up. She had to stay put and face him, and put an end to this for good—not only for herself and Sully, but for her friends, Brynn and Nadine. Until she defeated their enemy, they were all at risk.
“Thanks, but we’ll be all right.” She hoped.
Parker’s eyes turned grim. “Be careful. This person’s determined, whoever the hell he is. And if you change your mind...”
“We won’t.” They were committed now. No matter the cost.
* * *
Sully glanced in the rearview mirror as he drove through the historic neighborhood of Guilford, the uneasy feeling that had hounded him since they left the restaurant growing stronger with every mile.
“What’s wrong?” Haley asked.
He studied the mirror for several seconds, then returned his gaze to the road ahead. “Nothing.”
Haley twisted around in her seat. “Is someone following us?”
“I thought I saw a dark van behind us, but it’s gone now.” At least he hoped so.
Haley shot him a worried glance. “Those guys at the restaurant, Delgado and the ATF guy, Foley...you don’t think they’re involved in this?”
“No.” They’d seemed trustworthy enough, despite his initial concerns. But something about this still felt off.
Maybe it was the neighborhood. He gazed out the windshield at the huge lawns dotted with oak trees, the mansions lurking behind gated drives—a far cry from the crowded, middle-class suburb where he’d grown up.
More likely it was that kiss. He slipped Haley a glance, taking in the compelling lines of her profile, the curve of her bowed lips. He’d spent the entire night battling his hunger, reliving her taste, her scent, fighting the insistent yearning to pull her close.
At least he hadn’t suffered any nightmares. Of course, he hadn’t exactly slept....
She shifted forward, her thick hair tumbling over her shoulders in glossy waves. And once again, the stark need hit him, the longing to plunge his hands through that silky mass and feel it sliding over his bare skin.
“That’s Sherwood Gardens.” She pointed toward a tree-lined park. “It’s not far now.”
Battling to regain his focus, he glanced at a Tudor-style mansion across the road. “Nice area to grow up in.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
His gaze met hers, the strain in her expression too obvious to miss. And suddenly, he understood what this visit might cost her, confronting her painful past.
And damned if he could bear to see her hurt.
“Listen, Haley. You don’t have to go inside the house if you don’t want to. Just tell me where to look for the files. You can stay and stand watch at the car.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
He doubted that, given the dread he saw in her eyes. He knew he shouldn’t care. He needed to keep his distance from her, not worry about how she felt.
But he couldn’t stay detached. She already appealed to him too much. He admired her courage, her drive, her concern for those runaway girls.
And the way she’d responded to that kiss...
He stifled a groan. Oh, hell. This wasn’t good. He had no business thinking of Haley that way. She did not need him in her life.
“There it is.” She pointed to a house on the left. “Drive past it.”
Sully peered out the window, his jaw sagging at the three-story brick mansion she’d pointed out. Huge columns fronted the house. Six double chimneys jutted up from a black slate roof. A high stone wall bordered the perimeter of the estate, keeping undesirable elements at bay, no doubt.
If he’d needed proof they’d come from different worlds, that house was it.
“Keep going past the alley,” she said. “We’ll park on the next street and walk back.”
“Got it.” Still marveling at her family’s wealth, he glanced in the rearview mirror, but the dark van was nowhere in sight. Reassured, he turned onto a quiet residential street, then pulled to the curb and parked. “So what’s the plan?”
“We’ll go through the back gate. As long as they haven’t changed the code I can get us in.”
“And if they have?”
“We can climb over the wall, but I’d rather try the easy way first.”
He hopped out of the SUV, then dumped the contents of the sports bag on the backseat. Taking the empty bag with him, he joined her at the curb. “You said your parents have servants?”
She led the way up the street. “They have a cook, a couple of caretakers and maids...and my mother’s secretary. But they shouldn’t be around today.”
Trying to imagine her affluent childhood, he walked with her into the alley, his feet crunching over fallen leaves. The wind whispered through the pines. A flock of sparrows soared by. The neighborhood felt hushed and safe, worlds away from Baltimore’s more violent streets.
They reached the gate at the rear of the mansion and Haley punched in a code. The iron door slid open without a hitch. “They always use my sister’s birthday. It’s a number they can both remember.”
“Not yours?”
Her lips made a bitter quirk. “No. I told you. They’d prefer to think I don’t exist.”
Wondering at her callous parents, he followed her through the manicured gardens, past a gazebo and a stone fountain to the house. A gray squirrel bounded past. Majestic trees dominated the grounds, their centuries-old branches stretching into the morning sky. Sully studied the mansion’s mullioned windows, watching for signs that someone was home.
But nothing moved. No one sounded the alarm. They reached a small door just off the patio and Haley punched in the code again. “I doubt anyone is here, but be quiet, just in case.”
They crept into a small room lined with cabinets, then entered a narrow hall. A moment later they reached the two-story foyer, and Sully stopped to stare. An ornate ceiling soared overhead. A crystal chandelier anchored by a carved medallion towered above them like a waterfall suspended in time. Massive oil paintings hung on the walls. The sun gleamed off the marble floor so brightly he had to shield his eyes. Even the wooden banister was a work of art.
The house was a showcase, dripping with studied elegance—but oddly sterile and cold. There was no mess, no hint of the people living within its walls. It was too perfect. Too structured. Even the flowers in the Oriental vases matched, their colors exactly symmetrical, not a single petal out of place.
He couldn’t imagine Haley living here. She was too soft, too natural. How had she escaped unscathed?
She hadn’t. She’d fled this place, carrying wounds that would last a lifetime. But unlike his, her scars were all inside.
He frowned at that. He’d hit the jackpot with his family. They didn’t have much money, but they’d always made him feel loved—which is why he couldn’t face them now. He couldn’t bear to see their disappointment after the way he’d let them down.
Pushing his mind away from those thoughts, he padded after her through the foyer, then into her father’s library in an adjacent wing. The room faced the front of the mansion, its huge windows overlooking the rolling lawn. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases—complete with a library ladder—lined the other walls. An executive desk occupied a spot near the fireplace, along with leather chairs. The smell of fine cigars lingered in the air.
Haley crossed the room to a small door in the paneling beside the shelves. “The files should be in here.” She opened the door and flipped the light switch, then came to a halt. Sully peered over her shoulder at the empty room.
“There used to be boxes and file cabinets in here.” She sounded confused.
“Maybe he scanned everything onto disks.”
“Maybe, but that would have taken years. He had thousands of files.”
“So maybe he threw them away.”
