“This says Visnopov all over it,” J.J. told Seth as the medical examiner zipped the body bag.
Seth nodded, pushing the Stetson back on his head. “Classic execution, I’d say. Back of the head. Close range. A .22 by the looks of it.”
Cody stormed over, his face pinched with fury as he began barking orders. “I want every inch of this place dusted for prints. Have the state CSIs on their hands and knees with tweezers and tape. I want every fiber, skin cell and blood drop bagged, tagged and processed. Yesterday.”
J.J. was about to say something when Seth took Cody by the arm and practically shoved him from the room. She heard Seth launch into a litany of promises in a brotherly tone that she only hoped could salve some of Cody’s emotions.
Taking a pair of latex gloves from one of the crime scene techs, J.J. snapped them on and began to look around. Her stomach lurched at the sights. Remnants of Visnopov brutality were everywhere. Guilt formed a choking lump in her throat. Intellectually, she knew this was not her fault. But knowing something on an intellectual level and feeling it squeeze your emotions were completely unrelated things. Denise may have known the risks—accepted them even—but that didn’t make her brutal murder any easier to handle.
“Was this photographed?” she called over her shoulder. She crouched down alongside the overturned dinette.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She slipped a manila envelope from under shards of broken glass, careful to avoid the blood splatters. She guessed it was the same envelope Denise had gotten from the mystery man the day before. If it had something to do with the Visnopovs, they wouldn’t have left it behind.
J.J. pushed up the silver tabs, fed them through the little metal hole, and opened the envelope.
The top sheet was a cover letter from Huntley Tarrelton, III, Esq. J.J. snorted. A name like that pretty much destined a guy to be an attorney. She was about to begin reading the rest of the contents when a more collected Cody appeared at her side.
“Find something?”
She stood, hearing her knee crack in the process. “Maybe. Tax returns.”
Cody read over her shoulder as she skimmed through five years of joint returns signed by Denise and her husband, Greg. When she finished, she glanced up at Cody, trying to decide if he’d managed to make any sense out of the endless, neatly typed schedules and forms.
“Maybe the forensic accountants can do something with this stuff,” she suggested.
Cody took the stack. “I’m going to give Sam a crack first. It’ll be faster.”
She was about to remind him that doing so violated chain of evidence and would probably render any information inadmissible, but one look at the determined set of his jaw convinced her otherwise. “Okay.”
“I called my boss, as well as Martin and Lara.”
“How did they take it?”
He shrugged. “About how you’d expect. The Marshal Service is pulling together another detail. They should—”
“No!” J.J. practically yelled. “I mean—Cody?”
He hurried her from the crime scene, barely giving her time to remove her latex gloves or put on her coat. “What are you doing?” she demanded, almost out of breath by the time he’d rushed her into the car.
“I’m driving you to Helena. Four new marshals are arriving on the five o’clock flight. They’ll pick you up and take you to a new location.”
“I don’t want four new marshals,” she insisted, folding her arms in front of her. “I don’t want any marshals, period. I just got one killed. I don’t want any more deaths on my head.”
She watched as his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. He stared straight ahead, a vein twitching at his temple.
“This is not negotiable,” he insisted through clenched teeth.
“We agree on that,” she returned, matching his tone.
“I can’t protect you here, J.J. But I’ll damned sight make sure you’re someplace where the Visnopovs can’t find you until I sort this out.”
She glared at him as anger churned in her stomach. “I don’t need you to protect me. I need to find the leak and I’m pretty sure it’s Lara.”
“So am I,” he agreed.
The subtle fury in his tone gave her pause. “Which means you need to take yourself out of the loop.”
He snorted angrily at her. “Not going to happen. Martin and I have already worked this out with the full support of my superiors.”
“Good for you. Good for Martin. Good for your superiors. But you seem to have forgotten something, Landry. Finding the leak is my assignment. I’m seeing this through to the end.” She paused to take a quick breath. “My boss trusted me with this assignment. I am—”
“Your boss hung you in the breeze!” Cody exploded, whipping his head around in time to see the shock register on her face. Too late. He couldn’t take it back. “That’s right, Agent Barnes. Your boss came up with this whole charade. My team and I were supposed to let the Visnopovs get close enough to take a crack at you.”
She went very still and he could almost hear the wheels in her brain turn. It seemed like forever before she said, “Get the killers. Flip the killers to find the leak. Flip the leak and get hard evidence against Visnopov on the three witness murders.”
“Right.”
“Wrong.” She turned, looking at him with an expression that made him evaporate. “It could have been four murders. I was expendable in this operation, right?”
“J.J.—” Her name came out like a plea as he reached for her.
She stiffened against the car door, holding up a single finger in a warning. “Do not touch me right now.”
“Hey.” He put up both hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I didn’t like it when I was given the assignment, and I like it even less now.”
“That’s a different discussion. Right now, we’re going to focus on making this work.”
“Making what work?” he asked.
“As much as it ticks me off that I wasn’t brought into the loop at the onset, I’m a professional, for God’s sake. Face it. It’s a solid plan.”
Rage, fierce and primal, coursed through every cell in his body. “Are you nuts?” He ignored the fact that, even though they were inside the Hummer with the windows up and the doors locked, every technician and officer around the cabin was staring in their direction. “There isn’t a hope in this big world that I’ll sit back and let you take that kind of risk.”
“I’m sorry,” she snapped sarcastically. “Was there a question mark after that statement? Nope. I wasn’t asking for your permission, Landry. I don’t need it.”
“You sure as hell do!” he shouted.
“Why?” J.J. shouted back.
“Because I’m in love with you.”
She blinked twice. Then reared back and slapped him. Hard.
“ARE WE going to talk about it?” he asked later that morning.
“No,” she said, not turning away from the task of clipping tags from her new clothes before placing them neatly on hangers.
Cody dominated the doorway that separated her bedroom from the living room of the three-room bungalow. Though it was part of the Mountainview Inn where they’d stayed the night before, it wasn’t quite as posh as the honeymoon suite. Still, it was nice. And it was moderately accessible. Practically an invitation for the Visnopovs to make another attempt on her life.
She wouldn’t even look at him. In truth, she couldn’t. Not when her brain was replaying “Because I’m in love with you!” over and over in the most annoying mantra.
One of the Landrys—a “C” wife or an “S” wife, or maybe Taylor—had kindly gone shopping at the local store and sent over an elaborate replacement wardrobe to keep J.J. from having to wear the same jeans and sweater for the remainder of her time in Jasper. Whoever it was did a nice job. Save for one thing. The dress.
Not just any dress. A stunning aqua gown, hand-beaded and sixty dollars more expensive than the sticker price on her first car. J.J. wasn’t cutting the tags off that. It was going back. As were the perfect shoes, the chandelier earrings and matching cuff bracelet. All going back.
“Why did she buy this?” she muttered, trying to convince herself that it would be wrong to even consider trying it on.
“The wedding is formal,” Cody supplied.
“And full of people,” she reminded him. “Not that I’d go anyway.”
“I’m going, so you’re going.”
“I’ll stay here. Martin can pretend to guard me. Or Lara. It doesn’t really matter, does it? I mean—” she paused and looked at his unyielding expression “—the point is to give the mob an opening to make their move. Not having you here might inspire them to go for it. They get caught before, during or after and then—”
It took only three steps for Cody to reach her, grab her upper arms and say, “Don’t say that, J.J. I know you’re pissed at me and feeling flippant.”
She lifted her eyes but not her chin, intentionally. She batted her lashes and donned a particularly chilly smile. “Now why would I be pissed, Landry? Oh, yeah. You were using me as bait and didn’t bother to mention it. Pretty unreasonable and petty of me to be pissed about that.”
His grasp loosened. “Not unreasonable,” he relented. “And not the whole truth, either. I think you’re mad because I told you how I feel about you. Because I had enough guts to be honest.”
“When it suited you,” she calmly reminded him. “As far as I know, the whole ‘I love you’ thing could have been a ploy to get me to go to Helena to be handed off to the backup team. You’ve been lying to me from minute one, so don’t you dare be surprised if I don’t have much faith in what comes out of your mouth right now.”
He sighed heavily. “Fair enough. Martin and Lara will be here any minute. How do you want to play it?”
“I don’t want Lara to know I suspect her just yet,” J.J. said in her most efficient, professional tone. “Can you get Martin out of here for a little while?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m handling this my way.” She gave him a look that fairly dared him to argue, then said, “Deal with it.”
“I can send him back to Helena. The forensic reports got misplaced when they towed the sedan in after the accident. Either someone at the garage has a morbid sense of curiosity or the crime scene techs collected them not realizing they were copies of their own evidence. Either way, we’ll need the reports.”
LARA ARRIVED about a half hour later, still wearing a sling and a very sour expression. Martin stayed only long enough to get his instructions before Cody tossed him the keys to the Hummer, then heard him drive off.
After surveying the three-room bungalow, Lara seemed to relax. She moved into the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator, leaning in to pull a bottle of water from the top shelf.
Cody and J.J. were seated at the small, round table in the living room. Using the tip of his boot, Cody pushed out the chair across the table from him and said, “Take a load off.”
Lara’s pale brown eyes darted back and forth. Cody knew that look. He’d seen it enough times before. Lara wore her suspicion like a badge.
“What’s up?” she asked, sitting, but not comfortably.
Taking a pen from his pocket, Cody wrote the letters and the telephone number on a napkin and slid it across the table toward Lara.
“Is this a test?” she asked, revealing absolutely nothing.
“You tell us, you wrote them,” J.J. said.
Lara shoved the napkin back in Cody’s direction, suggesting he do something physically impossible in the process. She then turned her anger on J.J. “I got blown up because of you, Barnes. If you think I’m going to sit here and listen while the two of you make accusations, you’re crazy.”
Lara turned back to Cody. “I’ve never given you a single reason to question me, my motives or my integrity,” she said, slamming the untouched bottle of water on the table. “If you have proof that I’ve done anything to jeopardize her or the other witnesses, turn me over to the authorities. Until then, the both of you can rot in hell. I need some air.”
Grabbing the keys to the SUV from the center of the table, Lara stormed out on a burst of anger and a blast of cold air, closing the door hard enough to make the picture frames rattle against the walls.
“That went well,” Cody remarked as he raked his fingers through his hair.
“Actually,” J.J. began, her expression utterly serious, “it did.”
“How do you figure?”
“I arranged for Stephenson to put a tail on Lara.”
He felt his brow furrow. “Because you’re psychic and you knew she’d leave?”
J.J. shrugged. “It’s what I would have done in a similar situation.”
“Really?”
She nodded and leaned her elbows on the table. “Sure. That’s why I wouldn’t let you tell Martin our location until he was on his way here. And why I made sure you gave him explicit instructions not to tell Lara our new location. She had no idea until they walked through the door that we rented this place. If she is the leak, she needs to get in contact with the Visnopovs to let them know where we are. Or…”
“Or what?” Cody prompted.
J.J. gave him a devilish grin. “Or she’s justifiably furious because she hasn’t done anything wrong, in which case, she’s furious with you and needs time to get her temper in check.”
“What if there isn’t a leak?” Cody suggested. “What if the Visnopovs are just that good.”
“To have tracked and killed three witnesses while in protective custody?” J.J. asked. “And Denise? It doesn’t seem likely.”
Cody’s cell phone chimed and he brought it to his ear. “Landry.”
“Landry.”
He felt himself smile. “Hi, Sam. What are you up to?”
“Shirking all wedding duties—thanks for that, by the way.”
“No problem,” Cody said.
“I’ve reviewed the tax returns. Seth should be dropping them by any minute.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Lots of anythings,” Sam answered. “I wrote you a memo. It’s with the papers. I’ve got Roger waiting for me at the bank. Call me in about an hour if you have questions.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
As he hung up the phone, he saw J.J. hiding a yawn behind her hand. “Why don’t you go grab a nap.”
“Because I’m not two?”
“Neither one of us have had a decent night’s sleep in forever.”
“What are you going to do?”
He told her about Seth’s impending arrival, then ushered her into the bedroom. He lingered long enough to catch sight of her lying on the bed with her hair splayed against the pillow. After she closed her eyes, he allowed himself a moment to fantasize.
She smiled at him. The expression reaching all the way into the stunning aqua depths of her eyes.
He went to the bed and pulled her into the circle of his arms. J.J. closed her eyes and placed her cheek against his chest.
Her fingers danced over his spine, leaving a trail of electrifying sensation in their wake. Passion surged inside him. She ignited feelings so powerful and so intense, he knew with absolute certainty he was in love.
He moved his hand to her rib cage, just under the swell of her breast. He wanted—no, needed—to see her face. He wanted to see the desire in her eyes. Catching her chin between his thumb and forefinger, he tilted her head up with the intention of searching her eyes. He never made it that far.
His gaze was riveted to her lips, which were slightly parted, a glistening shade of pale rose. His eyes roamed over every delicate feature and he could feel her heart rate increase through the thin fabric of her nightgown. A knot formed in his throat as he silently acknowledged his incredible need for this woman.
Lowering his head, he took that first, tentative taste. Her mouth was warm and pliant, so was her body, which now pressed urgently against him. His hands roamed purposefully, memorizing every nuance and curve.
He felt his own body respond with an ache, then an almost overwhelming rush of desire as her arms slid around his waist, pulling him closer. He marveled at the perfect way they fit together. It was as if J.J. had been made for him. For this.
He toyed with a lock of her hair, then slowly wound his hand through the silken mass and gave a gentle tug, forcing her head back even more. Looking down at her face, he knew there was no other sight on earth as beautiful and inviting as her sultry, aqua eyes.
With a single finger, he traced the delicate outline of her mouth. Her skin was the color of ivory, with a faint rosy flush.
Lowering her onto her back, he began showering her face and neck with light kisses. While his mouth searched for that sensitive spot at the base of her throat, he felt her fingers working the buttons of his shirt.
He waited breathlessly for the feel of her hands on his body. A pleasurable moan spilled from his mouth when she brushed away his clothing and began running her palms over the tensed muscles of his stomach.
Capturing both of her hands in one of his, he gently held them above her head. The position arched her back, drawing his eyes down to her erect nipples. He slowly began peeling away her silk nightgown.
J.J. responded by lifting her body to him. The rounded swell of one exposed breast brushed his arm. He stopped peeling and gave a quick and effective tug. He was rewarded by the incredible sight of her breasts spilling over a lacy undergarment. His eyes burned as he drank in the sight of the taut peaks straining against the lace. His hand rested against the flatness of her stomach before inching up over the warm flesh, his fingers closing over the rounded fullness. His thumb and forefinger released the front clasp on her bra. He ignored her futile struggle to release her hands as he dipped his head to kiss the raging pulse point at her throat. Her soft skin grew hot as he worked his mouth lower and lower. She gasped when his mouth closed around her nipple, then called his name in a hoarse voice that caused a tremor to run the full length of his body.
He lifted his head only long enough to see her passion-laden expression and to tell her she was beautiful.
He reached down until his fingers made contact with a wisp of silk and lace. The feel of the sensuous garment against her skin very nearly pushed him over the edge. With her help, he was able to whisk the panties over her hips and legs, until she was finally under him without a single barrier.
He sought her mouth again as he released his hold on her hands. He didn’t know which was more potent, the feel of her naked body against his, or the frantic way she worked to remove his clothing. His body moved to cover hers again, and his tongue thrust deeply into the warm recesses of her mouth. His hand moved downward, skimming the side of her body all the way to her thigh. Then, giving in to the urgent need pulsating through him, he positioned himself between her legs. Every muscle in his body tensed as he looked at her face before directing his attention lower to the point where they would join. And then…
Seth came.