“Roark, are you in place?”
“Affirmative. I’m in the park in front of the apartment, sir.”
“Okay, stay cool,” Jackson said, his pulse beating like a landslide against his temple. “We’ve got to make this work.”
“Yes, sir.”
He turned inside the SUV. “I’m glad you’re here.”
His brother, Micah, nodded, the tense look on his face mirroring the tension tightening inside Jackson’s stomach. The decoy agent was in place along with two others who were hiding inside the apartment. If the Martino men showed up, they could be pretty sure Sellers had tipped off the Mob, and that he’d been the leak the whole time. He was the only outside agent who’d been clued in on this particular setup—on purpose.
“Let’s hope we end this thing,” Micah replied, his dark eyes alert in the predawn light. “We just have to see if Sellers fell for the bait.”
“And hope Sellers tells us where Martino is since he seems to have disappeared off the radar once again.”
“He’s like a rat,” Micah replied. “They slink away when the light’s too bright.”
Jackson trained his eyes on Eloise’s apartment. The decoy had gone into place late last night. The leak wouldn’t know that two junior agents were also in place. That wasn’t the point, after all. The point was that if Martino’s men showed up then they’d know Sellers was their man.
And they’d question him and the thugs until they told them everything they needed to know.
“So how are things with you and Jade?” he asked Micah to fill the time and take his mind off what might go wrong.
Micah grinned. “Great. We’re planning the wedding.”
“Everybody’s talking weddings. Clay, Kristin…” Jackson shot back, an image of Eloise coming down an aisle toward him floating through his frazzled mind. “I haven’t had much of a chance to congratulate you. But I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.” Micah looked as if he wanted to say more but he didn’t. Seconds ticked by, then he asked, “How come you never married?”
“This,” Jackson replied. “Who’d want to marry a man who spends most of his time casing a suspect?”
“Good point. But…I’m giving it a shot. I love her.”
Jackson could understand that feeling but maybe he wasn’t as brave as Micah in the love department. “Don’t do as I’ve done. If you love her, go for it. I’m behind you if this is what you want.” He looked over at his little brother—now a fully grown man. “Did I tell you I’m glad you’re here?”
“About three times already,” Micah said, grinning. “I just hope this is over with soon so I can get on with my wedding.”
Jackson thought about Kristin and Zane. It seemed a lot of people were caught in limbo because of this case. He’d been in limbo since the first time Eloise had walked out of his life. Maybe this time, things would turn out differently. “Me, too.”
Micah tapped at the dashboard. “Hey, Jackson, I need to ask you something.”
Jackson slanted a look toward him. “You don’t sound so sure.”
“I’m sure,” Micah replied. “I just hope you’ll feel sure about it, too.”
“Okay, ask, then.”
“Will you be my best man?”
Jackson swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “I…uh…I’d be honored.”
“Really?”
“Of course.” He wanted to add that it all depended on how this case ended, but he was going to think positively on that for his brother’s sake. “I’ll be there.”
Micah grinned then slapped his arm. “Don’t worry. We aren’t planning anything until this mess is cleared up. And we don’t want a big wedding.”
“That’s what they all say,” Jackson replied with his own smile. “I really am happy for you, though.”
Micah acknowledged that with a nod. “What’s gonna happen with you and Eloise—I mean, if we do end this thing soon?”
“I don’t know,” Jackson said, being honest. “We’ll have to wait and see. Speaking of that, I’m gonna check in with Thea and Marcus.”
Thea answered on the second ring. “Yes, sir?”
“Just checking.”
“We’re fine. She’s still asleep and Marcus is patrolling.”
“Good. She didn’t get much rest yesterday.”
“The house is locked up tight and the alarm is set,” Thea replied. “Duff is standing guard with me.”
“Be careful,” Jackson said. “Don’t let her out of your sight. And check in with Marcus every fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
He hung up then glanced over at his brother. “What?”
“I think I know exactly what’s gonna happen between you and Eloise when this is over,” Micah said. Then he started humming the wedding march.
While Jackson remembered holding Eloise in his arms, watching her fall asleep.
“I shouldn’t have left her,” he said.
“You mean way back then?”
He didn’t want to get into “way back then.”
“No, this morning. I had no choice, though. I wanted to be in on this sting.”
“Thea’s capable, isn’t she? And Marcus might be all preppy but he can get downright nasty in a fight.”
“Very capable, both of them. But…still, I can’t help but worry.”
“Maybe you’ll be back there sooner than you think.”
Jackson nodded then heard static crackling in his ear.
Roark’s voice came through. “We got action at the apartment, Big Mac. Looks like it’s showtime.”
“He did show his roses!”
Thea turned from the laptop, her face beaming with pride. Eloise came to stand behind her, the Web shot of the lush white roses clustered in a crystal vase making her feel nauseated. “Secret Crush?”
“That’s the name of his rose, ma’am,” Thea said, pointing to the caption. “‘The Martino family of Chicago takes credit for this showstopper. Created by one of Salvatore Martino’s own rose growers, the Secret Crush represents everything a white rose stands for—purity, innocence, charm and secrecy. Sometimes called the silent rose, a white rose is usually used for weddings. The Secret Crush is considered a top hybrid and is often sent to remind people of how much they are missed.’”
She stopped, a hand going to her throat. “Maybe that was the message Martino wanted you to hear, ma’am.”
“He wanted to silence me, that’s for sure.” Eloise leaned against the balcony banister. “He misses the fact that his father didn’t kill me long ago. The old man’s dead now. Why can’t Vincent let it go?”
“It’s a matter of honor—a sick logic, but Vincent wants to avenge his father,” Thea said, turning back to the computer. “But the roses might be his downfall. If we can prove the roses we found in your yard are Secret Crush roses, then that places him or someone within his organization at your apartment. ’Cause I don’t think a delivery person would bring them in the middle of the night and just drop them over the fence like that.” She hit a button. “I’ll print this out for Jackson to see and in the meantime, I’m going to do a search for rose farms where these might be grown. The Martino family must use the farms as a legitimate business cover, but who knows what else they grow on their farms.”
“You don’t think—”
Thea turned to look up at her. “When it comes to the Mafia, you can’t be too careful or too sure, ma’am. They have ways of hiding things that make it very difficult to pin anything on them.”
Eloise stared at the picture on the screen. “I’ll never look at roses in quite the same way.”
“You’d be wise to remember that,” Thea replied. Then she looked embarrassed and started shuffling papers. “I mean, there are lots of other flowers around to make you forget roses.”
Eloise felt sorry for the other woman. She wanted to keep her subject calm and quiet but Thea also wanted to bond with Eloise in a feminine way. Being a woman FBI agent couldn’t be easy. And neither was being the heavily guarded subject. They were in this together now, though. And apparently neither of them ever slept very much.
Eloise glanced around toward the windows. It was shaping up to be a beautiful summer day and she longed to take Duff for an early-morning walk, but she’d been warned by Jackson to stay inside until he got back.
“I hope we hear from them soon,” she said as she paced toward the upstairs dormer window in the corner of the loft. “Shouldn’t we have heard something by now?”
Thea turned in her chair. “I’m used to waiting out things like this, but I guess you’re not, huh?”
“No, and it’s driving me a little nuts.”
“He knows how to stay safe, Ms. Smith.”
“Does he?” she asked, whirling. “How has he done it all these years?”
Thea gave her a direct look. “Well, for one thing, he stays in shape and he stays current. He knows the latest technology and he stays in training. Many mornings, I’ll get to work early to go for a jog around Lake Michigan but I’ll always find him coming back from his jog. Same at the gun range. He’s there all the time. He’s always one step ahead of everybody else.”
“Except Martino.”
“Well, he’s working on that one, too.” Thea stopped, looking unsure. “You know about the Veiled Lady, right?”
“He told me about her, yes. Do you have any idea who she is?”
“No, but I think Jackson does. He won’t say, though. He’s honoring her request to only speak to him. She calls him sometimes and she meets with him in very secret locations. If it hadn’t been for this informant, a lot more women might be dead.”
“But…someone is also tipping off the Mob? Could it be her?”
“We’ve checked on that and investigated it. We can’t identify this woman but we can’t pin her to any leaks with the Mob, either. She’d be crazy to even attempt double-crossing Jackson or the Mob.”
“Somebody is, though,” Eloise said, her anxiety increasing by the minute. “What if Jackson and the other agents are the ones being set up this morning?”
Thea got up. “Ma’am, you’re just creating worry where there shouldn’t be any. All we can do right now is sit tight and wait this out. I’m sorry I can’t offer you more hope.”
Eloise nodded. “I’m going to the kitchen.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got some more work to do here.”
“That’s fine. You keep working. I’ll make breakfast and maybe bake some cookies.”
Thea gave her an indulgent smile. “I’m going to gain five pounds before this is over.”
“I hope so,” Eloise said in parting. “That way I’ll know you’re okay and being taken care of.”
“Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to be taking care of you,” Thea replied.
But Eloise couldn’t deal with that. She wasn’t used to being taken care of. She’d been on her own so long, she didn’t know anything else but loneliness and silence. She’d turned to God in her darkest hours and now, she turned to Him again. Her prayers brought her comfort but her mind whirled with worry about everything that could go wrong.
I can’t love him, she thought, her mind on Jackson. It’s too hard to love a man who stays in constant danger. I can’t love him.
But she did. And…she might have to add that to her prayer list. She might need to ask God to help her get over loving Jackson. If he could reunite her with her daughter, she could live with that. So she asked God to help make that happen. She couldn’t ask for anything more.
“Who is that?”
Jackson squinted in the morning light as a lone figure emerged out of the shadows near Eloise’s apartment.
Micah leaned forward. “I don’t recognize him.”
“Roark?”
“Here, boss.”
“Who’s our early-morning visitor?”
Roark grunted. “It’s Parker, sir. What’s he doing here?”
Jackson hit the steering wheel. “I don’t know but he’s gonna blow everything if we don’t get him out of here.”
“Do you think someone tipped him off that Ms. Smith is back?” Roark countered.
“Who? How?” Jackson’s frustration echoed over the two-way. “I can’t believe this.”
“He’s probably been watching the place,” Roark replied. “He might be onto us, too.”
“Along with about half this town and the Mafia, obviously.” Jackson quickly filled in Micah. “We’ve got double trouble if the Mob shows up. They won’t like a witness hanging around. We could have another murder on our hands.”
Giving instructions to the team and the decoy, Jackson waited and watched. Parker was definitely snooping. He kept glancing around, checking the scene. Was the man going to break in to talk to the woman he thought was Eloise?
Roark cut through the line. “If the Martino clan shows up now, they’ll bolt. Or kill Parker in the process of trying to get to our decoy.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Jackson retorted. “Move in and wait.” He warned the decoy and the other agents inside the town house to be on the alert.
“This man has caused me nothing but trouble,” he told Micah. “We think he’s after Eloise, but we can’t do anything about it. We’re already pushing the envelope doing our little investigation of him on the side.”
Micah watched the complex. “Should we move in and grab him out of the way?”
“Not yet,” Jackson said, training his eyes on Parker. “He might go away on his own.”
He’d just finished that sentence when the action across the way picked up. Too late, Parker turned from the door just as a car sped up the tiny driveway. Two men got out and rushed toward Parker. He was trapped.
“Just perfect,” Jackson hissed. “Stand down!” He drew his gun, watching for a few minutes. But Parker was getting more belligerent by the minute. And so were the two thugs. Parker barked questions while the thugs shouted back nonanswers. “We’re moving in but hold your fire.”
Carefully, he and Micah opened the SUV doors and slipped out to hide behind a clump of shrubbery. “He’ll scare them off if he tells them who he is.” And it would be just like the blustery Parker to announce his rank.
Jackson watched as Parker argued with the men. One man pushed at the detective and then things turned ugly. Parker drew a gun and aimed it at the taller of the two, shouting all the while that he wanted details about Ellie Smith. But the other henchman was just as fast and probably just as mean. He drew his own gun and held it on Parker.
“It’s over,” Jackson hissed, recognizing the man as Ernest Valenti. “We can’t get caught in the middle of this, but we need to keep those two soldiers alive for questioning.” He quickly filled in the team. “That’s one of Vincent Martino’s right-hand men—Ernest Valenti.”
Roark spoke into the line. “You won’t believe this, sir. They’re comparing notes on Eloise Smith. And none of them are giving anything up. This can’t be good.”
Just what he’d feared the most, Jackson thought. Parker and the Mafia putting two and two together. And both of them wanted Eloise dead.
“What do you want us to do?” Marcus asked. “We’ve got the agents inside the house ready to move.”
“Tell them to stay inside.” Jackson watched as Parker held his gun high and tried to get past one of the men. And then he heard a gunshot.
After that, everything turned even nastier and Jackson had to think quickly. If Detective Randall Parker was found dead on Eloise’s doorstep after mouthing off about her all over the airwaves, she’d become a prime suspect in both his murder and his wife’s and every kind of law enforcement would be looking for her. Jackson couldn’t let that happen.
“We’re going in,” he said. “We have to stop them before they kill Parker.” Then he turned to Micah. “At least we know who our leak is now.”
“Sellers,” Micah said as they headed toward the ruckus across the way.