The news that Jamison had met with a bomb maker who'd once worked for the Azevedo family had sent a ripple of excitement through the Department. It was the first solid break they'd had in the case, although they still needed more evidence to make a full report to the CIA.
Neil had quickly gleaned the information Alex needed from his many internet sources and in a matter of hours, Alex was knocking on the door of a conventional-looking, modest transitional style house. White with black shutters, it had a small front porch with an old porch swing hanging at one end, closed blinds covering the windows, and even a few straggly tulips growing on either side of the sidewalk.
While he waited for someone to answer the door, Alex mentally reviewed what he knew so far and how he might want to use it when he talked to Freddy.
The man they had in jail had planted the bomb on the night of the party, but hadn't built it. Newton, as he was called, was a jack-of-all-trades mercenary, who picked up random assignments based on his whims and the level of money offered. He didn't have the skill to construct the specialized explosive that had been used—a design rarely seen that completely destroyed itself, eliminating all evidence.
But after interviewing different people Newton had interacted with that night, the Department had at least pieced together his simple plan: bribe a chauffeur to suddenly get sick, step in as a substitute, then wire up the bomb while everyone was busy partying.
The guy had refused to tell them who made the device and seemed content to cool his heels in jail until his temporary employers noticed and made bail. Without the name of the builder, the Department's trail seemed to run cold, until Tanesa's bit of gossip heated it up again.
It was a long shot, but Alex hoped Freddy could shed some light on why Jamison wanted to hurt Piper.
He knocked again, then rang the doorbell. The sound of a door slamming inside sent a bolt of adrenaline shooting through his blood.
Muttering a curse, Alex took off for the back of the house.
An average height, skinny bald guy wearing nothing but an undershirt and a pair of pajama pants high-tailed it across the postage-stamp sized backyard. Alex sped up and his longer stride quickly ate up the distance between them.
The guy darted around a bench and scuttled into the alleyway behind the house. Alex narrowed the gap, made a quick calculation and launched himself at the smaller man.
Grabbing him around the waist, his weight and momentum carried them down to the pavement. They landed hard.
Freddy let out a muffled wheeze as he hit, sounding like the last note from a dying bagpipe. Alex pushed up into a straddle and turned the guy over. His thick, black glasses hung across his narrow face at an angle from a broken hinge. There was a small cut on his nose and his chin was scraped.
He looked like he was about to piss in his pants.
"Smoking's not good for you, Freddy," Alex said as he hauled him to his feet. "Slows you down."
"I ain't talked," the other man sputtered. "I won't never talk."
Alex twisted the guy's arm behind his back and marched him back to the house. "I'm sorry to hear that."
Freddy tried to swivel around to get a look at him, but a little pressure upward on his arm discouraged him. All the fight drained out of the older man in a rush, and he didn't give Alex any more trouble as he led him to the back stoop of the house and forced him to sit on the top step.
Freddy squinted up at him, the sad resignation pinching his narrow features adding years to his face. "Who are you?" he stuttered.
"Someone who might be able to help you."
"Nobody can help me," Freddy said, a sincere desperation tinting his voice. He took his glasses off and fiddled with the broken ear piece.
"I have a few connections. Depends on what you can do for me."
"I can't tell you anything. They'll hurt my daughter."
A plump, middle-aged woman with a head full of curlers came out of the house next door to put a bag in her garbage can. She gave them a curious look.
Alex smiled at her and sat down next to Freddy. Bracing his arms on his knees, he clasped his hands together and relaxed his body language. Just two friends having a nice conversation on a peaceful afternoon. Nothing to see.
"I can make a phone call. Witness protection for you, your daughter...and the child she's carrying."
Shock spread over his face.
"You spoke to a man at the Bulls' Shield about a week ago. What did he want?"
Freddy shook his head. "I can't tell you."
"Can you give me a hint?"
The other man tossed him a suspicious look. "What kind of cop are you?"
"Didn't say I was a cop. Did this guy hire you?"
"Maybe."
"Does he work for someone else?"
"You're not part of the organization, are you?" Freddy said, a note of belligerence entering his voice. He was losing some of his fear, getting confident. That was bad.
Alex gave him a hard look and he paled a little. "Depends on what organization you're talking about."
The statement hung between them and Alex could see the wheels turning in the little man's head. Freddy's eyes widened and he held up his hands, palms out. "Look, I don't want no trouble with the Feds."
"Then start talking."
"They'll kill me. And my grandkid."
Alex looked at him a moment longer and then moved his focus to the yard. "You're a family man, right Freddy?"
"Maybe," he said cautiously.
"You like to play games?"
"Um.... Yeah, sure. Cards mostly."
"Good. That's good. We're going to play an imagination game. Practice for when you're a grandpa." He glanced at the other man. Sweat beaded across Freddy's forehead.
Alex stared across the close cropped grass while he gathered his thoughts. "If you were a master of explosives, and I'm not saying you are," he added when Freddy sucked in an alarmed breath. "But if you were and a rich guy met with you secretly in a dive bar, what would you guess you might talk about?"
"Depends. Is this rich guy...worried about what some tough...associates might be up to?"
"If you like. Sure."
Freddy cleared his throat. "Then the guy would be asking why a certain powerful group of people hired...the, uh, expert and...threatened the rich guy to...um...move their interests along a little quicker. Like maybe they're gettin' restless for results and thinkin' the guy might be screwin' them. The rich guy was maybe pissed about that."
Sounded like the bomb was meant for Jamison's Porsche, but Newton wired up the wrong car. "What do you imagine the expert saying to that?"
"He'd tell him he didn't know nothin'," Freddy said with conviction. "Just like he'd tell the imaginary Spook."
"That's a harsh term for people who are trying to keep you and your family free and safe, Freddy." Alex studied his nails while the older man thought about that for a moment.
This guy was too good to leave evidence in his house, otherwise Alex would just get a warrant. He had to get Freddy to talk.
Based on the pregnant kid in college, the decent neighborhood he'd picked to disappear to, and the fairly neat way he kept the property, there was one thing Alex was sure of. Freddy Santos was burned out. He was beyond tired of looking over his shoulder waiting for the next shark attack. He wanted to live what was left of his life in peace and quiet.
His only hope was that Freddy would be willing to give him something on Jamison if he thought it would get the heat off of him.
"Our imaginary bomb maker is smart," Alex stated in a casual tone. "He knows he can't say anything. Not if he wants to live. So I'm wondering. What might a guy like that be thinking?"
Freddy let out a long, tired sigh, then turned toward him. A hard glint cut through the fear in his eyes and he held Alex's gaze without wavering. "He'd be thinking that the rich guy was an arrogant piece of crap who thinks screwing dragons don't get you sliced to ribbons. The expert might be wondering what someone had on the rich guy, or what they wanted from him. Then he'd make damn sure he kept far away from whatever it was."
He turned and stared at an old white Volvo parked in the alley. Alex knew he wouldn't get anything more out of him. The guy was already making plans for how he would get to his daughter and disappear.
Freddy flinched when Alex got up and reached behind his back to get out his wallet, but the sight of the hundred dollar bill fluttering into his lap calmed him.
"I'd like to say I'll be seeing you," Alex said without smiling, "but I have a feeling that's not in the game."
Freddy crumpled the money in his fist and pushed to his feet. "The imaginary government guy might want to pay Newton a visit soon," he said as he opened the door to the house. "I heard his health ain't so good. On account of professional reasons."
A hum of panic settled into Alex's stomach. Before the last deadbolt slid home, he had his phone out and was heading for the car he'd parked down the street.
"Get someone to the precinct where they've got Newton," he said when Neil picked up. "He's about to be neutralized. He blew the wrong car."
* * *
Months of planning and now this—complete and utter disaster.
Piper stared in stunned horror at the scene surrounding the pool. Flower basket centerpieces that had looked chic and feminine an hour ago floated in the water or lay shredded and forlorn among rumpled table clothes and trampled food. A few of the colorful blooms clung tenaciously to Nipper's black fur as she tussled with Gooch for the rights to the prime rib.
The poor caterers hadn't stood a chance against the enthusiastic invasion. Half of them ran screaming for the veranda, the other half for the garden. To give credit where credit was due, the chef had put up a good fight for his prime rib. But in the end, even he'd been defeated when he slipped on the marinated pears and landed in the pool.
Worst of all, the cause of the catastrophe looked more offended than guilty.
"I told you to keep them locked in the garage," Piper said tightly to Lina.
The housekeeper sniffed. "The black one was jumping on the hood of Miss Danni's Audi. Dogs have claws you know."
What is it about this family and cars? Piper wondered. Her frustration mounted. "Did she damage the paint?"
"Dogs have claws."
"But how did they get out?"
Lina's voice dripped with offended pride. "There's a reason Mrs. Roseland don't allow pets in the house."
Despair wrestled with the frustration burning in her stomach. What was she going to do? There was icing on the palm trees by the waterfall, for Pete's sake.
She braced her fists on her hips. "The guests arrive in less than two hours. How are we going to fix this?"
"I'm sure I couldn't say," Lina said.
Anger heated through her chest. Lina's loyalty to Mother was legendary. Normally not a problem, in fact it was admirable, but this time she'd gone too far.
"If you were really interested in helping, you wouldn't hesitate to say," she snapped. "But you know Mother never wanted the party here, so you let the dogs out to make sure it was ruined. Isn't that right?"
Lina lifted her nose in the air. "They headed for the pool on their own. I had nothing to do with it."
"Waiting until the food was on the tables and then opening the veranda doors didn't help things along at all, did they?"
If possible, her nose lifted higher. "I'll let Mrs. Roseland know that plans have changed."
"You do that."
As Lina huffed off, Piper tried to calm her frustration so she could think the situation through. She better call Tanesa. Between the two of them, maybe they could come up with a good alternative. Even pizza was better than nothing.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and pressed the icon for the spa. When the answering machine picked up, she winced and disconnected.
Things were getting worse by the minute. The Ladies must already be on their way. They would be so disappointed when they saw what had happened.
Piper contemplated texting Alex and asking for reinforcements. She hesitated, her thumb hovering over the screen. While it wasn't strictly in his job description, he was remarkable resourceful. On the other hand, she didn't want to get in the habit of relying on him. The depressing truth was, that soon Alex planned to leave.
Her phone rang in her hand and she jumped.
"Miss Piper," a young woman said when she answered. "Something's happened." Her words caught as if she were trying not to cry.
"Ginger?" Ginger was one of the spa's latest success stories. "Where are you?"
"It was horrible. The spa—" She started sobbing.
Alarm clutched Piper's throat. "What's going on?"
"We're...at the hospital. The girls...Miss Piper, Tanesa's hurt bad."
* * *
Alex was almost to the precinct when Neil called him back.
"Don't bother coming down. We were too late," he said, resentment thick in his voice. "We expect the autopsy to show a heart attack."
Alex ground out a curse.
"Don't see too many of those in fit twenty-three year olds."
"There goes our last connection between the attempted hit, Jamison, and the cartel."
"Yeah, about that," Neil said. Alex heard the rustle of papers in the background. "You're never going to believe what we turned up."
* * *
Piper choked back tears at the sight of Tanesa lying in the hospital bed. Her friend's face was a mass of bruises and cuts, one eye swollen shut, the other not much better, and the bridge of her nose had been taped. Bruises covered the arm lying on top of the blanket. The other one lay on two stacked pillows and was covered in a cast.
"Oh, Tanesa," she breathed. She crept into the room and eased down in the chair beside the bed, careful not to disturb the IV. "I'm so sorry."
Tanesa's right eye cracked open and she slowly focused on Piper. Sorrow clouded her gaze. "Not...meant...to be," she whispered, giving a shadow of a smile.
Piper reached out to take her hand, but stopped herself. There wasn't a place on the other woman that didn't look bruised and swollen. Her neck, her collar bone, her chest....
She laid her hand next to her friend's, outrage fisting under her ribs into a hard knot. "Who did this?"
Tanesa shook her head, a movement so small Piper barely noticed it.
A horrible thought struck her. "Wesley's still in jail, isn't he?"
"They released him today," Ginger said behind her. "Someone paid his bail."
Piper turned around to face the petite brunette, a million questions on the tip of her tongue. She stopped and stared in shock. The young woman had a black eye and her bottom lip had swelled around a nasty-looking cut.
"He had three other men with him. They had metal bats." Tears welled in Ginger's eyes. "It happened so fast. They smashed the windows and tore into the house. Wesley dragged Tanesa to the...yoga room. The other three men broke everything they could."
"Gin...ger...fought," Tanesa said a glitter of fierce pride in her eye.
"So did you," the younger woman said, anger and fear edging her voice. "The bastards had no right!"
When a flicker of pain crossed Tanesa's face, Ginger closed her mouth and pulled in a ragged breath. "We all fought. All the Ladies who were there. They destroyed the spa anyway."
The savage rage burned up into Piper's throat as she struggled to take in what had happened. "How many were hurt?"
"The six graduates and two others." Ginger's gaze went to Tanesa. "The other women are getting released. They're going to be all right."
Tanesa closed her eye. "Good," she sighed.
"The paper said Wesley's bail was set at one-hundred thousand dollars. Who paid it?" Piper asked.
"I don't know," the other woman said. "But I heard Wesley say that somebody wanted the place closed down."
Piper blinked, struggling to compose herself. She didn't know anyone who hated her enough to do something like this. "Did he say who? Did you catch a name?"
Ginger shook her head.
Tanesa's fingertips brushed against Piper's. She bent close to her friend, her heart pounding at the anger and sorrow piercing the other woman's gaze.
"Wesley said..." she took a breath, "...Jensen."
* * *
Piper couldn't believe it. Alex would never have released Wesley. For one thing, where would he get the money? He couldn't even afford to repair his house properly, what would inspire him to pay bail for a man who any idiot could have predicted would go straight to his ex-wife for revenge?
Settling back against the less than pristine upholstery of the taxi, she faced the terrible thought that plagued her. Had Alex betrayed them, even Uncle Theo? Had he been sabotaging her all along?
It was true that her life had been in chaos from the moment she met him. Was there a connection? Was Carl right about Alex? Was he not only very different from what he pretended to be, but a man whose ultimate ambition was to hurt her family?
She stared out the window as the lights of the city turned into jewels against a deepening twilight. She had no way to know. He'd shared some of himself when they were alone on the trail that made her think such evil things couldn't be true. But if he'd lied to her all along, then even those stories couldn't be believed.
Alex could have fooled them all.
A dull pain throbbed against her forehead. The worry that she might care for someone so awful, someone who could hide his real nature so thoroughly, sent a tremor of fear sliding down her back.
Common sense had told her that she didn't really know him, but she'd brushed it aside. She'd been too intent on how he made her feel. She hadn't wanted to think that the man she thought he was might not be real.
Now the worst had happened. People she cared about had been hurt.
Piper rubbed her temple, the bitterness of shame choking her. What else had she missed because of her selfishness?
She thought back through every strange incident that had happened over the last few days. Could she account for Alex's whereabouts for all of them?
He'd been with her the night before the bomb went off, so he couldn't have done that. And her car wasn't there before. He hadn't been at the house when his dogs ruined the graduation party, but she had no idea where he was when the spa was attacked.
Her mind churned over what Tanesa had overheard. Alex didn't have to do the crimes to be responsible for them, she realized. How easy it would be to hire someone like Wesley to create a problem so that Alex could step in and get close to her. Or to hire someone to destroy her car. Or attack her friends.
He could have done all of those things and fooled Uncle Theo, too. But why? It just didn't make any sense to her.
She'd always known he kept things from her. What man didn't? Even when he'd opened up and she'd realized that he wasn't just keeping secrets about past lovers, but he was someone who kept secrets for other people like his brother and Uncle Theo.
But now she couldn't help thinking that Alex kept things from everyone. Not for the greater good like she'd thought, but for his own agenda. She just couldn't see clearly what that agenda was.
When she climbed out of the taxi a half hour later, Piper still didn't have the answer. The whole ride she'd gone over in her mind every word Alex had said, every thing he'd ever done. All she was closer to for her trouble was a migraine and the realization that she'd been an idiot to trust him.
She started toward the door of the mansion, only pausing long enough to fish her house keys from the cavernous bottom of her Hermes hobo bag. The bushes of the decorative grouping next to her rustled and she jumped, nearly dropping her purse.
A small animal that she hoped very much wasn't a rat scurried away into the deepening shadows of the evening. She was getting paranoid, she thought, shrugging her shoulders against the itch trailing across them.
She breathed a sigh of relief as her fist closed around the cool metal of her keys. She'd be glad to get inside the house. There was something about the encroaching night that felt ominous.
Just as she stepped toward the door, a strong hand grabbed her arm. Before she could scream, a rough palm covered her mouth. She struggled as her assailant pulled her behind one of the palm trees with a sharp tug of strength.
"It's me," a soft voice said in her ear.
The scent of woods and soap surrounded her and a burst of relief and then anger sped through her blood. She yanked his hand off of her mouth and spun around, furious with him for frightening her.
In the shadow cast by the floodlights at the corner of the garage, his dark eyes looked haunted. Worry etched tight lines around his mouth. Something was wrong.
She paused, the list of sharp accusations on the tip of her tongue melting into uneasiness. Piper immediately got a grip on herself. She couldn't believe she was so stupid. The concern in his eyes could easily be another act.
"I have to get you to safety." He reached for her, but she dodged away from him.
"No thanks," she hissed.
"You can't stay here. We have to go," Alex ground out as he took a step towards her.
"Why?" she said, not bothering to hide her anger.
Deep regret drifted across his face and he dropped his hands to his sides. "You'll have to trust me. It isn't safe for you to be here."
"I don't have any reason to trust you, Alex," she bit out, "Not anymore. But I have a lot of reasons not to. And don't you dare say that you love me," she added when he started to speak. "Pretending to be engaged was annoying enough. Don't insult me by pretending to be in love with me."
"There are reasons I can't tell you everything. But I wasn't lying when I said how I feel about you."
Piper's breath caught and for an agonizing moment a ridiculous hope surged into her heart. Then the image of Tanesa's beaten body and face exploded in her mind and she crashed back to reality.
Hot tears of embarrassment and pain welled up in her eyes. How could she keep being such an idiot? "You admit you've lied to me then. Lied to all of us."
"There are reasons. Reasons I can't share."
"Who are you really?"
His mouth pressed into a hard line. "It's complicated."
"I can't believe I fell for such a pig," she snarled, pushing away the grief squeezing her heart. "I should have listened to my intuition and run the minute I set eyes on that horrible ranch of yours. Eventually the police would have caught Wesley. My life would have stayed normal. I'd still have my car, and my friends wouldn't have gotten hurt. I wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"There's more at stake than just your car and your pride, Piper," he said, impatience hardening his voice.
"Did you know they brought bats with them, Alex? Do you know what they did to those women?"
He frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"No," she snapped. "No more lies!"
The door opened behind her, splashing a bar of light across the small rectangle of grass behind her. "Here she is, my dear," Carl called behind him as he stepped out into the entryway. "Is everything all right? Your mother and I thought we heard shouting."
Panic shadowed across his face. "Please, Piper. You have to come with me."
"Leave me alone, Alex," she bit out as she turned away. "I'll have your things and the money you're owed mailed to you. After that I never want to hear from you again."