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Chapter One Chicago, 9:30 a.m. The Colby Agency’s conference room overflowed with staff members. All were present for this morning’s meeting, except the newest investigator on staff. Well, the newest member until their recent hire of Merrilee Walters. J.T. Baxley had taken a bullet last night while serving on Victoria’s personal security detail. Victoria Colby-Camp sat at the head of the long Mahogany table, listening as Ian Michaels reviewed the tightened security measures. Last night’s attack had confirmed the worst. The risk to her granddaughter’s safety was no longer mere theory or rumor. It was real. Too real. Increasing fear pumped through Victoria’s veins with every frantic beat of her heart. Nothing she or her people had done so far had given them the answers for which they searched. Every lead turned into a dead end. Yet, someone out there continued to attempt to get to her granddaughter. Her loyal staff began filing out of the room. Victoria blinked, dragged her focus back to
Chapter One
Chapter Two J.T. groaned. He heard the sound…wanted to open his eyes, to wake up, but his throbbing brain just wouldn’t make the necessary transition. Wake up! He needed to wake up. Something was very wrong. His eyelids cracked open, but bright light slammed them shut once more. Wake up, damn it! With tremendous effort his eyelids split open again. Where was he? His booted feet rested on a stone or concrete floor. Nylon twine tethered his ankles to what looked like chair legs. Raise your head. Slowly, his head moved. Pain shattered his skull. He groaned. Damn. What the hell had happened to him? His eyes opened a little wider. Stark gray walls. He tried to reach up and touch his head. The throbbing above his right ear roared. His fingers fisted in reaction to the pain. He twisted his wrists, couldn’t move his hands. He blinked, focused his gaze on his hands…his arms. His wrists were secured to the chair’s arms with that same orange nylon twine. Okay. Think! He was manacled to a chair. I
Chapter Two
Chapter Three 10:30 p.m. Eve scanned the shoreline, then the street. No sign of trouble yet. She lowered the binoculars. It wouldn’t last. And she needed more time. Getting J.T. out of his house and into her car hadn’t been easy. He’d been out cold. But not as cold as the scumbag who’d been waiting for him to come home. She’d taken care of that situation without breaking a sweat. Dumping his body in the water once they’d gotten here had been an easy cleanup. The real work had been moving J.T. to this location before he regained consciousness. She’d been forced to take an extra step to ensure he didn’t rouse too soon. Now he was wide awake. And they were close. Whoever the hell they were. A breath hissed from her lips as she tucked the binoculars into her shoulder bag. She’d been in this business a long time. Every job she accepted came with certain risks. It wasn’t rocket science. Just work. Get in, get the goods, whatever the goods happened to be, and get out. She was very good at her
Chapter Three
Chapter Four Two weeks. Fourteen days and nights. J.T. had yearned to feel her lips against his…had ached to touch her…to hold her. He forgot all about her order. His eyes closed. His arms went around her. The move was pure instinct. He’d fallen so fast, had loved her so damned much. But that had been before. Before she’d stood him up on the most important day of their lives. His eyes opened. Fury firmed his resolve. She tensed, sensing his change. He clutched her waist. Pushed her a few inches away. “Who the hell are you?” he muttered, his voice thick with the need throttling through his body. “Did they go inside?” He blinked. Her focus was on the now…the situation. He should have known he was the only one affected by the meshing of lips. Stupid, J.T. Truly stupid. The idea that bullets had been flying around them as they’d fled that warehouse suddenly bobbed to the surface of all the questions and emotions churning in his confused brain. He cut his attention to the building’s front e
Chapter Four
Chapter Five Crystal Lake, 2:00 a.m. Eve parked beneath the canopy of trees near the rented cabin. The lack of moonlight left them in darkness, which was just as well, since she was relatively sure she wouldn’t like what she saw in J.T.’s brown eyes. He hadn’t said a word since they’d left Chicago. Almost an hour later, her nerves were completely frayed. So many times she’d wanted to kick off the conversation. Just get it over with. But she couldn’t take the risk. She’d needed him away from the city, and the danger, before she reopened communication. This far out he wasn’t likely to walk away. She’d taken his cell phone and wallet. Until she had him convinced of her theory, she needed him basically at her mercy. Shooting him wasn’t an option. She got out of the car, reached into the backseat and grabbed her bag and stalked to the cabin. The honeymoon arrangements had been her idea. Convincing J.T. to stay close to home after the wedding, owing to her work commitments, had been easy eno
Chapter Five
Chapter Six “Who wants me dead?” Eve pushed off the counter and reclaimed her seat on the sofa. “That’s the problem.” She sipped the wine. “I don’t know who. If I did, I would have taken care of the situation already.” This mystery was wrapped in numerous layers. More of that frustration etched across J.T.’s handsome face. “You have to know who hired you and the goal of the assignment.” It was never that simple. “Three months ago I was contacted through my Web site.” A frown furrowed his brow. “What Web site?” Before she could answer one question, he came up with another. “Problemsolver.com—that’s me. Clients leave their contact numbers. I do a background search first to weed out the feds and P.I.s, then call and interview each legitimate client. I determine if I’m interested in the job and go from there.” J.T. motioned for her to continue. His expression, his every move, was steeped in distrust and frustration. That shouldn’t bother her, but it did. She had allowed herself to get way
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven 6:15 a.m. J.T. awoke with a jerk. For a moment he felt disoriented. Sunlight bled through the narrowed slits of the blinds. The sights and sounds around him were unfamiliar. He blinked and reality crowded in on his chest. Eve. He was with Eve. At the cabin. Sitting upright, he glanced around the room, listening intently. Movement in the next room. Barely audible. The scent of freshly brewed coffee wafted into the room even as he struggled to gain his bearings. She was up already. His attention shifted to the telephone on the bedside table. She’d disabled the three phones in the cabin before they’d arrived. Though she’d slept on the couch, as offered, he’d sensed her presence at the bedroom door at regular intervals throughout the morning hours. Checking on him. He would have done the same if their situations were reversed. The residue of the drug she’d given him had ensured he slept, albeit fitfully. He doubted she’d slept at all. More likely to assure he didn’t go anywhe
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight Chicago, 10:00 a.m. “Please, sit down, Ian.” Victoria settled on her sofa, but her nerves were anything but. Ian had news or he wouldn’t have arrived at her home on a Sunday morning. Ian lowered his tall frame onto the sofa. His dark eyes showed the weariness of the past week. With Lucas, her greatly missed husband, still out of pocket, Ian felt personally responsible for Victoria’s and Jamie’s safety. Ian had been with her at the Colby Agency the longest. Her son, Jim, and his wife, Tasha, trusted Ian implicitly. He would want Ian in charge of his daughter’s safety. Jamie was in the den watching a movie with Merrilee Walters, the newest member of the Colby Agency staff. Jamie had taken to the young woman immediately. A former schoolteacher, Merri loved children. Jamie was fiercely intrigued by the fact that Merri was deaf. She didn’t precisely understand the lipreading concept quite yet, but she loved learning to sign. “Simon is following up on the leads related to the B
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine J.T. wrestled the car back under control. “He’s coming again!” As J.T. braced for a second assault, Eve dug into her bag for her Glock. “If they wanted us dead,” J.T. warned, “we would likely already be that way.” “You think?” Eve released her seat belt and turned to level an aim out the rear window. He’d been analyzing the recent run-in. Whoever these guys were, they hadn’t worked too hard at terminating their targets. “Those shots the other night went pretty wide. Five guys shooting and no one gets a hit? Doesn’t sound like the kind of professionals I know.” “What about the guy who ambushed you at your house?” Eve grabbed hold of the headrest to brace herself. “Here they come.” The sedan rammed their rear bumper a second time, harder this time. The car jolted forward and careened dangerously on the curvy road. J.T. wrangled back control and floored the accelerator. “He whacked me on the head,” J.T. said in answer to her question. “He didn’t shoot me. He could’ve done far
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten 8:30 p.m. J.T. parked Eve’s newly damaged car one street over from his own. They cut between two houses and approached his home from the rear. Crouched near the privacy fence, J.T. said, “I’ll have a look around just to make sure no one’s waiting for us to show up.” It wasn’t completely dark yet, so getting close to the house without being seen wasn’t going to be easy. He’d need to stay between the shrubs and the fence, keeping his head low or he’d be spotted by anyone choosing to look. She told him as much. He gave her an I’m-not-stupid look. Eve reached into her bag and pulled out her Glock. “Here.” She shoved it at him, butt first. “Take this. You might need it.” He looked from the weapon to her. “You sure about that?” Maybe this was another mistake, but she wasn’t about to send him in there unarmed. He’d already been ambushed once in his home. Besides, she felt reasonably certain he wasn’t going to take off on his own. At this point he was fairly convinced that he was b
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven 11:55 p.m. “So.” Eve leaned back in the leather chair and surveyed the list of names she’d written on the cabin’s complimentary notepad. “We have Rebecca James, Damon Howe and Terrence Arenas. Arenas is dead. That leaves Howe and James. Would you lean more toward one of those names than the other?” J.T. pushed off the sofa and started pacing. “Howe worked closest with Arenas. That puts him at the top of my list.” Eve circled the man’s name. They’d gone over J.T.’s former colleagues and prioritized a list of who might be involved in this scam. He’d also organized a list of the big payout cases for the last two years he worked at Gold Coast Life. They’d narrowed down the addresses for each at the computer café. Only two names had multiple addresses. Tracking down the beneficiaries on that list wouldn’t be difficult or terribly time-consuming. The sooner they got started, the closer they would get to finding the truth. The goal was to determine if any of those people had ha
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve Chicago, 7:15 a.m. Victoria was running late this Monday morning. She placed her coffee mug in the sink. Two cups and she still didn’t feel completely awake. Food had held no appeal whatsoever to her. After last night’s scare with Ruth, J.T.’s mother, and a long stay at the hospital, Victoria had reluctantly informed Ian that she wouldn’t arrive at the office until closer to nine. Merri Walters had arrived at seven to relieve Jane Sutton. Jamie had perked up immediately when Merri peeked into her room. The child truly adored the newest member of the agency’s staff. Victoria felt immensely comfortable with Merri on duty. Since she’d only arrived in Chicago two weeks ago, she was one of Victoria’s first choices for keeping watch over Jamie. As strange as it sounded, the logic was sound. The young woman had lived in Nashville her entire life. As a brand-new transplant to this city, Merri represented the least possible threat of having been pinpointed by the enemy. Victoria
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen 1:15 p.m. J.T. spread the small notepad pages on the table and stared at his handwritten results. There was no question. Someone high enough up the food chain at GCL had embezzled millions of dollars. Six payments over two years. The other two he’d considered had been paid in full. The six were simply the ones he’d found during this rudimentary investigation. There could be others. Many others. “If the difference in payments went into that account with your name on it,” Eve offered, “you could have a hell of a time proving your innocence.” All too true. “Victoria indicated there was around half a million in the account.” He gestured to the pages. “That could potentially be a hell of a lot more than half a million.” “There could have been additional moves. Withdrawals.” Eve shook her head. “Someone set you up but good.” “Every one of these client payouts were approved by Arenas.” That part stuck in J.T.’s gut. He had known the man well. He’d thought he’d known Eve well,
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen 5:30 p.m. “She’s not here.” Eve pointed out the obvious. J.T. gritted his teeth. He needed to focus on this investigation. Saying to her what he wanted to say at the moment would be a waste of time and energy. Not to mention the resulting blow up that would distract them from what they were here to do. “She’ll be here,” he stated firmly. “She had a meeting. It may have run longer than expected. Happens all the time.” “A meeting. Yeah.” Enough. “What’s your problem?” He shifted in the seat of his borrowed car to glare at her. “You don’t even know Rebecca. You have absolutely no reason to believe she’s involved in this any more than I am. Why the bullying?” Eve made an unpleasant sound. “Just because you’re blind doesn’t mean I am. She’s playing you like a well-tuned guitar. You just don’t see it.” Damn. He shifted his attention to the house across the street. He wasn’t doing this. Whatever Eve’s problem, she could think what she wanted. The only real evidence they had a
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen Crystal Lake, 8:30 p.m. J.T. checked the perimeter of the cabin. Clear. He sat down on the front steps and heaved a breath. What the hell was going on? Rebecca hadn’t shown. He’d tried to call her half a dozen times but had gotten her voice mail every time. O’Brien had picked them up a few blocks from Arenas’s house. Or what was left of it. After he’d briefed Victoria, she had touched base with her contact at Chicago PD. She would give J.T. a heads-up on what was going on as soon as any information was available. In the meantime he was to lay low. His mother wouldn’t be released from the hospital until tomorrow. His colleagues had her under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Victoria had assured him that he didn’t need to worry about anything, how could he not? His house had been invaded. A numbered account connected to serious embezzlement had been set up in his name. He’d been chased, shot at and nearly blown up. And his mother had been beaten within an inch of her life.
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen Chicago, 11:30 p.m. Victoria sat on the side of her granddaughter’s bed. The child slept so peacefully, without a care in the world. So trusting. She would not see that taken from her granddaughter, not the way it had been taken from her son. Victoria closed her eyes and fought back the memories. She failed miserably; the memories came in a deluge. The misery that accompanied each one making it impossible to breathe normally. Jim had been seven years old, barely a year older than Jamie was now, when evil had snatched him away. Errol Leberman. The devil himself. He’d taken Victoria’s child and tried his best to turn him into a monster. He’d kept Jim chained in a basement for years, treated him like an animal, tortured him physically and mentally. Then he’d sent the child away to serve as a slave at a mercenary training camp. Victoria had read the psychiatric reports during Jim’s treatment and recovery. It was only by the grace of God the boy had survived the horrors he h
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen Crystal Lake, 1:00 a.m. Eve sat on the end of the bed watching J.T. sleep. But she couldn’t sleep, not until this was done. Eve had told herself over and over that this ultimately would have happened, with or without her involvement. But that didn’t absolve her conscience. If she had turned down this job, perhaps J.T. would not have gotten dragged into this dangerous game of blame and kill. His superior, Victoria Colby-Camp, had called. The police wanted J.T. to come in for questioning. He planned to go at nine this morning. Next Rebecca James would make her move. She would report the fraud and point a finger at J.T. He wasn’t totally convinced of that scenario just yet, but Eve knew. She had no proof, but she knew. She’d sensed something sinister in the woman. That didn’t make her smarter or better at reading people than J.T.; it only proved her pathetic childhood had been good for something. Eve’s aunt had been like Rebecca James. She showed one side of herself to t
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen Chicago, 4:40 a.m. “You should have stayed gone.” Rebecca shook her head and made that annoying tsk sound as she paced her living room. “Then everything would have worked out exactly as planned.” “That’s why you always have a backup plan,” Eve advised. Rebecca waved the Ruger in Eve’s face. “Really? I doubt any kind of plan is going to save you now.” “Maybe you’re right.” Eve relaxed in the chair Rebecca had secured her to. She wasn’t very good at tying knots. Eve had almost worked free the ones holding her hands behind the chair. It did kind of tick her off that she’d used the nylon rope Eve had brought with her. “I guess Terrence’s backup plan didn’t save him. Or his property caretaker.” Maybe J.T. wasn’t convinced, but Eve was absolutely certain that Rebecca had killed them both. “I thought using your gun was a nice touch.” Rebecca tapped the barrel of the Ruger against her chin. “Even if it was damaged in the explosion, they can do amazing things with evidence anal
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen Colby Agency, 9:15 a.m. Victoria dropped her purse behind her desk. She was exhausted. The last several hours had been spent at the Mercy General E.R. Perhaps another cup of coffee would pep her up. Poor J.T. Victoria shook her head. The nightmare— “Victoria.” Simon’s voice boomed in the room a split second before he burst through the door. Victoria squared her shoulders, focused her weary attention on the man who was clearly disturbed. “Is there news from the hospital?” She’d only just left. Surely nothing else— Simon held up a hand for her to wait. “Ian is transferring a call to your desk.” What on earth was he talking about? Fear detonated in Victoria’s veins. “Jamie?” The name was a harsh whisper on her lips. Merri and Jane had taken Jamie to school together. Two of Victoria’s best men had accompanied them. Jane had confirmed that Jamie was in her classroom and all was well. Jane would remain inside the school for the duration of the day. Two more of Victoria’s sta
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty Mercy General Hospital, 10:00 a.m. J.T. paced the room. What was taking so long? To his relief the door opened. The nurse pushed the wheelchair into the room. Eve sat slumped in the rolling chair, a stark white bandage on her forehead. J.T.’s fears and anxiety lifted a fraction. “How’d it go?” “It went,” Eve grumbled. “She has a nasty concussion,” the nurse said as she assisted Eve into the waiting bed. “The doctor will be in soon to go over his findings.” “I’m ready to get out of here,” Eve stated. “We’ll have to see what the doctor says, Ms. Mattson,” the nurse reminded before hurrying back to her station. J.T. moved to the bedside and surveyed Eve for the hundredth time. “How’s the pain?” The doctor wouldn’t order a painkiller until they understood the severity of the head injury. “What do you think?” Eve growled. “It stinks.” J.T. had to smile. The way she was complaining, she had to be okay. When that gun had fired the second time, he’d thought he would lose his min
Chapter Twenty
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