Cold Snap, page 30
He forced them out of his mind.
He took another turn, and the tires rumbled over the increasingly rough terrain. He jerked the wheel to one side and deliberately stalled the engine.
“Shit. I think we’ve gotten a flat.”
“Don’t curse in front of the boys.”
It set his teeth on edge that this woman who had enticed him into her life, seduced him into her debauchery, with the sole aim of destroying him, admonished him for something as mundane as profanity.
“They’re asleep.” He shoved open the door, angrily, and lifted the trunk. His fingers curled around the suppressed pistol he’d stowed there. Stuffed it in the back of his jeans.
She got out of the car to join him, still carrying her purse. “I don’t want them hearing foul language.”
“Maybe I don’t give a shit what you want anymore.”
Her head came up like a raptor scenting prey—or a mongoose scenting danger.
“Your KGB buddies shook me down a couple of months ago.”
Her mouth opened, and her brow furrowed prettily. “I don’t have any ‘KGB buddies.’ Is something going on at work? Are you in trouble?”
“You don’t have to pretend anymore, Lisa. I know.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“For God’s sake, give it up. Give it up.”
“Give what up? Are you sick?”
They were speaking in hushed whispers.
She didn’t want to wake the kids.
He didn’t want to draw attention.
He stuck his neck out. “I know. I’ve been following you and that sick bastard Sergei since the spring. I know. I know everything. I knew at the last party. Did you really think I was that drunk?”
He saw her swallow. The taillights outlined her perfect features.
“I’m ashamed to say how much I enjoyed that threesome. Bet I fucked you both up pretty good for a while.”
Her jaw firmed.
“But not half as much as you fucked me up, huh.”
Her eyes darted to the children, but they were out of it. He’d drugged their orange juice.
“What I don’t understand is why you chose me.” His fingers curled around the weapon’s grip as he drew it out but he kept it hidden behind his back. He might be many things, but he wasn’t a traitor. “Of everyone in the FBI, why choose me?”
Her eyes flashed then, the first real honesty he’d seen.
“Because you were arrogant. So arrogant you never believed you could be fooled. And when you found out the truth, you’d have too much pride to admit you’d made a mistake. You’d lie and cheat in order to keep face with your colleagues. And that’s exactly what you’ve been doing, isn’t it?”
It was humbling that they’d pegged him so accurately, although not quite accurately enough.
“What’s the plan now? The Iron Curtain is crumbling. It’s a relic of another age. The Cold War is over.”
“The Cold War will never be over.” Her eyes gleamed as she dipped her hand into her purse and pulled out a revolver. Cocked the gun.
He felt his lips form a cold smile as she pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. He stepped forward and removed the pistol from her delicate fingers.
It was good to know she’d have killed him without blinking.
Made everything to come that much easier.
“I forgot to mention I also listened in on your meetings with good old Sergei. Heard all the action. You guys could have made a fortune in porn films. Heard you say how much you wished I was dead so you didn’t have to—what was the term you used, Mrs. Pottymouth? Oh, yes, ‘screw that disgusting piece of shit every night.’”
He tossed the revolver into the trunk. He’d removed the bullets before they’d started driving. She’d gotten sloppy.
“I’m going to give you one chance to get out. Run, Lisa. Run with the boys. You and good old Sergei. Escape. Live a good life, and raise your family. I’m sure with both of your skills, you know how to disappear.”
Her laugh was ugly. “You think we were forced to play our parts for Mother Russia?”
“I know how the Kremlin presents its choices. I know firsthand, thanks to you.”
For a moment her expression was stricken.
Could she not see he was giving her a chance? To save herself. “You love him. I know you love him. You have two children by the man.”
She closed her eyes and raised her face to the night sky. “He would never agree. He’d never betray his country. The way you betrayed yours.” Her tone turned derisive.
Hate began to boil along his veins. “The information I gave them was useless.”
“But you gave it to them, didn’t you?” Her smile was sharp. “You gave it to them, and they will have recorded every step. You want to know the other reasons we chose you? And, yes, I had a say in the decision, as I was the one who’d have to screw you regularly.”
Rage pressed along the inside of his brain. That she despised him so much when she’d been the one to make him fall.
She clutched her bag to her like a shield, but it wouldn’t work. She expected the transponder inside to lead her rescuer to her, but Eli had placed the bug on an eighteen-wheeler at the first gas station they stopped at. They were out of range of any kind of listening or tracking device here anyway. She was completely on her own, but also completely free, possibly for the first time in her life, to speak her mind.
“Because you’re weak and vain and pathetic. What are you going to do, Eli?” The way she spoke his name was full of loathing. “Run? They’ll find you. You can’t kill me without killing the boys and you wouldn’t have the balls—”
She jolted with the quiet hiss of four bullets fired into the back seats.
“They didn’t feel anything. I put sleeping pills into their juice earlier.”
Her face contorted with grief and rage as she threw herself at him. He shot her in the chest, and she dropped to the ground.
He squatted beside her.
“You killed my babies.” The heartbreak was there in her eyes, finally. The destruction.
“How does it feel to know it was all for nothing? All the theatrics with me. All the sex parties, fucking people for the good old USSR, which is about to collapse—any idiot can see it’s all about to come tumbling down. Doing them because that’s what Sergei ordered.”
“Not Sergei.”
“Who then?”
Tears ran down the side of her face. “You think if you find out and bring them down, they’ll let you back in the FBI fold?” She laughed as she clutched at the wound, blood spilling out. “You really are a fool.”
“Maybe if I hadn’t shot your spawn, I could have made it work. But you had to push me one last time, didn’t you?”
“You are a monster.” Tears filled her eyes… Rage. Despair.
It was the despair he was waiting for. The knowledge he’d broken and destroyed her the way she’d broken and planned to destroy him.
But he had other ideas.
He stood and aimed down at her head. Time to end this wretched chapter of his life.
51
Present day
Grady went to pick up Murphy from Kalpa, who was working out of her home until she could find a more suitable temporary clinic. A pack of dogs started barking as he walked in the front door. All shapes and sizes. A couple of cats were also in the mix, and he noticed the devil parakeet in a large cage in the corner of the living room.
It was chaos.
Murphy lay on top of another woman on the couch but jumped down when Grady walked in. He shook his newly shorn butt and licked Grady’s hand.
Emotion punched him in the throat with the realization that this dog and so many others would have died last night if not for Brynn and him.
Fuck.
“What happened to your face?” Kalpa asked with a frown.
He must look worse than he realized. He glanced at his reflection in a mirror near the door. Winced. “According to Sheriff York, I resisted arrest.”
The vet locked her jaw and shook her head. “This is my partner, Muriel.”
Kalpa eyed him warily like he might have a negative opinion on her living arrangements or sexuality. Like it was his business.
He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Muriel. Thanks for looking after this guy while I was under arrest for multiple homicides.” He scratched Murphy’s head.
“Sheriff York is a moron,” Kalpa muttered. “At least the insurance company sent out their own investigator for the fire. The chances of the sheriff catching a killer seem remote at best, which leaves us all scared spitless.”
“I can see why he might question me. After yesterday.” Grady shrugged. “The cops will find the killer.” He didn’t say which cops.
Muriel stood and brushed off her T-shirt. “Well, that dog is adorable. If you decide not to keep him—”
“I’m keeping him,” he said firmly.
“You better,” Kalpa whispered as Muriel headed into the kitchen with the pack following her. “We are not getting another dog. We already have three. And a cat.” She indicated vaguely at the retreating animals.
“You contact all the owners yet?”
“Just about.” Her expression fell. “Not sure if I’ll be able to weather the financial hit, frankly.” Strain made her features tighten. “I’m probably going to need a bridging loan and I’m not sure how the new bank manager will view the recently arrived brown, lesbian, veterinarian in town.”
As someone who knew exactly how judgmental people in town could be even when you were a cishet, white male, he sympathized. “Let me call her. Put in a good word,” Grady suggested.
“You’d do that for me?”
“Of course.” He frowned. “I’m not sure it’ll do you much good, but I’ll mention your situation to Edith and hope it makes a difference.”
Kalpa’s dark eyes sparkled. “Thank you.” Her lips curved and eyebrows bobbed. “You walked into my life less than twenty-four hours ago and nothing has been the same since. If we weren’t both already in love with other people…”
He jolted.
She covered her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. Frowned. “What makes you think I’m in love with Brynn?”
“Could it be the way you can’t take your eyes off her when she’s nearby? The way you pay attention to her needs before your own. Or the way her happiness is more important than anyone else’s?”
He grunted.
Kalpa laughed. “Hey, if it helps, from what I could see yesterday, she feels the same about you.”
Was that even possible?
“She’s been hurt in the past.”
Kalpa’s eyes held a depth of wisdom. “Everyone’s been hurt at some point, Grady. Even Caleb Quayle started life as an innocent who was at some point taught to be a loud, bullying, cruel, and obnoxious young man. God rest his soul.”
“My early role models weren’t so different from his.”
“Then maybe you’re the example of nature over nurture. I don’t know.” Her lips curved into a sweet half smile. “I just know when I found my second chance at love, I didn’t waste it, even though it came from a direction I never expected.”
Muriel walked back into the room and handed him a bag of dog food. “To keep you going through this blizzard they’re forecasting.”
Kalpa rolled her eyes. “It’ll probably be three inches that all melts by tomorrow morning after the fuss they’ve made.”
Grady laughed as he hefted the bag with the same arm that held the leash Muriel had handed him. “Whatever the weather I’d prepare to batten down the hatches for the next twenty-four hours. Keep the doors locked.”
Brynn was so tired she thought she was hallucinating when Jackie walked in the back door and pulled on an apron.
Brynn squinted but the girl was still there.
“Hey, I thought your mother said you couldn’t come in.”
Jackie sniffed. Her eyes were reddened, and so was her nose. “I slept some and feel a lot better.”
Angus walked over to stand beside her. Linda came around the corner with a narrow-eyed expression on her thin, foxy face.
“Then I got to thinking how you and that Grady guy were up all night helping with the animals and everyone is saying how Caleb must have done it—the fire, that is. And Mom said how Grady Steel wasn’t the kind to have murdered anyone no matter what that idiot Darrell York said—they all went to school together.” She sniffed and more tears formed. “It’s all such a mess, and I feel like it’s all my fault, so I figured the least I could do was come in and help out.”
Brynn wasn’t sure how much help the girl would be, but her heart softened at the obvious effort Jackie was making. Brynn touched her arm gently. “Jackie, your boyfriend was murdered last night. You don’t have to come in to work.”
The girl grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “We broke up—after he hit you.” Her eyes were huge and full of shame. “I couldn’t believe he did that, Brynn, honestly. I was horrified.”
“He’d never shown any violent tendencies in front of you before?”
Jackie shook her head.
Thank goodness for small mercies.
“We’d been dating just a couple of weeks. I only went out to his place once, a few days ago.” She grimaced. “Knew Hetty and little Susie from them coming into the café so figured it would be okay, you know? But his dad and uncles totally gave me the creeps.” She shivered.
Angus’s expression darkened behind Jackie’s back.
“They didn’t want me wandering around the place. Told Caleb to keep an eye on me like I was some sort of thief. Anyway, after mom found out that I went there, she said I wasn’t to go again. If I really wanted to see Caleb then he could come to the house.” She wiped her nose again. “She never lets anyone come to the house, so that was a big deal.”
Jackie looked over her shoulder as Angus went back to stir the fresh pot of clam chowder he had on the stove. It was Brynn’s mother’s favorite, and she’d set aside two bowls from the last batch for her dad to take home.
A sudden wave of longing welled up inside her. To see her mom. To kiss her cheek. To tell her she loved her.
Jackie lowered her voice. “Mom made me go on birth control. And gave me a bunch of condoms.” Crimson stained the young woman’s cheeks. “I told her we hadn’t, I hadn’t, but she made me swear…”
Brynn knew Jackie’s mother had gotten pregnant in high school. She obviously wanted something else for her daughter. “Your mother is smart to look out for your health and welfare.”
Jackie nodded. “I know. She can be hard, but she loves me. She didn’t mention it to my stepdad. Ed would go ballistic if he thought Caleb touched me that way…”
Brynn’s eyes bugged and Jackie laughed. “I don’t mean he would actually kill him.”
“Someone did, darling.” Linda exchanged a look with Brynn. “You talk to the sheriff?”
Jackie’s expression soured. “He came to the house and questioned me this morning. Tried to get me to say how you had some sort of ongoing vendetta against Caleb, but it wasn’t true. Mom was there. She told him you and Grady were the least likely murder suspects in this entire town. Although, then Darrell pointed out how your asshole ex—his emphasis on the word, not mine—‘disappeared.’ Mom told him that if he couldn’t come up with any better ideas than you two, she was going to run for sheriff come re-election, and she’d win.”
“I’d certainly vote for her.” Ice washed over Brynn at the thought Darrell was resurrecting what had happened with Aiden. As if she hadn’t lived through enough humiliation where her ex was concerned.
Jackie blew her nose. “Anyway, Mom’s better than any lawyer. Thankfully, Dad was out checking pots before this storm hits. He’s home now.”
Jackie’s dad, Ed, would be Brynn’s number one suspect if she was a cop. He was a scary sonofabitch. But not Darrell York. Darrell arrested the manager of the local café and an FBI agent he’d once called friend. And it sounded like he was trying to dredge up old dirt to support his asinine theories.
The growing noise on the other side of the counter suggested someone was about to leave and someone else had just arrived. Brynn took a long look at the girl’s tear-blotched face. “Are you sure you want to stay?”
Jackie nodded.
“Okay. You work the counter. Linda and I will do tables.”
“As soon as I have a quick break.” Linda gave them both a hug and hurried off to pull on her jacket.
Jackie wiped her eyes. “I’m really sorry, Brynn.”
Brynn gave the girl a shoulder bump. “Come on. I don’t want people to think I make the staff cry.”
Jackie laughed. “I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday.”
Brynn nodded. “Forget it.” Her nose was a little sore, but no real lasting harm had been done, except to her sense of personal safety. “And I’m sorry about the Quayles. As much as I disagreed with Caleb these past few days, he didn’t deserve what happened.”
Jackie’s expression drooped again, and Brynn knew she’d said the wrong thing.
“Let’s get these people seated and served,” she said briskly. “You divide up anything that needs eating in the next couple of days, and we can all take some home.” She looked out at the thin veil of snow. The atmosphere felt like it was on a precipice suddenly, the storm about to break. But it could as easily fizzle out into nothing.
Maybe the warnings wouldn’t live up to the hype, but she wouldn’t mind the excuse for a snow day.
“We’ll make these new people the last full menu table. Anyone who comes in after can get a drink and baked goods but no meals unless it’s bread and soup. Then we’ll all leave early and be safe home before this blizzard hits.”
52
Ryan Sullivan yawned widely as he took a seat in the Sea Spray Café. Donnelly had snagged the prime position facing the door, and he was left looking out the window like a rookie.
All because he’d held the door like a gentleman.
