Degrees of Darkness, page 91
Remy released her and lurched back. The sudden movements left Cody reeling. She gripped the edge of the counter to keep from keeling onto the floor.
“Remy?”
“Sorry,” the word flew from his mouth. He crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling.
He was angry. The hardened features and darkened eyes spelled murder in his heart. And Cody was well aware of his desire for revenge. He’d proven himself capable when he went after his enemies in New Orleans. But this wasn’t his fight.
She slid off the stool and stood before him. He lowered his head and frowned. Grasping his wrists, she gently unhooked his arms and guided them around her waist. Once he got her meaning and locked his hands behind her back, she leaned into him.
“You can’t fight all of my battles for me, Remy.”
“It’s in my job description,” he said and kissed the top of her head.
“This time it’s my turn. When you find out where he is and if he’s the one harassing me, I’ll make the next move.”
Remy’s frown deepened. “How?”
Thoughts of cutting off Austin’s man parts and roasting them over a fire sounded appeasing. But that wasn’t enough. She wanted him to feel completely and utterly violated, weak, like he’d made her feel.
“Don’t worry. I’ll come up with something.”
Remy caressed her cheek, then smoothed back her wild hair. “As long as it stays within the bounds of the law. Doesn’t look good on me if my wife goes vigilante.”
A tepid smile managed to break free. “Says the man who brought down his own version of hell in New Orleans.”
“That was different.” He hugged her close. “We’ll take this new development one step at a time.”
Burrowing against his neck, she drew in his scent. “There’s a part of me that is relieved I told you.”
“Trust, Cody. We still need to get that.”
Her heart ached. Trust. Would he be so understanding if he knew she told her father first? Heath had gotten lucky in guessing, but she’d gone to Daddy and told him. Trust. What if she was pregnant? The right thing to do would be to tell Remy about the baby. She closed her eyes and pushed the thought away. It was a theory. She hadn’t even taken a pregnancy test, so how could she get his hopes up and dash them if it came back negative?
Now wasn’t the time. She’d wait. Once she had confirmation from a doctor, then she’d tell him. And only then.
• • •
Remy waited until the steady rhythm of Cody’s heart and slow, even breaths indicated she was asleep before slipping out from under her head and leaving the bed. She made a distressed noise, curled into a ball, then relaxed. Certain she wasn’t going to wake, Remy pulled on a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the hall to the office. Closing the door, he flipped on the light, wincing at the glare.
A nagging feeling had settled in his gut after Cody told him about the rape. While she’d been hesitant about telling him, he got the impression this wasn’t the first time she’d voiced it. Her words were methodical, like she’d rehearsed them or had at least said them before. She’d held it together until right before she tried to say rape. Cody could be well composed when she wanted, but in a highly emotional state the redhead would lose it, easily. Had she told Anderson …? Wait, no, she said he got in a lucky guess. Remy would bet his last dollar, she told her daddy before saying anything to him.
Logan was nothing like Remy’s former father-in-law, but sometimes he wished the man would cut the rope. It was hard enough walking the land mines of Cody’s stubborn and independent personality. Remy loved her, and most everything about her, but there had always been a trust issue between them. He was partly to blame for planting those seeds. But the events that took place in New Orleans should have wiped the slate clean. Each time Cody ran to Logan first, it was another stab in Remy’s back, another reminder that she still didn’t fully trust him with every aspect of her life.
Sinking into his office chair, he turned on the computer and settled in to work. If Cody knew what he was doing, she’d pitch a fit. Home was supposed to be off-limits to work. Well, work had crossed over—once again—into his personal life, and he needed to be prepared for anything. What she slept through wouldn’t hurt her.
Accessing his e-mail account, he downloaded the files, opening all of them. Before he left the department, he’d managed to snag the narcotics guy who alerted him to the possible connection between the Hammond case and the E-Z gang massacre and got copies of his files on their ongoing investigation. It would be a stretch to make all of these cases connect.
Remy was about to close out his account when a new e-mail popped into the inbox. The vague subject heading “Not Enough” from Anderson piqued Remy’s interest. Apparently his partner was up late, too. Opening the e-mail, he read:
You’re not going to like this. I found our one solid connection to all of these murders and a name to our John Doe. If Logan said anything to you, I’ll be shocked. Call me as soon as you read this. I’m talking to you first before any of this goes to the files.
This Remy had to hear. He vacated his chair to locate his Droid. Once he had it in hand, he called Anderson. His partner answered on the third ring.
“You’re up late,” he said by way of greeting. “Does Cody know you’re not in bed?”
“What goes on between me and my wife isn’t much of your business, now is it?”
“Bite my ass, LeBeau.”
Damn it, when would his partner just leave well enough alone? Stuffing down his anger, Remy pushed forward. “I’m doing as you asked. Explain.”
“I’d hoped to do this more privately than over the phone.”
“My line is secure, or have you forgotten my paranoia?”
Anderson grunted. “Whatever.”
From the sounds of it, he didn’t like it when the tables were turned on him. Remy wasn’t kidding, no one was about to butt into their phone call without him knowing it first.
“I crosschecked the Vietnam angle. There were hits on Hammond and John Doe … and Logan.”
Remy knew Logan had served during Vietnam, no secret there. And the other two didn’t surprise him in the least.
“LeBeau, all three served together in the same squad. Our John Doe is Jack Humphrey. He was the youngest man with that squad. And they were three of four who survived a classified mission in seventy-two.”
Everything Anderson said soaked into Remy’s brain slowly. His father-in-law had known those men and didn’t utter a word of how he truly knew them. Stupid Remy, he hadn’t thought to ask anything outside how it pertained to Austin McCord. Yet Logan had reacted badly at seeing John Doe, AKA Jack Humphrey.
“By your tone, there’s more,” he said.
“More than I can find. My research hit a brick wall covered with enough red tape that I’d be taken in by the CIA if I tried to breach it.”
Remy almost laughed. Seriously, the CIA?
“Knowing you as well as I do, I bet you’re scoffing at the idea,” Anderson said.
“I’m trying not to.”
“I’m dead serious. Somehow the CIA is involved with that ordeal. And I bet anything Logan knows exactly how.”
Remy pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hold on here. How would he know something like that?”
“Ask him.”
“I’ve asked him enough as it is, and I was told to back off and protect Cody at all costs.”
Anderson swore. “What else?”
His brief and odd conversation with Logan replayed through Remy’s head. “That he was next. And he was all that stood between Cody and her momma’s fate.”
“Her mother is part of this?”
“How? Jodi’s dead.”
“LeBeau, do you happen to have any of the homicide files with you now?”
Sometimes his partner’s intuition gave him hives. “Yes, all of them.”
“Relay back to me all the autopsies, including today with Humphrey.”
Remy clicked through the mess of documents displayed on his computer screen until he had the autopsies. He rattled off all significant information, taking care to explain what Doc Warner had written down about Jack Humphrey and the torture he sustained.
“Whoa, hold it. Say that again.”
“His shoulders were ripped out of their sockets due to being restrained behind his back and then yanked above his body from behind, possibly by the force of his own body weight.”
“They hung him by his arms and let him fall. That was the most despicable torture method used by a certain sect. A Vietnamese guerrilla fighting group.”
Remy might have demanded to know how Anderson knew these things, but the more he listened to his partner talk, the more he realized it was best not to know. “Did they cut out the person’s eyes while they were still alive?”
“In worse case scenarios, yes. Typically they wanted the person alive as a means to negotiate.”
“For what?”
“Anything.” Somewhere in the background something clicked and whirred. “I told you we bit off more than we could chew.”
“We have some throwback vigilante person or persons connected to the Vietnam War era taking out former soldiers from Logan’s squad? How does Leland Kent and that E-Z gang fit into this?”
“Who said they did?”
“Somehow they do. Kent’s only connection is that he was the Lewises’ lawyer when they were filing for a protection order against Cody’s ex. The judge happened to be Hammond.”
“And did Logan acknowledge that he knew Hammond before?”
“Non.”
“We—no—I need to talk with Logan. You’re not as likely to get anywhere with him since you’re not a vet.”
“Oh, and you will?”
“You’d be surprised how far I’ll get.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The card was rammed between the truck door and frame, waiting for him the next morning. Logan pried the card free and turned it over. The jack of clubs was marked out with the statement, “Get your affairs in order.”
He crumpled the card and chucked it into the truck bed. They were all dead, except him. Whoever killed them had systematically taken out the remaining men left from his squad and saved him for last. The purpose of it was lost on Logan, but the mental torture was not. Of the three, maybe the killer considered him the highest threat. It went without saying he was a tough old bull, but war injuries and age had broken him down. Despite that, never in his life had he backed down from a fight, and he wasn’t about to start.
He turned and looked at the house. Lights illuminated the kitchen and the second floor bedroom. The Corvette was gone, but Cody’s truck sat in the drive. Those two, and possibly a third, were reasons enough to fight back. Logan couldn’t let his and Jodi’s pasts spill over onto Cody and her family. She and Remy had been through enough in their short lives.
It ended here. If he died, then so be it. But Cody’s life wouldn’t be touched by this.
Logan stalked down the hill to the ranch office and banged inside. Frightened whinnies echoed in the stable. Dangnabbit, he needed to keep his temper in check or those horses wouldn’t cooperate today.
Get your affairs in order.
His gaze swept to the framed certificates and photos of himself and Cody riding their cutters. Since she’d returned from Louisiana, Cody had ensured their joint business venture in training cutting horses would continue if anything were to happen to him. She capably ran the day-to-day tasks for The Red Moon Ranch and was able to hold on to her barrel horse business on the side. In all honesty, Logan could retire now and let Cody run the whole operation on her own, but he’d stayed on knowing he’d miss the work. Wanted to keep working with his daughter—after all those years of her on the barrel racing circuit and barely seeing her, it was nice having her around on a daily basis.
Far as he was concerned, his affairs were in order.
The last thing left would be the goodbyes. Something Cody never got to hear from her momma.
Agony shred his heart. How could he do it? How could he abandon his daughter when she was about to become a parent herself? He had to fight back. He had to make every attempt to survive.
For Cody.
The office door handle rattled, bringing him around. Huddled inside an oversized jacket, the person who weighed the most on his mind entered. Cody’s washed-out features and the pinched lines at the corners of her eyes gave him pause. Whether she denied it or not, she was pregnant.
“Have you told Remy?” he asked.
“Told him what?”
“Why are you hiding your pregnancy from him?”
“No one said I was. I haven’t gone to the doctor yet to confirm it. Why give him false hope?”
She had him there. No use telling Remy when Logan could be wrong.
“You lied to me,” she whispered.
This had to be about not telling her what happened to McCord. Since Logan had revealed that tidbit to Remy last night, logic would dictate he’d told Cody later.
“Kiddo, I was protecting you.”
“Back then, maybe, but now, you didn’t bother to say a word to me. Something important, like Austin going to prison, I needed to know about.”
“The state of your mental condition was too fragile. And after the kidnapping and such, you weren’t in any mindset to hear about it.”
She buried her hands deep inside the jacket pockets and hung her head, seeming to concede defeat in this argument. The loose ponytail she wore to contain her wild curls slipped over her shoulder. Any moment Logan expected her to lift her head and see his wife staring back at him.
“Daddy,” she tilted her head up, “I want you to tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
“I found the cards.”
He’d known she was the one who came into the cabin and took them. Hearing her admit it, that took him back.
“What do they mean? Who’s sending them to you?”
“Enough, Cody.” He strode across the floor and gripped her shoulders. “You won’t take this any further.”
“Why?”
“I mean it. Stop asking questions and walk away. You’re not a detective or an investigator of any kind. Don’t try to be. You have more important things to worry about than whatever you’re conjuring up with your imagination.”
Red blotches peppered her face and her nostrils flared. She was getting mad. Good, if he pushed her temper over the edge he could make her back off. Or cause her to fight back harder. Remy tried to do the same thing, and the bullheaded woman turned the tables and went after him.
“I didn’t conjure up those X-ed out cards and that message left with them. And I sure as hell didn’t imagine those photos of you in Vietnam.”
“Where’d you take them, Cody?” He shook her.
She broke his grip from her shoulders and backpedaled. “What are you hiding from me?”
“You’re treading in areas that don’t concern you.”
“Obviously it does. Because a judge and a lawyer who we knew are dead. And now someone is harassing me and making it look like it’s Austin. Or worse yet, it is Austin.”
Her words slammed into him, making him stagger. “What do you mean harassing you?”
“A few nights ago someone threw a brick through the condo window while Remy and I were there. There was a queen of hearts card on it with a message directed at me. The next night Remy found a text on my cell that said ‘I’m coming for you.’ Now tell me those cards have nothing to do with me.”
Logan couldn’t breathe. The queen of hearts card had nothing to do with Cody. McCord wouldn’t have known about the significance. That had been Jodi’s. So how … “What was the message?”
She blanched and shook her head.
“Cody, what was the message?”
“Not for you!”
“Cody Samantha Lewis, tell me what that message said.” His tone carried the bark of a drill sergeant.
She reacted as if he’d slapped her. Gradually her demeanor changed from shocked to the calm before the fury. “Daddy, I love you, but I will not stand here and be treated like a child. There are some things in a woman’s life she just can’t say to her father.”
“And there are some things a father can never tell his daughter.”
“Then we’re at an impasse.” Sadness filled her face. “I never wanted to fight with you like I did with Momma.”
Another double-edged statement stabbed his chest. She knew where to hit him. He cleared his throat to loosen it. Then let the words come. “I will not see you meet your momma’s fate.”
“If I were to have met her fate, it would have happened by now. Serial killers, professional assassins, and sadistic murderers haven’t done me in yet. What makes you think this time will be any different?”
“Those types of killers don’t have anything on Satan seeking a ransomed soul.”
Cody’s eyes narrowed. “Of all the people in the world, you would be the last person I’d expect to lose your faith. The man who managed to help me hold it together when things got bad. The rock I leaned on to remember what mattered the most, that though my body is trapped, my soul is free from the bonds.” She hugged herself. “How could little cards and a threatening message rip you away from that truth?”
The wisdom pouring from her pricked at his guilt. Made his denials taste like ash. This was the daughter he raised to believe in more, to have faith in the unseen. A girl he taught to look past the bad and find the good, the purpose. Standing before him now, she was proof that no matter how bad it got, she’d cling to her faith and rise above the tragedies.
She found her joy.
Logan closed his eyes and bowed his head. Forgive me.
“I haven’t lost the truth, Cody. I have always been and will always be your protector. Though that mantle is being shared with Remy, it will remain my God-given right first. My sins will not be heaped on you. You’ve done nothing to deserve them and I’ll see to it you aren’t held accountable.”
