Searching (PAVAD- FBI Romantic Suspense Book 18) Page 31

  Not an image he was going to forget. No doubt, this was bringing that back to the surface for the other man, too.

  “Knight and I were consulting a local detective about a case when the call went out that the director was looking for Barnes,” Ken said. “We were close enough to the hotel to get here quickly. Found him like this.”

  “How long do you think he’s been like this?” Max asked.

  Kelly Compton looked up at him, from where she was starting on the blood that had been beneath Barnes’s body.

  Blood and…bone fragments. Hair.

  Max bit back the bile.

  He couldn’t stand Barnes, but seeing this…

  “From the looks of the bloodstains, Max, he’s been bleeding slowly for a few hours at least. But…nothing definitive yet.”

  They had Barnes on the gurney.

  To Max’s shock, the man’s eyes opened.

  Stared right at him.

  Kelly stood.

  She took a jerky step back when Barnes’s hand shot up and wrapped around her bony forearm.

  Barnes didn’t let her go. Max freed her quickly, as gently as he could.

  Max stepped closer to the wounded man. “Todd? Todd, can you hear me? Do you recognize me?”

  “Max—”

  He did. Barnes was aware of what was happening around him.

  “You’re going to be ok, Todd.” Max told him, leaning close enough to fill Barnes’s vision. “We’ll get you to the hospital and fixed right up.”

  “He…going after… others…PAVAD...”

  Max’s heart stopped beating for a moment. “Who, Todd?”

  “Didn’t…know. Lytel…it’s Lytel. Dirty.”

  “We know that, too. Did he shoot you, Todd? Was Eugene Lytel the man who shot you?”

  “Yes…killed Anderson…whole team. Dirty. Young…Fallow…dirty. All of them. Didn’t know…till…got…Saint…”

  The man’s eyes closed. The paramedic jerked his hand, for Max to get out of the way. “We need to get him to the trauma center. Every moment counts.”

  Max nodded, stepping back. “Thanks, Barnes. I’m going to get him. I’ll see he pays for this.”

  Barnes never said another word.

  Max looked at the agents surrounding him. “Eugene Lytel. What do we have to do to find him?”

  “And are the men on his team as dirty as Todd Barnes—an agent no one really likes or trusts—said?” Knight asked.

  “We need to see what he sent in that email again.” Max had read them. And knew in his gut there was at least some truth to them. Information Todd had written in that email had lined up with information that only the director and Max and Sin had had.

  “One thing to consider—if whoever has his computer tracks his email, they’re going to see whoever those emails were sent to,” Knight said. “Making them potential targets.”

  There had been others cc’d on those emails.

  “The director, me, Jaclyn—and Miranda Talley. Barnes has a thing for Miranda this time. He sent her everything. Said it in the email to me itself.”

  Knight swore. “Someone better find that woman, then. Fast. Because if your pal Lytel has a team of his own, and they’re in the PAVAD building, there are plenty of people to go after all of you. And it’s not going to matter one damned bit if it’s in the PAVAD building or not. If they want to get to someone inside, they will.”

  Max swore. The other man was right. They didn’t know how many in Lytel’s division were dirty. And they were right there with Miranda, Nat, and Jac.

  To a man as skilled, as trained, as familiar with PAVAD as Lytel, that meant one thing.

  Jac and the other two women he cared about were as good as sitting ducks.

  110

  More waiting. He couldn’t get the shot. He watched as the elder Jones girl headed out. She was such a classy woman. Cool and sophisticated, just like her mother had always been.

  He’d felt good when he was with her. Less invisible, though he’d never laid hands on her. He wouldn’t have dared.

  Strange that Jaclyn and her sister would have chosen law enforcement. Something as common as law enforcement wasn’t good enough for one of Colonel Jones’s daughters.

  Not them.

  Even when they’d been fucking teenagers, the good old colonel had gone on and on about how perfect they were, especially the younger one. How they were destined for the top.

  Poised and graceful, and perfect.

  Hell, the colonel had been prepping them to be married off to the highest bidders when they were barely old enough to drive.

  Strange that they’d end up working PAVAD.

  Then again, considering Boyd’s connections to Ed Dennis, maybe it wasn’t.

  He wondered if Ed Dennis even knew.

  Beautiful girls, though the redhead was more classically beautiful.

  The younger woman looked like a lost waif.

  He sighted the rifle on first one sister, then the other.

  Eugene had hated Boyd since the moment he had learned about Felicia’s death.

  Her murder.

  His grip tightened on the weapon. He would give anything to get back at that smug bastard.

  Jaclyn stopped to say hello to one of her neighbors. Eugene watched her, struck again by just how graceful she was. By how much she favored Felicia.

  No wonder Max Jones had it so bad for her.

  When he turned back, the younger sister had already loaded those dogs of hers into her Wrangler.

  He studied her through binoculars instead, thinking that just around the eyes, around the hairline, she looked like the father she had never known.

  He wondered if Boyd had ever noticed that little fact.

  At the angle she was now, there was no way he could take the shot clearly. He would have to wait.

  111

  There was a six foot five, broad-shouldered, dark-haired pain in the ass staring at Miranda from behind mirrored glasses.

  Knight had shown up two minutes ago, covered in blood, with a hard look on his face. He’d come right to her side and just…sat there.

  Miranda didn’t say a word. The last thing she needed now was Allan Knight just staring at her. Especially a bloodstained Allan Knight.

  The man gave her the shivers. Sometimes not in a good way. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be across the street, digging into the past?”

  He shook his head slowly.

  “Knight…whose blood?” He didn’t look hurt. She hadn’t heard a call about an agent in trouble.

  “Todd Barnes was shot in the head in his hotel room not even two hours ago. Chalmers and I found him. It’s Barnes’s blood.”

  Miranda flinched. “Is he going to make it?”

  She barely kept from staring at Knight’s scar.

  Knight shook his head. “I’m not sure. He was talking when we left. Able to identify his shooter. Recognized Jones, too.”

  “So why are you here instead of doing your knightly duties elsewhere?”

  “Simple. Whatever Barnes sent you in that email today—apparently, it’s enough to get you killed. So…just consider me another guy for your collection. Seems you have a few new ones lately. So…tell me…you and Barnes?”

  Miranda just sank into her chair and stared.

  The man was serious.

  “What is going on around here?” Then something he said clicked. “I…haven’t checked my email yet today. I had…something else going on.”

  “Maybe you’d better do that now.” He sent her a gorgeous smile. “Before something else happens around here. It’s just a barrel of fun around PAVAD lately, isn’t it?”

  112

  Eugene had taken the time working the scene at Jaclyn Jones’s home earlier to study every entry point and exit. She had an alarm system in place. It was new, the sister had said, when Eugene had interviewed her at the hospital yesterday. A prototype for Lucas Tech or something that Jaclyn Jones had been asked to test out for the head of computer
forensics.

  Natalie hadn’t even realized he was grilling her for information, as she’d stared at him from Felicia’s eyes. Silly girl had trusted him.

  He’d wanted to be the one to talk to Natalie Jones himself. To see just how much killing her would hurt Boyd.

  The girl looked nothing like him. Up close, though, she looked a good deal like her father, and like the other sister she didn’t even know about.

  He’d found that amusing.

  He’d found the code to the security system written down in Jaclyn’s kitchen drawer.

  She should know better than that. He’d tested the alarm when it was just him and his team on scene, after the forensics van had left. Just a few minutes of their time, and he had all he needed.

  He followed the younger girl to the park. Watched as she worked with her dogs. Intensively. She put them through their paces, and it was obvious the girl knew her stuff. Bright, talented, capable—just like her father.

  Her real father, anyway.

  Colonel Boyd Jones was just a screw up who’d networked his way into his position.

  For a moment, he toyed with the idea of just letting things go with Boyd. Just taking off for Mexico before anyone even realized he hadn’t clocked in for the next shift.

  Maybe even coming back and finishing with the girl later. Planned better, anticipated more.

  Or leaving Felicia’s daughters alone.

  Let them have their perfect PAVAD lives. It was only a matter of time before the elder ended up in Dr. Jones’s bed. Until the younger found some PAVAD superhero of her own to shag and snag.

  Felicia’s daughters hadn’t done a damned thing to him, after all. She’d even bought him a cup of coffee there in the hospital cafeteria yesterday, very sweet in a quiet way. Graceful.

  Once again just like her mother.

  He really was a rank bastard anymore.

  But no.

  He hated Colonel Boyd Jones, after all. Had told himself that so many times over the years that he almost believed he could feel that hatred. He wanted to get one more blow in against that bastard while he still could.

  That was why he’d signed up on this special little team in the first place.

  He followed Natalie Jones back to her sister’s place.

  Watched as she released her dogs into the fenced backyard.

  And waited.

  113

  Jac had a piano in her den. It had been their mother’s prize possession. Nat always loved to sit at it and immerse herself in the old memories.

  She had been three and a half when their mother had died. She had no real memories of the woman; not like Jac had. But she remembered her mother at the piano.

  Her fingers touched the ivory keys. Jac had had it tuned recently, she’d said, though Nat doubted her sister had much time to play now.

  Jac had once been a very talented pianist.

  Nat, too.

  Until life had taken the time for such pursuits from them.

  Nat made herself a vow; she was going to build herself a real life again.

  It was what James would have wanted.

  He had been larger than life, so full of humor and fun.

  He’d made her forget the darkness they saw every day on the job. The way people hurt each other.

  The way her father had hurt her, hurt Jac.

  Damn him. Her father would always be her nightmare.

  He had called again that morning.

  The colonel would be in St. Louis in two days. The colonel had demanded she meet with him. Said he had something important he wanted to discuss.

  She was going to be a coward—she was going to take Jac with her.

  Maybe even see if Max could go with them.

  The one time they’d introduced Max to the colonel the colonel had actually behaved himself.

  Max had growled at him after the one nasty comment directed at Jac that the colonel had made. Max was rather protective of her sister. It was beautiful to see—Jac had spent so long being the protector, she deserved people to protect her now.

  Nat ran through the warm-up scales absently, lost in the memories of her childhood.

  The nightmares.

  It hadn’t been all bad. She’d been granted opportunities most people weren’t. All the top schools, the best connections, that only an upper-class childhood could bring. Barriers hadn’t existed between her and what she had needed or wanted in life.

  Just the Colonel and his fists.

  She’d have traded every single advantage if she and Jac had just been safe. With people who didn’t hurt them for the slightest wrong move.

  She was still dealing with the trauma of her father. She probably always would be.

  Losing James had set her back years. She finally felt like she was starting to come out of the fog. He would not have wanted her to just turn into a ghost like this.

  She had to remember that.

  If nothing else, she would build a life again—for him. They should have decades together.

  He’d given her the ring a week before he’d been murdered.

  A week. That had been the happiest week of her life.

  She’d thought about burying that ring with him. But she couldn’t do it.

  It was all she had had left of him.

  He hadn’t even told his parents and brother about her at that point. They hadn’t known.

  Had fought her on what should happen to him after his death.

  They had blamed her for not stopping what had happened that day. It had taken her a while to accept that she couldn’t have done anything different. Nothing would have changed what happened to James. Nothing.

  She’d had his will, had his instructions, and his power of attorney. That was all she had had left of him.

  His final wishes. Details.

  Today…would have been his thirty-third birthday.

  She should go home. Or take Kudos and Karma on a hike somewhere. Anything but sitting there with the memories.

  Nat couldn’t go home. Not yet. She’d go crazy there, pull out the lone album of photos she had of him.

  Nat stopped playing, dropped her head to the keys and wept.

  Until a hard hand wrapped around her neck and jerked her to her feet.

  Around.

  Nat stared down the barrel of a gun and froze.

  114

  Ava and Livy had been feeling a bit better. Livy was clearheaded enough to understand that her parents and aunt were all gone. That she and her sister were alone. Unlike Ava, who truly didn’t understand that death was permanent—Livy did.

  Jac had spent most of the ninety-minute visit holding the girls and reassuring them. They wouldn’t be alone.

  She was going to take care of them. She’d promised.

  There had been a social worker in the room now.

  One Jac had known well. She’d been the same social worker who had handled the case for Miranda when she’d kept a three-year-old girl whose mother had been a victim in a previous case. It had been a temporary placement. The social worker was a good one—was one that cared a great deal about the kids she had on her docket.

  After Ava and Livy finally fell asleep again, Jac and the social worker had had an honest talk. About what would most likely happen to the girls—and Bentley—if someone didn’t step up and offer to take them in, as fictive kin.

  As it was, Olivia would have to transfer out of the private school, their parents’ house would have to be sold, with the proceeds going to debts and funeral expenses, and they were all three now wards of the state.

  If someone didn’t have enough beds, or if someone decided they were better off apart, they would be separated. Their world had been completely destroyed.

  And now they were literally waiting for someone to step up and fix things for them.

  Jac had come to a decision. One she hoped Max would fully support.

  She had promised Rachel she would take care of them. She had promised the girls she would take care of the
m, too.

  They reminded her so much of her and Nat when they were younger. Alone and facing the world of monsters with just each other.

  No child should ever have to face that.

  Jac intended to keep her promise.

  But first…she had to stop by her house again. Ava had spilled grape juice down the front of Jac’s blouse.

  She had just enough time for a quick change of clothes and get back to PAVAD.

  She wanted to grab Max, have a heart-to-heart about the Sturvin girls.

  See if what she wanted now would change things between the two of them again.

  She didn’t want to admit it, but a small part of her expected him to run. To want no part of it. It would be a massive life change neither one of them could ever have predicted, after all.

  He’d run from her before. With far less provocation.

  Another, larger, part of her knew that was stupid.

  Max had explained why he’d run. And she’d understood.

  This was just the first bump in the road they’d have if they were going to make a relationship between them work.

  She suspected that was exactly what they were going to try to do. She was willing. He said he was, too.

  It would just take time. Like everything else in life worth having.

  She pulled into her driveway, behind Nat’s Jeep. She was glad her little sister was still there.

  Nat would be a good practice conversation for the one she’d be having with Max today.

  Jac had just made it to the front porch when movement from the side yard caught her attention.

  Karma. Whimpering and hunkering down. Afraid.

  That wasn’t right.

  Her sister’s dog shouldn’t be out of the fenced backyard. Her sister’s dogs didn’t do what they weren’t supposed to do. They hadn’t acted out in years, since puppyhood. Especially the extremely timid Karma, who rarely wandered that far from Nat’s side.

  Fierce growling came from the backyard. Barking. Snarling. Angry.

  He wasn’t stopping.