He could almost hear the last second die on the clock…
The blast exploded like the top of a volcano and split his eardrums. It reached out for them with fingers of fire.
“I’ll protect you, I’m here…” he whispered against her hair.
The earth rocked. A wave of heat blew over his body. He held her tighter while pieces of flaming debris rained from the heavens and trailed smoke against the darkened sky. The garage was an inferno. It popped and hissed as flames devoured its skeletal remains.
Brian rolled onto his back and sucked in a breath, still holding Kendall’s trembling body next to his. “Are you okay?”
“Warm…but alive.”
He cradled her head and breathed in the scent of her skin, thankful to have her in his arms. His attention focused for a moment on the undercarriage of the car that had acted as a shield and saved their lives. The silhouette of an object attached to the underside caught and held his attention. Caution slipped through his veins. The flashlight was next to him. He turned it on and shone it at the device.
LoJack. They were being tracked.
Brian sat up in the chair and looked at the illuminated dial on his watch. Three o’clock in the morning. In two more hours they’d have to move. It was risky to bring Kendall here, to his home, but he’d taken every precaution to make it safe. Officers Nelson and Tassano had played the decoy game after the explosion and driven his bugged car to the station. They’d even promised to turn his office light on, in case the creep was watching.
These precious hours belonged to them…alone.
The glow from the VCR display touched Kendall’s face and cast it in pale green. Her eyes were closed. She lay on her side, one hand shoved under the pillow her head was on, the other dangling off the couch. They were safe for the moment. He’d parked the unmarked police car a block away. They’d taken the back alley to the house. All the blinds were closed and he hadn’t turned on a single light.
Brian rubbed his face and sat back in the chair. This was no life. Running. How long before Kendall could no longer stand to be separated from Kaden? Motherly instinct was a strong force. Already, he’d seen her mood darken. He was losing her and he’d only just found her.
“A penny for your thoughts.” Her voice startled him.
“With prices today, a penny isn’t going to get you much, sweetheart.” He saw a seductive glitter in her eyes, coupled with a slow, languorous half smile, and he rode the wave of desire that surged inside of him. It was wrong to want her. Wrong to need her on a primal level he could barely keep caged. She was a witness, he was her protector, but he couldn’t stop looking at her, couldn’t control the thunder of his heart.
“I’ll up it to a dime.” Her voice was soft in the darkness of the room, coaxing.
He got up from the chair and moved to her side. “Sold, but I don’t know if you want to hear more of the same. It’s going to include running.”
She took his hand and pulled him down onto the couch.
Brian relaxed and let her touch excite him.
“It’s how we’re staying alive. It counts for something, but I agree, life on the move scrambles your brain. Maybe we should forget about it and focus on something else.”
Her smile warmed his blood. “What did you have in mind, Ms. McKinley?”
Kendall pulled his hand to her lips and kissed it. Wrapped in the silence around them, it was possible to put her fears aside and give herself over to the whims of her heart. Need clawed through her, bolstering her longing for the man next to her. She wanted his hands on her skin, craved the intimate knowledge of his body while they satisfied each other.
He lowered his mouth to hers. The ardor in his lips penetrated her. She kissed him back and felt his craving ratchet up. A lusty moan rumbled deep in his throat and he pulled back. She studied him in the dim light.
“Are you sure, Kendall?”
“Are you?” She watched him hang his head, before he looked at her again. His breathing was heavy, his eyes smoldering. She wanted him, but she hesitated.
“You’re so beautiful.” He reached out to cup the side of her face and sent a rush of heat through her body. She turned into his palm, kissing his fingers one by one.
He let out a sigh and she felt him tremble as he slid his fingers into her hair. “Did I mention irresistible?”
“No.” She plunged into dangerous territory and brushed his cheek with her hand. The contact sent fire into her veins and she met his gaze head-on. “Can you resist, then?”
His answer came in another kiss. Her heart pounded in her chest as he parted her lips with his tongue. Her body hummed, her mind wrapped around one inescapable thought. She was falling in love with him.
He scooped her up into his arms. She put aside the last of her doubts and settled against him as his footsteps carried them closer to the release of the passion that had seemingly always been between them. She’d given her heart to him a piece at a time and was now unable to stop at giving him the rest of her, too.
Brian moved along the hallway relishing the feel of Kendall against him. Every nerve in his body pulsed. He felt as though he was emerging from a long hibernation. He moved into the bathroom and closed the door. Gently he stood her on her feet and found her lips in the darkness. “Do you like water?”
“Are you in it?”
“I will be.” He fiddled for the towel on the towel bar and pulled it off. Finding the door he laid the towel down, and shoved it into the crack at the bottom. “We can’t be too careful.”
“Uh-huh.” She pulled his polo shirt out of the waistband of his pants. He didn’t resist, but he wanted to see her and the darkness wasn’t going to rob him of the pleasure. “This is the only room in the house without a window.” Reaching inside the medicine cabinet, he found the lighter and flicked it. Warm light invaded the small space and he touched it to the wick of the candle he had on the counter.
“I didn’t know you were a romantic.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He stared into her eyes while he worked her t-shirt up her torso to pull it off. Her gaze never wavered. The accelerated beat of her heart beneath his fingertips jumped and jived with his own. “Shower?”
“Yes, please.” Her voice was a sweet, knowing croon as she smiled up at him, pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it.
Brian breathed in her scent as it filled the small space. He watched her reach behind her back and pop the clasp on her bra. Reaching out he pulled the straps down and let the undergarment slip away. Candlelight caressed the swell of her exposed breasts as she drew in one ragged breath after another. He closed his eyes, pulled her against him and let his palm venture over her chest. She arched against him, rocketing his libido into overdrive. The tension turned unbearable as she undid the button on his pants and pulled the zipper down.
He opened his eyes and found her staring at him. He could see the glow of pleasure warming her cheeks to pink, but questions danced on her face. “I’m your witness, Brian. What’s the penalty if we get caught?”
The question forced his desire down a notch, but it skyrocketed again as she brushed his chest with her hands.
“My job, my reputation.”
“What about your heart?” Her expression was pleading in the hazy light, her body a vision he would never forget or ever stop wanting, but she was giving him a choice.
Where was his heart? He could feel the erratic beat deep in his chest. His resistance crashed and pulled her to him. “I…I don’t know. I need you, Kendall.”
In slow time he popped the buttons on her Levi’s one by one. He heard a sigh in her throat as he slid his fingertips along the lacy edge of her panties and just inside of the material. He found her lips, kissing the sigh away, stoking the burn that would soon meld them together.
Every inch of his body wanted her as he lowered his head to her chest, his lips closing around her collarbone, tongue dipping into the hollow. She pushed her fingers into his hair and he heard a sigh from deep in her throat.
Sliding his hand around onto Kendall’s bottom, he worked her pants down. Her skin was smooth, like fine powder. He hardened and fought for control as he pushed her pants down with his foot and shoved his own jeans off. A charge hung in the air around them. He moved the candle onto a shelf and lifted Kendall onto the counter. Reaching into the medicine cabinet he pulled out an unopened box of condoms.
“Let me.” Kendall took the box, a delighted and mildly devilish smile on her lips.
“Better check the expiration date.”
She tipped the box to the candlelight. “A month left. It’s our lucky night!”
He watched her face as she transferred the condom from the small package and his breathing went unchecked, his pulse hummed inside of his body so hard he thought he’d explode. Her thighs opened invitingly for him and he didn’t hesitate to press into her. She moaned low in her throat as he drove deeper, establishing a rhythm, grasping her hips with his hands for security.
Ecstasy turned him white-hot. He could feel her pleasure rising with his and she clawed his back, whispering his name near his ear as her mouth attached to the sensitive skin until she caught his lips with hers to muffle their cries.
He held her tightly in the afterglow, kissing her lips, her forehead, her neck, breathing in the sweet perfume of her body.
“It’s been a long time.”
Gently, he pulled her closer, stroking her hair, her cheek. “So much for the myth, single people have lots of sex. You’ve just broken my monkish streak.”
Her chuckle was soft. “They say married couples do it the most, you know.”
Brian thought of his relationship with Natalie. It had been good, but it’d never been like this, he’d never experienced the volume of emotional satisfaction that he felt right now. He wished the memories away . Back into the past where they’d come from. Far away form the woman in his arms. He’d always considered them lost treasure, to be dug up. Now he buried them, forever.
Kendall snuggled against him, feeling wisps of passion stir inside her again. She could feel the effect of love, but the words were lost to her. The last tether she’d tied on her heart pulled away.
“Can I interest you in a shower by candlelight?” His voice was low, suggestive.
“If I get to use the soap first.”
He released her and turned on the faucets. She drank in the hard lines of his body where the soft light touched it. The idea of sudsing him from head to toe and in between excited her. He was the most beautiful man alive, she decided as she hopped off the counter and took his hand. He smiled at her and her heart squeezed in her chest. She stepped into the tub with him and grabbed the soap.
He leaned against the streetlight and cast a glance at the lit window in the police station. Brian’s office. He could visualize Brian and Kendall inside, huddled together, squirming with fear. The image pounded deep down into his brain and he smiled.
Lucky…they’d been lucky. The bomb he’d planted hadn’t blown them to bits. The game was still on.
Dropping the butt of his cigar, he ground it into the sidewalk and pretended it was Littrell’s head. Turning, he pushed into the stream of night owls flocking the street.
Kendall stayed close to Brian as they moved down the alley, sticking to the shadows. They’d made love again and stayed in the shower for too long. She felt like a prune but her heart was happy.
The first rays of dawn were already stretched out to touch the darkness. They made it to the car and got inside. Kendall pulled the baseball cap she’d donned down a little farther. She hated feeling as though there was always someone watching her, but she decided to ignore it. This would end someday. Soon she would be with Kaden again, the creep making her life crazy would be locked up, and Brian…
She chanced a glance his way. Where would he be in the scheme of her life? She knew in her gut where she wanted him to be, but would love be enough to keep them together? Was her former life of crime and an FBI investigation going to sabotage their happiness?
She focused on the road as they pulled away from the curb. It was early. Five-thirty in the morning. The street was quiet, some houses had their lights on, but for the most part the neighborhood slept.
“Do you want to see it, Kendall?”
Instinctively she knew what he meant, and she thought about the piece of grillwork she’d taken off the mantel this morning and slipped into her pocket. ‘Yeah. Let’s go.”
Brian flipped a U-turn in the street and headed back toward the house, then turned onto a side street, pulled along the curb and stopped the car. She climbed out first, sensing his hesitancy. Stepping around to the front of the car, she stopped and waved him out.
He shut the car door and leaned against it. “I used to drive past here every day, until I couldn’t anymore. I started taking another route so I could avoid looking down this street. This is the first time I’ve been here in years. They were hit in the crosswalk, there.” He pointed back toward the main road. “No eyewitnesses. The cops figure the folks on the corner across the street would have seen something, but it was a Saturday night and no one was home.”
Kendall eyed the brick façade next to the car and the one on the other side of the narrow street. It felt as if a tunnel stretched the entire length of the block. The tall expanses would have prevented a good view from any direction. She tried to visualize what Natalie and Megan must have seen, but the image made her sick. There had been no escape.
“It was late that night.. There was a street fair going on a couple of blocks down. Natalie loved cotton candy and the excitement. She was determined that Megan should get in on some of the fun. I’d pulled six ten-hour shifts that week. I was beat. I told them to go. Just go and have fun. I kissed them and gave them a hug…that was the last time I saw them alive.”
“I’m sorry, Brian. I’m so sorry you lost them.” She moved in close to him and touched his hand.
His arms went around her. “Me, too. But I found you…” His hand came down and he kissed her, pulling back too soon.
“The next day I found the piece of grillwork at the end of the street in that storm drain.” He motioned down the corridor.
“Who’d have thought it would go that far?”
“You never know what can happen at an accident scene. Kinetics make the impossible, possible.”
She patted the metal in her pocket. She hadn’t told him she had it. She didn’t know if he’d prepared himself to see it fit into place, that was if they could get their hands on the actual piece of grillwork it had come from.
The music of her cell phone played inside her backpack. She slid the zipper and pulled out her phone. “Hello?”
“Kendall? It’s Andrew. I’ve got your information, but you’re probably too late.”
She watched Brian lean against the rear of the car and look away. His closure was dependent on this and so was hers. “Give it to me.”
“The buzz is a Porsche 944 went to a chopper about two weeks ago. It was a weird takedown and nobody wants to talk about it. There’s one person who seems to be in the know.”
“Who?”
“Seth Parker.”
Kendall’s emotions did a somersault and landed right side up. “Is he involved?”
“No…not directly, but he knows the takedown artist. He set him up. Seems he’s branching out. Word is nobody gets to the guy without going through him.”
“Thanks. Any word on the hot pink Jag seats?”
“Yeah. Your boy bought them at an aftermarket shop out in Kenner. The guy claimed the old seats in maroon leather were slashed up by his girlfriend after she found a pair of panties in the glove box that weren’t hers.”
“That’s a tall one.”
“There’s more. My buddy took the frames as a trade-in. He fond a couple of twenty-dollar bill corners clamped in the springs.”
“No kidding.”
“Would I lie to you? I don’t like the smell of this, Ken. If that was stolen drug money somebody is going to want it back. Anyone who touched that ride is a target and those guys don’t screw around.”
“I know. I’ll be careful.” She looked at Brian, who’d taken an interest in the conversation.
There was a long pause at the other end of the line. “Just come back to us. Mom’s doing so much better with Kaden here. He’s good for us all.”
Heat pressed into her cheeks and she looked at Brian, who’d moved to her side. “I will…soon. How is he?”
“Great, but he misses you.”
“Tell him I miss him, too…and that I love him.”
“Will do. Bye, now.”
The call ended and she rode out a surge of mixed emotions. The burn of tears stung her eyes, her throat squeezed, but she held on.
“Oh…Kendall…you can do this.” Brian put his arms around her and pulled her close.
She sucked in the warmth of him next to her, letting his nearness soothe the ache. “I know I can, but how much longer will this last?”
“I don’t know. We’ll get the other guy…soon. I promise.”
Brian’s heartbeat was steady underneath her ear and she pulled confidence from him. She had her child. His was gone. She could do this. She could hold on with everything she had.
“It’s Seth. He knows who chopped the Porsche 944. Andrew says we need to use him as a way in.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. But the car went to pieces weeks ago.” Disappointment flooded his face and his jaw muscles clenched.
“There’s got to be something left. Let’s go find it.” Brian started back to the car, holding Kendall’s hand.
The sound of a revved engine made his nerves jump. He scanned for the source of the sound, but it was too late.
The Honda was on them.
A flash of black that closed the gap at fifty miles per hour.
