"But I didn't hit them, Brian, as God as my witness, I didn't kill them. I'll tell you everything I know about that night. I promise...just...believe me. Please."
The chair creaked against the wooden deck. He anticipated her approach, but wasn't prepared when she touched his back with her hand. The gesture scorched him. He turned around, prepared to exact a price from her, but he stopped. Her hair had fallen over her face. Wet lines of tears slid from her eyes and dripped onto her chin. She looked like a child standing before him and her anguish released his mercy.
"Kendall." He brushed her hair behind her ears and pulled her into his arms. She was guilty of a felony. The statute of limitations hadn't run out. He could arrest her...maybe he should...but hadn't she just told him the very thing he wanted to hear? Where was the vindication he hungered for? That whisper of satisfaction down deep in his soul?"
"Come on. Sit down." He moved her into the chair and knelt in front of her. "May 10th, are you sure?"
"Yeah..." She sucked in a huge breath and wiped her eyes. "I boosted a silver Mercedes a block over, it was around eleven. I thought I'd been had. There were lights and sirens everywhere, but I realized there must have been an acicdent because they never came for me. I drove to the shop where Seth and Jake took the Mercedes apart."
His mind went numb. He'd seen the police report on the silver Mercedes and the timetable matched her account. Natalie and Megan were hit around eleven and the car was stolen in that time frame.
"Are you sure? Will you swear one of your brothers wasn't boosting that night?"
"It was me. I'm the one you want."
Relief surged in his mind and he pulled her against him again.
"I should have told you sooner, but the admission could put me away. I have Kaden to take care of, but it makes you right about me. I'll take whatever decision you make."
"Three days, Kendall. We're here for three more days. By the time we get back to New Orleans, the statute of limitations will almost be up." He held her, felt her body tremble as she warred with her emotions. He'd had his trust smashed and restored in the span of a few minutes. But what about her family? Could he trust their word, too?
"This is heavy stuff." She retreated and smoothed her tears. "You won't regret this. I promise." Her expression was soft, innocent, inviting.
His resistance crumbled like a mud brick and he lowered his mouth to hers, tasting her sweet coffee kiss with his mouth, soaking her into his soul.
Where the hell were they? He bit down hard on the butt of the cigar clamped between his teeth and brought his night-vision binoculars to his eyes.
Kendall's house was dark, too, just like Brian's. He hadn't expected there would be anyone there, but maybe Brian would screw up and allow her to come home for a night. Her Bronco was parked in the driveway where it had been for days, but he'd have known if it had moved.
"Dammit." Brian had taken them on the road. It would be harder to track them. Frustration sizzled and exploded inside of him. Brian would pay for this. He'd wait the stupid bastard out, but he wouldn't let it happen again.
He'd crawl inside Brian's mind and camp out. Anticipate his next move before he made it. Tossing the equipment onto the seat, he fired up the car engine. Rigging Brian's unit with LoJack could have saved him some sleep.
Anger simmered in his mind. They had to come back, and when they did, he'd be waiting...
Brian nosed into a parking spot at the side of the police station and shut off the engine. Kendall hadn't said two words to him since they'd left the protection of the cottage and her mood seemed to match the grey of the storm clouds overhead. "You owe me a set of elimination prints. Care to accompany me inside to central booking?"
"I'd rather walk over to Jackson Square and get a coffee."
He resisted the urge to touch her, then succumbed and brushed her cheek with his hand. "I can't let you do that."
"What are you worried about?" She looked at him, the glitter of challenge in her dark eyes barely concealed before she dropped her gaze. "I'm MacGyver, remember? You said so yourself."
That was before he'd kissed her. Before he'd seen her vulnerable nature, her tender heart. "I do remember. But we're not in the clear, not until I nail these creeps."
"I need to breathe. I want to feel normal again. Please..." Desperation shadowed her face and she gave him a half smile that depleted his resignation.
"Let's go upstairs. I think I have a solution."
They climbed out of the car and strolled to the rear entrance of the station. Brian punched in the security code and listened for the door lock to accept the numbers. He didn't often use the back door and he hoped he'd remembered them correctly. They hadn't been changed in eons. "How do you feel about police uniforms?"
"Not much of a fashion statement. Serviceable, but they'd look horrible on a runway."
That was the Kendall he wanted. The one he liked to be around. The door accepted the code and buzzed open. He turned the knob and followed her into the building.
"The service elevator is over here. I use it whenever I don't want to be spotted until I'm ready, but I can't beat that damn security camera." He gestured to the eye on the wall above the door.
"You? I'd never have taken you for an introvert."
"I'm not. But when Schneider wants my reports on his desk and they're not finished..."
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. "There are a couple of uniforms in the break room with curves in the right places. I think one of them might fit you. With a vest on underneath and an armed escort...I'll feel okay with you out in the real world."
"You can't be serious..."
"I am." The elevator glided to a stop and the doors opened.
"If that's what it takes to get a minute's worth of normality, I'll do it."
He led her along a narrow hallway. "My office is here and this is the break room."
"All the comforts of home?"
"Almost." He pulled open the door to a small closet. "These have been in here for so long, I don't remember who they belong to. This one looks good." He held it out for her to take. "You can put it on in the ladies' room down the hall. I'll get you a vest and send it up with a female officer."
"Brian?" He looked into her glowing brown eyes and saw a flash of gratefulness. "I'll be all right. I'll keep my head down, my senses on full alert."
"I know you will." He looked away and tried to shake the tension that bound up in the back of his neck. He'd have to be satisfied she would be safe without him hovering over her like a prison guard. "I'll get that vest. Officer Nelson can show you how to put it on. I'll see you downstairs."
"Are you sure this is legal? Won't I be impersonating an officer in this get-up?"
"Probably." He left her with a perplexed smile on her pouty lips and a sense of satisfaction in his mind. She was a long way from where she'd been five years ago, stealing cars, living life on the edge, to being decked out in blue.
He stalked into the patrol room and spotted Officer Trina Nelson, sipping coffee from a bright red mug.
She saw him and smiled. "Well...will you look what snuck in the back door?"
"You been hanging out in the tape room again, Trina?"
"Yeah, so I can stare at that gorgeous mug of yours."
"Your mug isn't so bad."
"I'll take that as a compliment, coming from you, but you're only here because your ears are on fire. Schneider thinks you went AWOL four days ago and he let everyone know."
"I did. Had some vacation time coming. Decided I'd get out of this hole. No secret there."
"It is if you vacationed with a material witness." She winked at him and raised her cup again, polished it off and set it down on the counter.
"Who fed you that line of bull?" Brian shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to relax.
"Just tread easy on Schneider. He's grouchy today."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I've got a favor to ask of you..."
"Ask away."
"That material witness is upstairs in the ladies' room with a uniform on. Do you think you can loan her your extra vest and show her how to put it on?"
Trina wrinkled her nose. "Sure. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride."
Brian shook his head. "Your time will come."
"Promises, promises." She brushed past him, smiling as she left the room.
Trina had always been a temptress and he enjoyed returning her suggestive banter, but it lacked its edge today.
"Hey, Littrell." Ryan Tassano entered the patrol room. "Schneider's gunning for you. He didn't look too happy when he found out you were in the building."
"As long as his face isn't red, I'm safe. Don't you have the foot patrol down in Jackson Square?"
"Yeah, I'm just in for a briefing on some purse snatchers. I should be back out there in ten."
"Would you escort my material witness?"
Ryan checked his watch. "Sure. If you give me five minutes, I'll meet you at the desk. Anything I should know?"
He considered the officer's question. He couldn't tell him how dangerous Kendall really was to his state of mind. "Don't let her out of your sight. A couple of thugs are stalking her and they mean business. She wants to go over to Cafe du Monde. She's not a prisoner. She can do it with or without my approval...just so you know, she's wearing a uniform. Together you'll look like a couple of beat cops on the job."
"No problem. What kind of timetable are we..."
Following Ryan's line of sight at the point his words had trailed off, he found Kendall outlined in the doorway of the patrol room.
"Snap out of it, Ryan. You have a fetish for women in blue?"
"No. But that's the best blue I've seen in a while."
Brian let his stare linger on her longer than he should have and closed his mouth the moment he realized it hung open.
"I don't," Ryan said, turning to him, eyebrows raised, "but you do."
Brian glared at him and wished he could wipe the knowing smile off Ryan's face without violence. "Just take care of her. I'm going down to smooth things over with Schneider. Half an hour, forty-five minutes. If you aren't back, I'll come looking."
"Don't I know it," Ryan said. "I'd come looking, too."
Brian brushed past Kendall and pulled in a breath of the scent he'd come to associate with her, heavy on exotic floral. "Nice outfit, Miss McKinley."
"Thank you, Officer." She smiled at him as he slipped into the elevator and turned to face her. She was a beautiful woman. Strong, sexy, approachable and attractive even in uniform. The doors slid shut and he relaxed against the wall. He was screwed. In over his head. Drowning.
The elevator stopped and he stepped out, resisting the urge to tiptoe past the front desk. He ducked into Schneider's office and closed the door behind them.
His boss had just raised a coffee cup to his mouth when he spotted Brian over the rim and grinned. "Here for your lashing?"
"Something like that. You did a heck of a job convincing everyone I'd flaked out with my witness in tow."
"You like that, huh? Nothing like a pissed off supervisor with a big mouth to get things stirred up. Now, you want to tell me why you wanted the information tossed around like beads at Mardi Gras?"
Brian pulled a stick of gum out of his shirt pocket and folded it into his mouth deftly. "Kendall McKinley. Repossession agent."
"Your material witness?"
"That and a lot more. She led me to a chopper with some information."
Surprise crossed Schneider's face and disappeared into his laugh lines. "What ya got, Brian?"
"Smuggling, but that's not the worst of it. Rumor on the street is there's a cop involved. If he's in this department, I wanted to be sure he knew we'd disappeared."
"You're not making sense."
"Callahan found a tracking device on her car and there was one on Otis's BMW. I hope the suspects will make a move to install LoJack on my unit. Maybe we'll get them this time." Brian let out a breath, desperate to pull it together. "I think she's been repossessing cars loaded with something. What, I don't know. But I believe Otis, Romaro and Durant were all in on the same action. Kendall's list of repo jobs ties them all together. Somewhere things went sour."
Schneider cleared his throat and rocked back in his chair. "Durant was caught with a load of cash. What if that's our contraband? Our cop is taking a cut and offering them protection in return?"
"Makes sense. Maybe Otis and Romaro tried to slip out with the green and our guy killed them, but Durant got away?" Brian rolled the scenario in his mind. "It still doesn't explain why he's after Kendall."
"Have you picked her brain for information, connections, anything?"
"Yes."
"Is it possible she beat our suspects to the money in the BMW, and now they want it back? It's motive, Brian."
"Her only contact is with a middleman, David Copeland, cell phone only, no face-to-face."
"I'll subpoena everyone's phone records, see if we can locate him, get an address."
"Besides, I've been with her from the moment she took the Beamer."
"This whole thing stinks like a federal case. The FBI can't be too far behind the smell. I've got a buddy in the bureau. I'll give him a call."
"Woah, Ben. I want my witness protected. This is all speculation. We need some solid evidence before we bring them in and if it's drug money, every law enforcement agency with an acronym is coming to the party."
"Then you better get on it." Schneider shot him a smile. "Just make sure you keep Ms. McKinley safe."
"I'm doing my best. We're moving 24/7."
"Good, keep it that way."
Brian sat back in his chair. "Is Whittley's autopsy in?"
"Came in yesterday. Died from a stab wound directly to the heart, but there were additional stab wounds on the body. All shallow, non-lethal."
"Torture?"
"Looks that way."
"What about the butcher knife?"
"The M.E. says it was done after the fatal wound was inflicted."
"Someone wanted something from him pretty bad. Maybe a stack of money?"
"That would be my guess." Ben picked up his coffee mug and took a swallow. "If the money thing plays out, where is it?"
"Spent, stashed. Who knows? but I can save you some time on the knife in Otis's chest. It was stolen from Kendall's house a couple of months ago. You'll find it listed on the break-in report along with some missing personal items. I'll vouch for her. She never had the time to kill him, or hammer the knife in."
"Figures, but there might be some hope for finding out who did. We got good news this morning off the fax machine. Orlando Durant is heading our way. He fought extradition and lost. He claims he has information about Otis and Romaro. He wants protection."
"That would mean he knows the kind of suffering Whittley and Romaro's killer can inflict, but does he know who the killer is?" Brian shifted in his chair, uncomfortable with the knowledge that these guys wanted Kendall.
"I won't know until I question him, but maybe we can get something from another source. Otis has an elderly mother. Mary Whittley. She's been notified of his death, but she was too upset to be questioned about his activities. She's in Spring Hill Retirement Home." Schneider pulled out a notepad and scribbled down the address. "I don't suppose you'd like to handle that?"
"Love to." Brian stood up and took the paper. "We've got something serious on our hands."
Schneider nodded. "Tough part is that you never know who will get pulled in."
"I'll keep you informed."
"See that you do."
Kendall picked up the small coffee cup and wished it was a large mug the moment the strong liquid touched her tongue and flowed down her throat. She missed normal. Over the rim of the cup she eyed Officer Tassano. He was cute, but too boyish around the eyes, she decided when she found herself comparing him to Brian. Her heart rate shot up, but she related it to the jolt of caffeine she'd just swallowed. Still, she couldn't keep him off her mind.
Staring out toward the Mississippi, she tried unsuccessfully to stop the images, and focused on the officer as a distraction. "How long have you been with the police department?"
An ear-splitting boom shattered her question and she dove for cover under the table.
"What the hell?!" Officer Tassano botled to his feet as another explosion shook the square and rattled the dishes above her head.
She stood up and stared in the direction the explosions had come from.
Reality was beginning to sink into the crowd. Like hundreds of frightened animals, people absorbed the panic. She could see it in the twisted looks on their faces. Everyone skittered for cover.
Another explosion rang out in Jackson Square.
"Come on, let's get back to the station." Officer Tassano began to work through the unstable crowd outside of the open cafe.
Kendall struggled to keep up with him. Fear worked in her stomach and split her nerves as the roar of the crowd grew to a crescendo and the panicked mass turned into a stampeding mob.
She tried to spot the officer, but she was being bumped and pulled along in the throng of people. Brian. The need for his protection came alive inside of her as she pushed against the crowd, trying desperately to work her way across the square. Focused on the spires of the St. Louis Cathedral, she fought against the infectious panic that shimmered through her body. Brian would come, he would find her, if only she could get close to him.
The feel of a large hand on her wrist gave her an instant of relief, but it was followed by horror when she looked up into the face of a man she didn't know.
"Let go!" She jerked her hand, but he held her fast, pulled her into the bushes and forced her to the ground.
His eyes were wild, his movements jerky, like an addict in need of a fix. "Shut up!" he bellowed, looking around.
The protest died on the end of her tongue. The gleam of a knife blade protruded from his fist. She looked for a way out, but they were tucked behind a bank of shrubs. Lost in a foliage jungle, while the world went crazy outside. Brian would never find her in time. Terror burned inside of her and she stared at the man in front of her, at the knife he moved so close to her throat she could almost feel it bite into her flesh.
"Where is it, bitch? Where's the money you took from the car?"
The slap of Schneider's office door against its stop brought Brian's head around. Ben Schneider was a big man and Brian felt the floor beneath his feet tremble as Ben rushed out of his office and stalled at the front desk.
"Get SWAT and every available officer down to Jackson Square. All hell broke loose."
Brian whirled around. Kendall was down there. "What's going on?"
"Someone set off a load of smoke grenades. The whole place looks like a war zone."
Images of Kendall spun in his head. His legs felt super-charged as he raced out of the main doors at a full run, headed for the Square, via Royal Street. He bolted around the corner at Pirates Alley, and slammed into a wall of people charging away from the scene, their faces pinched with fear. Swept along in their midst, he was being pulled farther and farther from Kendall.
Brian lunged for a lamppost, wrapped his arms around the solid upright and climbed onto the concrete base. From his vantage point he scanned the crowd, desperation gripping his muscles. The entire square was umbrellaed in a blanket of thick white smoke. People sat where they'd fallen in the ensuing panic. The SWAT team moved deliberately around the square, sweeping the area.
Most of the smoke canisters no longer spewed. Only a couple continued to emit puffs of smoke.
He looked into the sea of people behind him and hoped for a glimpse of Kendall, but she wasn't there. Worry twisted in ihs stomach. If anything happened to her...
"Money...I...I don't have any money..."
"You're lying. I'm going to cut you." For an instant he hesitated.
Run. Kendall scrambled to her feet, but he pulled her down hard and straddled her. She closed her eyes, the blade of the knife sticky against her sweat-slicked throat.
For an instant the smoke parted and Brian saw the bob of a head behind a bank of hedges. His breath caught on the edge of his heart. He bailed off the lamppost and sprinted toward the spot, surprised by the amount of relief that invaded his body, but there was caution, too, and he pulled his gun as he approached the thicket.
Brian dropped below the top of the hedge and glanced down the row. Terror rolled inside of him and his heart jumped in his chest as he recoiled. A man straddled Kendall, a knife to her throat. A sick sensation of deja vu shot into his mind and cleared his common sense. One wrong move and she'd be dead.
