.38 Caliber Cover-Up
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She watched him fix that gorgeous smile back on his face. Yes, it was totally for her benefit. And it was halfway doing its job.
“It doesn’t matter. I won’t be approved to work with you.”
“Who are we asking?”
Erren stared as O’Malley didn’t crack a smile.
“You aren’t sanctioned for this operation?” She continued to nervously drum her fingers on the console between the seats. “There’s no chance your supervisor can help clear this incident? No safe contact?”
“Let’s say the DEA will be ecstatic when I’m not causing any more problems. Pike was my safe contact. Always has been.”
“Good grief, you can’t mean to find Pike’s killer completely on your own. Especially with no plan or backup or resources.”
“I’ve got you, babe.”
“Why do you need me?”
Erren had no specific answer, but wasn’t it obvious? She wasn’t his partner, only an unanswered question in his investigation.
“Somehow Pike’s death has connected us, O’Malley.”
“Do you have a theory about that?”
“I don’t know who left the map leading me to your house.” Had she opened her eyes the slightest bit wider? “Maybe you do. Can we discuss this while you drive?”
Glowering, his reluctant detective turned the key, shoved her Camry in gear and merged back into traffic. The photo had come from Butthead. His working theory? Beavis and Butthead would pick him up, follow the map and kill them both in her living room, leaving the picture. He didn’t know why yet…it was only a theory.
But something more than Pike’s picture had convinced her to come with him. He didn’t care why as long as she delivered Pike’s stuff and he could finish the job. He would find the murderer, give him what he deserved and disappear. Simple. Yeah, he definitely had a plan.
“Tell me exactly what’s going on.”
“I was ambushed. My cover’s blown. And my Dallas handler disappeared when shots were fired.”
“If they decided to take you out, no offense, but it wouldn’t require an ambush or shooting their own men. And that doesn’t explain the Dallas P.D.’s involvement.”
That x-ray vision of hers was starting to unnerve him. She looked as if she could see through the persona he cloaked himself with on the street. The same personality that had kept him alive for six years. He couldn’t afford to exchange innuendos or smiles with her, just the facts.
“It was a setup. Whoever was at the end of the alley wasn’t with Beavis and Butthead. Those two guys were as surprised to see the cops as I was.”
“Or impersonators,” she said loyally. She wasn’t naïve, just staunch. Even after a dirty cop tried to kill her.
“I tried to surrender, but they kept firing.”
“And missed.” There she went shaking her head again. “So what were they really after? Your credibility? What’s your usual procedure when something like this happens?”
“Never happened.”
Why did he suddenly sound as if he was lying? He was an excellent liar. But he was telling the truth. So why did her questioning make him feel like a liar? He must have hit his head harder than he remembered. “I have to be close to something, because they want me out of the picture. But why not dead?”
“Dead doesn’t go away.” Her voice was emotionless and unsettling. “It gets cops crawling out of the woodwork, which is something they probably don’t need.”
Right answer. And logical. Pike had said O’Malley was one of the best. Yeah, she might have that rare quality he could admire. And admiration wasn’t something he spared for too many people—especially cops. Strangely, it was there the first time he’d looked into the detective’s emerald-green eyes. And he still didn’t know her first name.
“If I help you—”
“If?” Better for her to know there wasn’t a choice.
She shot him a look like… Just what was that look? Cute, yes. That one curious eyebrow thing suggested he was the crazy one and she was totally in control.
“If I decide to help you, we’re partners,” she stated.
“Now wait a minute.”
“Equal in all decisions.”
“I don’t care how much undercover experience you think you have.”
“Equals.” Looking straight ahead, she was confident again and his insides were jumping.
“Nope.” He didn’t really have a choice and he could see the control slipping from his fingers. What was it about this woman that got under his skin? “No way.”
Lie.
All he had to do was lie. Agree with her until he got the package. Other than “south,” she’d given no other directions. He still didn’t have a clue where they were headed. He could lead her to believe they were collaborating. Nothing new about that. So why did he feel compelled to be honest?
“This is for real, O’Malley. Don’t think for a second they won’t kill us.” Even in the dark, he was certain her knuckles turned white from her death grip on the wheel. “We can pretend to be equals, but it’ll be my experience that’s going to keep us alive. Got it?”
Truth had spewed from his mouth. She must have agreed since she didn’t disagree. He leaned back in the seat, very aware of the condition of his clothes. Everything hurt. His side wasn’t exactly on fire, but it wasn’t nice and comfy either. He clamped his hand over the wet gauze. As long as he stayed immobile he was fine, but he needed a couple of stitches or some Krazy Glue.
“I guess you should issue your orders using my name. It’s Darby.”
The unusual name fit. Darby O’Malley. Nice. A complete Irish bundle with dazzling red hair.
“Can you make out that alert sign?” she asked.
They were on a major thoroughfare cutting through Dallas, and the flashing alert ahead of them had nothing to do with road construction.
“Abducted. White female. Suspect armed. Silver Camry TX SGT MJR3.” It was worse than he’d originally thought, but he couldn’t let O’Malley know that. “You have personalized plates?”
“How can they think I was abducted? He said he was a cop.”
“The cop lied. You’re a smart woman. Don’t you know how the real world works?”
“What could he accomplish? He shot up my house and nearly killed us.”
“Darby.” She wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “He’ll report I had your weapon and fired first. The entire state will be looking for this car and the man who abducted a cop. I’ve shot another. It’s the perfect excuse to fire first and ask questions later. And you’ll probably be hit in the cross fire.”
“You don’t have any proof. He didn’t even know you were there.”
Her loyalty would be their downfall. He could predict that scenario easily enough. She trusted law enforcement too completely.
“I spotted the cop watching you on the first pass by your house. He probably got notification of your 911 call featuring an injured white male.”
“I knew he was after you.”
“Wrong. They’re after whatever Pike left in your care. Remember?” It wasn’t hard to notice her sharp, indrawn breath and the quirk of her eyebrow. “You asked about your brother earlier. Is there another reason the cops are interested?”
“Michael’s wanted for questioning.”
Her hesitation gave her away. She was lying. He could figure out why later. Right now he had to keep them free from any authority who would prevent him from working the case. He wasn’t quitting until he had proof enough to put a needle in the arm of Pike’s murderer.
She changed lanes quickly, heading for an exit.
“Stay on the highway. It might be better to take a side road, but we’ll be in Mesquite in fifteen minutes. There’s a gas station that sells T-shirts off Interstate 30. I don’t think we should try to pick anything up in this car.”
She didn’t object. She didn’t talk for several minutes.
“There’s no one you can call to let them know what we’re doing?” she eventually asked, her voice seeking the confirmation they were proceeding down the correct path.
“I don’t trust anybody. Neither should you.”
He heard her low throaty growl of frustration. He closed his eyes again, trying to recall the handler’s face who had set him up so thoroughly tonight.
Strangely enough he could only picture Darby at the moment she chose to help him. The panic that flooded her eyes had been conquered and set aside with one determined heartbeat.
This woman was more than under his skin and he hadn’t even known her a full hour.
Chapter Three
“Cuffs?” Erren asked. “Do we really need to go there?”
Darby killed the engine and twisted between the steering wheel and the backseat where she’d thrown the bulky gun belt earlier.
“On the off chance you’re thinking you don’t need me to retrieve Pike’s package, think again. You’re also a suspect in a shooting and not going anywhere without me.”
“Just for the record.” There was an abundance of self-confidence in his every action. Even while he leaned from the passenger seat to snap the cuffs into place—one around each wrist with the steering wheel between. “This is the last time we’ll need to do this.”
“Really?”
“I’ll be giving the orders if you want to tag along to find Pike’s murderer.” God, he reeked of arrogance. “I can do this op in my sleep.”
The man was a complete conundrum. Smiling one minute, burnt-out agent the next. She popped the trunk and went for her jacket, slipping her Glock into the pocket.
Covering her blood-soaked T-shirt, she retrieved the keys from the seat, slammed the door and trotted to the restroom to clean up. She yanked the shirt from her body and shoved it deep into the trash can, splashing cold water on her flushed skin. Wetting paper towels, she smeared the blood on her side to a weak pink stain. The smear would have to do. She shook the drops of water from her fingers and zipped her jacket to the neck.
She’d taken four minutes. Tops. But the sinking feeling in her stomach bubbled into her throat as she opened the restroom door and looked out the glass storefront.
Her car was gone.
“I am such an idiot!” She ran out and around the corner, finding no trace of her vehicle.
“I wouldn’t say that, Detective.”
Heaven help her, he’d gotten close enough that his breath warmed her neck. Tingles traveled to every nerve ending in her body. Her hand jumped to her pocket. Empty.
“Looking for this?”
Darby fisted her fingers, spun around and knocked the agent’s hands in the air. Instead of dislodging the gun, he avoided the collision, ejected the magazine and the round from the chamber. In a mere couple of seconds, he was holding her weapon on his palm, stretching it toward her.
“Holy cow. Take it easy. If I’d wanted a gun, I would have taken the one from the console.”
She snatched the pistol back a split second later. But not before her cold fingers had been pierced by his warmth.
“How—”
“Master pickpocket, a handy talent I acquired my first year undercover. Also helps getting rid of the bracelets.” He shook his left wrist where the handcuffs were still attached. “I removed the ignition key from your ring while you were getting your jacket.”
Rookie move. She hadn’t left the keys in the seat—he had. She shoved the gun back into her jacket. The last thing they needed was for some overanxious gas clerk to call in a robbery.
“Who are you?” This guy was good and she was a complete idiot. But it wouldn’t happen again.
Erren raised a finger, pointed toward the car parked in the dark along the back fence. “No one’s going to ding it there. And they might not notice those custom plates if we’re lucky.”
If she spoke, she’d sputter. She was certain of it and very grateful he saved her from responding when he headed inside the convenience store. She followed. No one else was around, but she wasn’t taking any more risks. She stood at the men’s door, hearing him curse the man who had hit his face. While the air blower rumbled to life and echoed off the restroom tile, she paid for a notepad and two Texas souvenir T-shirts.
Why deny that the man was good at what he did?
She shook her shoulders, attempting to free herself from the tingle still within her body. If she had any sense, she’d have the clerk call 911. Let the real police sort through the mess. Proper channels, that’s what she needed. Not a chance. “Going rogue” with her mysterious and most certainly dangerous new partner was exactly the choice she needed. She could tell herself it was for Pike and Michael, but the quiver that went through her body… The reaction when his breath had skittered along her neck made her wonder if those were her only reasons.
No matter what, she couldn’t allow his mysterious appeal to derail her from her mission—proving Michael’s innocence.
He opened the door and her brain stalled. His hair was slicked back and a richer dark brown. No two-tone golds in sight. She tossed the shirt, hitting his bare chest. Standing in the open doorway, he pulled the red, white and blue cotton over his head and across the best abs she’d ever seen.
“I’ll wait outside.”
The T-shirt hugged the abs she had to stop thinking about. She didn’t wait. He followed right on her heels.
“Don’t feel bad, sweetheart.” His arm brushed hers as they rounded the corner.
“Who said I did?” Had he caught her ogling him?
“You. Every emotion you have is plainly displayed for the average Joe to see.” A small speck of blood on his forehead indicated he’d dug the gravel from his scrape. “It’ll be better if you stick to the truth as much as possible. Or don’t say anything.”
“What are you talking about?”
He kept his hand against his side with those long legs of his moving at a steady pace toward the car. No one would have guessed he’d been knifed.
She tossed the plastic sack in the backseat. Shoot. The cocky SOB had gotten her out of the store before she’d put the shirt on. She couldn’t leave him alone again. The jacket would have to do.
It was preposterous to think she was running from the police. Paranoid to think a cop tried to kill them. Unbelievable to think she felt safer in her car with a stranger than at home. And totally logical that she’d do anything to find her brother and clear his name.
The door shut, rocking the car ever so slightly. Unlike her self-confidence, which was rocked to her core.
“Well, Darby, where to now?”
“We need another car. My brother won’t ask any questions.” But the Sergeant Major certainly would.
“I thought you said your brother was missing.”
“My younger brother, Michael. Yes.” She put the car in gear and pulled away. “My older brother Sean is in Plano this weekend.”
“Will we be asking for his vehicle or exchanging?”
There was enough surrounding light to distinguish that hint of conceit and rogue smile.
Dear God, it was too embarrassing to think she was attracted to this DEA agent. But why not? His dry wit hadn’t turned disrespectful with her inexperience. She would concentrate on what she did best. Attraction didn’t help but it wouldn’t hinder them finding her brother.
“ERREN. COME ON, WAKE UP.”
Darby’s sensual voice penetrated a fog in Erren’s brain, a depth he rarely allowed himself to get to while on a job. A real dream. And he had a weird feeling Darby had been the star. He inched his lids open. The sun ricocheted off the mirror straight into his eyes.
“I fell asleep?”
Darby leaned on the steering wheel, furiously writing. The details of her face were hidden by her crazy, curly hair falling in front of a rounded cheekbone.
“Understatement. You’ve been snoring like an asthmatic hound for a couple of hours.”
Him? Sleep? Not possible. He’d blame it on the knife wound and call it passing out. Twice in one night? Never happened. He’d never live it down. Of course, no one would ever know. Darby had no one to tell, and he couldn’t joke about it with Pike.
Pike was permanently gone.
Shifting so the warmth of the sun left his face, he flexed his stiff muscles. Stretched his side. No pain.
Darby paused, placing the tip of the pen in her mouth and tapping it between her teeth. That type of annoying habit usually bothered him, but he was more concerned with the intense concentration in her eyes when she faced him.
“Time to go. They’re almost up,” she said matter-of-factly, but placed the pen back to her paper, continuing to write.
This brother must be an early riser. Most days about this time, Erren was heading to bed. He hid a yawn behind a full stretch of his arms. He’d live on a couple of hours of sleep. But what about his new partner?
The pen stopped racing back and forth in her fingers. She tapped it a couple of times against the steering wheel, then wrote something on the paper and closed the notebook. She’d made some type of decision the previous night. Something had convinced her to stay with him. Whether it was searching for the package or finding out why the cops wanted her out of the way—it didn’t matter.
Taking credit would be nice, but realistically, she couldn’t trust him this soon. Whatever had happened to keep her on his side, he liked this confident woman.
“Anywhere to get coffee around here?” he asked, catching his first look at where they were. “Somewhere in this field? I thought we were heading to your brother’s place.”
They were parked next to a truck connected to a small trailer. He couldn’t see around it, blocked by yet another truck on the far side. Trees stood in front of them and cars lined the road to their left. There seemed to be a lot of empty cars, but no people.
“We’re parked next to my brother’s truck. I’m sure the Sergeant Major’s got a thermos of coffee at his camp.” She looked at her watch. “But we won’t be here that long.” She placed the notepad in the console and turned the key to lock it away. “Tic Tac?”
He held out his hand and she shook two of the breath mints from their container. “Okay, I’m as curious as the next guy. What were you writing? And who is the Sergeant Major?”
“It’s a summary of last night. I’m documenting our movements. Things tend to get jumbled together if an officer waits too long to write down his or her notes.”
Cops like her made cops like him nervous. He’d have to get a look later on. First things first. They needed another vehicle.
“Time to move. The balloon’s up and the Sergeant Major will be headed to the john.” She got out of the car and he followed around the parked trucks into a crowd of people.
“Balloon? And who is this Sergeant Major?” What the Sam Hill was she leading him into? A brother is one thing, but a sergeant major of what exactly?
“Yeah, it’s the Plano Balloon Festival.”
“And your brother is working here?” His confidence slipped a notch with the nervousness he recognized in his voice. Things lifting off the ground always made him edgy.
“They’re amateur balloonists. He and my dad own their own rig. It’s the Young Blades balloon.”
Did she know she was talking in code?
They wove in and out of busy people, half-inflated balloons and giant baskets lying on their sides. No one questioned them and a few people even waved at Darby. It was obvious that she was at home and in her element.
“You might want to keep your head down. Someone might have heard about your disappearance,” he advised.
“It’s not much farther.” She ignored his advice and waved at another couple.
Erren watched her stride through the bedlam. Clearly these people were crazy to inflate objects to carry them where only birds were meant to go. Hot air balloons ranked just below hang gliding and parasailing. Skydiving would never be on the list since he’d never be in an airplane.
Give him a knife fight in a dark alley any day.
“Sean’s not alone yet.” She came to an abrupt halt. “Hold on.”
Turning her back on an inflated balloon and the two men securing ropes, she brushed off imaginary lint from his shoulders. Definitely hiding her face from the men.
The balloon was huge, dwarfing the trees, with markings like gold blades or sabers against an array of army drab.
“I think the guy you keep referring to as the Sergeant Major headed south.”
She peeked over her shoulder, spun and almost skipped to her brother. Same build, same hair, same features. It looked better on Darby. “Hey, Sean.”
“Cool, I didn’t think you could make it this weekend.” Sean finished securing the balloon. “The Sergeant Major’s in for a surprise.”
“More than you know.” Darby gave the man about his age a hug.
“Who’s this?” Sean jerked his head toward Erren.
“Richard Paladin. Nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out, received a solid shake and a complete once-over from big brother.
Darby’s eyebrow shot straight up, but she also gave him an approving look for using a different name.
“What’s up? Why didn’t you call?”
Erren turned to give her a bit of privacy, and took the opportunity to look around. No Sergeant Major guy in sight. No police cars that he could see. Nothing to indicate they would be spotted and hauled to jail for attempted kidnapping or murder.
The siblings whispered, but weren’t completely quiet.
“He’ll never go for it,” Sean exploded, his voice loud and sharp. He backed away from Darby. “I won’t let you ruin your career for Michael. He’s in a coma, guarded in a hospital somewhere. We can’t be there for him anymore. You have to stop.”
“He’s innocent,” she said.
So Michael was her true motivation? Good to know.
“Let the police prove it. When are you going to admit that he’s not one of the good guys?”
“I have to do this, Sean. He’d do it for us. You know he would.” But her voice wasn’t laced with complete conviction. “All I need is your truck.”
“I don’t loan my truck to anyone.”
“Keys, please.”
Darby held out her hand and her brother dug in his pocket, pulling out keys. The words being spoken didn’t reflect their actions, but he couldn’t relate. He hadn’t experienced this type of relationship. No brothers or sisters and no family since high school. If they weren’t in a hurry, he’d want to examine their actions more.
“Anything else?”
“Well, if you could let the Sergeant Major know I’m working undercover and haven’t been abducted.”
“Is that all?” Sean scrubbed his face with both hands, clearly exasperated.
“Time to go, Darby. Cop at ten o’clock.” Erren placed himself between Darby and the Sergeant Major, who was headed their way with a police officer.
“If they find you here, you won’t make it past the perimeter gate,” Sean warned.
Darby looked at Erren. “Quick. Into the basket.”
“We can’t hide in a basket.” Was she crazy? He wasn’t getting in that death trap. Not even to escape. His gut tightened, tying knots on top of the knots already there.
“We’ll go up,” Darby insisted. “Tell him Richard’s proposing.”
“You know he’ll never—”
“We’ll already be in the air. Tell him the guy paid you five hundred.”
Sean shook his head. “He’s going to be megapissed.”
Erren heard the conversation, but it didn’t register. The cop was closing in and the thought of going up had his blood pounding in his ears. “Nothing short of a gun to my head will make me get in that thing.”
“How about cuffs around your wrists? And this time, they won’t be mine.”
“Not happening.” He searched the crowd for another option.
“We’ve spent all night avoiding the police because you believed there’s a conspiracy. If we’re going to retrieve Pike’s package, we have to be free of the authorities.” With an exasperated huff, she grabbed his arm and tugged him forward. “Get in the basket. Now.”
She was right. The cop advanced. There was one way out. Up.
He hated…up.
“I’ve got it, Sean. Thanks. This should work.”
There wasn’t a step, so he hopped over the side, trying not to think about the consequences.
“Yeah, but you’ll have to deal with the Sergeant Major when you come down,” her brother said.