Best Laid Plans (42 page)

“I wish I could help, but it’s hospital policy.”

“It’s a fucked policy!”

This was why he didn’t follow rules. He should have hacked into the hospital computer and found her himself.

“You’re going to have to leave.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“I’m calling security.” She didn’t need to call security, one of the SAPD officers came over to them.

“Sir, you’re going to have to leave.”

It took all of Sean’s self-control to force himself to speak calmly. “I need to see Agent Kincaid now.”

Barry Crawford walked over and showed his badge to the officer. “I’ll take care of this.” He escorted Sean down the hall, away from the skeptical nurse and the rest of the cops. “Lucy’s okay, Sean. She’s in x-ray right now.”

Why x-ray? Was it more serious than Lucy had told him?

Barry took Sean into a small, empty office. He pulled out his cell phone and said, “I downloaded the security feed from the parking lot. Zach and our tech people are putting together every feed from the area, but this one will tell you what you need to know.”

Sean didn’t want to watch the feed, but he needed the minute to calm down. He saw Tia exit the building. Right behind her was Lucy, her right wrist cuffed to Elise’s left wrist, because Elise’s right arm was in a sling. They weren’t in a protective formation—they hadn’t expected trouble. The transport van was twenty feet down from the entrance. Almost immediately, Lucy’s body lurched forward. She grabbed Elise, putting her body between Elise and the parking lot, and pushed her into the bushes against the building. Tia was shot twice, first in the torso, then in the leg. Barry was only two feet away, blocked by a pillar, firing back.

Sean grabbed the phone and played the beginning in slow motion.

The first shot hit Lucy in the back.

She went down with Elise, obscured by the hedge, and Tia pulled her gun but couldn’t get a shot fired. She was blocking the shooters’ target. If Tia hadn’t been standing where she was, the bullet’s trajectory would have hit Lucy as she started going down. The second bullet hit Tia’s leg, which easily could have hit Lucy even though she was behind the hedge by that point.

“Lucy was the target,” Sean said.

Barry frowned. “No. Elise was the target. They were shooting at Lucy to get to Elise.”

Sean didn’t say anything. He knew different.

“Where is she?”

“I know you’re worried, but Lucy was wearing a vest. She acted quickly, did everything she was supposed to do. I talked to her. She’s fine, but the doctor wanted an x-ray to make sure that there were no cracked or broken ribs. She
is
okay, Sean. As soon as the doctor clears her, she’ll be out here. Give it a few more minutes. And stay away from the hospital staff—they’re ready to toss you out.”

“What else do you know, Barry?” Sean asked.

“I can’t tell you that, Sean.”

“I’ll find out.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“Do you know who hired the call girl?”

“We have a solid suspect, but I’m not telling you who it is. He’s most likely behind this hit. We have agents on their way to pick him up right now.”

That means it wasn’t Tobias. Because law enforcement had no idea who he was or where he was located.

“Wait here,” Barry said. “I’ll get you when Lucy is out of x-ray.”

Barry left and Sean called Nate. “Nate, who’s the suspect behind the shooting at the hospital? Crawford said agents had been sent out to arrest him, but he refused to tell me who.”

“I’ll tell you on one condition.”

“I’m not going to go after him.”

“Swear.”

“I swear, Nate. I have some pieces to the puzzle, but I need this one. I suspect there’s a connection between this case and what happened two months ago. When my brother was in Mexico.”

Nate knew what had really happened down there, but Sean didn’t completely trust FBI phones, so was discreet.

“How certain are you?”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t almost positive.”

“The girl confirmed that Rob Garza hired her to take dirty pictures of Worthington, and that he gave her the syringe. She swears she didn’t know the drugs would kill him.”

“She just gave him up?”

“No—it took being nearly killed twice to scare her into cooperating. Kenzie and two other agents are on their way to Garza’s office right now. They’ll bring him in for questioning, but I swear, Sean, if you retaliate, I can’t protect you.”

“I won’t. Thanks, buddy.”

Sean hung up and called Donnelly. “Where are you?”

“Trying to get into the hospital. It’s a fucking zoo out here.”

“I’m on the fourth floor. A private office, room E four-oh-four. Hurry.”

*   *   *

Adeline had been trying to reach Tobias’s people all day. Nothing. Nothing!

Her life was over. She was going to lose everything.

She straightened her spine. Never. She was too strong, too powerful to take this hit sitting down. She had plenty of money, plenty of resources.

She found Joseph Contreras in his small, tidy office off the kitchen. “You have to find Tobias, or someone! Tell them I’ll pay him. Everything he thinks I owe. And more.”

“I’ve tried, Adeline.” Joseph looked pained and worried. “I’m concerned about you. I think we’ve underestimated this man.”

“I don’t know how! He was left with
nothing
two months ago. How could he do this to me?”

“Maybe he had a bigger network than we thought.”

She didn’t see how that could be, but there was no other logical explanation.

“Then we need to take a vacation,” she said.

“Tonight?”

It was already afternoon. It would take time to liquidate money. There was plenty in her offshore accounts, but very little—since Jolene’s lawyers had frozen all of Harper’s assets pending distribution per his will—cash on hand.

“Tomorrow morning. We need to quickly and quietly drain my accounts.”

“Should I call Rob?”

“No,” she snapped. “I don’t trust him. Even if he had nothing to do with bringing that whore to San Antonio, there’s something strange about that whole situation. He screws her in D.C. and two months later she’s here? Either Rob is playing both sides, or he’s an idiot. No one can know what I’m planning. Don’t use any of my phones. I don’t trust the feds. Who do they think they are coming in here and treating me like a criminal? I’m an elected official! I’m their
boss.
”

She paced, angry and nervous and scared. “Have everything ready by tomorrow and we’ll leave, first thing in the morning.” She froze. “You will come with me, right?”

Joseph smiled and rose from his desk. He was a tall man, with a hardened expression, but still very handsome. He’d been with her for nearly five years, and was the only one she could truly depend on.

He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her lightly. “I am honored that you want me to join you. I promise, I’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“You always do,” she said, a bit breathless. They’d only slept together a couple of times, but each time had been a slice of heaven. “Do you want…?” She left the thought open.

“Yes,” he said, running his thumb over her lips. “But I have much work to do to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. In two nights, we’ll be in Andorra. And then … we’ll let nature take its inevitable course.”

He was right, of course. She was just feeling a bit lost right now. And scared. “The guards are still here, right?”

“Of course, Adeline. I’ll check in with them before I leave to take care of the business. They’ll make sure you’re safe. Don’t leave the house. I won’t be long.”

*   *   *

Rob Garza had spent all yesterday and last night making calls, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Elise Hansen was
his
contact. He’d been using her special services for the past nine months, had learned nasty bits of information about the people he worked with and for, in addition to having fun screwing the little whore. But who hired her to kill Harper? It had to have been Adeline … she must have found Elise after catching them in her office. She’d been so mad, but Rob ignored it because she was happy with the information Elise had uncovered. Yet … that was the one explanation. Adeline hired Elise to kill Harper because she no longer trusted Rob. Not only hired her to kill Harper, but frame him. It wouldn’t take the feds long to track Elise down to D.C., and back to him.

And Adeline had the audacity to imply that it was
him
who’d come up with this asinine plan? That
he’d
hired the whore to kill Harper?

The backstabbing bitch.

Unless it really was Tobias—then they were both dead.

Elise Hansen was certainly capable of killing someone. At times, she’d snuck up on him in his apartment in D.C. The way she’d looked at him, she’d seemed to be just as happy screwing him as stabbing him with a knife. But she’d always come through. Always.

How well do you really know her? You met her nine months ago when you called for a girl who liked it rough.

He’d seen that she was smart, and he’d convinced her to take photos with some of her clients. He’d read about a lobbyist who’d blackmailed members of Congress by making sex tapes with a prominent call girl. It was a great scam—the lobbyist was caught only because she had too many people in the know.

With Elise, it was just him and her.

Until Adeline walked in that day.

Except …

The service you originally called. Are you that stupid, Roberto?

He winced at the sound of his ex-wife’s voice bouncing around in his head. They’d only been married for a year, and while the sex had been amazing, Monica had enjoyed demoralizing him and squashing his ego.

He had enough money to disappear. Get a new ID, a new name, just … hide for a while. Someplace he wouldn’t stick out, like New York City. He’d get an apartment and wait it out until the dust settled.

“Flight five-five-five to New York City is in preboarding. Would our first class customers please come to the red carpet?”

Rob picked up his overnight bag from the seat next to him. He ran into a well-dressed man of about forty in a dark gray suit and matching fedora. He looked familiar.

“Garza, isn’t it?” the man said with a smile.

Play the game, play the game.
He’d met thousands of people working for Adeline. That’s why he was flying out of Dallas, to avoid people knowing who he was, but even here people in business or politics might know him.

“Yes, how are you?” He’d met him, but couldn’t place him.

The man stuck out his hand. Rob took it, because not shaking it would be suspicious.

The familiar stranger put his other hand around Rob’s and held it there for a moment. A sharp sting on the back of his hand had him trying to pull it away, but the man was stronger than he looked and held on.

He was no longer smiling.

The stranger leaned forward and said, “I heard you’ve been wanting to meet me.”

“Tobias.” His voice wasn’t working right. His tongue was thick and his mouth was dry.

The man smiled. “It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Garza. But then you stole from me and thought you could take down my operation. Ironic, perhaps, because Marquez has always worked for me. You ran to him and he played his part perfectly. I got my money back—the money you and Adeline stole—and had all my detractors silenced in one beautiful slaughter. I’m going to tell you one more thing.”

Tobias leaned closer, his grip stronger, and Rob’s knees shook as his muscles painfully tightened. “I’ve had this planned for a lot longer than two months. You have a federal agent undercover on your campaign, and if I didn’t kill you, you’d be in prison soon enough. But the feds were getting too close to how our agreement worked, and honestly? I never trusted you or Adeline not to talk if the FBI swooped in. I know when to walk away.”

Tobias dropped his hand and disappeared into the crowd of travelers.

Rob couldn’t talk. He couldn’t move. He fell to his knees, unable to breathe. His muscles constricted. He was having a seizure.

I’m dying
.

He collapsed onto the carpet as people buzzed around him, but he couldn’t hear anything, and soon his vision faded to black.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Sean didn’t tell Brad Donnelly everything he’d said and done to Mona Hill—Brad was still a federal agent—but he gave him enough of the highlights that Brad could fill in most of the information himself. The only thing he completely left out was the information about the video of Lucy. No one needed to know about that.

Brad sat down, his head in his hands. “Sean, you just put a big fucking target on your head.”