FEARLESS (19 page)

Ben’s mouth dropped open and he started moving a second later. One arm wrapped around Mrs. Winston, tucking her head against his chest as he dived into a roll. The other arm came up to get off a shot.

The timing was wrong. Ben couldn’t grab both women and that left Lara without protection.

But Davis was already moving. He motioned for her to drop as the room exploded in a rash of yelling and booming gunfire.

Lara screamed as Davis crashed into her from the side and sent her spinning toward the cabinets. They slid across the linoleum floor and landed with a bang as they flew into the oven door.

Glass shattered and plates crashed. More than one book stack toppled over. It all happened as Ben slammed a bullet into the attacker’s side and Davis hit him in the forehead. The attacker’s eyes flew open as his body lifted up and back. He bounced against the wall then slid down, leaving a blood trail along the white paint.

Davis pulled Lara against him, trying to block her view of the gruesome scene. She let out a soft cry into his neck and held on to his waist. Not even a breath of air separated them and his hands were shaking so hard from the relief that she was okay that it took him an extra second to tour them over her, looking for wounds.

When the echo of the shots stopped and the smoke cleared, Davis watched Ben lift away from Mrs. Winston. The small woman lay in a ball under his chest. Ben touched his fingers to her neck and her eyes flew open.

She stared up at him. “Are you one of the good guys, then?”

Davis answered. “Yes, he is.”

* * *

T
HEY
’
D
BEEN
BACK
for less than an hour and had just washed up and settled down when Deputy Director Ronald Worth showed up at the front door of the Corcoran property and leaned on the doorbell. No guards and no other people. Just him standing outside as if that were the most normal thing in the world.

But the team had expected him. Connor had got word before he’d arrived home from D.C. that Ronald had traced the breach of his privacy records to them. He likely jumped in the car and was close on Connor’s tail to get here, which was exactly what they’d wanted when they’d opened the virtual door just long enough to let him peek in.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Connor stopped looking at the monitor long enough to stare at Ben.

He shrugged because there was really nothing else he could say. His life had been whipped into a frenzy over the past few days. This was the only play they had left.

They knew who’d done the actual killings. Now they had to figure out which one, or if all three, had ordered the deaths. This was imperfect but the best way.

Joel wasn’t finding a money trail, which meant it was likely buried deep in Nancy’s company and would take more time to unravel. But that was a race where someone could cover the tracks before Joel could get in.

“I was just in a shoot-out. Talking to my boss will be easy,” Ben said, not quite believing that to be true.

“Yeah, you’d think so.” Davis leaned against the conference table with an arm wrapped around Lara. She hadn’t moved since they had come back, and all of the men were starting to send her worried glances.

“You have one shot at this.” Connor repeated the words he’d said twice already.

All this concern was starting to make Ben nervous. He’d been fine with the plan until the big push. He knew this was about the risk he was taking—not physical but with his career. He appreciated the thoughts but they had to get this done, uncover the conspiracy, before any other innocent people stepped into the middle.

“I get it.” And he did.

Davis nodded. “Then go get him.”

Before he stepped in there, Ben had to do one more thing. He stopped at the double doors to the foyer and ignored the third ring of the bell. “Davis? Thanks for believing me.”

“I was just happy I didn’t shoot you before I figured it out.”

Ben nodded and slipped out into the lonely hallway. He didn’t realize Connor had followed until he reached around him to open the door.

The deputy’s shoulders fell as his voice dipped low. “Ben. I should have known you’d be behind this.”

“Come in.” Ben motioned toward the room across from the conference room. “This is Connor—”

“I don’t care who any of you are.” Ronald stopped walking. He stood in the middle of the hall and made his stand. “I want an explanation before I call the authorities and have you all arrested.”

“We’re not guilty of anything,” Connor said.

“You looked at confidential records.”

“Did we?” Connor pretended to think about the allegation. “I think if you check again you’ll find a decided lack of evidence.”

Ben didn’t care about any of this. The idea this man would stand in front of him complaining about records after what he’d done was enough to make Ben want to punch the smug look right off his face. “Your hit man is dead.”

Ronald’s eyebrows fell into a thin line. “What are you talking about?”

“The one who killed Steve Wasserman, Greg Parker and Ken Dwyer.” Ben refused to buy into the act. He’d watched an absolute pro try to convince Davis and almost succeed. Davis denied it now, but Ben had seen the look that had washed over the other man’s face and the pain in Lara’s. Ben would remember that moment of panic forever. “The same guy hired to cover up a twenty-year-old terrible decision that resulted in the death of a young woman.”

“Andrea McClintock,” Connor said.

Ronald’s face went slack. It was as if gravity had taken hold and wiped the emotions clear. “I don’t—”

“Don’t.” Ben could take a lot but not that. “The only question we have is how deep you’re into the current conspiracy.”

“I’m not involved in any of it.”

Ben felt his temper spiral. He glanced outside at the sunny day and thought about how lucky he was to have survived the morning, but even that couldn’t bring his thudding heartbeat back under control. “The girl died.”

“I drove a car.” When no one said anything, Ronald continued. “I picked Martin, Steve and Nancy up from the beach.”

“And started a lie that would go on for decades, but someone doesn’t want it out now, and Steve threatened to expose you, so, again, who is making the payments?”

Ronald shook his head. “I don’t know anything about a hit man.”

“But you suspected.” Ben held out a cell phone. “Call Martin and tell him you’re coming to see him.”

Ronald looked appalled by the idea. “Why would I do that?”

Connor stepped forward and grabbed the phone. Shoved it right into the dead center of Ronald’s chest. “Because your career is over. What you’re playing for now is a chance to stay out of prison.”

A charged silence followed Connor’s threat. Neither man moved. When Ronald finally shifted, he took the cell and started dialing.

Chapter Twenty

Lara turned her hands over, rubbing them together until they turned red. They wouldn’t stop shaking. Yeah, she’d been cool and sure when she’d gone over to Mrs. Winston’s house, but she had come out a tangled mass of nerves. She had no idea how Davis handled this stress on a daily basis.

And it wasn’t over.

Mrs. Winston was safe in the conference room with Joel. When Lara sneaked away to come up to the bedroom, Joel had been showing the elderly woman the different monitors and the camera angles on Davis’s house. Mrs. Winston was like a schoolgirl, flirting with Joel with an expertise that made Lara think the older woman should give lessons.

Fearing her knees would be the next to go, Lara sat down hard on the edge of the bed. She decided to rest for a second, bring her body back under control, before the crowd left for Virginia and the showdown with Martin. Davis would balk about her going, but she had to see it through.

This mess, accident or not, poor timing or not, started with her and she had to finish it. She owed that much to all the people who’d lost their lives during the charade, including poor Andrea McClintock. She’d have her revenge; it was just a shame it took twenty years for her to get it.

After a sharp knock, Davis stepped inside. Between the scruffy and disheveled hair, the dark circles under his eyes and the exhaustion tugging at his mouth, he had a rough look that said his adrenaline was running thin.

“You okay?” he asked as he shut the door.

“I’m ready for a bout of boredom.”

He let out a harsh laugh as he sat down next to her. “I’m with you on that.”

The sheepish look and way he avoided eye contact worried her. She’d known this was coming and steeled her body for the fight. “I’m going.”

He finally looked at her. “What?”

“Aren’t you coming up here to tell me I’m not going to Virginia?”

“You’re not going, but that’s not what I want to ask.” He balanced his elbows against his knees and stared at the floor.

She thought she’d seen him in every state—sure, demanding, controlling. But this one, all bent over, struck her as...vulnerable. But that couldn’t be right. That wasn’t who he was or how he acted.

“Oh,” she said because she didn’t know what else to say.

He took a big inhalation and let it go. “Why were you in the hospital?”

The question came out of nowhere and slammed into her with the force of a body blow. It didn’t follow what they’d been talking about before and it stopped her heart when he said it. “When?”

“When I was in San Diego.”

Shock knocked her breathless. She gasped as she tried to find breath. When she finally pushed the words out they sounded breathy and jumbled. “How did you—”

He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Here.”

She opened it a bit and looked at the top. That was enough. She’d been in the hospital exactly twice in her life and she knew to her toes he wasn’t asking about her broken arm at age nine.

This time, the one on this page, almost killed her. Certainly turned her into a cracked shell for months.

But that didn’t explain why he’d gone digging or how he’d found it after all these months. He could have asked her. They could have talked. She tried to do just that, but he skipped into investigator mode and made her one of his suspects.

She shook the paper at him. “Where did you get this?”

The mattress squeaked under his weight as he sat up. “Just answer the question.”

She unfolded the paper then refolded it. She looked at it but only saw black streaks where the lines should be.

All the anger at his sneakiness drained out of her. This was so much bigger. So much more devastating, and she ached for him and what he was about to hear. Just saying it would rip away a part of her she’d never be able to get back.

Regret choked her until she gagged on it. “This isn’t the way I wanted to tell you.”

He shifted until he faced her. “It can’t be worse than what I’m thinking.”

Then she saw it. Not anger but guilt. A huge mass of it that crushed in on him from every direction, pushing down his shoulders and stomping on his heart. His face was painted with it. It radiated out of every pore.

“Tell me what you think.” She whispered the words because it hurt to say them.

“That you were really sick. That’s why you begged me to come home and I didn’t get it.” The grim line of his mouth barely gave him room to spit out the words. “I can’t figure out how I missed the clue. Was it cancer or something?”

The words were pure torture. “I lost a baby. Our baby.”

He blinked a few times. “What?”

“I was pregnant. I found out right before you left but was waiting until you got back to tell you. Then you stayed all those extra weeks.” The surprise in his eyes gave way to something else. A deep sadness that broke her heart, actually shredded it right in two. “I woke up one morning to these cramps and there was blood all over the bed.... I lost the baby.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Shock robbed his words of any punch.

She felt the thuds all the same. Blame and guilt—she’d wallowed in it for so long. “You made your choice.”

He stood up and glared down at her. “That’s not fair. You didn’t give me the information.”

He was right and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop fighting. She needed him to understand how crushed she had been, how her mind had been foggy and that she’d stumbled around in a grief-stricken haze back then. “I pleaded with you.”

Anger flushed through his face. Gone was the concern. This Davis she knew. Furious and hovering, determined to get his way.

“Do you really think if I knew about the baby I would have stayed away?”

She didn’t know how to answer that, so she asked a question of her own. “Would you have gone if you knew I was pregnant?”

His mouth opened and closed a few times before answering. “I don’t know.”

She had to give him credit for honesty even as the words sliced through her. She looked down and expected to find blood on the floor. “You would have because your list of priorities had me at, maybe, number three.”

“That’s not true.”

She stood up because she didn’t like him looming over her. “You picked helping someone else’s fiancée over helping your own.”

“I didn’t know!” The whole house shook from the force of his scream.

Her fury exploded to match his. He threw around concepts about trust, but he failed to show her any. “And I didn’t know your mother contacted you.”

His face went blank. “What?”

He had the nerve to pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. “That’s right. I found her letter to you right after you left. I wasn’t snooping, just looking through the desk for something and I found it stuffed in the back.”

“I didn’t write back to her. It meant nothing.”

“Which is why you kept it and never told me, right?” Even now he refused to understand. He saw his life as his own and didn’t let her in. Yeah, he’d open the door for sex and a few other things, but he stayed closed up and alone no matter how many times she pounded and begged him to open up again. “This huge emotional thing and you cut me out.”

His eyes widened. “So you got back at me by not telling me about the baby.”

She was stunned by that conclusion. No, she couldn’t let him think something so horrible. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Are you sure? Because it feels like it.”

Pain shot through her. “I would never use our baby as a weapon.”

“Lara, you—” He exhaled as he brought his hands to his face, and then he dropped them again. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I tried the other night.”

He stared at her with a face ravaged by a mix of rage and pain. “You should have tried harder.”

Then he walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

Her legs held her for another second then her knees buckled. She was sobbing, her chest heaving from the force of her tears, before she hit the floor.

* * *

P
AX
CAUGHT
D
AVIS
’
S
arm as he got out of the car in Virginia. They were down the street from Martin’s house, ready to spring Ronald on them and end this thing. Joel was back at the office with Ben and Mrs. Winston handling the tech and comm stuff. Connor was guarding outside the house.

Davis just wanted this over.

“You going to tell me what’s going on?” Pax asked as he secured his vest.

“Nothing.” That wasn’t a lie. Davis couldn’t even feel anything.

The world was this odd shade of brown and his body had gone numb. They rode the entire drive from Annapolis in silence. Lara stared out the window, her chest hiccuping from spent tears and her cheeks stained with the tracks of her pain.

He wanted to comfort her. Thought more than once about leaning over and reaching for her hand. But he couldn’t. She’d shaken his world.

A baby. His baby and he never knew.

Guilt pummeled him, but so did the pain. He’d lost so much and hadn’t even known. She hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him.

He wanted to blame her but he knew part of this was his fault. He hadn’t told her about the letter because he hated that it mattered. He’d wanted to hear from the woman who’d given birth to him and not care, but that was not what had happened. The letter had shaken every part of his world, and maybe he did close off and hide his emotions. But he didn’t deserve this.

Connor left Lara sitting in the car and came over. “Last chance to switch places.”

“It won’t work.” The plan was for Ronald to take Davis and Lara in, presenting them to his friends. The goal was to figure out who was behind this before the friends figured out Ronald had turned.

Connor nodded then left again to drag Ronald out of the car.

Pax watched him go. “That was the most uncomfortable car ride in the history of man. And you two weren’t exactly quiet upstairs.”

Davis couldn’t do this now. It was all too raw and his emotions shot in every direction. “She shouldn’t be here.”

“Neither of you should. Not like this.”

“I’m fine.”

“Get your head in the game.” Pax handed Davis his vest. “We’re confronting people who—”

“I know what we’re doing, Pax.” Davis forced his mind to focus. He had to get through these next few minutes, then he could go off somewhere and think this through.

“Look, I don’t get it and I won’t pretend to, but when this is over, get into a room and talk with her. You love her. She loves you. Whatever is screwed up, fix it.”

The advice fit Pax’s life philosophy. He was a black-and-white guy. Davis was starting to think the whole world was gray. “It’s not that easy.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Lara walked over, leaning into Connor as she stepped. “I’m ready.”

She looked ready to throw up. If her skin grew any paler she’d be transparent. Davis wanted not to care.

Ronald came around the car. “Let’s get this over with.”

It was the first time Davis had agreed with something Ronald had said. “You have a mic on.”

“I am aware of that.”

Even after everything, the sense of entitlement still hung on this guy. “Just wanted to be clear who was in charge.”

“Fine.” Ronald took off walking.

Lara followed without looking up. Davis fought off the urge to touch her. It didn’t matter that she was upset. She
should
be upset, but still...

They walked fifty feet and he couldn’t take one more step. He slipped his hand under her elbow and spun her around to face him again. Now that she was looking up at him with those red and puffy eyes, he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Before she could turn away again, he leaned down and kissed her. Soft and sweet and with a touch of hope that they could somehow work their way through this. By the end she was holding on to his shirt.

“It will be okay.” He didn’t know if he believed it, but he wanted it to be true.

By the time they reached the door, adrenaline had started pumping through his body. His energy soared and his shoulders straightened.

He
could
do this. He walked into danger all the time and there was nothing more dangerous than being in love.

He would finish this job and the next day would come and he would figure out a way to make everything right. He believed it. This was not the end of his life or their relationship.

Martin opened the door and escorted them inside as Pax disappeared around the side of the house. They walked through the foyer and into the fussy living room filled with even fussier people.

From the photos in the conference room Davis identified Martin and Nancy. The hit man, whom they now knew to be Clive, had referred to the person who paid him as a he. That left Martin, likely funded by his wife’s money.

“What’s going on, Ronald?” Nancy asked, clearly upset that people she didn’t know were traipsing through her house.

Davis answered for Ronald. “This is Lara Bart. I thought you might want to meet the woman you keep trying to kill.”

Martin’s nose wrinkled in a perfectly executed frown. “That’s nonsense. What are you talking about?”

Davis knew he could toy with them and draw this out, but he wanted it over. Needed it over. “We know about Steve and about Andrea and about the lifetime attempt to hide it all.”

Two sets of eyes went to Ronald but no one said anything, so Davis jumped in again. “The deputy, or should I say soon-to-be former deputy director, here confirmed the information surrounding Andrea’s death.”

Nancy put a hand to her chest as she gasped. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Lady, you are playing with the wrong guy.”

“No, Mr. Weeks, you are.”

The guy Ben had identified as John turned the corner and stepped between Martin and Nancy. So much for the theory of him being a useless sideman to Nancy.

The problem wasn’t in him showing up. The issue was the gun in his hand. Davis hadn’t been ready for that, but he had people listening in and Pax loomed around here somewhere.

This time Lara stood by his side and Davis was going to make sure no one grabbed her. If someone wanted to shoot through him, fine. But Lara was walking out of here.