Floored (43 page)

“There is no other way.” Stud was too fucking cold.

“We use me instead.”

“You?” Now he was paying attention.

“Yeah in all my post-Fetch ‘fucking bastard was a cop we want him dead’ glory. I’m the perfect lure.”

“How is that any different to every day since Bold Park? You have nothing they want, except blood.”

Cait swung her face up to him. “What, Sean? What does he mean?”

Stud shifted his weight forward on the chair, he eagle eyed Cait. “I mean, sweetheart, our boy has been fair dinkum drive-by shootout fodder since Perth. Guess he didn’t tell you that, eh. If he hadn’t been shacked up with you, he’d have needed his own safe house.”

Cait’s eyes came back. She aced him with an expression strongly suggestive of drowning him in the next available body of water. “He did not tell me that.”

“Ah, Cait. I’m keeping my head down. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. You didn’t tell me that.” She turned to Stud. “Which one of us is at the most risk?”

Stud knew how to pick his battles. He kept his smug mouth shut.

“Caity, this is what I do.”

“This is about taking the fall for me or some macho crap like that?”

He was cranky, filthy and itchy, and wanted this over with, but that made him smile. “No, it’s about me being trained for this shit.” He went down on one knee by her chair. “There’s no good reason for you to be at risk.”

“Stud says it’s a controlled risk. I won’t be in any danger because I’ve got information they want about the ledgers and the money.”

“He’s using you.”

“I’m not stupid. I know that. I’m using him.”

“Smart girl.”

Neither of them looked at Stud.

“Tell me how you think this is going to play out. How Stud told you it would.”

She nodded. “Your informer network has a lock on Justin. But he needs to show himself. He’s been told I’m refusing to co-operate with the police. That they have nothing on me. He thinks I still have the money and the ledgers. I sit in a cafe. He’ll be told where to find me. I wait. When he shows, Stud’s team grabs him. I don’t even need to speak to him. I’m just the bait.”

Sean wanted to haul Stud out of his chair and beat him till medical discharge was a distinct possibility. It’d wait. He focused on Cait. “He didn’t tell you about the sharks. Justin’s has his own protection. He won’t be alone. If he’s as important to the identity theft and the money laundering part of the Pariah’s operation as we think he is, they’re not going to give him up without a fight.”

“Is that what you learned last night?”

“No.”

“What then?”

“There are two agenda’s running. Justin wants the money back. Wacker wants the ledgers and the software code which incriminate the Pariahs.”

“I don’t see how that changes anything.”

He looked at Stud. “Tell her. Tell what I found out.”

“Need to know, Sean.”

“Yeah, that’s how I thought you’d play it.” He turned back to Cait. He reached for her hand but she shifted so he couldn’t take it. He sighed; he’d have given anything not to have had to tell her this. “Wacker wants to use you to get to me. He’s betting if he nabs you I’ll show myself. So this is over. You’re not involved. We find another way.”

“By that you mean you want to put yourself out there so the whole world can shoot at you.” She moved her glance to Stud. “That’s what he means, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, that’s what he means. It’s not an option.”

“Ignore him, Cait. This is you and me. It’s my call. You don’t need to worry about what happens next.”

She stood abruptly and gave him the evil eye. Cranky was catching. “Don’t patronise me.”

“Cait.” He followed her up.

“Don’t marginalise me. Don’t tell me what to think or do, or make my decisions for me. Stud said the risk was minimal. You just explained how the risk to you is a whole wild ocean bigger. You come in here all undercovered up and suddenly it’s all about what you think, what you want. You haven’t asked me what I want.”

He frowned at her. What wasn’t she getting here? “I’m not trying to manage you. This is not like asking if you want steak or pasta for dinner.”

“No. This is about my life. Mine. Not yours.”

“Fuck, Cait.” He dragged the hoodie off and it threw over a chair. It needed to be burned, like the rest of what he wore. “I’m aware of that. In case you missed it, that’s what I’m trying to protect.”

“Don’t do this to me, Sean. You don’t get to do my penance for me. You don’t get to put yourself on the line for my crime. If I don’t do this I’m back to needing a lawyer and worrying about how to get clear of all this.”

“It’s an arbitrary deal, Cait. It’s not the only way to go. My bet is you’ve already done enough to get a fresh start out of this. He didn’t tell you that.”

She turned to Stud. “Is Sean right?”

Stud rubbed his jaw. “It’s not Sean’s call.”

He rounded on Stud. “You bastard. You can fix this so she’d not in danger.”

“All right, let’s humour that idea for a minute.” Stud crossed his leg, ankle on knee, as though this was a social gathering and he was up for a good chinwag. “We put you out there instead of Cait and sure as the Pope’s a Catholic you’re a dead man. You’d have been a dead man back in Perth if they could’ve gotten to you.”

He didn’t look at Cait, but he heard her gasp. He knew she gripped the back of a chair. “Fuck, Stud. No. I can handle it. We can handle it. With the right back-up it’s another day at the office.”

She had her hand on his arm. Light and cool. “No. This is my decision.”

He took hold of both her arms and drew her to him. “No, Cait.”

She shook him off and stepped away. “What part of this being my decision don’t you understand?”

“Jesus Christ, Cait. This isn’t a freaking democracy. This is gang war.” She needed to do what he asked. She turned her back on him. Pig-headed, wilful, beautiful bitch, she was going to carve his chest in half.

Stud was on his feet. “You heard your woman, even if you didn’t fucking hear me.”

He turned on Stud. “I hear you. I hear you want to send a civilian out to do police work.” The table between them had to go. He moved around it, same time as Stud stepped clear. “I see you dangle that freedom carrot but keep her ignorant of the real risks. I smell your rat fucking cunning and I can’t believe you won’t let her walk away and use me instead.”

Stud was up in his face. This was a replay of the night in the hotel. She nearly got killed that night. He couldn’t lose this time.

“I’m not sending you into the line of fire. Before you think about putting yourself there you should know you have a tail.”

“You stuck a bloody tail on me?” Was Stud lying? Apart from last night, he’d been laying low. Deliberately being careful. He’d have been aware of having an extra shadow. He looked for Cait. She was in the doorway to the backyard; Blue was leaning against her leg. Had he simply been too distracted to notice? It was possible. He shook his head, he wasn’t ready for Stud to shove him.

“You’re a predictable bastard.”

He stepped back; Stud advanced and he got shoved again. “I could see this coming.”

Sean knew what this was. Stud was trying to break him, make him lash out and this time he wouldn’t get away with it.

“Your escort has instructions to make life hard for you.” Another shove. He kept his fists down, banked his adrenaline and backed up. “You do anything stupid now,” another shove, this one more like a punch, and he moved back with its force. “I’ll have you held for interfering with an investigation.” Which is exactly what Stud wanted. Stud stepped into him again. “You hear me, Sean?”

He let the man’s ugly tea breath flood his face. He held his ground, but every instinct, every sense was screaming at him to take Stud down. “I hear you and we’re done.”

“Good.”

Stud’s weight shifted onto his back foot and Sean moved in close, grabbed a handful of t-shirt. “You and me.” He shoved Stud away. “We’re done. I’m out. I quit.”

“You can’t fucking quit.”

They both knew it was a stupid thing to do. They both knew he’d do it for Cait. It didn’t solve his immediate problem. If he really had a tail, they’d still be on him and if Stud wanted him detained he didn’t need to be his superior officer to make it happen. But if he quit, no one was responsible for what he did and they couldn’t stop him protecting her.

He broke eye contact with Stud and went to Cait. “Baby, pack a bag, we’re getting out of here.” He’d put her somewhere not even Stud could find her. He put his arm around her shoulders. Bridie would organise a lawyer and he’d have Cait’s freedom fixed without any threat to her safety.

Behind them Stud said, “Don’t do this, Sean.”

She turned her body into his and brought her hand to his face. He only got sorrow from her touch. “I love you, Sean. I understand what you’re trying to do.”

“Caity.”

“You can’t make my decisions for me. I get that it’s risky. But I trust Stud.”

Was he hearing her correctly? She was voting with Stud. She was fucking abandoning him.

“I can’t go with you. I have to see this through.”

He dropped his head, brought their foreheads together. “You don’t trust me to know what’s right for you?”

She raked her fingers through his hair. “Not in this. You’d risk yourself for me and that’s not going to happen.”

She moved to kiss him and he pulled back. He wanted to put his shoulder to her stomach, flip her over his back and carry her out of here, away from this horror show. “I can’t let you do this.”

“I’ve made my decision.”

He shrugged her hands away. “Then you do it without me.”

She gasped. “No.” He had to brace himself against the shock and hurt in her voice, the wounded look in her eyes. She had to know he was serious about this. It was the last card he had left to play.

“You’re safer here, Cait. He’s one man.”

They both ignored Stud.

“Come with me, baby.”

She dropped her head and Blue gave a confused whine and came to lie at her feet. “I can’t.”

“Look at me, Cait.”

She lifted her face and her eyes were fragile frost on a cold bottle on a hot day. He had to show her he meant what he said. He palmed her cheek. “You don’t have to do this and you can’t protect me.”

“Please don’t tell me what to do, don’t make me choose, Sean.”

“It’s not a choice. There’s right and wrong and it’s wrong for you to be in the middle of this.”

She shook her head and he dropped his hand. He could win this by physically dragging her out of here, but mentally and, worse, emotionally, he’d lost her. He stepped away and Blue whined again. If she couldn’t see she needed to trust him in this, that he’d do anything, give up everything for her, there was no point to them.

He left her standing in the family room of the safe house with Stud, but the only thing she was safe from was him.

47: Decision

Sean was in the bedroom, and now the hall, Caitlyn heard his keys jingle and
oh my God
, he really was leaving. Her head was throbbing. There was too much information to process. Blood, they wanted his blood. And he’d never told her. The idea that he would take her punishment for her like some dragon slaying fantasy hero. His conviction she had no right to a say, to a choice. Now he’d lost the argument he was going to walk away, he was going to leave her with this decision she’d made because he didn’t agree with it.

No. This wasn’t happening. She stepped over Blue, but Stud blocked her way.

“Let him go. He’ll be back. He needs to let off steam, preferably on someone other than me.”

She shifted right and Stud’s arm was there. “We’ll watch him. He won’t go far and he won’t get into any trouble.”

“Move away from me.”

Stud dropped his arm and the front door closed. By the time she’d opened it, Sean was backing his police issue white Ford down the driveway. He looked up. He looked through her as if she was mist, and then he floored the engine and roared up the street.

She stood on the verandah and tried to work out what she was feeling. Angry he’d not cared enough to measure her wishes, shocked he’d left. It was all such macho bullshit and Stud was right, he’d be back. They’d be arguing this out all over again tonight.

Stud was in the kitchen. This was new. He had a pot of tea drawing and a plunger of coffee. He’d made vegemite toast. He must be worried.

“I’m all right.”

He put his finger on the teapot handle and spun it slowly. “I know you are.”

“He’s just…”

“Yeah.”

She shook her head. Sean could be arrogant, domineering, dictatorial, controlling. He didn’t trust her to make her own decisions. She’d made one bad decision. Yeah, it was up there with world’s worst—and that was before she realised she was messing with gang crime, but that did not mean she was incapable of thinking for herself. And she’d promised she’d never let a man, let anyone, tell her what to do.

So maybe it was a good thing he’d driven away in a fit of well controlled temper. Except he’d driven away with a part of her and she missed him already.

“They want to kill him. How are you keeping him safe?”

“Up until five minutes ago I wasn’t. He was where I could find him and we’ve got eyes on the folk who want him hurt. Now he’s gone Rambo I’ve put a detail on him. He’ll know they’re there. We have to hope he doesn’t care enough to try losing them.”

“You’ve known him longer than I have. What’s he going to do?”

“Sulk. The man sulks.”

Cait put her hand to her mouth to cover the unexpected laugh. Sean did brood when he didn’t get his way, but she didn’t want to encourage Stud’s sense of the ridiculous. “No, really.”

Stud poured her coffee, added milk, exactly the way she liked it. Then he poured his own tea. “I have no idea. But I hope he showers.”

“Stud.”

“Yeah, look. He’ll kick out a bit, hopefully not cause any trouble and when he’s done he’ll come back for you. You know that, Cait, why are you asking me?”

“Because I’m nervous and I know that’s the appropriate reaction and it would be better for me if he was here, though I’m so angry with him right now I could belt him.”

Stud watched her, but she’d stopped being discomforted by his appraisals. “Drink your coffee. I’ve got something to tell you.”