Material Witness (31 page)

“Who? What are you talking about?”

“Paulie might have taken those drugs
that ended his life, but that dirtbag Fagnelio was responsible. He sold the
drugs to Paulie. It was because of him my son had that monkey on his back all
those years and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it off. I tried so
hard—”

“What does this have to do with
Cassie?”

“I saw him the night of the shooting
at Rory's. I watched Fagnelio get into that car and drive off. You told me you
were going to meet him that night and I wanted to make damned sure he went.”

“You set me up?!”

“No! How could you think that? I
wanted that slippery bastard to pay. Every time he'd been arrested, I thought
he'd get his due for what he’d done to my boy and so many others. But he always
managed to get away. Always. He was never going to pay for what he did to
Paulie.”

“So you were tailing him?”

“I couldn't sleep at night thinking
of what he did, so I watched him. Waiting for him to slip up. He's going to
pay, Jake. He's going to pay!”

Russo's voice broke and his grip
eased a fraction. It was enough for Jake to pull free from the wall and swing
around. The captain's face was haunted, taking on a new degree of anger, one
born of grief and revenge. Jake understood the kind of mad passion that had
driven him. The same kind of grief and anger that had Angel Fagnelio hating
Jake all these years. He'd make sure whoever hurt Cassie would pay for the rest
of their lives.

“He'll pay. But not if we don't find
out who leaked Cassie's name to the press first.”

“This is what I'm trying to tell you,
dammit. I did it. I'm the leak!”

* * *

Cassie was blinded by flashbulbs
firing out of control as she stepped out into the rain. She didn't remember
them being here when she'd arrived earlier and wasn't sure why they'd
positioned themselves here now.

Kevin gripped her arm and moved her
forward toward the waiting car that would take her to her holding cell. Oh, she
knew the new location would be luxurious, as the last one had been. But it
would imprison her just the same. She fought wave after wave of nausea, trying
desperately to keep herself from breaking down.

Not now.

For a moment when they were inside,
Cassie actually thought Jake would tell her the words she wanted to hear. That
he was helplessly in love with her.

What a fool!

How could she think that after such a
short time together, Jake would risk his career just to be with her? Just
because she knew without a doubt that she loved Jake Santos, that the thought
of never being in his arms again was like a slow death, didn't mean he felt the
same way. For the next six months, the memory of his hands on her skin, his
mouth on her would haunt her every waking moment.

Another flashbulb went off and then
another as a flurry of reporters began running toward another back door. More
flashbulbs…
Pop, pop, pop.

“Get down!” Pure horror clouded
Kevin's face. He slammed Cassie to the rough pavement with insurmountable
force. Her face hit the wet tar, and his strong hand kept her still while his
body hovered over her.

“Get her to the car,” Charley yelled.

Firecrackers…screams…the rain beating
her down to the ground and splattering her face, sucking the life out of her.

“Get off me,” she screamed, fighting
Kevin as he pinned her in place.

The unmistakable and deadly sound of
gunfire exploded near her ear. She pushed Kevin off her, horrified to find his
gun was drawn, and he'd been the one to fire.

People were scrambling for cover.
Ignoring the orders of the agents screeching orders back and forth between
gunfire, Kevin gripped Cassie by the upper arm and dragged her behind a
guardrail. It was feeble cover from flying bullets, but that's all they had at
the moment without putting them directly in the line of fire. Even the run to
the row of cars where Agent Radcowski was crouched would put them in direct
line of fire.

Kevin cursed and frantically looked
back and forth, searching the vicinity and the roof of the building. “Where the
hell are they shooting from?”

Thank God Jake was inside.
Cassie glanced in the direction
they'd just come and saw the door to the courthouse was closed. In the middle
of pandemonium, at least she had the comfort of knowing Jake was out of the
path of flying bullets.

She'd thought he was bulletproof. At
least that's the way she felt when Jake covered her with his body of armor. But
he was a mere mortal man. She knew all too well that bullets killed, and Cassie
didn't want Jake dying because of her.

A bullet splintered the wood rail
just above her head.

“For God sake, Cassie, get low to the
ground,” Kevin ground out.

The realization that she was going to
die suddenly flooded her. She was going to die right there in the middle of a
puddle and she had never told Jake she loved him. She was going to die. But at
least Jake was safe.

* * *

Jake could hardly believe what he'd
just heard. Anger surged through him at bullet speed, winding every muscle in
his body into a tight knot.

“You sacrificed Cassie's life—”

“It was the only way, Jake. He was
going to walk again and you know it! I never thought it would go this far.
Believe me. Fagnelio has gotten away with murder long before this. But there's
more, and we don't have much time.”

“If anything happens to Cassie—”

“It won't. There's still time.”

“Take off the cuffs,” Jake demanded,
trying to keep his emotions in check, trying to clear his mind enough to keep
from unleashing all his fear and pent up frustration out on the Captain.

Russo uncuffed him and took a wide
step back as if waiting for Jake to take all his anger, all his energy and
swing at him. “I saw the driver of the car, Jake.”

Whatever thoughts of retribution Jake
had at that moment ended with that statement.
The elusive driver
. Cassie
couldn't remember his face the night of the shooting. No one was talking.

“Was it Charley?”

Russo shook his head.

“Bellows?”

“It was Agent Radcowski. I knew it
the moment he sat his arrogant ass in the chair in my office that he was
behind—”

“Why didn’t you say something before
now?”

“I needed him to bring Fagnelio in.
He was the only one who could do it. That’s why I wanted you to get away. I
didn’t know how deep this went into the FBI. I thought you’d be safe out—”

The Captain halted with the sound of
popping, mixed in with torrential rain outside. Popping? No, gunfire!

“Cassie!”

* * *

An eerie silence hung in the air for
a few seconds. The heavy downpour had ebbed with the gunfire as if the sky had
chosen to give them a break. Those few seconds dragged on endlessly as another
sheet of rain blew across the parking lot and pelted down on top of Cassie.

Kevin's eyes were ominously bright as
he scanned the area around them. Water poured down his face. He blinked it away
and opened his eyes wide, making him look more ferocious than the
happy-go-lucky guy she'd been introduced to.

He didn't trust her. But he'd given
Jake his word, so here he was protecting her.

“Jake.” She said his name softly and
as if by sheer will the back door to the courthouse flew open. Three uniformed
cops scrambled out the door and took cover behind the paddy wagon.

Jake stepped out into the downpour,
the dark metal of his gun bleeding in with the color of his rain soaked hands
and his shirt. By his stance, she knew he held a gun. And she knew he
wasn't
wearing a bulletproof vest.

A clap of thunder and a flare of
lightning zigzagged across the black sky. Cassie heard another pop, pop, pop
from behind her.

“I'm taking her to the car!” Agent
Radcowski yelled from just beyond a row of cars.

She lifted up on her hands and heard
someone screaming. Then in a split second, she realized it was her.

“Get down, Cassie!” Jake screamed,
lifting his Glock into position. In his face, she saw both fear and hatred.

Agent Radcowski gripped her by the
upper arm and dragged her away from Kevin.

“What the hell is Santos doing?” she
heard Charley yell from right by her side.

“He's aiming at us!” Agent Radcowski
scowled. “I told you he was trying to kill the girl all along.”

“No,” Cassie breathed. What were they
saying? Radcowski lifted his gun into position, aiming it directly at Jake. To
Cassie's horror, Charley did the same.

“Drop the weapon, Santos!” Charley
yelled. As Charley lifted her gun into position, a surge of adrenaline raced
through Cassie.

When she lifted her head and turned
back, she had a sudden sense of déjà-vu. There was something about Agent
Radcowski. Maybe it was the dark clouds, or the scowl on his face. He turned
his head a fraction toward Jake, who was now charging in their direction, and
it flashed in her mind. Darkness. Windows exploding. The face of the person
sitting behind the wheel of the getaway car. The face of the man standing with
her.

She looked at Agent Radcowski. It was
him! He was the one involved with Fagnelio all along. He helped kill all those
people.
And he wanted
her
dead.

“Shoot him,” Radcowski scowled.

“No!” Cassie tried to break free, but
Charley held her back.

Bursting forward, Cassie tackled
Charley to the ground, rolling with her until they were out in the open, prime
target for anyone to take aim.

“Stay down!” Charley demanded. 

Cassie was done being a victim.
Someone had wanted her dead and now she knew that without a doubt that person
was Agent Radcowski. Too many people had already died at the hands of this
monster.

“Charlotte, it was Agent Radcowski!”
Cassie pleaded.

It took a second for that bit of
information to register in the wake of all the confusion.

Before Agent Tate could make another
move, a white spark of light spit from the barrel of Agent Radcowski’s gun,
followed by the sound of gunpowder igniting. Kevin rose to his feet in front of
Cassie, shielding her view of Jake. Another mighty clap of thunder coupled with
a torrent of pistol fire rang out in the dark sky. Kevin flew back against the
guardrail, gasping, his eyes wide open. And then she finally saw Jake.

An eerie silence blanketed them for a
moment. She lifted to her knees and saw Jake running full force toward her now.
Agents encircled her. People were screaming. Before she could clear her mind
among the confusion, she'd lost sight of Jake.

“Jake?” she called out.

Where had he gone?

“Let me go,” she screamed at a U.S.
marshal who was pulling her away toward an open car door.

“Let go of her.” Jake appeared by her
side at that instant, crushing her wet body against him, and kissing her.

She looked at him, touched his face,
his chest. “Thank God, you weren't hurt. I thought you'd be killed,” she said,
unable to hold back her tears.

“You might be letting me off the
hook, but let me tell you lady, I'm not letting
you
off the hook.”

New tears sprang to her eyes. “Thank
God,” she whispered.

“I was so afraid I'd never get a
chance to tell you how much I love you.”

She let the cold rain and hot tears
roll helplessly down her cheeks. Agents and uniformed cops were screaming
orders around them, trying to sort through the crowd and attend to the injured.

“You love me?”

Through the rain, she saw his tears.
“More than I ever thought I could.”

Not even the bright flashbulbs that
went off distracted him from her. The press had now emerged again, despite the
police officers’ attempts at holding them back, and were hot to get their
story. Oblivious, Jake just gazed down at her, the rain dripping off his wet
hair and face. She saw the love shining in his eyes and written all over his
face.

“I love you, too,” she said, reaching
up and wrapping her arms around him. “I don't want to be without you.”

“I don't think that's a problem
anymore,” she heard Kevin say from behind them.

“Oh, Kevin,” she gasped. She'd seen
him go down during the last round of gunfire.

They both turned and saw Charlotte
crouched by Kevin's side, helping him to his feet. The small hole in the center
of his shirt was unmistakable.

“You okay, buddy?” Jake asked.

Kevin nodded.

“Hurts like a bastard, huh?” Jake
said, reaching a hand out to his partner, a look of relief and gratitude filled
his expression.

“Knocked the damn air right out of my
lungs.”