Operation: Midnight Rendezvous (7 page)

“I’m a trained professional.”

“Then why haven’t you called in your superiors to help you on this?” she shot back.

His jaw went taut. An emotion Jess couldn’t quite decipher flashed in his eyes. Surprise? Regret? It was gone before she had a chance to identify it.

“I’ll contact my superiors when I have something significant to take to them.”

“I’m not going to hide out here at this mission and do nothing, while I’m painted a killer and fugitive. In case you haven’t made the connection, I’m the number-one suspect in Angela’s murder. Evidently the cops
think I’m armed and dangerous, because they’re shooting first and asking questions later.”

“Or maybe they want you out of the way.”

That stopped her, but only for an instant. “All the more reason for me to stay involved and get to the bottom of this.”

“You can’t do that if you’re dead!” he shouted.

“I don’t plan on getting myself killed.”

“Like anyone does.” A sigh hissed between his tight lips. “Damn it.”

“Madrid, please don’t lock me out. I’ve been accused of murdering my best friend and kidnapping her son. There are people trying to kill me and I don’t know why. If I can’t clear my name, I’ll be running the rest of my life.”

Cursing, he rose abruptly and strode to the sink to stare out the window. The rain had stopped, but the day remained dreary and damp.

“What we need is a plan,” she said after a moment.

“I have a plan.” He turned back to her, gave her a hard look. “It doesn’t include you.”

“Then change it so that it does.”

“Jess, damn it, it’s dangerous.”

She stared at him, wondering if he didn’t want her involved because he was concerned about her safety or because he thought her incapable. “It’s even more dangerous not to do anything.” When he didn’t speak, she went to him. “I’ve never been one for sticking my head in the sand. Madrid, I
need
to do this. Please. If I can help, let me help.”

Growling beneath his breath, he went back to the
table and sat. “I’ve been running everything that’s happened through my head. Everything goes back to the Lighthouse Point PD.”

She took the chair across from him. “I agree.”

“They’re hiding something.”

“Something Angela found out about. Something she saw. Something Nicolas saw.” She bit her lip. “Something involving that photo?”

Madrid’s gaze latched on to hers. “If you were a cop and you had something to hide, where would you keep it?”

“The safest place I could think of.” Jess felt a prickly sensation on the back of her neck. “Safe deposit box. Home safe.”

He shook his head. “The police station.”

Her eyes widened as realization dawned. “You want to break in to the police station?”

He stared at her, saying nothing.

Jess choked out an incredulous laugh. “That’s suicidal.”

“Do you have a better suggestion?”

“It might be more expedient to just put a pistol to our heads.”

“Too bloody.” He smiled, but there was little humor to it.

“You’re right about one thing,” she said.

He arched a brow.

“Your brother got the better genes.”

“The smarter ones, anyway.” But then he sobered. “Jess, I think the Lighthouse Point PD is into this up to their crew cuts.”

“Into what?”

He tapped the photo Angela had given her. “Whatever this is.”

She stared at the photo for a moment, then at Madrid. “What about Angela’s house?”

“What about it?”

“If she had stumbled onto something at the police department, surely she would have made notes or written something down.”

“I thought of that. If the cops are in on this, they’ve probably already gone through everything. They probably have the house staked out.”

“We’re considering breaking in to the police station and you’re worried about a little stakeout?” she asked dryly.

“I’m mainly worried about getting shot. In case you’re not up on the science of a 9 mm piece of lead penetrating the human body at two hundred miles an hour, it can be fatal.”

Even though he’d said it in a dry tone, she shivered.

“I’ll find a way into Angela’s house first.” He leaned back in the chair, set it back on two rear legs.

“That sounded singular.”

“It was.”

“I lived in the apartment above Angela’s garage for three weeks, Madrid. I know my way around.”

“I can figure it out.”

“I know a way in where you can’t be seen from the street.”

“I’m not going to have this conversation with you.”
He rose, but she reached out, grasped his arm and stood, as well.

He blinked at her, then something hot flashed in his eyes. Suddenly she was aware of how hard the muscles in his arm felt beneath her fingertips. How energy ran like electricity through his body and into hers. She felt it all the way to her bones.

She didn’t want to acknowledge it, but her heart was pounding. A response that had nothing to do with sneaking into police stations and everything to do with the man standing so close she could feel the heat coming off his body.

She dropped her hand from his arm. “I know how to get in without being seen.”

He contemplated her with cool dark eyes. “Okay. I’ll bite.”

“Only if we go in together.”

“Damn it, Jess.” Sighing, he scraped a hand over his jaw. Jess heard the chafe of his heavy beard, realized that he hadn’t shaved. That his hair smelled of pine needles. That his muscles were like steel…

“Th-there’s a cellar door on the north side of the house.”

“I noticed it.”

“Then you know there’s a hedge that runs from the back fence to the door. The lock is broken on the cellar door.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Angela and I were doing some yard work one day and she was complaining about having to fix it.”

“Can you get into the house through the basement?”

Jess nodded. “There’s no lock on the basement door.”

She could tell she had his attention now, so she kept going. “Angela kept a home office in a downstairs bedroom. There’s a file cabinet there she kept locked.”

“Do you know what’s inside?”

“All I know is that one night I went in to say goodnight to her and she seemed…secretive about it.”

He didn’t look surprised and Jess got the feeling that there was more going on than she was being told. What was he hiding from her?

“I get the feeling none of this comes as a surprise to you,” she said.

“I didn’t know about the cellar door.”

But you know why Angela kept a hidden file,
a suspicious little voice added. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“A lot.”

She hadn’t expected him to say that. She stared at him, her pulse ratcheting, her mind beginning to run through possibilities. “What?”

He motioned toward the chair. “Sit down.”

Jess took the chair again, wondering what he was going to hit her with next.

“Angela was not a police officer,” he said.

“What?”

“She was posing as a cop, but it was only an assignment.”

“What are you talking about? What kind of assignment?”

“She was working undercover for the same agency
I work for. It’s called the MIDNIGHT Agency. We’re federal. Part of the CIA.”

“Angela was a federal agent?” She couldn’t quite get her mind around the notion. “What was she doing in Lighthouse Point?”

“I don’t know. Her mission was covert. But I think she was working on something big.”

Jess’s head reeled with the information. “Why can’t you call the agency you work for and ask for their help?”

His gaze dropped to the tabletop. “When I found out about her death, I went to my superior and asked to be assigned the case. He refused, citing the fact that I was too personally involved.”

Another surprise tossed at her like a glass of ice water. “Are you?” she asked, wondering not for the first time about his relationship with Angela.

“No.” He grimaced. “But my superior argued the point. Things got heated. I lost my temper.”

“You quit?”

“I caught the first flight west to find her killer. No holds barred.”

The way he said it made Jess shiver. She stared at him, the knowledge that two days ago he’d thought
she
was Angela’s killer churning inside her.

He looked at her as if he’d read her thoughts. “I know you didn’t kill her.”

Relief swept through her with such power that for an instant she couldn’t speak.

He continued. “You were at the wrong place at the wrong time. A corrupt police department used that to their advantage.”

“To cover up a murder.”

He nodded. “You’re nothing more than a scapegoat.”

“Do you think someone figured out Angela was a federal agent?”

Madrid shook his head. “I think someone realized she was on to their secret.”

“What secret?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Chapter Five

Madrid hadn’t wanted to involve his brother, but he needed a safe haven for Nicolas while he and Jess returned to Lighthouse Point. Father Matthew wasn’t happy about the arrangement, but he was too good a man to refuse Madrid help, and he would never turn a child away from his church.

“How long will you be?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

Father Matthew motioned with his eyes toward Jess. “What about her?”

Madrid risked a look at Jess. Sitting on the floor, she had her arm around Nicolas’s thin shoulders and was holding a little purple hippo. Nicolas had gone into his own little world, but it didn’t deter Jess from talking to him, from reaching out to him.

“She’s coming with me.”

Father Matthew’s usually serene expression turned incredulous. “I don’t have to tell you that’s a bad idea, do I?”

“No.”

“You don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to women and decision making.”

Because Madrid couldn’t dispute that, he said nothing.

As if realizing he’d overstepped, Father Matthew sighed. “What can I do to help?”

“I could use a vehicle.”

“I have one. It’s not much, but it runs.”

“That’ll do.”

“Anything else?”

Setting his hand on his brother’s shoulder, Madrid smiled. “You might say a prayer.”

M
ADRID WAITED UNTIL
midnight before entering the Lighthouse Point city limits. His brother’s car was a nondescript compact, but Madrid stuck to the back streets anyway. On the outside chance some cop would notice it and run the plates, he’d switched plates with a wrecked car he’d found parked at a service station. The last thing he wanted was for some killer to discover his brother was involved.

In the passenger seat beside him Jess sat quietly, watching the waterlogged landscape speed by. She’d been quiet since leaving the church an hour earlier. He could tell she hadn’t wanted to leave Nicolas behind. She wouldn’t admit it, but he knew from the way her hands were knotted in her lap that she was nervous. Maybe even scared. He couldn’t blame her; he was, too.

He wished he hadn’t brought her along. He enjoyed her company, and in all honesty she would probably be some help once they got into the police station. His biggest fear was that the situation would become danger
ous. It was his responsibility to make sure that didn’t happen.

He glanced away from the road. “You okay?”

She started at the sound of his voice, tried to mask her jumpiness with a too quick smile. “I was just thinking about Nicolas.”

“He’ll be all right,” Madrid said. “My brother is a natural with kids.”

“It’s just that he’s been through so much.”

“Matt will take good care of him, Jess.”

She shot him a grateful smile. “I guess I should be thinking about how we’re going to pull this off.”

“I thought we’d check out Angela’s house first. See what we can find. We can park down from the alley and go in the back way, behind the hedge.”

She nodded, all business now.

When they neared Angela’s house, he circled the block three times looking for cop cars, but there weren’t any in sight.

“Doesn’t look like they posted a sentry,” Jess said.

“That doesn’t mean some beefed up kid armed with a .45 isn’t going to show up once we get inside.”

“We’ll just have to be on the lookout. Be careful.”

“To say the least.” Madrid punched out the headlights, turned into the mouth of the alley down the block from Angela’s house and parked behind a small garage, out of sight from the street. “We walk the rest of the way.”

Jess reached for the door handle.

“Wait.” Before Madrid even realized he was going to move, he reached out and grasped her arm.

She turned to him. Even in the semidarkness of the car, her beauty moved him in a way he hadn’t been moved for a very long time. She’d pulled her hair back and her face was a pale oval. Her eyes searched his. He could see moisture on her lips.

“I’ve got to douse this overhead light,” he said, his tongue suddenly thick.

“Oh.”

But for the span of several tense seconds neither of them moved. His hand was still on her arm. Through the material he could feel her trembling. She was scared, he thought, and felt a sharp swipe of guilt for putting her in this situation.

“You’re shaking,” he whispered.

“It’s not like I do stuff like this every day.”

“Probably a good thing.”

It was a silly moment, but they smiled at each other. Madrid felt something go soft in his chest when she licked her lips. He knew he was about to make a mistake. But with the adrenaline humming and an attraction he could no longer deny heating his blood, he didn’t care.

Tightening his grip on her arm, he leaned close and claimed her mouth with his. Her lips were incredibly soft and warm and moist. Madrid had kissed plenty of women in his time, but no kiss had ever affected him like this one. He could feel the need tugging at him, desire pooling low and burning hot. The urge to put his arms around her and pull her close taunted him. But he knew if he wasn’t careful he was going to fall headlong into this and lose focus.

Her eyes were wide and surprised when he pulled away. Her breathing had quickened, her nostrils flaring with each breath. “Why did you do that?” she asked.