Ring of Lies (14 page)

‘
How can you be so sure
?
Yo
u’ve just
admitted
he lied to you.
’

‘
Because—
’
She was about to
say
I trusted him
,
but
she
knew
that was no longer true
.

‘
The first thing I learned
about my job is always expect the unexpected.
That way when your world turns from sugar to shit you’re prepared for the worst.
’

Grace stared at him, trying to see past the cold eyes.
‘
When did you become a cynic, Jack?
’

‘
Maybe I’ve always been one.
’

‘
I don’t believe that.
’

‘
There’s too much history between us
, Grace
.
You should
hire
a private detective
and let him
investigate this
for you.
’

Her hands clenched.
‘
I can’t.
I couldn’t trust a stranger. Besides,
I need to do this for me.
’

‘
Last June
when
—
when—
’

‘
Yes?
’

‘
Oh, n
othing.
It doesn’t matter.
’
He gave a
fake
shrug and threw some bills on the table
, t
hen stood and pushed his hands in his pockets.
‘
Come on.
It’s
t
ime I
took
you back to your hotel.
’

Grace picked up her purse and fol
lowed
him
out of the café.
It was only when they reached the steps of her hotel that he spoke again.

‘
You’ve got your room key?
’

She
nodded.
‘
Would you like to come in for a coffee?
’

Jack’s dark eyebrows rose.
‘
What?
’

‘
I’m sorry.
I just meant coffee.
I didn’t mean
—
’
She saw the flash of impatience on his face
, and suddenly felt embarrassed.

‘
Yeah
, t
hat’s right.
I almost forgot.
You don’t always mean what you say.
I’ll see you tomorrow at
one-thirty
.
He spun round and stormed towards his car.

Grace stood on the marble steps and watched h
im drive away.
Twin
spots
of scarlet
stained her cheeks.

Jack climbed into the
Explorer
and gunned the engine.
He glanced
in
the review mirror.
Grace stood on
the
hotel
steps watching him.

Damn it!
I don’t need this!

He sped
out
of the car park
onto Collins Avenue
and nearly collided with a
red
Mustang.
The driver sounded his horn and
yelled obscenities
.
Jack ignored
him
.
He couldn’t face going back to
the
condo
and whatever awaited him there
, i
nstead
he
drove north.

Agreeing to help
Grace
had been a bad idea
, a
real bad idea.
Hear
ing the pain in her soft
voice
made h
im
want to pull her into his arms and hold
her
until the
sorrow
went away.
But that would be stupid.
He
’d
watched her struggle for composure and knew that one kind word from him would make her collapse like a marionette
with cut strings.

He
should have
walk
ed
away, l
eft
her
to sort out her own problems, but he
c
ouldn’t.

He’d
been attracted to her
from
the moment of their first meeting
.
That hadn’t changed, and he wondered if it ever would.
Whether it was her eager smile and easy-going manner, her
radiant vitality
or
the gleam in her
eyes that
had
caught his attention
, he couldn’t say for sure.
But his instinctive response to her had been so powerful that he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind
since
.

His instincts
told
him
that
he had too much to lose
.
Hi
s life was with Rosa and his beautiful baby daughter
,
not chasing after half forgotten dreams and desires.

Rosa.
He’d never intended her to be
a permanent fixture in his life
.
He certainly didn’t love her
, not in the way a man should love his partner
.
And cert
ainly not enough to marry her.

But Emilia
,
she
was different.
Nothing could have prepared him for the surge of love and joy he’d felt when the nurse placed her in his arms.
She was so beautiful—so perfect
—with
her
cap of wispy black hair and
big blue
eyes
.
He’d watched her take her first breaths and knew that he’d lay down his life to keep her safe.

S
he was only a few weeks old
and
already bore a strong resemblance to his elder sister,
Charlotte,
who by all accounts, had broken every teenage boy’s heart by the time she was fourteen.
He had no doubt
that Emilia would do the same.

He turned left and headed west onto Interstate 95.
He kicked down the accelerator and watched the needle climb, when it settled on sixty, he set the cruise control.
The traffic on the three-lane highway was heavy with commuters returning home from work.
Out of habit, he glanced in his mirrors.
A
silver convertible sped
past him.
The driver was in for a shock.
Jack had already
spotted
the cop car
coming down the ramp
and adjusted his speed.
Sure enough, within seconds the cop had switched on h
is siren and was giving chase.

Jack
wove
through
the
traffic
and took the off ramp.
At the next
intersection
he
turned right
,
then right again
into the parking lot
of a non-descript building
.
From the outside it looked like a warehouse
, in reality it
housed the FBI
shooting range.

He
showed his ID and
signed in,
then
made his way through to the
changing rooms
.
He
swapped his jeans and T-shirt for a pair
of coveralls, collected
a pair of ear defenders, four clips of bullets
,
and a SIG Sauer 228
from the range manager
then
took up position in one of the booths
.
He
adopted a
shooting stance,
and fired
at a silhouette suspended from a wire twenty metres
away
.
When he
checked the target
,
his aim was off.
He
replaced the clip and was about to fire again,
when
the
door
open
ed and
Mike Zupanik
walked in
.