Ultimate Kill (Book 1 Ultimate CORE Trilogy) (CORE Series) (49 page)

“Vodka.” Gina chuckled, then sobered. “Seriously, though. I was so worried about you guys. When I saw that delivery truck on the news…” She blew out a breath. “What happened that day?” she asked and looked directly at him.

A miracle. “Well, I obviously didn’t blow up,” he said with a grin. When neither Anna nor Gina smiled, he shrugged. “Sorry, bad joke.”

Anna elbowed him. “Extremely bad.”

He kissed her cheek. “Anyway, I was in a hurry to get into the hospital and make Anna’s ultrasound. But nothing was going right. Traffic was bad, I couldn’t find a parking spot, and then when I was getting ready to lock the truck, I accidently knocked a box off the shelf. I think there was white wine in the box. Whatever it was, it was getting all over the place. So, there I am, already running late and on my hands and knees trying to clean the mess up before it ruined the other packages.”

His chest and stomach tightened. Whenever he thought back to those final seconds, he was overwhelmed with a combination of anxiety and gratefulness. “Then I had this moment. I don’t know what to call it or if maybe I just imagined it, but something inside me said, what are you doing? You need to go. Now.”

Gina nodded. “Mario doesn’t believe me, but I have psychic moments like that.”

Vince was with Gina’s husband. He didn’t believe she or anyone else was psychic, but he did believe in gut intuition. And that afternoon when he’d been panicking about being late for the ultrasound, then panicking even more over spilled wine, his stomach had knotted so bad, he’d thought maybe he was having an ulcer attack. In that moment, he realized he had to go, leave the truck and go to his wife. She needed him. Anna and the baby she carried were more important than spilled wine or even his job.
 

“So,” he continued, “I dropped a wad of paper towels on the spill, climbed out of the truck and locked the door. I ran up the steps, and just after I entered through the hospital’s revolving door, my truck exploded.”

“Oh. My. God,” Gina gasped. “If you would have stayed in your truck even ten seconds longer…” She shook her head. “I had no idea it was that close.”

“I didn’t either until after we left the ultrasound room,” Anna said and elbowed him again.

“Wait.” Gina held up a hand. “Vince, you actually made it to the ultrasound?”

Hell, yeah, he did. He’d made a promise to his wife that he’d be there, that whatever the results they’d work through them together.
 

“When he walked into the room, he was a sweaty mess,” Anna answered for him. “His clothes were dusty and I remember thinking, geez, he must’ve run to make it on time.”

“Yeah, the explosion knocked the glass out of the hospital entrance and knocked me on my butt. For a second, I sat there shocked. I mean I was
just
inside the truck.”

Gina made the sign of the cross. “Thank God you weren’t.”

“That was my first thought. My second, was that I needed to get to Anna. With all the explosions that day, I didn’t know if there’d be another one, maybe in the main hospital. Figuring they might evacuate the building, I wanted to be there for her.”

His wife set the untouched plate of cake on the end table next to her and took his hand. “After he walked into the room, a nurse rushed in and said what happened. I looked at Vince and…” Tears misted in her eyes.

He propped the plate on his stained khakis and held her hand with both of his. “It’s in the past.”

“I know, but when I think of how close I came to losing you.”

“I’m sorry I brought this up,” Gina said, her tone laced with regret. “I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories.”

“It’s okay.” Anna sniffed and sent her cousin a small smile. “Every time we talk about the explosion, it makes me more grateful for everything we have and less worried about what we don’t.”

That was the truth. Vince gave Anna’s hand a squeeze. For months before the explosion, he’d been so caught up in worrying about money, bills, work, his college courses and giving his family a bigger house, he’d forgotten what was truly important. He’d forgotten to appreciate the gifts God had given him—his beautiful wife, his sons and a healthy new baby on the way.
 

An hour later, after everyone had left and his sons were watching TV, Vince asked Anna to come to their bedroom.
 

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I have one last gift for you and it wasn’t something I wanted everyone else to see.”

She laughed. “Good Lord, Vince, the kids are still up and I’m as big as a house. You can’t possibly want to fool around right now.”

He hadn’t thought about bringing her upstairs for sex, but now that she mentioned it… He shook his head.
Later
. “I don’t care how big you get, I’ll always want you. For now, open this. And if you play your cards right, after the boys go to bed I’ll show you exactly how much I want you.”

Chuckling, she took the envelope he’d opened earlier that morning, and slid out the contents. His smile grew as her eyes widened. “Is this real?” she asked.

He moved behind Anna. As he wrapped his arms around her, he looked over her shoulder. “Very real,” he said, staring at the five hundred thousand dollar check signed by Ms. Liliana Hunnicutt.

*

CORE Offices, Chicago, Illinois
 

3:47 p.m. Central Daylight Saving Time

Dante Russo sat in the corner of CORE’s evidence and evaluation room eating the cake Ian’s daughter had made for Rachel’s surprise baby shower. Normally he loved anything sweet and anything Celeste baked. Unfortunately, being surrounded by baby stuff had the rich chocolate and banana cream cake souring in his mouth. While he was thrilled for Owen and Rachel, he couldn’t help the stab of jealousy or the unwanted memories of the baby shower his ex-wife’s family had given them six years ago.

Ian entered the room wearing a scowl. He locked eyes with Dante and headed in his direction, waving off Celeste’s offer of cake. Dante cracked a smile when she stuck her tongue out at her father’s back, then watched as she took her four-month-old daughter from her husband, and his coworker, John Kain.
 

“Now that everyone has cake, let’s start opening presents,” Celeste’s sister, Eden, said, propping her six-month-old daughter onto her hip.
 

As Owen handed a very pregnant Rachel the first gift, Ian stopped in front of Dante. “I’d like to know who authorized turning my evidence and evaluation room into a showroom for Babies ‘R’ Us.”
 

“That would be your daughter and Eden.”

“I see.” Ian scowled and glanced around the room. “What the hell is that thing sitting on top of my twenty thousand dollar printer?”

“That would be a diaper pail.”

Ian let out an exasperated sigh. “If a client walked into the office they’d think we’re running a daycare as opposed to a criminal investigation agency. Now I know why Hudson was so eager to take on his last assignment.”

“I highly doubt Hud chose to go to Cleveland to avoid a baby shower.” Since Hudson had married Eden, he’d done everything he could to fight for cases within driving distance from Chicago. The former CIA agent doted on his wife and six-month-old daughter and hated being away from them. Dante knew for a fact the only reason Hudson took this particular case was to help out an old friend.
 

“Regardless, they could have done this elsewhere.” Ian looked toward the door. “Here come the newlyweds,” he said as Jake and Naomi entered the room.
 

Jake carried a gift over to Owen, while Naomi took a seat next to Celeste. Although Naomi hadn’t lost the wrist splints, he noticed the way she curled her finger around Celeste’s daughter’s chubby little hand. Which was great. There had been concern that she might lose some dexterity in her fingers after the way her wrists had been slit.
 

“You keep referring to them as newlyweds,” Dante said. “Sounds like you’re bitter they eloped and didn’t invite you.”

Ian shifted his gaze to him. “I have better things to be bitter about. But, in my opinion, eloping is a cheat. The couple might have a marriage license and an Elvis impersonator as a witness, but for the family and friends, it’s as if it never happened.”
 

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Dante set his plate on a nearby table under Rachel’s beloved white board. “I can assure you that, one, they were married at an island resort with, according to Naomi and Jake, about fifty sunbathers as witnesses—not an Elvis impersonator. And, two, they are legally married. Considering they’d been separated for five years, I thought what they’d done suited them. Why drag out a long engagement?”

Ian glanced to the door. “When I need philosophical advice, I’ll let you know,” he said, then nodded to Jake as he approached them. “It’s good to see Naomi. How’s her therapy going?”

Jake smiled when he looked at his wife of two weeks. “Great. She has a couple of more months before she can go back to regular activities.”

“How’s she dealing with everything else?” Dante asked, knowing the guilt from the bombings had been hard for her.

“Touch and go. Thank God her name was never released.”

When Dante glanced to Ian, his boss quickly looked away.
 

“Yes,” Ian began, “I was very pleased the FBI left Naomi as an anonymous informant. Harrison Fairclough, too. Neither deserved to have their names linked to Christian Hunnicutt.”

“No, they didn’t,” Jake said, looking across the room at Naomi. “I still can’t believe what Hunnicutt’s wife did for the victims from the bombings. I know she could afford it, but still. Five hundred thousand dollars?”

Once Liliana Hunnicutt had found out what her husband had done, she gave a check for five hundred thousand dollars to each family affected by the bombings. The grand total—over two hundred million dollars. She also paid for the millions of dollars’ worth of damage the explosions had caused.

“I spoke with Martin Fitzgerald last week,” Ian said. “Liliana Hunnicutt will legally change her name back to Liliana Stewart, once the sale of BH-Xpress is complete. She’s doing the same for her children.”
 

Jake leaned against the corkboard and watched Rachel unwrap her next gift. “That doesn’t surprise me. She had him cremated and his ashes dumped in a landfill. There’s no headstone in the family cemetery, either.”

Dante hid a smile. Very fitting for a man like Hunnicutt. The megalomaniac narcissist had cared about no one but himself. No one mourned him or celebrated his life. Actually, he’d heard his widow had hosted a party to celebrate his death.

“Fitzgerald also told me the FBI finally finished excavating the property surrounding Hunnicutt’s Virginia plantation home. In the labyrinth at the back of the estate, they uncovered the skeletal remains of twenty-six victims. Based on the clothing found, they believe some of the victims were buried there as far back as the 1920s.”

Jake crossed his arms and shook his head. “Sounds like Hunnicutt inherited more than money. Speaking of which, Liliana came to see Naomi and offered her one of her checks. Naomi never wanted anything from Hunnicutt and didn’t want the blood money Liliana offered. She turned it down and asked that it be placed in a fund for women who are victims of stalking. Liliana not only did, but doubled the fund.”

“An excellent solution.” Ian glanced toward the door again. “I’ll be right back.”
 

When Ian walked away, Dante asked, “How’s Naomi adjusting to Chicago?”

“She’s doing great,” he answered and shoved his hands in his pockets. “In a few months she should be able to start working again. In the meantime, she’s been busy either entertaining my family or decorating our condo. Thank God for my mom. That first month, Naomi couldn’t use her hands at all and I couldn’t always be at home. I think Naomi loves having my mom around. As much as I love having her around, too, now that Naomi can use her hands, I’m looking forward to having the place to ourselves.”

Dante grinned. “I’m sure. Starting off a marriage living with your parents can’t be a lot of fun.”

Jake chuckled. “Don’t go there because— Who’s the woman with Ian?”

Dante looked to the door, just as Ian walked in with a petite woman with long, dark straight hair. With the slight tilt of her almond shaped eyes he detected a hint of Asian descent. “I have no idea.”

“Oh, look,” Rachel said from across the room. “A gift from Uncle Ian.” She held up a breast pump. “How thoughtful.”

Ian stopped. His eyes widened a fraction, while his face flushed. The young woman at his side whispered something to him and he nodded. “It was on the baby registry and I prefer practical gifts,” he said, then led the woman toward Jake and him.

“Lola Tam,” Ian began, “this is Jake Tyler and Dante Russo. Dante is the agent I told you about.”

After Lola shook Jake’s hand, she offered Dante hers. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, eagerness brightening her unique, hazel eyes. “Ian told me all about your background. A former Navy SEAL. How exciting. I’m really looking forward to training with you.”
 

Training?
Great, he was stuck with another new recruit. While he didn’t necessarily mind, up until a few months ago he’d had Jake tied to his side, which had made it difficult to pursue his
personal
investigation.