Dell was shaking now. “Shut up. Damn you.”
“Did he tell you he was innocent? Beg for mercy? Did
you shoot him anyway?”
His arm tightened around her throat. She lifted higher
on her toes, trying to breathe.
“Let her go, Farmer,” Noah said, his voice as calm as
hers had been.
“No.
No.
You killed, too, Webster. You started
this.”
“I didn’t kill your brother, Dell,” Noah said. “He was
running from a crime. We were pursuing. That’s what we do.”
“He didn’t
do
anything.”
Eve could smell his desperation, a rancid odor.
“He killed a store owner,” Noah said reasonably. “In
cold blood.”
“Only because she drove him to it.”
“She? You mean Katie?” Noah asked.
“Yes. He wasn’t bad. V wasn’t bad.” But he didn’t
sound so sure now. Eve sensed his confusion and remembered the night before,
that brief moment when she’d reminded him he was in a bar surrounded by cops.
Rage had become confusion, then he’d swung back to cold control. Dell was
there, right now, in that moment between rage and control, and Eve prayed Noah
was paying attention. Turning herself into dead weight, Eve lifted her feet and
wrenched from his grip.
“Drop the gun, Farmer,” Noah demanded, even as she hit
the floor, rolling away.
Curled into a ball, she turned her head enough to peek
out. Noah held his gun steady on Dell, but Dell held his gun on Eve. The two
men stared at each other.
“I’ll kill her,” Dell said, his voice coldly mocking,
just like the night before, “while you watch. You’re going to kill me anyway,
just like you did V. I’ll take her with me.”
Eve slid her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out
her gun. She lurched to her knees, holding her aim steady at the hand that held
the gun.
“No, you won’t,” she said, and Dell’s head whipped
around, eyes wide and startled.
It was all Noah needed. Quickly he closed the gap,
twisting Dell’s wrist painfully as he shoved him to the floor, his own weapon
shoved against Dell’s spine as Dell fought wildly. Noah grunted as he struggled
for control of Dell’s gun, one knee jammed into his back, the other pressing
his arm into the floor.
“Get back,” Noah snarled to Eve. “Get out of here.
Now.”
“I’ll kill you,” Dell was screeching at the same time.
“I don’t care which of you.”
Eve crawled a few feet toward Dell and pointed her gun
at his head. “Stop it,” she snapped. “Or I’ll shoot your damn head off. You
don’t want to die, Dell. I’ve been there, and trust me, it ain’t fun. I’m not
lying. And I’m not afraid of you.”
Dell stared up at her, eyes full of hate. In seconds
Noah knocked Dell’s gun from his hand, then cuffed his hands behind his back.
Kneeling on Dell’s bucking legs, Noah looked up, his eyes dark with fury. “What
part of ‘Get back’ did you not understand?”
“I couldn’t hear you,” Eve said blandly. “He was
screaming ‘I’ll kill you’ too loudly.”
Noah rolled his eyes, tersely called for backup, then
looked at Trina, who’d struggled to a sitting position, her hands and feet
bound. “Where’s Brock?” he demanded.
“Bedroom,” Trina said. “He was going to kill us when
you got here, make you watch.”
Eve was on her feet. “I’ll go.” Her heart surprisingly
steady, she ran to the back, stopping to grab a kitchen knife. Brock was on the
bedroom floor, tied and gagged. But his eyes were open and furious. She pulled
the gag from his mouth.
“Is everyone okay?” were the first words from his
mouth.
“Yeah. Are you?” She winced. “Ooh. That’s a nasty bump
on your head.”
He rolled his eyes. “How much will it take to wipe
this picture from your mind?”
Eve chuckled as she sawed at his ropes. “We’ll
negotiate.”
Wednesday, February 24, 11:20 p.m.
Noah blew out a relieved breath when Eve emerged with
Brock, walking unaided. “You better be happy they’re not hurt, you little
shit,” Noah muttered.
“I would’ve,” Farmer snarled. “I would’ve killed all
of them while you watched.”
Noah held on to his temper. Barely. He’d recited
Miranda, but Farmer had screamed through it. Farmer starting screaming again as
Brock ran to his side, holding Farmer down while Noah dug plasticuffs from his
pocket and secured Farmer’s kicking feet.
Eve cut Trina’s bonds and helped her to the sofa amid
Dell’s promised retribution, delivered at a pitch that could shatter glass.
“You guys need a medic?” Noah asked.
Brock and Trina checked each other for injuries.
“Nah,” Brock said, “I think we’re good with just some ice. Eve has informed me
I have a nasty bump.” He lifted his brows in an attempt at levity. “I never
would have known otherwise.”
Now that it was over, Noah chanced a look at Eve and
his heart tumbled. She stood, still calm, holding one of Trina’s butcher knives
in her hand. Noah stood, wincing a little. He lifted Eve’s chin where a bruise
was forming, his jaw going hard. “He hit you.”
“I’m okay. Really.”
“You were a hell of a lot better than okay.” Needing
to hold her, but aware of Brock’s and Trina’s curious eyes avidly watching
every move, Noah stepped back. “I’ll call Abbott. The three of you should go
ice yourselves.”
Brock helped Trina to her feet. “I’ll have bourbon
with my ice.”
“I’m not on duty,” Eve shot back, laughing as she
walked with them to the kitchen.
She was a fascinating woman, Noah thought. So often,
she stood back and watched the world go by. But when she found herself thrust
into it, she… sparkled.
Distraction? Perhaps. But a welcome one. He glanced
down at Farmer. And now that this SOB was in custody, she was no longer in
danger. She needed no safe house.
He could take her home.
Or to mine
. He
swallowed hard as he thought about taking up where they’d left off earlier that
evening. But other priorities came first.
Noah took his cell from his pocket, his adrenaline
already receding. Abbott had told him Donner was gone and commanded him to meet
him and CSU at Donner’s house.
“Bruce, it’s Noah,” he said when Abbott picked up.
“Where are you?” Abbott asked acidly. “And what’s all
that racket?”
“At my cousin’s house and the racket is Farmer. I
brought Eve to stay with Brock, but Farmer was already here, waiting. Long
story short, he’s cuffed and lying on the floor.”
“My God,” Abbott said, the acid drained from his tone.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Brock’s got a bumped head. Trina, Eve, and I have
some bruises. Farmer’s alive.” Two uniformed officers came through the front
door. “Backup just arrived.”
“Good. It’ll be a pleasure to see him rot in prison.
I’ll let Olivia know.”
“What about Donner?”
“Still no sign of him,” Abbott said, but Noah’s
attention was suddenly fixed on Farmer who had stopped screaming and was now
laughing like a crazed hyena.
“Wait,” Noah said to Abbott, then crouched next to
Farmer. “What’s so funny?”
“You,” Farmer said. “Looking for Donner. He almost got
you good tonight.”
“What are you talking about?”
Farmer shrugged, a smirk on his face. “You’ll see. Or
maybe you won’t, then
pow
. It’ll be night-night-Noah and your pretty
Eve, too.”
Noah leaned in close. “Tell me what you know,” he said
quietly.
Farmer’s smirk grew more mocking. “Or you’ll do what?
Other than kill me, there’s nothing more you can do to me.” His smirk became a
sneer. “So go fuck yourself.”
Noah rose and nodded to the uniforms. “Take him in.
Mirandize him again. He screamed while I did it and I don’t want any sleazy
lawyer saying he never was advised of his rights. Keep him restrained, and
watch his damn feet,” he called after them.
“What did he mean?” Abbott asked. “Night-night-Noah.”
“I don’t know. But he’d heard Donner’s name before.”
Then Noah remembered. “Of course. He was at Marshall yesterday. He met Jeremy
Lyons, who works for Donner. He might have met Donner then. What did you find
at Donner’s house?”
“Broken glass in a back door, nobody home. Looks like
he and his wife went away.”
“Damn. Do we know where?” Noah demanded.
“I’ve got a request for his LUDs in process, Noah,”
Abbott said. “And a BOLO. None of the neighbors know where they might have
gone.”
Noah sighed. “I really believed Donner wasn’t our man.
Now, he’s bolted and Crazy Boy Farmer says he’s out to get me. I should have
had surveillance on him all along.”
“I put surveillance in front of the two women’s houses
you sent me, Natalie Clooney and Kathy Kirk. For now, we have Eve’s frequent
users covered, so his victim pool has been warned. You go home, get some rest.
You’ve had a pretty busy day.”
Noah found himself too relieved to argue. “Haven’t we
all. How’s Jack?”
“Still critical. They said they’d know by morning.
I’ll call you with any news.”
Thursday, February 25, 12:25 a.m.
Noah turned off his engine and everything went silent
as the two of them sat in his driveway. They had been inordinately lucky.
Or fate had smiled. Eve wasn’t sure which she believed
anymore.
She only knew the silence had grown louder with every
mile. When he hadn’t taken the turnoff to her apartment, she’d known this
moment was coming. Her mind kept going back to the backseat of his old car and
inside her whirled arousal… and fear. A lot of fear. In her mind she knew it
was unfounded. Noah wouldn’t hurt her.
After staring straight ahead at his garage door for a
full minute, she chanced a glance at Noah from the corner of her eye. He looked
grim. “I don’t know what to do next,” he confessed and she saw compassion as an
easy way out for them both.
“Noah, you’re tired. Take me home and get some rest,
just like Abbott ordered.”
“Do you want that?” he asked, and her pounding heart
pounded harder.
“If we go inside, what happens next?”
He didn’t blink. “We can sleep. Or not. Your call.”
Everything inside her clenched. “Can we just dip our
toe in and see where it goes?”
“We can do anything you want, Eve,” he said, volleying
the ball into her court again.
“It’s just…” She shrugged. “The last time I had sex
with a guy he tried to kill me.”
Now he blinked. “You said there’d been another between
then and now.”
“One other that didn’t go very well. Actually, it
didn’t go at all.”
His dark brows went up, hidden beneath the brim of his
hat. “Why not?”
“He couldn’t. He really tried, but he… couldn’t.”
“Did you love him?”
“No. It was more like a mutual favor between friends.”
She pursed her lips. “Yeah.”
Noah pushed his hat back on his head and stared at
her. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, remember that doctor? The one who’d had the
accident?”
“You had
sex
with
him
?”
“Well… no. Which is the point. He and I got to talking
one day and I wondered if I still could. You know, if everything still… worked.
He said he’d be willing to try.”
“What a guy,” Noah said dryly.
“Yeah, well.” Eve chuckled awkwardly. “It’s kind of
funny now, but it sure wasn’t funny then, for either of us. I think I was more
upset for him than about myself.”
“Not surprising,” he murmured.
“About a year ago he called me. He’s met someone and
he’s happy. And functional.” Her smile was half fond and half embarrassed. “He
made sure I knew that.”
“What a guy,” Noah said again. He hooked his finger
under her chin, tugging until she looked up at him again. Then his head dipped,
his mouth covered hers, and he kissed her so thoroughly her toes curled in her
boots. He pulled back just far enough to see her face. “You want to dip your
toe in, Eve, or do you want to dive into a cold pool?”
In his eyes was heated challenge she couldn’t ignore
if she wanted to. And, to her relief, she found she didn’t want to. “Cold
pool,” she said and his eyes flashed, with triumph probably. But that was okay
because she was feeling triumphant herself.
Noah paused long enough to throw the deadbolt on his
front door and take her computer bag and coat. Then he took her hand and led
her back to his bed.
He’d had a flash of insight at Brock and Trina’s. For
all Eve’s outer calm, she was timid. Terrified even. The last six years of her
life had been all about dipping her toe in.
But he’d watched her when she was put face to face
with people. She interacted. She came alive. She just needed that nudge.
So
did I.
He’d needed whatever had put them together. Call it fate or luck or
whatever, he didn’t intend to spend another day watching her over his tonic
water.