Running (22 page)

Chapter
Forty-Nine

***

The emergency room waiting
area was packed when Paige stepped inside, Sebastian’s brother at
her heels.

“
Paige…” Payton wrapped her
hand around Paige’s, her face showing her worry and fear. Paige
tried not to panic. Seth was demanding answers from the
registration staff, but she doubted he’d get any.

“
How is she?”

“
She’s stable, but still
out. That’s all they can tell me until her next of kin get here. I
couldn’t get ahold of Malachi, but I got Mick. He’ll be here
shortly with her parents.” Payton was trembling and her blue eyes
were red rimmed, and Paige hugged her hard. Payton’s older brother
had died in a nasty automobile accident less than five months ago.
It was what had spurred Payton to accept the transfer offer. She’d
had no one else left in Indiana; St. Louis was supposed to be her
fresh start.

“
She was
lucky you got her help, sweetheart.” A man said this and Paige
looked past Payton. She recognized him. The billionaire the St.
Louis papers had dubbed
Lucifer.
Why was he with Payton? Didn’t he and
Cody
have a thing
going?

He had found Cody when
she’d been attacked and beaten by her car back in September. When
someone had been targeting the new members of the forensics
department that Ed Dennis had had transferred to Indianapolis.
Cody’s picture was frequently in the paper with the man and
everything. “Thank you, Mr. Lucas. From what Payton said on the
phone your bodyguards probably saved her life.”

“
I was glad to help. And
happy I could. Sit down. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
His dark eyes were concerned, and his hand firm on her elbow. She
let the man lead her to a small couch in the waiting area. His tone
changed. “Payton. Sit.”

Payton sat. Paige studied
her friend for a moment, trying
not
to think about what another blonde haired,
blue-eyed friend was going through at that moment. The
billionaire—had Paige ever met one before?—was tall and lean, with
brown hair and eyes. Some of his features shouted Asian ancestry.
He was a very good looking man, and he easily wielded power. From
what else she’d heard through the Bureau grapevine, he’d been
investigated a few times, too. But he somehow always came out on
top. But why was he with
Payton
?

Why did it matter? His
people had been there at the right time to help Al. And
that
was what was
important.

Chapter Fifty

***

No one would tell him
anything, and on an intellectual level he understood it. Privacy
ruled supreme, but privacy laws mattered little to him right then.
He wouldn’t be able to
breathe
again until he saw for himself that Blondie was
going to be ok. Didn’t anyone understand that?

When had the damned woman
become so vital to him that he couldn’t
breathe
when she was threatened? How
had he let her get
that
deep inside him, when no one else ever had?

Her partner and her friend
were over in one corner of the waiting room, but he didn’t join
them. He was pacing the area in front of the metal doors that
separated him from Alessandra, waiting for someone from her damned
family to show up so
they
could get the updates. He’d never felt so useless
in his life.

His shitty luck held
through, and it was the big bastard who stormed in a few steps
ahead of Sebastian and Carrie. But he didn’t give a damn; he just
wanted to know how she was. And Mick was the biggest
means-to-an-end he had. “They won’t tell me anything.”

“
Of
course they won’t. You’re not her family.” He elbowed Seth aside
and glowered at the registration clerk. Seth watched the woman’s
eyes widen when she realized the big bastard was glowering
at
her.
“Alessandra Brockman. I’m next of kin.”

“
You’ll ne-need to si-sign
this.”

Seth waited impatiently
while the necessary paperwork was handled. The registration clerk
told Mick that he’d have to wait until the doctor was free to speak
with him. Mick wasn’t any happier than Seth; that was very
clear.

The big bastard kept
getting in Seth’s way where
he
was pacing, and Seth wanted to knock him out of
the way. Get the tension eating at his insides out so that he could
deal with what was going on. Mick was glaring at him and Seth had a
feeling the other man understood exactly how Seth was feeling right
then. And reciprocated.

Seth looked away, toward
the others in the waiting room. Blondie’s other brother and the
sister-in-law were there. When had they come in? Fuck. They had
her
parents
there.
Seth didn’t do well with parents. At all. And her father was
looking at him with that blame in his eyes.

And Seth knew the man had
every right to.

The sister-in-law held a
little girl and Seth figured it was the niece Al had spoken of. She
passed the girl to Alessandra’s father and stood. Everyone looked
at her.

“
This is
taking
too
long.
I’m going to check on her myself.”

She was a doctor, wasn’t
she? She had privileges here? Why hadn’t she said
anything?

She flashed some
identification at the registration clerk who immediately buzzed her
through the security doors. Then the sister-in-law was gone and
Seth felt marginally better. The sister-in-law obviously knew how
to get things done. Alessandra had said she did.

Dammit, Blondie…what the
hell were you thinking?

She should have just stayed
with him tonight. She didn’t have to leave. He certainly hadn’t
wanted her to. He would have been perfectly happy to have had her
to himself all night, without the worry or threat hanging over
their heads. But something he’d said had spooked her and she’d
taken off.

Right into Keeney. Too bad
he was already dead. Why hadn’t someone thought to look at the
OIG’s staff in the building that day?

He
knew
someone inside had to be
involved, but he’d thought it was one of his team. Not one of the
OIG. That made little sense. Unless Keeney was one of the names on
the list. One of the blackmail targets. But why hadn’t anyone put
it together yet?

And why had
Riaz
shot him? What the
fuck was going on?

Keeney was dead, but
Riaz
wasn’t. And Seth
would find him and rip him into pieces. Rip one bone out of him at
a time.
After
he
saw Alessandra for himself and knew she was going to be
ok.

The sister-in-law returned
with a middle-aged doctor in tow. The man looked at the group
surrounding Seth. “Next of kin for Agent Brockman?”

“
We are,” her father and
brothers said. The father continued. “But these are my daughter’s
friends and colleagues. You may speak in front of them. She won’t
have a problem with it.”

“
Agent Brockman has some
minor damage to the area above the heart and the bullet broke her
collarbone. She’ll be in a sling for a while. What was concerning
was the concussion. But there is very little actual swelling on the
brain and she should be fine. She had a few minor injuries
consistent with a side-impact car accident, so she’s going to be
quite sore for a few days, but overall, she’ll make a full
recovery. She is still sedated at this point. One person can stay
with her in recovery.”

The sister-in-law confirmed
his words. “I looked at her chart; she’ll probably be out for a few
hours minimum. And I saw her, people. She looks good,
considering.”

“
Why don’t you stay with
her?” her husband asked, hugging her. “Mick and the rest of us will
head over to PAVAD and find the bastard responsible.”

“
I can stay here, as well.”
The blonde woman sitting by Paige said. Seth had noticed her, but
not given her much thought. “Kelly is coming, too.”

Then Seth was being dragged
out of the waiting room by his brother and Alessandra’s. He didn’t
have to like it. But he understood it.

It was time to hunt that
bastard down and make him pay.

Chapter
Fifty-One

***

They hit the PAVAD building
almost at a run. Seth was impressed with the way Sebastian
organized his people. Riaz's photo and copies of his most recent
case files were on the digital whiteboard with just a few clicks of
Carrie's fingers on her keyboard.

“
We'll
need the original autopsy findings. Someone died that day, and if
not Riaz we need to find out who.” Sebastian nodded to Paige. “Get
them. Carrie, babe, work your magic, find me everything you can of
Riaz's
not
job
related. Mick, Mal. How do you want to handle this? None of us can
take point on this.”

“
I can.” An older man said
from the doorway. “Ed asked me to lend you a hand. And sign off on
paperwork.”

“
That end's covered then;
thanks, Dan. Seth, why would this guy do this?”

“
Money. That’s all I can
think of. And Riaz was ambitious and didn't want to live with his
mother forever. It could all boil down to numbers.”

“
Good old fashioned greed.
But why shoot Al?” the older man asked. “What could be gained from
that?”

“
How good of friends were
you with this guy?” Sin asked, from where he stood studying the
board.

“
Not close. But close
enough to trust him to go fishing with him on my off
time.”

“
From the
patterns here,” Carrie said while she pointed at a list on the
digital board. “I’d say it is definitely blackmail. And I think
we’re looking at first names here, and
initials
of the last names in the
first column. See? Here’s a K, George. Dates match withdrawals from
Keeney’s savings account. They were the only withdrawals out of the
account, and the numbers
always
match this list. And I sent a copy of this list
and a sample of Riaz’s handwriting to Payton via Kelly. She’s
comparing this to see if it matches Riaz’s. He could have been
writing his own list of potential victims, but I don’t think so. I
think this is part of his ledger. One that he
missed.”

Seth thought for a moment.
“You think there are more records like this out there.”

“
Yes. I do. The dates just
start and end abruptly. I think there are more. We need to find
them and tie them to Riaz.”

“
You think Keeney was
involved in a blackmail scheme?” Al's brute of a brother asked.
“What's Riaz's position in all of this?”

Seth did his best to push
everything else out of his head. He focused on the list Carrie had
uploaded to the digital board. Initials, coded, numbers, and what
Carrie had identified as SIM card serial numbers. People were
running down those numbers now. But it would take time. It was all
listed there before him. He just needed to see the patterns for
himself. Make sense of things.

“
There should be another
record in the files.” He didn't see it anywhere. “A list of
initials and dates. With actual dollar amounts next to
it.”

“
Like this one?” Someone
else had entered the room when Seth was lost in thought. His
ex-sister-in-law, Cody. “I found it in the floorboard of Keeney's
car. Along with the rest of your files. Apparently he took them out
of the CCU conference room. Al said she saw him with
them.”

“
Al
said?” The big brute brother pulled on Cody's
shoulder until she turned toward him. Apparently he didn’t scare
Cody the way he did others.

“
Yes. I
spoke with her on the phone a few minutes ago. She's awake and has
one hell of a headache, but she's talking and demanding we get her
out of there. Immediately. A slight workaholic is our Al. Payton
and Kelly are riding herd on her. And Jules has a pair of cuffs if
we need to keep Al from flying the coup. She’s ok, Mick. I promise.
I've had a preliminary look at both Al and Keeney's cars. Nothing
unexpected. Truck impacted Al's sedan enough to stop her and to
distract, I think. I did find this on Al's front seat.
'Tough break, Lark, but no one likes a
traitor'.
Figured it was meant for the
cowboy here.” She tossed an evidence bag containing a single sheet
of paper toward Seth. “Payton's coming in to take a look and
compare it to Riaz's samples, plus look more closely at everything.
It's clean for prints and DNA. I had it prioritized. Other than
that, the cars aren't going to tell us much. We're still waiting
for the rest of Ritchison's team to finish with ballistics and a
few other things. And Jules is having Mia start pre-op on Keeney’s
body.”

“
Thanks, Merrick. I
appreciate it,” Sebastian said. Seth was studying the note. He'd
seen enough of Riaz's handwriting to recognize it when it was as
in-your-face as this little taunt.