“Put your hands behind your head.”
Lev did so, linking his fingers. Stefan hesitated. The officer behind them had remained silent and he didn’t have a good sight on him. He didn’t like being so exposed, or vulnerable.
Get down, Stefan,
Lev hissed.
Very slowly he knelt, his hands outstretched to show they were empty. His gut knotted. He
detested
the indignity of it.
Shariton obviously knew the drill. He rolled to his knees, struggling to raise his hands.
“I’m going to put you in handcuffs, Levi, for our safety and yours.” The officer—presumably Jonas—held his gun very steady without moving position.
The officer approached from behind and reached for Lev’s wrist, drawing first one, and then the other behind his back. It was impossible to see with the glare of the headlights, a deliberate move to blind them, but Lev remained passive while the deputy removed the gun from Lev’s shoulder harness and the knife from his boot before thoroughly searching him as well.
Stefan hadn’t allowed anyone to manhandle him since he was a boy. He could feel the need to survive, the drive to fight building relentlessly. For a moment he couldn’t breathe and something lethal unfolded inside of him.
It’s just handcuffs, Stefan,
Lev’s calm voice filled his mind.
You know you could kill either of them if you needed to, even with the cuffs on. In any case, you can get them off in seconds. Just cooperate. It will be over soon.
Stefan fought back the memories of beatings. Of betrayal. When he was twelve he was dropped into Siberia and told to survive, that someone would return for him only if every single one of the men hunting him were dead. He had no idea of how many men were planning to kill him or even if there were men. The ice rained down and the temperature was so cold his blood felt like ice water flowing through his veins. He had no food and only a knife, with no idea of the size of his enemies or when they would come at him.
He couldn’t trust anyone. What was he doing, allowing a man to come up behind him? His breath burned in his lungs. His heart accelerated. He could take the deputy coming up behind him, but the headlights were blinding him and he couldn’t see the exact position of the officer behind the door. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t stepped out of position and the gun had never wavered.
Thomas, talk to me. What’s wrong? I can feel something’s wrong.
Shockingly, Judith breached the space between them. The surge of energy was powerful, so powerful, electricity snapped and crackled audibly and the hair on their bodies stood up. He wasn’t the only one who felt it. Both officers and Lev looked warily around them. Fortunately, he was the only one to hear her.
Thomas, I’m coming out. Are you hurt?
How did he answer that? She showed concern now, but the moment this was over, she would most likely run from him—and he couldn’t blame her. Losing her was going to be worse than all the tortures he’d endured, all the survival games he’d been forced to play.
Stay in the house. The sheriff is here.
Why are you so cold?
The officer behind him grabbed his left wrist. It was now or never. He knew exactly every pressure point, every vulnerable target on the man. He took a breath and relaxed his hand, allowing his wrist to be cuffed and pulled behind him.
They’re handcuffing me. I’m not good with this kind of thing.
That much was the truth. The last time he’d had his hands tied he’d been beaten senseless and burned in long patterns all over his body—a reminder not to ever let an enemy take control of him. He broke out in a sweat as the officer caught his other wrist.
Thomas, I’m so sorry. I’ll come out. Jonas will listen to me.
No!
He couldn’t bear for her to see him this way. On the ground. Cuffed. Vulnerable. She
couldn’t
see him this way. He would never be able to maintain his control.
The deputy was thorough in his search, but he didn’t find the garrote, or the small pin he had shoved into his thumb.
Tell me what I can do.
Hearing her voice had tipped the scales, allowing him to try his brother’s way.
You’ve already done it by distracting me. I’m fine now. We’ll talk later.
He didn’t know if that was a plea, a threat or a command.
When she was gone, all her potent energy dissipating as fast as it had surrounded him, he felt entirely alone. She filled him up with her light, that compassion and spirit that was wholly Judith—the one she tried so desperately to suppress. Every part of him that was insubstantial, no more than a transparent phantom, she brought back to life. Without her, he was back in the cold, in the shadows, where so long ago, Sorbacov had shaped him into the ghost he’d become.
“This one is injured,” the deputy said as he helped Shariton to his feet.
“Secure him in the squad car and take his statement. I’ll talk to these two.”
Jonas Harrington was a man with a few secrets of his own. His energy, hot and bright, reached Stefan well in advance of the officer. Tall with sun-bleached hair and very focused, sea blue eyes, he crossed to them with long, confident strides. He looked a man to be careful around, but more, he
felt
like a man to be cautious around and Stefan always paid attention to his warning system.
Stefan recognized Jonas’s deputy immediately, from the papers years ago in their homeland, although they’d never formerly crossed paths. This man had grown up in the state-run home with the youngest Prakenskii. He’d been a formidable police detective in Russia and later, like Ilya, had worked for Interpol.
Aleksandr Volstov had midnight blue eyes and dark wavy hair. Stefan read
lethal
all over him. He glanced at Lev with a raised eyebrow. Lev shook his head, indicating he hadn’t met Volstov as of yet, but recognized the man from his pictures in the newspapers in Russia when he’d worked as a detective.
Volstov’s gaze sharpened when he saw Lev, his gaze flicking quickly to Jonas. Harrington gave a small shake of his head, but Stefan caught it.
He recognized you, Lev. He’s from Russia.
I know. Let it be.
“Sir, I’m going to put you in my car just while I talk to Levi.”
Stefan didn’t respond. He concentrated on remaining passive. It took discipline to walk to the car and slide into the backseat. He’d been a prisoner more than once, but he’d been young and much more trusting back then. One betrayal had been a man he’d considered his best friend. He would have turned on his trainers before he would have followed the order to outwit and kill his friend, yet Uri, no more than a boy—a teenager—had waited until his back was turned and struck. At the last moment, Stefan had seen the attack coming in the reflection of a window. He had thrown himself to one side and still carried the scar where the knife went in deep.
He stared out the window at his brother and the cop. He could read lips and, with the lights still on, he could see both men easily.
“Tell me what happened, Levi,” Jonas instructed Lev.
Lev shrugged casually, his expression completely closed. “Judith invited a stranger over and I watched him.” He was unapologetic. “Just to be safe I was armed. I didn’t really know much about him so I waited until he went to leave and struck up a conversation. We were walking, talking about his business and we spotted a man hiding up on that small knoll just above Judith’s house, hiding in the trees there. He was making a racket, must have gotten spooked by the owls nesting there. He’s all torn up.”
“The birds living on this property are particularly vicious,” Jonas observed dryly. “This isn’t the first time someone’s had a problem with them.”
“He shot at us,” Levi continued, ignoring the comment. “I can show you where one of the bullets hit.”
“Just once? One shot?” Jonas asked.
Levi shook his head. “Three at Vincent. Two at me. Five all together. His gun’s over there.”
“I’ll need to swab your hands for residue. You know the drill. I’ve got the GSR kit in the car. Let’s get it done and then I’ll talk to Vincent.”
“Shariton has a camera with a lot of pictures of Judith on it,” Lev added.
The expression on Jonas’s face changed. He walked with Lev to the car, pulling out his kit. “My partner will swab Shariton’s hand and get his story.”
While he was talking, he was looking Stefan over. Stefan was very grateful he’d taken after his mother in coloring. While he had his father’s height and bulk, a fighter’s solid muscular build, his eyes and hair color differed significantly from Lev’s. The sheriff’s eyes were just a little too sharp.
He seemed satisfied with the results of his test and removed Levi’s cuffs. “Wait over there while I talk with your friend here.”
He opened the door, allowing Stefan to step outside the vehicle. Pushing down the need to remove the cuffs, Stefan complied, breathing in the night air.
“Your name?”
“Thomas Vincent.”
“Tell me what happened here.”
“It all happened fast. I was visiting with Judith Henderson and when I went to leave, I ran into Levi Hammond there. He lives on the farm and is married to one of Judith’s sisters. We got to talking and he was showing me a little of property, just walking really while we talked, and there was a man in a grove of trees just above Judith’s house.”
“Who spotted him?”
Stefan frowned and shook his head. “I don’t honestly remember. We were talking and then a bird called out loud, and he screamed. Maybe that’s what drew our attention. In any case, Levi shouted something, and the guy took off running. We separated, trying to come at him from two positions and he shot at me.”
“How many times did he fire his gun?”
“Three times. Well, at me. He shot at Levi a couple more times.”
“You’ve got a few splinters in your face.”
“It happened so fast,” Thomas reiterated. “I didn’t have time to think. I just reacted. I tackled him when he was shooting at Levi. I thought he was going to kill me.”
“Not the smartest thing in the world, tackling a man with a gun,” Jonas observed. “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. I need to check your hands for gun residue.”
Jonas unlocked the handcuffs. Stefan noticed his eyes never shifted away. The sheriff was ready for anything. He dutifully held out his hands for the swab.
Aleksandr Volstov approached, using a small hand gesture to summon his partner for a conference. “His name’s Mike Shariton. He lives in Point Arena. I read him his rights. He tested positive for gun residue. He said he gets paid for taking pictures of Judith and has for the last five years. This is only the second time he went over the fence and onto the property. He admits to shooting at both men. In fact, he didn’t hold anything back.”
Jonas cast a suspicious glance back at Lev. “He confessed to shooting at them?”
“The way he tells it, he was scared and trying to just frighten them enough to back off.”
“He’s stalking Judith.”
“He claims he gets paid to take the photographs for someone else. He was contacted and offered money to do the job and the pay is good and comes immediately when he sends the pictures over the Internet.”
Distaste crossed Jonas’s face. Stefan could see the idea of anyone stalking a woman and sending her pictures over the Internet bothered the sheriff on a very personal level.
“The pictures are sent to a guard at a prison in France. That guard delivers them to Jean-Claude La Roux.” Volstov said the name expectantly.
“That name mean something to you, Aleksandr?” Jonas asked with a small frown.
“He was convicted of running guns some five years ago, but was suspected of everything from espionage to murder. Anyone in his way disappeared. Twice, Interpol agents investigating him disappeared, but no one could connect him.”
Jonas shook his head. “I’ll finish up here and talk to Judith. See if she knows this man or if she has any idea why a criminal in France would want her photograph. Take Shariton to the hospital and get him help for that wrist. Book him on felony assault with deadly a weapon and felony negligent discharge of a firearm. We can add anything else we need to later.”
It took what seemed like forever to answer all the questions and recover two of the five bullets fired. One was in a tree trunk, the second in the branch of the same tree. The others were impossible to recover, although Jonas made a thorough inspection of the area. He interrogated them again, both separately and together, dropping seemingly inane questions into the conversation designed, Stefan knew, to trip either of them up. He had interrogated more people than he’d ever want to admit to and knew the tactics.
Stefan just wanted everyone gone. He had no problem maintaining his role as American businessman Thomas Vincent, but all the same, he was happy enough that the sharp-eyed Volstov had left before he could inspect Stefan too closely.
Aleksandr Volstov had quite the reputation as a police detective and Interpol agent. What was the man doing in Sea Haven? Had he been friends with Ilya? There would be no talking with Judith tonight, not with the sheriff heading to her house to interview her.
What would she tell him about her relationship with Thomas Vincent? Any way he looked at it, she wasn’t going to welcome him with open arms again. He was going to have to crawl back and find a loophole or two to get her to even listen to him.
13
JEAN-CLAUDE
La Roux.
Judith stood at the door watching Jonas walk back to his squad car, her entire body numb, the color draining from her face. For the longest time her mind refused to work. She just stared out into the night, shocked, guilt-ridden and afraid. She’d put everyone she loved in danger. Jean-Claude was capable of anything.
She had never really been rid of him, not when he haunted her every night, invading dreams to turn them into nightmares. She would never truly be rid of him, but to know he was keeping tabs on her . . .
paying
someone to send him pictures for the last five years was truly frightening.