She’d been so angry with him for so long, had thought he’d abandoned her and had only his own interests in mind when he’d left all those years ago.
Now she knew the truth, and it had changed everything.
Or almost everything. The past, at least.
But the present was the same, and the future…
That
, she didn’t know. And she wasn’t about to guess.
She and Dante were going to meet Gabe at her place.
When she opened the door, her eyes widened.
“You have a hot date later?”
Gabe frowned. “No. Why?”
“Because you look amazing.”
Gabe wore a tight, black short-sleeved shirt, his dark hair free of his customary do-rag tonight. And with his full, muscular physique packed into his jeans, he was simply gorgeous.
And blushing under her scrutiny, which was adorable.
“Stop it,” he said and moved inside.
Dante was in the kitchen drinking a beer. He already had one out for Gabe.
“Aren’t you looking pretty,” Dante said. “Got a date?”
“What the fuck is it with you two? You trying to set me up?” Gabe asked as he pulled out a chair and flopped into it, then popped the top on the can.
“He’s embarrassed because I gushed over how hot he looked.”
Dante arched a brow. “I’m going to keep a close eye on both of you.”
“You want the info I brought with me or not?” Gabe said, clearly irritated, which Anna found oh so amusing.
“We’re all ears,” she said. “And eyes, handsome.”
Gabe swore. “Once more, Pallino, and I’m out of here.”
“Sorry. I’ll be good.” She held up her hand. “Promise.”
“I did a little scouting on our friend Tony Maclin’s past and who the dealers were in his area at the time. I found three heavy ones who fit the profile—Don Osher, Crey Robinson and Adam Marcovelli.”
Anna wrote down the names, opened her laptop and started typing.
“Osher is currently doing twenty-five to life for murder, so he’s out.” She typed in the other two names. “The other two are clean. Both have local driver’s licenses, so they’re a possibility.”
“Let me have your laptop,” Dante said, then opened up a database that looked like nothing Anna had ever seen.
“What is that?”
“Can’t tell you. It’s classified.”
“Dante.”
He gave her a quick look. “Not kidding.”
Gabe stood and came over, glanced down at the laptop. “Huh.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Nothing. You’re like a superhero of information technology, aren’t you?”
“I can get around a few roadblocks.”
“More than someone in the FBI, I think,” Gabe said, grabbing his beer and sliding into his chair. “That’s no database I’ve ever seen.”
“Me neither,” Anna said.
Her gaze burned into Dante’s back, but he didn’t look up, just continued to jump from screen to screen so fast she got dizzy. Finally, she gave up and took her chair.
“You sure he’s FBI?” Gabe asked.
Anna just shrugged. “That’s what his credentials say.” She wouldn’t blow Dante’s cover. Not even to Gabe. If Dante wanted Gabe to know who he really was, he could tell him himself.
“Crey Robinson,” Dante finally said, pushing back from the chair.
“He’s the one?” Anna asked. She looked at the laptop screen. There was the entire history of one Creighton Robinson and a picture of him in a white coat, looking arrogant like a lot of doctors did.
“He was doing his undergrad work for medical school while Tony Maclin was in high school. He’s finishing up his surgical residency at Washington University now.”
Finally. Finally, they had a lead.
Dante called the hospital. “He’s on duty tonight. Night shift.”
“We need to go talk to Dr. Robinson.” She went to Gabe, bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “You are awesome.”
Gabe grinned. “I know.”
“You also need to be doubly careful.”
He wrapped his fingers around her wrists. “So do you. We don’t know what his target is other than tracking us down and killing us.”
She nodded. “I know. But we’ll get him, Gabe. I won’t let anyone else die. I’ll catch him.”
He stood and pulled Anna into his arms for a hug. “I know you will.”
After Gabe left, Dante grabbed the car keys. “We can head over to the hospital now.”
Anna laid her hand on his arm. “Wait. I need to tell you something.”
He paused. “Okay.”
“I talked to my dad. He told me he was the one who made you leave twelve years ago.”
Dante laid his keys on the counter, then leaned against it. “He didn’t make me leave. Nothing would have made me leave if I hadn’t wanted to.”
He was being noble, giving her dad an out. “You were a kid, underage. He was a cop. I know how it works. You didn’t have a choice.”
He brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “I always had a choice. I made the decision to leave. I’m no hero, Anna.”
Yes, he was. “You left to protect me.”
“I left to protect myself.”
She laughed. “Why are you making this so difficult?”
“Because I don’t want you blaming your father for this. We both decided me leaving was the best thing to do. For you. For me. For the situation. He isn’t the bad guy here.”
“I didn’t say he was.”
“But you’re mad at him, aren’t you?”
There he went again, reading her body language or moods or whatever the hell he did that he was so adept at. She shrugged. “A little. He kept that information from me. He kept you from me. He took the choice away from both of us.”
Dante smiled. “That’s the teenage Anna digging in her heels. What does the adult Anna think about it?”
Oh, sure, he had to get all logical about it. Damn him. “The teenage Anna refuses to allow adult Anna out of the closet long enough to render an opinion. Teen Anna is still pouting about it.”
He laughed, pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and hard until she melted against him. Her head spun and her body came alive. When he pulled away, he said. “That was definitely adult Anna kissing back.”
He kissed her again. “Forgive your dad. It’s in the past and that’s one thing that should stay there. The army made me stronger and gave me skills and opportunities I might never have had. I have no regrets. Your father’s a fine man and I’m grateful to him for what he did for me.”
“He said I needed to bring you over. He’s mad you’ve been back in town and haven’t stopped by to say hello.”
“Let’s do that before we head over to the hospital. We have some time.”
“Okay.”
Maybe that would help. She still felt bad about her dad, about how they left things, even though they’d hugged and said their I-love-yous. Getting him and Dante together again would be a step in the right direction. She was proud of everything Dante had accomplished in his life. She wanted her father to be proud of him, too.
The house was dark when they pulled up in front. It was still early, at least for her dad, who never went to bed before midnight.
Anna frowned.
“Your dad have plans for tonight?”
“Not that I’m aware of. He’s always home in the evenings. Maybe he’s out walking Rusty.”
Dante pulled out his phone. “It’s eleven-thirty.”
“He’s a night owl. Habit from years of working night shift. He wouldn’t go to bed before one or two.”
She went to the door, rang the bell, didn’t hear Rusty’s bark. She turned to Dante. “That must be it, since I don’t hear Rusty barking. They must be out for a walk.”
“How far do they go?”
“Just around the block usually. He wouldn’t go as far as the park. Not this late at night.”
“Maybe he went to bed early.”
She laughed. “My dad hasn’t gone to bed early one night in his entire life.”
“Okay. So let’s check the block.”
She started to walk down the path, then stopped. “He would have left the porch light on. And the house lights.”
She turned and headed to the front door, turned the knob. The door opened. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She lifted her gaze to Dante and lowered her voice. “Something’s wrong. If he went to the bar or out somewhere he’d have left lights on, and Rusty would be here. He’d bark. And Dad only leaves the door unlocked when he’s home.”
Dante pulled his gun and stepped in front of Anna. She pulled her gun, too, moving next to Dante. “I know the layout of the house better, and Rusty knows me. If he’s in here and he comes running, I can calm him down.”
He nodded. “Stay close to me.”
She pushed the door open, leaving the lights off. If someone was inside, she didn’t want him to know they were there. Familiar with the layout of the house, she moved inside, stepping light and easy through the living room. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noted nothing seemed out of place. That was good. Dante pressed his shoulder against hers. She nodded and they moved into the kitchen.
That’s when she saw it, highlighted by the moonlight shining in through the back door onto the floor.
Blood.
Her heart slammed into double time and she broke into a sweat.
Dante saw it too and turned to the side, his gun pointed up as they followed the blood trail from the dining area to the back door. She reached out for the handle and Dante grabbed her wrist. She jerked her gaze to his.
“Prints,” he whispered.
Shit. She didn’t want to think like a detective right now. Her dad might be out there. Dante grabbed a towel from the counter and handed it to her. She nudged the partially open slider and walked outside.
More blood on the patio. Panic rose and she swallowed past the dryness in her throat.
Not now. She refused to let it consume her. She forced her breathing, in and out, with normal breaths. Shaky breaths.
“Anna,” Dante whispered. “Hold it together.”
She waved him off and stepped off the patio and into the yard.
That’s when she heard the whimper and hurried to follow the sound.
It was Rusty lying next to her father. He hadn’t barked, hadn’t moved, because he was protecting her dad.
No.
Her dad was at the back of the yard near the bushes. She dropped to her knees, saw the blood everywhere.
Tears pricked her eyes. “Dad.”
He was unconscious, blood all over his face and body. His shirt had been ripped open and half a heart had been carved into his chest. The killer hadn’t been able to finish. Something had stopped him. She laid two fingers on the side of her father’s neck, fervently praying.
She couldn’t find it, searched again. There! Faint, but it was a pulse.
“Dad. Daddy, it’s me, Anna. Can you hear me?”
He didn’t respond.
She heard Dante on the phone. She assumed he was calling for an ambulance and for police units, but it was all white noise to her.
“Anna, I’m going to check the area.”
She nodded and leaned over her father again.
He didn’t respond and she wanted to curl up next to him right there on the ground and offer him comfort. She swept her hand over his hair. “Stay with me, Daddy. Help is on the way.”
She picked up her father’s hand and held it—along with her breath—until she heard the wail of the ambulance and saw the lights out front. Dante came back, too.
“Front door wasn’t messed with, but back slider was. Uniforms are here, too, doing a canvass of the area. More black-and-whites are on the way, and I’ve called Roman.”
Anna wasn’t really listening, at this point didn’t give a shit about the suspect. All she cared about was her father making it out of this alive, and surviving the attack.
Dante dropped to the ground and checked her dad’s vitals, then shifted his gaze to hers. “He’s still here, Anna.”
“I know. He’s going to make it. He has to.”
The EMTs arrived a few minutes later and started working on her dad, and Anna got out of their way. She’d been to enough crime scenes during her tenure with the force to decipher their language. It wasn’t good. His blood pressure was dangerously low, he was in shock and he’d lost a lot of blood. They put him in the ambulance and headed off.
“Go,” Dante said. “I’ll wait for Roman to show up. You keep watch over your dad.”
She nodded.
“Anna.”
She stopped.
“I know he’s your father and you have every kind of emotion tied up in this. But keep your eyes open at the hospital. If your dad saw this guy, the killer knows it and he may be on the lookout to finish the job he started. I’ll make sure they send a uniform to watch over him, too.”
She nodded and hurried off to her car so she could follow the ambulance to the hospital.
She wasn’t leaving her father’s side. Not until he woke up.
And he would wake up.
He had to.
Dante paced the back porch, Rusty at his side. He curled his fingers in the dog’s fur. A perfect witness. He was sure the dog had seen everything.
“Wish you could tell us who did this, Rusty.” Because so far no one else could. Anna’s father had been found in the backyard, but the yard was surrounded by a fence and tall trees, obscuring the vision of his neighbors on either side. Dante had gone to talk to both. One had been inside watching television and hadn’t heard or seen anything. The ones on the other side weren’t home, and there was a park behind his house. Uniforms were canvassing the rest of the neighborhood, but so far had come up with nothing.
How had this night gotten so fucked up? He dragged his fingers through his hair and wished he could be at the hospital right now with Anna. No matter how many times he lifted his phone out of his pocket, the display was empty of messages from her. Nevertheless, he pulled it out again.
And again, nothing. Did that mean she had nothing to tell him, or was she in a corner somewhere having a panic attack?
He had to get to her.
But he also wanted this crime scene to yield something. Not only had Roman showed up, so had Pohanski, once he’d heard it was Anna’s father who’d been the victim of the latest attack.
Pohanski supervised the crime scene himself, breathing down everyone’s neck to make sure not a single thing was missed. Then he pulled Dante and Roman aside as the CSU team made their sweep.
“What the living fuck is going on here?” he asked.