Colby Velocity (8 page)

A waitress approached Kendra's table. “Would you like to order a drink first?”

Kendra checked the street again, then pulled her
credit card from her purse. “Sparkling water will be all, please.” She passed the card to the waitress. “Would you swipe my card now? I'm expecting someone and I may have to leave in a hurry.”

“Sure.”

Keeping her cell phone in hand, Kendra checked the door from time to time, covertly scanning the street beyond the floor-to-ceiling front windows simultaneously. The only obstacle standing between her and the street was the guy outside the window. She would need a distraction for him.

What about the third guy Rocky had spotted? As the minutes ticked by Kendra worried that he'd followed and overtaken her partner. Rocky was a big, well-trained guy. He could take care of himself. And he was armed.

Then again, the other guys likely would be, as well.

The two hanging around her position wore jackets with their trousers. Most any manner of lethal weapon could be hidden under a jacket.

Her phone vibrated in her palm.

 

I'm turning onto your block now.

 

“Here you go.”

Kendra smiled for the waitress as she placed the
stemmed glass of sparkling water on the table, along with the check and Kendra's card.

“Thank you.” Kendra quickly signed the check, providing a nice tip, and tucked the card back into her purse.

She shifted her legs, settled her purse into her lap and prepared to move as soon as she saw the rental car approach.

A car rolled up slowly. Kendra's muscles tightened in preparation for launching out of the chair and through the exit.

Silver…not black.

Not Rocky.

The tinted window on the front passenger side powered down as the silver sedan came to a stop.

Horns blared in indignation.

Kendra's mouth formed the words
Get Down!
as her brain analyzed the series of events.

She hit the floor.

The glass window exploded, showering fragments over the front of the dining room.

Screams filled the air.

Tables and chairs tumbled to the floor.

A light fixture burst and went dark.

Framed memorabilia on the wall shattered and crashed to the floor.

The blast of metal smashing into metal followed by screeching tires erupted outside.

More screams inside…shouting and crying.

Rushing footsteps.

Kendra shook off the shock. Shoved her hand into the purse she still clutched. Her fingers curled around the butt of her weapon. She came up onto her knees, the weapon leveled at the closest threat—the man who had been loitering by the window.

Gone.

She swung around, scanned the people now moving around the bar. No sign of the one who'd taken a post at the bar, either.

“Gun!” a voice shouted.

Someone tackled her from behind.

Her cheek flattened against the wood floor, pieces of glass bored into her flesh.

Her weapon was pried from her fingers.

The weight crushing into her back was a patron or an employee of the cafe…not a threat. She told herself to remain calm. Stay cool. Three more men were huddled around her. She didn't bother attempting to explain who she was and why she had a weapon.

The police would be here soon enough.

Her one concern right now was Rocky.

Where the hell was Rocky?

11:55 p.m.

Lieutenant Wayne Burton glared first at Rocky then at Kendra. “Two people are injured.”

Not counting Kendra, Rocky bit back. A paramedic had treated her minor abrasions and cuts. The small bandage on her cheek had anger fisting in his gut all over again. This was unacceptable.

Yet it could have been so much worse.

He should never have allowed her to stay here alone.

The cafe dining room was wrecked. Front windows shattered. Broken chairs and tables, mostly from the panicked patrons. A bullet had left an ugly hole in the vintage mahogany bar. The mirror behind it lay in a million pieces in the prep alley behind the long bar. Whiskey and liquor bottles were shattered.

All three of the perpetrators had disappeared
into the night. But not without a little something to remember Rocky by. The silver car had whipped around him as soon as he'd turned onto the street that ran in front of the cafe. When Rocky had realized what the driver intended, he'd rear-ended the bastard. He'd managed to get part of the license plate number before ramming him.

As soon as he'd ensured Kendra was okay, including pushing aside the three idiots who'd seized and manhandled her, he'd given the first cop on the scene the information about the silver car.

Kendra pushed up from the chair she'd taken after Burton had sequestered them to the cafe manager's office. “I have a question for you,” she said to her old
friend.
She shifted to regain her balance. The heel of one shoe was missing. “Why are you here?” She turned her palms upward. “There are no fatalities, thankfully. It's a drive-by shooting so far as anyone knows. There's no evidence I was a target any more than anyone else seated in the dining room.”

She went toe-to-toe with the cop. “So, tell me, why are you here?”

Burton glowered at her, his face red with the frustration and anger he'd readily shown in his tone since his arrival.

“Good point,” Rocky said, adding insult to injury. “Working the Sayar case makes sense. The breaking and entering at the hotel, not so much so. This,” he
shook his head, “surely you have homicides to work. This is D.C. after all.”

The glower Burton had reserved thus far for Kendra shifted to Rocky. “Do you think I'm stupid?”

Loaded question. Rocky resisted the urge to say yes.

Burton's fury swung back to the woman glaring up at him. “Do either of you think for one second that I don't know what's going on here?”

“You have the floor, Lieutenant,” Kendra shot back. “Why don't you tell us what
you
believe is going on. Clearly you have all the insight.”

“You,” he growled, “are trying to turn Sayar's case into something it's not. We have no evidence of anything other than a random act of violence carried out during the execution of a robbery.”

“Except the robber wasn't too bright since he forgot the MP3 player and flat-panel television in the victim's bedroom,” Rocky pointed out. “And the forty bucks lying on the bedside table.”

Burton's gaze sharpened. “Stay out of the Sayar case,” he warned. “What happened at your hotel room and here tonight should be warning enough that you're barging into territory that…could have serious consequences. You do not want to push this.”

“Is that a threat?” Kendra demanded.

Burton heaved a sigh. “That's all I can tell you for now.” He hitched a thumb toward the door. “I'll have one of the officers take you to your hotel.”

“Not necessary.” Rocky stood. “The rental agency is bringing another car.” He gave the man a nod. “But I appreciate the offer.”

Burton started for the door then hesitated. “If you're smart,” he said to Kendra, “first thing in the morning you'll get on that fancy jet that brought you here and go back to Chicago. Don't let the past drag you down with it, Kendra.”

When he'd gone, Rocky closed the door behind him. “Your friend has a point.”

Kendra closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she fought the receding adrenaline. “I understand that nothing we do will bring Yoni back, but his family deserves the truth.”

There was nothing left to give them…except the truth.

Friday, 1:00 a.m.

R
OCKY OPENED THE DOOR
to his hotel room.

Kendra hesitated before going in. “They gave me a new room.”

He shook his head. “I'm not letting you out of my sight again.”

“I need clothes…” She exhaled a weary breath. “I need sleep.”

“I can't help you with the kind of clothes you're accustomed to.” Rocky ushered her into the room and closed the door. “But the sleep” he gestured to his bed “I can take care of.”

“I'm not putting you out of your bed again.” She stood her ground near the door.

Rocky crossed the room and picked up her bag with its few salvageable contents. “Your toiletries are here.” He picked up his own bag and poked through it until he found a clean shirt. “This'll have to do until we can do some shopping tomorrow.”

She hesitated, every thought going through her head playing out on her face. Uncertainty. Temptation. Exhaustion.

Surrender.

One uneven step disappeared behind her. “Only if you're sure you can manage some sleep, as well. We're both exhausted.”

“Don't worry about me.” She closed the distance between them, her steps halting with the missing shoe heel, and tugged the shirt from his hand. “I can sleep anywhere, anytime.”

“Okay, partner.”

Rocky watched her walk across the room. How could a woman look that good with a broken shoe heel and in a rumpled skirt and torn blouse? Her jacket had been trashed, blood on the sleeve where she'd wiped her cheek. She'd taken it off in the
manager's office and hadn't bothered to pick it up when they left.

The spraying of water in the shower had him conjuring mental pictures of her releasing one button after the other on that torn blouse…allowing the silky material to slide off her shoulders. Then she would reach behind her to lower the zipper of her conservative skirt. It would fall to the floor, circling her bare feet. More of those lacy panties he hadn't expected from her would drag down her thighs.

“Knock it off, man,” he muttered.

He sat down on the end of the bed and pulled off his boots, rolled off the socks and tossed them aside. His wallet, cell phone and change went on the desk. The belt was next. Unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it free of his waistband was as far as he went with removing clothes. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

Grabbing a pillow, he pulled the upholstered chair closer to the bed and settled in. When he closed his eyes, those tempting images of her naked in the shower invaded his brain once more.

Banishing the arousing pictures, he concentrated on relaxing each muscle. One at a time. Slowly, thoroughly. His heart rate decelerated. His breathing became deeper, slower.

He'd almost succeeded in drifting off when the bathroom door opened and the clean steam, spiced
with the sweet smell of her and generic hotel soap, permeated the room, awakening his senses and resurrecting those forbidden images.

He cracked one eye open just enough to watch her pad to the bed. His shirt fell to mid-thigh. This was the first time he'd seen that much of her legs. Gorgeous. The other eye opened. She climbed onto the bed and burrowed beneath the covers.

By the time she'd snuggled in, his heart rate had jumped back into overdrive. No use denying it. He was seriously attracted to the woman. Not just the way she looked, and her refreshing ladylike manners. This went way deeper than that. He liked the way she talked, the way she moved. Her way of thinking…her compassion.

“I thought you were asleep.”

Her voice lugged him out of the lust-arousing thoughts. “Almost,” he admitted.
Until you came into the room and made me sit up and take notice, mentally and physically.

“I tried to be quiet.”

He smiled. Wouldn't have mattered if she'd floated on the air…he would have felt her presence…smelled her sweet scent. “Don't worry about it.”

“Why didn't you ever get married?”

If she'd asked if he'd actually been born a girl he wouldn't have been more surprised. “Busy, I guess.” He wasn't about to go into the psychology
of his choices. His mother had a whole book of theories on his reasoning for remaining single. Rocky felt relatively certain her analysis was part of the reason he'd recently started feeling some urgency on the subject.

“No siblings?”

“Nope.”

“Hmm.”

He considered the “hmm” for a moment. “What does
hmm
mean?”

“Nothing.”

Yeah, right. “You think because I'm barreling toward forty that I should be or have been married?”

“No…I…yes. How long have your parents been married?”

“Forty years.”

“You're a nice guy. Good job. You bought a house last year, didn't you?”

“Sure did.”

“Seems like you've got the whole
nesting
thing going on.”

He lifted his head and stared pointedly at her. “Have you been talking to my mother?” The remark sounded exactly like one his mother would make. Had made, recently as a matter of fact.

Kendra laughed. “I don't know your mother.”

“The two of you would hit it off.” In a heartbeat.

Silence lapsed around them, doing nothing at all to slow Rocky's anticipation of hearing her voice again. It soothed him…made him want to hear her crying out his name.

Far enough, pal.

“What about you?” he ventured.

“What about me?”

“You grew up in Virginia?”

“Roanoake.”

“Sisters? Brothers?”

“One brother. He was killed in Iraq in 2003.”

“Damn. Sorry.” Rocky didn't recall hearing about that. And it wasn't exactly something a guy forgot.

“It was a bad time for my family.”

“I can only imagine.” His family hadn't faced that kind of tragedy. They were damned lucky.

“My mother sends me those same vibes you get from yours.”

He met her gaze again. “The marriage-grandkids thing?”

She nodded. “My brother was older than me. He'd gotten married six months before he deployed. My parents had high hopes for grandchildren. Now all that pressure is on me.”

Rocky didn't hesitate to give her as good as she'd
given him. “So no close encounters of the marriage kind for you, either?” 'Course she wasn't thirty yet. And she was a career woman. No reason there should have been any already.

“Only once.”

Aha. He'd known it. “Your
friend
Burton?”

“We talked about it, but never quite reached the doing something about it step.”

Man. “Is he the real reason you left D.C.?” Seemed a reasonable hypothesis.

“No. I left D.C. because I couldn't work with Senator Castille any longer.”

“You want to tell me about it?” If she didn't want to discuss her falling-out with the senator he understood. They didn't know each other that well beyond the work environment.

“He was into amassing power and wealth rather than representing the best for his constituents. I got to the point where I disagreed with him more than I agreed. Not a good trait in a personal aide.”

“Sounds like the usual fare for politicians.” The words were no sooner out of his mouth than he regretted them. Kendra's education and career had been in politics until three years ago. “For most of them, I mean.”

“Reaching a position that high within the government is about power and wealth to some degree. That's true.” She paused a moment. “But when that
desire overrides all else, it's wrong. I called him on one particular action he'd been persuaded to take and he blackballed me. At first, I was determined to prove my case…but I realized pretty fast that I was wasting my time. It was time for me to go. I realized I wasn't cut out for that world.”

“Good for you. Too many people waste a lot of time and energy butting a brick wall. It's better to turn to something more constructive.”

She sat up, pushed the hair out of her eyes. “That's exactly right.” She shrugged. “I couldn't change the system but there were other ways I could make a difference. That was what I really wanted to do.”

“What about you and Burton? Were you already over at that point?”

Kendra pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin there. She hadn't talked to anyone—not even her mother—about the break-up with Burton. “I couldn't stay. He couldn't go.” Was that really the reason the relationship died? No. “He was too wired in to things here. Too by the book rather than by the heart. I had known for a while that we weren't a good fit.”

“Wow.”

Yeah. She couldn't believe she'd said the words out loud. “He's a good cop.” Was that still true? Maybe, maybe not. “At least he was three years ago.” Didn't seem that way now. He was ignoring
valid points regarding Yoni's murder. She didn't understand that. Had someone named his price? Did he belong to that exclusive, elusive boys' club now? She hoped not.

“A lady like you shouldn't have any trouble finding someone new. What's the holdup?”

She raised her eyebrows at that one. “A lady like me? What exactly does that mean?”

Rocky closed his arms over his chest and ducked his head toward one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “Pretty. Smart. You know what I mean.”

If only it were that easy. “I'm afraid those particular skills are vastly underrated by the male species, Mr. Rockford.” She adopted a knowing look. “When was the last time you dated a woman because she met the criteria?”

The sheepish look that claimed his expression answered the question without him saying a word. He hadn't.