Deadlock (31 page)

9:23 A.M. WEDNESDAY

Thatcher burned with Bethany’s announcement. “You’re in no shape for a takedown. Have you forgotten you’re off the case?”

She frowned and pressed in a number on her cell phone. “SSA Preston, Lucas called me. Says he wants to meet me at my apartment right away, talk, and then have me bring him in.”

Thatcher attempted to put together the one-way conversation.

“I’m leaving now. Thanks.”

“What’s going down?” he said.

“They’re forming a SWAT Operations Unit. Will pick him up when he arrives. It’s over.”

“I don’t like any of this. Anything could go wrong.”

She bit her lip. “If you were going, you wouldn’t be upset.”

His face grew hotter. But she had a point
 
—if he was seen with her, Lucas could kill her or run. Or both. “This is too risky, Bethany. I should have agreed to agents posted outside my door. They would have stopped this ludicrous idea.”

“I have no plans to go down as another victim.” She turned to his mother, who’d entered the kitchen when he’d raised his voice. “Take care of our wounded lion.” Without another word, she left.

No way was he sitting there while she had a face-to-face with a killer. He’d seen her crumble when a bullet sped through his car window.

9:51 A.M. WEDNESDAY

Bethany drove to her apartment and phoned SSA Preston.

“Stand down until the SWAT team is in position.”

“Sir, this is my brother. Family. I have to try to stop him.” She’d talk to Lucas first, then accompany him to surrender. Her insides churned. She’d have to watch the parking lot and get to him before the SWAT team. Lucas would fight before facing arrest.

“You go through with this, and your career is in jeopardy. Do I need to mention he could kill you? We have a team to pick him up.”

“My conscience would be in worse shape. This has to stop, and I can get Lucas to surrender.”

His response was a little colorful. “The operation takes priority.”

“I’m leaving my cell on in case anything goes wrong.”

She pulled through the security gate to her building. She scanned her complex for agents and her brother. No one appeared, except for the SUV following her from Thatcher’s condo. Might be Grayson Hall. The concession eased some of her nerves.

She’d left Thatcher without saying the things faintly etched on her heart. Better this way in case she found the wrong end of a bullet. If he’d been in full performance, she’d have begged him to be her partner. She forced acid back down into her stomach. Years ago, she’d vowed to stop Lucas no matter what it took. Reckoning had come.

Margo was still at large, but Lucas could be dead in less than two hours. Bethany would be blamed . . . failed her brother and her family because she’d taken on the role of the great crusader. Love scaled higher mountains than rejection could ever accomplish. Pushing aside fragile emotions, she dropped her cell into her purse.

She climbed the steps to her apartment, wishing her left arm wasn’t bound by a cast. A cripple . . .

She pulled her Glock from her purse. A tingling soared from
her belly to her fingertips while her senses breathed in everything around her.
Please, God, help me not to need my weapon. Not my brother, God.

The door to her home showed no signs of forced entry or new scratches. No wires. Bethany used her key and stepped inside.

The folded piece of paper left inside the doorway lay on the floor intact. In the shadows of closed drapes, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Jasper chirped a greeting when she removed his blanket and snapped on a light.

“Pretty Jasper,” she said.

“Pretty Jasper,” he mimicked.

She thought better of unlocking his cage. Her apartment needed to be cleared first. Quiet. Was this uneasiness or her instincts? She’d set the trap for Lucas, not the other way around.

Jasper squawked. “Jasper wants grapes.”

“In just a moment,” she said. “I left you plenty of food yesterday, but I know you’re hungry.”

Lucas stepped into the hallway, her nightmare in flesh. “I’m hungry, too, Sis.”

“Not this time.” She raised her firearm. “You’re coming with me.”

He grinned. “Don’t think so. Melanie, would you bring our trophy.”

Papá
emerged from her bedroom with his hands raised. Margo Immerman had a gun to his head.

10:05 A.M. WEDNESDAY

Thatcher wrestled into a button-down shirt. Hurt like fire. His jeans were zipped, though the effort had brought tears to his eyes.

“What are you doing?” His mother’s voice rose toward hysteria.

“I can’t leave Bethany to fight Lucas on her own,” he said, catching his breath.

“Look at you. You’ll be shot again. You care about her, and I’m glad. But let others fight this battle.” Her lips quivered, but her pleading couldn’t deter him.

“Impossible.” He kissed her cheek and left, realizing part of what she’d said was true.

He drove to the FBI staging area, where SSA Preston and other agents were positioned adjacent to Bethany’s building.

“You follow orders like a pro,” Preston said, peering at Bethany’s apartment through binoculars. Her windows were covered.

“What would you do?” Thatcher said, watching the closed door. All he could do was listen to the conversation inside through her phone connected to Preston’s. Before Thatcher had arrived, Preston said, Bethany had given up her weapon when Margo threatened to pull the trigger on the elder Sanchez. Since then, Lucas had thrown around accusations, mixing them with how he planned to kill her. Margo reminded him of how many times Bethany had belittled him.

The SOU had moved in with a negotiator. Snipers were taking positions in the apartment building beside them. Thermal imaging revealed four, possibly five people inside Bethany’s apartment.

Thatcher pointed to the computer screen set up inside Preston’s car. “She has a parrot. We’re looking at four people. Did a surveillance team follow Oscar Sanchez here?”

“A lot of good it did. Her apartment door was unlocked when the elder arrived.”

“Which means Lucas let himself in before Bethany left my condo.” Thatcher wanted to make a few accusations of his own, especially when Preston failed to reply.

Lucas’s voice bellowed. “You thought you had me. Really?”

“Why bring
Papá
into this?” Her soft voice indicated her control. “Let him go, Lucas. Your problem is with me.”

“Both of you. He dies first. I want you to watch.”

Thatcher dropped his head.

“You’re not up to this,” Preston said.

“I’m fine. Praying.”

“When did this happen?”

“When I stopped believing in
 
—”

A crash sounded.

10:22 A.M. WEDNESDAY

Nightmares were easier to accept than reality.

Bethany struggled for focus. Lucas had grabbed a lamp and thrown it at her, but she’d dodged him.
Papá
was unharmed but shaken. Lucas meant every threat
 
—he’d pull the trigger on
Papá
. How hard this must be for their father . . . watching his son self-destruct.

“Hey, Sis, how do you like the way we destroyed your credibility as an agent? What about Melanie’s texts and my posts? Media has you tried and convicted. Payback for eleven months in jail.” He nodded like a bobblehead, a mannerism of his manic times. “Your epitaph will be the pits.”

“Lucas, did you hurt
Mamá
?”

He laughed, a crazed sound she’d learned to dread. “Haven’t seen her. The old man came here. Since when are you two on speaking terms?” He swung his attention to where Margo held a Ruger LC9 to
Pap
á
’s temple
 
—9mm bullets, Scorpion’s choice.

“I followed you,”
Papá
said, his face a road map of distress. “I’m not a
loco
Mexican. When I met with you Monday afternoon, I planted a GPS under the rear chrome of your Harley.”

No,
Papá
. He’ll blow.

Jasper screeched a deafening, high-pitched sound.

Lucas grinned as though the bird’s confusion fueled his rage.

“Son, let your sister go. It’s my fault you’re running from the FBI, that you killed and robbed people.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Margo said. “Or I’ll blow his head off.”

Lucas punched
Papá
in the face, shoving him backward.

“Lucas, leave him out of this,” Bethany said. “Let me help you. I’ve loved you since we were small. We were more than brother and sister
 
—we were friends. Things haven’t changed.”

“You changed. You got educated. Made money while I had to get cash my way.” He whipped a .38 at her. “Big superachiever sister always made me look bad. Should have killed both of you at the Lighthouse.”

“Kill her now!” Margo screamed and gripped the man’s watch on her wrist. “She’s ruined your life. Father said they must be punished.”

“When I’m ready.”

She shoved
Papá
toward the closed drapes and held a gun to his head while looking outside. “No one’s out there. We’re good. Just get rid of them.”

Bethany needed to calm him. “We can walk out of here together.”

“You made me feel like leftover garbage.”

Bethany kept her focus on Lucas. “How?”

“Finding me jobs that made me sweat while you slapped on makeup and drove to an air-conditioned office?”

She shook her head. “I worked hard too. I’m sorry if I made you feel badly. But you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to turn yourself in.”

“For what? To lock me up? Death row?” He sucked in a breath. “Money and power belong to those who can figure out how to get it. Right, Melanie?”

He called her Melanie for the third time.

“Right, babe,” Margo said. “You’re smarter than any of her FBI friends. Just like I promised. You help me punish those who killed my father, and I help you take down your sister and whoever gets in our way. Look at the ways I played cat and mouse with her, taunting her, making her look like a crazy fool.”

“You weren’t raised to steal and kill,” Bethany said, ignoring Margo. “Yes, you’re a genius. But you made one small mistake.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Your girlfriend hasn’t been honest with you.”

“She’s the only one who has ever seen me like a man.” He stepped forward, but Bethany didn’t budge.

“You call her Melanie. She lied to you.” Bethany ushered tenderness into her words. “Her name is Margo Immerman.”

“Kill her.” Margo seethed, wielding her weapon. “Babe, she’s filling you with lies.”

Bethany was ready to take a risk, but Margo had nothing to lose. “Ask her, Lucas. What’s her real name?”

Lucas’s face reddened. “Melanie, answer her.”

Papá
inched back from the scene, foreseeing the violence coming.

Margo rubbed her arm holding her father’s watch. “Father says she must die. She has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“So I’m right. You lied to Lucas about your identity.”

Lucas trembled. “You said Bethany lied.”

“She’s confusing me.” Her voice rose to a grating squeal while Jasper’s incessant shrills hammered against Bethany’s brain. “Nobody
gets in my way. Don’t forget what I did to Dorian’s kid. Killing is easy, so what’s wrong with you? Why can’t you pull the trigger like a man?”

“Lucas,”
Papá
said. “Listen to your sister. Your girlfriend is using you. Not sure why she’s killed innocent people, but she hasn’t given you her right name.”

“It’s true,” Bethany continued, taking what she knew about the case into her own hypothesis. “Did she pull you into her plan to murder because the homeless refused to steal? Some donors were no longer giving to the Lighthouse? Offended her daddy? Did she tell you about her childhood on a compound where she learned how to steal, torture, and kill?”

“Lucas, get rid of her or I will. I gave you this one thing to do, and you can’t pull the trigger?”

Bethany bored into his face. “What about the watch she won’t let out of her sight, the one she keeps touching? I have documented proof of everything I’ve said.”

“No, it’s a trick.” Margo shouted obscenities. “You’re stupid. Father would never approve.” Her words rang like shattering glass.

“Your name,” Lucas said, keeping his attention fixed on Bethany.

Margo lifted her chin. “None of your business, loser.”

He whirled and fired into her chest. She glared at him wide-eyed as she slumped against the wall and to the floor.

Lucas turned to Bethany.

“It’s over, Brother,” she said. “You can put the gun down and not have one more killing on your record.
Papá
and I are here to support you. You’re a smart man.”

“I have a right to more.”

“Of course, and I’ll always be here for you.” She saw a softening in his brown eyes. The ones that used to glisten when they were kids. “Please, Lucas.”

He hesitated for a moment, but in an instant he aimed the gun at her. “No, you won’t talk me out of this.”

“Son, soon law enforcement will be surrounding this place. You won’t be able to get away.”

“I don’t care, old man. I have a new plan. You can watch what I do to your daughter before I blow out your brains. It’s all gone. Nothing left.”

He aimed at Bethany’s face.

Papá
grabbed at Lucas from behind, knocking him off-balance. The gun fired, leaving
Papá
bleeding in its wake.