Need Me (16 page)

“I’ve heard other women say the same thing.” Faith tapped her chin. “What is it about that man? I personally like men who are a bit more law abiding…and far less likely to kill an enemy on sight.”

Before Julianna could say anything more, Devlin grabbed her elbow and steered her to the door.

“Devlin, stop,” she snapped out. “We can’t let her think Ethan did this, we can’t—”

They were outside. Finally. “Someone else wants us to think he did it.”

She frowned. “He
didn’t
.”

“I don’t think so, either.” But anyone would be able to peg him as the perfect fall guy. With Ethan’s past, the police would jump to arrest him. They certainly had before. “What we need to figure out is this…who knows about your connection to Ethan? Who would know that they could incriminate him with a tie to you?”

A furrow appeared between her brows. “Sophie. She knows. And my sister.”

A sister who’d just arrived in town.

“You know,” she added. “Your guys at VJS know.”

Speaking of VJS…he saw Lex heading toward them. He’d have to get the guy to call Sophie, pronto. Sophie and Ethan shared a pretty powerful past, too—a past that had made Lex jealous on too many occasions. But if anyone could find Ethan right then, Devlin knew it would be Sophie.

“Who else?” Devlin pushed.

“Jeremy knew,” she said, biting her lip. “Because of the video, he had to know. He had that security consultant dig it up, right?”

But the consultant was dead.

Maybe someone else close to Jeremy had known, too. Like a step-daughter. Or maybe…

“And…” Julianna rubbed her forehead. “That reporter—John Reynolds. He told me that he’d been talking to Carly. Maybe…it could be possible that she told him.”

But John had been at the scene of the near hit-and-run.

“What’s happening?” Lex demanded.

“We have to find Ethan Barclay,” Devlin said, his voice hard. “Now.”

“Fuck,” Lex shook his head. “What has he done this time?”

Carly heard a faint knock at her door. Frowning, she edged closer to the door. The nice man from VJS—Chance Valentine—had gotten her the apartment. He’d said it was a safe location. He’d also told her that he’d be bringing Julianna by soon so that she could talk with her step-sister.

Is that Julianna now?
She put her eye to the peep-hole. A blonde woman was on the other side, her head turned away from Carly. Smiling, Carly opened the door.

The blonde turned toward her.

Not Julianna.

“Hello, there,” the blonde said as she lifted her gun and pointed it at Carly. “So glad you came to town.” There was something on the end of that gun—the barrel was too long.

A silencer. Dear God, that woman has a silencer on the gun!

“Who are you?”

“I’m the woman who’s going to kill you.” She was a killer in a perfectly styled suit.

Carly tried to shove that door shut.

But there was a strange whistle of sound. A thud.

The thud was her body hitting the ground. Because she’d been shot. The bullet had torn into her, moving so fast, and just giving a whistle. No bang. No thunder. Such a soft sound.
Because she had a silencer on the gun.

The blonde headed into the apartment. She grabbed Carly’s hands and dragged her away from the door. “Don’t die just yet,” she said, giving Carly a kick. “I need you to call your dear sister for me. Tell her to get her ass over here,
now.
”

Carly shook her head. “You—”

The tip of the silencer pressed to her head. “I said
now
. So tell me…where the fuck is your phone?”

***

Julianna’s phone rang just as they were hurrying away from the police station. She yanked it out and when she saw Carly’s name on the screen, she answered immediately. “Carly? What’s happening?”

There was a ragged breath. “Julie…I’m…sorry.” Carly’s voice was weak. “So…sorry.”

She stared up at Devlin.
Something is wrong.
Julianna mouthed those words to him. “Where are you, Carly?” Devlin had promised that VJS would take care of her—

“
Don’t.”
Carly’s voice had grown sharper. “
Don’t come…here.”

Her heart pounded ever faster. “Carly?”

“Bitch…has a gun…”

Julianna’s skin iced.

“Blonde…thought she was you—
ah!”

Carly’s voice ended in a pain-filled cry. The line went dead.

The phone almost slipped from Julianna’s nerveless fingers. “Where did the VJS put Carly?” She demanded of Lex and Devlin.

They didn’t answer fast enough.

“Where is my sister?”

***

Carly grabbed her stomach. She’d been shot…
again.
The blood was pumping out of her, the pain was burning like a knife inside of her, but she didn’t care.

Julianna would be safe.

She hadn’t led her sister into a trap. She’d protected her.

“Julie…won’t…” Carly whispered up at the woman. “Suffer…for me…” Not ever again. Not ever.

She was dying. She’d take all of the secrets to the grave with her.

“Dumb bitch,” her killer muttered.

Carly smiled. She knew these were her last moments. She thought of her sister. Of their bond, a bond that even time hadn’t been able to break. And she thought…

Of the man that she’d loved. Wildly, completely. Loved and lost.

If only…

Ethan was on her mind even as her eyelids sagged shut.

***

It was supposed to be a safe house. Sonofabitch…
Julianna’s sister should have been safe!
Devlin slammed his car door and raced around, but Julianna had already jumped from the SUV. She was trying to run to the building, but he locked his arms around her stomach and hauled her back. “The perp is up there!” He told her, holding her tight, hating that he had to use his strength to trap her. “You go running in, and you’re dead, too.”

But Julianna kept fighting him. “Stop it!” She twisted against him. “Let me go, let—”

“
Let her the fuck go,”
Ethan Barclay said as he raced up the sidewalk.

Lex jumped from his car then and ran to intercept the guy.

Ethan threw a punch at Lex when the guy grabbed him. Lex punched back, and they both wound up on the ground.

“Stop it!”
Julianna shouted.

The men froze.

“Violence…so sick of the violence!”

Remorse flashed on Ethan’s face. “Jules…”

She flinched in Devlin’s arms. She wasn’t fighting Devlin, and that should have warned him. But he wasn’t prepared when she said, “Go, Ethan. Upstairs. Third floor, room 302. Someone hurt Carly.”

Something happened to Ethan’s face then. Fury rippled in his eyes, and his features twisted with a rage that Devlin had never seen. Ethan leapt away from Lex and ran for the building.

Devlin knew, with utter certainty, that if Ethan found Carly dead upstairs, he’d kill whoever else was in that room.

“Go after him,” Julianna said. “We have to!”

Shit, yes, they did. So they ran—him, Julianna, and Lex. Ethan was racing up the stairs and they hurried behind him. When they reached the third floor, Devlin only had a moment to see that the door to room 302 was open.

Then Ethan ran inside.
“No!”
A bellow of rage and fear and pain.

Her sister is dead.

“Julianna,” Devlin whispered, hating for her to see what was going to be in that room.

But she ran in. And when he followed, he saw Ethan on his knees beside Carly’s still body. His hands were shaking as Ethan reached out to touch her blood-covered stomach. Carly was too pale, the blood too dark on her clothes.

“Jules…” Ethan turned toward Julianna. Tears were in his eyes. “Help me, Jules!”

Julianna fell to the floor beside him. She touched Carly’s throat. “She’s still alive!” Her frantic gaze met Ethan’s. “Call an ambulance!” Then Julianna put her hands on her sister’s wounds. “We have to stop the blood flow. That’s what they do in the movies. Just put pressure on—”

Ethan’s hands covered hers. Devlin yanked out his phone and called for help. He saw the blood soak through their fingers. Julianna and Ethan had their heads pressed close together. They were staring down at Carly, and, as he stared at them, there was no missing their desperation.

Carly mattered, to them both.

Had the killer known that? Is that why she was chosen?

“A blonde,” Lex murmured as he came forward from the back of the apartment. Devlin knew he’d been securing the scene. “That’s what Carly said, right?”

Yes, but only Carly could identify her attacker. And Carly was barely hanging on for her life.

***

“I traced her phone,” Ethan muttered as the EMTs loaded Carly into the ambulance. “How fucking sick and twisted is that? I used my connections and I traced her phone to this place because I needed to see her. I
had
to see her.”

His fingers were covered in blood. His gaze was on Carly—and Julianna.

Devlin found that his own gaze was straying back to Julianna, again and again. He hated the fear that cloaked her. The pain.

“You know what it’s like,” Ethan’s voice was haunted as he whispered, “when you’re so consumed by a woman…you don’t want to imagine a world without her.”

Julianna turned toward Devlin.

“I lived without her for too long,” Ethan rasped. “Don’t make my mistakes. Don’t fucking let her go.” Then he was brushing by Devlin. He bent, whispered something to Julianna, and she nodded. A few seconds later, Ethan leapt into the back of the ambulance. One of the EMTs tried to push him out, but Ethan just pushed right back.

When the ambulance roared away, Ethan was riding in the back with Carly.

Julianna walked toward Devlin. Beautiful, but too pale. Dark shadows were under her eyes. Her cast seemed to weigh down her arm and he just wanted to wrap her in his arms and protect her.

I want her safe.

“I know who did it,” Julianna said simply.

“What? Baby, how the hell do you know that?”

Her gaze cut to the ambulance. “Ethan just told me there was more on that flash drive. We never looked past our video, but he did, just a few hours ago.”

And that would explain why the Smith estate had been trashed.
Someone else had been looking for the flash drive. Julianna had walked in during the middle of that search, and she’d been attacked.

“I wasn’t the only woman Jeremy was blackmailing.” Her smile was cold. “Help me to stop her?”

He knew that he would do anything for Julianna. Devlin nodded.

***

Smith Industries had closed for the day. Or, at least, the place
should
have been closed. But when Julianna and Devlin walked inside, they could hear the distinct whir of machines.

Not just any machine…a shredder.

Julianna strode to Jeremy’s old office. It had been so long since she’d been there. It was like visiting a grave.

And finding the grim reaper waiting.

A blonde woman was feeding papers into that shredder, as fast as she could. A gun was on the desk beside her.

“Hello, Avery,” Julianna said quietly.

Avery Glenn whirled around. She reached out for her gun.

“Don’t,” Devlin warned her. He had his own weapon out and already trained on Avery.

Avery’s pretty face twisted with fury. “You—”

“He was blackmailing you, too, wasn’t he?” That was what Ethan had told her…that Jeremy’s assistant, Avery Glenn, had been on that damn flash drive too. A video of her and a lover. “I mean, I knew you were his lover, and I frankly didn’t care. As long as Jeremy was with you, then he left me the hell alone.” Brutal words. “But I didn’t know he was blackmailing you, too, not until today. I mean, you gave me that BS line about loving him, but it was just to throw me off, wasn’t it?”

Avery just glared at her.

“You tried to kill my sister,” Julianna said. “That means…
you’re done.”

But Avery’s lips twisted in a taunting smile. “I’m not even close to being done. That would be your dear sister. She’s the one with bullets in her. Maybe she should have just followed orders. All she had to do was say for you to come by…for a nice, friendly little visit. Just come by…”

“The police are coming,” Julianna told her softly. “We called them on our way over here. You remember Detective Faith Chestang? She’ll be here soon. She’ll make sure that you’re locked up.” Julianna considered that for a moment. “She’s very good at her job,” she added, aware that her voice came out too wooden. Her emotions were all wrapped up, far too tightly, inside of her. If she let her control slip, even for a moment, Julianna feared that
she’d
be the one killing.

Avery laughed. “Why arrest me? There’s no evidence…
none.
”

“Carly will testify—”

“Carly’s going to die on the operating room table, if she’s not dead already.” Avery inched a bit closer to the gun. “And it’s not like anyone will believe you—you’re the woman who killed her husband. Stabbed the bastard thirteen times! No one will believe you…” She gestured to Devlin. “Or the new lover that you have.”

Julianna cocked her head to the side. “There’s the flash drive.” Actually, she wasn’t sure it still existed. Maybe Ethan had already destroyed it, but Avery wouldn’t know that. “It will provide plenty of evidence.”

Avery blanched but quickly recovered. “You don’t want that getting out, no more than I do. You want your dirty secrets buried…”

Julianna had put all of the missing pieces together. “You wanted the flash drive very badly, didn’t you?
That’s
why you were at the house that day. And that’s why you sent your partner back the other night. You even gave him a key, didn’t you? A key
and
the alarm code so he could get inside and search for those files.”

Avery’s eyes glittered with her rage. “Where are the files?”

Long gone.

“What did you do?” Devlin asked Avery. “How’d you wind up on his blackmail list?” He moved closer to Avery and he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his jacket. He’d had the handcuffs—and the gun—secured in his car. Apparently, the agents at VJS believed in being prepared. Julianna was very grateful for that fact.

“
Everyone
was on his list,” Avery retorted, apparently feeling that there was nothing left to hide. “He had to control
everyone!
So he found out that I…I was sleeping with a friend’s lover. He said he’d tell her. That he’d ruin everything! Like he even knew what my big plan was…”

A friend’s lover?
Why the hell would that matter to Jeremy? That hardly seemed…

Avery’s gaze shifted behind Julianna. The other woman smiled.

Oh, hell.

“I’ve got a gun pointed at the back of your head,” Hugh Bounty announced, his voice carrying and easily recognizable. “And my finger is just itching to pull the trigger.”

Devlin’s head whipped around, and, in the same instant, he lifted his gun and pointed it at Avery’s head. “And I’ve got a gun pointed at
your
lover’s head,” he snarled right back. “Do
anything
to hurt Julianna, and you and Avery are both dead.”

Silence. That really thick, scary kind.

“Guess that means we’re at a stand-off,” Hugh said, smiling. “Or maybe…” Now he lunged forward and locked his arm around Julianna’s throat. “Maybe I don’t give a shit about what happens to Avery at this point. See…she wasn’t supposed to sleep with Jeremy fucking Smith. That wasn’t part of the plan. But I know what she did…
I know.
”

“Hugh!”
Avery cried, her mouth dropping open in horror. “What?
No!
I can explain! I did it for us! Just like you did—like you did with Heather!
”

They were a damn twisted pair.

And as she felt Hugh’s arm lock even tighter around her neck, as she felt the rough strength in the body against hers, Julianna knew he was the man who’d attacked her the other night. He’d been in her house, searching for the files that Avery kept rambling about.

“The money is in my account,” Hugh said as he put the gun barrel to Julianna’s temple. “You transferred it.”