Renegade (Elite Ops 5) (26 page)

"Why do you do that?" She stared back at him, her lashes heavy as he

straightened.

"Because I can." As he moved back to the bathroom he wasn't about to tell her the truth. That nothing mattered but taking care of her, but showing her what she deserved, what she should have if she takes another man to her bed once he was gone.

Of course she would,
he told himself. She was a beautiful, vibrant woman. A 125

passionate woman. She couldn't live her life alone.

But the thought of another man sharing her bed had rage eating at his insides like battery acid. No other man could need her as he needed her. No other could touch her with the same hunger, with the same driving desperation that he knew he touched her with.

No other man would see the delicate fairy beneath the strong, determined young

woman she was.

And no other man could possibly love her as much as he did. As much as he

always would.

Inside, he froze. A part of his soul burned like a white-hot flame as the knowledge of that emotion slammed into his mind. Into his heart.

God help him.

He loved her.

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Chapter 13

Nik's reason for being in Hagerstown and on the Nelson job site where Eddie

Foreman had died wasn't a secret. When he arrived at the job site the next afternoon and began questioning the employees after stopping to talk to Robert Cronin, Nik also learned that mixed feelings existed among the men there, as well as the normal suspicion he had faced since beginning the job of finding a killer rather than a liar.

Thankfully, Mikayla's brothers seemed to have gone a long way in loosening lips.

As each man was pulled into the office trailer for Nik to talk to, he learned that the Martin brothers had already informed those they considered friends that Nik was more concerned with finding the killer and protecting Mikayla than he was with protecting anyone's reputation.

There were still those who weren't convinced, but at least they were talking to

him.

"Mikayla always was a go-getter, even in school," one of the employees told him as he sat across from the small desk Nik was using to question the man.

"Yet you refused to discuss Eddie Foreman with her when she tried to talk to

you," Nik stated as he leaned back in his chair and watched the younger man.

David Melbourne was Mikayla's age. He'd graduated in the same high school

class with her and known her most of her life. He was a friend of the Martin brothers and also known to have socialized with Eddie Foreman.

"Well, I didn't talk to her because her brothers didn't think she should be

investigating things and I agreed with them." David shrugged with a grimace. "Hell, someone had already shot at her when he killed Eddie. I didn't want her hurt, and she was just poking her nose into trouble."

"So you'd rather Eddie's murderer went free?" Nik asked.

"That beats having Mikayla get hurt," David agreed with a definitive nod.

"Besides, Eddie was an asshole. Someone was bound to kill him eventually. Mikayla's nice, though, ya know? She didn't need more grief. And now, someone's tried to shoot her three times. She should drop it already."

"You heard someone shot into the store last night?" Nik asked.

David nodded his shaggy head. "That's one of the reasons I'm willing talk to you now. Cops didn't want to hear what I had to say when Eddie was killed, but I figure you're going to hear it from someone else anyway."

"Such as?" Nik leaned forward, watching the other man carefully as suspicion reared its ugly head. Nik had rarely found anyone willing to talk just for the hell of it.

"Look, Eddie wasn't a great guy," David informed him. "He had a lot of enemies.

He liked to make examples of people. Coupla weeks before he was killed he fired this one guy, Jarvis Dalton. I been thinking about that. Jarvis resembles Maddix a little bit.

He's some kind of distant cousin to him. Anyway, Jarvis was here the day Eddie was killed, yellin' at him. Told Eddie if he didn't give him his job back, then he was going to pay for it. Maybe Jarvis made Eddie pay for it."

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"There's a rumor that Maddix has been seen meeting a bookie in D.C. and

possibly one here in Hagerstown. What do you know about that?" Nik asked, wondering if David could confirm the information Cronin had given him.

David shook his head. "I don't know anything about that one. But I don't mess with bookies, so what do I know?"

Nik wasn't certain how accurate the information either David or Robert offered

could be. They weren't in the reports Nik had received from Maddix or the reports the investigating officer had made. But as the day progressed, it wasn't the first time Nik heard David's version, or the first time he couldn't confirm Cronin's.

Just as it wasn't the first time that Nik had heard the reason none of the men had told Mikayla was because of her brothers' fears that she was going to get herself hurt.

They'd protected her, and Nik knew the hell she would rain down on them if she

ever found out about it.

When the new crew foreman made his way into the trailer, Nik was beginning to

get sick of hearing of how helpless Mikayla was. "Helpless" wasn't a word he would use.

"Vulnerable" definitely, but besides the point. The information he'd learned could have been useful if he'd had it when he first arrived, whether it came from Mikayla or Maddix.

"Mr. Wallace." Nik nodded as the middle-aged foreman took a seat in front of the desk.

"Let's get this over with so I can go back to work," Jack Wallace breathed out heavily. "I can't imagine why Maddix gave you permission to disrupt the job site like this."

"Perhaps to catch a killer? Or do you think Maddix did the killing?" Nik asked.

Wallace snorted at the idea. "I don't doubt Maddix would kill, but Eddie Foreman just wasn't worth the price of the bullet used on him. Maddix has better business sense."

"Can you tell me what you know about Eddie's meetings the day he died?"

As the assistant foreman, Jack Wallace should have been aware of any meetings

Eddie had had.

"None that day." Wallace shook his head. "Eddie liked to have his meetings at a bar or track, if he could. He didn't like taking meetings here because someone was always overhearing things and that just pissed him off."

Which meant he was probably hiding something, Nik thought.

"What about Maddix Nelson? Did he come to the job site often?"

Jack Wallace shrugged. "Few times a week maybe. He'd talk to Eddie for a bit, check things out, then head back to town or wherever."

"What about Eddie then?" Nik asked. "What type of foreman was he?"

"He was a fucking bastard." Wallace grimaced. "Son of a bitch liked to talk down to the men and play himself up as someone he wasn't."

Sounded like a hell of a guy,
Nik thought mockingly.

"He wasn't well liked then?"

Wallace nodded. "Not at all. Hell, even I didn't like him, and I can get along with everyone."

Nik rather doubted that.

"He argued with a former employee the day he died?" Nik probed. "What do you know about that?"

"Jarvis Dalton." The other man nodded. "Eddie had fired him a few weeks before.

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Accused him of stealing. Jarvis was pretty pissed off over it. He wanted his job back, but Eddie wasn't giving in. He was fed up with Jarvis for whatever reason."

"But you don't know that reason?" Nik pressed.

Wallace frowned. "Let's say, I'm not sure. I suspect Jarvis was stealing, but Eddie never said either way and he got pissed when I asked, so I just let it go."

"What about the day Eddie died? Were very many of the workers aware she was

picking her brother up?"

Wallace snorted. "Probably everyone. Scotty had her pick him up pretty often, and the guys liked to watch her blush when they hooted and hollered at her. She's a pretty girl, and the boys here like a pretty girl."

Nik just bet they did. He clenched his teeth to hold back an anger and

possessiveness he shouldn't be feeling. Mikayla was his for the moment, he reminded himself. He couldn't let himself hold any tighter to her than he already was, not if he wanted to retain his sanity when it was time to leave.

"Did Maddix meet Eddie often at the track or bars that you're aware of?" Nik asked.

Jack Wallace frowned. "Maddix Nelson doesn't gamble that I'm aware of. I've

heard him say his business is enough of a gamble, he doesn't need to compound his

losses."

"Thank you, Mr. Wallace." Nik rose from his chair and gathered his notes together. "And thank your men for talking to me."

"Well, the faster you get this taken care of the faster I get some peace on the job,"

Wallace growled. "This situation has been a guaranteed spark to every damned argument that flares up on the job. Too many men here are prone to believe Maddix did it, while others are certain he didn't. Knowing one way or the other would be nice."

"And what do you think?" Nik asked curiously. "Do you think he did it?"

Wallace paused. "I think he's more than capable of doing it, like I said, let's put it that way," he finally answered. "Maddix has a temper, and if Eddie did something to threaten him or this job, then yeah." He nodded. "Maddix would be capable of it. But Maddix could have gotten rid of him by firing him, and Maddix normally takes the

smartest route, no matter what he's doing."

Interesting. Nik hadn't expected the current foreman to make that admission.

"Thank you again, Mr. Wallace." Nik nodded as he headed to the door. "I'll return your office to you now."

He left the office trailer, slid his sunglasses on his face, and stared around up at the nearly completed building where Eddie Foreman had died.

Nik's investigation so far hadn't gotten much more information than he had gotten

today. He'd spent the past week in the bars and cafes asking questions, sometimes simply listening to the local gossip. And there was plenty to be had.

Maddix Nelson and Mikayla Martin were subjects that were heavily debated.

Both were well known. Mikayla was well liked; Maddix was an employer and well liked with the same intensity that he was well hated.

And murder was always fodder for gossip.

So far, Robert Cronin was the only one associating Maddix with gambling tracks

and underground casinos in Baltimore and D.C. No one else had heard of Maddix

gambling.

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Pulling the keys to the new GMC Sierra he had picked up that morning, Nik hit

the unlock and auto start, waited, then moved to the vehicle.

He'd already lost everything that meant anything to him once. Losing it again

wasn't high on his list of priorities. He hadn't stopped living by the sword. He doubted he would ever stop living by it. God knew what would happen to him, though, if anything ever happened to Mikayla.

Pulling the cell phone from the leather holster at his side, he pressed the speed

dial and waited.

"Malone," Jordan answered on the first ring.

"I'm going to be awhile," Nik informed the other man. "I may need help as well."

Jordan was silent for long moments. "What's going on?"

Nik quickly outlined the situation without informing his commander that he was

now sleeping with the woman he was here to investigate. More to the point, he was more concerned with protecting the woman than he was with protecting the man who had hired him.

Jordan was no man's fool, though. He'd been bitching for weeks over the fact that

his agents couldn't keep their dicks in their pants or their hearts in their chests until they completed their commitments to the Elite Ops.

He was raging over the fact that Travis Caine, the most recent agent to succumb

to Cupid, had hooked up with a high-profile lover.

Lady Victoria Lillian Harrington had once been an agent, until an attempted

assassination had wiped her memory and allowed her to return to her previous life.

Not that the return hadn't benefited the Ops. It had. Her return had been a mission in and of itself. But that didn't mean Jordan had to like the fact that Travis had now placed someone above Elite Ops. Just as three other agents before him had done.

Jordan's branch of the Elite Ops, in Jordan's opinion, was weakened by the fact

that his men had acquired the greatest weakness of all. Love.

"How close are you to figuring this out, Nik?" Jordan asked.

"Hell if I know," Nik breathed out roughly. "She's been shot at three times, but the more I've thought about it today, the more I can't help but think each time was a

deliberate miss. Both times they had clear shots. They were close, but missed. I can't leave until I figure out who killed that damned foreman and created this mess. If I find him, then I find the person shooting at Mikayla."

"Your job was to figure out if Miss Martin was lying and if so, who she was

covering for," Jordan reminded him. "You've completed the job you were hired to do.

Now you can turn the information over to the local authorities and leave."

It was a subtle warning to drop the mission and return to base.

That wasn't happening.

"Jordan, I'm not leaving until she's safe."

Silence stretched between them for long moments.

"Fuck. I thought for sure you'd at least hold out until your commitment with the Ops came to an end," Jordan growled. "This isn't going to be easy to explain to Elite Command."

"What's there to explain?" Nik asked coldly. "I'm finishing a mission to repay a debt, nothing more."

"Then why do you need help, Nik?" Jordan asked. "If all you're doing is repaying 130

a debt?"

"Explain it to Elite Command however you have to," Nik stated. "I need at least one agent."

"Everyone is out now," Jordan snapped. "The present mission has been hell where information is concerned. I might be able to pull one of the girls from the other unit, though. I think Raisa is returning from England tonight or tomorrow. I can send her out if she returns."