Running (21 page)

But Seth knew he’d deserved
it. “Just my luck to kidnap a woman with an asshole for a
brother.”

Sebastian snorted. “You’re
lucky
Al
wasn’t
the one beating the shit out of you.”

Seth grinned at his brother
despite the injured lip. “Oh, we
wrestled
a time or two. I didn’t
mind.”

Sebastian held up a hand.
“Please—there are some things I don’t want to talk about. You and
my agent getting horizontal is one of them.”

Seth laughed. “Let’s just
say I’m very happy your taste has always run to
redheads.”

“
And yours has always been
blondes.” Sebastian flipped the lights on in the kitchen before
leaning against the island and staring at Seth. Seth felt the urge
to squirm. He always had when Sebastian looked at him just like
that. Sebastian was one hell of a moral compass. Had always been.
And Seth rarely measured up to what Sebastian felt was right or
wrong. “Don’t hurt her, Seth. Al has a soft heart. She hides it
well, but she’s vulnerable. Easily broken.”

Seth had no doubt his
brother was one hundred percent correct. He’d seen how tender she
was. “I don’t plan to hurt her. I don’t plan to stick around that
long.”

“
That might be for the
best. What the hell were you thinking? All you had to do was come
inside the damned building. I know they would have identified
themselves to you. You didn’t have to play Superman. You could have
come inside, found me, and then half the damned trouble wouldn’t
have happened.”

“
I had no clue what or who
I was dealing with. And a friend was dead. What would you have
done? Oh, I forget. You’ve always been the team player.”

“
And you just reacted. Like
you always do. You were lucky no one got seriously
hurt.”

“
Still pissed, I take
it?”

“
She’s
my
world.
There
are no other ways to describe it. I couldn’t
breathe
until she was back here.
Until you’ve loved a woman like that, you cannot
understand.”

Seth couldn’t. Doubted he
ever would.
Had
he
ever loved a woman like that? “Different than Cody, I take
it?”

“
Very much so. I loved
Cody. We were happy together, probably still would be if we’d stuck
it out. But what I have with Carrie is totally different. I can’t
lose her, Seth. I cannot. Period.” The raw emotion in his brother’s
eyes nearly floored him. Sebastian meant it.

And Seth had nearly screwed
it up for his brother. How could his brother forgive him so easily?
If it had been him in Sebastian’s shoes, and Blondie was missing,
he’d go flat out fucking nuts until he got her back.
“
I’m sorry. I really am.
I never meant to scare her or you.”

“
Sometimes, you can’t just
make decisions and act on them. Sometimes you have to step back and
consider.” Sebastian straightened. “Bathroom is through there. The
kid’s clothes are in the boxes in the spare room. Help yourself to
anything you need. Dinner in an hour, if you want. I think Sin is
stopping by.”

Message
received.

In less than two minutes
Seth found himself alone. For the first time since he’d woken up in
that damned trunk. He was alone.

And missing the hell out of
Blondie.

Chapter
Forty-Six

***

She climbed out of her car
and stared up at Carrie’s building. She’d been there a time or two
since Sebastian and Carrie had married. Carrie didn’t like people
invading her space, but she was making more of an effort with her
friends. Sebastian’s team. Her own.

Al knew the layout of the
building, and knew exactly which apartment Seth was borrowing for
the night.

She knocked on the
door.

He answered. Stared at her
for a moment. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“
Why not?” She profiled his
body language for a moment. Defensive, rejecting. Tension doubled
inside her. “Don’t you think there are things we need to talk
about?”

“
I think that the best
thing for either of us to do is stay away. You live your life here
with the people who obviously love you. I do what I got to do and
move on. Think that’s the smart thing to do.”

“
And that’s what you
want?”

“
Yes.
That’s
exactly
what I fucking want. Go. Blondie. Just go.”

“
You’re a
coward, Seth Lorcan. Someday you’ll realize. You can’t keep running
from the people who care about
you.
”

She went. What other choice
did she have?

***

She didn’t want to go home.
Didn’t want to see Jules and Mal and the obvious connection between
them. Not tonight. She drove to PAVAD instead, determined to at
least catch up on half the paperwork that had fallen through the
cracks during her few days of adventure. There was always paperwork
at PAVAD. That was something she could count on.

She needed the routine to
get her head back to where it belonged. She pulled into a different
parking spot this time—no more parking at the back of the lot for
her!—and was about to shut down the engine when movement from the
elevator banks caught her eye.

One of the men from the
Office of Inspector General--George Keeney--was talking on his
cell, clutching files to his chest. Files that were remarkably
similar to the ones she’s brought back from Amarillo, same bright
green coloed, with a printed purple band down the center. Not your
standard issue file folders. Al rolled down her window to see if
she could catch some of what the man was saying. She didn’t know
what it was, but something about his manner was wrong.

Why did he have those
files? He wasn’t there to work on an
active
investigation. He was there to
audit previous cases. Had just been overseeing and reviewing what
the division generated. Had he taken the actual case files? Why?
She thought about stopping him and confronting him, but what
purpose would that serve?

He wiped his brow and
looked around the parking garage. His voice rose a bit. He hadn’t
seen her, then. “I’ll get it, I’ll get you what you want. Get off
my back. I don’t think we can get to him tonight. He’s with his
brothers and under guard. I’m sorry.
You
were supposed to handle both him
and that girl. I was just supposed to give you information. All
right. Tonight. I’ll try.”

What? He
had
to be talking about
Seth. Because other than
her
brothers, there were no other siblings in the
organization that she knew of. And that meant
she
was that girl.

Al’s cell buzzed and she
grabbed it. Sound carried in the parking garage and she didn’t want
to give away her position. “Payton, hang on a second…” She kept her
words low. “I’m going to need your help…”

“
What do you
need?”

“
Call Sebastian and Ed
Dennis. Tell them I think George Keeney is the leak and that I’m
trailing him. He’s mentioned a possible threat against Seth. Seth’s
at Carrie’s right now. I just left him.”

“
Al, be careful! Wait for
backup.”

“
I’m at
PAVAD now. Call in, get a team to follow. I’m pulling out behind
him now.” She gave Payton her license number and the one for the
car Keeney was driving. Every instinct and ounce of training she
possessed was telling her that it
was
Keeney. And that made
sense.

The leak had been one step
ahead of them from that first moment. And Keeney had been in PAVAD
since the beginning of this ordeal. For the PAVAD audit? Yet he was
involved in
Seth’s
case? Why? What was the connection?

Was it
just
a plot to get to Seth? Was it
because of the blackmail? Had Seth stumbled onto that and Keeney
wanted it hidden? Nothing made sense.

Yet.

She followed him down the
road, being careful to keep a good distance between his car and
hers. “
I’m sending help, Al. Be
careful.”

“
I will. I’m just
following.” She wasn’t doing anything she’d not been trained to
do.

“
Someone will be there
shortly, Al! I promise; we’re not that far away, we’re
coming!”

Keeney headed toward the
river, and Al followed. The road he took wasn’t heavily populated,
and he drove it like he was unfamiliar with it. What was he doing?
Who went to the river at almost nine o’clock at night?

There wasn’t anything down
at the river. Not even houseboats. There were a few pump stations,
and some derelict buildings, vacant industrial lots, but nothing
that the average person needed to visit. “Payton, we just crossed
under McKinley Bridge—”

Lights from the side—lights
that hadn’t been there a second ago—blinded her. Al tightened her
hands on the wheel. Where did the other vehicle come
from?

The lights got brighter,
fast.

The impact of the truck
hitting her sedan forced Al’s car into the brush area, fifteen feet
from the Mississippi.

She could see bright lights
shining directly on her. She could hear her engine rumbling and she
turned it off without thinking. And Payton…Payton’s voice was
coming out of Al’s cell…wherever her cell had ended up.

Payton was her only
chance.

“
Payton…
Riaz.
And he’s hit my car. He’s not dead…” She managed to get the
words out as the man everyone had thought was dead pulled her
passenger side door open. “Gun…”

A single gunshot sounded.
Then there was nothing but a sharp pain in her upper chest, and his
hand in her hair. Al screamed. He used his hold on her to ram her
head into the steering wheel. And then she felt nothing at
all.

Chapter
Forty-Seven

***

Paige ran. And fast. She
didn’t stop to knock on Carrie’s door, but used her key. Sebastian,
his brothers, and Carrie were eating. Sebastian jumped to his feet
and cursed. “Paige? What’s wrong?”

Paige shook her head. “Al’s
hurt! Come on! It’s Keeney and Riaz! Riaz isn’t dead—”

Sebastian’s brother grabbed
her arms and turned her toward him. “How? She just left here an
hour ago.”

“
She followed Keeney from
the parking garage at PAVAD. Payton was on the phone with her.
Payton heard the whole thing. He shot her, Riaz shot her! Come on.
Move!” She was pulling on Seth as she spoke. Damn him. She wanted
to shoot him for putting her friend in this situation to begin
with. “Payton sent people to help her. They found her, but Riaz got
away. He shot Keeney, too.”

Sebastian was the calm in
the storm like he always was; pulling Paige and Seth apart. “Paige,
what hospital?”

“
Melton-Jewish. Payton is
there now.”

Paige was on Seth’s heels
when he left at a run. “My car’s running.”

Chapter
Forty-Eight

***

Seth couldn’t breathe,
couldn’t think. Why had he let her
leave
? Why hadn’t he gone with her?
Why had he pushed her away like he had? He’d let her leave
him,
alone.
When
someone had already tried to kill him, when someone
knew
she was involved.
Why had he been so damned fucking stupid?

He jumped in the front seat
of the car Alessandra’s partner indicated. “Get me there.
Fast.”

“
As fast as I
can.”

“
What was
she doing? Why didn’t she wait for backup, for help? Blondie isn’t
that reckless.” But
he
was.

“
I don’t
know. Why was she at PAVAD so late anyway? She should have been at
home taking it easy.” He tried hard not to hear the censure in her
tone. “She’d already gone home with her brothers and Jules.
They
were supposed to be
guarding her.”

“
What condition was she
in?” Was she even alive? He fought the urge to pray, something he
hadn’t done in years. Then he said the hell with it and implored a
God he wasn’t so sure he believed in to keep that woman alive,
somehow. “Did they say?”

“
That
she’d lost a lot of blood, but she was alive when they pulled her
out of the car.” Her worry was in her voice, and her hands trembled
on the steering wheel. “By the time any of
our
people got to the scene she was
already on the way to the hospital. No one saw
her.”

“
Our people? Who pulled her
out?”

“
Private
bodyguards of Payton’s
friend.
I guess she was with him when she called Al. And
Al kept her on the phone. Payton heard everything. And right before
the gunshot Al said that
Riaz
was alive. The bodyguards found Keeney dead in
the back of Al’s car. He’d been placed there after someone shot him
four times in the chest. One of the bodyguards took Al to
Melton-Jewish and the other stayed with Al’s car. And Keeney’s
body. That’s all I know. Except Payton called me and Cody and Ed
Dennis. Said Al thought Keeney had mentioned a threat
against
you
tonight.”