Smoke and Mirrors (31 page)

Derek's heart was slamming so fast now it hurt. "I'll ask you one more time.
What
museum? And why would she be waiting for me?"

"The note,
Mansfield
, your twisted request to meet her at The Museum of Natural—"

"Sweet God." Hideous pieces slammed into place. "I didn't send a note."

"What do you mean?"

Derek didn't answer. He took off running through the darkened hotel.

* * *

"You look surprised,
querida."
A pleased smile tilted the corners of Santiago Vilas's thin lips. He moved closer, his gun trained on Cass. "Don't tell me I've managed to catch one of
Chicago
's finest off guard?"

She scanned the area, trying to determine if she was
alone, or if he had backups in the wings. Because she
didn't. Going against every scrap of training, she ventured
down to the museum alone.

Because she'd thought love awaited her. Not deceit.

She pivoted toward Brent. "You set me up!" she seethed, but froze when she saw his eyes. Brent Ashford was a playboy and a businessman, not the cunning mercenary his brother was. Derek could hide his thoughts and feelings behind an inscrutable mask, but everything Brent felt marched across his face. Shock. Indecision. Fear.

"You give Ashford too much credit if you think he orchestrated this," Vilas chided. "He's not half the man his brother is. I would think you of all people would know that."

Slow and steady, Cass reminded herself. Lull the bastard into complacency, disarm him. "I know a lot of things, Mr. Vilas. Put down the gun and we can talk about them."

"I bet you would like that." His gaze raked over her. "Alas, you've already done enough talking for one evening. If you had kept that lush little mouth of yours closed, your lover would have lived to see another day. His ploy was clever. I never suspected."

Brent stepped closer to Cass. "Ploy? Give me a break. If my brother is crawling through gutters with slime like you, it's because that's where he wants to be." Disgust dripped impressively from his voice. "For him, rules and laws are made to be broken. All he cares about is humiliating the family."

"That's not the tune you were singing only moments ago." Vilas's smile widened. "Let's see, what was it the lovely Cassidy Blake said? Something about a trap of his own making?"

The words knifed through Cass. He'd heard. He knew everything.

"She's in love with him!" Brent sneered. He was by her side now, his body shielding her from the direct line of fire. "She's desperate, grabbing at straws. She'd do anything to get him off the hook and back into her bed."

Cass took Brent's lead. "I convinced you, didn't I?" she asked arrogantly, flipping her braid over her shoulder. Too often the line between acting and law enforcement stretched dangerously thin, the only difference between life and death.

"I'll convince everyone else, too—I won't let anyone take him from me," she vowed, meaning the words more deeply than Vilas could possibly know. "Not the law, not his family, not you."

"He needs help!" Brent exploded, a new ferocity glittering in his eyes. He spun toward Vilas. "That's why I asked her here tonight, to encourage her to stay away from my brother. She's poison, making him do things he wouldn't normally do. He needs
help,
not some misguided cop."

A hollow little clap killed his words. "Too bad the two of you never found Broadway," Vilas interrupted his voice smooth as silk. "You make quite a pair, but I'm afraid you're wasting your breath. Derek Mansfield has been stringing me along for months, promising expansion into new markets, always finding one reason or another to delay. Caution, he said. Deliberation."

If Cass had harbored any doubts, Vilas's revelations would have shattered them.

"…about making sure there were no rats in the manor."

But she didn't doubt, not anymore. Because she loved.

"…I began to grow impatient."

Derek had been trying to protect his brother, setting a trap for Vilas to make sure he never endangered his family again.

"…hence the bomb."

Brent's body went rigid. "It was you."

"Who else?" Vilas was clearly pleased with himself. "I had to do something to sniff out our rats, since your brother was too busy sleeping with them. It worked, didn't it?"

"You set him up," Cass echoed. "You set up everything."

Vilas only snickered. "That's what I love about cops. You're masters of the obvious, every one of you."

"But why?" Stall, Cass ordered herself. Keep him talking. "He can't do you any good behind bars."

"Circumstantial evidence never sticks,
querida,
you know that."

"Then—"

"Like I said, I was growing impatient and wanted to sniff out whatever rats might be hiding in the manor. And I did." He stepped closer. "You're here, aren't you? And we all know you for the traitorous little whore you are. We all know you slipped into Derek's bed merely to put the noose around his neck."

The accusation stung.

"What now?" Cass asked
,
grateful Brent wasn't doing anything stupid. This was her show, what she'd been trained to handle. "Why did you follow me tonight?"

"I've been waiting for this moment since the night you got me worked up, then walked out on me. I didn't know what you were up to at the time," he sneered, "but I do now." In one swift move, his free hand snaked out and grabbed her braid. He yanked her toward him, causing her to crash into his thin frame. "Payback can be so much fun."

"Let go of me," Cass demanded, twisting in his arms. "I'm an officer of the—"

"Spare me." Vilas yanked her braid over her shoulder and jerked her head back. "Nobody uses me and lives to tell—"

She slammed her foot down on his, rammed an elbow into his stomach. He gasped, staggered—

"Take your hands off her," Brent yelled, running toward them. All signs of the weak playboy vanished, in their place radiated a valor and ferocity that would do Derek proud. "She's—"

Cass didn't have time to intervene. Vilas simply raised the gun. And shot. Brent's eyes went wide the second the bullet slammed into him. His hands flew to his stomach, blood gurgling around them. He looked dazed, confused … then crumpled to the ground.

Fury and alarm bubbled through Cass. She looked at Vilas, at the insanity in his beady eyes. "Now, where were we?" he asked eloquently.

She pulled free of him and ran to Derek's brother. "Brent?" she asked, cradling his head in her lap. "Can you hear me?"

His glassy eyes stared up at her, but no words came forth. She pressed two fingers to the base of his clammy throat, discovered a faint pulse.

Cass swallowed hard. She was no stranger to life-or-death situations, but Vilas had caught her off guard.

She twisted toward him. "You won't get away with this."

"But I already have." Smiling, he held the
.45
at eye level,
then
ran one gloved hand over its smooth barrel. "By the time the curator opens up tomorrow morning, what happened here will be nothing but a tragedy, one of those senseless occurrences that makes everyone shake their heads in dismay.

"It will be so sad," he went on, his voice mockingly dramatic. "Prominent businessman and heroic cop found slain, their bodies
lying
next to their killer, the man they betrayed."

"Derek."
Cass realized Vilas intended to frame him for murder, then kill him and make it look like suicide. It would be believed, too, by everyone, including Gray. He'd warned her not to come. "It'll never work," she said, stalling.

She had to do something,
do
it fast. Brent lay in a limp heap, blood seeping through his trench coat and pooling around him. His time was running out.

Her only chance was disarming Vilas. She'd done it hundreds of times in training, several in reality. But never had it been more critical. Her whole life flashed before her, the happiness and sorrow, the triumphs and tragedy. She wasn't ready for it to be over. She'd already lost a husband and son.

She owed it to them to triumph, to live life to the fullest.

Cautiously she stood. "You win," she said, raising her hands in the air and walking toward Vilas. Surprise registered in his eyes. He watched her approach, and slowly lowered the gun so that it was level with her chest. "I'm all yours."

"The hell you say!"

The fierce voice cut through the night. Cass glanced sharply toward the bank of columns, but before she could discern shadows from reality, Vilas grabbed her arm and jerked her in front of him. The nose of his .45 came next, jamming into her temple. Then he
laughed,
an animated sound that echoed insidiously through the quiet night.

"It's about time you got here, my friend. A few minutes later and you would have missed the main event."

* * *

Santiago Vilas stood stiff as a statue, eyes as black as night. Cass stood
there,
too, her body crammed to the front of Vilas's, a human shield. Her eyes, those beautiful eyes that never failed to seduce, were wide now, ominous.

Derek wanted to charge across the measly ten feet separating him from Vilas and destroy the bastard with his bare hands, but in the seconds it would take, Cass's life would be forfeited.

He wouldn't risk it.

Self-disgust flared, twisted with the fear and regret. She was in danger because of him, because he'd refused to listen when she tried to explain.

He held his own gun level, outstretched toward the bastard he'd been entrapping for months. This wasn't how he'd envisioned the final act. In his fantasies there had been plenty of time to savor the moment.

But in his fantasies the woman he loved wasn't caught in the middle. "Let her go,
amigo.
Now."

The violent wind sent the flaps of Vilas's coat whipping about his ankles. "Derek. How kind of you to join us."

"I mean
it,"
he warned. "This is between you and me. Leave the lady out of it."

An evil smile twisted Vilas's lips. "You're the one who talked about exterminating rats. I merely grew impatient with your procrastination."

He stepped closer. "I'm the one she betrayed," he pointed out. He injected his voice with a contempt he no longer felt. "You would deny me the chance for retribution?"

Vilas's nasty snicker echoed among the columns. "It all started in the Garden of Eden," he snipped. "Did it not?" His free hand slid up along Cass's side, halting just beneath the swell of her breast. "Just as Eve handed Adam the apple of his downfall, the lovely Cassidy Blake handed the apple to you."

Her eyes narrowed, cut
to
her right. She wanted him to see something, Derek realized, following her gaze. The moon had ducked behind a swell of clouds, taking its light with it. Not much lay there for him to see, just a heap of—

Everything inside Derek grew brutally cold. His childhood flashed before his eyes, the disappointments, the loneliness, the one thing that had kept him going, given him purpose. His brother. The one he'd always looked out for.

Brent lay there, despite everything Derek had done to protect him, unmoving. A dark substance pooled around him.

Rage tore through Derek. But he couldn't let it show. He'd positioned himself with Vilas as a solo operator, not a man who would do anything to save his brother's hide.

"Time to say goodbye," Vilas announced. His hand opened and grasped Cass's long braid. Then he yanked. Hard. "Drop the gun,
Mansfield
, or I blow her away. Right here, right now."

"Don't do it," Cass blurted. "He's going to kill me, anyway." She looked so brave standing there, defiant yet still vulnerable. "Don't let him manipulate you."

The fighter in him knew she was right, but the man who loved her more than life itself was willing to try anything to fend off the inevitable.

He looked at her standing there, his brave, fiery angel, and realized everything he'd ever done, everything he'd ever been, had propelled him to this moment in time. To give him the skills, the strength, the courage to see it through to the bitter end.

This was it, the turning point of his life.

"I grow impatient," Vilas warned.

"Fine." He looked at Vilas and crooked an insolent smile. "Have it your way,
amigo.
I've waited too long for this night to let anything get in the way."

"And just what is it you've been waiting for?"

The clouds scurried away, giving way to a bright pool of moonlight. Easier to see Vilas now, easier to see the madness in his eyes. "It's like I told you all along," Derek answered, careful to strip the disgust from his voice. "I have connections—you have merchandise. Together, there is nothing we can't have, nobody who can stop us."

Vilas only laughed. "I believed your lies once, my friend." He drew slow circles with the nose of the gun against Cass's forehead. "I won't make that mistake again."

Derek stepped closer. "She's a cop. You can't believe anything she has to say."