Treacherous Intent (24 page)

“It’s a chain restaurant,” Shaun said. “There are dozens in California.”

“It’s a start,” Detective Carter said. “What else?”

Then he realized, “Joslyn might know.”

Liam called his cousin. The phone rang three times before he answered, since it was already past one in the morning, but then Jeremy quickly put Joslyn on the phone.

Liam gave a quick recap of the situation, then said, “Joslyn, tell me if you recognize this woman.” He described Patricia as best as he could.

“It sounds like Lauren, Tomas’s cousin,” Joslyn said.

His heartbeat picked up. “What’s her last name?”

“Ramos. She lives in Napa.”

“Thanks.”

“Liam, please find her,” Joslyn pleaded, and then hung up.

Detective Carter wasn’t as excited as Liam expected him to be. “I’ll call the Napa police department. Their new captain is a bit snippy about jurisdiction.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, the Napa police will search Lauren’s house, but they won’t want Sonoma P.D. interfering. They might even get annoyed if I’m there, especially since I’ll be waking the captain up.” The detective went to phone the Napa police captain.

“So, what? We just wait here twiddling our thumbs?” Liam said to no one in particular.

“Hey.” Shaun poked Liam’s shoulder. “You’re a skip tracer. So find her.”

Shaun was right. What was he doing whining? He’d been trained for this.

“I need internet access,” Liam said. He remembered Elisabeth’s gentle voice, telling him to ask for help from his family. “Let’s stop off at Dad’s house and get Brady.”

“Good idea. Nathan’s there, too.”

At the house, the four of them huddled around the kitchen table while Liam connected to the internet. The faces of the men were grave, but calm. At that moment, Liam was proud to be their brother and friend. They wouldn’t fail him.

“There’s only one Donny’s in Napa,” Liam said. “But I’m not sure how that’ll help us.”

“It’s better than waiting around doing nothing.” Shaun rose to his feet. “Let’s go.”

Liam phoned Detective Carter as they drove to Napa, telling him what he’d discovered.

“Liam, all I ask is that you don’t interfere with police business.”

“We’re only driving around a few city blocks. Besides, our only lead is a bunch of receipts. But please tell the Napa P.D. where we are.”

Most of downtown Napa was beautiful, a bit upscale—the perfect tourist destination. But the area where Donny’s was located was on the very edge of the town, in a neighborhood a bit more run-down than other streets.

“There’s the Donny’s.” Shaun pointed out the bright yellow sign.

“It’s the only place open,” Brady said. They passed a closed Mexican restaurant and a wine store.

“Didn’t you say she looked like a dancer?” Nathan pointed ahead to a sign to their left that said Ellie’s Gentleman’s Club.

“They wouldn’t take Elisabeth through the front,” Nathan said. “Shaun, see if you can drive the car around the back.”

He parked a street over and the four men walked the quiet sidewalk. Ellie’s Gentleman’s Club rose three stories above them, and music could be heard pulsing from within the square brick building. The back door was a heavy painted metal affair, and it was locked from the inside.

“I don’t know if we could get in through the front door,” Brady said. “They’ll recognize Liam.”

“They won’t recognize me,” Nathan said.

“You’re not going in alone,” Liam said.

“Of course he’s not.” Shaun clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Hang tight. We’ll head to the back and open the door for you.”

Liam and Brady prowled around the back of the building. The windows were dark, boarded up. Slits of light filtered out from one, but it was high up and they couldn’t see in.

“I’ll look for something to stand on.” Brady went around the corner to where they’d seen a Dumpster.

Liam stayed and looked up at the window. It was at least a foot above his head.

Wait a minute. Windows that high on the first floor meant that there must be a basement or sublevel underneath.

Liam crouched as he searched the base of the building. He saw some small windows, but they were also dark. He was turning the corner, heading toward Brady, when he caught sight of it—a small window set close to the ground, boarded up like the other one, with slits of light glowing feebly in the darkness of the alley between the two buildings.

“Brady,” Liam hissed.

His brother joined him, kneeling by the window. “Can you see inside?”

Liam got on his stomach, feeling something slimy under his shoulder, and got his face close to the window.

Through the cracks, he could see inside a small room that looked like it was used for storage. At his angle, he only saw a set of metal shelves filled with toilet paper and bleach. He scooted sideways on the ground to get a different perspective.

And then he saw Elisabeth.

She was tied to a chair, and he only saw her in profile, but blood smeared her mouth.

“Brady, call Detective Carter. I see her!” Liam shifted sideways again to see more of the room, and that was when he saw Tomas.

He was livid, his face turning a maroon-purple color. “That’s it!” he said, his voice muffled by the wooden boards and the thick glass window.

And then he pointed his gun straight at Elisabeth’s head.

Time slowed down for Liam. His vision sharpened. He noticed the curve of her cheek, the scarlet of the blood.

Liam bolted to his feet and raced to the back door of the club just as it swung open.

“I feel like I need to burn my eyes out of their sockets,” Shaun was saying, but Liam shoved him aside as he raced inside.

The hallway he entered was dark and low, and he almost tripped when he ran into the short flight of stairs at the end of it. Wrong staircase—he needed to go down, not up. He whirled, reaching for the flashlight in his pocket, but Nathan had one out already, and the light passed over a door set against the wall.

Liam threw himself against the door. It wasn’t dead bolted, but the doorknob lock held. He threw himself against it again, grunting in his desperation, and this time, one of his brothers added his force to the door, and it burst open with a crash.

He leaped down a short flight of stairs, directly into a large man who had been standing near the bottom. They went down in a tangle, and Liam swung an elbow at the man’s head.

“I’ve got him!” Shaun said.

Liam jumped to his feet and dashed across the room. Straight for Tomas.

Something huge crashed sideways into him, and he went flying into a steel shelving unit. There had been a gang member there that he hadn’t seen. He didn’t wait to get his feet under him, but snapped up with a knee, then followed with blows to the man’s head, shoulders, torso. They rolled, and then he grabbed the man’s head and slammed it against the edge of a lower shelf of the shelving unit.

He saw Tomas raise his gun at him. While he’d been fighting the Bagsic, Tomas hadn’t had a clear angle to shoot, but now he stared down at Liam with enraged eyes.

But Tomas had forgotten about Elisabeth. Apparently only her wrists and ankles had been tied, and she’d used the distraction to stand up from the chair and then get her arms in front of her. With a yell, she jumped and threw herself on Tomas’s back, hooking her arms around his neck. Her momentum swung her sideways in an arc, and the two of them went down together.

Tomas elbowed Elisabeth in the gut. She curled up with an “Oof!” and Tomas untangled her arms from around his neck.

Liam fell on him. They rolled, knocking into more shelving units and dropping boxes of paper towels onto them. Then Liam got slightly behind Tomas and sliced his arm across the man’s neck in a choke hold. He secured his hand against his other forearm and squeezed.

Tomas’s legs kicked out. He twisted and jerked to try to break Liam’s hold. From where he lay on the ground with Tomas, Liam could see Brady deliver a punch to the gang member he’d been fighting earlier, and the man crumpled to the ground.

In four minutes, Tomas was unconscious. Liam shoved his body away from him, then looked around for Elisabeth.

She flew at him, hooking her tied wrists around his neck, and then his mouth was on hers. Holding her close to him, he was aware of how precious she felt in his arms. And that he had almost lost her.

They came up for air, and then they both murmured at the same time, “I love you.”

She smiled at him, brighter than sunlight, her eyes shining like dark gold. Her scent wrapped around him, orange and tuberoses.

“I never want to be afraid of losing you again,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Me, too.” And then she kissed him again.

SEVENTEEN

C
hristmas with the O’Neills was loud, crowded, filled with food...and wonderful.

Elisabeth helped Monica clear away the ham and turkey leftovers from the dinner table. Patrick O’Neill lingered at the table, chatting with Detective Carter. She hadn’t known until tonight that Monica’s aunt Becca was dating Detective Carter. It was strange to see him in a nonofficial mood, especially when he told her to call him Horatio.

“So the four of those boys took out five Bagsic members?” Patrick said.

Horatio nodded. “There wasn’t much left for the Napa police to do.”

“If I’d been there, I’d have taken them all out in half the time.” He laughed.

Brady was near the kitchen door holding his son, who looked almost as sleepy as his father after the huge meal, and talking with Liam.

“Tonight, maybe I can finally whip your tail on ‘League of Legends.’” Brady grinned at him.

“Forget video games. Let’s go for paintball. When’s the last time you went?”

Brady groaned. “When you hit me on the neck and gave me a welt the size of Texas.”

Liam smiled. “You’re the one who exposed your jugular.”

Brady looked fondly at his sleepy son. “Wait till this boy grows up. He’ll vindicate his old man by destroying his uncle at paintball.”

Monica’s sister, Rachel, was washing dishes at the sink. “Elisabeth, you never finished telling me what happened with the FBI investigation into the Bagsics. You told me Tomas gave up his bosses?”

“He’d been working so hard to find Joslyn because the heads of the gang had threatened to kill him if he didn’t do something to make up for the lost ephedrine shipment,” Elisabeth explained as she found a plastic bag for the ham leftovers. “He had nothing to lose by giving them up.”

“Did the FBI find their supplier in the Philippines?”

“They haven’t told me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve put something in motion. And they did search traffic cameras to find the truck the Tumibays used to move the shipping container, and got the license plate. They found it was hired by IRF Norris. They’ll probably shut the company down, although first they’re going to try to prove the connection to the Tumibays.”

“That’s going to cripple the Tumibays’ money laundering,” said Jane, Monica and Rachel’s cousin, who was drying dishes. “Did you hear about the bodies they found?”

“What bodies?” Monica turned to her.

“Two Tumibay gang members,” Jane said. “It was in the news.”

“Were they the ones who had attacked you?” Rachel asked Elisabeth.

“One of them was—Lamar Garcia, the man with the fishhook scar on his face.”

“I remember you mentioned him,” Rachel said.

“The other one was Daniel, Faye’s boyfriend, the one who had hurt Joslyn.” Liam hadn’t been as pleased about the two dead men. There was now no connection between Joslyn or Liam and the Tumibays, but the way it had ended—with the murder of two gang members—didn’t sit right with him. But Elisabeth had to admit that it was a relief that with the Bagsics’ troubles, the Tumibays were now lying low.

“How are they?” Rachel asked.

“Faye’s with her mom, but she’ll be able to go back to her life in San Francisco now that the threat against her is gone. Joslyn’s with family in Los Angeles, but we invited her to move here to Sonoma in the new year.”

“Really?” Jane’s eyes glowed. “She and I had so much fun talking computers.”

“Liam and I are seriously talking about going into business together,” Elisabeth said. “Skip tracing, helping people stay safe.” Protecting people, just as God had protected her and Liam.

“Joslyn would make a great skip tracer,” Jane said. “Her computer skills are almost as good as mine.”

“Oh-ho, modest much?” Monica teased her.

Suddenly there were warm arms that came up from behind her and wrapped around her stomach. Liam’s voice tickled her ear, making her smile. “I came up with another name.”

The two of them moved a little away from the giggling women. “Please tell me it’s not something weird again like Macho Libre Skip Tracing Agency.” She grinned at his face, inches away from her own.

“How about the Haven Agency? We can help people find their true—”

“Home.”

His arms tightened around her.

She had found her home, in the love of God that filled her heart and made her feel alive, made her feel she belonged. She was done with being alone.

And Liam’s love was her anchor, the gift she was finally able to grasp with both hands.

His mouth was inches from hers. “Sometimes I can hardly believe you’re here with me.”

She closed her eyes and kissed him.

She was home.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from HER CHRISTMAS GUARDIAN by Shirlee McCoy.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for joining me once again for this trip to Sonoma, California! In addition to my favorite small town, my hero and heroine traveled up and down the California coast, and I hope you enjoyed the adventure with them.

Penny Bay is loosely based off the quaint town of Mendocino in Northern California. It is one of my favorite places to visit because of the great restaurants, cozy wineries and beautiful forests and beaches.

When I wrote
Narrow Escape,
I knew that Liam O’Neill would eventually need his own story, and Elisabeth Aday showed up out of nowhere as the perfect woman for him. She is kind but tough, and only she has the ability to help heal him. I hope you’ve enjoyed watching them dodge bullets and fall in love.