Trouble Comes Knocking (Entangled Embrace) (17 page)

“Run!”

We made a break for it, but Ben quickly overcame us. He caught me, and we both tumbled to the floor. Up ahead Eli stopped and turned. Ben positioned his gun on me, holding me around the neck.

“Detective Reyes. Couldn’t save your girlfriend, huh?”

“Let her go, Ben. She’s not worth it. She’s a pain in the ass and truly not worth the cost of your bullet.”

“I am, too!” I insisted, before I could stop myself. Eli’s words stung.

Ben’s gun waivered for a moment. I held my breath as I waited to see what he might do.

“C’mon, man,” Eli continued. “We know what you did now, and you have nowhere to hide.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” he said in a deadly calm voice, his gun arm now rock steady. “I have plenty of money. And plenty of places to go.”

“There are officers crawling all over looking for you,” Eli reasoned. “If you give yourself up now, you might make it out of this alive.”

“You and I both know that if given even a small chance, I will be shot on sight. Lucy is my insurance. Now drop your weapon.”

“Not going to happen.”

Ben cocked the trigger and pressed the gun closer to my temple. “Can’t see me well, can you, Detective. I could easily kill her and still make it out of here. Do you want to take that chance?”

“Okay, okay.” The gun clanged as it hit the concrete.

Ben had no reason to keep me alive anymore, and I knew it. Unarmed, Eli had no protection. Ben would kill us both.

His arm tensed around my neck, and I knew what was coming. “No!” I screamed. I let my body go limp, and heat blasted as the bullet rushed over my head. I screamed again when the entire weight of Eli’s body crushed my hand as he dove past me, tackling Ben.

Two bodies thudded against the floor as the men fought. I felt around in the dark for Eli’s gun and finally found it at about the same time I heard Ben’s slide across the concrete floor.

Sickening sounds of knuckles against flesh echoed through the warehouse along with grunts and curses. I aimed the gun but couldn’t tell one from the other. The men bashed into a wall and back to the floor again. With the sound of cracking bone, it was over.
Oh, God! Please don’t let it be Eli
, I prayed when the body on the floor didn’t move. The other man stood. “Stop!” I screamed, shaking violently, unable to hold my aim steady but praying he couldn’t tell. “I have the gun now.”

“Lucy, it’s me,” Eli said, weakly. He shuffled forward and leaned heavily against me.

I welcomed his weight and his warmth. “Eli! I thought I was going to die. I thought you were dead.”

He pulled something from his pocket. “Suspect in Warehouse 34, grid 5,” he said, not an ounce of energy left in his voice. A few minutes passed, and then the sound of boots on concrete echoed nearer. The lights came on and bodies swarmed through the far doors. I looked around and saw Ben on the floor, hand reaching for his gun.

“Look out!” I screamed, aiming Eli’s at him. On instinct I pulled the trigger, arm recoiling painfully from the blast.

The two guns went off as Eli knocked me to the floor. I looked to Eli and saw blood on his arm. “Are you shot?”

“No. My stitches probably tore. You okay?”

“Yes.” I bent my head around Eli to see and cried out when I saw Ben, a bullet hole through his neck, head cocked at a strange angle, and blood squirting and pooling all around him.

Eli turned my head away and shielded my face with his hand as he took the gun. “Shhh,” he said. “It’s over now. You’re safe.”

“No! No!” Pain made my fingertips numb as I fought my way out of Eli’s arms and over to Ben. I pressed my hand against his neck, warm, sticky blood covering my hands entirely. “No,” I cried out again. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

I spent the night in the hospital and woke the next morning to a room full of people I loved. Among them Aunt Dolores, Ana, John, and Eli.

And a few I didn’t, namely Captain Matheson.

My body was a riot of stiffness and aches all over. There was a giant goose egg on the side of my head from where I’d been cracked with the gun, and the top of my head had staples where the bullet grazed my scalp. My hand was also bandaged and two fingers splinted from where Eli stomped on me on his way to Ben, but the pain didn’t matter. We were all safe.

“You’re lucky to be alive, young lady,” Captain Matheson said, jowls jiggling as he spoke. “You put a lot of people’s lives in jeopardy and got one of my detectives shot. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“What do
you
have to say, sir?” I asked, finally tired of him deflecting the blame to others and not willing to play nice any longer. “You locked the wrong person in jail, someone innocent of all this, and stopped looking for the real killer. If you had done your job half as well as I did, none of this would have happened.”

His face puffed out and turned red. “Young lady, I will be charging you with obstruction of justice for what you pulled. You might have gotten your friend out of jail, but you just landed yourself in a whole heap of trouble.”

“Edgar, back off,” an older man said as he walked into the room. He wore a suit, and from the way Eli straightened and Matheson shut up immediately I knew he was someone of importance. “This young lady is right. She, for all practical purposes, single-handedly solved your case, and she will be rewarded for her efforts.”

“But Commissioner—”

“No buts. The city will eat this up.” He looked to me and smiled. He appeared grandfatherly with his white hair and big nose, but a keen sharpness shone in his eyes. This man was calculating, his actions precise. “That is, if you don’t mind a couple of press conferences?”

“Natalie is free?” I asked, priorities first.

“As of this morning.”

“And Detective Reyes will resume his normal duties?”

The commissioner looked toward Eli. “I believe he’ll even receive a commendation.”

Eli’s chest visibly expanded. “Thank you, sir.”

I loved how this man didn’t even introduce himself to me, knew he didn’t have to. The reaction of the people around me was enough to let me know he was in charge.

Matheson’s face stayed red, but he didn’t speak.

“One more thing,” I said, feeling bold in my backless hospital gown, wrapped in bandages and hooked to monitors. “I’m probably going to lose my job over all this. And my aunt needs me to be working. Is there any way you would consider letting me work on other cases in the future?”

“That is not something that will be happening,” Matheson said, stuttering in his fast response.

The Commissioner cut him a look, then turned back to me. “Come by my office Monday, and we’ll discuss bringing you on as a consultant. It isn’t always steady work, but as long as you continue to prove your value, we’ll continue to bring you in.”

I smiled despite the frown on Dee’s face.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you, Ms. Carver. There are a passel of reporters downstairs. I know you’re set to be released later today, so I’m going to have Mr. Brown, my press advisor, set up our first press conference for two hours from now.”

I nodded.

The Commissioner turned to leave, but then motioned for Captain Matheson to follow. He did so, reluctantly, and not before flashing me one last dirty look.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Dee said. “Now you. What you did was reckless, dangerous—”

“Aunt Dolores, I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you what I was doing—”

She held up her hand. “Stop, just stop right there.” Dee pulled a chair up beside my bed, then sat next to me and took my hand. Her face softened. “Lucy, you did what you did to try to help a friend. Do I wish you hadn’t done it? Hell yes. Do I wish you told me? No. Not in a million years.”

My eyebrows drew together. “I don’t understand.” I shot Ana a look.

“You have some amazin’ gifts, baby girl, things I wish you didn’t. And for you to truly figure out who you are in this life, you’re gonna have to do things I don’t always like. You saved someone last night, and you did so knowin’ you might be puttin’ your life at risk.

“You are brave and loving and I admire you. I also appreciate that you didn’t want me to worry about where you were and what you were doin’ all night.”

I chewed the skin around my thumbnail, then looked up to Eli and back to Dee. “So don’t tell you?”

She smiled and pulled my hand from my mouth, then squeezed it. “Tell me what you think I need to know, but understand I love you and trust you no matter what.” She leaned in and hugged me.

“Dee, you’re sentimental and sappy, you know that?” Ana said, breaking us apart.

Aunt Dolores sat up and shot a glare her way. “And you’re a pain in my tuchus. Going off on a date with some poker killer and not even thinking twice.”

“He wasn’t the killer!”

“You didn’t know that. Lucy, I trust. You, I think, will end up splattered on the ground someday if you don’t keep your head on straight.”

“I was an integral part of the plan,” Ana said as they left the room arguing.

“Integral my ass,” Aunt Dolores said before the door closed behind them.

That left me alone with Eli and John. I looked between the two. “John, do you mind if I talk to Eli for a few moments?”

He smiled, though slightly strained, and nodded. “Sure. We’ll talk later. I have to go to work anyway.” He kissed my forehead and squeezed my good hand. Leaning in beside me, he whispered, “Don’t forget those Bond moves you want to show me.”

My cheeks heated at his reminder. He stopped in front of Eli. “Thank you for saving her,” he said, reaching out to shake.

“She kind of saved herself,” he answered back. “But of course.”

The door closed, leaving Eli and I alone in the room.

“You came for me.”

He sat in the chair where Dee had just been. “What the hell were you thinking?” he asked. His face broke into a million bits of worry and pain. “You were almost killed. That man murdered other people, and you didn’t even consider that before putting yourself in harm’s way.”

I sat up straighter, feeling I couldn’t fully defend myself lying back in bed like that. “You heard my aunt. I have things I need to do, and I can’t always have people worrying over me as I get them done.”

“Bullshit.”

My mouth fell open.

“You nearly got yourself killed. If John hadn’t tracked your phone signal to the warehouse district before it went dead, you would have been killed. I don’t care what your aunt says, you had no business being out there.”

“You didn’t believe me.”

“I never stopped believing you. I couldn’t protect you,” he said, voice rising passionately. “Goddamn it, Lucy! Can’t you see anything past your own stubborn nose?”

My eyebrows shot up, and I opened my mouth to argue when without warning he pressed his lips to mine. Kissing me. Softly at first. Teasingly. Heat flooded my face.

I tensed, pushing at him, then slowly melted as his lips pressed against mine. My lips parted, and I tasted peppermint.

He pressed his hand between the pillow and my head, furthering his hold on me. My body reacted to his fingertips massaging the base of my neck. He held me tight while unthinkably we became one.

Then, as quickly as it started, he pulled away. His dark pupils returned to normal, though my own body begged for more.

My fingertips shot to my still tingling lips. “You kissed me.”

He ran his hand through his hair and stood to walk away. Turning back, he said, “I can’t be with you, Lucy. But that doesn’t make me not want you. Or make me not want to protect you.”

“I’m with John.”

“I know. And he’s the least of my obstacles. Matheson doesn’t like you, if you haven’t noticed. And he’s my boss. If I even tried to date you, it would ruin my career. I can’t do that. I can’t risk everything I’ve worked for, not even for you.”

I wanted to be with John, but I could no longer deny my feelings for Eli, either. With me still reeling, he left the room.

Chapter Sixteen

“I can stay longer,” Ana said, twisting the shirt she was supposed to be folding into a wrinkled mess. “I mean, it isn’t as if I have plans or anything. I don’t have to go visit my parents right now.”

It was time. “You can stop that. I know the truth. Besides, you haven’t talked to your parents since Christmas last year. You need to see them.”

Her cheeks turned dark pink. “What do you mean, you know the truth?”

I folded one of her tops and placed it in the suitcase, then took the shirt from her. “I know you’re going to Milan for a photo shoot next month. I also know Bobby set it up for you.”

Ana ducked her head. “How did you know?”

“He told me, at the bar, when I answered your phone. Why didn’t you want me to know, Ana?”

She tucked away a pair of jeans and sat on the bed. “I’ll be gone for a while. Longer than normal.”

I sat next to her. “You’ve been gone a long time before. Remember when you went to Chicago for three months?”

“This is different,” she said, sounding a bit like a little kid going away to summer camp for the first time. Excited but miserable. “I’ll be in a different country. You can’t come see me whenever you want. I won’t be able to fly down if something happens.” She grabbed another shirt and stared at it for a moment. “I’m kinda scared, Lucy.” Looking up, her lashes glistened with tears.

I grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and pressed it into her hand. “You deserve a life of your own, Ana Angel. This is your chance to have it. And it will be amazing. I’m good here; we’re good. And when you’re done, you’ll bring me back some amazing designer heels or one of those sexy Italian men.”

“What if it’s somewhere else after this? Then somewhere else again?”

“Then we’ll have to work harder at seeing each other,” I said, pressing myself into her side. “You are more a sister to me than I’ve ever known. And I apparently had two.”

She laughed at my black attempt at humor.

“People who grow apart are the ones who don’t work at staying together. We are not those people.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder. “We better not be. Who else am I supposed to go on crazy misadventures with if not you?”

“And who am I supposed to corrupt into doing bad things if not you?”

A honk sounded outside. I looked out the window. “They’re here.” Bobby sent a town car to pick her up, even though I’d have preferred taking her to the airport myself.

Pretty much out of time, we smashed the rest of her clothes into the bag and smooshed it shut. “Love love love,” she said to me, squeezing my neck tight.

I grabbed her suitcase and carried it down the stairs. “Love love love love love,” I answered back, walking her to the car. “Be safe, have fun. Don’t let them try to change you; you’re perfect the way you are.”

And with that, she left.

Later that night I spoke to Natalie for the first time since she’d been freed, and it was good to hear her voice. She was back home with her folks. “I don’t want to stay at HGR, but I don’t know where else I’m supposed to go,” she said.

“Wherever you want,” I told her. “It isn’t as if you have anything holding you back. Clive loves you. I won’t be there, but we can be friends no matter where we go, right?”

“Maybe I’ll go back to school,” she said, wistfully. “I always thought I was pretty smart. Maybe I’ll get a degree in law or something.”

“Maybe.”

I could hear her smiling over the phone. “Thank you for everythin’. Truly. I still can’t believe it was Ben. I knew I didn’t like the guy, but for him to go this far is psychotic.”

At the mention of his name, a picture of him dead flashed before my eyes. I’d have to talk to someone about that. It kept me up at night. Him, the white room, Diana’s body. It was more than I could deal with on my own.

John had agreed completely and said as much. “I don’t think I could sleep if I’d been through what you went through.”

We still hadn’t “done the deed,” so to speak. Turns out watching someone’s life drain from them created a fair-sized crimp in my libido. Probably for the best. But still, John was a good guy and not pressuring me. I asked him about what Ben said, about if he loved me. He didn’t. Not yet, he’d said. But also that I’d be the first to know when he did.

Eli stayed on my mind constantly, too. Which is probably another reason I hadn’t been able to go all the way with John. That kiss at the hospital lingered in my mind like some sort of last leaf that refused to fall from the tree. And I wasn’t sure I wanted it to. It proved one thing to me: Eli did have the same feelings I had for him.

Feelings I couldn’t have. Especially now that I was to be a consultant with the Fort Worth Police Department. Captain Matheson didn’t like it, but I hadn’t expected him to. “Don’t think you’re getting away with anything in my department,” he had said as he observed me filling out paperwork. “You are here because the commissioner wants you here for publicity, nothing else. You will work with Detective Reyes and only Detective Reyes, and if you so much as set one eyelash out of line, I’ll have you out of here so fast your head will spin.”

I nodded, no reason to argue.

Giddiness bubbled inside. For the first time in my life I had purpose. I would not screw this up.

“So how then did you get arrested,” Officer Len asked one last time.

“Not my fault,” I said. “Remember I told you about the guy who stopped me on the street? Roger Ridley? Well, he showed up again.”

Normally Halloween gave Aunt Dolores excitement hives, but with everything that had happened I don’t think she felt it as much as usual. We sat at the kitchen table eating chili before all the trick-or-treaters arrived when we heard a knock at the door. “Ignore it,” she said, “probably someone sellin’ magazines or cookie dough or somethin’.”

I broke some crackers into my bowl, but then heard a second knock. “Maybe it’s early trick-or-treaters?” I suggested, pushing away from the table. “Let me go check.” The sun hadn’t gone down, but who knew? Some parents were pretty funny about when their little angels went out.

I opened the door expecting a pirate and instead found a ghost. “Lucy. I know you don’t know me, but you have to listen.”

I slammed the door shut as fast as I could, leaning against it and trying to slow my hammering heart.

He knocked again, then spoke loud enough for me to hear him through the door. “You’re in danger,” he said. “You and your sisters. Look. I’m here because I was a friend of your parents. I knew you when you were little. I helped protect you.”

“You tried to lock me away,” I said back, eyeballing my phone across the room. I wanted Dee to call the police, but knew if I shouted, he would hear me.

“I wanted what was best for you and still do. Look, you can’t stay here. There are people searching for you, for all of you. I found you, and I know they will, too.”

With that, I opened the door. “Let them come,” I said. I looked him up and down. I didn’t see a villain but instead a tired, worn-out man. Like he’d been running for a long time and hadn’t had a chance to stop. “Wait, what do you mean all of us?”

“You and your sisters.”

“Julie is dead, and Kat is at Voeller Institute in Elmer.” I paused for a moment. “What is it people want from me, anyway?”

“You’re special,” he said. “You all are. Let me in, I’ll explain everything.”

Though a huge part of me wanted to shove him back and tell him to go away forever, a larger part recognized he might be the only link to my parents. I motioned him in.

Aunt Dolores, seeming to have heard all the commotion, was waiting in the living room when we came in. “Lucy, you need me to call the cops? Get my gun?”

“Not yet,” I said, not looking away from Roger. “Tell me what you know about my parents.”

“They’re safe,” he said. “They didn’t kill anyone, but they can’t be with you. You’re in too much danger now.”

I shook my head. “Why am I in danger? I’ve never done anything.”

“It’s not what you’ve done; it’s who you are. People are looking for you.”

“You said that already. I’ve been to Elmer. I know what Julie did and that people think I’m her.”

Roger, who had been pacing slightly, stopped dead in his tracks. “Wait—you went to Elmer?”

I took a step away from him. “Yes. I know about the institute. I know about my sisters.”

He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “No, no, no, this is all wrong,” he said. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. Dialing a number, he stepped away from me.

I faced Dee. “I don’t know what to do,” I said, crossing arms over my chest. “He’s making no sense.”

“I’m calling the cops.”

I turned back to Roger. “Look,” I said, “either you stop your cryptic talk, or you can leave.”

He hung up the phone and turned back to me. “It’s too late,” he said. “I can’t protect you now.”

My mind flashed: I saw Roger in different scenes throughout my life. Standing across the street from my high school. Walking alone on my college campus. Eating at the mall when I worked at the cologne counter. Standing on the other side of the street while I walked through Sundance Square. In the lobby during my first day at HGR.

He had been there all along. Protecting me? Watching me?

I grabbed his shoulders and shook. His hair fell into his face, and he took a step back, eyes wide. “Tell me about my parents,” I demanded.

“It’s
—
it’s too late,” he said again, taking a step away. “I can’t be here, I’m in danger now, too.” With that he stumbled out the door and onto the porch.

Just then, tires skidded around the corner and a car slowed in front of my house. A gun appeared at the window, and when shots rang out I screamed. It sped away but the damage was already done.

Blood poured down the front of Roger’s shirt from five separate holes. He fell to his knees and then back. I knelt beside him on the porch. “Please, tell me what I need to know,” I begged while pressing my hand over the wound closest to his heart. Blood pooled around my fingers. As if from a distance, I heard Dee’s voice as she talked to 911, though I could feel her standing behind me, then kneeling as she pressed her apron over the remaining holes.

He took his phone out of his pants pocket and pressed it into my other hand. “Mark Wilco.”

“Who is Mark Wilco?” I begged, needing more from this dying man. “Please, my parents. Where are they?”

“Mark Wil—”

The sound of sirens approaching echoed off nearby houses. “Please, stay with me. I don’t know what to do.”

He tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. I took his hand and squeezed it. “Roger, please.
Please
.”

“Shady Grove,” he managed with his final breath. His hand went limp in mine, and his eyes glazed over. Footfalls stormed up the stairs; police pushed me out of the way so the paramedics could take over.

I scooted back and tucked the phone into my pocket before pulling my knees up to my chest. Dolores placed a hand on my shoulder. She hadn’t spoken. We laced fingers, and she knelt beside me. We didn’t say anything as we watched the men work on the only connection I had to my parents, then watched him vanish into the back of the ambulance.

A couple of unmarked police cars showed up minutes later. Captain Matheson among them. “So why is it when there is a body to be found in this town, it’s somehow connected to you?” he asked, shaking his head in ill-humored arrogance.

I looked down at the blood. My insides boiled. A man died. A man with information about my family. My missing pieces. White hotness flashed in front of my eyes as I looked at Matheson.

“That’s why I punched him,” I told Officer Len. “A gut reaction. Wrong, in every way, but completely unavoidable.”

Officer Len closed the notebook he’d been writing in and tapped the end of his pen against the table. “Look, Lucy,” he said. “You’ve been through a lot. No question in that. But you can’t go around punching people, either.”

I peeled a bit of the Styrofoam from my cup. “I’ve never punched anyone before in my life,” I said, not a bit apologetic for the shiner I’d given Matheson. “And I truly am sorry for having done it this time.” I wasn’t.

Officer Len stood and walked out of the room. I heard him talking to someone else on the other side of the door but couldn’t decipher what they said. A few minutes later he came back in.

“Commissioner Whittaker likes you,” he said. “And he thinks you deserve a chance to move past this. He’s going to talk Matheson out of pressing charges, but in exchange, you’ll have to go through regular counseling with the department shrink while you’re working here.”

I nodded in agreement.

“One more thing,” he said, leaning in. “Captain Matheson is hard-nosed but a good cop. Don’t let him get to you. If you can get him on your side, he’ll be a great resource. Do you understand?”

Again I nodded, but didn’t.

“Good. You’re free to go.”

I walked out of the interrogation room and straight toward the elevator. Eli joined me as I waited. “So you’re free, then.”

“Yeah.”

He nudged me with his hip, and I looked at him. “Good. We have another case to work on, and I think your skills will come in especially handy.”

“Can it wait until I’ve slept?” I asked, stifling a yawn.

He took me by the shoulder and led me from the elevator. “Sleep later; you’re gonna love this.”