Undercover Obsession (7 page)

Brody heard a woman yell no a split second
before he heard the telltale release of a silenced report,
Sandoval’s gasp as he clutched his chest confirming the shot. Ian
was already rising from the fallen body of the female assassin and
shaking his head when he saw Piper at the head of the stairs, now
realizing why that soft cry had pierced his gut even before Charles
fell. He didn’t have time to wonder what the hell she was doing
here or even how she had gotten here. Right now he needed to do
damage control, especially as he realized this case had just been
shot to hell.

“Stop her,” he told Ian, pointing to Piper
descending the stairs before turning his attention to Charles. The
rest of the people weren’t wasting any time scattering, none of
them wanting to be here when the cops arrived. Doc, a longtime
friend as well as a medical doctor, was assisting Charles up and
Brody grabbed him from the other side and helped get him back to
the room he had just left. “Help’s on the way,” he told both of
them as they laid Charles on the bed.

Charles still couldn’t believe he had been so
wrong in thinking he could get away from Pasquino. Just as he
couldn’t believe he had just seen Piper here, that it had been her
shout that had thrown off the assassin’s aim just enough to give
him a fighting chance, slim as he knew it was, especially by the
looks on both Doc’s and Brody’s faces. Desperation had him
clutching Brody’s shirt and making his voice hoarse as he demanded,
“Promise me, Brody, promise me you’ll look out for her, keep her
safe.”

“I promise, just hang on, Charles. Ian’s
taking care of Piper, you just worry about hanging in there until
help arrives.”

“Go to her now,” Charles demanded implacably.
“Get her out of here. I know you care for her, you see to it she’s
okay after…I’m all she’s had for a long time. Go now, I need to
know she’s in your care.”

Brody didn’t know how Charles knew he had
grown fond of Piper, and right now it didn’t matter. If it would
set his mind at ease until the paramedics arrived, he’d leave him
in Doc’s care and go start damage control. “I’ll bring the
paramedics back. Shouldn’t be but a few more minutes.”

“I don’t care who you are, I want to see
dad,” Piper demanded again but to no avail. The man who had been
with Brody and that woman earlier had stopped her flight down the
stairs and hauled her right back up where he was keeping her from
finding Charles. There had been so much blood, his face sheet white
when Brody and another man had led him back down the hall, but not
before Charles had looked up at her. She’d never forget the
appalling look on his face when he saw her or the fear and despair
that had quickly replaced it.

“Damn it, Piper, what the hell are you doing
here?” Brody demanded as worry for her made him lash out when he
reached the top of the stairs. He was well aware her rose colored
glasses had just been torn from her eyes in a brutal way.

“I want to see him,” she pleaded, ignoring
his question. “I’m his daughter, I have every right…” she stumbled
to a stop when he simply raised a brow. She really didn’t have any
right as she realized he knew Charles was not a blood relation nor
had he ever been married to her mother. He had been her legal
guardian until she turned eighteen, but now she had no legal claims
to fall back on.

“Listen closely, Piper. I know you’ve had a
shock and I’ll explain more later. Right now, take the key to my
room and wait for me there.” Pulling out his key, he looked at Ian,
a look that let him know he was about to break protocol, but, damn
it, he wasn’t going to let her continue floundering in the dark
when it came to Charles. When Ian nodded, he breathed a sigh of
relief that he had his support. When she refused to take the key,
he took her cold hand and folded her fingers around it just as
police and paramedics were entering the suite below.

“I’ll go down,” Ian said and rushed to show
them where Charles was.

“Look Piper, both Ian and I are FBI, working
at the casino undercover. That’s over now for reasons I’ll explain
later, I just want you to know you can trust me, we’re the good
guys in this. Go to my room and wait for me. It’ll take me a while,
but we’ll iron this out then.”

Another lie revealed, Piper thought numbly as
she took the key. Obviously both Brody and Ian had worked their way
into Charles’s employ under false pretenses and for the FBI to do
that it had to mean they were investigating Charles for something
illegal. Numb with worry and shock, she let Brody key her into the
service elevator then watched the door close on his concerned face.
Leaving his key at the front desk, saying she found it on the
floor, she left the casino and went to check out of her hotel.

Four hours later, Brody and Ian dragged
themselves back to his room only to find that Charles wasn’t the
only one to have pulled a vanishing act that night. Somehow,
returning to the room he had taken Charles, he hadn’t been
surprised to find both him and Doc gone, a thorough search
revealing a hidden exit in the closet that led directly to the
parking garage and Charles’s reserved parking space. That answered
one question as to why Charles always used that room during
parties. After getting hold of their superior and spending time
explaining the dead woman and their case with the local cops, it
was almost five a.m. and they were both exhausted. Brody hadn’t
been looking forward to shattering the rest of Piper’s night.

“Well, hell. Could this night get any more
fucked up?” he swore when they entered his suite to find it
empty.

“If it could, I don’t know how. Not much we
can do now except start over tomorrow with a search for both of
them.” Sprawling face down on one of the beds, Ian mumbled, “But
not for at least five hours.”

Resigned to the wait, Brody crashed on the
other bed and fell asleep to the image of green eyes staring at him
in shocked confusion then in somber resignation.

Chapter Four

Missouri-Five Years Later

“Piper Winters is missing.”

That statement had been playing like a mantra
over and over in his head for the past two days, and now, as Brody
and Ian pulled up to Piper’s cabin home nestled in the Missouri
Ozarks, and parked behind a bright blue jeep, Brody felt a
combination of worry and anger threatening his control once again.
Piper had proven to be very resourceful following her vanishing act
from the Empire five years ago, having left without a trace until,
six months later, his diligence had paid off and he discovered she
was living in Hope, Missouri, a small touristy town about twenty
miles from Branson. Brody had no intention of involving himself in
the life she had made for herself here, no intention of looking her
up or seeing her again despite the way he had never been able to
forget her, that he still dreamt about their one night together and
had nightmares about the look on her face when he had last seen
her.

After Charles Sandoval’s disappearance, their
case against both him and Pasquino had stumbled to a halt. Rumor
had it that Pasquino had sent the assassin after Sandoval and rumor
also had it that Sandoval was dead. Brody and Ian had agreed it
would have been difficult, if not impossible for Charles to have
survived what looked to have been massive blood loss, but his good
friend, Doc Sorensen, was a highly skilled surgeon and if anyone
could have pulled him through, it would have been Doc. Not only did
he have the medical skills and access to a private clinic, he and
Charles were as close as only two people could be who had fifty
years of friendship behind them.

Brody, Ian and their superiors found
themselves frustrated at the turn of events, especially since they
didn’t have enough evidence that Charles was money laundering for
Pasquino, and therefore no way to justify spending the time and
money trying to find him, and it was decided to try once again to
infiltrate Pasquino’s lair, something that had failed in the past.
But their efforts had finally paid off, and six months ago another
operative had managed to get hired on with the drug lord. Ian and
Brody had been assigned other cases in the meantime and Piper had
been all but forgotten by everyone but them. In those first few
months after Brody had discovered her whereabouts, their office,
including Brody had kept tabs on her by contacting Gary Norton, the
county sheriff, to enlist his help in watching to see if Charles
got in touch with her in any way. A year later, his boss said she
was a dead end, but Brody wasn’t willing to abandon her completely
given her connection to Charles and the chance that the assassin
didn’t complete her contract, that her adoptive father still
lived.

Brody had kept in touch with Gary, which was
why Gary had called him personally with the news that Piper’s
friend and business partner, Haley Parsons, had reported her
missing after she didn’t show for a planned meet and she couldn’t
reach her by phone. The sheriff had driven out to her isolated home
and found no sign of foul play, but also no sign of Piper.
Enlisting Ian’s help, they had left Virginia immediately.

The cabin was eerily silent as they got out
of his car, the surrounding woods rustled with the soft sound of
leaves waving in the breeze, the scamper of squirrels and the
musical melody of birds. The muted echo of waves rolling onto the
shore from Lake Table Rock could be heard but not seen indicating
it was a short walk away.

“Somehow, I didn’t picture her as the
outdoorsy type,” Ian remarked as they walked up the gravel path and
stepped onto the front porch. Flower boxes lined the rail, the
brightly colored annuals looking well-tended.

Brody too was having trouble imagining the
young girl who he remembered as being soft both inside and out with
the rugged surroundings, trouble picturing her behind the wheel of
the four-wheel drive Wrangler or tending the large garden on the
side of the house. The door was unlocked, and even though the
sheriff told them it would be since that was the way he found it
and he didn’t have a key, both men pulled their guns and entered
cautiously.

“Piper,” Brody called out loud enough to be
heard down the hall and up to the loft, but only silence greeted
him. With one sweeping glance they could see the great room, dining
area and kitchen were empty. The casual, lived in look surprised
Brody as he remembered her small apartment as being meticulously
clean, not a thing out of place. Here, in these rooms, magazines
and books were strewn on the low round coffee table, brightly
colored pillows in a mishmash of patterns and sizes were tossed
haphazardly on the cream leather sofa and two matching recliners, a
pair of flip flops lay under the dining table that was covered with
sketches of women’s lingerie, a pair of gym shorts were draped on a
chair and dishes, both clean and dirty cluttered brick red stone
countertops as if she didn’t have time or simply didn’t care to put
them away or in the dishwasher.

Picking up a sketch, Ian let out a low
whistle. “I wouldn’t mind seeing this number in red satin on a
certain brunette. Wonder what she does with the drawings.”

“I wonder where the hell she is. Let’s check
down the hall before we go upstairs.” Brody led the way, both of
them still being cautious even though it didn’t look like there was
anyone there. The first door on the left was a bathroom, the second
door answered the question about the sketches. Grinning, Brody
fingered the white lace teddy displayed on one of three torsos.
“I’d rather see this on Piper,” he said before taking in the chaos
of the rest of the room. Material of every shade and texture lay
strewn or piled, two sewing machines sat in front of a wide window
overlooking a well-tended small lawn and the woods beyond and
shipping boxes, some packaged and sealed and others empty were
stacked along one wall. A desk and computer sat in the great room
and he wondered if she did a mail order business.

“No offense to you or the girl, but I don’t
remember her being the type to wear something like that.” Ian’s
memory was vague and his acquaintance with Piper after Sandoval’s
shooting had been brief and tense, but he did recall an attractive
face dominated by expressive, black lashed green eyes and a short,
decidedly round body.

To counter Ian’s remark, Brody would have to
reveal he had intimate knowledge of Piper’s lush body, and while he
was well aware some men wouldn’t find her sexy dressed in the
teddy, he sure as hell would. Of course the soft spot he had
developed for her might have something to do with his opinion.
“Let’s finish this and start looking for clues outside.”

The last room was a guest bedroom so they
returned to the great room and were headed to the stairs when a
soft, distressed moan carried down from the loft. Heart in his
throat, Brody raced up with Ian on his heels. The upper level was
an open loft and they spotted the bed against the far wall and the
body in it as soon as they reached the top.

“Piper?” Brody moved cautiously towards the
bed, his eyes on the small figure buried under a light blue sheet.
The only part of her visible was one slender, well-toned leg and
the back of her black, curly haired head. The closer he got, the
more he thought the woman in the bed couldn’t be Piper. Even though
most of her was covered, the light cotton sheet couldn’t disguise
the small, slender body under it, a body that couldn’t weigh more
than a hundred pounds. As another moan escaped the woman in the bed
and she restlessly turned over, the sheet slipped down to her waist
and both men gaped at the lush sight of full breasts that looked
sexy as hell encased in plain white cotton. Make that a hundred and
five, Brody thought as his gaze moved up to stare in surprise at
the face of the only woman he hadn’t been able to put out of his
mind after sex.