“Livvie’s pregnant,” Cal said. “She went to the doctor this morning and he confirmed it. Since it was just a couple hours drive she decided to come over and tell me in person.” He looked very uncomfortable. “Apparently she wanted to see my face when I heard the news.”

  Flynn’s heart skipped a beat, even though he had expected as much, thanks to Livvie’s smile and her unusual request for a glass of milk. She was usually a coffee drinker, even at night. “Congratulations.” First Sadie and now this. Just what he needed, to be surrounded on all sides by pregnant women. Even after all these years the very thought terrified him.

  “Thanks.” Cal actually squirmed in his seat. “I’m going to have to quit my job. Livvie didn’t ask me to,” he added quickly. “But I don’t want to leave her for weeks at a time anymore, and I don’t want to put my life on the line for someone else when I’ve got a family at home.”

  Quinn Calhoun, a family man. He never would’ve thought it possible. “Makes sense, I suppose, but we’ll miss you. When do you plan to leave?”

  “After this job. We’ve got some money saved, and I want to look for Kelly full-time for a few months.”

  “We’ll help with that,” Flynn said. “You still have the full resources of the Benning Agency at your disposal. Whatever you need, Cal, it’s yours.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “But if you ever get bored…”

  “I know who to call,” Cal finished.

  Livvie had gone into the kitchen searching for milk, but she and Tess had apparently found something in common quite quickly. Flynn heard light, feminine laughter drifting from the kitchen, as he and Cal headed in that direction.

  “Are you sure you’ll be all right tonight?” Cal asked in a lowered voice.

  No. “No problem.”

  “I hate to leave you hanging, but I’ve already told Livvie that she has to head home first thing in the morning. It’s great to have her here, but I don’t want her anywhere near this place until we catch Austin.”

  “I know what you mean,” Flynn grumbled, as they reached the kitchen and his eyes were drawn to Tess. Unfortunately, he understood Cal’s protective instincts far too well.

  “They’re sweet,” Tess said as she climbed the stairs toward her apartment.

  “I’m pretty sure no one’s ever called Quinn Calhoun sweet before.” Flynn was directly behind her, and his steps were heavy and reluctant. “Except maybe Livvie.”

  Would he remain in the hallway all night? Or come into her room and sleep on the couch? All she knew for certain was that he wouldn’t be spending the night in her bed again. Not tonight, not ever.

  Knowing that, she should be sorry that she’d made the first move last night, but she wasn’t. She was furious with Flynn for leaving in the night, for hiding from her all day, for not caring about her in the way she had come to care about him.

  But she wasn’t sorry.

  At her doorway Flynn faltered, staying in the hallway. Tess turned and faced him, leaning against the doorjamb and looking up into his hard face. If she slammed the door in that face, he would stay in the hallway all night without a word of protest or a single knock on her door. Maybe it was what he deserved. It was certainly what he expected.

  She stepped back and opened the door a few inches wider. “Come on in. I’ll make you some coffee.”

  Again, he hesitated.

  “I won’t bite, and I won’t make you talk, either.”

  He stepped inside, and she couldn’t tell if he was relieved or not.

  While she made coffee, she did talk. Just not about them. There wasn’t any them to talk about, unless she wanted to torture herself by rehashing everything she’d done wrong.

  “Livvie told me she and Cal are going to have a baby. She’s so excited. You should have seen her face when she told me the news. I‘m surprised she’s not already wearing maternity clothes, just so everyone will know.”

  “Give her a couple of weeks,” Flynn said. He sat on the couch, tired and obviously downhearted.

  Tess turned, leaning against the counter and watching Flynn while the coffeemaker sputtered. How could she stay mad with the man when he looked like someone had just pulled the rug out from under him? He hadn’t seduced her, he hadn’t lied about what he wanted from her, he hadn’t made promises he wasn’t prepared to keep. Should she hold it against him that he wasn’t everything she wanted him to be? Had any man she’d ever known lived up to her unrealistic expectations? No. She always expected the men in her life to be perfect. When was she going to learn that no one was perfect? Life was always less than perfection—but oh, she did sometimes long for those rare perfect moments that made such grand memories. Last night had been, in its own way, perfect.

  “Errol, huh?” she asked with a smile.

  Flynn’s head snapped around. “That’s not what you and Livvie were laughing about in the kitchen, is it?”

  “Of course not. You said that was your deepest secret. Do you think I’m the kind of person who betrays confidences on a whim?”

  “No.” He leaned back and relaxed, a little.

  “That’s kind of a silly secret.” And she had a feeling that while he didn’t want anyone to know his full name, it was far from being his darkest secret.

  “It’s embarrassing,” he said.

  “The world is full of John Williams, but there aren’t very many Errol Flynns. It’s unique, and the world needs variety.”

  “Yeah, but does the world have to get that variety from me?”

  She laughed. A few hours ago she would have thought it impossible to laugh at anything Flynn Benning or any other man said. She liked that—that he could make her laugh.

  “Just don’t make a big deal out of it,” he said. “I don’t even know why I told you.”

  She knew why. Flynn Benning didn’t know many ways to give of himself. Sharing a secret was one of them, she imagined. Even something so silly and unimportant as a name. If sharing a secret was his idea of bonding, what would he think if he knew she was keeping a big secret of her own? Not much, she imagined. Good thing they didn’t have a relationship to ruin.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” she said, pushing herself away from the counter. “Coffee will be ready in a couple of minutes, and you know where everything is.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.” Flynn turned on the television and flipped through the three channels she could pick up.

  Just before Tess closed the door to her bedroom, she said, “No swashbuckling while I’m gone.”

  Flynn Benning had to be out of the main building, at least for a few minutes. Just a few minutes.

  Tonight the sky was clear and the air was not so cold. Saturday would be a nice day, according to the forecast. All the parents’ day outdoor activities would proceed as planned, which would make the job much easier. Rain would drive everyone indoors, and that would make accomplishing the hit more difficult. Not impossible, but still…a nice, clear day that held a touch of spring would be best.

  But for tonight, the problem was getting into the main building without running into Benning or any of his men. When it had just been the two women living there, slipping in and out hadn’t been much of a problem. Those two kept to their rooms, and there was usually a radio or television playing in the evenings. And if they heard a noise in the night, what were they going to do? Dismiss it as the creaking of an old building, that’s what.

  But Benning paid more attention than the lunchroom ladies, to those noises that did not belong. Getting caught now, so close to completion, was not an option.

  The primary buildings would not do for this particular part of the job. Dr. Barber wouldn’t cancel the events planned for Saturday unless she had no other choice; she was much too anal to even consider changing what had become a tradition, and she would do anything, anything, to keep from alarming the parents of her precious students.

  If one of the buildings that was in use was cordoned off with crime scene tape and detectives were swarming the place, Dr. Barber might not have a choice but to cancel, and the entire plan would have to be reformulated.

  This quiet gardener’s shed was another matter, however. It could easily be isolated without involving the main area of the campus, and that’s what Dr. Barber would do. The nasty business would be handled in a quiet and discreet manner, so as not to disturb the students or the parents.

  Worst case, parents’ day would be canceled, and the plans would need an adjustment. A tweaking. The job would get done, one way or another. It would be worth all the trouble in the world to see Flynn Benning sweat big time.

  Serena Loomis and Dante Mangino met here every night. Not very smart on their part. Routine was dangerous, in this profession. One of them would be along shortly, and the other would follow a few minutes later. In the beginning days they had met on the grounds and walked out here together, but apparently they were being more cautious these days. As if their ploy of leaving their living quarters separately would fool anyone at this point.

  It didn’t matter which one arrived first; either would do. The math teacher would be easier. She was small and untrained, and the task would be over in a matter of moments. Mangino would be more difficult, but since he’d be taken by surprise the odds would work against him.

  Either way, one would be dead, and the other would find the body. Benning would be called, and there would be a window of opportunity in which to slip into the main building.

  The door opened, and the beam of a flashlight cut across the darkened shed. A surprised voice asked, “What are you doing here?”

  Chapter 10

  Flynn listened to the shower run. Tess was in there. Naked. Naked and wet. And she didn’t hate him. At least, not entirely. Not yet.

  Following her up the stairs tonight, he’d stared at her ass like a kid who’d never seen one up close and personal before. Even that white uniform couldn’t take away from the shape and the sway and the curve…. She was one of those rare women who’d look sexy in a gunny sack, and she didn’t even know it. He wanted to see her naked one more time, and it just wasn’t going to happen.

  And she was in there right now, maybe washing her hair….

  Flynn was so deeply lost in thought, he almost jumped when his cell phone rang. Dante’s cell number came up on caller ID. Great. Now what?

  He answered with a crisp, “Benning.”

  No response. All was silent. No, not entirely silent. There was breathing on the other end, raspy and uneven.

  “Dante?” Flynn leaned forward on the coach, suddenly on alert.

  “She’s dead.” The news was delivered in a voice he hardly recognized as Dante’s.

  “Who’s dead?” Flynn asked as he stood. In the bathroom, the water stopped running.

  “Loomis. Serena. He cut her, Major, and she’s dead, and I’m going to kill him.” The voice was still too soft, but there was a deadly edge to the words Dante spoke.

  “Where are you?”

  “I walked in, and she was just lying there, and for a minute I didn’t know she was dead. It’s dark in here.”

  “Where are you?” Flynn asked again. Loomis’s room, Dante’s room, the gardener’s shed, a storeroom, a deserted teachers’ lounge…could be anywhere.

  “If I’d left her alone, this never would’ve happened. If I’d kept my distance there wouldn’t have been any reason for him to kill her. He knows, Major. Austin knows we’re here, and this is his way of saying hello.”

  Mangino was very close to snapping, and that couldn’t happen. Not tonight.

  “Where are you?” Flynn asked one more time, as he headed for Tess’s bedroom door.

  “Gardener’s shed,” Dante answered, and then he ended the call.

  Flynn knocked loudly on the closed bathroom door. “Tess, I have to leave. I’m going to lock the door behind me. Stay put,” he ordered in a voice that left no room for argument. “Don’t let anyone into this apartment but me or one of my team, got it?”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked through the closed door.

  “Just promise me you won’t let anyone in.”

  She opened the door. Wrapped in a big white towel, her long red hair wet and curling and her legs peeking out from beneath the towel, she stared up at him. “What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you later.” Right now there was no time, and besides…he didn’t know how to break the news. He had never been good at telling people that someone they knew and liked was dead.

  But he leaned down and kissed her, quickly but too deep for a woman he had tried all day to put out of his mind. The kiss surprised them both. The fact that he needed the kiss shocked the hell out of Flynn. It was everything he had been trying to avoid.

  He locked the door to Tess’s apartment, and also relocked the entrance to the main building as he left. As he did these things he called Cal and Murphy, in case Dante had not already done so. Neither of them had been notified; his conversations with them were brief, and before he disconnected he ordered Cal to lock his wife in his room with orders not to leave until he got back.

  Flynn found Dante in the gardener’s shed, sitting on the floor by Serena Loomis’s body. Her head was in his lap, and her blood was on the floor, and on the man who held her.

  “You shouldn’t have moved her,” Flynn said in a gentle voice. They weren’t detectives, but still…Dante knew better. They all knew better.

  “She shouldn’t be dead.”

  “Did you call the locals?”

  Dante snorted. “They can’t save her, and I’m going to kill Austin myself, so why bother to call the locals?”

  Flynn didn’t want to know what would happen when a man like Dante Mangino went on a rampage. He had seen a few men snap in his lifetime, and it was never pretty. Someone always got hurt, and it wasn’t always the right someone. In a cloud of anger, right and wrong sometimes got hazy.

  He knew when Cal and Murphy were standing behind him, even though they hadn’t made a sound as they approached. “We have to call someone to take care of her.”

  “No, that was my job, and I blew it. I blew it big time, Major,” Dante said, that scary haze still in his voice. He smoothed her hair way from her face. There was a lot of blood—on the floor, on the dead woman and on Dante.

  The local cops were going to immediately home in on Dante as a suspect. He and the victim had been sleeping together; he was a stranger to the area; he had found the body and was covered in her blood—even though he knew better. Eventually they’d be able to explain all that away, but likely not tonight. Not before Saturday, even. Was that the reason for this? Had killing Loomis been a way to distract them from the purpose of this assignment? Or had she seen something she shouldn’t have?

  “We’re not calling the locals,” Flynn said as he made his decision, grabbing his cell phone and dialing from memory. “Max can get people in here to take care of the situation.”

  “Somebody needs to call her father,” Dante said, his voice almost calm.

  “Not tonight,” Flynn said, just before Max Larkin answered the call.

  When the phone call was over, Dante lifted his head. “So, we’re going to sweep this under the rug? We’re going to pretend Serena isn’t dead? How the hell can you expect me to do that?”

  “I expect you to do whatever has to be done in order to catch the man we came here to catch.”

  “Catch him, hell,” Dante said. “I want him dead.”

  “Max wants him alive, if possible.”

  “Max Larkin can kiss my ass. He cut her throat, Major. She didn’t fight, she didn’t know what was coming, she didn’t have a chance to survive. Why should I give Austin a chance?”

  “Because it’s your job,” Flynn said in an insanely calm voice.

  What had been a nice late-winter night had turned into a grisly nightmare. Serena Loomis was dead, and the moonlight shining through the open door showed that fact too clearly. Dante was losing it—and Flynn knew too well how he felt. This was their worst nightmare. Innocents weren’t supposed to be hurt. The people they loved weren’t supposed to be used as diversions or leverage or just for some sick freak’s idea of fun.

  Cal stepped into the gardener’s shed. “Hey, you can do me a favor,” he said to Dante. “After this, I don’t want Livvie going home alone. You need to get away from here, so why don’t you drive her….”

  “No,” Dante answered in a soft voice. “You drive your wife home, if you think she needs an escort. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You really shouldn’t—” Cal began.

  “Don’t push me, Cal. I’m in no mood.”

  So Cal quit pushing, and the three of them gathered around Serena Loomis’s body and the grieving man who held her head on his lap, guarding the woman even though it was too late, protecting Dante as much as they could just by being there.

  Flynn had fought so hard and long not to be beholden to anyone or anything. He didn’t want a family, he didn’t want to care about the people who surrounded him. And crap, here he was with these men he considered family, like it or not. He wanted Cal and Livvie to have a boatload of babies. They could make their own soccer team, if that’s what they wanted. He wanted Murphy to start his own computer company and make a billion bucks. God knows he wasn’t cut out for field work. He wanted Dante to forget what had happened here tonight. He wanted the kid’s dreams not to be about blood and funerals and empty houses.

  He wanted the best for Sadie, too, and for Lucky Santana, who’d likely never had anyone but his women worry about him. Even though all his colleagues were somewhere between five and twelve years younger than he was, in a soul-deep way they felt like his children. The children he had refused to have, after burying Elizabeth and Denise. What a kick in the pants, to realize that he wasn’t as free and easy as he’d thought.

  It was forty-five minutes before Max’s team arrived from Atlanta. Five men arrived on campus without causing a stir and entered the shed quietly. They took Serena Loomis’s body away and collected the evidence. And then they cleaned. Not much more than an hour after they’d arrived it was done, and to the casual observer nothing was amiss in the gardener’s shed.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19