Breath of Malice (17 page)

“Paige.”

Sam said her name in a guttural voice, then drove into her. Paige dug her nails into his shoulders. He drove into her again, sending her over the edge. Her mind finally turned off. Her body took over as her orgasm slammed through her like a force of nature. Sam’s body tensed, then shuddered with his own release.

Sam’s body covered her own, and she could feel his heart pounding. Her heart was drumming just as hard. He levered himself up, taking his weight from her. He turned his head, found her mouth, and kissed her, brushing his lips against hers. He was hot and damp from perspiration. Paige wrapped her arms around him, holding him to her.

When Sam would have withdrawn from her, she clung to him harder.

He brushed her hair off her brow. “It’s okay. I’m right here, sweetheart.”

Exhaustion was overtaking her. She closed her eyes, then opened them on Sam’s. She closed them again, opened them. He kissed her eyelids and kept his lips pressed to her brow. She didn’t open her eyes again.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Paige could hear low voices coming from the television mounted on the wall opposite Sam’s bed. She opened her eyes. It hadn’t been on when they made love. He must have turned on the TV at some point during the night because he knew it helped her sleep. Sam was on his side beside her with one heavy arm draped across her. She was tucked against Sam’s chest, her face near his heart, but still, she pressed tighter to him.

Sunlight filtered in through the slats of the blinds on Sam’s bedroom windows. It was a new day, and Thames was still out there. Their case against Thames in the murder of Janet Lambert was still nonexistent. They had nothing to tie him to the senator’s sister, nothing except Paige herself. It was because of her that an innocent woman had been killed.

And this was her life. On the run. Living in limbo. Existing but not living. She’d allowed herself to hope that she could have a life with Sam.

But she would never be free, and as long as she remained in Sam’s life, Sam would be forever in this nightmare with her. She loved him. God, she loved him, and she wouldn’t let this be his life, too.

Sam raised his head and peered down at her. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

Was she that transparent to him? Did love make her that way? “I’m just tired,” she lied.

“Why don’t you catch some more sleep? There’s time yet before we need to be in the office. I’ll hit the shower, then make breakfast. I’ll wake you when it’s ready.”

“Okay.”

Sam kissed her and got up. A moment later, Paige heard the shower start. She dressed quickly, then left Sam’s house.

Sam came out of the shower. He expected to find Paige as he’d left her when he returned to the bedroom, with the TV on low. Sam liked full darkness and quiet when he slept. Having the TV on would take some getting used to. His heart did a slow roll. An adjustment he would happily make to help her sleep. He was seeing firsthand how little rest she got each night, and it struck Sam to his core. He hoped she had gone back to sleep.

She’d fallen asleep right after they made love. He hadn’t been able to get enough of her. Each time he touched her, he burned hotter than the time before. He’d wanted to slow things down last night, but his need for her had overcome all else.

She’d been just as eager for him. But there’d been a desperation to Paige’s lovemaking, a finality.

The thought shook him. She was being ridden hard. He knew what was riding her. Thames. She blamed herself for Thames. She blamed herself for bringing Thames into her life. Sam’s words to the contrary had made no impact. She was carrying a load of guilt so heavy she was bowing under the weight of it. She was determined to punish herself. He didn’t know what he was going to do about that, for either of them.

He finished shaving and went back to his room. But she wasn’t in the bed. Had she gone downstairs to shower? He didn’t bother dressing. It was just the two of them in the house now, and naked, he went in search of her.

She wasn’t downstairs. Her van was no longer parked in his driveway. Where had she gone? Why had she left the house without him?

Sam went back to his room. As he hastily donned jeans and snagged a white shirt, he heard Paige’s voice. It was coming from the television. Sam wheeled toward it, and there she was, standing across from the Bureau office, speaking before a crowd . . .

It was a little after eight in the morning. Many businesses hadn’t yet opened for the day, but the activists were camped out across the street from the Bureau office, as they had been every morning for two weeks. Paige had called the local media and the press had gathered.

She needed to end this with Thames. It had all come down to this moment. A showdown between him and her.

She closed her eyes, battling back her fear, then looked out at the crowd of reporters and TV crews assembled across the street from the Bureau office. She’d called them here with the pretext that there was an update in the Janet Glaxton Lambert case, but what she really wanted was to send a message to Thames. If he was watching her, and Paige believed he was, then her message would reach him.

Paige looked out at the group. “I’m Special Agent Paige Carson.” She paused, giving those around her a moment to recall her name. “I’m going to keep this brief. As you know, this office is investigating the homicide of Janet Glaxton Lambert. Effective immediately, I will no longer be part of the investigation.” Paige repeated. “Though this office will still be active in the investigation, I personally will not be.”

Paige’s testimony at Thames’s murder trial and at his hearing to have his conviction overturned were a matter of public record. For once, Paige wasn’t trying to hide her identity. She hoped her notoriety from the Thames case would be enough for the media to consider it newsworthy and report her announcement. An instant later, she knew she wasn’t going to be disappointed.

“Agent Carson.” A female reporter brandishing a microphone like a sword stuck the device in Paige’s face. “Why will you no longer be working the Lambert murder? Does this mean you’re resigning from the Bureau, or have you been removed from the case? The FBI has issued a statement that they’re launching an investigation into evidence tampering in the Thames case. You were one of the agents involved in apprehending Mr. Thames. Are you under investigation? Are you resigning from this case because of that investigation?”

Paige had no need to further engage the media. She ignored the questions and pushed the microphone away from her face.

An activist bearing a huge orange placard shouted out, “No more innocent men you want to go after?”

Paige ignored his taunt, turned, and walked away. Her stomach was clenched tight. She hoped her message would reach Thames.

“Agent Carson!”

Paige ignored another reporter. A screech of tires made her whirl around. Sam’s truck rocked to a stop on the periphery of the crowd. He got out.

He was dressed in jeans and a partially buttoned shirt. His hair was still damp from his shower. Paige didn’t need to ask what had brought him here in such a hurry.

He stopped in front of her and said quietly, “In my office. Now.”

Inside the office, Sam turned on her. His face and shoulders were tense. “What the hell was that?”

Paige held her ground. “It was necessary.”

Sam gave her a hard look. “Necessary for whom? Why was it necessary for you to tell the world the lie that you’re no longer working the Lambert murder?” Sam went still. “Not the world. Thames. You wanted to tell Thames.”

Paige held Sam’s gaze.

Anger flared in Sam’s eyes. “So that’s your plan. Rile him so he doesn’t go after anyone else and comes after you. You set yourself up as bait.”

Paige swept an arm across the room. “Thames doesn’t need to hide from us. If he walked into our office now, there isn’t a damn thing we could do to hold him. Not one thing. I can’t let him get Ivy. I can’t let him hurt anyone else. We suspect he made Mary Emerson disappear. We know he killed Janet Lambert. But we have nothing to back any of that up. There wasn’t any evidence in the Lambert murder, Sam. He is very good at killing, so good we couldn’t convict him legally for the murders in New York.”

Sam set his teeth. “I’m not going to let you set yourself up.”

She fought back another wave of fear. “It’s done. At least like this I can set up the way this goes down.”

Sam’s voice was harsh with fury. “You haven’t set this up. You’ve done this Thames’s way all along.”

Paige’s face heated. “With Thames focused on me, we have a chance to stop him before he goes on another killing spree. Sam, you know I’m right.”

Sam’s eyes went so dark she could see herself reflected in them. “This is not the way to do this. You can’t expect me to condone one of my agents setting herself up.”

Paige’s voice vibrated with emotion. “Sooner or later, it’s going to come down to Thames and me. I think it’s what he’s been planning all along.”

Sam’s tone was as hard as his expression. “I don’t give a damn what he plans. He’s not calling the shots unless you let him.”

“Janet Lambert is dead because of me.”

“You’re not responsible for her death. Thames is.”

Paige lowered her head. “I won’t be responsible for the deaths of any more women.”

“So you’re going to sacrifice yourself? Tell him to come get you?”

Paige raised her chin, though it shook. “I have to end this.”

Sam’s mouth went flat. “Yeah, you do. But you don’t have to do it alone. And I won’t let you. Not only as your boss, but as the man who loves you.” Sam’s eyes ignited.

Paige took a step forward, closing the distance between them. “No, I’m not going to sacrifice myself. I don’t want to sacrifice myself. I need help. One year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to admit that. To ask for help, not from anyone. Not even from you.” She looked up into his eyes. “The man I love.” She clasped his hand and placed it over her heart. “If you think I haven’t changed, that’s proof right there that I have. I would have gone it alone.” She swallowed. “I did go it alone with Thames, thinking no one could do what needed to be done the way that I could, that my way was the only way. I don’t think that anymore. I need your help, Sam. I want your help.”

Sam brought their joined hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her palm. “You have my help. Anything you need. We will stop him, Paige. It’s going to end here.”

He wound his arms around her. Paige closed her eyes and ground her face against his chest, taking strength from his words, from his love, from the solid feel of his arms around her.

Yes, it was going to end here with Thames. Paige was going to make sure of it. She wasn’t brave and she didn’t want to die, especially now that she was finding her way back to Ivy, now that she had found Sam. Her heart squeezed. But she could not stand by and let Thames hurt more innocent people because of her. Somehow, for some reason Paige had not yet determined, Thames had made Lambert’s murder about Paige.

Sam loved her. He wanted to protect her. He didn’t understand that this was a battle he could not fight for her. Yes, she would take Sam’s help, but ultimately, she was going to have to be the one to end this with Thames.

She had no illusions about her own capability. She was skilled, but she was not an experienced agent like Sam. It was a very real possibility that she would not walk away from Thames. She closed her eyes shut, fighting back that fear. No, she was not going to sacrifice herself to Thames. She would not make it easy for him to kill her. She would not go out without a fight, and at the end of it, if she couldn’t walk away, she was going to make sure that Thames wouldn’t, either.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Several hours had gone by since Paige’s press conference. It was now afternoon. The passage of time had done nothing to relieve the fire burning in Sam’s gut. He didn’t need to close his eyes to see Paige as she had been, calmly addressing the members of the media. That image was front and center in his mind and made his stomach burn hotter.

Sam had called a squad meeting and all the agents except for Dom, who was with Ivy at the safe house, were present in the Bureau office’s conference room, seated at the long table. Paige had called Thames out. As much as Sam wanted to, he couldn’t unring that bell. He needed to work with what was.

Sam had no doubt that Thames would rise to Paige’s challenge. But Sam did not intend to wait for Thames to strike. He intended to take the man out before he could.

With Paige, Harry, Mike, and Riley, Sam had been going over ways to trap Thames. So far, Sam had refused every one.

From her seat beside him, Paige leaned across the table, putting herself directly in Sam’s line of sight.

“There is no way Thames is going to come after me if I’m surrounded by Harry, Mike, Riley, and you, Sam,” Paige said. “I might as well be in a safe house. You have to use me. We have to draw him out.”

A safe house was exactly where Sam wanted her. He wanted to set a trap without Paige getting anywhere near Thames. Sam gave her the full force of his stare. “We won’t be doing anything until we can guarantee your safety one hundred percent. Next idea.”

Paige touched his arm. “I know you want to protect me, Sam, but I am a trained agent.”

Sam continued to regard her. He wanted her to see there was no give in him on this. “I know that you’re capable. This isn’t about that. This is about finding the best way to get this done.”

“We’re running out of time. Thames isn’t going to wait around for us. We need to make this happen.”

Sam’s face tightened with the rage he was feeling for Thames. Sam understood Paige’s desperation to be rid of Thames, but they would get this done without risking her safety. Even as he thought that, he heard the impossibility of the statement. What operation had zero risk? No matter how well planned, there would be risk. Cold sweat broke over Sam’s body, and he couldn’t breathe, thinking of something going wrong and Paige ending up in the hands of that sadistic bastard.

Mouth tight, Sam said, “Then come up with something viable.”

He got up from the chair in the conference room so fast, the chair toppled to the floor. He flung open the door. It struck the wall as he strode back to his office.

He couldn’t be objective, couldn’t distance himself, not when it came to Paige. Right now, he was a liability in the operation. He recognized it, but recognizing it changed nothing. He would not alter his course. There was a way to get Thames and to ensure that Paige was safe, and they would find that way.

Paige joined him in his office. He turned on her, ready to repeat what he’d said in the conference room, but she closed the door behind her and went into his arms. Sam put his arms around her, palming the back of her head and holding her beneath his jaw. He held her against him, his grip as fierce as he dared without hurting her, afraid that if he loosened his hold, she would slip away from him.

“We have to set a trap for Thames, Sam,” Paige said softly. “It’s the only way.” She looked up at him. “I can’t go on this way. Please. I need you with me on this.”

He held her to his chest as if he could shield her from the world. But she was right, he couldn’t do this for her.

He closed his eyes, then kissed her, pressing his mouth hard to hers. He drew back, then nodded. “Let’s go back to the squad.”

Paige turned in Sam’s arms, set to lead him back to the conference room. His cell phone rang. Sam glanced at the screen, then to Paige.

“Ginny,” he said.

Sam didn’t release Paige, but she stepped out of his arms to give him privacy. “I need some water.”

He took the call, and she left him to his conversation. At the water cooler, Paige filled a paper cup from the dispenser and drank. Her cell phone rang. She glanced at the screen. Unknown caller. Ivy? Could be, since Ivy was calling from a secure location. Paige took the call.

“Hello, Agent Carson.”

Thames.
Paige shivered.

Thames laughed. “I know you’re there, Agent Carson. You should have learned by now you cannot hide from me.”

Paige closed her eyes, cold to the bone. “I’m here.”

“Of course you are. Hear me well. At any moment now, Agent McKade is going to receive a frantic phone call from the former Mrs. McKade. She is going to tell him that she went to pick up their son from the neighbor who watches the boy after school once a week while the former Mrs. McKade has her hair styled at a salon. You know the street where the former Mrs. McKade and young Jonah still reside. On Harper Avenue. And the neighbor, Mrs. Cafferty, is going to go to her yard to get Jonah, only she’s not going to find him.”

Paige sucked in a breath.

“At first, Mrs. Cafferty is going to consider that possibly young Jonah wandered off. Seven-year-old boys do that, you know. I used to. Or maybe you don’t know, being a female yourself. At that age, young boys are easily distracted. But, I digress.

“Jonah loves nature and chasing after frogs and other creatures. So they’re going to search for him, and when they don’t find him, Mrs. Cafferty is going to call the local police, but undoubtedly the former Mrs. McKade will alert the FBI, seeing as the boy’s father is a federal agent.”

Thames sounded so smug. Paige scrambled for something to alter his course. “Jonah isn’t my child. Why call me?”

“Hmm. So the life of your lover’s child means nothing to you?”

Thames must have been watching her and knew about Sam.

“My mistake,” Thames went on. “I’ll kill the boy now.”

“Please don’t do this.” Paige’s voice cracked.

“Do this?
I
didn’t do anything.”

Thames’s tone changed, grew low and hard. She could feel his anger as if it were a live thing.

“You did this, Paige,” Thames said. “You never should have resigned from the Lambert investigation. You never should have attempted to stop playing our game.”

Game?
Paige wanted to ask what Thames meant about a game, but her first priority now wasn’t extracting information from him. Her first priority was Jonah. “Don’t hurt Jonah. Please. I’ll do whatever you want, only don’t hurt him.”

Thames’s voice lowered to a harsh whisper. “There’s no sport for me in little boys, you know that. I have no interest in Jonah.”

“What do you want?”

“You know the answer to that, too.”

The hair on the back of Paige’s neck rose. “Me.”

“It’s always been you.”

“A trade. Me for Jonah.”

“Yes.”

Her voice came out thin with remorse and fear. “When and where?”

“Mountain Road. There is a cemetery on that road. Across from the cemetery is a path that will lead into the mountains. Take that path and keep walking. You will know when to stop.”

Paige went cold at the cryptic statement. “How will I know?”

“I imagine Agent McKade is frantically arranging a search for his son. Dispatching agents to his previous home to set up surveillance and monitor telephone calls for a possible ransom demand.”

Paige knew Sam would be doing all that and more. The excitement—the glee—in Thames’s voice made her skin prickle. Again she asked, “How will I know when to stop walking?”

Again, Thames did not respond but said instead, “Do not keep me waiting, Paige. The clock on Jonah’s life is ticking.”

Thames ended the call. Paige heard Sam shouting for her, Harry, and the others. Paige’s blood ran cold thinking of Jonah in Thames’s hands. Once Thames had her, he would have no further interest in Jonah and would release him. But what if she was wrong?

She couldn’t take the chance. Couldn’t make a mistake that would cost that sweet little boy his life. And Sam . . . Sam would never recover from the loss of his child.

Thames had said he was playing a game. Taking Jonah was nothing more than amusement for Thames. Killing Jonah . . . Paige shut her eyes against that horror.

In the past, Paige would have gone off on her own, met Thames without backup. But she’d learned better, and this time it wasn’t just her life on the line but Jonah’s.

Paige could hear Sam issuing orders. He had their squad and Mrs. Hendershot gathered around him. Every second might count for Jonah, and she couldn’t take the time to explain to Sam in person when she had to get moving.

She would not put Sam in the position of sending her to Thames himself. Sam would have no choice—she had to meet Thames—but she would not put that on him.

Paige made a quick stop to the room where the squad’s tactical gear was kept, gathered items, then left the building. As she ran out to the parking lot, she called Sam’s cell phone. As she expected, with his child missing, Sam answered before the first ring was completed.

Her heart breaking for him, for Jonah, she blurted, “Thames called me. He has Jonah. Sam, Thames has Jonah.”

“What? Paige, where are you?”

Paige ignored the second question for the moment. “Thames said Ginny would be calling you to tell you Jonah went missing from the Caffertys’. That’s the call you got when I was in your office, wasn’t it?” Paige knew it was and didn’t wait for his response. “Thames wants me to meet him. Mountain Road. Across from the cemetery. I’m to take the path there that leads into the mountains and to keep walking until I come to an obvious stopping point. Put a loose tail on me. I’m wearing a tracker. Track me.” Her breath caught. “Sam, we have to hurry. Thames said the clock is ticking on Jonah’s life.”

Sam was silent for an instant, taking in the threat to his child, no doubt. Paige’s heart lurched.

“Where are you?” Sam said. “I’m coming with you. I’ll keep out of sight in the back of the van.”

“We can’t take the chance that Thames is watching me, that he’ll see you get in with me and hurt Jonah. We don’t have time to discuss how to do this. I’m not going off on my own. I’m telling you everything I know. I’m pulling out of the parking lot now. Track me, Sam.”

“Paige, listen to me. Once Thames has you, he has no reason to let Jonah go.”

Sam sounded as if the words were being wrenched from him.

Paige inhaled a breath to steady herself and to keep herself from breaking down at the pain and fear she heard in Sam’s voice. “You’ll be right behind me. He won’t be able to take me anywhere else—not me or Jonah. You’ll have agents everywhere. I’m putting on an earpiece. You’ll hear everything that goes on when I’m with him. He said something about a game—something about how I shouldn’t have resigned from the Lambert investigation and taken myself out of the game. That’s why he took Jonah. I’m sorry.” Her heart felt as if it splintered in two. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke.

Her apology meant nothing. Sam had been right that she shouldn’t have baited Thames, not in the way she had. Sam had every right to condemn her, to revile her, but she couldn’t bear that from him and ended the call before he could reply.

His revulsion would break her now as nothing ever had. She never should have allowed herself to become involved with Sam. She’d wanted him and whatever moments of happiness she could steal with him. That she’d brought this to him felt like a dagger piercing her heart. She closed her eyes so hard they hurt and prayed that her actions wouldn’t cost Jonah his life.