Cold in the Shadows 5 (35 page)

She didn’t blame Devon, but wasn’t going to get caught by trying to save his ass, no matter how much she loved him. He’d betrayed her, and it wasn’t something she forgave.

Seeing her picture on the news had been infuriating, but she’d prepared for this eventuality. She’d stashed her BMW away and was driving a non-descript silver sedan registered in a fake name. She’d changed her looks, had new ID, cash, credit cards. She also had access to that bank account in the Caymans that she and Devon had set up to make Audrey look guilty.

She could run.

But every time she started driving out of the city she found herself circling back around.

If Audrey had died the way she was supposed to, Devon would be the head of Brightman Industries and he and Tracey would be together. She needed to punish the bitch for ruining their plans. She also wanted to destroy Killion both personally and professionally. Blowing up his pet analyst had been a start, but killing Audrey Lockhart—who he’d made it his personal mission to keep safe—would devastate him.

She knew Lockhart would be guarded for now, but what about the sister? She smiled. Over the last six months she’d spent many hours tracking Sienna, figuring out her dealer, her routine, the time of the day when her craving overwhelmed her desire to stay clean. Instead of staking out Audrey, she staked out Sienna’s dealer. It was only a matter of time before the shallow flake turned up.

It wasn’t the best neighborhood, which was good for what she had in mind. People kept their mouths shut in places like this. No one would report her to the cops.

Killion had disappeared off the scene.

She got quite the thrill knowing she’d destroyed his chance of going back undercover in the field again. During their training at the Farm that had been his dream. She yawned widely and opened a bottle of soda, taking just a sip so she didn’t need to go pee. As the night grew quiet the players started coming out of the woodwork.

Finally a small Toyota
Prius
pulled in front of the dealer’s house. Sienna Lockhart got out and dashed up the front steps.

Tracey watched. She wasn’t in any hurry. The loser wasn’t going to go home to get high. Sienna came out of the house and trotted back to her car. Jumped in and drove quickly away. Tracey followed her out of town and down by the river to Cox’s Park. Sienna pulled up in a deserted parking lot and cut her headlights. Tracey waited at a distance for ten minutes, and then drove closer, stepped out of her car, pulling out her pistol and tapping a false badge on the glass so the girl would think she was a cop.

Slowly the window rolled down. Sienna’s eyes were huge and pupils dilated as Tracey ran a flashlight over her face. The girl swayed in her seat.

“Out of the car, Miss.”

Sienna muttered an obscenity and awkwardly pushed open the door. “You can’t charge me.” She sniffed. She and Audrey looked very alike, but Sienna was a few inches taller and rail thin. And she lacked Audrey’s smarts, probably because she’d fried her brain with chemicals.

Tracey patted her down and pocketed the rest of her stash and her cell phone. Then she snapped on handcuffs and helped the strung-out junkie into the passenger side of her sedan.

“I haven’t done anything.”

Tracey got in the driver’s seat and pulled her weapon. Pointed it at the girl who shrank into the farthest corner against the door. “Call your sister.”

Sienna’s blue eyes bulged. Sweat beaded her forehead. “Oh, God. You’re that woman. The security guard from Devon’s company.”

Tracey grabbed Sienna by the hair and slammed her head against the window. “I was the head of security, you stupid bitch! Devon was only fucking you because I told him to.”

Snot and tears smeared the woman’s cheeks. Her face was bright white. Eyes terrified.

Tracey dragged out Sienna’s cell phone. “Call your sister. Tell her you’ve done something stupid. Cry and blubber as much as you want. Tell her you need her to pick you up from here. Beg her not to tell your parents.” She dug her fingers harder into Sienna’s hair.

“You’ll kill her. Kill us both.”

“I just want to talk to her, but if you don’t do it? I’ll kill you right now. And later, when they think it’s safe, I’ll kill that little boy of yours. Shoot him in the head like a fucking rat.”

Sienna sobbed and dialed the number. Tracey held the gun beside the girl’s nose and never dropped her gaze. As soon as Sienna delivered the message she took the phone and hung up before the woman could betray her.

“Well done, Sienna. You finally did something right.” Then she slammed the butt of the weapon into her temple and looked for somewhere to hide the car.

*     *     *

A
UDREY WAS ESCAPING
the nightmare her life had become by putting her favorite nephew to bed. The fact he was so darn cute was probably a biological imperative—a reason women stuck around even though they knew boys grew into men, and men broke women’s hearts.

God, she missed Killion. Missed him and hated him in equal measure.

Redford’s warm body curled into hers as they sat in a rocking chair in his room. She’d just finished reading her favorite children’s book, “The Wide-Mouthed Frog” to him for the fourth time, and he’d finally fallen asleep in her arms. She carefully lowered the book onto a nearby table, picked him up, and slid him into his cot.

She mentally steeled herself and went to find her parents. “Anything left to clean up?” she asked as her mom wiped down the stove.

“I’ve got it, honey.”

She wanted to rip out her own hair. She’d become “honey.” That’s what happened when your mother mistakenly thought you’d killed two people in cold blood.

She tried not to grind her teeth. “Is Dad in the lounge?”

That she’d been reduced to a virtual prisoner in her parents’ home because her mother refused to let her out of her sight was wearing on her nerves. Noah and Logan were camped out at a neighbor’s house across the street with a great view of her parents’ home and a surveillance system set up to monitor the back yard. She had a walkie-talkie she carried around with her wherever she went.

Killion was gone. No phone calls—despite the sleek new cell phone Noah had handed her that first awful day when the press had refused to leave her alone. No emails. No messages. Just gone.
Poof
. Like she’d meant nothing to him at all, while her heart lay scattered in pieces between Colombia and Kentucky.

“He’s watching the football. Are you sure you’re okay? No bad dreams?”

“No, mom, I’m fine.” She went over and hugged the woman who’d given her life. She hadn’t realized a person could cry so many tears until she’d come home. Her poor mother had been through the wringer. Her dad, thankfully, was much more even-keeled. Audrey had shed her own tears—for Mario, for Gabriel and Rebecca. Most of all she’d cried because she knew Killion wouldn’t be coming back. She’d never see him again. Her heart would never race at the sight of his confident grin. She’d never groan at another stupid frog joke. Or lie in his arms and stretch out, trying to touch every inch of her body to every inch of his.

It had been galling to realize she’d been just another job. That when he’d warned her he’d ruin her for any other man he hadn’t been lying.

Time to snap out of her funk before her mom latched onto her sadness. She couldn’t take another round of over-anxious parenting. Audrey checked her watch. “Sienna not back yet?”

Her mother looked up at the kitchen clock, then straightened the tea towels that hung on the stove handle. “No, but the lines in the grocery store can be bad even at this time in the evening.”

Audrey smiled reassuringly but they avoided each other’s gaze. It was hard to have faith in someone who’d fallen off the wagon so many times, but they needed to try. “I’m going to go watch the game with Dad.” She headed down the corridor toward the den. The university had reinstated her—she’d actually been sacked, which she found kind of horrifying—but they’d insisted she take six-months paid leave to let this whole thing settle down.

She wouldn’t last six months doing nothing. She didn’t think she’d last another day—not with her heart breaking every time she thought about a certain CIA agent.

Maybe she’d fly to Buenos Aires and volunteer on a biodiversity project they were doing in Patagonia. Maybe find a good-looking Argentinian to take her mind off the American she couldn’t stop thinking about.

Her cell rang, and she pulled it from her pocket, barely saying “Hello” before Sienna’s voice came over the line.
Shit
. She was high and crying and begging for Audrey to come and get her. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. She and Sienna had been getting on better since Audrey got back, but she could see the strain beginning to tell on her baby sister. Hell, she was feeling it too. Sienna babbled out her location and hung up before Audrey could reply.

Dammit.

What should she do? Her mom would have a mental breakdown if there was any more drama around here.

She hadn’t left this house since she’d come home to a hero’s welcome, escorted by federal agents and her two buff bodyguards. Thankfully, the press had lost interest and gone home after she’d given them a sound bite. It had been patently obvious she wasn’t going to say anything more.

She checked her watch. It wasn’t late. She could be there and back in under forty minutes. God, Sienna’s addiction was frustrating and infuriating and yet Audrey felt the weight of responsibility lying heavily on her shoulders. Even though rationally she knew it wasn’t her fault, Devon had still targeted Sienna because of her. It hadn’t been easy for Sienna to know she’d been used that way. Audrey knew from personal experience just how much it sucked.

If she took her father’s car and left now she could get her sister back before anyone knew Sienna had screwed up. Tomorrow she’d call a rehab center and get Sienna booked in and clean. If it didn’t work, at least she’d tried.

She snagged her father’s keys and crept into the garage, quietly closing the door. She pulled on her dad’s white ball cap and sunglasses even though it was dark. Logan and Noah wouldn’t know she was gone.

She sped across town, down Zorn Avenue, taking River Road toward Cox’s Park. When she was in high school this was an area where teens had parked, but more recently it was where Sienna went to get high.

High school had seemed like such a zoo at the time. It had often felt like the world was going to end though it never had. Now getting dumped by Patrick Killion felt like the end of the world. It was going to be hard as hell to recover from. Sure, she had her work—to a point—but it hadn’t taken many seconds after he’d sent her away so callously to realize she’d never get over him. Bastard.

She swallowed down the sadness.

She didn’t really hate him. She just wished she did because the idea of going on without him made the rest of her life loom empty and lonely ahead of her. She loved him.

But she hadn’t told him how she felt. She’d been too scared of rejection. Crazy after all they’d been through together. Watching him work Devon with his lies and fabrication had been eye opening. He didn’t need to torture anyone to get what he wanted. He twisted words, made his target believe one thing, even though it was patently obvious to the observer that it was a lie…

Her hands tightened on the wheel and she gasped out loud. “That rat bastard.”

He’d conned her exactly the same way he’d conned Devon, and she’d been too insecure to realize it. Or he’d been telling the truth…

Her hands shook.

Could he have been acting when he’d rejected her so cruelly? She didn’t know. And she had no way of asking him. She could ask Logan or Noah, but that idea made her uncomfortable. If she were wrong about this she’d rather be wrong with a stranger.

She dialed the number Killion had given her in the cabin in Tennessee before he’d realized it had been the cavalry on the doorstep, not the cops.

“Frazer,” a deep voice answered.

“Uh, my name is Audrey Lockhart.”

“Dr. Lockhart. I trust you’re feeling better after your ordeal?”

Her throat felt like she swallowed a mouthful of broken glass. Sienna’s
Prius
was parked just up ahead. The wide expanse of the river glistened in the background as it snaked on by. She pulled over. “I was wondering if you could pass on a message to Patrick Killion for me.”

“Of course. What is it?”

She thought of all the stupid frog jokes she could send as a coded message, but the bottom line was, “I love him. I know he is way too busy doing important things that we average Americans can barely guess at,” her sarcasm came through, loud and clear, “but just tell him that I love him even though he gave me the world’s crappiest goodbye. I expected more of him.”

She heard the smile in the FBI agent’s voice. “I will pass that on. Where are you?”

Just from the way he said it she knew he was watching her phone signal. “You obviously already know. My sister got high. I’ve come to pick her up and take her home.” It was easier to talk to a stranger about this stuff than people she knew, she realized.

“Do you have your protection detail with you?”

“I’m heading right back home as soon as I get Sienna—”

“Turn around and pick up your protection detail.”

“I’m right here.” She frowned. “Well, that looks odd.”

“What?” he asked tersely.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone in the car.” She opened her door.

“Get back in the car and turn around. Masters and Zacharias are en route to your location.”

She fumbled the phone and jerked forward to catch it just as the windshield exploded.

*     *     *

“
S
O YOU’RE
REALLY
not planning to see her again? Ever?” Noah asked between bites of a burger Killion had picked up for him on the way over.

Killion had to restrain himself from putting his fist through Noah’s face. The Brit’s innocent expression failed to disguise his desire to go after Audrey for himself. Killion turned away from his friend. It was going to be up to Audrey whom she dated. His stomach twisted, and he felt sick at the thought of her in another man’s arms.