InTooDeep (5 page)

Chapter Five

Hunt took hold of her arms and guided her
to the couch, afraid her legs would give out any moment. He’d never seen a
woman lose so much blood in her face so fast. Once he had her down on the edge
of the cushion he knelt, taking her hands in his. They felt like blocks of ice
and he chafed them for warmth. “I know they were neighbors but what does Mrs.
Buttle’s death have to do with your sister?”

Carley swallowed hard, her eyes filling
with tears. But only briefly. Then she shuttered her gaze and lowered her head.
“I went to see Mrs. Buttle last night to find out the last time she’d seen
Dani.”

Shit. Could things get any more complicated?
With the old woman dead there was every reason to believe Carley’s sister was
in serious trouble. And he didn’t have a choice but to involve his department.

“Carley.” He placed his hands on her knees.
“I think you know what I’m going to say next, but I have to let my partner in
on this. Your fingerprints were found at the scene of a homicide and he knows I
came looking for you.”

She pushed him back and stood. “I’m not
going to the station with you, if that’s what you’re thinking. Now that I know Dani
is in real trouble I have to work fast.”

Hunt glared at her. “You’re not getting
this. My partner knows who you are. I can’t just sweep this under the rug.”

Fiery red curls dropping across her
shoulders, Carley whirled around to face him. “Did he tell you where I was?”

“No. I told him I could get in touch with
you.” With a heavy sigh, he shifted positions to sit on the sofa. “This isn’t a
game. There will be serious consequences if I don’t report this.”

“They have no proof you found me.”

His eyes narrowing, Hunt straightened, took
a moment to collect himself before he seared her. “Are you kidding me? Now you
want me to lie to my partner, my lieutenant, just to keep you out of jail?”

“No. I want you to lie to help me save my
sister. You know as well as I do that she’s in trouble. Whoever killed Mrs.
Buttle probably knows where Dani is, and if you take me in I’ll spend time in a
cell while you’re being grilled by your superiors. We’ll both be wasting
precious time Dani might not have.”

Carley crossed the carpet to stand in front
of him, sparks practically shooting from her eyes. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

He wished he could. It changed nothing.
“It’s my job, Carley.”

“And it’s my sister’s life.”

“Now that we know she’s officially missing,
we can put a team on it.”

She held up one hand. “Don’t give me the
department bullshit line, Hunt. Dani will be just another missing person in a
long line of missing persons. She won’t be any more important to the Charleston
Police Department than the last woman who went missing. But she’s important to
me. She’s all I have left.”

Damn. She was going to make him do it.
Force his hand. He didn’t want to arrest her but the set of her shoulders and
the tone of her voice told him she wasn’t going without a fight.

And because of his badge, he’d have to give
it to her.

Carley’s mind raced with possibilities.
She’d taken Hunt down once but she’d caught him off-guard. Now she wasn’t so
sure she could, but there had to be another way out of this.

The loud shrill of her cell phone startled
her. She whipped around and stormed across the room, ignoring Hunt’s command to
let it go to voice mail. She retrieved the phone from her purse and answered
tersely. “Carley Morgan.”

“Ah, Ms. Morgan, so good of you to answer
your phone. I thought you might be too busy stealing another precious jewel.” A
synthesized voice, gender indistinguishable, greeted her.

Though her heart stopped for a brief
moment, Carley didn’t acknowledge the barb. “Where is my sister?”

Hunt crossed the room to her side. His ear
pressed close to hers as the kidnapper continued.

“Danielle is quite safe and comfortable…for
now.”

“I want to talk to her.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

“I need to know my sister is alive, or you
won’t see one dime of money.”

A chuckle that held no humor scraped the
nerves up the back of her neck. “Ms. Morgan, you underestimate us. What makes
you think it’s your money we want?”

Her hand went cold around the cell, and
even the warmth emanating from Hunt’s body so close to hers didn’t help. “Don’t
try to play me. You took Dani because of me.”

“On the contrary. We didn’t even know you
existed…until yesterday. So actually, this was quite a fortunate turn of events
for us. You see, we did know who Dani’s father was.”

Carley’s breath caught, stalled. Her
father? He’d been dead for two years. What could he have to do with this? Maybe
someone he’d pissed off in his infamous career.

“My father can’t give you anything, he’s
dead.” She said the words briskly, biting off each one. Her mind vaguely
registered the low rumble of Hunt’s voice on his own cell phone.

“That we know.” A cough sounded in the
background but she couldn’t tell if it belonged to a man or woman. “But he left
a few things behind you have access to.”

“Such as?”

“His safety deposit box at a local bank in
Houston, Texas.”

Her head started to throb. That’s what this
was about? The money her father had amassed? Money she and Dani had since
absorbed, but what difference would it make to these guys where the money came
from?”

“My father left his money to me and Dani.
So I guess you’ll have to get it from me after all.”

“It’s not about the money, Carley.” All
pretense of cordiality dropped from the synthetic voice. “We want access to the
safety deposit box. We need the key.”

“My father never told me anything about a
key, and the last time I looked there wasn’t one in the safety deposit box.”
Why in the hell hadn’t her father ever told her about a key that might be
important enough to be dangerous?

“You’re a poor liar, and those lies are
going to get your sister killed.”

Carley’s blood chilled. She recognized pure
fury, had felt it many times herself, and the person on the other end of the
line wasn’t kidding. “I really don’t know about any key but I’ll look again. I
don’t know where it is so you’ll have to give me time to find it. It has to be
in my father’s things.” She played for time, hoping to tap into a shred of
decency this person might possess.

Another abrupt chuckle followed her plea.
“You have forty-eight hours. I’ll call when the time is up and give you the
drop-off point.”

Before Carley could respond the line went
dead. She could only stare at the phone while her brain tried to formulate
words. “They want a key.”

“What? Are you sure?” Hunt had returned to
her and was now gripping her shoulders so tightly her skin ached.

She looked into his white face. “I’m sure.
What? What is it?”

He closed his eyes for a minute and when he
opened them the look of abject pity on his face shredded her soul. “This isn’t
about a key, Carley. It’s a ploy for time. They gave you forty-eight hours,
didn’t they?”

Her world started spinning. “Did you hear?”

His fingers relaxed against her skin then
his hands dropped away. “Your sister’s kidnappers don’t want money, they
already have what they want.”

Her heart rapped so loudly against her
breastbone she heard the rhythm in her ears. “To what?” She snagged hold of his
arm and dug her nails into the skin beneath his shirt.

He broke away from her and stalked across
the room, leaning both hands against the far wall. “I can’t give you any more
information.”

“Yes, you can. You just won’t.” Just as
determined, she squeezed herself in between his body and the wall, pressing her
hands against his chest. “Tell me I wasn’t wrong about you, that Faron wasn’t
wrong about you.”

His gaze flicked over her face then away.
She read the hesitation in his eyes and continued the push for more
information. “Hunt, you know something more about this. If it’s not just about
Dani, what is it? Why can’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s against regulations.” He
captured her hands and lowered them, holding them in a tight grip.

“But you’re not just about regulations,”
she countered. “I read that in your file.”

“The file is a cover.” As his words sank
in, he continued, “And my boss could have my ass on a platter for this, but I’m
not a cop.”

She jerked back and looked up at him.
“What? What do you mean you’re not a cop? I just said I’ve seen your file.”

Taking a step back, he began to lead her
away from the door. “You saw what anyone checking on me is supposed to see. The
information was planted.”

Irritation made her glare at him. “If
you’re not a cop, what are you?”

“I’m with the FBI.”

Shit.
The
second the words left his mouth, he knew he’d stepped in it. He’d never broken
cover before. Ever. And he could have walked away, kept his mouth shut. Instead
he’d violated a cardinal rule, entrusting not only his own safety but the
safety of his team to an outsider.

But protecting Carley had become paramount
to him, and it scared him to think about why. He barely knew her but he read
something in her eyes, something more than just “criminal” or “damn good
thief”.

Whatever had caused her to choose crime was
just a small part of who she was. Behind the mask of strength and determination
existed a woman he wanted to know. Maybe even one he
had
to know.

“Y-you’re what?” Carley’s open-mouthed
stare dragged his attention back to her face.

Finally he’d caught her off-guard. He eased
her down onto the sofa. “And I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.” He sat
down beside her. “But if it were my sister, I would want to know everything.”

She shifted away from him, tucking her legs
to one side. “What does the FBI have to do with this? Why are you here?”

“I was sent here because of a tip we
received about one of the lieutenants. IA couldn’t find anything but, for some
reason, they felt it warranted a pass to Special Investigations. That
department, in turn, passed it to us, and I was assigned as a detective in
Lieutenant Franklin’s squad.” He saw her dubious expression and added, “Since I
don’t have my credentials, you’ll just have to trust me.”

“Is Hunt Brandon your real name? Do you
even live here?”

“Actually, it’s Hunt Chandler.”

“So what exactly was this tip and how does
it relate to my sister?” She angled her body to face him.

You shouldn’t tell her any more than
you’ve already told her, Hunt. You’re in way too deep as it is.

“Hunt?” She touched his hand. “I need the
truth.”

The truth. He wished it were that simple.
Neither one of them were actually stellar in the truth department, but he had a
hell of a lot more reasons to keep quiet than she did, he’d wager. His career
was on the line for starters but how could he tell Carley that this case was
more important than her sister? He couldn’t.

“The key is a ruse. Many of these rings
need to buy time when they discover the woman they’ve kidnapped has a family.
So they come up with something to keep the family members busy. Sometimes money
is too easy to come by.”

Carley sat back against the cushion,
keeping her gaze trained on his face. “But they knew about my father. That’s
why they took Dani.”

Hunt scooted forward and dropped his hands
between his legs. The tension of Carley’s body reached out to him and he wanted
to hold her. The need unnerved him. His life was his job. He didn’t have room
for anything…
anyone
else.

And giving Carley any more information was
bound to produce more pain. There was no easy way out of this. She wouldn’t
back down and he wouldn’t give in.

“It’s time we were honest with each other.”
Carley’s voice carried a bite that drew his gaze to her face.

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t seem to be high
on either of our priority lists, does it? The only difference is my half-truths
are sanctioned by the government.” He blew out a breath, dropped his gaze back
to his hands. “I can’t tell you any more than what I’ve already told you. Even
that’s too much.”

She touched him then, and just the simple
placement of her hand on his forearm caused his stomach muscles to tense. Damn.
He really was in too deep, and there was no way out. He wasn’t even sure he
wanted out. This woman, this thief, had gotten under his skin, touched
something inside him no one had touched in as long as he could remember.

“Why do you think the key is a ruse?”
Carley’s hand tightened on the sleeve of his shirt. “Dammit, Hunt, I have to
know. Why else would these men take my sister if not for my father? They knew
about him.”

He shook his head slowly, damning himself
seconds before he replied. “They didn’t know about your father, Carley. They
found out about him. Big difference.”

She blinked at him for several seconds.
Then her eyes went wide. Horror struck, settled across her face. Her hand
withdrew and she slid away from him. “You’re trying not to tell me that my
sister told her kidnappers about our father.” Carley shook her head and Hunt
saw a tear leak down her cheek, knew it was going to be his undoing.

“Dani wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t.”

The insistent tone of her voice cracked his
heart a little. Damn. Damn. Damn. Doing his job had never been so hard before.

Hunt dragged both hands through his hair,
cursing under his breath. He could just walk away. Get up and leave the suite
without looking back. Couldn’t he? It wasn’t like he owed Carley anything, and
he had a job to do, one that didn’t involve a clever thief. So even if she
didn’t understand why he was leaving, it wouldn’t matter.

But it
did
matter. Even as the
thought of leaving slipped into his mind, he pushed it out. Carley wasn’t the
type of woman to give up, she’d keep looking with or without him. And without
him, she just might end up getting herself killed.