Tamed (Corcoran Team: Bulletproof Bachelors Book 3) (13 page)

Chapter Fifteen

He couldn’t do this one more minute.

Frank shut the cover to his laptop and leaned back in his chair. He’d been investigating every avenue, trying to figure out who had blackmailed him and thought they owned his every move. He’d followed instructions, thinking each new order would be the last. But the assignments bombarded him. He read discussions on the loop and picked out secret messages in every one. He had no idea if he’d grown paranoid or if his life really was closing in on him from every direction.

But he couldn’t keep doing this. Every day he clicked on a news link, worrying some action he’d put in motion had ended in death. He’d made so many wrong turns, but he could not tolerate the idea of having more blood on his hands.

That meant coming clean. Taking the venom out of the blackmail and telling one last secret. He’d already been chastised and ignored. What else could happen? Begging Tyler to take his name off the site hadn’t worked. Telling his blackmailer one assignment after another would be his last didn’t threaten anyone.

The address. The license-plate number. The police contacts. Information on this Shane guy. Frank had done it all, and he was done. Long done.

He picked up his phone and dialed the number. In a half hour it would all be over.

* * *

“F
RANK
WANTS
TO
see us.
”
Makena almost hated to utter the words. She didn’t look up because she could only imagine the scowl on Shane’s face.

When he didn’t say anything and the silence continued, she glanced across to the other side of the couch. He’d been crouched over the laptop a second ago. Now he sat back and stared at her with a blank expression.

That couldn’t be good.

She tried again. It actually didn’t matter if he wanted to be convinced or not; they were going. “He sounds desperate.”

“Did you talk with him?” Still no readable expression. Just the question.

She had her legs stretched out until her feet touched the side of his leg. She pointed her toes and pushed against him. “He texted.”

“How does one sound desperate in a text?” Shane’s hand went to her leg.

She didn’t know if he even realized he rubbed a hand over her calf as he spoke. The gesture was so comforting. Sprawling on the couch as the rain hammered the roof felt normal and right. “My point is he asked that we meet him immediately.”

His hand kept soothing and caressing. “We?”

The heat from his hand seeped through her jeans and touched her skin. She knew that probably grew out of her imagination, but she felt it. She also wondered why he thought she wanted to tackle anything on her own. “Of course.”

Shane smiled then. “I like that.”

“As if I’d be dumb enough to go into a meeting with any of these guys right now without firepower.” She said it as a joke, but it kind of wasn’t.

“So romantic.” Shane stood up and reached down to her. “Let’s go.”

“That’s it?” She stared at his hand, then looked at his face. His quick agreement minus a lecture stunned her. The guy thrived on lectures. “No arguments about the danger or...I don’t know, anything?”

“You mean the part where this is likely a setup to get us both killed.” His wiggled his fingers.

She grabbed on and let him lift her to her feet. “I wasn’t going to put it that way.”

“I’ll call Cam and Connor on the way. They can provide backup and be our eyes.”

“You didn’t ask where we were meeting.”

He dropped a quick kiss on her mouth before stepping around the couch on the way to pick up the keys to the loaner car Connor had gotten for him. “Somewhere dangerous and hard to guard, I’m assuming.”

“Aren’t you hysterical today?” More like lighthearted and calm. The thrum of tension that normally followed him had disappeared. He came off as relaxed yet just as determined as ever.

She had no idea what to make of the change or why it had happened. She half expected him to pretend to bring her along and then dump her off at one of the team members’ houses for safekeeping while he rushed into danger. That was the guy she knew.

“Don’t let the sarcasm fool you.” He picked up his gun. Then a knife.

That was more like it. “This isn’t a kinder, gentler Shane?”

“No such thing.”

* * *

T
HEY
ARRIVED
AT
the meeting place a half hour later. Not the park and not the diner. Not even the bridge where they’d almost died. They walked up to the marina that sat just a few miles from her house, which she hadn’t been back to since the original shooting. Being this close to the scene where it had all started had something jumping around in her stomach. Nerves or panic...something.

She punched in the code Frank had given her and opened the gate to the docks. Shane followed without saying a word. He was armed and ready, and that was all that mattered. But as they made their way down the incline, she did see Shane’s point. There were so many places to hide. So many ways to get lost in a maze of docks and ships, and not come out again.

She blew out long breaths as she struggled to maintain some sense of control. Her heartbeat ran off at a gallop and her chest ached from the force of it. She’d get through this. She had to. She had so much to live for, so much hope for the future for the first time in so long. She wouldn’t give that up for a website or Jeff or Frank or anyone else.

The water lapped and metal clanked against metal as the boats bobbed in the water. No one was around. She knew Connor played some role in that. Rain or not, people should be milling around. The mist chilled her skin, but the total quiet was what had her ready to jump on top of Shane and demand he take her out of there.

They reached a T and Shane pointed to the right. “This way.”

She looked down, mentally reading off the numbers as they passed each one. They needed 280. Of course it wasn’t right near the front where the buildings sat. No, she walked beside Shane as the distance between them and land grew.

One final turn and they reached the point farthest away from the opening gate. Just a few more...something made her look up. Probably a hint in the way Shane carried his body or a shift in the breeze. It didn’t matter why, but she saw Frank in front of her. Or a version of him. This Frank was disheveled and jerky in panic. He moved around, his gaze touring the distance as he stood there.

“What do you want?” Shane asked without any inflection in his voice. The wind whipped around him and the rain kicked up, but he didn’t show any signs of being uncomfortable. He was in his element and in control.

Frank nodded toward the boat in the slip next to him. “We need to go inside.”

Makena looked at the hull. The boat was small, and having any kind of conversation likely meant crawling under and into a space they couldn’t see right now. Shane had been right about this, too. It was a setup and one they might not survive if they weren’t careful. Sure, Connor lurked out there somewhere and Cam was submerged in the water, ready to come up firing. But one mistake, one second too late, and this could be the last shooting in this case.

She thought about her brother and how many good things lay ahead for him. Her mind wandered over all the mistakes and focused on the good times. On the bright moments of the past few days. She glanced at Shane and took in his strength and energy and realized loving him had switched from a desperate state to a happy one.

“There’s no way we’re getting on that boat.” Shane widened his stance. “So talk.”

Frank shook his head. “You’re not in charge here.”

“This says I am.” Shane lifted his hand and flashed his gun. Didn’t wave it around or make a big show. Just leveled the playing field with one small gesture.

But she needed to avoid whatever harsh thing came next. She also wanted to know why he wanted them here so badly. “Okay, enough.” She glared at the man she once believed had turned a corner to a new life. “You called us, Frank.”

Whether it was whatever he saw on her face or the gun, something got him talking. He slipped to the side, getting closer to the boat, but he didn’t run as he talked. “There’s a group. They’ve banded together to come after you.”

The loop. The men who sat around complaining about getting caught. She hated them even more now. “Right.”

“How do you know?” Shane asked in a deceptively soft voice.

Frank took another step back. One more and his foot would slip into the small space between the dock and the boat, and he’d fall in the water. “I’ve been helping them.”

Pain shot through her. She’d believed in him. Stood up for him. “So the ‘new Frank’ thing is a lie.”

“It wasn’t my fault.” He rubbed his hands together as he shifted around. Every movement choreographed the frenzy taking off inside him.

Guilt could do that to a person. She refused to feel bad for him. Not again. She could not be fooled twice.

“You never get tired of saying that, do you?” Shane took a threatening step forward. “That thing where you shift the blame and pretend you’re not at fault.”

“I’m being blackmailed,” Frank said.

That didn’t make any sense. Before he’d been exposed, sure. He’d been a potential target for anyone looking to benefit from people’s fake backgrounds. “Everyone knows your worst secret. What can—”

“No.” Shane shook his head. “We don’t, do we?”

The blows kept coming. Makena could barely find her breath. “What did you do?”

Frank waved his hands in front of him. The haze covering his gaze suggested a battle waged inside him. He tried to spit out a sentence a few times before getting it out. “I hid the secret.”

She knew that. Everyone knew that. The whole point was that his story only worked so long as people didn’t know the truth. “And?”

“You weren’t the first person to figure it out.”

The words sliced into her. They sounded so ominous, and he stopped giving eye contact. The guilt practically radiated off him.

She hated to ask, but she had to know. “Who did?”

“He’s dead. That doesn’t matter right now.” Frank visibly shook. “The attack at your house, the one on the bridge, those were me. Well, I caused them by passing on information.”

Shane no longer hid the gun. It was up, and the fury pulling at his mouth and carving deep lines into his forehead suggested he planned on using it, and soon. “I’m going to kill you.”

Frank held up both hands. “I’m...no...I’m...trying to help.”

The stuttering matched the rest of his affect. The jumpiness and darting gaze made her want to sit him down and tell him to write it all out. Once and for all, let him unburden himself and then see what happened next.

“Tell me everything you know and how you found out.” Shane stood there as if daring Frank to say no.

After a brief moment of screeching silence, he nodded. “I got a contact a few days after I joined the loop.”

So he had known about it for a long time and had been a participant. She’d never been moved to violence before the past few days. Now all she wanted to do was hit people until they told the truth.

“When?” Shane asked.

Frank’s gaze shot to her, then back to Shane. “Months ago.”

It took all her willpower not to lunge at him. So much pain and needless waste of life, and all because a bunch of men didn’t like that their lies had been uncovered. The whole situation made her feel sick and achy.

She knew Connor and Cam were following along, listening through the device attached to Shane’s shirt. They were taking it all down and would investigate. They’d ferret out the truth and make Frank and the others pay. But right now, in this second, it didn’t feel like enough vengeance.

Shane somehow kept it together and continued asking questions. “Who contacted you?”

“That’s it, I’m not sure.”

“Guess,” Shane shot back before Frank could finish his comment.

“I think we both know.”

“There are a lot of suspects.”

“But only one guy in charge.” Some of Frank’s panic subsided, as if talking lifted some of his guilt. “I’m sure it’s—”

His words cut off as his body collapsed in a heap. One minute he was standing, and the next his body turned boneless and fell down, knocking against the boat and slipping into the water.

“Get down.” Shane called out the order as he slammed her against the dock with his body covering hers. He reached over and grabbed for Frank’s arm, but his body was already sliding under the surface.

She lifted her arms off her head and tried to focus on the voices. The quiet of the night hadn’t broken, but she heard yelling. Familiar voices. She leaned in and heard the yelling in Shane’s ear. Then came the footsteps. Pounding down the dock. Shane spun around, putting his body in front of hers as he sat up and aimed.

Connor stopped in midrun. “It’s me. Don’t shoot.”

“Get down.” She tried to repeat Connor’s order, but her voice barely rose above a whisper.

He must have heard, because he dropped, crawling the last few feet to where they sat, stunned. “Either of you hit?” Connor looked from Makena to Shane.

“What happened?” She still didn’t know. She hadn’t heard the bang she’d come to expect in a shooting...and how sick was it that she had any expectations?

The gentle thud of the water against the boats turned into whoosh. Cam popped up, fully outfitted with scuba gear. Next her brother would pop out somewhere.

Dizziness hit her then. She leaned against Shane, trying to absorb some of his strength. “I didn’t hear the shot.”

“Silencer,” Connor and Cam said at the same time.

A new word for her to hate. “Convenient.”

Connor frowned at her. “How so?”

Shane spoke up then. “That’s exactly what the shooter wanted to do to Frank, silence him.”

“It worked.” Her stomach wouldn’t stop flipping. Her insides were scrambled as if she rode a never-ending roller coaster.

Shane put a hand on her lower back. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t.”

For some reason, in that second, she believed him.

Chapter Sixteen

Shane had grown tired of everyone associated with the website. Really fast. He’d been close enough to get hit with blood splatter when Frank got shot. Scrubbing it off didn’t wipe the stain clean.

Good guy or bad guy didn’t matter. Frank had been young and misguided and had carried a secret that would fell most halfway decent men. Cam had connected the dots in no time. A friend of Frank’s had died in an alley after a long night of drinking. The person with him? Frank. The friend had expressed concerns about Frank’s stories before he died, and those concerns had died with him.

Shane didn’t know what had happened in that alley, but he’d bet an angry confrontation gone wildly off track. A fight that left one friend dead and the other in an alcoholic spiral and now in the morgue. Life had handed Frank one last wallop. Shane just wished Makena hadn’t been there to see it.

At least her color had come back. She sat on the couch with her legs crossed in front of her, hugging a pillow to her chest. She listened to Connor and Cam tried to make sense of it all.

“There are long periods of time when none of the men in the group are logged in to any of their electronics,” Cam explained.

She nodded and kept nodding, then asked, “What does that prove?”

“They likely have an alternative source of communicating and were using that at the time,” Connor finished, then sat there across from her. No one said anything, not even her, and he started talking again as if he felt the need to break it all down and explain it. “You can see bursts of activity before an event, like the attack at your house, then sustained inactivity during the actual attack.”

The pieces made sense to Shane. Sometimes the lack of information proved to be better evidence than something obvious. Since Frank had only provided a piece—and a small one at that, without much detail—they had to fit it all together. Connor said he had the entire team working on the problem.

Makena tightened her hold on the pillow. “This is so much work. If only they used that power for good.”

“Men like that never do.” Shane had learned that the hard way long ago. He’d hoped his father would change, ease up and actually be there. Never happened. Some men couldn’t change. Men like Jeff thought he didn’t need to.

“It’s more fun to cause trouble,” Connor said. “Speaking of which, Holt is on the way home to check on the two of you.”

“No surprise there.” She eased her grip on the pillow and tucked it next to her. “So, does all this mean we owe Tyler an apology? Can we clear him?”

Shane wasn’t ready to go there. He didn’t trust anyone involved in this case, and that only worsened with each hour. “No.”

She frowned at him. “You sound so sure.”

Shane pretended that look was about wanting more information and not about her being tied to Tyler. Shane knew she didn’t have romantic feelings for the guy, but if she possessed a sense of loyalty, that could trip her up and make investigating Tyler harder. “It looks as if he lied about his service record. We need to know why and at what cost.”

“I don’t get it. Why start the site if he had this big lie in his past?”

That part confused Shane, too. There were possible explanations, but none of them sounded especially smart. “Maybe to throw the scent off, or to get to the investigations first and keep any taint away from him.”

Shane’s money was on one of those. Tyler might just have the bloated ego to think he could be the one to successfully hide his fake past.

“This is so ridiculous.” Makena pressed her head back in the couch cushions and wiped a hand over her face. “I was just trying to help.”

The tone got to Shane. He sat down next to her and pulled her hand down. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Cam nodded. “The work is good. It’s scary that it’s necessary, but it is.”

“Tell that to all the dead men scattered wherever I walk.” She slipped her fingers through his and held on tight.

He moved their joined hands to his lap. “To be fair, I killed most of them.”

Cam’s eyes widened. “That’s how you comfort her?”

Shane never broke eye contact with her. He needed her to believe the way he did. “She’s tough. She doesn’t need to be coddled.”

“Man, Shane.” Connor groaned. “This is almost hard to watch.”

“You’re not very good at this,” Cam added.

“You’re both wrong.” She lifted their hands to her lips and kissed the back of his. “He knows just what to say.”

Once again, they were on the same wavelength. People could think whatever they wanted. Maybe he should come up with the perfect line and serve it to her, but truth was, when it came to her he didn’t need to embellish. Flowery words were unnecessary. He felt what he felt. It knocked into him, punched him in the gut and had him reeling. Rather than be scared, he welcomed the sensations this time.

“Are you sure he’s good at this?” Cam asked. “Because, wow.”

“I am not weak.” The words rang out strong and loud. She said them as if the comment resonated with her, rose deep from her belly.

Connor scoffed. “Definitely not.”

From their reactions it looked as if they all knew. The important thing was she finally got it.

Shane winked at her. “No, you’re not.”

She stood up without dropping his hand. “Then let’s go find Jeff.”

There was a topic sure to wipe out his good mood. With one last squeeze, Shane let go of her hand. “That guy is mine.”

The smile that crossed her lips could only be described as blinding. “So long as you end this, you can have whatever you want.”

He didn’t care who heard or how much crap he took for this. “Sold.”

* * *

J
EFF
TALKED
BIG
.
Puffed out his chest and delivered a full blowhard recitation, complete with anecdotes about how he’d been wronged. When it came to annoying displays of minimal self-awareness, this ranked right up there.

The scene went on for almost fifteen minutes. Jeff sat at the picnic table in the park that had served as the site of one of the many shootings during the past week. Shane and Makena sat across from him. She had to listen to how he’d been set up and how the charges had been blown out of proportion. She waited for him to spin out the oldie about how he’d worked in covert ops, so no one could know the truth.

Somehow he refrained, but she sensed he had that explanation in his arsenal. He just hadn’t whipped it out yet.

When he finally started to wind down, Shane leaned in and stared at him. “You almost done?”

“You asked.” Jeff looked back and forth between them with his gaze hesitating on her for an extra beat.

Just long enough for her to start shifting in her seat. The guy ticked her off. Every word he uttered sent her temperature spiking. The way he made himself the victim and tried to sell his hours logged on the gun range as proof his military story was true. His explanation was a convoluted mess, and she doubted she could hear much more.

“Tell me about the loop.” Shane held a pen and turned it end over end on the table.

“What?” But Jeff’s tone had changed. Just a hint and only for a second, but anyone listening for it would have picked it up. And everyone was listening in.

“You are the leader of a band of misfits who lied about being in the military and being heroes, and now get together to whine.” Shane laid it on thick.

She almost cheered. Jeff didn’t fear her but he might fear Shane. Or he would if he was smart.

Jeff didn’t take the insults well. His skin flushed red and a vein in his forehead popped out. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s not as well hidden as you think.” Shane passed the pen from one hand to the other. “My people found the loop and we’re going over all the transcripts now.”

“Who are
your people
?”

“You should be more worried about what we can do.” Shane put the pen down with a click.

Something about the smooth move had Jeff’s gaze shooting to the pen, then back to Shane’s face. “You’re bluffing.”

“Frank Jay is dead.” It hurt her to say the words. Hurt even more to realize he’d turned out to be less than the man she hoped he would be.

Jeff’s mouth opened and closed, but that was all the emotion he showed to that announcement. “That group is made up of hardworking men who had their lives turned upside down by—”

She filled in the rest of the sentence. “Their own lies.”

Jeff’s balled his hands into fists. “She—”

“Discovered your lies, but you are still the liars, and when you get together to plan violence against other people, you are also criminals.” Shane held up both hands. “It’s simple math.”

“Violence.” For the first time Jeff’s face fell. He stopped the chest puffing and all the other nonsense and sat there with a stunned, openmouthed expression. “What are you talking about?”

For a second she bought it. Got sucked into the look and the stuttering tone. Then she remembered who he was and how well he could sell a story. “You celebrated me getting attacked.”

“Someone talked about it.” He hesitated between each word. “There are hard feelings, sure, but no one on the loop had anything to do with that.”

Shane never took his focus off Jeff. It was as if he was constantly assessing and analyzing. “The evidence suggests otherwise.”

Jeff jumped to his feet. “The evidence is wrong.”

The drama was back in full force and she was even less impressed this time than she had been during the first round. “Sit down.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” He muttered something under his breath. Sounded like a nasty name.

“Yeah, she can,” Shane said.

Jeff slowly sank until his butt hit the bench again. “I’m being set up.”

It was Shane’s turn to swear under his breath. “Is that the only excuse you know how to say?”

“You don’t understand.” Jeff’s gaze traveled between them. He threw in the gestures and facial expressions. Seemed determined to convince them of his innocence. “We blow off steam. We talk about how to put our lives back together, to find jobs. To figure out how to take down the website and erase the information that’s been spread.”

That didn’t amount to gunfire, but it had the potential to blow up into that. People could talk in code or get the wrong idea. The dangers of groupthink were especially high when the group had a single sworn enemy. In this case, her. “So you know, nothing about that sounds innocent.”

Jeff shifted in her direction. Spoke straight to her. “If something happens to you, the stories get told again. The spotlight will switch from you to us in a matter of minutes, and all the information on the website explodes all over our lives again.”

She figured that probably was an accurate description of what would happen. She refused to feel guilty about that. “So?”

“Making you a martyr would make my life hell.” Jeff glanced at Shane. “That’s the reality. I need you alive and well, and preferably quiet.”

“Or would it free you if she were gone?” Shane asked.

“You’re wrong.” Jeff’s shoulders fell. It was as if the air rushed right out of him, deflating him. “Both of you.”

With one final exhale, Jeff stood up. Slipped out from the bench and stood next to the table. He scooped his keys off the top and tucked them in his pocket. Didn’t say another word as he turned around and started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Shane asked in a voice that carried a cool chill.

Jeff still didn’t turn around. “To find out who is setting me up. You’ll see. I’ll prove it to you.”

She watched him go. The cocky walk was toned down, but the mess he left in his wake remained. “He’s a bit too confident, don’t you think?”

“He’s had a lifetime of practice at lying.”

Now, that was the truth. Somewhere along the line, lying had become Jeff’s one true skill. The thought of that made her sad.

She rested her arm on the table and turned to face Shane. “So, now what?”

“Easy.” He handed her the pen. Legal or not, the one with the microphone that taped every word. “We keep digging.”