He dropped down to the ground, removed the gun under his pant leg, and let the coat lie on the ground, already moving forward. Luke was in the parking lot, using the vehicles for cover before the man could have processed what was happening.
He found cover by a sweet little ride, a Mustang Shelby, using the wheel to hide his feet and squatting under the vehicle to look for the would-be attacker, now turned into Luke’s prey.
He listened and watched. There was a scrape and then a shadow. Luke lunged forward as the guy darted between vehicles, grabbed the man by the shirt, fully intending to slam him against a car and find out who’d sent him and who his target was tonight. Was it him or Julie or both?
“Release him,” came a low, accented order.
Luke rose to his feet and pulled his capture to his chest, and pressing the gun to the man’s temple. The other man shot Luke’s human shield right between his eyes. The shooter took off running.
Shit shit shit. Luke’s heart lodged in his throat at the fear he’d done exactly what had been planned, and left Julie alone in the truck. He tossed aside the dead guy, and with his finger on the trigger, guarding his back, he ran for the truck, scared like he’d never been scared in his life.
The instant he rounded the cars and saw Julie looking desperately through the window, he exhaled the air lodged in his throat with his heart.
She opened the door and he blocked her exit. “Oh God, what-?”
He held up a silencing finger and her eyes went to his gun and then widened. She nodded. He took the phone, knowing his brother would be one the line. “One down and another armed and missing and I’m not risking the truck being hot, not to mention we’re also sitting ducks. I’m headed south and into the subway.” He hung up, knowing his brother would get the right people here, his hand sliding to Julie’s hair. “Stay close and do exactly what I say.”
“We could run for the building.”
He shook his head. “That’s where they expect us to run. The subway is two blocks. We’re safer there. Take off your shoes and carry them. They’ll slow you down and make noise.” She nodded and stuffed them in her purse before sliding it over her shoulder cross-ways. She gave him a nod of readiness, brave when most would not have been.
He lifted her out of the truck and squatted, hoping they looked like they were just blocked by the door. “We’ll be fine.” He didn’t wait for her reply. He tugged her around the door, and took off running with her pulled close to his side. The next three minutes were eternal. When they finally hit the subway stairs, he stuffed his gun in his pants and Julie slipped on her shoes. They kept running and he lifted her over the entrance machines, not about to take time to buy a ticket. They ignored the screams of other riders and kept going.
Luke herded them onto a train a second before the doors shut, uncaring of where it was going. With Julie’s hand in his he walked to the far end of the car, away from the other ten or so riders, and grabbed a pole to hold on to.
Julie wrapped her arms around him, and staring down at her, all he could think was how easily she could have died tonight. He lowered his mouth and kissed her, needing her right then as he had never needed her in his life.
When he finally got her back to his place, he’d already talked to Blake, and knew he and the task force, were already at the truck and dealing with fallout and investigation.
Luke led Julie to the couch and sat her down, going down on one knee. “You okay?”
“Now, that we’re here, yes. Luke, what was that back there?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. Something about the entire thing was off. Why shoot your own man? That just didn’t add up. “Right now, why don’t you put my massive tub to use? It hasn’t even been properly broken in. I’m sure Lauren has about anything you might need and I can promise you we’re locked down like Fort Knox here. You’re safe. Go try and relax and I’ll try and get us answers.
She hesitated. “My feet are disgusting,” she said. “I’ll have to shower before I can even take a bath.”
He smiled. ”Your feet? After all you just went through that’s what’s on your mind?” That’s what’s upsetting you?”
“Now that I’m here and alive, yes. Do have any idea how disgusting those streets are?”
She was tough, tougher than she gave herself credit for. And he was afraid she might need to be a whole lot tougher before this was over.
***
Luke sat on a barstool at Blake’s island kitchen bar, watching his brother pace as he talked on the phone. He ended the call and set his phone on the counter.
“No body found,” he said. “No blood. No signs of struggle.”
Luke gave a slow nod. “So whoever didn’t want the guy to talk didn’t want him identified either.”
“Yeah,” Blake said. “No doubt the dude’s going to end up at the bottom of a river somewhere with concrete blocks on his feet. I imagine that was what would have happened to the two of you. You’d have gone missing. Forever.”
“No body, no murder,” Luke said. “Am I the only one that thinks Moore wouldn’t risk the connection of his soon-to-be ex’s death, and that of his divorce attorney?”
“I’m right there with you, thinking the same thing,” Blake said, sauntering to the fridge to pull out a jug of chocolate milk. He downed a gulp before bringing it with him to sit across from Luke. “So either you were the target, which still is awfully closely linked to Julie, or-”
“Judge Moore wasn’t behind this.”
“Arel might try to kill off Julie if he thinks she knows something she shouldn’t,” Blake suggested. “It makes sense he’d kill off Elizabeth and Julie.”
“Would he want Judge Moore under investigation if Moore is instrumental in the art used for the money laundering? And I keep going back to shooting your own guy and then getting rid of the body. That’s big.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“I don’t know but we have a judge involved. We could have law enforcement involved. Someone doesn’t like me and/or Julie in this thing. And who knows just how involved we are?”
“I asked Murphy and Hendrix to keep things on the down low, so maybe five people on the task force make that list, and then Elizabeth’s sister, and anyone else she or Julie told that Julie has the journal.”
“Julie’s too smart to run her mouth,” Luke said. “We should get Diana into a safe house somewhere in case someone decides she has it or she knows too much.”
“We don’t know she’s innocent herself,” Blake said.
“But this way we have her under our watch anyway.”
“Good point. I’ll put someone on it, and I’ll have them pick her brain for anything we can use to protect you and Julie. And you need to consider locking Julie down, too, man. She’s too close to this. Don’t fuck up like I did with my woman and lose her.”
Right. Lock Julie down. Piece of cake. Luke had a feeling he was about to see a war unlike any he’d ever known.
***
Gina stood in front of her full-length mirror and smiled. Dressed in a white lace bra and panty set with matching garter and hose, she looked like the perfect angel she wanted her stranger to believe her to be . At least, when she opened her door.
Soft waves of silky auburn brown hair fell over her shoulders, pink lipstick defined a seductive pout, and she was already getting wet just thinking about showing her sexy French man how bad a good girl could be.
She didn’t make dinner. They could order out when they came up for air. A wicked smile played on her lips.
If they came up for air.
The jangle of the telephone forced her to put her thoughts on hold. With an irritated huff she picked up the receiver from her nightstand.
“Hello,” she said abruptly.
“Such hostility, Gina, dear, and to think I once thought you were sweet.”
Gina frowned and sat on the edge of the bed. “Who is this?”