Chapter 8
“Look,” Agent Bradley said, “I don’t like that Detective Lansing impersonated Agent Hart.”
Bree held up a hand. “Can we drop the formalities? Adding our titles to every conversation is exhausting. Please, call me Bree or Lansing.”
Agent Melissa Bradley gave Bree a narrow-eyed stare. “I’m not sure I want to be that familiar with someone who takes impersonating an agent so lightly.”
Bree shrugged. “Then arrest me and throw me in jail. I might be safer there than on the street.”
“However, you have been helpful on the investigation since the real Agent Hart was unavailable.”
Grant leaned forward. “What Bree did wasn’t cool, but she had to have the necessary skills and experience to become a detective in Omaha.
There’s a killer loose and, if Agent Hart can let the impersonation slide for the moment, we could use all the help we can get to catch the guy before he claims his next victim. ”
Turning to Avery, Grant gave her a moment to make up her mind.
She stared at her twin for a few seconds.
“If we allow you to help us with the case, it will be as a consultant, not as a detective, since you’re not in your jurisdiction, much less your state.
We have to follow the letter of the law when gathering evidence or risk losing this case when it makes it to court. ”
Bree held up a hand as if swearing on a Bible. “I promise not to tamper with evidence or do anything that could jeopardize the case.”
Avery held her twin’s stare and then sighed. “I’m still not sure I can trust you.”
“But the stakes are high,” Bree said with a nod, “and he could already be lining up his next victim.”
“Based on what happened in front of your motel room, he could have been targeting you,” Grant said.
“Right.” Bree rubbed her arms. “If not for Dan, I could have been the next victim found lying in a grave of rose petals.” She shivered. “Not gonna happen.”
“Not on my watch,” Sheriff Taylor said.
“Melissa,” Grant said, purposely dropping titles and last names, “are you staying at the same motel as Bree?”
Melissa shook her head. “No. I’m in a hotel across town.”
“We’ll need to secure rooms there for the night,” Grant said.
“And move Bree to that location,” Avery added.
“I’m fine where I’m at,” Bree argued.
“We can’t keep you safe from across town,” Avery pointed out.
“I don’t need anyone to babysit me,” Bree said. “I have a room.”
“The perp broke into your room, likely damaging the doorframe,” Grant said. “You won’t have a way to lock up.”
Bree shrugged. “I’ll have the clerk give me another room.”
Avery’s mouth tightened. “You’ll come to the same hotel as the rest of us,” she said. “We need to stick together, not redirect focus from other threats that could catch us off guard.” She lifted her chin and stared down her nose at her twin.
“You’ll come with us, or we’ll be forced to lock you up,” Melissa stated. “Your choice.”
Bree’s lips twisted into a grimace. “You make it hard. I suppose I can move to your hotel.”
“Now that we’ve settled that, it’s late and we should get some sleep,” Grant said.
He’d been studying Avery throughout the conversation in the bar and grill.
Though she’d put on a good face, he could tell the day had taken its toll.
Having suffered a concussion and been trapped in a coma for days, she was pushing too hard, too soon.
Grant slid his chair back from the table, stood and held out a hand to help Avery to her feet.
When she swayed, he pulled her up against his body.
He knew she didn’t want to admit to any weakness. The fact she leaned into him said a lot about her current physical condition. She was wiped out and needed rest.
“You two should go on to the hotel,” Melissa said. “I’ll go with Ms. Lans—Bree to collect her belongings and follow her back to the hotel.”
Sheriff Taylor snorted. “And I’ll follow Melissa and Bree to make sure Bree doesn’t bolt.”
Bree’s lips thinned. “I’m not going to bolt. I believe in justice, or I wouldn’t be a detective on the Omaha police force. Those victims didn’t choose to die. I’m sticking around for them. We have a killer to catch. I’ll be here until he's either behind bars or dead.”
“You believe in justice, do you?” Melissa rolled her eyes. “How just was it of you to pretend to be a trusted FBI agent?”
“If it helps me catch a killer, it’s just.” Bree rose to her feet.
“I don’t need anyone to go with me to the motel.
I can get there on my own.” She held up her hand as Melissa started to say something.
“I don’t have much there. It won’t take long to stuff some things into my suitcase and drive across town to the hotel near the highway.
Trust me to do it on my own or follow me.
I don’t really give a damn as long as I get to sleep before midnight. ”
Melissa unfolded her long legs and straightened. “Then let’s go.”
Grant planted a hand at the small of Avery’s back and ushered her out of the bar and grill.
The others followed close behind.
In the parking lot, Grant remained on high alert, checking all the shadows and listening for the sound of footfalls or the click of a safety being switched on a weapon.
When nothing jumped out at his senses, he curved his arm around Avery’s body, shielding her with his larger frame.
Once they reached his rental car, he opened the passenger door and held it while Avery lowered herself into the seat. She’d never admit to anything, but the tight set of her jaw indicated she was experiencing pain somewhere in her body.
Grant slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine and shifted into gear out of sheer muscle memory, his thoughts whirling.
He wanted to take Avery far away from Shadow Ridge—maybe all the way to Montana, just to keep her safe and let her heal. She shouldn’t be working a case so soon after nearly dying in a car wreck.
Then again, he’d never been able to talk her out of doing her job.
Avery Hart had a stubborn streak the size of Texas.
Though it infuriated him at times, it was also one of the traits that made her a good agent.
One of the traits he’d admired in her from the moment they’d met back in Virginia, when they’d been teamed up on a mission.
He'd quickly learned that passion and intensity for the job transferred to the bedroom. Before he’d known it, the FBI profiler who’d sworn never to marry had proposed. Avery had surprised him by saying yes, without hesitation.
A week later, they were married and had moved into his apartment in Alexandria.
Grant should have known that rushing into marriage was a bad idea. They were both dedicated to their work, making it their number one priority. Their work had sometimes split them up for long periods of time, though they’d always come back together with more passion than before.
Until Avery had signed up to infiltrate a dangerous organization. Yes, their jobs could be very dangerous, but that particular assignment had promised to be worse than any other that had come before it.
Grant had nearly lost his mind at the thought of Avery walking right into an organization that would just as soon shoot her as give her a chance to talk her way out of a tight situation.
To Grant, it had been almost a certain death sentence.
One slip-up and she’d end up in a body bag, or worse, buried so deep in the woods, she’d never be found.
The current situation had his heart racing. The killer seemed to be after Avery and/or Bree, teasing them with lookalikes until he saw fit to go after the originals.
A hand touched his arm, pulling him back to the interior of the car and the woman he’d never stopped loving, even as he’d signed the divorce papers to set her free.
“Stop it,” she said softly.
Had she read his mind? He shot her a frown. “Stop what?”
“I know that look,” she said with a crooked smile. “Stop worrying about me.”
“Easier said than done.” His jaw hardened. “The victims look like you and Bree. It has to mean something.”
“It means we have to find the killer before he hurts anyone else,” she said.
“Until I showed up, everyone thought Bree was me. I tend to think the killer is targeting me, not Bree. I need to contact my counterparts from my last mission to see who got away when we nailed the syndicate. Who would be motivated to find the people who put the key players away?” She frowned.
“I wish I had my phone with all the numbers I’d stored.
I’ll have to go old-school and look up the names and push through the bureaucracy to get to their numbers.
It’s not like I can find them in a phone directory. ”
Grant’s lip curled. “Why not? They have a phone directory at the bureau.”
“The numbers I really need are for my contacts outside the bureau. My informants.”
“Give the names and general locations to Swede. He might be able to find them through the dark web.”
“I need to meet this Swede. He could be useful to my work.”
Grant nodded. “He’s our go-to for the entire Brotherhood Protectors organization.”
“A handy man to have around,” she said.
“You’ll have to start collecting those numbers again. I’ve already entered my number in your contacts list on your new cell phone.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Although you didn’t have to. It’s funny that it was the one number I remembered when I woke up from the coma. Thanks again for coming to my rescue.”
“I’m glad I was the one you thought of first,” he said and reached for her hand. “We might be divorced, but you can still count on me.”
“And you can count on me.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
“I thought about you a lot over the past two years,” Grant said.
“I can’t say the same,” Avery admitted. “After our divorce, I had to force my past out of my mind to immerse myself in my undercover persona. To do that, I had to push my past into a dark corner and leave it tucked there until the job was done. I didn’t want someone to torture information out of me and use the people I cared most about against me. ”