Shadows at Dawn Page 9

  A female officer named Pamela Wrigley had brought the device to Jax’s apartment, but she had rejected the notion of putting the wire in one of Mindy’s pockets.

  “Too easy to find,” the officer said. She was tall and long-legged, her skin lightly weathered and darkly tanned. She taped the small device, about two and a half inches square, under Mindy’s breasts.

  “You’re getting top-of-the-line equipment,” Officer Wrigley said with a smile. “Model G1416. It’s got a 300-megawatt power transmitter. They won’t have any trouble hearing you.”

  “Good to know,” Mindy said with only a touch of sarcasm.

  The police would be listening to the conversation from inside a van disguised as a landscape maintenance truck. Jax and Maddox would both be wearing earbuds, linking them into the conversation.

  Mindy tried not to look for the van as she climbed out of her car and started across the grass toward the rendezvous point. There weren’t many people around, the reason the guys had chosen the spot, just a man sitting on a park bench with a baby stroller in front of him—a policeman in disguise—and a woman walking her dog in the distance. Perhaps another officer; Mindy didn’t know.

  She wondered where Jax was, resisted the urge to scan the area in search of him. He was out there somewhere. She trusted Jax and Maddox to keep her safe. Mindy kept walking.

  * * *

  WEARING CAMO CARGO pants and an olive-drab T-shirt beneath a tactical vest, Jax adjusted the eight-inch knife on his pistol belt next to his HK45. He moved into position behind the wide trunk of an oak tree, fixing his gaze on Charley Burns, aka Mr. Average, the guy with the pale blue eyes.

  Easing silently closer, Jax stepped up behind him, locked an arm around Burns’s neck and started to squeeze, at the same time jerking Burns’s semiauto out of his hand and tossing it away. Burns struggled, clawed and tried to kick backward. Jax tightened his hold. Burns made a few wheezing noises and went limp.

  Almost too easy.

  Propping Burns against the tree trunk, Jax bound the man’s wrists and ankles with plastic zip ties, slapped a piece of duct tape over his mouth and moved on to his next target.

  Through his earbud, he could hear Mindy speaking to Susan DeMarco. She had just arrived at the rendezvous site. He felt a surge of pride at the calm control in her voice. It was followed by a shot of worry. She wasn’t a police officer or a private detective. She had no law enforcement training. Anything could happen.

  He clamped down on his fear and picked up his pace. He had a job to do, same as Mindy. Counting on Maddox to take care of Whiteman, the smoker in the Zanotti high-tops, Jax wove quietly through the trees and shrubs, making his way around behind the big man with the scar on the back of his hand.

  In a lightweight trench coat, Walker Riley stood in the shadows, using the lower branch of a tree to steady the barrel of the .308 rifle he pointed toward the path leading back to Mindy’s car.

  Knowing he meant to kill the woman Jax loved, he felt a wave of fury so hot he had to clamp down hard to stay in control. He pulled his pistol, slipped up behind Riley and pressed the barrel against the side of his head. “One move and you’re a dead man.”

  The rifle fell off the tree branch and landed with a thud on the soft green grass at Riley’s feet. “I told them you’d be here. The fools didn’t believe me. They thought the girl would do whatever they said to get the money. They figured she was as rotten as the rest of us.”

  “Put your hands behind your back.”

  Riley pretended to turn, feigned right and whirled left, his knife sliding into his hand at the same time he managed to dance away. Jax cursed. With the op still underway, there was no chance he could take a shot without giving them away and putting Mindy in even graver danger. He tossed his pistol and pulled his knife, jumped back as Riley’s blade slashed toward his throat above the vest, missing him by inches.

  The two men began to circle, silver blades flashing in the sunlight shining between the clouds. Time was running out. He needed to get to Mindy before something else went wrong.

  He slashed and thrust, dodged a slicing attack that came from the right, felt the deadly blade rip down his arm and jumped back out of the way. Riley was good. Agile for a man his size.

  Jax swore softly, thrust and parried, jumped back as a sharp pain sliced across his thigh. He prayed the blade hadn’t nicked his femoral artery, knew he needed to make this end before Riley’s superior knife skill cost him his life.

  Whirling, he shot out a kick with his boot that knocked the blade out of Riley’s big hand. Followed with an elbow to Riley’s chin, drove a hard right into his face that knocked him backward, and punched him again, breaking his nose and sending a spray of blood into the air.

  Riley turned to run, but Jax tackled him, taking him to the ground. In seconds, Walker Riley was on his stomach, his wrists and ankles bound, duct tape over his mouth, Jax on the move toward Mindy.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  SHE’D WANTED TO get there early, be there before Susan arrived, but when she reached the granite conversation area near the flagpole, Susan rose to greet her. A leather satchel sat on the ground at her feet.

  Mindy took a shaky breath. Plastering a fake smile on her face, she kept moving. The trick was to get Susan talking, get as much information as possible before it was time to take the money and leave.

  Susan’s smile was a parody of warmth. “Well...if it isn’t my old ex-friend and employee, Mindy Stewart. You always played it so meek and mild. Who would have guessed what a ruthless little bitch you are.”

  Mindy walked up in front of her. “I guess we both have our secrets. Yours is going to cost you twenty-five thousand dollars.”

  A cold smile curved Susan’s red-painted lips. “Ryan was a good fuck, but he wasn’t worth twenty-five grand.”

  “For the information on this drive, I bet he wanted a lot more than that. Is that the reason you had him killed? Or maybe you were the scorned lover, and you killed him for revenge. Which was it?”

  “He’s dead because he tried to play me,” Susan said. “Didn’t work out very well for him. I guess we’ll find out if it’s going to work for you.”

  She should have been afraid but instead anger rolled through her. “Are you threatening me? Because if you are, I’ll turn around right now and walk away. I’ll drive straight to your husband’s office and hand the flash drive over to him. I imagine he’ll be very grateful.”

  Susan’s spine stiffened. “You little whore. You try to go against me and you’ll be as dead as Ryan Shipman. I’ll see to it personally.”

  “The way you did him?”

  She smirked, but didn’t answer.

  Mindy looked down at the satchel. “You want the flash drive. I want the money. Let’s get this over with.”

  “First I need to know if you brought the real drive. Hand it over.”

  A chill swept through her. They had talked about this last night, the possibility Susan might want to actually see what was on the drive before they made the exchange. Mindy needed to keep her talking.

  “Fine, but first I want to be sure you brought the money.”

  Susan sat down on the granite bench, picked up the satchel and set it down on the bench beside her. She opened the case and tipped it so that Mindy could see stacks of bills held together with rubber bands.

  She also saw the laptop.

  “The money’s all there,” Susan said. “Now give me the drive. As soon as I verify the contents, the money is yours.”

  Her heart was beating, hammering away in her chest. She couldn’t hold Susan off much longer. Mindy walked up beside her and held out a hand. The little silver Kingston flash drive glittered in her palm.

  “You can look at it,” she said. “But I don’t see the point. How do you know I haven’t made half a dozen more copies?”

  Susan’s features darkened with fury. She rose from the bench, her blue eyes cold as ice. “Because if you have, you’re dead.”

  Mindy didn’t look away. “Just like Ryan Shipman?”

  “That’s right.” Susan grabbed the drive and stuck it in her pocket. Mindy gasped as a tiny revolver appeared in Susan’s hand.

  “I don’t like the way this is going,” Susan said. “We’ll finish it somewhere else. Now start walking back the way you came.”

  Mindy’s heart was pounding so hard she could feel it throbbing in her temples. She hadn’t taken two steps when a man strode out from behind one of the granite walls, black-haired, dark and handsome, holding a big semiautomatic pistol pointed at Mindy’s chest.

  “Elliot,” Susan said with a smile that actually looked sincere. “You always appear at exactly the right time.”

  “I’m glad you finally noticed.” A look passed between them. Susan tucked the little revolver into the satchel and closed it up. Elliot’s big black pistol didn’t waver.

  “The car’s waiting at the end of the path,” he said. He signaled toward Mindy. “Get moving.”

  “I didn’t have a chance to look at the flash drive,” Susan told him as they walked along.

  “In a very short time, it won’t matter,” Elliot said. Because Mindy will be dead, were the unspoken words.

  She glanced around, searching for Jax, but didn’t see him. Her pulse hiked up even more, and her stomach quivered with nerves. Still no sign of Jax, not until they reached the dark green Jaguar idling in a handicapped spot at the near edge of the parking lot.

  She stifled a cry as Jax rose up beside the car like a big dark shadow, shoving Susan out of the way hard enough to send her sprawling across the asphalt, disarming Elliot so fast Mindy almost missed it. One moment the man was aiming a gun at her, the next he was lying on the ground moaning and clutching his arm, which appeared to be broken.

  Police swarmed out of nowhere, shouting orders, pistols drawn, pointing at Elliot and Susan. Maddox strode toward them across the grass. Mindy looked at Jax, saw blood running down his arm. One of his pant legs was soaked crimson.

  “Jax!” She closed the distance between them, fear for him making her tremble. “Jax!”

  He caught her against him. “It’s all right. I’m okay, baby. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  “Oh God, Jax.” Worry and all the blood made her light-headed.

  Gunderson hurried up just then, took one look at Jax and started shouting. “Get a bus here, now!”

  Maddox helped Jax strip off his tactical vest, guided him over to the edge of the parking lot and eased him down on the grass. He pulled his knife and sliced open Jax’s bloody pant leg.

  “Missed the femoral,” Maddox said, some of his worry easing. “You’re going to need a shit-ton of stitches, but you’ll be okay.”

  “You took care of Whiteman?”

  “Left him tied to a tree. Cops already picked him up.” Maddox sliced off a piece of Jax’s cotton T-shirt and ripped it into a strip, which he tied around the injured leg. He folded another strip into a rectangle and handed it to Mindy. Her hand trembled as she pressed it against the slice in Jax’s arm.

  A police officer ran up with a first-aid kit, and Maddox went to work taping up Jax’s leg, repairing the damage enough to get him to the hospital, while Mindy bandaged Jax’s arm.

  “You did good, baby,” he said as she worked. “You handled DeMarco like a pro. I’m really proud of you.”

  “I was so scared, Jax. I was afraid one of us would get killed, and we’d never see each other again.”

  Jax pulled her close and settled his good arm around her waist. Mindy rested her head on his shoulder. In the distance, she could hear an ambulance racing toward them.

  “This is finally over and we’re both still alive,” he said. “Does that mean we’ll be staying together?”

  She looked up at him. He was covered in blood from fighting to protect her. He would have given his life for her. He was everything she wanted, and she was desperately in love with him.

  Were they together?

  “Is that what you want?” she asked.

  His hard features softened. “You like a man who takes charge, right?”

  If that man is you, she thought, but just nodded.

  Jax kissed her. “Then I’m taking charge now and I’m never letting you go.”

  Mindy slid her arms around his neck. Her throat tightened, and her heart swelled with love for him.

  “Okay,” was all she said.

  * * *

  IT WAS A week before Jax was healed enough to go back to work, and things had calmed down enough for him to talk to Chase about the situation with Mindy. They both loved working at The Max. But if they had to, they would choose each other.

  Fortunately, Chase being Chase, he already knew what was going on. When they walked into his office holding hands, he just grinned. “I wondered how long it would take you two to figure things out.”

  Jax felt a rush of relief. It was followed by a trickle of irritation. “How the hell did you know?”

  “I’ve got eyes. Besides, I’m a detective, remember?”

  Jax couldn’t help smiling.

  “So...um...everything’s okay?” Mindy asked. “We get to keep our jobs?”

  “Is that an engagement ring I see on your finger?” Chase asked.

  Mindy looked down at the diamond solitaire they had picked out together.

  “We’re getting married,” Jax answered for her. “We haven’t set a date but I’m hoping it’s soon.”

  “Congratulations. Yes, you can keep your jobs. I’m lucky to have you both.”

  Mindy smiled at Jax, and he felt the same kick he’d been feeling since she’d walked into the office on her first day of work. He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss on her lips. Mindy flushed. Damn, he was crazy about her.

  “I guess you heard,” Chase said. “Elliot and Susan both tried to turn State’s evidence. They wanted desperately to testify against the other for a lighter sentence, but the DA turned down the deal. Thanks to you two, they had plenty of evidence without them. They’re both going to jail for a good long time.”

  “I was hoping it would go down that way,” Jax said.

  Chase rose behind his desk. “Before I forget, Harper will probably want to host an engagement party. Any objections?”

  “Not from me,” Jax said, smiling.

  “That would be wonderful,” Mindy said.

  “Great. I’ll let her know.”

  They walked out of Chase’s office together. They had work to do. Jax was on the Eleanor Donahue case again, and Mindy was needed up front. They smiled at each other before they parted.

  It was a good day. And the future looked even brighter.

  * * *

  For more high-stakes thrills in the world of Maximum Security, keep reading for a sneak peek of Kat Martin’s The Deception from HQN Books

  The Deception

  by Kat Martin

  CHAPTER ONE

  Dallas, Texas

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Gallagher. I know this is terribly difficult, but unless there’s someone else who can make a positive identification—”

  Kate shook her head. “No. There’s no one else.”

  “All right then, if you will please follow me.” The medical examiner, Dr. Jerome Maxwell, a man in his fifties, had thick black hair finely threaded with gray. He started down the hall, but Kate stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “Are you...are you completely sure it’s my sister?” She smoothed a hand nervously over the skirt of her navy blue suit. “The victim is definitely Christina Gallagher?”

  “There was a fingerprint match to your missing sister. I’m sorry,” he repeated. “We’ll still need your confirmation.”

  Kate’s stomach rolled. Her legs felt weak as she followed Dr. Maxwell down a narrow, seemingly endless hallway in the Dallas County morgue. The echo of her high heels on the stark gray linoleum floor sent a sweep of nausea through her.

  The doctor paused outside a half-glass door. “As I said before, this is going to be difficult. Are you sure there isn’t someone you can call, someone else who could make the identification?”

  Kate’s throat tightened. “My father’s remarried and living in New York. He hasn’t seen Chrissy in years.” Frank Gallagher hadn’t seen either of his daughters since he and his wife had divorced.

  “And your mother?” the doctor asked kindly.

  “She died of a heart attack a year after Chrissy ran away.” For Madeleine Gallagher, losing both her husband and her daughter had simply been too much.

  The doctor straightened his square black glasses. “Are you ready?”

  “I’ll never be ready to see my sister’s murdered body, Dr. Maxwell. But I’m all Chrissy has, so let’s get it over with.”

  The doctor opened the door, and they walked out of a hallway that seemed overly warm into a room that was icy cold. A shiver rushed over Kate’s skin, and her heart beat faster. As Dr. Maxwell moved toward a rollout table in front of a wall of cold-storage boxes, Kate could see the outline of a body beneath the stark white sheet.

  Emotion tightened her chest. This was her baby sister, only sixteen the last time Kate had seen her two years ago, before she had run away.

  The doctor nodded to a female assistant in a white lab coat standing next to the table, and the woman pulled back the sheet.

  “Oh, my God.” The bile rose in Kate’s throat. She swayed, and the doctor caught her arm to steady her.

  “Is this your sister, Christina Gallagher?”

  The body on the table in no way resembled the beautiful young girl who had been her little sister. At only eighteen, this young woman was gaunt, her cheeks hollow, her skin chaffed and sallow and clinging to her bones. Her closed eyes were dark and sunken. Bruises covered her face, shoulders and chest, all Kate could see of the body.