Heat of the Night Page 15

  She stretched a trembling hand toward him. "Come on now, let her go." She got him to look her in the eyes. He was scared, but they weren't the eyes of a killer. At least she didn't think they were. "Let her go. You can have me."

  The phones began ringing, she heard her cell phone ringing, too. Brady. She focused on Todd, blocking everything else out. "Come on. You do want me, don't you, Todd?"

  Todd was sweating profusely now, confusion mixed with fear in his eyes. "I just want to explain," he said, the anger in his tone edging toward a whine. "I can explain."

  "I know you can." Erin saw his grip on the gun relax a bit. "And I want you to tell me all of it. I know we can make them understand. I'm good at that, Todd. I'm good at making people understand a bad situation isn't what it seems. That's what I do for a living, right?" She kept talking, watching the gun in her peripheral vision. "So why don't we go talk this over, then I can talk to O'Keefe when he gets here and it will all be over. He'll understand whatever I tell him. You did a smart thing coming to me first."

  Todd's eyes clouded then and she thought he might break down and cry. "I thought I had it under control," he said, half whimpering, half raging. "I didn't kill him. I only wanted proof, I didn't kill him."

  "Of course you didn't," she said, but inside she was breathing a major sigh of relief. She hadn't thought he was a killer. A weasel yes, but not a killer. But she had no idea what had happened to bring him to this point. Thankfully it looked as if he was starting to lose his willpower to continue. She tugged at Gina's arm, again keeping her gaze on Todd. "Gina, why don't you sit down right there and let Todd and me talk this over."

  Todd's arm began to relax as Gina slid out of his grasp, then suddenly he snapped to attention, his eyes clearing as if he was just now realizing what was happening. "No! Wait!"

  But Gina was already free. "I'm sitting right here," she said shakily. "Not doing a thing. Minding my own business."

  Todd swung his suspicious gaze—and the gun—to Erin. "If she moves—"

  "She won't move." Erin worked hard to put the knowing smile back on her face. It had been hard enough when the gun was pointed at Gina. It was downright petrifying now that it was pointed at her. "We don't need her, Todd. You only need me."

  He wiped his face with his free hand. "You can't help me. You wanted Henley to talk to the press. I won't talk to the press. They'll kill me if this gets out before I talk to O'Keefe. He has to listen, he has to believe me."

  "No press. You're right. You and I both have experience in how to explain things to people. That's why the mayor hired you. Surely together we can make them understand." She stepped closer to him, keeping her eyes on him…and off the gun. "Who wants to hurt you, Todd? The Hans?" She'd made a wild guess and instantly saw she'd hit it on the first try.

  He swallowed hard several times, the sweat pouring down his face now. He darted a quick look around, as if there might be someone tucked in the corner listening. "They…they—" Tears clogged his throat. "I just wanted information, I never intended anyone to get hurt. Or…or killed. I didn't kill him. I should have listened when they killed Pitts, but I didn't kill the zoning guy. They're making it look like I did, but it wasn't my fault."

  "You know they killed Bradford?" Why the hell didn't you tell the police then? she wanted to demand. But hurling accusations at him was the last thing she needed to do. Besides, he wasn't listening to her anyway.

  "They tried to blackmail Morton and he ended up dead. They shut Pitts up for good." He was trembling now. "I should have listened, but I thought I had it under control. Don't you understand?" He was shrieking now, but almost in tears at the same time. His tone suddenly turned pleading. "I couldn't give them what they wanted, but that doesn't make it my fault." He was breathing heavily now. "No one will believe that. They'll think I killed them all." He started crying in earnest now. "Oh God, they'll kill me anyway, what difference does it make?"

  Erin thought about trying to take the gun from him, but she wasn't that sure she could. And with Gina on the floor, she couldn't risk the gun going off. "The police can protect you, Todd. That information you have is power. You of all people know how powerful the person with the information is. Use it, Todd. Use it to help yourself."

  She wasn't even certain he was listening to her anymore. The gun wavered in his grip. She was trying to decide whether to go for it, when someone pounded on the door again.

  "Fletcher! It's Detective O'Keefe."

  Todd panicked and grabbed Erin, turning her back to his chest and swinging the gun around in front of her. She probably shouldn't have fought him, but she panicked too and reacted instinctively to being grabbed at. She kicked her spiked heel swiftly back and up, landing a good jab right between Todd's legs. He cried out, his gun hand swinging wide. She chopped at his arm, hoping he'd drop the weapon. The gun went flying, but not before one shot rang out.

  Erin dived at Todd just as he and Gina dived for the flying gun. The door to the office burst open a second later and the foyer was immediately filled with police officers, led by Brady, each of them with guns drawn. They all came stumbling to a stop as they took in the situation.

  Gina was leaning back against the wall, the gun dangling from her fingers. Erin was straddling a hysterically sobbing Todd, pinning him to the floor. She smiled up at Brady. "About time you got here."

  The ferocious look on his face almost did her in. It was only by the edge of her wits that she'd pulled off that last line. But she didn't want him to see how terrified she was, or just how close to dying she'd come.

  Several uniformed police officers stepped in just then to control Todd, while two others helped her up. It was all she could do not to fling herself at Brady and sob hysterically herself. It took every remaining drop of control she had to maintain the banter she'd instigated. "Superwoman to the rescue. What a team, huh?"

  Brady barked out several orders to the surrounding throng of cops, but his gaze never once left hers. She knew better than to trust her legs to so much as move one step. She'd crumple to the floor for sure. The adrenaline that had pumped by the gallon into her system was rushing right back out again and just as swiftly.

  Gina stumbled to her just then and caught her in a tight bear hug. "Oh my God, Erin, you were amazing. You saved my life."

  Brady forced his attention away from Gina clinging to an apparently unharmed Erin so he could oversee Todd's handcuffing and removal from the scene. His mind was a jumbled mess of instincts, some job related, but most of them personal. He finally asked the remaining officers to step outside, before turning back to face them.

  He wasn't ready to deal with Erin yet, his emotions were too raw and close to the surface. He was here as a cop, not as her lover, and it took all his control and focus to remember that at the moment. "Are you okay?" The question was directed to Gina.

  She nodded shakily. "Yeah. Just scared." She looked to Erin, then back to Brady. "I'll be out in the hallway."

  "We'll need to ask you some questions, take a statement about what happened. You'll have to decide if you want to press charges against Fletcher. You might want to call an attorney for advice. That's up to you." Brady helped her to the door. "You want to see a doctor first? Talk to a counselor?"

  She shook her head. "No, I'll be okay." She paused at the door and looked past Brady's shoulder at Erin, then back at him. "She kicked ass in there, Detective. You can be proud of her. She really held up." She looked directly at him. "She did it for you, you know, to keep you safe."

  "Me?"

  "Yeah. Detective Hunk was coming to the rescue. I know her and she'd hate thinking she could be used to put you in any kind of danger. So don't let her do anything stupid, like try and break it off with you. Because she's the best thing you'll ever have." She moved out in the hall. "Don't you screw that up either. Instead of looking like you want to wring her neck, you should be kissing her right now and thanking God that bullet didn't hit anything more important than my favorite watercolor. Remember, she didn'
t ask to have a gun shoved in her face. She handled it and we're fine. That's all that matters."

  Gina slid by him, and Brady turned back to the office where Erin was leaning against the wall. As soon as she realized he was back, she stood up straight, adopted her casual little I-can-handle-anything smile. Brady flashed to that moment when he'd heard the gunshot. It felt as if his whole life had ended in that one instant. And then he'd come bursting through the door, only to find her handling the bad guy and tossing off smart-ass comments. And Gina had been dead right. He'd been torn between throttling her and yanking her into his arms where he could make sure she was all right.

  He'd done neither of those things. He'd frozen. Trapped somewhere between being cop and lover, not prepared to be both at the same time. Never before had he allowed anything to interfere with the process. Until now. So he'd reverted to cop mode, processing the scene and barking orders. It was what he did, what he knew best. Only this time he did it to keep himself from thinking about what had really happened here today. And what could have happened.

  "Brady?"

  He realized he was standing there in a haze. She was frowning now, looking concerned. Well, it was about damn time. She hadn't looked all that concerned when she had a potential murderer pinned beneath her. But she looked worried now. Because of him.

  She did it for you, to keep you safe.

  Gina's words rang in his ears, almost as loudly as that single gunshot.

  Erin crossed the room and took hold of his arms. "What's wrong?"

  He tugged free, the anger coming seemingly out of nowhere. "What's wrong? Wrong?" He clamped his jaw down, hoping to also clamp the sudden surge of temper down along with it. He knew better than anyone that it was just a delayed reaction to the stress and fear of what he'd walked into moments ago. But knowing that didn't seem to give him the strength to stop the words from flowing. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You could have gotten yourself killed. Or Gina. Or even Fletcher, damn his sniveling, cowardly little weasel-ass hide."

  Erin's eyes widened, then narrowed. She carefully folded her arms in front of her. "I thought I was doing my best to save my life and Gina's. You'll have to pardon me if I didn't follow police procedure. I'm only an ignorant civilian."

  He stepped closer. "You knew the hall was filled with police officers, trained to handle things like this. You also knew damn well I was on my way."

  Now temper snapped into her eyes as well. "Yes, I did. But that gun wasn't being pointed at the police officers in the hall. And it wasn't pointed at you. And excuse me for not wanting it ever to be pointed at you." She poked him in the chest. "Yes, I knew you were coming and it galled me that I could be used against you. I simply refused to tolerate that. So I did what I thought I had to do. And if you don't like it, well, tough beans, Detective."

  She shoved past him and stalked to the hall. "I'll have someone drive me downtown so I can file my statement."

  "Don't you want to know what happened? Why Todd was here?" It was the first thing he thought of to say, because he knew damn well her curiosity would keep her here. Hopefully long enough for his head to stop spinning and for him to get a grip and sort through this.

  Naturally she didn't follow his plan.

  "I think I put together most of it. I'm sure someone at the station will fill me in on the rest. After all, as I proved today, I'm pretty good at getting people to tell me things when I set my…" She deliberately paused, then finished with, "Mind to it."

  "What the hell do you mean by that?" So much for reining in his temper. "What exactly went on in here?"

  "Guess you'll have to read it in my report." Then she was gone.

  Brady stormed after her, but stopped short when he caught Gina's folded arms and accusing glare.

  He watched as she stomped over to Erin, then he turned back inside the office, motioning several uniforms in with him. This was not the time or place to deal with this. He had a job to do. And yet he knew the instant Erin left the building.

  Hell, this whole place smelled like Erin's perfume. He should have gone downtown with her, stood by her while she gave her statement. When the adrenaline and shock wore off she'd be shaky and scared. He knew all the signs, all the aftereffects. He was beginning to feel them himself.

  "Detective?"

  He turned to the uniform waiting for his next order. Gina was with Erin. She'd be okay. But for the first time ever he resented the job for coming first. He looked once more to the door, then turned back. "Yeah, I'm coming."

  16

  Erin was just tying the belt to her bathrobe when the doorbell rang. She froze, her heart speeding up, then just as quickly made herself calm down. It was just Gina. Not a crazy man with a gun.

  And not Brady.

  She hadn't seen him at the station at all. He had left a brief, terse message on her machine, telling her he'd call her later tonight if he could. She wasn't sure she'd be ready to deal with him even then. Her feelings were still ragged, which was why she'd called Gina and begged her to come over. They'd been separated at the station and she'd missed getting the chance to speak to her again. She really needed someone to talk to right now, and a police guidance counselor was not what she had in mind.

  Reporters had dogged the front of the police station and, according to the news on the radio, they were piled up on the steps of city hall as well. She'd taken the back way out and was thankful there wasn't anyone parked at her door when she got home. She'd told herself she wasn't disappointed that Brady hadn't been parked on her doorstep, either.

  She peeked through the eyehole, prepared to see Gina's smiling face, only to spy Brady standing there instead. She pulled her hand away from the chain, her heart speeding right back up again.

  She had fallen, and fallen hard, for Brady O'Keefe. Occupational hazards and all. In fact, having done a lot of thinking on it, she'd come to the conclusion that she'd be a damn good partner for him in that respect. She could more than handle her own in difficult situations. She wasn't the clingy, needy sort. She could be there for him and not fall apart just because he was called out on an assignment. Or two, or ten dozen. She wasn't fooling herself that it would be easy, but she was prepared to work hard to make this relationship work.

  That was the pro argument. It was the con argument she had yet to come to terms with. As much as she'd like to think of herself as an asset to him, as a woman and lover, as a friend and confidante…she also knew now she was a liability to him. She represented a weakness in his armor. Not just as a potential hostage. She realized her involvement in this case was a rarity, not likely to be repeated. But it had brought home to her that simply by being involved with him, she commanded a certain amount of his concentration, thereby diverting that focus from the job. He wasn't as safe if his attention wasn't completely on the job. And she'd seen firsthand today how well he'd coped with mixing their personal relationship with his job.

  "Erin?"

  She jumped, then looked out the eyehole again. He was raking his hand through his already rumpled hair. His face was set, but she saw the fatigue lining his eyes.

  Fatigue and worry. And she knew he was worried about her.

  Pro versus con. Safety versus risk. Love versus integrity. What should she do?

  She slid the chain free and opened the door.

  Brady stood there and stared at her. As usual, all his carefully planned words disappeared in a blink. Her hair was in a damp tangle around her shoulders, making her eyes look huge and luminous. Her robe was so thick and tightly belted it made her look slender and fragile by comparison. The urge to pull her into his arms, apologize for the appalling situation she'd found herself in today and for the way he'd handled it, promise her he'd never ever let anything happen to her again, was so strong he had to curl his fingers inward and force his feet to remain planted where they were. Because he couldn't promise he could keep her safe. He'd learned that the hard way today. He couldn't wrap her in a cocoon of safety and she'd never want that anyway.
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  "Hi," she said softly.

  "Hi." He couldn't stop looking at her. His entire body was one giant knot of need, and the need had grown way past sexual. "Can I come in?"

  She seemed to be in a haze too, because she quickly stepped back as if suddenly realizing they were just standing in the doorway. "Sure, sure." She motioned to the living room. "I'm going to change. Help yourself to a beer or whatever. I'll only be a minute. Just, um, I'll be right back." She was babbling and she almost tripped—twice—on her way to the bedroom.

  He should be heartened that he was not the only one feeling mixed up and confused. But he wasn't. He realized now that he'd been half hoping he'd show up and she'd simply present him with another one of her nifty plans and he'd go along with it and everything would be all fine and dandy. Problems solved. At least temporarily.

  He took a beer out of the fridge and swallowed half of it in one long pull. Then he set the bottle on the counter and promptly forgot about it when her bedroom door opened. She came out in jeans and a large gray sweatshirt, her hair making damp marks on the shoulders. Her feet were still bare, as was her face. And he thought she was the most beautiful woman on the planet.

  "I need to warn you," she said. "Gina is on her way over, so if you think it would be better, maybe we should delay our little talk."

  He fought the urge to smile. She'd sounded almost hopeful about putting this off. He should be agreeing and getting the hell out of there, except he just now realized he knew what he wanted to say. And it wasn't goodbye. Not now, not ever. Looking into her eyes, his heart swelled as if everything was suddenly right in his world because she was in it. And it was. Why he'd been wanting to fight that was lost on him at that moment. He only knew he had to tell her and he wasn't leaving here until he did. But first things first. "Gina isn't coming over," he said, his mind already racing ahead.

  "Oh?"

  "She, uh, she called me. Said you needed to talk. As it happens, I needed to talk to you, too, so we figured maybe we'd just talk to each other and leave her out of it."