Deadly Lies (Deadly #3)(34)

Well damn. “Sam texted that Dunlap was the one to pick up the box.”

“Yeah, and I’m guessing the lady didn’t know just what she was giving away when she did.” Kim shook her head. “So far, Beth has been coming up clean on the check.”

Not so much for Kailey.

“But I did more digging after I got the hit,” Kim said. “I’m not as fast or as good as Sam on a computer, but I did find some info. Seems Ms. Kailey married a man named Gunther Dunlap when she was twenty. An older guy, with a little money. When he died a year later in a car crash, she kept the cash and got a new name.”

So her current last name had come courtesy of the dead husband. And now Kailey was living with another older, richer man.

“Kailey isn’t the only one in that house with a record,” Kim told them as she leaned forward, her face intent. “And I think we need to get this info to Sam right away.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Who else?” The security guard? He’d had the look of a man who’d been around the block and seen the dark streets, but…

“Maxwell Ridgeway isn’t quite the clean-cut man that the business papers would have you believe.”

Luke’s gaze dropped to the paper that she’d shoved his way. He scanned the lines, his heart pumping faster. Shit.

“Had to unseal some records.” Kim gave a careless shrug but he knew that the job hadn’t been easy. “Seems that once Max’s mother married Frank Malone, well, Max’s past vanished.”

Not completely. Nothing and no one ever vanished completely.

“Manslaughter,” Luke said, and felt a throb begin in his temples. Did Sam know about his past?

No, no, she couldn’t know.

“What is it?” Monica asked, craning her neck to read the paper in his hand.

Kim handed her a copy of the file then passed other copies to the rest of the team as she said, “When he was fourteen, Maxwell Ridgeway beat a man to death with a baseball bat.”

Damn.

Kim waited a beat. “And that’s the man that Sam is currently protecting, 24–7, with no backup in sight.”


Sam answered her phone on the first ring. “Hello.” She was careful to sound like a civilian and not provide her usual, automatic agent identification.

“Get to a secure room,” Luke barked in her ear. “Get in there, alone, and get there now.”

She turned away from Max and automatically shut the door. “I’m secure.” But not alone. Frank had gone after Beth. And she wasn’t leaving Max right then.

“He’s got a record, Sam. One that his old man worked damn hard to keep hidden.”

Her shoulders hunched. “Quinlan?” She’d wondered about that. Two of the other kidnapped men had been arrested for drug possession.

“No, Max.”

She blinked. “You sure?”

“Samantha?” Max questioned. The thick carpet muffled his steps “Who is it? What’s going on?”

She glanced over her shoulder. Had Luke heard Max’s voice? She shook her head but kept her eyes on his.

“He killed a man,” Luke told her. “Do you hear me? He killed a man.”

Her lips felt numb so it was hard to ask. “When?”

“Hell… years ago. He was fourteen. Ridgeway used a bat to hit some guy named John Dean. The courts tried Ridgeway as a minor, and he got kicked out of the system when he was eighteen. Then when his mom hooked up with Malone, well, some judge magically sealed his files.”

But the SSD knew how to unseal any file.

“Watch your ass with him, got me?” Luke pressed.

Max’s blue gaze bored into her.

“And Beth Dunlap isn’t who she says, either,” Luke continued. “Her real name’s Kailey Elizabeth Gentry. She was busted for soliciting when she was eighteen.”

No one was ever who they seemed to be. Not even me.

Her breath choked out.

“Samantha?” Max’s brows shot up. “What is it?” Worry darkened his eyes. “Is it Quinlan? Has something happened to him?”

She shook her head.

“He’s there,” Luke growled in her ear.

Yes, Max stood right in front of her now and crowded her against the wall. She still had her weapon, but it was in the purse on the desk and no use to her.

You don’t need a weapon. He hasn’t hurt you. He’s not even touching you.

Luke’s sigh carried easily over the phone. “Stay on guard, every minute. Don’t trust this guy. Don’t trust anyone there.”

Once upon a time, trust had come easily for her. Those days were gone. She didn’t need Luke’s warning.

Screwing a killer. Is that how messed up her life had become?

She’d thought Max was the toughest-looking guy in the bar. The strongest. The sexiest.

But had there been more? Had she been drawn to him because he was dark inside? Dark, just like she was?

Her stomach clenched. “I can take care of myself,” she told Luke.

“If you need me, you call me,” Luke ordered. “Fuck the case. Call me.”

Sam pressed the screen and ended the call.

Max reached for her, and she flinched—an instinctive reaction.

His expression hardened. “You know.” A wealth of understanding and a simmer of rage filled the simple words.