Deadly Lies (Deadly #3)(84)

“I hope it’s quick,” Donnelley said, but the words sounded funny. Distorted. “You shouldn’t have to suffer.”

? ? ?

It was a little after nine p.m. when Sam knocked on the door of Max’s apartment. The doorman had let her through when she flashed her badge, and now she stood in the hallway, shifting from foot to foot. She was wired, a quick process, and she knew every sound that she made was being transmitted back to the team outside.

Sam took a deep breath and leaned forward slightly. The thick carpeting in the hallway muffled her movements. She knocked on the door again. Harder now. Louder.

She couldn’t hear any sounds from inside the apartment. “Max?” She pounded again. “I need to talk to you. Let me in.” The doorman had assured her that he was home.

The minutes ticked by. Max was home, but not answering. Shit.

She grabbed the door knob. Twisted it. Locked.

“Hyde, I don’t like this.” Her heart drummed even as her fist thudded into the door. “I don’t like—”

Glass shattered inside.

Sam kicked at the door. Once, twice. The damn thing wasn’t opening. The wood was too thick. “Hyde, something’s wrong!” Max was in there. Too quiet. An image of Beth’s blood-soaked body flashed in front of her eyes.

Sam kicked again, as hard as she could, and the lock shattered. The door opened with a groan, and Sam ran inside, her gun drawn.

The first thing that she noticed was the broken balcony door. Shards of sharp glass glittered on the floor. “Max!”

“S-Sam…”

She saw him in the shadows. Max lay face down on the floor, and his outstretched arms were just inches from the broken glass.

“Hyde, Hyde, get up here! Max is hurt!” She ran to Max, knowing Hyde could hear every word. She put her gun down and flipped him over. “Max, what happened?”

But his eyes were closed and his mouth had gone slack. “Max!” Her fingers fumbled. She found his pulse. Slow. Her hands searched his body but she found no wounds. No blood. She eased back, and her foot brushed against something. A broken drinking glass. Understanding hit—drugged.

Just like the other victims. They’d been drugged, and they hadn’t remembered…

She caught his face in her hands. “Max, I need you to hold on, do you hear me? Just hold on. Help’s coming.” Fear had her voice shaking because she didn’t know what he’d been given. Something to knock him out, to immobilize him? Or something to kill him? “Stay with me.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Their cry trickled through the broken door.

Check the apartment. She knew that she had to secure the scene, but she couldn’t leave Max. Wouldn’t leave him. Sam reached for her gun and held it tight. She kept her left hand on Max—her fingers were over his chest so she could feel the slow thud of his heart.

“I’m not leaving you,” Sam whispered, her grip on the gun never easing. “And you’re not leaving me.”


Quinlan hurried down the street, hunching his shoulders as he sank deeper into his coat. Damn that bitch. He’d been so close… and then she’d come pounding at the door.

He turned left and slipped into the alley.

A police cruiser raced by. Dammit. Quinlan’s breath blew out and a small cloud appeared in the cold air.

Somehow, Max had reached for that lamp. He’d grabbed it and sent the thing slamming into the fragile balcony door.

Then the bitch had started screaming.

He’d barely had time to hit the lights, plunging the apartment into darkness, before she’d gotten inside. Knocked the door down. Almost impressive.

She’d run for his brother. The agent hadn’t even bothered to search the shadows, and Quinlan had just walked right out the front door. The door she’d left open.

The bitch hadn’t seen him. But he’d seen her and her gun.

Wrong time.

He’d take care of her soon.

Since she’d been there, he figured some of the other FBI pricks had been around, too. He’d run down the service stairs and slipped out the back exit, making sure to duck and avoid the security cameras. No cars had been within sight, and it had only taken about ten seconds to jump the rear fence, even with his injuries.

He knew how to avoid the security at that building. He’d known that he’d have to take out big brother sooner or later, so Quinlan had made sure he could get in and out of Max’s building any time he wanted.

Can’t f*cking catch me.

The chill night air bit into his skin. He wouldn’t be able to stay out there long, not with the cops likely to search all the nearby streets. Good thing he knew exactly where he was heading.

? ? ?

“Clear!” Luke shouted as he strode back from the guest rooms. “No one else is here, sir.”

Hyde nodded grimly. “Did you see anyone when you entered, Kennedy?”

“No, just… him.” Her fingers were wrapped around Max’s. He was still out. Not so much as a flicker of his eyelashes. The EMTs had him loaded on a stretcher. Kim had already bagged the glass on the bar and the shards left on the floor.

“The guy at the desk downstairs ID’d Nathan Donnelley,” Ramirez told them as he stalked into the apartment. “Said Donnelly came in about an hour ago, and he never left.”