Lethal(118)

“I emailed you the file a few minutes ago.”

“Nothing’s come in from you on my phone.”

“I didn’t send it to your regular email address. You know where to look.”

“So it’s good stuff?”

“Yes.”

“But it doesn’t ID The Bookkeeper.”

“How’d you know?”

“If it had, you’d have told me that first.”

“You’re right. We weren’t that lucky. But this will make him traceable. I’m almost positive.”

“Good work, Coburn. Now tell me—”

“No time. I’ve got to go.”

“Wait! You can’t do this without backup. You could be walking into another trap.”

“That’s a chance I gotta take.”

“No way. And I’m not going to argue with you over this. I spoke with Deputy Crawford. I think I can safely vouch for him. Call him and—”

“Not until Emily is back with Honor. Then she’ll notify the authorities.”

“You can’t confront these people alone.”

“That’s the condition of the swap.”

“That’s the condition of every swap!” Hamilton shouted. “Nobody sticks to the conditions.”

“I do. This time I do.”

“You could get that little girl killed!”

“Maybe. But it’s a sure thing she’ll die if cops and feds swarm the scene.”

“Doesn’t have to be that way. We can—”

Coburn disconnected, then turned off the phone. “Bet he had some choice words for me,” he said to Honor as he tossed the phone onto the backseat.

“He thinks you should call in reinforcements.”

“Just like in the movies. Give him his head, he’d have S.W.A.T. guys, choppers, every badge within fifty miles converging on the scene, an army of Stallones who’d only f*ck it up.”

After a moment, she said quietly, “I was very angry at you.”

He glanced over at her with silent inquiry.

“When you ruined Eddie’s football.”

“Yeah, I know. My cheek still stings where you slapped it.”

“I thought you were being unreasonably cruel. But actually your intuition was right. You just picked the wrong sport.”

It hadn’t been intuition that had caused him to plunge the knife into that football. It had been jealousy. Raw, fierce, animalistic jealousy over her facial expression as she’d stroked the football’s lacing and lovingly reminisced about her late husband. But they’d both be better off if he didn’t correct her misconception. Let her think he was an intuitive jerk rather than a jealous wannabe lover.

She was rubbing her upper arms, a sign of her anxiety. “Honor.” When she turned her head toward him, he said, “I can call Hamilton back. Have him send in the cavalry.”

“Two days ago, you wouldn’t have given me an option,” she said, her tone throaty and intimate. “Coburn, I—”

“Don’t. Whatever else you were about to say, don’t.” Her misty expression alarmed him more than if she’d launched an RPG at him. “Don’t look at me all calf-eyed. Don’t nurse any romantic notions about me just because I told you that you’re pretty or related a sob story about some old horse.

“The sex? Mind-blowing. I wanted you, and you wanted me back, and I think even before we kissed on the boat we both knew it was a sure thing, only a matter of time. And it felt terrific. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that I’m a different person than I was when I crawled up into your yard. I’m still mean. Still me.”

He made himself sound harsh, because it was important that she understand this. In an hour, possibly less, one way or another, he would exit her life as swiftly as he’d entered it. He wanted to make that exit painless for her, even if it meant wounding her now. “I haven’t changed, Honor.”

She gave him a wan smile. “I have.”


Tori’s eyes refused to open, but she received intermittent impressions of motion and light and noise, all of which were magnified to an excruciating level, followed then by a darkness so absolute it swallowed every stimulus until she was jarred into awareness again.

“Ms. Shirah, stay with us. You’ve been seriously injured, but you’re on your way to the trauma center. Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand?”

What a stupid request. But she obliged and was congratulated by a voice that then said, “She’s responding, Doctor. We’re two minutes out.”

She tried to lick her lips, but her tongue felt thick and uncooperative. “Emily.”

“Emily? She’s asking for Emily. Anybody know who Emily is?”

“There was nobody else in the house.”

The blackness descended again, causing the disconnected voices to waft in and out.

“No, Ms. Shirah, don’t try to move. We’ve had to secure you to the gurney. You sustained a gunshot wound to your head.”

Gunshot wound? Doral wearing a stupid ski mask. A fight with him over—

Emily! She had to get to Emily.

She tried to sit up but couldn’t. She tried to remain conscious but couldn’t. Oh, Jesus, here comes that blackness again.