Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (23 page)

“We'll go through everyone's statements down at the station.” The officer cuffed Cam's hands behind his back and Kreider nodded his approval.

Cam shook his head. “I hate this island.”

“That makes two of us.” But hating Calapan wasn't new. Questioning her trust in Cam, even for a second, was, and she didn't like it.

Chapter Six

Cam knew he'd never hear the end of this. No way would Holt and Shane let getting arrested slide without giving him a load of crap. And he probably deserved it. He hadn't seen the setup coming.

That was what happened when a guy started thinking more about the woman by his side than the job in front of him. Lesson learned.

“You've been busy since you've been on the island.” Chief Kreider flipped through the paperwork in the file in front of him. “You stole a car, we have all those weapons to deal with, and now we have three murders.”

Julia's gaze switched from the chief to Cam and back again. “Three?”

She sat at the small desk outside of the cell. Cam watched her fidget in her chair. She'd crossed and uncrossed her legs ten times now and they'd only been in the satellite police office for about an hour. Long enough for Kreider to put together a file, apparently.

Good thing the Corcoran Team kept close tabs on that sort of thing. Anytime any name or alias got searched, it popped up on the screen back at the team's home office in Annapolis. That meant Connor and Joel and whoever else was there and not out on assignment were running checks and tracking his location.

Connor had put the elaborate system in place as a precaution. The work they did offered more danger than reward sometimes. Connor insisted they run drills, conduct fake searches to try to trip up the computer tracking system.

Basically, he wanted them ready at all times for anything. Cam appreciated his boss's paranoia now more than ever, because it meant Holt and Shane would have a position and some sense of what just went wrong.

“There are two bodies at your house, but I'm thinking you know that.” Kreider spared her a frown before he went back to reading.

Not that Julia was content to be ignored. Her foot hit the floor and she turned in her seat, fully facing the chief now. “Those men attacked and Cam protected me.”

“Cam as in Cameron Roth.” Kreider nodded as he flipped another page. “Your friend here also has several names. Did he bother to mention that?”

Cam wrapped his fingers around the bars as he studied the small space. One cell and a place for a guard to sit, the place where Julia sat now. During the walk into this place, Cam had noticed an outer room and two doors leading to somewhere—he wasn't sure where—but this building on the outskirts of nowhere couldn't be a thousand square feet or house that many officers on a regular basis.

“I gave you the number to call,” Cam said for the third time, suspecting Kreider would ignore him this time, too.

“Of your boss, who would explain. Yeah, I got it.” Kreider shut the file. “I'd rather hear the story from you. But first, you.” He turned to Julia and didn't say another word.

She frowned. “Me?”

Cam's hands clenched tighter around the bars. “Leave her out of this.”

“You're the one who dragged her into it.” Kreider focused his attention on her. Didn't break eye contact. “Or do you and Cameron here have a relationship of some sorts that might keep you from being honest with me?”

Her eyes went dark. “What exactly are you asking?”

“I'm trying to figure out why Gideon...I mean, Cameron skipped our meeting and showed up at your house instead. Maybe this is a plan the two of you had.” Kreider looked back and forth between them. “Though I can't figure out why you would want to hurt Rudy or what you two might be planning here on Calapan.”

“You can't be this incompetent.” Everything about this guy ticked Cam off. He had a look of practiced ignorance. From the oversize belly and stain on his shirt to the swagger in his walk. He looked like a man who had traded a favor for a comfy desk job long ago and hadn't worked in the field or on a real case since.

“I wouldn't call catching a multiple murderer incompetent.” Kreider stood up. The look of satisfaction on his face mirrored the way he held his body, all confident and sure. “The Seattle police don't. There's a detective here to question you about some cases that look a lot like this one.”

Julia stilled. Her feet stopped moving and her palms came to rest on the table in front of her. “What are you talking about?”

“He's making it up.” But Cam knew he wasn't. At the mention of a detective, Cam's blood ran cold. He knew of one other man running around the island wearing a uniform and pretending to be in charge, and that guy was lethal enough, steady enough, to kill a man Cam was holding.

“You'll see when the detective gets here.” Kreider did a little stretch, complete with a grunt. “He's been at the ferry waiting for you to get in. Apparently you slipped past him.”

That clinched it. Detective, ferry...the guy who was after him was going to walk right into the station and grab him the easy way. Might just put a bullet through his head and end it. Cam feared what would happen to Julia then.

Now to convince Kreider. “You're being set up.”

“Julia, now would be a good time for you to pick sides.” Kreider nodded in Cam's direction. “Is this really the guy you want to tie your future to?”

“He saved me.”

Kreider shook his head and shot her a look of pity. “Or did he make it look that way so he could really kill the two men with the Seattle detective? Maybe your so-called rescuer is really a man on the run and he's using you.”

She slumped back in her chair. “You're saying the guy at my house really was police?”

Cam could not let her thinking wander in that direction. “He claimed to be you, Kreider.”

“Did you hear him do that, Julia?” Kreider kept up that pitying stare. “You think about that and we'll talk more in a second.”

Silence screamed through the room the minute Kreider stepped out. Cam had hated the guy before. He detested him now, but the reason had changed.

Looked as though he had underestimated the other man, as well. A few well-placed words and doubt filled her eyes. Cam could see the change wash over her as she questioned every conversation. “Julia, you can't believe—”

The chair squeaked as she turned around to face him. “Who is Gideon...whatever the last name is?”

This part likely wouldn't make sense to anyone outside the business. Cam's brain scrambled as he tried to figure out a way to deliver the information without sounding like a bad television show. “Gideon Rodgers. My cover name.”

“Why did you need cover if you were on Calapan on an official assignment?”

She asked the right questions and didn't just agree with whatever he said. The smarts were so hot, but right now they had the power to trip him up even though he was telling the truth. “We didn't know who was involved. Rudy's intel suggested powerful people on the island were in on the drug dealing. That meant assuming the police had been compromised.”

She stood up and walked over to him. Stayed just out of touching range with her hands in her pockets. “You see how everything you've done and told me fits into Chief Kreider's scenario as easily as it does yours, right?”

“Yes.” Cam leaned in, trying to get closer, to will her to believe in him. “But if I'm right, we're about to be in the middle of a bloodbath.”

The wariness didn't leave her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“If the guy who escaped at your house is who I say he is, then he is after us, or at least me, and I don't think he cares who he takes out in this station to get to me.” That guy wisely saw Cam as a threat and wanted him out of the way.

The attacker had killed his own man to make a point. He'd go through Kreider and Julia and anyone else. Which was why Cam needed to get out, get away from her before she became collateral damage, and find his men. They had to piece together what they'd walked into the middle of, and fast, before it exploded on them.

Some of the tension left her face. “What do you want me to do?”

With that question, delivered in a soft tone, relief washed through him. He bent over slightly as he blew out a long breath. “Come close enough so I can grab you.”

“What?”

“We'll make it look like I forced you to let me out. We'll play it for the cameras, but I won't actually hurt you.” It was the only way to keep from dragging her deeper into this logistical and legal mess.

Right now she had deniability on the criminal charges. She could, and he would make sure she did, claim that he kidnapped her. Anything to take away the sting of her being an accomplice.

“You still have to get out of the building,” she pointed out.

She wasn't wrong and he'd thought that through. Being on the run would stink, but it was better than going down in a hail of bullets in the corner of this cell. “This is a police outpost. There's barely anyone here. And this guy was dumb enough to leave us together even though he thinks he can turn you against me.”

“Okay, but...” She rocked back on her heels as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Even if you make it to the outside, then what?”

“I'll figure it out.” He could run fast and far and hide in the trees while he reconnected with Holt. “Julia, I know this looks bad and I'm asking for blind faith when you barely know me, but—”

“Be quiet.” She put her head in her hands for a second. When she straightened up again, a new determination thrummed off her. She walked to the far side of the room and hit the button. The one that opened the cell.

He heard a click and the lock disengaged. The cell door moved under his hands.

But this was the wrong way to do this. “What are you doing?”

“Picking a side.” She held out a hand to him. “Let's go.”

He didn't argue. He should have, but it was too late. Anyone watching the security tape would see she'd staged the escape. That meant his sole task now was to protect her.

After a quick look out the door, they slipped out of the room. He wanted to go right and storm through the front door. He didn't really see another way.

She pulled him to the left. “There should be a door to the parking lot from here.”

With quiet footsteps, they walked down the short hall and into what looked like a closet turned storage of sorts. One with three lockers and civilian clothes hanging on pegs on the wall.

They kept going until they hit the door at the far side. Cam disengaged the lock and waited for alarm bells to ring. Nothing happened.

With the door opened, they walked into the cool dark night. More time had passed than he thought, but he had a bigger question. “How do you know about that exit?”

They flattened against the outside wall. Cam stared across the small parking lot. Only two cars and one official vehicle sat there.

“I grew up here. I've been in the police station before.” Her voice stayed flat.

For some reason her comment made him smile. “Misspent youth?”

“More like picking my dad up after he got caught driving around drunk.” She pointed toward the line of trees to their left. “This way.”

“Hold up.” He caught her just before she cleared the side of the building and walked into the open area. He peeked around the corner. “It's clear.”

They ducked and ran. He didn't have a weapon to fire for cover and had no idea where the fake Seattle policeman was lingering about, so they took off. No talking. Just darted out.

They made it the whole way and dived into the trees on the side of the lot before he remembered her ankle. She paced around in a circle now with a slight limp, likely trying to walk off the ache.

Guilt smacked into him. “You okay?”

She nodded. “That wasn't too bad.”

He had the exact opposite reaction. “Actually, it was too easy.”

She froze. “Meaning?”

Incompetent police or not, there was no way they should have been able to escape custody that easily. An alarm hadn't even sounded yet. “We need to find a place to hide.”

* * *

J
ULIA
POUNDED
HER
fist on one of the towering double doors of the sprawling two-story log home with the A-frame front. She was tired and hungry and two seconds away from being full-on grumpy. Her ankle thumped and the realization that she'd broken Cam out of jail kept running through her head.

She'd likely have a criminal record now. She, the person who led her entire life by the rules and without fanfare. She looked over and glared at the guy who'd brought so much trouble into her life.

His eyes widened. “What?”

“As if you don't know.”

She was about to say more, but the door opened. Sandy Bartlet stood there. Her father's friend and exact opposite. He had more gray around his temples and lines at the corners of his eyes, but he wore the same wide smile he always did as he ushered them inside and wrapped her in a giant bear hug.

He stepped back and looked her up and down. “You didn't tell me you were back in town.”

“Only to clean up Dad's house for sale so I can settle the estate.”

Sandy and her dad had grown up together, raised like brothers. She viewed him as the uncle she'd never had. The one stable force in her life when her mother left and her father's disposition turned more and more sour.

He was the one who had given her dad a job and cleaned him up when he fell down. He was everything her father wasn't—successful and dependable being the main two things. He'd owned the shipyard on the island and made a fortune when he sold it to the company that eventually ran it into the ground and put her father back on the unemployment line.

Sandy squeezed her one last time, then let his arms drop to the sides. “I would have helped you, but whatever you planned on doing with the house might be impossible now.”

Something clunked inside her. She felt it around her stomach. “You heard.”

“The news is all over the island.” Sandy put his hands on his hips and switched his gaze back and forth between her and Cam. “What really happened?”