Locke and Load (10 page)

He opened his mouth to respond, then closed it, suspicion getting the best of him. “You know I can’t say.”

“Right.” A frustrated breath rang in his ear. “You need to come in. Both of you. Like I said, there’s more.”

“We’ll be there within a half hour.”

“Okay. Pull the battery from your phone,” his partner ordered, tone grave enough to make the hair stand up on his arms. “And Cage?”

“Yeah?”

Be careful.”

B
y the time Cage parked at the precinct, Nikki’s nerves were on high alert. She’d tried to reach Knight, to see if he knew about the anthrax, or had any information about Hutchins or Wilson, but the screen on the bracelet TJ had given her was black. Dead. Nothing.

It’d been fine yesterday when she’d checked in. Her mind couldn’t come up with any explanation as to why it suddenly didn’t work today.

And because she’d given Rivera her phone at the warehouse three days ago, she had no means of communication.

Yet.

Cage glanced around the parkade, then stared at her. “I don’t know what’s going on. Just be on alert.”

She’d been on alert since the damn phone call, and Cage’s strange behavior. She got the impression he hadn’t told her everything.

When they made it from the car to the building, then all the way to Rivera’s office without incident, Nikki breathed a sigh of relief.

“Captain, what the hell’s going on?” Cage asked as they walked past Delaney to stand in front of the captain’s desk.

Rivera rose to his feet, relief easing the lines around his mouth. “Ah, good. You’re here. Both of you.”

“How’s Hutchins?” she asked, holding the man’s direct gaze.

“In surgery.”

Nikki blew out a breath and tried not to think about the last time she was in that very office, and how the senior detective had been fine, and his partner hadn’t been missing.

Cage glanced from Delaney to Rivera. “How exactly did he get shot?”

“No idea. It’s a mystery. Like Johnson,” the captain replied. “He was found on that damn dock. No security footage. And Hutchins hasn’t been conscious to shed any light on who shot him or Wilson’s disappearance, or why the hell they were even there.”

“If it
was
a disappearance,” Delaney spoke up, pushing from the wall.

She noticed a slight stiffening to Cage’s shoulders as a deep frown creased his brow. “What do you mean?”

“I realize I’m the newbie here, but evidence is evidence, and lack of evidence is suspicious,” the northerner stated, blue gaze dark, without the usual spark of amusement.

He had a good point.

“And?” Cage prompted.

The captain muttered a curse and dropped back down into his chair. “There was other blood on the dock…Wilson’s blood. And Hutchins’ piece was fired.”

Damn. Her gaze bounced between the men. Disbelief and suspicion mixed to form a trio of skeptical expressions.

“Look,” Delaney said, running a hand through his hair, “I’m not saying the shootout happened between them, but we need to consider it.”

She stepped to the desk. “Captain, if I can have my phone, I’ll call my guy and have him run a sweep of the area for whatever timeframe you deem pertinent.”

“Of course.” He opened the top drawer of his desk and withdrew her phone. “We’d appreciate any help we can get. Tell him to start the search around four o’clock yesterday afternoon.”

“Did Hutchins or Wilson say why they were going back there?” Cage asked.

“No.” Delaney shook his head. “And I pulled their phone records. But there was nothing to indicate a need to head to that location.”

She moved to the corner of the office to dial TJ and request the surveillance.

“Sure thing, sweet thing,” TJ said into her ear. “Just watch your back and keep your eyes open. There are indications of another attack.”

Shit. She opened her mouth to inform the captain when a knock sounded at his door.

“Captain Rivera, can you come out here, please?” Three men in black suits stood in the hall, gazes expressionless except when they stared at her with…alarm.

Nikki’s heart rocked in her chest, then raced with rising fear.

And when they realized she had a phone in her hand, one of the men pulled a gun and aimed it at her. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to put down the phone.”

“What the hell?” Cage stepped in front of her like a shield as Delaney stepped in front of him the same way.

“TJ, get Knight down here now—” she managed before the suits advanced and shouting ensued. She set the phone on the captain’s desk…without disconnecting, then raised her hands and backed away. “What’s this about?”

“It’s just a precaution, ma’am, but we need you to come with us.” The taller man, the one who appeared to be in charge, stepped forward, forcing his men to lower their weapons. “Put them away. I’m sure Ms. Locke won’t give us any trouble.”

“If she doesn’t, I will,” Cage growled, reaffirming his stance in front of her. His broad shoulders blocked her view.

She peeked around his side. “Tell me who you are first.”

“Homeland. I’m Agent Pryor. That’s O’Toole and Beers. We’ll explain everything in a minute. We’re just going to take you down the hall. Your watchdogs can follow.”

She glanced to Rivera. He lifted his shoulders and shook his head, but she got the impression they’d told him something because his gaze held a glint of suspicion.

With the intrusion hindering the investigation, Nikki saw only one way to get answers. She stepped around Cage and strode to the agents. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Nikki, wait.” Cage lunged for her, gripping her arm to turn her around. “What are you doing?”

“Getting answers. It’s okay. I’ll be all right,” she said, touching his hand. “Their appearance here can’t be a coincidence. Let’s hear what they have to say.”

Reluctance tightened his jaw, but he released her. She glanced at a concerned Delaney and nodded before following Agent Pryor from the room.

Two minutes later, a slice of anger heated her spine when she found herself escorted into the wrong side of the damn window in a Jacksonville PD interrogation room.

“W
hat the hell is going on, Captain?” Cage barked, pacing outside interrogation room three. Anger heated the blood racing through his veins. “Why is Nikki in there?”

“Yeah, what do they want with her?” Delaney backed him up.

The captain walked to the observation room door and opened it. “See for yourself.”

His heart dropped to his feet and remained there as he forced his limbs to move forward. “What’s going on, sir? I’d like to hear it from you.”

Rivera nodded as he closed the door behind them. “There was another anthrax threat.”

Threat
, not scare, so that meant no one was hurt, yet.

“Shit.” Jersey slumped against the far wall of the ten-by-ten room that housed a desk with two computers, and a large one-way window with a view into the interrogation room.

“What does it have to do with Nikki?” He pointed to the woman he loved, sitting at a table across from two Homeland agents.

In a room he usually used to interrogate suspects.

“You can’t possibly think it was her?”

“It wasn’t.”

He rounded on his boss. “Then why the fuck are they treating her like a criminal?”

“Because she’s married to one.”

He reeled back. “What?”

Married?

“Santiago Rojas is her husband,” Rivera replied, but it still made no damn sense.

Nikki would never go for a man like Rojas. Sure, she may have married. Hell, he had. And he’d also told her. Last night. But she’d never said a word. Just, initiated sex…

Shit.

But…Rojas?

No way.

The captain stepped to the computer in the corner and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. A second later, Cage’s world crumbled around him as he stared at a photo of Nikki, smiling up into the face of the known arms dealer/drug lord.

Her hair was shorter…like it had been when she’d left him four years ago.

“Wait a minute. There has to be some mistake,” Jersey said, stepping closer. “Maybe she was at the same party with the guy.”

Their boss clicked the mouse, and a marriage license filled the screen. “No mistake. Sorry, Cage,” he said, cupping his shoulder. “He was arrested two years ago, and somehow managed to escape. Homeland believes he’s in town, and they don’t think it’s a coincidence that the lieutenant is too.”

Delaney laughed without mirth. “Look, I don’t care what they’re saying, or what’s in their damn file, that woman in there is not responsible for any damn anthrax scare.” Jersey jammed a thumb at the view of Nikki sitting at a table, across from Pryor and Beers as the large agent, O’Toole, stood near the door. “Right, Cage?”

He blinked, trying to refocus on his partner and the conversation, but all that kept going through his mind was that Nikki was married, and never told him, even when he’d told her about his marriage.

What else hadn’t she told him?

He suddenly knew there was more. Much more.

“Cage?” Jersey stepped closer. “Come on, man, you don’t honestly think she’d spread that shit, do you?”

The woman might be a liar, and even a cheat, but she wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer. That much he did know. He shook his head. “No.”

“Listen,” her voice carried over the speaker as she stared down the men interrogating her, “there were two detectives shot in this precinct. One murdered, the other fighting for his life, and a third one that’s missing. Why are you wasting my time in here? I’m on loan at the governor’s request to assist Captain Rivera. I have an investigation to conduct.”

“Had…you
had
an investigation,” Pryor corrected, speaking up for the first time. “Now, you’re going to help us.”

“If you wanted help with your anthrax situation, you sho—”

“Whoa,” Beers, the wiry agent, cut her off as he leaned closer. “What do you know about the anthrax situation?”

She leveled him with a stare. “What the police know.”

“You said you were down here to work on a murder investigation.”

“I am.”

“Then why would they share any anthrax information with you?”

“I don’t know. Go ask them.”

“I’m asking you.”

“You’re also wasting valuable time, asshat.” She sat back and folded her arms across her chest, anger stiffening her shoulders. “Quite beating around the damn bush. What do you need my help with?”

“Your husband,” Pryor replied.

She blinked, and her head snapped in Pryor’s direction. “What?”

The lead investigator opened the folder in front of him, then slid a photo across the table to Nikki. “Your husband. Santiago Rojas.”

Cage stopped breathing, watching her face, studying her expression, posture, nuances…waiting to see how she responded.

Her face and gaze were closed up tight. “Why?”

Shit.
That wasn’t exactly a denial of marriage.

“We’re asking the questions, Ms. Locke,” Agent Beers hissed, jamming a finger into the table in an attempt to appear tough. But with his small stature, he failed. “Or should we call you Mrs. Rojas?”

Her head snapped back and she glared at the guy. “The marriage was annulled.”

Ah, hell
…she actually married the Columbian?

Cage’s insides fisted against the invisible blow. If she could even consider being with a man like Rojas, then maybe he didn’t really know her at all.

Beers gloated. “There’s no record of any annulment in the system. Just your marriage license.”

“That bastard,” she muttered, clamping her jaw, and he took a little solace in the fact that she appeared to not want to be married to the guy. Then she stilled, and transferred her gaze to Pryor. “Why did you drag me in here to ask about him? What has he done?”

“As if you didn’t know, honey,” the wiry prick, Beers replied instead.

Cage cursed and curled both hands into fists. Just because he wasn’t too happy with Nikki at the moment didn’t mean he appreciated some pomp
ass
, condescending suit talking down at her.

Delaney turned to the captain. “Can I go in there and toss back a Beers?”

“I’ll hold him down,” Rivera offered, never taking his gaze from the agent.

“Pryor?” She ignored the prick and continued to focus on the man in charge. “What is going on?”

Good question.

Tension squeezed Cage’s shoulders and radiated into his throbbing skull. An arms dealer?
Christ
, the soft, giving woman he slept with, lost himself in…fell for an arms dealer? How?

Maybe the better question was…how the fuck could he fall for a woman who married an arms dealer?

The lead agent twisted in his seat to stare directly at her. “Last night, two miles off the coast, the cutter believed to be the base for the group responsible for last week’s anthrax threat on the business district was boarded. Everyone was killed.”

The captain muttered a curse next to him. “Why the hell wasn’t I notified?”

Instinct told him something much bigger was going on.

Nikki tilted her head. “The group that was killed, did they murder Detective Johnson?”