Material Witness (28 page)

A sudden feeling of giddy relief
rushed through her.
It had to be insanity.

“I don't understand why you and
Charlotte are always at each other’s throats then.”

“Too much bad blood, I guess.”

“I can understand that of Tyler, if
they were lovers and it didn't work out.”

“It was more than that. Tyler
was…crazy in love with Charley. I'd never seen anything like it before.”

“What happened?”

“Tyler had an informant who had a lot
of information on a case the FBI was working on. Their investigation had
stalled and since this informant only trusted Ty, they needed him to get the
information they wanted. He and Charley hit it off from the word go.”

Jake's face changed, became vacant
and haunted. The hard lines around the corners of his mouth deepened. But
Cassie didn't press him further. She waited until he was ready to come back
from wherever he'd gone.

“There was going to be a major
shipment of cocaine. Ty had the information, passed it on to the FBI. A bust
this big is what makes careers. It all could have been Tyler's for the asking
for his part.”

“But he quit.”

“Yeah, he quit,” Jake said tightly.
“After being ambushed in an alley on the opposite side of town, he spent a
month in the hospital. Charley, on the other hand, took all the glory of the
bust.”

“But I thought they were working
together.”

“They were, but at the last minute,
she sent him on a wild goose chase. Told him his informant called and needed to
see him immediately. I was his partner so we both went.”

“Tyler's informant shot him?”

Jake shook his head, a flash of
bitterness shadowing his features. “It was a lie. Tyler's informant
had
called. But to tell him they'd moved up the shipment two days early and to a
new location because they suspected the raid. Charley took the call and never
told Tyler.”

“So when you got to the place you
thought you were supposed to meet his informant—”

“He never showed, of course. We
waited around until…”

Jake's whole body tensed as he spoke,
as if he was having a hard time reliving what had happened. Cassie understood
that feeling too well.

“She was in the wrong place at the
wrong time. We'd been waiting for over a half hour when we figured maybe we got
it wrong. It was late. We radioed back to the station that it was a no show.
That's when we found out the FBI had raided the cocaine shipment. Tyler was
furious.”

“I can't say I blame him.”

Jake's laugh was harsh and he shook
his head. “It was a lousy time to be lost in the dark, but there was this
woman, Debra Cantelli, who'd pulled up beside us asking for directions as we
were ready to leave. Said she got lost trying to find her Lamaze class. I
remember thinking at the time she looked just like my sister, Beth, who was
also pregnant. Out of nowhere a bunch of punks decided to use the alley as a
shooting gallery.”

Cassie gasped. “You were shot?”

“I took a few bullets to the vest.
Both Tyler and I were wearing Kevlar. Ty was a stickler for it when we were out
on the street. He was a damned good cop. I learned a lot from him.”

“Were you both hurt?”

Jake shrugged. “All things
considered, I fared pretty well. The vest took the bullets but the impact broke
two ribs, which pierced my lung, causing it to collapse. I couldn't breathe. I
remember lying on the ground…”

Jake closed his eyes tight. He hadn't
allowed himself to visit those dark memories in a long time. So much
destruction happened in those short seconds. He opened his eyes again in the
dim hotel room and could still see Tyler bleeding on the ground, still hear the
last gasp come from Debra Cantelli, who's life, along with that of her unborn
child, had ended in that moment.

Of course, Jake hadn't learned her
name until much later. Not until he was in intensive care and heard her husband
in the next room saying good-bye to his wife. One minute you're racing from a
board meeting that had gone too late, the next you’re holding your dead wife
and child for the last time.

“Debra Cantelli was Angel Fagnelio’s
half-sister.”

Cassie’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I didn’t know about the connection
between them until just the other day. My guess is Angel knew all along when I
was undercover and one of those bullets he blew into Rory’s was meant for me.”

Jake drew in a breath, good and deep,
like he couldn't do back then, as if to remind himself once again that he was
alive. He'd survived.

He glanced down at Cassie's ghostly
face, saw the same raw fear he'd seen the night of the shooting at Rory's.

“Hey, I'm here,” he said, giving her
a gentle squeeze. “I was the lucky one. One of the bullets that hit Ty skimmed
his vest and hit a major artery. Kevin had just heard us radio in when a call
came in about shots fired at our location. He was in the vicinity. When he got
there, he knew there was nothing anyone could do for Debra Cantelli, although I
don’t think Angel sees it quite like that. Kevin did save Tyler though. If
Kevin hadn't gotten there, Ty would have bled to death.”

“Like Emilio,” she whispered.

Jake cursed under his breath. “God,
Cassie, I'm sorry.”

She swallowed hard and he realized
she was trembling. “It's okay.”

“It's not okay. I didn't mean to have
you relive what you went through with your cousin. It's bad enough you've had
to do that all day today and then again tomorrow.”

“It'll all be over soon,” she said,
settling back against his chest.

He should tell her. Everything in him
screamed that he should tell her the truth. Cassie deserved to hear the truth.
She deserved to hear it from him. But he couldn't. After all she'd been
through, how could she make it through tomorrow knowing her life was about to
change forever? How could he take one night of peace away from her? From them?

And what if he did tell her? She
could always refuse to testify. Having her life back was pretty strong
motivation not to. And then she'd be out on her own and no matter how hard he
tried, he couldn't protect her.

“Jake?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you afraid? I mean of seeing
Angel Fagnelio face to face.”

“No. He's exactly where he should be,
behind bars. He can't hurt anyone else now.”

And that's where he was going to
stay.
He definitely couldn't tell Cassie tonight,
Jake decided.

Cassie played with the collar of his
shirt. The gravity of tomorrow's events would crash down on them sooner or
later. But Jake didn't really want to think about it now, didn't want Cassie to
have to carry that burden. Not when she was in his arms like this, where he
knew he could keep her safe. Tomorrow was a different story.

After a moment, she said, “Did you
ever think that maybe Charlotte lied because she was afraid if Tyler went to
that raid he'd be killed?”

“She was the one who sent him—”

“I know. She sent him to that alley.
But what happened there was just the crazy randomness of life. What were the
odds that something like that could happen, huh? A million to one?”

Jake didn't want to think about it.
Not because it wasn't a possibility, but because he'd been second guessing
himself where Charlotte Tate was concerned ever since their meeting at the
station earlier.

She'd shot and killed her own lover.
Good Lord, that had to mess up your head in ways he didn't want to explore. He
squeezed Cassie tighter and felt his heartbeat race, just thinking about what
had to be going through Charley's mind when she pulled that trigger.

Charlotte Tate afraid? Of course,
there was a very distinct possibility that Jake had been wrong all these years
about Charley's motives for lying to them. His anger made him assume it was
greed on her part. But maybe it had been as Cassie suggested. None of them were
immune to fear.

He thought about those long weeks of
recovery after the shooting. Charley had been by Tyler's side while he lay
unconscious in a hospital bed. Jake was too angry to see anything other than
what he'd wanted to see. He had his own demons to fight. Maybe he'd been
unfair.

Maybe not. Charley had been involved
with John Bellows and
he
had wanted Cassie dead. That wasn't something
Jake was likely to forget. Had Charley had some knowledge that Bellows was
working with Fagnelio? They only had her word that she’d been with John Bellows
the night of the shooting at Rory’s.

Jake just didn't know. All he knew
was that sticking close to Charlotte Tate and her cohorts was the best chance
he had to help Cassie. Even if it meant he had to leave her for a while.

He stayed just long enough for Cassie
to fall asleep. In those quiet moments just before sleep claimed her, she asked
if everything was going to be all right. As if she knew the truth.

As Jake closed her bedroom door,
prepared to meet with Kevin and Charley, guilt tore at his soul. He'd done the
one thing he had sworn he'd never do to her. He’d lied.

# # #

Chapter Fifteen

Getting out of bed proved
surprisingly easy given how little sleep Cassie managed to seize. She'd woken
several times in the darkness, caught between fatigue and the dark thoughts
invading her mind. Nightmares of gunfire, of running, and of Emilio.

She'd reached across the bed for
something and realized all too quickly it was Jake she was searching for. But
Jake wasn't here with her in the hotel. It amazed her how much she'd come to
depend on his strength these last few days.

She remembered these dreams well.
She'd had them for months after Emilio's death, so much that she'd needed
sleeping pills to get her through the night. She'd gone through that nightmare
alone. Now new dreams intermingled with old ones. But this time, she wasn't
completely alone. She had Jake. At least she had that comfort.

The sooner the trial was over, the sooner
life for both of them would get back to normal. Cassie was banking on it.

Jake arrived at the hotel a little
while after she'd showered and dressed. U.S. marshals were lavishing great
attention on the breakfast ordered up from the hotel kitchen. The thought of
eggs sitting in her stomach all morning was revolting. Instead of getting her
fill, she sat across from Jake in silence and picked at her toast. She welcomed
the silence from the agents as well.

The plan was that Jake and Kevin
would escort her to the courthouse in an unmarked car, something less
conspicuous than arriving with an entourage of agents and U.S. marshals for the
press to feed on. Agents Tate and Radcowski would be in a decoy car in front of
them to throw off the press.

When it was finally time to go, they
stepped out the back door of the hotel into a heavy downpour. A flood of
memories washed over her as the rain fell hard, pelting the roof of Kevin's
sport utility truck in an ominous cadence.

Jake sat in the back seat next to her
and squeezed her hand. She jumped at his touch as the door slammed shut.

Keeping his hand protectively over
hers, he said, “It's just rain.”

She nodded and leaned into him,
needing his warmth and strength. “It was raining during Emilio's trial, too.
Ironic, huh?”

Jake answered in concern by letting
go of her hand and wrapping his arm around her instead. Compassion filled his
smoky blue eyes and made her heart squeeze. With his lips on her forehead, he
whispered, “I've missed you.”

Unshed tears clung to her eyelashes
as she gazed up at him. “Me, too.”

“The trial shouldn't take too long.”

They approached the Federal
Courthouse and as they'd suspected, the torrential downpour hadn't deterred any
of the reporters hungry to get their story. Camera crews were lined along the
sidewalk in front, waiting for “the news” to arrive. Scaffolding and news vans
littered downtown Main Street. The torrent of people and the decreased
visibility caused by the rain would make it hard to spot anyone…

Anyone who was still out to kill her?

Cassie had tried not to think about
that being a possibility, but it had always been
there.
She clenched her
fists and tried to breathe evenly. Jake was by her side. She had a fleet of FBI
agents surrounding the building and strategically located across the street.
Nothing was going to happen.

But even as Cassie told herself that,
she wondered what would happen if there was still danger lurking about. In the
past week Jake had used his body to shield her. Would he do it again? If
bullets started flying, would he put his life in danger to save hers?

She snaked her arm under his jacket
and squeezed. Her heart plummeted.
No Kevlar vest.

She couldn't deal with losing Jake.
Not now. Not ever. What was he thinking not wearing any protective clothing?