Saving Grace (Serve and Protect Series) (25 page)

With that he closed her door, circled the car and got in the passenger side. “Right so far?”

Fresh tears sprang to her eyes. She nodded blindly.

“And then you stole my gun and abandoned me again because you thought you had to take care of Landis by yourself.”

“Ray, I wish you hadn’t come. I’d have dealt with this.”

“They’d kill you, sweetheart.”

A shiver skated over her skin. “Maybe not.”

“Maybe not,” he agreed. “In which case the Crown Prosecutor would send you up for pre-meditated murder.”

“I wouldn’t care. I
don’t
care.” She flung the words out. “I can still do it!”

His response was equally fierce. “I won’t have it. You’re my wife, my
pregnant
wife. I won’t lose you.”

He grabbed her purse from the floor of the car where she’d deposited it and retrieved the 9mm, holstering it quickly.

“You’ll lose me anyway.” She laid a hand on his tensely corded forearm. She had to make him see sense. “I saw his eyes, Ray. He’s not going to let us live, either one of us.”

“You’re preaching to the converted, honey. But you don’t have to risk life or liberty. There’s a better way.”

“No!” Her voice was sharp with panic. “You were right all along, refusing to go in. The police can’t protect us, or not for long, anyway. He told me about other times, other witnesses. He said witnesses are easy to find, easy to kill, if you have enough money and if you inspire enough fear. That’s why he let me go.”

“That, and to give him a handy way to dirty me.”

“I’m sorry about that. I had to take the money.”

“I know.”

“But we can’t turn ourselves in to the police. You see that, don’t you?”

“Who said anything about going in?”

Her eyes widened. He meant to kill Landis himself! “No, Ray, you can’t. You’re a police officer. Your oath....”

“Relax. I’m not going kill him, much as I’d like to. I’m just going to get him to make that mistake we haven’t been able to get him to make.” He looked away to scan the area in front of the night club. “You know, maybe we should take this around the block, out of sight.” He turned concerned eyes back on her. “You okay to drive, or would you like me to?”

“I can do it.” She started the car, flipped on her signal light and moved into light early-evening traffic. She took the first right, then a left, and pulled into a parking space.

“Okay,” she said, killing the engine. “How are you going to get Landis?”

“We’ve got a ton of intelligence on him, but as long as we play by the rules, he’s too careful, too cagey to get caught. But the way he’s jammed us up, I got no trouble coloring outside the lines. I’ll make him so mad he’ll screw up and the boys’ll nail him.”

Grace’s jaw dropped. “You think you can
convict
him in a court of law? Who’s going to testify against him? I just told you what he said.”

“His own men will, to avoid deportation. According to Interpol, some of them could be facing pretty grim odds if we were to ship them back home. That’s the downside of exploiting your own people.”

Another memory reached up to pull her down. “They’re using them like slaves.”

“Huh?”

“Illegal immigrants. Forced labor. Prostitution, too.”

She broke off, remembering the sea of surprised faces turned up from crowded workstations when she’d literally stumbled into the warehouse’s back room. Row upon row of women and children, bent over their labors as they turned out authentic hand-crafted ‘imports’. Here illegally, unable to speak English, terrified of discovery as they worked to pay off their ‘fares’.

Ray’s hand under her chin tipped her head toward him. Once again she saw his warm eyes, not the sea of frightened faces.

“You’ve seen this? You can show me where?”

She shook her head. “They’re gone. That’s the first place I stopped when I got back into town, the warehouse in Industrial Park. He must have moved shop after I blundered into it.”

He blanched. “Today? You went there by yourself? Did anyone see you?”

“No. And even if they did, they’d never recognize me as the woman who was there before.” She lifted a lock of red hair to emphasize her point.

“Don’t ever take a risk like that again. You hear me, Gracie?”

His words were harsh, but his voice vibrated with emotion. With fear. She covered his hand with hers.

“I had to. This was all my fault. I put us in this trouble and I wanted to get us out.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is. I was digging around for a story, something that would make Katie sit up and take notice.”

“Grace, honey, Katie loves you. Everybody loves you.”

“Yeah, like they love a three-year-old with ringlets.” She drew her hand back, closing it on the steering wheel. “They pat me on the head and give me those stupid fluff pieces to do. All I wanted was a crack at general assignments, but I couldn’t get anyone to take me seriously. The biggest thing they ever let me tackle was the court briefs, and then only because the regular guy was out with the flu.”

That’s how she’d met Ray, that week covering the courts. “I figured if I could turn in a really good story, they’d see me in a different light and throw more serious things my way.”

“So you thought you’d start by going after the frigging
Russian mob?
”

She colored. “I did
not
go after the Russian mob. I was working on a feature story on immigrant populations in our community. For your information, it was going to be a really good piece. It’s just that one thing led to another and another, and there I was, stumbling onto that sweatshop. I just blundered along, following the trail without thinking about the consequences. And because I didn’t think, here we are.”

She closed her eyes, waiting for his censure. The hand that closed warmly on her thigh caused her to jerk in the bucket seat.

“Don’t apologize for bringing this home. I ran the same risk every day I was out there dogging Landis, but I didn’t think twice about it.” He grimaced. “How’s that for arrogant?”

Her gaze flew to his, finding his eyes warm.

“Pretty good piece of investigative work, all in all.”

She let out her breath. “Really?”

“Really. Hell, Grace,
we
didn’t know about the sweatshop. I mean, it’s not a surprise. That’s how most ethnic gangs get a foothold, by exploiting their own people. Then they branch out into other criminal activity as opportunity allows. But Landis is so far into the latter – drugs, money laundering and whatnot – that we figured he’d graduated beyond that stuff.”

She smiled tremulously. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He leaned across the console, grasped the back of her head and pressed a quick, hard kiss to her mouth. “Now you’ve got to get moving so I can do a little bear baiting.”

Bear baiting
. Oh, Dear Lord, he was going to deliberately provoke Landis. What had he said?
Color outside the lines
. Fear leapt anew, making her heart thud against her ribs.

“You think I’m going to leave you here alone? It’s my fault we’re in this mess.”

“No, it’s Landis’s fault. And I absolutely do expect you to leave me to take care of business. In fact, I want you to go right now, check into a motel and wait for me.”

“Ray‌—”

“The Fredericton Inn on Ellis Road, or the Day’s Inn on Delancey if there are no vacancies at the Fredericton. Park the car right outside the unit so I’ll know which one you’re in. I’ll knock, but don’t open until you’re sure it’s me. Got it?”

“How can you expect me to sit around twiddling my thumbs in a motel room while you’re out here risking ... risking....” She couldn’t say it.

“I can’t afford the distraction of worrying about you. This next part is going to be delicate. Nothing I can’t handle,” he hastened to assure her, “but I’ll need to keep a clear head. It’ll be easier knowing you and the baby are safe. Please, Grace.”

She dropped her head, gripped the wheel hard again. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Good girl.”

He leaned over and kissed her again, this time with impossible tenderness. Abandoning her death grip on the steering wheel, she captured his head with one hand, holding him to her for long minutes. Her other hand she pressed to his chest, feeling the powerful thudding of his heart under her palm. When he lifted his head, his eyes burned through to her soul.

“Promise me you’ll come for me,” she said.

“I will.”

“The baby’s yours. You know that, right?” As soon as she blurted the words, she felt stupid. Of course he knew that. He’d already said he figured out there was no other man.

“I know.” He smiled, pushing a stray strand of hair behind her left ear with a gentle finger. “I figured that out this morning when I woke up in that motel room.”

This morning? “But how? You didn’t know about Landis then.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way.” He lifted her hand and carried it to his mouth, brushing the backs of her knuckles with his lips. “It’s not that I don’t think other men want you. Hell, I think they
all
want you. How could they not?”

He lowered her hand but didn’t release it. Instead, he traced patterns on the back of it with his thumb, his gaze downcast. Grace dropped her own gaze so she could see what he saw, his big calloused hand surrounding her smaller, whiter one.

“And it’s not that I don’t think there are better men out there,” he continued. “Men who’d be better
for
you, better
to
you. Better jobs, better financial position, better social position, and Lord knows, better looking.”

She felt his hand tighten on hers.

“But it finally sank in that even if you were planning to run away with Russell-friggin’-Crowe, you couldn’t have slept with him until after you’d broken off with me. Not you, Grace.”

She looked up to find his gaze hot on her face.

She swallowed. “Thank you.”

“Thank you? Hell, you should be kicking my butt for being so slow. I shoulda figured that out weeks ago.” He released her hand. Then, gruffly, “You okay to drive?”

She nodded.

“You sure? ’Cuz now would not be the time to be pulled over for erratic driving. We’re not fugitives, but the authorities are very interested in talking to us at this time.”

“Hey, I’ll get there okay,” she said. “Just make sure
you
do, too.”

“Give me two hours.” He checked his watch. “If I’m not there by ten, drive to Quigg’s. Don’t check out, just get in the car and go. And don’t call ahead. Quigg’s phone is bugged, and I’m not sure who put the tap on, the good guys or the bad guys.”

Fear churned in her stomach. She forced it back, struggling to keep a clear head. “You’ve talked to John?”

“Briefly. Now pay attention, Grace. If I’m not there by ten, drive right over to Quigg’s and ring the bell. He’ll be at the station, but Suzannah will call him and get him home on some pretext. Tell him everything, including what Landis said about witnesses. Quigg can help you disappear until it’s safe.”

Fear churned her stomach. “Ray, let’s go to John right now. He can help both of us disappear.”

“What kind of a life would that be, looking over our shoulders all the time? And what would we do? I could never take another job on a police force, or you at a newspaper. That’s exactly where they’d start looking for us.”

“But Ray‌—”

He took both her hands this time and squeezed them. “We’ve got a good chance to put this guy away for a long, long time. Think about those people in that sweatshop, the young women he’s pressed into prostitution. Who’s going to help them?”

“The police, dammit.”

“He’s never going to make a mistake unless we goad him into it, but it’s never going to happen as long as we have to play by the rules. Right now, I’m just the man to get at him. My career is probably down the toilet anyway, unless we can bring him down.”

Her heart constricted. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”

“That’s not my plan.”

Grace didn’t miss the judicious wording of his reply. “Be careful. Don’t do anything you can’t live with.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Trying to save my soul, Grace?”

And why not? He’d come to save hers. She felt tears well, but no way would she surrender to them. She had to be strong now, for Ray, for the baby.

“Among other things.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”

She leaned across the console and kissed him, the same kind of quick, hard kiss he’d given her. Then she pulled back. With trembling fingers, she turned the key in the ignition. The Toyota sputtered to life. “Just make sure you make it back to me, okay?”

He grinned his old cocky grin. “Count on it.”

Then he opened the passenger door, climbed out and strode back toward Landis’s club. Before she could succumb to the desire to run after him, she found first gear and pulled away.

She’d wait at the damned motel. She’d wait for two hours, just as she’d promised. Then, if he didn’t show, she was coming back, weapon or no weapon. She’d kill Landis with her bare hands if he hurt Ray.

R
AY SAT IN THE
booth near the men’s washroom for an hour before he got his chance.