Saving Grace (Serve and Protect Series) (9 page)

“Internal Affairs?” Grace sank down on the edge of the bed. “My God, you’re in trouble. This is all my fault.”

“Trouble?” Ray rolled his shoulders, then lifted a hand to massage the back of his neck. “Nah, we’ll just explain.”

“Explain what? That I don’t know where it came from?”
Oh, God, please don’t make him pay for whatever it was I did. Bad enough to hurt him, but this‌—‌the job, his reputation....

“Your memory will come back. We’ll just lodge the money with Evidence like we planned. In the meantime, I haven’t done anything to raise any eyebrows, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Grace wished she could share his confidence. “It sounded like you were arranging to meet Tommy.”

“He wants to talk face-to-face.” He looked at his watch. “Speaking of which, we’d better get a move on. I told him we’d meet him in half an hour.”

She jumped up, sudden tears stinging the backs of her eyes. She was so damned tired. Her self-concept battered by guilt and shame, she didn’t even know who she was anymore. And in the background, hovering just out of reach, was that white hum of almost-memory. It was like that name that eluded you, yet you knew it was right there, almost on the tip of your tongue.

“This is all my fault. If I could just remember....”

“You will.”

She gazed at the carpet, blinked rapidly. What she’d give to go into his arms right now, until her world shrank to just the feel and smell of him.

Then she felt his hand settle on her shoulder, warm but awkward, the way a man might comfort another man. She felt the burn of tears collecting again, congesting her nasal passages and tightening her throat. Lifting her gaze to his, she saw his eyes had softened, but there was still that distance.

You put it there
, she reminded herself brutally.

Though her heart ached, she swallowed the neediness and straightened her spine. “If anything bad comes of this, I’ll never forgive myself.”

He dropped his hand from her back. “Trust me, Grace, this isn’t anything I can’t handle.”

“Then why’d you agree to meet Tommy?”

“For his sake, not mine.” Ray went to the closet and retrieved a fresh shirt. “He feels bad for his part in this. Like I told you, there’s nothing IAD can nail me for.”

She averted her eyes as he changed shirts, busying herself by running a brush through her hair. Though she thirsted to see him, she knew her gaze would be as unwelcome as her touch. By the time she turned back to him, he had strapped on his shoulder holster. Force of habit, she supposed, as she watched him retrieve his service weapon. Going to the station without it probably felt like going shirtless.

“We ready?”

“Ready,” she said, grabbing the overstuffed shaving kit before he could. Suddenly, she wished he hadn’t touched even one of the bundles. Despite his faith that he had nothing to fear from an internal investigation, she had a bad feeling about the money. A very bad feeling.

Ray took his eyes off the road long enough to cast a sidelong glance at Grace. She sat with her head stiffly angled toward the passenger window, intent on the vegetation in the ditches.

Not that he could blame her. The fifteen-minute trip had been accomplished in near-total silence, and not the comfortable kind. Maybe he should have tried to strike up some kind of conversation. Back there at the house, she’d looked for a moment like she might fly apart if he so much as breathed on her. She sure didn’t need the added strain of this awkwardness. Unfortunately, they seemed incapable of chitchat. It was either this silence or the heavy-duty stuff. Nothing in between.

And if they got into a real conversation, he might ask the questions that never left his head, the ones he’d sworn not to let pass his lips.
Why? What’d I do wrong? Where’d I lose you? Did you ever think of him when I held you?
The questions that burned into his soul. The ones he didn’t think he could bear having answered, even if she could, or would, answer them.

He turned into the school’s long sweeping driveway, spotting Tommy’s black Camaro immediately.

“That’s Tommy’s car,” he told her.

He parked the SUV far enough from the other vehicle so Grace wouldn’t have to hear everything Tommy said. No point feeding her anxiety.

As he crossed the asphalt, he felt twitchy between the shoulder blades. Grace must be watching him.

When Ray was still ten yards from the other car, the Camaro’s door swung open. Before Tommy could put both feet on the asphalt to climb out, the car’s rear window on the driver’s side exploded. Both men froze. Then two quick
pa-ting, pa-tings
, and two neat holes appeared in the car’s fender over the rear wheel well.

Sniper!
Unholstering his weapon, Ray hit the deck, but not before seeing the expression on Tommy’s face, a mixture of shock and accusation.
Christ, he thinks I arranged this!
A split-second later, Tommy hit the accelerator and shot off, his door swinging shut with the forward momentum.

Another two or three bullets skipped off the asphalt a few feet away, sending fragments of blacktop flying. Rolling quickly to the left, Ray came up running, zigging and zagging. Behind him, he heard bullets whine off the pavement.

“Ray!”

Grace! Would she even know what was happening? The shooter was using a silencer. Would she understand what was unfolding?

“Get out of here!” he shouted. “There’s a sniper in the school.”

Another
phut
sound signaled another bullet digging into the asphalt, entirely too close to his feet. He took three more strides and dove behind a long, low cement planter, one of those commercial jobs the landscapers liked to fill. This time, the bullets made a completely different sound as they sent shards of cement scattering.

Pressing himself close against the low architecture, he heard the Pathfinder’s engine kick to life. Thank God he’d left the keys in the ignition. And thank God he’d left it pointed toward the parking lot’s only exit. Presuming there was only one sniper, she should be able to get away. Just to make sure, he’d give her some cover.

Using every inch of the planter to conceal himself, he searched for the suspect. There! Rooftop. He squeezed off a couple of rounds. It was a hard shot, shooting up like that, but he must have come close because the shooter pulled back.

Ray heard the SUV’s tires squeal.
Atta girl. Go Grace. Go now.
Except when he glanced her way, he saw she’d pulled a U-turn and was barreling towards him. Christ, what was she thinking?

A bullet pinged off the sidewalk close enough to send a shard of concrete slicing into his cheek like a hot knife. Swearing, he fired back twice. Then Grace was there, the back door on the driver’s side already opened for him. He rolled out onto the sidewalk and squeezed off three more rounds. Then, launching himself from his knees, he dove into the SUV’s back seat.

“Go!” he shouted, but Grace didn’t need his instruction. She’d already popped the clutch. The vehicle lunged forward, throwing him against the back of the seat. Seconds later, she pulled another U-turn and sped out the driveway. Tires squealing in protest, she rounded the turn onto the broad avenue and shot off down the hill.

G
RACE
’
S HEART CRASHED AGAINST
her ribs and her knuckles ached from gripping the steering wheel.

“Okay, don’t slack off until we’re clear of this street.” Ray clambered into the front passenger seat. “We need to get out of here before the cops come.”

She shot him an incredulous look. “Someone shot at you back there! I’d think you’d be glad to see them.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

New fear sliced into her. “What do you mean?” She glanced at him, and her heart took another bump when she saw him eject the spent clip from his gun and jam another one into place. “I thought we were going to go to the cops.”

“Circumstances have changed.” He holstered his gun and fastened his seatbelt.

“Yeah, we’re in
immediate
danger now. Which is all the more reason to go in.”

“Take this right coming up.”

She obeyed automatically, and he guided her through another series of turns until she found herself on the approach to the Merrill Bridge.

“I thought you just said we weren’t going in.”

“We’re not. Stay on this street, then turn down King.”

She did, but as they passed the police station, several cars, their lights flashing and sirens wailing, spilled out of the parking lot and sped north across the bridge. Grace fought down panic. Why was Ray avoiding the police?

He reached to steady the wheel as the Pathfinder wandered too close to the right lane. “Careful.”

Okay, Grace, focus. One thing at a time
. She pulled up at the red light. “Okay, this might work better if I know where we’re going.”

“The Crowne Plaza.”

Not four minutes later, she turned into the hotel’s parking lot. Ray directed her to a spot in the center of the lot. She nosed the vehicle into the space and killed the engine. Exhaling, she released the wheel and rolled shoulders gone stiff with tension.

“Okay, why aren’t we at the station right now?”

“Because Tommy’s already there.”

She blinked. “I should hope so. But what’s that got to do with anything?”

“He thinks I tried to get him killed.”

“No!”

“I saw his face, Grace. Those bullets had to be meant for me, the way they came over my shoulder, but Tommy couldn’t tell that from where he sat. He thinks they were meant for him, that I set him up.”

“But you could explain‌—”

“I can guarantee he won’t be in a listening mood. At least not right away. Nor will anyone else, not with an internal investigation going on.”

The damned money again. This was all her fault.... “Why are you so certain the shooter was after you? Maybe he was after Tommy.”

“I’m the one who just had my vehicle sabotaged. I’m the one who’s been stepping on some nasty guys’ toes.”

She chewed her lip a moment. “I still think you could explain what happened.”

“Explain?” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up. “Hell, I don’t even
know
what happened. We’ve got all this money we can’t explain. IAD’s breathing down my neck. And now I’ve got somebody trying to shoot me, and a friend who thinks I tried to get him killed.”

“Wait a minute, how did the shooter know where you’d be? He couldn’t have followed us, or he wouldn’t have had time to get set up.”

He looked at her. “Hell if I know.”

Grace held his gaze. “Maybe Tommy set
you
up.”

“No way.” He rejected the idea forcefully. “I’m the one picked the meeting spot. Besides, I saw his face. The shock.... No, he really thought I’d betrayed
him
.”

“Then how?”

He swore. “Wiretap.”

She gasped. “You think your own shop would tap our phones?”

“The same department that’s apparently been investigating me? Oh, yeah. And I can think of any number of judges would be happy to sign the wiretap order, too. But who’s to say it’s a legal tap? It’s more likely the handiwork of whoever sabotaged my truck, whoever just
shot
at me. Hell, they could have the whole house wired.”

“You think someone has been listening in on us?”

“On our telephone conversations, at least. Whoever was on that roof had to have known in advance. Which means they knew where I was going, who I was meeting, even why we were meeting.”

She sucked in a breath as a thought occurred to her. “What about...?” She held her hands up to indicate the interior of the car.

“No. It’s clean. The boys swept it this morning.”

For a few minutes, they were both silent, thinking. Grace took a deep breath. “I think we should go in anyway. You didn’t do anything, so the money can’t hurt you, right? And sooner or later, I’ll remember where it came from, or they’ll figure it out for me. Either way, you’ll be in the clear, and in the meantime, we’ll be safe.”

“No. These people I’ve pissed off....” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I just don’t want to take any chances.”