Лиза Джонс - Dangerous Secrets

She followed him, still without a plan. He was leaning against the counter doing absolutely nothing. She leaned on the doorframe. “I don’t know what to say.”

“And therein lies the problem. I know exactly what I want to say, and where I want this to go. You don’t.”

“That’s not true.”

“Then tell me.”

His expression was stony, his words cold. She told herself it was because she’d hurt him. Told herself to get past it, but he didn’t seem receptive. In fact, he seemed like he’d already made up his mind that he was done. “I hate that I pulled you into this.”

“Wrong answer,” he said, and pushed off the counter to open the fridge. He grabbed a beer and twisted the top. “I’ll be downstairs in the offices if you need me.”

“It’s two in the morning,” she said, glancing at the time on the microwave.

“I’m not tired.” He sauntered toward her and stopped in front of her, waiting for her to move. He was so close she could reach out and touch him. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, but she didn’t. She told herself to do it, to touch him and to hug him and to tell him how much he meant to her. She opened her mouth to say it, but somehow she didn’t. She backed up and let him pass. She let him walk out of the apartment.

Julie stood there, barely able to breathe, thinking of how it had felt when she thought he’d let her walk away that day they’d gone to lunch. She rushed for the door and stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Luke and Blake talking. She let her head drop to the door. Now was not the time for confessions and she knew it. She had to wait until he got back.

But an hour later, she lay in the bed waiting and he didn’t come back. Then another hour later. And yet another.

Chapter Twenty-Four

There was darkness, so much darkness, and she was cold. Her bones were brittle and her body ached. She stretched and tried to move, only she was trapped. She tried to roll over but she hit a wall. Panic rose inside her and she started to kick and punch until her knuckles ached and she could feel the blood oozing from them, and a wave of heat suffocated her. She screamed as flames surrounded her, as the fire burned the ice in her veins...

“Julie, honey, wake up! Julie!”

Julie blinked awake. “Lauren?” She pushed to a sitting position. “What happened?” Her gaze lifted to find Luke at the end of the bed, staring at her with an unreadable look.

“You were screaming bloody murder in your sleep.”

“Nightmare again?” Luke asked softly.

She nodded. “Yes. About Elizabeth.” Cici jumped on the bed and smacked Julie in the face with her tail.

“That’ll wake you up,” Lauren laughed.

“She’s got all kinds of evil ways to wake a person up,” Julie said, running her hand down Cici’s back and noting the 9 a.m. time on the clock. “I thought you weren’t coming in until lunchtime?”

“We went standby and got in earlier.”

“I hate that you left your honeymoon like this.”

“I hate that you didn’t call us sooner.”

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Luke said.

“Luke,” Julie said quickly.

He glanced back at her, arching a brow.

“I had something else to tell you last night, but Blake showed up.”

He stared at her for a long, intense few moments, before he said, “I’m not going far. Not yet.”

Not yet. There was an underlying meaning to that answer, she was certain. There was still hope. He left the room and Lauren lowered her voice, “Yowza, what was that?”

“I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

***

Julie and Lauren talked for a good hour before Julie showered and pulled on a pair of black sweats and a red t-shirt Lauren had brought her. Sooner or later she had to go shopping – that was, if she lived through this mess.

Feeling ridiculously nervous about seeing Luke, she opened the bedroom door to find Luke, Royce, Blake, and Lauren sitting in the living room. Lauren stood up from the couch she shared with Royce and held a finger to her lips.

Julie stopped at the edge of the room, across from the leather chair Luke occupied and knew this call had to be Arel. After a few seconds, he ended the call. “It’s not good. Arel wants me to deliver a certain piece of art by tonight.”

“That’s impossible,” Blake said in disbelief.

“Tonight?” Royce asked.

“The impossibility seems to be the point. It’s that or he gave me another option.”

“The journal,” Julie said, remembering what Luke had said when her apartment had been trashed about not underestimating Arel.

“So basically,” Royce said. “He wants the journal.”

“You can’t give the journal to him,” Julie said. “It’s part of the proof you need to take down the cartel.”

“We’ll just have to copy it before we give it to him,” Blake said. “He has to know that.”

“And he probably knows that might not even be admissible in court,” Lauren said, putting her criminal law degree to work, “and certainly it would leave room for speculation about tampering with documents.”

“It’s less damning to Arel than it is to the judge and Dragonfly,” Luke said. “This is the kiss of death for them.”

“How does Arel know about the journal?” Lauren asked.

“Maybe they tortured Elizabeth before they killed her,” Luke said. “Maybe they tapped the sister’s phone. There are too many possibilities. We need me inside this operation to take down Arel. We have to give him the journal.”

“Agreed,” Royce said.

“Agreed,” Blake added. “So how does this go down?”

“I’ll get a call and instructions,” Luke said. ”

“Of course,” Royce said. “Giving us no time to plan.”

“I’ll call Hendrix and Murphy and round up the rest of our team for a planning session,” Blake said, pushing to his feet.

“It should be a simple drop, shouldn’t it?” Lauren asked. “It’s what he wants.”

“We don’t ever assume anything is simple or as it seems.”

***

An hour later, Luke and his brothers had Murphy and Hendrix on speakerphone, trying to get a grip on just how many people they needed to be involved tonight.

“I don’t mean to be the Grim Reaper,” Blake said, “but this could all be about the journal, not about trust. They get it and take Luke out. We need to be ready for this.”

Luke had already thought of that. “It’s a strong possibility.”

“Which makes my immediate concern is that we’re headed back to the island and that means moving out now,” Blake said. “We need a team there yesterday.”

“It could be in the city,” Murphy said. “Arel does the unexpected.”

“We have to be ready for both,” Hendrix said.

““That will mean splitting up, which will leave Luke with less support,” Royce said. “I don’t like it.”

“But not splitting up,” Hendrix countered, “could mean he ends up with no support.”

“I’m staying with Luke,” Blake said and he glanced at Luke. “Jesse knows the city like his own stink, man. We need him and we need manpower.”

Luke considered a moment, fighting personal feelings to focus on the reality of a grim situation. “Fine. Call him.”

“I’ll stay here too,” Hendrix said. “I know this city pretty damn well myself. Murphy should go. One of us needs to be at both locations since we’re accountable to the task force.”

Royce eyed Murphy. “You, me, and my man Kyle, on the island?”

Murphy nodded. “Works for me. We still keeping the rest of the task force out of this?”

“Until we know who Dragonfly is,” Luke said. “Yes.”

“I say Luke wears a wire,” Blake said. \

Luke shook his head. “They’ll pat me down. I’ll have to try and record with my cell phone.”