there with his mistress. Which was so not like Armond. Then I saw the woman fall to the ground. I backed out of the garage and floored it to Armond. He was leaning over her in shock, a gun in his hand.”
“You saw him shoot her?”
“No. I saw him leaning over her with a gun. But when he looked around and glanced up to the rooftop above them, I figured a sniper had done it.”
“So you stopped to chat?”
“I stopped and called out to him to get in my car. His guards hurried to surround him, but he turned and came around my car and jumped inside. Told me to drive.”
“Why did you take that chance?” she asked, wondering if he’d thought this through. “You should have called me right away.”
“He seemed especially grateful to have a getaway car, and his guards scattered, so I had to do something. Then he held a gun to my head,” Connor replied. He shrugged as if this whole affair was nothing much. “Two thoughts entered my mind. One, he wanted me to get him out of there, and two, he was so erratic, he might decide to shoot me if I didn’t do his bidding.”
Ignoring his cool explanation, she asked, “And you didn’t think to call this in to 911?”
“Look, I’ve been tailing him when I could. I know I’m supposed to stay out of sight but I was so close to getting him for good last year. And tonight, well, I thought this would finally be over. This was supposed to be the last time I had to deal with the man.”
He put a hand against one of the colossal columns and gave her a blue-eyed stare. “I didn’t think. I just went after him before he got shot, too. If he gets himself killed, we’ll never get the information and evidence we need to get to the real power behind his empire.”
“Great. So now I’m an unofficial accomplice to two of my informants leaving the scene of a murder?”
“He didn’t kill her,” Connor replied. “He was with her, but he didn’t kill her. The kill shot hit her clean and right between the eyes, and I didn’t hear the shot. That means it came from a distance and it was silenced. He did pull out his gun, so someone could have seen that and misinterpreted it.”
She doubted him already. She wasn’t confident in the plan to come out here, since Connor had been the one to mastermind it. Josie liked to be in control, so her first few weeks on the job at her new assignment were not going as she’d planned. She couldn’t afford to mess up another big case with a wanted suspect. And yet, she’d gone way beyond the call of duty by convincing her boss that she needed to see this through. Now, why was that?
Maybe it had been the hard-edged request from Connor over the phone, or it could now be the serious glint in Connor’s storm-blue eyes. Why did they seem so much darker in the moonlight? And why in the world should she trust this man?
Well, the higher-ups—excluding Sherwood, of course—seemed to dote on him and praised his services, assuring her that Connor Randall had turned over a new leaf. Since she didn’t always believe in second chances or quick change-of-heart turnovers, she found that hard to swallow. She was about to test that theory.
Could she be sure? Lord, grant me wisdom.
“What do you expect me to do, besides haul you both in?”
Connor gave her that steady, level stare that worked on most other women. “I expect you to do your job. We have one of the most notorious mobsters in this country in there waiting for us to help him out of a sticky situation. And we don’t have much of a choice, the way I see it.” He leaned close, his smile as enticing as the moonlight. “And we could both use a break, don’t you think?”
Josie pushed at her hair, rattled that he knew her history about as well as she knew his. Okay, so they both had trust issues. And the need to clear a few bad marks. “Yeah, there is that.”
He must have sensed her doubts. “Look, I appreciate this. You’re with me. You’re safe.”
“I don’t need you to keep me safe,” she retorted, touching the gun strapped to her belt. Her whisper was for his ears only. “I’m a big girl, Mr. Randall. I was top of my class at Quantico.”
He held her arm. “Before we go in there, you need to understand something. Being top of your class at anything doesn’t matter to these people. They are the worst kind of scum, and they would sooner butcher you than look at you.”
Blood-soaked images flashed through her head. She’d been undercover during a drug raid in Dallas and...she’d messed up big-time. Her informant, a young female recovering junkie, had been tortured and left for dead because of one slipup. Josie’s slipup. She couldn’t let bad information be her guide ever again.
Somewhere off in the bug-infested woods, an owl hooted. Then she heard the flutter of powerful wings.
Another shiver of apprehension went down Josie’s spine, but she shook it off. “Got it. I’m good.” She stared over at him, took a breath. “I’ll do whatever it takes to bring this man down. If we help him tonight, we’ll have leverage, and hopefully, that will convince him to give us the goods on his operation.”
“Exactly,” Connor said as he ushered her to the big front doors. “He hasn’t executed me yet because I’m the only witness and my testimony can save him. And he’s kind of blackmailing me into helping to save his hide. See, we do think alike.”
“For now,” she replied, thinking a jury wouldn’t trust either the Mafia don or the good-looking man in the tux. She sure didn’t, now that he’d told her he was doing this to save himself. What a noble concept. “But, Randall...don’t take me for granted, ever.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
* * *
Once they were inside, the elegant warmth of the old mansion shimmered in hues of tasteful art, glittering crystal and aged bone china. The place looked untouched, like something out of another century. But the creepy factor echoed in the garish glowing yellow lights and the scent of too much aftershave.
“Swag,” she whispered to Connor. “By the way, let’s start with first names only unless I have to tell him I’m also FBI.”
It still smarted that her new supervisor had kept her so out of the loop on a lot of things regarding Louis Armond that she’d been forced to tug information out of Connor instead. She was surprised Sherwood had let her take point on a one-woman stakeout tonight. But Sherwood had warned her he’d also have a team of other agents out and about, too.
Fat lot of good that had done Armond.
Before he could respond, two big men came up the hall. “We need to check for wires or weapons,” one of them growled.
“I have one gun,” Josie offered, lifting her jacket to show her weapon. “And if you expect me to help with this little problem, I’m keeping it.”
Connor gave a slight nod to the men. After patting her down and checking the gun, they seemed satisfied. But they also followed on her heels.
He turned her to the left and motioned her inside the big, antique-filled drawing room, then closed the aged pocket doors. “Mr. Armond, this is my friend...Josie.”
“Does
