then Jack’s big, warm hand settled firmly over hers. His expression was intense, his features inscrutable. He didn’t try to tell her it would be all right. He didn’t try to tell her to let it go. He made her face it, head-on, right back into the hell of that night.
“What was he doing there, Tessa? What did he want?”
She blinked up at him through the glaze of her tears, trying to focus on what he was asking. “What was he doing?”
“The police report said it was a robbery. Was anything missing?”
“No.” Her tone steadied. “It wasn’t a robbery.”
“Then what was he doing there? Why did he stay after you walked in on him? Tessa, did he do anything else to you?” Though his tone didn’t actually change, it was suddenly infused with a harsh grittiness. The voice of a truly dangerous man.
“He was in my room.” She could hear the sounds from the bedroom, the sounds of drawers being opened and shut. The shuffle of papers, the sounds of her belongings being tossed carelessly to the floor. “He was looking for something.”
“What? What did he think you had?”
The fear fell away before a new cool logic. “Evidence. Evidence against him or his boss. Whatever my father was planning to use to indict them.”
“Did your father usually send files home with you?”
“I took things home with me all the time. My work day didn’t end at five.”
“What cases were you working on? What was big enough for them to resort to murder?”
“We were in the middle of a lot of cases but just one big, ugly confrontation. Councilman Rachel Martinez. She and my father were planning to run for the same congressional seat. Only, when we started digging into her background, unpleasant things started popping up. Things my father believed linked her to drug trafficking and an overseas pipeline.”
“The same things your father was accused of.” He said it flatly, noncommittally.
“Fancy that.”
“Mmm.”
“I think Martinez had him killed.”
“You can think what you like but proving it is another thing. What did your father have on her?”
Tessa rubbed her brow in frustration. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. Usually we worked on everything together, a team effort. But he wouldn’t confide in me on this one. He was putting together a solid case, was all he’d say.”
“Whatever he had, they didn’t find it when they killed him or maybe you chased them off before they had the chance. If they had found it, they wouldn’t have come after you. The police never found any link between drugs and Martinez.”
“They weren’t looking in that direction.” Her tone snapped like brittle ice. “They gave their report based on the testimony of some sniveling junkie looking to cut a deal. They took his word, a three-time loser, over my father’s. All the good he’d done, all the criminals he’d put away, and they took the word of a felon.”
“Our system loves to condemn its own heroes,” was Jack’s philosophical response.
“Yeah, well, it stinks. It really stinks. And now the real villain is still out there because there’s no one like my father willing to hunt him down.”
“Yes there is.”
Her. He meant her.
“Like father, like daughter,” he summed up succinctly. “Isn’t that why you’re doing this? Because just like him, you couldn’t let it go, you couldn’t let them go unpunished?”
Her reply was soft, humbled. “Something like that.”
“Then don’t let them get away with it.”
Fear unexpectedly stabbed through her insides, making her go all cold again. “I can still hear his voice, Jack.”
Walk away while you can. My next visit won’t be quite so pleasant.
“And you’re afraid of what he said.”
She didn’t have to answer.
Jack wanted to curse. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to crush her close in his arms and never let her go. Didn’t she realize the danger she was in if any of what she suspected was true? Why couldn’t she be like ninety-nine point nine percent of the populace and give up and let it go? Like father, like daughter. She’d sunk in her teeth and she wouldn’t release that bite, not ever. Not even after they struck her and threatened her. Not even when the system that was set up to protect her, failed her. Didn’t she know how easily professional men—men like him—could break her delicate bones?
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
