Authors: Lora Leigh
Wayne’s eyes crinkled at the corners in amusement. “Straight to the point. I liked
that about you, Sheriff.”
Archer glanced at the files. “Reports. Or someone might have to arrest Madge for shooting
me.”
Wayne glanced back at the smoked glass before giving a light laugh in response. That
amusement dissipated quickly though, leaving Wayne’s expression to tighten in displeasure
instead.
“I just left another meeting with the chief of the state police and our esteemed governor.
I believe there may well be chew marks on my ass, Archer. They ripped me up one side
and back down the other.”
Archer grimaced in frustration. “Go ahead,” he snorted in frustration. “Kick me while
I’m already down.”
There was no smugness in Wayne’s expression or in his gaze now. There was only disgust
and a glimmer of impatience.
“Ms. O’Brien’s foster father, our governor, isn’t in the least happy that it’s taking
so long to find his foster daughter’s attacker,” Wayne bit out furiously. “They stopped
by my office to give us a few ultimatums. Ones our mayor seems to agree with completely.”
Archer wasn’t in the least concerned with the mayor, but he cared about as much for
official ultimatums as Wayne did. Besides, this seemed a little fast since the last
ultimatum Wayne had been given.
Hell, this day wasn’t turning out to be one of his better ones.
“Such as?” He was beginning to think Wayne was going to make him beg for the information.
The other man’s nostrils flared, his dirt-brown eyes glaring in remembered ire. “They
reminded me that if another victim is found, or another comes up missing, then the
state police will be given the investigation immediately, while the FBI will handle
local questioning and continued profiling. We have six weeks to find and arrest the
Slasher, or the investigation will be taken from us immediately. And you know what
that means, Archer.”
Nothing could foul this situation up worse now.
“Hell,” Archer cursed. “We don’t need this.”
“I believe I may have expressed the same sentiment myself,” Wayne assured him before
finishing his coffee and setting the cup back on the tray. “How would you like to
handle this, then? There has to be some way figure out who the hell the Slasher is,
Archer, and whether or not he does indeed have a partner.” Wayne had never believed
it was a team, but rather a series of copycats.
Wayne’s lips tightened when Archer sighed wearily. Hell, the man didn’t have the patience
of a two-year-old.
“How, then, are we going to proceed?” The same question repackaged.
Lifting his brow mockingly Archer said, “Well, Wayne, if you have an idea how to proceed
that I haven’t yet used, then let’s hear it.”
He was getting damned tired of the demand for results and the lack of cooperation
in the case.
Wayne sighed heavily. “There was no offense intended, Archer,” he promised. “The thought
of Sweetrock under siege by the FBI and state police makes my skin crawl, though.
They haven’t lived through this, nor have they seen what we’ve seen.”
And wasn’t that the damned truth.
“Agreed.” Archer rubbed at the back of his neck as he leaned forward and stared at
the files he’d shoved to the side of his desk.
Lifting his gaze once again to Wayne’s, he breathed out roughly. “Let me think about
this—”
“And let you contact the Callahans and see how they want to proceed?” Wayne’s jaw
tensed, a muscle jumping at the side of his face as his brown eyes grew cool and filled
with disdain. “Is this your investigation or the Callahans’?”
Archer forced a hard, cold smile to his lips. “Why don’t I give it to the Callahans
and we’ll see if a difference can be seen.”
The whole damned County would see a difference then.
“What about Anna?” Wayne’s demeanor shifted to one of concern. “The whole County is
buzzing. The maids were on the phone within seconds of her leaving to spread the word
that Corbin had thrown her out.” He shook his head with a grimace. “That son of a
bitch sure as hell knows how to destroy a kid, doesn’t he?”
“She’s dealing with it, just not easily.” Archer shrugged with a heavy sigh.
Damn, he was glad he had learned how to lie in the military.
“Poor kid.” Wayne rose to his feet with a heavy sigh. “I’d better return to my own
paperwork.” He nodded to Archer’s files. “I’d like to meet with you and the deputies
you have working the case tomorrow, though. We have to figure this Slasher thing out,
Archer. And we don’t have a lot of time to do it in.”
“Set it up with Madge,” Archer told him. “And I’ll see you then.” Unless he could
get out of it.
Archer had no intentions of sharing any more information with anyone that he didn’t
have to.
Archer had learned by watching his father, and listening to him discuss the case,
to trust only the few proven to be trustworthy. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the
county attorney. Hell, Wayne had as many hours on this as anyone did, but still, the
less said about some things, the better. Especially with a man Archer’s father had
identified as a suspect years before.
Rising to his feet, he walked across the office to the set of wide, old-fashioned
windows that looked out on the back lawn where the sheriff’s department and courthouse
employees took their lunch.
Propping his hands on his hips he stared out at one of the shaded benches that sat
next to an ornate cement fountain.
He had no doubt about the direction he was following in the investigation. He’d already
begun a more extensive search into his deputy John Caine’s background, but he was
coming up with several dead ends. For a period of five years the man hadn’t existed.
Not surprisingly, that period coincided with the summer the Slasher had first struck,
twelve years before.
Striding back to his desk and taking his seat, Archer pulled his cell phone from the
side of the desk and made a call. He hadn’t wanted to make this call, but he was out
of options.
“Hello,” Ryan Calvert answered. The child Eileen Callahan had sold to save her husband
and her ranch was a man now. A man with a cause, and that cause was centered in Corbin
County.
“Are you ready?” Archer asked.
“As I’ve ever been.” His voice was slow and easy. “We meeting at your place?”
“The study,” Archer agreed.
“Give me three,” Ryan replied. “And I’ll be bringing a friend. The boys have been
working on this for several years now, so don’t worry. Once you meet him, you’ll understand
why I trust him.”
Ryan knew Archer’s secrecy issues well, just as Archer knew Ryan’s. He’d meet the
other man, but that was all he was promising.
“If I’m not in the study, I’ll know you’re there,” Archer promised. “It might take
a minute to get there.”
“Let’s rock and roll, then,” Ryan said.
“As long as we’re the rock.” Archer sighed, hoping—praying—he had this figured out.
“As long as we’re the rock.”
* * *
The newly renovated building that now housed the main offices of Brute Force Security
no doubt had the classiest interior of any office in the County.
Anna felt a sense of pride that morning as she stepped inside the tastefully furnished
reception area with the sleek, curved receptionist’s post that drew the eye rather
than the security guard’s matching post in a far corner of the room.
The computerized wonderland that each sleek electronic top held, hidden behind the
raised front panel that greeted guests, was a technological marvel as far as Anna
was concerned. And it was completely unlike anything she’d seen in some of the more
high-tech offices in New York and California.
The fact that her cousins—well, only Crowe was actually her cousin, but she liked
to claim all three of them—were part owners of the business was the source of that
pride.
They’d been disowned, fought a legal battle for more than a decade for what was rightfully
theirs, and they were now using that inheritance to create something, rather than
simply living from it.
Not that any of them would accept it if they knew that was what she felt.
Moving along the plushly carpeted hall of the upper-floor offices, Anna carried the
electronic pad used to transfer documents and record signatures between offices. Until
the new interoffice network and encrypted e-mail system was online and tested, Crowe
and his partner, Ivan Resnova, had ordered that the electronic pads be used instead.
Anna loved them.
Stopping at the heavy, dark oak door to the large meeting room, she wiped first one
hand, then the other, down the side of her skirt before knocking firmly.
“Enter,” Crowe called out, his dark, brooding voice bringing to mind the boogie man
naughty children were frightened of.
She almost grinned at the image before opening the door and stepping inside.
And there was Archer. As well as the two Callahan cousins she’d believed had left
earlier, the Resnovas and Archer.
Anna almost paused before closing the door. She tried to ignore Archer as she stepped
to the long, oval, dark walnut table where Crowe, Ivan Resnova, and Mikhail Resnova,
as well as four of the security agents employed by Brute Force, sat.
“The employment agreements you requested, Mr. Callahan,” she stated, placing the electronic
pad on the table beside him.
“Thank you, Ms. Corbin.” He accepted the pad but didn’t glance at it. “Would you have
a seat now?”
“Excuse me?” The soft command made her pause.
“The chair beside Archer.” He indicated the empty chair.
Anna narrowed her gaze at the top of Crowe’s head. He didn’t even bother to look up
at her.
“Why?”
She was pretty certain it was Archer snickering, but she didn’t give him the benefit
of so much as a glance.
Crowe did turn his head and glance up at her then.
Slowly, he pushed his chair back and moved to rise.
“Don’t make a mistake I’ll help you regret, Crowe,” Archer warned him, his tone suddenly
dark.
Crowe slid his gaze to Archer as he planted his hands on the table before his eyes
zoomed back to her. Like the wolf it was rumored he lived with, even more predatory,
more intent than Archer’s, his eyes sliced into her.
“Because,
cousin,
I thought you might like to have an opinion where your protection’s concerned in
the coming weeks. I have a feeling Archer’s wrong about your ability to handle the
truth. Perhaps I should have just put bodyguards on you and left you in the dark where
they were concerned. I have no doubt they’re good enough that you would never know
they were there.”
Her protection?
She glanced at Archer, inhaling sharply rather than blasting him with a scathing retort,
before she turned back to Crowe.
“You can shove your protection,
cousin
.” She didn’t have to hold back with Crowe. “I’ve lived for twenty-four years without
your help, and I can live without it just fine for the rest of my life, thank you
very much.”
But she knew that look on his face. She could protest until hell froze over and he
would still do whatever the hell he pleased.
“Anna, please sit down.” Archer’s request was a careful, thinly cloaked warning in
an order that pretended to be a request.
She might hate men.
Anna sat down slowly, watching as Crowe took his seat once again.
“You may remember seeing Thaddock, Stryker, and Brolen around town,” he introduced
three of the men she had seen. “The fourth is new to Brute Force, but he comes from
an exceptional family with excellent references.” He nodded to a handsome younger
man. “This is Rory Malone, from Texas. He’ll be the one ensuring the other three aren’t
glimpsed. He has no security background, but he’s from a well-respected security family.”
Anna stared at him thoughtfully for a moment before smiling. “You’re Sabella Malone’s
brother-in-law. You came to Edgemoore Girls’ School with her when she gave her class
on basic auto mechanics.”
It hadn’t been nearly as informational as Anna had hoped at the time. How to change
a tire, who to call in case of a roadside emergency. How to check the oil and refill
the wiper fluid. Anna had known that much by following her grandfather around on the
farm before being shipped off to school.
His head tipped to the side.
The youthfulness that had once filled his face was no longer there.
“I remember you, Miss Corbin.” He nodded. “It’s been a while.”
It had been well over ten years.
“How’s Sabella doing?” she asked.
Rory’s sister-in-law had been struggling with a failing business, but she had still
taken time out to come to the exclusive school.
“Are you finished with the pleasantries now?” Crowe asked mockingly. “Or would the
two of you like us to return?”
“Not really.” Anna smiled back at him tightly. “I don’t get to town much,
cousin.
Remember? And polite conversation is just so hard to come by.”
The other three security agents were the ones snickering now. At least until Crowe
and Archer sent a warning look their way.
“As I was attempting to point out, I’m not in the mood to see another of those helpless,
obviously tortured bodies of a young woman who dared to have contact with me, Rafer,
or Logan. Especially not the only cousin who had the good grace and generous heart
to reach out to us every damned time she saw us,” Crowe snapped. “So you can pretend
they’re not there and accept it.”
Anna stared at him silently for long moments before replying. “Thanks for speaking
back all those times.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her
breasts defensively.
“And thank you for not attracting the Slasher’s eye and getting yourself killed,”
he grunted. “Now, if we have the pleasantries out of the way, can we continue this
meeting?”
“Crowe, the two of you will never stop sniping long enough to get anything out of
the way.” Ivan laughed from his position at the side of the table, across from Anna.
“Shall I handle this for you, my friend?” he asked, his Russian accent filled with
amusement.