Before the Dawn--A Novel of Romantic Suspense

  “You truly believe she’s the killer.”

  His face was serious. His tone hard and determined. Anthony swallowed. “I just think...sometimes we’re blinded. We see only what we want to see. Dawn can make Tucker see exactly what she wants when she looks at him.”

  “A few hours ago, you were the one who seemed certain that Tucker was guilty. What’s changed since then?” Why the complete one-eighty?

  “She trusts him too much. She didn’t have a moment of hesitation when we brought him in for questioning. I mean...why do that? Why...unless she knows something we don’t. Unless she knows he can’t be the killer.”

  Macey stared back at him.

  He swore. “Look, I just needed to talk with someone, okay? Torez isn’t exactly impartial, and when I approached Dawn earlier—she kicked my ass out of her place. I left just moments after you did.”

  “Well, when you accuse someone of being a murderer that tends to piss them off.”

  He stepped closer to her. She didn’t tense, but as a rule, Macey didn’t like it when people came into her space. “What if she is a murderer?” Anthony asked. “Can you look me in the eyes and tell me it’s not possible?”

  “I believe we all have the potential for violence, but in Dawn’s case...there is no way that she could have killed Red. She wouldn’t have been able to get to the scene in time. She was watched by FBI Agent Bowen Murphy when Tucker went to investigate. She wasn’t left alone at the suite. He was with her every moment.”

  He blinked.

  “She has an airtight alibi for Red’s murder.”

  He shook his head and suddenly seemed less certain. “I...I didn’t realize she’d had a guard for that time. I thought...thought Tucker must have left her alone. I knew you were with Julia...”

  “I was, but Bowen had arrived in town. He stayed with Dawn, and he wasn’t a guard. She was under protective custody. There’s a difference. So if the perp who killed Red is the same individual we’re hunting here in the city, there is no way that person is Dawn Alexander.”

  Relief swept over his face. “Good—fucking great.” He backed away, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. “I needed to hear that.” Then he was reaching down toward his hip—not for his holster but for his phone. She saw that it was vibrating. He looked at the screen. “It’s the captain. I have to check in.”

  He walked away before she could say anything else. Macey headed back inside the building, stopping to check with the clerk. “Is Dr. Bradford back yet?”

  He frowned, peering up at her through his glasses. “She hasn’t checked out today.” He motioned toward his log. “She...should still be in the lab.”

  She scanned over the names in the log, names that showed when individuals had checked in and out.

  Dawn Alexander.

  Jones Bradford.

  Ronald Torez.

  And her own name. Anthony’s name was just below hers. She initialed by the space next to her name once more and flashed her ID for verification. Then she was heading back toward the lab. She entered and the cold air inside wrapped around her. The place was so damn icy. She didn’t see how Julia could work there without being wrapped in layers.

  Light jazz music drifted around her.

  There was a po’boy on Julia’s desk. Maybe that was where she’d been before, sneaking out and grabbing a quick bite and the clerk hadn’t even noticed her absence because he’d been on a quick break, too. “Dr. Bradford?”

  No answer.

  “Julia? You in here?” She walked back to the exam area. Only...

  There was blood on the floor. Some kind of accident?

  But—

  Her gaze turned toward the exam table. A body was still on the table. Julia wasn’t there, but the body was. Since spending time with Julia, she’d realized how very by-the-book the other woman was. She certainly wasn’t the type to leave a mess in her lab. To leave a victim partially covered—

  Macey reached for the sheet. She lifted up the edge and a gasp tore from her.

  Part of Jinx’s hip was missing. A section of skin had just been cut away. But that wouldn’t have caused the blood that she saw on the floor. Her head jerked up. “Julia?” Now worry pierced her because this scene...it was wrong. All wrong. When she looked closer at the floor, she saw that it appeared someone had tried to clean up the blood. Part of it was smeared across the tile.

  “Julia? Julia, where the hell are you?” She rushed around, searching the lab, searching Julia’s work area, but the woman wasn’t there. The clerk said she hadn’t left but Julia wasn’t inside and—

  And if she didn’t leave, then she has to be hidden here somewhere.

  “Oh, my God.” She ran toward the wall of cold storage lockers, every instinct that she had screaming at her. She yanked open one locker—saw the body. Red. Jesus. She opened another, yanked out the gurney inside—Heather Hartley. Hell. She opened the third, pulling it out and—

  Julia.

  Her eyes closed, her body icy to the touch. “Julia!” Macey grabbed for the other woman, seeing the blood that coated her head.

  Dear God, no!

  Then Julia’s eyes flew open.

  * * *

  DAWN CLIMBED INTO her closet, grateful to leave that dark tunnel behind. “We need to call Julia and get her to search Jinx’s body for that tattoo.” Because she was sure now that Jinx had made that tattoo for herself. The necklace had been hers, so the tattoo would have been hers, too. “When something mattered to her, she made a tat.” Her body had been covered in the art that was her life. “Her lover mattered, that’s why she started that sketch of the tattoo. Maybe...” Tucker was right on her heels. “Maybe she even added more details when she inked herself.” Hearts often had names in them, didn’t they? Names or initials. That was kind of tradition.

  “Macey and Julia have already been examining her body.” He shut the closet door. “Don’t you think they would have noticed it if she’d had some guy’s name on her by now?”

  Not necessarily. Not if it had been hidden. She remembered that Jinx had been wearing her underwear when she’d been in that freezer. He stripped you down to your underwear so you’d feel the cold surrounding you. She walked across the room and opened her bedroom door. “I’m calling Julia. I’m—”

  Her words stopped. She stopped. Because a man was waiting in her den.

  “Hello, Dawn.”

  Detective Ronald Torez had his weapon drawn. He pointed it straight at her. Tucker was behind her, but Torez’s gaze darted over her shoulder. “Hello, Agent Frost.”

  What in the hell?

  “Why don’t you both step forward and come out here to face me?” A muscle jerked in Torez’s jaw. “Right the fuck now.”

  Dawn inched forward. She’d put her gun down in her closet. Dammit. She just held her flashlight. Not much of a weapon against a gun. She had the flashlight and he had a gun.

  “If you’ve got a weapon on you, Agent Frost,” Torez continued coldly, “then you need to put it on the floor. I’ve got my gun trained dead center at Dawn’s forehead, and if I see a weapon come at me, I will fire.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  THE DETECTIVE’S GUN was pointed at Dawn’s head and Tucker could tell by the guy’s lethal tone that he wasn’t bluffing. Son of a bitch. Tucker had to put his weapon on the floor. There was no choice. Slowly, he put his gun on the carpet. Then he and Dawn both walked forward, moving closer to the cop, and Tucker kept his hands up.

  That gun wasn’t my only weapon. And when I see the right moment, I will be fighting back. As he advanced, he tried to position his body in front of Dawn’s in order to better protect her.

  “Don’t,” Torez bit out. “Freeze right there, both of you.” His face was pale. “You went down to Jinx’s place, didn’t you? Snuck r
ight back to the scene of the crime.”

  “How did you get into my home?” Dawn asked.

  “I broke the lock. I knocked, pounded, but you didn’t answer. I got worried so I broke in...and then I realized that you’d snuck downstairs.” His eyes glittered at her. “Why? Why did you do it?”

  That guy’s finger was too close to the trigger.

  “She didn’t hurt anyone. Jinx was good. She was kind.” The gun trembled in his grasp. “What the fuck did you do? Did you kill her together? Has this always been some weird twisted shit where the two of you were taking the victims together?”

  Tucker blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You went down there to destroy evidence!” Torez screamed. “Anthony warned me...said I should be careful around you both, but...Dawn...” His gaze swung back to her. “I never thought it could be you. You were her friend.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t hurt Jinx.” Dawn’s hands were up, too, but one of her hands still curled around a heavy flashlight. Torez hadn’t told her to drop that light. His mistake.

  Tucker could see that Torez was on the breaking point. The guy was spouting nonsense, and if his hand kept shaking around that gun... He’ll start firing.

  “You were in her place!” Spittle flew from Torez’s mouth. “I went into your bedroom. I saw—Your closet was open—I realized you’d gone down there. How many times have you gone down there? Why the fuck are you doing this? Is this some fucked-up game for you both?”

  “No one is playing a game.” Tucker stepped in front of Dawn. That gun was shaking too much and if the guy fired, Tucker wanted to make sure that the bullet didn’t hit her. “You need to calm down, Detective. You’re confused. We just went down there to search—”

  Torez gave a wild laugh. “Right. You went to search. At a closed crime scene. Bullshit. You tried to set me up on this one, had my own brothers in blue doubting me...and you’d killed her!”

  “No!” Dawn’s voice called out. “We didn’t! Look, just calm down. Call Anthony—”

  “Already did. Called him as soon as I saw what the hell you had done. He’ll be here soon and we’ll take your asses in. You are going to pay for what you did.” His eyes were wide and stark. “You tortured her. You killed her. You—”

  “Drop the gun!” The cry had come from behind Torez. Fierce, sharp. Tucker recognized Anthony Deveraux’s voice.

  At Anthony’s cry, Torez spun to face him. He didn’t drop the gun. It was shaking in his hand, and he swung it around toward his partner.

  Anthony fired. Once. Twice. Torez’s body jerked as he stumbled back. Then he fell, slamming down onto the floor. His weapon dropped from his hand and skittered across the hardwood, stopping beneath the edge of Dawn’s table.

  Anthony’s body was still crouched, his gun still up.

  Time itself seemed to freeze.

  Then Dawn was rushing around Tucker. She fell to her knees beside the fallen detective and immediately reached out for him. “Torez?”

  Anthony sucked in a deep breath. He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just done. “Is he dead?”

  Tucker knew that he was. Dawn was trying to help the guy, but those shots had been clean and precise. The detective might have been dead even before he hit the floor.

  “Dawn!” Anthony’s voice thundered out. “Is he dead?”

  Her hands were covered in Torez’s blood. “Yes.” Dazed, she looked up at Anthony. “Why wouldn’t he listen? We didn’t hurt Jinx. I didn’t. Tucker didn’t. We didn’t do it! We were just searching her place. We found the sketch of her tattoo—”

  And Tucker saw it happen. Anthony’s face changed. The concerned mask vanished. He wasn’t the worried cop any longer. Fury etched onto his face, hardening his jaw and narrowing his eyes. “Fucking bitch.”

  Dawn blinked.

  Tucker had crouched down when Dawn went toward Torez. He was still crouched and his hand went to his right ankle, sliding under the edge of his pants. He touched the knife strapped there—

  “I found the sketch at Voodoo Tats,” Anthony muttered. “Thought it was the only one. Should have known she had another. She always was drawing shit.” His gun lifted and aimed at Dawn. “Did that one have my fucking initials on it, too?”

  Dawn blinked. “Anthony?”

  He smiled at her. And when he smiled...a dimple flashed in his left cheek.

  Fucking hell. “Dawn!” Tucker yelled as his fingers curled around the knife. “Get over here, get to me—”

  Anthony swung the gun toward him. And he fired.

  * * *

  “YOU’RE GOING TO be okay.” Macey squeezed Julia’s hand—her fingers were still ice-cold. They were racing out of the coroner’s building. Julia was on a gurney and two EMTs were on either side of her. “You’re safe. Everything is okay.”

  Such a lie. Julia’s lips were blue. She was bleeding from at least four different wounds, but the cold...it had actually helped her. It had slowed down her blood loss.

  I’m betting the asshole who did this to you didn’t count on that.

  The EMTs rushed Julia toward the waiting ambulance.

  “T-T...” Julia’s lips barely moved. “T... D...”

  What?

  “His...initials...”

  Julia was in the back of the ambulance now. The EMTs pushed Macey back.

  “Take care of her,” she yelled, right before those doors closed.

  T. D.

  His...initials...

  “Oh, my God.” She grabbed for her phone. She called Tucker and the phone rang and rang and rang...

  * * *

  WHEN ANTHONY FIRED at Tucker, Dawn lunged to her feet and raced toward the bastard. She swung the flashlight at Anthony as hard as she could, slamming it into the side of his head. He snarled and brought the gun up toward her—but not to shoot her.

  Instead, he slammed the gun’s handle against the side of her head. For a moment, she thought her cheek had broken. Stars danced before her eyes and she swayed.

  Then he grabbed her. He yanked her forward and held her in front of his body. And the bastard—the man she’d mistakenly called her friend—jammed the barrel of the gun beneath her chin.

  Her gaze—blurred and hazy because he’d hit so close to her left eye—sought Tucker. He was on the floor, slowly rising, and she could see the blood soaking the side of his shirt.

  Her breath caught. Tucker was on his feet. Bleeding, but...he was coming toward her.

  “Don’t take so much as another step,” Anthony snarled at him, “or I will kill her.”

  Tucker’s head lifted. His blue eyes blazed as he stared at Anthony.

  “Hello, brother,” Anthony murmured.

  Tucker flinched. “You’re not my f-fucking brother...” His hand lifted to his shoulder and pressed to the wound there.

  Anthony laughed. “Sure I am. Your half brother. Isn’t that what the DNA match said? What? Did you think you and Jason were the only sons your bastard of a father had?”

  Dawn’s cheek burned and throbbed. Blood trickled down the side of her face.

  “He knocked up my mom. Did it when he was still married to your bitch of a mother.”

  A snarl twisted Tucker’s mouth. “Don’t...”

  But Anthony just laughed again. “Don’t what? Don’t talk about the dead? What are you gonna do? I’ll tell you...nothing. Not while I’ve got your sweet piece of ass in my arms.” And his hold on Dawn tightened. “I really thought you’d be over her by now. I mean, aren’t you pissed at her? At least a little bit? She’s the reason you had to kill Jason. You should hate her.”

  Tucker’s gaze slid to Dawn’s face. It almost hurt to look into his eyes. So bright. My Tucker. “I could never hate Dawn.”


  “No, right. I got that as soon as I saw you two together. Knew that I’d have to change my plans. See...before you two got together, I’d intended to pin all this shit on you. That’s why I gave Heather your name. Why I got her to come down to New Orleans right after you closed that Sorority Slasher case in Fairhope. You were gonna be the fall guy. But then I saw you and Dawn together.” His hot breath was on her neck. “And I knew you weren’t the angry ex-lover that I needed you to be.”

  “Y-you wanted me to doubt him,” Dawn managed, her voice husky. She wanted to pull Anthony’s attention back to her. She knew Tucker was just looking for a chance to attack. If she could distract Anthony...

  “Yeah, you were supposed to doubt him...but you fucking wouldn’t!” The barrel jammed harder, shoving into her chin. “Why not, Dawn? Why the hell not? I even left those gloves, knowing they would give a partial DNA match. You were supposed to think he was covering for someone else. You were supposed to think he’d always tricked you. You were supposed to think he was the fucking bad guy!” He wrenched back her head, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Why the hell didn’t you?”

  She swallowed. “Because I trust him.”

  His lips twisted.

  “Because...I love him.” She needed to say those words. She needed for Tucker to hear them and to know they were true. She hadn’t stopped loving him. She’d lost her way for a while—they both had—but what she felt for him had never died.

  If anything, being with him again had made her love grow stronger.

  We’re different now. I thought we could have a chance this time. She’d been wrong.

  Rage twisted Anthony’s face. “I had everything planned...and you screwed it up. If I couldn’t throw the blame on him, I was gonna put it on you. After all, you crumpled after your attack, didn’t you? Let Jason break your mind?”