Landis listened, shaking inside, hurt to her core that her brother would do this to her. That he would discount everything she’d said. That he would betray her.
You don’t know him as well as you think you do.
Ian’s words rang uncomfortably in her ears. She thought of Jack, of what he was trying to do single-handedly and against insurmountable odds and suddenly knew she couldn’t let Ian do this to her. She loved her brother, but he was wrong about Jack. She was willing to bet her life on it.
Spotting the keys to Ian’s SUV on the coffee table in the living room, she crossed to it and looked down at them. Over her shoulder, she could hear Ian on the phone, arranging the time and place for them to consult with the attorney. I’m sorry, Ian, she thought and picked up the keys, gripping them tightly to keep them from jingling.
Never taking her eyes from him, she backed toward the door, opened it, and slipped quietly out.
Chapter 10
L andis parked Ian’s SUV in the rear lot of the Utah County courthouse and sat inside for ten minutes trying to muster the courage to go inside. The courthouse was usually deserted on Sunday, but if she was wanted for questioning about Jack, she didn’t want to run into a coworker—or a cop.
She tried not to feel guilty about what she’d done to her brother. He was going to be furious with her—and rightfully so if she wanted to be honest about it. But there hadn’t been another way; he certainly hadn’t left her an alternative. She only hoped he didn’t come after her—or, God forbid, turn her in to the police.
After leaving his house twenty minutes earlier, her first instinct had been to return to her cabin. But with Cyrus Duke’s goons taking shots at her, she didn’t want to risk it. For the same reason, she couldn’t go to her mother’s house in Ogden. The last thing she wanted to do was endanger her family. And so she’d driven to her office in Provo. A place that had always been her refuge. Her salvation.
The only place she felt safe at the moment.
All she needed was a place where she could sort through everything that had happened, look at all the information she had on hand and decide what to do next. She wanted to have another look at Jack’s case—from a lawyer’s perspective, not a woman in two miles over her head and sinking deeper with every moment she spent with him. She had a copy of the transcript from his trial. She could go over it again, look for things she’d missed. She could poke around on the Internet and see if she could drum up anything useful. She also had the home phone number for one of the junior attorneys who’d worked with Aaron Chandler. He was more of an acquaintance than friend, but she could give him a call and try to garner some information about Jack’s case. Hopefully, it wasn’t common knowledge that she and Jack had been together.
Using her access card, Landis entered through the employee entrance at the rear of the courthouse. She barely noticed the beauty of the old building as she headed at a brisk clip toward the bank of elevators off the lobby. Her heart beat out a steady rhythm as she rode to the second level. The doors slid open, and she peeked into the dimly lit hall. Finding it deserted, she jogged to her office a few doors down, the heels of her boots clicking smartly against the marble floor.
She used her key to unlock her door and went directly to her computer. As the machine booted, she absently paged through the mail in her inbox. She was pulling up her contact information on her computer when she came to the nondescript brown envelope at the bottom of the stack. It caught her attention because there was nothing on it except her name. No return address. No postage. It hadn’t been sent via interoffice mail.
Curious, she opened it, found herself looking at a computer disk. She was about to set it aside, when the label caught her eye: Jack LaCroix. Puzzled, she looked inside the envelope for a note, but found nothing.
Turning back to her computer, she shoved the disk into the drive, then double clicked on the single file. The drive whirred. Holding her breath, she watched as her word processing software opened a single-page document.
Dear Landy,
I’ve probably already met an untimely demise, probably a violent one, but don’t grieve too much. I knew what I was getting into. Of course, I never meant for things to go this far. I never meant to hurt you or mom or Ian. Lord knows I never meant to hurt Casey or the kids. Believe me when I tell you I’m sorry.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I suppose you’re waiting for the really tough stuff. Unfortunately, I’ve got plenty. You probably know by now that I was on Cyrus Duke’s payroll. Biggest mistake I ever made, but you know what they say about hindsight. Landy, I’m not the only cop on Duke’s payroll. In the last two years Jack LaCroix has accepted over $200,000. In return, he allowed Duke’s drug cartel to operate unencumbered by the Salt Lake City P.D. I wanted to come clean, but Jack was dead set against it. I know you’re crazy about him, sis, but he’s bad news. Stay away from him. He’s dangerous.
I left this disk with the last person I trust. If something happens to me, you’re supposed to get it. I hope you get it in time. Being the terrific prosecutor you are, I know you’ll do the right thing and take this to the D.A. no matter how painful.
In closing, watch your back. I love you always.
Evan
The words tumbled over her like an avalanche, cold and smothering and devastating. By the time she read the last sentence she was fighting tears. Of disbelief. Of frustration. Of pain. She looked for a date, realized it had been written two days before Evan was murdered.
Shaken, she stood abruptly and stared down at the monitor. Denial reared up inside her followed by a sharp sense of betrayal that cut her to the quick. “No,” she said, rapping her fist against her desk.
Heart thrumming steadily against her breast, she sank into the chair and lowered her face to her hands. She felt sick. As if a giant hand had reached into her and was twisting her heart into knots. But as much as she wanted to just sit there and cry, she knew it wouldn’t help. She’d learned a long time ago that tears never helped anything.
She thought of Evan and felt the knife of betrayal cut a little more deeply. I wanted to come clean, but Jack was dead set against it. It hurt that her brother had betrayed her, that he’d betrayed the system he’d sworn to uphold and followed the tainted legacy of their father. But it hurt even more to think that Jack might have done the very same thing. That he’d lied to her, used her. That she’d been gullible enough to put everything on the line for him.
“Oh, God, Jack,” she whispered. The pain was like a torrent inside her, flowing swift and deep. A river flooding its banks, threatening to drown her.
She didn’t want to believe Jack was somehow involved with Duke. But like before, the evidence was in stark black and white and damning as hell.
Landis knew the disk could be a fake. Anyone could have written it and brought it to the courthouse. With her name written boldly on the envelope, the mailroom would have eventually delivered it to her even if it hadn’t come from the post office.
But from whom had the disk come? What would they have to gain by sending it to her? Why not the attorney who’d prosecuted the case? And why had they waited until now?
No matter what the answer to the questions, the fact remained that she was going to have to deal with it. At some point she would have to take it to the police, maybe even to the D.A., if only to have it disproved.
Or added into evidence.
The thought filled her with a dread so cold, she felt frozen inside.
But even as she pondered her options, a dark new suspicion crept into the backwaters of her mind. Something about the disk didn’t feel right, like a piece of puzzle that wouldn’t quite fit into the mold. Forcing her lawyer’s mind into place, she tried to put the letter’s appearance into legal terms. The timing of it disturbed her more than anything. Evan had been dead for more than a year. Why would someone wait until now to bring it to her? Why would Evan use a disk instead of a handwritten letter? Was it possible the disk was part of the setup Jack had
been referring to? If so, who was responsible? Cyrus Duke?
The questions pounded at her relentlessly, but she didn’t have an answer for any of them. If Jack were guilty and had $200,000 stashed in a bank account somewhere, why was he in Salt Lake City? Why were Duke’s thugs trying to kill him? Why was Jack a threat?
On an emotional level, even faced with the damning statement on the disk, Landis couldn’t believe he was a cold-blooded murderer. Not the man who’d used his own body as a shield when the security officer had shot at them at Chandler’s office. Not the man who’d saved her life when Duke’s thugs had stormed the cabin. Not the man who kissed her like there was no tomorrow.
She stared at the monitor where the ugly words taunted her. For a crazy moment she considered deleting the file.
Simultaneously, a jab of shame cut her, reminding her of the clear dividing line between right and wrong. It was a line she swore she would never cross. Even knowing how damaging the disk would be to her personally, to her family, to Evan’s memory—and to Jack—Landis knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing she’d destroyed possible evidence.
She thought about her father and shuddered at the situation she now found herself in. As a child, she’d believed in Reece McAllister; she’d given him a child’s unconditional love and trust, only to have him betray her in the worst way a child could be betrayed. That she’d laid everything on the line for Jack—a man who seemed every bit as ambiguous as her father—shook her badly.
Shoving the troubling thoughts to the back of her mind, she set her fingers against her temples and rubbed where the headache had broken through. She was reaching for the phone when the door to her office swung open. Adrenaline jolted her as she imagined a slew of police officers bursting in to arrest her.
Her heart stopped dead in her chest when Jack appeared in her doorway.
Jack knew the instant he looked into her eyes that something had changed since he’d last seen her. In his years as a cop he’d seen shock enough times to know she was perilously close to it. The bandage on her cheek stood out against a complexion that was several shades too pale. Her clothes were in disarray. She looked dead on her feet. Worse, she looked on the verge of bolting.
“How did you get in?” she asked.
“I caught the paralegal on the second floor coming in to do some transcription.” Looking over his shoulder, he stepped into her office and closed the door behind him. “Why the hell aren’t you with Ian?”
She contemplated him, a doe about to be mowed down by a speeding eighteen wheeler. “How did you know I was here?”
“Process of elimination.” He cursed. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t stay put.”
“Ian knows we’ve been together.”
He grimaced. “I’m sure he’s not happy about it.”
“He thinks you’re a killer. He thinks I’m insane.”
The calm in her voice belied everything he saw. Her hand rested on the desk in front of her, but he could see her fingers trembling.
“I’m not crazy,” she said.
“I know.” Unable to stop himself, he started toward her. Uneasiness rippled through him when she tensed. The anxiety inside him darkened, like a storm cloud filled with violent winds and drenching rains.
She raised her hand, as if to stop him. “Don’t come any closer.”
He halted, but it cost him. The need to touch her was like a living thing inside him. As vital as the next beat of his heart. He was so close to her he could smell the clean scent of her hair, the soft scent of her flesh. “I want to know why you’re pale and shaking and staring at me as if you just realized I’m Jack the Ripper,” he said.
“The situation is out of control, Jack. The police want to talk to me about you. I’m pretty sure Ian has already talked to them. He’s already been in contact with a defense attorney for me. I’ve put him in a terribly compromising position—”
“And he’s covering his ass.”
“He cares about me.”
“If he cared about you he wouldn’t have let you out of his sight.”
“I didn’t give him much choice.”
He frowned at her, his eyes narrowing. “What did you do? Steal his SUV?”
“Something like that.”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Jesus, Landis…”
“Why are you here?”
“Because I figured you wouldn’t stay with Ian if he started giving you flack about me.” His eyes burned into hers. “Because the more I thought about it, the more certain I became that if Duke gets the chance he’s going to come after you.”
“Duke doesn’t want me. He doesn’t even know who I am.”
“He knows exactly who you are. And he knows you’re the weakest link to me.”
Across the desk from him, Landis shivered. “God, I hate this.”
“I’m not going to let him hurt you.”
“You’re not going to have a say in the matter if you’re in prison.” Her eyes flicked to the computer screen, then back to him. “I think you need to see this.”
Something in her tone made his nerves go taut. Rounding the desk, he turned to the computer, read quickly. Dread twisted inside him with such force that he felt dizzy. “Where did you get this?”
“It was delivered here to my office anonymously, sometime in the last two days.”
“That’s convenient as hell.” Jack studied her, hating the question he saw in her eyes, hated even more the uncertainty he saw in her expression. “In case there’s any question in your mind, Evan didn’t write that,” he snapped.
She stared at him for a long while, her gaze level and direct. “I figured that out all by myself.”
The words struck Jack so hard for a moment he couldn’t speak. He stared at her, felt something inside him shift and freefall. He wasn’t an emotional man, but hearing those words, knowing she believed in him after everything that had happened undid him as nothing else could have.
On an oath, he set his hands against the desk, leaned and closed his eyes against emotions dangerously close to the surface. He knew Landis was watching him, knew she was wondering what the hell was the matter with him. But for the first time in too many years to count, he was overcome.
“Jack?” She reached out, set her hand against his cheek. Her palm was incredibly soft against his face.
He drew a breath, let it out slowly, felt the emotions clenching his chest ease. When he raised his gaze to hers, her eyes were soft and compassionate.
“I didn’t want to believe it about Evan, either,” he said quietly. “But there’s no other explanation.”
He laid his hand against hers, then turned his head slightly and kissed her palm. There were a hundred things that needed to be said. Issues that needed to be addressed. Wounds that needed to be healed. But Jack knew now wasn’t the time for any of those things. If he wanted to clear his name before the world came crashing down around them, he was going to have to keep pushing, keep moving and pray to God he and Landis lived long enough to deal with everything that stood between them.
“Any idea how this disk was delivered to you?” he asked after a moment.
“There’s no return address.” She handed him the envelope. “It was probably dropped off at the courthouse.”
“Or delivered by someone who has access to the courthouse,” he said. “Security is relatively tight here. Not just anyone could waltz in and drop this in the mailroom.”
He saw the wheels begin to spin in her mind. “You think it was a cop?” she asked. “An officer of the court? Who?”
“Someone who wants me out the picture and thinks they can use you to help them.”
“I’m going to be honest with you, Jack. The disk is damning. You and I know Evan didn’t write it, but it will still need to be disproved officially. We’re going to have to deal with it.”
“Yeah, well, one disaster at a time, Red. Okay?”
“I don’t know what to do next,” she whispered.
Jack heard the fear and uncertainty in her voice. He felt the same two emotions coiling inside him. But he knew what they had to do next. What he had to do. Something he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to resort to, but now realized it was his last hope. A last hope that was dangerous as hell and probably wouldn’t garner him anything but a bullet for his trouble. That was the reason he couldn’t tell Landis, why he couldn’t take her with him. That presented another problem he wasn’t sure how to resolve. He didn’t know how to keep Landis safe. He couldn’t leave her here. He couldn’t take her back to Ian’s. It wasn’t safe for her to go back to her cabin. He didn’t want to endanger her mother by taking her there.
Turning to the window, he looked out at the parking lot beyond and wondered how much time he had before the police caught up with him. He knew the moment was inevitable, sensed the sand pouring through the timer at an alarming speed.
He turned to Landis. “I’m going check you into a hotel.”
“You mean us, don’t you?”
He nodded, telling himself lying to her now was the only way to play this. “We’ll be safe for a while. Maybe we can come up with a plan.” And once he was gone, he’d already decided to contact Ian himself and explain to him that Landis was in danger. Hopefully, her younger brother would be able to put his hatred for Jack aside long enough to do the right thing and keep his sister safe.
“Give me a dollar,” she said.
He laughed, but it was a hard, rough sound. “Not a chance.”
She crossed to him, put her hand on his arm. “If you retain me now, it will protect both of us from possible problems down the road.”
“You mean if we get busted and get a starring role in the trial of the century? No thanks.”
“I’m getting pretty tired of you fighting me every step of the way.” Never taking her eyes from his, she leaned close and slid her hand into the pocket of his jeans.
Jack met her gaze unflinchingly, keenly aware of her fumbling inside his pocket for the money Chandler had given him. She was so close he could smell the clean scent of her hair. See the sprinkling of freckles on her nose. The sheen of moisture on her full mouth. He wondered what it would be like to lean forward and touch his mouth to hers. He wondered if she would kiss him back.