This Heart for Hire Read online

  But Logan dismissed the act of charity. “Let’s just say I’ve got a few good deeds to catch up on.”

  “Speaking of catching up, I’ll catch up with you later.”

  He didn’t understand. “Why?”

  “I need to get down to the office. I’ve got a lease to sign and get in the mail.”

  Logan frowned. “Can’t it wait? The meeting’s in an hour.”

  The case was closed. For all intents and purposes, their association was over. She wanted to make the break before he did. “You don’t need me anymore. We just got our confession.”

  Logan blew out a breath. Well, that hadn’t gone well. “What if he’s not working alone?”

  She didn’t bother stifling her laugh. “You really think that’s a conspirator in there?”

  No, he didn’t, and he knew that matter was settled. But not the matter between them. He needed time.

  “Humor me,” he urged.

  She thought of the lease. “All right.” Jessica did a few quick calculations, taking travel to her office and then to his into account. “I can be there in less than an hour.”

  Logan had a monkey wrench to throw into the gears. “But I have to stop at the office.” Though he was good on his feet, he wanted the notes he’d left on his desk, just in case.

  “No problem. I’ll meet you there.” She saw the doubt entering his eyes. Did having her along matter that much to him? Something inside her warmed, though she warned herself not to get carried away. She’d already learned the danger in that. “I promise.”

  He’d have to settle on that. “I’ll hold you to it”

  Dropping Logan off at the Buchanan building, Jessica went on to her own office. A bittersweet feeling traveled with her. The same one that always came after a case was wrapped up. But this time it was accentuated because it was not only the end of the case, but of their being together.

  Oh, what they had between them might linger a week or so more. A month at the outside, but she knew Logan. He liked to move on.

  She’d learned that the hard way.

  “No use crying over what can’t be,” she murmured to herself, unlocking the door to her office.

  “What would you cry over?”

  The question was accompanied by the press of gun barrel to her temple.

  “It’s about time you showed up. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  The office door slammed shut behind her, underscoring the malevolent words.

  Chapter 15

  Jessica tried to move her head back. The sound of the hammer being cocked had her freezing instantly. “What do you want?”

  The rumbling sound of the mirthless laugh drove steel spikes through her.

  “Still haven’t figured it out? And here I thought you were so clever. Just goes to show your reputation is really overstated.” Still standing behind her, the man brought his mouth next to her ear. “I want you to suffer, of course. Really suffer.”

  Jessica drew on the philosophy she’d fashioned that had seen her through life as well as her career: courage with common sense. Careful not to make a sudden move, she pulled her head back as far as she was safely able, to look at him. This time he let her.

  Recognition was instant. “You’re the telephone repairman.”

  Dressed in brown slacks and a beige shirt, all suited to making him blend in anywhere, the man inclined his head in a mocking bow.

  “Guilty as charged.” The malevolent smile on his lips faded, replaced by one that made her blood run cold. “Guilty as charged,” he repeated, his voice cold, hard. “Doesn’t rang any bells? How about Rex Wallace.? That do it for you?” he demanded.

  Rex Wallace.

  Her first case.

  That was where she knew him from. He reminded her of Wallace. Except that he was much too young. Wallace had been in his late fifties. Desperate, Jessica tried to fit the man in her office into the past.

  The case had involved insurance fraud. Rex Wallace had initially hired her for his company, thinking that by bringing her in, he could control the investigation. He’d almost managed to get away with it, if it hadn’t been for a lucky break on her part.

  The resemblance was not in his face, but in the attitude his body exuded. The arrogant set of his shoulders nudged at memories.

  “Are you his son?”

  “Very good. Baxter,” he introduced himself magnanimously.

  His eyes on hers, Wallace slowly slid the tip of the steel barrel down along her throat. Pleasure bubbled through his veins as he watched the pulse there jump. He wanted her afraid. Very afraid. The way his father had been.

  Her fingernails digging into her palms, Jessica forced herself not to flinch. She had to think, to try to reason with him.

  “Your father made a mistake, Wallace. There’s no reason for you to make one, too.”

  The laugh was short, dismissive. “I already did when I shot your boyfriend instead of you.”

  She looked at him in disbelief. “That was you? But—” And then she realized that Jenkins had only mistakenly thought he’d shot Logan. He’d been the shooter outside the nightclub. It was Wallace who bad been waiting for them outside the banquet hall last night.

  Two, there had been two, she upbraided herself. Two men with different agendas. No wonder it had been so confusing.

  “That was me. But this time it’s close range and I won’t miss.”

  She thought her heart would stop as he ran the barrel down her chest. There was no leverage for her to use, no space to turn to her advantage. All he had to do was squeeze the trigger and it would be over.

  Jessica tried to keep him talking, searching for a way to distract Wallace. “Why do you want to kill me?”

  Contempt twisted his mouth. “Because of you, my father’s dead.”

  He saw the confusion in her eyes, and the temptation to shoot was almost overwhelming. At the last moment he managed to restrain the impulse.

  Not until he’d carried out his plan, he promised himself.

  “My father hung himself in prison last month, unable to take the shame any longer. And now I’m going to make you pay for it.” His eyes were as cold as winter steel. “I’m through toying with you.”

  The pieces were all jumbled in her mind. She tried to arrange them, to separate Jenkins from Wallace. “You sent the roses?”

  He wondered when she’d figure that out. “Very good. I wanted you to feel scared, unsure. Like my father was in prison all that time.” Breathing hard, the momentum built in his voice. “He didn’t belong there. He was a decent man who made a mistake. You broke him,” Wallace shouted into her face.

  “Decent men don’t defraud the company they’re working for of over a million dollars and then try to pin the blame on someone else,” she pointed out. Jessica saw the red color flare into his face.

  “It’s a damn insurance company!” he sputtered. “It defrauds people everyday!”

  Hysteria was mounting in his voice, in his face. Any second he would be pulling the trigger. Desperate, she tried to divert his agitation.

  “How did you know where I was?” She would have known, she thought, if he’d been tailing her.

  The moment the question was out of her mouth, the answer came to her. She looked at the telephone. Of course. It was so simple, it never occurred to her. She’d called Albert, apprising him of her every move. “You bugged the office phone, didn’t you?”

  “Right again.” Training the gun on her, he stepped back, giving her clear access to the telephone. He pointed at it. “Call him.”

  She didn’t understand. “What?”

  Explaining things was beginning to irritate him. “Call your boyfriend.”

  For a second time, everything within her froze. “Why?”

  “Because I want to kill him,” Wallace growled. And then he smiled. Jessica wasn’t sure which was worse. “And I want you to watch.”

  “No.”

  Incensed, Wallace waved the gun, aiming it at her head. There was no question
in her mind that he’d shoot without compunction if she refused him a second time. If she were dead she couldn’t help Logan, and Jessica had a gut feeling that Wallace wouldn’t stop with just killing her. He’d kill Logan, too. Somehow. in his twisted mind, that would even the score.

  She exhaled the breath she’d been holding slowly. “All right.”

  Pleased, he could afford to be generous. “That a girl.”

  Jessica’s fingertips felt slippery as she pressed the numbers to Logan’s office on the keypad. Each time the telephone rang on the other end, the sound reverberated in her head, adding depth and breadth to her headache.

  When Logan finally picked up the telephone, she thought she’d lost all the air in her lungs. With effort she forced herself to sound calm.

  “Logan, could you come down to my office, please? I have something to show you.”

  Wallace’s smile widened at what he saw as irony in her entreaty.

  “Jessi, you know there’s no time.” Logan sounded bewildered at her request. “I—”

  Jessica cut in before he could finish. “Don’t argue wish me,” she aid sweetly. “if you’re going to he this stubborn about a simple request, then I just might call off our wedding.”

  “Wedding?” Logan echoed.

  Please, please, please understand, Logan. “Uh-huh. Right. Good. That’s what I said,” she said in reply to nothing. “Come right over. I’ll be waiting.”

  Wallace pushed down on the cradle, breaking the connection before she had the opportunity to add anything. “Congratulations on your engagement. Too bad you won’t be around to make the ceremony. But the good news is, neither will the groom.”

  No matter what happened to her, she couldn’t let him hurt Logan. “Wallace, it’s not too late to give this up.”

  “Oh, but it is. Way too late.” His expression was bitter. “It’s too late for my father, so it’s too late for you and your boyfriend. Now sit down over there where I can watch you while we wait for your boyfriend to come to his execution.”

  Jessica felt sick. What if she didn’t come up with anything? What if—

  She had to get Wallace to change his mind. “Why drag him into this? Your grudge is with me.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m ‘dragging him into this.’ Because he means something to you. And I want you to feel pain before you die, bitch. I want your heart to feel like it’s been ripped out by its roots the way my mother did when they took my father away.”

  “Your mother?” She seized the bit of information. “What would she say if she knew you were doing this?”

  “Leave her out of this,” he ordered malevolently. “Now sit down!”

  Jessica did as she was told, her mind working frantically.

  When she heard the knock on her door twenty minutes later, Jessica nearly jumped out of her skin. All attempts at reasoning with Wallace had only gotten him more agitated. Like a hair trigger, he was set to go off at any moment, at the slightest provocation.

  She shouldn’t have called Logan. Her time was up and nothing had changed. She hadn’t managed to get the drop on Wallace. Her one attempt had ended up earning her a pistol-whipping across her face. She could feel a welt beginning to rise.

  Her one hope was that Logan had come prepared.

  Wallace motioned her to her feet. She looked longingly toward her purse, and the pistol that was in it, but Wallace had kicked it across the room when she’d entered.

  “Jessi, it’s me,” Logan called to her. “Open the door.”

  Wallace cocked his gun. “Go ahead,” he mouthed.

  It was going to take timing, she thought. Afraid that Wallace would fire the moment she opened the door, she psyched herself up to push Logan to the ground the instant she saw him.

  Instead, as she turned the knob and opened the door, Jessica found herself being grabbed by the arm and yanked off to the side.

  “Get down, Jessi!” Logan shouted at her just before she heard two shots ring out.

  Or maybe both shots came at the same time.

  Recovering, she spun around to see Logan holding a gun. Wallace was on the floor, clutching his knee, his own gun out of reach.

  Logan could only spare her a quick glance. Even so, he saw the welt and the discoloration on her cheek. Rage gripped his belly. The temptation to kill the man on the floor was overwhelming.

  Instead, Logan moved toward her, his eyes never leaving the vermin on the floor. “Are you all right, Jessi?”

  Jessica was beside him immediately, drawing air into her shaky lungs. She didn’t want to dwell on what might have happened just now. Didn’t want to think about it at all.

  “I’m okay.”

  Moving quickly, she picked up the gun that Wallace had dropped, keeping well out of range. Cursing at them vehemently, he pressed his hands against his knee. Blood oozed through his fingers. Backing up, Jessica looked at the gun Logan was holding trained on Wallace.

  “Where did you—”

  He anticipated her question. “Borrowed,” was all he said. No need to tell her that he’d gotten the gun for protection a long time ago. He knew how her mind worked. “Nice bit of double talk on the phone earlier. For a second I thought I’d slipped into a parallel universe.” One where things had actually worked out for them. Logan saw her reaching for the telephone receiver. He knew she was going to call the police. “Don’t bother, the police are on their way.”

  She replaced the receiver and could only shake her head in amazement. “God, but you are efficient.”

  “I’ve learned.” The air was turning a bright blue courtesy of Wallace’s mouth. Logan went on talking as if Wallace wasn’t in the room. “Who is he?”

  Someone who almost killed you. Because of me. She dragged a hand through her hair and realized that it was shaking. She dropped it to her side.

  “The son of someone who was sent to jail on evidence I uncovered.” She had no time to say anything else. The police began arriving.

  She recognized Detective Kane Madigan from previous dealings she’d had. Relieved at having to deal with a familiar face, she filled him in as quickly as she could. There was little for Logan to add.

  He glanced at his watch. Time was growing incredibly short. He took Jessica’s hand. “C’mon, I still have to make that meeting.”

  Kane closed his small notebook, stuffing it into the back pocket of his jeans. “We’re going to need you at the station for a formal statement.”

  Logan nodded. “As soon as this meeting is over,” he promised. “But I really need to be there.”

  Kane understood. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the Buchanan name. A half smile cracked his serious expression. “Need an escort?”

  It would be a relief not to have to drive to the meeting with one eye on his rearview mirror. “Brother, do we.”

  “Let’s go, then.” With one hand to each of their backs, Kane escorted them out of the office, leaving Wallace to his patrolmen.

  The stockholders meeting was already in progress by the time they’d arrived. Holding her hand in his—“for luck,” he’d told her—Logan rushed into the company’s auditorium and up toward the stage.

  Jessica noted that Dane actually looked relieved when they walked in. His concern for his brother obviously transcended any differences in policy or opinion that they had.

  And to think she’d suspected him. And hadn’t a clue about Wallace. So much for gut instincts, she mused, taking a seat near the front.

  Sitting back, Jessica watched Logan take the podium. And in short order, take his audience as well. His impassioned speech about traditions and loyalties needing to be placed in the foreground again rather than outweighed by possible financial compensations struck a chord with the crowd. Sporadic applause was sprinkled liberally throughout his speech, underscoring key points.

  He was a natural-born speaker. A natural-born leader. He’d wasted a lot of years, but this was where he belonged, she thought. And she was proud of him.

  She was going to mi
ss him.

  Riding high on the success of the vote that had just been taken, Logan jumped from the stage, looking for Jessica. He needed her with him to share this moment.

  But the seat he’d seen her take was empty now. Looking around, he didn’t see her. A little of his high slipped away.

  The throng tightened around him, all well-wishers congratulating him on his speech, his sentiment, his victory. The words buzzed around his ears as he searched for Jessica. Shaking hands, murmuring appropriate responses, Logan worked his way through the crowd.

  He finally found her near the door of the auditorium. She was leaving.

  In a sudden flash, he saw his life leaving, as well.

  “Jessi, wait up.”

  Jessica stopped. She’d hoped to make the break clean. To leave while he was still busy. Forcing herself to look cheerful, she turned around.

  “I was just going to the police station to give Detective Madigan my statement.”

  No, she wasn’t, he thought. She was leaving. Really leaving. He took her hand, going along with the lie. “We’ll go together.”

  She slipped her hand from his and took a step back. Edging away from him. “I thought you’d be busy with them.” She nodded toward the stockholders. “You really roused them. Maybe you should think about running for political office.”

  The hell with political office. The hell with everything. Nothing mattered if she walked out now. “Jessi, what’s wrong?”

  She shrugged off the concern she saw in his eyes and forced her voice to sound disinterested.

  “Nothing’s wrong. The case is over—as well as the complications,” she recited. “With Wallace in custody and Jenkins contrite, as well as forever in your debt, there’s no reason for me to stick around.”

  His eyes pinned her. Did she really mean that? Had he lost her again? Or was she just trying to pay him back? “None?”

  She didn’t want to talk anymore. If she didn’t go now, she might never have the strength to go at all. And she had to go, go before he ripped her heart out a second time. Not willfully, not with malice—but he would.

  “The bill’ll be in the mail,” she replied, turning away.