A chill rolled down Sophia’s spine. She’d never liked her stepfather, never respected him, but…could he really be a killer? She couldn’t see it. “No…” she murmured.
But Rod was right about the level of Gary’s motivation. Everything he had, everything he purported to be, was at stake.
She chewed her lip as she waited to see what would happen next. “Any sign of the Escalade?”
“Not since it came by the last time.”
“How do you suggest we get out of here?”
“Very carefully.” He got his flashlight and motioned for her to do the same. Then he pulled his handgun from his waistband.
She stopped him before he could turn off the lights. “I have to make a copy of this before we go.”
“What is it?”
“A ledger of some kind. Maybe answers, evidence.”
The fact that he didn’t press her for details told her how anxious he was. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not worth your life.”
“It’ll just take a minute.”
She thought he might argue with her, but he didn’t. While the copier whirred, he slipped out on his own. She thought she heard him heading to the back room. What he was doing there she had no idea. The area was mainly for storage, so he had no way of seeing outside.
When she finished, she returned the ledger to the file drawer, turned off the lights and joined him with her own flashlight. He’d cracked open the back door and was waiting, listening.
“I got it,” she whispered. “We’re good to go.”
He held up a hand to stop her.
“Don’t tell me my stepfather’s Escalade is in the lot.”
“No.” Closing his eyes, he breathed in. “Don’t you smell it?”
“Smell what?”
“Cigarette smoke.”
The minute he said it, she caught the scent, too. It was just a wisp but it was enough to bring back the memory of Rod finding that cigarette butt at the scene of Benita’s and José’s murder. Her knees went weak.
Closing the door very softly, Rod took her by the arm and propelled her to the front.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We’re going out the main entrance.”
“But that opens onto the street! And my stepfather has already driven by twice. What if he sees us?”
“I’d rather face him than what might be waiting in the alley.”
Because of that scent of cigarette smoke, Sophia agreed. What they’d learned, and what they might be perceived as knowing, put them in a very dangerous position, especially if all the partners were as involved as her stepfather seemed to be. According to the payoffs listed in that ledger, even Mayor Schilling was on the take. Apparently, the corruption in Bordertown extended much further than Leonard Taylor extorting sex from a Mexican national.
When they reached the front window, Rod shielded her with his body, keeping her out of gunshot range. But she was a police officer, not some frightened civilian. Determined to pull her own weight, she slipped around him and moved to the other window.
“Looks clear,” she said. “I say we go for it.”
“I shouldn’t have let you come with me,” he muttered.
“Stop it. We can get out. And—” she checked the street again, saw no one “—this is our chance.”
He nodded and turned the bolt. “Ready? Remember. Stay behind me.”
Sophia focused on the comforting weight of the gun strapped to her calf. She wanted to draw it, but there was still a chance they were merely spooked and overly cautious. She didn’t want to scare some random citizen she might bump into on the street. “Ready?” She began to go out first, but he grabbed her by the shirt. “I go first,” he said. “Once we’re out, cross the street immediately and head down the other side toward the Hummer.”
“Got it.”
“And if anything happens to me, whatever you do, keep running.”
The vision of Stuart slumped over his steering wheel appeared in Sophia’s mind and suddenly she couldn’t make her feet move. Especially when her imagination created a slow-motion scene of Rod being shot in the street and crumpling to the pavement.
He made a move to duck out, but this time she stopped him. When he turned to see why, she slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely. She didn’t care what he thought, whether or not it revealed her true feelings. Stuart certainly hadn’t expected to die.
“Don’t let anything happen to you,” she said. “Because I will stop. I won’t go on without you.”
Tenderness softened his expression as he touched her cheek. “I shouldn’t have brought you,” he said again.
“You didn’t have any choice,” she told him and, despite her earlier reluctance to brandish a weapon, drew her gun as she followed him outside.
28
They didn’t go down in a hail of bullets as Rod half expected. No one chased them, fired a single shot or yelled for them to stop. They didn’t even see Gary’s Escalade. They walked swiftly, keeping to the shadows of the store-fronts until they reached the Firelight’s parking lot. Then, just as Rod popped the Hummer’s locks and was coming around to the driver’s side, Bruce got out of a vehicle parked close by and approached him.
Rod couldn’t tell if his father was drunk, but he was leery of this meeting all the same. Bruce had obviously been waiting. For him.
“There you are,” he said.
“What are you doing here?” Rod asked.
“When I couldn’t find you inside I didn’t know where else to look, but I assumed you couldn’t be too far if your car was here. I was just about to give up.” His eyes flicked toward Sophia. “I thought maybe you’d gone home with someone else….”
“What do you want?”
“Can I have a word with you?”
Conscious of the photocopies tucked under Sophia’s shirt and what they signified—she’d mentioned the mayor and a city council member, both of whom were receiving payments from Gary—Rod was tempted to refuse. They were onto something, and it was big. But Bruce’s daughter-in-law was a limited partner in the safe house they were investigating, which meant the Dunlaps could have more bad news coming. For whatever reason, Rod felt bad about that. And, as much as he disliked Edna, he wanted his father to know he hadn’t harmed Stuart or anything else Bruce loved. Under the circumstances, that was probably stupid, but there it was. Whatever connection he had to his father could not be destroyed, no matter how hard Rod tried. Perhaps because there were aspects of Bruce’s personality that he’d always secretly admired.