years—a pit bull on steroids with its hackles up. In her line of work, scrappy with a flair for junkyard mean trumped elegance any day of the week.
“You invade my home and now you want to chat?” Jess grabbed a chair from her kitchen table and straddled it with the seatback flipped. She leaned her elbows on the seatback and continued to play with her bat, an almost threatening gesture if she hadn’t added a contradictory smile. “You better talk fast and keep me interested. I get real grumpy when someone interrupts my beauty sleep.”
Alexa narrowed her eyes. The bounty hunter scowled from across the room, toying with that worn baseball bat. A nasty scar over Jessica Beckett’s eyebrow matched the sinister glare from her dark eyes. Beckett sat on a chair, but clearly looked prepared to fight if she gave her provocation. Seeing the impulsive woman alive and kicking—ready to lay wood upside her head—forced Alexa to back off on her air of superiority. This woman meant business and was dangerous when cornered. If she wanted to gain Beckett’s trust, she had to share a little truth.
But how much would she tell her? Too much and the bounty hunter would want in. Too little and the woman would show her the door.
“My name is Alexa Marlowe. I have a similar interest in Globe Harvest. They are an abomination and must be stopped.”
The bounty hunter furrowed her brow. “You’ve got my attention. Go on.”
“As you know, I was there at the textile factory. I pulled you out of the control room.”
“But you left me. I don’t call that very friendly.”
“I would’ve taken you with me, but when I heard your friends coming, I called out to them. I made sure they found you.”
“And if they hadn’t come along?”
“Like I said, I would’ve brought you with me. But in hindsight, that would’ve been a very big mistake.” Before Beckett gave her any lip, she made her point. “If I had done that, we’d both be dead.”
When the bounty hunter flinched, Alexa shrugged. “As it was, I barely had enough time to escape through the tunnel. When the explosion ignited the propane fumes, it launched me like a human cannonball.” She cocked her head. “All things considered…I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“So you’re a Good Samaritan…with a penchant for circus tricks. Remind me to send you a Hallmark.”
Alexa felt like she was fighting a head wind and not making progress. She had to connect with Jessica… now.
“The Russian…his name is Stanislav Petrovin. And he flew out of Chicago using helicopters to God knows where. For the sake of the girls he still has, do you think we can dispense with the sarcasm?”
Putting their situation in perspective had done the trick. Beckett’s expression melded into one of concern, a far cry from her venomous posturing only seconds before.
“Did Petrovin take the girl who was with me—Nikki Archer?”
The bounty hunter’s reaction surprised her. She seemed only concerned for one girl. Finally, the name Archer sunk in.
“I didn’t see anyone with you. There was no one else in that control room by the time I got to you.” Alexa narrowed her eyes. “So that’s why you were with Payton Archer.” She hadn’t known any of the girls’ names before now. “What’s the girl’s relationship to Archer, besides sharing the same last name?”
“Nikki is his niece. His sister’s only child. Payton isn’t exactly brimming over with relations either. She means the world to him.”
“And what does she mean to you? I thought you were in this to take down Globe Harvest. Was I wrong?”
Jess pondered the question, struck by the stark revelation about her shift in focus with this case. Her midnight caller had offered her real information about Petrovin and his organization, and her first question had been about Nikki.
What was wrong with her? Had Payton Archer swayed her that much?
“I was concerned about the girl, but Globe Harvest is my main interest.” Jess made her face a blank slate. “Why are you telling me all this?”
If the woman was right and Petrovin had flown out of Chicago, why was Alexa here? It made no sense. Jess knew that any resources she had were local and limited, with the emphasis on limited. What did she have that Alexa wanted badly enough to reveal herself?
She didn’t have to wait for her answer.
“You have documents taken from the control room. If properly analyzed, they could provide a next step, a way to track Globe Harvest.” Alexa leaned forward in her chair. “This organization doesn’t usually make that kind of mistake. What you have in your possession could make a big difference in my investigation.”
Jess worked hard not to react to Alexa’s assertion about the documents. Copies of the pages were tucked in a drawer of her nightstand. She’d tossed them in there when she laid down to rest. How had this woman known about them? Had a cop leaked the information? And if so, whom had they told? Questions flooded her mind, but one loomed ahead of the rest.
“You said you were conducting an investigation. Who do you work for?”
The blonde hesitated an instant before replying, “I’m not at liberty to say, but I will tell you that the private alliance I work for specializes in tough jurisdictional cases involving criminal activities all over the world. Your work to stop Globe Harvest has given us a priceless opportunity to take them down, a piece at a time. But I’m asking for your cooperation to make that happen.”
All she had to do was hand over the pages she’d taken from the control room and her part in this ugly case would be over. But could she trust this woman? Although Sam had the originals, Jess worried that if someone at CPD had tipped Alexa on the documents, those pages might be permanently out of her grasp. After all, evidence could be altered, or disappear and be destroyed for good.
But Seth had copies of the same documents in her possession. Perhaps Alexa didn’t know that. Would giving them up be such a big deal?
“Why should I trust you? You broke in here in the middle of the night. You’re not exactly my idea of good BFF material.” Jess clenched her jaw and glared across the room. “You gotta give me more. Tell me something that might convince me you aren’t working for Globe Harvest yourself.”
The woman took her time in pondering Jess’s request, but eventually complied.
“By the time I got into the control room, most of the documents that remained were nothing but charred remnants. I took what I could and handed them off to be analyzed. I might have been able to retrieve more, but I had to help you.”
The woman looked like she had more to say, but Jess had no tolerance for Alexa’s not-so-subtle blame game.
“You’re blaming me? What happened to all the gratitude for uncovering this priceless opportunity to shut these bastards down?”
“If you hadn’t pressed so hard, we could’ve taken down Petrovin here in Chicago. And we might’ve rescued Nikki Archer and the others. You ever think of that?”
Alexa’s words stung like acid, but the woman showed no mercy. And if what Alexa said was true, she didn’t deserve any.
“You’re a loose cannon, Jessica. Sometimes that pays off, but it can get you killed, along with anyone innocent caught in your cross fire.”
Jess couldn’t hide her reaction. She knew all too well that Alexa’s accusations had validity. It was one thing to put herself in the line of fire, but quite another to push when someone like Nikki paid the price for her mistakes. She’d spent her life tracking down people like Baker, the Russian, and whoever was behind Globe Harvest— criminals who bartered in human life with entitlement. Being the victim of a similar predator, she had no choice but to expose such men. Reclaiming her life would be an uphill climb. But Alexa’s harsh words brought feelings of self- recrimination that were always close at hand, roiling beneath the surface of her thin skin.
Was she capable of being normal? Did she deserve to be happy?
“I shouldn’t have said that.” Alexa’s voice softened. “This job…going for the jugular is a tool of the trade. And not one that makes for a stellar human being. I’m sorry.”
“But you got your point across. That’s all that counts.” Jess set the bat down, finding it hard to look the
