taking a detour down Serious Lane. “Maybe seeing the dead woman’s face forced you to make that leap.”
What Harper had insinuated made sense, but Jessie felt sure that she had remembered Angela’s face on her own, without the help from an old crime-scene photo.
“No, I’m sure it was her.” She sighed. “I’ve never felt so . . . down. Seeing her face and thinking she was my mother was the only bright spot to my childhood, and now all that is gone.”
“I knew I should have gone with you. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”
“But I don’t feel alone, not when I can look forward to your abuse. I mean, your support.”
Even though she’d poked fun at him, hearing Seth’s voice on the phone made her feel like he was right in the room with her. Of course, nothing would replace the feel of his arms around her—or the many other things he did to make her feel warm and happy—but having him to talk to at the end of her day was the next best thing.
“So, with the chief taking back his key to the city, what’re you doing tomorrow?” he asked. “Is there something you need me to do?”
“I’m planning on making a royal pain of myself.”
“Stickin’ with your strengths. Always a good strategy.”
“And thanks for the offer to help. I may take you up on that.”
“For you? Anytime.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said. “And give a big sloppy kiss to Floyd.”
“That’s an image I didn’t need.”
Even as lousy as she had felt that day, Harper could always make her laugh. And now he had an accomplice.
In the cramped motel room, Alexa listened to Garrett as he told what he knew about Jackson Kinkaid. And from the looks of Hank, he hadn’t had a clue about any of it. She guessed that since she and Hank both knew Kinkaid, Garrett had kept the truth from them and added a higher level of secrecy to the mission.
“Kinkaid lied to them and set up a pretty big ruse, pretending to be me,” Garrett told her. “He even made fake ID to back up his story.”
“What made him think they’d believe that?” Alexa asked. “And how would they know who you are? You keep a pretty low profile.”
“Actually, that was a thing of beauty.” Garrett almost smiled. Almost. “He ran the whole thing like a con artist running a scam. He set up a fake online trail and made sure rumors got out on the street before he even got to El Paso. By the time he hit the ground, they were waiting for him, but that was what he wanted. All he needed was a way in, and a street gang on the American side of the border gave him that. He made himself a damned Trojan horse. Once he got inside, he had a plan to bring down the bastard who ordered the hit that got his family killed. Guess he wanted to look the guy in the eye before it all goes down . . . even if it put him at risk, too.”
By the way Garrett shook his head, Alexa knew he hadn’t had a say in how Kinkaid had orchestrated his own abduction.
“And in order for his plan to work, that meant you had to disappear,” she said. “If anyone saw you living large in New York, word might get back to the border, and Kinkaid would be a sitting duck.”
“Yeah. That’s why I couldn’t say anything. It had to look as if I’d gone undercover, on a mission of my own. If anyone knew what was really happening, Kinkaid’s life would be more at risk than it already was. I backed his play because he left me no options.”
“This is crazy. You gotta get him out of there,” she insisted. “I mean, what are you waiting for?” Her frustration got the better of her, and she knew it. “There’s gotta be another way to get at Perez. We’ll find it and bring him down.”
“No, we’re too close, Alexa,” Garrett argued. “For now, we’re doing it Kinkaid’s way. All he has to do is hold out a little longer.”
“Hold out, for what? He’s not you. He can’t tell them anything.” She heard the anger in her voice and didn’t care. Anything involving Kinkaid was personal. No wonder Garrett had left her in the dark.
“Yeah, but they don’t know that. Kinkaid is holding out until Perez gets there. From our intel, that son of a bitch is in Mexico City, conducting business as usual, but he’s heading to his estate tomorrow. That’s what Kinkaid has been waiting for.”
“So what happens after Perez is in the picture?”
“I know what I’d like to see happen, but I don’t think Kinkaid has any intention of taking Perez alive. He’s got another plan that I don’t know about.”
“Then why did he ask you to back him up?”
“We’re his insurance. If he can’t finish what he started, he wants to make sure I do.”
“That’s insanity. We could have done this clean, with minimal collateral damage.” Alexa shook her head. “But he doesn’t care about that, does he? If he’s got a shot at killing the bastard, he’s gonna take it, no matter what happens to him. Damn it, Jackson.”
She knew Kinkaid didn’t care what happened as long as he got what he wanted. Garrett was right about his having nothing left but revenge. And how much of Kinkaid’s mercenary days had been a part of his scheme to find the man who’d ordered the hit? Had he gotten involved with the drug cartels, hoping to find out who had been responsible for the murder of his wife and child?
His obsession had consumed him. That was what she sensed the last time she’d seen him on their mission into Cuba during a hostage-rescue operation, but after hearing what Garrett had to say, Alexa felt an overwhelming sadness for Kinkaid.
“I want in.” She turned her attention to Garrett. “I understand your concerns about my objectivity when it comes to Kinkaid, but I’ve got to be a part of this.”
Garrett sighed and stole a glance toward Hank. The ground-team leader only shrugged his version of an endorsement.
“You’re in on one condition. What I say goes. You’re following orders, understood?” Garrett pointed a finger at her. After she nodded, he said, “And when this turns ugly, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Alexa knew that if Kinkaid was on a suicide mission, odds were that she’d see him die. And that thought fueled an ache deep in her belly, but that was a far cry from letting him go it alone. The least she could do was back him up.
And that meant taking down Perez on his turf—in the stronghold of his estate.
Chapter 9
Jessie had taken a chance and gotten up early to catch Chief Cook at the police station. She didn’t intend to talk to him, knowing how far that would get her. This time, she parked down the street, playing a hunch. And when she saw his patrol car leave the station parking lot, she smiled.
“Gotcha.”
The man could have been making a donut run, but Jessie had a gut feeling he was up to something else. When he headed toward the DeSalvo house and turned onto a back road, she knew her hunch had paid off. True to his word, he had gone to see Sophia Tanner, the trip he had wanted to make alone.
“Sorry, Tobias. You can’t be the Lone Ranger, not today.”
But before he turned into the Tanner driveway, the chief spotted her in his rearview mirror and stopped in the middle of the drive, blocking her way in. When he got out of his vehicle, she did, too.
“I’m not breaking any laws, Chief. This is a public road. And I’m a tourist.”
“You’re loitering.”
“I’m bird-watching.” She glared at him, going on the offensive before he did. “What changed, Chief? One minute you’re talking to me, the next, you’re ready to slather me in hot tar and roll me in feathers. What gives?”
“Look, I don’t have to explain myself to you. What part of ‘this is my case’ don’t you understand? Is English
