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“All three of us are a team,” Naomi corrected.
Hell.He gave the dog a quick pat.“I’m going in first, buddy.”And he did.With his gun up.With his body way too tense with adrenaline as he hunted for danger.The place felt as still and quiet as a tomb around him.A far cry from the way the bar had been the first time he’d visited.
He took a few steps inside.This door had led straight into Ivan’s back office?—
Sonofabitch.
Henry whined behind him.
“Eb?”Naomi’s soft voice.“What’s happening—Oh, my God!”
Yeah.He slanted a fast glance over his shoulder at her.“Do not touchanything.”
Her horrified gaze wasn’t on him.Her gaze was on the body sprawled over the floor.Ivan’s big body.His blood-soaked body.Blood on him.Blood beneath him.The Russian’s body had been beaten to hell and back.
“Eb.”She grabbed his arm, hard.“Eb, I think that’s my bat.”
He’d already seen it.Already thought the same damn thing.Hard to mistake the bat, after all, seeing as how it had her initials on it.Blood-stained initials.
He hadn’t noticed the initials the first night.It had been too dark.But now, in the office that reeked of blood and violence, light drifted through the window, and he saw the very distinct, white, cursive NR on the barrel of the bat.The white letters were splotched with red.Wet blood.
Naomi scampered forward and bent near the body.
“What in the hell!Naomi!” He grabbed her shoulders to pull her back.“What part of ‘do not touch anything’confused you?”
“I’m trying to make sure he’s actually dead!He, um, kinda feels warmish.”
“His brains are on the floor.”
“OhGod.”Her fluttering fingers had almost touched said brain matter.
“And I know dead bodies.”He’d seen more than his share.“Ivan is gone.”
Her fingers still went to Ivan’s throat.After a moment, she swallowed and darted back.Her foot kicked the edge of the bat.The blood-stained bat had been used to beat the Russian to death, in his own office.
“We need to get out of here, now,” Eb ordered.There would be no searching the scene.There would only be getting the hell out of there and trying to figure out who had used Naomi’s bat to beat the gang leader to death.
The last time Eb had seen that bat,he’dthrown it into the back of her truck.
Fantastic.My prints are going to be on the murder weapon and so are hers.
Sonofabitch.
“My initials are on the bat because…” Naomi’s halting voice.“I…I played high school ball.Was MVP.They called me the home-run queen.”
She had a killer swing.Double sonofabitch.“Back out.Now.”
They backed out.They didn’t touch anything else.Henry was tense and alert, and so the hell was Eb.They went straight for the back door, with him being the last to exit Ivan’s office.He covered Naomi’s six, looking for threats and evidence.The bar was so quiet.So still.His instincts told him that the killer wasn’t inside.But that doesn’t mean he isn’t still close by.
Before he could call out a warning to Naomi, she darted through the open rear door of the bar.Dammit!What if the killer was waiting?Alarm surged through him.“Naomi!”He bounded right on her trail.
And Eb saw that, this time, she’d been the one to come to a sudden, dead stop.Naomi had gone statue-still a few feet from the bar’s back door.Her hands were in the air.Her dog protectively crouched right in front of her.
“Freeze!”At that loud bellow, he understood exactly why Naomi had frozen.
A swarm of armed men and women seemed to explode around Eb and Naomi.Their guns were held tightly in their hands.Their gazes were sharp.Assessing.
The woman leading the group had been the one to blast the loud order to freeze.A woman with short, black hair.Bright green eyes.A slightly pointed chin.And an expression that said if you tested her, she would bring hell your way.