Page 67

(THREE DAYS LATER)

R eese collapsed against Hayes’s bare chest, her pulse galloping like a racehorse in the home stretch.

His heart thundered beneath her ear, making her lips curve, even as her lungs heaved.

He was addictive. The fever in her blood had been vanquished for the moment, but it took so little to spike again.

“I think I’ve gone blind.”

It took effort to glance up at him. “Your eyes are closed.”

One of his hands glided down her back. “Thank God. I can still see you clearly, though.” His free hand cupped her breast. “You’re branded on my mind.”

His words pricked her sexual afterglow. She deliberately smothered the little sparks of doubt that threatened to ignite.

He saw strength in her vulnerabilities. Repainted her flaws as unique.

She wished she could see herself through the lens he viewed her with.

But Reese knew that fortified inner guard was still there.

Wedged open enough to allow him in. But how did she manage to keep that shield lowered now that her “gift” was back?

How did she balance what she wanted—and God, she wanted —with her own emotional self-preservation?

She pressed a kiss to his torso, banishing the uncertainties in favor of the present. Her fingers slid over his hip, grazing the juncture where they were still joined.

“Round two?” He nuzzled her ear.

“Three.” She lifted her head to brush his lips with hers. “But who’s counting?”

His arms tightened around her and Reese sank into their kiss. A moment later, his cell dinged on the bedside table. “Ignore it.” She nipped at his chin. Moved her mouth down the cord on his neck. “I will. Unless it’s…” He picked up the phone, then stilled. “It’s Mendes. He’s downstairs.”

A tidal wave of frigid water couldn’t have moved her faster.

Reese rolled off Hayes and across the mattress, searching the floor for her clothes before remembering she’d slept naked.

She sprinted for the attached bathroom. Heard Hayes’s chuckle behind her.

“It’s not funny,” she called over her shoulder.

“It’s a little funny.”

Ten minutes later, she still hadn’t found the humor in the situation but strolled out into the apartment to find him serving their guest coffee.

Hayes had pulled on jeans and a tee, but his hair hadn’t seen a comb and his jaw was shadowed.

Reese probably looked just as disheveled, although she’d at least showered and tamed her curls before dragging on leggings and a Padres sweatshirt. “Good morning, Deputy.”

“Reese. How you feeling?”

She fervently hoped the heat rising to her cheeks didn’t show. “Just some scrapes and bruises.”

“And a rib sprain.” Hayes pressed his mug into her hand and went to the kitchen to pour another. “But we were lucky.”

She sipped to cover the quick flash of regret.

Kervin hadn’t been as fortunate. By the time the first policeman had reached them, it had already been much too late for the man.

His death seemed particularly grisly since those responsible for it were still alive.

Unless Mendes had come to tell them otherwise.

“Doesn’t look like Thorne’s capture has led to you getting any sleep.”

“Eventually, maybe.” He took a bracing drink. “He’s lucky you have shitty aim. One bullet hit his posterior shoulder. The other grazed his biceps. You said you shot three times?”

Hayes arched a brow. “In my defense, it was full dark and I was involuntarily high.”

“Excuses.” Mendes grinned. “He should be released from the hospital today.”

The news sent a quick shiver down her spine. Reese hid her reaction by lifting the mug to her lips again. But Mendes must have spotted it. “Four armed guards in and outside his room at all times. He’s not going anywhere but to the infirmary in the maximum-security psychiatric facility.”

“Which he escaped from once,” Hayes muttered.

“He should be fresh out of accomplices. We picked up Lisa Sedgewick last night trying to board a cruise ship in Long Beach with a different identity and passport.”

“Surprised she didn’t flee right away,” Reese remarked.

“We figure she waited until she saw the news of how things went down. She fully expected to get away with it.” Disgust colored his tone.

“God knows, she’s been skating by for years using other people to enact the crime sprees she instigated.

She bided her time, but didn’t return to work.

” His gaze slid to Reese. “We checked out what she told you about your brother. I’m sorry. It’s true.”

Her stomach did a slow roll. She deliberately didn’t look at Hayes.

“I figured as much,” she said huskily. Her fingers clenched the mug, letting its heat transfer to flesh gone suddenly cold.

“I think that’s what Kervin was going to tell me.

The photos he took. He must have suspected it wasn’t Ben.

” He’d interacted with her sibling far more recently than she had.

“I’m not sure how she pulled it off, though. ”

“Our understanding is that all employees in the annex at the facility only work in that one area. Your brother’s ‘transfer’ there didn’t come until after he’d returned from the hospital.

The illness he had took a real physical toll.

Sedgewick must have realized how rapidly he was declining.

When he passed, she had some lackeys smuggle his body out of the hospital through a passage in the old cellar and filled the bed with a fugitive needing a place to hide out.

” Hayes cursed, long and imaginatively. Reese’s gaze remained fixed on the coffee as if she could find solace in its depth.

“She hired a handful of people whose only job was to care for the new patient and months later, by the time she allowed the regular employees to replace them, no one realized the switch.”

“Where…” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Where was he buried?”

Mendes shook his head. “We don’t know yet what they did with his body.”

Ben had died alone with people who didn’t give a shit about him.

And then he was discarded in death, his only value the trust fund he’d left behind.

The sorrow and rage could consume her if she allowed it.

He’d been her tormenter when she was a child, and his abuse had taken an emotional toll.

But he’d been victimized, too, by his mental illness and professionals who should have been looking after his best interests who’d exploited them instead.

“I’m guessing Sedgewick lawyered up as soon as she was apprehended,” Hayes said.

“You guessed right.” The deputy drained his cup and looked toward the kitchen. “Any more of this?”

“I’ll get it.” Reese surged out of her seat, needing to move.

“Ben’s ‘replacement,’ Joseph Saxon, had outstanding felony warrants for armed robbery and carjacking before he vanished into thin air. He started singing as soon as we confronted him at the facility.”

Reese refilled the detective’s mug and returned to the table to set it in front of him. “She had to have been involved in Thorne’s escape from prison. And I’m equally certain she made his rampage killings possible. She told me Blake Chen had mastered stolen identities.”

“Picked him up, too, after you filled us in a few days ago. We turned all his electronics over to the cybercrime unit. For now, he’s facing a single homicide charge until we gather more evidence against him.

I reached out to SDPD Detective Usher. The bottle of Scotch used to kill Greenley was ordered online in the name of Samantha Tenge. ”

“S.T.” A single bead of ice rolled down her spine.

“Sedgewick is a master of manipulation. She bragged about it. She preyed on everyone, looking for flaws, for weaknesses she could exploit. I’m sure you’ll discover she used their acquaintances, too, like the would-be bomber, Roderick Bradbury and Pollack. ”

“Funny you should mention that.” Mendes’s expression was grim.

“Facial software was used to analyze the liquor store’s camera footage, and a match was found.

Cory Breitbach, a known associate of Bradbury’s, picked up the bottle and delivered it to Greenley’s firm.

Toxicology reports will take a while longer, but likely either Breitbach or Chen added the poison to the bottle. ”

Following that thread, Hayes put his mug down, arrowed a gaze at the deputy. “And what role did Gerald Rivers play in all of this?”

“Still trying to unravel that. His story, though, is that someone must have stolen the car from the storage unit where he kept it. When pressed, he admitted Sedgewick knew about it, and about his son. She loaned him money a few years ago when Trevor was out of medical options, and they wanted to pursue an expensive alternative treatment in Mexico. He still owes her a substantial debt.”

“Which he’s been repaying by looking away from the excesses on the expense sheets and the drop in the trust fund account,” Reese said bitterly.

“He’s not blameless in this. It wouldn’t hurt to look at his finances.

Greenley’s, too.” It’d taken Julia to notice something was off and take a keener interest. She died trying. A blade twisted in her heart.

“A separate investigation has been started to determine the extent of Rivers’s involvement.” Mendes’s words provided partial solace. Whether guilty of negligence or far worse, the attorney would see justice.

“Bradbury had an accomplice. There were two tailing us the interstate,” Hayes reminded the deputy.