Chapter Five

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Hell.

Nash didn’t like people just showing up at Caroline’s place. Not when one of those people was Leland Harris. They’d already had surprise “visits” from Jordana and Eddie, and apparently, they were about to add one more to the list.

“If you want to talk to him,” Ruby continued, “then Detective Malley says it can’t happen here inside the house.”

Yeah, Nash had already come to that conclusion. Having Leland inside could screw with potential trace evidence.

Fibers and prints.

Maybe even some DNA.

Because if any of those things were found, Leland could argue they’d been left during his chat with Caroline and not when he’d been breaking in to leave that bloody mess in the bedroom.

That said, Nash figured if Leland was indeed behind that, if the man wanted to spur Caroline to kill Bodie, then he would have hired a minion to do it. Why get his rich hands dirty when he could just pay someone? Still, it was an unnecessary risk to bring him inside the house.

“We can use Caroline’s studio,” Nash suggested. That way, she wouldn’t be out in the open, and since the place didn’t have windows, a sniper wouldn’t be able to target her there.

Ruby turned toward Caroline, no doubt to see if her daughter had any objections to that. Apparently, she didn’t because she nodded, and on a heavy sigh, she started toward the front door.

Nash was right there with her and was glad she was still wearing the vest. That didn’t mean though that he wanted her out in the open any longer than necessary. Once they reached the porch, Nash stepped in front of Caroline, and he did a sweeping glance around at the, well, chaos.

In addition to Caroline’s, Jordana’s, and his vehicles, there was the SAPD cruiser, the county cruiser, a CSI van, and a black limo that had to belong to Leland. Two CSIs were standing by the side of the van and were talking to Malley.

Jordana was by her car and was with a tall gray-haired man who had to be her father. They appeared to be arguing while a beefy guy wearing a black suit stood at a discrete distance. Probably a chauffeur or bodyguard.

Possibly Leland’s minion.

Eddie was still there, too, and he was ranting about his rights to Officer Gonzales, who was mainly ignoring him and talking to someone on her radio that she had clipped to the shoulder lapel of her uniform.

Nash didn’t linger in the chaos. He got Caroline moving, and he didn’t breathe easier until they were in the workshop. With Ruby. Which, of course, stalled his whole breathing easier attempts. Still, he couldn’t fault Ruby for wanting to be there and hear what Leland had to say.

When Malley spotted Nash and Caroline though, he stepped away and started toward them. “I’m guessing you’ll be talking to Leland Harris in here?” the detective asked.

“Evidently,” Caroline said. “I haven’t gotten my things from the house yet though.”

Malley whipped out a small notepad from his pocket and handed it and a pen to her. “If you could jot down what you need, I’ll have the CSIs gather it up for you. Try to get enough for at least two days since I’m not sure how long it will take them to process the scene.”

Nash figured it could turn out to be longer than two days. Not because the CSIs would need more time but because he didn’t want Caroline returning here until Bodie was either back behind bars or dead. Nash was hoping Caroline would agree with him on that.

Hoping, too, that this close-quarters arrangement didn’t turn into something else.

He was doing a whole lot of silent cursing about that kiss. And not because his boss had witnessed it either. The cursing was because it sure as hell should have never happened. There was this blasted heat between Caroline and him, but that heat was going to have to cool its ass down. That kind of entanglement could lead to a loss of focus, which in turn could get Caroline killed the hard way.

At Bodie’s hand.

No way could Nash risk that happening again.

Caroline wrote down some things and handed the notepad back to Malley, who then in turn jogged back to the CSIs to give it to them. Malley didn’t speak to them for long but instead turned and motioned for Leland to follow him to the workshop. Leland did.

And so did the minion.

“Have they been searched for weapons?” Nash asked Malley. Best to get that out of the way before asking Leland where Bodie was.

But it wasn’t Malley who answered. It was Leland. “Yes, and trust me, my lawyer will have something to say about that.”

“Trust me,” Malley fired back, “my lieutenant would have something to say about that if I didn’t follow standard protocols. Someone helped Bodie escape, and all indications are he’ll come after Caroline. I’d be derelict in my duties if I didn’t put her safety first.”

Nash wanted to applaud the detective. Leland’s scowl conveyed he didn’t feel the same way.

“Both came here armed,” Malley went on. “And, yes, they had the permits to carry. Their weapons are in my cruiser. They’ll get them back as they’re leaving.” He hiked his thumb toward the beefy man. “FYI, this is Mr. Harris’ driver and personal assistant. Roger Grange”

AKA minion.

“Mr. Harris, this is Caroline and Ruby Maverick and Nash McKenna, a security operative at Maverick Ops.”

Leland spared Nash a glance and had moved on to nodding a greeting at Ruby when his attention flew back to Nash. “McKenna?”

Nash nodded. “Brother of the escaped convict,” he readily provided.

Leland huffed and looked at Malley as if he might object to Nash’s presence, but then he must have figured it wasn’t an argument worth launching. Malley’s raised eyebrow and don’t test me expression probably played into that.

“I’m guessing since you work for Maverick Ops, you’ve been vetted,” Leland muttered before he turned to Caroline. “I think you and I want the same thing. Bodie McKenna dead. Am I right?”

Caroline shrugged. “I’d settle for him going back to jail. With the new charges from the escape and attack on the nurse, he won’t be getting out any time soon.”

“He’d be better off dead,” Leland snapped, and he glanced at his daughter through the open door.

Jordana was glaring at them. Maybe because she hadn’t been invited to this discussion, or she might just know her dad was hellbent on giving her husband a civilian’s version of a death sentence.

“Where’s Bodie?” Nash came out and asked.

“Near here. I don’t know his exact location,” Leland tacked onto that, causing Caroline, Nash, and Malley to groan. “But every indication is that he’ll try to get to Caroline.”

Malley added a second huff. “You didn’t have to drive all the way out here to tell us that. Do you or don’t you know Bodie’s whereabouts?”

Leland’s scowl deepened. “Again, not specifically, but I have an entire team of private investigators on this. They’re searching for him and will find him.”

“Cops are looking for him, too,” Nash pointed out. “So is Maverick Ops. What makes you think your team would be better at finding him?”

“Because I have a plan.” Leland fixed his attention on Caroline. “If you’re willing to be bait, we can draw Bodie out.”

That brought on a bunch of cursing, some of it from Nash, Malley, and Ruby. Plenty more of it came from Caroline.

“I’m already bait,” she snapped. “Wherever I am, wherever I go, that will be Bodie’s destination.”

Ruby took up the argument. “What do you expect her to do? Stand out in the pasture, arms open wide and with a target on her forehead? Well, it’s not going to happen. It’s not,” she repeated with far more emotion than she usually showed. “Why don’t you use your own damn daughter as bait? Certainly Bodie will want to see his wife?”

Leland’s jaw muscles went to war with each other. “Wife in name only,” he snarled. “I intend to fix that as soon as I talk some sense into Jordana.”

So, he didn’t approve of the marriage. No surprise there.

“Jordana seems to think she’s in love with Bodie,” Nash pointed out.

That didn’t ease those tight jaw muscles. “Like I said, I intend to fix that. Once Bodie is out of the picture, then Jordana can do a reset and get her life back on track. And trust me, her track isn’t anywhere near your sonofabitch brother.”

Leland maybe thought that was an insult. It wasn’t. In fact, Nash thought sonofabitch was a mild term for Bodie. He could think of much, much worse things to call him.

“So, you don’t want to use Jordana as bait,” Malley spelled out. “But you want to use Caroline. In theory, how would that work? I’m guessing it’d be more than standing in the open field?”

Leland seemed to be making a visible effort to corral his composure. “Caroline should put out the word that she wants to meet Bodie. She could do that through Bodie’s lowlife friend, Eddie. Then, we could secure the meeting place and take Bodie down when he tries to kill Caroline.”

“No,” Nash was quick to say.

Ruby and Malley echoed the same.

Caroline laughed. Actually laughed.

“First of all, Bodie will know that’s a trap. He doesn’t want to meet with me,” Caroline emphasized. “He wants to put the blade of a very sharp skinning knife, maybe a bullet, into me. And despite being a vicious would-be killer, he’s not stupid. He won’t come at me head-on, especially not in a situation he can’t completely control. He’ll want the surprise element. Or a situation where he has complete control. Then and only then, will he try to kill me.”

And there it was. All laid out on that proverbial silver platter, and hearing it twisted a hard knot in Nash’s gut. Because that was exactly what Bodie would try to do.

Nash had to make sure Bodie didn’t get the chance.

“So, you’re turning down my plan?” Leland asked through clenched teeth. Apparently, he wasn’t accustomed to people telling him no.

“You don’t have a plan,” Nash pointed out. “You have a desire to eliminate your son-in-law.”

Yeah, that last part was a dig to get back at him for the brother remark. And it hit paydirt.

“Fuck this,” Leland snarled, and he walked out with the minion trailing along behind him.

Leland only made it a step outside the studio though when all hell broke loose.