Chapter Ten

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Marise could see the debate that Slade was having with himself as to what to do about their latest visitor. Slade and she didn't know Annalisa, didn't know if they could trust her. And there was also the possibility that Sonny was using her visit as a ploy to try to come at them again.

Still, Annalisa might have answers that they badly needed.

"Who murdered your husband?" Slade came out and asked the woman.

Since her image was clear enough on the monitor, Marise saw Annalisa blinking back tears. "That's what I need to talk to the colonel about." She swallowed hard. "I need to go over what happened the night Carlyle disappeared."

Slade didn't volunteer anything about Rosa not remembering a lot of what went on. In fact, he volunteered nothing and went with another question.

"How will talking to the colonel help you figure out things?" Slade demanded. "Either you know who killed your husband or you don't."

"I suspect someone," Annalisa snapped. Then, she quickly added, "I suspect his wife. Tell him that. Tell him I think Stephanie did it, and if he doesn't see me, I'm going to the police to have her arrested for murder."

"I want to talk to Annalisa," the colonel whispered.

Slade sighed. "Spock, silence the audio from the gate," he instructed and then turned to Rosa. "Unless Annalisa has proof, Stephanie won't be arrested. It sounds as if she's here for a fishing expedition."

The colonel nodded. "Something I understand. We both need to know who killed her husband. If I talk to her, it might trigger more memories of that night."

Slade didn't dispute that, but it still took him a couple of long moments before he spoke again. "Spock, resume audio of the gate camera and let our visitor in. Mrs. Hutton," he went on once audio had been restored. "Drive through the gates when they open. Do you know which house is mine?"

She nodded and rattled off the address. "I heard you talking to Officer Lopez at the hospital, and you said you were going home. I own a real estate company, and I looked up your residences."

"And you followed Colonel Rosa here," Slade provided.

"I did," she readily admitted just as the gate opened. She raised her window and drove through.

The view on the monitor shifted to the camera view of Slade's front porch, and it didn't take long for the Audi to pull to a stop in front of his house.

"Spock, monitor the vehicle and make sure no one other than Mrs. Hutton gets out," Slade said.

When Slade stood, so did the colonel, and the two men faced each other. "Here's my concern. Annalisa doesn't know who killed her husband, and she could have had a conversation with you over the phone. Now maybe it's because she's grief-stricken and not thinking straight, but it doesn't set well with me that she followed you here and is now insisting on seeing you."

Rosa gave a slow nod. "You think we should turn her away?"

"Yes," Slade said and then huffed. "But I also understand the need for some answers. If you believe Annalisa was there at your house the night Hutton went missing and was killed, then she might know a lot more than what she just said at the gate."

Rosa glanced at the monitor that showed Annalisa stepping out of her car and making her way up the steps. The woman was visibly shaken. And clearly worried as well. She was glancing around as if she expected someone to jump out and attack her. That was probably a normal reaction, considering she'd recently learned that her husband had been murdered.

"There's no reason to let Annalisa in," the colonel finally said. "I can talk to her at the door."

Slade still didn't look convinced that was the right thing to do, but they went to the door together. Marise stayed back, figuring Annalisa might be more likely to spill something important if it was just Rosa and her. Slade must have had the same idea because once he disengaged the security and opened the door, he stepped back.

Annalisa stopped on the porch, staring at the colonel.

And then she let out a fierce wail.

In a blink, the woman whipped out a huge knife from her purse and charged at Rosa.

"You killed him, you sonofabitch," Annalisa yelled. "You were jealous of him and killed him."

Marise ran toward the woman, but Slade moved a whole lot faster. That, and he was a lot closer to Annalisa. Just as Annalisa plunged the knife forward, aiming directly at Rosa's chest, Slade caught onto her arm, stopping the motion.

With the rage now tightening her face, Annalisa turned, twisting her arm, trying to stab Slade. "You probably helped him. Brothers in arms," she spat like profanity.

Slade didn't respond, not verbally. He wrenched the woman's arm, pushing her back away from Rosa.

Annalisa resisted.

And the adrenaline was fueling the fight and giving her a lot more strength than she should have had. She lashed out with her free hand, slamming a huge purse into Slade's ribs.

Marise cursed when she saw him wince and grit his teeth from the pain, and she charged forward. She practically shoved Rosa out of the way, and she swept out her foot, connecting with Annalisa's legs. That off-balanced the woman enough for her to quit hitting Slade.

It was also enough for Annalisa to try to turn the blade on Marise.

Even with Slade's grip on her, Annalisa twisted the knife and came within an inch of slicing Marise's face.

"Enough of this shit," Slade snarled, and he took hold of the back on Annalisa neck and threw her to the entry floor. In the same motion, he kicked the knife away from her and put his foot on her back.

"Stay down," Slade growled, and he made a quick glance at Marise and Rosa. The sleeve of Rosa's shirt was cut, but Marise didn't see any bleeding.

The same, however, couldn't be said for Slade.

There was blood on the butterfly bandage on his head, telling Marise that he'd likely reopened the cut in the struggle. He'd probably aggravated his sore ribs as well.

"Spock, call 911," Slade ordered. "I want the cops out here right away to arrest Mrs. Hutton for attempted murder."

Annalisa obviously heard that, and the realization of what she'd done must have sunk in. The fight seemed to leave her body. She let out a loud sob and went limp on the floor. Slade still didn't move his foot off her, though.

"I didn't kill Hutton," Rosa muttered, maybe to Annalisa. Maybe to himself. "Why did you think I had?"

"Because you did kill him," Annalisa insisted. "Stephanie said so. She said she put you in that mental hospital place to protect you, so you wouldn't be arrested."

Rosa groaned, stepped away from her and went to the sofa. He sat, burying his face in his hands.

"ETA for a county deputy's arrival is fifteen minutes," Spock announced. "And you have more visitors. Your brother, Jericho, and Maverick Ops' trainee, Jace Malley. Should I open the gate for them?"

"Do that," Slade agreed, and he checked the monitor, maybe to make sure it was indeed his brother. He continued to watch it until the van stopped in front of his house, and the two men got out.

Slade must have been satisfied this wasn't another threat because he moved closer to press his foot against Annalisa's back.

"If you move or try to attack us again, I will stop you," he snarled at the woman.

Moments later, Jericho appeared in the doorway, and while he wasn't a carbon copy of Slade, there was a strong family resemblance with the black hair and stellar looks. Over the years, Marise had gotten to know both Jericho and Nash well enough, and she watched Jericho now as he took in the scene.

The knife on the floor.

Slade's foot on Annalisa.

A distraught Colonel Rosa on the sofa.

"You lead an interesting life, brother," Jericho muttered. "And you're bleeding." He tipped his head to the butterfly bandage. "Good thing you've got your own personal nurse here."

With that, Jericho grinned at Marise in his cocky, flirty way that only a rock star and he could have managed. He went to her, hugged her, and then moved back, hiking his thumb in the direction of the man behind him.

"Jace Malley," Jericho said. "This is Marise Brennan, former combat nurse and smokin' hot friend of my brother, Slade." Jericho put friend in air quotes.

Marise was about to insist that the air quotes weren't needed, but then she thought of that kissing session that Slade and she had just had before the colonel's arrival. While Marise didn't believe she actually qualified as smokin' hot, those kisses certainly had been.

She shook Jace's hand while he glanced around the room in a sweeping pattern. Taking it all in. He was a stark contrast to Jericho. Blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and an intensity that seem to scream some kind of police background. He reminded her of a modern-day Viking warrior.

"The woman on the floor attacked you?" Jace asked.

Marise nodded. "She's Annalisa Hutton, and her main target was Colonel Rosa." She motioned toward him. "Annalisa thought he'd murdered her husband."

"The body that was found earlier in a shallow grave," Jace muttered. "Since Slade doesn't have the colonel in restraints, I'm guessing that means he didn't kill the man."

"He didn't," Marise verified.

"Jace is a former homicide detective and before that, a Delta Force guy," Jericho explained.

"Delta Force?" she repeated. She'd worked with plenty of them during her time in the military, and now that she had a better look at his face, he did look familiar.

"Kandahar," Jace said, jogging her memory. "You stitched me up."

Yes, it was all coming back to her now. And the memories, while not especially good, weren't the traumatic ones that she'd gone through with Slade.

"Small world," she remarked.

"Yeah, and you didn't have to stitch up his ass the way you did Slade's," Jericho joked. His expression quickly turned serious, though. Well, serious for Jericho anyway. There was still that permanent hot shot glimmer in his eyes. "Jace has got something he needs to talk to Slade and you about, so why don't I take over guarding the distraught, I want to stab you widow until the cops get here?" he added and headed in that direction.

"It's a small world," Jace repeated. "When I still had the badge, I had a run-in with Sonny."

That got her attention, but before she could press him for info, Slade joined them. And the colonel.

"I remembered something," Rosa blurted. "Blood. Lots of it. It was on the floor of Stephanie's office."

Jace, Slade, and she all volleyed glances at each other. "You're sure?" Marise asked.

Rosa nodded. "The memory is clear, not muddled up like the rest of them. I heard the arguing and the gunshot, and when I went running into her office, I saw the blood. It was pooling on the floor near my feet."

"Did you see a body?" Slade pressed.

The colonel's forehead bunched up, and he was obviously trying to recall that. But he finally sighed. "No. That's a blank. But the blood was real. And even if Stephanie cleaned the office, there'd still be evidence of it, right?"

"There should be," Jace answered.

"Then, we need to get into the house and check for it," Rosa insisted. "We wouldn't need a warrant since I own the place."

"No," Slade agreed. "But if we alert Stephanie to what we're going to do and she's guilty of killing Hutton, she might burn the house down."

Rosa's expression fell. "She would do that, yes." He stayed quiet for several seconds. "So, that means we need to get in without her knowing. Maybe I can lure her out by arranging for her to meet me, and once she's out of the house, then we can go in and check."

"Are there any housekeepers or staff to alert her?" Jace asked.

Rosa shook his head. "We have a cleaning crew who comes in on Mondays, so they won't be there today."

The colonel seemed to have regained some of the spark that Marise hadn't seen in him in a long time. It definitely hadn't been there when he'd been staying at Patriot's Retreat.

"My former foster brother is a cop at SAPD," Jace threw out there. "This is his last week on the job since he'll soon start working for Maverick Ops as well, but since he's still technically on duty, I could get him to go into the house with us just to make sure any evidence is preserved."

"Do that," Slade said, and he turned to the colonel. "And you send a text to Stephanie to set up the meeting. Not for now but for tonight so it'll give us time to arrange everything. Tell her you're at my townhouse on the Riverwalk. I'm sure she'll be able to find the address. That way, I'll be able to watch the security cameras to make sure she shows up."

Good idea and that way the woman couldn't walk in on them and surprise their covert mission.

With yet even more of that spark in his eyes, the colonel went back to sit on the sofa to compose the text.

"Jericho said you had something to talk to us about," Marise reminded Jace.

Jace nodded. "It's about Sonny. I had a run-in with him about two and a half weeks ago when I questioned him about the murder of a local loan shark. It was my last active case with SAPD before I left to join Maverick Ops. Anyway, I didn't have any evidence to hold Sonny so I cut him loose, but I'm sure he did the kill."

Slade didn't seem one bit surprised by that. "Murder for hire or a personal reason?" he asked.

"The first," Jace confirmed. "When Jericho mentioned Sonny's name, I recalled something about him." He took out his phone. "During the investigation of the loan shark's murder, I accessed a lot of camera feed to try to pinpoint Sonny's location so I could put him in or near the scene of the kill. I didn't find it, but I did find this."

Jace held out the screen for them to see. It was a still photo of Sonny and someone else she instantly recognized.

Julian.

"The actual camera footage is in the case file at SAPD," Jace went on. "And it shows some kind of exchange going on between the men. Julian gives Sonny an envelope that I believe was filled with cash."

"Any connection between Julian and the dead loan shark?" Marise asked.

"None," Jace verified. "But less than thirty-six hours later, Carlyle Hutton was killed." He tipped his head to the photo. "I think what we're seeing here is Julian hiring Sonny to kill Stephanie's lover."

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