38. Knox

Knox crawled through the trees, dragging his injured leg behind him. Flames burned through his thigh, licking at his insides in white-hot bursts of pain. The dark-haired assassin followed, laughing. They both knew Knox was a dead man. Finally, the assassin had enough of toying with his prey and raised his gun. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Wait.

Guns didn't go beep.

Knox forced his eyes open, then quickly closed them again when the bright lights above made his head pound. The beeping carried on, and the smell of antiseptic told Knox where he was. The hospital.

"Welcome back," Emmy said.

He just groaned.

"Good news. The bullet that hit you was a nine-millimetre full metal jacket, and it went right through. Blood loss aside, you were pretty lucky."

"Where's Caro?"

"We're still working on that."

Knox tried to sit up, but Emmy pushed him down again. "Don't even think about walking out of here. The best thing you can do to help is avoid busting your stitches open and talk to us."

Us?

Knox turned his head to the side and saw Emmy wasn't alone. Black was there, her husband, an ice-capped mountain of a man who scared the shit out of everyone except Emmy. And possibly Rafael, his nephew, who came out of the same mould and was standing next to him, alongside Sky, Emmy's teenage protégé. A real family affair.

"Xav, Dan, and Slater are on Valentine Cay, bugging the police."

"The police…are corrupt."

At least Emmy had brought reinforcements. Dan was one of Blackwood's best investigators, second only to Black, and Slater was a sneaky motherfucker. Xav…was an unknown quantity. He wasn't a Blackwood employee, but he did occasional contract work, and rumour said he used to date Emmy. Rumour also said he was former Israeli special forces and could kill a man without breaking a sweat.

"Corrupt? Yeah, we got that much from Ryder, but one of them—Vince Fernandez—claims to be as concerned as we are. He's promised transparency."

"He's…shady."

Knox's throat felt as if he'd swallowed a bag of nine-inch nails. Every word hurt.

"I understand that. We're treating the information he provides as suspect, but so far, it checks out. Plus he's giving us access to the crime scene, and I'm not about to cut my nose off to spite my face. Knox, we need your input. Ryder and Agatha have told us everything they know, but you were closer to this poaching thing."

"It was…poachers?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Don't know for sure…who it was. But they knew we were…tracking them."

Emmy held up a glass of water with a straw. "Drink. It'll help your throat. You want me to get you more painkillers?"

"Just the water."

It was cool, and as he sipped slowly, the fire that flared every time he spoke settled to a smoulder. Whoever intubated him hadn't been gentle. Maybe the force had been necessary. Or maybe the nurses had been to the same training school as the San Gallicano PD. Knox wasn't feeling particularly charitable toward the authorities right now.

"We've pieced together a reasonable amount." Emmy nodded to the side, and Knox shifted to see a giant whiteboard on wheels at the end of the bed. He recognised the not-so-neat writing covering it as Black's. "There are three suspects, and as of this moment, we can't eliminate any of them. Luna's stalker, because they tried to take her too, and we know from the messages he sent that he's in the area. Caro's ex-boyfriend, and wasn't that a fuck-up? Walking down the Strip in a bikini?" Emmy shook her head in disbelief. "And then the clear favourite—the poachers. I get them being twitchy, but fuck me, there must be a whole lot of money in dead turtles if that's their reaction."

"They chop them up and sell all the bits," Sky said. "Jewellery made from the shells, leather doohickeys made from the skin, turtle soup made from the insides. Or sometimes they just stuff them and sell them whole. Agatha found a picture of this punch bowl where?—"

"Okay, we get the picture."

"It was gross."

Black wasn't an expressive man, but his lip curled in the faintest expression of disgust. Whether at the fate of the turtles or at Sky's description of it, Knox wasn't sure.

"Until we can eliminate two of the possible suspects," he said, "we're having to split our resources, which is far from ideal. The cyber team is working on the poaching case—the Havana connection, the names from Monique Constantine's client records, and the flash drives—and pressure on the police to clean house will be applied from the top. That leaves us to work the other two angles and either rule them out or track down the culprits. Starting with the ex, I understand that Caro Menefee isn't actually Caro Menefee?"

Knox shook his head. "She isn't."

"So what's her real name?"

"She never told me."

"I thought the two of you were fucking?"

"We were." Was that an eye-roll? "I suppose you've never fucked a woman without knowing her full name and social security number?"

"Never more than once."

Knox glanced at Emmy. Credit to her, her expression didn't falter.

"Well, I didn't push her, okay? She wasn't fond of talking about her past, and I figured she'd tell me in her own time. But I know the Caro part is real, and the ex is Aiden."

"That's a start. Agatha informs me that Caro Menefee also exists, and your Caro adopted her background."

HisCaro. "Yes."

"So that leaves us with two possibilities. Either she randomly searched for a woman with an appropriate age, name, and background and came up with a party girl from California, or she was already familiar with Caro Menefee and knew she'd offer a suitable donor identity. If she chose the first option, that makes things more challenging for us, but would also have made things difficult for her. Vance Webber from the LA office is searching for the real Caroline Menefee so we can check out the second option. Is Franklin Baptiste awake yet?"

Emmy shook her head. "Not yet."

"We'll need to speak with him as soon as he is. He spent more time with Caro than anyone."

Knox swallowed through the pain and spoke again. "He did, and they're on good terms, but I got the impression that she always kept him at arm's length. More colleagues than family."

"Which struck you as odd given their living situation?"

"From the beginning, until I got to know her. She doesn't like to let anyone in."

Not even Knox. She'd accepted his offer of help because she had no other choice, not because she trusted him. And perhaps she'd been right not to trust him? If she'd left town when she wanted to, right after Luna's Instagram post, she wouldn't have been abducted. And if he'd?—

"Don't do it," Emmy warned.

"Do what?"

"Blame yourself, think about what-might-have-beens, whatever shit's going through that head of yours." Guilty as charged. "Focus on the future, not the past. The stalker—you and Ryder didn't see him, feel him, spot him with the drone?"

"No, and we didn't see any other drones either. Nor did Lyron—he would've kicked off, no question. But there's no way a stalker could have sent such personal messages unless he was close."

Emmy said not to dwell on the past, but how could Knox avoid that? He was losing his touch. First, he'd failed to pinpoint a stalker they knew was nearby, and then he'd been oblivious to the attack on the sanctuary until it was too late.

"What was Luna's reaction to the stalker?" Black asked.

"In the beginning after she found out, she didn't seem too bothered. Acted as if it was a minor inconvenience, treated Ryder and me like servants rather than bodyguards, at least until Ryder charmed her. But the last threat, she was worried about that. I think she'd started to feel safe at the sanctuary, and the intrusion shook her. Ryder says she's not the woman everyone thinks she is. At first, I thought he was bullshitting, but when she stopped playing to an invisible audience, she became human."

"Until she outed Caro on social media?"

"At the time, I was angry with her, damn furious, and her verbal apology wasn't worth shit. But over the next few days, she kept her head down and worked rather than whining, and I think that was as close to an apology as she could manage. She's rich and famous and she can be a bitch, but underneath it all, she's socially awkward as fuck."

"Interesting. And whose idea was the infamous post? I understand Jubilee runs Luna's social media accounts?"

"I assumed Luna thought of it—she was on board with the bikini thing. And even if it was Jubilee's idea, I doubt Luna would have admitted it. Luna's weirdly protective over her, Kory too, that little jackass. The sunglasses-on-the-turtle thing that landed her in court was his idea, and Luna took the heat."

"More interesting. An unexpected conscience. Was the stalker ever mentioned on social media?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think so. Luna's team kept her in the dark about his existence until last month."

"Another question for the research team." Black checked his watch. "I propose we set the necessary wheels in motion, then get some rest and regroup in the morning."

"What time is it?"

"Nearly two a.m."

"I'm surprised the staff let you stay."

He smiled faintly. "It's funny how attitudes can change when the paediatric unit's fundraiser suddenly reaches its target."

Black, Sky, and Rafael filed out, but Emmy lagged behind. Instead of leaving, she perched on the edge of the bed and straightened the blankets. Friend or not, the fact that she wanted to talk left Knox more uncomfortable than the bullet wound did. He knew he'd pushed boundaries on this job. Getting involved with Caro, going after a band of poachers instead of staying focused on the principal…

"How are you feeling?" Emmy asked.

"Not too bad. Think they gave me the good stuff for the pain."

"I meant, how are you feeling? And don't give me some bullshit about this being just another day at work."

"How do I feel? My girl is missing, and I fucked up. I feel like shit." Knox closed his eyes. Took a deep breath, and even that hurt. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For getting distracted. I was here with a client, and I paid more attention to Caro than to Luna."

"Yeah, well, I think Ryder's paying enough attention to Luna for the both of you. And she said you were with her at the start of the incident, that you only left to go check a sensor. Is that right?"

"Things are fuzzy, but I remember the sensors going off. Three of them, one after the other. I should have gone back to her then. I should have?—"

"What did I say about the past? Forget it. Apparently, Ryder told Luna that if a man ever tried to hurt her again, then she should fight back. That's why she beaned one of the fuckers with a kettle. And when he started to wake up a minute later, she did it again, but harder. Broke his damn skull. The docs can't say if he'll ever wake up."

"She did good."

"She did. And she's upset, but she's also not complaining, which is a miracle and also a relief."

"Where is she?"

"At a hotel along the street with Ryder and Jubilee. When I left, the two girls were passed out in the same bed, and Ryder was watching over them. Xav will take a shift later so Ryder can get some shuteye." Emmy raised her gaze to the ceiling. "Assuming Ryder will let him. He's taking it worse than you are."

"But he wasn't even there."

"Exactly. He could hear the gunfire, and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. He ended up on the phone with Luna while Jubilee commandeered a boat. Lyron kept Franklin alive while Luna went to find you."

"Fucking Lyron. If he hadn't complained about the drone?—"

"They would have found another moment to strike. Whoever it was, you—and I mean the collective ‘you,' not you personally—must have really touched a nerve."

"It has to be the poachers."

"I'm inclined to agree with you. But if some asshole with deep pockets and the connections to hire a team of trigger-happy lunatics was sprung for Luna and saw her cavorting with Ryder… Unrequited love can send a person insane." Emmy patted Knox on the leg—thankfully not the one with the gunshot wound—and rose to her feet in one smooth motion. "Get some sleep. We're a team, and we're going to fix this. Shit happens, and instead of beating yourself up and slipping over in it again, you need to focus on getting better. I'll see you in the morning."

She turned off the lights, and the door clicked shut behind her.