Touch of Betrayal, A Read online

  The twinkle left Pierce’s eyes. “And you didn’t bring a weapon with you?”

  I scrunched my forehead, then relaxed the muscles before I gave myself a headache. “I didn’t come here to do battle. Just thought I might find something to lead me to Millie and Harlan.”

  “Uh-huh.” Pierce wasn’t buying it.

  Too bad. It would have to do as an explanation because I sure as all hell wasn’t about to discuss the loneliness I’d been fighting for months. “The jerkwad shooter is long gone, right? Or you wouldn’t be standing there looking all smug and relaxed?”

  “Ran when my bullet nicked his ear. Thought I’d hang around. Play bodyguard while you’re checking for…what, exactly?”

  Pierce’s blatant curiosity kicked up my desire to explore the scene. He wouldn’t be here unless he knew something I didn’t. An easy given since I knew nothing, and Pierce always knew everything. Or close to. Had to, or he wouldn’t have become a super-spy. Which he supposedly wasn’t anymore according to his cryptic phone call. “Why’d you leave government work?”

  His grin faded. So briefly I couldn’t be sure if it had slipped, or that a nanosecond of palpable anger had filled the space between us. “Too confining.”

  A believable answer, but not one I accepted. Pierce had a way of ignoring boundaries no matter who drew the line.

  Maybe if I approached it from a different direction. “Who shot at me? They either had lousy aim, or no intention of killing me.”

  His fingers brushed my cheek. “Dirt,” he said, dropping his hand and stepping back. “They probably wanted to scare you.”

  I glanced around the property, appreciating the green sprouts poking though the soil. If Harlan’s garden wasn’t going to give up, neither was I. “Well, then. Thanks to the jerkwad for shooting at me and confirming there’s something here I need to find.”

  “We’ll split it. I’ll take half the property.” He’d used his Pierce-in-charge voice and it grated along my nerves.

  “Not necessary. I can do it, and you must have stuff—”

  “My priority, Everly, is getting you to Hawaii yesterday. Let’s get this done.” He pulled a wad of plastic bags from his back pocket and shoved half in my direction.

  “I haven’t talked to Mitch about going with him, so it’ll be a while before I can leave.” I snatched the bags from his hand and headed toward the far corner of the property. It wasn’t exactly a lie. I hadn’t talked to Mitch. I did text him, but his return message had been cryptic and adamant. He didn’t want me anywhere near Honolulu. It didn’t make sense. Not that I’d ever asked to travel with him when he worked, but everyone lived in Hawaii now, and it hurt that he didn’t want me with him.

  Lost in thought, I stumbled over a bump in the uneven ground and glanced down … “Pierce!”

  My brain froze, caught in indecision. Should I bend over for a closer look at what appeared to be the bones of a human hand? Or run like Hades had a bead on my soul?

  TWO

  I stepped back, my feet sinking into a trough of mucky dirt the explosion had left behind. The shifting breeze filled the air with the scent of wild lilacs, a direct contrast to the rush of horror working its way down my spine. I took another step back. Not far, just enough to get some perspective on the situation, and bumped into Pierce.

  “That’s a hand.” It came out a croak, so I cleared my throat. “You can see the bones, and it looks human.” I held my arm up, palm facing me, and curled my fingers in. “Yep. Like he was grabbing for something.”

  A shiver raced under my skin, and I rubbed my upper chest—right about where I thought my soul might live.

  Pierce nodded, reaching for his cell. “Better get Hayes out here.”

  The shakes took over my muscles. “Why do I always have to be the one to find dead bodies? Why didn’t someone discover this sooner? Seriously, it’s been more than a year since the explosion, and I know law enforcement has searched the property several times.”

  “That’s why.” Pierce had never been big on using more words than absolutely necessary.

  “What’s why?” I shuffled the anxiety rolling in my belly aside, and squatted next to him for a better look at the arm, which was mostly covered with dirt and debris.

  “Probably took time to work its way to the surface,” Pierce said. Then he turned his attention to whoever answered the phone, describing what we’d found.

  I was stuck on the horrific idea that bodies could move around in the ground after they were long dead. Creepy.

  Pierce tapped me on the shoulder. “You’re looking green. There’ve been a couple big storms. Probably shifted things enough to expose the body. Hayes is on his way.”

  Heaviness weighed on my shoulders. “I’ve only seen the chief once since I’ve been back, and he hasn’t called me in to help on any cases. I’m not sure I’m ready for a face-to-face discussion about unidentified remains. On my property.”

  “Hayes is in a tough spot with you. Adam understood your skills, no explanation needed. Any other detective would’ve required an extensive briefing.” Pierce, putting the truth in perspective.

  “Yeah. I know I’m unexplainable to the average cop—the average person, really. But I’ve been so isolated since I sold the townhouse, and now there’s this.” I waved my hand over the ground. “No wonder Mitch hasn’t wanted me to leave the house.”

  Pierce made an odd noise, like a pissed-off lion had been trapped in his throat, and then he jogged toward the driveway. My Prius was the only car parked there. “Hey,” I yelled after him. “How’d you get here?”

  He pointed to the sky, winked. “Parachute.”

  I’d forgotten how annoying he could be. Half the time I couldn’t tell if he was teasing me or telling the truth. I glared.

  He grinned. Definitely teasing me.

  No matter. I needed to put my fingers to work since my property had suddenly turned into a fresh crime scene. Gloves would be good, but since I didn’t have any handy, I wrapped my hands in a couple of the baggies. No point stepping on the chief’s toes by contaminating the evidence before they started to work on the case. And there would be no mistake about this. I intended to be part of the team. My property, therefore my dead body. He’d just have to find a way to handle it.

  I sidestepped and calculated the direction the curled bones were facing. Hard to say with so little of the remains showing, but it looked like the DB’s head would be to my left, so I paced off three feet, hunkered down, and held my hands over the ground. There should be something for my fingers to pick up. I cleared my mind by focusing on the light kick of the spring breeze that lifted the hem of my t-shirt and brought out a thin layer of chill bumps on my back. After a few deep breaths, I closed my eyes and lowered the pads of my fingertips to touch the dirt.

  The explosion hit my internal video screen first. I ignored it and moved deeper into the earth energy. Sun shining. Warmth spreading through the ground, nourishing the roots of the eucalyptus I’d asked Harlan to plant a while back. Down here in the earth, the trees were just beginning to reach for the damp of the spring rainstorms that had hit central North Carolina the week before. They were fighting to survive. Just like me.

  I shook off the thought, calmed my breathing, and followed the images coming through my fingers. Millie. Skirting along the edge of what Harlan always referred to as the Asian Plot. I was about twenty feet from the eastern edge of the property line, so the images fit with Millie’s appearance. But what was she doing?

  The sound of car engines and tires crunching on gravel broke my concentration. I stood, slipping my hands out of the baggies and pocketing them. It wouldn’t do to shake the chief’s hand with the telltale proof of my butting into the crime scene on full display. I eased the cramps from my legs, stretching tall, as I prepared to face the man who headed the Apex Police Department. It was a small force, but Chief Hayes was seasoned, and had solid instincts—better than a lot of the hotshots in larger districts.

  Two squad c
ars came to a sedate stop in the parking area. Funny, somehow it continued to surprise me the house wasn’t still standing, Millie in the kitchen stirring a batch of her famous soup. The woman had a way with herbs, and I could almost smell the fresh basil and rosemary she favored.

  Hayes parked his SUV next to the black and whites, waved in my direction, and then stopped to have a few words with Pierce. They started toward me, two very different men who somehow managed to wear identical macho frowns on their faces. It had to be a guy thing.

  The chief’s team followed behind, pulling on gloves, tired expressions drawing their faces into tight masks. Exactly what I would look like if someone told me I had to dig up a corpse that had been buried for more than a year—and then find out who killed him.

  No way was I waiting for Hayes to make the first move. I stepped into his path and stuck out my hand. “Morning, Chief Hayes. Welcome to my crime scene.”

  His hand engulfed mine. The chief was a dichotomy—his elegant bearing and sparkling dark eyes in sharp contrast to toned muscle, deep mahogany skin, and a shaved head that screamed tough-to-the-core. “Everly. What have you done to disturb my crime scene?” There was a layer of steel behind his words.

  I freed my hand from his grasp. I’d been careful to shield for incoming images—something I’d been practicing since my marriage. I’d gotten fairly good at it, and now wasn’t the time to trespass into the chief’s personal stuff. “Didn’t see the arm, and I almost tripped over it. I haven’t touched a thing, well, except for that patch of dirt near the trees.”

  Hayes nodded, moving away to chat with the detective in charge of the investigation.

  Pierce nudged into my personal space, probably to keep our conversation under the radar. “What’d you pick up from the ground?”

  “Not much. Harlan gardening. This area used to be filled with oriental plants, and the eucalyptus trees are trying to put down new roots.” My voice did a barely noticeable hitch. I fought it. No way was I going to cry about the loss. Not ever again. It was time to come out of hiding and find Brody Williams’s accomplice.

  Pierce stared at me. “And?”

  “The jerkwad who did this has been roaming around free because I’ve been hiding in the country, working with my clients by phone, and being a wife. No more. Hiding, I mean. The clients and wife part are good, but it’s way past time for me to face whoever killed my parents and blew up my childhood home. Unless whoever the arm is attached to…” I glanced at the cops and crime scene techs swarming over the area.

  Pierce shook his head. “This was done remotely. Whoever is buried there didn’t set off the explosion.”

  “How could you possibly know that? No one knows that.”

  His right eyebrow arched.

  “You’re sure?”

  “I was here, Everly. Went over every inch of the property with the arson investigator. A remote device was his take.”

  “Sorry. Guess I’m trying to pretend it’s gonna be all right when I know it isn’t.”

  He gave me one of his Tynan Pierce patented grunts. And then my curiosity took over. “Where have you been, Pierce, for the last year?”

  His grin lit up the ugliness of the situation, but there was something dangerous lurking behind his eyes. “Around. You gonna tell me what you really saw?”

  “Millie hid something. I don’t mean bury. I mean she skulked around this area of the garden. I haven’t had time to check anyplace else.”

  Pierce didn’t look surprised, and that shocked the heck out of me.

  “You know something about Millie and Harlan, don’t you?”

  He avoided my stare.

  I punched his arm. Yep. We were back to normal, more or less. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Hmm. You want to finish up here before Hayes decides to kick you off the property.”

  As a diversion, it worked really well. I stood back, closed my eyes, and tried to sense what part of the area I should touch, until the soft thud of footsteps broke my concentration.

  “All right, Everly.” It was the chief. “I’ve given everyone tasks to keep them away from the corpse. Should be clear for about two minutes.” He slapped a pair of gloves in my hand and nodded toward the hand sticking out of the ground.

  It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Yanking on the gloves, I hustled to the exposed arm and rested my fingertips on the sun-warm bones.

  I had no time to finesse the moment with deep breathing and centering myself, so I plunged into the first layer of images that shot through my fingertips. Not a man. She had been average height, with short brown hair, tawny eyes that held intelligence and concentration, and she moved like Tynan Pierce as she searched the garden.

  I wanted more, so I pushed into the images, scanning for more information. Jeans and a dark shirt, gloved hands, and a tote full of plant samples she’d been taking from my garden. Well, damn. Maybe my mother had been growing the poisonous plants here. But that made no sense. I’d been given free access to the entire garden during my childhood. No area had been out of bounds, nor had I ever been warned not to touch certain plants.

  Voices moved closer to me, the chief’s husky drawl a subtle warning for me to move away from the body and let law enforcement do their thing. He tapped me on the shoulder, and angled his chin toward the parking area. I stood, stripped off my gloves, and motioned Pierce to follow me so I wouldn’t have to give my report twice.

  Chief Hayes joined us within minutes. “Tell me.”

  I gave him my impressions, then ran both hands through my hair, tucking it behind my ears. “Thing is, I don’t see my mother growing toxic stuff here. It would have been too dangerous with me running around outside, and they left me alone back here. I mean everyone kept an eye out, but they didn’t micro-parent me when I was contained in the garden.”

  Chief Hayes nodded, and jammed his hands in his pockets.

  But it wasn’t the chief’s response that sent an edge of fear rippling along my spine. No, that happened when the color suddenly drained from Tynan Pierce’s face. Black Irish, his skin tone remained tan even in the dead of winter. His pallor lasted only a moment before the red flush of what looked like anger darkened his jaw. I could have imagined it. Almost. But I’d bet my ESP fingers he knew this woman.

  “How about after you left home, Everly?” the chief asked.

  I yanked my gaze away from Pierce and gave the chief my full attention. “I was away during college.” I ran my mind over the memories of weekends and semester breaks. “Things could have changed then. I didn’t roam the garden when I came home for visits. Usually spent time in my tree house studying, or writing papers. Harlan built the tree house in a huge oak near the kitchen door, so there’d been no reason for me to wander around.”

  “Not much of partygoer, then?” the chief asked.

  I held my hands up, wiggling my fingers. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I guess when you see too much, college life isn’t, ah, normal.” He cleared his throat. The chief had never been comfortable with my ESP fingers. “When we shook hands…”

  “I filtered. Been practicing on Mitch.”

  A knowing smile reached the chief’s eyes. “Thanks. Time for you to leave and give us space to clear the scene, Everly. I’ll let you know when we’re through.”

  I’d expected that, but wasn’t happy about it. With a trail to follow, I wanted to get busy touching every inch of my property, but no matter. I’d be back as soon as the techs finished processing the scene—whether the chief was comfortable with it or not.

  Pivoting, I headed toward my car.

  Pierce sat behind the wheel, engine running, a wicked grin on his face.

  THREE

  Wicked grin or not, Pierce driving my car anywhere wasn’t okay since it would leave me stranded. I yanked on the door. Locked. “Out. Now,” I shouted, oblivious to the passel of police officers and techs scattered over my property.

  Pierce flicked a finger toward the passenger si
de. His grin had hardened into a frown, and a glint of determination darkened his eyes.

  I was in such trouble. Anger surged. I had an unidentified corpse on my property, and she just happened to be the first clue I’d ever discovered that might lead me to my parents’ killer. And Pierce had chosen now to take over my vehicle. Damn, but the man was a pain in the butt.

  I reached for the small of my back, intending to whip his weapon out as incentive to open the door. Not that I’d shoot him. Probably wouldn’t shoot him. But damn, his obstinate secrecy drove me to distraction.

  The weapon wasn’t in my waistband. He held it up, leaned over to tuck it into his ankle holster, and then cracked the window. “Get in. Places to go.”

  How the heck had he lifted it without me feeling the loss? The man had magical fingers that were scary nimble.

  All of the law enforcement types had turned away from their work and were staring at me, their silent questions lifting the hair on the back of my neck. Not a good time to put on a show for the local police force. Especially not in front of Chief Hayes. I circled the car and got in.

  “Your audacity is unbelievable.” I sounded like a bitch. It fit my mood perfectly, so I went with it. Power slammed through me, raw and magnificent. It had been way too long since I’d felt alive. Since I had a purpose.

  Pierce backed out of the parking space. “Yep. I nailed audacity before my third birthday.” He glowed with amusement. And he smelled like sunshine.

  I fumed, but managed to hold my pissy mood in check the entire time it took Pierce to navigate the very long driveway, the Stepford Wife roads running through the subdivision bordering the outskirts of my property, and the congested streets of the town proper. But when he gunned it up the ramp to the expressway, I exploded. “Where the hell are you taking me?”

  “Airport.” Succinct. Controlled. He was dead serious.