Face the Music (COBRA Securities Book 9) Read online

  The demeanor of both cops changed discovering Luke was one of them. They listened to him explain what happened with Young Denzel taking notes.

  The older cop radioed dispatch with the description of the getaway vehicle and requested a bus.

  “I don’t need an ambulance,” Luke protested.

  “Yes, you do,” Layla insisted.

  One of the cops returned from surveying the wreckage. “Thought you might need this.” He handed her a shoe. She looked down and wiggled her foot. She was so rattled, she hadn’t even realized she’d lost one.

  “Thank you.”

  “Hey, you look just like—”

  “Reynolds, call for a tow,” the other cop interrupted before he could finish. The cop nodded and radioed for a truck. “You won’t be driving that anytime soon. Anything you need from inside before we have it hauled?”

  “My purse,” she said.

  “I have a duffle in the back with some clothes,” Luke added.

  Reynolds disappeared to grab their items. Another siren grew louder before abruptly cutting off as an ambulance rolled to a stop. Layla forced a grumbling Luke inside and climbed in behind him. Reynolds handed her Luke’s bag and her purse before the doors were slammed shut. The paramedics used a pair of sharp scissors to cut off his shirt and she got her first look at the wound on his upper arm. She winced at the jagged hole still seeping blood. One of the medics applied pressure to both sides of his biceps, so the bullet must’ve punched all the way through. Guilt ate at her. He’d been shot because of her. She held onto his hand on the ride to the hospital…or maybe he held on to hers.

  Logan was waiting for them at the Emergency Room when the ambulance pulled up to the doors. He helped her down and they stood back as Luke’s stretcher was lowered to the ground and wheeled inside, his protests of “I can walk” falling on deaf ears. They hurried after the gurney, only to be turned away and sent to the waiting room. Logan guided her to a chair. She dropped down, exhausted.

  “What happened?”

  “We were leaving the interview, probably five or so miles away from the studio, when we heard a loud pop and the SUV lurched. Luke thought we’d blown a tire. We skidded down an embankment and came to a stop. Luke got out to check on me when someone shot at him. He returned fire but the person fled.”

  “Did you see the shooter?”

  “No. It was over before I realized what was happening. Luke got a description of his vehicle, though.”

  “Someone isn’t happy that you’re still alive,” Logan murmured.

  “It has to be Mullins.”

  “Probably, but he’s covering his bases. He was with us at the house the entire time.”

  “Then he’s paying someone.”

  #

  Luke’s arm burned with pain, but he refused the drugs the doctor prescribed. Someone had taken a shot at Layla. He needed to be sharp and alert. Just because she was outed, Mullins wouldn’t stop the attempts. Luke was sure of it.

  The stitches on both sides of his arm itched as the nurse wrapped gauze around his biceps and instructed him to change the bandage in a few hours. He’d been lucky it was a through-and-through with no major damage. It’d missed the bone, too. He’d have been less effective with a broken arm. A damaged one he could work with. As long as his trigger finger worked, it was all good.

  Once the doctor left, they allowed Layla and Logan into his cubicle. He took the first deep breath in an hour. Logan was more than capable of watching over her, but Luke felt better when he had eyes on her himself. When she rushed over and grabbed his hand, the machine monitoring his blood pressure beeped. She had that effect on him.

  A nurse ripped back the curtain and unhooked him from the various monitors. He scribbled his name to the release forms and accepted the prescription, only to crumple it up and stuff it into his pocket. Logan took off to bring the rental van to the door to pick them up. The whole time, Layla fretted over him despite his attempts to assure her he was fine. She slid the sleeve of the backup shirt he kept in the SUV over his arm and gingerly tugged it over the bandage. He almost told her he could do it himself, but it was nice to have her hands on him. She slipped the buttons in the holes and when she was finished, she kept her hands on his chest. Standing on tip-toes, she leaned up and kissed him. It was a good thing the nurse unhooked the blood pressure cuff, otherwise, it’d be beeping like crazy. The kiss was sweet and tender and over too soon.

  “I’m sorry you were hurt because of me.”

  He ran his thumb over her cheek. “Not your fault.” He leaned down to taste her lips again when the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted him.

  A nurse rolled in a wheelchair but Luke waved her off. “I don’t need that.”

  She pointed to the chair like a teacher disciplining an unruly child. “Too bad. Sit down. Hospital policy and I don’t feel like arguing.”

  Feeling duly chastised, he sat, ignoring Layla’s amused chuckle. She’d received several shocked looks from people who hadn’t yet heard the news. They probably thought she was a doppelganger, having no idea the real deal was standing in front of them.

  The nurse guided him to the elevator and they descended to the lobby. Layla held the door open and they rolled through just as Logan drove under the overhang. Luke glanced at Layla and saw the small red dot centered on her forehead.

  “Get down,” he yelled, launching from his chair to tackle her to the ground, just as a shot rang out. Someone screamed…maybe him. Holy hell, his bullet wound throbbed. He’d used his arms to cushion her body against the pavement. Ignoring the pain, he scooped her up and carted her to safety behind a concrete planter. The nurse stood frozen. He was just about to reach for her when Logan dove out of the SUV and covered her body as another shot rang out.

  “Do you have eyes on him?” Logan asked, crouching down next to Luke. Sirens wailed in the distance.

  “Yeah,” and he was pissed he didn’t have his weapon with him. He always carried it but the nurses confiscated it and he forgot to get it back. “Far side of the street. Black sedan. Dark windows. Long-range rifle. He took off.”

  “How’d you know the hit was coming?”

  “Laser point.”

  “You’re both bleeding,” Layla gasped.

  “Are you hit?” he asked Logan, who was dabbing blood from his forehead.

  “Nah, flying shrapnel.”

  Luke glanced at his shirt, not surprised to see blood coating his arm. This was his backup. He didn’t have another.

  The nurse regained her senses. “Come back in with me, both of you. It looks like you’ve ripped your stitches, and you’re going to need some.” She swallowed hard and placed a hand on Logan’s arm. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “You’re welcome, ma’am.”

  Two cop cars screeched to a stop, their lights swirling blue and red.

  “Threat is gone,” Logan told the cop who approached them. Luke gave them the description of the car. They told the cops about the earlier attempt when they’d been run off the road, necessitating the trip to the hospital.

  “That’s all the questions right now,” the nurse insisted. “They both need to be patched up.”

  The cop looked like he wanted to argue, but he nodded and flipped the cover on his notebook closed. “I’ll contact the crew who covered the earlier accident. We’ll be in touch.”

  The nurse hustled them back inside. Layla’s ice cold hand gripped his. He glanced down to see her pale face staring back at him. He stopped and turned to her, releasing her hand to cup her cheek. “Are you okay, babe? Did I hurt you when I tackled you?”

  She slowly shook her head. “But I’m hurting you, just by being with you.”

  “You’d hurt me worse by not being with me.” He almost cringed. He’d been thinking it but he couldn’t believe he’d said the words out loud.

  She sighed and placed her head against his chest.

  “You coming?” Logan called out from the open elevator door.
/>   He nodded and slung his arm around her shoulder, drawing her close to his uninjured side.

  While the doctors repaired his ripped wound, and patched up Logan, adding a fresh line of stitches along his hairline, Dorian and Alex arrived. They’d secured another vehicle and scoped out an alternate exit. As soon as the doctor cleared them, they headed out. The nurse didn’t try to make them ride in the wheelchair this time, and he was happy to have the comforting weight of his SIG at his side. Luke, Layla and Logan hopped in the van with Alex while Dorian drove the SUV. They split up and took circuitous routes home to lose any possible tails. Their van arrived first and Alex navigated into the garage. Dorian arrived a few minutes later and parked next to them.

  After checking to make sure the house was clear, they headed inside. Luke knew Layla wouldn’t like what he had to say, so he waited until they were secluded inside the bedroom they were sharing.

  “Here, let me take off your shirt and check your bandage,” she said, her fingers working the buttons. He grabbed her hands to stop her. She looked up at him in question.

  “I want you to go back to the compound. Tonight.”

  Her eyes widened and then narrowed. “I’m not leaving now. We have Mullins scrambling. I want to see this through.”

  “Dammit, Layla, he’s tried to kill you twice already in less than twenty-four hours. You’re a threat to him. He won’t stop.”

  “Then we need to find my mom’s diary and prove that he killed her.”

  “Babe, Talia’s been all over her bedroom. She didn’t find it.”

  “It’s there, somewhere. Tiffany and Sean saw her write in it all the time.”

  He rubbed his thumbs over the back of her hands. “We have to accept the possibility that Mullins found it and destroyed it.”

  She jerked her hands away and turned, hugging herself. “We have to find it, Luke. It will prove that she was afraid of him. That he threatened her. I know it will.”

  He gathered her close. “I’m struggling with myself. I want to tie you up and send you back where you’ll be safe. But I understand your need to see this through.”

  “You won’t make me leave?”

  He sighed. “No.”

  She ran her hands up his chest and pulled his head down for a kiss. As it did every time, passion exploded. He ran his lips down her throat while lifting off her shirt. “You’ll have to be quiet since we have roommates on the other side of the wall.”

  “Luke, we can’t. You were shot.”

  “Then you’ll have to do all the work.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Talia jumped at the sharp rap on her bedroom door. Who would come knocking this late? She was tired and just wanted to sleep. While Mullins had been busy looking over her coworker’s shoulders as they searched the twin’s rooms, she’d been scouring his on the opposite wing of the house in one more attempt to find the diary. It wasn’t there. Twice she’d sifted through his suite, combing through his drawers and closet. She’d peered under the mattress and rifled through his medicine cabinet. She checked for hidden storage compartments in the floor or walls. She had nothing to show for her efforts, except the knowledge that Mullins had a nasty fungal infection and a pretty extensive collection of nude magazines. Pervert.

  Wearily, she slid off the bed and headed to the door. If it was Mullins, she’d tell him she had PMS or something. “Who is it?”

  “Hunter.”

  She jerked the door open and yanked him inside. He stumbled before righting himself. She stuck her head out and searched the hallway. She didn’t want to chance Mullins catching them together. The coast was clear so she closed the door and bolted it. When she turned around, her heart skipped a beat. She was in a locked bedroom with one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever met.

  Hunter tugged a chair from the desk, flipped it around and straddled it, resting his arms on the back. “You wanted to ask me something?”

  Oh, right. She was here on a job. She pushed thoughts of running her hands through his hair and feasting on his lips out of her head. She’d texted him earlier hoping he could answer a question.

  “There was a man who worked on Mullins’ security team until a few weeks ago when he was killed.”

  “Cliff Downs.”

  “Yes,” Talia confirmed. “Do you know what happened to him?”

  “Not specifics. I’d just started working for Mullins. Ike Morris overheard Downs making a phone call. I don’t know what it was about, but it angered Mullins. I tried to find out but he wouldn’t tell me, only that he fired Downs. Immediately after, Morris disappeared. When he returned two days later, he bragged that he’d tortured a man to death.”

  “It was Cliff Downs uncle, Henry Graham. He was the man helping Layla disappear.”

  “Ah,” Hunter said, tapping his fingers in thought. “Mullins said something about having a lead on his children but it didn’t pan out. He must’ve thought that Downs and Graham had something to do with their disappearance. I didn’t find out Downs had died until a week later. Morris must have killed him before he killed the uncle.”

  “Has he really been trying to find his children?”

  “Yeah. He’s increased the reward every month since they disappeared, and he hired a private investigator, a real shady dude. The guy’s methods might be suspect, but his track record is impressive.”

  “The PI, he almost found them a few days ago.”

  Hunter shot to his feet. “Wait a minute…you know where they are? They’re alive?”

  She’d made the commitment to trust him so she told him the truth. “Layla took them when she disappeared.”

  Hunter’s shoulders dropped with a relieved sigh. “Thank God. I was afraid Mullins killed them. Where are they?”

  “Safely hidden away.” She trusted him but she wasn’t giving up everything.

  “So this show of Layla hiring COBRA Securities to find them, it’s all a ruse?”

  “That part, yes. She did hire us to help prove Mullins murdered her mother.”

  “Did you have any luck searching for the diary?”

  She shook her head. “No. I have been through the master suite two times and checked all the rooms she frequented. I have found nothing and I am running out of options.”

  #

  Layla floated back to earth, surprised she was still breathing after the way Luke had completely manipulated her body like a maestro. His injury hadn’t slowed him down. She’d had to stuff the blanket in her mouth to keep from screaming his name. He’d tugged it free and replaced it with his mouth. When his lips touched her, it was like coming home. He was an amazing kisser, toe-curling, panty-melting good—had she been wearing any.

  She lay with her head against his chest, the hand of his good arm stroking her hair. She could stay this way forever. It frightened her when she remembered he’d been shot today. If the bullet’s trajectory had been off, it could’ve hit him in the chest. She didn’t think she could exist in a world without Luke. He’d become so important to her in such a short amount of time.

  When they ran into each other in New York City, she’d felt it. An instant connection. It was as if her soul knew it’d just met its mate.

  Luke’s phone jingled, jarring her from her fairy tale notions. He reached over and answered. Suddenly, he shot up, dislodging her. “Hold on.” He pushed the mute button. “Layla? It’s Mullins. He wants to speak to you.”

  Her mouth dropped open. Mullins was calling her? She didn’t want to have to talk to him ever again.

  Reading her thoughts, Luke’s voice was gentle. “You don’t have to take the call.”

  With a fortifying breath, she held out her hand for the phone. “Maybe he wants to apologize for trying to kill us today. Twice.”

  She wrapped the blanket around her body like a shield of armor. It was hard enough talking to the man, she certainly didn’t want to do so undressed. Unmuting the call, she said, “What do you want, Mullins? Checking to see if I’m dead yet?”

  He
didn’t take her bait. “I’ve scheduled a press conference at my house for nine in the morning to discuss the missing children. It would be in your best interest to attend.”

  “No, it would be in your best interest,” she retorted.

  “Listen, you bitch, if you want to find your siblings, you’ll come. I’ve already announced that you’d be here. I have all the major networks and news outlets confirmed to attend. If you don’t show, it will reflect badly on you. I’ll make sure of it.” The line went dead.

  Layla tossed Luke’s phone to the bedside table and seethed. “Mullins scheduled a joint press conference in the morning. He told them I’d attend and if I don’t, he’ll try to cast doubt on me.”

  Luke rubbed her back, the gesture comforting. “Maybe you can use the opportunity to trip him up. You’ve got him on his heels, babe. He’s running scared.”

  “He just makes me so angry. But, it will be interesting to watch his reaction to me telling the media about the attempts today. He’ll have to give an Academy-award winning performance to pretend like he wasn’t responsible.”

  “Enough about Mullins. I’ll help you forget him.” Luke tugged her against his hard body and she went easily. Then he made good on his promise.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Layla would rather sing naked in front of a packed stadium than face Mullins in his own home. Thankfully, she didn’t have to encounter the devil alone. With Luke and his agents as backup, she was as ready as she’d ever be. Still, the thought of seeing her ex-stepfather in person made her feel like recycling the cinnamon raisin bagel she’d eaten for breakfast.

  Dorian drove with Logan riding shotgun. She sat between Luke and Alex in the back seat. They circled the block a few times before turning into Mullins’ driveway, swerving around the reporters mulling about. A tall man shooed the crowd out of the way and guided them forward.

  “That’s Hunter Malone,” Logan told them. “Undercover FBI.”

  Layla gasped. “The FBI is investigating Mullins?” It made her heart happy to know that one way or another, he was going down. It gave her the boost of confidence she needed to face him.