v

• 237 •

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“Why the change of heart?” Enzo said, automatically thrusting his hips forward as Rica inched down the zipper on his fly. His gaze drifted down, away from her face, to her hands.

“You’re here. She’s not.” Rica watched his eyes lose focus just a little as she slid her fingers along the ridge of flesh she slowly exposed.

Adding what she knew he believed would be true, she said, “Besides, I want to enjoy it.”

He pressed the gun between her breasts and pushed up the peach silk nightgown with his free hand, exposing her bare stomach and the matching panties. He grunted as her fingers closed around him.

“And we are going to enjoy it,” Rica whispered, aware that the automatic still pointed at her throat. Until he moved it to a position where he wouldn’t kill her instantly if he fired, she couldn’t do anything but keep on with the course she had plotted. Numbing her mind to everything except her ultimate goal, to keep Carter safe, she pretended to enjoy what she was doing.

v

Carter punched in Reese’s number as she rocketed down Bradford, swerved around the cruiser blocking the intersection closest to her street, and jammed to a halt on the shoulder. When Reese picked up, she shouted, “I’m just pulling up at the bottom of the hill. Is she all right?”

“We’ve got an intruder.” Reese spoke softly into her phone, assessing what she could see through the window. Rica was not visible, but it wasn’t difficult to decipher the scenario in front of her. She could make out the head and shoulders of a man who appeared to be kneeling on the bed. He was oddly motionless. She didn’t see a weapon, and until she knew if he was armed, she couldn’t risk moving in prematurely.

Right now, surprise was on their side. If he knew they were out there, they’d have a hostage situation on their hands, or worst-case scenario, he’d kill Rica and opt for suicide by cop. “Late thirties, black hair, dark eyes, looks Mediterranean.”

“It’s Enzo. It’s gotta be Enzo,” Carter gasped, running full out up the street. There were no streetlights, so she didn’t have to worry about being seen, but she kept to the shadows, slowing as she neared her house. Every instinct screamed at her to barge inside, to find Rica,

• 238 •

RetuRning tides

to destroy whoever threatened her. But her cop instincts were just as strong, telling her to slow down, telling her to listen to Reese. Telling her to trust Reese. “Reese. He’ll hurt her.”

“No, he won’t,” Reese said quietly. “Bri is on your rear deck. Meet her, move inside and upstairs. Do not attempt to enter the bedroom until I give the order.”

“Okay. Okay.”

Carter shoved the phone in her pocket, pulled her weapon, and ran to join Bri. She had to get inside that house. She had to get to Rica, and then she was going to kill him.

• 239 •

• 240 •

RetuRning tides

chapteR twenty-eight

Rica was running out of time. She despised Enzo and loathed touching him, but she made herself keep watching his face to judge when his focus started to dissolve. She couldn’t think about what she saw in his smug expression—the victory and the pleasure. She gasped when he lifted himself a few inches off her body, wrapped her flimsy panties in his fist, and yanked. The material tore away, chafing roughly over her unprotected flesh, and he laughed when she couldn’t stifle a small cry. The pistol in his right hand wavered, swinging back and forth in front of her face, as his eyes dropped back to her fingers clenched around him. She picked up speed, waiting for his control to falter and his reflexes to slow.

“You’re not trying to make me come, are you,” he panted, his thighs still clamped around her hips like a vise. He pushed and pulled himself through her fingers, his tempo fast and erratic. “That’s right.

You’re good…at this.”

“I’m ready,” Rica whispered, praying she would be fast enough.

“Spread your legs and put me inside,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Hurry up.”

“I can’t with you where you are,” Rica said, trying to sound eager.

“Move down, Enzo, so I can put you where you belong. Come on, baby, I want you—”

Enzo grunted and shoved himself down until he was no longer straddling her hips. When he shifted his leg to force it between hers, freeing her of his weight for just a second, Rica quickly jerked both knees up to her chest and rolled off the bed, scrambling for the drawer in the bedside table. She heard his furious roar, and even as her hand

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closed around the pistol grip, she knew she was too late. The gunshot, or maybe it was her scream, was deafening.

v

At the sound of the shot, Carter elbowed Bri aside and shouldered through the door into the bedroom, panning the room with her weapon, her stomach clenched into a knot. Two bodies on the floor. Blood everywhere. Globs of maroon splattered on the bed, the dresser, the wall. Ribbons of crimson streaking down Rica’s face and chest.

“Rica,” Carter moaned, rushing forward. Bri was right beside her and grabbed the suspect’s shoulder, jerked him over, and trained her gun on his body. Carter fell to her knees next to Rica. “Baby! Oh Jesus, Rica!”

Rica shuddered and opened her eyes. When she saw Carter, she cried out and threw herself into Carter’s arms.

“Are you hurt?” Carter shouted, clutching Rica to her chest. She rocked her, searching her body with one hand, looking for injuries.

“Baby, are you hit?”

Wordlessly, Rica shook her head and burrowed closer into Carter.

“Is he dead?” Carter rasped, her hot eyes on the man splayed on the floor.

“Yes,” Bri said, removing the weapon from Enzo’s hand. She radioed Reese. “We’re code four here.”

“Rica?” Reese’s voice came back staticky over the radio.

“She’s okay.” Bri glanced over to the shattered window, then down to the man lying in a pool of blood at her feet. She couldn’t see the entry wound that must be in the back of his head, but the exit wound had taken out most of his forehead. “We’ll need the coroner.”

“I’ll call her and get officers out here for crowd control. You have the scene.”

“Roger that.” Bri knelt down beside Carter and Rica. Carter’s eyes were closed now, her face pressed to Rica’s hair. Bri gripped Carter’s shoulder. “I think you can take her to another room. I’ll make sure the scene is undisturbed until Reese gets here.”

“Thanks,” Carter said gruffly. She got to her knees and eased Rica up with her. “Come on, baby. Let me get you out of here.”

• 242 •

RetuRning tides

v

Tory tapped on the bedroom door next to the crime scene and eased into the room. Rica sat stiffly on the side of the bed, Carter next to her, holding her hand. Rica’s nightgown was splotched with darkened patches of blood, as were her bare shoulders and neck. Tory set her equipment bag down in the center of the floor and took out her camera.

“Rica, I need to take some photos, gather a few samples, and then you can get into the shower.” Tory smiled at Carter, who looked so wired she was about to fly apart. “Carter, maybe you could get things ready for her. Make sure the bathroom is nice and steamy and find a robe and lots of fluffy towels.”

Carter looked uncertain, but Rica said in a low, flat voice, “Go ahead, sweetheart. It’s okay.”

“I’ll just be in the other room if you need me,” Carter said, brushing Rica’s cheek with her fingertips.

Rica watched until Carter had closed the bathroom door behind her, then smiled wanly at Tory. “Thank you. She doesn’t need to hear this.”

“She probably does,” Tory said casually, moving back and forth in front of Rica, getting the photos she needed for her report. “You’ll probably want to tell her, too, but you’ll know when the right time is.”

She finished and stowed the camera away. Then she donned gloves and assembled a number of specimen containers. Moving closer so she could speak softly, she said, “Tell me what happened.”

After a pause, Rica recounted the events while Tory quickly and efficiently took scrapings from Rica’s nails, collected flakes of blood from her skin, and plucked errant hairs from her nightgown and body.

Rica’s voice shook when she described what she had done to distract Enzo. She glanced toward the closed bathroom door. “I don’t know how to tell her that.”

Tory affixed labels to specimen envelopes and jars and stored them in her case. Then she sat next to Rica and took her hand. “What you did was incredibly brave.” She laughed softly. “Maybe just a little bit crazy risky too. Carter knows you love her. And she loves you. She’s not going to be upset about anything you had to do to survive.” Tory

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slid her arm around Rica’s shoulders and hugged her. “Trust me on this.

Trust her.”

“I was so afraid Carter would come back and Enzo would kill her.”

Rica felt the terror for the first time, really felt it deep inside, and she couldn’t stop the tears. “I was afraid he would kill me and then her.”

“You stopped that from happening. You did really well.” Tory held Rica tightly as she sobbed, and when the bathroom door burst open and Carter vaulted into the room, her eyes wild with worry, Tory shook her head. “She’s all right. She just needs to do this for a few minutes.”

Carter leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. “As long as she needs.”

After a few minutes, Rica straightened and brushed trembling fingers over her face. “Did I shoot him?”

Tory glanced at Carter, who nodded for her to go ahead. “No, you didn’t. Reese shot him. She told me if you hadn’t done what you did, if you hadn’t gotten him to move, she wouldn’t have had a clear shot. She couldn’t see the gun earlier.”

“I would have shot him,” Rica murmured. “I would have killed him and I don’t think I would have felt a thing.”

“The bastard deserved it.” Carter strode across the room and squatted down in front of Rica, taking her hands. “Baby, he assaulted you. He killed an FBI agent and knifed another one. He would have hurt you, baby.”

Rica smiled weakly and squeezed Carter’s hands. “I’m all right.

Really.” She turned to Tory. “Can I get clean now?”

Her eyes steady on Rica, Tory asked, “Do I need to collect sexual forensic evidence?”

“No. He never touched me.”

“Then I think Carter owes you a shower.”

v

Reese watched dispassionately as the two medics zipped up the black body bag and lifted it onto the stretcher for transport to the clinic.

When the room had cleared, she picked up Tory’s equipment bag while Tory disposed of her gloves and washed her hands in the bathroom.

“All set?” Reese asked when Tory emerged.

• 244 •

RetuRning tides

Tory took one last look around the room, then studied the shattered window. “That was quite a shot.”

Reese looked over her shoulder to the house next door. Lights blazed in most of the windows now. She had sent officers to speak to the neighbors and assure everyone that there was no danger, but with three patrol cars and two ambulances outside in the street, the entire neighborhood was awake. From her vantage point on the opposite deck, she’d been pretty certain of what was happening in this room, although her view was obstructed most of the time. And there hadn’t been any question in her mind when Rica had bolted upright and the suspect, after catching his balance, had swung his pistol in her direction. Reese had had a millisecond to determine that Rica was not in her line of fire and that Rica was in imminent danger. She’d shot him in the head because she couldn’t risk a body shot that might not have completely and instantaneously disabled him. Head shots weren’t usually recommended, because the target was so much smaller than a center mass shot, but she had to stop him in his tracks before his nervous system could telegraph a signal to his finger to pull the trigger.

She couldn’t risk him shooting Rica, so she aimed for the medulla at the back of his head.

“Short-range shot,” Reese said. “Every Marine is a marksman.”

“And thank God for that,” Tory murmured, brushing her hand over Reese’s chest. “Are you all right?”

Reese sighed and took in the room and the remains of a near tragedy. “About taking out the suspect? Yes. But I’m not happy he got to her. I think I should’ve seen this coming.”

“Of course you should have,” Tory said with an edge. “Because you’re clairvoyant in addition to being indestructible and…”

“Hey,” Reese said gently. “Everybody’s fine.”

Tory slid her arms around Reese’s waist. “When I saw you leave the house with that rifle, I knew it was going to be bad. I was frightened.”