“He loves you. You’re his family. And I passed muster,” Noah added with an arched brow, then he smiled. “Trina already likes you. Why are you nervous?”
“I don’t know. Maybe my spider senses have been on tingle mode so long today, my nerves are shorted out. I don’t know how you cops cope with all the excitement.”
He came around to open her door. “Normally it’s not this exciting. Normally it’s all paperwork. Don’t forget your phone.”
Her computer bag had fallen on its side and the phone had slid out of the front pocket. Out of habit she flipped it open. “I’ve got a million missed calls.”
“You’ll have time to catch up inside,” he said, a little impatience in his voice.
She made her feet move. He had work to do and she was distracting him again. “Sorry. I procrastinate when I’m nervous.”
“Well, stop it. You don’t need to be.” He put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him, hip to hip, her head on his shoulder as he walked her to Trina’s front door. “Feels nice, doesn’t it?” he murmured in her ear and she shivered.
Because it did. And that made her nervous, too.
He sighed. “Just enjoy it, okay?”
She realized she was holding her breath. “God. This shouldn’t be so hard.”
“Try to relax. I’m the least of your worries right now.”
“That’s what you think,” she muttered, then jumped when the cell phone in his pocket vibrated against her leg.
“Eve, relax. Trina doesn’t bite. Not anymore, anyway.” He was smiling until he looked at his caller ID. “It’s Abbott.” He stopped on the front porch and took a step back, turning his face away as he listened to his boss.
Eve didn’t want to know what was happening. The day was catching up to her and she was suddenly overwhelmed. No more. Not tonight. But Noah’s call wasn’t quick and too much energy had her flipping her phone open to look at the incoming calls.
Oh God. It was the same number that had sent the text. She lifted her eyes to Noah, who was now pacing the width of the driveway as he talked with Abbott in low tones she couldn’t hear. Her hand trembling, she hit the speed dial for her voicemail and put the phone to her ear.
“Didn’t your parents teach you not to get into cars with strange men?”
She was breathing hard, the cold air hurting her lungs. Her knees gave way and she sank to the edge of the porch, numb. It was him. Him. It couldn’t be. He was dead.
But it was. The voice that taunted her nightmares until she woke screaming. Her phone slid from her fingers, hitting the porch with a clatter that brought Noah around.
He ran to her, dropping to one knee in the snow. “What?”
“Him.” She shook her head hard, trying to clear it.
“Dell Farmer?”
“Yes. No. God.” She was hyperventilating and she pursed her lips, made herself breathe through her nose. “It was a voice message. Winters’s voice.”
Stunned, Noah did a fast take. “Are you sure?”
She ground her teeth. “Fucking sure. I hear that voice in my dreams. Dammit.”
“Sshh,” Noah soothed. He took her phone, punched in the numbers to replay the message. And his face grew grim. He pocketed her phone and helped her to her feet. “I’ll tell Olivia. We’ll find him.”
“How did he get it? How did he get his voice?” She heard the hysteria in her voice, tried to battle it back. “How did he know?”
“I don’t know. Maybe from an old interview. I found a few on the Net this morning. Try to breathe, honey. It’s just words. Winters can’t hurt you now.” His arms were around her, holding her up. “He can’t ever hurt you again.”
She thought of Harvey Farmer and Katie. And Kurt Buckland and David. “But Dell can. He wants to. He won’t give up.”
“Breathe.” He pounded on Brock and Trina’s door, loud enough to wake the dead. But nobody answered and he pounded again, harder. “Open the damn door.”
It opened only a few inches, Trina’s face peeking around the edge. “Noah,” she said brightly. “Eve, what a surprise.” Then she frowned. “Go,” she mouthed. “Now.”
“Goddammit, Tree, I don’t care if you’re both naked and having sex from the damn chandeliers. Move.” Noah knocked the door open with his shoulder.
Trina’s words hadn’t matched the look in her eyes, Eve thought numbly. Slowly, the look in Trina’s eyes sank in. Run. Pulse shooting like a rocket, Eve backed up, but it was too late. Trina was yanked from sight and Eve heard a loud thud a split second before a hand grabbed her arm, dragging her inside.
“No,” Noah thundered, trying to yank her back. Eve thrashed like a wild cat. But it was too late. She went still when a gun was shoved against her temple.
Noah had gone still as well. “Dell Farmer,” he said quietly.
What a shock, Eve thought, her mind racing now, even as her body was motionless.
An arm locked over her throat, squeezing. “The great and powerful Noah Webster,” Dell scoffed. “You couldn’t have found your own ass in the dark.”
“I seem to have found you,” Noah said calmly, his focus on Dell’s face.
Dell scoffed again. “Yeah, right. Only because my old man gave me up.”
Noah looked surprised, though none of his focus dulled. “No, he didn’t.”
Eve could see Trina, hands and feet bound, lying dazed against a wall. Where’s Brock? Then Eve was lifted on her toes, Dell’s gun digging harder into her head.
“Don’t lie to me, Webster,” he snarled.
Eve found her voice. “He’s not,” she said. “I found you. It wasn’t that hard.”
Dell stiffened and for a split second the pressure from the gun slacked away. But he recovered and Eve winced in pain when he ground the barrel harder. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not. I found an article by Kurt Buckland, with a nice photo of your father standing at V’s graveside. You resemble your dad.” She paused for effect. “Or you did, until you killed him. You don’t look much like him anymore, what with that hole in his chest.”
“Shut up.” But she could feel a slight tremble in Dell’s hand.
She could see Noah watching, waiting, alert. She felt the weight of her own weapon in her pocket and hoped to keep Dell distracted enough that he wouldn’t feel it, too.
“You killed your father for no reason, Dell,” Eve said softly. “He didn’t tell on you.”
Dell was shaking now. “Shut up. Damn you.”
“Did he tell you he was innocent? Beg for mercy? Did you shoot him anyway?”
His arm tightened around her throat. She lifted higher on her toes, trying to breathe.
“Let her go, Farmer,” Noah said, his voice as calm as hers had been.
“No. No. You killed, too, Webster. You started this.”
“I didn’t kill your brother, Dell,” Noah said. “He was running from a crime. We were pursuing. That’s what we do.”
“He didn’t do anything.”
Eve could smell his desperation, a rancid odor.
“He killed a store owner,” Noah said reasonably. “In cold blood.”
“Only because she drove him to it.”
“She? You mean Katie?” Noah asked.
“Yes. He wasn’t bad. V wasn’t bad.” But he didn’t sound so sure now. Eve sensed his confusion and remembered the night before, that brief moment when she’d reminded him he was in a bar surrounded by cops. Rage had become confusion, then he’d swung back to cold control. Dell was there, right now, in that moment between rage and control, and Eve prayed Noah was paying attention. Turning herself into dead weight, Eve lifted her feet and wrenched from his grip.
“Drop the gun, Farmer,” Noah demanded, even as she hit the floor, rolling away.
Curled into a ball, she turned her head enough to peek out. Noah held his gun steady on Dell, but Dell held his gun on Eve. The two men stared at each other.
“I’ll kill her,” Dell said, his voice coldly mocking, just like the night before, “while you watch. You’re going to kill me anyway, just like you did V. I’ll take her with me.”