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She smiled. “What’s that mean to you, Shane?”
“I heard you were for hire to the lowest bidder.”
“You’ve heard wrong.”
Shane shook his head. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Prove it’“
“Not all of us live in movie-land, Shane.”
“Want a dose of reality? Your client is dead, and your contract is void, so I’m thinking I’m better.”
“You’re not thinking at all,” Casey Dean said with a smile. “I’ve got the drop on you, dumbass.”
“Yeah, but you’d rather have Abigail than shoot me.” Shane smiled. “Plus, my team is still intact. Look behind you.”
“Nice try—” Casey Dean began, but Carpenter’s deep voice cut her off.
“I’d lower the gun, miss.” He was at the top of the ramp, gun pointed at the back of her head.
Casey Dean sighed. “Fuck.” She lowered the gun.
Shane nodded toward the Wilson’s boat, which was approaching. “You’re leaving with my boss?—”
Casey Dean laughed. “You really are stupid.”
Shane smiled. “Not anymore.”
Agnes had followed the wedding party to the barn, which wasn’t easy in her mother-of-the-bride dress, and made sure that everything had started well there. Garth had everything hopping, dazzling his date, Tara, with his expertise and general command, and Agnes stopped long enough to say, “Garth, you’re amazing, what would we do without you?” which probably set him up for the next school year. Frankie dominated the room like a father of the bride, charming the hell out of everybody, and Maria and Palmer were so dazzled with each other that it would have been almost embarrassing if they weren’t the bride and groom. Jefferson Keyes was embarrassing, no almost about it, but after Xavier told Agnes that a morose Hammond had taken Brenda into custody for questioning, he’d picked up two flutes of champagne and gone over to Evie, and Evie’s sad face had blushed and brightened as she’d taken her glass from him, so Agnes was fairly sure that Jefferson’s payback was coming at him shortly. Lisa Livia was beaming happily at her baby girl, forgetting for right now that she was broke, even forgetting for the evening that Frankie had deserted her for twenty-five years, patting his shoulder when he stopped to kiss her cheek, so it looked like for the space of the afternoon, everybody in her family would get their happily ever after. Only Carpenter and Shane were missing.
Shane, she thought, and felt the chill again. She looked around the reception hall one more time and then left and went down the path to the house. He was standing on the dock talking to Wilson on the boat, and if she stayed by the porch steps, it was too obvious that she was watching, but if she went into the kitchen, she could see from the window, even from the open door. And maybe finally finish her damn column. That would be a real sign that things were back to normal: meeting her deadline tomorrow.
She opened the porch door and went in, trying not to think about everything that could be wrong down on the boat, and at the last minute, as she went into the kitchen, she turned back to look at him, only to jerk back as she felt a cast-iron skillet miss crushing her skull by inches.
Shane saw Joey walking down the dock from the reception as Wilson’s boat bounced against the bumpers. He grabbed the rope Wilson threw and secured the boat as Carpenter held his gun on Casey Dean.
Wilson stepped onto the dock and nodded. “Good job.” He glanced at the locker. “The money?”
“Yes,” Shane said as Joey came down the metal walkway.
Wilson motioned to Casey Dean. “Take care of her and let’s go.”
Shane heard her suck in her breath. Yeah, he’s not much for loyalty, he thought. Sorry about that, babe.
“Shane, you can’t go with this guy, he’s got no soul,” Joey called out. “You’re not like him, you’re like me.”
“That’s touching,” Wilson said to Joey. “But you’re his past. I’m his future. And it’s a very lucrative and rewarding future. What can you give him? A diner? He’s not your heir, he’s mine.”
“The hell he is.” Joey pulled his gun from his waistband and held it on Wilson.
Shane thought, Another gun. I’m sick of guns.
“I had to take family away from him once to save him,” Joey said. “If I have to kill you to give family back to him, I will.”
“No,” Wilson said. “I’ve got you covered from the boat. You’ll never make it off this dock alive.”
“You can’t just shoot him down,” Shane said to Wilson, his voice tired.
“Of course I can,” Wilson said. “In the interests of national security, I can do anything. You have to understand this if you’re going to take my position. You must weigh the benefits of the many against the needs of the few. I’ve been doing it for decades. When you are National Security, you are the ultimate power. You are above the law. You must grow comfortable with that, making the difficult decisions easily and quickly. People are expendable; security is not.”
