LITMIR.BIZ

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had trusted him, not just because he was an FBI agent but also because he was the half brother of Stacy’s husband. But he wasn’t a Payne. And the corruption in the police department and perhaps in the DA’s office, as well, proved that nobody was incorruptible.

      Had Agent Rus sold out to whoever wanted her dead? Had he told them where she was?

      * * *

      “You told me she’s alive. You need to tell me where she is,” Milek said, and his voice cracked before he could add, Where they are...

      FBI Special Agent Nicholas Rus’s wide shoulders slumped with guilt, his black-haired head bowed. “I shouldn’t have told you.”

      “No,” Milek agreed.

      His blue eyes wide with surprise, Rus glanced up from his desk in his office at River City PD. His assignment was lasting so long he’d been given an office that had once belonged to one of the captains he’d arrested for corruption. It had windows looking out onto the busy precinct. But his attention was focused only on Milek.

      “You shouldn’t have told me now,” Milek explained. “You should have told me a year ago.”

      “I didn’t know you a year ago.”

      Milek snorted. “We met at least a year ago.”

      “We met,” Rus said. “But we didn’t know each other yet. I didn’t know then if I could really trust you.”

      “Obviously you know now that you can, or you wouldn’t have told me she—they—are alive.”

      Rus cursed. “And that was a mistake.”

      “Why?” Milek asked.

      “Because now you want to know where she is.”

      He didn’t just want to know. He had to know. He had to see her—had to see for himself that she was really alive. And so was their son...

      “That’s not all I want to know,” he said.

      Rus groaned.

      “I want to know why.” For a year she had haunted him—so many images of her had played through his mind. Amber smiling, her beautiful face aglow with love. Her face flushed with passion, her lips swollen from his kisses. Amber crying, her green eyes drenched with tears. But the one that had haunted him most had been the horrific footage of that crash. He’d imagined those flames consuming her and their son—taking them away from him forever.

      But they had never really been his.

      He shook off his regrets and asked, “Why would she go to such lengths to fake her death?”

      And the death of their son...

      “Was it because her boss was murdered and she was afraid she might be next?” She had worked more closely with the DA than any other assistant had. It was possible that whoever murdered him might have wanted to kill her, too.

      Rus sighed again and leaned back in his chair. “There was no might about it. She and her son were nearly killed the night before the crash.”

      Milek shuddered. He hadn’t lost them, but he’d come close. “What happened?”

      “Shots were fired into her house.”

      “I didn’t see it on the news.” Not the way he had seen the footage of the vehicle crash. And if the shooting had been reported, it would have been brought up during the coverage of the accident. The media would have speculated that the crash hadn’t been an accident. But nobody had questioned it. There had been an ice storm the night of the crash; it hadn’t just seemed possible but probable that she’d lost control.

      But Amber had never really lost control of anything. Not the way he had...

      Because he’d known her so well, he should have questioned the wreck—especially after her boss’s murder. And because he’d once been so connected to her, he should have known she wasn’t really dead. But he had lost her years before she “died.”

      “She didn’t report it to the police or the media,” Nicholas Rus replied. “She reported it to me.”

      She had called the FBI agent. Why hadn’t she called him? Probably because she hadn’t trusted he would come. Or that he would care...

      When he’d broken their engagement, he had worked hard to make her believe he hadn’t cared about her anymore. He had succeeded—too well.

      “And you kept it quiet.”

      Rus nodded.

      Milek cursed him.

      “I didn’t know who I could trust,” Rus reminded him. “I came to River City to investigate corruption. I didn’t know who all might be involved in that corruption.”

      “Me?”

      Rus nodded. “You and your family have quite the notorious reputation.”

      And that was why Milek had ended their engagement. For her...

      His reputation hadn’t been the only reason, though.

      “Now I know that reputation is undeserved,” Rus added.

      It was undeserved for Garek and Stacy. Milek couldn’t claim the same. He sighed. “You were right,” he grudgingly admitted. “You were right to keep the shooting quiet. You were right to trust no one.”

      If not, Amber and Michael might really be dead.

      “I didn’t think it would take this long,” Rus murmured.

      Milek glanced out the windows of the corner office. Even though the detectives and some uniformed officers appeared busy, they spared glances at Rus’s office—at Rus. Some of those glances seemed uneasy. “To clean up the corruption?”

      He nodded. “That, too. But I meant I didn’t think it would take this long to find her boss’s killer. I didn’t think she would have to stay dead as long as this.”

      “Was that why you told me?”

      “You weren’t getting over her.”

      Milek had broken up with her nearly five years before her death, and he hadn’t gotten over her in all that time. It didn’t matter that he knew she was alive; he was still mourning her—still mourning what they’d once had, such passion. His pulse quickened just thinking about her—about how badly he’d wanted her—needed her.

      But if it had only been passion, he wouldn’t have broken their engagement. He’d loved her too much to risk ruining her future. “I need to see her.”

      To talk to her. To apologize.

      “I can’t risk it,” Rus said. “Until now, I was the only one who knew the truth.”

      “I’m not going to tell anyone,” Milek said. He wouldn’t compromise her safety, or their son’s.

      “We can’t take the chance of either of us going to see her. We can’t risk someone following one of us.”

      “But why would they?” Milek asked. “Nobody but us knows she’s alive. So they’re not looking for her any longer.” But somebody needed to be looking for him—for the shooter who had nearly killed her and Michael.

      He believed Rus was still working the case. But it wasn’t his only case. He’d just taken down a major crime boss. “Does Chekov have any ideas?” Milek asked. “He’s been talking to you pretty freely.”

      Because he had cut a deal to keep his daughter from going to a maximum security prison for murder. She was going to a locked psychiatric facility instead. Milek doubted she would ever leave it.

      Rus shook his head. “Chekov claims he doesn’t know anything.”

      “Do you?” Milek asked. “Where are you at with this case?” He needed to be apprised of the investigation, so he could help. Payne

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