LITMIR.BIZ

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receiver, the invisible threads that held them together as a family suddenly pulling almost painfully tight.

      The urge to tell him about the unsettling moment of déjà vu was briefly powerful enough that she almost gave in to it. Two solid reasons stopped her. As a close family member, Steve knew about her past problems. He had always been protective and sympathetic, but she doubted he would buy into either her past-life memories or the paranoia. Secondly, she was reluctant to upset him with any further links to a past that had already consumed enough of his life. After years of living a solitary existence hunting his father’s killers, he finally had a chance at a normal life, and he was happy. “No, no problems. How’s the baby project?”

      She could almost feel his grin. “You’d better talk to Taylor.”

      Taylor came on the line. Sara hadn’t had much time to get to know Steve’s wife, but in the short time they had spent together she and Taylor had hit it off. The ordeal Taylor had endured when she had been targeted by Lopez and the cabal, followed by the discovery of the mass grave at Juarez, then the memorial service for Todd Fischer, had cut through the normal friendship preliminaries.

      “Three months to go. Did Steve tell you it’s a girl? He’s over the moon.”

      Taylor’s happiness was palpable, and for a moment Sara was swept into the warm heart of the small family that was forming. A familiar ache started at the back of her throat. She had felt it when her mother had died, then when her dad had gently slipped away. Then again, ridiculously, at Steve and Taylor’s wedding.

      She had always loved her family, loved being a part of the belonging and the warmth. She hadn’t experienced any kind of maternal urge yet—she had never gotten close enough to any of her boyfriends to even start thinking about commitment, let alone having a child. The crush on Bayard, like a lot of the wilder, more intense teenage feelings she’d seen her friends go through, seemed to have passed her by. But that didn’t mean she didn’t eventually want children of her own, and a husband. She had just never met anyone she had wanted enough to marry.

      Steve came back on. They had just moved into a house in Michigan. Instead of the sea, they had lake views, but he wasn’t complaining. He finally had what he wanted, and both he and Taylor were blissfully happy.

      When she finally hung up, the sense of separation was acute.

      Fingers shaking, she set the phone down on the table. She was having trouble breathing and she was ridiculously close to tears. The emotions had come out of nowhere, hitting her like a fist in the chest.

      She rang Bayard’s home number. It rang once, then clicked through to an answering service. She waited for the prerecorded message but there was just a muted beep, then a hollow sound as if a tape was running.

      Frowning, she waited several seconds, just in case there had been a mistake and the recorded message cut in late. When it was evident there was no recorded message, she left a brief message, stating that she had found possessions belonging to Todd Fischer that he needed to see, including a book and a camera, then quietly set the receiver down.

      She had goose bumps all down her arms and the back of her neck was tingling, which was ridiculous. She was certain she had rung the correct number. She hadn’t heard Bayard’s voice as she had expected to, but that in itself wasn’t alarming. She had been talking to a machine but she couldn’t shake the weird sense that someone was present, listening.

      Suddenly, she wished she hadn’t made the call.

      Six

      Bayard had been almost asleep when the phone rang once, then stopped. Lifting the receiver on his bedside table, he listened. When he heard the dial tone, he flicked on the bedside lamp and checked his answering service. No message had been left.

      Reaching for his cell phone, he dialed Bridges, who was a telecommunications expert.

      Bridges picked up immediately. Marc could hear the television in the background. “Don’t you have a life?”

      Bridges grunted. “I’ve got the same one you’ve got. What’s happening?”

      “My phone’s been compromised.”

      “I’ll be there in twenty.”

      * * *

      Juan Chavez peeled off his headset, picked up the cell phone on the desk beside him and hit speed dial.

      A small sound had him swinging around in his seat. He terminated the call, a shudder going through him at the swiftness and silence of Lopez’s arrival. He hadn’t heard a vehicle pulling into the garage, which meant Alex had either parked out on the road, or he had been here already. Given that they had hit Corcoran that afternoon, he was going with the second option. Normally, Alex gave the order and stepped away from the process, letting him take care of the details.

      But these killings were different, not related to drugs or any other aspect of business. To Juan, killing federal agents made no sense. They couldn’t kill the entire justice system, and they couldn’t stop it. All Alex would do was make life more difficult for them and, perhaps, finally accomplish his own death.

      The thought of Alex’s death was something Juan refused to let himself consider for more than a fleeting second. If he did, he was afraid it would show on his face and, despite the fact that Alex was his cousin, he wasn’t stupid enough to rely on family ties to save his skin. Alex was distinctly different from the entire Chavez clan. If he didn’t see Alex’s father, Marco Chavez, in his cousin’s features, he would doubt his paternity. But Chavez he was. And despite the fact that Juan and his brother, Benito, were family, Alex would kill either of them as quickly and coldly as he had shot and killed his own father.

      He turned back to the laptop. “He made one call to Sara Fischer, and she tried to call him just a few minutes ago.”

      His fingers moved over the keyboard as he pulled up a window and hit the play button on the conversations that had been intercepted and recorded. Bayard wouldn’t know that Sara Fischer hadn’t received his call, and vice versa.

      Alex listened without expression, his gaze showing no trace of the excitement that had infected Juan when he had realized exactly who it was Bayard had called.

      Juan had done all the research. Sara Fischer was thirty-four, a librarian based in Shreveport. She was also Steve Fischer’s cousin. Fischer had been a major thorn in Lopez’s side and, along with Bayard, had made a huge dent in his organization.

      Lopez’s expression didn’t alter. “Put a tap on Sara Fischer’s phone.”

      “You want me to put a tail on her?”

      “I’ll see to it. Replay the call.”

      The sense of chill deepened as Juan hit the replay button and listened to Bayard’s deep, even voice. Alex’s expression remained impassive, but Juan could detect the predatory glitter in his eyes, the sharp attention to every nuance—an almost animalistic seeking for some sign of weakness in his enemy.

      He experienced a familiar sinking sensation. He had shot Powdrell. The hit on Corcoran had been high risk and opportunistic, and Lopez himself had carried it out. “You want me to set Bayard up?”

      Lopez’s gaze bored into his and for a brief moment Juan’s breath seized in his throat at the possibility that he actually did want to take this as far as killing Bayard.

      “Not yet,” he said softly.

      A split second later, Lopez was gone, melting into the shadows of the hallway like a wraith. The smooth, gliding way he moved, the air of cold purpose, sent a trickle of unease through Juan.

      Bayard was powerful, focused and prewarned. If Lopez really did want to kill him, he should have done it first and gone after his soldiers later.

      To Juan, none of this made sense. Marco had been a ruthless and brutal leader. Alex was no less, but his desires bordered on the psychotic. To kill Helene Reichmann, the head of the cabal and a dangerous opponent who sought to kill Lopez himself, was

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