Cold As Ice: Novel (A Kristen Conner Mystery Book 3) (40 page)

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“YOU SURE IT’S only five we’re dealing with Vlad?”

“You know as well as I do you never know what you’re dealing with until you get there. Be ready for anything.”

The number of real players hadn’t changed. But with kids there, things had gotten messier. There would be collateral damage. No one liked that. But sometimes it couldn’t be helped.

I need to get phone numbers for everyone in Kristen’s family, Reynolds thought. It’s impossible to reach her at times. Looks like everyone is here, including Kristen. So she’s still driving Klarissa’s wheels. She swore she couldn’t wait to get back in the Miata. We’ll see if she still feels that way once she gets it back. With her, who knows? She might. She thinks pizza and hot dogs are fine dining.

I’m probably worrying about nothing. At least tonight. I still don’t like this set up. If someone is coming after Kristen we don’t need innocent bystanders around. We need clean sight lines.

It would be good to have the second squad car here, though that probably doesn’t matter with Zheglov if he has any help. And maybe he’s not here for Conner. Maybe he’s just in town to lay low.

Reynolds blew steam into the air, shut the car door, and walked briskly but warily toward Mrs. Conner’s house. He drew even with the squad car and rapped on the window. The window came down on the driver’s side as the passenger door opened with an officer holding his gun in the ready position.

“I’m FBI” Reynolds said. “My badge in my top left pocket. I can take it out or you can take it out. I was just checking to see if you all
received word that there is a credible threat to Detective Conner. Looks like you have.”

“Pull your badge out slowly.”

Reynolds pulled off his gloves, kept one hand up, reached inside his winter coat, pulled the badge out deliberately, and handed it over, careful to keep his hands in sight. His fingers were turning to ice quickly.

“I’ve been invited to dinner at the Conner home. What would you have done if I had just gone to the front door.”

The officer from the passenger seat handed him his badge back.

“That’s the problem. We’ve been told as of ten minutes ago that this detail is now on high alert and that backup is en route. But we have no clear-cut directions on who can come and go. And there’s a full house in there. We’ve been promised new protocols in the next few minutes. Doesn’t help us now, even though it looks too quiet for anything to be coming down tonight.”

This is what Reynolds was afraid of. No one protecting Kristen knew what they were doing. Conner needed to be yanked out of her happy home now. Zheglov, for one, would know what he was doing.

I hate to break up the party but I think I need to get everyone out of here. Kristen will argue but that’s a given. I outrank her.

He walked back to the short walk that split Mrs. Conner’s postage-sized front yard.

In the bitterly cold winter air he was sure he heard a tiny but distinct crackle of static. And a whisper. He felt a tingle from the base of his spine rise to the back of his head.

He’s here.

If my lawyer’s right, the kid is in big trouble. Things might work out after all.

What do I do about Nancy?

Does she not understand how much I really love her? I killed for her. If I didn’t, she was never going to leave Ed, no matter how much she complained about her marriage.

She doesn’t know I did it but she has to suspect me now.

Who knows? Maybe she’ll finally realize this was never an affair for me. We are meant to be together.

The outside man wasn’t sure what to do. He had been told to shoot anyone that left the car and headed inside. But that wasn’t supposed to happen until after the fireworks began. He wasn’t sure if that meant to shoot the guy in civilian clothes.

“Calling Alpha.”

“Speak to me, Beta.”

“Got a guy who just stopped to talk to the police officers in the squad car. He’s heading up to the front door. Should I do him?”

“No! We can’t have a gunfight in the street and alert everyone inside.”

“Then there’s an extra man inside to deal with, Alpha.”

“Police?”

“No uniform on him but he’s a big guy. Might be law enforcement.”

Not what he wanted to hear, but the math was still okay, Zheglov thought, especially since his team had the element of surprise.

“Probably the next shift of FBI babysitter. The woman has been with our target all day,” he said to the man.

Another voice crackled over the short wave, “This is Delta. We still on, Alpha?”

“Nothing’s changed, Delta. This is the best time and place. Beta stays outside. The three of us just need to be prepared for a second active and armed target. Consider him very dangerous. The two agents are now equal first priority. Confirm you got this.”

“Delta confirmed.”

“Gamma confirmed.”

“Beta, those two cops are going to move fast. You ready?”

“Beta confirmed.”

Zheglov was confident the two men in the squad car didn’t have the tactical training or experience to handle an event like this. If they did, one would go fast and low, the other covering him. The one covering wouldn’t follow the first until the coast was clear. They didn’t know he was here. They were hoping the threat to Conner was finished. They had messed up royally.

“Time to move. Everyone look at your watch. We go in sixty seconds. And counting . . . starting now.”

Reynolds focused hard to gather more Intel. He was suddenly making his way toward an Al Qaeda stronghold in the hills of Afghanistan, not the front door of a Chicago row house. Every nerve, every sense was straining to locate the enemy. He knew they were there.

He turned the doorknob. It was unlocked. He wanted to scream,
Kristen, you aren’t taking this seriously!

Jimmy King, Kristen’s brother-in-law, his face beaming a warm smile, made a beeline across the small room to shake his hand. He saw Reynolds’ expression and stopped a couple steps away, the smile melting to concern.

“Jimmy. We have to move.”

“What is it, Austin? Is something wrong?”

“Yes. Don’t ask questions. Get Kaylen and the kids. Go in the back bedroom. Take Grace. Now. Move it. Tell the kids it’s a game and to be quiet.” Jimmy seemed frozen in place. “Now!” Reynolds hissed.

Torgerson looked at him, asking him with her eyes what was going on.

James started to yell when his dad picked him up to go into the back bedroom.

“James!” Reynolds said, no longer the nice guy who played Thomas the Tank Engine with the kid at Christmas. The boy looked in Reynolds’ eyes with fear. “You’re going to go in the back room and take care of your grandmother and baby sister. With no sound. Not a sound. Do you hear me?”

He nodded wide-eyed.

“What is it?” Grace Conner asked.

“I hope I’m wrong . . . but we’ve got a situation. You need to get back there now. Do you have a handgun?”

She nodded yes. She had never admitted to the girls she kept one locked in the bottom drawer of her nightstand.

“Get it and get in the closet with everyone. If this doesn’t go well, somebody bad is going to come back there. No matter what you think is right and wrong, just know, it’s right to pull the trigger.”

This was taking too much time. He couldn’t hear them coming but he knew they were poised to strike. He had to mount a defense. It was life or death time.

Reynolds looked at Torgerson and pointed to the front door, the back door, and at the floor. He suddenly realized Kristen was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Conner?”

Torgerson felt sick to her stomach as a wave of fear and guilt gripped her.

“She said she’d be in in just a sec. She had to do something outside.”

Reynolds wanted to scream but kept a stone face. It was what it was.

He would have stationed Kristen on the basement door, the safest spot. Now he would have two points of egress to monitor.

No time to think, just act and improvise, he told himself. It’s kept you alive before.

“You got front door,” Reynolds said, low and soft to Torgerson. “Safety off. Shoot to kill.”

“What if it’s one of ours?”

He looked at her and couldn’t help but think how young and inexperienced she was.

“It won’t be. They’re going to come in fast and loud. Any second. I’ve got the back two doors. Just hold your position.”

He wanted to ask her if she knew how to use that pretty little Glock 23 she had in hand and if she’d experienced live fire. No time to ask and he didn’t want to hear the answer.