Incriminating Evidence (16 page)

EPILOGUE

J
essica sat on her couch with Tiger snuggled up beside her on one side and Zach on the other. The past nine months had been life changing—but definitely for the better. They had the evidence that they needed to move forward with prosecuting Ana. And it also implicated Mick and Simon. Each family member had hired their own personal lawyers, and it was only a matter of time before one turned on the other two and cut a deal.

It had taken some work, but Luke had been fully vindicated. And he was able to use his fake relationship with Markov to assist the FBI in their ongoing investigation. While Ford’s death was regrettable, Jessica was grateful that Zach had acted or she wouldn’t be alive. The investigation had shown that Ford had gotten in deep with the Hernandez family and was actively working with them. That’s why Ford was so intent on taking down Markov—to be able to help out Mick, who was paying him a handsome sum of money. It bothered Jessica greatly that Ford had decided to work for the Hernandez family, but the experience had made her take off her rose-colored glasses.

In her personal life, she felt content for the first time. Ever. She looked up at Zach, and he smiled at her, melting her heart.

“I have something on my mind,” Zach said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Absolutely nothing, Jess. That’s the thing. I can’t remember a time when I was this at peace with my life, and I have you to thank for that. Our partnership has grown into something so much larger than I could have ever imagined.”

“I know. I feel the same way.”

He grabbed her hands. “There’s something else.”

“What is it?”

“I have gone over this a lot in my mind, trying to find the perfect timing and perfect words. But then I realized tonight as I looked at you that now is the perfect time. Because it’s not about timing or words, it’s about the feelings we have between us.”

Her heart started beating quicker as she focused on Zach’s handsome face.

He moved from the sofa and got down on one knee directly in front of her. Her breath caught as she now understood what he was doing.

“Jess, you’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I never want you to worry about your past being a barrier between us. I think it actually proved to be one of the things that brought us closer together. Seeing your strong faith and perseverance renewed my own. And on this journey together, I have fallen so in love with you, and I know it’s a love that is built on a solid foundation.”

“I believe that, too.”

“So, Jessica Hughes, I have to ask you the most important question I’ve ever asked in my life.” He paused and pulled a ring out of his pocket. A sparkly solitaire diamond symbolizing their great bond. “Will you marry me?”

She knew her answer long before he even asked the question. There was no doubt in her mind. “Yes, Zach. You’re the man for me. I want to share a life with you.”

Tiger chose that exact moment to move from her side and step onto her lap, and she laughed. “You know I’m a package deal, right?”

“Of course.” Zach smiled as he gently slid the ring onto her finger.

She took his hand, and they both stood up. Wrapping her arms tightly around him, she knew that she’d never let go. When his lips met hers, she was ready for a future together with the man who was her partner and true love.

* * * * *

If you enjoyed this exciting story of suspense
and intrigue, pick up these other stories
from Rachel Dylan

OUT OF HIDING

EXPERT WITNESS

PICTURE PERFECT MURDER

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FRACTURED MEMORY
by Jordyn Redwood

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Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for reading. As a lawyer, I loved jumping back into the legal world that I know so well to write this book. And as a Georgia girl who now lives in Michigan, I also enjoyed writing about the warm and sunny setting of South Florida.

Writing characters that are just at the beginning of their careers brought back many memories for me. I can remember the first day I started out as a brand-new attorney in a law firm as clearly as if it were yesterday.

Exploring Jessica’s character was an intense but important experience for me. I wanted to show how she could endure such a painful childhood and then turn her life around to fight for others. I found her drive for justice to be inspiring. Her story is a powerful message of faith and perseverance that I hope resonates with you.

I love to hear from readers! You can visit my website at
racheldylan.com
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[email protected]
.

Rachel Dylan

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Fractured Memory

by Jordyn Redwood

ONE

T
he blank stare in Julia Galloway’s eyes confirmed Eli Cayne’s worst fear.

She didn’t remember him. The amnesia had erased every moment he’d spent ensuring that she would live after the Hangman nearly claimed her life.

“Julia Galloway?” he asked, his voice husky with undeniable emotion at seeing her for the first time in eighteen months. The feelings he thought he’d stomped into submission surfaced with a vengeance.

Julia reflexively raised a hand to cover the scars where the rope had carved into her skin. “Who are you?” The ringlets of her blond hair dripped water on her black T-shirt and red plaid pajama bottoms.

Eli held his badge at her eye level. “I’m U.S. Marshal Eli Cayne. May I come inside? There’s a matter of great importance I need to discuss with you.”

Doubt washed over her beautiful face. Even if she didn’t remember the attack, the lingering fear was evident.

He showed her the manila envelope he held in his other hand. “Our office has received information that there has been a hit ordered—on your life.”

She clenched the black fabric of her shirt tight into her other hand, her knuckles pale under the pressure. “Excuse me?”

“Someone has compiled a profile of information about you for a hit man to use to kill you. I’m here to get you to a safe place. Please, can I come inside?”

At first, the engine accelerating was distant until the screech of tires brought the hairs on Eli’s neck to attention. Instinct propelled his hand forward, hard into Julia, pushing her into the foyer. A bullet whistled past his ear, shattering a picture frame directly behind the remnants of her silhouette.

Julia landed flat on her back on the hardwood floor. Eli delivered a swift kick to the door, throwing it closed and turned to lock the dead bolt. He fell to his knees at her side. Her eyes were wide with fright, and her mouth gaped open as she tried to draw a breath.

“You’re all right. You just got the wind knocked out of you.” He pulled one of her hands to his chest. “Slow, easy breaths.”

Another bullet crashed through her front picture window. He had to move her to a safe place.

As Eli scooped her up, his fingers caught in the tangles of her long, wet blond hair. He carried her up the staircase just a few steps shy of the front door. Higher ground would be his only advantage in this fight against an unknown enemy. At the crest of the stairs, three doorways confronted him. He shouldered through the first one on this right.

A bathroom. No windows.

He swung her around and pulled the shower curtain aside resting her in the bathtub. “Stay here.”

Julia shook her head. “No.” Her brown eyes held more defiance than her whispered response.

“Stay here,” he ordered. “I’m locking this door. Don’t open it until you hear me say the words
red daisies
.”

He pushed the lock closed on the door and yanked it behind him, testing the knob once to make sure it was secure. He drew his weapon and crossed the hallway into Julia’s bedroom.

“Shots fired. I need backup,” he whispered into his wrist mic.

His FBI liaison, Ben Murphy, sounded distant—out of breath. “I’m in foot pursuit of the subject’s car...trying to get...a license plate. Local PD notified.”

Good. Knowing extra help was on the way left Eli free to accomplish what he needed to do to protect Julia. He couldn’t assume the rest of the house was clear. The number of assailants that could be after Julia was unknown. Was someone lurking in her home now—waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack?

He hugged the wall of her bedroom. It was clean and uncluttered. There was a computer desk with a bookshelf above adorned with several trophies. Competitive swimming if he remembered correctly. A Bible lay open on her bed, pillows piled high against the headboard.

Slowly, he slid open the door to the master bathroom and noted soapy water in the tub. He’d interrupted her from a soak and quiet time. Backing out of the bedroom, he entered the other room. A spare bedroom. The closet clear.

Back in the hallway, he faced the stairs. So far, Julia had followed his direction. The door to the bathroom remained closed. He eased by and took the stairs in cautious increments. At the bottom to his left was a small dining room. A quick check showed no one hiding under the table. To his right was a small sitting room. Shards of sprayed glass glittered in the early-morning light as the curtains waved in the soft breeze. In the distance, the faint sound of sirens approached his location.

Eli faced the hallway toward the back of the first floor with the TV room and kitchen. From the fruity aroma he guessed she was brewing tea even as the color of her eyes reminded him of the rich chocolate brown of coffee.

Those eyes...

He shook his head to clear the image.

Focus
.

Distraction was always the first nail in the coffin of a law enforcement officer.

The pantry was clear. Single-car garage with an older-model white SUV. No one underneath. He opened the door to her backyard. Small, quaint. No high trees or shrubs that could be hiding a suspect. Cheerful flowers edged the neatly cut grass with garden shoots just venturing up from the warmed spring ground.

He reentered the house and went back to the front door, surveying the yard. Nothing seemed out of place. Even though the concussive sounds of gunshots still rang in his ears, they hadn’t drawn a single curious neighbor from their home. Not one eye peeked out from behind closed curtains. Was everyone at work already? He turned back around and closed the door.

Time to check on Julia and release her from the small bathroom he’d locked her in.

He pocketed his weapon. Into his mic, he said, “Ben, what’s your location?”

“Walking back to the house. Lost the suspect. Description of vehicle and partial plate sent to local PD.”

With one foot on the stairs he looked up only to see Julia with a revolver aimed straight at his head.

* * *

Julia sucked in a breath. If only she could stop her heart from beating so fast. Her chest ached.

“Who are you really?” she asked.

Either Eli was who he said he was or he was posing as the good guy to cover his true intentions. His pale blue eyes narrowed at her question; he was clearly contemplating what explanation he could muster to keep her from pulling the trigger.

He kept his hands visible and still. “I
am
a U.S. Marshal. Eli Cayne. I showed you my identification.”

“I barely got a look at it before someone shot at me.” She squared her shoulders and adjusted the aim of her weapon. This was what she had practiced. What she always prepared for. She had rehearsed this scenario over and over until she hardened her mind to ignore her heart if she really had to kill someone.

“At us.”
Eli pointed his thumb to his chest. “I was right here, too. Those bullets could have found me just as easily.”

“A law enforcement ID can be bought.”

He raked his fingers through his chestnut hair before settling a thumb and forefinger on his stubbled chin. “Julia, if I wanted to kill you I would have done it already. Right when you answered the door.”

“You could be working with someone.”

“You’re right. I could. Can you hear those sirens? They’re awfully close. Why would there be help on the way if I was the killer? Did you call them?”

Her shoulders relaxed, and she eased the weapon down a bit. The sincere look in his eyes became more convincing than her resolve to shoot an intruder.

“At some point, you’re going to have to trust that what I’ve said is the truth. I’m here to keep you safe.”

Julia lowered the revolver. “Red daisies?”

“What?”

“Those were the best safe words you could come up with?”

Eli’s relieved smile solidified her impression that he couldn’t truly be nefarious. “I had to think of something on the spot that a killer wouldn’t say. It was the best I could do.”

She pointed the weapon to the floor. Her eyes darted to the side as a fist pounded her door.

Eli raised a calming hand. “That’s my partner on your case, Ben Murphy. Are we good here? Can I let him in?”

She motioned to her pajama pants. “I’m not entirely presentable.”

“Get dressed and then come down. There’s a lot we need to talk about.”

Julia backed away from the top of the stairs and closed her bedroom door behind her. She crossed the room to her closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a floral turtleneck. In the bathroom, she brushed through her wet hair. Her hands still trembled from the massive adrenaline release.

What she wanted back was the peaceful morning she’d planned. After three hard days as a nurse in the pediatric ER, especially after losing a child from drowning, she needed some quiet to recoup.

The gunfire shattered the solitude she so badly needed. Had the horrors she’d already survived come back to haunt her? What was it about Eli that tugged at the erased threads of her mind? There was something about him, his presence, which felt warm and homey—like hot chocolate on a cool autumn evening. In the wake of her parents’ death, it was a feeling she craved.

There was a three-month gap in her memory starting from the time of the attack until she entered rehab for a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen at nearly being hung to death. From the subsequent brain swelling, Julia had been in a coma and on life support for a month. Then, according to her grandfather, she’d spent another two months in the hospital until she grew strong enough for a rehab facility. Her remarkable recovery had astonished doctors, who were convinced she would never be anything other than persistently vegetative.

Julia’s first memories were shrouded in a foggy sea where she relearned to eat, walk and speak. Even now, nearly two years after the incident, there were only fleeting moments when Julia could sense memories from those three months trying to break through the imprisonment of her brain injury.

Six months after her near murder, the Hangman’s trial started.

Julia didn’t follow the news threads about the trial. The prosecutor chose not to have her testify, as her fractured memory was of no use to his case. The forensic evidence the Hangman left behind was enough to seal his fate.

Even though her mind was healed, she had to convince everyone else she was all right. The Colorado State Board of Nursing insisted she complete additional testing and clinicals to ensure that she was competent enough to practice nursing.

Almost two years of her life given away to a criminal. For her own sanity, she had made a conscious choice to not make attempts to retrieve the lost time, suppressing her normally inquisitive nature to avoid everything on the internet about the man who tried to kill her—a doctor who had been a coworker.

Someone she had once called her friend.

Now that she had started back nursing in the pediatric ER, all she wanted to do was heal kids and stamp out disease—as they always said at work.

Had that been wise? Did her lack of knowledge about the Hangman and his crimes put her at a disadvantage now?

She quickly dressed. Running shoes seemed to be the best option for a day where she had already been shot at before nine o’clock in the morning. From the stairwell, male voices snarled like lions arguing over territory, but as soon as her feet hit the landing, they stopped.

Eli broke through the trio of uniformed officers and led her to her kitchen. He pulled a chair out for her. Another man, dressed in a charcoal-gray pinstriped suit, followed him.

“Julia, this is my partner, Ben Murphy. We’ll be working together on your case. He’s from the FBI.”

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals working together?

Ben reached his hand out to her. “I wish we could have had a calmer introduction.”

His hand enveloped hers. Strong grip. His black hair, longer and swept off to one side, stood in stark contrast to his emerald-green eyes.

“Nice to meet you, Ben.” She sat in the chair, pulling her hand from his.

Ben continued. “Since the Hangman’s case was under federal jurisdiction because of the Wyoming murder victim in his series, your death threat was forwarded to us by a local parole officer. However, FBI staffing issues provided an opportunity for us to work with the marshals, who are more skilled at protecting witnesses. We bring different assets to your case.”

“Tea?” Eli asked.

She nodded.

“Pumpkin spice creamer and two teaspoons of sugar?” Eli stated more than asked.

Her lips pursed. How did he know?

He went directly to the cups and pulled one from the cupboard. No riffling around the kitchen in a blind search.

Electrical currents pulsed through her chest. He knew where they would be.

How was this possible?

“I see you’re getting low on your stockpile.” Eli shook the container to emphasize his point and examined it closer. “No matter, it expired two months ago.” He pulled out the trash drawer and chucked it in.

He not only knew her but knew her home.

“Who are you?” Julia demanded.

He turned to her, cup and spoon in hand, stirring her concoction slowly. “Eli Cayne. Marshals—”

“No.” She held her hand up. “Who are you
to me
?”

He crossed the kitchen, set the cup down in front of her and turned to his cohort. “Can you give us ten minutes?” Ben handed him the manila folder. The one Eli claimed marked the end of her life.

Eli unbuttoned his suit jacket, and she noted dark patches on the broad expanse of his tailored shirt. Water from her hair, from when he had carried her up the stairs. Something about being held in this man’s arms had felt so strangely familiar. Comforting. Julia pushed the thought aside and watched as he lowered himself into the chair across from her. She gripped the cup between her hands to cut the fear-laden chill that set in her bones.

“I used to work for the Aurora Police Department. I was the lead detective on your case. I’ve only been with the marshals’ office for about a year and a half.”

How much did she want to know about their past? Had there been anything besides a professional relationship between them? Pins and needles rushed over her body. She felt light-headed. Fear rose within her. The daily battle to keep it at bay faltered.