Deadly Pursuit Read online

  Oh, God, it was him.

  Flushing hot enough to ignite her own eyebrows, she slowly glanced up.

  Towering over her stood six and a half feet of masculine perfection and irritation, a man so unspeakably virile he’d make Zena and her band of Amazons look like petite-size zeros.

  Thunderstruck, Amara stared like an idiot, her mouth hanging open.

  This was the closest she’d ever been to him and she almost needed a shield or lead blanket to deflect some of his unholy chemical effect on her. Things had been bad enough from a distance, but now she could smell him, too, and oh, what a thrill that was. Sandalwood, spices and the fresh, healthy musk of a man. Just his scent alone was enough to peak her nipples and get the honey flowing between her thighs, but she still had to assimilate the face and the body.

  Like that was possible.

  Looking at him gave Amara the kind of violent visceral response she’d never in her life had for anyone else. If he smiled or crooked his finger at her, she, Amara Clarke—defense attorney extraordinaire and fiercely independent woman who prided herself on never needing anyone, didn’t believe in casual sex and hadn’t had a date in three years or sex in four—would probably follow him into the back room, or the bathroom, or his car, or the nearest hotel, and let him do whatever he damn well wanted to do with her.

  Yeah, she wanted him that much.

  Also by Ann Christopher

  Risk

  Trouble

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.

  DEADLY

  PURSUIT

  ANN

  CHRISTOPHER

  All copyrighted material within is

  Attributor Protected.

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2010 by Ann Christopher

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  All Kensington Titles, Imprints, and Distributed Lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational or institutional use. Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington special sales manager: Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018, attn: Special Sales Department, Phone: 1-800-221-2647.

  Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-6923-2

  eISBN-10: 0-7582-6923-4

  First Dafina mass market printing: November 2010

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To Richard, always.

  And to Kate Duffy, who told me

  it was time to write a bigger book,

  helped me through the murky process

  of figuring out what that was,

  and bought the results.

  Contents

  Oh, God, it was him.

  Also by Ann Christopher

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Acknowledgments

  It takes a village to raise a child and to produce a book, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude on this one. To Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Babtist, DEA Special Agents Richard Isaacson and Steven M. Robertson, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth L. Parker and Robyn Hahnert, my deepest thanks for answering all my questions with patience, good humor and enthusiasm. To Kevin Schad, criminal defense attorney extraordinaire and old friend (really old!), thanks a million for brainstorming with me.

  Any mistakes are, of course, mine.

  To Eve Silver, thanks for your hand-holding, beta-reading and extraordinary friendship.

  And to all those on the front lines in the war against drugs—thank you.

  Cincinnati

  Kareem Gregory settled deeper into his leather chair and listened to his attorney do so much worthless yap-yap-yapping that he wanted to shove his fist down the man’s throat. Every overpriced word that came out of the dumb-ass bitch’s mouth only made Kareem hate the man more.

  Fucking lawyers.

  But for them and their incompetence, he’d be out of this mess by now.

  Thanks to them, he was still hip-deep in shit.

  What kind of shit? Entrapped by the feds, for one. Arrested on bogus money-laundering charges, for another. All his assets, from his million-dollar estate down to his last pair of diamond cuff links—pretty much everything he’d ever worked for—threatened with seizure and currently being eyeballed by the DEA and the IRS. Convicted and sent to a phone-booth-sized cell in federal prison when he had a business to run.

  Well … two businesses.

  His string of auto-customizing shops because, yeah, he liked to pimp rides.

  And his real empire. The drug one.

  Not that the feds had ever been able to nail him for it, because he was too slick and clever for them and he compartmentalized his organization so that the right hand never knew what the left hand was doing, and only he had both hands.

  Only a few people knew he was the top dog, and he intended to keep it that way.

  The feds’ best efforts had only led to a money-laundering conviction. Even so, he’d gone to prison—and prison was prison.

  He was lucky he’d survived one day on the inside, much less a year. Lucky for the fine wool of the suit he now wore and for the soft cotton of his undershirt instead of those coarse prison rags that scratched his skin.

  The only good thing a lawyer had ever done for him, despite the tens of thousands he’d paid in legal fees, was winning his appeal. Now, after all the suffering he’d endured, God had finally smiled on Kareem again and sent him a few blessings, no doubt as a sign of greater things to come.

  A retrial. Release on bail. The opportunity to crack a few heads and make sure everything ran smoothly within the organization. Renewed success in his hunt. The chance to expand his wine collection and screw every woman in sight.

  Well … every woman but the one he really wanted.

  Kareem shot a quick glance at Kira, his tight-lipped wife. She sat beside him in her designer dress, looking the way she always looked: icy and beautiful.

  Funny, huh? The one woman he should be able to have at will hadn’t given him any since he was arrested nearly two years ago, and here he was, still sniffing after her. Back in the day, she’d loved him and given him that delicious body enthusiastically and often. She’d been his moon and stars. His freaking sun. Kira wouldn’t let him touch her for now, but he’d get her back as soon as they worked out the whole trust issue. />
  In the meantime, there were plenty of other fish in the sea—damn sexy little minnows, too—and Kareem had several of them on retainer. Why not take full advantage? It made sense to store up a little in case his latest lawyer turned out to be as incompetent as all the rest, lost the retrial, and landed Kareem back in prison.

  Not that Kareem had any intention of going back to prison.

  Ever.

  Which was one of the reasons he’d taken matters into his own hands.

  That, and revenge, which was going to be oh so sweet.

  “The U.S. Attorney’s Office sent over their final witness list. A lot of familiar people on it.” Jacob Radcliffe, who looked barely old enough to be out of diapers but was one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the city, flipped through his thick file, found some papers, and slid them across the enormous carved desk to Kareem. “No real surprises.”

  Ignoring the sudden, slight tremble in his hand, Kareem scanned the alphabetical list for the names he wanted, ignoring the others. He found them right away, and each one jacked his blood pressure up another thirty notches, sent his thundering pulse into overdrive.

  Jackson Parker. Ray Wolfe.

  Feds.

  A searing rage rose up his neck and burned his cheeks before it prickled in his scalp. To think that he, Kareem Gregory, a world-class judge of character with enough savvy and street sense to sniff out every liar within a twenty-mile radius, had trusted them. Liked them. Let his guard down around them.

  And what had his good faith gotten him? Betrayal by the kilo.

  To add insult to injury, those men had eluded him and his inevitable retaliation for months. Months.

  That, fortunately, was about to change.

  “So that’s the plan.” Jacob showed signs of wrapping this shit up, thank God. “We’re going to do our best to get an acquittal this time and make sure you never have to go back to prison.”

  How touching. As if Kareem would leave his future in this punk’s pristine hands. Not in this lifetime. He thought of his plans, which were in motion even now. He thought of the bit of crucial information that had recently and unexpectedly fallen into his lap. He thought about how difficult it would be for his former business associates—Parker and Wolfe—to testify against him at the retrial if they were dead. He thought of their deaths, one of which was imminent.

  Best of all, he thought about doling out the punishment these men had coming, and he smiled.

  If you betray Kareem Gregory, even if you’re a fed, you pay the ultimate price.

  Simple as that.

  “I’m going to do my best to stay out of prison, too,” Kareem told his lawyer. “My very best.”

  Chapter 1

  Lawrenceburg, Indiana

  The irritating, nostril-burning smell of cigarette smoke woke Payton Jones from a sound sleep. Or maybe it was Mama’s croaking bullfrog voice, or the violent thud as the old bat rolled into Payton’s bedroom with enough force to bang the cheap door against the wall, no doubt leaving chip number three million in the puke yellow paint.

  “Gitcher lazy ass outta bed. It’s one-thirty in the afternoon.”

  Payton pushed the covers down and cracked a bleary eye open against the bright sunlight streaming in the window above the headboard. Unfortunately, Mama’s wheelchair was parked directly ahead, and Mama, wearing her dirty red housecoat and as unavoidable as a sperm whale in a lounge chair, was in it.

  Payton groaned. It was too early for this shit.

  Muttering, head pounding due to the nine—or was it ten?—Jell-O shooters that went down the pipe last night, Payton dove under the blankets again. This resulted in a smack on the leg sharp enough to clear the sinuses.

  “Jesus.” Good and awake now, Payton sat up and glared at Mama. “Who put a bee in your freaking bonnet?”

  “I put me a list together, for the grocery.” An inch-long strip of ash wavered and fell from the end of the cigarette onto Mama’s lap, whereupon Mama brushed it onto the white sheet, one inch from Payton’s hip. Payton yelped and swiped it to the floor. “Yer gonna need to stop at Walmart, too, and pick up my prescriptions.”

  “Why can’t Al do it?”

  “Because Al’s working, like you should be.”

  “I can’t find a job,” Payton said.

  “Helps when you look for one.”

  Of all the hypocritical bullshit Payton had ever heard, this running thread about looking for a job was the worst. How a woman could take one slight on-the-job hip injury, turn it into worker’s comp benefits into perpetuity, and then have the nerve to complain about someone else not looking for a job was something Payton would never understand.

  “I’ve been looking.” This, as they both knew, was a lie, more or less, but what was left of Payton’s pride required it.

  Mama glared, her watery eyes squinched against the cigarette smoke that wafted up into them as she spoke. “You’re nothin’ but a big disappointment to me, Payton—”

  “Shit.” Payton got out of bed, stalked over to the closet, and rummaged through shirts and whatnot, scraping the hangers across the bar in the hopes of drowning out this latest recitation on the depths of Mama’s disappointment, but the noise didn’t help. It never did.

  “—a disappointment and a burden. Never gonna amount to anything, as far as I can tell. Dropped out of college. Dishonorable discharge from the army. No job. Out all night at the Argosy, drinking and gambling away the only two cents we got to rub together. What’m I supposed to do with you?”

  “Beats the hell outta me,” Payton said from the depths of the closet.

  Payton had created this whole messed-up situation—no one else to blame there. Living at home in a trailer at twenty-four. Driving a piece of shit car that cost more than it was worth every fill-up. Saddled with the bitch here.

  The army had provided two precious years of freedom, but that hadn’t worked out in the end.

  Blowing through the money from that last job wasn’t the smartest thing Payton had ever done, but the blackjack table had been hot that night. For a little while, anyway. Still, betting ten large at once was a bad idea, so there were no real excuses.

  Now Payton paid the price every time Mama played that same old broken record—Payton Screws Up: Volume One—and every time Mama swore that Payton would still be living at home decades from now.

  Payton almost gagged at the thought.

  Over near the bed, the bitch droned on, working up a head of steam, when a miracle occurred.

  The phone rang, and it was the special ring tone—the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice”—announcing that this was an important call, the kind that didn’t happen often enough. Payton lunged for the leather jacket perched atop the teetering pile of clothes on the chair, fished the phone out of the pocket, and flipped it open.

  “This is Payton.”

  There was a long pause, and then, “Someone’s looking to hire.”

  The surge of gratitude and relief was almost blinding. “I’m available.”

  Mama watched with sharp eyes, mouth gaping open and cigarette stub dangling from the edge of her bottom lip by what could only be spit. Trying to look casual, Payton turned and stared out the window to that lousy battered blue car, which seemed to lose a foot or more of its body to rust every day.

  “I recommended you.”

  “That so?” Payton now felt a little wary because Lady Luck generally wasn’t this good or this timely. “Who needs me?”

  “A friend of Travis.”

  Thank God. A referral from Travis was as good as gold, better than a personalized note from Oprah.

  “So … you interested?”

  Interested? Payton would gladly explore any escape option out of this pit, including an express train straight to the molten center of hell if one pulled up.

  “Yeah. I’m interested.”

  Mount Adams, Washington

  “You’re wasting my time.”

  Amara Clarke gave the assistant prosecutor sitt
ing across the table from her a pointed look, just for emphasis, and waited for the inevitable comeback, which didn’t arrive immediately. Good. Maybe now she could eat her dinner in something resembling peace. Amara took a quick, desperate bite of the now lukewarm but still delicious chicken and noodles in her bowl, the only food she’d had since the brief recess at one this afternoon.

  Katie O’Farrell watched her as she sipped her coffee, glowering and no doubt framing her rebuttal.

  Amara didn’t bother to hide her impatience; she had dinner to eat and work to do. Flapping a hand at her open laptop, she hoped Katie would take the hint and scram.

  “Let’s wrap this up. I need to write my closing, and so do you. And I’d like to get home before ice glues my car to the street.”

  A sheet of rain drove into the window at the end of the booth, chilling the air inside the diner and making the ominous pings that could only mean sleet. Amara shivered, cold down to the marrow of her bones. If only she was home in a bubble-filled tub, breathing in the scent of lavender and letting Calgon take her away. She had better hopes of discovering a cure for cancer by tomorrow, but a girl could dream.

  It was nearly ten and she was running on fumes. Her thirty-six-year-old body had started feeling the strain of the trial, which ended its second day today: tired, gritty eyes, empty stomach and a weird combination of sleep-deprived exhaustion and caffeine-driven agitation.

  There was no explaining her case of nerves, even to herself. She ate prosecutors for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thrived in the courtroom like an orchid in a greenhouse.

  Why was she so antsy tonight?

  The cook, whispered that insidious little voice in the back of her head.

  No way, she thought, knowing she was a damn liar.

  Taking another bite of noodles, she shot him a glance through her lashes. Being discreet was an unnecessary exercise, though, because he rarely looked at her. When he did look at her, it was with an unfathomable darkness in his eyes that made her feel like something he’d throw in the Dumpster out back.