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  “Innocent might be a stretch,” said Cormac. “In planning this whole thing, I did some digging on your ex-girlfriend. Did you know—”

  Declan held up a hand. “We don’t have to get into her past right now.”

  Cormac glanced at Charlotte. “Right. Of course.” He pressed his lips together as if he’d fallen into deep thought.

  Seamus stared at Cormac. His best scowl had been pointed at his brother since they sat.

  “What’re ya cookin’ up, Mac?”

  “Huh?” Cormac’s mind appeared to return after a trip away. He looked at Seamus. “Don’t call me Mac.”

  “I always called you Mac when we were kids.”

  “We’re not kids.”

  “Nevertheless, I know that look. What do you have percolating in that head of yours?”

  “Nothing. I’m just thinking, if Jamie is in contact with Charlotte, there has to be a way to use that to draw her out.”

  Charlotte laughed. “Sure. I can draw her out. I just do nothing, Stephanie goes to jail and then Jamie shows up to kill everyone I know.”

  Cormac’s eyes widened. “Maybe…?”

  “No,” said Declan and Charlotte together.

  “We’re not using my friends as bait. She’d kill half of them before you got to her...if you got to her at all,” added Charlotte.

  “You don’t have much faith in me,” muttered Cormac.

  “You already admitted to chasing her unsuccessfully for years, getting a D.A. killed and losing control of your animal freak,” said Declan.

  Not to mention being a lousy father and abandoning your family.

  Cormac shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t work anyway.”

  “Why?” asked Charlotte.

  “I don’t think she’d be the one doing the killing. It wouldn’t be enough of a challenge. We know she has a little cadre of hired killers working for her. We suspect that’s how she makes most of her money these days. Contract killings.”

  Declan’s attention shot to his father. “Does she have a paragliding sniper?”

  “What?”

  “A paragliding sniper tried to kill me. Like the snake and alligator, we thought the paraglider might have been sent by Miles’ boss—”

  “But now we know that’s you,” said Charlotte.

  Cormac shook his head. “It wasn’t me. I don’t even know what a paragliding sniper is, but I can tell you I didn’t hire one.” He rolled his attention to Charlotte. “The snake and the alligator, that was unintentionally me. Yes.”

  “So if it wasn’t you...”

  Declan frowned. “Then it was Jamie. Stephanie warned me I might be on her naughty list.”

  Charlotte’s brow knit. “But why? You’re helping to get Stephanie out of jail for her.”

  “She thinks I’m a bad influence on Stephanie.”

  Charlotte laughed. “That’s rich. You told me Stephanie said you inspire her to be good.”

  “That’s what Jamie considers a bad influence.”

  “So, Jamie thinks you’re stealing her daughter from her?”

  Declan considered this. “From her control, yes. Maybe.”

  If Jamie had a treasure trove of killers, why wouldn’t she want her talented and trained daughter to be the jewel? Who could she trust more?

  Seamus stood and walked to the refrigerator to grab a beer. “It would be nice if there were fewer out to kill you both. What about this lunatic with the snakes, Mac? Can you do something to keep him away from Charlotte?”

  Cormac nodded. “I called him off. He’s headed back to the swamp he crawled out of.”

  Charlotte sat bolt upright. “No!”

  All eyes turned to her.

  “Miles is the one who killed Jason. I need him. He needs to go to jail instead of Stephanie.”

  Seamus returned with two beers. He held one out to Cormac, who waved it off. He tried Declan and Charlotte, who both declined. He shrugged and put them both down in front of himself.

  “Stephanie probably should be in jail,” muttered Cormac.

  “I don’t disagree,” said Charlotte. “But she didn’t commit this crime and Jamie’s going to kill everyone I care about if I don’t get her daughter out of there. The problem is, she doesn’t remember much of what happened in the warehouse.”

  Cormac looked up and to the right as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “Because I hit her on the head.”

  “What?”

  “I hit her on the head. He shot at her—I needed her down but couldn’t let her see me. I couldn’t let that idiot kill her. It didn’t hit me ‘til after he’d shot at her to trick her into shooting Walsh. Frame her for murder, which was never the plan. I was going to pin kidnapping him on her.”

  “But why would you think Jamie would try and help Stephanie if she were arrested?” asked Charlotte. “She’s not exactly mother of the year.”

  “We had some evidence she’d been taking an interest in her daughter lately.”

  Something about Cormac’s eyes told Declan his father wasn’t sharing the full truth. “So let me get this straight. You were there? In the warehouse?”

  “Yep. Hiding behind the rolls of moldy carpet.”

  “Why?”

  “Like I was supposed to trust Swamp Thing to get it right?” He shook his head. “Though even I never dreamed he’d get things as wrong as he did.”

  “So you didn’t know the A.D.A was already dead?”

  “Not then. I didn’t find out ‘til afterwards the freak wasn’t following my plan. That he had his own agenda. I’d only asked him to bring Walsh to the warehouse and tie him up. I didn’t want to get one of my men involved.”

  Charlotte sniffed. “Because it isn’t legal to frame people, even if you’re doing it to lure a serial killer?”

  Cormac glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Something like that.”

  Declan held up a hand. “Hold on. So what happened after you knocked out Steph?”

  “Miles ran and I went after him. He got away, and by then you’d showed up so I couldn’t go back in to check on Walsh.”

  Charlotte’s head cocked like a side-eyed egret hunting fish. “If Miles thinks Cormac wants me dead, couldn’t we use that to draw him out?”

  “Use you as bait?” asked Cormac.

  Declan shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

  Cormac pulled at his chin. “No, hold on, it’s a good idea. Problem is he could be halfway into the Everglades by now.”

  Declan’s shoulders unbunched a notch. “Good.”

  “How’d you find him in the first place?” asked Charlotte, and Declan knew she wasn’t going to let it go. His back tightened again.

  Cormac leaned over and cracked Seamus’ spare beer to take a sip. “Serendipity. I’d followed a few leads and rumors about a man who’d tried to kill Jamie and lived to tell the tale. I staked his Daddy’s land and caught him during one of his rare trips to civilization.” Cormac hung his head and shook it back and forth. “The four days I spent on that farm were four of the most disturbing days I’ve ever spent in my life.”

  “So you can’t reach him anymore?”

  “I can call him.”

  “Call him.”

  Declan straightened. “Stop. No. We just got him away from you.”

  Charlotte looked at him with the eyes of a child begging for a toy. “We need Miles. We need him to clear Stephanie.”

  Declan hooked a thumb toward his father. “What about him? He knows Stephanie didn’t do it. He can testify for her.”

  Cormac laughed. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You think I’m going to walk into court and testify that I was there? Every part of that makes me an accessory to the death of an A.D.A.”

  Declan glared at his father. “Yes. And it’s the truth.”

  “Well, that truth isn’t coming from my lips.”

  Charlotte leaned over and put a hand on Declan’s
knee.

  “We’ll draw Miles out and grab him. I won’t be in danger. We’ll make it so we can see him coming a mile away. And anyway, he’s pretty bad at killing people.” She looked at Cormac. “Could you call him now? Tell him you changed your mind and you need me dead?”

  Cormac tapped his fingernail on his teeth. “I think if I tell him you really are working for Jamie, he’d be mad enough to come running.”

  “Ah, but if you haul him in for killing the fella in the warehouse, will he flip on you?” asked Seamus.

  Cormac shook his head. “He thinks my name is Jim. He’s only caught a glimpse of me chasing after him. And while he didn’t leave any fingerprints, I’m sure his DNA is all over the crime scene.”

  “And he has a long history of hating Moriartys so the idea he wanted to frame Stephanie could easily be his own,” added Charlotte.

  Cormac looked at her as if he were impressed. “Exactly.”

  Declan rubbed his forehead. “I realize no one is listening to me, but I still don’t like the idea of Charlotte being used as bait.”

  “We’ll pick an ideal spot for the sting. Keep her safe.”

  “But what is the perfect spot? We don’t know what animal he has left in his bag of tricks,” said Charlotte.

  “Let me see if I can get hold of him first.” Cormac stood and pulled his phone from his pocket. He walked away from the group to stare through the back slider at the pool in Declan’s backyard.

  “You swim?” he asked.

  He nodded and Cormac mimicked him, nodding his approval. “I used to swim some.”

  Declan looked away.

  Like that means we’re tight now.

  The volume was loud enough on his father’s phone for Declan to hear it ringing until a voice answered.

  “I thought we were done.”

  “Miles. I’ve changed my mind. New information. Charlotte Morgan is working with Simone. We need her dead or she’ll blow everything.”

  “Huh. Got me just in time. Was about to burn this phone and drop off the grid.”

  “Sure. Good. Can you make it look like an accident?”

  Miles snorted. “That’s my specialty. That’s why you need me.”

  “Right. And I assume you’ll be using an animal of some sort?”

  “Yep. That’s how I work. Don’t look like an accident if there’s a bullet in her.” Miles laughed a low, throaty chuckle.

  “Don’t look like an accident when you throw an alligator at someone,” muttered Declan.

  Charlotte muffled a giggle with her hand. “And he cut my window. Are we supposed to believe the python cut the window with his teeth?”

  Cormac turned away from them. “What, if you don’t mind me asking, Miles, will your weapon of choice be this time?”

  “Depends where she’ll be. How much room I got to work with?”

  “I’ll get back to you with that information. Not long. Maybe an hour. Okay?”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Cormac hung up and turned back to the group, smiling.

  “So, Charlotte, what animal would you like to be attacked by today?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “What other animals would be in Miles’ repertoire?”

  Cormac sat back down and set his phone on the table. “That’s a good question, Charlotte. I don’t know that we can pigeon hole him into a particular creature, but maybe we could decide between small and large. Portable and less portable?”

  “Speaking of pigeons, if she’s inside it probably won’t be a bird or anything too big,” suggested Seamus.

  “You think he has trained birds?” asked Charlotte.

  Seamus shrugged. “Who knows? I’m thinking anything is possible at this point.”

  She scrunched her nose in disgust. “If we try and make him go small, he might choose a bug. I think I’d rather face a lion.”

  “Depends on the bug,” said Cormac, the side of his mouth curling into a smile. “Maybe he’ll try and smother you with butterflies.”

  Declan rubbed his fingers against his temples. “This is the dumbest conversation I’ve ever had. ‘If my girlfriend had to be attacked by a deadly animal, what animal would I want that to be?’”

  Charlotte laughed and stood to pace. She needed to stop staring at Cormac. He looked a lot like she imagined Declan would look as an older man—a little more barrel-chested perhaps, but handsome, his dark hair flecked with gray. It was strange to see someone so similar and yet so different. She couldn’t imagine how Declan must be feeling, faced by his aging doppelganger, meeting the father he’d long thought dead.

  For now, they had too much to plan for Declan to confront his father, and he seemed grateful for the distraction. They needed to stay on topic. After all, they were picking the way she might die.

  “What deadly animals are left?” she asked. “What are the possibilities?”

  Cormac had also seemed rattled upon seeing his son, but the more they talked about the case, the more at ease he appeared. The strange reunion had become just another day at the office for him.

  “When I was staking out the farm, he had cages for everything, big and small. He had this fifty gallon bin of cockroaches—”

  Charlotte slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking.

  “He couldn’t kill me with cockroaches, could he?”

  Cormac shook his head. “I think they were for feeding something bigger.”

  “Why aren’t we just staking out his place again? Why are we putting Charlotte’s life in danger?” asked Declan.

  “Way ahead of you. I already planned on putting men on his place hoping that’s where he’ll go to get the animal for the job.”

  Declan looked away, visibly frustrated. “She shouldn’t have to be involved. This is your problem.”

  “Here, here,” mumbled Seamus, as he finished his beer and retrieved the spare from where it had migrated toward Cormac.

  “Blade—” Cormac stopped as all eyes turned to him.

  “What about Blade?” Declan’s expression darkened and Cormac’s shoulders slumped.

  Cormac huffed a sigh. “Blade’s one of mine.”

  “What?” Declan stood. “You planted a spy in my shop?”

  “That explains a lot,” said Charlotte.

  Cormac stood to face his son. “Not a spy. A protector. I knew these things with Jamie were coming to a head and knew you had a past with Stephanie—I needed to make sure you were safe.”

  “Since when did you give a damn about me?” Declan took half a step forward toward his father.

  Seamus rose to his feet and pushed his way past Cormac to stand between father and son. He put a hand on Declan’s arm.

  “Easy, Dec. If anyone is going to beat the stuffing out of him it’s going to be me.”

  Declan jerked away from Seamus’ touch and walked to his sliding glass door to stare into the backyard, his hands on his hips.

  Cormac sighed. “Declan, I have so many things I want to tell you.”

  Declan shook his head.

  “No water.”

  “What?”

  “No water. I don’t want Charlotte anywhere near water. Alligators, sharks, water moccasins, jellyfish...the water is too hard to control.

  Charlotte perked, happy the conversation had returned to the capture of Miles, though it was clear Declan and his father needed to have a long talk.

  Like months long.

  But not now.

  Even after a long talk, Declan might never forgive the man, and no one could really blame him. But she could see that Declan knew, for now, Cormac was a necessary evil. He had the resources and research to help them end Jamie’s reign of terror for good. It had to be hard for Declan, being forced to work with his father before he had the time to talk to him. She wanted to go to the window and throw her arms around him.

  The best thing she could do, for now, was to keep the topic on the situation at hand and away from father-son relationships, until Declan could stea
l some quiet time to process his father’s reappearance.

  “I agree with the water thing,” she said. “I don’t want to be swimming with things I can’t see.”

  Cormac, who stood staring at the back of his son, looked away and cleared his throat. “No, of course not.”

  “And not near people,” added Charlotte. “We can’t put other people’s lives in danger.”

  “You have a car?” asked Cormac, his expression shifting from concerned to inspired.

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s it. I’ll tell him you’ll be driving somewhere far away tomorrow. That’s how he tried to kill Jamie. He put spiders in her car.”

  Charlotte shivered. “Bugs. I knew it.”

  “That would be a great way to keep things contained,” agreed Seamus.

  Cormac nodded. “Exactly. Spider bites are easy to cure when you’re prepared for them. Anyhow, you’ll never even get in the car. All we have to do is watch the car and catch him when he comes to fill it with whatever creepy-crawly he’s chosen.”

  “So Charlotte will never be in danger?” said Declan, turning to face the group. His mood lifted.

  Cormac shook his head. “No.”

  Charlotte sighed. “I’ll just never be able to drive my new car again without thinking there’s something crawling around my ankles.” She looked at Cormac. “Can you try really hard to get him before he opens my door?”

  “Of course.” Cormac smiled and dipped to grab his phone from the table, dialing as he strolled toward the kitchen. “I’ll give Miles a call back and set the trap.”

  Charlotte walked to Declan. He’d resumed staring out the window. She put a hand on the small of his back. “How are you doing?”

  He jumped, clearly too deep in his thoughts to notice her approach. “Hm? Oh. I’m fine.”

  “I know it’s late, but do you want Seamus and me to give you two some time to talk?”

  “No.” said Declan. “Absolutely not. I think I’ve had enough of him for one day. I need to...” His voice trailed off.

  “Process?”

  He nodded.

  “Understood.”

  Cormac wandered back toward the sofa. “It’s done. You need to pull the men off your house around eight tomorrow morning. Told him you’d moved base camp here but your car is still there.”