“Tell her I’ll call—”

Reese cut in. “Tremont. You’re on sick leave. Go home.”

“I will, Sheriff.” Allie settled back and folded her arms across her chest. “After the debriefing.”

“You called her in, Parker?” Reese said to Bri.

Bri straightened in her chair. “Yes ma’am. I knew she’d want to be here.”

Reese worked at not smiling. The two were partners, and she could team them up with others as much as she wanted, but nothing was going to change that. “Okay, then. Let’s run it.”

Allie noticed Carter’s hands ball into fists when Reese got to the part about Lorenzo Brassi breaking in and assaulting Rica. She didn’t even want to imagine how she’d feel if something like that happened to Ash, so she concentrated on the facts and remembered that Rica was safe because all of them, including Rica, had done what needed to be done.

“So you think it was Brassi all along?” Allie asked when Reese finished. “Doing everything? Breaking into Rica’s car and your house

• 250 •

RetuRning tides

and…” She glanced at Bri. “What about the intruder at Caroline and Bri’s the other night?”

“I questioned Everly again this morning before he was transferred back to the federal lockup,” Reese said. “Pushed him hard. He still denies going after Caroline, and although his alibi is weak, I think it’s probably legit. He said he just wanted to lay low until everyone forgot about him, which is why he went to his buddy’s place and didn’t even let his mother know he was around.”

Bri snorted. “As if we would forget he’d skipped out on parole.”

“Well, he’s not too bright.”

“What did the feds say about Brassi?” Carter asked, her dark eyes edgy and troubled.

“They said they can’t comment on an ongoing operation.” Reese knew what was going on in Carter’s head, could imagine the pictures that tortured her. Carter would be tormented by those pictures for a long time, but she’d be okay. She still had Rica, and that was all she needed.

That and knowing the man who had harmed Rica had paid. “I don’t think we’ll ever get the entire story from the feds. According to Rica, Brassi said the feds helped him disappear. My guess is that someone in Alfonse Pareto’s organization leaked that Pareto intended to eliminate Brassi because he was unstable and a threat to Rica. The feds saw a chance to recruit him and gave him a choice—either he turns informer for them and in return they help fake his death, or Pareto has him killed.

Not much of a choice.”

“And then,” Carter said, “he slips away from them and goes after Rica.”

Reese nodded. “Once he got here, Brassi hid out and stalked Rica.

It’s not unusual for stalkers to work themselves up to attacking their primary target while terrorizing their target’s friends and loved ones.

It gives them a sense of power, and they derive pleasure from their target’s fear and pain.”

“But why didn’t someone tell us when Special Agent Lynch tracked him here?” Bri asked. “If we’d known, we might’ve picked Brassi up sooner. Agent Lynch might not be dead and no one else would have been terrorized.”

“I don’t think Marilyn Allen wanted to advertise that her team had lost track of an informant, particularly one who was dangerously crazy.

• 251 •

RAdCLY fFe

I’m not even certain she informed her superiors. She was probably hoping they’d find him and get him back under wraps with no one the wiser.”

“She was willing to put Rica’s life at risk in order to nail Rica’s father,” Carter said bitterly.

“What about Agent Allen?” Allie asked. “What’s the word on her condition?”

“She’s out of surgery, but in a coma. The doctors don’t give her much chance,” Reese said.

The room was silent. Reese closed the folder on top of her desk and pushed it aside.

“I think we have all the answers we’re ever going to get,” Reese said. “Tremont, I don’t want you back here without a medical release form in your hand. Carter, Bri—go home and get some rest. I’ve assigned officers to cover your shifts tonight.”

Reese waited until the team filed out, then she called Tory. “I’m taking a personal day.”

“Really,” Tory said slowly. “And what are you going to do with all that free time?”

“Can you get away?”

“KT is still in town. She’ll cover for me.”

“I thought I’d make reservations for us to have lunch in Boston.

We can fly over and maybe you could pull some doctor strings and get us in to see Wendy later this afternoon. We can talk to her about making babies.”

“You don’t waste any time, do you, Sheriff?”

“When you know what you want, why wait?”

“I know what I want,” Tory murmured. “Come home now.”

“On my way, Dr. King.”

• 252 •

About the Author

Radclyffe is a retired surgeon and full-time award-winning author-publisher with over thirty novels and anthologies in print. Seven of her works have been Lambda Literary finalists including the Lambda Literary winners Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman; In Deep Waters 2; and Distant Shores, Silent Thunder. She is the editor of Best Lesbian Romance 2009

and 2010 (Cleis Press), Erotic Interludes 2 through 5 and Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 with Stacia Seaman (BSB), and has selections in multiple anthologies including Best Lesbian Erotica 2006–10; After Midnight; Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists; First-Timers; Ultimate Undies: Erotic Stories About Lingerie and Underwear; Hide and Seek; A is for Amour; H is for Hardcore; L is for Leather; Rubber Sex, Tasting Him, and Cowboy Erotica. She is the recipient of the 2003 and 2004 Alice B. Readers’

award for her body of work and is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies.

Her latest releases are an all-Radclyffe erotica anthology, Radical Encounters (Feb. 2009) the romantic intrigue novel Justice for All (April 2009), and the romance Secrets in the Stone (July 2009). Her forthcoming works include The Midnight Hunt (writing as L.L.

Raand, March 2010) and the first in the First Responder Series, Trauma Alert (July 2010).

Books Available From Bold Strokes Books Power Play by Julie Cannon. Businesswomen Tate Monroe and Victoria Sosa are at odds in the boardroom, but not in the bedroom.

(978-1-60282-125-5)

The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke by Elizabeth Ridley. When love enters Tranby’s life in the form of a beautiful nineteen-year-old student, Lysette McDonald, she embarks on the most remarkable journey of all. (978-1-60282-126-2) Returning Tides by Radclyffe. Insurance investigator Ashley Walker faces more than a dangerous opponent when she returns to the town, and the woman, she left behind. (978-1-60282-123-1) Veritas by Anne Laughlin. When the hallowed halls of academia become the stage for murder, newly appointed Dean Beth Ellis’s search for the truth leads her to unexpected discoveries about her own heart.

(978-1-60282-124-8)

The Pleasure Planner by Larkin Rose. Pleasure purveyor Bree Hendricks treats love like a commodity until Logan Delaney makes Bree the client in her own game. (978-1-60282-121-7) everafter by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam. Valentine Darrow is bitten by a vampire on her way to propose to her lover Alexa Newland, and their lives and love are placed in mortal jeopardy. (978-1-60282-119-4) Summer Winds by Andrews & Austin. When Maggie Turner hires a ranch hand to help work her thousand acres, she never expects to be attracted to the very young, very female Cash Tate. (978-1-60282-120-0)

Beggar of Love by Lee Lynch. Jefferson is the lover every woman wants to be—or to have. A revealing saga of lesbian sexuality. (978-1-60282-122-4)

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