Page 58 of Hold a Candle

“Where’s Jamie?” Mica barked.

“He’s right here with me, so is Darro and Angus. We have Florence in cuffs because I don’t trust that she is telling me the truth. I’m putting ye on speaker phone now.”

Mica’s deep voice boomed into the air. “I’m on my way, where are ye?”

“On the east side of Kelly Woods, the road entrance to the trails, but ye need to stay there, Mica. Something big is going down according to Belton, sometime in the early morn.”

“I know, but I’m locked out of it,” Mica snapped. “They had Brodie awake long enough to call in his buddies and Interpol. Quinn is part of it, but he also told me to stay out of it. I’ve been looking fer Florence but she disappeared.”

“Brodie’s alive?” Pauley asked, shocked at the news. The other’s gathered around her, listening intently.

“Aye, he’s alive...barely...and in surgery now. He managed to push 999 and they traced the open line call to the warehouse where he was found. If he hadn’t, he’d have bled out by now.”

Pauley looked around, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. “I can’t risk Juice getting away, Mica. I don’t think anyone else wants to go into the woods, and as private citizens, I won’t ask them to, but I’m going after him,” she insisted. “He has to be stopped.”

“Ye might never find him in the dark,” Jamie insisted. “Florence is in no shape to go back in there, and no one knows where they were set up.”

“Jamie’s right, and even if he gets away, his plans are ruined,” Mica argued.

“Buthedoesn’t know that,” Pauley replied stubbornly.

“If my chopper spotlight on the woods hasn’t alerted him that something’s changed, he’s not a very bright lad,” Darro inserted caustically. “I agree with Mica. There is no need to go blind into the dark where he might be waiting with God knows what. Florence didn’t come out with her sniper rifle, so he has that for sure.”

“As the senior officer on a crime scene, it’s my decision as to what’s to be done,” Pauley vetoed their arguments crisply.

“Jamie, talk some sense into the lass, will ye?” Mica pleaded. “I’ll be there in about 10 more minutes.”

“Even if ye were here, Mica, it’s still my decision,” Pauley spat out.

Jamie gave her a stern look. “Pauley, can ye honestly say yer decision is coming from yer position as the detective on scene, or as a mother? If it wasn’t Luca in danger, would ye be so willing to risk yer life, as well as those of us who will go with ye because we won’t let ye go alone, to get this man?”

She glared at him, but Jamie just stared back, unblinking.

Bollocks to the man and his stare.

Jamie went on. “It would seem to me that our best course of action would be to continue guarding Luca and Belton at Neamh, let Mica take Florence into custody, and wait for other trained constables to seize these vehicles and search the woods, if ye still wish to do it after that.”

“Wait, Jamie,” Mica inserted. “I agree with everything ye just said except for calling in the police. We need to keep this under wraps until after the operation goes off with the task force,” he added. “If Juice is dead, then Kelpie won’t know the cleanup crew hasn’t done their job. If he’s already contacted his sources, then it may be a lost cause anyway, but we still need to hold off. There may be other leaks at the police station if this gets out. I’ll get off the phone and let Quinn know. And Pauley, Quinn is the senior officer in this case once he’s informed, and speaking as a friend, ye better keep yer little arse out of those woods.”

The line went dead.

“He hasn’t been informedyet,” Pauley snapped irritably at the dial tone on her phone. She hated feeling like she was being organized again. Why did men always seem to think their opinions mattered the most? No way in hell was she letting Juice get away, not when he was still a threat to Luca. She would go in alone if she had to.

Disgusted, she glanced up at the three big men gazing at her, all their expressions eerily similar. Folded arms, raised eyebrows, and a stance that told her they all agreed with Mica. “What?” she snarled, then threw her hands up in the air. “Fine...I won’t go in the woods...yet. I will wait until Mica gets here, but that’s all,” she added irritably.

Pauley turned and stalked towards the edge of the road where the view fell away to Neamh nestled a half mile or so down. It looked peaceful down there, nothing seemed to be moving. It was too far to see any of the men without binoculars, but not too far away for a high-powered sniper rifle. It was highly likely that Juice didn’t have sniper experience, or he wouldn’t have needed Florence. Thank God she’d missed.

She sighed. The chances of Juice waiting for another shot were slim to none. She knew Luca was safe because Darro was in contact with Lucerne and Dal. She also knew all four of the stubborn men were right, she just didn’t want to be wrong. And it put her out of sorts to have her decisions questioned.

She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and listened to the breeze gently lifting her bangs off her forehead. It had nothing to say, no whispers from anyone or anything. Taking a few deep breaths and releasing them, she tried to relax her tensed up shoulders and neck by gently rolling her head around as she created order out of chaos in her mind. When gentle fingers suddenly began probing into those tight muscles and kneading the sore spots, she groaned. It was Jamie’s fingers; she was already in tune with his touch.

“Coming down off the edge yet?” he whispered in her ear. “Ye are really tight, wee firebrand.”

“Aye, I’m thinking things over,” she conceded. “I said I’d wait until Mica gets here to make a final decision, Jamie. Ye may not like what I decide, but itismy call. Can ye live with that?” She turned to face him, searching his eyes for disapproval, but found none.

“Believe it or not, I can,” Jamie replied, massaging his thumbs along her collar bone. “Ye are the professional and I respect that. I’m just glad ye decided to wait until Mica gets here. It’s important to me that ye don’t do things alone and put yerself at unnecessary risk.”

“My job always carries a certain amount of risk.”

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