with the downstairs desk. They’ll sign. I’m busy.”
“Hey, buddy—”
“I’m busy!” Trevor snapped, and disengaged the intercom. He watched, just to be sure, and sneered as the messenger flipped up his middle finger and walked out of view.
Satisfied, he switched off the screen. It was time he accepted his own special delivery, long overdue.
“Shut down the coms and screens,” Eve ordered Feeney through her communicator. “We’ll have to take the door.”
“Shutting them down.”
She turned to McNab. “Nice job. I’d’ve bought it.”
“If that was Dix and he wasn’t under duress, he’d have opened the door.” McNab drew his weapon from the base of his spine and holstered it at his side.
“Yeah. Take care of the locks,” she told Roarke. “Weapons on stun,” she ordered the team. “I don’t want a hostage taken down. Hold fire until my command. Peabody and I go in first. You take the right. McNab, you’re left. You, you, you, fan out, second wave. I want this door secured behind us. Roarke?”
“Nearly there, Lieutenant.” He was crouched, delicately disarming locks and alarms with tools as thin as threads.
She squatted beside him, lowered her voice. “You’re not going in.”
“Yes, I don’t believe I heard my name in today’s lineup.”
She suspected he was armed—illegally—and that he would—probably—be discreet about it. But she couldn’t justify the risk. “I can’t take a civilian through the door until the suspect is contained. Not with this many cops around.”
He shifted his gaze and those laser blue eyes met hers. “You don’t need to explain or attempt to quell even my infamous ego.”
“Good.”
“And you’re in.”
She nodded. “You’re a handy guy to have around. Now step back so we can take this asshole.”
She knew it was hard for him to do just that, to stand aside while she went through the door. Whittier was almost certainly armed, and he would kill without hesitation. But Roarke straightened, moved away from the team.
She’d remember that, she thought—or she’d try to remember that—when things got heated between them as they tended to do. She’d remind herself that, when it mattered to her, he’d stepped aside so she could do her job.
“Feeney? Emergency evac?”
“It’s down. He’s boxed.”
“We’re on the door. Peabody?”
“Ready, sir.”
With her weapon in her right hand, Eve eased the unsecured door open with her left. With one sharp nod, she booted it, went in low and fast.
“Police!” She swept, eyes and weapon, as Peabody peeled to the right and McNab came in from behind and shot left. “Trevor Whittier, this is the police. This building is surrounded. All exits are blocked. Come out, hands up and in full view.”
She used hand signals to direct her team to other areas, other rooms as she moved forward.
“You’ve got nowhere to go, Trevor.”
“Stay back! I’ll kill him. I have a hostage. I have Dix, and I’ll kill him.”
She held up a closed fist, signaling her team to stop, to hold positions, then eased around the corner.
“I said I’ll kill him.”
“I heard you.” Eve stayed where she was, looking through the open glass doors. Light glittered on the toy-decked shelves and on the blood smeared on the white floor.
Trevor sat in the center of it, the prize he’d killed for beside him. He had an arm hooked around Dix’s neck, and a knife to his throat.
Dix’s eyes were closed, and there was blood on the otherwise spotless floor. But she could see the subtle rise and fall of Dix’s chest. Alive then. Still alive.
They looked like two overgrown boys who’d played just a little too hard and rough.
She kept her weapon trained and steady. “Looks like you already did. Kill him.”
“He’s breathing.” Trevor dug the point of the knife into flesh, carving a shallow slice. Blood dribbled over the blade. “I can change that, and I will. Put down that weapon.”
“That’s my line, Trevor. There are two ways you can leave this room. You can leave it walking, or we can carry you out.”
“I’ll kill him first. Even if you stun me, I’ll have time to slit his throat. You know it, or you’d have hit me already. You want to keep him alive, you back out. You back out now!”
“Kill him and the only thing I put down is you. Do you want to die today, Trevor?”
“You want him to die?” He jerked Dix’s head back, and stirring slightly, Dix moaned. “If you don’t clear this place, that’s what’s going to happen. We start negotiating, and we start now. Back out.”
“You’ve been watching too many vids. You think I’m going to