Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) - Karen Rose Page 0,223

assistant that bothered him. She was familiar. And then she turned her head and he saw her hot pink cat-eye glasses with sparkling rhinestones.

He’d seen those glasses before—in the scope of his rifle on that rooftop. She’d been with Mercy in the eye doctor’s office. She’d blocked his shot.

She’d fucked everything up. And then the real truth descended.

She was with the FBI.

Fucking hell. He remembered Nurse Gaynor, the little bugs she’d been planting. Had she been hired by Kowalski or had she been with the FBI, too?

Either way, the Feds knew that he was here. They were probably waiting for him outside. Why hadn’t they stormed the place? What were they waiting for?

Me. They’re waiting for me. He’d snuck in via the ambulance the night before, so they didn’t know. But they’d know now, because this woman was likely wired like Nurse Gaynor had been.

He needed to get out of here. But in a way they wouldn’t suspect.

The ambulance they’d used last night would be perfect. Nobody would stop him from leaving, and any Fed waiting outside would assume he was legit.

All of this thinking took about ten seconds, and when he glanced back at Innes, she looked wryly amused.

“Miss Barkley is quite pretty,” she said. “I think your father was charmed.”

“How long has she been here?” he asked, keeping his tone casual.

He didn’t succeed, because the nurse’s eyes narrowed. “Today is her first day. Why?”

Because you are a fucking idiot and I don’t trust you. “Introduce me,” he said smoothly. “Maybe I’d like to be charmed, too.”

Still wary, Innes opened the door, and DJ followed her into the bright room. It was hot, all the glass intensifying what was going to be a ninety-eight-degree day.

“Mr. Alcalde, excuse me for interrupting you,” Innes said with forced cheer. “You’ve had a long outing today. It’s time for you to return to your room. But before you do, your son came by. He says he’s going on a trip and he wanted to say goodbye.” She gave DJ a pointed look. “Say goodbye, Mr. Belmont.”

Pastor stiffened in his wheelchair. “Why are you here?” he asked, his anger barely veiled.

As for the nursing assistant, she froze for a moment, and then her eyes flashed with such a vicious rage that he might have been cowed had she been a man. He’d definitely be killing her soon. But Innes first. Now he turned to the nurse and said, “I’ll be going, but can I have a word with you first? Privately?”

Miss Barkley went still, eerily so. Not frozen, like before, but as if she were preparing. For what, he wasn’t certain. Maybe to attack. Maybe to flee.

Nurse Innes picked up on the tension and nodded slowly. “Please stay here, Miss Barkley.”

The Fed didn’t blink. She didn’t answer, either.

Nurse Innes led him to the door through which they’d come, into the hall and then into a supply closet. “What is wrong with Miss Barkley?”

He didn’t answer her, just put down his duffel, drew his silenced gun and shot her in the head. When she fell, he shot her a second time.

Grabbing the duffel, he left the closet in time to see Miss Barkley halfway down the hall. He caught up to her and pressed the barrel of his gun to her back. “If you run, I’ll kill you,” he murmured. “Then I’ll go into that solarium and kill every single patient. Not all of them are criminals. A couple of them are kids. You okay with them dying, too?”

She was ramrod stiff. “What do you want?”

He patted her down, finding no wires. Which made no sense. They’d have her wired somehow. Keeping the gun firmly at her back, he checked out her front. She flashed him a hate-filled glare, turning her body toward him in an awkwardly stiff way.

Her pendant caught the light and he abruptly realized that was where she’d hidden the camera, so he yanked it from her throat. She stiffened, but made no other noise. And because her glasses reminded him of his ruined shot at Mercy, he grabbed those and broke them in two.

DJ tossed the necklace and the glasses into a trash can, then answered her question. “I want you to come back to the solarium with me and push Pastor’s wheelchair.”

“And then?”

“Seconds are ticking, Miss Barkley. Or should I say Agent Barkley? Do as I say or I will kill everyone in that room and then blow up this whole building, including the little kids.”

Her jaw tightened, but she