Devlin's lips closed tightly right after he apologized.

"Where's your cellphone, darling?" Judge Ramsey asked Grace.

She pointed to her purse on the table across the room. He retrieved it and pressed a few b.u.t.tons to arrive at the message. With his face tight with consternation, he walked over to Trent and showed him the screen. Trent transferred the information to his phone.

"Thank you," he said to Grace and the judge. "Let's go," was directed at Devlin.

"You bring her back," Grace said to Ben. She'd pulled her hand from his grasp and grabbed hold of his arm. "You bring her back alive."

Ben nodded. "I will."

CHAPTER 18.

"He said I was going to be safe, that he was moving me because that's what Larry asked him to do. I believed him." Alayna Jonas spoke in a quiet tone, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Victoria listened. She sat on a grungy couch in a motel room that smelled like mold. Dirty curtains were drawn tightly closed over the only window, all the chains and bolts applied to the door. There were huge stains on the worn carpet and she didn't even want to contemplate their origin. Across from her, on the edge of the only bed in the room, its awful floral print comforter rumpled from where she'd probably lain the night before, sat the young woman everyone had been looking for.

A year ago she was probably considered to be a gorgeous young lady with big brown eyes and long, dark brown hair. Her skin was sun kissed, her body curvy in all the right places, trim in the others. But her shoulders slumped and her eyes were puffy. This was a look Victoria figured the girl had been sporting for a while.

"So he brought you here after leaving the witness protection location?" she asked trying to keep her mind on the current situation, which by the cut on Alayna's lip and the bruises on her arm looked a lot worse than any of them could have imagined. No, that's not true. They'd all thought Alayna was dead.

Alayna nodded, hair falling to shield her face. With a shaky hand she pushed thick tresses back behind her left ear. She didn't look at Victoria, just kept her gaze down at her hands sitting in her lap.

"When I didn't hear from Larry after a few days, I figured something was wrong."

"Did you see any police officers after you were moved?" Victoria continued. She wished she had a notepad and pen to write down everything Alayna was telling her, but she'd been in such a rush to get to her she hadn't even thought of stopping by her place to get her briefcase.

"He would lock me in the room whenever he needed to leave. And he'd be gone for hours and hours, working I guess. But when he came back-" her words trailed off and she used the back of her hand to wipe at tears that flowed much faster. "He raped me over and over, said it was what I deserved for being such a s.l.u.t and ruining everything. After a while, I just stopped fighting because what was the use? I thought he was going to kill me. And that made me mad. I don't want my daughter to grow up without a mother. That's why I called you Ms. Lashley. I need your help so I can be with my daughter." She'd looked up by then, staring right at Victoria.

It was an imploring and desperate stare that seared straight through Victoria, touching everything within that was female and prosecutor and protector all at the same time. She didn't give it a second thought, but rose from the sofa and went to the bed to sit beside Alayna. She took the girl's hands in hers and vowed, "I will get you out of this. You will be with your daughter again," she told her and meant every word.

"I just need to make a call to get someone to come and pick you up," Victoria continued, reaching into her pocket for her cellphone.

"Not the cops!" Alayna yelled. "Don't call the cops!"

Victoria's hand froze on the phone. She was about to ask Alayna why she didn't want the police called when she heard a sickeningly familiar sound. Gla.s.s shattered, falling like confetti over the dirty couch Victoria had just vacated. She held her breath as she pushed Alayna to the floor, clearly expecting tear gas to come flying through to choke them out. But that didn't happen. What came through the window this time could be considered worse, depending on who you asked.

"Noah's not answering his phone." Ben cursed at the realization and stopped trying to contact his friend, the only police officer in this city that he trusted right now.

He was in the pa.s.senger seat of Devlin's SUV as they sped down the highway, heading towards the exit that would take them to the Morningshade Motel where Alayna Jonas was staying.

"She's only been there a couple of days," Trent spoke from the back seat.

Ace and Rio were in the second SUV, which had taken the scenic route to the hotel just in case one of them was being followed.

"She's been missing for almost a year. Where was she before now?" Ben asked.

"The clerk at the hotel has an Ethel Mae Jonas registered at Morningshade since day before yesterday. I'm doing a scan of all the hotels in the surrounding area using this name," Trent said. He had his laptop and was pecking away, trying to find as much information as they could on Alayna Jonas. He'd already been working on this and didn't have much to go on except that up until the week before her disappearance, regular bi-weekly deposits both from the Clark County government and an account named TH Services Inc. had come in for almost two and a half years. The amounts from TH Services had sparked a red flag for Trent and he'd run a report to find out more about the company, but so far had come up with nothing.

"Nothing," he said after a few minutes.

"We're about three minutes away," Dev announced, taking the exit and coming to a slow, almost stop at the corner before turning down a side street. "Should be around this next corner," he said and made the left turn.

Ben's fingers clenched and unclenched. His gun pressed heavily against his back. He was licensed to carry a concealed weapon and had a year's worth of training at the shooting range. Every now and then he and a couple of his cousins, including Trent, went out to the range just for practice, then made a day of it by having lunch and playing ball afterwards. The Donovan men were big on protection, just as big as they were on following the law.

Only this time Ben wasn't sure he would be able to abide completely. He just didn't know that he wouldn't kill Vega if given the chance.

The first thing he noticed when they pulled into the parking lot of the motel was a parked police car. It was in front of room 608, Alayna's room.

"He's in there," he said, hurriedly opening the door and stepping out of the truck.

"Who?" Dev asked, moving around the front of the vehicle to join up with Ben.

"The leak," Trent answered. "The dirty cop is in there with Alayna."

"He's in there with Victoria," was the last thing Ben said before he started running across the parking lot towards the rooms.

CHAPTER 19.

"Get up you, stupid s.l.u.t!" he yelled.

Victoria still held Alayna's hand from when she'd pulled her down to the floor. No tear gas had come in, but something worse had entered. She could see his hand grabbing a chunk of Alayna's hair and pulling her up from the floor. Victoria wouldn't let her hand go, and she was jerked to her knees as well.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" he asked, looking at her.

Before she could answer Victoria felt a wave of something. She narrowed her eyes and stared closer. She knew him. And the moment he took a second look, she could tell he knew her too.

"G.o.ddammit! You better not have been running your mouth!" he shouted at Alayna, then used his grip on her hair to toss her over the bed. "As for you Miss Prosecutor, you're about to lose this case bigtime!"

He raised his hand to slap her and Victoria acted solely on instinct. After her father's death, she and her mother had taken every self-defense cla.s.s they could find. Naomi actually held several belts in the art of Taekwondo while Victoria had leveled out at the blue belt because she'd entered college and became too busy to attend the cla.s.ses.

But she could handle herself very well. The arm that blocked Officer Hall's ensuing a.s.sault and the follow up jab to his nose with a palm heel strike proved her point. Blood immediately spewed from his face and Victoria took the seconds that he stood there stunned and calling her all kinds of names to run and help Alayna up from the floor.

"Stay behind me," she instructed.

"He'll kill us both," Alayna whimpered, pulling on the sleeve of Victoria's shirt. "Let's just go. There's a window in the bathroom. We can get out while he's bleeding," she pleaded.

But Victoria knew that wasn't going to work. Hall wasn't going to be out of commission much longer. She looked around quickly, trying to find anything she could use as a weapon because he was definitely going to come for her first.

She knew who he was. Sure, Alayna did too, but he had her so afraid she hadn't even told Victoria his name and probably would have had to be thoroughly coerced to divulge that information. But he was greedy. He'd come for her and now Victoria knew exactly who he was. And it hadn't taken her long to figure out what he'd done. He was the one who'd taken Alayna. He could because he was a cop. He would have known where the other officers were holding her and it would have been easy for him to walk right in and grab her. Her question was why. But that would surely have to wait as, just as she'd expected, he swiped his hand over his blood soaked face and turned immediately to her.

"They should have killed you when they had the chance. I told them scaring you wasn't enough. But that's okay, I'll take care of it."

He reached into the front of his pants and pulled out a gun, big and black was all she really saw before the front door was kicked off its hinges.

Hall whirled around to see who'd decided to join his little party. Victoria gasped to see the gun was now pointed directly at Ben.

"Sonofab.i.t.c.h!" Ben yelled.

"Drop it!" Dev and Trent yelled simultaneously from behind him.

Ben saw Officer Hall, the smart-a.s.s from the crime scene the night Victoria's house had been attacked. A quick glance over the man's shoulder and he saw Victoria with a frantically screaming woman right behind her.

"I'm not dropping anything. You're the intruders. I'm the G.o.dd.a.m.ned law. You drop it!" Hall yelled with clear distaste.

"You're a crocked cop who's going down," Ben told him, still holding his ground.

He hadn't pulled out his own weapon and now wished like h.e.l.l he had. If the gun were in his hand he'd shoot and d.a.m.n the consequences.

"Just like before you don't have any evidence, Donovan. You can't prove anything."

Trent pushed past Ben. "I can prove you were the one who went into the safe house and set off tear gas so you could take the witness out the back door. You've had her all this time, while steady deposits have been dumped into your account from Sal's Pizzeria for some equipment I know d.a.m.ned well you never delivered. You're caught, jacka.s.s!"

He moved fast like lightening as he streaked across the room, yelling some sort of battle cry before tackling Victoria to the ground and rolling over with his arm tight around her neck, the nose of his gun pointing squarely at her temple.

Ben didn't think, only reacted.

His gun was in his back waistband. He reached for it and had it aimed straight between Hall's eyes before the man could pull Victoria to a standing position.

"Let...her...go," he stated slowly, his finger poised on the trigger of his 9mm.

"I got him Ben. You don't do anything stupid," Dev said from behind.

Ben shook his head. "He's the stupid one," he said, taking a step closer.

"Ben, no!" Victoria tried to scream, but the b.a.s.t.a.r.d tightened his grip around her neck.

"Shut the h.e.l.l up! All of you just drop your weapons or I swear I'll shoot this b.i.t.c.h attorney. Then I'm going to kill that whiny wh.o.r.e who thought she was smarter than me, taking my money, then trying to run away!"

Ben's gut clenched, the sight of that gun touching Victoria's temple making him want to wretch or leap forward and kill, probably both. Rage simmered inside, building to an intense heat as sweat p.r.i.c.kled his brow. She couldn't die. He just wouldn't let her.

"You're not going to kill her," Ben told him, taking a step closer.

He could sense Dev moving behind him, ready to shoot the second Hall's finger pulled the trigger. Well, Ben wasn't going to let it go that far. He was ready to shoot now.

"I'm going to splatter her brains all over this cheap a.s.s motel wall and there's nothing you can do to stop me, rich boy!" Hall spat.

His gun hand shook. Ben saw it as they stood. He blinked rapidly, the pain from his broken nose probably kicking in. A millisecond later the lamp that had been sitting on the nightstand was smacked against the back of Hall's head. Victoria lurched forward just as he kept hold of his footing and aimed at her. Ben fired.

Dev fired.

Trent fired.

Officer Timothy Hall hit the floor with a sickening thud, his gun sliding a few feet away. Behind him Alayna stood shaking from head to toe, the lamp still in her hand. Ben took a step toward Victoria and, while she'd been watching him, her eyes wide with fear, chest heaving, fingers clenching at her sides, she turned away from him and went to hug Alayna instead.

A clap to his back stopped Ben's movement and he stood still, his gaze falling to the lifeless body of Officer Hall.

"You okay, man?" Trent asked, coming to stand beside him.

Ben had lowered the hand holding his gun, still a bit stunned that he'd actually fired on a human being.

"You didn't have to shoot him," Ben began. "You nor Dev," he said quietly.

"You're a suit-wearing justice man," Dev said after he'd knelt beside Hall to check for a pulse. "No need in you carrying a death on your shoulders."

"My bullet made contact," Ben said moreso to confirm with himself than anything else.

Trent nodded. "And so did at least three others. We'll never know which one killed him." Trent still had his hand on Ben's shoulder and he squeezed firmly. "You'll never know if it was yours or not."

Ben looked at his cousin seriously, gratefully. "So I'll never carry the guilt of being a killer."

Trent nodded once more, then tilted his head in the direction where Victoria was standing. "But you wear that hero thing pretty good. She looks a little shaken up."

She did and Ben wanted nothing else but to go to her, but she looked like she had other things going on, namely an almost hysterical Alayna Jonas.

Ben obviously had a conflict of interest, but that hadn't stopped him from trying to help Alayna Jonas.

"She should have an attorney before she goes into any type of interrogation," he said when Noah and Victoria were preparing to enter the room where Alayna had been placed after they arrived at the police station.

Timothy Hall's body had been picked up by the morgue and p.r.o.nounced DOA. Good cops had swarmed the motel, shutting down the parking lot and the whole string of rooms under the number 608. Homicide detectives had been chomping at the bit to question Trent, Dev and Ben, but when Noah arrived he took over. He'd taken all their statements unofficially on the way to the precinct and officially when he was in his office. Now, it was time to see what Alayna Jonas knew for sure.

Ben suspected she knew a lot of things that could possibly incriminate herself. Hence the reason she needed legal protection.

"Come on Donovan, she's a witness in protective custody," Noah said with a slight frown.

"Then there's no need for you to talk to her about anything other than her testimony," he fired back.

"I can ask about her abduction by Hall and where she's been all this time," Noah countered.

Ben nodded. "And nothing else."

He held Noah's gaze for endless seconds, wanting to make sure his friend knew what he was trying to implicate without getting himself in anymore ethical hot water.