Page 107 of Deadly Designs

“She’s a hell of a detective, and I trusted her to bea part of our op.” That was saying something.

Luke nodded. “We’re going to talk to her.”

“I’ll vouch for her.”

“Luke has a thing for former detectives,” Logansmirked.

Luke shrugged unrepentantly. “I know they’requalified.”

“Hey.”

Christian turned to see Presley, Kayne, and Nicolehad arrived.

“How’s Aja Blue?” Presley asked.

“She woke up in the ambulance, but I haven’t heardanything yet. How did it go with the police?”

“Oh my gosh, we’d still be there if it wasn’t forNicole. She knew how to handle them. You know how they are.Questions galore.”

“Did they arrest Dirk?” Christian wanted to know.“They’ve got him for murder and attempted murder.”

“They didn’t have to,” Kayne responded. “The policecut the zip ties so the medics could work on his wrist. He rearedup and took off running. He grabbed one of the motel guests andheld her in a headlock, yelling that he was going to kill her ifthey didn’t let him go. The man she was with had a gun and shot himpoint blank.”

He winced. “I assume it killed him?”

“Oh yeah.”

He probably shouldn’t be glad that someone died, butthe man had tried to kill Aja Blue, and that was an unforgivablecrime in his book.

“Nicole, these are the founders of COBRA Securities,Logan Bradley and Luke Colton.”

They all shook hands.

“We’d like to talk to you before we leave,” Lukesaid.

Nicole blinked. “Oh. Okay. Well, I’m sidelined forthe foreseeable future, so anytime.”

“There’s a coffee shop in the lobby. How about we gograb something to drink?”

“Uh, sure.” She looked at Christian, and he gave hera reassuring smile.

“We’ll be back soon,” Logan said. “Let us know assoon as you hear about Ms. LaLonde.”

“I will.”

Kayne and Presley dropped into seats beside him.

“What a case,” Presley sighed. “Threats from threeseparate directions. Who could predict that?”

She was right. Pastor Chet, Byron Zikes, and theChurch of the Enlightened were one. Heathcliff Sinclair, JonasThames, and their thugs were another. Aja Blue’s childhood friendPolly and her pimp/boyfriend Dirk Haines were the third. They werelucky they’d thwarted each one.

“We found out that the man who fired on us twice wastreated at the hospital after I shot him,” Kayne said. “The copswere called, and he was arrested. Get this, it was Denny, the dudewho checked us in at the meeting at the Church of theEnlightened.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope. He admitted to both shootings. He wanted toimpress Pastor Chet and thought he would if he took out the womanwho employed Jay Guitterez and the detective investigating thebombing and Byron Zikes’s murder.”

Huh. Christian hadn’t seen that one coming. Denny waslike Zikes. They worshipped a man who validated their hate, andthey would do anything for him, including, in Byron’s case, die forhim. Denny would spend a significant amount of time behind bars formultiple counts of attempted murder, including of a policeofficer.

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