Page 35 of Second Chance Savior

“It’s nothing. Tailored jackets aren’t meant for hand-to-hand combat.”

For a brief moment, I relished the comfort of his solid weight.

Then I separated from him and rolled my shoulder. “Yeah. I’m okay. What happened out there?”

“I handled the two I heard. Didn’t realize this one was skulking around too. Sorry about that.”

Holy shit. How many of them were there?

River bent over the dead man, avoiding the ooze of blood on the floor. The pool looked black in the low light.

“I tried to stab him. Didn’t go all the way in. He’s wearing a vest.”

River pulled the knife free. “You nicked him.” He wiped the blade on his torn jacket. “But go for the head and neck next time.”

“You’ll let me keep the knife?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Or you could give me your spare gun. I know you’ve got one on you somewhere.”

He smirked. “Knife it is.”

With a few swift motions, he unstrapped the knife holster from his ankle and handed it to me. “Need me to put it on you?”

His hands on my leg beneath my dress? Nope, not what I needed. At all. “I can figure it out.”

While I strapped the holster onto my leg, River crouched beside the body and checked the dead man’s pockets.

That was when I noticed the heavy belt the man wore. Handcuffs, pepper spray, utility pouches. River pulled something from beneath the man’s jacket.

A badge.

“He’s acop?”

River nodded. “Looks that way.” He took a few more things, including the dead man’s radio. He stuck the earpiece into his own ear.

“This can’t be right.” I was going to be sick. But River didn’t look surprised.

“I saw the donor with the white goatee leave the party. He took a side garden path and met with one of the off-duty cops who was providing perimeter security.Thisguy. The cop handed the donor a gun. Then I followed the donor, and he went straight foryou. These are Stillwater’s people, Charlie.”

I murmured a curse. That was why River had disappeared. “Brynn must’ve gotten sick around then.” I remembered her chatting with me at the bar. She’d only taken a few sips of her soda. “The bartender was part of this too?”

“Entirely possible. They got Agent Somerton out of the way, knowing the other agents would immediately extract you. Then attacked Rainey when he went for the car. It was down to just Agent Torres. Manageable.”

“But they couldn’t have known in advance that the FBI would be here. I’d only arranged it with Brynn a couple hours before!”

“Unless a Stillwater mole inside the FBI leaked it.” River stood and turned those shark-like eyes on me again. “I don’t think they’re trying to kill you. They wouldn’t need this kind of manpower for an assassination. They intend to kidnap you.”

“But you said…”

“I did my best. I admitted there were things I didn’t know.”

The room spun, but I summoned all my willpower and banished the dizziness. The panic. I refused to believe that Brynn or her colleagues could have turned on me. No way. But unless this man’s police uniform was fake, then Stillwater had law enforcement officers in their pocket. Just as River had told me before. I hadn’t wanted to believe it.

It was happening, though. It was real.

“Why?” That was the question I kept asking. “What could kidnapping me accomplish?”

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