Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “She’s in shock, I’m sure.”

            “Yeah, but I’m not looking forward to the interviews she’s already threatening to give to the news. Karl and Irina don’t deserve any of that.”

            “Should we warn them?”

            “Raeburn will, so that it’ll be official and on the record. He’s supposed to call them tonight.”

            “I think he did already. Karl excused himself from the movie to take a call right about the same time that I heard you opening the garage door.” She stroked his hair off his forehead, gentle little caresses. “There was also a report about a disturbance at another house nearby. A robbery with several homicides. The reports didn’t say it was DJ, but it was, wasn’t it? Was that the call you got from Croft this morning?”

            He nodded. “The homeowner’s a leader in the Chicos.”

            Her eyes widened. “DJ’s tattoo that Abigail saw. Is that where DJ got the dynamite?”

            “And several rifles and handguns and ammo.” He sighed. “I didn’t know the news was reporting that. Normally I’m on top of coverage, but today it’s been one thing after another. What else are they saying?”

            “Not that there was a gang connection, but they did say the homeowner and his family are missing. They speculated that it might be a ransom situation.”

            Tom thought about the way Angelina Ward had left her devices neatly stacked on the kitchen counter. “Unlikely. But I am concerned about his wife and kids.”

            “There was one more murder reported. A teacher at a private school here in Granite Bay.”

            He sighed again. “What did the media say about her?”

            “At first only that her body was found. There was some talk from her friends that she’d had a bad breakup, and some thought that her ex could have done it. Later, though, when parents at the school heard about the ‘disturbance’ at the Wards’ home, and that the family was missing, they put it together that one of the Ward children was in the dead teacher’s class.”

            “Busy day for the media,” Tom muttered.

            “Did DJ kill her, too?”

            “Croft is working that case. She thinks so.” He stopped himself before he said his next words, which would have been I do, too, because the man is a murderer and you’re walking into Sunnyside tomorrow like a lamb to slaughter. Please don’t do it.

            But he didn’t, because she’d known DJ was a murderer when she’d agreed to the job. That he’d killed more people wasn’t going to change her mind.

            If anything, it would strengthen her resolve. So he bit the words back, even though he was screaming inside. “Can we not talk about this right now? I just want to hold you, okay?”

            “More than okay.”

            She sat on his lap, giving him the closeness he’d needed—until his stomach growled loudly. She pushed to her feet. “Let me feed you.”

            Tom guessed that the food he ate was delicious, but he barely tasted it. It was as if all the sleepless nights had finally hit him like a freight train.

            And he still hadn’t gained access to Sunnyside’s security network. He could shut down the network he had, but that was mostly e-mail and databases for employees and patients. He didn’t want to damage the patient records. Patients included drug lords and their families, but there were also celebrities and their families—innocent people receiving care.

            It was ingenious, really. Sunnyside Oaks was a legal, licensed facility where criminals had been successfully hidden among the legit patients who required discretion. Perhaps Sunnyside would even use the legit patients as a shield should they be discovered. The lives of those legit patients had to be protected.

            They needed to proceed with extreme care.

            So he’d convinced Raeburn to allow him to join the agents in the back of the surveillance van. Raeburn hadn’t wanted him to, because he feared Tom was too close to the case now that Liza was involved. Tom hadn’t let anyone at the Bureau office know that he and Liza were involved romantically as well. That would have gotten him tossed off the case for sure.