Tax Assassin (23 page)

“
I don’t,” Seth
said.

Laughing, she followed him to his truck, and
they were on their way back to the hotel.

“
Pizza and cuddle?” Seth
asked.

“
Mmm, I was thinking
shower, cuddle, pizza,” Ava said. “You?”

“
Sounds good to me,” Seth
said.

Ava turned up the air conditioning, and they
drove along Highway 160 in companionable silence. They were almost
to Highway 350 when Ava turned down the air conditioning.

“
Seth?” Ava turned to look
at him.

“
I know,” he
said.

“
I know you know,” Ava
said. “I’d still like to say it anyway.”

“
Sounds fair,” Seth
said.

“
I feel like I don’t know
who I am anymore,” Ava said. “A year ago, my father was the
Colorado state attorney and I ran the best damned backup forensics
lab in the state. Now, he’s dead and I . . . Everything I
thought was true about my life, my family’s life, me
. . . Everything was a big, fat lie.”

He glanced at her to see if she was crying.
She was too lost in thought and strong emotion to cry.

“
I want to be with you,”
Ava said. “I want to marry you, to spend my life with you, but I
have to know me first. I can’t jump from daughter of Colorado State
Attorney to daughter of a pandering jerk to Mrs.
O’Malley.”

“
What’s changed?” Seth
asked. “When everything happened with your father, you didn’t . .
.”

“
I’ve changed, I guess,”
Ava said. “I see how
weak
my mother is, and Bella.
 . .”

Ava began to cry.

“
I have to know who I am,
where I belong on the planet, before I can be your wife,” Ava’s
voice cracked with sorrow. “I don’t want to lose you, lose us, but
I look inside, and I can’t find me. I have to be me before I can be
us.”

“
I understand,” Seth
said.

“
That’s what I hate about
you,” Ava said. “You understand. You want what’s best for me. You
want me to be whole.”

“
And that’s
bad?”

“
You’ll just continue on,”
Ava said. “I’ll leave, you’ll sleep for a day or so and then you’ll
play the piano. You’ll finish the piece you started, do the hard
work, and sell it. When I come back, you’ll be solving mysteries
and playing the piano. You’re so . . . you.”

Not really sure what she meant, Seth
nodded.

“
I want that,” Ava
said.

“
Not everyone is like me,
Ava,” Seth said. “Mitch wasn’t. Maresol isn’t. Dale will never be.
My brothers sure weren’t.”

“
Sandy is,” Ava
said.

“
She got that way by going
through hell,” Seth said. “My other two daughters, Lizzy and Julie
Ann, aren’t like me. Lizzy can’t decide what to wear most days, and
Julie Ann is . . . well, a good Marine. The way I am;
it’s not really . . .”

“
Normal,” Ava
said.

“
Valuable,” Seth
said.

“
It’s valuable to me,” Ava
said.

Seth nodded.

“
I’ve hurt you,” Ava stated
the obvious.

“
I understand,” Seth
said.

Ava turned her tear-stained face away from
him to look out at the barren desert landscape. He pulled into the
parking lot of the hotel.

“
Have I hurt you?” Ava
asked.

“
The situation hurts,” Seth
said. “I understand how you feel, but to me, you’re the same woman
I met. You’re the same woman I held while you sobbed in the shower
when Beth was killed. You’re the same woman who came to live with
me after your father sold your condo. You’re the same woman who
screamed and threw things when your father was arrested and sold
out your mother and sisters. And now, you’re the same woman
experiencing deep grief over the loss of her sister. To me, you
haven’t changed, but I understand you feel different to you. I know
what that feels like.”

Ava leaned toward him. Her hand stroked his
cheek, and she kissed him.

“
And I think you’re wrong,”
Seth said.

“
Wrong?”

“
You are like me – you’re
calm and directed in the middle of the storm. According to your
mother, Dale, your sisters, you’ve been that way your entire life.
It’s who you are. I get that you don’t feel stable right now, but
that doesn’t mean that you aren’t. Mostly, I think you’re
exhausted.”

Thinking about what he said, Ava stared at
him.

“
One thing that is constant
is that I love you,” Ava said. “That’s what confuses me the most.
How can I still love you so much and. . . all of
this?”

“
Maybe because we find our
true selves through our love for each other,” Seth said.

Ava gave him a puzzled look.

“
Come on,” Seth said.
“Let’s rescue our puppy, clean up, and get some pizza.”

“
And cuddle?”

“
Are you up for that?” Seth
asked.

“
I’m confused, O’Malley,
not dead,” Ava laughed and got out of the truck.

Shaking his head, he followed her into the
hotel.

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TWENTY-EIGHT

“
Seth?” Ava said when she
opened the door to the bathroom where he was showering. “Captain
Ferguson is on the phone.”

“
What’s he want?” Seth
asked.

“
He won’t tell me,” Ava
said. “I’m going to take Clara out while you and your boyfriend
discuss your business. I ordered the pizza.”

Seth nodded his thanks.

“
Are you coming out?” Ava
asked.

“
I’m not sure,” Seth
said.

“
Tell you what,” Ava said.
“I’ll leave the phone right here.”

She leaned in to give him a stirring kiss
and left the bathroom. He waited a minute for his pulse to even,
before getting out to talk to Captain Ferguson.

“
O’Malley.”

“
It’s about blooming time,”
Ferg said.

Seth laughed. He wrapped a towel around his
waist and went into the room to find his clothes.

“
I hope I’m interrupting
something good,” Ferg said. “You naked?”

“
I just got out of the
shower. So, yes.”

“
And Ava?”

“
She left with the dog,”
Seth said.

“
Naked?” Ferg
laughed.

“
You sound chipper,” Seth
said.

“
I sent Harry to the
airport to follow up on your lead,” Ferg said. “I thought some
good-looking bait might catch us a young lady killer.”

“
What did handsome Harry
catch on his fishing trip?”

“
A killer,” Ferg said.
“Well . . .”

“
What happened?”

“
We found her on the
manifest for a flight from DIA to Los Angeles,” Ferg
said.

“
Going after Yvonne,” Seth
said.

“
And she knew where Yvonne
was,” Ferg said. “I didn’t know where Yvonne was – no one here knew
where she was, how . . .?”

“
Whoever hired the Blooms
has access to a lot of secure information,” Seth said. “The son,
Hillery Bloom the third, came after Vivian today.”

“
In Rapid City?”

“
Yep,” Seth
said.

“
Someone has contacts,”
Ferg said. “I swear it’s not . . .”

“
Never occurred to
me.”

“
It better not,” Ferg
said.

“
What happened with Harry?”
Seth found his underwear in a ball near the bed. Holding the phone
between his shoulder and ear, he pulled them on.

“
Right,” Ferg said. “I sent
Harry to DIA. He used his badge to get on the terminal. He found
her right away in the waiting area. He called us, and tech patched
us into their security cameras. You should have seen her. She
looked like a kid. She sat leaned over with her hands between her
knees. Her head was down, eyes closed, like she was a little
praying angel. Her face was all puffy like she’d been crying. Broke
my heart.”

“
She’s eighteen,” Seth
said. He looked around the room for his pants. Seeing the Bluetooth
headset Ava called his “fallopian tube” on the table, he stuck it
in his ear. “Legally an adult.”

“
It’s hard to
imagine. . .”

“
I know.” Around the time
the fallopian tube connected to his phone, he found his pants near
the door.

“
Anyway, she got up to get
a coffee from one of those places near the escalators at the
entrance to the concourse. Harry thought he’d bag her out there
where there were less people around,” Ferg said. “But they play the
televisions in the hallway. Harry was walking behind her when she
stopped short at a TV. Harry almost ran into her.”

“
She saw her mom and
sisters?” Seth set the phone next to the bar sink and put on his
pants.

“
She saw them getting on
the helicopter to come here,” Ferg said. “The poor kid. She started
bawling. Just right there. Harry asked her if he could help, and
she said she needed to find a policeman. Harry is a policeman, so .
. .”

“
What did she say?” Seth
looked around the room for his holster and shirt.

“
She said that she had done
something terrible because her mother and sisters were being held
hostage,” Ferg said.

“
Where is she now?” Seth
found his T-shirt near the bed.

“
Safe,” Ferg said. “Harry’s
with her. He told her that he would stay with her. He already
called his sister to have her come in as Hillary’s attorney. But
Seth, the girl’s a wreck. She wants to see her mom and sisters.
They’re at Denver Health. I told them I’d ask you . . .”

“
It’s a good idea.” Seth
saw his holster and handgun hanging on the desk chair. “If she
knows they’re really safe, she can tell us what she
knows.”

“
I’ll tell Harry,” Ferg
said.

“
Do you know if the coroner
got to the autopsy on Hillery Bloom, Jr.?” Seth asked. “Hang
on.”

Seth pulled his T-shirt on and slipped on
his holster.

“
Sorry, I missed that,”
Seth said. “I’m getting dressed.”

“
You asked about Grandpa
Bloom?” Ferg asked. “Yep, the coroner said she sent an email to
your phone.”

“
With pictures?” Seth saw
his dress shirt in a ball behind the bedside table under the
curtains.

“
No idea,” Ferg said. “She
asked me, if I talked to you, to tell you to check your
email.”

“
Thanks for the update,”
Seth said. “And tell your son he did really good.”

“
I’m proud of
him.”

“
You should be,” Seth said.
“It’s the kind of job that sounds easy but takes a lot of finesse.
It’s really good work.”

When Ferg hung up, Seth kneeled down to grab
his dress shirt. The door to the room opened.

“
Go,” Ava ordered Clara
into her crate. Her voice was tense. From his position behind the
table next to the curtains, he could only see the side of her
face.

“
Where is he?” a man’s
voice asked.

Seth realized his phone was on the sink. He
couldn’t call for help if he wanted to.

“
Who?” Ava
asked.

“
O’Malley.”

Seth slipped his handgun from the
holster.

“
Who?” Ava worked her voice
so that she sounded confused.

“
Don’t fuck with me,” the
man said. “He rented this room. I know, because Delores
told
me.”

“
Why do you care?” Ava
asked. “You have a contract for me.”

“
He’s on the list,” the man
said. “Oh, you’d better believe he’s on the list.”

“
Listen . . .” Ava must
have taken a step toward him, because there was a scuffle. Ava fell
to the ground. Their eyes caught under the bed. He shook his head
and motioned for her to stay down.

“
Hill,” She mouthed and
held up three fingers. He nodded.

“
I don’t want to do this,”
Hill-three said. “You don’t have any idea what he’ll do, or what
he’s capable of. You think you’ve rescued them. He will hunt them
to the ends of the earth and kill them like dogs. The only way to
stop him is to get O’Malley. That’s what his phone message said,
‘Get O’Malley.’ This is the only way . . . the only way .
. .”

With his handgun trained on the man, Seth
slowly stood up.

“
Your father’s dead,” Seth
said.

Seth kept his voice even and his demeanor
calm. Hill-three had worked himself up into such a state that any
fast movement could mean death to himself or Ava.

“
He’s not dead. How can he
be dead?” Hill-three waved the handgun in the air. “You’re trying
to trick me. But I won’t be fooled. I won’t be. Meldy, the girls,
Hillary – they’re depending on me, and I won’t fail.”

When Hill-three grit his teeth and pointed
the handgun, Seth fired.

TWENTY-NINE

The bullet ripped a channel in Hill-three’s
forehead and lodged in the seam between the ceiling and the wall.
The force from the shot knocked Hill-three back. He bounced off the
wall and hopped to his feet.