Tough Justice Series Box Set: Parts 1-8

Was one of their names Eve?

Was she going to be killed tonight?

Maybe she already had been?

Lara’s stomach tightened. She spotted the hanging bathroom signs and made her way through the crowd. The image of Elizabeth Grant lying on her side in the Macy’s dressing room pushed to the forefront of her mind. She hoped she wouldn’t find the same scene waiting for her again.

The bathrooms were at the end of the hall, close to the back door for employees only. If the Black Stamp Serial Killer had wanted, he could have easily snuck in from the alley earlier in the night and taken out his prey with little to no visibility. At least now Xander was in position, watching all of the team’s collective backs.

Lara pushed into the public two-stall bathroom with her hand already on the butt of her gun beneath her jacket. The soft sounds of a radio looping Nineties music filled the blue-walled bathroom, mixing with the smell of spilled perfumed hand soap and stale cigarettes. Making the scenery much different than the bar down the hall.

Both stall doors were closed.

“Anyone in here?” Lara asked, hand not leaving her gun.

No one answered. She dropped down to look beneath the doors, careful not to put her knees on the tile. Lara let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding on to. There were no feet or bodies on the ground. Still she pushed open each door to make sure.

Bathroom’s clean, she texted her team. She moved her jacket back so it would conceal her piece again and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair lay flat against her head, mimicking the wariness she had been battling since being called by Victoria that morning. Her eyes also told the same story. On a normal day the green of them looked alive. Now they stared back at her with a dull glint. The beginnings of dark circles ringed beneath them. She let out another breath. It shook. Nothing was going right. Nothing was making sense. Cass had tried to trace the cell number that had texted her but it couldn’t be traced. Of course it couldn’t be traced. That would have made things slightly more controllable for them. Having one answer instead of just another few questions of who the texter was and how had they gotten her number. Cass had also checked. No one named Eve worked at Hot Spot. Lara let out another not-so-stable breath. Waiting for their killer to strike had her more keyed up than she had originally thought.

Her attention returned when her phone vibrated in her hand.

Nothing suspicious out front. Moving back to the van in five, Ty responded. On the heels of that text came Xander’s.

All’s clear out here too.

Which meant whatever was going to happen was going to take place inside of the packed bar. Lara gave her reflection a smile before leaving. It was weak, and not even she bought its authenticity.

Mei was in the middle of doing another scan of the room as Lara walked past to the bar. She was doing an excellent job of looking dejected. It made Lara wonder if the female agent had been stood up before. That thought led to the man sitting at the bar. Nick had opened up to her about his past, and she had let her guard down enough to let him see the more personal side of her. One topic they hadn’t broached was their past relationships. Was he the man who would wait at a bar for his date, or was he the man who kept the other waiting? On cue Lara’s cheeks heated. Her lips tingled at the memory of their quick kiss in another bar.

The heat that pulsed through them where they had joined.

The craving to push the boundaries until nothing was between them but skin and sweat.

Lara shook her head. She needed to refocus and ask the bartender if they knew any regulars who went by the name Eve.

It was a simple plan—direct, even—but Lara needed to find the connection and quick if they had any chance of potentially saving a woman’s life.

She went to the end of the bar, to the far left of Nick, and cleared her throat. The two men hanging against the counter paused their conversation long enough to shuffle to the side, giving Lara barely enough room to squeeze in. She thought about flashing her badge or gun to make them learn some manners, but all entertaining thoughts quickly flew out the window as Lara’s eyes settled on Hot Spot’s current bartender.

Lara found her connection all right.

Slinging drinks as if she’d been born to do it was none other than Meghan Leary.

Her sister.

What the hell?

Meghan was thirty-two, had long brown hair, wide hazel eyes, legs that kept going, and Bartholomew Grant’s strong nose. What she didn’t have was the same mother as Lara.

Bartholomew had left Meghan and her mother when she was barely one for a pregnant Anna. It was something that her half sister never forgot and definitely never forgave. Meghan claimed Lara’s mother stole her father. It had created an always present rift that had widened tenfold when Anna was killed.

“Your home-wrecking mother got what she deserved,” the eleven-year-old Meghan had yelled, chilling the young Lara right to the bones.

Meghan’s mother and all her close family and associates had alibis for the murder, so any bitterness they had all felt had been just that. But that didn’t stop Lara from not fighting the rapidly growing disconnect between her and her half sister. They’d barely had contact before then, and, Lara quickly calculated, the two hadn’t talked or seen each other since they were teens.

And now here she was, staring at a memory in the flesh.

But was that memory the one haunting her now? The one sending the texts? Catching Nick’s eye, she pulled his gaze to the phone in her hand and started a message to her team.

The surprise seems to be in the form of my half sister, the bartender. Not sure how’s she connected. Meghan Leary. Cass, check her background?

Lara didn’t get a chance to see if Nick read the text before the bartender moved over to her.

“What can I get—” Meghan stopped. Her question fell away. Her hand and the rag in it froze midair.

Lara might not have liked her half sister, but right then and there she made a decision without any concrete facts. Meghan wasn’t the instigator. She was a potential victim.

Meghan’s surprise at seeing Lara was so pronounced, so genuine that for a moment Lara forgot to speak.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Apparently Meghan could handle the shock better than her younger sister. Her face twisted into a scowl. She still hadn’t forgiven Lara for the actions of their father.

“We need to talk,” Lara said, raising her voice above the conversation next to her. Meghan’s frown turned to an expression of incredulity at her request. Before she could refuse, Lara pulled out her badge and placed it on the bar top. “Now.”

Meghan looked between the ID and Lara.

“I heard you were FBI,” she finally responded. There was no note of surprise or appreciation in her tone. “I have a twenty-minute break coming up in five. Can you at least wait until then?”

Lara wanted to say no. She wanted to tell Meghan that for once in her life she needed to absolutely listen to Lara. And to do it now. However, as Lara looked at her only living relative, she couldn’t help but back down.

“I’ll stay right here until then,” she consented. “Your five minutes start now.”

Meghan rolled her eyes and went back to taking orders.

Five minutes later, on the dot, Lara led them to the table against the wall that Mei had vacated. She took the seat opposite the woman and marveled at how much she’d changed since they’d seen one another. Taller, for sure. Curvy but purposely so. A cluster of outlined birds was tattooed below her collarbone and Lara quickly noted the several piercings on the woman’s right ear. Meghan the bartender wasn’t as clean-cut as she had been when they were younger. What had once been an almost prissy, preppy disposition had obviously evolved throughout the years they had been apart.

Lara wondered if Meghan was cataloging all of the changes in her. Were there any? Yes, there were. She felt it in her bones. The day her mother had been killed had changed her. The day her father had been blamed had only pushed her further. Meghan might still see her as the naive, innocent little girl she’d once been.