Eyewitness Man and Wife Read online

  Ree saw the vehicle barreling toward them...

  Quint pulled out a Glock at the same time Ree pulled hers. Cell phone in one hand, she tried to snap a picture of the license plate of the black Acura gunning for them.

  “I’ll swerve as he gets close, blocking the road. You bolt out the passenger side and get to our witness’s family,” Quint said. All this would be for nothing if they couldn’t save Ivan’s wife and daughter. He would clam up faster than a metal trap stepped on by a bear.

  “Let’s do this,” Ree said.

  Quint stomped the brake, causing the truck to slant sideways before screeching to a halt. The second it slowed down, Ree made a run for it.

  Gunfire caused her to duck, then run in a zigzag to make herself a more difficult target. Cell phone in hand, Ree fired off a text to their standby Bureau contact. The only word she needed to send was help...

  EYEWITNESS MAN AND WIFE

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Barb Han

  USA TODAY bestselling author Barb Han lives in north Texas with her very own hero-worthy husband, three beautiful children, a spunky golden retriever/standard poodle mix and too many books in her to-read pile. In her downtime, she plays video games and spends much of her time on or around a basketball court. She loves interacting with readers and is grateful for their support. You can reach her at barbhan.com.

  Books by Barb Han

  Harlequin Intrigue

  A Ree and Quint Novel

  Undercover Couple

  Newlywed Assignment

  Eyewitness Man and Wife

  An O’Connor Family Mystery

  Texas Kidnapping

  Texas Target

  Texas Law

  Texas Baby Conspiracy

  Texas Stalker

  Texas Abduction

  Rushing Creek Crime Spree

  Cornered at Christmas

  Ransom at Christmas

  Ambushed at Christmas

  What She Did

  What She Knew

  What She Saw

  Decoding a Criminal

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Emmaline Ree Sheppard, aka Ree—This ATF agent will do anything to protect a partner who refuses to save himself.

  Quinton Casey, aka Quint—This hotshot ATF agent blames himself for the death of his pregnant partner, Tessa, and will stop at nothing to put the person responsible behind bars, which endangers himself in the process.

  Axel Ivan—Set up for a prison-yard murder, he just might offer the key to the investigation.

  Giselle Langley—This mistress leads the investigation to Dumitru’s right hand, but is she truly what she appears to be?

  Vadik Gajov—This ruthless criminal is the right hand of crime boss Dumitru.

  Dumitru—The ultimate target and person responsible for Tessa’s murder is elusive—too much so?

  All my love to Brandon, Jacob and Tori, the three great loves of my life.

  To Babe, my hero, for being my best friend, greatest love and my place to call home.

  I love you all with everything that I am.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Excerpt from Closing in on the Cowboy by Carla Cassidy

  Chapter One

  Agent Quinton Casey stood on the porch of the two-bedroom bungalow with his fist raised and ready to knock. This visit was supposed to be him showing up with a suitcase in hand, ready to personally measure Ree Sheppard’s bed to see if it was big enough to fit him and her together. The invitation to try a sleepover unrelated to their jobs as undercover ATF agents—they’d been partners on the last two cases—wasn’t something Quint had intended on wasting. Halfway down the Texas highway in between Fairfield and Madisonville, things had changed when he got a call from Agent Grappell, the desk agent who had been assigned to their previous cases. Now, Quint had to deliver the news that the person they’d arrested a couple of days ago had been killed in jail, along with any hope they would be able to get a name from him or a trail to follow like they’d hoped.

  Quint lowered his elbow and put his hand on his hip instead. The direct link to a crime ring responsible for killing his best friend and fellow agent was gone forever.

  Raising his fist once again to knock, the door swung open. Emmaline Ree Sheppard stood there with a confused look on her face. His lips still sizzled from the heat in their last kiss, but he couldn’t let himself think about that right now.

  “Are you going to stand here all day or decide to knock?” Ree asked. She crossed her arms over her chest, shifted her weight to one side, and chewed on the inside of her cheek as she studied him. She glanced at his hands, no doubt noticing the lack of suitcase. “What is it? What’s wrong, Quint? Because if this is about you letting me down easy or telling me there will be no sleepovers, you didn’t need to drive all the way out here to do th—”

  “Constantin is dead.” Ever since hearing the news, Quint had felt lost.

  “What? How did this happen? He was in solitary confinement,” she said, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth, all color drained from her face. She’d been there alongside him in Houston for the undercover sting that had ended with Constantin in handcuffs and the promise he would talk for a more lenient sentence. She clearly realized the trail to finding and locking up Tessa’s killer had dried up once again. All the work done on the last two undercover cases that had led to this bust had gone up in smoke.

  “Prisoners get an hour a day outside in the yard. It’s supposed to be alone, but the guards said there was a paperwork error and he ended up with the regular population,” Quint informed her, clenching his back teeth in a failed attempt to bite back some of his anger. He knew full well a guard had to have been paid off for a prisoner to be strangled to death in the yard. This also brought him back to the men who’d been arrested the night Tessa was shot. A-12 was the group he and Tessa had spent weeks cracking. They’d gotten in, but since drugs were involved the DEA showed up on bust day. Politics had been involved, since there were political ties to the case, and the governor needed a win against crime. Everything about the case got complicated. They busted five guys, but Quint always felt it was the tip of the iceberg. One of his informants gave him the name Dumitru as the head of the A-12 crime ring before the bust went down. Once the dust settled and he checked back, no one arrested went by that name. All five of the others, however, died in prison within two weeks of each other—two suspected suicides, and two had been outright killed. The last guy was put in solitary confinement for his own protection, but he was poisoned.

  And now Constantin was dead.

  “This is bad, Quint.” Ree opened the door a little more before turning around and walking away. He’d noticed that she’d glanced at his empty hand twice and decided this wasn’t the time to tell h
er that he’d left his suitcase in the car. The whole point of bringing it in the first place was to see what might happen if they were together for personal reasons.

  He closed the door behind him before walking to the small dining table next to the kitchen, where she was putting on a pot of coffee. He’d left his case folder in the vehicle, too. It was never far despite the fact this was supposed to be a social visit.

  “A guard ‘found’ him about an hour and a half ago facedown in the grassy area behind the basketball post, strangled to death,” Quint explained, smacking his flat palm on the small table. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Every person who could have helped him get to the person responsible for Tessa’s death had ended up dead.

  “We’ll find another trail,” Ree said, pouring fresh coffee in a pair of mugs. She handed one over, then took a sip from her own. “Give it some time.”

  Quint issued a sharp sigh.

  “I do realize patience isn’t your finest asset,” she said with a smile that caused a little bit of the ice encasing his heart to chip away. This visit was supposed to have gone a whole lot differently than this and should have ended up with the two of them tangled in the sheets. He wanted nothing more than to get lost with Ree, if only for a couple of hours. But it would be a temporary break. The demons would return and he would be right back to this same spot of anger and frustration. “I always thought it was your eyes.”

  “Keep saying stuff like that and I’ll be forced to lean across this table and kiss you,” he said. The round table was small for a person of his considerable size. At six feet three inches he’d never be accused of being short. Closing the distance between them wouldn’t take much in the way of effort.

  “What’s stopping you?” she asked. It was a distraction, but it was also working.

  “Your wish is my command.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers, releasing a little of the pent-up frustration burning him from the inside out. There was something about Ree that helped him remain calm, no matter how irritated he got with a case. She had a soothing presence underneath that fiery red hair of hers that reminded him of all things fall, his favorite time of year. Those auburn locks fell well past her shoulders and brought out the emerald green in her eyes—eyes that were shielded by the thickest, blackest lashes he’d ever seen. Those eyes had a piercing quality that made him relieved he wasn’t sitting on the opposite side of an interrogation table from her. She would see right through lies and into the depths of a person’s soul.

  After pulling back from the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers. Memories of the line they’d crossed on their last case flooded him. Having sex was supposed to tamp down some of the ache he felt whenever she was in the same room. Instead, it only made him want to be with her even more. Great job there, Quint.

  “I did bring it,” he said, referring to the suitcase.

  “I know,” she said without missing a beat.

  “Then why did you give me ‘the look’ at the door?” he asked, leaning back in his seat and grabbing his coffee mug. He needed a caffeine boost to clear his thoughts.

  “Because you didn’t have it in your hand, which meant you had second thoughts.” She picked up her coffee mug and stared inside.

  “About us taking our relationship to the next level? Never,” he confided. “The timing? There’s where the doubts come in.”

  “Working together is a problem if we’re going to date,” she agreed, her lips compressing into a frown.

  “Right now, I need you as my partner,” he said. “I can’t risk you asking to be reassigned because our chemistry fizzles.”

  “Is that what you think is going to happen?” Ree stood up and crossed into the kitchen like she needed to put space between them. She didn’t stop until she was at the farthest point from him, and she rolled the coffee mug in between her palms, fuming. It seemed to be taking great effort for her not to speak her mind.

  Quint’s cell buzzed, interrupting the moment, and he couldn’t decide if it was a good thing or not.

  “Hold that thought?” he asked as he fished the phone out of his front pocket.

  Ree gave a slight nod. Not a great sign but at least she was still willing to talk to him. The fizzle comment had sounded so much better inside his head. It never should have slipped through his filter and come out in a way that put whatever was happening between them in a bad light. But he also couldn’t give her what she deserved until he put the bastard who’d been responsible for Tessa’s death behind bars. An annoying voice in the back of his head picked that moment to ask if locking up Dumitru would be enough. It wouldn’t bring back Tessa or her unborn baby.

  “It’s Agent Grappell,” he said, checking the screen before answering.

  “I have good news,” Grappell said. Working weekends came with the territory of an undercover agent, but Grappell always went above and beyond the call of a desk agent. “Well, not exactly good but better.”

  “Okay. Mind if I put you on speaker?” Quint asked. “Ree’s in the room.”

  “She is?” Grappell didn’t hide his surprise. Considering it was the weekend and their last case was closed, there wasn’t an official reason for the two of them to be together. Quint’s personal life wasn’t up for discussion. For all Grappell knew, Quint could have shown up to tell Ree the news about Constantin in person.

  “Yes,” Quint confirmed.

  “Of course. Put her on the line.”

  Quint tapped the screen and motioned for Ree to come closer. She stood her ground in the kitchen and shot him the look that said she was in no mood. He realized in that moment just how big his mistake with her had been.

  * * *

  REE COULD LISTEN just fine from where she stood in the kitchen, tapping her toe. The word fizzle would forever be on the list of words she never wanted to hear again in any context. Right now, it needed to go on the back burner so she could focus on what Agent Grappell had to say.

  “We have a name of the prisoner who is being held responsible for Constantin’s death,” Grappell said after perfunctory greetings. “Of course, the warden said he is conducting a full investigation. However, Bjorn was able to pressure him into providing details since they pertain to our ongoing investigation.”

  A few thoughts ran through Ree’s mind. Was this person aware of whom he’d killed? Another thought—did he really care? Was he a patsy? Was he given a pack of cigarettes and extra privileges to take out the new prisoner?

  “And?” Quint asked. The rim of his coffee cup suddenly became very interesting. She didn’t need to look him in the eyes to realize he would have those same questions.

  “You’ve been granted permission to interview him,” Grappell said.

  Quint lifted his gaze toward her, but Ree turned to look out the kitchen window.

  “You’d have a voice box, of course,” Grappell continued. A voice box would distort their voices so they wouldn’t be identifiable later to the person being interviewed or anyone else around. “And you’d be able to see him, but he’d be looking at a two-way mirror.”

  The usual protocol would be in place.

  “Why would this guy tell us anything?” Ree asked.

  “If he’s convicted, he would be facing the chair. Says he’ll be killed long before then and it’ll be made to look like a suicide. All the guy says he wants is to live long enough for his daughter to graduate high school in four years. She’s a freshman,” Grappell informed them.

  “Strange request from an inmate who just committed murder,” Ree said.

  “The guy says he had no choice,” Grappell said.

  “Isn’t that what they all say?” Ree quipped.

  “He wants a transfer to a prison closer to his wife and daughter, too,” Grappell continued. “Said if he gives up names, he’ll have a target on his back if he isn’t moved.”

  “What’s he in for?” Qu
int asked.

  “Weapons charges,” Grappell said. “The arresting officer in this case was almost one-hundred-percent certain this guy was covering for someone else when he was busted.”

  “He was willing to take a fall for someone in A-12?” Quint asked. Ree already knew the crime ring was notorious for running guns and had been difficult to pin down because they trusted few people, kept their operation slim and efficient, and the few people on the lower rungs of the ladder had to be willing to take a fall when necessary. It was part of their code. The business was lucrative for those who were able to make the commitment.

  “He was in A-12,” Grappell stated.

  “Why would he turn on them now?” Quint asked.

  “First of all, he already gave a statement denying involvement with the death of the new inmate. He said a guard did and that he can prove it. He was a witness to the crime,” Grappell continued.

  “Is he threatening with a lawyer?” Quint asked.

  “No, not yet anyway,” Grappell stated.

  “I’m confused. Why would he go against a major crime ring with the power to kill someone on the inside who is supposed to be in solitary confinement?” Ree asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “He says his wife and kid are in danger and need to go into Witness Protection immediately,” Grappell stated. “Someone will come for them the minute word leaks that he’s talking or being moved. He begged for protection for his family. Said we could lock him up for the rest of his life and throw away the key, but please keep his family safe. He finished by saying once he was gone they would come for his family.”

  “What did Bjorn say?” Quint asked. Lynn Bjorn was their boss. She would have to approve any moves they made.

  “I called you first,” Grappell admitted. “I’m in the process of writing up the request now but I know how important this case is to you. This guy is willing to talk and, if what he’s saying is true, we can’t waste time.”

  “Where does his family live?” Ree asked.