Mindy prayed it would work.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TWOMILESEASTof downtown Dallas, Fair Park encompassed 277 acres of beautifully landscaped ground. Built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, it contained a complex of museums, entertainment venues, monuments and landmarks, one of which was the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The rendezvous was set to take place near the flagpole, in a granite seating area not far from the memorial wall. Trees and buildings surrounded the spot, enough to provide distant cover for SWAT team marksman and other MAX team members—or at least that was the plan.
Jax and Maddox would be closer, there for Mindy’s protection if the exchange went wrong. She knew they would do everything in their power to keep her safe—even at the risk of their own lives.
She nervously fidgeted as she drove her little VW Bug down Parry Avenue, turned off the road onto a lane that led to the parking lot closest to the memorial.
Jax and Maddox had left for the park hours ago, as soon as the police arrived at the apartment to provide protection. They needed to recon the area, Jax said, find a secure location to be ready for her arrival at the rendezvous point. They planned to go after the men they were sure would be coming with Susan DeMarco and “quietly take them out.”
Mindy didn’t ask what that meant. She was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.
After Maddox and Gunderson had departed last night, she and Jax had spent the remainder of the evening in bed, Jax making wild, possessive love to her. It was as if he wanted to absorb her into his skin, as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
Mindy felt the same. Anything could happen. They both knew it, accepted it.
“I’m crazy about you,” Jax had said during a particularly sweet interlude as he drew her down into his arms. “Tell me you feel the same about me.”
She couldn’t lie to him. If things went wrong tomorrow, she could be killed—or he could be—and they would never see each other again. She swallowed, forced herself to say the words that crowded her throat.
“I love you, Jax. You probably don’t want to hear that, and it doesn’t change anything, but—”
He came up over her swiftly, silenced her words with a fierce, demanding kiss. “I love you, too, honey. I’ve never said those words before. I don’t want to lose you. I want us to work things out.”
Her eyes teared. “Jax...”
“It can work, baby. We can make it work. We’ll talk to Chase, convince him to let you keep your job. Say you love me enough to try.”
She swallowed past the thick lump in her throat. It was insane. She had dreamed of Jaxon Ryker, dreamed of spending time with him, making love with him, dreamed he would look at her the way he was looking at her now, his dark eyes filled with yearning. But it was only a fantasy.Wasn’t it?
But what if it wasn’t? What if he loved her the way he said? Because she knew in her heart that she was deeply in love with him.
“I don’t want to lose you, either.” It was as much as she was willing to say, and it was the truth. Now that she had been with him, giving him up would be the hardest thing she had ever done.
Jax ran a finger along her cheek, leaned down and softly kissed her, accepting the words as enough for now. He made love to her again, slowly and with tender care, and they finally fell asleep.
Morning came way too soon.
Now she was pulling her red VW into a parking space and turning off the engine, taking a couple of deep breaths for courage.
Unconsciously, she touched the wire she was wearing beneath her lavender print blouse. She had dressed in jean leggings and put on a pair of sneakers—in case she needed to run—pulled her long hair into a ponytail for the same reason. Determined to know as much as possible about what she would be doing, she had Googled audio surveillance that morning as soon as she had finished dressing.
Body wires were covert devices you could put in your pockets or on your body to send conversations to a radio surveillance receiver. With the receiver, you could either listen or connect to an audio recorder. The police would be doing both.
A female officer named Pamela Wrigley had brought the device to Jax’s apartment, but she had rejected the notion of putting the wire in one of Mindy’s pockets.
“Too easy to find,” the officer said. She was tall and long-legged, her skin lightly weathered and darkly tanned. She taped the small device, about two and a half inches square, under Mindy’s breasts.
“You’re getting top-of-the-line equipment,” Officer Wrigley said with a smile. “Model G1416. It’s got a 300-megawatt power transmitter. They won’t have any trouble hearing you.”
“Good to know,” Mindy said with only a touch of sarcasm.
The police would be listening to the conversation from inside a van disguised as a landscape maintenance truck. Jax and Maddox would both be wearing earbuds, linking them into the conversation.
Mindy tried not to look for the van as she climbed out of her car and started across the grass toward the rendezvous point. There weren’t many people around, the reason the guys had chosen the spot, just a man sitting on a park bench with a baby stroller in front of him—a policeman in disguise—and a woman walking her dog in the distance. Perhaps another officer; Mindy didn’t know.
