Release. Jo Leigh

on a map, he was in this fight to the end. Because of Kate. Because if anything happened to her, he wasn’t at all sure what he would do. She was the first—and last—woman he would ever love. And when it was over, when Omicron was exposed and Kate had her identity back, he planned on having one hell of a good life with her. Yeah. Just the two of them. So he’d be careful. Damn careful.

      He’d had to wait until nightfall to come. Nate was pretty sure that Baker’s house was under surveillance, so they had to be in full stealth mode.

      Kate had wanted to come, but he’d made up some bullshit about needing Nate to break in when the truth was he just wanted to keep her out of danger. It wasn’t possible, of course. Just knowing what she knew was enough to get her killed. But he didn’t have to watch it happen.

      He would never have believed meeting Kate would have led him here. To quit his job as an LAPD homicide detective, to become part of this team of fugitives. Almost more unbelievable is that he’d had to go to Corky Baker and ask the reporter for help. He and Baker had a long, unhappy history of bumping into each other at murder scenes. Vince trying to solve them, Baker trying to earn Brownie points from his editor by snooping everywhere he didn’t belong. That very trait made him the right man to get on Omicron’s case.

      Of course Vince had realized he was putting Baker in harm’s way. But this was the big time, the real deal, and if Baker ever wanted a chance for a Pulitzer, this was it.

      Which was why Vince was worried as hell that Baker hadn’t checked in. He and Nate were dressed in black, like movie burglars, and they each had black ski masks to cover their pale white faces.

      He felt stupid, as if this was all blown way out of proportion, even as the logical part of him knew the precautions weren’t nearly enough.

      Without a word, they got out of the truck and headed toward the house, but they went via backyards and, briefly, across an alley. It was a little tricky to pick out the right house, as Vince had only come through the front door before.

      Once they’d scaled the fence, Vince knew he’d found the right place. What bothered him was that he couldn’t remember if Baker had a dog. He remembered the kid, about eleven, cute, which meant he must have taken after his mom.

      Nate pulled out a penlight, small but strong, and led them past the swimming pool. It was covered over for the winter, and leaves from the nearby trees had settled on the plastic.

      Before they even attempted to get in, Nate did his thing with the alarm system. Vince waited by the back door, trying to come up with a reason Baker wouldn’t have called, but none of the excuses held water.

      Vince would have told him to forget it if they hadn’t needed him so badly. Truth be told, Baker was turning out to be damn good at his job. Go figure.

      “The alarm’s not on,” Nate said quietly. “And it’s not broken.”

      “Shit.” Those bad feelings had been right on the money. Dammit. “Let’s do this.”

      Despite what he’d told Kate, it was Vince himself who broke in. He had a nifty lock-pick set he’d gotten from a lifer he’d sent up three years ago. It took all of about ten seconds before the lock clicked and they were inside the dark, quiet house.

      Once they’d closed the door, Nate got out a special little gadget that Vince had heard about but never seen. It was a monitor, the size of an iPod, that searched out video and audio signals. The little gizmo would alert them if there was a camera or a mike anywhere in the house. He watched intently as Nate pressed some buttons. It didn’t take long for Nate to give the go-ahead.

      Vince got his own flashlight out and led Nate past the big grand piano and the long glass coffee table until they were just outside Baker’s office.