It was confirmation that the shooter had set me up, but he’d made a glaring mistake. He should have killed the man and left the woman as a witness. That would have been much more difficult for me to disprove. Since leaving the military I’ve earned a name as a vigilante. I’ve gone up against some bad people, stopped them from hurting the innocent: but I don’t make war on women.

“There are some cops who admire what you’ve done—not that they’d ever publicly admit it—but they ain’t gonna let you go when they think you’ve murdered an innocent.”

Some cops. Like Castle.

But there wouldn’t be a cop from Tampa PD—or from anywhere else in the country—who would be sympathetic toward me now.

I told Rink what had just happened down by Garrison Channel.

“Goddamnit! Why didn’t you just put down your gun? We could’ve cleared this up in no time.”

“Couldn’t do it, Rink. I’m being set up for something. For a start, the shooter would’ve known his plan was finished with. Probably he’d have just shot me dead.”

Rink cursed and ranted for a while, but he knew that I was right.

“The only way I’m going to put this right is to find him, Rink.” Giving him the license-plate number of the Ford, I asked him to check it out. “It’s most likely a stolen vehicle, but it’s a start.”

“I’ll get on to it. Y’know, I had a bad feelin’ that somethin’ was going down.”

“How’s that?”

“Got a call from an old friend of yours, said he wanted to speak to you.”

“Who?”

“You remember Bryce Lang?”

How could I forget?

Somehow I had the feeling that things were only going to get much worse.

Chapter 5

5

“Alisha! What’s keeping you?”

Rickard’s wife of two years peered out from the walk-in closet with just the right amount of fear in her eyes. “I’m making myself nice for you, Luke,” she said, teasing a blond lock behind an ear, “just like you asked.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I . . . I can’t find anything to wear.”

“Step out here.”

“But I’m not ready yet.”

“I won’t ask again, Alisha.”

Alisha came out of the closet with one arm crooked over her chest.

“Take your hand away,” Rickard told her. “I didn’t spend thousands of dollars for you to hide yourself from me.”

Alisha allowed her arm to slip away. Unsure of what to do with her hands she toyed with the small bow on the hip of her low-slung Agent Provocateur briefs.

“There now.” Rickard smiled up at her from the divan, his eyes lingering on her silicone-augmented breasts. “Pretty as a picture, Alisha.”