Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

darling,” he said. “But I had to be certain.” He licked her tear from his thumb. “My SSA isn’t going to like the idea that Lee is a victim rather than a thief.”
    She took in a ragged breath that owed as much to Sam’s gentleness as to her grief for Lee. “W-why?”
    “Why am I touching you?” Sam asked wryly. “Because I can’t help it.” He stepped back, beyond reach. “As for Kennedy, if Lee is a victim, the FBI looks stupid. Again.”
    Kate leaned back against the worktable. It wasn’t enough. She braced her hands on the lip of the table. The man took her breath and the world away one instant, and regretted it the next.
    Last night hadn’t changed anything.
    “Damn it, Sam,” she whispered.
    “Yes,” he said. “Damn it. Wrong time. Wrong place. Right woman.” He blew out a long breath. “My fault. I’m supposed to be trained, disciplined, and walk on water.” He shoved his hands in his jeans. “Anyway, my SSA is going to shit a brick when he finds out about you and Lee.”
    “When will that be?”
    “The instant we get a DNA match from Florida,” Sam said reluctantly. “I can’t hide you past that.”
    “I know. You told me.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “You told me that too.” She smiled sadly. “It’s all right, SpecialAgent Sam Groves. I wanted to make the FBI pay attention to Lee’s death. I succeeded. If anything happens to me because of that, it’s my doing, not yours.”
    Sam opened his mouth to tell her how wrong she was.
    His cell phone rang.
    He yanked it out of his back pocket and glared at the number. My SAC. That’s just fucking beautiful.
    Sam wanted to pretend that he wasn’t home. Hell, he wanted to pretend he wasn’t even on the same planet.
    But he was.
    Sam hit the green button. “What’s up, Doug?”
    Kate watched Sam’s expression change from irritated to furious.
    “I’m on my way,” Sam said. “I’ll take Kennedy’s heat and then I’m heading right back to Kate’s. Once I get there, I’m staying with her until we bust the mutts that are killing people right and left. If that’s a problem for the Bureau, you know what you can do about it.”
    Sam punched out on the connection before his boss could answer.
    “What happened?” Kate asked. “Did someone else get murdered?”
    Not yet, he thought savagely. “Ted Sizemore couldn’t leave well enough alone.”
    “Meaning?”
    “The son of a bitch tracked you down the same way I did. He knows your name, your face, your address, and everything else about you that’s in any public record anywhere. And he’s not under any compulsion to keep it to himself. As a civilian, he can broadcast it on the news.”
    Kate leaned a little harder on the worktable. She kept hearing that eerie voice telling her she would die. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed away from the table.
    “Well, you told me it might happen,” she said. “Now it has.”
    Sam’s only answer was a fist hitting the table hard enough to make the sketches jump. With a vicious word he picked them up, stuffed them in the Mandel folder, and put it under his arm.
    “I have to report to the motor coach,” he said. “When I leave,lock up behind me and lock up tight. Load your gun and keep it handy. Don’t open that door for anyone but me. And I mean anyone. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”
    “What if your boss won’t let you?”
    “Then he won’t be my boss anymore.”

Chapter 51
    Scottsdale
    Saturday
    9:48 A.M .
    The door to Kennedy’s office was yanked open before Sam could even knock.
    “Good morning,” Doug said neutrally to Sam.
    But the SAC’s eyes both apologized and warned.
    “It’s morning,” Sam agreed. He ignored Sizemore and nodded to Kennedy. “I understand you want to talk to me.”
    “I sure as hell do. It’s one thing to have a CI. It’s another thing to deliberately sabotage a crime strike force investigation.”
    “I haven’t.”
    “Like hell you haven’t,” Kennedy shot back. “For three days you’ve concealed information from me.”
    “That’s not correct,” Sam said evenly. “The Bureau gives me the right to keep a CI’s identity secret.”
    “Not when keeping a snitch under wraps makes a crime strike force look like a horse’s ass!”
    No matter who was right, Sam couldn’t win a bureaucratic pissing contest with his SSA. All he could do was try to stay in a position to protect Kate. Which meant that he had to find a way to tellKennedy the bad news about