Reckoning by Jo Leigh

prosthesis.”
    “I don’t care. We can’t compromise the motel. When’s he coming?”
    “Tomorrow or Wednesday,” she said. “He’s got to spend some time with Seth, check him out.”
    “Good. We need to be in perfect working order.” He leaned back on the couch and put his arm around Tam. Not on her shoulders directly, but on the couch above her shoulders.
    Vince wasn’t sure what was going on between the two of them. Kate had been mysterious about it, smiling as if it were a secret a dumb cop like him couldn’t grasp. Vince just figured they were testing the relationship waters. It seemed to be a disease among the team. Go into hiding, narrowly escape something horrible, find the love of your life.
    His gaze moved over to Cade, and there it was again. Because Vince was still a cop at heart, he’d noticed before that Cade had some kind of weird thing going on about Nate and Tam. From the moony looks he gave when he thought he wouldn’t get caught, Vince figured Cade had a crush on the petite chemist.
    It must be hard for him, going solo among all these couples. He’d have to ask Kate more about him. She’d already told him that Cade had left a fiancée behind. Rough. And he always made time for a five mile run sometime during the day. Even if he’d been out all night on patrol. Now that, Vince didn’t get at all. Sure, physical fitness was great and important, but shit. The guy got enough exercise hiding from people who wanted to kill him. Hey, that would make for an interesting fitness plan. Instead of hiring a personal trainer, hire a hit man.
    At the moment, Nate and Tam were more interesting than Cade, so he went back to watching them. Yep, there was definitely something going on between those two, but he’d wager they hadn’t figured out what. They were too hesitant with each other, always checking to make sure a look or a touch was welcome.
    Vince had no doubt that whatever was holding them back here wasn’t holding them back in the bedroom.
    There was no room for that particular kind of indecision, not living under a death sentence. Everything became more intense. Jeez, he and Kate were doing it like bunnies. Of course, that probably had more to do with how crazy he was about Kate than the danger.
    Last night, after one of their bunny sessions, Kate had asked him if he would go back to being a cop after it was all over. He hadn’t been able to answer her. Not definitively. He was leaning toward no. The only thing he knew with certainty was that he’d be with Kate. Nothing was going to change that.
    “Hold on,” Boone said. “I’ll be right back.” He got up from his perch on the floor and went into the bedroom. When he came back, he had two canisters in his hand. They were made of metal with a warning on the side. As he read, Vince’s heart sped up and he grabbed Kate’s hand to get her the hell away.
    “It’s okay,” Boone said. “These are empty. New. They’ve never contained any of the gas.”
    “You could have said something before you got them,” Vince said, controlling his anger. Damn it, those fucking ex-soldiers. They were worse than undercover cops.
    Nate took one of the canisters and shook his head over the symbols and the wording. The canister itself was heavy, made of thick aluminum. On one side was the skull and crossbones and the word Poison, on the other was a chart, a diamond broken into four quadrants of red, yellow, white and blue. Each quadrant had a one or a zero. There was nothing else, no manufacturer’s name, no ID of the gas itself. It could have been any chemical weapon, and if the canister was found by the media or an environmental group, they would assume it was from an already existing stockpile.
    As Nate went over the plan for the canisters, Vince studied Tam. He’d only met her a few days ago, but he’d heard plenty. Kate had told him she was smart as hell, and that she’d figured out the antidote to the gas, even though she’d had to compile