They were also watching her room.
Four
Every day Kaylee biked to work early so she could read at her desk before her shift started. This morning she was starting a new book, after having finished the last one just after midnight the night before.
She was twenty-two pages in when Conroy pushed the front door open. Mia, his fiancé, followed him. The lieutenant had small cotton buds tucked in her ear, in deference to the damage she’d suffered to her hearing. Watching her navigate through the fear of hurting her ears further, causing permanent hearing loss, was painful, but Mia seemed determined to have a positive attitude about it.
Conroy held the door for Mia, a soft look on his face. Kaylee had never seen him look at anyone else like that. Not until their lives collided the day Mia showed back up into town, harassed by a madman who repeatedly tried to hurt her for the justified killing of his brother. They’d suffered more than enough, yet life hadn’t let them enjoy the quiet for long. After them, Savannah had gotten together with Tate, their own story equally as terrifying for Kaylee to watch.
She was ready for life to quiet down.
“Kaylee.”
She glanced over at Conroy and realized what he needed. “Right. Sorry, I was miles away.”
The door release button was under the counter.
The chief strode in, wearing his customary suit. He came right to her. “Everything okay?”
“Sure.” She patted the cover of her book, then tucked it under the counter so it was out of the way.
“No lingering nightmares or anything from those guys?”
Of course, he wanted to talk about the “incident” as they now referred to it. The police department had been in possession of a phone with incriminating evidence on it. A group of rough bikers who’d worked for a local criminal had stormed the PD with guns, demanded the phone, and shot more than one officer.
Kaylee had been scared out of her mind.
Until one of the bikers noticed how scared she was and hid her out of sight of his crazy friend. In the bustle, no one had even seen what he’d done.
She still wondered why he’d done it. It had probably saved her life, or at the very least, kept her from more harm. And now she didn’t have to deal with her mind going places she didn’t want it to go—to a place of fear that she’d find herself back in the very place where her nightmares started.
Covered in blood.
“I’m…okay.”
Conroy squeezed her shoulder.
She didn’t like lying, but she had accepted the job here because she’d figured it was the safest place in town to work. It was exactly what she needed. There was just far more going on here than Conroy would ever know.
Mia leaned against him, and Conroy slid his arm around her shoulders. They were the cutest couple she’d ever seen.
“Kaylee, could you print me the file for Gina Harrelson.”
Conroy groaned. “Mia—”
She shook her head. “I want to look into it.”
Kaylee was grateful they were both so distracted that they didn’t even notice her reaction. She swallowed. “Gina Harrelson? Isn’t she that girl who went missing nine years ago?”
She remembered because it had been the summer Kaylee moved here. She’d been drawn to the town because it always made her think about her parents. They were the ones who’d told her all about Last Chance, as they’d both lived here on and off over the years and loved this town. The week she arrived, Kaylee had been staying at the motel.
Gina Harrelson had gone missing from the room two doors down.
The police had even interviewed Kaylee, but she’d been so freshly traumatized from the murder of her parents that she’d barely managed to get a few sentences out. Just enough to convince the officer—Sergeant Basuto—that she hadn’t seen what happened to Gina.
Mia nodded to answer her question. “There was an article in the morning paper recounting Gina’s disappearance, and I thought I’d take a look at it. Just in case.”
Conroy didn’t seem to agree. “There was nothing to find.”
“Maybe.” The lieutenant shrugged one shoulder. “But fresh eyes can’t hurt.”
Mia had been an ATF agent in her former life. Now that she was a lieutenant mostly on desk duty, and the chief’s fiancé, she could probably coast by and push paper the rest of her career. But no. Mia seemed to work harder and longer than anyone.
Just this past month, she’d closed three cases from behind her desk. And she’d let her officers take the credit for the arrests.
Plus, she ruffled Conroy’s feathers just enough to keep everyone’s lives interesting.
They headed for their desks, and Kaylee pulled up the file on her computer. She hit “print” and read the notations while she waited for the big printer to warm up.
She’d never met Gina, just knew about the sudden disappearance. The memory of those first few days in town had never left her. She related, probably too much, to Gina Harrelson. A single woman, alone. Kaylee traveled with the gun her brother had given her. Though, after he’d taught her to use it, she’d never even touched the thing. It was tucked up in the closet. Maybe it didn’t even work now. Did guns go bad from disuse?
Didn’t matter, since Kaylee planned on never ever needing to use it. That was probably why she was so vehemently against talking to Stuart. She’d seen the violence he was capable of in his eyes before she ever saw him use it. Now that she had? Kaylee shivered.
She needed to find safety so she could keep the package that Brad had sent her safe. That was her highest priority right now. Until she heard otherwise, or he showed up, she would do what he’d asked her.
She would wait until the right person showed up. And then she would give them the package.
The right person was not Stuart Leland. Not with those all-too-familiar demons, from a past he’d survived, swirling in his eyes.
Ones she saw when she looked in the mirror.
“Hey, hey.” Savanna’s voice cut through her thoughts.
Kaylee looked up at the man who had entered and realized immediately it wasn’t her she was talking to.
“Hey, babe.” Savannah was sitting at her desk behind Kaylee. She was Mia’s partner, and currently the department’s only detective.
The man who’d come in was Tate. Another person whose eyes and face reflected the pain and weariness of life’s hard times. Still, all that disappeared when he smiled. “Good morning, Miss Kaylee.”
“Tate.”
“Such warmth. I’m charmed.” He leaned across the counter and mock whispered, “Run away with me. Savannah will never know.”
Kaylee snatched up her wireless mouse and pretended to throw it at him.
Tate reacted like she’d hit him with a knife to the heart. “Let me in. Please?”
“Maybe I won’t after that stunt.”
Savannah moved to stand beside Kaylee, where she was perched on her stool.
Kaylee asked her, “What do you think?”
Savannah frowned. “I don’t know if he deserves it.”
Tate mock gasped.
“I think he’s nothin’ but a cad,” Kaylee said. “I’m thinking about throwing my stapler next.”
“Conroy! Your employees are harassing me!”
“A coward’s move.” Savannah turned to her and squeezed Kaylee’s shoulder. “Us girls never take the easy way out, right?” She hit the button under the counter to admit her fiancé.
The kiss Tate gave her made Kaylee blush and turn away. It went on long enough, Conroy finally cleared his throat, which made Mia giggle.
Kaylee smiled at her computer screen as she continued to read the case file for Gina Harrelson, and Tate passed behind her on his way to meet with Conroy. She heard him pause, and he planted a kiss on the top of her head.
“Playa.”
Tate chuckled and moved on.
Basuto’s notes were linked. Kaylee clicked through to them and noted he’d found Gina’s car, abandoned o
n the highway. A single, bloody partial fingerprint had been left on the underside of the steering wheel. One that had never been matched to anyone in the databases they had access to. So unless they found a suspect not in one of those databases to try and tie them to, they had nothing. It was a dead end.
Gina had vanished, possibly—or, probably if Kaylee was honest with herself—under suspicious circumstances. It had been right after Kaylee moved to town, and Gina had been two doors down at the motel. Too close.
“I’m out.” Tate stacked a pile of papers beside her, tapping them on the counter to straighten them. “Mia needs another set. I’m taking these.”
Kaylee frowned. “You’re looking into Gina’s case?”
“You knew her?”
“I’m in there.” She pointed to the pages. “Basuto interviewed me. I was staying at the same motel.”
He shifted toward her. “It’s all in here?”
“I didn’t really see anything that night.” Just so he wasn’t disappointed when he read that she’d told Basuto nothing of value. “But I heard about it. Saw her a couple of times.” In fact, Kaylee had been the one to tell the cops what color Gina’s car was.
“Okay.” His gaze softened. “Everything else okay?”
Ugh. The man had a sixth sense for when things weren’t right for someone. Hollis had been trying—unsuccessfully—to convince him all was well in her world for weeks. He still didn’t believe her.
Kaylee didn’t believe her either.
But now Hollis had been on a date with this new guy in town, some straight-laced salesman named Phil. Maybe he would figure it out.
As for Tate, Kaylee might have a package from her special ops brother that she was guarding until he reappeared, but that didn’t mean she was going to involve a man who’d just found the love of his life. Tate deserved to be happy. She had no intention of letting him get hurt.
Which meant she needed something good to convince him she would never be “okay.”
“I saw my parents both get shot. They were murdered in front of me.” She glanced at the calendar. “Ten years ago next month.”
Savannah and Mia both gasped. A second later, they were both standing right next to her.
“It’s never going to be okay, but I deal with it as best I can.” She shrugged. “I can’t stop living my life.” No matter how much it haunted her. Or how much she wished her brother would come home already.
Tears filled her eyes. Where are you, Brad?
Kaylee said, “I’m still here.” It would be selfish to do anything other than make the best of things, after all her parents had lost.
“Honey.” Savannah had never called anyone that. Not that Kaylee had heard, at least.
Kaylee shot her a sad smile. “I know.” She sniffed and said, “Can I ask you something, Tate?”
She’d tried Dean. That hadn’t worked. Maybe Tate could ask around about Brad. After all, he was a private investigator and former FBI agent, and he still had contacts there.
He nodded. “I heard about Stuart in the kitchen at the diner. Probably freaked you out, right?”
Before Kaylee could tell him that wasn’t it, he continued. “Steer clear of that guy. I woulda said that before you told us what you just shared, but now I’m more than sure. You don’t need that in your life.”
Savannah nodded. “It’s not worth getting hurt. And Dean is already helping him.”
Tate said, “Don’t get me wrong, the man makes the best guacamole. But you don’t need to get in the middle of his mess, along with all that stuff with his friend he doesn’t remember. It’s not worth it. You really should stay away from him.”
Apparently, that was the end of what he needed to say because Tate kissed his fiancé and headed out.
Kaylee clicked through to print another copy of the file. Everyone else was reading it, so she figured she’d print two. Maybe her career reading mystery novels would make her see something no one else had. She didn’t want to stumble into danger. There was enough of that in the book she was currently reading. But the chance to help someone and get her mind off everything else?
Kaylee printed herself a copy as well.
Stay away from him.
Dean might think Stuart could help her, but Tate was right. The man had way too much danger in him. Sure, he was seriously attractive, and she had a slightly obsessive crush.
But that didn’t mean she was going to do anything about it.
Stuart Leland was not a safe place.
Five
Stuart stood in the corner of Kaylee’s room, surrounded by the warmth of her comfortable living space. But he couldn’t let himself be distracted by her things.
Voices in the hall drifted to him, and a shadow moved under the door frame. Maggie, the owner and operator of Hope Mansion, said, “…spray down the showers. I’ll tackle the toilets. Is that okay with you, hon?”
Another woman replied. “Sure thing, Mags. We just really appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
The voices drifted away.
Stuart needed to leave. Kaylee’s things had already told him everything he needed to know. This wasn’t about invading her privacy, just getting a feel for the kind of person she was. People thought their material belongings didn’t say all that much. That too many people had the same things. But he’d found the opposite to be true. Plenty could be learned in how someone used what they accumulated.
He avoided the cameras he’d found and made his way to the window. Outside, two young boys ran across the yard.
Stuart ducked back behind the curtain and watched them play. Not brothers, just friends, the two boys wrestled and laughed. He stared for longer than necessary, just watching them, enjoying the sight of their carefree playtime. Not many residents of this house could claim a carefree life.
Stuart knew how that felt. He’d lived close to the wire his entire life and didn’t think there had ever been a time when he had laughed like that. As though nothing else mattered except the fun. Instead, he’d only known the dark side of life. Pain. Destruction. Those things had been honed in him, creating the man he had been before he and Brad were captured.
Set-up.
Destroyed.
Stuart didn’t know what he was now. Except for a man who needed to get out of this room.
But someone was watching Kaylee. The person Stuart wanted to be was the kind of man who would step up and protect her if she was in danger.
Without considering it too much, he moved to a camera. Was there audio? He didn’t know. It was possible they could see, but not hear, her. Unless she got on her phone—which he assumed had been cloned by the same people who set up cameras in her room.
There was no way it was Maggie watching her residents. That meant this was external.
Stuart turned the camera so it pointed at his face. “This woman is under my protection.” He spoke slowly, in case they would have to read his lips. After they captured his picture and ran it.
The boys were gone now. Stuart replaced the camera and climbed back out the window.
He jogged across the lawn to the cover of trees. Stupid move. He’d exposed himself to whoever was on the other end of the feed. But if his gut was correct, and Kaylee was guilty, then it made no sense that someone had their eyes on her whole life.
She would need protection when they decided it was time to make their move.
They were obviously still waiting, otherwise, they’d have extracted her for interrogation already. Or he’d be dealing with the fallout—the result of some other conclusion to this situation. But they hadn’t. So, what were they waiting for?
Him?
His suspicion that she was involved was correct. Not just because Brad had mentioned her name, though he had considered that meant she was dirty. Part of the problem. Could she be the solution? He wanted to talk more with her. Because she drew him to her in a way no one had. He thought about her way too much, but that didn’t mean he was going to do anything about it. After all
, he was no better than the people watching her. He’d intended to clone her phone just like they had.
An itch on the back of his neck interrupted his thoughts. A latent instinct that had saved his life many times before.
All his training and experience, the many missions he’d been on. The ugly things he’d seen—and done. It fired like synapses in his brain, heightening his senses so that he could tell someone was holed up twenty feet to his left. Hiding.
One of the boys, or a bigger threat?
Kaylee had someone on her, and not just eyes on her life. There was a man watching. Waiting. For what?
Stuart wasn’t going to hang around until something went wrong just to find out. He knew he could protect her. Certainly he had the skills to do it, and if she was absolved of being a party to the betrayal that led to Brad and Stuart being captured, then he needed to keep her safe until he got to the bottom of this.
Instinct flashed across his vision like a flash of lightning. Stuart ducked against a tree. A chunk of wood splintered a hair’s length above his head, and in the second later, he heard the rapport of the gunshot.
Sniper.
Stuart ran. He circled wide, ducking through trees. Changing direction every couple of steps to make himself a moving target. One harder to hit than someone going in a straight line, in a single direction.
Another shot rang out.
Someone screamed. Stuart’s insides flipped over and bile rose in his throat, but there was no time to be sick. He had to get that shooter.
He pulled his gun and continued his wide circle around to the spot where he’d have hidden if this was his assignment.
The shots stopped. The screaming did not. Stuart saw a blur up ahead and knew the guy was on the move.
He spotted him again a quarter mile into the trees and sped up his sprint until he was running as fast as he possibly could. In a running tackle, he took the guy down. They rolled.
An elbow missed his nose but glanced off his cheekbone. Stuart caught the guy around the neck with one arm.
With his gun hand, he shot the guy point blank range in the foot. But when he shifted at the last second, the shot missed him.
The sniper elbowed him in the stomach. Stuart coughed and sucked in a breath, but didn’t let go of his grip on the man’s neck. His other hand wasn’t the same. The gun tumbled from his fingers to the ground. A knife glinted, and he realized the man had pulled it out.
Expired Hero Page 3