Deadly Betrayal (The Rockford Security Series Book 1)

by Jones, Lee Anne

  No doubt about it. He put his stuff in the little canister and sent it inside to the teller.

  After what happened today, things would only get more complicated between him and Jan—and more dangerous.

  Eleven

  Two hours later, Jan sat alone in her dressing room, wondering what in the hell could’ve been so important to drag Dino away from … from … She sighed and rubbed her temples. From whatever it was they’d been doing.

  If she thought about the heated kiss they’d shared too long, her analytical mind kicked in, listing reason after reason why it had been a mistake. They were different people now. They’d both moved on with their lives. They had no business getting involved personally like that again, especially if it put their professional relationship at risk.

  Besides, depending on him, for anything, made her feel like she was giving up some of her cherished independence. The independence that she’d fostered and nurtured almost her whole life. The independence that she used as a shield against the thoughts of loneliness and need that crept into her mind. For as long as she could remember, she hadn’t needed anyone else. Why should she start now?

  A loud thump issued through the wall of her small dressing room, and Jan nearly jumped three feet. She hated feeling out of control like this, but it wasn’t easy to stay calm, especially with that stack of freaky, cut-up magazines still mocking her from the vanity counter. Her anxiety morphed into irritation.

  Who the hell did Dino think he was, leaving her like this, alone and vulnerable? He was being paid good money to guard her, to provide protection. The fact that he’d not shared any details about his surprise rendezvous only played into her growing suspicions and amplified her inability to trust him. It was another woman. Had to be. Hell, as handsome and successful as Dino was, he probably had a whole, long string of willing women just lined up, waiting for his beck and call. Just like in high school.

  Jan huffed and crossed her arms, tucking her body farther into the corner of the sofa. She refused to be anybody’s beck-and-call girl. Least of all Dino’s. Been there, done that, got the scars on her heart to prove it.

  Nope. Him walking out the way he had was the best thing that could’ve happened. Definitely. Of course. Maybe.

  She dropped her face into her hands as her mind started yet another vicious cycle of what-ifs. Thankfully, this time her pity party of one was interrupted by a knock on the dressing room door.

  Dino.

  She straightened her clothes, patted her hair, rearranged herself on the sofa to try to look as casual and unaffected as possible, then called, “Come in.”

  Except the head that poked around the door wasn’t Dino. It was another man she hadn’t seen since high school. Jan’s eyes widened, and she pushed to her feet. “Blake? Blake Rockford? What are you doing here?”

  “January Winters.” He walked over to shake her extended hand then pulled her in for a quick hug. “Haven’t seen you in years. How’ve you been?”

  “Good.” She gestured around the dressing room. “Great, actually. Until recently.”

  “Yeah.” Blake nodded and glanced at the photos on the walls then the magazines and papers on her vanity counter. “I’ve got my best people working on your case, I promise. We’ll get to the bottom of this so you can get back to making all your awesome music. I loved your last album, by the way. Still play it non-stop in my car when I’m driving.”

  “Thanks.” Jan took a step back and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, feeling uncomfortable now that the basic greetings were over. Blake and Dino had been best friends in high school, and now Blake was Dino’s boss. She’d heard that Blake had become a Las Vegas cop after college and that his beloved wife, also a police officer, had been killed in the line of duty several years ago. Maybe that accounted for the few strands of silver now scattered through his short dark hair, the faint lines around his intense eyes and lips. He was still as handsome as he’d ever been, but now it was tinged with a world-weariness that made him look harder, tougher, more austere.

  She couldn’t imagine the pain he must’ve gone through. She wanted to offer her condolences but thought it best not to bring it up. Not now, anyway. She hadn’t seen the guy in over a decade. So, she struggled to make small talk instead. “I, uh, wasn’t expecting you to come.”

  Blake nodded. “I wasn’t expecting to come myself. But when Dino called earlier, I decided I wanted to come by and check it out for myself to see what we were up against. Besides”—he leaned a little closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper—“I always wanted to see the inside of the place. Couldn’t pass up my chance now.”

  He winked and smiled, softening the intensity in his ice-blue eyes, and a bit of her inner turmoil lessened. “Well then, let me give you a little tour.”

  “Great.” He held the door for her then followed her out into the lobby. She remembered all the Rockford men being tall, but he seemed to tower at least a foot above her, even taller than Dino. As she showed him around the space, she saw men dressed in Rockford Security uniforms filing in with toolboxes in hand. Blake pointed to one group of them as they passed by. “They’ll be installing the new security cameras that Dino requested.”

  She nodded and walked on. The thought of even more people watching her didn’t make her overjoyed, but if it helped catch the sicko who’d stuck that hidden nanny cam in her dressing room, then it would be worth losing what little was left of her privacy in the short term.

  “So, your stalker has upped their game, huh?”

  “Yeah, seems so.”

  “Don’t worry. Dino’s the best bodyguard on my team. He’s got your back.”

  She wasn’t so sure after this morning but refrained from telling Blake that.

  “Have you gone to the police yet?” he asked after she’d showed him several of the conference rooms and the other dressing rooms on the first floor.

  “No. Lou said they wouldn’t be able to do anything without proof.” She shrugged. “And aside from the e-mails and texts that Dino sent over to your team and now those magazines, I got nothing.”

  He led her to a deserted corner of the lobby, away from his teams and the receptionist who’d kept a constant watch on them as they moved around the perimeter of the room. “Listen. I’m sure Dino finding that nanny cam spooked you, but trust me. Those things are a dime a dozen. Available everywhere on the Internet, even Amazon. People buy them by the truckload because they’re disposable and, for the most part, untraceable. But these cameras we’re putting in will be connected directly to my offices. I’ve got people working around the clock. Whoever is doing this, we will find them. You have my word.”

  Jan closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the weight of tension lifting slightly off her shoulders at the confidence in his voice. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.”

  “It’s the truth.” Blake took her elbow and led her back out into the sunshine and over to one of his teams who were busy installing the cameras in the lobby. “We already traced the e-mails Dino’s sent so far to an Internet café that’s just around the corner from here. The trail ends there, but at least we have a starting point for further investigation.”

  Her stomach trembled with nerves, but Jan pasted on her brightest smile. “Sounds great.”

  Actually, it sounded scary as hell. The fact that this sicko might be hovering around that close to her terrified her.

  “Listen, I was hoping while I was here that I could maybe get some more information from you.”

  “Hasn’t Dino told you everything?”

  “Everything he knows, yeah. But I come at this from a cop’s perspective. I worked domestic abuse cases a lot while I was on the force, and many times those involve an aspect of stalking.” He directed her over to a small sitting area, and they each took a seat. “Have you broken up with anyone recently? I ask because many times the stalker is someone you know, especially someone like an ex-lover or spurned romantic interest.”

  “No. I
haven’t dated anyone in the past year. I’ve been too busy with recording and touring.”

  “What about the e-mails? Is there any certain event you can think of that might have prompted them to start?”

  “Not really.” Jan frowned and wrinkled her nose. “I mean, I guess they started right after I started recording this new album, but I doubt that’s related.”

  Blake squinted and looked up at the ceiling. “Dino mentioned something about a poem. Something you wrote in high school?”

  Jan nodded, pulling her sweater tight around her. “Yes. That came in one of the e-mails.”

  “Who would have access to that? Is there anyone from your high school days that recently came back into your life?”

  “No. Unless you count Dino. And you.” Jan made an attempt at a smile. “But I guess anyone could have found out about the poem. An obsessed fan might have dug it up somehow.” Jan wracked her brain to think about where they could have dug it up. Had she published it in the school paper? The yearbook? She didn’t think so. “I have it in a box at my house. I save all my poems and lyrics.”

  “And who has access to your house? Do you have a lot of parties? People coming and going?”

  Jan shook her head. “No. Believe it or not, I live a relatively quiet life. I have cleaning people and people that come in to fix things, set up the cable TV, and so on.”

  “Family?”

  “Just my cousin, Stacy.” By the slight nod of his head, Jan figured Blake remembered Stacy from high school, too.

  “Okay.” Blake pulled a small notepad from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and jotted down notes on what she’d told him. “Good. That will give us a little more info to go on.”

  Jan peered past the team installing a camera and spotted Dino’s SUV swerving back into the parking lot. She took a deep breath and forced her stiff shoulders to relax. The fact that he’d deserted her and left her in the hands of his boss shouldn’t matter. Shouldn’t, but for reasons she didn’t want to admit, it did. Maybe Blake knew more about where Dino had gone. Maybe he’d sent him on an urgent assignment. She looked back at the man beside her, his head still lowered over his notepad. “Dino rushed out of here in a big hurry earlier. I hope it wasn’t an emergency.”

  “Nah.” Blake shook his head and tucked his pad back into his pocket. “Not that he said, anyway. Said he had some errands to run.”

  Errands? She crossed her arms and did her best not to pout. Just as she’d suspected, the kiss had been meaningless to him. Well, if that was the case, then it had been meaningless to her, too.

  One of Blake’s workmen came over and bent to whisper something close to his ear. Blake nodded and held up a finger. “The team is wondering if it would be all right for them to install a camera inside your dressing room as well. Given the stalker has been in there personally, it might give us just the break we need to identify them.”

  “Yeah, sure. I guess. I don’t actually change in there anyway.”

  “Excellent.” He raised his chin to the guy, who took off across the lobby toward her dressing room. “I’d also recommend installing a few cameras on the outside of your home too, just to be on the safe side.”

  “Okay.”

  Blake pulled out his cell phone and hit a speed dial button. He kept his gaze steady on her as he spoke. “Everything up and running? Good. Good. Yeah, send a crew out to Ms. Winters’ home this afternoon as well. The usual setup. The address is in the file on my desk. Yep. Thanks.” He ended the call and shoved the device back in his pocket. “All the feeds are good to go, according to my tech team. I’ll have someone out at your house this afternoon to put up those cameras there as well. From today on, you should be well covered.”

  “Good.”

  Dino strode back into the lobby. Jan gave him a brief glance before lowering her gaze to her hands in her lap. Even though she was put out at his leaving, the sight of him set her heart racing and her blood pumping, and she couldn’t afford to weaken toward him now. This wasn’t high school, and clearly Dino wasn’t as into her as she was into him—otherwise he wouldn’t have run off to take care of some minor errands. She pushed away her embarrassing schoolgirl crush feelings. More focus on music, less on rekindling a relationship that clearly was going nowhere.

  “Hey, Blake. Didn’t expect you to come and oversee things personally.” Dino removed his sunglasses and stopped by Jan’s chair, placing his hand casually onto her shoulder as he spoke. She shrugged it off and turned away, but not before seeing the confused look in his eyes. He rested his hand on the back of the chair instead. “So, we all set up here?”

  “Yep. The crews are putting in the final cameras as we speak. Jan agreed to have one in her dressing room, and I have a crew headed to her house this afternoon to install a few cameras around her property too.”

  “Great. Tell them to put one in the backyard too. That’s where you said you thought you spotted someone the other night, right Jan?”

  “Yes.”

  Dino hesitated at her one-word statement, his friendly smile dissolving into a frown. “Right. Well, okay then.” He gestured to Blake. “Let me walk you to the door. Be right back.”

  Jan shrugged and met Dino’s blue gaze, spotting a spark of annoyance in his eyes. Good. He’d been annoying the hell out of her for days. Turnabout was fair play.

  She walked upstairs and into the recording studio, losing herself in her music and the tracks they needed to lay down for the album. Time ceased to exist, as it always did when she was working on things she loved, and by the time she looked at the clock again, it was after six that night.

  Jan stretched her stiff muscles then checked with the sound engineering that they had enough material for the day before pulling off her headphones and heading out into the production area to find Dino slumped on the couch, looking as strung out as she felt.

  They drove back to her place in silence, and she’d hoped to make it out of his Tahoe and into her home without a word. As he pulled up to the front of her house and parked the SUV, Jan reached for the door handle to make a quick escape.

  No such luck.

  “Maybe I should spend the night here, to make sure no one tries to get in again.” He looked over at her, his expression unreadable.

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. I’m fine on my own.” She opened the door and climbed out. He did the same and followed her up the front steps. He stood close enough that she could feel his heat penetrating the night chill around her, close enough to touch, to smell, to taste. Ugh. Jan forced her stupid libido into submission and at last gave her inner annoyance free reign. “It looks like Blake’s crew is here installing the new cameras anyway, so I’ll be okay.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure …”

  Jan tried to keep her tone light. No sense in letting him know how much the kiss—and his bolting out right after—had affected her. “Yep. Pick me up tomorrow night for the charity event. Don’t be late.”

  She turned quickly, ignoring the raised-brow glance from one of the workmen on the front porch, and punched her security code into the keypad by the door then jammed her key into the lock, hating the tremble in her hands and the silly tears stinging her eyes. No way would she cry over this man again. No frigging way. It was Friday, and at least she had the day off from the studio tomorrow. A day to rest, a day not to have to see the man who had broken her heart all over again after fifteen years. “Go home, Dino. I’ll be fine. See you tomorrow night.”

  She slipped inside and shut the door without looking back. If she looked back, he’d see the hurt, the pain caused by his rejection, and she couldn’t bear it. Screw it. She’d get over that just like she had fifteen years ago. She didn’t need Dino Machiavelli for anything, not for his sensual kisses or his protection. She could handle things on her own like she always had.

  Jan tossed her bag and keys on the round table at the center of the large foyer then headed into the kitchen. This crappy situation called for copious am
ounts of hot tea. And chocolate. So much chocolate.

  After making a beeline to the fridge for a handful of kisses, Jan unwrapped one and popped it into her mouth, savoring the velvety sweet taste while she filled her kettle and set it on the stove to heat. Exhausted, she slumped against the cool granite countertop and glanced over at the island. A large manila envelope sat atop it.

  Probably an invoice from Blake for the camera installations. It had been good to see him again today. She’d forgotten how warmly he’d always treated her, like one of his own family. Something a gal like Jan, from a broken home, had always appreciated. She grabbed the envelope and tucked it under her arm while she pulled down the canister of her favorite chamomile tea and scooped a large dollop into a little round strainer. Once things were ready, she sealed the tea back up and put it away then tore open the top of the envelope to peer inside.

  She’d expected paperwork and notes. What she found seized the air in her lungs and crumbled what little confidence she still had left. Reaching into the envelope with shaky fingers, she pulled out a stack of photos, all taken within the last few days, all candid shots of her doing normal, everyday tasks like getting in and out of cars, buying her morning coffee, talking outside the recording studio with Lou. Even a shot of her and Stacy, the night she’d shown up to do her nails. Only someone close to her could’ve gotten close enough to get all these photos. She looked into the envelope again, held it upside down, and shook it. No note. No explanation. No nothing.