by Janie Crouch
Personal questions.
Steve wanted answers from Rosalyn. But at the same time he did not want his private life being broadcast all over the office.
He looked over at her. Her head was bowed and her hair was framing her face on either side. Between her hunched shoulders, pregnant belly and handcuffs, she made quite the pitiful picture.
Steve wasn’t surprised when Andrea Gordon, one of the most naturally gifted behavioral analysts Steve had ever known, approached them, her concerned look focused on Rosalyn.
Hell, even Steve felt sorry for her and she’d almost gotten him killed an hour ago.
“Steve, is there anything I can help with?” Andrea asked him.
“In a minute, Andrea.” Steve glanced around until he found the person he wanted. He wasn’t surprised to see him leaning against the wall on the other side of the room watching what was going on.
“Waterman!” Steve jerked his head to the side, indicating Derek should come over.
Derek Waterman, head of the Omega SWAT team, was always aware of what was going on around him. He was focused and deadly and an asset to the team for multiple reasons.
But right now Steve wanted Derek because of what he wasn’t: friendly. Steve needed Rosalyn escorted down to an interrogation room. Most of the other men on the team would be friendly, try to set Rosalyn at ease. That’s not what Steve wanted. He wanted Rosalyn nervous, uncomfortable, unhappy.
That’s how he would get answers.
And if a little voice said he was making a huge mistake, well, he’d just squash that. He was done giving her the benefit of the doubt.
“Derek, will you please escort Ms. Mellinger to interview room 2?” It was the starkest of the interrogation rooms, the least comfortable.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Andrea stiffen. She didn’t like how he was treating Rosalyn. But then again, Andrea tended to be tenderhearted toward everyone.
Derek didn’t even bat an eye. “No problem, boss.” He turned to Rosalyn. “If you could come with me, ma’am.” Respectful yet distant. He took her arm and escorted her down the hall.
Steve turned back from them and found at least a dozen of his team watching him.
“All right, people, let’s get back to work. I know you have other things to do besides gape at me.”
Many of them sat back down at their desks or went back to their normal tasks. Liam Goetz, hostage rescue team captain and resident smart-ass, just walked closer.
“But, boss, how are we supposed to go back to work when we know there’s such a big, bad criminal nearby?”
That got a couple of snickers. Steve turned to Liam. “I can fire you, you know.”
“If I had a dollar for every time you said that,” Liam muttered, but eased back down to his desk.
The good thing about his team was that the members knew each other well enough to know when to leave something alone. He also knew he could trust them to provide him with the information he didn’t seem capable of getting himself. Or have the neutrality required to do it.
“Brandon, Andrea, Jon, I need to see you in my office.”
He turned and walked out of the main room. He didn’t check to see if the people he’d asked for were following. He knew they were. If for curiosity’s sake as much as anything else.
He walked through his outer office door. Cynthia and his other assistants stood when they saw him, all with pressing matters that needed his attention, he was sure. He held out a hand.
“For the next few hours, unless there is a national or international crisis, consider me still unavailable. I don’t want to know about it.” He saw Brandon and Andrea make eye contact with each other at his words but didn’t care. For his own sanity, unless there was some sort of real emergency, he had to get this issue with Rosalyn settled.
“Do you need something for your arm?” Andrea asked. All eyes flew to it. Damn it, he’d been trying not to let anyone know about the throb and what he was sure was going to be stiff and painful tomorrow. He glared at Andrea for bringing it up. He should’ve known she’d be able to read his nonverbal communication too accurately for him to hide or fake.
“Sorry.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t that noticeable, but I could tell.”
“What happened?” Brandon asked.
“I was on the wrong side of a steel telescopic baton.” Steve grimaced. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll get ice and ibuprofen. It will help with swelling and pain. We’ll handle everything, Steve.” Cynthia, the assistant who’d been with the team the longest, the one he trusted the most, nodded at him. “You handle your crisis. We’ll handle anything else.”
Steve opened the door for his inner office and held it for the others. Jon Hatton and Brandon Han were two of the finest profilers—honestly two of the most brilliant, trustworthy men—Steve had ever known. Andrea was much quieter and kept to herself more due to her past, but as a behavioral analyst she couldn’t be beat.
“What’s going on, Steve?” Jon asked. “I’m assuming that woman you walked in with was the Rosalyn Mellinger you had me looking into.”
Steve went over to the window looking out at the Rockies. Normally the view gave him a measure of peace, but not right now. “She is.”
“You didn’t mention she was having a baby.”
“No.” Steve shook his head. He really didn’t want to get into that yet if he didn’t have to. “I didn’t.”
“You also didn’t mention that she was a suspect.” He could hear the frustration in Jon’s voice. “That would’ve changed how I was reading the information.”
Steve turned and looked at them. “She wasn’t a suspect until lunchtime and then about an hour ago.”
He explained what had happened with the phone call and the attack at the gas station. He was just finishing as Margaret, another one of his assistants, brought in the pain medication and some ice. Someone had also dug up a sling. That would at least take the pressure off his shoulder and hopefully ease some of the throbbing. He thanked her.
“What did Rosalyn say to your accusations?” Brandon asked as Steve took the medication.
“She denied them, of course.”
Andrea walked over and helped him ease his arm into the sling. Immediately the pain eased somewhat.
“And you’re not completely sure about your accusations either,” she said softly. “You’re angry with her, but also protective. And confused most of all.”
Steve nodded. “Yes. All of those things.” He looked over at the other two men. “I’ve lost my perspective when it comes to Rosalyn Mellinger.”
“Because the baby is yours,” Brandon said. Jon nodded, not looking surprised.
Steve shrugged. “She says so.”
Andrea touched his arm. “It’s okay to believe her. Until you know for sure otherwise, it’s okay to believe that what she says about that is true.”
“Well, if it is, then it seems an awful lot like she was just part of a plan to kill or at least seriously injure the father of her baby.”
He walked around his desk and looked out at the three of them. “I can’t be neutral around her. So I need you three to figure out the truth for me. To be my eyes and ears.”
Chapter Fifteen
Rosalyn sat in a room that was like something out of a crime-investigation show on television. A table with four chairs around it, none of them comfortable, cement walls all the way around painted a gray color that wasn’t very different from their original hue. Fluorescent lights blared down from overhead, unflattering at best, downright painful after a few hours.
And on one wall was a large mirror covering half the surface. Of course, it would be a two-way mirror.
She’d known Steve was in law enforcement, but she’d had no idea he worked at a place like this. That he was evide
ntly the boss in a place like this.
She’d told him everything she knew about the Watcher and he’d just made it seem like he was a beat cop or something. He was obviously so much more than that. He hadn’t tried to give her any insight or any knowledge about what he thought would be the next steps.
Because he hadn’t trusted her. She could almost understand the misunderstanding with the phone and the guy on the motorcycle. But Steve hadn’t trusted her from the beginning. Not today, not last night when they were making love, not ever.
She’d started feeling like she was finally not alone, not knowing she was actually more alone than ever.
The guy who had brought her down to this stark room hadn’t been mean or rough. He hadn’t said much to her at all, beyond reading her the Miranda rights. Rosalyn wondered if she should call a lawyer but didn’t know one to call here. Plus, she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Besides trust that Steve Drackett was looking out for her best interests.
The big guy—what had Steve called him? Derek?—had escorted her to her seat.
“Stay here,” had been all she’d gotten out of him before he’d left, closing the door behind him with a resounding click.
How long ago had that been? Probably twenty minutes. It felt like hours. Rosalyn could feel panic scratching at her subconscious, trying to work its way in. She refused to let it. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Surely someone would believe her.
Although she was quite sure it wouldn’t be Steve.
And once someone did believe her and she got out of here, where was she going to go? The Watcher had found her again. She wrapped her still-handcuffed arms around her belly, rocking back and forth, fighting panic once again.
What was she going to do?
Rosalyn nearly jumped out of her seat as the door opened. Two men, both of whom had been out in the office when Steve had brought her in, entered.
“Are you okay, Ms. Mellinger?” One, a stunningly handsome Asian man, asked her. He looked genuinely concerned.
“I just...I just...” The words wouldn’t come out.
I just realized the enormity of the fact that a killer has found me again and the one person I thought I could trust wants to throw me in jail.
“I was just startled. That’s all,” she finally finished.
They both came and sat in the chairs on the other side of the table. The other man, very tall and also handsome, had a key in his hands. “Can I take those handcuffs off? I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable without them.”
Rosalyn brought her wrists up to the table so he could release her. She had to get some measure of control over herself. She could do this.
“Are you sure you fellas will feel safe with me unfettered?” She raised an eyebrow at them. They both had her by nearly a foot and at least fifty pounds apiece. Not to mention her range of motion with her extended belly would make her escape skills almost nonexistent.
Both men glanced at each other and cracked a smile. “We’ll be sure to keep our guard up,” the tall one said. “I’m Jon Hatton and this is Brandon Han. We’re both profilers and behavioral analysts here at the Critical Response Division of Omega Sector.”
“I’m not sure I know exactly what Omega Sector is.”
Agent Han leaned back in his chair. “We’re an interagency task force. People working together with backgrounds in the FBI, DEA, ATF and other relevant agencies. We even have some Interpol and other international agencies as part of our ranks. Helps us cut through red tape.”
“We’d like to ask you some questions about what happened at the gas station a couple of hours ago,” Hatton said. “Did you know the man on the motorcycle was going to attack Steve?”
“No.” She looked at one man and then the other. “I was inside the store when I saw the guy pull up. I thought it was pretty stupid that he was coming right behind our car when there were other pumps open, but I didn’t know who he was or that he was going to hurt Steve until I saw him flick out his stick thing.”
Agent Han had pulled out a notebook and began writing. “It’s called a telescopic baton. A weapon that can be easily transported and then, like you said, be fully expanded with just a flick of the wrist.”
She nodded. “Steve was looking at me, so I knew he wasn’t paying attention to the guy and was going to get hurt.” She remembered knowing she wouldn’t get outside in time to warn him. “Fortunately, Steve turned at the last second and blocked the hit with his arm.”
“And you had no idea who the man was or that he was going to be there at that time?” Han asked.
“No.” Rosalyn could feel the panic pulling at her again.
Hatton tilted his head to the side. “You didn’t notify him in any way that you were traveling to Colorado Springs with Steve?”
It was almost like it was a friendly question. That this was all some dinner-party conversation. Rosalyn could feel hysteria building up inside her and fought to keep it tamped down.
“No. I did not contact the man who has been stalking me almost daily for the last year, who has caused me to leave my job, all my friends, and for six months live on the run in sleazy hotels. I did not contact the man who has driven me to the precipice of insanity and thoughts of suicide more than once.”
She leaned forward in her chair. “I did not contact the man from whom I, for the first time in a year, had found a measure of peace because I had finally felt like I had gotten away from him for good. I did not bring that man back into my life.”
Agent Han leaned forward too. “Then how did he find you and Steve?”
Rosalyn couldn’t stop the tears now. “I don’t know,” she whispered before huddling back into her chair. “He always finds me.”
The two men looked at her for a long time. Rosalyn finally just covered her face with her hands.
After a long pause she heard Agent Hatton say, “I think we need to start at the beginning.”
* * *
STEVE WATCHED IT all from the adjacent room, able to see everything through the two-way mirror and hear everything through the audio that was pumped in. Andrea had wanted to go in with Brandon to help question Rosalyn, but Steve had asked her to stay.
He needed Andrea’s opinion. Not only could she read other people’s nonverbal communication with remarkable accuracy, she also had a sixth sense about their emotions. She could feel what they were emoting even if it didn’t match what the person was saying.
He’d trusted Andrea’s abilities when he’d pulled her out of a pretty horrible situation nearly five years ago; he trusted them even more now.
“Steve, I’ve got to say, there is nothing Rosalyn has done nonverbally that has given me any indication that she’s not telling the truth.”
Rosalyn had started back at the beginning like Jon had asked her to do. She’d spent the last hour telling Jon and Brandon about the Watcher and everything that had happened. She was giving much more detail than she had to him.
It made him physically ill to think about what she’d gone through.
Steve rubbed his good hand over his face, his hurt arm still in the sling. He didn’t have to have Andrea’s talent at reading people to see that Rosalyn was telling the truth.
“I’ve made a pretty bad mistake.”
Andrea looked at him, eyebrow raised.
“When the attacker showed up at the gas station, just a couple of hours after she’d made what I deemed to be a suspicious phone call, I was positive she’d played me again.”
“Again?”
Steve realized this all came back to when Rosalyn had left him at the hotel six months ago without a word.
“She fooled me. Snuck out in the middle of the night. Took all my cash.”
Andrea studied him. Steve knew he wouldn’t like whatever it was she was going to say.
&
nbsp; “She hurt you.”
“My pride, sure. Personally and professionally. I’m the head of one of the most prestigious law enforcement agencies in the world. If I can’t tell when I’m being set up as a mark, maybe I don’t deserve to run this place.”
Andrea shook her head, the tiniest of smiles on her face. “No, it’s a lot more than that. You opened yourself to her and she hurt you.”
Steve thought of that time in Pensacola before Rosalyn had fled. He had known she was scared of something, that something was happening in her life. He’d planned to ask her to stay with him the rest of the week. Hell, if being outside made her nervous for whatever reason, they could stay in the bungalow.
He’d planned to keep her there, to make love to her, to talk to her and listen to her until she realized she could trust him. Then they could solve whatever scared her together. Maybe he’d even see if she needed a fresh start in Colorado. She’d mentioned the beautiful mountains.
Steve ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t deny it to himself any longer. He, jaded law enforcement officer who saw the worst of humanity on a daily basis, who hadn’t been on more than a handful of dates since his wife died, had fallen in love at first sight. Or at the very least had been willing to try a relationship with Rosalyn, invite her into his life.
But she’d bailed before he had the chance.
So yeah, she had hurt him.
And evidently he still hadn’t forgiven her for any of it. Because he’d put cuffs on her, for God’s sake, and had her dragged into their least comfortable interrogation room like she was a terrorist or murderer or something.
“Damn it.” He ran his hand over his face again. “I’m an idiot. I’ve got to get her out of there.”
Andrea touched him on his arm. “Let Jon and Brandon finish talking to her. It’s helping her, Steve. To go through the details. To talk about it with someone else.”
Steve watched through the mirror again and saw Andrea was right, as she most always was. Rosalyn was sitting up straight, had unwrapped her arms from the protective stance around herself. Her shoulders weren’t hunched. She had more color in her cheeks.