by Janie Crouch
“I think it’s brilliant if you ask me.”
He felt her good shoulder shrug slightly. “At first I considered myself a coward. I could understand and condone moving out of my parents’ beach house, where the attack happened. But moving to the second place, with less windows, just seemed cowardly.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“No. It took me a while to figure that out. Recovery is not a straight line. It’s sometimes one step forward and half a mile back. Setbacks are part of the process.”
Zane realized he should have been part of her process too. Maybe he could’ve helped her through some of this if he’d chosen to really listen to her needs rather than give her what he thought she needed.
Maybe the tape still would’ve been necessary. But maybe knowing he was there would’ve been enough.
“Hey, in the now, Wales.”
“What?”
“Whatever it is that has you all stiff? Let it go. We can’t change the past. We can only change what we choose to do today.”
She was right. And today, right now, involved the fact that someone had been inside her town house. He reluctantly let her go.
“I assume you didn’t ask anyone to water plants or bring in your mail while you were gone?”
“No. No plants. And I had asked the post office to hold my mail.”
“It could be innocent. Smoke detector malfunctioned and the landlord came in. Something like that.”
But after someone had tried to kill them multiple times, neither of them actually believed that was the case. And since he hadn’t planned on leaving her alone anyway, he might as well take her with him instead.
“Let’s get what you need. Try to touch as little as possible. I’ll send the CSI team in here to see if we can get any prints. Since the perp didn’t think you’d know he was in here at all, maybe he didn’t wear gloves.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I have a landline if you want to call it in.” They’d both lost their phones at Big Bend.
“Really? Most people don’t anymore. Just use their cell phones.”
She shrugged. “Another coping mechanism. Knowing I would always have two different ways of calling for help if needed.”
“Smart again.”
“One of the first things Dr. Parker and I discussed was that I didn’t need to apologize for how I chose to survive. I wasn’t doing drugs. Wasn’t drinking obsessively or breaking any laws. So anything I did to help cope wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.”
He kissed her forehead. “Damn straight.”
He helped her gather a couple of changes of clothes and toiletries.
“Where are we going?”
“We’ll go to my place. But first things first, we’ve got to get both our phones replaced.”
They left Caroline’s town house and took care of the tedious job of getting new phones. By that time Caroline was looking pretty tired and Zane was feeling it too. They needed a good night’s sleep to face what was ahead.
Not to mention he very much looked forward to having Caroline in an actual bed.
But when they arrived at Zane’s house, he didn’t need a broken piece of tape on the door to know someone had been in his place.
Someone had completely trashed it.
Once he got the door open and saw the damage, he immediately drew his weapon. “Caro, go wait outside.”
“What? What is it?”
“Someone’s been in here.”
“I’ll call Captain Harris.”
“Call Jon and Lillian too.”
Zane’s house on the outskirts of town wasn’t much. Two bedrooms, one bath. He’d basically rented it because of its proximity to the airfield he spent so much time at with his business. And because he hadn’t been able to force himself to live at the house he’d bought.
Whatever care the intruders had taken at Caroline’s house to make sure they would go unnoticed, they’d done the opposite here. Furniture was overturned, dishes broken, contents of drawers strewn everywhere.
Someone had been pissed off when they did this.
“Jon and Lillian are on their way. ETA about ten minutes. Captain Harris said he would have the crime lab techs come over here as soon as they’re done with my town house.”
“Okay.”
“Is it all right for me to come in or should I stay outside?”
In most cases Zane would have people wait outside. Less chance of contaminating possible evidence. But he didn’t want Caroline out there exposed in case the person who did this wasn’t done with their little temper tantrum.
“Do you mind coming in but just staying by the door?” They’d still be able to see and hear each other.
“Sure.”
He heard Caroline’s low whistle when she saw the state of his house. “Unless your housekeeping skills took a sharp turn for the worse after we broke up, someone was really angry in here.”
Zane nodded. “Generally speaking, destruction of this magnitude would suggest that the perp knows me personally. Has a personally directed anger toward me.”
“You and the contents of your fridge.” She pointed toward the kitchen, where everything that had been in his refrigerator now lay all over the floor.
“Sometimes someone can be searching for something and when they can’t find it they go into a rage. But this is extreme even for that.”
“And what would someone have been looking for in your house?”
“I have no idea. And especially Damien Freihof. I didn’t even know who he was until Jon told me about him.”
“Me neither. And I can’t figure out what he has to do with us.”
“Only that we have ties to Omega. That seems to be it.” Zane looked through his bedroom and the bathroom—same sort of destruction, no discernible pattern—before coming back out to the kitchen.
“Did the same person who broke into my house do this to yours?” Caroline asked from where she still stood just inside the door.
“Probably.”
“Why were they so destructive here but not at my place?”
He stood in the middle of the room, turning so he could see everything, trying to look at it from a detached, professional opinion.
“Either they escalated in anger, maybe starting with something at your place, then ending it here. Or...” He trailed off, not liking where his thoughts were heading.
“What?”
“Or they’ve been after me from the beginning and I led them straight to you at Big Bend.”
“I thought Jon said both our names were found in whatever clues Damien Freihof left for Omega.”
“Yes, but you can’t deny that there’s definitely an anger here that wasn’t present at your house.”
“But maybe they came here first.”
Zane had to admit that could be true. There were too many unknown variables. But one thing would give him some information: the food.
He walked into the kitchen and bent down to where the half gallon of milk had been thrown onto the ground and spilled.
He smelled it.
“I’m SWAT and don’t really do much detective work, but I’m going to go with my gut on this one and say that’s milk,” Lillian said from the door.
Zane got back up from the ground. “Hey, guys.”
“Wow, they really did a number on this place,” Jon said, pulling on a pair of gloves.
“Yeah. Forensics team is on their way over,” Zane told him. Lillian stayed near Caroline at the door. “The milk has no smell.”
“None? Not the least bit of souring?”
“No. As a matter of fact, it’s still a little cool.”
Both men now had their hands near their sidearms. It was warm enough in Zane’s house that milk that had bee
n out for a day or two would’ve at least been room temperature. Not cool.
This had happened recently. Whoever had broken into Zane’s house had done it in the last few hours.
Jon crouched down next to Zane to touch the milk himself.
“Whoever it was could’ve been here waiting to ambush you or figured you would both be here,” Jon said in a volume that wouldn’t carry to the door.
Zane glanced over to where Lillian and Caroline were talking to each other. “Yeah, if we hadn’t had to replace our phones, we would’ve been here hours ago. I’ve got to take Caroline somewhere safe.”
“Hotel?”
“No. I have someplace else in mind.” A place he’d never planned to tell Caroline about. But it would be much more comfortable than a hotel. “It will be better, since we don’t know how long it will take to catch Freihof and his goons.”
“About that.” Jon grimaced.
“What?”
“We had a confirmed sighting of Freihof in Colorado Springs at the same time your trouble was happening in Big Bend. I mean obvious. Freihof is pretty brilliant when it comes to disguises and he definitely wanted to make sure we knew it was him and we knew he was in Colorado.”
“So whoever tried to kill us wasn’t him.”
Jon shrugged. “He wasn’t physically present in Texas is all I’m saying. The last person who came after someone at Omega wasn’t actually Freihof—it was someone he had convinced needed to take revenge.”
Jon explained about SWAT member Ashton Fitzgerald and how he’d been hunted down by Curtis Harper, the son of a man who’d been killed in an Omega SWAT raid years ago. Freihof had told Harper he would help the man get his revenge.
Harper had nearly died in the process, since Freihof hadn’t mentioned that he would blow up Harper along with any nearby Omega agents.
“Lillian is here, if needed, as a sort of protection duty for Caroline. I thought Caroline might be more comfortable with a woman,” Jon continued. “If you weren’t around.”
And there it was again. The good intentions Caroline spoke about. People—even her best friend’s fiancé—wanting to protect her, but it made her feel weak, breakable.
But on the other hand, Zane knew what Lillian could do. Could kill a man with her tiny bare hands and not break a sweat. As far as protection detail went, very few could beat Lillian Muir, man or woman. And right now, no matter why Lillian was the one chosen, they needed all the help they could get.
“So if Freihof didn’t do it, then he’s either hired someone to come after us or has found someone from my past. I’ve arrested a lot of people. Quite a few who would be pretty pissed off. A couple who it wouldn’t take much to talk into coming after me.”
Both men stood. “And honestly, brother, it wouldn’t take very much observation to realize that the best way to get to you, to cause you pain, is through that lady over there.” Jon pointed at Caroline.
“I’ve got to keep her safe, Jon. I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to her. Not again.”
“I know. You get her someplace safe, away from her house or here. And until we know more, telling as few people as possible where that place is might be a good idea. Lillian and I will wait for the crime scene team here.”
Zane nodded. “Thanks, Jon. I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”
Jon slapped him gently on the shoulder as Zane turned toward Caroline.
He would keep her safe no matter what. Knew where it was that he would take her. Even if it meant giving up the secret he never meant to share with anyone. Especially her.
Chapter Thirteen
“Zane, where are we going?”
They’d been driving around in his truck for nearly an hour now. Every time she thought she knew where they were headed, Zane would make a sudden turn, leading them to another part of town.
Not that Caroline minded riding around in his truck like old times, but Zane was becoming more tense as they drove.
“I don’t think either my house or yours is safe. As a matter of fact, Jon and I both feel whoever broke in did it after the attempt on our lives at Big Bend, not before. Maybe even earlier today.”
Suddenly the danger seemed even closer and she understood why Zane was driving them around. He was making sure no one was following them. That would also explain his tension.
“So a hotel? Somewhere to hang out?” They needed rest. She needed rest. She needed to feel Zane’s arms around her again.
She realized they were headed toward the beach, maybe a hotel nearby. She hadn’t been there in a long time. She sighed. Yet another thing she’d allowed to be taken from her in the attack. But it would be different with Zane with her.
Zane’s presence always made everything different.
Zane didn’t answer her question, and she didn’t push. He obviously had a plan and she trusted him. It wasn’t long before they pulled up to a house a couple blocks from the oceanfront, and only a couple of neighborhoods over from where her parents’ house used to be.
There weren’t any hotels in this area of the beach. Just houses.
“Where are we going? There aren’t any hotels here.”
“We’re not staying at a hotel.”
She looked around, unable to decide if this area should make her uncomfortable or not. It wasn’t anything at the beach that had hurt her. The man who had caused her such pain was dead.
“A safe house? Something of the department’s?”
She didn’t think they would have an oceanfront safe house, but crazier things had happened.
“No, it’s not the department’s. But it is safe.”
They pulled into the drive of a small house, about a block and a half from the actual waterfront. Like many of the houses so close to the ocean, there was no full bottom floor. It was built on glorified stilts to keep the water from doing much damage during hurricane season. The entire living area started on the second floor. This allowed Zane to pull his truck all the way under the house to park.
They both got out and Zane grabbed their duffel bags from the cab behind his seat. He led her up the stairs and pulled out a key on his normal key ring and unlocked the door, holding it open for her, and walking in behind her.
She looked around, taking in the open floor plan with the cozy living room—complete with couch and love seat—opening up into the kitchen. From first glance there looked to be three bedrooms, two on one end of the living room, a master bedroom on the other side.
Zane wasn’t looking around at all, obviously familiar with the house and its layout.
“What is this, a rental? A friend’s place?”
He set the bags down. “No. Actually, I own it.”
She spun to stare at him. “You own a house at the beach.” She couldn’t help but laugh. “You hate the beach. I used to have to drag you here whenever I wanted to go. What, did you buy it as an investment property or something?”
“Something like that.”
“I guess it’s hard to rent it out during the winter.”
Zane just shrugged, walking over to get a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. Except, why would he know there was water in the fridge? He shouldn’t be that familiar with what was on the inside of the rental property.
There was something Zane wasn’t telling her.
“Does anyone know we’re here?”
“I gave Jon and Lillian the address, but not anybody from the department. Why?”
She walked over and opened the refrigerator. It didn’t have a lot of stuff in it, but neither was it empty. “I just wondered if you had someone come stock the house for us.”
“No, I wanted to keep our whereabouts as tightly guarded as possible.”
She turned around to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. “You don’t rent this
place out, or at least you haven’t for a while.”
Zane took a chug of his water. “No. You’re right. I don’t rent it out.”
“Do you live here too?” Caroline couldn’t figure out what piece of the puzzle she was missing. “Two houses or something?”
“No. I’ve slept here occasionally when I haven’t wanted to drive all the way back out to my house. But, no, I don’t live here.”
“So let me see if I understand. You own a pretty nice beach cottage. It would make a great place to live, but you don’t live here. It would also make a great rental property, but you don’t rent it out.”
“Just leave it alone, Caroline.”
She shook her head. “Why? What is there to leave alone? It’s weird, Zane. And not very financially smart.”
“Yeah, I’m well aware of the fact that a mortgage and a separate rent payment every month, even though my place near the airfield is pretty negligible in terms of rent, is not the best plan.”
This was ridiculous. “Then why the hell are you doing it? Move here.”
“I can’t. Like you said, I don’t like the beach.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then sell or rent this place, for heaven’s sake.”
“I can’t do that, either.”
“Why the hell not?” Her volume was going up, but she couldn’t help it.
His fist slammed down against the kitchen island. “I bought this place for you, okay? For us.”
“What?” She reared back a step.
The anger in his voice had disappeared. “I closed on this house two weeks before you were attacked. I had planned on asking you to move into it with me. But then...”
But then everything changed.
She took a step closer, but it felt like a chasm separated them rather than one small kitchen. “You never told me. Even after.”
“There was never a good time. First you were in recovery. Then you wanted nothing to do with the beach. Then...” He trailed off, turning away and walking over to the massive doors that led out to the deck. He opened them and glanced back at her over his shoulder. “Then you wanted nothing to do with me.”