TAMING KNOX (Gray Wolf Security, Texas Book 3)

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Bingo!”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

  “Pull up the footage on Gray Wolf cameras, and I bet you’ll see her face. She knew where the security cameras were, but she couldn’t have known where ours were.”

  Alexander was still shaking his head, but he pulled out his iPad and began access the footage. The cameras Gray Wolf put in only recorded when there was motion in an area near a camera, and the footage was only brought to a monitor’s attention when there was motion in a place where it shouldn’t be, or if it didn’t fit the parameters of the people allowed in that area. Janis’ presence at Dunlap’s house during the day wouldn’t have sent the footage to the monitor, but it would have been recorded.

  I leafed through the file while Alexander searched the database. Everything we needed to prove she was behind the explosion at Dunlap’s was in there. Plans for the house. The specs on the gas lines. There was even a page printed from the internet that explained how to loosen the connections so that the gas would leak at a predictable rate.

  We had her.

  And then Alexander came over and silently handed me the iPad. On the screen was a clear shot of Janis’ face surrounded by the dark hoodie.

  We had her.

  I laughed. “It’s over. We have her.”

  ***

  David called the police detective he worked with in Tierney Michaels’ case, Detective Snider. He came to the office and looked at our evidence silently, not really talking. But then he pulled out his cell phone and called for a warrant. Janis was arrested an hour later without incidence at her house.

  I went back to the cottage and found Dunlap still sleeping in my bed. He was so exhausted that he hadn’t noticed I was gone all that time. I stripped down to my panties and crawled into bed with him, pressing my body up against his back.

  “Morning, gorgeous,” he mumbled, turning toward me.

  “I have news.”

  He looked at me, then sat up, taking a longer look at me.

  “Did you sleep?”

  I brushed that question off, touching his face lightly, my fingers dancing in his facial hair. “We got her.”

  “Julep?”

  “No, Dunlap. It wasn’t Julep. The real killer set her up, made it look like it was her when it really wasn’t.”

  He frowned, his penetrating gray eyes hard on my face. “What do you mean?”

  “It was Janis. All the evidence was there in her desk, right there outside your office. She altered the gas lines. She caused the kitchen at your house to explode.”

  He shook his head, climbing out of the bed as he did. He paced the length of the room between the door and the end of the bed, staring at the floor.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. The cops are interviewing her now.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. Why would Janis want to hurt me?”

  “Did you know you went to college with her?”

  He stopped pacing and stared at me. “What are you talking about?”

  “She graduated from Northwestern the same time you did. And then she followed you here to Austin.”

  “I’ve only known Janis for a little more than six years. Since I opened my construction company.”

  “I know. But we did a background check, we have the records.”

  “That’s not possible. She showed me a resume that listed UT Austin as her alma mater. She didn’t go to Northwestern.”

  “She did. And she never held another job as an assistant, not like the one she has with you. She was a secretary at some insurance company and for a real estate company. She got fired from both.”

  He shook his head again. “She had references from all these construction companies. She’d even worked for Peterman.”

  “No, she didn’t.”

  “Fuck!”

  He ran his fingers through his hair, pacing again. I could see the dark clouds in his eyes, the tension in his shoulders. He kept pacing like he was running a race.

  “I should have done a background check. I brought this danger on my family.”

  “Dunlap…”

  I got off the bed, a little surprised at the direction the conversation was going. I tried to catch his arm, to catch his attention, but he was clearly upset. He didn’t want to focus on me.

  “Dunlap, we got her. She’s in jail.”

  “Yeah, well, she probably killed Colby, right? That’s what you’re thinking?”

  “I’m thinking it’s a pretty good possibility.”

  “And that’s on me. I brought her into our lives, I introduced her to my wife, complained to her about the problems we were having. We talked about everything. She knew everything! And she killed Colby because of it.”

  I nodded, unable to disagree with him. I could see the grief on his face, the pain that realization brought to him. And that addressed the last bit of doubt that lived in my soul. I was convinced that he still loved Colby, but the more time we spent together, the more I told myself it didn’t matter. But now it was pretty obvious it did.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head. “I need some time.”

  He walked out of the bedroom, out of my cottage. He never once looked back.

  He was gone. And where did that leave me?

  Chapter 22

  Dunlap

  I walked into the visitor’s room, listening to the conversations going on around me. We weren’t allowed a face-to-face visit with the inmates. Instead, it was a room filled with computers. A visitor sat at the computer, picked up a phone, and waited. Then the inmate would appear on the computer and the visitor had twenty minutes to say what they’d come to say.

  I had a lot to say.

  When Janis’ face appeared on the screen, I was filled with an overwhelming hatred like nothing I’d ever felt before.

  “Why?”

  The smile of delight that had been on her face abruptly disappeared.

  “What?”

  “Why did you do it? Why put my children in danger?”

  “I knew you wouldn’t be in the kitchen.”

  “But what about the girls? The kitchen is below their nursery.”

  “The specs. I knew the house was designed so that a fire in the kitchen wouldn’t spread to the rest of the house. I knew they would be fine.”

  I shook my head. “You couldn’t have known that. Not even I knew that.”

  “You are brilliant. You designed a sturdy house.”

  Admiration dripped from her words. I stared at her, finding it difficult to reconcile this woman with the woman I had leaned on so much during the first years of my business, when we were flagging and worried that we wouldn’t survive. She was my rock. And now? She’d taken our relationship and twisted it into something dark and dirty.

  “And the car? You did that, too?”

  “I knew you would figure it out and you’d be able to control the crash.”

  “Why would you want to hurt me?”

  “So I could take care of you. But then you ran to that woman and brought in those security people. I couldn’t get close to you without raising eyebrows. So I set the house to burn so that you would be forced to move out for a while. My house is more than big enough to keep you and the girls comfortable.”

  She smiled, like the invitation was still a possibility. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  “Why?”

  She touched the computer screen on her side, running her fingers over what must have been the image of my face. All I saw was the blurred image of her skin.

  “I’ve loved you since freshman year. We were in the same English Lit class. You don’t remember me, but I always remembered you.”

  “No, I don’t remember you.”

  “My hair was dark then. And I had this scar…” She touched the side of her face. “I was in a fire at my parents’ place. I thought it would never heal, but it did, and I went to school and saw you…and it all felt meant to be. But then you met Colby and you sto
pped seeing me. So I changed myself, had surgery, died my hair, so that you would see me.”

  I shook my head. “No, Janis…”

  “Colby made you happy at first. I was okay with that. But then she got pregnant and you were so miserable. So I had to do something.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I interviewed for that job. I knew you wouldn’t recognize me because of how much work I’d had done. So I fudged my resume, made sure I was the best candidate for the job. And then I took care of you.”

  I didn’t understand. My head was spinning. This woman…she was my friend! She was my confidant! And now. I suddenly realized I knew absolutely nothing about her.

  “I wanted to make you happy. Colby wasn’t doing it, so I did all I could to make you happy. And then she was getting better, and you were smiling again. I thought…maybe it would work out. Maybe the two of you…but then I heard her arguing with her mother. I went to the house when you were out of town that week. I didn’t go with you because I’d needed to be here to oversee that new project you were just beginning to break ground on. Do you remember? You asked me if I minded. You said you had enough on your hands with Mattie being so little, you didn’t need to worry about that, too? I was so happy you trusted me that much!”

  She smiled again, that delight in her eyes again. And a little crazy. I’d never seen that level of crazy in anyone’s eyes before. Seeing it in hers…it frightened me, to be completely honest.

  “I heard her tell her mother that her stepfather molested her when she was nine. That he made her pregnant when she was twelve. I heard her tell her mother that she was unable to love her daughters because of that experience. She said that she couldn’t even look at Mattie. And that…that was horrible. And so unfair to you! Putting all that pressure of raising another man’s child on you and then not able to even look at her! How ridiculous was that? I knew exactly what I had to do then.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I waited until her mother left. Then I let her know I was there. She was about to get into the hot tub, so I told her I’d fix her a glass of Scotch. Her mother had left her purse and there were all these pills in it, so I dumped a bunch of Oxy in her scotch. And then I gave it to her, pulled up a chair, and just watched it happen. I waited to make sure she was dead, then I wiped down the bottle and left. I wasn’t surprised when they called it an accident.”

  I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated her right then.

  “She was my wife,” I said, my voice low and hard. “She was the mother of my children and you murdered her in cold blood? How could you do that? How could you do that to her? To me? You saw how much it hurt! How could you?”

  “Because I knew you’d be better off in the long run. Because I knew you would turn to me and I would be there to catch you. And I was, I just didn’t count on Knox Adams.”

  She touched the screen again, her fingers blurring the picture.

  “I love you, Dunlap. No one will ever love you the way I do.”

  I wanted to scream!

  “You murdered my wife, caused me to be in a near fatal accident, and nearly murdered my children. How can you call that love?”

  “But it is love.” She actually had the gall to look confused. “I got you out of a bad marriage, and I was there to catch you when you fell. Isn’t that the definition of love?”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I hung up the phone and watched the screen go black. I could only hope they were monitoring these calls, that they got her confession right there. I could only hope that she would go away for a very, very long time.

  I needed space. I needed to breathe. I went back to the compound while I knew Knox was out on another job and I packed my kids up. I flew to Illinois to spend some time on the farm with my parents. I needed a break.

  I needed to regain my sanity.

  Chapter 23

  Knox

  He was gone two weeks. I knew logically that he needed to process what had happened. Even I needed to process it and I wasn’t the one who had hired a woman who was a fraud, I wasn’t the one whose wife was murdered over the stupidest thing. She killed her because she was struggling with childhood abuse? She killed her because the burden of raising their child would fall on Dunlap? So what? How many couples had experienced such a thing and managed to come out the other end? Why resort to murder?

  It didn’t make sense, even I could see that. But crazy often didn’t make sense.

  I got my mail from the main house late one Friday night and walked slowly back to my cottage. There were a few bills, credit card statements and the like, and a lot of junk mail. Tucked in the back was a familiar pink envelope. My address was written in my sister’s flowery script, no return address on the left hand corner. Did she really think that if she didn’t put her address on it I wouldn’t recognize her handwriting?

  I shoved it into a drawer with the dozens of others that had come over the past few months. I never read any of them. I didn’t see the point.

  I was in the kitchen trying to decide between a supreme pizza or a meat lover’s when there came a knock on the door. Popular girl. Ricki had stopped by last night and Kipling had made a habit of coming by every couple of days to watch a little reality television with me. We didn’t talk. We just sat there and watched the Kardashians do what they did. I didn’t even care about the show and I was pretty sure he didn’t either. It was just shared noise.

  I opened the door, expecting Kipling’s warm eyes. Instead, I found myself looking into Dunlap’s penetrating gray eyes.

  “Hi.”

  Hi. He disappears for two weeks and all he has to say to me is hi.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  I leaned against the doorjamb and studied him for a moment. “I think we’re all talked out.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You said just about everything you needed to say when you snuck out of here when you knew I wouldn’t be around.”

  “I just needed some space. I didn’t do that to hurt you.”

  “But you had to have known it would.”

  “Knox, I just found out someone I trusted more than anyone else murdered my wife. I needed to take a minute.”

  “That’s fine. But you could have said goodbye.”

  “I was afraid if I did, I wouldn’t be able to leave.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have.”

  I turned away, but I left the door open, wondering if he would accept the invitation. A second later, I heard the door snap shut. I was afraid to look.

  “She’s dead, you know.”

  My heart jumped a little. Not because of what he said, but because he was still there. I really expected him to leave.

  “I heard.”

  “She committed suicide when they told her I refused to go see her.”

  “I know.”

  “That’s pretty heavy shit.”

  I looked at him. “She was insane. She would have ended up that way eventually anyway. But if we hadn’t caught her, there’s no telling who else she would have hurt in the process.”

  “I know. And I’m glad you figured it out. Without you, there’s no telling what she might have done to my girls.”

  I shrugged. “Just doing my job.”

  “No, it was more than that. I know that.”

  I turned away again. “I don’t know what you want from me, Dunlap. It was fun. Now it’s over.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.”

  My heart sort of stuttered in my chest, doing that funny jump again. I closed my eyes, so afraid of hoping, so afraid of trusting, that I wasn’t sure what to do next. I froze. I couldn’t tell him how I felt, but I couldn’t not tell him. I couldn’t risk allowing him to walk away, but I couldn’t face the kind of hurt that would come with loving him.

  Or loving those girls.

  “I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t go through that again.”

  “Knox…” He came up
behind me and set his hands on my shoulders. “I love you. I’ve missed you like crazy. All I could think about was you. The thought that I might have lost you is tearing me up inside. Please…”

  “I can’t play games with you. I can’t sit around here wondering if you’ll come back.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m here for the long run. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I turned and looked up at him. “Promise?”

  I hated how needy I sounded, but I needed him to promise me. I couldn’t risk everything if he didn’t.

  “I love you,” he said, moving close to me, his lips grazing mine. “I won’t ever run out on you again. I promise.”

  It had to be enough. I wasn’t good with trust, but I wanted to be.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I love you, too,” I said.

  He groaned, a sound that said so much more than words could have. And then he scooped me up and carried me into the bedroom. And proved to me, over and over, how deeply he meant everything he’d said.

  Chapter 24

  Dunlap

  Stevie ran past me, sliding on the wood floors in her socks. Knox followed, also sliding in a pair of my socks.

  “Hey, ladies! Be careful!”

  “Yes, Daddy,” they both called before dissolving into a gale of giggles.

  We’d been in the new condo for all of twenty-four hours and things were already beginning to feel like home. It was just a few miles from the Gray Wolf compound and a good distance from my offices, but I was in the process of building a new office building about five miles down the road, so it was an ideal location. And it was big enough for all four of us—not to mention the fun wood floors.

  I lifted Mattie out of her play yard and went into the kitchen to heat her a bottle. It was about time to wean her off the bottles, but I have to admit that I liked our nighttime ritual of settling down, just the two of us, with a bottle. Another month, maybe? We were going to have to break a lot of habits over the next seventeen years. This one seemed like such a minor one.

  We were just settling down in the new rocking chair I’d bought yesterday when the doorbell rang. Stevie and Knox were headed upstairs for bath time, so I found myself struggling out of the chair, a nearly comatose Mattie in my arms with the bottle stuffed deep in her mouth, to answer the door.