How had this happened? How had she gone from a relatively happy single mother raising a beautiful daughter to a potential victim of a serial killer? She believed Riley. She believed that he hadn’t known about the victim profile.
“Was it the FBI’s intention all along to use me as some sort of bait?” she asked.
He hesitated a moment. “I don’t know. That’s what I accused my supervisor of, but he insisted they hadn’t thought it through, that you were chosen because you live next door to Greg and because they thought you would be cooperative and for no other reason. They didn’t think he’d target you. In any case, it doesn’t matter.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “Doesn’t matter? That’s easy for you to say,” she exclaimed.
“It doesn’t matter because nothing is going to happen to you,” he said firmly. “I’m off surveillance.”
She gasped and moved out of his arms. “Does that mean you’re going to leave here?” She was stunned by how much she didn’t want to tell him goodbye.
“It means the exact opposite,” he replied. “I’m not only going to stay here, but until these men are in jail or the danger has somehow passed, you’ve just earned yourself a twenty-four-hour-a-day bodyguard.”
It was just after eight the next morning and Lana, Riley and Haley were in the kitchen having breakfast when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Riley said. He leaned down and touched the butt of the gun he had shoved into his sock, then rose from his chair and headed for the front door.
He’d decided that the gun would be part of his wardrobe for the rest of his time here with Lana. There was no way anyone was going to sneak up on her again. Not on his watch.
Even though he’d had the entire night to process what had happened, he couldn’t get the sound of her scream out of his head. If he hadn’t come home when he had, there was no doubt in his mind that Lana would be dead right now.
And if you’d gone straight home from school that day you might have been able to prevent your mother’s murder, a little voice whispered inside his head.
He shoved it away, knowing that it was guilt and, by the very facts of the case, wasn’t true. His mother had been dead for four hours before he’d arrived home that dreadful day.
He reached the door, and a peek out the security hole displayed Greg standing on the porch. A wild rage filled Riley. He wanted to rip open the door and smash the man in the face. He needed to throw him on the ground and beat the hell out of him. He did neither.
Opening the door, he plastered a pleasant smile on his face. “Hey, neighbor,” he said in greeting. He kept the door firmly in hand and didn’t invite the man inside.
“Riley,” Greg said with a nod. “It looked like you had a lot of excitement last night. I thought I’d check and see if everything is okay here.”
The bastard had balls, Riley would give him that. “Yeah, some creep broke in here yesterday afternoon when I was gone and Lana and Haley were here alone. We think it was some sort of a robbery attempt and maybe he didn’t know Lana was home. She confronted him and I got home before a real tragedy could occur. The gutless wonder ran out the back door and got away before I could catch him.”
Greg frowned and shook his head as if in disgust. “You think you live in a safe neighborhood and then something like this happens. Was Lana able to identify the man?”
“No, he had on a ski mask.”
“Maybe it was one of the neighborhood teenagers. I think we have several in the area who are dabbling in drugs. You know those dope addicts will rob anyone at anytime.”
“The police gathered enough evidence that I think they’ll be able to make an arrest in the next day or two,” Riley said. Chew on that, you bastard, he thought.
“What kind of evidence?” Greg asked. Although his tone of voice remained light, Riley didn’t miss the almost imperceptible tension that straightened his shoulders.
“Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention to that end of things. I was just grateful that Lana and Haley were okay,” Riley replied.
“I guess all’s well that ends well, right?” Greg took a step backward. “I just wanted to make sure that everything was all right here.”
“Everything is fine,” Riley assured him, hoping his hatred wasn’t showing in his eyes.
“Tell Lana I said hello, and I guess I’ll see you later.” Greg turned on his heel and left the porch.
Riley shut the front door and then moved to the window, where he watched Greg cross the yard to his own.
Greg walked several steps, then paused there and turned back to look at Lana’s house. Riley stepped back from the window, but even from this distance he felt a malevolence rolling off the man.
Greg finally walked toward his house and disappeared inside. If only he could be arrested for the dark thoughts Riley knew were inside his head. If only they could get the evidence they needed to put the man and his partner behind bars.
He turned to see Lana standing just inside the living room. Her eyes were bigger than normal, and he could almost hear the pound of her heart. “He’s gone,” Riley said, and saw her swallow.
“What did he want?”
Riley walked over to her and placed an arm around her shoulder. “He said he saw the commotion over here and wanted to make sure everything was okay, but I think he was fishing to see what we might know.”
She smelled wonderful, like something flowery and clean, and he realized it was a scent that he would always identify with her and with a simmering edge of desire that filled him.
“What you need to remember is that we have lots of agents working this case, and sooner or later Greg and his partner are going to make a mistake. Sooner or later we’re going to get them, Lana.”
She nodded and moved out of his embrace. He followed behind her as she returned to the kitchen and sat back down at the table. “He had a lot of nerve coming over here.”
“Mommy, I want more toast,” Haley said.
“Here you go.” Riley picked up a piece of uneaten toast from his plate and handed it to Haley, who gave him a smile to melt his heart.
Like the woman across from him at the table, the kid was getting to him as well. As crazy as it sounded, as much as he didn’t want it to be so, they had come to feel like his family.
He hadn’t expected the emotional toll this mock marriage would have on him. He’d thought he’d be able to breeze through it all with no scars left behind when he moved on, but he’d been wrong.
“You never told me where you really live,” Lana said suddenly.
It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about Greg anymore, didn’t want to discuss the case. Riley moved to the counter and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, then returned to the table to sit across from her.
“I have a small apartment downtown, although I’m not there too often.” The apartment had never felt like home. It was just the place he went to eat and sleep when not working. No place had ever felt like home since the murder of his mother. He took a sip of his coffee and saw that she was slowly beginning to relax. It surprised him, how much he’d come to know about her, how easily he was beginning to read her moods.
“In your work do you do a lot of traveling?”
“Not a lot,” he replied.
“What kind of case were you working when you got shot?” Her gaze went from his face to his shoulder.
“It was a gang-related issue. I went to talk to a man we thought might have ties to the gang. He worked in the mayor’s office as a clerk. I didn’t expect any thing violent, but when I showed up on his doorstep he pulled a gun and shot me.” He shook his head as he remembered that moment of stunned surprise and pain. “It was my fault. I was careless in not being prepared for anything.”
“I don’t remember seeing anything about it in the papers,” she said.
“We kept it out of the news at the mayor’s request.
The shoulder wound is what got me assigned to this surveillance case. The l
ast thing I wanted was to be stuck on desk duty.”
“And now you’re on bodyguard duty.”
He smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood. “And what a body it is.”
Her cheeks pinkened but a tiny smile curved her lips. “You’re terrible.”
“Terrible,” Haley echoed and laughed.
Lana’s smile lasted only a moment and then faded. “It would be nice if this case was solved before this weekend,” she said with a sigh.
“This weekend?” He looked at her curiously.
“My jewelry show, remember?”
God, with everything that had happened he’d for gotten all about the big show she’d planned on work ing. “Lana, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to go to the show.”
She raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t want to hear it.”
He looked at her helplessly. “Being out in a public place like that just isn’t a good idea at this time in the game. It would be a logistic nightmare to try to keep you safe.”
“You don’t understand. I’ve worked most of the year to get things ready for this show.” Her voice trembled slightly, but she lifted her chin in a show of defiance. “It’s one of the biggest shows of the year. This is my business, Riley, this is important to me.”
“There will be other shows,” he replied, and instantly knew it was the wrong thing to say. Her eyes flashed with a fire of anger that he’d never seen before as she scooted her chair back from the table.
“Other shows? Like I said, this is one of the biggest ones in the Midwest. This is how I make my living.” She got out of the chair as if unable to sit a moment longer. “You people have shoved your way into my life, disrupted my routine and placed me in danger.”
“Are we having our first lover’s quarrel?” he asked in an attempt to lighten her mood.
She scooped up Haley from her booster seat and turned back to face him. “You aren’t my lover and I’m going to that show. It’s up to you to make sure that I stay safe. That’s what bodyguards do.”
She didn’t wait for his reply, but left the kitchen, and a moment later he heard the door to Haley’s bedroom slam shut.
Whew, she was pissed. He couldn’t say he blamed her. She was right. They had all barged into her life and pretty well screwed it up.
He should be irritated with her, but instead a new respect for her filled him. She wasn’t going to let Greg or the FBI push her around any longer. She was going to go to that jewelry show, and all he had to do was figure out how he intended to keep her safe in a crowd where he wasn’t even sure who might be the danger.
He wouldn’t confess it to anyone, but he was more than a little afraid for her, more than a little worried that no matter what arrangements they made, he wouldn’t be able to keep her safe.
Chapter Eight
It was early Friday afternoon when Riley pulled up into Kerry Peters’s driveway. Kerry and Lana had been friends since high school. She was divorced and had a five-year-old daughter, and the two women often took turns babysitting for each other.
Even though Haley was excited about staying with Kerry and her daughter, Kim, Lana worried that she’d been wrong to insist on going to the jewelry show for the weekend.
As Riley shut off the car engine, Kim came running out of the neat little ranch house, followed closely by her mother.
“Haley!” Kim cried, and danced in the yard next to the car with excitement.
“So, you’re the new man,” Kerry said as she smiled at Riley. “And you,” she said, pointing a finger at Lana, “are in my doghouse for waiting so long to tell me about him.”
Lana made the official introductions and then hugged her friend as Riley got Haley out of her car seat. The two little girls squealed and hugged each other.
“We’re going to play house and we’ll play school and you can be the teacher and we’ll make cookies and everything,” Kim exclaimed.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Lana asked her friend with a laugh.
Kerry smiled. “Are you kidding? It’s always easier on me when Kim has a playmate. We’ll be fine. You just go off with your handsome new hubby and sell a million dollars’ worth of jewelry.”
“Ah, from your lips to God’s ears,” Lana replied. She pulled a small suitcase from the backseat of the car and set it on the ground. “Here’s everything you should need for her until Sunday. We should be here around six to pick her up. You have the number where we’ll be?”
A hundred worries flittered around in Lana’s head. What if Haley woke up in the middle of the night and cried for her? What if Greg managed to get to her despite Riley’s protection and this was the very last time she’d see her daughter?
She knelt down and grabbed Haley to her, drawing in the sweet scent of babyhood that still clung to her. She hugged her tight, as if this might be the last time she held the person she loved more than anyone else in the world.
“Mommy, go,” Haley said as she squirmed to get free from Lana’s embrace. “Me and Kim have stuff to do.”
“Yes, go,” Kerry exclaimed. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine here.”
Reluctantly, Lana released the wiggly Haley and stood. “Thanks, Kerry.”
“Oh, don’t thank me yet,” she replied. “I have a ski trip planned in a couple of months and will be looking for a place for Kim for a few days.”
Lana smiled. “You know we’d love to have her.”
“And pencil me in for lunch next week. We need to have a long chat about Mr. Wonderful here,” Kerry said, pointing at Riley.
“Today Mr. Wonderful, tomorrow just another downtrodden husband,” Riley replied good-naturedly.
With final goodbyes said, Riley and Lana got back into the car.
Lana stared out the passenger seat and watched as Kerry and the two little girls disappeared into the house.
“Are you okay?” Riley asked as he backed out of the driveway.
“I’m fine,” she replied, and cast him a quick glance. The past week had been a difficult one. After she’d thrown her temper fit about attending the show and had stomped out of the kitchen with Haley, he’d come into Haley’s room and told her that they would go, that somehow he’d figure it out.
Things had been a bit tense between them since then. She’d spent the rest of the week working frantically to get as much of her jewelry finished as possible while he’d wandered from room to room like a caged animal seeking escape.
This morning as they’d packed the car with everything she would need for the weekend, she’d once again felt that creepy-crawly feeling that somebody was watching her. Watching them. More than once as they’d packed the car her gaze had drifted toward Greg’s place, but she hadn’t seen him anywhere around.
“It’s a nice day,” Riley said, breaking the silence that had filled the car.
“It’s beautiful,” she agreed. The intense heat that had marked the week had been swept away by a cool front that had the temperature hovering around the seventy-five degree mark. “Hopefully, a lot of people will get out tomorrow to enjoy the weather and will wind up at the show.”
He looked relaxed and sexy in a pair of jeans and a navy blazer, but she knew the jacket hid his shoulder holster and gun. The gun was a reminder to her that while she was trying to sell her jewelry, Riley would be looking for somebody who wanted her dead, somebody who had partnered in an unholy alliance with her neighbor.
The most frightening part about the whole thing was that she didn’t know whom to fear. She didn’t know what face her killer might wear. She knew to be afraid of Greg, but until the FBI identified his partner, she couldn’t know what other man might bring danger to her.
She knew Riley worried about the same thing. Every man who approached her booth would be scrutinized as a potential threat. It was going to be an exhausting weekend for them both.
“Thanks for doing this,” she said.
He cast her a quick smile. “You didn’t leave me much choice. Yo
u seemed pretty adamant that we were going to do this no matter what the consequences.”
“You could have put your foot down, told me that if I wanted to come I was on my own,” she replied.
“I couldn’t do that,” he protested. “Besides, you were right. We’ve taken enough from you, and I wasn’t willing to take this away, too.”
“Thank you,” she repeated simply, knowing the words weren’t adequate for what she was feeling but that they were all she had.
“Don’t thank me now. We haven’t survived this weekend yet. I’ll expect you to be overwhelmingly grateful to me when we’re back home.” He raised an eyebrow with a mock leer.
She laughed, grateful that the tension between them had eased. Then she sobered. “But I know you were angry that I refused to stay home.”
“I wasn’t angry at you. I was angry at the situation,” he explained. “I’m sorry we got you into this mess. I’m sorry that you were attacked in your own home.” His gaze drifted to her calf where the wound she’d gotten was healing. “And I’m sorry I didn’t catch the bastard who sliced you.”
“It could have been worse,” she replied. But she was aware that it wasn’t over yet.
It didn’t take long to arrive at the convention-center parking garage, where Riley pulled into a spot and demanded she stay in the car while he got out. She watched him as his gaze swept the general area, his hand on the butt of his gun.
She trusted him like she’d never trusted another man, at least to keep her safe. He apparently didn’t see anything that caused him alarm, for he walked over to get a large dolly and then returned to the car and motioned her out.
It took them several minutes to load the large tubs and items from the trunk onto the dolly, and the whole time they worked Riley continued to look around as if anticipating trouble.
He didn’t appear to relax until they entered the convention-center room where the booths were set up, and then he seemed to relax only a little bit.
“I’m in booth twenty-seven,” she said. “It’s at the end of the second aisle.” She was pleased to have an end booth, which often got more traffic than the middle booths. Within an hour the room was a den of activity, with designers setting up their booths and checking out their competitors’ wares.
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