by A. C. Arthur
There was a sliding door which she was thankful for today, because it was quiet. On the top shelf behind two boxes filled with photos was a metal box. Inside that box was a gun. She kept another one in the nightstand by her bed and in the top drawer of her dresser was where she’d placed the one that Devlin had given her to carry last night. As quietly as she could manage and during the second knock on her door, Bailey released the safety on the gun and eased her way across the room and into the foyer. She stepped up to the door and looked through the peep hole. Whoever was out there was standing to the side, out of view.
Bailey held the gun up, her finger on the trigger at the same time as she grabbed the door knob with her other hand. There was an old fashioned chain on her door and at this moment she loved the fact that it was there. She opened the door, knowing the chain would only allow it to go so far. Just far enough for her to stick her gun through and shoot if need be.
“It’s starting to snow again,” he said the moment he saw her face. “You gonna let me stand out here in the cold or are you opening the damn door?”
On a curse, Bailey slammed the door. She put the safety back on her gun and yanked the chain free before opening it again.
“What are you doing here, Sam?” she asked when she stepped to the side to let him in. “How did you know I was back?”
“Dev called me at the crack of dawn and told me to get my ass over here to keep an eye on you,” Sam Desdune said as he walked with familiar steps through the foyer and straight back to her kitchen.
“I couldn’t leave until Elijah finished his breakfast. I fed the dogs and Karena,” he was saying as he opened her refrigerator, cursed and pulled out a bottled water. “In these last few weeks of Karena’s pregnancy I’ve started to feel like a single parent. I dropped Elijah off at daycare and left Karena in the house under Romeo and Juliet’s watchful eyes. I’ll call her in about an hour to check on her. But for now, I’m here checking on you.”
Sam gulped the water down while Bailey watched him.
“You said Devlin called you? What else did he say?”
He shook his head and finished the water. “You’ve been away for weeks and I just said all that and your question is what else Devlin Bonner said to me on the phone?”
Bailey shrugged.
“I’m shocked he called you, of all people,” she told him. “Besides, I’m not sure I need to be watched at this point.”
The fact that she’d just put her gun on the counter, kind of said differently.
Sam put the cap on the empty water bottle and dropped it into the blue recycle bin sitting beside the refrigerator. He came around the island then and pulled Bailey into a tight hug.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered.
Bailey couldn’t help but smile. Since she’d come to work for D&D Investigations, Sam had been like another cousin to her. His family—the Desdunes and via marriage, the Bennetts—had all taken her in as if she were a blood relative. They were the best surrogate family a woman could ask for.
“Don’t you think you should have done this when you first came in,” she joked as he released her.
“Had to wait for you to put your gun down first,” he said and tweaked the end of her nose.
“Oh yeah, that. Well, a girl can’t be too careful these days,” she said, trying for calm.
Sam raised a brow. “Is this the same girl that doesn’t think she needs to be watched?”
“Shut up and tell me what else Devlin said,” Bailey quipped as she walked back into the living room.
“Just that he’d dropped you off here and that I should keep a close eye on you,” Sam said as he stopped by the cage and tapped on it.
Peaches ignored him and he shrugged.
“So I’m stopping by to see that you’re alright and to tell you that Bree is on call today. That means if you want to go out, call her first. She’ll go with you.”
Bailey was shaking her head as she sat on the couch and picked up her laptop again. “I’m not a child,” she replied.
“No. You’re not,” he answered calmly. “But you were just kidnapped, Bailey. Even as stubborn as you can be about people being overbearing, you have to admit that’s cause for concern.”
He was right. Dammit. She couldn’t argue his point, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Where was he going?” she asked instead of continuing with the same pointless line of conversation.
“Who? Devlin?”
Sam looked at her oddly and Bailey stared down at her computer screen.
“Yes,” she answered.
“I don’t normally keep tabs on the guy,” he replied. “Why are you?”
“Huh?” Bailey asked and then looked up to see that Sam was now leaning over and picking up The Beast from the couch.
“Shopping for Brandon and Amber’s baby shower gift?”
Bailey paused before replying, “How do you know it wasn’t a gift for you and Karena?”
He smiled. “Because we’re having a girl and you know very well that Karena has already selected a Doc McStuffins theme for the shower and the nursery. Have Brandon and Amber announced the sex of their baby yet?”
Bailey shook her head.
Sam nodded.
“Then this isn’t for them?”
“No. It’s mine.”
“You buy it for yourself?”
Bailey huffed. “Don’t you have a case to work on? I really don’t need a babysitter. I have no plans to go anywhere today.”
That was true. Her plans consisted of sitting on this couch and finding out everything she could about Devlin. Oh, and calling her father, which she still had not done yet.
“So that’s a no,” Sam said. “Did Dev buy it for you?”
“You’re not funny,” she quipped and continued to type in questions she had for Jamie.
“And you’re not fooling me,” he continued. “Dev was here only hours after we called Brandon to say you hadn’t shown up for work. He questioned just about everyone in this complex and then he broke this guy’s nose at the gym because he wasn’t very cooperative in Dev’s questioning. I thought maybe it was just because Dev was totally loyal to Trent and that Trent had sent you here. But Bree said I had it all wrong.”
Bailey sighed. Damn Bree. An ex-Marine, the woman was a total romantic now that she’d married a very rich erotic sculptor and had given him the cutest triplets anyone had ever seen.
“She said there was something going on between you and Dev.”
“Bree doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Bailey insisted.
“Then why did she also say that she’d seen you and Dev at the airport when you first came home from Houston? You weren’t in danger then, so why had he flown back here with you?”
“Is there a point to this line of questioning?” she asked.
Sam laughed. “No,” he finally managed to say. “I guess there isn’t. At least not at the moment. Anyway, yes, I do have work to do. You call Bree if you want to go out. Cole’s going to get some patrols to circle around the complex a couple times today.”
“Oh great, now the GPD is going to send me a bill for their services,” she told him.
“I doubt it, but if they do, just send the bill to D&D. In the meantime, you be good,” he told her before heading to the front door.
Sam had been to her house on numerous occasions before and since he was like family, Bailey didn’t think she needed to officially show him out. But a few seconds later he was calling out to her, “Come lock the doors, Bailey.”
Putting her laptop aside once more, Bailey didn’t even think to argue since she knew there was a new threat lingering. One, she’d figured Devlin hadn’t wanted to tell Sam about. As she locked the door, Bailey thought that Devlin wouldn’t want Trent or anyone else to know that someone was personally after him. That just meant Bailey needed to finish her research faster so she could find this person and offer her help to the man that insisted upon trying to break her heart.
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Woodland Trauma Center
San Bernardino County, California
Trent cursed as he pushed the end button on his phone. This was the third time he’d tried to call Dev and had been immediately sent to voice mail. He stood in the waiting room that had grown far too familiar to him in the last week. Only today, his wife was up and talking. She was laughing as their son sat on the side of her bed telling her about how he splashed water on his grandfather in the hotel pool. Tia’s mother had been flown in and she sat in one of the chairs in the corner of Tia’s room. Camille and Adam were also visiting Tia today. Everyone was happy that Tia was up and alert and the doctors were optimistic about her recovery. Trent was elated.
He was also ready to see the person responsible for all this heartache behind bars. Sheriff Summit was looking for Roslyn and now, with Trent’s help, he was looking for Orinthian Weatherby, or O as they’d called him in the Navy. Trent couldn’t believe he was also working with Roslyn and he wondered at their connection. That’s why he’d been calling Dev, to let him know what was going on and to get his thoughts on O’s involvement, but his irritating friend wasn’t answering.
Trent squeezed his cell phone in his hand as he paced the length of the waiting room floor. He ran over the last couple of weeks in his mind. Had O been on his property at another time and Trent not seen him? Why had Apollo not mentioned seeing O? They all knew each other because Dev made sure to only hire other private sector operatives for this job, friends that they’d either trained or served on a mission with at some point in their career. So if O was masquerading as a landscaper, then why hadn’t Apollo noticed him? And where the hell was Apollo and the rest of their team?
There had never been a time that Trent was not on top of every operation, or that he didn’t know where his teammates were and what they were doing. Today, however, he felt out of the loop. Sure, there was good reason. His wife had been shot, his mind had been preoccupied with her condition and with the status of his family. In the past years his family had become his priority. They were the reason he’d walked away from the private sector, choosing to work as normal a job as a person with his training could. It allowed him to be home when Trevor woke in the morning and to hold his wife in his arms when they lay down to sleep at night. He’d made the right choice and he wasn’t doubting that now.
He was, however, hating the fact that he couldn’t reach out and easily get the answers he needed at the moment.
“Who are you plotting to take down now?”
Trent turned at the voice. He recognized it but was baffled to be hearing it in this place, at this moment.
“Cadence Martin Donovan,” Trent said when he looked at his cousin, mimicking the way Cade’s mother, Brenda, used to say his name when Cade was in trouble.
The two men shook hands and gripped each other in a tight hug.
“Man, what are you doing here? It’s been years since you’ve ventured onto the west coast,” Trent said when they’d released each other and now stood close in the waiting room.
“Yeah, I don’t get to this side too frequently,” Cade replied.
He wore a black suit, crisp white dress shirt and a purple tie that he’d loosened at his neck. Just an inch or so shorter than Trent, Cade was a fit guy with what Trent and his brothers teased were “pretty boy” looks that included those almond shaped eyes that always had the girls swooning over him when they were young. The eyes and the hair were from Cade’s Chinese ancestry, the strong build and unshakable confidence were all Donovan, no doubt about it.
“So what brings you here now? How did you even know that we were here?” Trent asked him.
“Uncle Henry told my dad,” Cade replied.
They were cousins—Trent’s father and Cade’s father were the children of the infamous Ike and Charles Donovan, first born sons and protégés of the founding members of Donovan Oilwell, Rowan and Charleston Donovan. When they were younger the Donovans were much closer than the entire family was now. Whereas Trent was used to seeing his father’s siblings and their children, the other branches of the family weren’t visited too frequently. So he had to wonder why his father had chosen to tell Uncle Charles about what had happened, and just how much he’d told him.
“She’s going to be alright,” Trent told Cade.
They’d both sat in the chairs Trent had come to despise. Cade rubbed a finger over his chin.
“That’s good to hear,” he replied.
“So you can let Uncle Charles and Aunt Brenda know. We should be heading home tomorrow,” Trent continued.
“I know about the bombing, Bailey’s kidnapping and the fire, Trent.”
He wanted to shrug it off, to act like it didn’t bother him at all that their family’s dirty laundry was being aired—even if it was to more family.
“I know about Dane Donovan and Roslyn Ausby and that you and Devlin Bonner have been running an unauthorized operation for the better part of a year trying to stop this woman from hurting the family in the name of revenge,” he continued.
Trent stretched his fingers, he curled them into his hand, and straightened them again.
“You saw the news,” Trent said. “I don’t know how that reporter found her information but the moment Tia knocked her down I figured she’d come after us with both barrels. She must have wanted Tia to verify what someone had already told her, but I don’t know who would have told her anything.”
“There’s a leak on your team,” Cade told him. “That’s who fed the story to the media.”
Trent thought about Cade’s words. They had a leak. Trent knew each guy they’d been working with personally. Tia had told him that Apollo wasn’t at their house when she got there the night of the shooting. Someone had left her a note with his name on it in their house and that’s why she’d come to the cabin. That person had even given Tia a key to the cabin.
“Dammit!”
Trent stood, balling a fist and preparing to slam it into the wall. Cade moved fast, catching Trent’s fist in the palm of his hand.
“Not a good idea,” Cade said before frowning. “You still throw a mean right punch.”
Trent pulled his arm back, shaking his head. “You still don’t know when to get out of the way. That’s how you broke your leg when you were six.”
“Max wasn’t supposed to jump on the snowboard and soar down the hill when I was standing right behind him,” Cade argued.
“When someone yells go, you should probably get out of the way,” Trent told him while he still had his fists balled at his sides.
Cade chuckled. “Lesson learned.”
Trent sat back in the chair. “I don’t know what the hell is going on,” he admitted. “We’ve been trying to figure it out, but at every turn she’s a step ahead of us. Why is that? We’re trained for this. We’ve caught smarter and ten times more dangerous men and women in less time. What is it about her that continues to allude us?”
“One, this is personal so you’re not as objective and focused on the end goal as you would be if you were being paid. You’re running on emotions and you know how distracting that can be. And perhaps most important, this woman is not mentally stable,” Cade said with a shrug. “It can be hard to predict the movements of someone who doesn’t know what they’re thinking or feeling from one moment to the next.”
“I don’t think she’s crazy,” Trent told him. “Hell bent on revenge, but she’s not crazy. She’s making purposeful movements. Like she’s acting out a plan she’s had in her mind for a very long time.”
“She is,” Cade said. “The only problem with that is with every day, every sunrise, every news broadcast, every reminder of her past, that plan changes. One minute her thoughts are on reconciling with Uncle Henry, re-creating that fierce and heated love she believes they once shared. And the next she’s ensconced in the pain of him leaving her and denying his child.”
Trent shook his head.
“Dane is Uncle Bernard’s son. Thank goodness,” Trent told him
.
“Not in her mind,” Cade countered. “It doesn’t matter what the DNA results said, which is probably why she never went to the courts and filed a child support case against Uncle Henry. Had she done that at any time during Dane’s childhood, the court would have demanded Uncle Henry get a blood test.”
That had happened to Trent’s high school friend who was supposed to join the Navy with him. After graduation he’d slept with one of the girls from the huge party they’d attended. She turned up pregnant and said it was his kid. He denied it. She went to the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement and filed a case. They ordered a paternity test. It was his kid so he never joined the Navy. Got a job at his father’s car dealership instead. Trent had no idea what had happened to him after that.
“So you’re saying she wants to believe Dane is my dad’s child, no matter what?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And as long as that delusion is at play, Roslyn Ausby will be calm. She’ll probably continue to reach out to Uncle Henry or stalk him because she needs to see him and to be near him, but she won’t lash out.”
“But the minute that delusion ends?”
“He is her world. If that ends, so does everything else in her eyes. She’ll lash out in any way she can. Taking as many lives as she can in the process.”
“Bitch,” Trent mumbled.
“We’re working the case now,” Cade said suddenly.
“We who? Your unit with the Feds? Are you serious?” Trent asked.
“Totally serious. Her crimes go across state lines and she’s messing with my family. I’m going to find her and I’m going to bring her in,” Cade insisted.
“And then what? There’ll be trials and jail time and more press. This is going to kill us in the media.”
Cade sighed. “I don’t see a way out of that. My dad and Uncle Gabe are talking about meeting up with the other Seniors. They want to get on the same page with how the company will fight back against the negativity.”