“Whatever is going on, it’ll be fine. Trust in the Lord to reveal whatever you need to know when you need to know it. And from the looks of it you have a valiant protector in Derek.” Mallory’s lowered tone fought through the haze. “It doesn’t change who your parents are or who you are.”
Hannah gulped in breaths that didn’t seem to reach her lungs. The fuzziness marched in on her like a swarm of grasshoppers. Through the haze, she saw Mallory come back around the desk and sit in the other client chair. Her warm hand covered Hannah’s, her smooth, reassuring touch a rhythmic call back to the present.
“I need to talk to my mother.” She forced a strong tone, one she didn’t feel but desperately needed to push away the dark cloud that threatened to envelop her. “And my father.” Oh, her father. What would he have to say about this?
“Yes. Talk to them. And at some point, you may want to search for your birth mother.” Compassion flooded Mallory’s voice, and Hannah appreciated her delicacy. “But I want to warn you. If you do search, you may not be happy with what you find. Or you may not find anything at all. We don’t know how much the FBI knows about her past, her circumstances or even her location.”
The surrealistic nature of those options settled on her shoulders like a heavy cloak, and Hannah couldn’t force out an answer.
Mallory patted her hand. “Talking to your parents is a good place to start. But whatever news they may have, if any at all—” she paused for emphasis “—try to stay calm. Now, I will help you in any way I can if this turns out to be true. I’m willing to talk anytime, and now you have my personal phone number.” She scribbled on the back of a business card and pressed it into Hannah’s hand. “Go now, if you feel you need to, and the job is here whenever. A lot has happened, so take whatever time you need.”
After flashing her boss a grateful look, Hannah focused on the seven digits on the card until she could stand steady. “What a day.” Her stomach flip-flopped. Her parents had some explaining to do. She knew what her next move was—to get some answers and, hopefully, to stay safe.
* * *
“Are you two all right?”
Derek accepted the firm handshake of his old pal Reid Palmer. “We’re fine. Thanks for your help down there.”
“No problem. You’ve got a lot going on.”
“Yes, but not as much as Hannah. She just found out she’s adopted, her birth father is a Mafia boss and I’m the one who had to tell her.” He crossed his arms over his chest and touched his fingers to the thumb break on his shoulder holster. “Hannah’s really shaken up, understandably so. But she’s resilient. Tougher than she used to be. She’s going to need to be, with the danger she’s in.”
From his vantage point down the hallway, Derek saw the door to Mallory’s office swing open. But no one emerged.
He hadn’t let down his guard since the attack less than an hour ago, despite the fact that he saw the shooter speed away. But surely they were safe up here. There were only two doors to the suite of offices. The back door was locked, and Derek and Reid stood within view of the front door. No one had come or gone.
He moved to the window at the end of the hallway that overlooked the parking lot. The truck had not returned. But the office only faced out one side of the building, so he had no way to check all entrances and side streets. Wherever Hannah thought she was going next, Derek would not leave her side.
Voices filtered down the hallway, but he couldn’t make out any words. He nodded toward the open door. “What do you make of that?”
Reid shrugged. “They’re almost done.” Apparently, his friend wasn’t on alert, despite his own little difficulty a year or so ago with his wife, Samantha. At the time she had been on the run from a thug who had tried to kidnap her adopted daughter, Lily, and had crashed into Reid’s car. The end result was a harrowing two days and eventually their wedding. “Congrats on your graduation from the FBI academy, by the way. You were one of the best officers on the Heartwood Hill PD to work with, but sometimes we move on to other things. This your first assignment?”
“Yes. Quite a start, don’t you think?”
Reid raised his eyebrows. “Is there a history here? With Hannah?”
“Yes.” Derek jammed his hands in his pockets. “That’s why I’m here. My supervising agent thought it best if the FBI sent someone Hannah knows. What they don’t know are the details of our past.”
“And?”
“We dated secretly in high school our senior year. Her family is super wealthy and upper class. My aunt and uncle were most definitely not upper class. We knew her parents would never approve, so we kept it a secret. Nearly every Friday night, we would go to the library to study. She just didn’t tell her parents that she was with me. We would drive in to the Indianapolis library, where no one knew us except the librarians, and they didn’t care.” Images of a seventeen-year-old Hannah contrasted in his thoughts with the Hannah he had rescued today. She had only grown more beautiful. More compelling.
“Let me guess.” A frown creased Reid’s brow. “Someone found out.”
Derek nodded. “Her father.” He shrugged, but tension made it difficult to relax his shoulders again. “I don’t know how. I just know that one day we were planning on attending college together, and the next, I was summoned to the McClarnons’. Her father told me clearly that I was to leave her alone. What else could I do? Mr. McClarnon was—is—a powerful man. I didn’t want to get on his wrong side. I knew I wasn’t good enough for her anyway. We had been naive to think that a relationship could work.”
“So you didn’t see her again?”
“I saw her at graduation a couple of days later. I never got close enough to talk to her. That was it. She went away to college. Her parents moved from Heartwood Hill to Lafayette, an hour away. The end.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t his Hannah any longer. Never would be.
“Does she know her father forbade you from seeing her?”
That was the toughest part. “No.” Mr. McClarnon had also strongly suggested that Derek not tell Hannah anything of their meeting. As far as she knew, he had just abandoned the relationship.
Derek prayed for the strength and tenacity to complete this first assignment for the FBI. He was over her, right? The fact that there had been no one else in the intervening years simply attested to his devotion to his job. But he couldn’t help wondering if his superior had known the specifics of their romantic past, would he have assigned someone else?
It didn’t matter now. He was here, standing in the hallway waiting for the beautiful and sweet Hannah McClarnon to emerge from a meeting with her employer. This mission had no close alignment with his heart. It was just the first in what would hopefully be a long line of successful missions in his future.
Reid shifted to lean against a doorjamb, pulling Derek’s focus from his inner thoughts, and nodded toward the office where Hannah was. “So what about her birth family?”
“I don’t know a lot.” He jammed his fists in his pockets as if that could release some of his pent-up frustration. “The short version is that we have an informant on the inside of a crime family operating out of Chicago. One of their so-called captains has been looking for a former girlfriend and their daughter that disappeared over twenty years ago. Now, he’s found the girlfriend. We believe that the girlfriend was forced to give up information about the daughter. That daughter is Hannah.”
“And the birth mother?”
“I don’t know. That’s not part of my mission, but I do know the FBI hasn’t located her yet.”
“I don’t know how much help I could be, but if there’s anything, don’t hesitate.” Reid clapped him on the shoulder. “Even though we’re not on the force together any longer, we’re a part of a brotherhood. And after the way you saved my bacon last year, you know I’ll do whatev
er I can to help you out.”
“Thanks.” Derek appreciated the vote of confidence. He nodded toward the voices coming from the office. “You have any read on her?”
“Hannah? She hasn’t been here long. Just started a few weeks ago, and she works primarily with Mallory. But I’ve heard both Mallory and Samantha say that she’s smart and reliable, both excellent qualities for a future lawyer.”
“Yes, she was the same in high school.”
Hannah stepped out of the office, followed by Mallory. Hannah’s stunning beauty made Derek’s mouth feel like sandpaper, and he swallowed hurriedly to cover the effect she had on him. He couldn’t let that get in the way of his mission. Get it done and move on. That was his mantra.
But he couldn’t look away. She still seemed stricken. Upset. Whatever had been said in that meeting didn’t appear to have lessened the sting of receiving life-altering news that had rocked her to the core. He wanted to go to her, fold her in his arms, stroke her silky hair and whisper to her that all would be well. But not only did he not know if that was true, especially considering what she had just learned that afternoon, but it also wouldn’t do either of their hearts any good to follow the inclinations that would undoubtedly only lead to more crushing despair.
He clenched his fists in his pockets, working valiantly to shift his gaze to the floor, to the window, to anywhere but at her. Reid’s lowered voice sounded near his ear. “She does have a certain quiet beauty, but that’s all I’ll say. I’m a happily married man, late for supper with my wife and daughter.”
Derek shook his hand and watched his buddy leave through the back door. He stared at the closed door for a few moments, forcing his thoughts back to the assignment. It was time to move on.
Hannah thanked Mallory and then motioned Derek into the tiny break room. “Would you like a cup of coffee? I can’t imagine I need the caffeine after the news you just dropped on me. But maybe holding the warm mug would help?” She turned to grab the canister of coffee and kept her back turned slightly to Derek, but he could still see that she fumbled for a paper towel from the roll on the counter and then dabbed her eyes.
He cleared his throat gently. “Sure, coffee sounds good. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get it?”
She sniffled and pushed the paper towel in her pocket before she turned to him. A tentative smile flickered on her lips. “If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it.”
“Of course.”
From what he had seen out of the hallway window, it seemed that there was no sign of the truck or even any vehicle that seemed suspicious. The red-and-blue flashing lights of law enforcement were still visible in the parking lot below. Derek relaxed a bit but kept his attention trained on the door. Hannah could have a little bit more time to process this new information, but at some point, they would have to move on.
As her sniffling subsided behind him, he started the coffeemaker and retrieved a couple of mugs from the cabinet. A few minutes later, he settled into the chair across from her and poured a touch of creamer in his mug.
Hannah added sugar and creamer, then sipped gingerly from the cup. She had regained some composure, perhaps from holding her polka-dotted mug as if it was a life preserver, appearing as if some of the upset was being replaced with something else. Frustration, maybe?
“How was your meeting with Mallory?” Derek leaned forward on the table. It wouldn’t be difficult to create a sense of intimacy in such a tiny space, an intimacy that he hoped would make Hannah more comfortable. “I know we haven’t seen each other in a few years, but you can still talk to me.”
She sipped again. “You always were a good listener. I liked that about you.” A tentative smile wobbled across her face.
“I liked listening to you.”
“Mallory confirmed that I was probably adopted, like you said. It’s just so hard to believe, so she pulled my birth certificate from my personnel file. She pointed out that the date of my birth and the issue date of the certificate were a year apart, a discrepancy that only happens when a birth certificate is amended by an adoption finalization.” A tear leaked down her cheek, and she retrieved the paper towel from her pocket to dab it away.
He blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. “Okay.”
“I’m in my twenties, and my parents never told me? And what about Michael, my brother? Is he adopted?”
Derek just shrugged. It was probably best he not say anything but give her time and space to talk.
“You know Michael. You two hung out in high school.” Hannah paused, her face screwed up in an expression of contemplation. “He so obviously looks like Father that I doubt he’s adopted as well. But did he know all these years that I was adopted?”
“Does it matter?” He turned his mug around, studying all the sides. “It sounds like you don’t know for sure, so let’s not jump to any conclusions.”
“You’re right. I don’t know.” She flipped her dark hair behind her shoulder and stood. “I need to go talk to my parents. Immediately. They need to tell me the truth.”
“Now?” He mentally ran through a few scenarios. Going to Hannah’s parents’ house was actually a good idea. Houses like the McClarnon mansion always had top-of-the-line security in place, as well as a household staff. And he was definitely in favor of vacating the last place the shooter had seen them both—right here, outside this law office in downtown Heartwood Hill.
“Yes. Now. It’s Monday evening, so they’ll be at home.” She checked her watch. “Right about now, Mother will be supervising the washing of the supper dishes before the maid goes home, and Father will be reading a classic novel, something like Dickens or Hugo or Tolstoy. He meticulously sets aside a half hour each night to read and refuses to be interrupted. Lafayette is less than an hour away, so I can make it before it gets too late.” She had one foot pointed toward the door. “I’ll just grab my bag.”
“Are they really that predictable?”
“For years now. They have a schedule, and they stick to it.” Hannah lowered her voice to a man’s husky pitch. “‘That’s how you get ahead.’ That’s what my father always says.”
He couldn’t let her go by herself, not with that attack earlier. His assignment was to protect her at all costs and that’s exactly what he’d be doing. “I’ll drive you. That doesn’t sound like a conversation you should have alone.” At her startled look, he continued. “I won’t say anything, but at least you’ll have someone by your side and a listening ear when all is done. And I can keep you safe as we travel. Just in case.”
Her expression softened, the fine lines around her eyes crinkling with appreciation. “I guess you are my law-enforcement hero. Between the shooter and then the information about being adopted, I’m a little shaken.” She held up her small, delicate hands. “Okay, a lot shaken. Overwhelmed, really. I could use the company.”
Hannah retrieved her purse, and they rode the elevator down to the first floor. With the parking lot clear of present danger, Derek ushered Hannah back to his Ford Escape.
This was a turn of events he had anticipated, but that didn’t ease the nervous wrenching in his gut now that the moment had arrived. He was to come face-to-face with Hannah’s father again, after the first, and only time, they had ever spoken. Without a doubt, he still wasn’t good enough for their polite society, despite the badge and title he now proudly carried.
Lord, give me strength and wisdom with the McClarnons.
He never thought he would see them again, and now he was bringing their daughter back with a potentially deadly situation in tow.
THREE
As they sped down Interstate 65 toward her parents’ home, Hannah prayed for strength and wisdom and comfort. Being a victim of violence was unheard of in her circles. Her father kept weapons in the house, but she’d never really been around them. And learning that she
was adopted had upset her more than she wanted to admit. She loved her parents more than anyone on the face of the planet and wanted to please them, but now that she knew she was adopted, then what? Who was she? And who were her parents?
She tugged her purse off the floor of Derek’s SUV and dug around for the mints she always carried. The corner of a package scraped her hand. She grasped it and pulled out the box that had arrived in her mailbox earlier that day. Without time then, she had grabbed the package from the mail on her way to the interview and stashed it in her bag to open later. Centered on her lap, she studied the computer-generated return-address label that said it was from “Dad.” That was a little odd since he had always been “Father.” Hannah couldn’t recall a time she had ever called him by that casual moniker.
She placed her bag back on the floor and wiggled a finger under the corner of the wrapping. Maybe this was some kind of affirmation from him, some acceptance of her desire for a career in law. It was doubtful, but a girl could hope.
Derek ceased his scanning of the road around them long enough to glance at the package. His eyebrows lifted into question marks, but he remained silent. Hannah appreciated that he wouldn’t pry, but there was no harm in telling him. He had never met her father, and her father knew nothing of their secret romance in high school, so perhaps it would help him if he knew a bit of the man going in.
“I received this today from my father, and this is the first chance I’ve had to open it.” She tore away the paper and revealed a small box with a hinged lid. Inside, nestled in the white fabric lining, sat a wristwatch with a black leather strap and a brass case. The face was creamy white with the scales of justice engraved on it. “It’s beautiful.”
She held it out to Derek, and he glanced at it. “Nice. That was thoughtful of him.”
Hannah pulled it back and studied it. “Maybe he’s finally beginning to see that this is God’s path for me. Law school.”
“They don’t approve? Are you there against their will?”
Deadly Disclosure Page 3