Good question. Was she going against their will? She and her father had had their disagreement about school, but he had acquiesced. Of course, a job after graduation was another hurdle to jump. “I don’t think I’d say I’m defying them... I wouldn’t risk that. But they expect me to marry someone within their circles and then live a life of charity events and country-club dances and garden-club meetings. What they refuse to see is that I don’t want a life like that for myself. I would be so bored. So unfulfilled. I want to do more.”
“Do you doubt their faith?” he asked.
“No. I doubt their acknowledgment that I’m a grown-up with faith of my own, and that I’m also able to discern God’s will, especially for my life.”
“Well said, counselor.” He tossed a smile in her direction.
She strapped the watch on her wrist and held her arm out, admiring the sparkle of the brass case and ignoring what his dimpled grin did to her insides. “While we’re there, I’ll thank him for it, but he may not even know exactly what he sent. He probably had an assistant choose it and mail it.”
“Still, though, it was a thoughtful gesture.”
He was right, of course. Hannah stared out the window as they rode the next several miles in silence. Freshly plowed and planted fields shone in the evening sun, and Hannah inhaled deeply of Derek’s scent, a mingling of fresh laundry detergent and spicy aftershave. It was aromatherapy, a healing oil that brought peace and calm.
That calm disappeared when Derek spoke again, a huskiness creeping into his voice. “So are we going to talk about us? About this awkwardness?”
Oh, no. “No. I’d rather keep the awkwardness than dredge up the past. It doesn’t matter anyway right now, does it?” He’d left once. She wasn’t going to let him get close enough to hurt her again.
“It wasn’t what you thought.”
How could he possibly know what she thought? And why did he have to bring it up now? Did he really think she needed this, too, today? “It’s fine, Derek. Whatever. It’s in the past.”
“I just think you should know...”
A vehicle in her side mirror grabbed her attention and jolted her heart until she clutched at her shoulder belt as it looped across her chest. Was that the same truck as before?
She stared into the mirror, the sound of Derek’s voice drowned out by the drumming of her pulse.
“Hannah? What is it?”
She spun to look out the back window, crouching low behind the headrest. “I think that’s the same truck that followed me earlier, on the way to the interview. Is that a badge-shaped decal in the front window?”
“Yes. It’s been following us for a couple of miles now. I think we need to lose it.”
“We’re almost to Lafayette.” She turned back to face front, clutching and twisting the hem of her shirt. “Are we going to lead him right to Father and Mother?”
“Not if I can help it.” Still peering into the rearview mirror, Derek grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. “Hold on.”
Hannah grasped the door handle with her right hand and the edge of the seat with her left as he pulled hard on the wheel. The little SUV cut across two lanes of traffic and veered down the exit ramp toward South Street. A whiff of exhaust and warm rubber assaulted her as she fought to stay upright in her seat. Multiple car horns protested the rudeness of the truck’s driver as a blur of black followed them down the ramp.
“He’s still tailing us. Now what?” Her palm slicked against the handle. She dried it on her skirt and prayed silently for safety and security.
“We keep going.” Derek was so focused on the road that he didn’t even glance at her. “Remember, we’re in the lead, deciding where to go. He has to react. That gives us the advantage.”
At the bottom of the ramp, he turned west. The evening sun was just above the horizon, blinding in its intensity. Hannah slapped down the visor, but it didn’t reach low enough. The truck squealed through a yellow light to follow them.
“How can you see? Shouldn’t we turn out of the sun? An accident won’t help us now.”
“Affirmative. Hold on.” At the next thoroughfare, he made a fast and hard right. Hannah barely had a chance to glance at the street sign. Sagamore Parkway. The name seemed familiar, but the surroundings did not. Her parents had moved to Lafayette after she had graduated high school, so although it had been her legal domicile through college and law school, she wasn’t familiar enough with the city to know where they were. Truth be told, she had barely wandered any farther from her parents’ mansion than to the local branch of the library and the mall.
The black truck followed, but Hannah noted with satisfaction that two cars separated them and more traffic traveled just ahead of them. She couldn’t quite see the face of the driver, to make visual confirmation that it was the same man as before, especially in the gathering gloom of evening and with that distance between them. But the truck was the same, so the driver was mostly likely the same as well.
Derek screeched the SUV left, again into the sun, on Union Street.
A shiver threatened as Hannah read the road signs. “We’re in a school zone.” She pointed to the left, and he swiveled for a quick glance. “Multiple school zones. We can’t do that slow speed. What is it, twenty miles per hour? Look at all those buildings. He’ll catch up for sure.”
“It’s late. School’s out.” He released a hand from his grip on the wheel long enough to squeeze her hand as it clutched the seat. “No need to slow down.”
His hand radiated warmth and gave her a sense of security, but a glance in the side mirror revealed the truck still barreling down on them. “So now what? Could you take him?”
“I’d rather not find out. Not by myself.” Derek jerked the steering wheel, turning them south onto North 18th Street. Houses flew by on the right, and the school zone ended at what the sign said was Murdock Park. It looked like it could be a good place to hide, but there were no roads.
“So where do we go? Drive on the sidewalk?” She pointed to the park and the wide walking path that entered into a wooded area.
The truck blared its horn and crossed into oncoming traffic to blow past a blue sedan. It was now only one car behind. Derek glanced in the mirror again and gritted his teeth. “No. This isn’t an action movie. That wouldn’t be safe for pedestrians, and it would draw too much attention to us.” He pulled the car onto a small residential road. “Here.”
“So we keep turning until he can’t catch up? Like how when a crocodile attacks, you’re supposed to run in a zigzag pattern because they can’t turn that well?” Law was supposed to be safe. Free from physical harm. She hadn’t joined the police force or the CIA. There had been no training in law school for outrunning bad guys.
“That’s a myth. Not true.”
“What? That’s not what we’re doing?”
“Not true about crocodiles. For us, yes. We’re eluding capture.”
The SUV bumped through an intersection and exited the residential area for a commercial zone. Instead of houses, there were passing businesses and strip malls, with only two or three separate shops dotting the sides of the street.
“We’ll be fine. I see something up ahead. Hopefully, this is the last time I’ll have to tell you to hold on.”
Hannah dug her feet into the floorboard as Derek bounced the vehicle over the curb and into the parking lot of a funeral home. Great. Well, at least they were in the right place if the shooter did catch up to them. She shot up a prayer as they turned around back. Lord, I love You, but I’m not ready to meet my maker.
He tore through the parking lot and around the side of the two-story brick structure that looked like it used to be a fine, older home. A detached garage with an open bay door beckoned around the back. Derek pulled the Escape into the space that was large enough for a hearse and jumped out. Hannah follo
wed but crouched down at his command to stay low, as he raced to the side door and then punched a button on the wall.
The garage door began to close.
Derek signaled to her, and she crept toward the hood of the car, deeper into the garage, until she met him at the hood. He put an arm around her shoulders, a help to keep her steady and a strength to comfort her as they watched the door close. They were soon swallowed in complete darkness.
She held her breath, the perspiration trickling down her back marching side by side with a tingle of apprehension, as they waited for the truck to come roaring through the parking lot and crash through the door. But all she could hear was her heart beating.
“Is that it? Are we safe?” She kept her whisper so soft she could barely discern her own voice.
“I think so.” Derek’s hoarse whisper tickled her ear, and another tingle traversed her spine, this one for different reasons but still full of apprehension. “Let me grab my phone.”
The glow of the screen illuminated his face and the grim set of his mouth. With the tap of an icon, the phone’s flashlight illuminated their part of the garage.
“Are they gone?” Derek lowered his arm, and a chill immediately set in to Hannah’s shoulders. “How did they find us?”
“I don’t know yet, but I think you need to call your parents and let them know we’re coming. If you go see them in person, they might want to make sure their security is in order.”
“What? No. I need to spring it on them in person. See their reactions for myself. That’ll get to the truth of the matter. And not to worry, their security is always top-notch. Besides, that truck is gone. We lost him.”
He laid a hand on her arm, but this time it felt restrictive. “I still think you should call.”
She shoved herself up to her feet. “It’s not up to you.” An angry tone entered, and she stopped herself. She didn’t want to be that person. With a deep breath, she tried again, this time more level. “I will drive myself to my parents’ house if I need to, leaving you here at the funeral home.” She gestured around the darkness. “Rather, in the garage.”
Maneuvering in the dim light of his phone flashlight, she tiptoed around him and toward the driver’s door. “Hannah.” His tone was warm and wrapped around her like a thick quilt.
A quaver crawled up her throat, and she swallowed hard to tamp it down. “I’m sorry. It’s just so much to process. You’ve never found out anything like this—that you’re adopted.”
“No.” He stepped closer. “You remember. I was raised by my aunt and uncle after my parents were killed. But I’d like to think I have a little idea of what you’re feeling. Confusion. Betrayal. Curiosity.”
“Oh, Derek. I do remember. I wasn’t thinking.” She had known he was living with an aunt and uncle, and he had mentioned, all those years ago, that his mom and dad had passed away. But she didn’t know any more than that. There was clearly more to Derek Chambers than she had realized. She placed a hand on his arm, a zing in the darkness striking to her core. “I’m sorry. We didn’t talk about it much.”
She sensed, more than saw, his shrug. “It didn’t seem important at the time. I wanted to think about us and our future, not my past.”
“Then you really do know what I’m feeling. You understand the importance of getting the truth.”
“Yes. I do.” A steely determination had crept into his tone.
She stepped again toward the driver-side door. “So, who’s driving?”
* * *
Derek glanced at the sign that read Union Street as he turned back onto the side street that seemed to widen out in the next block or so. He’d settled Hannah into the passenger seat, and now he was following her directions as she got her bearings in a town she didn’t know all that well.
The scent of gasoline and death lingered in his nostrils from the funeral home’s garage. Maybe it was just his imagination, the idea of the scent of death. Maybe it was a memory from witnessing the murder of his parents. But even if it was, he still wiggled his nose in an attempt to eradicate the aroma before he could be inundated with images he had struggled to forget.
His cell phone vibrated next to his hip, and he grabbed it from the holster on his belt. A square popped up on his incoming-call screen. His supervising agent’s code name for himself. So newly graduated from the academy that the protective plastic coating was barely pulled off his badge, Derek knew he’d have to check in frequently.
He glanced at Hannah, relieved that she didn’t seem to be paying attention to his phone. Being around her again made him jittery, and he didn’t want to mess up in front of his supervising agent. “Go.”
Square’s voice was hoarse in his ear. “Secure?”
“For now.”
“Did you acquire the subject?”
The subject seemed a harsh way of communicating about the complex yet feminine woman who sat beside him. “Yes.”
“Is there knowledge?” Square was asking if Derek had informed Hannah of her adoption and the identity of her birth father.
“Affirmative.”
Hannah looked over at him, a question in her wide, brown eyes. Derek shrugged but didn’t respond, an attempt to convey nonchalance. Hopefully, it would calm both of them.
“Location?” The supervising agent would check in regularly with Derek for his first two years as an official FBI agent. But since Derek had just arrived in Heartwood Hill that afternoon, it seemed a little soon for an update. Perhaps that was because the supervisor had been unable to accompany him. Whatever he had to do to comply, though, Derek was willing. He was living his dream, and nothing would stand in his way, not even the beautiful creature who sat in the vehicle with him.
“Sliding into home base.” It was summertime, and that meant baseball. Square would understand that Derek had Hannah in transit to her parents’ house.
“Okay. Play ball.” His supervisor ended the call, and Derek understood that he was to proceed but with extreme caution.
Hannah flipped her brown waves over her shoulder. “Everything okay?”
Derek ran through what she must have heard from his end of the call. It wouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary. “Yeah. Just checking in.” She understood the danger, of that he was sure. No need to dwell on it.
As he continued to follow Hannah’s directions, the drive wound them through small starter homes to an area of ethnic grocery stores and soccer fields to an upscale mall and eventually to a section of town where Derek guessed the houses were a million dollars or more.
“How long has it been since you’ve been home?” Despite the gloom of the evening, Derek still saw luxurious, large yards with winding drives, profusions of flowers and statues of footmen holding lanterns at the end of driveways.
“Probably too long, but law school has kept me busy.” She pointed to the right. “Turn here.”
“What do your parents know? About us? Did you ever tell them anything?” Derek had had his own private conversation with Mr. McClarnon, but Hannah’s father had strictly instructed him not to breathe a word to Hannah. For years, he had carried the torment inside of him and now he was to walk right into the presence of the man who had ended it all. And his own daughter didn’t know.
Hannah tossed a startled look at him that quickly morphed into a soft haze, as if she was remembering the good times they had shared. “No. Nothing.”
“That was probably wise. What would be the point?” He took in her rich brown hair, her coordinated black-and-turquoise sweater outfit, her designer bag. He didn’t know the brand names, and maybe that was the point. He was quickly realizing that he would do anything to protect Hannah, but that also brought the pain of the knowledge that there was zero chance for a relationship. She was beautiful and smart and caring and seemed perfect for him. But he had a career now, the one he had dreamed of
since the time his parents were murdered.
How could he ask her to leave her family for him when they had so much to offer and so many resources to provide for her? What kind of jerk would he be if he expected her to give up the love of her parents and brother and sit in a tiny apartment alone, while he went out on mission after mission after mission? He exhaled roughly. Besides, when it came down to it, he wasn’t good enough for her anyway.
Derek pulled into the long cement lane that led to the McClarnon mansion. A gardener was pushing a wheelbarrow toward the back, probably to the garages and outbuildings, ready to go home for the night. The house loomed larger than life, gables peaked into the clouds and three separate chimneys pierced the night sky. Large beveled windows reflected his SUV’s headlights as he pulled up next to a wide set of stone steps flanked on either side by ornate, carved handrails.
Broken cement steps had marked his childhood, steps that had led to a run-down house owned by his aunt and uncle. They had, he supposed, graciously allowed him a bedroom that was probably less than half the size of Mr. McClarnon’s dressing room. Certainly, finding out she was adopted was a shock to Hannah, but at least she had parents who truly loved her and provided for her exceedingly well. His aunt and uncle had made it abundantly clear that he was a burden, just as Mr. McClarnon had not minced words when he had told Derek he was not worthy of Hannah’s attention.
Derek swiped a hand over his forehead. Tiny beads of perspiration had popped up at the prospect of meeting Mr. McClarnon again. Truly, he’d rather go toe-to-toe with a bank robber than that man. But facing him was unavoidable.
Hannah was out of her side of the Escape before Derek could emerge and come around. Just as they reached the front door, it opened. A man held it wide for them. He was dressed as formally as Derek would have been for the high school prom, if he had ever gone, in a black tie over a starched white dress shirt. A gray vest was buttoned from top to bottom under a black morning coat, and a thin stripe ran down his gray trousers. If memory served, this was the same butler who had ushered him into Mr. McClarnon’s presence nearly a decade ago.
Deadly Disclosure Page 4