“And that’s a great opportunity for you to get closer to her. I can see why you’ve been with her today. I still think she could lead you to her cousin. They’re about the same age. They’re related and friends. The things we do for an investi…” Dan’s voice trailed off into silence, his eyes growing round as he stared behind Nicholas.
He swung around and found Selena glowering at them, her face pale, her hands trembling.
She charged across the office. “I need to get back to work.”
“Wait up.” Nicholas gripped Max’s leash and hurried after her, the sound of Dan’s chuckles irking him.
Selena kept going, her free hand fisted at her side.
Outside the ground-floor entrance, Nicholas caught up with her. “I’m sorry about what Dan said.”
She whirled toward him, fire shooting out of her eyes, her jaw set in a fierce line. “Is it true? You’ve talked to me more in the past couple of months than the whole year before. You can tell your team I don’t know where my cousin is, but Erin is innocent. She could be dead or kidnapped and all you think is she murdered her boyfriend. She cared for Michael and wouldn’t have hurt him. She wouldn’t have hurt anyone.”
He let her storm away because what she’d said had a ring of truth to it. He had started talking to her more because of the case. Although there was no evidence to support that she was helping her cousin, he and other members had to follow all leads. He’d learned in this profession to be distrusting and question everything. At this moment, as Selena vanished in the crowd near the Easter Egg Roll, he regretted that aspect of his job.
*
By the end of the event in the early evening, anger still roiled in Selena’s stomach whenever she glimpsed Nicholas in the crowd or thought about him. She liked him—a lot—but overhearing him and Dan talking about her concerning Erin’s disappearance, all the feelings she’d been fighting since her cousin went missing had surged to the foreground.
She’d caught a couple of Dan’s earlier remarks—his voice a little louder than Nicholas’s—before they’d gone in to see Tara Wilkins and then again later. She hated being the topic of conversation and especially the fact that the Capitol K-9 Unit had suspected her of assisting a fugitive—still did. Not that she wasn’t trying to help Erin. She was. But by trying to prove she couldn’t have killed Michael. If Selena could gather evidence her cousin hadn’t shot anyone, then if Erin was alive and in hiding, she could return. But her greatest fear was that Erin wasn’t alive. All she knew—via the Capitol K-9 Unit—was that back in February, an elderly couple in rural Virginia had taken in an injured young woman matching Erin’s description, but she’d left a few days later, her appearance dramatically altered. Weeks later, two thugs had terrorized the couple for information on Erin’s whereabouts. Who were they? The killers? Bounty hunters?
And where was Erin? Reports had come in last month that someone in rural Virginia was using public computers to research bills introduced by Congressman Jeffries. Could that be Erin? If so, what was she looking for?
One angle Selena was following involved a case Michael Jeffries had been very passionate about. Michael had been working pro bono on a murder case for convicted killer Greg Littleton, a man who Michael believed was innocent. Perhaps the real killer wanted Michael off the case permanently and killed him. Maybe the killer had trailed Michael to his father’s house, murdered him there, and when his father, the congressman, appeared, the killer shot him, too.
Lots of maybes and not a lot of answers. Selena hadn’t had the time in the past few weeks to work on anything except the Easter Egg Roll, but she had managed to interview Greg Littleton in prison, convicted of murdering Saul Rather. Michael had been fervently working to prove Littleton was innocent. Those who believed in his guilt weren’t happy about that. As a crusading attorney, Michael had made himself some enemies.
Now that the Easter Egg Roll was over, Selena intended to devote more time to looking into the Littleton case and any others that appeared promising. Someone had killed Michael Jeffries and left his father for dead—and that someone wasn’t Erin Eagleton.
As Selena approached her car in the staff’s underground parking, she discovered Nicholas lounging against her white Ford Mustang with Max sitting next to him. How dare he look so innocent with those big brown eyes and cocky grin. He’d removed his ball cap and stuck it in his back pocket. His thick, dark blond hair was cut short but not military-style. Knowing his Navy SEALs background, that had surprised her when she’d first met him last year.
Her anger began to soften as she took in his casual stance, as though nothing was wrong. She quickly shored it up. She would not be used. Her mother had tried to get back in her big brother’s graces by using Selena. It hadn’t worked. Her uncle had recognized that his sister wasn’t serious about not drinking, that all she needed his money for was to support her while she drowned herself in alcohol, leaving her daughter to fend for herself.
Selena had learned one thing growing up. She was the only one who would look out for herself. She ignored Nicholas as she unlocked her car and tossed her purse on the passenger seat.
“Max, what do you do when you’re in hot water?” Nicholas said to his K-9.
The sound of the dog’s bark echoed through the underground garage.
Selena pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. He was going to charm her. She’d seen him charming the women at the White House, and she wasn’t going to buy into it. She’d watched her mother fall for one man after another, thinking he would take care of her.
But her current man had never stayed around long.
He tapped the side of his head with his palm. “Max, what a brilliant idea. I’ll try that.”
Nicholas sidled along the body of the car until he was half a foot from her right arm. The hairs on it tingled.
“I’m sorry. Nothing I did today had to do with your cousin. I was trying to point out to Dan the error of his suggestion with sarcasm.”
Selena squeezed her eyes closed, her heartbeat accelerating at Nicholas’s nearness. Finally she turned slowly toward him, backing away a step. “Be honest. Have you ever considered I might have been helping Erin stay hidden?”
“Honestly—yes. I’m not going to lie to you. My team has looked into all the possibilities while searching for Erin, so being a friend and a family member, you would obviously be on that list. And if I was perfectly honest, at first that is why I initiated several conversations with you lately.”
She tensed, flexing her hands. “I knew it. At least I appreciate your honesty. Now I need to leave. I’m tired, and I pray I don’t fall asleep driving home.”
“Then let me drive you to your house.”
“I was trying to point out the extent of my exhaustion with exaggeration. I’m perfectly fine to drive myself. I’m not going to fall asleep at the wheel. In fact, with all that has been going on today, it may take hours for me to go to sleep.”
He chuckled. “I know that feeling. My body is exhausted but my mind is racing a mile a minute.”
She had to fight the urge to respond to his charm. Life lessons from her childhood taunted her. She would never be like her mother, depending on others, depending on alcohol to make it through the day. “This is not going to work.” She stepped back again and encountered the open driver’s door.
His expression sobered. “Seriously, I would like to escort you home. Someone took your house keys today. You should have your locks changed.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve thought of that. I know how to take care of myself. You should have seen the neighborhood I grew up in. The total opposite of Erin’s childhood. My branch of the Eagleton family are the black sheep. I have a locksmith coming to my house in—” she checked her watch “—an hour. I need to be there so he can change my locks, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to be going.”
“Have it your way.” Nicholas moved away from her white Mustang.
When she slipped behind the steering wheel, she inhale
d a calming breath and started her car. As she backed out of the parking space, she noticed Nicholas open the rear door of an SUV only three vehicles away and wait for Max to jump into it. She went through the security checkpoint with Nicholas’s black Tahoe a vehicle behind hers. When she turned right, he did, too. Her grip tightened as he continued to follow her.
Although she had nearly a full tank, she pulled into a gas station. Nicholas came up behind her.
She shoved open her door and marched back to his SUV. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Escorting you home the best way I can.”
Her head pounding, she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but when she couldn’t find the words she wanted to say, she snapped her teeth together, then spun on her heel and stalked to her Mustang. Fine. He could waste his time “escorting her home.” That didn’t mean she would talk to him or even acknowledge his presence.
As she continued her drive to her house in Arlington, she kept looking back to see if he was still behind her. Although it was too dark to see his face, she imagined his pleased expression for following through with what he’d wanted to do. There was one part of her that felt like a suspect being tailed and another part that warmed when she thought about him trying to protect her from the person who’d taken her keys—for what reason, she had no idea.
In college she’d had her purse snatched on campus when walking back to her dorm from the library late one night. She had been so angry she’d chased after the guy, caught up with him and tackled him to the ground. A campus cop who’d rushed to her aid had lectured her about the risk she’d taken. She supposed it had been foolish, but her reaction to being robbed was automatic. She’d come from a tough area of Washington, DC, and had learned to stand up for herself.
Selena pulled into her driveway and stared at her house, her first, earned by hard work after years of studying and being at the top of her class at school. She was going to prove to her uncle she wasn’t like her mother and was willing to work for everything she got. She didn’t want a free ride from him or anyone.
Her porch light illuminated the front part of her redbrick two-story home with white trim and green shutters. Hers—as of six months ago. She noticed Nicholas had parked at the curb and exited his Tahoe. He came around the hood. She quickly grabbed her purse, took a spare house key from the bottom of the driver’s seat and climbed from her Mustang.
“That’s as far as you need to go. You’ve escorted me home.” She waved toward her house. “Nothing is amiss. You can run along now.”
He planted his feet apart, crossed his arms and said, “Not until you go in the house to your front window and wave to me. Then I’ll leave.”
“What if I don’t?” the imp inside her asked.
“Then I’ll stay here all night.”
His determined look drilled right through her. “You’re impossible.”
“It comes in handy when I deal with stubborn people.”
“You think I know where Erin is.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Then I believe you.”
“Really?”
“I told you I would be honest with you. I’m worried about you. I think something is going on. It might be connected to the Jeffries case or something else. I don’t know. Miss Chick today went to some trouble to get your keys. Why?”
“To rob me?”
“There were a lot richer people there than you.”
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe they thought I was wealthy since Senator Eagleton is my uncle. When you catch the person, ask her.”
“I will. Nothing was taken from your purse in your office, so it wasn’t that kind of robbery. Could the person have been after something—”
“I don’t need a protector,” she interrupted, remembering all the times she alone had protected herself from the predators in her childhood neighborhood. “I’ve been taking care of myself most of my life. Go home. Look out for yourself.” Frustration churned her stomach.
“Just as soon as I know you’re safe inside and the locksmith has arrived.”
“Now you’re putting more conditions on your leaving.”
“What can I say? I changed my mind.”
Clamping her lips together, she pivoted and strode toward her porch steps. As she mounted them, the feel of his gaze on her back made her shiver. For most of her life, she had been the only one who took care of herself. What would it be like to have someone who cared?
No! I won’t go there. At times, she wasn’t even sure the Lord was there anymore. As a child she’d sought refuge in the local church, latching on to the promise that God loved her. But did He? While growing up, she’d been so alone.
Absorbed in thoughts of the past, she unlocked her front door and moved into the foyer. One look into the living room and she froze.
THREE
Selena stared at her trashed living room then, beyond at the dining room and part of her kitchen. What if the intruder was still here? She sidled toward the table nearby and pulled open a drawer. Keeping her eye on the staircase to the right, she felt for her revolver. When her fingers encountered the barrel, she quickly clasped the handle and withdrew it.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that?” Nicholas’s deep voice sounded from the entrance.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Defend myself. The person could still be in here.”
“Put it on the table before someone gets hurt.” Nicholas drew his gun.
“I know how to use it.”
“I don’t care.”
She did as he ordered, actually relieved he was here. She must be more exhausted than she thought.
“Now, go outside, open my tailgate so I can call for Max, then you’re to stay on the porch while Max and I search the rest of the house. If the locksmith comes, have him wait with you.”
Selena nodded then headed to his Tahoe and released Max. She’d been around the rottweiler enough to know he was a well-trained dog. He could be fierce, but she wasn’t afraid of him.
“Come,” Nicholas said from the doorway.
Max trotted toward her house. Selena followed behind him and stopped at the top of the steps, gripping the post, trying to ignore her headache.
“Check it.” Nicholas disappeared with Max into her house.
She lost sight of them when the pair went up the stairs. With only two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor, they were back in the living room within five minutes.
“Do you have a basement?”
“Yes. The stairs to it are next to the back door.”
He and Max vanished around the corner into the kitchen. The whole time they were gone, her heartbeat thudded against her rib cage, her breathing shallow. What if the intruder was hiding in the basement? Or there was more than one person? When minutes later, Nicholas and Max rounded the corner and crossed the living room, she sagged against the wooden railing, not realizing until then how tense she’d been while they were checking out her house.
“Does the rest of my place look like the living room?”
“Yes. You’ll need to go through your home and let me know what’s missing. I’ll contact the local police about what happened, but since this might be connected with the White House breakin, I want to deal with it.”
“I’ll do a walkthrough tonight, but I’m too tired to do more than that.” The past weeks finally wreaked their havoc on her.
“Why don’t you wait until tomorrow. In fact, go to bed. I’ll take care of the locksmith, dust for fingerprints since this is tied to a theft at the White House and stay until he leaves. Okay?”
She hesitated, so tempted by his offer.
“I’ll make sure everything is locked up.” Nicholas’s gaze strayed to something beyond the porch.
She swung around and saw Mr. Lamb, the locksmith, park his van behind Nicholas’s SUV. “I can’t go to sleep until I know the locks have been changed. I want all three door locks replaced even thoug
h I only had the front one on the key ring.”
“You might also think about getting an alarm system.”
“Believe me, I will tomorrow.”
After talking with the locksmith, Selena made her way upstairs and changed into a pair of sweatpants, a large T-shirt and slippers. Her feet were screaming pain and demanding she sit, but she was afraid if she did, she would never get up, any surge of adrenaline she’d experienced from the breakin subsiding. After her locks were replaced, she would send Nicholas and Mr. Lamb on their way, do a brief walkthrough to check if anything was missing, then collapse into bed with her revolver on the nightstand.
*
Selena’s eyes popped open to a semidark room. A dull ache still gripping her head, she glanced at her digital clock on the bedside table: 7:00 a.m. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep since the chief of staff had told her to take the next two days off. But after twenty minutes, she gave up.
Thoughts of what the intruder was looking for kept running through her mind. While Mr. Lamb changed the locks, she’d gone from room to room, checking if anything obvious had been stolen, but nothing was missing. Her computer was there but obviously had been handled by the intruder. She’d have it checked to see if something had been added or deleted. Her TV and a few pieces of nice jewelry had been untouched.
After seeing Nicholas out the door and locking it last night, she’d trudged up the stairs, and in spite of being totally drained emotionally and physically, she’d lain awake for another hour until exhaustion must have finally taken over.
Still dressed in her sweatpants and T-shirt, she finger combed her hair—because she didn’t want to scare her neighbors—and headed downstairs to fetch her Washington Post. Her morning ritual always included savoring the newspaper with her coffee before she started her day. After she prepared the brew and it began to perk, she walked to the front door, opened it and nearly fell over Nicholas stretched out in a sleeping bag against the threshold to her home. She teetered over him.
Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 #1 Page 3