by Jaclyn Hardy
“I know. I know it’s not safe to trust me. Just please. Before anyone shows—” The woman cursed. “It’s too late.”
No, no, no. Stranger or not, Dani didn’t want anyone dying on her front step. She jumped up and ran for the front door. It took a minute to get all the latches done, but she was finally able to pull the door open.
A woman lay slumped over against her doorway. Dani looked both ways before dragging the woman inside. Hunter’s door flew open and he glanced around wild-eyed.
“What happened?”
Dani rolled her eyes and kept pulling. Hunter grabbed the woman’s legs and helped bring her in the rest of the way. They set the woman on the couch, then locked the door. Dani turned on the lights so she could see the woman better.
She was older—she had to be in her sixties at least. Her white hair was hidden under a black stocking cap. She was pale, with flecks of blood at the corner of her mouth. Bruising marred her face, but they didn’t look new. This woman had been tortured.
“Call Carlie or Ben or someone.” Dani’s first aid instincts kicked in as she did a once-over to figure out what else was wrong. She gasped when her hand came away sticky with blood. “She’s been stabbed.”
Hunter cursed and knelt down next to Dani. “You’re sure?”
“Look.” Dani cringed at the blood all over her new couch. “This is new. Go see if you can find any clues out in the hallway.”
“I’m not sure—”
“She’s hurt, Hunter. She needs help, and we need to figure out what happened.” Dani jumped up and grabbed a first aid kit from her kitchen. She slowly pulled away the clothing by the wound to see how bad it was.
It was definitely a knife judging by the jagged slice in her side. Whoever it was had to do their job quick to get out of there. Dani knew this was far beyond her expertise, so she did her best to stop the bleeding.
“Nothing except for her blood.” Hunter came back into the apartment followed by Xander and several other guards.
Dani stood to go wash her hands. “I did what I could to help her, but she needs a hospital.”
“No. Too dangerous.” Xander pulled out a kit of his own slid a pad underneath the woman. “Did she say anything to you?”
“I think it was her on the phone. Someone called saying they were in trouble and then said it was too late. When I opened the door, she was there.” Dani’s hands shook.
Xander pulled out thread and a needle. “You don’t recognize her?”
Dani shook her head. “I’ve never seen her before. But if this was the lady I talked to . . . she called me Danielle.”
Hunter raised his eyebrows. “Danielle? Does anyone ever call you that?”
“No. Never. I mean, my grandma did, but she died years ago.” Dani froze. “It’s got to be from the files on my computer. I don’t go by Danielle, but that’s my legal name. It’s on my ID, my license, everything.”
“Which means . . . this could be our mystery lady who sent you the crown.” Hunter frowned. “Why would she come here, though? She sent it to keep it safe, and now she’s suddenly on your doorstep?”
Dani picked the note up off the table. “Where’s the envelope?”
Hunter found it in the stack of papers on the table and handed it to her. Dani flipped the envelope over and frowned.
“There’s no postmark.”
“Yeah, we noticed that too.” Hunter pointed to the stamps. “Even stranger is that there are more stamps on here than what you would need to send this from anywhere within the US.”
Dani grumbled in frustration. She couldn’t believe she missed this. The stamps that had been used were definitely from England. Stamps were something she’d gotten very good at identifying because of the collections she dealt with in the store. She set the letter down and went to her room to find the box with the crown.
While she’d noticed that there was no return address, Dani hadn’t paid attention to the stamps. It was the same thing as the letter. Foreign postage, but no stamp or anything else indicating that it had actually been mailed. Dani sighed and moved to close the box up when something caught her eye.
She reached in and pulled out the box holding the crown. This box had been mailed. There were stamps all over it marking it as fragile, and the corners had been smashed in the trip over here. Same with the box of plates.
“Dani? The woman is . . . what’s wrong?” Hunter came into the room.
“These two boxes were mailed. But this one? It wasn’t. Same as the letter.” Dani rubbed her forehead. “Why would they mail it here and then repackage it?”
Hunter shook his head. “I don’t know, but the woman seems to be waking up. We can ask her.”
Dani perked up. “She’s alive?”
“Yeah, but she lost a lot of blood.” Hunter waited for Dani to shut the door to the bedroom.
The woman stirred and blinked her eyes. She gasped at the sight of everyone staring down at her and for a moment, Dani thought the woman might faint again.
“You scared me out there. What are you doing here?” Dani demanded.
“The crown. Where is it?” The woman tried to stand, but Xander held her down.
Dani glanced at Hunter before responding. “It’s safe. Are you Mrs. Snuggles?”
The woman chuckled. “That’s my cat. It’s really Elayne Cornwallis.”
“You used your cat’s name?”
“Yes, well, I’d hoped your friend would recognize the name. Delightful woman, really. Is she here?”
Dani raised her eyebrows. For having just been stabbed, the woman was awfully chatty. “She’s not, but she will be tomorrow.”
“Oh, very good. Now, if you don’t mind, I must get some sleep. I feel as though I’m going to pass out again.” Elayne leaned back and closed her eyes, her breaths coming in short gasps.
Dani bit her lip and looked over at Xander. “Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. She’s not young, so it’ll be harder to bounce back. If she hasn’t improved by morning, we’ll take her in.” Xander stood and pulled out his phone. “The guards who were supposed to be watching your apartment have been replaced and are being taken in for questioning. Not only did they let Elayne through, they also let her attacker in and back out again.”
Dani stared down at the old woman. “Do you think they were helping her attacker?”
“It’s the only thing I can think of, and I don’t like it.” Xander glared at Hunter. “And where were you?”
Hunter blushed. “I tend to sleep through my alarm, so I missed the call. Carlie had to call three more times before I woke up.”
“Not a great quality for someone in our line of work. Fix that.” Xander turned back to Dani. “I will be across the hall in Hunter’s apartment. If Elayne wakes up or anything else happens, use that remote again.”
“Uh, okay.” Dani held the door open while everyone left.
Hunter stopped inches from her. “I’m so sorry. First day helping you out and I’ve already failed you.”
Dani slipped her arm around his waist in a half-hug. “I’m just glad you got here when you did.”
“Yeah, well, it was almost too late.” He squeezed her shoulders and trudged back to his apartment.
Dani shut the door and made sure all of the latches and locks were in place. She grabbed her pillow and blanket and took them out to the other couch, then pulled up a book to read on her phone. She wouldn’t be going to sleep any time soon.
H unter readjusted the bag of donuts and coffees in his arms so he could reach up and knock on the door. Dani answered a moment later with a grin. Her hair was pulled up in a messy pony-tail and she wore sweats and a T-shirt. And she still took his breath away.
“Two chocolate donuts, as requested.” Hunter handed her the bag. “I don’t suppose you’ll share with the delivery boy?”
“That depends. Did you bring me an extra one with sprinkles?” Dani peeked inside the bag.
“You know it.” Hunter p
ushed the door closed with his foot and took the coffees to the table. “No one else is here yet?”
Dani nodded. “They took Elayne to the embassy to check in. Apparently, she’s some kind of Royalty and they’ve been searching all over for her.”
“Oh, they’ll love the fact that she was stabbed on U.S. soil.” Hunter sat down and turned on his laptop. “Has anyone decided what to do with the crown yet?”
“Nope. But I can’t just stay home from work forever. I need to get this done so I can reopen the antique shop.” Dani pulled out two donuts and handed one to Hunter.
Hunter took it from her. “Thanks. There’s not much we can do until that crown is gone and we figure out who is after it.”
Dani sighed. “I know. And I can’t get ahold of anyone who was on the list. Either they’ve changed phone numbers, or they’re in trouble too.”
Hunter pulled up the list again. “Do you have their addresses by any chance?”
“I . . . I’m not sure. Maybe.” Dani brightened. “One second.”
While Dani looked for the addresses, Hunter went back through all of the times the computer was accessed. With any luck, they’d be able to narrow down where they accessed it from. Hunter shook his head. No wonder Carlie and Dee always had guards. They had no idea where their enemies would be coming from.
“Okay, they might not still live here, but this is the address that they gave me to send their last paycheck.” Dani set the planner next to him.
Hunter ran the IP addresses to try to find the location. One bounced from several locations, which meant it was going to be fun to try to track them. The second one, though. “Got something.”
“You did?” Dani leaned closer, her hair brushing against his cheek. “What is it?”
“The IP address location isn’t very exact, but look. This one is within about thirty miles of your employee’s address. Could be coincidental, but I don’t think so.” Hunter typed in the employee’s name, but nothing but an obituary popped up. Strange.
Dani gasped. “That’s him.”
“You’re sure?” Hunter clicked on the picture and a man about their age popped up on the screen.
“Um, yes. We sort of . . . dated off and on in high school. He left when it was clear that I was done with him.” Dani cleared her throat, her cheeks bright pink.
Hunter checked the date of the obituary. According to this he’d died a year ago. “When did you say he left?”
“Beginning of this year. Why?”
He highlighted the death date. “Something look fishy to you?”
She gasped. “That’s not right.”
“Tell me something.” Hunter didn’t really want to know the answer, but he had to ask. “Why did you decide to break up with him?”
She shrugged. “Todd was clingy. Wanted to know what I was doing all of the time. I broke it off when Carlie started searching for the necklace.”
Hunter raised his eyebrows. “Did he seem interested in what she was doing?”
“She was looking for Cleopatra’s necklace. Of course he was interested.”
“No, I mean, did he ask more questions than usual?”
Dani crumpled up her napkin and tossed it into the garbage. “Not really.”
Things were slowly coming together. Hunter took a screenshot of Todd’s picture and ran a search. A few newspapers came up with the same obituary, but one link caught his eye. It wasn’t an obituary, it was a police report. Todd had been arrested for having ties to a mob not long before the date of the obituary.
“Check this out.” Hunter pointed to the article.
“Whoa.” Dani shook her head. “That’s crazy. It’s looking more and more like this guy is involved.”
Hunter ran a search for the employee who had moved to Idaho. “Cindy looks clean. Nothing illegal. No parking tickets. Maybe you should try calling again.”
“Yeah, I think—”
A pounding at the door made both of them jump. Hunter stood and crept over to the door with Dani right behind him. He checked the peephole and found Xander and several other guards right outside.
Hunter opened the door and moved so they could come inside. “What’s going on?”
“We’re to move you and the artifacts immediately.”
Dani’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“Let’s just say England wasn’t too thrilled that one of their own was injured on your doorstep. They’re demanding that you are brought in for questioning immediately, which means we need to get you out of here.”
Hunter glanced between them. “Shouldn’t she go in? Prove her innocence?”
Xander shook his head. “Not today, no. They’ll want to know what she was doing there, and we can’t risk having more people find out about the crown. Linus, Tony, follow Hunter to his apartment to get his stuff.”
“I think I can get my things on my own.” Hunter brushed past them and crossed the hallway to his apartment. What was he even supposed to take with him? He grabbed a bag and shoved some clothes, his razor, toothbrush, and whatever electronics he could find inside.
“You’re going to want your passport, sir,” one of the men said.
Hunter stopped packing. “Where are we going?”
“We’re not at liberty to discuss, but I suggest you grab it.”
The lack of answers was getting annoying, but Hunter could see why they would keep things quiet. Someone had already kidnapped Anna, and they’d attacked Elayne on Dani’s doorstep. He checked his apartment one more time for anything he might need, then went to the front door.
“I’m ready.”
The guards nodded and ushered him back to Dani’s where the crown was being packed into an insulated suitcase. Dani stood nearby with her arms folded like she normally did when she was nervous.
“Hey, it’ll be okay.” Hunter set his bag down and pulled her into a hug.
Her arms tightened around his waist. “I should never have opened the package.”
Hunter laughed. “You know you had to. Besides, all of this would have happened anyway.”
“Not helping.” Dani laid her head on his chest sending a shockwave through him.
They stood like that while the crown was packed up and latched. Hunter ran his fingers through her hair, trying to calm her. It seemed to have the opposite effect on himself, but he pushed it away. He could deal with his feelings for her later when he knew they were safe.
Xander took handcuffs and put one side around his wrist and the other around the handle of the case. He barked a few orders into the radio, then turned to Hunter and Dani. “Your transportation is pulling into the parking lot right now. Follow me out and if I tell you to duck or run, do what I say immediately. Got it?”
“Got it.” Hunter let go of Dani’s waist and took her hand. “Will Ben and everyone else meet us somewhere?”
“They’re already heading for the safe house.” Xander opened the door and waved them forward.
Hunter held tightly to Dani’s hand as they took the stairs and headed for a large black SUV. He fought the urge to roll his eyes. This wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. Xander waved for several guards to climb inside, then shut the door. The SUV took off down the road, exposing a smaller beat-up car.
“Get in.” Xander took the passenger seat and Hunter helped Dani into the back before climbing in himself.
“Nice car.” Hunter smirked as they lurched forward out of the parking lot. It was a great disguise, but he wasn’t sure it was going to make it three blocks, let alone wherever they were headed.
Xander chuckled. “We couldn’t have you in the most obvious car, right?”
“Uh, right.” Hunter shifted in the seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. “Can you tell us where we’re going now?”
“We’re heading to my headquarters for now. Then you’ll be taking a flight to Montana. We’ll decide from there where the safest place will be.”
Dani groaned. “I’m so fired. I’ve never missed this much work.”
Dani tipped her head to the side. “You have a job interview? Where?”
“CompTech. Not my ideal job, but I need something to show I have experience.” Hunter found the right email and typed a lame excuse about a family emergency, then hit send. The job would have actually been perfect for him. He just hoped he’d be able to get another interview later. Helping Dani with this mess was fun and all, but he needed something that would actually pay the bills.
They passed through the city and out into the countryside. Farms lined the freeway, and Hunter envied the farmers in the tractors. Especially their legroom. His knees and hips were screaming at him to move around, but there was only so much space in the car.
Dani was quiet next to him, typing messages into her phone. She looked up at him and smiled. “Apparently Dee and Carlie are as bored as I am.”
“What do you mean?” He leaned over to find her playing a game through her texts. “Ah. No wedding planning?”
She sighed. “It looks like it might have to be put off until all of this blows over. At this rate, they’ll get married when they’re seventy.”
“Why not just do it?” Hunter pointed at her open backpack. “You have all the plans in there, right? Maybe you guys should just plan a smaller wedding. They can go all out later for a reception or something.”
Dani was quiet for a moment. “I guess that could work. I mean, Carlie should be taking it easy anyway. She’s pretty close to her due date.”
“Right. And it’s not like you can do much else while you’re at the safe house.”
“You mean besides find out who is going after them?” Xander asked from the front seat.
Hunter blinked. Right. “Well, I’m sure there will still be downtime there, right?”
The man didn’t answer. Hunter winked at Dani, then leaned forward to see in front of them. Nothing but sagebrush and the freeway.
“How long until we get to your headquarters?” Dani asked.