Protection Detail

by Julie Miller

  Once Badge Man was captured and Jane was safe.

  Thomas was a patient man. He’d be whatever Jane needed him to be. He just prayed that he could keep her alive long enough for him to be what she wanted.

  “G’night, boys. Good to tee you again. Jane is right, as usual. De old man is tired.” Seamus leaned heavily on Jane’s arm until he felt secure with his balance on the walker and took a step on his own. When Millie returned with the coffee, Seamus pulled his shoulders back and shook off Jane’s guiding hand. “G’night, Millie.”

  “Good night, Seamus.” Millie set the carafe down beside Thomas without pouring anyone a cup. “Scrambled eggs with ham and cheese tomorrow for breakfast?”

  “Tounds good.”

  Well, hell’s bells. What was that little interchange all about? Had his dad just puffed up like a young stud to hide his pain and fatigue in front of Millie? And had she stopped to put on a fresh coat of lipstick while she’d been in the kitchen? Thomas picked up the coffee to pour his own refill. Maybe he wasn’t in control of anything going on around this house anymore.

  Leaving Duff and the dog to help Millie clear the table and clean up the kitchen while Jane followed Seamus to his room and closed the door, Thomas walked Mutt and Jeff to the front door.

  “You’ll be at the big party this weekend, right?” While Jeff thanked Millie for the dinner, Mutt took Thomas aside and whispered, “I thought stopping by here tonight would throw him off the trail of the surprise birthday party at the reunion. I need you there to back me up when Jeff gets a snootful and tries to deck me for puttin’ one over on him.”

  “I’ll do my best to get there.” Thomas shook Mutt’s hand.

  “Bring your girlfriend. There’ll be dancing, you know. She’s sweet. Well, sweet-looking, anyway. A little on the bossy side, if you ask me. Your dad puts up with that?”

  “He respects it.” Thomas was certain of that, at least. “We all do.”

  Jeff clapped him on the shoulder as he rejoined them. “You take care of this family, Thomas. You’re a lucky man.”

  “I know it. Good night.” Thomas waited out on the front porch until his air force buddies got into Jeff’s car and drove away.

  Once the space had cleared, he looked across the street to see Al Junkert sitting behind the wheel of his sporty black Jeep. Illuminated by a halo of light from the streetlamp in front of the car, Al saluted him. Through thick and thin, that man had always had his back. He owed Al a lot more than a chilly night sitting out in his car like their old stakeout days before his partner had gone to graduate school to get his MBA, and Thomas had kicked himself upstairs into training and investigative consultations with the department.

  He pushed open the front door and yelled back to the kitchen. “Hey, Millie? We got any coffee left?” A few minutes later, Thomas was carrying a travel mug of coffee out to Al along with a wrapped slice of garlic bread.

  “Hey, Tommy boy.”

  Thomas scanned up and down the street, seeing nothing and no one out of place as he strolled across and presented the snack to his friend. “It’s not a doughnut, but I thought you might appreciate a little home cooking.”

  “Millie’s homemade bread?” Al slipped the mug into the cup holder beside him and took a big bite of the garlic cheese bread. “Yum. I swear to God if that woman was twenty years younger, I’d marry her. Just for her cookin’.”

  “I think you might have some competition there.” He turned to lean against the door frame beside Al’s open window.

  “How so? Millie got herself a beau after all these years?”

  “I think my dad was hittin’ on her tonight.”

  Al laughed. “Well, the two of them have been living together ever since Mary’s death. I remember you had to build that extension on the back of the house when they moved in—you, four kids, Millie and Grandpa all squished into four bedrooms upstairs was pure chaos. And now they’re downstairs together. Unchaperoned. You don’t suppose they’ve ever sneaked across the hall to visit each other at night, do you?”

  Only he did that with Jane. But Thomas came up with a more appropriate response for his friend. “Eww. That’s my dad you’re talking about.”

  Al laughed. “You can fall in love at any age.”

  Thomas reached in and thumped him on the shoulder. “You’ve had plenty of practice doing that, haven’t you?”

  “I loved every one of my wives when I married them. Minus the alimony, in some way or another, I still do.” Al took a couple of swallows of coffee before looking up at Thomas again.

  Al stuffed the last of the bread into his mouth and brushed off his hands before patting Thomas’s arm where it rested on the edge of the open window. “It’s been twenty years you’ve been alone. Don’t you ever think about taking the plunge and falling in love again?”

  Thomas nodded to his neighbor, who rolled his trash can out to the curb for tomorrow morning’s pickup. The rest of the block seemed pretty quiet, with cars parked along the sidewalks and in driveways on either side of the street as the suburban neighborhood turned in for the night. “Yeah. I haven’t always been ready to let someone else into my heart. But now, if the right woman comes along...”

  “I’ve seen you with Jane. She’s not the right woman?”

  Thomas straightened, patting Al’s shoulder as he pulled away from the car. His feelings for Jane were too new, too complicated, to share, even with his former partner. “It’s got to be mutual, my friend, for anything to happen. Hey, if Duff doesn’t come relieve you at midnight, text me and I’ll give him a call and wake him up.”

  “But you do care for her.” Al wasn’t fooled by Thomas’s nonchalant dismissal of his feelings for Jane. “I mean, isn’t that why you’ve got one of us sittin’ here around the clock, helping you keep an eye on things?”

  Chapter Eight

  Thomas’s thigh protested every step as he and Ruby climbed the stairs after one last outing in the backyard.

  His knee joined the complaining muscles and frayed nerve endings as he slowed his pace near the second-floor landing. Just when his thoughts strayed to the memory of Jane’s strong fingers digging the knots out of his injured leg the way she had that morning, the dog squealed with excitement and darted up the last few steps before disappearing around the corner. As if Ruby might actually go after an intruder, Thomas touched the gun at his hip, although he was 99.9 percent sure of Ruby’s target.

  When he rounded the railing at the top, he was smacked by a wagging tail and greeted with an, “I wuv you, too.” Jane was in those sweet pink pajamas again, kneeling down to pet Ruby while the eager dog licked her chin.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, Thomas leaned against the wall beside the bedroom that Niall and Keir had shared as boys. “She’ll get down if you tell her to. You don’t have to let her lick your face.”

  Jane put up a hand to stave off the marauding tongue and urged Ruby down to the floor for a tummy rub. “It’s nice to have someone around who’s always happy to see you. Even if it’s only been a couple of hours since we were separated.”

  The light seeping in from the streetlamp outside emphasized the shadows beneath Jane’s eyes. He already knew the answer, but he asked, anyway. “I don’t suppose it’d be easy for you to have a pet in WITSEC.”

  “No.” She encouraged Ruby’s spoiled-rottenness with some nonsense chatter that made the dog’s tail wag. “I can’t imagine having to leave someone I loved behind if I had an emergency evac situation. The marshals office wouldn’t be as concerned about my pet as I would be.”

  He still wasn’t convinced that Marshal Wildman and his boss, Oscar Broz, were properly concerned with Jane’s safety and well-being, either. “Did you manage to get any sleep over these last two hours? Or have you been pacing the hallway again?”

  She confirmed his suspicion by not
answering. “You’re up late. Is everything secure?”

  “Yes. The house is locked up tight. Duff is watching out front. Keir will relieve him in the morning. I’ve arranged for somebody to be out there around the clock, and I, or someone I trust, will be inside with you.” He pointed to the big Lab with her paws in the air and her tummy exposed. “Along with the guard dog there. At least she’ll make some noise if somebody tries to come into the house.”

  “Right before she rolls over on her back and asks the intruder to scratch her belly.” Jane patted Ruby’s tummy one last time before pushing to her feet. She tugged down her little pink T-shirt, but it instantly sprang back to reveal that tiny quarter inch of creamy skin that made things leap with interest behind the zipper of Thomas’s jeans. “Your friends Mutt and Jeff were a pair of characters, like little boys stuck in grown men’s bodies. I’ll bet you were the Three Musketeers back when you went into the air force together.”

  “We were close. Dead serious when it came to getting our work done, but I suppose we did have a few adventures after hours. After training at Whiteman and shipping over to Lakenheath, our unit was pretty tight.”

  “Jeff said you were all OSI. What’s that?”

  When she hugged her arms around her middle and rubbed her hand above the scab that had formed on her elbow to warm herself, Thomas got busy shooing Ruby into his bedroom and distracting the dog with a chew toy before he acted on the urge to take Jane into his arms again. “Office of Special Investigations. It’s like NCIS for the air force. We were moving around a lot of nukes back then, training the Brits in laser-guided technology. So security was pretty tight. We checked out a lot of suspicious or criminal activity—both civilians messing with our people, and our people getting into trouble off base. Our job was to keep the people on the base and in the air safe.”

  Jane was huddled in his doorway when he turned back to the hallway. “Is that where you first got into law enforcement?”

  “Trained as an MP over at Whiteman. I guess I don’t know how to do anything else.” He tapped his torn-up thigh. “Even after this. I thought that wreck would end my career. Hell, I suppose it could have ended my life. But then I found other ways to be a cop—to mentor younger detectives, teach them skills I’ve learned over the years.”

  “You’re very good at what you do. I can see it in the way everyone at the precinct respects you and listens to what you have to say. And the way so many of your friends and family are willing to step up and help you now.” That frown mark between her eyebrows appeared. “I don’t know what happened to me this morning—a panic attack, I guess. Levi seemed to think that van had more to do with you and Seamus than with me and my past. Logically, I know that Badge Man’s MO isn’t anything like a high-speed car chase. And he didn’t have a gun that night he attacked Freddie and me. Didn’t stop me from freaking out. Usually, I can keep it together. I’m stronger than that.”

  “I know you are.” Thomas crossed the room, stopping close enough to her that he could smell the lingering scent of citrus shampoo in her damp hair. He cupped her cheek, and though she initially tensed at his touch, she breathed out a sigh and turned her face into the palm of his hand. He gently pressed the pad of his thumb to that dimple before smoothing it away. “You were scared, exhausted. We’ll get ahead of this thing.”

  “I’ve never been kissed out of an episode before,” she confessed. “Once I remembered where I was—who I was with—I didn’t want to stop kissing you. Kind of overstepped the boundaries of our professional relationship, didn’t I?”

  “I was overstepping right along with you.”

  “I won’t let it happen again.”

  The kiss or the PTSD episode? The possibility that she could deny either of them worried him. Did she regret that kiss? He didn’t. Maybe for propriety’s sake, he should. But he couldn’t bring himself to regret getting closer to this brave, beautiful woman. As for any kind of flashback or panic attack—she shouldn’t apologize for that, not with what she’d been through with the serial killer who’d murdered her husband.

  “If it does, we’ll deal with it.”

  What was it about quiet conversations in the shadows of a quiet house that felt so private and intimate? As if they were sharing their darkest secrets? Making solemn vows? But then, he must be the only one feeling the charged energy simmering between them, because Jane pulled away to walk back to her bedroom door. “I know you’re upset with me after my meeting with Agent Hunt. All that Levi asked was that I not go to a safe house. Give him a chance to capture Badge Man.”

  “I think Hunt’s a better salesman than he is an agent. He’s more interested in his case than he is you.” Thomas followed her to her door. “You said no one in your husband’s DC office knew you’d been relocated to Kansas City. Did Hunt tell you how he found out?”

  “He has a contact within the US Marshals Office. Once Badge Man killed that officer in Indiana, he said it was a courtesy to alert them to the potential threat to one of their projects.” Jane rolled her neck as if the muscles were cramping there. “Trading information like that isn’t supposed to happen, is it?”

  “Not typically. Unless it’s a joint operation. Did he say that it was?” Jane shook her head, stirring her damp hair off her shoulders. The possibilities were grim. If it wasn’t out-and-out incompetence that had let her info slip into Hunt’s hands, then there was a conspiracy going on—either on Hunt’s team or within the marshals office. And both possibilities were too close to Jane for his liking. “Did he say who his contact was?”

  “No. I assumed it was Oscar Broz. He seemed to be making all the arrangements for Levi to interview me.” He saw the goose bumps prickle along her arms before she faced him. He wished he had his jacket to put around her shoulders again. No, he wished he had the right to put his arms around her and hold her until she could chase away all those “see Jane die” scenarios running through her head. “Do you think anyone else could find me? Like if they were tailing Levi or Broz? I haven’t seen anyone with heterochromia, so Badge Man can’t be that close to me. Unless he’s wearing tinted contacts to mask the condition.” She was smart enough to think of the possibilities. But that meant she also knew all the other reasons to be scared for her future. “I’ll never see this guy coming, will I? He’s probably already insinuated himself into my life somewhere, and I don’t know it. He works at the hospital or one of the businesses I frequent. Maybe I should go back to my house and have Conor stay with me.”

  “Conor is one man. I’ve got an army lined up to protect you here.”

  “But that army is your family, your friends—the people you love.” She tilted her chin up at a determined angle, but that worried frown had returned. “I care about your family, too. It was wrong of me to involve you, to put your and their lives at risk.”

  He balled his hands into fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. “Once I figured out the kind of trouble you were in, nothing could have stopped me from becoming involved.”

  “You’re a good man, Thomas. And a better friend than I deserve. You have your own issues to deal with without dumping mine on top of them. ‘Thank you’ seems a little inadequate. But thank you.” It might have been a trick of the dim light and shadows, but he thought he saw her uncurl her fingers to reach for him, but she circled her arms around her waist and hugged herself instead. “Good night.”

  “Good night, Jane.”

  Her eyes glimmered like pale gold as she held his gaze for several moments. But then she blinked and closed the door.

  Thomas’s breath squeezed in his chest as he looked at the oak barrier she’d isolated herself behind. In all his days, he’d never known anyone as good at being alone as Jane Boyle. He turned toward his own bedroom door. She shouldn’t have to be strong enough to cope with all this mess on her own. While he admired that kind of strength, that stoic courage didn’t sit well with him
. That woman needed comfort, protection, love. And damn it, he wanted to be the one to... His chest squeezed even harder.

  You know what you need to do, Watson.

  Once the decision was made, he inhaled a deep, unfettered breath and marched into his room.

  “Get up, dog.” Ruby raised her head, then popped to her feet. “I need backup, and you’re it.” He grabbed the dog’s bed and chew toy, clicked his tongue against his teeth for the mutt to follow, and Ruby eagerly trotted along behind him. Thomas knocked twice on Jane’s door and pushed it open.

  She was sitting up in bed, sketching something in a small notebook. “What are you—”

  “Scoot over.” He set the dog bed near the wall beside the door and tossed the toy into the middle of it, pointing to Ruby to take her place for the night. He plucked the notebook from Jane’s hands and looked at the scribbling of stars in some kind of formation he didn’t recognize, surrounded by words and phrases he did. She was trying to figure out the damn case—trying to figure out how to survive. On her own.

  Brown/Ice Blue. Contact lenses? Glasses?

  5ꞌ10" Strong. STRONG. Where does he carry cord? Didn’t see.

  Taser. Knife.

  Don’t take no for an answer. Never submit to failure.

  See him before he sees you.

  Andromeda?????

  “Who’s Andromeda?”

  She climbed up onto her knees to snatch it back. While she closed the notebook, he toed off his shoes. “Not who. What,” she answered. “It’s my WITSEC code word, in case my security is compromised and I need Conor to take me to a safe house, or he’s alerting me.” She watched him pull off his belt and holster. “What are you doing?”

  “And ‘Never submit to failure’?” He rolled up his belt and set it and his Glock on the table beneath her lamp. “Words to live by?”