Hidden Threat

by Sherri Hayes

  Rachael was a go with the flow kind of girl.

  It was something Cali admired because she was quite the opposite. After her wild teenage years, she’d been careful about letting her emotions rule her actions. Her relationship with Matthew was the first impulsive thing she’d done in years.

  Pulling into the drive, she glanced over at the man in question. She loved him, but she couldn’t let him control her. There was nothing wrong with what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to let him talk her out of it. Getting out of the car, she followed him inside.

  Chapter 34

  Matthew was fuming inside. Outside, he was neutral. He didn’t like what he was feeling. What he wanted to do was lock her in a room upstairs and not let her out until he’d found out who was doing this. Reason, of course, told him he couldn’t do that, but reason wasn’t making a lot of headway at the moment.

  How could she not trust him! It was his job to protect her, to watch over her. He’d even moved into her house. And how did she react the first time their situation was tested? She agreed to go out to a crowded public place with a person he’d never even met!

  He walked straight into the study, sat down at his desk, and opened his laptop.

  This Rachael Michaels was due to arrive in less than an hour, and he needed to find out all he could about her in that short period of time. Despite how angry he was at Cali right now, he still loved her, and he couldn’t live with himself if she got hurt. He wouldn’t even contemplate the other thought lingering in the back of his mind. If she was killed.

  Cali’s heels clicked on the wood floor as she approached the study. She watched as he typed furiously on the keypad in front of him, appearing to be totally focused on whatever he was doing, but she saw his nostrils flare slightly when she entered the room.

  He was ignoring her. Her resolve stiffened and, just like that, her control slipped.

  “So this is your answer? Ignoring me?” she said with thick sarcasm.

  “No. My answer is to do my job to the best of my ability and try to keep you from getting yourself hurt,” he said in an equally dry tone.

  “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

  Matthew continued to look at the screen and not at her. “It means...,” he almost sneered, pausing to type something else into the screen, “that since you will not trust me to do my job—”

  “What are you talking about!” she nearly screamed in frustration as she stalked to the desk, standing in front of him. She’d heard how he’d stressed the word trust. “I do trust you!”

  Finally he looked up at her, but his eyes were anything but warm. “No. You don’t.”

  Cali didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to respond to that. She’d been expecting him to be angry, yes, but trust? How could he think she didn’t trust him? She loved him!

  She stood there staring at him for several minutes in a state of shock before forcing her body to move. Pulling herself away, she walked out of the room and up the stairs.

  In the end, Matthew came upstairs just as Cali put on her boots. He held a GPS tracker and insisted she wear it on her person. Matthew’s fingers were cold and professional as he attached the dime size device inside her bra. The man in front of her wasn’t her lover; there was no affection in his touch, it was just cold and efficient, impersonal.

  Rachael arrived right on time, and they left. Matthew had told Cali when he had come upstairs that he’d be following. Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was there. Something inside her told her she should be angry about that, but she wasn’t. She just couldn’t find it in her.

  They met Lisa, Jen, and Becky in front of Faux. After they made their introductions, they went inside.

  ***

  An hour later, Cali found herself sitting at a corner table while the others danced about ten feet away. Rachael seemed to be having fun; she always did. Cali should have been happy about that, but the only thing on her mind was her fight with Matthew. His words from earlier continued to echo. Did he really feel she didn’t trust him?

  She just didn’t understand. Cali trusted him with her life, her heart. But why couldn’t he trust her? Rachael wasn’t an enemy; she was a friend, one of the few she’d had in her two years overseas. Why couldn’t he understand that?

  Cali was lost deep in thought and hadn’t noticed Lisa had returned to the table.

  “You okay?”

  Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, she took a drink and attempted a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “Mhm,” Lisa said with obvious disbelief. She reached out and touched Cali’s arm. “Did something happen?” she paused. “With Matthew, I mean.”

  Cali’s eyes widened. Did Lisa know? “Wha—” she stuttered, “What do you mean?”

  Lisa leaned forward so she wouldn’t have to raise her voice over the music. “Well, when he came upstairs to pick you up this afternoon, it didn’t take a genius to see that he wasn’t happy, nor did it take one to figure out what caused his mood.”

  Cali sat up a little straighter and glared at her assistant and friend. “And why do you think that is, Lisa? I know you called and told him. Why couldn’t you have just let me handle it?” her voice rose on this last part. She was upset after her fight with Matthew and the subsequent cold shoulder she was receiving. The woman in front of her seemed to be the perfect place to direct her anger.

  Hearing the tone in Cali’s voice, Lisa dug in her heels. “Look,” she said, “I don’t know what’s going on with you two. Last week you were struggling to be civil to one another, and this week it’s like a complete turn around.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Maybe nothing.” She sighed. “But maybe everything.” Looking at her friend’s agitated appearance once more, Lisa added, “What I want to know is why you didn’t call and tell him right after lunch. You know you should have,” she said pointedly.

  Cali had had a wonderful retort on the tip of her tongue, but with this last bit, the fight left her. Why hadn’t she called Matthew and told him right away?

  Before she had a chance to answer or contemplate further, Rachael plopped down beside her and took a huge swallow of her drink. “Ah, that’s better.” She set the glass down with a flourish that nearly spilled the remaining contents. “You ready, Cali?”

  “For?” Cali asked apprehensively.

  Rachael didn’t seem to catch her mood or didn’t care because she grabbed Cali by the arm and pulled her onto the dance floor. Cali was helpless to do anything but follow unless she wanted to forcibly remove herself.

  Their forward progress stopped directly in front of a tall man with sandy blond hair and green eyes. Rachael pushed Cali forward slightly so she was standing between the two. “Cali this is Lance. Lance, Cali.“ Then she felt, more than heard, her friend’s voice at her ear. “Let’s see if we can lift that mood of yours and end that long dry spell, huh.”

  Rachael disappeared, leaving Cali stranded on the dance floor with Lance.

  ***

  It was ten o’clock, early really, but he’d been sitting in his car outside of the club watching the entrance and the GPS tracker since seven. He was tired and agitated. Stakeouts had been a large part of the work he’d done with his father so he was used to it; it didn’t bother him. Well, it hadn’t before tonight anyway.

  Matthew wasn’t deluding himself. He knew why tonight was different, and it wasn’t because it was Cali in there. It was because of the way they’d left things.

  He’d been fuming by the time they’d arrived home. The knowledge that she planned to go out with this Rachael was only part of his anger. She didn’t trust him. If she had, she would have called him immediately and told him.

  When she’d stormed out of the study, he’d retreated into himself and started digging. Forty minutes later, he hadn’t been able to find anything on this Rachael woman. Everything looked perfect, too perfect for his state of mind. Maybe he was just looking for trouble where there
was none. Was he letting his emotions for Cali cloud his judgment? He didn’t know, and it was slowly driving him mad as he sat waiting.

  His attention focused on a trio of men standing twenty feet away from the club entrance. They’d been there for a while and had tried to hit on any half decent woman that crossed their path, most of which came in groups for a girls night out.

  From what he’d seen, they weren’t having much success.

  The woman that had gained their attention now was alone as she headed toward the club. Matthew watched closely to make sure the guys’ antics didn’t get out of hand. But as he focused on the female and her body language, something struck him as familiar. When she crossed under the lights of the club, he caught a glimpse of her—Mariana.

  What is she doing here? He thought, suspicion clouding his mind, but he caught himself. It was a club on a Friday night and a popular club at that. He shook it off and went back to focusing on Cali. His assistant was just here to enjoy a night out.

  She was probably meeting friends.

  ***

  Cali was beyond ready to go, but there was more than one problem with that plan.

  Lance was the first. He’d been hanging on to her for the past twenty minutes. And she did mean hanging and groping. It was subtle, she’d give him that, but it was obvious that he was just looking for a little encouragement from her to take it farther.

  The only thing it made her think about was how different his hands and his body felt, compared to Matthew’s. Cali remembered seeing him here that night, dancing. She wondered if it would ever be like that for them. Would they eventually be able to come dancing at a club once this was over? Just the memory of what those hands could do to her made her groan.

  Her dance partner misunderstood her reaction and took it as the encouragement he’d been waiting for. Cali’s body was pressed roughly against his as he placed his hands lower on her hips, too low, grinding her into him. There was no mistaking his intentions. She tried to pull away, but he held her tighter, smashing her breasts against his chest.

  Trying to figure out a way to extract herself without drawing too much attention, she jumped when she felt his hand slip down her backside and between her legs.

  Screw being subtle.

  She moved her hand slowly down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. She felt him twitch with excitement and groan in her ear. He moved away slightly to give her better access to him.

  Cali was never one to miss an opportunity, and this was the exact one she’d been hoping for. With a quick movement, she reached between his legs and grabbed hold of him with all her strength.

  Lance’s arms released her instantly. She eased up on the pressure just a little and then squeezed again. “I think our dance is over,” she said, looking him straight in the eye. “Don’t bother me again.”

  She didn’t wait for an answer as she released him and walked away. Now to deal with her second problem.

  ***

  It was after midnight when Lisa dropped Cali off at her father’s house after driving a tipsy Rachael to her hotel. Matthew’s car was in the driveway looking as if it had been there the entire night.

  Cali knew he was in the house, waiting for her. An intense war raged inside her chest. Cali wanted her Matthew back, the man who could set her on fire with one look, one touch. But what about today? The independent woman within her just couldn’t dismiss that.

  So instead of going to his room as her body wanted her to do, she walked to her own and straight to her shower. She needed to wash the feel of Lance’s hands from her body.

  Cali slipped on an old t-shirt and climbed into bed, feeling the coldness around her. She laid her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes, but sleep didn’t come. Her mind was racing, and her heart was aching. Cali’s body knew Matthew was missing from her bed, and it was protesting.

  Concentrating on the ceiling, she began counting that pattern in the ceiling. That kept her busy for a while, but once done she was no closer to sleep than she’d been before she’d started.

  Looking over at the clock, she sighed; it was two-thirty in the morning. She’d been up since six and should be exhausted. Her mind didn’t seem to agree. It knew what it wanted and wasn’t going to accept any substitutes.

  Cali mulled over her options: lie here for the next four hours, pretending to sleep or go talk to Matthew.

  She didn’t really like either one of these options. Her day was catching up to her body, and she wanted sleep. And as for talking to Matthew, Cali wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk to her. Plus, it was almost three in the morning; he had to be asleep.

  In the morning, I’ll talk to him in the morning. Ugh! But that brings me right back to the fact that I can’t sleep!

  Before she could change her mind, she pushed back the blankets and padded down the hall. She figured she’d look in and see if he was sleeping soundly. If so, she’d just have to suffer through the night whether she liked it or not.

  Pushing open his door, she peeked in. Her eyes immediately found his blue ones staring back at her. They were clear as crystal. He hadn’t been sleeping either.

  This knowledge gave her courage, and she stepped into the room.

  ***

  Matthew just watched her. His mind and his body had been warring all night. He missed her in his bed, and that left him completely dumbfounded. Before Cali, it had been ten years since a woman had shared his bed for an entire night. A week of change shouldn’t have left his mind and body reeling like this. It did, though.

  He wanted to reach out to her, but his pride kept him in place. She took a seat at the edge of the bed facing him. He didn’t move.

  They just sat and watched each other for several minutes before Cali diverted her eyes and visibly swallowed. “I think we need to talk,” she said, her voice shaking a bit.

  “I agree,” he said and moved to sit up.

  After getting into position, he waited. He was waiting on her, she realized. Cali laced her fingers together in her lap and looked up at him. “Why did you say I don’t trust you?”

  “Because you don’t,” was his immediate reply. She waited, and he realized he needed to give her more than that. Instead of answering her question in more depth, he asked, “Why didn’t you call me after lunch and tell me about Rachael inviting you to the club? Why did I have to hear it from Lisa when I called at four-thirty to get your schedule for Monday?“

  Cali stilled for a minute and felt a moment of guilt for accusing Lisa of going behind her back and calling him. Matthew shifted slightly, but it was enough to get her attention, and she refocused on what he’d asked. Why hadn’t she called him? It was a good question, and one she didn’t have an answer to.

  “I don’t know,” she said in defeat. Cali saw him cross his arms and knew he wanted more than that. She sighed, and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I just…I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had to justify my actions to someone else.”

  This seemed to ease him a little. “So why didn’t you just say that?”

  She shrugged and took a deep breath. “By the time we got home, I knew you were upset.” He snorted, but she ignored it. “Like I said, I’m not used to justifying myself to anyone. And well…You got my feathers up so to speak.”

  He watched her for a few minutes. Cali was a highly independent woman. She took control of her life and wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. Challenges were just that to her, challenges. She met them head on. Matthew realized that he’d set a challenge before her earlier when he’d disregarded her friend. Cali was loyal to her friends and family. The fact that she’d dropped everything to come and help her father was proof of that.

  Fingers brushed lightly on his leg, and he met her eyes. “I do trust you.” Matthew moved his hand down to cover hers. “I’m sorry I got your feathers up.” He smirked.

  Cali’s mouth turned up into a small answering smile. “I’m sorry, too. You’re right. I should have called you.”

  They
were silent for a while, and Cali enjoyed how much lighter she felt. With the anxiety gone, sleep began to pull Cali into its grasp. Her eyes closed for several seconds, and when she opened them again, they were heavy with sleep.

  Sliding back down into the bed, Matthew tugged on her arm and pulled her to him. Cali didn’t offer any resistance as he moved the blanket out of the way for her. Facing each other with their fingers laced together, Matthew’s other arm brought her closer, erasing the distance between them. She snuggled in. It felt so good to be close to him again. There was nowhere else she’d rather be.

  Chapter 36

  Matthew sat at his desk Wednesday morning reviewing the previous night’s security tapes when he heard a knock on his door. It was the mail clerk with today’s mail. After instructing the young man to leave it on the corner of the desk, he went back to what he’d been doing.

  There’d been no other sightings of the mystery woman in the garage. It wasn’t surprising, considering the tape had been altered. What it did prove was that person hadn’t had time to replace the tape with a dummy, only to manipulate it enough to not be identified.

  He’d gone over the security tapes from the elevators the night the mystery woman was in the parking garage. He’d also reviewed the ones for the night Cali had been hit, and the ones for the following morning when the tapes had most likely been switched. Matthew checked to see if there was one person caught on tape for all three incidents. They weren’t.

  The number of people in the building during the time frame in question wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either. Although the list for the night Cali was hit was shorter, there were still too many to narrow it down for his comfort. As for the morning after, that had been useless. IT changed shifts at six in the morning, leaving both the night and day shifts plenty of time to accomplish the end goal.

  Half the executive secretaries and many of the executives themselves came in at or before seven. And that didn’t even account several dozen production, maintenance, and security staff. He just couldn’t seem to catch a break there.