The chef personally prepared sandwiches, piled high with fresh vegetables and slices of meat and cheese. “May you enjoy,” he said, presenting it to her with a flourish.
“Delicious,” Dani told him. “Thank you.”
He bowed from the waist. “It is my pleasure. Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to my work.” He left, muttering under his breath about murderers, poison and the price of truffles.
It was time for them to get back to the main hall, as well. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” Jake asked. Worry creased his brow and settled into his eyes.
“I have to be. I gave my word.”
For Dani, he knew, that said it all. Her word was everything, and, with that, he felt the bond between them grow stronger.
He escorted her to the stage, then took a place at the left side where he could watch both her and the audience. True, they had caught Newton, but he still didn’t feel that the woman was behind the threats. She had seized an opportunity and used it to her advantage, using her favored method of poisoning—in this case, peanut oil.
Newton had a craftiness about her, a native cunning, but she lacked the intelligence to plot the series of events that had plagued Dani. Jake’s thoughts drew to a standstill as he wondered if he didn’t want Newton to be guilty of the stalking, because, if she were, that would mean his job was over.
Self-honesty demanded that he admit he wanted to spend more time with Dani. He recognized the irony of that. He hadn’t wanted the job, and now he wasn’t ready to give it up.
What was going on with him? His feelings for her were causing him to doubt himself. He’d already allowed them to interfere with his ability to do his job when he’d left Dani with Shelley.
The strict professionalism he’d always brought with him to a job was conspicuously absent when it came to Dani. Having feelings for a client wasn’t like him, but a lot of things he did lately weren’t like him.
He turned his attention to the front of the room, where Dani had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. She managed to achieve just the right tone, outlining the plight of abused women and their children while appealing to the listeners’ compassion.
Her reaction to all that had happened was more than admirable. Courage under attack was something any soldier quickly learned to appreciate. Dani had that and more. She’d exhibited a kind of grace under fire that defied description. She might be wounded from the threatening letters and packages, but the stalker hadn’t succeeded in breaking her.
The hearty applause following her speech was evidence that she’d succeeded. The mayor appeared at her side and presented her with the Humanitarian of the Year award.
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor, but I don’t deserve this award. It should go to the women who have the courage to change their lives. With that in mind and your permission, I’d like to give it to the shelter, where any woman who seeks sanctity there can see it.”
More applause. The audience couldn’t get enough of her. Jake didn’t blame them. Dani was both gracious and generous in her praise of others.
Impatiently, he waited while Dani stopped to accept congratulations from the dozens of people wanting to capture her attention.
“You were wonderful,” a blue-haired matron told her. “You can count on my support.”
Dani hugged the older lady. “Thank you, Mrs. Stanley. We need more people like you.” When Mrs. Stanley left, Dani yawned widely, then clamped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I think everything is catching up with me.”
Jake had had enough. “That’s it,” he said when she was waylaid yet again. “You’re exhausted, and this monkey suit is strangling me.” He had already loosened his bow tie.
She gave a tired smile. “You’re right. I am exhausted. But you look awfully good in your monkey suit.”
* * *
Dani didn’t have to be convinced to go home.
By the time they left the Center for the Arts, Jake was half carrying her to the car. When they reached his house, she was nearly asleep. The events of the evening plus the stress of the past weeks had caught up with her. She was not only physically weary; she was emotionally bruised.
In terms of raising money for the shelter, tonight had been an overwhelming success. It was less so in terms of her own well-being. The idea that someone hated her enough to try to kill her was only now sinking in. She felt chilled, inside and out. Her stomach twisted in hard, painful knots.
Outside, a spring storm raged, lightning flashing and thunder sounding its fury.
Lord, she prayed, please let me weather this storm, too.
At the house, she ran for the bathroom, fell by the toilet and emptied her stomach of its contents. She retched until only dry heaves were left, leaving her trembling. She couldn’t stop shaking. Only then did she notice that Jake was there, holding her hair back from her face.
Embarrassed that he should see her this way, she tried to turn away, but he shifted his hands so that they framed her face. “Don’t be embarrassed. And don’t beat yourself up for being human. You held up better than most after what you’ve been through.”
He helped her up, then steadied her as she washed her face and brushed her teeth. She felt marginally better and started to head out of the bathroom when Jake swept her into his arms once more.
He carried her into the living room and gently laid her on the sofa. There, he worked her feet out of her high-heeled sandals. “I don’t know how you women wear these things. They look like some kind of medieval torture device.”
She sighed. “That’s better. And you’re right. They are torture devices.”
Jake did away with the bow tie to his tux and shed the jacket.
“I want to be there when the police question Newton,” Dani said. “We need to find out how she knew about my allergy.”
“Who else knows about it?” Jake asked.
She gave another sigh, this one more resigned than tired. “My father, of course. Some friends. My coworkers.”
He frowned. “That doesn’t narrow it down much, does it?”
“No.” Her frown matched his own. “Does it matter? You caught her. She’s in custody, and if I have anything to say about it, she won’t make bail. Not this time.”
“Think about it, Dani. Newton had to learn somehow, somewhere, what peanut oil would do to you. Someone had to tell her.”
Her thought processes were sluggish as she struggled to put things together. “You think someone used her.”
“That’s exactly what I think.”
“Then it’s not over.” She didn’t make a question of it, and he didn’t treat it as such.
“No.” He brushed a strand of hair back from her face. “It’s not over.”
And, suddenly, it was all too much. Tears trickled down her cheeks, and her shoulders shook. “I don’t know how much more I can take.”
Jake sat beside her, pulled her into his arms. “I’m still here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
She clung to him. “Thank you. You probably saved my life tonight.”
“Aw, shucks, ma’am. It’s nothing any red-blooded American wouldn’t have done.”
How did he always know what she needed? “That’s what you are—a real, honest-to-goodness red-blooded man.”
Jake tipped an imaginary hat and winked. “Thank you kindly, ma’am. We red-blooded men do our best.”
“And we damsels in distress appreciate it.” The lighthearted banter lifted her spirits momentarily before the reality of her situation settled in once more. Someone wanted her dead.
“I’m going to turn in.” She stood. “See you in the morning.”
Jake pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll get through this.”
She held on to that promise like a drowning man grabbed hold of a life preserver. “I
know.” She paused. “Thank you. For everything.”
After a restless night, Dani rose, determined to work, even though it was Saturday.
“Don’t you ever stop?” Jake asked.
She looked up from her laptop, where she was making notes on a case. “Not when I have seven cases needing my attention.” Her eyes took on a fierce light. “And with Newton’s little trick last night, that makes eight.”
Jake’s cell phone buzzed. He answered and listened, nodded to himself, listened some more. “That was Monroe. He asked if I wanted to sit in on questioning Newton.”
“I want in.”
“And I want you to stay put. Shelley will stay with you.”
“You mean babysit me.”
He didn’t bother to sugarcoat it. “Yeah. I mean babysit you.”
“Newton tried to kill me. I should be in on the interrogation.”
“Each time you step out of this house, you’re a target.” Jake’s voice turned persuasive.
“If it were you who was being targeted, would you allow someone else to question a suspect without you being there?”
She had him there. She could see it in his eyes. “All right. But you do what I say, when I say.”
Dani sketched a mock salute. “Yes, sir.” The words were light, but the tone was not.
* * *
Monroe met them in the squad room, gestured to a corridor. “Back there.”
Jake and Dani followed the police detective into an interrogation room and settled into the chairs the detective indicated.
Newton was already there, cuffed and throwing off vibes of hatred. Small, mean eyes raked Jake and Dani contemptuously. A curtain of greasy hair fell across her face. “Why is he here? He is not police.”
“I invited him,” Monroe answered.
Newton’s lawyer, a stocky, dark-eyed woman, spoke for the first time. “My client has rights.”
“Yes,” Newton piped up, her gaze snapping up to meet Monroe’s. “I have rights.”
Monroe clenched and unclenched his fists. “You have the right to answer my questions.”
A sly look entered Newton’s eyes. “I will answer questions. But I must have something in return.”
“What do you want?” Dani spoke for the first time.
“Immunity,” the lawyer answered for her client. “My client will answer your questions for immunity.”
“Forget it,” Jake growled.
Dani shot a warning look at him. He had no official standing. “No deal,” she said.
“I have information. Important information.” Newton looked from one to the other, her expression shrewd and assessing. “You,” she said to Jake. “You have feelings for her. You want to know how I knew about the peanut oil?”
“I want to know, yes,” he said, ignoring the reference to any feelings he might harbor for Dani.
“Then you must give me something.”
He searched her face for a hint of remorse, but found no sorrow that she had tried to kill another human being. What had he expected? She’d already tried to murder an elderly man. Taking another life would hardly faze her. Her cold-as-death eyes reflected a soul totally devoid of normal feeling. What turned an individual so completely away from good?
He wanted to feel some kind of compassion for her but could find none within him and hardened his heart. “I can’t make deals,” he said before Dani could answer for him.
“No. But you can convince her that she should trade. You’re some kind of bodyguard. She will listen to you.” Newton’s face twisted into a sneer. “Her kind always listens to a man.”
Jake made no attempt to hide his contempt for the woman.
“She,” Dani said with quiet emphasis, “can speak for herself. As I said—no deal.”
Newton twisted a strand of hair, a careless gesture that grated on Jake’s nerves.
They were at a stalemate. Jake knew it. Dani knew it, as well. Her motions coldly deliberate, she closed her briefcase, pushed away from the table and stood. “We’re done here.”
“Ms. Barclay.” The lawyer stopped her. “My client has valuable information to trade. As this directly affects you, I think you should resign from this case.”
The prim speech did nothing to endear the woman to Jake.
It was Monroe’s turn to weigh in. “Your client tried to kill the deputy district attorney and you want us to give her a deal? No way.”
“You will be sorry.” It was Newton who spoke this time. Was that desperation in her voice? She must know that she faced heavy charges with equally heavy sentences attached. The woman had a well-developed sense of self-preservation and made one last attempt. “I am foreigner here, yet you put me in cell, treat me like I am nothing.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
Crocodile tears, Jake thought, without an ounce of sympathy for what the woman was facing.
Jake and Dani followed Monroe from the office.
“She’s got something to trade,” the detective said. “But it sticks in my craw to deal with scum like her. She’d sell her own children for the right price.” Monroe paused and directed his next words to Dani. “I didn’t expect you to cut a deal with someone like Newton, but we might be missing a good bet.”
“No.”
“Even if it means finding out who’s out to hurt you?” Jake had to ask. He respected her integrity, but he couldn’t dismiss a chance to solve who was behind the stalking.
“Even if.” She waited a beat. “Would you?”
He didn’t answer right away. He was too busy taking in the picture she made. She was magnificent. Her slim body was warrior-straight; her chin lifted in determined defiance, her dark red hair tucked behind her ears, but it was her eyes that captured and held his attention. They challenged him to convince her that she was wrong.
He couldn’t. “No. I wouldn’t.” The admission didn’t come easily to him, but he refused to lie to her.
It wasn’t the first time she’d turned the tables on him. He didn’t appreciate it, but he couldn’t fault her for her feelings, not when he’d have done the same.
She faced him squarely. “If I stepped back from this, if I didn’t do everything I could to get justice for Mr. McBride because of some threat to me, I’d never be able to trust myself again, to believe in myself. If I don’t have that, I don’t have anything.” Her eyes willed him to understand. “It’s a matter of ethics. Without that, I don’t know who I am.”
He wasn’t surprised. Her job, upholding the law to the best of her ability, defined Dani. Being under attack, in her eyes, didn’t compare to the attempted murder of an elderly man.
“Before my father was a senator, he was a judge. I asked him how he always knew what was right. He said, ‘It’s more important to do right than to be right.’” She brought her hands to his wrists. “I have to know what I’m doing is right. We’ll get the information some other way. We’ll subpoena her phone records, go through her financials. Chances are she got some payoff, and it’ll show up somewhere. Money always leaves a trail. She’s not one to do anything without being paid for it.”
Jake nodded. The woman was motivated by greed that trumped even her need for revenge. “What do you want to do?”
“Exactly what I said. Find another way to get the information.” Dani’s voice had gone hard. “I won’t trade Mr. McBride for whatever crumbs Newton deigns to give us. She tried to kill that poor old man. He deserves justice. And he’ll get it.”
Jake’s admiration for Dani rose another notch. The woman had more guts in her little finger than many hardened soldiers whom he’d fought alongside. At the same time, he was scared. For her.
Newton’s stunt took things to the next level. Perhaps Dani didn’t realize it, but he did. He was charged to protect her, to put an end to the stalking. And s
he was charged to refuse the very thing that could help him do just that.
He understood, but didn’t agree. Even as they worked toward a single goal, their individual needs—his to protect her and hers to get justice for a victim—set them at cross-purposes.
Conflicting emotions roiled through him, tempting him to want to bundle her off where he could keep her safe from all harm, and he knew if he did, she would hate him for it.
Never before had a client’s feelings interfered with the job as they did now.
At the house, Jake filled his sister in on what had transpired.
Shelley listened, then spoke for the first time. “Seems like you’ve got another avenue to pursue.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Take your list of the people who knew about Dani’s canary when she was a child. Cross-reference it with anyone Newton’s had contact with in the last couple of weeks.”
“That’s good, baby sister. Really good.”
“Thank you, big brother.” Shelley stood. “Now, if you two will excuse me, I’m going to hole up in the den. I’ve got some bids I want to get out.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“That you do.” She tapped his cheek with sisterly affection. “And be sure that I plan to collect.”
With Shelley’s departure, much of the energy vanished from the room. In its place was a kind of tension.
Jake didn’t mistake it as tension resulting from the stalker situation. This was different. It was the kind of tension that grew between a man and a woman. He had only to think of Dani to feel the awareness that had been there from the first time he’d laid eyes on her.
The wariness in her eyes, mixed with undisguised warmth, gave evidence of her own feelings. There was only one problem. She was a client he was assigned to protect. In his experience, mixing business and personal was never a good idea.
Never.
So he kept his feelings to himself. Dani had already seen him weak and vulnerable, thrashing about in the grips of a nightmare. She didn’t need to learn more of just how broken inside he was. She deserved better. Much better.
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