by Hope White
Luke stepped into the house and found the chief and Krista in the living room. “So the house was like this when you got home?” the chief said, eyeing the mess.
“I thought it was the cat.”
“You thought the cat tipped over your end table?” Luke asked.
“She’s a really big cat and she’s rather upset with me right now.”
“The sooner we can get a description of the man you saw in the garage, the more accurate it will be,” the chief said.
“You don’t think he killed her, do you?” Krista asked, her eyes rounding with fear. Wide, green, helpless eyes.
“Now, why would he kill your cat, Krista?” the chief said.
Krista narrowed her eyes. “You, of all people, should not be asking me that. Gladys still has scars from the quilting open house.”
“Point taken.”
“Anastasia? Here, kitty, kitty.” She glanced at Luke. “Get the Whiskas. On top of the microwave.” She disappeared upstairs.
Luke glanced at the chief.
“The sooner we find the cat…” the chief said with a shrug.
Luke found the bag of cat treats in the kitchen. As he grabbed them, his gaze caught on a photograph on the windowsill of a teenage Krista, and he guessed her mom, and perhaps grandmother. They looked like a team, arms around each other, ready to take on the world.
They were a loving family. He’d always wondered what that looked like.
It’s not like he hung out with the guys at work and their families. He’d had a few invitations, but he knew he didn’t belong and would make everyone feel awkward.
He never seemed to belong.
And that was fine by him.
“I got the cat treats!” he called out, more than a bit irritated with this diversion from their course of finding her attacker.
The chief was on the phone, and Luke started up the stairs. Krista met him halfway.
“No shouting,” she whispered.
“I was shouting?”
“You shake and I’ll grab.”
“Excuse me?”
“The cat. You go ahead of me and shake the bag and I’ll grab her when she comes out.”
“Ma’am, we really need to talk about—”
“Shake and grab.”
If the guys found out about this, he’d be more of a laughing stock than if he’d been shot by Rookie West.
She motioned for him to slip around her. The staircase was narrow and he couldn’t help but brush up against her as he passed. She smelled fresh, like flowers, even after a twelve-plus-hour flight. How was that possible?
Shaking the bag, he started down the hallway, glancing into a bedroom. Neat and tidy, the four-poster bed was covered with a down comforter and the curtains looked handmade.
“Kitty, kitty. I love you, kitty,” she crooned.
He kept shaking, ignoring the generous use of a word he’d rarely heard growing up. What the heck was wrong with him tonight?
Lack of sleep. He’d gone too long on five hours a night. It was bound to catch up to him.
“Wait.” She touched his arm.
Warmth seeped through his leather jacket as he eyed her petite fingers.
She pointed to the next bedroom and released him, tiptoeing ahead. He glanced at his arm, struggling to remember the last time he’d felt any gentle, nonthreatening human contact.
Yeah, man, you do need sleep.
After he nailed Garcia and his production line. After the murderer was in jail. After…
What? There’d always be another Garcia.
Luke’s job would never be over and he’d never be satisfied.
Krista crooked her finger and he followed her into the bedroom. This one had to be hers. A canopy bed centered the room, draped in light purple and pink material. A Bible lay on her nightstand and a tray of antique perfume bottles lined her dresser.
Luke glanced away.
Krista pressed her fingers to her lips and kneeled down pointing beneath the bed. He motioned to the bag of treats and she nodded for him to shake. He shook. They waited. No cat.
“Oh, boy. She’s gotta be under here.” Krista shimmied beneath the bed.
He felt something brush against his pants and glanced down to see a black-and-white cat doing a figure eight around his legs.
“Miss Yates?” he said.
“Yeah?” her muffled voice answered.
“Is this the cat you’re looking for?”
She wiggled back out and sat cross-legged on the floor. “Anastasia?” With a confused frown she glanced up at Luke. “She hates people.”
“I’m not people. I’m a federal officer, remember?” He smiled, hoping she’d be able to shift gears quickly and give them the intruder’s description before too many other things clouded her memory.
“Wow.” She looked up at him with awe. Respect.
He didn’t deserve it.
“Not a big deal.” He passed her the treat bag and she opened it.
The cat pounced on Krista. “Okay, okay,” she laughed, a sweet, carefree sound.
“About your statement…” he said.
The cat purred and rubbed against Krista’s knee as she put a treat on the hardwood floor.
“Ready?” he said.
“Sure.” She stood and Luke automatically reached out to steady her. He withdrew his hand, afraid his touch might damage her somehow.
He turned to leave the room.
“Wait a second, can you hold this?” She handed him the treat bag.
She put her hands together and stood at her dresser. “Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to help such wonderful children in Mexico, for seeing me home safely, for my friends, for Anastasia and for Agent Luke for being my hero tonight. Amen.”
He wanted to correct her, tell her he was no one’s hero, not by any stretch of the imagination.
“Okay, let’s get this over with,” she said. “I’m exhausted.”
She took a step toward the door, wearing that pleasant smile.
The crack of a gunshot echoed through the window.
Luke grabbed her and hit the floor.
TWO
Here she was, knocked on the ground again. Not exactly how she pictured her first night home. She’d hoped to get into a bubble bath to wash the plane scum from her skin, sip a cup of chamomile tea and crawl beneath her down comforter.
Instead, someone was shooting at her.
“Stay here.” Agent McIntyre stood and pressed his back against the wall.
“But the cat—”
He pressed two fingers to his lips to shush her. His expression was fierce, intense. She was glad she wasn’t on his bad side. She started to get up.
“Right there,” he ordered, slipping a gun from inside his jacket.
Her breath caught at the memory of little Armando Morales. Images of the little boy covered in blood, moaning in pain, made her freeze in place. Armando had been an innocent bystander caught in a territorial shoot-out among drug dealers.
Yet he was just a child.
The whole experience reminded her how lucky she was. She may not have had a father or siblings, but she lived a safe, healthy life in Wentworth.
At least she had…until tonight.
The stairs creaked as Agent McIntyre went to investigate. She scooted to the door and leaned into the doorjamb, wishing that this was some kind of crazy dream brought on by exhaustion. Sure, she’d returned home, downed a few scoops of casserole and had crawled into bed. The peas in the casserole didn’t agree with her, sparking nightmares that began with her being chased down by her garage stalker.
Another popping sound shattered that wishful thinking. It sounded farther away than the first, definitely from outside. Her windows hadn’t been shattered by the shots.
“Anastasia?” she whispered, needing a hug, even from a crazy cat.
Hugs were something she sorely missed since Gran passed away and Mom moved to Florida with Lenny. Krista missed a lot of things and had hoped to fill that emptiness with he
r missionary work with kids, and maybe, in the not too distant future, a loving husband and children of her own.
Only, she was a disaster in the relationship department and had decided to stop looking so hard. She prayed about her life, asked God to help her find inner peace.
Kind of hard to find peace when people are shooting at you.
“Miss Yates?” Agent McIntyre called from the bottom of the stairs.
“Yes?”
“It’s safe. You can come down.”
She headed downstairs where the intense, yet handsome, agent was waiting for her. Her eyes caught on the gun in his hand and she froze.
He glanced at his weapon. “Sorry.” He shoved it into its holster and pulled his jacket over it to conceal the weapon.
“The gunshot?” she asked.
“A neighbor was trying to scare off a raccoon. The chief’s out there talking to him now.”
“Probably the Bender kid. Someone should tell his dad to lock up the rifle.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Come on, let’s take your statement about the man in the garage before you fall asleep on us.”
She ambled through the living room. “With all this adrenaline rushing through my body I doubt I’ll ever sleep again.”
Anastasia raced past her into the kitchen.
“How about some tea?” she offered over her shoulder.
“I’m good, thanks.”
Was he ever. Agent McIntyre was good at being there to protect Krista, acting confident and unshakable. He was pretty nice to look at, too.
Warning! Sleep alert!
She was not one to ogle a stranger, but she was tired, hungry and confused. A man had broken into her house and garage. Looking for what? And wait a second, why was a federal agent at her house?
She turned to him. “Hey, you never told me why you’re here.”
“First things first. Let’s get ice for your cheek.”
She touched her face. “It looks bad?”
“Not yet, but it will if you don’t ice it.” He took a kitchen towel from the rack, opened the freezer and dropped a handful of cubes in it. He reached out to place it on the bruise and she took it from him.
“Thanks,” she said, holding it in place and leaning against the counter. “You’re an expert at first aid?”
“I’ve been knocked down a few times.”
Yeah, she could see that. He was tough, the kind of man who stayed focused and didn’t back down from a fight.
“Ready to give a statement?” he said.
“Sure.”
Chief Cunningham stepped into the kitchen from the back door. “I gave the Bender kid a lecture about firearms. Took away the rifle for the time being, until his dad gets back from his business trip.”
“I was about to question Miss Yates,” Agent McIntyre said.
“Please call me Krista. Miss Yates makes me feel like an old maid.”
“Okay, Krista.” Agent McIntyre sat at the kitchen table and opened a small notebook.
Good, he looked less intimidating sitting instead of towering over her. The man had to be over six feet tall, dwarfing her five-foot-three-inch frame. His good looks and hard-edged demeanor made her uncomfortable. He was different than the few men she’d dated in Wentworth.
Not just different. He was a cynical man who’d chosen a violent career.
She sighed and found a bag of chamomile tea. She’d lost her dad to violence and saw what violence did to innocent children on her mission trips. Krista believed in discussing problems, praying about them. She wondered if a man like Luke McIntyre ever prayed. She doubted it.
“Can you describe the man in your garage?”
“No, I’m sorry. He was wearing a skeleton mask.”
The agent hesitated in his note taking. Why?
“Did anything unusual happen at the airport in Mexico before you boarded?” he continued, focusing his blue-green eyes on his notepad. She’d noticed their brilliant color when he’d helped her trap Anastasia.
“Nothing unusual other than missing my first flight, which meant missing my connection in Chicago, and then losing my luggage.”
“Did anyone talk to you at the airport?”
“Not really.”
“Anyone at all. The slightest, seemingly insignificant conversation could help us.”
“I chatted with a young mother. She had the cutest little newborn.”
“Any men?”
“I don’t like talking to men.”
The agent snapped his eyes to meet hers. “You don’t talk to men?”
“Strangers. I don’t trust them.”
“Smart girl.”
Irked, she turned her back to him and poured hot water into the cup. “Thank you, Agent McIntyre, but I stopped being a girl ten years ago.”
Silence filled the room. She’d overreacted. She couldn’t help it. Being called a “girl” hit a nerve.
It reminded her of when she was a little girl, innocent and trusting. When she made the mistake of talking to a stranger.
“Anyway, no talking with strangers,” she said, turning to Agent McIntyre.
Chief Cunningham stood quietly in the corner, arms crossed over his chest. He knew the story, the loss and devastation to the Yates family. The chief was the only one who knew the truth, knew that Mom and Krista had fled to Wentworth from California because the little girl had been so close to a killer, looked him in the eye, even shook his hand.
Krista had been only five when she’d told the stranger that Father was still at work in the Lincoln building. No one could have anticipated how that bit of information would change everyone’s lives. It led the disheartened investor to Dad’s office where an argument turned violent and Dad was killed.
After Dad’s death, Mom fretted that the killer would come back for Krista since she’d seen him, so Mom packed up their belongings and moved to Gran’s house in Michigan. A year later they got word that Dad’s killer had been caught and sentenced to life in prison.
Krista was safe, but Mom and Gran couldn’t drop the overprotective parenting style. Mom probably would have objected to Krista going on the mission trip if she’d still been living in Wentworth.
“And when you landed in Grand Rapids?” the agent asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“I got paged.”
“For what?”
“Someone found my license, but I had my license so it was a mix-up. By the time I got to baggage claim, I discovered they’d lost my luggage.”
“Did you get there as luggage was coming out on the conveyor belt?”
“No.”
“So someone could have taken your luggage?”
“I guess, by accident, sure.”
The agent and police chief exchanged glances.
“I don’t have anything worth stealing, if that’s where you’re going with this.”
“You might have had something you didn’t know you had,” Agent McIntyre said.
Then again his job was to see conspiracy around every corner.
“Why are you here again?” she asked and sipped her tea with one hand, while holding the ice to her cheek with the other.
“I’m investigating drug trafficking from Mexico into the Midwest.”
“You think they used my suitcase to smuggle drugs?” she said, her voice pitched with disbelief.
“It’s not that simple,” Agent McIntyre said.
“What, then?”
“We got a tip that the leader of the drug cartel sent men to Michigan to tie up some loose ends with a church group. The tip came shortly after your group left Mexicali.”
“So, you think someone in the mission group was smuggling drugs?”
“It’s a possibility, yes,” McIntyre said.
“No. It’s not. I know you’re used to dealing with criminals, Agent McIntyre, but people like us don’t break the law.”
“Luke.”
“Excuse me?”
“My name is Luke. You don’t have to call me Agent
McIntyre.”
“Oh, okay.” But it wasn’t okay. She didn’t want to call him by his first name, didn’t like the fact he was accusing someone in her church of smuggling and she didn’t like that he was still here at nearly one in the morning.
“Is that all?” she said.
“You didn’t recognize anything about the assailant?”
“The man in the garage? No. He could have been some teenager fooling around for all I know.”
“Krista, I want you to stay with me and Jane tonight,” Chief Cunningham said.
“Thank you, chief, but I’m fine here.”
“You’re really not,” Luke interjected.
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Why risk it?” he said.
“What about staying with your friend, Natalie, or the Sass family?” the chief suggested.
“Look, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in nearly two weeks. I need to sleep in my own bed!” she shouted, then slapped her hand to her mouth. She didn’t mean to lose it like that. “Sorry, I get cranky when I’m tired.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Luke said to the chief.
“No, really, that’s okay.” She wasn’t sure what scared her more: the stranger jumping out of her garage or the handsome agent offering to sleep under the same roof.
“Krista, you either stay at our house or with the Sasses, or let Agent McIntyre bunk on your couch. You pick.”
No one had spent the night since Mom came back for Gran’s funeral two years ago. Mom had moved to Florida with Lenny, and since Gran’s death Krista had been in the family house alone.
And tonight they were asking her to share it with a stranger.
“I won’t let a strange man stay in my house,” she said.
“I’m a federal agent and I’m here to protect you. What’s the problem?”
“It doesn’t look right,” she said.
Agent McIntyre glanced at the chief.
“Small town, people talk,” the chief explained. He glanced at Krista. “We’ll tell them Agent McIntyre is my nephew from upstate New York.”
“I don’t like lying,” Krista said.
“Undercover work isn’t the same as lying,” Luke said. “It’ll help me figure out who’s behind all this.”
“I understand, but—”
“How about I stay in the loft above your garage? I noticed a room up there.”