He deliberately averted his eyes from his aunt’s body as he left the living room. In reality, what was one more body? He certainly wouldn’t have earned any accolades for having spared her life anyway. Since the day he’d taken his parents’ lives, he’d been labeled a murderer, and this was what murderers did.
Chapter Two
After all these years, Erin still saw him as the enemy. Matt’s inner voice spouted the nonsense that her coldness didn’t bother him. Pride tried to tell him he’d gotten over her and had moved on with his life. But there was one thing he couldn’t do, and that was lie to himself. Erin’s love for him had given way to hate, but his had never changed.
How many times had Jacob accused him of pining over his ex-wife? Matt had always ignored him, but the harsh reality was his boss…his friend…knew him far too well. The end of his marriage had damned near destroyed him. Only his work had managed to keep his focus and helped him maintain some sense of sanity.
He thought about calling Jacob, suggesting someone else babysit his ex-wife until Stuart showed up, but he couldn’t pass this assignment to anyone else, not when Erin’s life could be at stake. She might not want him here, but he had to know she was safe. The only way he could do that was protect her himself.
Erin stared daggers through him as she cleaned the counter top and straightened the tables, preparing to close the shop for the day. Occasionally, she stopped to give him a full on glare over her shoulder in an obvious attempt to intimidate him into leaving.
After fifteen years as an FBI agent, Matt rarely allowed coldness to bother him. He’d been shot, stabbed, and had confronted some of the worst criminals in the world, but Erin’s aloofness settled under his skin like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Once, those sapphire eyes of hers had looked at him with more heat than ice, and it bothered the hell out of him those feelings had disappeared.
She leaned over one of the booths to reach for the salt and pepper shakers, and her plain black skirt rode high on her thighs. Matt’s gaze slid down the long expanse of bare legs, and something elemental inside of him stirred. He dropped his gaze and cursed below his breath. Some things didn’t change, wouldn’t change, like the way his body responded to Erin. That alone would make this assignment more difficult.
“How did Stuart escape?”
Her words caught him off-guard which irritated him even further. Definitely not at the top of his game today. He cleared his throat and scooted back on the stool so his back rested against the counter.
“Through the underground tunnels. One of the guards was killed.” He didn’t believe in sugarcoating the truth, but Erin’s wince told him he should have kept that information to himself anyway.
“Did Stuart kill him?” The quietness of her tone spoke of her inner turmoil. He would have known it anyway. The set of her shoulders and the steady way she scrubbed the same spot were tell-tale signs of distress.
Matt had never been able to put himself in her place. Every day for the past six years, she’d lived with knowing her brother was a murderer, that he’d executed her family over fifty dollars and a car. Erin had surprised him with her strength, the way she’d held it together during the trial. Only at home had she fallen apart and allowed herself to grieve both the loss of her parents and her brother.
The memories had him softening his voice when he responded. “The police aren’t sure. They’re looking into that now.”
Her hip bumped the table behind her. “Would you tell me if you did know?”
“Probably not.” He saw no reason to lie to her.
“Not surprising considering you always kept the details of your job a secret from me even when it involved my own family.” A measure of disgust crept into her voice.
Matt massaged his forehead. “Do we have to go down this road again, Erin?”
“No, we don’t.” Stalking around behind the counter, she returned the pepper canister to the top shelf with a graceful stretch of her arm. “You were always loyal to your badge. I knew that when I married you.”
She made it sound like a fault rather than an admirable trait, but he didn’t push the old argument. They’d traveled that path until they’d run out of road, and the last thing either of them needed was trip to the past.
“Couldn’t I just call you if I see Stuart? That way, you could go back to New York, and I can go back to my life.”
Hearing the desperation in her voice, Matt could almost believe she needed him to be gone rather than wanted it. Did she hate him that much? “That would be a possibility if Stuart hadn’t left a trail of bodies since escaping prison.”
Erin paled, looking at him from behind the counter. “How many?”
“Enough. Still want to defend him?” Matt unbuttoned his suit coat and removed it, draping it across one thigh before adding, “Because the way I see it, Stuart’s got nothing to lose by adding one more body to his count.”
She walked around from behind the counter. “Why do you think he wants to kill me? You have no proof of anything. It’s just pure speculation.”
He thought about showing her the photo but just as quickly dismissed the idea. Denial was all she had at the moment. He wouldn’t be the one to take that away from her. “You think he’s coming here for a family reunion?”
Erin turned her back on him and began to furiously wipe the stainless steel countertop again. “You don’t even know for sure he’s coming here. He could be halfway to Mexico by now.” At least she could hope. She took a deep breath. “Knowing that possibility, when do you plan on leaving?”
“Not until Stuart’s caught and back in prison where he belongs.” Matt joined her behind the counter.
“Don’t.” She held up both hands to ward him off. “I can’t have you here, Matt. This…just won’t work.”
He snagged hold of her wrist and lowered one hand. “Erin, you can’t hide from this. Your brother has developed some very nasty habits in prison, some of which I can’t tell you. Or rather, won’t tell you. He’s not the same man you knew six years ago, and I’m not just talking about the dead bodies he’s left behind.”
Her breath shuddered out of her lungs, and Matt caught the first flicker of real fear in her eyes. He pressed on, his voice both urgent and unyielding. “He has no intentions of fleeing the country because there’s something else he wants more.”
She challenged him with a tip of her chin, needing a straight forward answer. It was obvious the FBI knew something they weren’t willing to share. Or possibly it was Matt who just wasn’t in the sharing frame of mind.
“If you really think Stuart wants to kill me, tell me why.” One hand went up in the air as though to silence him before he could begin. “And please don’t feed me a line about the trial. I had nothing to do with his sentencing, and even Stuart, no matter where his mind is, has to know that. There was no way in hell he was going to get anything less than life. He’s damned lucky he didn’t get the death penalty.”
Erin returned her attention to the counter that looked damned near spotless in Matt’s opinion. He let her scrub for a second longer before interrupting her. “All right. Let’s take the trial and the sentencing out of the equation. Think about afterwards. You didn’t have anything to do with him after he left the court room that day. Never visited. Never wrote.”
Surprised flashed in her eyes. “How do you know that?”
“The FBI has access to all of his mail, Erin, and not one of those letters was from you.”
“I had no reason to write him.” She managed to skirt around him, making her way to the door of the back room. “I have a couple of things to finish up in here. It might be a while.”
“I’ve got nowhere to go.” Not as long as Stuart was closing in. Leaving her wasn’t an option.
The ring of his cell phone captured his attention, and he retrieved it from the inside pocket of his suit coat. “Giles.”
Seconds later, he wished he hadn’t answered the phone.
The call had captured Erin’s attenti
on as well, and the look on Matt’s face revealed far more than he’d ever tell her. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, but she didn’t ask any questions. If Stuart had taken another life, she didn’t need to know.
“I’m about to lock up.” She cursed her hand for shaking.
Matt clicked his phone shut and tucked it into the front pocket of his suit coat. “Lead the way.”
“Why? Don’t you already know where I live?”
“I was trying not to do one more thing to piss you off, Erin.”
He obviously didn’t realize his presence alone did that. She closed the door to the supply room and checked the power switch on the coffeemakers once more. She’d checked them several times, just busy work to keep from leaving the shop with Matt. Her apartment was too small for the two of them, and the thought of having him in the intimate confines where there was no public eye made her nervous.
She clicked the light switch. “Why do you have to stay with me? Can’t you stay in a hotel? You could tap my phone. I’ll even wear a wire, and you can slap GPS on my car.”
He let out a breath and moved into her line of view. “The guards at Attica found the body of one of their colleagues inside the kitchen freezer. His throat was slit. That’s two guards down.”
So that was what the phone call was about. She’d never expected him to tell her. Matt had never gone for the shock factor before. “Did you really need to tell me that?”
“It’s apparent you’re not taking your brother’s escape seriously.”
Anger made her shoulders stiff. “Everything you used to know about me, forget. I’m not the same person I was during our marriage. You know nothing about me or what I feel.” Realizing her voice had risen considerably, Erin made an effort to calm down.
“You’re right.” Matt shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “But I do know you’ve never wanted to let go of the image you had of your older brother. You still remember the way he protected you when you growing up, how he included you when his friends came over, and talked to you through the night when you were dumped for the first time.”
“But he’s not that same man, Erin.” Matt’s voice changed, going softer as though trying to convince her to believe him. “For your sake, I wish he was.”
She’d forgotten about this side of Matt, the man behind the badge. Before the murders, they’d had a good marriage. It had never been perfect, but they were happy. She couldn’t begin to tell him how she blamed her brother for taking that away from her as well.
Her head drooped. “Wishing is a waste of time, unfortunately.” She dug her keys out of the bamboo purse she’d left sitting on the counter next to the order slips. “Could you just give me some time alone, please? I haven’t had a chance to process any of this since you walked through the door this morning.”
Matt came around behind the counter and took the keys from her hand. “You’re going to have to process it with me in the house.”
Erin wanted to hit him. He’d always been confident, self-assured, but she didn’t remember this much arrogance. Apparently, he’d changed as well. She snatched her purse from the counter. “Since you have the keys, you can lock up.” Sweeping around him, she stalked toward the glass door. The overhead bell jangled as she pushed into the early afternoon air.
As warm as it was, she still shivered. She didn’t want to think about Stuart or the pain he’d caused her, but the knowledge of his escape had brought the memories crashing back. Her hands iced. The loud pounding on her front door in the middle of the night rang in her ears as clear as the day it had happened. Even though the sun beat down on her head as she began the short walk toward her apartment, her teeth chattered.
She’d thought by returning to her home town, she could start a new life, and she’d succeeded for a while, even lucking out by finding a place with reasonable rent in the downtown area which was unusual. To top that, it was located less than four blocks away from an empty store front property she’d turned into The Coffee Pot.
But as she walked, nothing seemed familiar or homey. She’d felt safe here…until today. Now she wondered if Charleston would ever feel like home again or if she’d ever find a place that the reminder of Stuart’s crimes couldn’t taint.
“I see you’re still into power walking.” Matt reminded her he was right behind her.
“Don’t worry; I won’t get too far away from you. You have the keys to my apartment.” She spoke the words through gritted teeth.
“Wasn’t worried, just making an observation.” As though to prove his point, he fell into step beside her.
Juggling the strap of her purse to settle it more firmly on her shoulder, Erin refused to look at his face. He made her feel…unsettled, like her life had been before she moved. She didn’t want this reminder of the past.
The FBI had gotten this all wrong. Her brother wanted nothing to do with her, and before his drug habit, he’d been an extremely intelligent man. He’d more than likely use those smarts to get himself out of the county as fast and efficiently as possible. Stuart wouldn’t want to risk being apprehended again. Of course, she hadn’t seen him since the trial. A lot of time had passed. What if he was this very different man Matt said he was?
“Ignoring me won’t make me go away.”
Erin stopped walking and turned to face him. “Look,” she blew out a breath which lifted the bangs off her forehead. “I’m not trying to ignore you, but I just…”
How could she explain what she was thinking to a man whose only thought was putting Stuart back behind bars? Matt wasn’t interested in feelings when it came to the letter of the law…which was precisely why their marriage had shattered after the murders. In her ex-husband’s eyes, Stuart’s addiction to meth and cocaine had no bearing on his actions, and when she’d suggested a temporary insanity plea in spite of her own devastation, Matt had immediately shut her down.
He didn’t even try to consider her reasons for not wanting her brother to go away for life at that moment. And he hadn’t budged an inch, and even though he’d had friends in the police department, he wouldn’t use his contacts to help her see Stuart without restraints. In Matt’s eyes, the law was in black and white. And Stuart had crossed the line into the area of no return.
Later, when Erin had managed to come to grips with her parents’ death, she realized she’d reacted hastily because she’d only been trying to protect what was left of her family. By then, it was too late to repair the damage her pleas and Matt’s cold silences had done to their marriage.
Erin lifted her head and tried again. “I don’t like talking about Stuart, but you know that already.” A rush of wind swept her hair across her face, causing her to push it away. “He’ll never be in my life again.”
“He will be if he has his way.” Matt didn’t back down.
Even out in the fresh air, there was no room to breathe, and Erin didn’t like feeling crowded. “Could I please have my keys back?” She held out her hand, palm up.
“I’m not the bad guy here, Erin.”
The way he said her name sent shivers down her spine just like always. Damn him. Why did he have to come here? Couldn’t he have focused on catching Stuart without involving her, without dredging up the memories of their tattered marriage, the bitter divorce?
Her shoulders hunched, she resumed walking. “I know you’re only here to do your job, but I don’t have to like it.” Before he could respond, she held up one finger. “I will, however, do what I can to help you if you will agree to stay at a hotel instead of my house.”
“The FBI doesn’t negotiate.” The hardness of his voice had her gritting her teeth.
“I don’t want to talk to the FBI right now. I want to talk to the man I was once married to.” Looking over her shoulder, she caught the look of surprise in his eyes, and for a moment, she held out hope he’d agree.
“Right now, the only part of our past that’s important is your brother. There’s no separating me from the FBI. You should kn
ow that better than anyone.” Dashing her hopes, he took hold of her elbow. “No conditions and no commands. Like it or not, Erin, until Stuart is captured, I’m your shadow.”
“How did I get to be so lucky?” She snapped out the words.
His grip tightened. “Is it so difficult for you to think I might be trying to protect you?”
“Your only mission is to apprehend an escaped felon. If protecting me comes into play, you’ll do it, but it’s not your first priority. So while you’re here, don’t blow smoke.” She waved a hand toward the glass doors leading up to her third floor apartment. “It’s the only silver key on the ring.”
“I know.” He moved ahead of her and unlocked the door.
Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t have to ask how much he knew about her. If he hadn’t known much about her before Stuart had escaped, no doubt, Matt had gotten himself up to speed fairly quickly. “You always were thorough with your assignments.”
The door squeaked open, and she tromped ahead of him. Though the elevator worked perfectly, she took the stairs, hoping to leave Matt sniffing her dust, but he kept even pace with her without breaking a sweat or breathing hard.
“I’m still a runner, Erin,” Matt informed her once they reached the door of her apartment.
Perfect. She might have known. The only thing he had ever given up on was her.
"Jackpot!" Arlin bounded down the hallway, waving an envelope over his head like a surrender flag. "Take a look, my friend." He smacked the paper against Stuart’s chest.
Stuart scanned the return address. "Charleston? Why in the hell would Erin go back to Charleston? We haven’t been there since we were kids." His nose wrinkled as he studied the handwriting. Definitely his sister’s. But it didn’t make sense. He doubted she remembered enough about the city to even miss it.
Arlin shrugged. “Damned if I know. Now let’s go see if your aunt has a car we can make use of."
"It's a PO box," Stuart continued talking as if Arlin hadn't made a sound. The date stamp on the envelope read December 2009. Was Erin still in Charleston? That was a helluva long way to drive without knowing for certain whether she'd moved again. "It’s been four years. She might not even be there.”
Extreme Measures Page 3