“There’s a keypad lock, not a normal one with a key. We need another code to get in the house.”
“Sixteen hundred.”
Kayla’s lips curled up into a smile. “As in Pennsylvania Avenue?”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t have thought Greg had time to set that up. Maybe Locke had him get the code changed. So much for flying under the radar.”
She entered the code and let them inside. “What is your deal with Locke?”
Apart from the fact that he’d been the one to tell Conner that Kayla was out of his reach. “He’s a good team leader, but he’s good because he gives orders that can’t be questioned no matter what. And he’s always right. It’s kind of frustrating.” More like infuriating, and not something Conner appreciated. He was a freethinker, someone who adapted on the fly. Locke was way too cut-and-dried for him.
Inside, the house was pristine but smelled like it hadn’t been aired out in a few weeks. It made his head swim. He’d rather open all the windows and let a summer breeze in. They walked past a painting—a farm table and apple pie. “I love the smell of apple pie.”
Kayla started to lower him onto the couch but hauled him straight again. “Hang on a second.” She came back seconds later with a towel that she put under his leg to protect the couch. “Did he punch you in the head? Maybe you have a concussion.” She fingered his forehead, his hair.
“You’re concussion girl.” She didn’t smile. It was just blood loss, making him woozy. “Check the bathroom cabinets.”
“Afterward you can tell me what that ‘apple pie’ thing was.”
She really wanted to know? Kayla’s footsteps retreated. Conner let his eyes drift shut, but the pain wouldn’t allow him to sink into oblivion. When he heard her come back and felt the snip of the scissors as she cut away his pants, Conner roused.
“If I hadn’t seen you sleeping with my own eyes, I’d wonder if you’ve rested at all since you came in my office.”
“It wasn’t much.”
“You’re fading fast.” Kayla’s gentle voice drifted around him. “Apple pie?”
“The painting.” He waved in the direction of the entrance hall. “I was born on a farm. My mom made apple pie, and the sun used to warm up the living room.” The whole place was decorated like a farmhouse. Maybe he should get one, make a permanent home for himself. “My sister would dance in the sunlight, and the puppy would sing.”
“What happened?”
“Foreclosure. My dad’s gambling debts. They broke his legs. My mom went to work. My sister got into drugs and I haven’t seen her since she left. She was sixteen. I joined the air force, then after that, the Secret Service.”
Kayla blew out a breath.
“Sometimes I think it might have been a dream,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re a dream.”
*
Kayla stared at him. Conner’s face should have been relaxed with sleep, but it wasn’t. He was always alert, as he was even now. As though his body refused to let him be anything except what he was trained to be.
Conner was no dream; he was very real to her. Maybe even the most real thing she’d ever had in her life. Despite all the trappings of having lived in the White House, of her parents’ money and the schools she had gone to, Kayla had never wanted those things. Sure, it was nice not to worry about whether she would eat tomorrow—as so many of the women she helped told her they did. But she had never craved notoriety. She much preferred her quiet little small-town life.
My mom made apple pie.
How was it that she’d known him for so long and hadn’t known he’d been born on a farm? Or that he’d been in the air force. That seemed like a key piece of information that had completely slipped by her.
She didn’t know anything about his family except what he’d told her just now. Yet he knew practically everything about her. Of course, most of it was public knowledge. But everything in her now ached to know all there was to know about this man. Who he was and why he would choose a line of work that put him between a bullet and the person he was protecting.
Why he’d give his life for her.
The front door burst open so fast it slammed into the wall. Locke strode in, a look of thunder on his face. Kayla shot up.
“Where is—”
“Shh.” She met him halfway, the team of three men and one woman right behind him. Kayla pushed at the huge black man’s shoulders until he stopped. “You all have to be quiet because Conner is out.”
Locke didn’t move, and his expression didn’t change.
“He got shot.” She pulled on Locke’s arm. “Kitchen. Now.”
Locke glanced back to the woman, a new agent—probably a rookie—Kayla hadn’t met. “Perimeter.”
The agent sighed.
He glanced at another of the agents. “Go with her.” That left one more in this four-person team. Locke barked, “First aid.”
Kayla shared a smile with the female she’d like to get to know. The woman’s reaction to Locke’s orders seemed a little too personal. Locke was even frowning at her, which was great. He needed someone to ruffle his feathers. Kayla liked the woman already, even if Locke had banished her to the “perimeter.”
Kayla dragged Locke all the way to the kitchen and opened her mouth.
The female agent spoke before she could. “Your man in here is awake. I think he might shoot me.” The front door shut.
Kayla rushed back to the living room. Conner’s eyes were open. He said, “What?”
“Locke is here.” Conner tugged on her hand and she sat back down, this time way closer to him. Had he heard her? “How is your leg?”
“The screaming, throbbing one or the other one?”
Kayla’s lips twitched. “Okay, enough said. Are you okay…other than that?”
He hadn’t let go of her hand yet, and now he gave it a squeeze. “I’m okay, Kayla. It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before.”
Kayla didn’t even want to think about that. Undercover work couldn’t be easy, and she had certainly complicated things for him.
Locke cleared his throat.
Kayla stood. “I’m going to forage for first-aid supplies. Don’t be mean to him while I’m gone.”
“Me?” Locke’s brown face split into a wide smile.
*
The smile was for Kayla alone. The minute Locke turned to Conner, his amusement dissipated. “We were stuck behind that accident, and this nowhere hick town has crappy cell service. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was conspiring against us.”
“Andis did show up at exactly the right moment.”
“Probably tracking your phone. Or Kayla’s.”
Conner said, “We didn’t figure it for a setup. There was no one there, and she was supposed to just grab the laptop so we could leave. It’s still there, dead battery and a destroyed keyboard, but there was a cord out where I think they’d connected it to a desktop.”
“We need it?”
“If we keep it under wraps, that keeps the wife and daughter safe. Even if it’s been accessed, we can still minimize the collateral damage.”
Locke nodded. Conner wanted to shift in his seat, but not only would it seem like he was nervous—which he’d never admit to his former boss—it would also hurt.
“You should have told me you were undercover.”
“It’s supposed to be a secret,” Conner said. “That’s why it’s called covert ops.”
“And it was necessary for you to take Kayla along with you?”
“I’m not helpless.” She stood in the doorway, holding a red metal box with a white cross on it. The male agent was behind her. “Conner and I have been working together.”
Locke turned to Conner. “She stays here from now on. Twenty-four/seven protection.”
Conner gave a short nod. Did the man think he was going to argue with that? “Done.”
“No. Way.” Kayla handed the first-aid kit to the agent and set her hands on her hips. “I’m going wh
erever you go, Conner. We’re supposed to be a team.”
Except he’d never actually said that. “Kayla—”
“I’ll give you guys a minute.” Locke left the room, trailed by the male agent.
She raised her gaze, eyes rimmed with tears. “Don’t give me the speech.”
Conner jerked his head. “The speech? What speech?”
“It’s my job, Kayla.” She did an impersonation that might’ve been meant to sound like his low, gravelly voice. “I’m supposed to keep you safe, that’s all. Nothing else.”
Conner’s chest shook. She was hilarious.
“It’s not funny. I never understood why anyone would want to jump in front of a bullet to protect me. My life is no more valuable than anyone else’s. I’m not worth that.” She shook her head.
“Your father’s position put you at risk. That was the job, Kayla.”
“That’s all?”
She deserved the truth. “Until about three seconds after I saw you the first time. Then it was all about the distance I had to put between us. I had no other choice or I’d have been fired. It wasn’t a secret how I felt about you.”
“I didn’t know. All I knew was that you were so overprotective. All you guys are. I could barely breathe. I didn’t want you to protect me.”
Then what had she wanted? “I told Locke not to put me on your detail. Sometimes it couldn’t be avoided, but he tried his best to keep us separated. We figured it was better than me breaking protocol because of how I felt.”
Conner lifted her hand in his and tugged her closer. There wasn’t far to go before they were face-to-face, their noses almost touching. “That was then,” he said. “This is now. Understand?”
She had to know that everything was different now. His whole world had changed now that she was in danger, and more than just physically. He was seriously at risk of falling all the way for her. He couldn’t help it. He’d never been able to help it when it came to Kayla Harris, as much as he’d tried to fight it. And he had tried.
Kayla nodded. Conner’s lips curved into a smile. “Why do you look like you just got handed down a sentence?”
“Just accepting the inevitable. That you and Locke are going to gang up on me so you can go out and play heroes while I’m hidden away.” She folded her arms.
“That wasn’t what I was talking about.” When her lips moved into an O, he said, “You don’t want this?”
He would back off if she asked him to. She was everything he wanted and exactly what he shouldn’t have at the same time. Would he ever move past this spark? He was determined to protect her, and she would hate his getting hurt for her. But he wasn’t going to put her in danger. Not again. For once, he voluntarily agreed with Locke.
“Kayla?”
Her gaze flicked back and forth over his face. Then she leaned forward and planted her lips on Conner’s.
Every thought in his head disappeared. He pushed past the surprise and gathered Kayla into his arms for the sweetest kiss of his life. And it was about time, too. So long as he didn’t let his head barge into the conversation with the passel of doubts sitting back there.
“Time’s up.” It was Locke. “The sheriff is here.”
Kayla pulled back, her cheeks pink.
The sheriff frowned when he saw her. Conner sent the man a look of his own. “How did he know where we were?”
“I called him,” Locke said. “Greg told me everything.” Which meant Locke had wanted the man close. Probably where he could keep an eye on him.
Conner didn’t need the sheriff’s opinion clouding Kayla’s potential happiness. He was pretty happy himself, and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin that for her. Conner pulled her into his side. “Jan Barton?”
Sheriff Johnson shook his head. “The motel room was empty. She didn’t check out, but all of her stuff is gone.”
THIRTEEN
“What does Jan Barton have to do with Andis Bamir?” Locke scratched his chin.
That was a good question. Kayla looked at him and shook her head. “She came to the sheriff for help, and he referred Jan to me.”
“And the boyfriend who took your laptop?”
Conner’s attention shifted to Locke, as well. “I think he might be the one making superbills for Andis. It’s a huge operation with multiple people involved, especially on the scale they were flushing bills onto the market. Jan must be linked to that somehow, even just through her boyfriend. It seems like they’re all invested in finding Andis’s wife and daughter. As far as I can piece together, they actually disappeared not long before production of the bills halted for whatever reason.”
Locke folded his arms. “If they aren’t making counterfeit bills anymore, why send you to investigate?”
“It was right after I showed up. Stalled out the whole investigation and made this thing take months instead of weeks. I’m still not done. But it seems like the answer is somewhere between Andis, Jan Barton, and the missing wife and daughter.”
“They were being hurt, and now they’re gone. It’s just bizarre that everyone wants to find them. Andis maybe, but Jan and the boyfriend?” Kayla shook her head. None of this made any sense. “I just can’t see how Sofija and Lena could be tied to the counterfeit money. Sofija never said anything to me about that, and we talked about her husband’s business. She wanted me to be prepared if he ever came looking for her. Oh, she also said she had an ‘insurance policy’ in place. That’s what she called it. Some kind of comeuppance against Andis for what he did to them.”
“They have something of his.” Conner shifted beside her and winced. “Something everyone is trying to get their hands on.”
“For Andis?”
He nodded at her. “That’s the only explanation I can think of. Andis’s wife made off with something he needs back. Not a good insurance policy, but she has halted all production of counterfeit bills. If she wanted to mess with him in the process of leaving, she’s done it. But now everyone is after her and her daughter. She must think she’s totally safe and that Andis won’t be able to get to her. Or if he does, she’ll either buy her way out with him or turn him in.”
Then he looked at Locke. “And they all think Kayla knows where the woman and her daughter are.” He sighed. “Let’s go get the laptop, see if anyone is still there. Maybe Jan Barton or the boyfriend—”
“That would be Tim Harmer,” Sheriff Johnson threw in.
“Maybe they’ll show up there.”
“I’ll stay with Kayla,” the sheriff said.
Seriously? Conner was just going to leave her here? Not that she needed his protection, but if she was going to get some, it might as well be him. It wasn’t like he was fine, after all. He’d been shot.
Kayla prolonged their time together by helping him clean and put a bandage on his leg. She didn’t want to leave the shelter of his arms, but she’d been standing by herself for years. Why cave in now, when she’d been doing so well? Especially for a man who would risk his life.
Kayla spoke quietly so only Conner could hear. “Are you seriously just going to leave me here?”
He didn’t react to her tone, just whispered back, “I need to talk to Locke about some things. Clear the air.”
“Is he mad he didn’t know about the operation?”
Conner shrugged one shoulder. “Doesn’t matter if he is. It’s not his purview, not while he’s director over the presidential detail.”
She pushed away from Conner and stood. “Fine.”
He could go wherever he wanted. She hadn’t needed a Secret Service detail for years, though it had been an option for her. Kayla hadn’t wanted that kind of notoriety when she’d gone to law school. She hadn’t wanted to be that student again, the one followed around by suited men and women all day and night. So she’d forged her own path on the understanding she could call Locke whenever she got an inkling something was awry.
Well, things were definitely awry. That was for sure.
She should call her father o
r have Locke fill him in first and then call. If her father heard about what was happening before she or Locke could explain about Andis, he wouldn’t react well. Her father’s health wasn’t good. If he got a shock from the news because they didn’t relay it right, he might even have another heart attack. Locke was better at that. She should ask him to set a time to contact her dad.
Okay, so she was using Locke as a go-between. But it wasn’t like she and her father had the greatest relationship. When she was able to, Kayla needed to visit his house and see him. She didn’t want her life to be a cliché of missed opportunities to say what should have been said. What needed to be said. She was grown-up enough to admit she hadn’t been the best daughter, and now was as good a time as any to rectify that.
Okay, Lord. I got that message loud and clear. Kayla smiled to herself. She didn’t want any more epiphanies like that. She wasn’t sure her heart could take it.
“Guess that’s it, then.” His voice was gruff. “Be back soon.”
Kayla glanced at him. Conner ran a hand through his hair. Why did it seem as though he didn’t want to leave? Kayla gave him a small smile and waved. He really did look like he needed a nap. Funny. She was starting to sound like him.
Locke motioned to the door. “Let’s go.”
“Or you go, and I take Kayla somewhere else.”
Locke’s eyes widened. “You want to run?”
She turned to him. Conner wanted to leave with her and disappear? He would never bring down Andis or Manny if they did that. And yet Kayla fully believed that his personal directive to see to her protection above all else would override the assignment that brought him here. The infuriating man. Of course he would think whisking her away was the right answer.
He turned then and saw her. Kayla shook her head. She mouthed the word go. But Conner still read everything she was thinking. She intended to stay here, to fight this with everything she had. Conner didn’t like that idea one bit; that was plain enough on his face. He was keeping his idea to run as a possibility. A fact she didn’t like.
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