Her Undercover Defender

by Debra Webb

  “I’m not sure I remember how. It’s been a long time.”

  “Not for me. I’ll give you a refresher course.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “I guarantee you’ll have a great time.”

  * * *

  TERRI BELIEVED HIM. Somewhere in the past few weeks David had become the balance her life needed. She couldn’t be all about the work, and she’d vowed to stop worrying over her brother. Or at least she’d vowed to worry less about him.

  David’s arm around her shoulders felt nice. Like his friendship, his arm was solid and steady and warm without the weight of pressure or expectations. On the way to the parking garage, they chatted more about fishing and his love of underwater diving. She loved to listen to him. His passion was contagious and he made her want to take a class and get certified. It would be a good, healthy hobby and something completely new.

  She needed new and healthy things to start closing the gaps of her fractured family. It was frustrating to think about her first Christmas alone in the house where she’d grown up. She needed someone to share all those memories of her family traditions with. Maybe she should take David up on his outrageous offer and immerse herself in the happy chaos with his family. He didn’t say things he didn’t mean, she knew that, and his family sounded like good, fun people. Trying something new, if only for a day or two, would be healthier than her original plan of taking on extra shifts over the holiday week.

  “Is it work?” he asked as he merged with the light traffic on the interstate. “Something has you distracted.”

  “Kind of.” She paused for courage, holding her chilled hands in front of the heating vent. “I’d planned to work extra shifts, but if you were serious about the Christmas invitation, I’d like to accept it.”

  “Fantastic,” he replied, sounding as sincere now as he had when he’d extended the invite. “My mom will be thrilled.”

  “You’re sure it won’t throw everyone into a tizzy?”

  “In my house the philosophy is always the more the merrier. I’ll be sure they understand we’re not...you know.”

  “Not what?” she asked, wanting to tease him a little. The way he said it, she had one of those rare and forbidden images of something physical with David. He might be handsome and sexy, but that didn’t make it any more appropriate to imagine jumping her new friend. The last thing she wanted to do was to botch a friendship that was working so well. This wasn’t the right time for serious or involved. Maybe it was finally her time—her time to discover what she wanted beyond work and responsibilities.

  “Dating.”

  Oh, how she wished he’d never brought up the dating question. None of these thoughts would be plaguing her if the conversation hadn’t come up. When he pulled into her driveway a few minutes later, she hurried to find her house key. She turned to thank him for a fun night, only to see he was coming around to open her car door.

  Like a date.

  “I can be a gentleman even if this isn’t a date,” he reminded her.

  She thanked him and climbed out. He walked her all the way to the door. On the porch, key in hand, she suddenly didn’t want to unlock the door. The moment she did that, this wonderful evening impersonating a normal woman not on a date would be over.

  “If this was a date,” she began, not quite able to look him in the eye, “I’d be getting butterflies right now.”

  “Butterflies?” He tucked his hands in his pockets. “Over me?”

  “You know, about the...kiss.” She did not just say that. Humiliation crowded into her throat.

  “Ah...the kiss.”

  She looked up and the grin on his face, as much as the twinkle of mischief in his eyes, made her relax. Thank goodness, he wasn’t reading too much into her silly confession. She’d let herself get carried away. They were friends. Friends who shared a taste for loud music, cheese-covered pasta, the ocean and excellent craft beer. The truth was she needed a friend more than a lover.

  “Thanks for a great night, David.”

  “I’m glad we did this,” he said. “It was almost perfect.”

  A frown tugged at her brow. “Almost?”

  His gray eyes were dark as his gaze dropped to her mouth. He leaned in and his warm hands rested lightly on her shoulders. Her breath caught and she knew with a sudden and lovely clarity that this night truly was moving into date territory. The butterflies that had been swirling in her belly moments before quieted as his lips met hers.

  The kiss, sweet and gentle, was full of promise and over too soon. The brisk night air rushed between them, cooling her lips, but it couldn’t erase the underlying heat that set her body tingling.

  “Good night, Terri.” He stepped back.

  “Good night, David.”

  She slipped inside and leaned back against the door, content to wait there until her knees stopped quaking. She licked her lips, catching the subtle taste of him there.

  “Oh, my,” she whispered when she heard his car leaving the driveway. Moving forward with her life, putting herself first, had some definite perks.

  Suddenly, she couldn’t recall why on earth she’d been so reluctant to make that move.

  Chapter Four

  David drove the few blocks to his own place on an unexpected high and far less conflicted than he should’ve been about that kiss. He enjoyed being with Terri and after that quick taste of her, he felt himself wanting more. He pulled into his garage rationalizing his actions with the reminder that it was important to be normal during an undercover op.

  Except this wasn’t a short-term, bust-the-bad-guy-and-get-out kind of thing. He flipped on the kitchen light and looked around, still a bit startled he had an entire house to himself. Three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, with a recently remodeled kitchen—it was a lot for one person. He’d had his share of roomy apartments, but a house was different.

  Maybe it was his upbringing. A house was a tangible sign of commitment and meant for family. He wasn’t ready for the family part of that equation, though he’d happily signed on for the home owner commitment and permanence. The location was ideal. Close enough to everything he loved about the water and far enough from his parents and sisters for privacy.

  The real job, under the cover, promised everything he needed to stay challenged and active in the work he relished. In his few weeks here, he’d been exploring the area and history during his free time so he could be prepared to address a variety of threats. Although Trey Barnhart and his associates were the current problem, David would still be here long after any attacks on Dr. Palmer’s research. He had to build a life and he didn’t want that life to be a complete lie.

  As Terri’s friend, he didn’t want his cover to hurt her and yet he couldn’t risk telling her the truth. He liked her and he’d asked how to define the evening because he needed to know which approach to take as they moved forward. It was completely possible her brother would never return. David felt a little stab of guilt for thinking it because he could picture the sadness in her eyes if she never heard from her brother again.

  “What a mess.” He hooked his key ring on the wooden banana tree. The housewarming gift, intended for the kitchen counter and hanging bananas, had come from his oldest sister. She had touted the importance of proper fruit care as a current homeowner and future husband. He, in turn, had sent her a picture along with a text message thanking her for the cool key hook. So far, she hadn’t bothered him with more lectures on responsibility. He didn’t expect the reprieve to last.

  At the kitchen table, he emptied his pockets and draped his coat over the back of a chair. Terri had mentioned her ability to run on only a few hours of sleep and he was much the same. Good thing, too. He was amped after that kiss. It would’ve been so easy to pull her into his arms and linger over it. To hold her close as he discovered how she liked to be kissed and what made her heart race. He wasn’t sure which one of them would be more spooked by that move.

  At least now he knew she was open to the idea of bei
ng more than friends, which would make it easier to stay close and involved if her brother made contact or showed up again.

  He poured himself a tall glass of water, picked up his phone and headed into the den to check his email, along with the headlines and police reports on his laptop. He left no stone unturned in his perpetual search for Trey Barnhart. His phone rang and he waited for the caller ID display before answering.

  He recognized the number. “Hello, Director Casey.” The greeting would let his boss know he was alone.

  “Have you checked your email?”

  “Just doing that now.”

  “Good,” Casey said. “We got a hit on Barnhart’s passport at BWI earlier this afternoon.”

  “Returning from where?” Arriving at Baltimore Washington International Airport, he could be coming from most anywhere.

  “Germany. We’re assessing how long he stayed and where he went, but it’s slow.”

  David refused to jump to any conclusions without more information. Trey visiting Germany could mean a variety of things from cars to biomedical research to being a groupie for one of the alternative rock bands always cropping up over there.

  “He didn’t rent a car at BWI,” Casey added. “Or do anything else with a credit card. I can’t be sure of his whereabouts since he landed.”

  “I understand.” This elevated his alert status.

  “Our profiler thinks he’ll head your way, if only to see his sister.”

  “Holiday nostalgia,” David said in full agreement, recalling what Terri had told him about her brother.

  “That’s a best-case scenario.”

  “Got it.” David changed screens and brought up the feed on the bugs he’d planted in Terri’s house. Reluctant to violate her privacy, he rarely listened in, but he would have to now. “Are there docs over there working on the same tech as Palmer?”

  “Possible, but the consensus is that no one is as close to this breakthrough as Dr. Palmer. That doesn’t rule out a buyer intent on reverse engineering his device. I’m told the doctor is bringing that trial patient into the secure ward at the hospital any day now. It’s possible Barnhart has undergone training to know what to ask and what to look for.”

  The news gave David a chill as he considered how Trey might use his sister to get inside the hospital computer system. David had difficulty believing Rediscover would rely solely on a new recruit to swipe research data. There would be backup.

  “I need you to stay on your toes in the neighborhood and at the hospital,” Casey instructed.

  “Always.”

  “If you spot him, notify us immediately. In the meantime, I’ll expect regular updates.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The call ended and David was alone with his laptop once more. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want to stalk Terri. He wanted to pry into the raw emotional wounds even less, but he needed a better read on who Trey had been. Worse, he needed it yesterday.

  He couldn’t blame himself for not knowing more already. He’d only been on the job for a few weeks, but peeling back the layers of a personal life packed with tragedy required a deft touch. Damn. David wasn’t sure how to push any harder without blowing it all to hell.

  It was too late to back down, too late to realize he wasn’t up to the task. He had the strangest urge to ask his mom for advice. There was no easy way to do that, either, even if he changed names and modified the facts. Calling for advice on a woman would only raise more questions and mess up Terri’s potential Christmas visit. Assuming, if he had to take down her brother, she still wanted anything to do with him.

  Growing up, he’d known he had a good family. The Martins were stable and happy, with no more theatrics than three older sisters normally provided. His parents had raised four children to become self-sufficient and contributing members of society. He knew that wasn’t always the case. It seemed the farther he traveled, the more he saw, the more he appreciated all the little things that had come together to give him the right start.

  He stood up to stretch, then paced between the kitchen and den, wishing for a pool.

  Terri spoke of her family in similar terms, with plenty of love and affection under the sadness. The background the Specialists had pulled on her brother pointed to a decent kid who’d gone off track four years ago, right after the accident.

  Why had he snapped? Wandering away from college after everything Terri had done for him? In David’s book that was nearly unforgivable.

  Dropping back into the chair, he went through Trey Barnhart’s background once more, doing his best to view it objectively rather than through the lens of his instinctive protectiveness of a friend. Trey had played sports through high school. Not a star in the classroom, but he wasn’t a slouch, either. He’d taken tougher science classes while doing well enough in the basic requirements on the English and history side.

  The medical file after the car accident wasn’t pretty. He’d been banged up, his knees and ankles damaged enough to end his hope of riding a baseball scholarship through college. David had watched friends deal with similar problems. Life was full of disappointment. Most people found a way to cope, overcome or move on. Sure there were scars, surgical and otherwise, but that was part of growing up. Terri had managed to keep going. Why hadn’t Trey followed her example?

  It could be timing. A shrink would likely blame it on emotional development or birth order. Trey had suffered a significant loss on several levels at the wrong life stage or he’d been coddled as the youngest and the pile of challenges proved too much for him.

  David snarled. He wasn’t a shrink, he was an operative. He wanted actionable points he could work with to prevent an attack. What message had Rediscover used, assuming Casey was right about Trey’s involvement, to turn him against the core values of his childhood?

  No answers, clear or otherwise, were forthcoming. David checked his surveillance equipment. Everything was quiet in Terri’s house. Frustrated, he powered down the laptop and headed upstairs for bed.

  Whatever Trey was into—willing or coerced—if he showed up and gave Terri trouble, David vowed to adjust the kid’s attitude about family, respect and gratitude.

  * * *

  TERRI PRACTICALLY FLOATED through the kitchen, packing her lunch with more muscle memory than conscious thought. That task complete, she hurried upstairs to get ready for bed. Her alarm would go off in just over five hours and she owed it to her patients to be rested and ready.

  Rest wasn’t going to happen, she realized with a silly smile. Her mind kept drifting off task as she went through her bedtime routine. She had to check the calendar several times before she managed to lay out the right color scrubs for the morning, and then she picked up the moisturizer instead of her makeup remover. She almost squeezed her tube of eye cream onto her toothbrush. Good grief, she hadn’t been this distracted over a kiss since high school.

  Shaking her head at her dreamy-eyed reflection, she told herself to get it together. This was a serious overreaction to a sweet, simple kiss. It had been a friendly gesture, possibly even a joke. Had they ever decided if the evening was actually a date?

  She slid into the soft oversize T-shirt she wore as a nightgown and flopped into bed. Snuggling under the covers, she closed her eyes and remembered David’s face. His tender lips. His masculine scent. His deep laughter.

  Who was she kidding? She wasn’t going to get any sleep without drastic action. Sitting up, she plumped the pillows and flipped on the bedside lamp. Picking up the medical journal she’d left on her nightstand, she started reading. Surely research stats and control groups would have her snoozing in no time.

  The magazine slipped from her relaxed fingers as she started to doze until a sound brought her wide-awake. She clutched the magazine tight and tried to pinpoint the source as she waited to hear it again, praying she was wrong.

  She wasn’t. The hinges on the screen door at the back of the house whined again. Her heart raced. Someone was trying to get inside her
house.

  Before she could decide on a weapon, a firm knock echoed through the house. She swallowed back the surge of fear, knowing it was natural. Living alone rarely bothered her, but then again, no one had ever knocked on her door at this hour. She grabbed the handset for the landline, a holdover habit from her parents, and tiptoed down the stairs in the dark. She peered around the corner as another knock rattled the hinges. She’d already dialed 9 and 1 when the person outside called out.

  “Come on, Terri. Wake up already.”

  Trey’s voice. Her brother was back! Shock was quickly followed by relief, with anger running a close third. Her mind and body couldn’t agree on what to do first. She turned off the phone and hurried through the kitchen, flipping on the light. The tile was cold under her bare feet as she approached the door, giving chilly reassurance this wasn’t some strange dream or terrible nightmare.

  “It’s me, Terri!” Trey called through the door. “Let me in.”

  On a silent prayer of gratitude, she unlocked the door and jumped back as Trey rushed inside. He threw his arms around her and gave her a rib-crushing hug. Patting his shoulder awkwardly, she wondered where to begin.

  “You’re alive.” She stepped back and stared at him. “You’re alive...” She repeated the obvious while she cataloged the changes. His skin was tanned to a golden glow, reminding her of the summers he’d worked as a lifeguard at the water park. He seemed taller, which she supposed was possible, though it probably had more to do with his straight posture and clearly improved fitness. When they’d moved him into college, he was on the skinny side of healthy. Now he’d filled out, looking more like a man in his prime. “Did you join the military?”

  “Like they’d take me,” he said with a dry laugh. He shrugged off his backpack and dropped it by the door. Moving past her, he opened a cabinet and pulled out a drinking glass.

  It was the laughter and his familiarity with the kitchen that snapped her out of the relieved haze and had her temper flaring. She closed and locked the door, giving herself a moment to grab back control. Didn’t work. “Where the hell have you been?”