by Jodie Bailey
Even if she was one of the bad guys, she deserved justice, not to be cut down in the plumbing aisle of a home improvement store.
“A box cutter would make sense. Easy to grab in the store and it wouldn’t look out of place if our guy was carrying it around. We’ll get access to surveillance footage. There could be a clue here that blows this whole thing wide-open.”
Leaning forward, Trey rested his elbows on his knees. He held the phone tight against his ear with one hand and kneaded the tension in his neck with the other. “Why the sudden activity? What’s changed? That’s what I don’t get. We have all of these pieces that say Macey is involved, but no concrete evidence she ever handed over any intel or took any money. Now, suddenly, someone has escalated to invading her home and direct physical assault? It’s not adding up. Especially when all they took from the house was the photo of Frye that was in Olivia’s room. Macey’s room was untouched. If she was the target...” He exhaled loudly. “I just don’t know what to think anymore, sir.”
“Where are you?”
Pushing straight again, Trey glanced around to make sure no one had wandered within earshot. “Outside the ER.”
Silence stretched long over the phone line. There was a light tapping, as though Harrison had picked up a pencil and was letting the eraser repeatedly hit the table. It was a move Trey had seen often when the man had something on his mind. “When was the last time you were in a hospital? Or even near a hospital?”
Trey didn’t need to respond. The captain already knew the answer to that question.
“Blackburn, you’re not the same man you used to be. Sooner or later you’re going to have to trust that’s true.”
Trust. Funny word, that one. “I get it. All of that new creation stuff in Corinthians.” Captain Harrison had preached it to him time and again. He was different, no longer who he used to be. It was all true. Trey trusted Jesus. The problem was—
“You don’t trust yourself.”
“And there you go, reading my mind again.” Trey shook his head, trying to throw off the memories. A horrible night with horrible consequences that should have ended his miserable life. Except he was still here, the very definition of a second chance.
A second chance with a job to do, even though the next part of his plan made him nauseous. “Listen, back to the job at hand. I have an idea.”
“You sound like that idea involves you eating rotted earthworms.”
He hadn’t meant for his repulsion to show up in his voice. Sometimes, Captain Harrison was too intuitive. It made him the best investigator Trey had ever met, but that same trait made it really hard to work with him.
Trey took a deep breath and charged forward. “There’s an issue with Macey’s security system. It’s either not being armed or these guys have found a way to remotely disarm it.” He slowed, thinking. “That would make no sense because it’s a closed system. There’s no access from the outside.” He’d have to look into that. “Anyway. The system is run by a laptop that is hardwired in when changes need to be made. That laptop has no connectivity. The kicker is, it belonged to Olivia.”
“Can you get access to that machine?” The commander’s voice pitched up. He smelled the same thing Trey did. The scent of answers. Of a trail that might not be as cold as they’d thought.
“I can get the password from Macey, tell her I want to dig into the system to see if I can figure out what’s going on with the alarm. If she says yes, that will give me not only the password but consent to do some searching.”
“That makes anything you find there admissible.” Something scraped against the phone, and Trey knew the commander was rubbing his cheek, another thinking tic of his. “It will also tell you a lot about her level of guilt, too. If she holds that laptop close, it’s a point against her, but if she gives up that password easily...”
Then it might be considered further evidence that she had nothing to hide. That would only leave Trey more uncertain about who Macey was and what game, if any, she was playing.
* * *
Every muscle in her body hurt.
Macey shifted on the horribly uncomfortable hospital bed and tried to push up taller to relieve some of the pinching pain in her side, but her mother’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
With a wry smile, her mother pressed the button to raise the head of the bed slightly. “Better?” For the moment, Tiffany Price was the dutiful, attentive mother, but no doubt that would soon pass now that Macey was about to be released.
Macey would take what she could get. “Yeah. But if it hurts this much numbed from them sewing it all back together, how much is it going to hurt later?”
Maybe if she focused on the dozen stitches in her side, she’d forget how the wound got there in the first place. While the cut wasn’t life-threatening, it was deep enough to merit stitches and IV antibiotics. And the fact she’d fainted was enough to run her through a battery of tests and to hold her in the ER hooked up to monitors that pumped faster every time she thought about hot breath on her cheek and terrifying weight against her back.
Sure enough, the numbers started to climb.
Her mother stood. “Do you want me to call the doctor?”
Oh, she’d love that, wouldn’t she? Creating a little bit of excitement because her daughter wasn’t recovering quickly? Provide a little drama to the waiting? It’d be nice if she’d just offer her daughter a hug or even a pat on the head.
Yeah, her mother wouldn’t do any of that. It was useless to complain. Macey sighed. “Just find out how it is that the same person who had her house broken into gets mugged in the same twenty-four hours. Then make it stop.”
A male voice from the door pinged the heart rate monitor higher, but it wasn’t Trey. “Not your day, is it?”
Macey tried to tamp down the disappointment at the sight of a uniformed police officer. She managed to dig her voice up, but not before wondering why Trey wasn’t there. “Not at all.” She waved the officer in and spent the next ten minutes answering his questions about the attack, fighting to stay calm while recalling details she’d rather forget.
Her mother pulled out her phone and slipped away during the conversation, probably catching up on her messages. Why should she stay and support her daughter?
The police officer wrapped up, handed her a business card and left as quickly as he’d arrived.
Macey laid her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes. Why couldn’t they just let her go home? Surely she’d be more comfortable there, right? Less afraid. Less—
“Feeling any better?”
This time, the male voice was definitely familiar. Definitely Trey’s. And it definitely flooded her system with something she could only call relief. Safety. The same things she was wishing she could find at home.
Macey eased one eye open and refused to think about all of those things her brain wanted her to think.
In the doorway, Trey stood with his hands shoved into his pockets, looking at her with an uncertainty he’d never shown before, almost as though he didn’t belong. Did he not realize he had become her closest friend? That he was as welcome here as her mother? In fact, he was probably more welcome.
Macey could tell him that and ease some of his obvious discomfort, but it was a high possibility that pain meds and emotional overload were making her sappy and weepy. “You gonna stand there and stare at me or do you want to come in?”
He flashed her a smile that looked slightly more normal and stepped into the room. “Your mom said it was okay to come back.”
Macey laughed, then winced when her side protested. She dropped the mirth to a chuckle. “Sounds like we’re kids and Mom said I could come outside to play.”
Dropping to the edge of the chair by her bed, Trey offered another weak grin. “I guess so. Have they said when you can head home?”
“As soon as they’re convinced I’
m not going to pass out again. They’ve run all kinds of unnecessary tests, but I don’t think they plan to admit me.” Oh, how she hoped not. After several hours in this hospital bed, she was done.
Trey sat with his elbows braced on his knees, studying his clasped hands.
Macey eased herself up on her elbows. He actually looked a little pale. “Are you okay? Do you need to trade places with me?”
“Huh?” When he lifted his head, it was to stare at the wall in front of him. “No. I just...” He shrugged. “I just don’t like hospitals.”
“Yet you’re here.”
“It’s you.” He turned slightly and his blue eyes caught hers. “Where else would I be?”
The way her heart jolted at the simple words almost made her gasp. Boy, he’d better not be getting an eyeful of the monitor right now. Surely he hadn’t meant that the way it sounded. “I... Thank you.” His concern was warmth to her battered body. Someone actually did care. Someone actually looked at her and saw her, not only what she could do for them. The realization brought a prickle behind her eyes, but she blinked it away.
“So.” Trey slapped his hands onto his knees and stood, walking over to study the board that held information about her nurses and her status. “Your mom said you got stitches?”
“She talked to you?”
“She’s the one who sent me back here.” Trey turned to face her. “She cares in her own way.”
Trey had known her mother for such a short time. He had no idea what growing up alone while her mother did her own thing was really like.
It was better not to talk about that right now, though. “Yes, I got stitches. A dozen of them. Where they are shouldn’t keep me from working, though. It wasn’t deep, just in a tough spot to heal. No muscle involvement, so I’m good. Police said it was a box cutter from the store, probably a crime of opportunity. Lucky me.”
The look on Trey’s face said he knew she was avoiding his comment about her mother, but he seemed to think better of pushing it. “Yeah, it’s a little odd you’d get hit twice in two days. Kind of makes you want to hide at home, huh?”
Except her home had been a target already. She pulled the blanket closer to her chin, suddenly chilled. “Honestly, it makes me wonder if anywhere’s really safe.” She muttered the words, but the way Trey’s back and shoulders stiffened, there was no doubt he’d heard.
“Look, I’m willing to bunk on your couch or even in the guest room at your house if it makes you feel better. I mean, for a day or two. Or whatever you need.” He still studied the board as if it held all of the answers to life’s questions. The hair on the back of his head was rumpled, as though he’d been rubbing his hand over it the way she’d seen him do during hockey games when the Blues were down and time was getting tight.
He was anxious. Tense. Nervous.
Because of her.
Macey didn’t even want to analyze what that might mean. He was Trey. Her neighbor. Her friend. The guy who had never made a single romantic overture or even hinted at wanting anything more. There was no sense developing some lopsided crush on him just because he’d been her knight in shining armor twice in two days. Just because he cared. That was silly elementary-school behavior. And besides, she’d seen how relationships worked. She’d seen the way her mother treated hers. Used them until the new wore off and then threw them away.
Well, Macey refused to be discarded. “You don’t have to stay at my house. I’ll be fine.” It was easy to say that in a brightly lit and bustling hospital ER. Probably, when the sun went down and the darkness descended, what little bit of bravado she had left would fade with the dying light.
Still, Trey couldn’t put his life on hold for her.
“Let me do something.” He finally faced her, but he stared at something just to her right. “I feel like this is my fault. Like I need to make up for it. Like if I hadn’t left you alone, then the guy who did this to you wouldn’t have had the—”
“Like you knew some freak show was going to mug me in the plumbing department. What are the odds?”
“What makes you think it was a mugging?”
“He asked me ‘where is it,’ like he wanted my wallet. What else would it be?” A wash of cold fear froze her lungs and raced down her spine. “You don’t... I mean... Last night...” Surely not. Surely. Not. The two incidents couldn’t be related. “I’ve got nothing anybody would want. Nothing they would look for in my house or would cut me to get. Nothing. You don’t think this is about me personally, right?” Say no. Say I can safely go home because all of this is one big awful coincidence.
Trey walked over and picked up her hand, twining his fingers through hers. He rested his other hand on top, warm and oddly comforting. “You’re okay. You’re safe. I mean, what could you possibly have done to make someone come after you?”
Truth brought a fragile measure of peace. He was right. “Unless someone is seriously unhappy with the exercises I made them do in physical therapy, nothing.” She pulled her fingers from his grip, the feeling all too electric and all too much something she didn’t want to end.
Trey rested his hands on the bed rail. “I’ve been through PT. There were times...” This time his grin was genuine, but it faded quickly. “Your mom’s going to want to come back here, and they’re only allowing one visitor at a time right now. Want me to go and check on Kito in case you’re here for a while?”
Kito. How could she forget her dog? He’d likely torn the house apart in a frantic need to get outside. “Yeah, he probably needs to go out. We’ve been gone awhile. You can get my key from Mom. I think she has my things in her purse.” Hopefully, she hadn’t up and left the hospital already.
“Anything else I can do?”
“You didn’t happen to buy that door, did you?” She sure could use some levity about now, some restoration in the balance of their friendship. Something that didn’t tilt dangerously toward her wanting him to lean down and kiss her.
Why would she want that?
Pain meds. Surely it was pain meds. Although, she was fairly certain they’d only given her Tylenol.
This time his smile was genuine. “I bought it online, and they’re delivering it in a couple of hours. You’re a top customer-service priority to them after what happened.” He held up a hand to stop her from speaking. “Don’t say a word about paying me back. We can deal with that another time. I just want you to have a door tonight, okay?”
She knew better than to argue with that look. “Okay.”
“And speaking of doors, your alarm has me concerned.”
Her, too. It was odd it hadn’t gone off the day before or this morning when Trey opened the door. “Like I said, maybe I deactivated something in the system. I can check later.”
“Or I can hang out at your house and take a look while I’m waiting for the door to be delivered. I’m not so bad with computer stuff.”
Since she had no idea what she’d done to disable the system in the first place, it couldn’t hurt to have somebody else see if they could figure it out. If it made her house more secure, that would be a bonus. “Sure. It’s that laptop I pulled out earlier, the one that runs the alarm exclusively. It probably needs to be charged, though.”
He nodded once. “Password?”
She winced. Maybe she should have chosen a more grown-up one after Olivia set the first one, but it had been a long-standing running joke between them. “It’s from a movie.”
“Okay?” Trey’s eyebrow arched in what might be amusement. He’d probably already guessed which one.
“Inigo Montoya.” She looked him dead in the eye and dared him to laugh.
“I knew it. From The Princess Bride? That movie you’ve made me watch a thousand times?” The tight lines in his face said he was trying not to laugh. “And you spell that how?”
Biting back her own smile, Macey spelled the words Olivia had lau
ghingly created as her password. “And don’t forget to capitalize Inigo and Montoya.”
“No numbers? No punctuation marks?”
“Nope. And it’s all one word, no space. Olivia was all about the funny on that one. I guess she figured the laptop didn’t need to be all that secure since it never left the house.”
Trey’s forehead creased and he started to say something but then backed toward the door. “I’ll go take care of Kito and see if I can fix the alarm. I’m sure your mom’s ready to come in again.” With a nod, he was gone as quickly as he’d appeared.
Macey listened to the sound of his footsteps fading. Something was wrong with him, and it went past not liking hospitals.
And something was definitely wrong with her, at the way her heart fell as he walked away.
SEVEN
Shutting the door behind him, Trey surveyed the living room, dining room and kitchen of Macey’s house. The back door was still barricaded where he’d reinforced the boards before they’d left. Nothing appeared to have been touched in their absence.
No, today the target hadn’t been the house. It had been Macey. A direct assault he should have seen coming.
Kito bounded in from his bed in Macey’s room and started talking in typical husky howls and whines. Yep. The dog definitely needed to go out. Trey walked him out the front door and through the gate into the backyard and then went back inside. He shut the front door behind him and locked both locks, then walked into the kitchen to secure the dead bolt to the garage. The longer it took Macey to get in if he wasn’t finished investigating by the time she came home, the more time he’d have to look innocent when she arrived.