Without Warning

by Lynette Eason

  Katie pressed a palm against her forehead and thought. She was on the schedule to teach today. Even though she had planned to be on vacation this week, she hadn’t bothered to change her class schedule since she was going to be in town. Circumstances had changed, though. She could either cancel the class or have Olivia teach it. She picked up her phone to send a text and noticed the three missed calls. All from the same number.

  “My cabinets.”

  Riley blinked. “Huh?”

  “I’m redoing my kitchen. My new cabinets were supposed to be delivered this morning and in all the craziness I forgot and missed their calls.” She’d turned her phone on silent since she knew Haley was on duty. She sighed and dialed her neighbor, a widow, who had made it her mission in life to watch out for Katie. A fact Katie appreciated most of the time. “Hi, Mrs. Worth, how are you today?”

  “Fine, dear.”

  “Did you happen to notice a delivery truck pull up at my house this morning around ten o’clock?”

  “Yes indeed.”

  “I’m on a job and forgot about them. I had my phone on silent and slept through their calls.”

  “No worries, darling. I let them in with the key you left me. You now have a kitchen full of cabinets waiting to be put up.” Which Quinn and Bree and a couple of other handy friends had planned to help her with. Only Quinn was now out of the picture and quite possibly Bree as well, depending on how things were going with her family. “Thank you so much. That’s a relief.”

  “My pleasure. I also fed Backdraft for you and cleaned his litter box.”

  “Mrs. Worth, I simply don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re the best.”

  The woman laughed, a hearty chuckle that expressed her pleasure with Katie’s sentiment. “You know I don’t mind. It’s not like I have anything else to do, so I rather enjoy looking after you. Oh, I almost forgot.”

  “What?”

  “While they were delivering your cabinets, there was someone in your backyard. I asked him if he was a friend of yours, and he said no, he was with a landscaping company and you’d asked him to come by to take a look at your yard.”

  Katie frowned and straightened. “Really? Can you describe him to me?”

  “Oh, tall, slender build. He had longish blond hair pulled back in a short ponytail. Lots of grease on that hair, but he smelled good. I liked his cologne. Needed a good shampoo, though. He had on some black-framed glasses that made him look rather nerdy. I wanted to tell him he could probably find a more flattering pair, but I restrained myself.”

  Katie’s frown deepened. It didn’t sound like anyone she knew and she certainly hadn’t contacted any landscaping company. She planned to do the yardwork herself. One day. “Did you get the name of the landscape company?”

  “No, I don’t recall seeing it. I just noticed he drove a brown truck.”

  “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Is there anything else I can do for you, dear?”

  “No, Mrs. Worth. Thank you so much. I really appreciate everything. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

  “All right then. Have a good day.”

  “You too,” Katie said and hung up. She stared at the table, thinking. She hadn’t hired anyone from a landscaping company, but that didn’t mean someone in her neighborhood hadn’t. Could the company have simply gotten the wrong address? If she had the name of the company, she could call them, but . . . she didn’t.

  “Anything wrong?”

  Katie jumped. She’d almost forgotten about Riley, who sat so quietly. “No . . . um . . . at least I don’t think so.” She smiled. “It’s probably nothing.” But she’d be keeping a close eye on her home and her weapon even closer. She sent a text to Olivia asking if she could teach the class. Olivia responded with a “sure” and Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could concentrate on keeping Daniel safe.

  “Morning.”

  She turned to find the man standing in the doorway. He had on a black T-shirt and faded blue jeans. His hair was still wet from the shower, his feet were bare, and he just plain looked good. If a bit cranky and tired. She cleared her throat. “I think you mean ‘Afternoon,’ but how’d you sleep?”

  “Not great. How about you?”

  “Better than I thought I would. Coffee?”

  “Of course.” He poured himself a cup, grabbed two more ibuprofen from the bottle on the counter, and settled into the chair beside her. His presence made the room seem smaller, the air thinner. She sucked in a deep breath and couldn’t help remembering the kiss. That amazing, toe-curling kiss. “Nightmares?”

  He grunted. “Yeah. A few.”

  Riley frowned at him. “You haven’t had a nightmare in a while.”

  “I know. I’m sure the recent events have triggered them.” His niece chewed her lip and Daniel covered her hand with his. “Now don’t go getting all mother-henny on me. I’ll be fine.”

  “Mother-henny?” Riley snorted. “Is that even a . . . thing?”

  Daniel scowled at her. “You know what I mean.”

  She snickered and stood. “I do. But I also have schoolwork that I need to make up, so I’ll see you two later.” She paused. “I also told my family that I work for that I needed a leave of absence effective immediately. If I need a bodyguard, I don’t need to be around the girls. After I explained the situation, their mom agreed. She’d seen the news and had been considering asking that I step down from the job for the time being anyway, so it all worked out.”

  Daniel grimaced. “Aw, Prin—honey, I’m sorry.”

  Riley shrugged. “I am too, but it is what it is right now.” She rubbed her nose. “You think I’ll be all right working with Martin? Not so much that I’ll be safe, but that he and the others around him will be?”

  “Martin has security on site. I think everyone will be just fine.”

  She nodded. “Good. I really didn’t want to have to make up that internship.” She blew out a low breath. “Although I’m considering that I probably should have gone to Mexico instead.” Her phone buzzed and she pulled it from the waistband of her pajama bottoms. Her brow lifted and her cheeks reddened. “Then again, maybe not.” Without looking back, she left the kitchen and headed toward her room.

  Daniel shook his head. “What was that all about?”

  “A boy.”

  “Huh?”

  Katie snickered. “Oh me.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Look, let’s—”

  This time it was her phone. “It’s Bree.”

  “Put it on speaker.”

  Katie placed the device in the middle of the table and pressed the speaker button. “Hi, Bree, what’s up and how’s Quinn this morning?”

  “Hi, Quinn’s doing well. He’s awake and biting heads off.”

  Katie let out a relieved sigh. “Oh good.”

  “Yeah. Maddy’s still with him, so I think he’s controlling himself a bit more than usual.”

  “How long does the doc say for the healing process?”

  “A couple of months for sure. Physical therapy after that.”

  She grimaced and saw the flash of guilt cross Daniel’s face. “All good stuff. It means he’ll recover.”

  “Indeed.” Katie heard papers shuffling in the background. “Okay, we got the autopsy back on Armstrong. He died of a broken neck. Looks like he was knocked out from behind, fell forward, and broke his nose when he crashed into the asphalt. Then someone broke his neck while he was either unconscious or too stunned to fight back.”

  Katie swallowed and looked at Daniel, who rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What else?” he asked.

  “We talked to several employees who all knew the code to the restaurant. We also talked to the ones Daniel said had keys. So far they all have pretty airtight alibis. There are a couple we’re running down, but so far nothing’s causing us too much concern.”

  “What about past employees?” Katie asked.

  Daniel shook his head, t
hen spoke for Bree’s benefit. “No, anytime I’ve had an employee leave, I always get back my key and then change the code to the alarm.” He rubbed his chin. “And before you ask, the keys all have the ‘Do Not Copy’ symbol on them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be copied. So if an employee decided to share, it’s not impossible that someone who doesn’t work for me has a key.”

  Bree’s sigh came through the line. “We’ll keep searching, but I’m afraid we’re heading for a dead end.”

  “Anything on Billy Kendall or his brother, Lee?” Katie asked.

  “Billy Kendall is still in prison. He’s up for probation in a couple of years, so he’s not a threat.”

  “What about his brother?” Katie asked.

  “Now he’s an interesting character. Lee Kendall was an exemplary employee with a local car dealership. He’s a mechanic and well-liked by his co-workers.”

  “So what’s so interesting about that?”

  “Every fourth Saturday of the month, he visits Billy in prison. One of Lee’s co-workers said that Lee thought Billy got a raw deal and that the sentence was too severe. He said Billy was in a blind rage and didn’t know what he was doing.”

  “So Lee agrees? We should just forgive and forget because his brother didn’t know what he was doing? We should let a murderer walk the streets again?” Daniel asked.

  “According to the co-worker, Lee wasn’t so sure about everything, but that he felt obligated to visit his brother,” Bree answered. “I’m just passing on information. Anyway, also according to said co-worker, Billy has been after Lee to be his ‘angel of vengeance’ or some such thing.”

  Katie lifted a brow at Daniel and he frowned. “Meaning, Billy wants Lee to take me out. Yeah, I kind of figured that out after I confronted him when he was harassing me, remember?”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t just want you dead, he wants to destroy you and everything you hold dear.” She paused.

  “I see. What else?” Daniel asked.

  “I went to visit Billy in prison. I asked to see his cell and one of the guards took me back there. Billy is quite the accomplished artist. He’s good. I mean seriously good.”

  “Okay,” Katie said. “And?”

  “He’s got the walls papered with drawings of avenging angels. There’s one with a knife stabbed into the throat of a man that looks a whole lot like you, Daniel.”

  Daniel leaned back in his chair. “Nice.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “So pick up Lee and question him,” Katie said.

  “Well, we would if we could find him. He hasn’t been to work since the day before the fire and no one’s been able to make contact with him. We’ve checked his apartment that he shares with another mechanic, but the man said he hasn’t seen him either. He said he was getting ready to report him missing when we showed up.”

  This time it was Katie’s turn to draw in a deep breath. “Okay then. Sounds like we might have a real winner here.”

  “Sounds like. We’ll keep looking for him and you two keep looking over your shoulders.”

  Katie disconnected the call and took another sip of her coffee. “What are your plans for the day?”

  “To survive it.”

  “Hmm. I like that plan. Anything else?”

  “I need to catch up on some paperwork with the restaurant. I think I’m going to shut myself in my office and work. As long as I know Riley’s all right, I’ll be able to get some work done.”

  “Didn’t look like she was planning on going anywhere. I did get Olivia to take the self-defense class so she may want to do that.”

  He sighed. “I’ll ask her. What are your plans?”

  “I’m going to visit Quinn.”

  “He won’t appreciate you seeing him in his weakened state. He couldn’t wait for us to get out of his room last night.”

  “I know.”

  “Give him my best.”

  “Of course.”

  [16]

  Wednesday morning

  Tuesday afternoon had been productive, and Daniel felt satisfied with the work he’d accomplished, although his concentration level hadn’t been up to par. His headache had eased, though, so that was a relief.

  He had his new computer and had needed to get some more things done today. If he’d tried to work with Katie in the room, he was afraid he’d be too distracted. So he shut himself away in his office and it worked. He was able to concentrate and get everything loaded from his backup drive onto the new device.

  No one had bombed his house or set fire to his car or done anything to any of his other restaurants. Could the person be finished tormenting him?

  He grimaced. He had a feeling the answer was no. But what did the person want? What was the point with all of the craziness? Who would benefit with him dead? The only people who came to mind were Riley and his mother. They would inherit everything. But he was certain neither of them were behind the attempts on his life. He stood and gazed out of the window. He’d awakened early with these thoughts refusing to leave him alone. Even a swim hadn’t helped much.

  His mind kept circling back to the question. Why had Armstrong been at the restaurant that night?

  He had no answer. The man’s daughter hadn’t known, and Armstrong’s mother hadn’t even realized her son wasn’t home. And none of the employees had been forthcoming with any information as to why the man would have been there.

  And now Daniel had a nagging headache, sore muscles and joints. And he hadn’t seen Katie since she’d walked out of his house yesterday afternoon to go visit Quinn.

  Haley had arrived just before Katie left and had been there ever since. She stayed tense. Alert. Ready for action if the moment called for it. And he appreciated it. Admired her for it.

  “You would make a good Marine,” he told her.

  A smile creased her cheeks. A real one, not one of those fake ones people used when they thought they were supposed to be amused with something they really didn’t find funny. “Thanks.”

  His phone pinged and he glanced at it. A text from Riley, who’d left with Lizzie at the crack of dawn.

  At the dig. Martin hasn’t shown up yet. People are wondering where he is. Can you check on him?

  You call him?

  Yes. Like ten times. No answer, just voice mail.

  I’ll try him. Stay near your phone.

  Daniel frowned and dialed Martin’s number. It rang four times, then went to voice mail. “Martin, you okay? Riley said you haven’t shown up to the dig yet. Call me.”

  He texted Riley.

  I’m headed to Martin’s house. Will let you know what I know when I know it.

  The knock on his door brought his head up. At the motion, dizziness spun his head for a brief second, and he gritted his teeth while he waited for it to pass. Haley walked on silent feet to check who was on the other side. “It’s Katie.”

  His heart thudded and he grunted. Those two little words had shifted his entire mood. For the better.

  Haley let Katie in. When she stepped inside, she took off her coat and hung it on the rack to her right. “I wish it would snow later.”

  “Riley would love that.”

  “Not so much if she has to work the dig site in it. But it’s October. I can’t remember the last time it snowed in October. She’s probably safe.”

  He smiled. “True.”

  Haley picked up her coat and bag. “I’m off for a bit of shut-eye then. Call if you need me.”

  “Thanks. You’re off for the rest of the day. We’ll trade out tomorrow morning.”

  “Lovely. Bye, Daniel. Behave yourself.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Haley pulled the door shut behind her and that left Daniel staring at the woman who’d just blasted into his life and knocked his feet out from under him. “Put your coat back on, will you?”

  She paused. “Okay. What’s up?”

  “I need to make a house call. Riley texted and said Martin hasn’t shown up at the dig. He’s not answ
ering his phone and no one at the university has heard from him.”

  Katie slipped her arms back into the heavy coat, then waited on him to get his. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  “Yes. I’ve got a hard head. I get a bit dizzy if I turn too fast and I still have a slight headache. I’ve had worse.”

  He grabbed his keys and she reached for his hand and closed her fingers around his. Her hands were still cold from the chill outside. “I’ll drive.”

  He sighed, then gave in. “Sure.” Why fight her? “You’re a control freak, you know that?” He shoved his keys into his pocket and she led the way outside. He climbed into her Jeep and she slid into the driver’s side and twisted the key. The vehicle rumbled to life and they rolled out of the driveway.

  “I’m not a control freak.”

  “Yes. You are.”

  She shot him a sideways glance. “Maybe a little.”

  “A lot.”

  “And you’re stubborn.”

  “I would agree with that.”

  She huffed and shook her head, but he could see the small smile playing around the corners of her lips. “Do you mind giving me directions?”

  “Head toward the university. He lives on Joshua Street.”

  She followed his directions. He noticed her eyes bouncing from mirror to mirror. “We’re not being followed.”

  “I know.”

  “Not very talkative this morning, are you?”

  “No, not very.”

  “In a bad mood?”

  “No.”

  “How’s Quinn?”

  “Cranky. Ornery. Rude.”

  “Sounds like he’s on the road to recovery.”

  She laughed. “Yes. That’s for sure.” She drove in silence for the next few minutes.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem . . . off.”

  She pursed her lips and glanced at him. “And you’re perceptive. But yes, I promise I’m all right. I’m just . . . reflective, I guess is the word.”

  “About?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “Family stuff. Trying to figure out some things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like how to let go of the past.” Her smile was sad this time. She pulled to a stop in front of Martin’s home and lifted a brow. “And we’ll save that topic for later.”