by Dale Mayer
But it gave her new understanding of the process, the feelings of violation, even the questions that seemed more like an interrogation. As if she were lying.
She hated that.
Still, it didn’t take as long as she expected. Back outside she was asked to sit on the bench while Chase was called in to a different room. Apparently the DA was here for a separate case but wanted to speak with him. She worried on her bottom lip, wondering how long he was going to be. She checked her phone several times. It seemed like he’d been in there for hours already. Finally she heard her name called. She looked up to see Chase standing at an open door with his hand out for her. She raced to his side and slipped her hand into his.
“Are you done? Can we go home now?”
“Not quite.” He looked back at the person inside the room and said, “We’re printing off material right now. It’s going to take a little bit, but I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Can I come in there with you,” she asked quietly, her gaze looking around the noisy station. She could see and hear a lot of what went on, and it was disturbing in so many ways.
Particularly when Chase was in a private room out of sight.
“Sure.” He motioned her into the room and quickly introduced her to the district attorney who’d be handling Gregory’s case. They had a small boardroom to themselves, and it was much more comfortable than out in the station. She sat quietly in the corner while the men went over the paperwork. And there was a lot of it.
Finally he was done and Chase stood again. She’d spent the whole time just listening as the bits and pieces of his life were exposed. It wasn’t very pleasant to hear the details of how Gregory had terrorized the town where Chase grew up.
She felt so sorry for him, for what he’d been through, but at the same time, hearing, seeing this was a gift. It helped her understand who he was now, and how he’d become this man he was today.
She understood the young terrorized boy he’d been. She’d been there in a minor way. It had taken a lot of guts for him to even collect this information. That he’d hung onto it for as long as he had took forethought and some idea of reckoning day down the road. She could understand him not doing anything with this material for all his past years he was in the military as that was a completely different life and probably seemed so far removed from that boy he had been. But Gregory had brought this to his table. And Chase was never going to be somebody who walked away from a fight.
Instead he’d stand up and say bring it.
*
Chase quickly texted Mason to say he was done. “I’m sorry, Vanessa, that took a lot longer than I expected.”
“Longer than I expected too,” she said with a smile. “But it had to be done.”
They walked out into the gloomy light to realize it was later than they thought and there was a coolness to the air.
“Where do you want to go now?”’
“Honestly, I’m starved.” She looked around, rubbing her bare arms. “What about your friends? Are they still around?”
Chase wrapped an arm around her shoulder as if he could help ward off the chill and led her back to her car. Unlocking the door for her, he waited until she got in and buckled up then walked around to the driver’s side. As he clipped his seat belt in, he said, “The guys are still around. They’ve been taking shifts watching the building to make sure nobody would try to stop me from turning over the evidence.”
“Is it over then? Or are you going to have to go in and testify?”
“The DA wants me to testify so I’ll be called as a witness.”
She nodded, clasped his hand and said, “You’re doing the right thing.”
He tossed her a grin and turned on the engine. He pulled away from the curb and into traffic. Given the lateness of the hour the traffic was light. “Do you want to pick up something to take back to Brett’s house or would you like to go out for a meal?”
“Whichever is fastest,” she admitted.
He made a couple of right-hand turns to take them out of the downtown core and back toward Brett’s house and noticed there was a small car making the same turns. He picked up his phone and quickly texted Markus. His phone buzzed. He grabbed it and checked Markus’s response. On it.
He tossed the phone back down and headed toward a popular pasta restaurant.
He could go for deep dish lasagna. He made several more turns on the way to the restaurant, always trying to keep an eye on the vehicle. He deliberately didn’t shake off the tail, but it was starting to piss him off.
“Is the car following us?” Vanessa asked in a small voice.
“Yes,” Chase said. “But Markus is following it.”
“Oh.” She laughed. “I forgot we’re not alone.”
Another few minutes and Chase pulled into the lot of the popular dining place. After driving slowly around to find a location where he could get out fast and easily, he parked. “Is this okay?”
“It’s perfect.” She opened her car door and as she went to step out, the windshield exploded. Chase swore, grabbed her and shoved her down into the foot well.
“Stay down,” he said as he crawled through the broken glass on the passenger seat to the far side. He had no weapon on him and was pinned by a sniper. Not a good scene. The parking lot was mostly empty, being late for business and early for dinner. Had anybody inside heard the shot?
“That was my car,” she cried out in a hard whisper. “I need it to get to work.”
He patted her shoulder, his gaze scanning the area. “We’ll get it fixed.” He didn’t bring up the fact that the bullet could have done a lot more damage than to a windshield.
“Not fast enough,” she snapped, anger filling her voice.
The anger was good at deflecting the real emotion inside which was fear. He could hear footsteps racing across the parking lot toward them at the same time he heard Hawk’s cry overhead.
“Chase, you okay?” That was Markus.
Chase called back in low tones, “We’re both fine.” He peered over the back of the vehicle to see Markus coming up on the right and ducking down behind the back. “Hawk and Shadow have gone looking for him.”
In the distance they heard the squeal of tires as a vehicle took off into the night.
Chase stood up carefully. “There he went.” He stared at the lights disappearing in the distance. “Damn. This shit got serious fast.”
Chapter 14
“I should think this is serious shit,” Vanessa exclaimed thinking about Chase’s earlier comment. Vanessa clambered out of the car, carefully shook out her clothing then she bent and gave her head a good shake. “I can’t imagine it getting any more serious than this. Unless one of those many bullets flying around actually hits me or you.” She poked Chase in the chest. “One of these times they aren’t going to miss.”
“And you can be damn glad they aren’t military men. Because they wouldn’t miss in the first place. This is just punk ass gang members who cut their teeth on guns,” Markus said behind her.
“They are usually very good shots though.” Chase shook his head. “I’ve handed over all the information I can, there is nothing else to do but stay out of sight until trial.”
“Staying low hasn’t done us any good so far.” Vanessa turned to look around at the parking lot. “We need a tow truck.”
She hated to not have wheels for work tomorrow, although she was going to have to call in sick anyway. And she really didn’t want to. She also knew Amrit and Peter would worry if she wasn’t available. She’d have to call and let them know she’d be out of the office for a while. She turned to Markus. “Is someone looking out for Peter and Amrit? If these assholes have tailed us this whole time, what’s to say they didn’t go back and attack that poor family?”
Markus held up a cell phone. “Cooper has been on guard duty all day. Nobody has gone into the apartment at all.”
Vanessa’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Okay, thank God. This business is making me c
razy.”
Into the silence of the night her stomach growled. She wrapped her arms around her chest. “Sorry. I really am hungry.”
“We have to wait here for the tow truck anyway,” Chase said. “Why not order to go and we can take it home with us?”
She chewed on her bottom lip. She’d loved the idea of a nice evening out with Chase but it hadn’t exactly turned out the way she’d hoped. Now she felt vulnerable. Exposed. She wanted to go home where they were safe. And that just brought up another fear. “Is it going to be safe at Brett’s house?”
Both Markus and Chase nodded.
“They have no way to know where you are staying,” Markus said. “And I’ll be following you and somebody else will be following us to make sure there’s no one else tracking you.”
“Okay.” Her breath gushed out with a whoosh. “I’m going to go into the restaurant to order and when I come back out there will hopefully be a tow truck here taking care of my car,” she said in a very careful voice. “Afterwards you or someone else from your unit can drive us to Brett’s house where I can eat. Then go to bed.” She was already backing up toward the front door of the restaurant. “Does that work for you guys?” They both nodded silently. “Good because that’s what I’m going to do regardless.”
She gave a narrow-eyed look daring them to argue then turned and walked inside. The hostess greeted her as soon as she entered the warm atmosphere where lively music played quietly in the background.
Vanessa smiled, hating to see her fingers trembling. She shoved them into her pockets and gave the hostess a confident smile. “Could I have a menu, please? I’d like to place an order for take out.”
“Certainly, but it’s lovely in the restaurant if you’d like to sit in and enjoy,” the hostess offered.
It must’ve been a slow night if they were looking for people to sit in. Still, with the muted lights, modern décor and the soft music, it looked like a lovely place to relax for an evening out. “Sorry. We’d planned to have dinner here, but there’s been an emergency.”
She accepted the menu and opened it. Thankfully her hands were no longer shaking. “We’d both been looking forward to dinner so this is the next best thing.”
The hostess was very agreeable and within a few minutes Vanessa had placed and paid for her order. As she put her credit card away, she looked around. “Do you have a washroom I could use, please?”
The hostess motioned down a short hallway to the right. Vanessa walked in, happy to see it was just a small single stall washroom. She locked the door, put her purse down and slipped her shirt off over her head to give it a good shake over the garbage can. She could hear tiny fragments of glass drop to the metal sides.
Using a comb out of her purse, she carefully combed her hair, hoping to remove any hiding shards of glass.
She used the facilities before washing her hands. Redressed and feeling a bit more normal, she headed back out to the hostess. There was a bench by the front door. She sat down and waited for the meal to be ready.
She checked her phone for messages to find her email inbox clogged up as usual. She received hundreds in a day during the week but generally it wasn’t that bad on a weekend. She scanned through them, trying to delete the ones she could.
“Here’s your dinner.” The hostess stood in front of her holding two large bags.
Vanessa bounded to her feet with a grateful smile and stuffed her phone back into her purse. “Oh thank you. That smells delicious.” She accepted both bags, surprised at the weight of them, and with the waitress holding open the door, she walked back outside.
As she approached the men, a tow truck turned into the parking lot.
“Good timing,” she said nodding at the truck.
“As you ordered.” Chase smiled at her. “That smells lovely. Are you going to share?”
She glared at him in mock outrage, relieved to see her car being looked after. She’d never had to replace a windshield and wasn’t looking forward to the process, but she had insurance so it would all work out. She hoped.
“I’m not so sure I will,” she joked.” At his look of horror, she laughed. “I am pretty hungry. There might not be enough for both of us.”
“It will be enough.” He led her over to Markus’s truck and opened up the back door for her. “If you wait here, we should be able to leave in a few minutes.”
She clambered inside, grateful and happy to be where it was warm and safe. She was tired after almost no sleep last night then a very full day. The stress was starting to get to her. She settled back with her eyes closed.
Please let this day be over soon.
*
“Is she sleeping?” Markus asked.
“I don’t think so. It’s been a very long, hard day though.” Chase walked away from the tow truck driver toward Markus’s truck. “It’s past time to get her home. She should sleep through the night now as we didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Keeping their voices low Markus and Chase got in and drove to Brett’s house. Chase kept watch to see if they were being followed, but he didn’t see anything wrong. “Who’s doing surveillance at Brett’s?”
“Hawk and Shadow left a bit ago. They didn’t manage to catch the shooter, so they headed out to Brett’s place knowing that would be your next stop.”
“Good.”
“You’ll need to contact the commander to make some kind of arrangements,” Markus said.
Chase nodded. “Tomorrow is Monday. I’ll do it in the morning.”
“What about Vanessa and her job?”
Chase shook his head. “She’s scared she will lose it because of this.”
“She can’t go to work. She’ll be putting other people in danger.” Markus’s voice deepened. “The commander can fix it.”
“I’ll see what he has to say in the morning about that.” They drove quietly until Markus made the turn off onto Brett’s street. Chase turned to look back at Vanessa. She appeared to be sleeping, gently swaying as the truck drove. In a soft voice, he called out, “Vanessa, you awake?”
“I’m awake.” She opened her eyes, looked at him and smiled. “Just resting.”
He tossed her a grin and said, “Food first then you can go to bed and get a good night’s sleep.” They pulled into Brett’s driveway.
She yawned. And in a sleepy voice she said, “No arguments from me there.”
Markus did a full sweep of the house while Chase led Vanessa into the kitchen and sat her down at the table. Then he pulled out plates. Opening the bags he pulled out the containers. And more containers.
With a questioning look at her he asked, “How many people are you expecting to feed?”
“I’m hungry.” A lopsided grin fell out as she studied the multiple containers. “I also didn’t know how many of your friends were going to be here.”
“Now that they know there’s food, more will be eating.” He patted her on her shoulder. “And all of them will appreciate the thought.”
He returned to the cupboard and pulled out more plates. Opening the first package, he inhaled the rich meaty lasagna aroma. After he carefully dished out a large portion for her, he nudged a fork and knife closer and said, “Eat while it’s still hot.”
She shook her head. “Not until you are ready to sit down and eat too.”
He quickly served himself then sat down beside her. “Now, eat.”
She cut the first bite and popped it into her mouth and then closed her eyes savoring the flavors. Emboldened by her reaction, he quickly cut a bite for himself.
“Oh my God,” she mumbled. “That’s good.” She quickly forked up another mouthful and then another.
He sat back happy to see her eat with such enthusiasm. He wanted to make sure she finally got full. He’d rather have liquid nourishment at the moment than real food, but maybe if he had this he could have the other afterwards. A nice shot of whiskey sounded perfect.
After days like today, maybe two shots.
“Aren�
��t you eating?”
He realized she’d stopped eating because he wasn’t.
He laughed. “I’m eating. Just happy to see you are enjoying it so much.”
“It’s delicious.” She polished off her plate, set her knife and fork on the side and pushed the empty dish back. “And I’m now seriously full.”
“Good.” Chase took several more bites before Markus walked in. His eyes landed on the multiple containers and his face lit up. “I don’t suppose there’s some spare?”
Vanessa laughed. “I bought lots for you guys too.”
“And that is much appreciated.” Markus grabbed a plate. “Thank you. I didn’t get lunch and breakfast was a long time ago.”
“Eat up,” Chase said. “I’ll clean up my plate then head out to relieve Hawk.”
Markus nodded and sat down. Chase stood up and carried his plate, knife and fork over to the sink. He turned back to the table. “Vanessa, I’ll be back in a little while. I’m going to relieve the guys so they can come in and eat. Markus will keep an eye on you. I won’t be gone long.”
She nodded, but the look in her eyes pulled at him. He bent over and gave her a quick hug. Instinct had him dropping a kiss on her temple. “I’ll be back soon.”
Chapter 15
Vanessa watched Chase walk out of the kitchen door, his movements stealthy, pantherish as he walked around the house. She appreciated he was relieving one of the other two men but at the same time she wished Markus was the one to have done so.
Markus was a good guy, and she liked him fine but he wasn’t Chase. Now that she was warm and full, the fatigue was overwhelming. She hadn’t slept on the way home but it had been close.
“How about coffee?” Markus reached across the table and picked up her empty plate.
“Coffee sounds wonderful, thank you.” She slumped back against the chair, wondering if she could just go to her room. Only she didn’t think she’d sleep yet so coffee might hit the spot. As Markus set about putting on a pot, the door opened, letting in a man she’d seen briefly in the underground parking lot.