by Dale Mayer
She bowed her head. “Surely I can go somewhere else. I could take my laptop and my work, go to a hotel or something.”
“Or you could go to England,” Cade suggested. “Get out of the country, see some new sights, take your work if you want because I can see that’s something you’ll never really be parted from. And let Badger keep an eye on you.”
She glared at him. “I know you’ll keep an eye on Badger.” She leaned forward until she was glaring at him eye to eye. “You know he’s up to something. You know England is part of his deal. And, if it’s part of his deal, it’s dangerous as hell. Why would I want to go from one danger to another danger?”
Cade opened his mouth to answer, then slammed it shut. He frowned as if considering her words and turned to look at Badger. “Why will you be in England?”
In a low tone Badger said, “I’m meeting somebody who accepted the orders that changed our route that day.”
Instantly the air charged with interest as the men took a moment to digest the information.
Erick let out a long, slow whistle. “Are you serious?” He looked over at Cade. “I think we should all go.”
Kat shook her head. “I think I should stay behind, deal with the insurance company and get my house fixed up,” she said firmly.
The detective stepped back to her. “No. I don’t want you here.”
“Will you give me protection then?” she snapped.
He grinned. “I think these three can protect you just fine.”
She glared at the detective. “What you mean is, if we run into trouble in England, it’s not your headache.”
Badger looked briefly hurt and then considered the options. “At least in England, people will have trouble finding you. Here it’s pretty obvious where you would be.”
She shook her head. “I could hide out in any number of hotels, any number of states, cities, towns. No one will find me.”
“Yes, they will,” the detective said firmly. “I bet these three know exactly how to travel without leaving any tracks unless they want to be found. You, on the other hand, will go to the bank, withdraw a bunch of cash, not take quite enough, so you’ll use your credit card at various stops to order food, pay for a hotel, and that credit card will get traced, and you’ll have people knocking on your door within hours.”
She frowned. “I could take out a larger amount of cash.”
“And how will you get to wherever it is you’re planning on going? These people already have your license plate number. So now you either need to rent a vehicle—you can’t do that without posting a driver’s license—or you’ll have to take a bus or fly, in which case you have to use your credit card to get a flight.”
“If I go to England, my passport will be used to get a flight,” she snapped in frustration. “Look. I don’t have a problem going to England. It’s just a hell of a long way to go for no particular reason. Plus it seems to me that I’m going from the fat into the fire. Because, what you don’t know is, these guys have their own shit to deal with.”
The detective looked at the three men, studying their hard glances and heavy military look, even though it had been two years since they were active. She stared at them too, and her shoulders sagged because she knew exactly what the detective saw. Three very capable men who knew exactly what to do in times of trouble. And they probably had a ton more experience in this kind of shit than even he did.
She raised both hands in agitated surrender. “Okay, fine.” She hesitated. “Still, I can’t leave my house wide open like this. I’ve got a handyman I’ve used before, and Jim has a set of keys to my house. Jim can oversee getting these windows boarded up in the meantime.” She glared specifically at Badger. “But I’m taking work with me, and I’m staying in the hotel. I’m not going to any clandestine meetings you guys set up.”
Badger grinned. “No problem. How do you feel about fish and chips? There’s a lovely spot by the docks.”
She shook her head. “I don’t care where we go,” she said tiredly. “I’m not sure I’ll sleep anyway. So sure, let’s just walk London until I drop.” She glanced around her house, full of forensic techs and uniformed cops. She could see the neighbors gathering outside. “It’ll hardly be kept quiet here, will it?”
“Nope. We can nicely leak to the newspaper that you’ve left town for a few days, and your office is closed. Give your staff some time off, make sure your office is secured and go away for a while. Leave us to do our job,” the detective answered. He turned toward some men waiting to speak with him. “I have to go. You’ve got my card. Send me a text with an update and an email giving me the details on your flights and where you’re staying.” With that last note he turned and walked off.
She fingered the card. “I guess I can do that.”
Badger shook his head. “That’s the last thing we’ll do.”
She looked up, startled. “But he just told us to.”
Badger leaned forward and whispered, “I don’t give a crap’s ass what he said. If we’re trying to hide you, no way will we send an email giving some asshole all the directions where you can be found.” He straightened up and looked at his watch. “You’ve got a few minutes to grab yourself a bag, some work or whatever it is you need to take with you from here. Then we’ll swing by your office. You can pick up anything else there, check to make sure everything’s locked down, and we’re out of here.”
She looked from one man to the other. “All four of us?”
“Likely more,” Erick snapped. “Seven of us were involved. Seven of us got blown up that day, who are still alive. That means seven of us have a vested interest in our future.”
She frowned. “How safe is it for me to be around you guys?”
“Safe enough,” Erick said with a big smile. “We’d never let anything happen to you, Doc.”
She knew she could believe him. But also that they couldn’t be everywhere all the time. Shit happened. She only had to look at what was left of her house to see that. “Then I’m heading upstairs to pack.” She slowly maneuvered her way toward the stairs, pulling out her phone to call her handyman and Jim.
The detective stopped her and asked where she was going.
“Upstairs to pack a bag.”
He motioned to a police officer. “Go up with her. Wait until she’s packed and then escort her back down again.”
She frowned, not particularly liking a police escort to her bedroom, but at least it was a policewoman. Plus Cade and Erick too. Wow. Three people to watch her pack her undies and things. She called Jim first, caught him at home and spoke to him. Then she reached her handyman as well. What were the odds of that happening at any other time?
Upstairs she pulled out her smallest suitcase and a carry-on bag and quickly packed up clothes for a long weekend. The trouble was, she didn’t know what she would need.
As she hemmed and hawed in front of the closet, Cade said, “Pack something nice. We’ll take you out for dinner a couple times.”
She turned to stare at him and frowned. “How nice?”
He grinned. “I’d love to see you in those red high heels.”
She glanced down at the stilettos he pointed at and shook her head. “Hell no. I don’t have room to pack that kind of stuff.” Neither was she prepared to go out dancing at this stage of the game.
However, she had no reason not to take a couple nice outfits. She carefully packed a few skirts and pairs of pants that would go with anything, and a couple really dressy blouses, and a completely backless dress she could roll up into a tight ball. But it was black and it needed black shoes. She bent down into the back of her closet and pulled out not the red stilettos but a pair of black ones with slightly lower heels, put them in a bag in her suitcase and then walked to her dresser and emptied out what she needed. When she zipped up both her bags, Erick grabbed them and carried them down for her.
She stood in the living room and stared at the organized chaos inside and the police Crime Scene: Do Not Cross tape goin
g up outside. “I never thought to see this here.”
“And let’s hope it never happens again.” Badger stood at her side. “Are you ready?”
She turned to look at him, saw he had a hand out to her. There was something much more meaningful about that hand than just him helping her out to the vehicle. She knew it, but she couldn’t stop herself from reaching back, placing her long slim fingers in his big mitt. She wasn’t far off when she had called him a junkyard dog. The good thing about junkyard dogs was that they were trained to look after their junkyards. And, for whatever reason, she’d been included in the things he was looking after.
Badger didn’t have much time to make preparations. But with Erick and Cade beside him, it went much faster.
After picking up the luggage and hustling Kat into Erick’s truck, Erick drove them all to Kat’s car where the kidnappers had left it, a block or two from her house. Erick and Cade followed as Badger drove her to her office, where she quickly went in and made some phone calls. All the while, Badger stood watch. Then she gathered some work, set the alarm and stepped out of her office.
She stood in front of the closed door for a long moment, then turned to look at him. “I’ll be coming back, won’t I?”
His heart lurched. He reached out a hand again, grasping hers. “Absolutely. I promise.”
Of course it was a foolish promise. But what he really meant was, he would do everything within his physical means to get her back to work. He didn’t expect London to be a problem, but he knew staying here would definitely be an issue. The best thing for her was to get out of town for a few days.
Leading the way, he moved her downstairs and back to her car, waving to Erick and Cade, who then took off. As soon as he turned on the engine to her car, he said, “We’ll go to my place so I can grab some clothes. Then we’re heading out to the airport.”
She gave a start of surprise. “So fast?”
He nodded as he pulled her car into traffic. “We’re flying overnight.”
For this time of day, traffic was light. That didn’t mean the wrong person wasn’t out there waiting for them. The last thing he wanted was to get picked off by a sniper as they moved toward getting answers to his own mystery.
At his place, he parked in the driveway and hopped out. He waited as she got out and stopped beside her car, staring at his home. In a quiet voice he said, “It was my parents’.”
She studied the massive Victorian style house built in the forties. “This is incredible.”
“It is. It’s also a ton of maintenance and renovations. There seems to be no end of those.”
He led her through the garage door into the kitchen area, knowing what she saw for the first time was something he’d grown accustomed to. The exterior of the house might be Victorian, but the inside was contemporary, modern and as high efficiency as anything she’d ever see anywhere. But then he loved to cook. He also hated inefficiency. There was a massive island counter in the center, with a stove, sink and cutting boards built in.
She wandered around, her fingers trailing across the quartz countertop, and whispered, “Wow.”
“Do you want to see the rest of the house?”
She nodded. “I so do.”
He gave her a quick tour of the downstairs. The huge vaulted living room couldn’t be seen from the outside because of the dormers in the front; it appeared to be a second-floor hallway across. She stared up three stories, her neck cranked back. “Holy crap.”
At the very top were stained-glass windows and skylights. With the light shining through right now, colors danced across the hardwood floors. “This is incredible.”
He nodded. “My father and I did a lot of the work together.”
As if sensing the change in his tone, she asked quietly, “What happened to your parents?”
He smiled. “They were the typical homebodies. They were killed in a car accident. T-boned in an intersection. And no the guy was never caught.” His smile turned reminiscent. “They’d been together fifty years. They were both eighteen when they married. I was a late baby for them. They just couldn’t stand to be apart. And in that way, I’m glad they went together.” He moved Kat toward a huge spiral staircase done in hardwood. “I haven’t got treads on these, so watch your step.”
“It seems almost sacrilegious to walk up here with shoes on.”
“You better keep them on, at least until I get a carpet runner or put inlays here that would stop you from slipping.”
She followed as he ran lightly up the stairs. On the second floor he stopped and took a left. The left side of the house was the master suite. As he opened the big double doors, she gasped again. He smiled. He didn’t show his place to very many people. Not many understood. They all thought he was rich as Moses when they did see the place. The fact was, it was paid off within twenty years, and he and his father had spent all Badger’s childhood fixing it up. When he had gone into the military, his dad had continued to work on the house. It was a labor of love for him and his mom. And for Badger. Some of his best memories were tied up in this house. He never intended to sell it. Ever.
He walked over to his walk-in closet and heard her call out, “Is that like a changing room or a walk-in closet?”
He laughed. “Both. My dad started to make changes, but my mom came in and said it was nowhere near big enough. Next thing we knew, the second bedroom upstairs was converted into this. But it has separate entrances.”
She walked inside. “You have an island in your closet?”
His laughter rippled out. “I do indeed.” He opened drawers to show her ties, socks, underwear, everything below the hanging suits, jackets, winter coats. All his clothing pretty well filled one side.
She turned and saw the bulk of the other side was completely empty. “Well, that’s a good sign.”
He stopped and frowned at her. “Why is that?”
“Obviously you’re not living with anybody at the moment.”
“My coonhound, Dotty. She’s being looked after by the neighbors right now. But, no, I’ve never lived with anybody in this house except my parents,” he said shortly. “The military is hell on relationships. I got close to the altar a couple times, but I never made it.”
She nodded. “Me too. I’ve been a bridesmaid and a maid of honor but never the bride.”
He chuckled. “Third time’s the charm then.”
She shrugged. “Not that I believe in superstition or things running in threes,” she said, “but I don’t have anybody in my life right now either.”
“Yes, you do.” He pulled out a large duffle bag, laid it open on top of the island and started sorting through his closet.
He finally became aware of the odd silence behind him. He spun around and looked at her. She stood with her hands on her hips, her legs in a wide-apart stance and a mutinous look on her face. “Who is supposedly in my life?”
He loved that about her. The punchy attitude, the aggressiveness that really was just a kitten trying to sharpen her claws. He went back to packing his dufflebag. “Me. At least that’s the cover we’re traveling under. We’re engaged to be married in a few months. You just refuse to set a date.”
She gasped.
He started to laugh. He’d known she wouldn’t appreciate that cover.
He turned to face her only to get a towel thrown at his face. He looked at it. “No, we should be good with the towels. We’ll be at the hotel after all.” And he tossed it back at her.
She just glared at him, letting the towel fall to the floor.
He walked around, picked up the towel, tossed it into the laundry basket. “We have to have some reason for the way we’re traveling,” he said in a reasonable tone. “Besides, you don’t want people to think you have a bodyguard, do you?”
That seemed to settle her down, if the stiffness loosening in her back and her hands dropping to her side meant what they should mean. “Fine, but you could have at least asked me about it.”
“What was there to ask?�
�� He closed the duffle bag and stopped to study his closet once more. “I have to go downstairs to the office, collect a few more things.” He grabbed his bag and walked out to the hall.
“What’s up the stairs?”
He glanced over at her and smiled. “We have about five minutes if you want to take a quick look.” At her eager nod, he dropped his bag and took a quick right, up the next flight of stairs.
She followed. When she got up there, she didn’t even gasp, she just stared in wonder. The space was mostly empty, except for some discreet and casual sitting arrangements with big windows and the skylight above. All the hardwood floors gleamed. “This is a social area?”
“A big-screen TV is against that far end wall. I come up here to watch TV or have friends over for drinks. But I always thought it would be a great place for kids to play.”
“Or office space,” she said in excitement. “Wow, this is incredibly beautiful.”
He shrugged. “It is, but it’s something I’m quite used to. I was literally born in this house. Every beautiful childhood memory I have is wrapped up into the hardwood floors.” He touched one of the huge wood beams. “We left the original structure, but there’s not a whole lot else that’s original.”
He turned back to the staircase. “Come on. Time to go.”
When she reached his side, he took it slower going down the stairs. He wanted to ensure she didn’t fall. Lots of people didn’t bother, but he wanted a carpet runner or something to give a little bit of traction.
On the main floor he headed into his office. She was a few steps behind him. He went behind the door, pulled a picture off the wall and opened the safe there.
She had walked straight to the French doors that opened up to the gardens behind the house. “Can I open the doors?”
“Sure.” He pulled out his passport, money, contact book and a few other documents he thought he might need. He walked to the desk, packed up his laptop and stood, wondering if he was forgetting anything.