“I know,” I said, reaching down to touch his hand. “I felt the same way when I first ended up with Uncle Zeke. That my parents hadn’t wanted me, so what was the point? How could anyone else ever want me, unless it was out of pity? Why should I even want myself?”
He smiled a little. “Yeah, I guess we are two of a kind on that, aren’t we? How’d you get through it?” he asked as we came to a stop next to his pickup.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Took me a while to start letting people in. But you’ve got your coworkers, right? You guys seem really close.”
He nodded, looking up and down the street both ways before returning his attention to me. “We are. We’re like brothers now.”
“What’s that whole thing? About family not just being blood, but about who you choose?”
“It’s something like that,” he said as he fished his keys from his pocket. “Yeah. I mean, at least I have some things in common with the guys. All of us military, same workplace, a lot of the same experiences…” he said, trailing off with his mouth still open. It was almost like he’d been about to say something, but thought better of it at the last moment.
I didn’t press. If he didn’t want to tell me something, I was fine with it. Some people guard themselves more closely than others. “It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
He scratched his head. “No, it’s not that. It’s, well, I’ve had a really great time with you today. Even if we did get shot at.”
“You know,” I said, looking up at him, my eyes traveling down to his full lips, my thoughts wandering to how his arms would feel around me again, “I was just thinking the exact same thing.”
“Kindred spirits?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, a little smirk dancing on his lips.
“Something like that.”
Subconsciously, we both drifted a little closer, like the opposite poles of two magnets. “You know,” he said as we got closer and closer, “it’s getting pretty late. Peter said that meeting was at nine tomorrow. I should probably get you home.”
I sighed a little.
“And besides,” he added, “I’m not supposed to be taking you out on a date until after this case is finished. Remember?”
I looked away, blushing a little. “Who said this was a date?”
“Well, I did pay for it.”
“You said you were putting it on your company card. Business meetings can’t be dates.”
“What if,” he said as he unlocked the passenger side door for me and pulled it open, “I told you I’d lied?”
I climbed into the passenger seat and turned to look at him from beneath thick lashes. “I’d say that’s treacherous, sneaky behavior unbefitting of a public servant.”
“So what you’re saying is, you’d use fancy words?” he asked, grinning as he closed the door. He went around the front and climbed in on his side. “Still not a date, though?”
I just laughed. “Okay, fine, whatever, it was a date. Happy? Now take me home, Romeo.”
“Your wish is my command,” he said with a grin as he started up his truck.
We drove through our little town, past the still-hopping Elk, and headed toward my house. I looked lovingly out my window at all the historic buildings, all the places that seemed to be the cornerstones and keystones of my memories growing up. My first boyfriend had lived down one of the roads we passed. God, Lawrence Prescott couldn’t have been more different from Matthew if he’d tried. Skinny, geeky, a total book nerd. Don’t get me wrong, I was still attracted to him. But it wasn’t because of his physique.
There, in the old theater that they’d converted to a bookstore, had been the spot of my first kiss. I couldn’t even remember what movie Lawrence and I had been watching, but I could still recall the feeling of his nervous, clammy hand in mine as I shoveled salty, buttered popcorn in my own terrified mouth.
The town may have changed over the years, just like me, but it only seemed to have grown more mature and richer with age, turning from a small mining and lumber community into a tourist destination. On the one hand, I could see why Genevieve Richter wanted her granddaughter to get out of our little town, and to go to school and live her own life that wasn’t limited and predictable. But now, as I sat in the cab of Matthew’s pickup, driving down the roads of my childhood and teen years, I realized that it was a good town, one you could raise a family in.
Geez, where had that come from? One second I’m eating gumbo, and next I’m thinking about kids? Was it all the cayenne, or something?
A few moments later we were pulling up in front of my place.
Matthew put the truck in park. “Want me to walk you up?”
Yes! I wanted to shout from the treetops, the mountaintops even. But I knew that wouldn’t be in good taste, especially with what I’d pulled the night before in my drunken stupor. “No, I should be fine. Meet you down at the sheriff’s office at nine?”
“Yeah,” he said, giving me a sexy little half-smile, “see you then.”
That smile of his sent a little melting tremor through my body, and it took all I had to force myself out into my front lawn.
“Have a good night,” he said just before I went to close the door.
“You too,” I said, smiling and biting my lower lip a little. “Sleep tight.” I closed the door before I tried to beg him to come inside with me, and headed up the walkway to my front door.
The little motor inside the door of his pickup whirred as he rolled down the passenger side window. “Rebecca!” he called to my back.
I turned around, smiling a little, wondering what he was going to say. Just the sound of his voice had given me a delicious little chill that reminded me of that first kiss with Lawrence. “What?” I asked as I turned around.
He paused, like he was suddenly unsure of what he was going to say, his teeth worrying away at his lower lip. “I’m really glad we were able to help your uncle.”
I smiled the easiest smile I’ve ever smiled in my life. Deep down I knew that wasn’t what he’d wanted to say, and I could feel the nerves just rolling off him. But, to be honest, it was kind of cute and endearing to see him nervous like that. Especially when he’d been so confident earlier today, first marching into the state penitentiary, then later conning his way into a mafia hangout.
“Yeah,” I said, “I am too. Glad I didn’t shop around for a better price.”
He laughed as I turned back around and continued my walk to the front door.
I dug my pile of keys out and stuck them in my lock, turning the keys effortlessly despite their normally getting stuck. I was so giddy I didn’t even notice that the deadbolt wasn’t set in place. I slipped into my empty house, locked the door behind me, and tossed my purse on the entryway’s side table. I headed into my little bungalow, turning the lights on as I went, the little clicks of the switches the only sound in the house as the bulbs sprang into beautiful illumination.
“Let there be light,” I mumbled through grinning lips as I heard Matthew’s pickup finally pull away. I grinned a little broader at how he’d stuck around and waited for me to get safely inside, like some kind of phantom bogeyman may have been laying in wait for me just inside the foyer or right behind the door.
I made my way into the bedroom, figuring I’d call it an early night. Maybe, if I got lucky, I’d get a chance to see Matthew in my dreams again. Hopefully this time there wouldn’t be a house fire. Just those strong arms of his and those soft lips.
A girl can still dream, can’t she?
I stripped down, hung up my clothes in the closet, and changed into the same shorts and cropped shirt from the morning. I headed into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, brushed my hair, washed my face of all the makeup, and headed back into the bedroom. I turned off my light as I headed around to my side of the bed.
A quick glance at my pillow caused me to stop in my tracks.
What was that? A sheet of paper lay right on top of my pillow, my bed still a mess fro
m early this morning.
I swallowed hard. That hadn’t been me. I hadn’t laid down a piece of paper there.
My thoughts went back to the deadbolt on the front door, about how I hadn’t had to struggle with the lock.
I froze at first, not sure what to do.
And then I screamed.
Chapter Twenty-five – Matthew
Splinters flew into the air like confetti as I kicked in Rebecca’s front door, one heavy boot clearing my path as I charged in with my sidearm drawn. Even out on the front steps, the smell of her fear was thick and overpowering. “Rebecca!”
“Matthew!” she cried out, her voice a wail full of tears as she came charging out of the bedroom, a piece of paper clutched in her hands as she came running to me. “Matthew!”
“What’s wrong? Who’s here?” I asked, alarmed. I looked around with my trained eyes to see nothing amiss.
Tears streamed down her cheeks from red, bloodshot eyes as she slammed into my chest in a desperate embrace, her arms locking around my back. It was like she was trying to crush the air from my lungs, albeit without any success.
“Rebecca?” I asked, soothing her hair down with my free hand, making sure the gun was pointed away from her. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
“They were in my house,” she sobbed into my chest, “they were in my house, Matthew! They came in here!”
“Came in here? What are you talking about?”
“This,” she said as she pulled back and thrust the fluttering, shaking piece of paper she held into my face. “This, this, this!”
I plucked the paper from her trembling hand and looked at the printed message. “Talk to the cops,” I read aloud, “and see what happens to Mr. Hardware. We can get him anytime, any place.”
I’d just turned around down the street and was heading back to the main road when I heard her scream with my heightened hearing. Visions of her being assaulted, or worse, had flooded my mind, and I’d leaped from the truck, sidearm in hand, to come in and protect her. I’d imagined a home intruder, a burglar, something. A letter, though?
I fought the urge to crumple up the letter, which was evidence. “Okay,” I said as soothingly as I could, bringing her face back to my chest, “it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay, though,” she moaned. “They were in my house, those…those motherfuckers were in my house!”
“You’re right, they were. But they were only here because they’re afraid of you, okay? That’s all. They’re afraid we’ll start to bring down their whole house of cards, and this case with your Uncle Zeke is just the first thing. And you know what it means if they’re afraid, right?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, her face still plastered to my chest. “What?”
“It means we’re close. It means we’re winning. And that’s a good thing.”
She pulled back from me and looked up into my eyes. “But, Matthew, what if they come back? What if they come back and you’re not here? This is my home, my safe place. I can’t live like this, with a threat of them invading and destroying everything, or-or–”
“You’re right,” I said, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face with my thumb, “you can’t stay here. Not tonight. Maybe not until this is over. We have a place up in the mountains, a safe house north of town. We can go there right now and keep you safe till the meeting tomorrow.”
She stepped back, away from my arms, slowly shaking her head. “Meeting?” she asked. “Meeting? You read that letter, Matthew. I can’t talk to the cops about this. We can’t let them hear that recording. They’re going to hurt Uncle Zeke if we do that.”
“Rebecca, you can’t do that. You can’t let them try and scare you.”
“Let them try and scare me? They’re not just trying, they’re fucking doing it!”
“What? You think Zeke is better off in there, rather than in town as a free man, rebuilding his life? You can’t let this get to you or change your plans. You have them on their back foot now, and we have the evidence we need to get your uncle out of prison, to get the charges dropped.”
“No,” she said, turning away from me. “They’re not even threatening me, they’re threatening him. They’re threatening the only family I have.”
I sighed as I stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “Rebecca, if you don’t do this, who will? Who’s going to stand up to these guys? I need you there with me, to see this through to the end. Doing what’s right is sometimes the hardest goddamn thing in the world. If it were easy, everyone would always do it. And then you wouldn’t need guys like me.”
She groaned and shook her head as her shoulders sagged. “I just don’t know. All of this is just getting too serious, too dangerous.” She reached up and put her hand over mine. “Men in my house? Threats against my uncle? What did I do to deserve this?”
“You didn’t do anything,” I said firmly. “Sometimes bad things happen to good people. That’s just the way the world works. There’s nothing you can do to change it. You just have to roll with the punches and make sure you get back up.”
Rebecca nodded a little, taking a deep breath and releasing it. Already, the scent of her fear was losing strength, was drifting out the front door and into the yard. “Safe house, huh?” she asked as she turned around.
“Yeah,” I said. “A cabin that’s secure, somewhere I can protect you tonight.”
She nodded, a small frown on her lips. “What all should I bring?”
Chapter Twenty-six – Rebecca
We drove north out of Enchanted Rock, and turned onto a lonely country road somewhere about halfway to Yellow Rose. Matthew took us up the twisting, winding country road to the Frost Security cabin they’d converted into a safe house. Night had deepened during the drive, and we were pushing closer and closer to midnight.
“Even the road was re-built when we got this place,” he explained. “It’s the only way in before, but now it’s been redone so that it twists and turns and takes forever to get up. Anyone tries to sneak up this way without their headlights on is liable to hit a deer, or a tree. And if they do come up with their lights on, it takes them forever to get up the road.”
“Do you have use this place a lot?”
“Only a few times before. But it’s better to be prepared than not.”
With gravel crunching beneath the tires of the pickup, we pulled around the final turn. Ahead of us, the cabin was framed for a brief moment in the headlights like a singer performing her solo on stage, before we pulled off to the side and parked.
“Here we are,” Matthew said as he turned off the engine and climbed out of the pickup. I followed suit and went around to his side as he began to pull his duffel and my bag out of the back. He handed me my luggage, a simple box style one that held everything I would need.
Not knowing how long I’d be up here under security, I’d packed a whole week’s worth of clothing while he and Frank O’Dwyer, along with Deputy Glick, had gone over my house with a fine-toothed comb. They hadn’t found anything kind of clues as to the identity of the perpetrator—something which seemed to upset Frank and Matthew even more than it did the deputy.
“There should be something here,” Matthew had said quietly to Frank as the other man did something really curious: lifted his nose to the air and sniffed. “See what I mean?” Matthew had asked when he’d finished.
Frank just shrugged in response, then leaned in closer and whispered something.
“Maybe,” Matthew said, his voice still carrying more than I think he’d intended. I wasn’t sure what they didn’t want to tell me, but I knew for certain that they didn’t want me to hear their little interaction. “But I dunno, you’re probably right.”
And now we were here, up in the mountains on a little retreat.
Matthew led the way up onto the cabin’s porch and unlocked the front door, flicking on the lights as he stepped inside the spacious living room. “Everything should be stocked,” he said, heading past the couch that sat in f
ront of a large TV. “Lately Peter’s been keeping a close eye on everything for whatever reason, so one of us has been up here every weekend to make sure all our supplies are good, and that the generator’s always running and has plenty of diesel.”
“Paranoid, much?” I asked him. “Your boss, I mean.”
He chuckled as he set his bag down at the mouth of the little hallway that was right where the living room seemed to blend into the small, but serviceable, kitchen. “Peter’s always been a little more focused on preparedness than your average person. Not like a crazy prepper or anything, but I think the military does that to you. We lived with surprise as part of our lives for so long, it’s hard to shake.”
“Rooms back that way?” I asked as I crossed the living room to him.
“Yeah,” he said as I brushed past him. “Yours is the first on the left and I’ll be taking one around the corner.”
I nodded, squeezing past him and into the hallway. I stopped as my front brushed against him, my breath short. I bit my lower lip as we locked eyes. All my thoughts of wanting to raise a family, of that first kiss with Lawrence, of how wonderful Matthew’s body had felt pressed against mine rushed through my mind at blinding speed. It was almost as if I could see the future unfolding in front of me, like a long highway that traveled out to the distant horizon. A stable family, a life beyond what I’d ever imagined with a good, kind, wonderful man. All I needed was to hop in the car and ride.
Deep in his eyes I saw something else, though, something beyond just a future for us. It was deeper, darker, more exciting.
My heart pitter-pattered a little faster, my breath coming more quickly, as I began to sink into them.
“I need to go walk the grounds,” he suddenly said, turning his face from mine as he stepped back into the living room, out of the tight confines of the hallway. “Make sure everything’s secure.”
Frost Security: The Complete 5 Books Series Page 89