by Jami Alden
Nolan held up a hand for silence. “He’s in custody, but the EMTs think he needs to go in for some scans. You rang his bell pretty hard.”
“Any idea who he is?” Jack asked.
“He didn’t have ID on him but he says his name is Joe Smith.”
“That’s a load of shit,” Jack said.
“You’re probably right, but he did say something else that was kind of interesting. He’s pretty out of it, but he kept saying, ‘She just wanted her scared. I wasn’t going to really hurt her. She just wants her scared.’ Any idea what that means?”
Jacks fingers flexed against her arm. “The old bitch sent a goon after you.”
Nolan cocked a questioning eyebrow.
“Margaret Grayson-Maxwell,” Talia said.
Nolan nodded as understanding dawned. “You think she hired him.”
“It’s the most obvious answer.”
Talia thought of the man, his evident skill at fighting. “He fits the mold of all of David’s—Maxwell’s,” she clarified for Nolan’s benefit, “goons that he used to hire. All jacked-up former-military muscle.”
Jack nodded. “He had training of some kind, spec ops, Special Forces. It wasn’t easy for me to get the drop on him.”
“If he’s ex-military, he’ll be in AFIS,” Nolan said. He pulled out his phone again and made sure “Joe Smith’s” prints were run ASAP so they could get a possible ID.
“I can’t believe she would go to all that trouble just to torture me,” Talia said with another shudder. “The necklace, the flowers, the DVD.” She broke off as the memory of the video mingled with the images from the photos Nolan had showed them of the rape victims. “And those women—was he doing that on the side to feed some sickness?” Her mind could barely grasp the possibility.
“He had access to the recordings from Margaret,” Jack said. “I’ll call Cole and find out if there are any cases that are similar up north—”
“Let me worry about that,” Nolan said, and leaned closer. “Right now I need you two to keep the possible connection to yourselves until we have something that solidly links him to the attacks.”
Jack nodded. “You let me know as soon as you know who he is and if he gets out on bail.”
Nolan nodded. “I can’t imagine they’d be able to arraign him before tomorrow, so I think you’re good for tonight at least.” He said something about finding Susie and headed back to the restaurant.
Talia started to follow. Now that the adrenaline had faded, she felt like she was about to collapse, and all she wanted to do was collect her stuff and go home. She drew back, startled when she almost ran smack into Eugene. “You’re still here,” she said.
He shrugged. “I offered to give Rosario a ride home but she wanted to wait for you.”
“Thanks for looking out for her. Where is she?”
He pointed his thumb in the direction of the restaurant. “She went in to see if she could help clean up.”
Talia’s stomach sank as she thought of the mess the sprinklers had left, but nothing could have prepared her for the carnage that awaited them inside.
The floor was covered by half an inch of water, and as she passed the kitchen, she saw stoves and countertops littered with pots and pans of waterlogged, ruined food. As she walked down the corridor to the bar and restaurant area, she saw that not only was everything soaked, but also most of the tables had been upended, glass and tableware smashed as the crowd had charged the exit to escape the spray.
Susie was in the dining room, frantically mopping at the floor. Rosario was walking through the dining room, bending occasionally to retrieve something from the floor. It took Talia a few seconds to realize she was picking up the unbroken plates and glasses she found.
So far there were only four glasses, and the stack of plates was pitifully thin.
“You need to let it dry out a bit,” Nolan was saying. “Right now you’re just moving the water around.”
“If you’re not going to help, then at least shut up!” Susie snapped.
“Susie, I’m so sorry—” Talia started, then snapped her mouth shut at Susie’s glare.
“Don’t,” Susie said, her thin shoulders knotted under her damp blouse. “Please don’t. I know this wasn’t in any way intentional, but right now, I’m looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage that can be traced directly back to your personal issues.”
Talia started toward her. “Let me have the mop. I can at least help clean up. And I’ll handle everything with the insurance company—”
“If they’ll even cover it, since they’ll try to claim the sprinklers went off accidentally.”
“I’ll figure out how to pay the difference,” she said, but a knot settled in her stomach at the knowledge there was no way on earth she’d be able to come up with the kind of money required to get the restaurant ready to reopen. She could take out a loan, get another job during the day maybe…
“It’s not just the restaurant. People were injured! Did you know that when you crashed into the bathroom, you knocked over a seventy-year-old woman with the door so hard she fell and probably broke her hip?”
“I’m sorry,” Talia said, the words squeezing past the guilty lump in her throat. “I never meant for anyone else to be at risk—”
“Please, just go,” Susie said, her body drooping with weariness as she leaned on the mop handle for support.
Talia started moving around the dining room, righting chairs and upended tables, gathering the scattered silverware. “I can help. I’ll stay all night if you need me—”
Susie shook her head and looked at Talia, her expression grave. When she spoke, her mouth trembled around the words. “You’re not just my employee; you’re my friend, okay? And I’m afraid if you stay even one minute longer, I’m not going to be able to keep myself from saying things that I can’t take back. So right now, I really need you to go.”
Talia swallowed around the lump in her throat and nodded. She walked back to Susie’s office, swiping at the tears that were trying to leak out. She retrieved her purse and jacket, both of which were drenched. From across the small space, she could see Susie’s computer screen flickering crazily, no doubt shorting out from all the water.
God, how much was it going to cost to replace all of the computer systems that handled the ordering and inventory? She was going to spend the next fifty years trying to pay Susie back.
“I hope you’re ready to break out the checkbook.”
Talia winced as Susie’s furious voice carried down the hall. She gathered up her things and started back out to the dining room.
“Of course I’ll take care of it,” Jack said. Talia’s stomach clenched at the thought of Jack taking this on too. This was her fault, and she would be handling this. “You don’t have to worry about anything—”
“This is going to require a hell of a lot more than a fifty-thousand-dollar investment in the place,” Susie continued. “That would barely cover the deductible on my policy.”
“You know I’m good for it,” Jack said, looking over his shoulder as though he was worried about being overheard. “You’ll have however much you need and some extra on top. Maybe now you can get the patio seating area you wanted to do.”
“Patio area?” As far as Talia knew, she’d never heard Susie mention wanting to expand the seating outside.
Jack turned, and a look of surprise and something else flickered across his face when he saw her. “Susie mentioned it at some point,” he said, shooting Susie a hard look. “I figured as long as she’ll have to renovate, she might as well look into expanding.”
Something pricked at the back of her mind. This was the second time Jack and Susie had exchanged odd looks tonight. There was something out of place here, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
“And, Jack, you’re not paying for any of this. This is my problem, and I’ll figure out a way to handle it.”
Susie cocked her brow and shot Jack a knowing look. “Wai
t, why are you looking at each other like that? What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Jack said flatly.
Talia stared at him hard, trying to penetrate his carefully neutral expression. But the emotional and physical trauma of the night were taking their toll, leaving her too exhausted to wrap her brain around whatever subtext was happening here. “Fine, let’s go,” she said. “I’ll call you tomorrow?” she asked Susie hesitantly, and was gratified when Susie gave her a curt nod.
He led her out to the car, followed by Rosario and Eugene. “Thanks for hanging out tonight,” Rosario said, and gave Eugene a quick hug that he awkwardly returned.
He pulled away and gave the rest of them a little wave and started for his car. “No problem. Good luck on the final tomorrow, Rosie.”
As they drove home, Jack got a call. “Hey, Nolan.”
Talia’s ears perked, but Jack’s side of the conversation was maddeningly uninformative.
“The guy who attacked you is Greg Sutherland, former Marine Force Recon,” Jack said in a darkly satisfied tone. “And that old harpy was behind it, just like we suspected.”
“Margaret was paying him,” Talia said.
Jack nodded. Talia could see his grim smile in the lights of the passing cars. “She hung up on him when he called her from the hospital, and he rolled over on her right away. He used to work for her and David, and she contacted him right after she got out of prison to come after you.”
“God, what a psycho,” Rosie said from the backseat.
Jack nodded. “She had him track you here, gave him all the information about the jewelry and the flowers.”
“Did she give him the DVD too?” Talia couldn’t suppress another shudder.
“He says he doesn’t know anything about it, or the rapes either, but Nolan thinks it’s bullshit. It’s one thing to admit to harassment and assault. Aggravated rape puts you into another category entirely.”
If that’s what he’d had planned for her… what if Jack hadn’t gotten to her in time? She started to shake and couldn’t seem to stop.
Jack reached over and covered her hand. “He claims he wasn’t going to hurt you, that Margaret promised him a big payout if he could get you and hold you for a few days.”
“Right,” Talia said. “I’m sure he would totally change his MO.” Helpless, hysterical laughter erupted from her chest. “He likes to rape and cut other girls, but he’d be nice to me.”
Jack and Rosario didn’t say anything, and by the time they pulled into the driveway, Talia had pulled herself back under control.
Once they got inside, Rosie reminded them that her physics final was the next morning and she’d need a ride to campus by seven-thirty.
“You better get to bed, then,” Talia said as she looked at the clock. It was already close to eleven.
Rosie nodded. “And now that they’ve caught what’s his name, it’s safe for me to stay on campus after my test?”
Every instinct rebelled against the idea of letting Rosie go back out on her own. But Talia knew it wasn’t fair to keep her sister confined just because Talia couldn’t shake off the lingering fear. She gave Rosie a reluctant nod.
“And,” Rosie said in that wheedling tone she used to use when she was trying to convince Talia to give her a piece of cake before dinner, “I think it’s probably safe for me to go on the trip to Yosemite this weekend, right?”
Talia shook her head. “I’m not comfortable with you going away. This guy could get out on bail and try to hurt you.”
“How would he even know where I am? And do you really think he would follow me to a tent cabin in the middle of Yosemite if he knows the police are keeping tabs on him?” She turned imploring eyes to Jack. “Come on, help me convince her. You’ll know if he gets bailed out. You’re going to keep track of him, right?”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t get within a mile of either one of you,” Jack said.
“See, it will be just fine,” Rosie said, turning back to Talia with a bright, hopeful smile.
There was no way she could let her go, even for the weekend. She opened her mouth to deny Rosie’s plea. But then her mind flashed back on that night over two years ago, when Talia had loaded a bewildered Rosie onto a private plane flown by strangers. With the barest of explanations, Talia had sent Rosie into hiding for months, erasing every bit of normalcy from her life.
“When can I come back home?” Rosie had asked, her eyes huge and full of tears.
Tonight her eyes weren’t teary, but they had that same pleading look, that same hint of desperation to have life go back to the way she knew it.
“Okay,” Talia said. “But,” she added as Rosie started to jump around the kitchen in excitement. “You call me or text me every few hours.”
“What about the middle of the night?”
Talia rolled her eyes. “Last call at eleven.”
“What if my cell doesn’t work?”
“Find a pay phone and call me.”
“Fine,” Rosie said, exasperated, but grabbed Talia in an enthusiastic hug. “I’ll be totally fine. You’ll see.” She grabbed her bag and started for her room, her cell phone already in hand to start spreading the good news.
Talia listened to her excitedly call Dana, knowing she wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep until Rosie came back, maybe not even then.
Jack pulled her into his arms and she turned into his chest with a sigh. She closed her eyes, absorbing his warmth as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ll keep tabs on Sutherland,” he said. “She’ll be fine, just like that time this winter when she went up to Tahoe. Now how about we go upstairs and kiss each other’s owies?”
As he led her upstairs to the bedroom, she got the feeling she had back in the restaurant that something wasn’t right. He closed the bedroom door, pressed her up against it, and tilted her chin up to meet his kiss.
But even the heat surging through her blood couldn’t distract her as the last several seconds of their conversation played through her mind. Then it hit her.
She pulled her mouth from his. “How did you know about that?”
His eyes were slightly dazed, his lips parted. “What?”
“Rosie’s trip to Tahoe. I never told you about that.” Then Rosie’s voice flashed in her mind. Jack and I talk sometimes. Inwardly she scolded herself for her moment of doubt. “Never mind. I forget that you and Rosie have kept in touch.”
Why do you have to go looking for trouble? The last thing Jack deserves is your suspicion.
“Did she tell you that I texted her every three hours until she threatened to throw her phone in the lake?”
Jack didn’t smile at her joke. Instead, as she watched, something—guilt?—flashed in Jack’s eyes before it disappeared behind that carefully blank expression he liked to assume when he didn’t want to give anything away.
When he wanted to hide something.
She felt that unwelcome, all-too-familiar tightening in her stomach. “Rosie didn’t tell you about the trip, did she?”
She could see the truth in his face even before he opened his mouth.
“Have you been spying on us?” She felt like her chest was being slowly squeezed by a vise.
“I wouldn’t call it spying—”
She shoved against his shoulders and launched herself away from the door. “What would you call it?”
“I was looking out for you, checking in to make sure you were safe.”
“You followed me—”
“It was usually Ben or Alex since I was out of town so much,” he broke in as though that would make it better.
“Fine, so you followed me, had me followed. Whatever. You kept tabs on me without me knowing it, and I’d call that spying.”
Jack knew the second Talia had looked at him sideways back in the restaurant that he was in deep shit. He’d done his best to shut Susie down on the topic of his past and future payoffs for the restaurant before Talia clued in, and he thought he’d dodged a bullet.
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Then, in an incredibly boneheaded move born of an adrenaline high and the fierce need to get her naked and under him so he could prove in the most elemental way that she was safe and unharmed, he’d slipped up and revealed his knowledge of something he had no business knowing about.
She was glaring daggers at him, her arms wrapped protectively around her waist, her mouth tight with anger.
What the fuck was wrong with him? He was a former fucking Green Beret, not some bumbling idiot. Maybe, he thought in a sudden flash of self-awareness, he’d let it slip on purpose. As though his subconscious knew that if they were to really move forward past tonight, once the danger surrounding her was eliminated, they needed to get everything out on the table.
No past, no baggage, no lies between them.
Or maybe he was just a fucking idiot too focused on getting into the pants of the woman he loved to keep hold of his tongue.
Either way, she was about one hundred degrees past furious, and he knew it was only going to get worse before it had a chance to get better.
“I didn’t do it to hurt you,” he said, sounding lame to his own ears. “I just needed to see for myself that you were okay.”
A humorless laugh tore from her throat. “You couldn’t pick up a goddamn phone?” She held her hand to her ear and mimed making a call. “ ‘Hi, Talia, it’s Jack. I’m just calling to see how you’re doing.’ Like this cloak-and-dagger bullshit is so much easier?”
“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me,” Jack bit out, hating how needy and weak he sounded, like some insecure fifteen-year-old afraid to ask a girl to prom. “After everything that happened to you, I figured you’d just want to forget.”
“You figured right,” she snapped. “All I wanted was to forget everything and get on with my life. And then Margaret had to send that creep after me, and you came busting in, making sure that I would never, ever escape it.” She let out a wrenching sob, and the sound was like a knife to Jack’s chest.
“I never, ever wanted you hurt. Everything I’ve done, it’s been to help you get on with your life, just like you said.”
“All I ever wanted was to get over that feeling of being hounded, of knowing that almost every detail of my life was scrutinized. And all those times I got the prickle on the back of my neck and kicked myself for being paranoid, it was probably you watching me,” she said, pointing an accusing finger. “It was you making me feel that way.”