Nameless (Sinister Secrets Book 1)

by Candle Sutton

  “Where do you live?” Was that too personal of a question? It was always hard to judge where to draw the line between getting to know someone and getting too personal.

  “Magnolia area.” If it bothered her, she didn’t show it. Her smile grew and her previous irritation fell away. “I found this great old house and…”

  Biting her lip, she shook her head slowly, her blonde ponytail swishing lightly across her shoulders. “Sorry. You didn’t stop here to listen to me prattle on.”

  No, he didn’t, but he honestly didn’t mind. He was learning a lot about her.

  Like how she had a tendency to ramble when frustrated.

  But it was getting late and they both wanted to get home. “Pop the hood.”

  She studied him for a beat. “You’re a mechanic?”

  “You have any other options?” He didn’t even try to hide his grin as red tinged her ears. “I know enough to be dangerous.”

  “Well, that’s a little bit more than me.” She bent inside her car and pulled the hood release.

  At least no one was parked in front of her. Or, if they had been, they were long gone.

  He rounded the front of the car and felt around for the latch. Lifting the hood, he studied the maze of hoses in front of him.

  The lighting wasn’t great. He pulled out his cell phone and turned on the flashlight app.

  The engine compartment was pretty clean, further evidence that she took care of this car, in spite of the starting issues.

  He traced a few of the wires, wiggled a few hoses, but couldn’t find anything loose.

  Movement in his peripheral announced Kevyn’s arrival even before she spoke. “Any luck?”

  “Try starting it again.”

  What he hoped to see, he wasn’t sure, but it was the only thing he could think to do.

  The engine whined, but didn’t catch.

  He messed with a few more wires, but nothing worked. He dropped the hood and came around to the still-open driver’s door. “Afraid that one’s above my pay grade.”

  A sigh deflated her and she slumped against the seat. “Well, I appreciate the effort, anyway.”

  His hollow stomach gnawed at him. He didn’t need to look at his watch to know it was way past dinnertime.

  Time to go. Cabs ran all over the city at all hours. She’d have no problem catching one to get her home.

  Sure, it might not be cheap, but life was expensive.

  He sensed that twinge in his conscience again.

  Really God? It’s late, I’m hungry, and I’m tired. Can’t I just go home?

  Even as the questions ran through his mind, he knew the answers.

  He couldn’t leave her stranded here alone.

  Sure, she was an FBI agent, and armed, but it wasn’t right to leave one of his team stranded. “Want a lift home? We can arrange for a tow in the morning.”

  “Oh.” She looked at her car. “I can call a cab, I guess. I don’t want to put you out of your way.”

  Her words said one thing, but her tone was in direct conflict. She didn’t want to take a cab. Not that he could blame her. What she really wanted was to drive her car, but since that wasn’t happening, he was probably the next best offer she had.

  “You said you’re in Magnolia, right? I’m in Ballard, so we’re practically neighbors. I drive right past Magnolia on my way home.” Maybe not right past her, but close enough.

  After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded. “If you’re sure you don’t mind, a ride would be great.”

  His stomach, tired of being ignored, grumbled loudly.

  A smile stretched across her face. “It sounds like we should hurry.”

  “Hope you don’t mind stopping to pick up something along the way.”

  “Better yet, I’ll buy.” She held up her hand to stop the protest rising in his throat. “It’s the least I can do.”

  After retrieving her purse and laptop from her car, she locked up and turned to him. “Let’s go.”

  ₪ ₪ ₪

  Ebony loaded another spotless plate in the dishwasher.

  Dinner had been a disaster.

  That little girl… oh, what had Jax said her name was?... Ava, yeah, Ava. She’d sniffled and cried through the whole thing. Jax had been tense and had snapped a time or two, which made Ava even more upset. Wendy had tried to help by talking to Ava, but it hadn’t worked. Oliver had done nothing but shovel food in like it was his last meal.

  When Jax had left the table to take Ava back to her room, Wendy and Oliver had tried to talk her into helping them get the little girl home.

  Help them! Like she’d ever betray Jax that way!

  She was tempted to tell Jax of their mutiny, but it would upset him. Besides, they were only empty words, right? It wasn’t like they could actually do anything to help Ava escape.

  Right?

  Then again, Susan had managed to get out of her living space. What if they did, too?

  Pain pulsed behind her eyes.

  Why did this have to be so hard? Why couldn’t they see what a good thing Jax had done for them?

  Footsteps sounded behind her a second before she smelled Jax’s spicy cologne.

  Her heart thundered.

  Hands encircled her waist and pulled her back against him. She leaned in.

  Warm breath caressed her cheek as he rested his face beside hers.

  This was perfect. Right.

  Why would anyone want to leave?

  “I’m going out for a bit.” His words broke the moment.

  Out? Her breathing shuttered. Why couldn’t he stay here?

  She knew better than to ask any questions. “I’ll be waiting.”

  The simple answer of acceptance pleased him. She could sense it. Wrapping his arms around her midsection, he squeezed tightly. A kiss pressed into her hair.

  It was hard to breathe. Whether from the intensity of his hold or the nearness of his presence, she wasn’t sure, but she never wanted it to end. Life had never been so good.

  Oliver and Wendy’s arguments flashed through her mind.

  She wouldn’t ruin this moment by telling Jax. No, she’d keep an eye on them and make sure they didn’t do anything to screw this up.

  If they did, they’d pay the price. She’d see to it personally.

  ₪ ₪ ₪

  “Have you thought about sending someone undercover?”

  Dak glanced over at Kevyn as he waited for the light to turn green. Even as she sipped from the cardboard cup bearing the burger joint’s logo, her eyes never left him.

  “Undercover ops usually take some time to get up and running. I’m not sure our vics have that kind of time.”

  Although it wasn’t a bad idea.

  The hard part was figuring out where to place people undercover. Nobles was a pretty big store, and that was assuming their theory was correct and the unsub was locating his victims there. How could he be sure that his agents were in the right place?

  If they weren’t in the right place, it was wasted manhours, time that could be spent following leads.

  Time that could cost one of their victims his or her life.

  “You could place one of us in the store, maybe in the department where Oliver worked, and one of us in the restaurant. Covers all the angles.”

  “It’s a good plan, but that would severely cripple our team. I’m not sure we can afford to be down two people.” He directed his Jeep toward Magnolia, even as his mind worked through the possibilities.

  “It would create some challenges.” She shifted to face him more directly. “But it might also generate some leads that we’d never get any other way. Someone has seen this guy and if Nobles is his hunting ground, it’s the best way for us to get him.”

  That was a pretty big “if.”

  “Let me pray about it.” Hadn’t intended to say that out loud, but it was there. Not that he was ashamed of his faith, but he didn’t usually throw it out there professionally. Especially to a new team member.

&nb
sp; “Pray?”

  “Yeah, you know. Talk to God. It helps.” He kept his tone light. “You’d be amazed how many times God has guided me through a rough situation.”

  “How do you know it’s God and not chance? Or intuition?” She sounded genuinely curious, although with her training, she knew how to ask questions without sounding judgmental.

  Still, he’d choose to believe the best about her. He’d choose to believe that she was genuinely interested in what he had to say.

  “Where do you think intuition comes from if not from God? And this world is way too orderly for me to believe in something as abstract as chance.”

  “Really?” She arched a thin eyebrow. “How do you explain yesterday? That my first day just happened to coincide with a situation that I’ve had the necessary training to handle?”

  “God.” He glanced over at her. “God knew Esterson was going to lose it like that, God knew when it would happen, and God put you here at the right time to deal with it.”

  In your own unique way.

  He bit the words back. He still wasn’t sure about her methods, but she’d achieved the desired result. No doubt existed in his mind that she had been sent by God for that precise moment.

  Besides, she hadn’t been openly defiant of any rules today. At least not that he noticed.

  Maybe yesterday was an anomaly. Even if her reputation indicated otherwise.

  “I’ve never heard it explained like that before.” Her mild tone gave no indication to her thoughts. “Interesting.”

  “God is always working. You just have to know how to see His hand.”

  “Oh, I believe in God.” She shifted to face out the front windshield, further hiding her thoughts from him.

  Not that he’d been able to detect them anyway.

  “But I don’t see why He’d really care about the details of our lives.” Her voice had softened slightly.

  “Because He loves us. We’re involved in the details of the lives of those we love, right? You keep up on what’s going with your family and friends, don’t you?”

  Silence stretched.

  Had he crossed a line? Maybe gotten too personal too quickly?

  “I have no family.” Her words, softly spoken contained a heartbreak he felt. “It was always only me and Mum. Cancer took her five years ago.”

  Images of his own mother filled his mind. He couldn’t imagine the loss. “I’m sorry.”

  No mention of her father, so he must be dead. Or maybe never a part of her life to begin with.

  Either way, if she wasn’t going to bring him up, neither would he.

  “Time makes it easier, but the idea that time heals is a lie. I miss her every day.” She cleared her throat. “Do you have family nearby?”

  “Yeah. We’re all within about an hour of here. My parents still live in Lynnwood, where I grew up. I have two brothers. Blaze and his wife live in Everett and Caiden lives in Bellevue.”

  “Are you and your brothers close?”

  “I guess so. With Caiden especially. Blaze is older and always kind of did his own thing, but Caiden and I have a lot in common.” He slowed as the light turned red.

  “What do they do?”

  “Blaze is a surgeon. Caiden works SWAT for Seattle PD.”

  “I always wanted a brother or sister, but mum never dated. At least not that I remember. I think part of her always hoped my father would come back.”

  Come back. So, he hadn’t died, he’d left.

  Jerk. He got that marriage wasn’t easy, but leaving your wife and kids was never an option. Didn’t matter what the circumstances were.

  “You ever hear from him? If I’m not overstepping.”

  A glimmer of a smile danced across her face. “You’re fine. No, we never heard from him. I don’t even remember him. He left when I was about a year old and never looked back. Mum waited for him about a year, then moved me back to Australia, where she was from. I think she wanted to be close to my grandparents. They died while I was in secondary school.”

  “Secondary?”

  She shook her head slowly. “Sorry. You call it high school.”

  How had she gone from secondary school in Australia to FBI agent in the U.S.?

  Did he dare ask? The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like she was being interrogated.

  But she had been pretty open so far and he was more than a little curious about her unusual journey.

  Before he could ask, she straightened in her seat. “Almost there. Take the next left.”

  He flipped on his blinker and turned down the next street.

  Older homes lined either side and antique streetlamps bordered the unstriped two-lane road.

  Funny how he could spend his whole life in this area and yet never have been in this part of town.

  Wrought-iron fences, Victorian homes, and well-maintained flower beds lent an old-world charm. Some of the houses were huge, others more modest, but all were bigger than he’d expect a rookie FBI agent to be able to afford.

  Maybe she’d come from money.

  Or maybe there were starter homes or rentals further down the block.

  Several houses up, he spotted the neighborhood eyesore. Overgrown weeds in the dying front yard, moss-covered brick, and a sagging front porch probably made the neighbors see red.

  He’d hate to be the owner of that place.

  “This is it.” Her voice jerked him from his thoughts. “On the right.”

  He touched the brakes. “Where?”

  Surely it couldn’t be the place that looked like it ought to be condemned. He would have guessed she’d live in a modern condo or high-rise, not a crumbling haunted house.

  “The ugly one.”

  He turned into the driveway and stared at the house. “You live here?”

  Her laugh filled the car. “Looks like something from a horror movie, right? It’s not really that bad, and one day it’s going to be amazing.”

  It sure had the potential to be something great. With two stories, and a basement, if he guessed correctly, the place was huge.

  “And you actually live here?” He couldn’t help asking again. Surely, she was messing with him, right?

  “You might be surprised at the inside. You want to come in and take a look? I promise it won’t collapse on your head.”

  He wasn’t sure he’d bet money on that one, but it was intriguing. Almost as intriguing as a pretty Australian turned criminal profiler who lived in a house most people would avoid like the flu.

  Every time he thought he was figuring her out, boom! something else came at him out of nowhere. “Sure.”

  He stepped out of the Jeep, the moist winter air biting the exposed skin on his neck and face.

  A floodlight flashed on, momentarily blinding him as it bathed the area in a white glow.

  Kevyn rounded the front of his Jeep and headed up a crumbling front walk that had more weeds than concrete. She climbed the porch steps, each step creaking as she put weight on it.

  If they creaked under her weight, would they snap under his? He had a good fifty pounds on her, easy.

  Well, unless he planned to climb in through a window, he didn’t have a choice.

  The creaking seemed louder as he ascended, but the boards held.

  A light mounted beside the door blazed on, its light only moderately dimmer than the flood at the corner of the house.

  The door looked new, and solid. No surprise given her line of work.

  She unlocked the deadbolt and the knob, then pushed the door open. It swung silently, further evidencing its lack of age.

  As she stepped inside, she flicked the switch beside the door.

  He followed, his shoes squeaking on the dull hardwood floors beneath his feet. A high ceiling swooped above him. The chandelier bathing the area in a soft glow looked older than his grandfather.

  Stairs swept up along the wall to his right. To his left, he caught a glimpse of draped furniture.

  He pushed the door closed behi
nd him and followed Kevyn deeper into the house.

  Fine white powder coated the floor of the living room. Through the skeleton of a wall, he saw a kitchen that looked like it hadn’t been updated since the seventies.

  “I started the process of removing this wall last night, but can’t get any further until I reinforce the ceiling.” She nodded at the exposed framing as she passed by.

  She was doing this? By herself?

  And he would have bet money she couldn’t operate an electric screwdriver, much less take on a project like this.

  Clearly, he’d completely underestimated her.

  Light flooded the kitchen. She dropped her purse on the yellow Formica.

  Small pieces of plaster littered the floor around the half-demolished wall.

  “How long have you lived here?”

  Boxes lined the far wall, evidencing that she either hadn’t been here long or she’d packed things up while she worked on her renovations.

  “A week. Give or take. Obviously, my bedroom and bathroom were the top priority, but once I finished those–”

  “Wait, a week?” And she’d already updated the bedroom and bathroom?

  “And a day.” She shrugged. “I took last week off to move and settle in. I couldn’t deal with the neglect and grime in the bathroom, and the bedroom was too disgusting to sleep in, so it only made sense to start there.”

  Amazing. His mom, not to mention Blaze’s wife, could barely hang curtains and she was redoing a bathroom?

  Somehow, he doubted she’d appreciate his shock. “So, uh, what’s next?”

  “Well, once I finish taking out this wall, I’ll start on the kitchen.” She turned to survey the flat walnut cabinets. “Those are good, solid wood cabinets so I’m planning to leave them, but I’ll sand them down and paint them. Maybe white, or gray, I haven’t decided. Definitely updating the countertops and adding a backsplash.”

  As she spoke, she gestured to the items in question, first the cabinets, then running her fingers across the laminate.

  “I’m really anxious to strip and refinish the flooring, but that needs to wait until everything else is done.” She cut off abruptly. “Sorry, there I go again.”

  He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m impressed with what you’ve done here. Most of us watch those reno shows and quickly discover that it’s a lot harder than they make it look on TV.”