The Reclusive Widow (The Widow Taker Book 3)

by Kennedy Layne

  This conversation had spun completely out of control, similar to how her life was currently spiraling down the proverbial toilet.

  Somehow, someway, she was no longer making her own decisions.

  Anger and fear fused together in a such a way that it took her back one year to when she had begun to experience panic attacks. She gripped the side rail and began counting to ten as she purposefully concentrated on evening out her breathing.

  “Lily will actually be coming home with me,” Ridge said quietly from his seat.

  Lily almost laughed at the absurdity of Ridge’s comment that he’d just thrown out there like a wet blanket, but a nurse chose that moment to come into the room.

  “Could I speak with you for a moment in private?” Ridge asked Agent Malone, standing before resting his hand once again on her arm. He even leaned down and whispered in her ear. “The nurse’s name is Meghan, and you can trust that she’ll take good care of you.”

  Lily hadn’t realized that she’d been holding her breath the entire time his lips were close to her ear. She found herself nodding her understanding quickly, all the while wanting the bed to swallow her back into the lucid dream this all must be.

  The life that she’d somehow manage to salvage from scattered pieces flying about in the wind was teetering on the edge of a cliff. One wrong movement would send it plummeting into the deep, dark ravine below, shattering everything that she’d worked so hard for over the past year.

  The two men had already passed the nurse on their way toward the door. Lily needed to have some semblance of control back, though. This craziness had to end.

  It started now.

  “Whatever the two of you are going outside of my room to discuss, you can do it right here in front of me,” Lily advised forcefully, compartmentalizing the pain in her body and the fear in her mind. It was how she’d gotten through a bad marriage, a painfully humiliating trial, the subsequent death of her husband in prison, and all but being ostracized by the very town that she’d called home her entire life. “No one is going to make decisions about my immediate future but me.”

  Chapter Seven

  Ridge could sense the change in Lily’s demeanor the moment she’d figured out that he was aware of her notorious circumstances. Her defensive barriers had slammed into place, and she’d basically shut down any idea of someone from outside of her microscopic world helping her in any way, most likely wishing that he would just fade into memory.

  Only he couldn’t walk away now.

  Not with her in real danger.

  Ridge had tried his best to alleviate her concerns that he had some untoward agenda, not only about her current situation with her attacker but also with the hospital staff and her past. He’d personally gone to the charge nurse to discuss the obvious conflict of interest with some of the staff, if their sideways glances and offhand remarks were anything to go by.

  Ridge had basically assumed the role of her advocate when it was clear that she didn’t want anyone besides herself handling her personal affairs.

  Still, Lily Hudson had stumbled onto his property and had almost died in his living room. He now felt responsible, and he never walked away from his responsibilities, regardless of any inconvenience. He’d been told many times over the course of his career that he was too abrupt and terse with subordinates and peers that fell short of his rigid, unrelenting standards. Others had often invoked the old honey was much better than vinegar proverb, but he saw virtue for what it was and preferred the straightforward approach. Unfortunately, that approach often did not favor conversation of firepower.

  He acknowledged that there was most likely a chance that he could have handled the situation with Lily a bit better or at least softened the blow by choosing different words, but he wasn’t much for hedging his bet.

  “…swap out your dressing before shift change. How is your pain level? Your last dose was—”

  “I’m fine,” Lily replied, keeping her gaze on him instead of the nurse. “I’d rather not have anything stronger than acetaminophen. I’ll be discharging myself in the morning. Please advise the assigned doctor.”

  “Ms. Hudson, that would be ill-advised and very much contrary to doctor’s orders.” The nurse seemed at a bit of a loss that a patient would refuse pain medication twenty-four hours after surgery. “Your level of discomfort will only worsen if you—”

  “I’m fine, Meghan. Really. Please make sure to let me know when the attending doctor has been notified of my directives.” Lily cleared her throat before making her wishes known. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to speak with Agent Malone and Mr. Killian in private.”

  Meghan appeared to want to continue discussing Lily’s statement about leaving the hospital, but the nurse stopped short of an argument. Ridge figured that she had intentions to call in reinforcements in order to make sure that the patient wouldn’t discharge herself without the permission of the clinical specialist assigned to monitor her recovery. It wasn’t long afterward that Meghan left the room with a sideways glare meant to warn both men that they were in for trouble.

  “Well?” Lily asked, directing her question toward Ridge. He admired her tenacity. “What was it that you wanted to discuss with Agent Malone?”

  “You’re not safe.” Ridge wasn’t one to beat around the bush, and she deserved unbiased answers that outlined the facts as he knew them. “You were attacked by a serial killer in your own home where you were exposed. You not only managed to escape, but you also inflicted damage on him and precipitated his current flight from the authorities. No other victim has accomplished as much, and his reaction to these facts are unknown. That alone puts your life in danger.”

  Dean glanced toward Ridge, as if knowing there had been a lot more that he wanted to say when he’d asked for some privacy. There was quite a bit of ground that needed to be covered before Dean would agree to allow Ridge to take her to his home.

  “You still have no idea of the identity of The Widow Taker?” Lily asked, directing her question toward Dean. The agent sighed in frustration that he hadn’t gotten an agreement from his key witness regarding her cooperation. “He had to have left behind a virtual smorgasbord of his DNA.”

  “We have had his DNA for some time, and we’ve been able to link the unsub to the crime scenes in question. We’ve built a solid case that won’t allow him to circumvent the charges that will be filed against him, but he’s not in any database system anywhere. He’s never committed a serious crime, had a background check done, nor been a member of any military organization we have or are allied with that would warrant any of those agencies to have his DNA on file.” Dean slid his hands inside the pockets of his dress coat. “As we’ve indicated before, we believe that he’ll attempt to finish what he started with you. He—”

  Dean’s cell phone began to ring, cutting off the rest of his speech. It was good, but it wasn’t going to be good enough to get Lily to agree to be under watch twenty-four-seven. Ridge figured she might even be considering the possibility of leaving the state of Connecticut at this point, given that she had no support with the exception of an old family friend who’d tried to see her earlier today.

  The hospital’s own security guard had turned Janice Simone away before she even got to the unit, but Ridge had managed to catch up to the woman before she left the grounds. He’d heard the report of the contact from the deputy’s radio while he was watching Lily rest earlier. He’d bolted for the stairs in an instant to catch up to Janice.

  They’d had an interesting conversation, to say the least.

  “I’ll be right back,” Dean murmured, having already accepted the call and was in the process of walking out the door of Lily’s room.

  The beeps of the monitors were still quite monotonous and annoying. Ridge made his way back to the chair that was beside Lily’s bed, making himself comfortable without saying another word. He’d already pushed enough, and Lily came across as the type of woman who’d weathered numerous storms. He’d offered her sa
nctuary, but he couldn’t force her to seek the type of refuge that he proposed.

  “What was it that you wanted to speak to Agent Malone about?” Lily asked quietly, yet with an underlying determination. Her attention was riveted to him. Ridge thought that maybe she might alternatively attempt to hear Dean’s conversation out in the hallway, but she was too laser focused on getting an answer to her question. “It wasn’t simply to say that I’m not safe, because we both already knew that. You don’t seem to be deceitful by nature, so spill it.”

  “Leaving town isn’t going to deter someone like this.”

  “Neither is being kept in a cage,” Lily pointed out. She’d lost a bit of color since she’d awakened earlier, but that was to be expected. Her pain had to be increasing as her previous medication wore off, but she remained stoic as she sought the truth. “You know that I truly appreciate what you did for me last night, and it’s likely that I’ll never be able to repay you. But we’re past that initial point, and I deserve to know what you were going to discuss with Agent Malone, especially if it concerns my welfare.”

  Ridge stretched the fingers on his right hand the way he used to do in the field when mulling over a particularly troubling tactical problem. He hadn’t had to do the mindless gesture in a while due to the fact that he hadn’t been faced with a complex decision…until now.

  “I called in a favor from an old friend.” Ridge monitored her reaction. Not even the pupils of her greenish-brown eyes altered as a result of his admission. “A specialized security agency, of sorts. The owner and operator will be flying in from Florida tonight to give me his assessment of the current situation. He’ll set up a defensive perimeter around the cabin and might even stay in place until this blows over.”

  “You and I both know this might not blow over soon. It’s probably best that I—”

  “Run?” Ridge proposed, already aware of the reaction that he would receive.

  “Despite what you’ve most likely heard, I’m not usually one to run for the hills,” Lily snapped back, her anger finally surfacing and giving him another glimpse of the fighter he met last night. “My not being in the immediate area could free up manpower that Agent Malone could otherwise utilize in order to search for The Widow Taker. That sick bastard called me his mother. Clearly, he’s unstable.”

  Lily had gotten winded in her speech, but she still forged ahead after holding up a finger to stop him from interrupting.

  “You carried out your promise,” she pointed out, her knuckles having turned stark white from her tight grasp on the blanket. The level of her pain was clearly intensifying, causing him agitation at her stubbornness. “There’s no need for you to go above and beyond here, and don’t you dare imply it’s because you’re bored with your retirement.”

  Ridge shifted the chair back a bit so that he could lean forward to point out a few flaws in her overall theory. She had valid points on all of them, but it came down to the fact that he had the ability to protect her in a way that she couldn’t obtain through the FBI or on her own.

  “Lily, we have no idea the mental state of the man who attacked you last night nor his capabilities. He could try to come after you again, or he could simply walk away and disappear without another word for months or years to come.” Ridge rubbed his shoulder to ease the ache that hadn’t been helped by catching a few minutes of sleep here and there in the padded chair in the corner. “I realize that we’re strangers, but I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours watching over you. I can’t walk away at this point, and my strategy gives Agent Malone the ability to do his job without losing any additional manpower, as well. Let me help you. It is part of what I do better than anyone else you’ve ever imagined.”

  Ridge had refrained from calling her the nickname he’d given her that seemed to come too easily to the tip of his tongue, and he recognized the need to give her space right now. He’d simply laid out the facts as he knew them.

  The ball was now in her court.

  Unfortunately, the hospital door opened to reveal the nurse who’d left earlier. Meghan was accompanied by a physician who held a tablet in his hand and was already giving his patient a stern expression.

  “What’s this I hear about you wanting to discharge yourself?” the physician asked as he read over the digital chart, pausing only to look at her over the rim of his glasses. “The stab wound you received managed to avoid your liver, but…”

  The doctor continued to go over Lily’s surgical notes and a litany of her injuries in hopes of convincing her to stay in the hospital to be monitored and cared for while the nurse stood aside and nodded in agreement, with an I told you so look plastered across her face. Ridge could see that the physician was a professional and concerned only for his patient’s health. There didn’t seem to be any preconceived notions or judgements regarding Lily’s former husband and what his actions had caused this hospital.

  Ridge took the opportunity to see why Dean hadn’t returned from his phone call, and Lily even appeared a bit relieved to have some privacy with her doctor.

  “…send a patrol car over to his residence.” Dean waved aside the deputy who had been about to stop Ridge from advancing toward the agent. “We already have one victim from the pub in the morgue. I don’t want a second, if at all possible. Keep me posted.”

  “What was that about?” Ridge asked without hesitation.

  Dean was clearly weighing his choice of words. Ridge understood that there were certain aspects of the investigation that civilians shouldn’t be privy to, and with good reason. He also freely admitted that leaving the Corps and joining the civilian way of life had taken more than a bit of an adjustment. This situation wasn’t improving his mood.

  Ridge hated having his hands tied in these circumstances.

  “You should know that I called in a favor from an old friend.” Ridge figured his announcement wasn’t going to win him any favor, but this was about keeping Lily safe. “He owns and operates Safeguard Security & Investigations, which is based out of Florida. His name is—”

  “Townes Calvert.” Dean came across as a federal agent who played his cards close to his chest, but the fact that he clenched his jaw as he said the name spoke volumes. “Ridge, you should have run your idea past me first.”

  “Calvert won’t interfere with your investigation,” Ridge vowed, knowing that the chip he was owed didn’t extend that far. It also wouldn’t benefit Lily to alienate the lead agent on the case. “He’s simply going to upgrade my security system. His team isn’t even joining him. I asked him here as a consult only. All I want is a safe haven for Lily until you catch this son of a bitch. The man has access to top of the line equipment that can make it so she can sleep at night without fear of someone attempting to kill her.”

  The wing of this hospital was relatively quiet after Dean had the staff keep the room on either side of Lily’s empty as long as feasible. He wasn’t taking any chances with the one ace that he held in his hand, which was exactly what Lily was in this situation. It was clear over the few discussions that Ridge had with Linc that the unsub wouldn’t allow himself to fail at the job that he’d tasked himself with in regard to giving widows some so-called peace that he’d conjured up in his demented view of the world.

  “Why are you so dead-set on putting yourself between him and her?” Dean asked, regarding Ridge closely for any sign that their relationship was more than just that of neighbors. Hell, he had never even met Lily before last night. It was a damn good question, and one Lily herself had posed a few short minutes ago. “I can simply put her into protective custody with the state police, and you can walk away. This isn’t your problem unless you make it yours, Ridge.”

  He debated on even answering, especially after witnessing the doctor depart Lily’s room. Ridge didn’t want to leave her alone for long, but it appeared that Meghan had stayed behind, most likely to change the dressing on Lily’s wound as intended.

  “I didn’t get my professional reputation by walking away when certa
in danger raised its ugly head. This scumbag has never dealt with someone like me. He has no idea what I am, and it shifts the initiative to our side. You need that advantage.” Ridge sure as hell didn’t have to answer the question, and he honestly didn’t give a shit about any status that his name had achieved from simply doing his job. “My gut is telling me that I can’t walk away from her and shuck off my responsibility. If I do…”

  Dean nodded his understanding, though Ridge wasn’t certain they were even remotely reading from the same page. He wasn’t even sure that he understood why he was still sitting at Lily Hudson’s bedside. There would be time to figure all that out after he got her secured away in his cabin.

  “Look, having Calvert and his agency give you the most up-to-date security system is a good idea,” Dean conceded with understanding. “Your name has been floating around the news agencies like leaves in the wind. That alone might generate ancillary threats all on its own. We can’t be sure that the unsub won’t try to come after you, as well. Having the two of you in one place isn’t a completely bad idea, although I wish you would reconsider the location. Either way, we’ll make it work. Know this, though—you and Ms. Hudson will have a protection detail whether Calvert is involved or not.”

  “Understood.” Ridge didn’t resent the fact that Dean had a job to do, but cooperation from both parties went a long way. “Who are you looking for?”

  Ridge wasn’t sure that Dean would answer the inquiry, but he glanced down at his phone with concern. He then slipped the device into the pocket of his dress coat.

  “We have a male who could possibly be in danger due to his association with yesterday’s murder victim. The sheriff has just issued a BOLO and is on his way to speak with the wife now.”

  “The murder victim? Meaning Rhonda Benson?” Ridge asked, having read this morning’s headlines.

  A bartender at the local pub had been found dead in the back alley. She’d been stabbed to death, though she didn’t fit the criteria of the serial killer’s usual victims. She wasn’t a widow. Something had obviously tied her death to the current case, though. Otherwise, federal agents wouldn’t be combing all over the place looking for leads linking the two investigations.