by Janie Crouch
She yanked her gaze from his face and studied the ankle monitor. There were no scratches, no markings whatsoever to indicate it had been tampered with.
“Just any attempt to open the device. Believe it or not, some people could start to feel claustrophobic because they can’t remove the hardware.”
She had no idea if that was true, but it sounded reasonable enough.
“No. I’m not prone to claustrophobia.” Icy voice once again.
There were no markings to indicate it had been overloaded with electricity, another way of attempting to dismantle it, but that would also have telltale signs.
“I’m just going to run a system diagnostics test while you’re here,” Bree said. “You shouldn’t feel anything.”
Although if she could’ve managed to rewrite the system so that the ankle monitor gave off a shock to Jared, she wouldn’t have hesitated to do so. Unfortunately, the device didn’t work that way.
She backdoored into the system, praying neither Jared nor his lawyer would understand what she was doing, and ran a full diagnostics test on everything: the monitor, the link between it and the system, the system itself.
She also made sure the GPS tracking was accurately calibrated, since she knew exactly where Jared was and could tell if it had been tampered with.
The system was perfect. The anklet was broadcasting exactly as it was meant to. Damn it.
She tried to think of any other tests she could run, but there wasn’t anything. She was grasping at straws. She stared at the hardware, willing an idea to come to her.
“Are we done here? My client hasn’t done anything wrong. Obviously the judge believes that to be true enough to release him on bail. I’m confident that Mr. Ellis will also be exonerated at his trial. We feel very certain of that. He’ll be free of your technology soon enough.”
Bree breathed past the bile pooling in her gut at the thought that this man could walk totally free. That Stobbart seemed so damn certain he would be. Jared just calmly rolled his pants leg back down, without a concern in the world.
“I hope you rot in hell.” As soon as the impulsive whisper was out of her mouth, she wished she could take the words back. Then prayed she’d said it low enough that neither of them heard her.
She wasn’t so lucky.
Jared’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You know Marilyn, don’t you?”
Bree scrambled out of her chair and backed up as Jared yanked his foot down and closed in on her. “Is she here? Where is she? I just want to talk to her.”
“Jared, not here—” Stobbart grabbed his shoulder, but Jared shook him off.
“Stay the hell out of this, Oscar,” Jared bit out, grabbing Bree by the upper arms and squeezing with bruising force. “You will tell me where my wife and family are. She’s my wife. I have a right to see her. To explain my side of things.”
Almost from a distance she heard the office door open and Tanner’s angry roar over Jared’s words. A second later Jared’s painful fingers released her as he was thrown up against the wall by Tanner.
“What’s going on here?” Parnam asked from the far side of the room, obviously not wanting to step in between Tanner and Jared.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on here...police brutality,” Stobbart said.
But Tanner had already released Jared and was standing by Bree, keeping himself between her and the other man.
“Your client was manhandling and intimidating my colleague,” Tanner said. “If you’re looking for brutality, it was coming at the hands of your client.”
“She knows where my wife is,” Jared spit out. “I just want to talk to Marilyn.”
“Jared, enough,” Oscar said. “Think about long term.”
“But she—”
“Enough!” Oscar yelled.
The room fell into silence except for Jared’s breathing as he attempted to get himself under control.
“The only thing you need to know about your wife and kids is that the restraining order against you still stands. If you come anywhere near them, you’re going right back to jail.” Tanner looked over his shoulder at Bree. “Are you okay? Did you get what you needed?”
“Yes.” She would have to give him the bad news later.
Stobbart was pulling Jared toward the door. “You can believe that this is all going to come back up in court. I’m not going to allow this to go unreported. My client has rights.”
Tanner shook his head. “Your client is the worst kind of scum, and I’ll look forward to making that fact known to anyone you want to bring this up with, judge included. There’s nothing I’d like better.”
Bree grabbed the back of his shirt, a little turned on by what a badass Tanner was. But mostly she just wanted them to get out of here.
Jared had regained his composure. “I’m okay, Oscar.”
Oscar turned to Parnam. “I assume you’ve got all you needed for the device to be calibrated and my client won’t be harassed again? We will only come in from now on if we’re instructed to by the judge.”
Parnam was still looking around trying to figure out exactly what was going on. “I guess so.”
“Then let’s go,” Stobbart said to Jared, taking him by the arm.
Both men walked toward the office door, but Jared turned around just before they left. He looked straight at Bree with those icy eyes.
“I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again.”
Tanner kept her body pinned all the way behind his. She wouldn’t even be able to see Jared if she didn’t peek her head out from around Tanner’s broad shoulders. She tried to step around him, to confront Jared herself, but Tanner wouldn’t let her.
That was fine. She didn’t really want to be face-to-face with Jared anyway. Not because she was afraid of him, but because she wasn’t sure she could stop herself from punching him in the jaw—and that would just make Stobbart giddy with all the harassment suits he could file. So she stayed behind Tanner.
Jared and Stobbart left without another word.
Tanner immediately turned around and yanked her to his chest. “Are you sure you’re all right? Did he hurt you?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Do you really think he doesn’t know where Marilyn is?”
“I don’t know. She’s not announcing where she is, but she’s not hiding it either. Jared is smart. It’s a good way of professing his innocence without overtly drawing attention to it. But it’s possible he doesn’t know, I guess.”
“What exactly is going on here?” Parnam asked, studying them.
Bree pulled away and they both turned back to Parnam. “Nothing has changed,” Tanner said. “We’re still trying to make sure Jared Ellis is not able to get anywhere near his wife, whom he assaulted bad enough to put into the hospital a few months ago.”
Parnam nodded, then looked at Bree. “But you know his wife? I thought you worked for Grand County?”
“She’s an independent contractor,” Tanner said. Bree just nodded.
Parnam raised an eyebrow. “Fine. I don’t want to get caught in the middle of anything. Somebody my age can’t be trying to look for a new job in this economy.”
Tanner nodded. “You’re not going to get caught in the middle of anything. Bree is definitely a computer expert. If there’s any chance Jared Ellis is manipulating his tracking monitor, she’s going to find it.”
“He’s not,” she said.
Tanner looked at her, lips in a thin line. “You’re sure? You were able to check everything you needed to? They didn’t stop you by showing up?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “They actually helped by showing up. I’m not an electronics expert, but I was able to figure out the workings of the anklet pretty easily. It’s transmitting exactly the way it’s supposed to. All backup systems and GPS tracking are online and calibrated correctly. It wasn’t Jared who started the fire.”
/> Tanner let out a low curse. “I don’t know if that’s better or worse.”
“Trust me, I wanted it to be him. I tried damn near everything I could think of. If he’s manipulating that monitoring system, he’s smarter than me.”
Tanner turned to her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Then he’s not manipulating the system. Because he’s definitely not smarter than you.”
“If Jared isn’t behind the fire, then who is?”
“That’s what we’ve got to find out.”
Chapter Eight
The image of Jared Ellis’s hands on Bree was enough to send fire through Tanner’s gut all the way back to Risk Peak. It had taken every ounce of control he possessed not to punch Ellis in the face, damn the consequences.
But that would’ve been a mistake that might have gotten the entire trial thrown out and made Jared a free man. Oscar Stobbart would’ve liked nothing better.
Bree was quiet on the way home. At first, he’d been worried that she’d been hurt and wasn’t telling anyone, but she’d assured him that wasn’t it, in a tight, almost distant voice. Bree wasn’t a cranky or irritable person. If she was short with him, it was because that brilliant mind of hers was focusing intently on something else.
Most people could multitask, or at least hold a conversation with other people while thinking about something else. Not Bree. When she was focused on something, inconsequential things—like talking to people—got lost for her.
So while she was still trying to figure out how Jared might circumvent the monitoring system, Tanner knew better than to interrupt her thought process.
“I don’t know how he could’ve done it,” she finally whispered as they pulled up to the New Journeys building. “He might have paid someone else to start the fire, but I don’t think there’s any way he did it himself. I’m sorry.”
Tanner reached over and cupped her cheek. “Don’t be sorry. Eliminating a suspect is also helpful. It means we don’t waste our time looking in that direction anymore.”
“If he or anyone else tries to hack the ankle monitor, I’ve put stopgaps in place to notify me. Unless he’s got someone smarter than me, there’s no way he’s going to get to Marilyn without us knowing.”
He kissed her. “He doesn’t have anyone smarter than you. I’m sure of it. So now we focus on finding who started the fire if it wasn’t Jared.”
He left her at New Journeys and spent the rest of the day attempting to do that and not getting very far. He and Ronnie were back to looking into the significant others of the residents of New Journeys and scouring over the fire inspector’s report. Neither the timing mechanism nor the detonator matched any particulars of the fire department’s list of known arsonists, so that was a dead end too.
Tanner’s investigating brought him back around to Jared. Just because the man hadn’t set the fire himself didn’t mean he wasn’t involved. The more Tanner looked into Jared’s fraternity brothers, the less he liked what he saw. This was a tight-knit group. Even now, years after college, they still got together regularly. There seemed to be a group of five of them who were closest. Not all of them lived in Colorado, but most of them were here now, celebrating Jared’s bail.
The preliminary background checks on all of them had come back clean. Tanner wasn’t surprised. These guys were too smart to keep their dirty laundry out in the open.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
The trick was going to be catching them while keeping Marilyn safe.
Until Jared’s trial, it looked like the protective shifts around Marilyn and her kids would need to continue. Tanner would do his part too, particularly because if danger was coming after Marilyn, it would definitely be too close to Bree for his liking.
He was ready to get married to her and have her right beside him every night. With their track record, he could pretty much guarantee trouble would still be coming, but at least he’d have her by his side where he could be sure to protect her.
Just twelve more days. Twelve more days and they’d be tied to each other forever.
He was smiling as he finally left the office at 8:00 p.m. and walked toward his car. Forever didn’t scare him in the least.
“I don’t even want to ask what that smile is all about.” Noah was leaning against Tanner’s SUV.
“Just happy to see you, brother, of course.”
“Got time to hang out in Denver?”
Tanner rolled his eyes. “You know I’ve already been there once today, right?”
Noah pushed off from against the vehicle. “I know Bree said Ellis isn’t hacking his ankle monitor—”
“He’s not.”
“—but I need eyes on him and his crew myself,” Noah continued. “I’m going with or without you.”
Tanner studied his brother. He didn’t like the look in his eyes. “Then I’m going.”
Noah gave him a surprised nod, like he had more arguments he could pull out if he needed to. He didn’t need to. Tanner wasn’t letting him go alone. After what happened this morning, things were already too delicate.
Tanner threw his bag into the back seat, then got in the driver’s side. Noah got in on the passenger’s side.
“I’m a little surprised you even told me you were going,” Tanner said once they were a few miles down the road. Noah was more than capable of handling any sort of surveillance by himself.
He was capable of a hell of a lot more by himself too.
Noah shrugged. “I respect you, little brother. I respect that you chose the same route as Dad and choose to help uphold the law. And, even though I don’t spend much time hanging out in the town itself, Risk Peak is my home.”
“None of which actually explains why you invited me on this little adventure.”
Noah stared straight out the windshield. “I needed someone I could trust.”
“Trust to do what?”
“Trust to keep me from killing these bastards if the opportunity presents itself.”
Those words coming from anyone else would’ve had Tanner shifting straight into law-enforcement mode. But this was his brother. So Tanner kept himself relaxed, even if he didn’t really feel that way. “You know we have absolutely no proof that Jared or any of his cronies were involved with the fire.”
Noah didn’t say anything for a long time. “Ellis doesn’t realize how lucky he is just to be still breathing after what he did to Marilyn.”
Tanner’s hands gripped the steering wheel more tightly. “Noah, you’re going to have to let the system be his judge and jury. Not you.” He glanced over at his brother. “Make no mistake, I will lock you up until after the trial to keep you from doing something stupid.”
“It’s why I’ve got you here,” Noah muttered. He stared out the passenger window for a long time.
“I’ve seen stuff, Tanner. You know that. In special ops, I saw all sorts of violence against men, women and children that is the stuff nightmares are made of. But nothing I ever saw there puts me anywhere near the killing rage I feel when I think about Ellis hurting Marilyn.”
Tanner wasn’t sure his brother was aware of the reality of his own feelings. “You do know that’s got more to do with Marilyn than it does Ellis, right?”
Noah’s eyes, so much like Tanner’s own, pinned him with a glare. “I know you’re not trying to say what Ellis did was okay.”
“Not at all. What I’m saying is that killing rage you feel isn’t just because of his actions. It’s because of him doing it to her.” Tanner held a hand out to stop Noah’s argument before it could go any further. “I’m not saying the bastard doesn’t deserve to rot in jail. I’m just saying that rage you’re talking about is because of her, not because of him.”
Tanner returned his eyes to the road. Noah didn’t say anything further as he processed it all. It may take Noah a while to recognize the
truth, but he didn’t lie to himself.
“I’ve been working with Marilyn,” Noah finally said softly, still looking out the window. “Self-defense stuff, even before we knew Ellis’s release was a possibility. She’s so damn little. Doesn’t seem to have any sort of warrior instinct. She’s not like Bree, who survived on her own for so long. Marilyn is the type of woman who is meant to be cared for. She’s not someone who should have to fight tooth and nail just to exist.”
“Marilyn is stronger than you think. She has to be to have survived what she’s survived.”
Noah rubbed the top of his black hair—still cut military short even though he’d been out of the army for nearly five years now. “Oh, believe me, I know she’s strong. I have never mistaken her quietness for weakness.”
“You’re doing the right thing, teaching her what you can. Whatever she doesn’t have as natural intuition can be made up for with other skills. She may not have the attack instinct...”
“But she can be taught other ways to make up for that.”
They were silent for long minutes.
“I want to fight her battles for her,” Noah said. “But I know that in the long run I’m doing a disservice to her by feeling that way. The best thing I can do for her is teach her how to fight the monsters herself.”
Tanner waited for him to say more, but evidently, he was done talking about it. It was the most he’d heard his brother talk about anything personal in the five years he’d been home.
Noah might be teaching Marilyn some things, but it seemed she was teaching him some things, as well.
It wasn’t long before they were pulling up at the downtown Denver town house where Jared was staying. Neither of them said what both of them were thinking: that something was definitely not right when Ellis currently resided in a million-dollar home while his wife and children lived in a shelter designed for people without a home at all.
Tanner had researched this property earlier today. “Town house is owned by a guy named Marius Nixon. He’s the same one who put the money up for Jared’s bail. Of all this little posse, Nixon is the cleanest. I’ve got confirmation that he’s not even in the country right now.”
