Unexpected tears burned behind her eyes. “All right. I trust you. We’ll play it safe.”
He was doing this for her. He’d put his trust in her. Not right away, and not easily, but he’d turned a corner. She wasn’t going to question his methods. He was the one person who believed in her.
She glanced around. “What are we waiting for?”
“I want to wait a few minutes, watch the traffic, just to be sure.”
She reached for the door handle. “Then you won’t mind if I take advantage of the facilities. All that coffee I drank this morning is starting to catch up with me.”
She spotted a public restroom sign near the front entrance and jerked her thumb in the general direction. He’d be able to see her entering and exiting, which should make him feel better.
“Sure thing,” he said, his tone distracted.
She paused for a moment, her hand on the door. Her thoughts circled back to the train station. Maybe someone in Corbin’s office had tipped them off. Maybe the transmitter had been in her phone. For all they knew, the two men had seen them leaving the restaurant. It was dark. They’d been exhausted.
There was one thing she knew for certain: there was no possible way they were still being tracked.
* * *
Beth hopped out of the car and jogged off, her ponytail bobbing along with her easy stride. Corbin watched for a moment before looking away. He had to keep watch over her for the sake of the investigation—nothing else. He certainly shouldn’t be noticing that she had the easy, rolling gait of someone accustomed to jogging.
She’d left her backpack on the seat, and the price tag still dangled from the zipper.
He reached for the bag, and a chill snaked down his spine. He glanced at the small building Beth had disappeared into, and back at the bag. He’d trusted her to rid herself of her belongings, but she wasn’t a professional. She might have missed something.
He tamped down his twinge of guilt. This was part of his job.
Without giving himself time to regret his actions, he dumped the contents of her bag on to the seat. The new clothing they’d purchased this morning was quickly tossed aside. He caught sight of her money pouch and unzipped the top. Carefully thumbing through each of the bills, he searched the contents. Nothing.
He shook the backpack again, and something rattled. A second pocket. He unzipped the compartment and several makeup items tumbled free along with a small, framed picture.
She’d said she’d dumped everything. Not the picture. He recognized the frame from her desk at Quetech. There was a scratch marring the wood. Same picture. Same frame.
Her dad had been a cop. He’d understand. “Sorry, sir,” Corbin mumbled to the picture. “But I have to know.”
He cracked open the picture frame and searched the back, then sagged against the seat. Nothing.
A shadow darkened the car window, and he glanced up. A young couple pushing a stroller passed by. He didn’t have much time. As he replaced Beth’s belongings into the backpack, her makeup compact slipped off the seat and hit the floor. The top burst open releasing a cosmetic sponge.
Stretching across the gearshift, he reached for the plastic case. As he placed the round makeup sponge back into the tray, something caught his eye.
He held the plastic to the light. A raised metallic square had been attached to the hollow bottom of the compact where the makeup sponge was stored.
His pulse jerked. He knew how the two men discovered the hotel.
They’d been tracked, all right.
* * *
Beth sensed something was wrong the minute she resumed her seat in the car. “What is it?”
The crease in Corbin’s brow folded in on itself. “You got rid of everything, right?”
“Yes,” she insisted.
“What about this?” He displayed her father’s picture. “And this?” He held her compact in the other hand.
“You went through my bag!” A flush spread across her face. “What gives you the right to go through my belongings?”
“This.” He yanked his badge from his pocket. “This is my job, Beth. Or had you forgotten that?”
Her cheeks burned. “I searched every inch of that picture and frame. There’s nothing there. You saw yourself. I couldn’t leave it behind. It’s the only thing I have of h-him.” Her voice caught on the last word.
“But what about this?”
He displayed her makeup compact once more.
“You’re being ridiculous. That’s just makeup. I bought it on Friday. A little retail therapy.” She was babbling now, but the way he was looking at her had the blood rushing through her veins. “I went shopping at the department store next to Quetech. I didn’t even take it out of the box until last night.”
She adored the decadent feel of the packages. Not to mention it was free-gift time. Getting the free gift always made her feel better about the exorbitant amount of money she was spending.
Given Corbin’s frowning countenance, he probably wasn’t interested in hearing about her Friday afternoon adventures.
He flipped open the lid. “Look.”
She squinted, and her stomach dropped. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.” He indicated the raised circle attached to the plastic. “This is definitely a tracking device.”
“But... I... I don’t understand. I told you, I just took it out of the box this morning.”
“When did you buy it?”
“On Friday, during lunch break. I always go shopping on Friday. For, you, know...”
“Chocolate.”
The sense of betrayal sucked the breath from her lungs. “How could I forget? You’ve been spying on me.”
She’d let down her guard. His easygoing manner had lured her into a false sense of trust. No matter what he’d said before, he didn’t trust her. In the end, she didn’t mean anything to him. She was a means to an end. Nothing more.
“Don’t turn everything into a conspiracy,” he said easily. “I noticed you disappeared every Friday and returned with chocolate. You walked right past my office. We’d chat.”
“Would you have talked to me otherwise?” She’d deliberately walked past his office because she enjoyed their chats. He was cute. He was nice. He made her pulse flutter. And everything he’d said to her while he was working at Quetech had been a lie. “Was any of what you said to me true just now?”
“Yes. Everything I said to you just now is true.” He indicated the makeup compact. “Including the part where I discovered a tracking device in your backpack.”
“They shot at me, too, you know.”
“I know. That’s why we’re having this conversation in a parked car, and why I’m not hauling you into the local police department. You’re telling me this was brand-new on Friday?”
“Yes.” She narrowed her gaze. “That’s why I didn’t throw it away.” And also because it was really expensive. But mostly because she didn’t see how or when someone could have attached a tracking device. She still didn’t. “That hasn’t been out of my sight.”
“Not even at work?”
“No. I keep my purse in a locked drawer.” She recalled her last day. She’d been nervous. Too nervous to eat. She’d done some more shopping instead. The line had taken longer than she’d expected, and she’d barely returned in time for an afternoon meeting. She’d locked her purse in the drawer. The department store bag hadn’t fit. She’d shoved it behind a row of folders. No one stole makeup, she’d figured. How did anyone know if the color matched? “That’s wrong. I left the bag on my desk.”
“All right. Let’s think.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “When was the last time you used the compact?”
“Never. I haven’t had a chance.” She braced her hands against the dashboard. The full impact was sinking in, and her stomach lurched. “I never even consid
ered there might have been something in the compact. It’s been a crazy couple of days. I haven’t exactly been primping in front of the mirror.”
“I believe you. You don’t need to justify anything.”
Beth’s heart leaped into her throat. “What?”
“This means whoever was tracking us was in the Quetech building. Not in the parking garage.”
“Someone at Quetech did this? One of the other employees?”
“Most likely. Think about it, though. You said it yourself on Friday. No one does anything in that building without leaving a cyber trail. We need to get access to the security cameras inside the building. If Homeland Security is already looking at the footage from the parking garage, we can get a warrant for the internal footage. If we can narrow down the time frame, we can make it easier on everybody.”
Friday wasn’t that long ago, but she felt as though she was looking back on a different person. “Sam did his presentation in the morning. I got back from lunch just before one o’clock. There was a staff meeting that lasted until two-fifteen.”
“All right. That helps. And you didn’t see anything unusual when you left?”
“No. And I was looking. I was paranoid. The building was clearing out. They’d let everyone off early for the holiday.”
“All right. That narrows it down to a brief window. Anything helps.”
Her head throbbed. Had she been reading Corbin all wrong? He wasn’t blaming her. She’d fallen into the same trap she’d accused him of creating. “We can also rule out everyone who was in the meeting.”
“Wait.” He pivoted on his seat. “Was Sam in that staff meeting?”
“No.” She whipped around. She’d been so distracted by her own problems, she hadn’t paid much attention to anyone else. “He probably should have been. I never thought to ask. Janice was there, though. Matt was there. I remember because he came in late. A couple of other people from other departments. I didn’t know them.”
“That should make pinpointing the time of Sam’s death easier.” He studied the cosmetics case, holding it up to the light. “Now we have to think of something special to do with this little guy.”
“Like get out of here,” she said. “Fast. They might be sending another team to find us since the first one hasn’t been doing such a great job.”
“This isn’t the movies. Putting a second team in place takes time. If they even have a second team.” He brought up the map on his phone and expanded the picture. “They have to find another car since they’ve been compromised. I say we take this opportunity to feed them a little misinformation.”
“How do we do that?”
“By sending this transmitter on a little a trip. C’mon. It’s time for some mini donuts.”
She stepped from the car, but her legs had gone weak. She took a few steps and sagged against the hood. Everything that had happened was her fault. The shoot-out at the train station. Everything. She’d been leading the two goons along every step of the way. Putting both her and Corbin in danger at every turn. She’d thought she’d been careful. Certain she’d thought of everything, but they’d been a step ahead of her the whole time. She’d had too much pride to see what was painfully obvious.
She wrapped her hands around her middle as though to hold herself together.
Corbin circled around the car. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know. To be honest, I assumed they’d tracked your phone. If I’d been more vigilant last night, none of this would have happened.”
She’d blamed him for believing the worst about her when she’d been guilty of her own sanctimony.
“You finally trusted me.” He was giving her a moment to collect herself, and she appreciated his thoughtfulness. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what else to say.”
“The important thing is that we know. We know how they were tracking us, which means we know they can’t follow us anymore. That’s a good outcome. The best.”
“But you were shot.” She gestured toward his arm. “They met us at the train station. That is not a good outcome.”
He rolled his shoulder. “You didn’t pull the trigger. We’ve discovered some very rotten people, and you’re going to help me catch them. End of story.”
“But...”
“No buts. We’re at a festival. There are mini donuts. Nothing bad can happen at a place with mini donuts.”
She offered him a watery smile. “Are you sure? Is it safe?”
“It’s probably the safest place we can be right now. I’ll request some extra patrols in the area. We’ll ditch the GPS device, and be long gone by the time they get here. Security will be on the lookout. This is the best place to trap them.”
She straightened, but her legs weren’t steady, and she pitched forward. She caught a handful of his shirt to right herself, then swayed forward, drawn to him. He caught her around the shoulders and crushed her against his chest.
He was solid and safe, the warmth of his body soothing her frayed nerves. His faint breath stirred her hair, and his arm tightened around her, holding her steady. She hadn’t felt truly safe since Timothy’s death. She’d been so naive, thinking she could turn over the evidence and escape unscathed. Thinking that she didn’t need any help.
For the past three years, since her dad’s death, she’d been pushing all her feelings aside, as though she might visit them on a rainy day, but she was only putting off the inevitable. She hadn’t slowed down long enough to think about how isolated she’d become. How lonely.
The unremitting threat of the situation had lowered her defenses, unlocking all those buried emotions. They were tumbling over her in waves. Loneliness. Sorrow. Fear.
Underneath everything there was a vague sense of dissatisfaction. She wanted something, but she didn’t know what. She wanted something that was just out of reach.
Or maybe she simply wanted something she could never have.
“Everything is going to be fine, Beth,” Corbin whispered against her hair. “You’ll see. This is all going to be over soon.”
His heart beat against her ear, strong and rhythmic, and in that moment, she didn’t want their time together to be over. She wanted to stay here in the shelter of his embrace and feel safe. She wanted to feel connected to someone. If only for this moment.
She wasn’t the same naive fool she’d been before. This was all going to be over, and she was never going to see him again.
Though she knew her feelings were heightened by the situation, she didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight. She’d give herself this one moment.
She pressed her forehead against his chest. “I wish you were really the new financial consultant at Quetech Industries. I wish we’d gone to see Janice sing karaoke. I wish we could have had that coffee on Fifth street.”
“Me, too.”
“You don’t have to say that. It’s all right.” Everything she felt for him was based on a lie. “I don’t even know who you are. Not really.”
He tucked two fingers beneath her chin and gently tilted her head. “You know everything you need to know about me.” He was gazing at her with those ice-blue eyes, his expression tender. “You’ve been torturing me for the past two weeks, Beth Greenwood.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m supposed to be impartial. Detached. I can’t be. Not with you.” He gently gripped her shoulders, setting her away from him. “And that’s dangerous. For both of us. I have to keep you safe, and for that, I have to remain impartial. Alert. That sort of distraction could get us both killed. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“We can’t.” He speared his fingers through his hair. “Anything that happens between us risks the job. Risks the case against Cayman Holdings and Quetech. After everything you’ve been through, I can’t let that happen.”
“It’s all right,�
� she said quietly. “I understand.”
He searched her face, his gaze intense. “It’s not personal—”
“I understand.” She was part of an investigation. Any relationship was off-limits. What future did they have together, anyway? She was an accountant. She craved a sense of order in her life. A modicum of predictability. Routine. His life was anything but. “We’re wasting time. I want that tracker far away.”
“Agreed.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “Now c’mon. We have to dump this tracker and try those mini donuts. In that order.”
There was no use pining over the impossible. If she was lonely, then it was time she sought out a relationship. A healthy relationship with someone who shared her interests.
Her heart ached a bit. She wanted someone who wore glasses and looked a lot like a superhero from a comic book.
Maybe she’d even see about getting a job that kept her in town for more than a few weeks at a time. She was lonely because she’d chosen to conduct her life in a solitary manner. The time had come for a change.
She glanced at Corbin and firmed her resolve. He was keeping a distance between them. Holding part of himself back from her. He’d set the parameters of their relationship, and she owed it to him to respect those parameters. Considering the danger they were facing, her personal problems didn’t amount to a hill of beans.
With that sobering thought, she and Corbin paid the entrance fee to the harvest festival and were presented with pumpkin stickers to wear on their coats.
She glanced at the smiling Jack-o’-lantern. “It’s almost too bad Tweedledum and Tweedledumber aren’t here. I want to see them wearing one of these stickers.” She was still struggling with the realization that someone from her workplace had planted a tracking device on her possessions, and right under her nose. “How far can the device transmit?”
Concentrating on something solid helped focus her thoughts back to the problem at hand.
“It’s a short-range transmitter with a lithium battery,” Corbin said. “Like a watch battery, only smaller. The range is probably only a hundred miles. If they followed you to Union Station, all they had to do was wait for the signal to move in order to discover what train you’d taken. It’s not that hard to tell where a train is going.”
No Safe Place Page 14
