Harlequin Intrigue March 2021--Box Set 1 of 2

by Cindi Myers

  “What’s going on?” Lucas asked, stepping ahead and tucking Gwen protectively, instinctively behind him.

  “We don’t know,” a petite brunette said. “It’s really creepy. Right? Is it supposed to be a joke? Does it mean something?”

  The group loosened their semicircle, revealing the outline of a body painted on the ground. A head drawn over the rocks, arms wide and legs splayed into the grass. A hunting knife stabbed into the heart of the outline pinned a flyer to the ground. The sides flapped, and edges curled in the hearty breeze.

  Gwen gasped and stumbled backward. The brunette caught her and the others gathered tightly around, whispering words of comfort and sharing their own fears about what it might mean.

  “We called campus security,” someone said as Lucas inched over the small incline, snapping on a pair of gloves to avoid contaminating the scene. “SAVE THE DATE” was written across the top of the paper. Bellemont Homecoming across the bottom. Dates were inked in a series of pendants and balloons at the center.

  “It doesn’t make any sense, right?” a female voice asked from behind him.

  “Homecoming is this week,” someone else said. “The dates are wrong.”

  Lucas stretched back onto his feet and flashed his badge to the ladies, while a single tear fell from Gwen’s eye. “That was the date of homecoming six years ago. And this is officially a crime scene.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Gwen perched on the edge of an uncomfortable chair inside Lucas’s office at the West Liberty police station. It was nearly dinnertime, and she was feeling the weight of her day in the extreme. She was tired, hungry and the aspirin she’d taken that morning had long worn off. Add to that the stress of returning to Bellemont, only to see a threat had been laid out for her, and she wanted to scream. Somehow he’d known she would be there. Or maybe he’d planned for her to be there. After all, his invitation on her windshield was what had started her new nightmare. Was it possible the man stalking her knew her better than she knew herself? Because she’d only made the decision to go to Bellemont that morning, and it had taken some internal convincing.

  Her knees bobbed wildly beneath her as she waited for Lucas to return once more. He’d been called away numerous times since their arrival, giving and receiving information on her case. Each consecutive disappearance seemed to wind her nerves more tightly. She chewed gingerly at the tender skin around her thumbnail, wrangling a mass of ping-ponging thoughts.

  She wondered, for example, about the number of strange looks she’d received following Lucas into the station, after a crime scene crew had taken over on campus. The looks might not have been intentional, but there were definitely looks. Curious. Pointed. Looks. Did the lookers know who she was? Had they heard about everything that was going on around her? Or did they assume she was another in Lucas’s long line of, allegedly fictional, dates. Not that any of that should matter now.

  She freed her tortured thumb and clasped her hands, then released them again in favor of scrubbing her face. She winced when her fingertips hit her goose egg on her forehead. Maybe that was what they’d all been looking at. The entire day had been a train wreck of emotions. The whole week, really. From her suspicions of being followed, to the flyer confirming it, a near abduction, then all this. She leaned forward to wedge her forearms against her bobbing knees and hissed at the burn in her side where stitches closed her recent knife wound.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. Deep inhalations. Slow exhalations. And she focused her thoughts on that night, six years ago. If she wanted to help stop her attacker, she needed to remember something useful.

  She visualized her closest college friends. Recalled the restaurant where they’d met for dinner and drinks. The squeals and applause when she showed them her engagement ring. She saw the meal. The drinks. And the night’s sky as she’d tipped her head back, admiring the endless stars on her walk home. In those precious moments, everything was right in her world.

  Her eyes opened unintentionally, and her thoughts bounced back to the present. The way they always did when she got to this part of the memory.

  She dropped her face into waiting palms, pressing her hands hard against closed eyes, and tried again. Remember, she ordered herself, falling back to the lost moments.

  Her skin went cold, and the flashes began immediately.

  Angry eyes. A black balaclava. Pain.

  Grass. Trees. Rocks. Blood.

  Her eyes opened once more. Protecting herself from what was to come. She struggled to steady her breaths, which were short and ragged. Her body shook with effort, as if remembering was physically exhausting, yet she hadn’t managed to do that. Not really.

  It had taken her weeks to recall anything at all about that night. She’d successfully, unintentionally, blocked every detail beyond the moment she’d kissed Lucas goodbye. He went to work. She went to meet friends. Her mind had buried everything else in mental concrete, which she’d slowly chipped away at for years. Only recently uncovering a few flashes of images and sounds.

  Her therapist had called it progress.

  Lucas’s voice drew her attention to the door. He cruised inside with drinks. “Sorry that took so long.” He set a cup of coffee on his desk, then offered her a bottle of water.

  “Thanks.”

  “But wait,” he said, digging into his pocket. “There’s more.” He produced a two-pack of aspirin and passed them her way.

  “Bless.” She accepted the offer greedily. “What’s going on now?” she asked, popping the pills into her mouth, then washing them down. “You were gone awhile. Did they find something at the scene?” Something that led directly to the man who was ruining her life?

  “No.” Lucas rested his backside against his desk, stretching long legs between them. “This was something different.” He grimaced and shook his head. “I’ve got a repeat offender I keep arresting, Tommy Black. He likes to get high and assault his girlfriend. I put him in jail again earlier this week, but he made bail. I called to warn his girl, because he sees her as the reason he gets arrested.”

  Gwen rolled her eyes. “She calls the police, so he says it’s her fault?”

  “Yep. Well, it’s been more than seventy-two hours since he made bail, so I should’ve expected I’d see him again.”

  Heat rushed to Gwen’s cheeks and her empty stomach heaved. “What does that mean? He hurt her again?”

  “Like clockwork,” Lucas said. His shoulders were slumped, his expression weary. “I hate this guy, deeply, and there’s nothing I can do about him. I make the arrest. He gets off. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. It’d help if the girlfriend would testify against him, but she won’t. She calls for help, but that’s it. She says it’s my job from there, and I just keep failing her.”

  “She’s scared,” Gwen said, her throat tightening with the words. “I can’t imagine living like that. Face-to-face with a real and present danger every day.” The fear of out-of-sight dangers was bad enough. What would it be like to know her monster was coming for her, in the flesh, at every turn? Hurting her again and again.

  “Well, it is what it is,” Lucas said. “Uniforms picked him up again, and they’re hauling him in now. He’s extra high, so he’s extra obnoxious, aggressive and loud. A real trifecta of fun.”

  Gwen went back to chewing on her thumbnail. “At least he’s been arrested. Is she okay?”

  “Hospital.” He sighed deeply, then peeled himself away from his desk. “I’m sure she’ll be here to plead his case as soon as they release her. I’ll have to leave you again for a few minutes when Tommy gets here. They’ll rebook him, and I’ll get a few minutes for another heart-to-heart. Maybe in his drugged-up state of mind he’ll reveal something that leads to an arrest on some other count that won’t need the girlfriend’s testimony to make stick.”

  Gwen nodded, feeling the unknown woman’s fear and turmoil as i
f it was her own. “Okay.”

  A sharp wolf whistle nearly launched her from her chair. The hearty laugh that followed drew a smile over her face.

  She angled on her seat to watch the familiar man walk through the door.

  Derek Winchester struck a cocky pose before her, all swagger and knockout good looks with a knee-buckling grin. “Well, if it isn’t my baby brother’s sexy ex. The fierce and formidable, Gorgeous Gwen Kind.” He winked.

  “Knock it off,” Lucas complained, motioning his oldest brother to take a seat.

  Derek obliged, lowering his lean body onto the chair beside hers. He slung a long arm across the back of her seat.

  Her smile grew and her heart danced at the sight of him. “What are you doing here?” She loved Derek like a brother. A rebellious, sexy older brother. One who’d always taken her side when she and Lucas debated anything. Whatever Derek could do to ruffle his family’s feathers, he was on it. Like becoming a private detective instead of just joining the force like his dad, granddad and great-granddad before him.

  In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a leap for Lucas to have traded architecture for law enforcement. Some might argue it was in his blood. Though, she’d never gotten the idea anyone expected him to do anything in life other than what he wanted. And Lucas had never said anything to make her think he was interested in carrying a badge.

  Derek looked her over, long and slow. “I heard you were here, and I had to come and see for myself.” His gaze lingered at the ugly purple-and-black knot on her head. “I heard you’ve had a rough couple of days.” He cast a look in Lucas’s direction.

  “Who told?” she asked.

  “Blaze.”

  “Ah,” she said. That made perfect sense. Blaze was their middle brother, a homicide detective at the precinct. One she hoped she’d see again soon. The circumstances were awful, but being there with Lucas and Derek felt a bit like an odd family reunion, and she liked it.

  Lucas pulled his phone into view and bobbed his head as he read the screen. “The guys are here with Tommy Black. I need to take care of that. You good?” he asked, flicking his gaze from Gwen to Derek, then back.

  She nodded and smiled.

  Lucas walked away slowly. “Don’t listen to anything Derek says,” he instructed.

  And Derek’s smile widened. “How are you holding up?” he asked, once Lucas had vanished.

  “I’m getting through it,” she said.

  “You always do.” He cocked his head and stretched back on his seat. “I wish I could say I’m sorry all this is happening.”

  “You’re not?” she asked, frowning despite herself.

  “Nah. If this guy wasn’t at it again, and coming about things the way he is, he might never be arrested for what he did to you. Now, it’s only a matter of time. Heck, Lucas might even let me help him now. Being a PI has its privileges you know. I don’t have to abide by all the same rules and regulations my brothers do. I can go a little rogue, as needed. It’s a perk of the trade.”

  “Uh-huh.” Gwen’s smile returned as she ran over his words with hope. “You really think he’ll be caught this time?”

  “I’m sure of it. He messed up when he made himself known. Whatever drove him to it is the same thing that’s going to be his downfall.” Derek’s phone buzzed inside his pocket, and he took it out for a look at the screen. “Duty calls,” he said. “I’m on the job, but I had to stop and say welcome back. You’re in good hands with Lucas. No one loves you like my brother.”

  She stood to see Derek to the door, then fell easily into his embrace when he offered one. The second hug, from a man, in less than twenty-four hours, and once again she was surprised by how easy and natural it felt. Though, Derek was much more than some man. He’d nearly been her brother-in-law, and he’d always been her champion. “See you,” she said, as he winked his goodbye.

  She leaned against the doorjamb, watching him leave and wondering if it could really be so simple to fall back into her previous life. Would everyone be as accepting as Lucas, Isaac and Derek? Surely not, but wouldn’t it be worth the meddlesome individuals who weren’t if it meant she could be back here again...permanently?

  Her ears perked at the sounds of distant shouts and commotion. Derek broke into a jog at the end of the hall, heading through the lobby door, toward whatever was happening.

  Thumps, crashes and curses grew louder by the second, and Gwen leaned forward, senses on high alert and ready to run. She wasn’t sure where she’d run, but the adrenaline was already building.

  “Tommy Black!” Lucas’s voice rose above the others, cut short as the door closed behind Derek.

  Gwen stepped into the hall, a small measure of relief soothing the growing panic. The source of the problem was a conflict between Lucas and his criminal nemesis. Not her personal monster come to make good on his threat drawn in the campus grass.

  A few steps from the door separating offices and interrogation rooms from the lobby, a thunderous boom erupted, and her muscles locked down.

  Derek’s face appeared outside the rectangular window in the door, eyes wide and expression hard. “Lucas!”

  Gwen’s world tilted. Her frozen muscles released, and she ran. Not away from the danger, but to it. The booming sound echoed in her heart and head. A gunshot? No. Not that, she thought. Please, not that. She couldn’t lose Lucas again. Not now.

  She burst into the lobby where a pack of officers had circled up, staring at the floor while a man in cuffs thrashed and kicked against his detaining officer. The thug landed a few kicks as others in uniform tried to still him. The mob shifted, and a large metal cabinet came into view, toppled onto the tile floor beside Lucas, glaring at the man in cuffs as blood rushed from his nose and lip.

  Gwen nearly laughed in relief. Lucas was fine. He’d possibly been the recipient of one of Tommy Black’s wild kicks, but he wasn’t shot, and he would heal. She tugged on the door she’d exited, only to find it locked, of course. She’d have to wait until an officer headed back inside. So, she sidestepped a clutch of lawmen, attempting to stay out of everyone’s way, and thankful the mess before her was something the police could handle.

  “Tommy!” A woman wailed, pulling Gwen’s attention toward the ladies’ room door. The woman raced forward, into the mix of flailing feet and shouting officers. Tears streamed over bruised cheeks, falling from two black eyes. “Baby! I’m sorry,” she cried, colliding with the man directly at Tommy’s back and attempting to pry his arms off her man.

  Tommy seemed to recognize her voice amid the chaos, and he jerked toward it, nearly tossing her and the man behind him off their feet.

  She pleaded for Tommy’s forgiveness as Derek caught her by the arms and pulled her back.

  Tommy screamed every awful thing Gwen had ever heard at the woman, and then some more.

  All the while, the station’s front doors opened and closed with the arrival and departure of visitors and officers. Some in suits. Some in uniforms.

  Gwen pressed herself to the wall, waiting for it all to end.

  When another criminal was hauled in wearing cuffs, Tommy seemed to double down on his efforts for freedom, and gooseflesh rose over Gwen’s arms.

  The incoming criminal took Tommy’s lead and began to buck and fight. His elbow landed in the doughy gut of his detaining officer, and the older man jackknifed forward, releasing his hold. The female officer manning the desk leaped into action, chasing the runaway man in cuffs, and the chaos doubled.

  A scalding wet collision stole Gwen’s breath, and for a moment, she thought she’d been attacked. A middle-aged man in a suit stared wide-eyed. His coffee cup now empty. Its contents thrown over Gwen’s chest and face.

  “I am so sorry,” he said, genuinely horrified. “I was shoved.” He looked behind him, but no one was there. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, pulling a white linen handkerchief from his pocket
.

  “I’m okay,” she said, plucking the material of her turtleneck away from her chest and waving off the handkerchief. For the first time in hours, she really was okay. “Excuse me.” She ducked into the restroom Tommy’s girlfriend had exited, then checked under every stall for good measure.

  A smile bloomed over her face in another rush of relief. Lucas was fine. She was fine. And everything else would be fine very soon. Derek believed that, and she would believe him, too.

  She tore a handful of paper towels from the dispenser then thrust them under cold water, prepared to do what she could for her cream turtleneck and jean jacket. And planning to take her time until the lobby quieted, and she could ask to be let back inside the main building.

  She lifted her gaze to the mirror, wet towels pressed to her chest.

  And saw the masked man’s reflection in the mirror only a moment before his hands curved around her neck from behind, and he began to squeeze.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lucas ambled back down the hall to his office. His nose throbbed, and if it wasn’t broken, it’d be a miracle. A slow smile spread over his face at the thought. That would make two miracles, because his first was that Tommy Black officially assaulted an officer. Six officers, actually, while high, angry and extremely disorderly. He’d threatened to kill all the injured cops, blow up the station, murder his girlfriend and a slew of other vicious things while on camera. So, Anise would finally be safe, at least for a little while, because Tommy would definitely get some real jail time now. With or without her testimony.

  He swung into his office with an apologetic grin. “Sorry that took so long.”

  The rest of the words stalled on his tongue. His office was empty.

  He went back into the hall. “Gwen?” he called, looking in both directions before heading toward the officers’ restrooms and vestibule with vending machines. He knocked on the bathroom door, then pressed it open an inch. “Gwen?”

  “What are you doing?” Derek asked, dropping change into the vending machine.