by Sharon Sala
Unaware that Parks’s prior employees had tried that and failed miserably, he opened his safe, picked up a couple of GPS tracking devices in magnetic cases, then put them and a laptop into his briefcase and left his office, pausing at his secretary’s desk long enough to tell her where he was going.
“I’m leaving for an early lunch, and will be out the rest of the afternoon scouting locations. You know how to reach me.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, and then went back to work as he walked out of the office into a blast of cold air and glanced up at the gathering storm clouds.
“Damn,” he muttered, and ran for the car.
* * *
Charlie was at his desk all morning, but was accomplishing nothing. His heart and thoughts were with Annie. It was just before noon when he finally signed off at the computer and stood. He stretched, then turned to face the bank of windows behind his desk. The thunderstorm was almost on top of them.
He glanced down at the parking lot, and as he did, he saw someone come speeding into the lot, then brake to a sliding halt behind Wyrick’s Mercedes.
Charlie frowned, and when he saw the driver get out on the run with something in his hand and drop to his knees behind her car, he turned and ran.
Wyrick looked up as Charlie flew past her desk and then out the door. She didn’t know what was wrong, but if Charlie was running, she was following. She ran out into the hall toward the elevator. But as she passed the stairwell and heard the sounds of footsteps going down, she took the stairs, as well, leaping several steps at a time.
She came out onto the main floor just as Charlie hit the exit door with the flat of his hand and ran outside.
* * *
Charlie came out of the building just as the man was coming back from the front of Wyrick’s car.
Boyington saw him coming and, all too late, remembered Wyrick warning him that he did not want to make an enemy of Charlie Dodge. He had but a few brief seconds to brace himself, before Charlie hit him in a flying leap.
And Wyrick came out just as the two men went down in a tangle of arms and legs—a tackle worthy of the NFL.
At that point, the heavens decided to unleash. A nearby crack of lightning followed by a rumble of thunder was the only warning they were going to get. And then the rain came down.
Boyington was cursing a blue streak, struggling against the weight of the man on top of him, and pummeling Charlie’s chest and shoulders while still trying to breathe.
Disgusted, Charlie just pulled back his fist and knocked him out.
“Call the cops,” Charlie said, and rolled off Boyington, only to wind up with the rain in his face.
At that point, he stood up to keep from drowning, and then rolled the unconscious man onto his side for the same reason.
Wyrick stared. “That’s Darrell Boyington.”
Charlie sighed, took the phone out of her hand, made the call, then handed it back. Wyrick was still in shock, and it showed. He’d never seen her with this inability to function.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Check beneath your back bumper and the front of your car,” Charlie said.
And just like that, the fire in her eyes relit. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, ma’am. I am too damn wet for jokes.”
She shoved the phone back in her pocket and dropped to her knees, then began running her fingers beneath the length of the bumper.
She found the first tracker within seconds, and the rage that shot through her elicited nothing but a scream. She scrambled to her feet and headed for the front fender, found the second one as far inside the wheel well as she could reach and pulled it out. She was drenched, and so angry she was shaking when she walked back.
Charlie had Boyington handcuffed and sitting in a puddle against the bumper of her car.
“You bastard!” she said, and kicked the bottom of his shoe. “Obviously, you did not talk to Cyrus Parks or you wouldn’t be here. And you are a dumbass for doing this right under Charlie Dodge’s window, so there’s that.”
Boyington blinked and then looked up through the downpour to the windows above them. This was, without doubt, the stupidest move he’d ever made. It was worse than a beginner mistake, but the stupidity of it was what was going to get him out of it, too.
“You are an intriguing woman. You wanted nothing to do with me. I wasn’t ready to give up. I just wanted to know where you lived so I could send flowers...secret admirer and all that,” he said.
Charlie stared. First at Boyington and then at Wyrick.
But Wyrick obviously wasn’t buying it and kicked the bottom of his other shoe.
“You lie. Cyrus Parks hired you, just like he hired all of the others. And he has just opened the doors on his own level of hell.”
The mention of Cyrus Parks sent Charlie into shock. Way more was going on here than she’d told him.
As for Boyington, his head was spinning. All of the others? Shit, shit, shit. Parks’s lies of omission are going to take me down.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anyone by that name. I am a business owner. Unlike your boss, I do not tail people for money.”
Wyrick squatted down in front of him. “But you tried to buy those services.”
“No. I just wanted to meet you,” Boyington said.
“You wanted to meet the woman Cyrus sent you to take out, didn’t you? Cyrus Parks is way past trying to get me back to Universal Theorem. He just wants me dead, and you’re the most recent dumbass he’s hired to do that.”
Boyington was stunned. This woman had no filters.
“No, of course not!” he mumbled.
“You can tell your story to the cops, because I’m filing stalking charges against you.”
“My lawyer will destroy that,” Boyington said.
Thunder rumbled again as the rain came down, and then the approaching sirens drowned out the sound.
“In the meantime, you can tell your story to the cops. There will be a record of the speeding ticket you got on the freeway the other day, trying to chase me down. There is a record of you harassing me in this parking lot the other day on the video cameras here, and I have video of you planting these GPS trackers, and Charlie Dodge’s eyewitness account of seeing you do it, so we’ll see about that,” Wyrick said.
Boyington groaned. She was the first woman he’d ever encountered who wasn’t afraid of him. She was weird. Seriously, weird—like not afraid of anything. Now he just wanted her dead for free.
Charlie’s heart was racing from the shock he’d felt at seeing someone at her car. At the time, he didn’t know if it was another tracking device or a bomb, but from what he knew of her enemies, it could have been either. Now finding out this man had approached her more than once was shocking. He’d been so wrapped up in finding Tony Dawson and then what was happening with Annie that she’d kept it all to herself. He’d failed to protect her.
And so he stood a silent witness to her rage. He didn’t begin to understand the level of betrayal she’d suffered from Universal Theorem or Cyrus Parks, but he knew it was criminal and inhuman, and that was enough for him.
At that point, the police arrived. Seeing that no one was armed and one man was down and in handcuffs tempered the urgency with which they got out of their patrol cars.
Charlie Dodge and Wyrick were well-known to them, so the usual caution they might have used was set aside as they holstered their guns.
“Mr. Dodge. Ma’am, I’m Officer Ramos. What’s going on?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Boyington said.
“Yes, actually it is,” Charlie said, and proceeded to tell them Boyington’s name and what he’d witnessed, and how he’d caught him as he was trying to leave.
“And these are the GPS trackers he put on my car,” Wyrick said, and handed them ove
r. “This is not the first instance he has intruded upon my privacy. He followed me from the parking lot once, but I lost him on the freeway, and then he was waiting for me here again, after being told to leave me alone. This is the third instance, and I want to file charges against him for stalking. I have video of him on two separate occasions harassing me here, and video of what he did today.”
“If you need further statements, could we do it out of the rain?” Charlie asked.
“I think we’re good for now,” Ramos said. “We have your names and contact information in the system, and the evidence you have turned over. You will need to come down and make a formal complaint and sign it.” Then he pointed at Boyington. “Load him up and read him his rights.”
For the first time in years, Darrell Boyington was worried. He’d taken Parks’s money on the pretext that he quit the contract. From Wyrick’s accusations, if he didn’t wind up in jail, he still might wind up dead.
* * *
Wyrick and Charlie were soaked to the skin, so hurrying to get out of the rain wasn’t worth the effort. They walked back into the office building in silence, then took the elevator back up to the office in the same manner.
The moment they were inside, Charlie stopped her with a look.
“Take what you need from here, and for the next few days, work from home. I don’t want you here by yourself with this shit going on, and I can’t be here to protect you. There are two women in my life whose well-beings matter to me, and you are one of them. My Annie is the other, and she is dying. The last thing I can do for her is be there. I can’t help, but I can stand witness to the person she was until she’s gone.”
Wyrick ached for his sadness. There were tears on his face hiding within the raindrops. She wouldn’t argue, and she couldn’t touch him, so she waited in silence as he took a slow, shuddering breath so he could continue.
“I need to know you are safe before I can walk away from this job to be with her. Will you do this for me?”
She met his gaze without flinching.
“Yes.”
“Thank you. For now, you are Dodge Security and Investigations. I will not be available for another job until I know I can put my full attention to it. If there is anything you can solve by simply researching it from home, then do it. Otherwise, turn it down. If there are decisions to be made, make them. Tell them I am unavailable and nothing more.”
“Yes, sir.”
Charlie searched her face for fear or uncertainty, and saw nothing but resolve.
“Thank you for always having my back,” he said.
“Ditto,” Wyrick said. “You have a change of clothes here. Get dry, then go home. Pack what you need to stay with her. If you need anything else, message me. I will always know how to find you.”
Charlie sighed. “So you’re finally going to admit you’re psychic?”
“No. Because after the last time I lost you, I put a tracker app on your phone, remember? If you don’t lose your phone, then I’m not going to lose you.”
Charlie shook his head. “Remind me to give you that raise.”
“Right after you go get changed,” she said.
He went through his office, then into the bedroom beyond it to get out of his wet clothes, while Wyrick went to her private bathroom to do the same.
She was changed and packing up her gear when he came out.
She paused and looked up at him, then had to turn away to keep from crying. She kept working until she heard the door shut behind him, and then she dropped down into her chair, put her head down on the desk and sobbed.
* * *
A couple of hours later, Charlie arrived at Morning Light with a duffel bag over his shoulder.
“Good afternoon,” Pinkie said.
Charlie nodded and signed in, then walked to the door to be let into the residents’ quarters. Upon entering, he headed straight for Annie’s room.
The other hospice nurse was there, just as Doris told him she would be when he walked in.
“I’m Charlie, Annie’s husband,” he said.
“I’m glad to meet you, Charlie. My name is Rachel. You can put your bag in her closet. We had a recliner brought in that makes into a bed. You are welcome to stay as long as you wish.”
“Thank you,” Charlie said, then put the bag in the closet, hung his Stetson and his coat on a hook on the wall and walked to Annie’s bedside.
He stood in silence for a few moments, allowing himself to accept the reality of what was happening after denying the truth for so long.
She was thin. So thin. Her skin was so fragile he was almost afraid to touch her, and so pale that the blue veins beneath it were easily visible. The IV was taped down to her arm, the visible bruising evidence of trying to find a viable vein.
Her long blond hair was matted and tangled. He wanted to brush it, but let go of the thought. Her appearance was less important than her comfort.
He glanced at Rachel, and then pulled up a chair and sat down by her bed.
“Hello, sweetheart. It’s me, Charlie. I told you I’d be back,” he said, and then he slid his hand beneath her palm, letting her hand rest there lightly.
Rachel put a hand on his shoulder.
“She’s comfortable.”
“What about her vital signs?” Charlie asked.
“Not as strong as yesterday,” Rachel said.
Charlie’s heart hurt to the point of physical pain.
“I’m not leaving until she does,” he said.
“Understood,” Rachel said. “Can I get you anything? Something to drink? A coffee or a soft drink?”
“I’m fine for now, but thank you,” he said.
“Just let me know if you change your mind. I will be in and out, but still in the building.”
Charlie heard her, but didn’t respond. He was too focused on the slight rise and fall of Annie’s chest—the only proof he had of the life still within her.
* * *
Wyrick drove slowly on the freeway and got off as quickly as she could. Between the rain coming down and the spray from the traffic in front of her blasting at the windshield of her car, she was as close to driving blind as she’d ever been.
Once she was on the city streets, the drive seemed safer. There was still the rain, but not the same level of speed to contend with. By the time she pulled through the gates of the estate and drove around to the entrance to her apartment, every muscle in her body was screaming from the tension.
She grabbed everything in one load and dashed inside, dumped it all on the sofa and then went back to lock the door. Only after she heard the click did she begin to relax, because she knew something about Darrell Boyington that Charlie didn’t.
Boyington was a hit man, and Cyrus Parks had hired him.
It appeared she was going to have to send another message to Parks that he wouldn’t forget. Something more than shutting down every UT-based facility on the face of the earth for three days like she had before. Something that hurt him where it hurt him most.
But right now, she needed to text Merlin and let him know she’d be working from home for a while. Then she changed into some comfortable clothes and began setting up the temporary office of Dodge Security and Investigations.
* * *
It was around 7:00 p.m. when Charlie got a text. When he saw it was from Wyrick, he read it.
You do not go all day without eating. You have food at the front desk. Sit in the lobby and eat it.
He sighed. How the hell did she know he hadn’t eaten all day? Oh right. Psychic.
Rachel was adjusting the IV drip when he stood up.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“We’re good here. Take your time,” Rachel said.
Charlie glanced at Annie, then left. Once they buzzed him into the lobby, he saw a sack on the counter and pointed.
“Is that for me?”
The night clerk nodded. “It was just delivered. I was about to send someone to tell you.”
“I’m going to eat it outside and get some fresh air.”
“There’s a courtyard just off the common room,” the clerk said.
“I’ll just sit on the bench out front,” Charlie said, then took the sack and walked out into the night.
It had quit raining hours ago, but the fresh-washed scent was still in the air as Charlie sat down in the shadows, opened the sack and unwrapped the roast beef sandwich au jus. The slices of roast beef were melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the crusty bun and the warm jus warmed his belly. He ate without thought until the food was gone.
As he gathered up the wrappings and sack to throw away, he felt something else in the bottom of the sack. It was a Hershey bar. Chocolate was Wyrick’s calling card. He peeled off the paper, then sat and ate the whole thing, one small square at a time. By the time he had finished the candy bar, the knot in his belly was almost unwound.
It was with reluctance that he got up, tossed his garbage into the trash can in the parking lot and then went back inside. But this time when he walked back into the residents’ quarters, the fresh air and full belly had renewed him enough for the hours to come.
* * *
The next morning, Wyrick had the temporary office set up and the office phone on voice mail. Merlin finally responded to her text from yesterday, but his response was a little cryptic.
I’m outside. Come find me.
So she grabbed a jacket and headed outside, but he was nowhere in sight. After a few moments, she thought of the greenhouse. The warm air wrapped around her like a hug as she entered it and then saw him at the back.
“Hey,” she said.
He turned at the sound of her voice and smiled.
“Come in! I haven’t had a visitor out here in ages. Do you like tomatoes? I love them, and those you get in a supermarket don’t even taste like tomatoes. You have to pick them when they’re really ripe to get that ripe on the vine taste.”
