All of it together was enough to convince Luke that Curtis Waller/Wilder was the man stalking Devon. And postal pretty much described exactly what Luke was going to do.
He shut down Devon’s laptop and put it away, but before he could shut down his own, an e-mail appeared in his in-box. From Quinn. There was no message, just a subject line.
Turn on your IM.
Luke almost ignored it. But chances were, Quinn knew he was online—the weird twin connection deal at work. He logged on to the instant messenger service, and there was already a message waiting for him.
Who are you getting ready to kill?
Luke’s lips quirked in a grin as he pounded out a reply.
Why do you think I’m getting ready to kill somebody?
Because you are. I can just tell. What’s got you so pissed?
Luke blew out a harsh breath, debating on how much to explain. It’s a long story, don’t know if I got time to tell it all right now.
Then tell what you can now and explain more later.
So he did, keeping an ear out for Devon, should she wake early. You’re that sure he’s the right guy? Quinn asked.
Luke grinned. I’ll be more sure once I have him on the ground and I’m beating the shit out of him.
So what if he ain’t your guy? Then you’re beating the shit out of the wrong guy.
Guy’s been beating his kid. Any beating he gets, he deserves, far as I’m concerned. But he’s the right guy. I know it.
There was a lengthy pause, and Luke could feel Quinn’s anger as strong as if it were his own. Quinn didn’t have many weaknesses, and Luke couldn’t exactly call kids a weak point for his twin, but abused kids were one thing guaranteed to flip Quinn’s switch.
Finally, words appeared in the window. You want some help?
Luke grinned. Nah. I got this.
Whatever. You let me know if you need me.
Quinn signed off without typing another word, and Luke leaned back, stared at the laptop monitor. There wouldn’t be a reason to get ahold of Quinn. If Quinn was needed, the man would know. Hell, Luke was a little surprised his twin hadn’t shown up already. He’d been having an internal debate over whether he should get somebody watching over Devon, and Quinn was the only person he’d trust enough.
The only thing that held him back was knowing that Devon would know—somehow, she’d know. He wasn’t so much worried about her getting mad at him. If it kept her safe, she could get as mad as she wanted. But he knew her nerves were shot, and having somebody babysitting her would only add to the pressure. People under pressure too often did things they shouldn’t do, and he needed her to be careful right now.
Still, he wasn’t ruling the possibility out. Quinn would be there in a heartbeat if Luke needed him. Two bodies, man. One mind. It was something Jeb had told Luke way back. The three of them had just joined a unit, out on their first mission. Luke had been injured and his partner killed; their communication had been cut off. Luke had lain in hiding, convinced he was getting ready to breathe his last, and then Quinn, still a new guy at the time, had emerged from the shadows, leading the team.
Eerie as all get out sometimes, but oddly comforting. It was nice knowing you’d always have somebody to back you up in a jam and not even have to worry about getting word to him.
He smiled bitterly as he acknowledged that it wasn’t exactly a two-way street. Luke could read Quinn’s moods better than any other soul on earth, but Quinn wasn’t the open book to Luke that Luke was to Quinn. Just like when Quinn had abruptly left the Rangers after Adam died, left the army, Luke had known there was something wrong, even aside from the obvious. He had felt it.
But he hadn’t realized it was something serious enough that it had driven Quinn into counseling. Quinn absolutely hated doctors of any kind, Luke excluded. And head doctors were the absolute worst. He’d only go if he was forced. So, what had forced him into it?
Although Quinn seemed to have some sort of built-in compass where Luke was concerned, Luke couldn’t home in on Quinn in the same way. He hadn’t ever woken up in the middle of the night and known that Quinn needed to hear his voice.
But on Quinn’s side, different story. The guy just knew sometimes—had some hidden knowledge Luke didn’t have.
Luke didn’t understand why, didn’t know if it was something he did, some sort of wall he’d unintentionally built, or what. He suspected it could be. He was aware of his twin, an awareness he didn’t have with anybody else, something that surpassed instinct, but he wasn’t tuned in to Quinn the way Quinn was tuned in to him.
Probably because Luke had held back from Quinn. For the longest time, Quinn had kept him at a distance, and Luke had done the same thing. All the anger he’d sensed inside Quinn back when they’d first met had done a good job of keeping people at bay—his twin included.
That anger had slowly faded, but it never completely died. Neither did the darkness that lurked just under the surface.
There’d been a woman once, Elsa. They’d met her in Havana and spent four pretty damn fantastic days letting her wear the two of them out. The last day, she’d come to Luke and murmured, “Watch your brother; he’s got a darkness inside him. Something close to cruelty.”
She’d been wrong. Quinn wasn’t cruel. Luke couldn’t deny his twin had a mean streak inside him. Mean streak or not, though, it seemed Quinn was the more sensitive of the two.
Smirking, Luke shut down his laptop and stood up from the desk. Yeah, Quinn was more attuned to their unique bond. In a way, that did make Quinn the more sensitive one.
But that wasn’t something that Luke would share with his brother. Not so long as he liked his teeth the way they were.
AN hour later, as Luke leaned back against the wall, enjoying the sight of Devon slowly waking up over a cup of coffee, his cell phone rang.
It lay on the counter next to Devon’s and he tipped his head, read the number on the display.
It rang a second and a third time before Devon turned her head and looked at him with bleary eyes. “You gonna get that?”
He shrugged. “Nah. If it’s anything an important, they’ll call back.”
“Not the hospital, is it? Luke, you better not keep blowing them off.” She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and then sent him a glare. It wasn’t too effective, considering she was still flushed from sleep, her hair tousled around her shoulders, and her lids drooping low over her eyes like she was trying to slip back into sleep.
“It’s not the hospital. Old friend from back when I was in the army.” He shrugged and took his half-empty cup over to the coffeepot and added more. He drank it strong and black, and the caffeine was already jumping through his system. He didn’t much care for the artificial stimulant, but until he got some serious shut-eye, he’d have to make do. “I’m too tired for casual conversation.”
“So what if he isn’t calling for casual conversation? Most people don’t call at the crack of dawn just to gab.”
Crooking a brow at her, Luke reminded her, “I left the army more than five years ago. Not much else he could want besides casual conversation.” Well, except to maybe rip his ass for trying to sneak into the DOD’s website and access classified information. Chances were whoever caught Luke had figured that going through a friend, somebody from his old unit, would definitely be the friendly way to approach it. And it was friendlier; the other option could be threatening to arrest Luke’s ass.
He didn’t figure they’d follow through with any threats, and it wasn’t like they were going to catch him doing it again. There wouldn’t be a next time, because Luke already knew what he needed to know.
If he did by some weird quirk of fate need more information, he’d cover his tail better.
But none of that was exactly something he could share with Devon.
“Ummm.” She yawned and rested her chin on her fist, stared into her coffee. “You working today?”
“Yeah.” He glanced at his watch and sighed. “I’ve got to get going here
soon. Working seven to seven. I talked to the head of the ER, Deb Reilly, convinced her that I didn’t need to be pulling late-ass shifts until we knew you were safe.” He shrugged. “Her daughter was the victim of a stalker attack a few years ago, so she understands. Once this is taken care of, I told her I’d put in an extra shift a week for a month or so.”
He watched as she slid off the counter and padded over to the sink to rinse out her coffee cup. “You coming straight home after work?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. I need to buy a few more Christmas presents for Mom and Dad.” Turning around, she leaned back against the counter and grinned. “I’ve already bought your presents.”
Setting his cup down, he crossed over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Nuzzling her neck, he murmured, “I’d be perfectly happy to come downstairs Christmas morning and find you under the tree. Nekkid.”
She poked him in the ribs and snorted. “I bet.” She snuggled up against him and sighed. “We haven’t really talked about what we’re doing for Christmas. Do you want to go see your dad? You hardly ever talk about your family.”
“Dad’s actually going on a cruise,” Luke said, smirking as he remembered the e-mail from his dad the other day. Patrick had been seeing a lady who lived about forty minutes away from the ranch. Luke knew it was pretty serious, but still, the abrupt decision to take two weeks off and disappear on some tropical cruise, that had thrown Luke a little. “I’m thinking about taking a week in the spring to go back home.” Glancing down at her, he suggested, “You know, you could come with me.”
She flushed, shrugged. “Maybe. So your dad is it?”
“Actually . . . no.” Luke tugged her back against him, slid a hand down her back. It was awkward, telling her about Quinn, even more so now because he knew he needed to get the two of them together. If he really wanted to spend his life with this woman, then Quinn needed to meet her.
Meet her, accept her.
Waiting hadn’t made it any easier, though. It was still . . . just weird. Awkward. He cleared his throat, shrugged, but even that felt disjointed and unnatural.
“I’ve got a brother. He’s kind of a loner, moves around a lot.” He smiled a little. Describing Quinn as a loner was like describing Devon as just some lady he knew. Neither description even came close. “Maybe . . . maybe I could see if he wanted to come over for Christmas. Would you mind?”
Devon tipped her head back to look up at him. “You never told me you had a brother.”
Luke smiled. “Never really came up.”
“Hmmm.” Rising up on her toes, she kissed his chin. “Of course you should ask him to come over. That’s what Christmas is for, families.”
She gave him a winsome smile and asked, “Is he anything like you?”
Luke laughed, a little unsettled. “Yes. And no.”
“Meaning . . . ?”
Shaking his head, Luke said, “You’ll have to meet him to get the point.” The phone rang just as he was getting ready to mention that his brother was actually his twin—identical. Physically, so alike. Emotionally, so different.
Devon grimaced and grabbed her cell phone from the island. “Sorry, Luke. This isn’t a call I can ignore.” She flipped it open, and Luke watched as the sleep cleared from her eyes, as her easy smile faded, and a grim disgust settled in its place.
It was a short call, mostly filled with terse “Yes,” “No,” and “What hospital?” When the call ended, he turned and held out a thermal cup he’d filled with coffee and said, “Looks like you’re going to have one of those days.”
“Tell me about it.” Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the cup from him, pushed on her toes to kiss his lips. “I gotta get moving.”
“Hmmm.” He snaked out a hand and fisted her hair before she could slip away. “Yeah. Me, too.” He brushed his lips against her, lingered for a moment, breathing in the warm, sexy scent of her body. “I love you.”
She flushed, a self-conscious grin tugging at her lips. “Yeah, love you, too.”
ONE of those days.
Hell. That didn’t even come close to describing the day she’d just had.
She’d spent half the morning at the hospital, where one of the moms she’d worked with off and on for three years delivered a baby that tested positive for cocaine and barbiturates. It was the woman’s third child—and the third child born an addict.
Her afternoon was eaten up with a court appearance, a visit to check on how well Tim Wilder was settling in with the Grants, paperwork done in between phone calls, and two more home visits.
By the time she was done, Devon was so tired she couldn’t see straight, her feet hurt, her back hurt, and the thought of braving the mall and traffic to get some shopping done was enough to give her hives.
“Done for the day?”
“Yep.” Devon smiled at the security officer and had to glance at his badge to remember his name. “Doing okay, Ronnie?”
“Doing just fine.” He fell into step alongside her.
Devon rolled her eyes. “My car is in plain view of the door, Ronnie.”
He smiled. “Yeah, but if your boss hears I didn’t walk you outside when it was getting dark, with all the trouble you’ve been having, he’d have my hide.”
They pushed through the door, surrounded by a throng of people who were also heading out for the day. Devon glanced at the crowd and smiled. “I don’t think anybody is going to bother me when I’m surrounded by this many people.”
“And he’d still have my hide,” Ronnie replied, shaking his head. Then he gave her a somber look. “You know what kind of crazy people are out there. Somebody wants to hurt you bad enough, being surrounded by people won’t stop them.”
Whether it was his words or the chill in the air, Devon didn’t know, but suddenly, she felt frozen to the bone. Sometime during the day the temperature had dropped, and the light jacket she wore offered little protection. Snow flurries were coming down in a soft, steady drift. The flakes melted almost as soon as they hit the ground, but many of the cars had a thin white blanket forming on them, including hers.
“Somebody wants to hurt you . . . ”
She reached her car and tossed Ronnie a smile. He waited until she climbed inside the car and locked the doors before heading back inside. As she started the car, her cell phone started to ring.
“Hey.”
The sound of Luke’s voice had her smiling, and she murmured, “Hey back.” After starting the car, she leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, willing some of the tension in her muscles to relax.
“You leaving work?”
“Yeah.”
“You didn’t walk out alone, did you?”
Devon rolled her eyes. “No, Daddy. I had the nice security guard walk me to my car.”
“Smart-ass,” he grunted.
In the background, she could hear the low hum of voices, punctuated by an occasional angry shout. “Sounds kind of busy.”
“Yeah. Pileup on the I-75. I think they’re still cleaning up; you probably need to find a different way home.”
Devon muttered, “Great.” She opened her eyes and looked at the snow falling. The car hadn’t warmed enough to melt it. “It’s starting to snow, too. People around here drive like morons in the snow.”
Luke chuckled. “Baby, that isn’t snow.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Baby, you’ve spent a couple of winters here by now. You know how people act around snow; they think even a few flurries equals the blizzard of the century.” Her breath came out in frosty little puffs of air, and she shivered. The air coming out of the vent was still too cool, and she cranked it up a little more, wishing she had put on a warmer coat.
“I bet half of you haven’t even seen a real blizzard. You still going shopping?”
She made a face. “No. I need to, but I’m too tired. You think you’ll be able to get out of there in time?”
“I’ll be there before eight.” He fell quiet for a moment. “Maybe you could
go over and hang at Danielle’s for a while. Until I get home.”
Grimacing, Devon shifted the phone to her other hand and put the car in reverse, maneuvering out of the parking space. “By the time I get home, it will be less than two hours. I think I can handle being home for that period of time.”
“Damn it, Devon.” His voice was low, frustrated, and she could practically see his face, could practically see him pushing a hand through already tousled hair.
She almost told him to get back to work, to stop hovering. Remembering what Ronnie had said—“Somebody wants to hurt you bad enough, being surrounded by people won’t stop them”—it was nothing but a fact. What if whoever it was followed Devon to Danielle’s? If somebody else got hurt because of her, Devon would choke on the guilt.
But how likely was it that something would happen in those two hours? Besides, after Luke talked with Danielle back when they first found the dead dog in Devon’s house, Danielle had gotten a security system of her own installed. If anybody tried to break in, the alarm would sound. Devon had her own alarm system, nice and beefed up, thanks to Luke, but at Danielle’s, she wouldn’t be alone, and there was that whole safety in numbers thing.
Sighing, she tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. “Okay. I’ll go over to Danielle’s for a while. She’ll be home by now anyway.” Danielle’s job as office manager at a local ophthalmologist generally wasn’t one that kept her working late.
The busy sprawl of the county building loomed in front of her. This time of day, traffic was always slow-moving. Add in the traffic for Christmas shoppers, and the street was practically a parking lot. She made a face and added, “Besides, the way traffic looks, it might take me until eight to get home.” Catching an opening in the traffic, she zipped out of the parking lot, ignoring the horn blaring behind her. “I better go so I don’t cause another wreck.”
Fragile Page 21
