by Terri Reed
He stood, paced to the wide windows, where she could still see the twinkling patio lights from their intimate dinner. “I don’t know what made you think you had the right.”
His words were toneless, very unlike the Ben she’d come to know. But she’d touched a raw place—and he was protecting himself, and probably Caden, too, in the only way he knew how. She couldn’t let it get to her. “It’s what I do, Ben.”
Even knowing why he reacted that way, it hurt. She retreated to evidence, her comfort zone. “There are some things that you might want to see in this report.”
“Maria, I don’t know how to make it any more clear that I don’t want to discuss my wife’s death. It was a horrible accident.” His eyes were full of pain, even after two years, and she didn’t blame him. The mother of his child had been killed.
“It wasn’t an accident,” she blurted. “At least, I don’t think it was.”
“Are you serious? You haven’t physically seen the evidence, and from a report you can put together something that the cops couldn’t and didn’t?” He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe it.”
She stood and laid the pages out on the coffee table. “You’re a scientist. I know it’s hard to be objective here, but follow the evidence with me. Look at the damage report to the car. There’s damage on the driver’s side of the car that isn’t consistent with her running into the tree and the car exploding. It looks more like someone forced her off the road.”
Ben whipped his head up to meet her eyes. “Someone did this deliberately?”
“The report says that the seal on her power steering was stripped. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. If someone forced her off the road, with no power steering she might not have had the skills to avoid a crash.”
“She was murdered?” He jolted to his feet and paced away, only to turn back, the awful truth sinking in.
“The police report says that the driver’s side damage means she probably bounced off another tree. But if she had, it would’ve affected the trajectory. And look at the tire tracks in this photograph. Straight tracks down the hill. There’s no way she hit another tree.”
His hands turned up in a position of surrender. “I don’t even know what to say. I never imagined that she might’ve been—I never imagined it.”
Maria stacked the pages and closed the file. “We need another list. One with names of people who might have something against either you or your wife.”
His horrified eyes met hers. “I was supposed to be in the car with her that night. She’d been speaking about her charity at a Rotary Club meeting in that little town and I was going to go with her, but Capo was fussing with the sitter. He had a cold and wouldn’t settle down. I stayed home.”
Her heart went out to him, but she couldn’t give him sympathy, couldn’t allow him to fall apart. It was too important that they get to the bottom of this. “Whoever it was tried to kill both of you. They didn’t know you weren’t in the car until it was too late.”
“I can’t believe this. How could the police miss it?”
“Easy. They believed it was an accident so they looked for confirmation. They saw the unexplained dents and rationalized them away. It happens.”
He turned back to her, his skin ashen. “I’m sorry, Maria. I just can’t take this in. Do you mind if we talk about it tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow will be fine, Ben. Let it process.”
“I’m addressing the conference in the morning at ten.”
“You should have a whole team protecting you at an event like this. I could call a few friends—”
“No. It would leak to the media and this can’t become about me and a stalker. It has to be about the date, about the network and the future.”
She paced the room, too, ending up by the Christmas tree, its peaceful beauty doing nothing to calm savage nerves. “I need to be where I can see the room tomorrow.”
“What if I bring you up and introduce you as the woman who survived a date with me? We’ll make it funny.” Ben walked to the tree and reached for her hand, sliding her fingers through his. “I’m thankful you’re here—that you’re walking through this craziness with me.”
“Yeah, I’m thankful, too.” Her dry tone made him chuckle and he put his arms around her.
“I’m serious, Maria. I know this weekend has been anything but fun for you, but in spite of everything, being with you makes it bearable. I said it earlier and I meant it—you’re beautiful, inside and out. I never expected that.”
Her heart was rattling inside her chest. She laced her fingers tighter into his. “I think you’re overwhelmed by all that’s happened. Maybe you’re more emotional than usual. When you take a step back, you’ll realize that you needed a friend, and I was here.”
Very gently, he tipped her chin up and brushed his lips across hers. Her breath caught in her chest, unwanted moisture springing to her eyes.
He tilted his head back and looked at her again, his eyes narrowed. “Nope, sorry. That didn’t feel like friends to me.”
She pulled her hand free. Flattening both hands on his chest, she gave him a gentle push. “Tú eres un sabihondo. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He chuckled as he backed away from her. “You know, I’ve spent a lot of time in Latin American countries. I know you just called me a know-it-all.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here, weather boy.”
As he disappeared into his bedroom, with shaking hands she gathered the papers from the accident report and walked back to her suite. It took three tries to get the key card to work but finally it did.
There had been so much change in such a small space of time. Her mind was reeling. Dear God, what should I do?
People weren’t scientific. How did she deal with this, with these feelings for Ben, which were getting stronger every time she was around him?
It was hard to put a name to them, they were many and varied, but she could identify the most pressing. Fear. She’d watched her friends and siblings fall in love and get married, have children. She’d never dared to even imagine that such life could be for her. Happily-ever-after was a fairy tale that happened to other people.
But Ben made her dream, which seemed to her a surefire recipe for disaster.
Ben had the whole ballroom rocking with laughter. He was pretty sure that it was the story about the bee stinging him on camera that won them over, though the video of the slide into a mud-filled canal during a typhoon in Japan had been epic. He waited for the laughter to die down. “Working for Weather 24 has been an adventure every day. Weather is an adventure. I love it.
“I wouldn’t do this job if I didn’t have a passion for the weather and how it affects our lives—our basic human condition. We report the weather, yes, but we also live it. In doing so, we have the rare opportunity to bring the world closer together. The mother in Little Rock can experience what’s going on in Indonesia. The businessman in Prague can understand the tourist industry in Mazatlan and the climate that fuels it.”
His heart pounded. He was so close, so incredibly close to finishing this. Ben’s gaze connected with Maria’s. She was standing to his left at the corner of the stage. Her hair was pulled back into a low, smooth ponytail. In a few, short days, she’d come to mean a lot to him, and six months ago he couldn’t have imagined that he would ever have feelings for another woman besides his wife.
Everything changed.
“I’ve loved every minute of my job with Weather 24, but it’s time for me to move on.” The audible gasp from the floor amused him. Truthfully, he would’ve reacted the same way ten years ago when he was first starting out. What kind of idiot would leave a sweet job like his voluntarily?
He looked at his notes and then set them aside, deciding to talk impromptu to the men and women, many of whom he’d known for years. “My friends, I would say this to you. Be passionate about life, share your love and don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.”
Ben picked up his notes and left the
podium as the room erupted in applause. Cameras flashed. He reached Maria’s side and took her arm.
“Other side.” She moved to partially shield him from the crowd. Clearly uneasy, her eyes darted back and forth in the crowded ballroom. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Something popped and a vase on the stage exploded, sending shards of glass flying, water and flowers spilling onto the stage floor.
Where there had been applause, screams now echoed. People knocked over chairs to get out of the ballroom.
Ben couldn’t make sense of the chaos. Maria stopped pretending to walk and gripped his arm, nearly dragging him out double doors into a service hall that ran behind the ballroom.
After they cleared the room, Maria didn’t slow down. She hustled him down the hall toward more doors, her gun in her hand.
“What was that?”
“Someone took a shot at you, Ben.” She didn’t pause at the doors to the emergency stairs, just whipped through them.
Her words sunk in. “Someone—wait. You said someone shot at me?”
“Yes, Ben. Keep moving. We’ve got to get to the service elevator, but I want you off this floor first.” She ran behind him on the steps, never faltering even in those three-inch heels.
He reached for the door handle to the next floor.
“Stop.” Her voice was low and cool—he didn’t question her authority. “Me first.”
She had a gun—he wasn’t going to argue.
“Stay quiet and move fast. We’re turning left outside the door. The service elevator is at the end of the hall.”
“How do you know?” He would’ve been completely lost by now.
“Shh.” She opened the door and went through first, motioning him to follow. Silently, they made their way down the hall. Almost at the end, they heard excited voices.
“Hurry.” Maria’s whisper was a hiss near his ear. She pulled open the door to the maintenance area and shoved him through it. He heard her take an audible breath as she pushed the button for the elevator. “Get behind me.”
He took a breath to argue.
“Do it.” She didn’t look back, but held her gun in the classic police stance, aimed at the place the doors would open.
The elevator chimed as it stopped and as the doors cracked open, Ben stopped breathing. Empty. He breathed again. “How did you know where this elevator was?”
“I did some exploring the first day we were here, while you were zonked out from the antihistamines.” On the elevator, Maria swiped the card through the slot that would authorize the elevator to take them to the penthouse. “We’ve got to get you away from this hotel. Too easy for someone to hide here.”
“We’ve got to get Caden out of here.” When her eyes widened, he said, “They drove here in my car, but I don’t want to take the chance that they could be in danger if they’re on their own.”
She took a deep breath, readjusting her plans in her mind. “How much do you trust your helicopter pilot?”
He thought back to all the times that the pilot had been in dangerous weather with him and had saved his hide as they’d cut it knife-edge thin to leave safely. “I trust him with my life.”
“Call him, but tell him not to tell anyone, except whoever he has to clear it with legally to fly here.”
“Got it.” The elevator doors slid open into the maintenance closet on the penthouse floor. Maria exited first, but the thought that something might’ve happened to his son propelled Ben forward.
He didn’t have to worry long. Caden was sitting under the Christmas tree with his cars, making motor sounds as he raced them in a circle around him.
Julia looked up from the sink in the kitchen. “Hi. Hot chocolate, anyone?”
Maria turned and slid her weapon into the holster under her jacket. Her look spoke volumes, but what she said to Ben was, “I’ll go finish packing. You need to do the same.”
“I know. Let me talk to Julia.”
Maria went to her suite and shoved all the beautiful new clothes into a bag. The hair products and makeup went into another, smaller bag. Realistically, she knew that they might have to send for their things. Suitcases were a little bulky for running from bad guys who were shooting at them.
Ben came to the door. “We have a little problem with the helicopter. Caden can’t ride in it. He would go ballistic—it’s too loud, even with headphones.”
“Okay, we’ll have to go to plan B. We’ll get you to safety.” As she saw his face, she went to him at the door. “We’ll think of another way, don’t worry.”
“Cars, Daddy?” A small head peered around Ben’s leg.
Ben picked Caden up, holding him close. “Five minutes of cars, and then we have to help Julia pack.” His voice drifted back as he carried Caden into the living room of the penthouse suite.
Maria dialed the number of the police lieutenant who had gotten her into this mess. “Gabe, it’s Maria. I need your help.”
SIX
Two hours later, Maria, Ben, Caden and Julia stepped onto the elevator. If anyone were to get on at a lower floor, on one side of the elevator they would see a family of three dressed for a trip to the indoor pool. On the other side of the cab, Maria would pass as a teenager, texting on her cell phone, hot-pink ball cap pulled low over her eyes and ear buds in her ears.
Over her shoulder, Julia had a beach bag with Caden’s cars and a few snacks for the trip. The plan was for Chloe to bring the rest of their things once they were safely on the road.
On the sixth floor, Chloe got on the elevator with them, opposite Maria. Dressed as a uniformed firefighter, she had a clipboard and a walkie-talkie—just doing inspection.
At the third floor, Gabe, dressed in a business suit, got on the elevator. He didn’t even glance at the little “family,” checking his watch instead.
Maria tucked her cell phone in her back pocket as Chloe and Gabe got off at the lobby. Maria would ride down to the parking garage with Ben, Caden and Julia and put them in a vehicle that was waiting by the elevator doors. Blowing out a breath, she shook her cold fingers and caught Ben looking at her.
She shot him a wink and went back to listening over her earpiece to Gabe talking to Joe Sheehan in the parking garage. If all went according to plan, they should be out of here in two minutes. Gabe would jump in from the stairwell and Joe would follow in a marked cop car.
Those fifteen or twenty seconds that they would be exposed would be the most dangerous of the whole trip. But Joe Sheehan would be on one side of them and she would be on the other side. It would be fine. It had to be fine.
With one hand on her weapon, she stepped out of the elevator into the garage. Her lips quirked into a smile as she realized they’d brought Gabe’s wife’s minivan. Joe waved them ahead.
She turned to Ben. “Get in and shut the door. I’ll be right behind you.”
Julia and Caden went first and Ben followed, the door of the van sliding shut behind him. Maria jumped into the driver’s seat as Gabe ran from the stairwell and ducked into the passenger side.
Shots popped from around the corner as they peeled out of the garage.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gabe muttered as Maria pushed the gas pedal to the floor. “My wife is going to kill me if I bring the van back with bullet holes in it.”
Into his mike, he said, “Chloe, get the locals into the garage. Tell them their perp was firing at us as we were leaving.” He paused. “Yeah, I know they’re gonna have questions. They can ask them in Sea Breeze.”
The van bounced out the exit door, its big engine roaring as Maria pushed it to its limits. A diaper rolled out from under the seat. Maria kicked it back with her foot. “Uh, Gabe?”
He looked down, grinned. “My wife’s car. I thought I explained that. Hey, one of these days, you’ll have a couple of kids and a minivan and you’ll be trying to figure out how to change a diaper at a state park.”
A siren whooped as Joe Sheehan passed them and pulled into the lane in front of them,
lights flashing.
Maria looked up at the rearview mirror. The nanny looked white and Ben didn’t look much better. “You guys okay back there?”
Ben answered as he leaned forward to turn on the video player for Caden. “We’re fine. What’s going to happen when we get home?”
Gabe answered, “It’s pretty obvious that someone is trying to get to you. I’d like to put you in a safe house.”
Gabe’s phone rang. “Sloan,” he answered.
Maria kept her eyes on the road and Joe’s flashing lights up ahead. Deep breath. They weren’t clear yet.
“Mm-hmm. Okay. I’ll let them know. You follow up and we’ll meet back in Sea Breeze.” He hung up the phone and turned to Maria. “You know those names you gave Chloe to check out? Local police just picked one of them up trying to ditch a gun in a holding pond. They think he’s our shooter.”
Ben leaned forward again. “So it’s over?”
Gabe shrugged. “They caught the guy with a gun.”
“They’ll try to match the ballistics with the evidence they’re collecting at the hotel. If it’s a match then, yes, it’s over.” And so was Maria’s job as Ben’s bodyguard. He wouldn’t need her anymore. Being caught up in the moment last night was one thing. A person like Ben wanting her around after what had happened today, that was another thing altogether.
She felt like she was on a tightrope, swaying. Any moment there would be free fall.
“I think you should be cautious until the lab reports are complete.” She didn’t look at him, but caught his glance in the rearview mirror.
“I just had the alarm system upgraded.” He looked from Maria to Gabe. “We’ll stay inside, change the codes, keep the alarm on, whatever it takes.”
When Gabe nodded, Ben’s shoulders relaxed. His eyes met hers in the mirror. “There’s the ball tomorrow night. I have to do a broadcast from there. My last regular broadcast for Weather 24.”
She looked back at the road. The last thing she wanted at this point was to spend a romantic night—on camera, no less—with Ben.
