by Dale Mayer
But Laysa was pretty damn convincing as she explained what had happened. “See this bruise on my jaw where he planted his fist? More photos like this are on file with the police department, if you care to check.”
The woman backed up another step.
“We’ve been hunting Bob ever since he attacked me. I’m still sporting his other bruises and have a few scars from the rough treatment he gave me.” She spoke bitterly. “But I recognized him, both his voice and his arms. And I have no doubt that’s who he is. He’s the one who took off. Remember?” she snapped at the woman, getting the better of her again.
Kanen gently rubbed her shoulder. “We’ll catch him, now that we know who he is and where he works. The police will nab him.”
The woman stared at them in horror. “But I’ve known him for ten years. He’d never have done something like that.”
“Maybe not before,” Laysa said, “but he certainly did now. So we need to know what you know about him.”
But the woman wasn’t willing to cooperate. She stormed back inside.
Laysa followed her and started taking pictures of the store with her phone, Kanen right behind her.
The other staff member came over and said, “You can’t be here. We don’t know what the hell’s going on, but we trust our boss.”
Kanen nodded. “You can trust your boss all you want. But we’re staying right here until the cops arrive.”
“And MI6,” Laysa said in a hard voice. “If you think they’re not involved in my finding my assailant, you’re wrong.”
The women looked at each other nervously and then went back to their jobs.
Kanen didn’t blame them. They had jobs to do, problems with their boss or not. “You might want to contact the higher-up boss if you have one,” he offered helpfully.
The woman shrugged and said, “Bob owns the company.”
“Then you better be looking for another job,” Laysa said, “because he’s going to jail for B&E, battery and extortion. Maybe even murder.”
The women shook their heads and remained quiet.
Kanen had to admire that kind of blind loyalty, if that was what it was. More than likely it was a case of they didn’t know what else to do. And he could understand that too. It wasn’t like they’d given the women any warning or proof.
At that thought, he noticed the framed photographs on the side wall that Laysa was taking snapshots of. He pointed them out to the guys. One by one they studied these black-and-white pictures. They appeared to be of old photography stores.
“What’s the chance these are Bob Alagarth’s grandfather’s stores? What if this is about revenge? About his grandfather’s wrongful incarceration?” Kanen glanced over at one of the women. “Did your boss’s father ever come into this store?”
The woman looked up at him nervously and shook her head, then went back to her work.
“Given his likely age,” Nelson offered, “chances are he has nothing to do with his father’s business, Grandpa Alagarth’s chain of European stores. And, if Father Alagarth is still living in the States since about 1994, then he never was involved with his son’s subsequent business either.”
“So why did the grandson want that package from Blake?” Kanen asked in a low voice. “Unless he’s trying to protect someone.”
It was just too much for Laysa. She walked over to the closest chair, pulled it far away from the women and sat down. “How long before the police get here?”
“We called MI6,” Kanen said. “They’ll be here first.” And, sure enough, he looked up to see two men in suits striding in the front door.
Their hard gazes searched the store. They came toward him with a strong determination that wouldn’t be swayed. Neither of the women who worked at the store spoke.
Kanen explained what had happened. The men in suits took notes and then, when questions were completed, Kanen, Laysa, Nelson and Taylor were escorted from the store. Outside on the sidewalk, it dawned on Kanen. “Surely you’ll do a full investigation?”
“Of course,” one of the MI6 men said. “But we want to get our hands on him first. The store is just that. … It’s a store. It’s nothing more than that.”
“No, there you’re wrong,” Laysa said. “The history of the Alagarth family business is on the walls. The grandfather was wrongfully accused of blackmail, jailed, murdered. His assailant was Bob, the grandson and owner of his own photography store, this one. Those photos on the walls inside are interesting as far as the backstory of the family.”
One of the agents turned to look at the double glass entrance doors. With a few quiet words to the other man, he headed back inside, as if to look at the photographs.
Laysa looked up at Kanen. “He needs to pull them off the wall, all of them, and take them in for evidence.”
Kanen chuckled and tugged her a little closer. “They know how to do their jobs. Besides, they aren’t really evidence. They are mementos of this guy’s history.”
“No,” she argued. “They are evidence of his motivation. And that counts.” She shoved her fists into her pockets and glared up at the men.
They stared back at her with calm, bland faces, knowing it was best to not say much at this moment, without getting into an argument with her. “Come on. Let’s go back to your place,” he said quietly. “We’ll get the details soon.”
She resisted but finally gave in. As she turned to walk away, she looked back at the two MI6 men and said, “Please catch Bob before he comes after me again. He beat me up and threatened to kill me.”
The look on the agents’ faces eased, and one of them nodded. “We plan on it.”
As they walked toward the car, she turned to Kanen. “It’s not fair. Bob was right there. He was so damn close.”
“It would have been nice if you had pointed that out to one of us, instead of antagonizing Bob right off the bat,” Kanen said gently. “We could have set a trap for him. As it was, he had the advantage of a familiar location and a clean line out of the building and a vehicle to run away in.”
“I know,” she said. “I didn’t think. I’m sorry. Once I was convinced it was him, I confronted him to get confirmation.”
Now in their rented vehicle, they headed toward her apartment. Kanen was a little worried. She kept staring out the window listlessly, as if Bob’s getaway was all her fault. He slid his fingers through hers. “It’s okay. We’ll get him.”
She nodded but didn’t answer. Outside her apartment, she looked up at the windows. “It doesn’t even feel like home anymore.”
“Once this is all over,” Nelson said with forced cheerfulness, “it will feel different, hopefully better.”
She followed Taylor through the front doors. Kanen brought up the rear. He stopped to look around the streets. As long as her assailant, this Bob Alagarth, was loose and on the run, Kanen didn’t dare leave her side. This Bob guy was just as likely to run to the main continent, but, if he was angry or wanted to put a stop to this, he might easily come back after her again.
Kanen stepped inside. As the rest of them entered the elevator, he said, “I’ll take the stairs.” He waited until the door shut and headed to the stairwell. He ran up the stairs quickly. On the third floor, he got out and walked toward her apartment. There was no sign of her.
He walked back to the elevator and saw it hadn’t made it to the third floor, stopping on the floor below. Swearing profusely, he bolted back down to the second floor and came out of the stairwell ready for a fight, only to see the three of them talking softly outside the elevator. He came to a dead stop in front of them and reminded himself not to yell. “Jesus! I thought something had happened. What’s wrong?”
She turned to him and raised both hands in frustration. “I don’t want to go home.”
He reached for her hands. “Then we don’t have to go back there,” he said quietly. “If you’re nervous, or if you think something is wrong, if your instincts are telling you that you can’t go there, then that’s fine. We’ll go to m
y hotel for the night.”
He heard a heavy sigh and watched the relief cross her face. He enveloped her with a hug and held her close. “Look. You had a traumatic event in your apartment,” he said quietly. “Of course you don’t want to be there. Just say so. We won’t force you to do anything. We’re here to help keep you safe and to catch this asshole Bob. But let’s not make fear be the reason you do anything.”
She nodded and squeezed his back. “I know. I feel like we should avoid my apartment. I know I’m being foolish, but, at the same time, knowing that guy’s out there …”
“Which is exactly why the three of us are here with you,” he said. “Now do you want to go back and make sure everything’s okay? Will you feel better if you see that your place is the same as it always was?”
She tilted her head to the side as if contemplating that idea, then nodded. “Yes, I will.”
They went back to the elevator, but she balked at the doors.
“No, I don’t want to get in the elevator.”
The other men exchanged worried glances, but Kanen grabbed her hand and said, “The stairs are fine.”
They walked up the last flight to her apartment. There she unlocked the door, and Kanen pushed it open and entered. While they waited outside, he did a quick search of the entire place, ending his search in the bedroom, even checking under the bed and in the closet.
He walked back out to where they waited. “It’s empty. No one’s here. Come on in.”
She walked in slowly.
He wasn’t sure why it bothered her this time versus the last time, but he had to respect her feelings.
She stopped and pointed at the couch. “That is new.”
Kanen inspected her couch, pulling out a note stuck between the cushions. He showed it to Nelson and Taylor.
“What does it say?” she asked.
“It’ll be okay,” Kanen began. “It seems Bob stopped by here while MI6 questioned us. He left a note saying, I’ll be back.” He grabbed Laysa’s shoulders. “We won’t let him get to you again.”
She nodded, trying not to focus on those three words.
“Hey,” Kanen said, sucking her out of her thoughts. “You called it. You followed your instincts.”
She nodded.
“No, really. You followed your instincts. It was a good call. Continue doing that. Always let us know when you have these gut checks, okay?”
She remained silent, still nodding her head as if unable to stop.
“Okay?” he asked louder.
“Yes.” She smiled a weak grin. “Yes,” she said in a stronger voice. “It scared me.”
“As he meant for you to be,” Kanen said.
“But I’m getting madder as I think about it.”
Kanen and the other guys laughed. “You got it, Laysa. Turn that fear into fight mode.” She’d gone through a horrible ordeal, and Kanen could well imagine she no longer had a feeling of home here. He’d be more than happy to take her home with him. All she had to do was agree. They’d been friends since forever. And she was definitely pulling at his heartstrings.
Now that Blake was gone, he shouldn’t feel guilty about his feelings. It would take a little time to adjust to seeing her as someone in his life, not just as Blake’s wife and as a longtime friend. He glanced at her, realizing it wouldn’t take any time at all. He was almost there now.
She sat on the far end of the couch—opposite from where Bob’s note was found—and stared up at Kanen, a wistful smile crossing her face. “It would have been so nice to have seen you before all this,” she said. “Now it feels like we’re not equals anymore.”
At her odd wording, he sat down beside her. “We’ve always been equals. What do you mean?”
“I feel like I need you to protect me right now, and that makes me less than what I was before.”
He shook his head. “That’s so not true. We all need help sometimes. Even SEALs need help. Right now you need us. And that’s fine. You might not need us tomorrow. You might not need us next week, but, for the moment, you need our help, and that’s what we’re here for. It doesn’t make you any less in our eyes. In fact, I admire somebody who can accept the help when it’s required.”
She chuckled. “I forgot what a cheerleader you always were.”
“I am what I am,” he said with a lopsided grin. “And I have to admit that, right now, I am hungry.”
She stared at him. “No way. You can’t always be so hungry.”
He shrugged. “Why not? It’s got to be at least lunchtime, if not dinnertime. I’ve lost track of the time of day.”
She snorted. “Well, if anyone wants to make something, go ahead, but I don’t think I have enough food to feed all of us.”
Nelson jumped to his feet. “Challenge accepted.” He raced into the kitchen, with Taylor right behind him, both of them laughing.
She looked over at Kanen and smiled. “I like your friends.”
He leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips, whispering, “They like you too.”
Chapter 12
Laysa was surprised at the kiss, and yet, why should she be? They’d been heading toward this since he’d arrived to help her. She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. “I like you too,” she whispered.
He settled her into his lap, and they sat here, cuddling. She thought about how long it had been since she’d been held by somebody who really cared and realized it had been way too long. “I’ve missed this,” she announced quietly.
He looked down at her. “What?”
“Being touched,” she said softly. “Cuddling. Just being with somebody who cares. After Blake died, it seemed like my world collapsed. I was so alone, like walking through a constant dark, cold night. And there would never be any sunshine ever again. Of course, eventually you pass through that phase, and you stare outside, and you start to reconnect with the world around you. But you’re single now. There isn’t anybody to hold you in the middle of the night when you had a bad day or a nightmare. There isn’t anybody to pick up the phone and call or to send a happy face text to in the middle of the day just because you were thinking of them. Everything is geared for a two-person world, and, all of a sudden, you are cut in half. It feels so foreign, so strange and, most of all, so very cold.”
He hugged her gently. She rested against his big chest. She’d never thought of him as anything more than a good friend, … until recently. At the same time, she wondered why not. He was incredibly sexy, one of those strong and capable kinds of guys who oozed power and charm at the same time. She knew he’d had lots of girlfriends, but nobody he ever got close to.
She leaned back slightly, looking up at him. “Why did you never marry?”
He jokingly said, “Well, I could say because you were already married.”
She wrinkled her face up at him. “No. I mean, why did you never marry?”
“Because I never met anybody I cared enough about to make it permanent,” he said calmly.
She had to wonder at that. And his initial joke. Was this the time to ask him about that?
Just then Taylor poked his head around the corner, saw the two of them together and smiled. “Now that’s much better,” he said, “to see the two of you like that.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Ha. You don’t know anything about us.”
He shrugged. “And? That doesn’t change anything, does it? Not really. But the reason I’m here is to ask if you had any plans for some of the stuff in your freezer, or can we help ourselves to whatever we need?”
She waved a hand at him. “I doubt much is in there. Have at anything you want.”
Kanen called out, “It’s better if we use up everything anyway. She won’t be staying here, so the less to move, the better.”
Taylor gave a big nod with a happy grin. “Got it.” He disappeared again.
She leaned back and turned to look at Kanen. “What are you talking about?”
“You don’t want to be here. You don’t really
have a job you can’t live without. You’re all alone. And you just said it’s like a half life. The dark half. I want you to come stay with me,” he said. “California is warm and sunny. Leave the rain here. I have a two-bedroom apartment, so plenty of room, and I think you could make a new life for yourself there.”
“I’m not a charity case,” she warned.
He snorted. “Nobody in their right mind would call you a charity case.” He tilted her chin up. “Is that why you keep ignoring me when I ask you to come home with me?” He studied her a moment, but she kept silent. “Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you really want to stay here all on your own?”
She winced. She tried to pull her chin away, but he wouldn’t let her. She glared up at him. “I don’t know what I want.”
His gaze warmed.
She sighed and smiled up at him. “You’re right. I don’t want to be here alone. The invasion of my home and the beating was enough of an experience, without factoring in the loss of Blake, so I don’t want to stay in this apartment. But moving back to the US is a big step.”
“You moved here with Blake, but California has always been your home. Is there any reason you don’t want to go back home?”
“It doesn’t feel like home,” she said. “Even though I lived there for so long, it doesn’t feel like going home.”
“Good point,” he said. “But does this place feel like home anymore?”
She had to think about it, for like two seconds. Her shoulders slowly shrugged, answering him. She shook her head. “It hasn’t really felt like home since I lost Blake. It’s his furniture. I wanted something different, but he really loved this, so I was okay with it too.” She spoke slowly. “The wall colors are his choices. I wanted bright and cheerful, but he wanted the browns and caramels.”
“You could buy new furniture and repaint the walls, if that was the only issue.”
She shook her head. “No, it was Blake who made this home. Without him, well …” She shifted from Kanen’s lap to sit beside him again, subconsciously separating herself from him.
