by Tara Thomas
“Don’t tell me he’s going to blame all this on his childhood,” Brent said.
“I’m sure a defense attorney would love that line,” Janie said. “My hope is to shut him down before he gets to that point. I mean, I always prefer to have the suspects taken into custody as opposed to shooting them. But if it comes down to it, and I have no choice, I’ll shoot to kill every day as opposed to letting someone like this get away.”
* * *
“What are our next steps?” Brent asked.
“According to those flowers that were waiting when we got back from DC, he won’t make a major move for at least a week.”
She’d stopped in front of the end of time line, but Brent walked to the beginning.
“I keep asking myself, why you? What did you see or what does he think you saw for him to be chasing you so relentlessly?” He turned to look at her. “Did you see anything? Any little thing that he might think is something?”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “I honestly can’t think of a thing.”
She started to stay something else, but her phone rang. She looked the display and smiled. “Hey, Alyssa. What do you have for me?” As Brent watched, her smile fell. “Of course. I don’t know why I expected anything else.” There was another pause and then she said, “I’m not holding out much hope, but let me know if it turns up anything.”
“What was that?” he asked when she got off the phone.
“No prints on any of the boxes.”
He nodded. That wasn’t surprising.
“But,” she added, “they’re going to run DNA to see if anything turns up.”
“Do you think it will?” He hated the hope he had at any new clue or direction that always got shattered later.
“Probably not, but at least they’re doing something.”
She looked tired and worn out. He reached out and she went silently into his arms. “Let’s think about something else for at least an hour. How does a bubble bath sound?”
“Divine,” she said with a half happy sigh.
“Come with me,” he said, taking her hand and leading her down the hall. She sighed when they entered his bathroom. It was huge and always reminded her of a spa.
“You rest here while I get everything ready.” He nodded to the plush stool sitting beside the tub.
“I can help, you know,” she said.
He kissed her cheek softly. “I know. But I don’t want you to right now. All I want you to do is sit right there and relax.”
She smiled. He always took such good care or her. She sat back and watched him moving around the bathroom, humming to himself as he pulled out the bath wash and set a few towels nearby. He turned the water on and it wasn’t long until the room was filled with the smell of summer wildflowers.
He looked over at her. “Are you ready?”
She smiled and held out her hand. “Yes.”
“Be careful.” He took her hand and helped her step into the bathtub. “I’d hate for you to slip.”
His tub was a huge, massive number. An old antique find, with clawed feet that had been restored. The high back on one side was perfect for soaking. She dropped into it, up to her neck in warm sudsy bubbles. Her eyes drifted closed and she groaned.
“It’s so good.” She cracked one eye open. “But it’d be so much better if you joined me.”
“Oh no,” he said. “I’m enjoying sitting here, watching you way too much.”
“You can still watch me if you join me.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps. But then you wouldn’t relax very much, now would you?”
“Relaxing is highly overrated.”
“Be that as it may,” he said with a grin. “Right now it is about you.”
He didn’t say anything else, but started bathing her with warm caresses and soft strokes. He was so gentle, he treated her as if she were made of fragile glass.
She couldn’t remember the last time that she felt so cherished and cared for. By the time he finished, and he’d dried her off, and curled up in bed with her, she was completely relaxed and couldn’t keep her eyes open.
Chapter Six
Janie had been a nervous wreck all week. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even though she had said she didn’t expect anything, the truth was she kept waiting for something to happen. Each day that passed with nothing happening only served to drive her to look more closely the next day.
She told herself to stop and that she was only making matters worse. Each day, too, she waited for Alyssa to call with test results, but she should have known better than to expect them that fast.
Through it all, Brent was her rock. She truly didn’t know how she’d do it without him. Even now as they got ready to go to the cookout Alyssa had invited her to just hours ago.
She thought she’d been doing a good job at hiding her nerves, but when he came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and asked, “Are you sure going to this cookout is the best thing to do?” she knew she hadn’t fooled anyone.
“I’m fine.,” she managed to say with a smile. The psychopath who had been strangely quiet for the last week. She wasn’t sure which made her more nervous: the plethora of notes he’d left in the beginning or not having anything sent to her in a week.
“This isn’t funny, Janie,” Brent said, catching her eyes in the mirror.
She turned around and captured his face in her hands and ran her fingers across the worry lines she found there. “I know it’s not. But I have to laugh or else I’ll be so scared I won’t be able to function.”
“That’s why I wonder if it wouldn’t be best for us to stay home.”
She shook her head. “He wins that way.”
“But you’re alive.”
“I don’t think there’s any place safer than a police department picnic.”
“It’s at a public park.”
“She invited us three hours ago. There’s no way anyone would have time to plan anything with that short a time frame.” At first, Janie wasn’t sure it was such a good idea, what with her being recently fired and all. But Alyssa had told her it wasn’t an official departmental event and to be honest, there were several people she wanted to see before heading to DC who would be there.
Brent told her from the beginning that he didn’t want her to go. But Janie had been persistent. Soon she’d be moving to DC with Brent and a part of her needed this cookout for closure, as a way to say good-bye to what had been a major part of life for a long time.
Brent knew this, though, and she wasn’t in the mood to rehash the same conversation for the tenth time.
“You don’t have to go,” she said, inwardly hoping like hell that he didn’t decide to let her go alone.
He looked almost angry when he replied. “Do you actually think I’m going to let you go by yourself?”
“I need to do this,” she said. “I need to be able to go to DC having closed this chapter in my life.”
He searched her eyes. “Okay,” he finally said. “But we don’t stay long and you never leave my sight.”
She rose to her toes and gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you.”
“I still don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“What could possibly happen at a public police department?”
* * *
“You’re almost out of time,” The Gentleman said when he answered the phone. “I’m looking forward to sharing your girlfriend’s company in a week.”
He took several deep breaths. He was close, so damn close. He couldn’t afford to let The Gentleman goad him into making a mistake.
“It’s all going to plan,” he said. “Make no mistake about it: this time next week, Janie will be on a slab in the morgue.”
Sooner than that if he’d played his cards right. Janie still thought she had a week left. He was going to make her wish he wouldn’t wait that long.
* * *
Three hours later, dusk was falling. The picnic had been fun and not awkward at a
ll like Janie had feared. She’d announced her plan to move to DC and everyone seemed genuinely happy of her. Brent had been the recipient of many back slaps at that, and ended up wearing a big grin most of the night.
They were standing around, talking. Janie looked over the group of colleagues she’d worked with for years and though she felt a little bittersweet about leaving, all she had to do was look at Brent and she knew she was looking at her future.
He caught her staring and smiled before glancing down at his watch. He gave it a tap and she nodded. They’d stayed longer than they’d planned and she knew it was time to head home.
She looked around for Alyssa. She wanted to thank her for inviting her.
“I’m going to go tell Alyssa good-bye,” she told Brent, after finding her friend off to the side, talking with her partner.
Brent nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing he was only worried about her safety. Instead she held out her hand and waited for him to take it. “I’ll just be a minute.”
“Brent!” Mac walked up to them. “I need to ask you a question really quick. Hey, you guys aren’t leaving yet, are you?”
Brent looked caught between Mac and Janie. Janie decided to make the decision for him.
“You two chat,” she said. “I’m going to go say bye to Alyssa, I’ll be back before you finish.”
Brent hesitantly let her hand go and she turned toward Alyssa, not wanting to be away from Brent any longer than possible.
She froze. She smelled it. The cologne. Hadn’t Mac said Alyssa’s partner gave it to him or gave him the name or something? Trying not to be obvious about what she was doing, she looked around. She knew her partner was here. She saw him not too long ago.
She spotted him alone, not part of the crowd, but not entirely separate either.Brent was watching her, he might not like that she didn’t go straight to Alyssa and Mac, but he wouldn’t stop her.
The off duty office flashed a friendly smile at her approach. “Hey, Janie. So sorry to see you leave Charleston.”
“I bet you are. Traveling to Washington’s going to be a bitch for you, isn’t it?”
She watched him carefully, but he revealed nothing when he spoke, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She took a step closer. “It’s over. I know where you were last weekend.”
“In Atlanta, watching the Braves. My nephew turned sixteen.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why that’s any of your business though.”
Her mouth dropped. “The Braves? Atlanta?”
He looked at her as his she’d grown two horns and a beard. “Yeah. Look, I hate to cut this this short, but I need to go talk to Watson over there. He got in some evidence I want to expedite. See you around.”
She didn’t say goodby or watch him walk away. Instead she was running though everything she knew about the case, trying to pinpoint how she’d got it all wrong.
Laughter boomed loudly. Turning to see who it was, she discovered it was Mac.
Mac.
Suddenly, it all made sense. She thought the man might be a police officer. However, with Alyssa as his girlfriend, he’d have access to everything. He’d know what was found as well as the next steps. No wonder he was always a one step ahead of everybody. He had the perfect setup for snooping.
She motioned for Alyssa to join her. Her friend frowned, but told Mac something, and started walking.
Alyssa made it to her. “Are you okay?”
Janie kept her eye on Mac, not really sure how to bring it up. “I know this sounds weird, do you think—”
She couldn’t get out what she was going to say because at that moment, an explosion ripped through the night.
Everything was chaos. The world was filled with darkness and noise. She fell.
Her ears buzzed. She wasn’t sure what had blown up. It had been close by. There was smoke everywhere. It burned her eyes and made her cough. It took her a few seconds, but she realized she’d been momentarily blinded by the explosion. She wondered if she’d passed out.
Nothing seemed right. Where was everybody? Why couldn’t she hear anything?
She tried to remember. God, it hurt to think. She rolled over and gravel dug into her knees. A groan escaped her throat. She didn’t know she’d been on the ground.
“Brent,” she coughed out. But she couldn’t find anybody.
Was Alyssa nearby?
She struggled to sit up, but everything hurt and the odd buzz in her ears made her head ache even more. She slumped down, gathering her strength, when she became aware of a presence by her side.
She held still, hoping they wouldn’t notice her and jerked when the presence touched her. That smell! Her throat seized in a moment of panic.
* * *
“Janie!” Brent looked around the increasingly frantic crowd. Where was she? He’d been watching her and then the explosion happened and now he had no idea where she was.
He desperately wanted to ignore the thought that this was somehow related to the threats she’d been receiving, but it was too coincidental. It had to be related.
Dread began to seep into his body. He’d known they shouldn’t have come to this party. Why had he agreed to come? He should have told her no. Tied her to the bed and kept her there for days.
But no, she’d wanted to come and it was impossible for him to turn her down. Damn it. If anything happened to her . . . he shook his head, not even able to let his mind go there.
Alyssa walked by, talking on her phone. He jogged over to her.
“Alyssa!”
She stopped and turned around. “Brent.” She frowned. “Where’s Janie?”
The panic grew. He forced himself to speak as calmly as possible, “I was hoping she was with you or you knew where she was. Wasn’t she with you when the explosion occurred?”
“Yes, she was with me and my partner. Who I can’t find, either. Wasn’t Mac with you?”
Mac. Right. He’d forgotten about him. “Yes, but he had to grab something really quick. What happened, anyway?”
“From what I’ve been told, it was a car bomb. Too soon to know whose car, though.”
He didn’t care who the car belonged to. Who could possibly be concerned about a car when all signs pointed to the conclusion that whoever was behind the car was also the man they’d been hunting?
“Oh, look.” Alyssa pointed to two people quite a distance away in a small clearing. “Mac and Janie are over there.”
Brent breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I wonder how she got over there?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to text Mac and tell them to stay there. It’s too smoky over here.”
Brent nodded. Damn, that was close. Janie would be safe with Mac. He would stay with her and he knew about the threats.
Still though, Brent wouldn’t feel completely at ease until he could touch her. “I’m going to head that way.”
Alyssa nodded, talking once again on the phone. Brent took two steps toward the tree Janie was sitting in front of when Alyssa’s cry of distress made him stop. He turned to look at her. She was pale and her eyes were searching the area frantically.
“Alyssa?” Brent asked.
“Thanks,” she said to whomever she was talking to and hung up. She didn’t look pale now, she looked green. “Where’s Janie? We have to get her.”
Brent looked toward where Janie had been moments ago, but now he didn’t see anything. Where could she be?
“Where is she?” Alyssa asked again.
He squinted, cursing because he still couldn’t get a visual on Janie. “She was with Mac, by that tree. I don’t see either one of them now.”
“Oh no. Oh my God.”
Brent took off toward the tree. “What’s wrong? What’s the problem?”
“DNA is back on those boxes.”
* * *
“Shh. It’s okay,” the presence said, and she realized it was Mac.
She tried
to say his name, but her mouth was too dry and all she did was cough.
“Don’t try to talk,” Mac said. “Come over here, it’s quieter and there’s not as much smoke.”
She stood on legs that were too wobbly in her opinion. He led her to a tree stump and she clumsily sat down. She had to get away. Damn it. Why was she so weak?
Looking around, she tried to find Brent, but all she saw in the direction they came from was a fireball. Mac handed her an open bottle of water and she gulped down half of it before she was able to talk.
She wiped her mouth with her forearm. “What happened?”
“A car bomb, from the looks of it.”
“Was anyone hurt?” she asked.
“No,” Mac said, but something flickered in his eyes.
All at once, she felt very exposed. When she tried to stand, she fell to the ground.
“Whoa!” Mac said, picking her up. “Easy. Where are you going?”
Her mind felt muddled. What was happening to her?
“Brent,” she managed to get out.
“Let’s get you back on the tree stump,” he said, helping her to sit back down.
She shook her head. It felt as if the fog that had been surrounding her had somehow seeped into her brain. Her thoughts were so fuzzy. “Brent,” she repeated.
“I don’t think you’re in any condition to walk all the way back,” Mac said. “Come with me. I’ll help you.”
How had she gotten so far away from the main crowd? Did Mac carry her that far? She squinted, as if that would clear her mind. Were those fire trucks she saw? Why was she so dizzy?
The smell hit her as soon as Mac opened the door to the truck and just as quickly, her mind cleared. The cologne. She instinctively tried to back away, but her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. They were still jelly.
“Inside, Janie.” He pushed her roughly on her back, tying her hands. That still wouldn’t work right. Then he shoved her onto her stomach into the backseat of the cab and slammed the door behind her.
Why couldn’t she move her arms and legs? She rolled as best as she could and made it to her side and ice-cold fear kept her frozen in place. There on the floorboard was a generic white box. Exactly like the ones that kept being delivered to her.
