“Hey, secret agent man, this ain’t such a good part of town to be walking around by yourself, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I kinda got that feeling.”
Mal studied the building, noted the lights blazing in several of the windows, all of which were unbroken. The building seemed to be in pretty decent shape compared to the others around it. Unless you counted the charred front steps.
“Wait for me, will you?” Mal passed a fifty through the glass divider. “There’s another one of those if you’re here when I come out.”
Shawn took the bill and shut off the car. “You got it. Ain’t had this much fun for a while.”
Mal crossed the street to the building, only then noticing a woman approaching from the other end of the dark street. Slipping into the shadows of the adjoining building’s broken doorway, he watched. She was dark-haired with dusky skin, short and round—had to be at least thirty. Not Bennett’s usual type.
Stalker?
He needed to be in the building.
***
“Okay, listen up. Here’s the deal for next week. I want discs in my hand the minute I get here. I will not accept them if you hand them in at the end of class. I will not accept them if you are late to class.”
Mal could hear Janey’s voice coming from somewhere on the first floor. He could hear other voices as well, but they didn’t interest him.
She sounded like a schoolteacher he remembered from high school. She’d been a real ball-buster, but her persistence had been the reason he’d gotten an A in her English class—until then his worst subject.
“You know how to reach me if you need me. Everyone’s laptop running okay?”
Several young voices answered in the affirmative.
Now he knew what Bennett was doing here. And there stood the creep, lounging against the wall in the hallway.
Bennett had a shit-eating grin on his face, which Mal was very happily about to wipe off. But not yet.
The woman who had entered the building after Bennett also stood in the hallway, reeking of pine cleaner. She was careful to keep her attention on the scuffed floor, her attitude projecting “stay away” as if in bold neon. Bennett didn’t seem to have noticed her or Mal.
“Miss Janey, you promised we’d get to work on our website tonight.”
“Yes, I did and we’ve got another half hour. But we can’t be screwing around if we’re going to have it ready in time for the competition. If I don’t have everyone’s one hundred percent effort on this, it’s not worth it. Javier, do you understand me?”
A boy’s sulky voice answered. “Yes, ma’am.”
“All right, everybody over here.”
Bennett checked his watch and huffed. Apparently he wasn’t pleased that Janey would be tied up another thirty minutes. In fact, the man looked ready to barge in and interrupt.
Mal sneaked up behind him and waited until Bennett realized he was there. The older man gasped as Mal gave him a steady stare.
“Laughlin, what the hell are you doing here?” At least Bennett kept his voice low.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Well, actually, you’re my business at the moment, so try again.”
A smug look settled over Bennett’s face. “I need to talk to Janey.”
“Oh yeah, about what?”
With a sigh, Bennett pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “I wanted to talk to her about this latest letter. I got it this morning.”
Mal ripped the sheet of paper out of Bennett’s hands. His heart rate tripled as he read it.
She’s not good enough for you. She’ll never be good enough for you and I’ll make sure of it. She can’t have you. I won’t let her.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this right away?”
Bennett’s gaze shifted away. “I’ve been busy.”
Yeah, hitting on every blonde skirt in a twenty-mile radius. “Not busy enough to follow Janey?”
Bennett bristled. “I was in this area of town and I know that Janey teaches here on Wednesdays.” Which was more than Mal had known, making his temper flare. “I wanted to talk to her about this, wanted her take on the situation.”
That was just never going to happen. He’d made a promise to Grace.
Mal put his face right in Bennett’s and grinned when the older man flinched away. “You will not speak to Janey. Not a word. You won’t come anywhere near her. If you do, I’ll make you live to regret it.”
***
Janey watched from the doorway, fascinated by the scene unfolding in the hallway.
She could just make out what they were saying, knew it had something to do with her. And, unfortunately, Bennett. She shuddered. God, the guy was such a creep. He made her skin crawl.
And Mal was acting like a jealous lover. Well, now, that wasn’t so bad.
“You will go back out to the taxi and have your bodyguard escort you back to your hotel, and I expect you to stay there until morning.”
“Now, look here, Laughlin, just because—”
Mal never raised his voice, but Janey could hear the anger in his tone and Bennett wasn’t stupid enough to disregard that. “Go. Now.”
After a few seconds of staring, Bennett pushed past Mal with a disgusted huff. Mal started to swear under his breath. Until he caught sight of her. His expression blanked in one second flat.
“Janey—”
She held up a hand like a traffic cop, and he shut his mouth. “What’s going on?”
Mal shook his head. “Nothing. He’s an ass. He had no good reason to be here except to harass you and you sure as hell don’t need that.”
The look she gave him could have blistered paint. “You know, even though it pisses me off, I understand why my mom treats me like I’m a child. What I can’t figure out is why you do. Do you think I can’t take care of myself?”
Shit. He’d stepped right into this. “Of course you can.”
“Then why did you just warn Bennett off like you were my father?”
“I’m not your father, Janey. But I’m not going to stand around and let the guy harass you, either.” He took a deep breath, as if trying to control his temper, then took a deliberate look around. “What is this place, anyway?”
She let him wait for her answer, not really sure if she wanted to let him off the hook. She loved macho guys, but not ones who thought they could run her life. Still, Mal was acting under orders from her mother.
Shaking her head, she turned back into the room. “Come in and I’ll introduce you.”
Knowing Janey had just given him a reprieve, Mal followed, then stopped in the doorway as ten kids, mostly teenagers huddled around a desk in a corner of the room, looked up at her voice. Then they turned their gazes on him. Every one of those kids had hard eyes. Eyes that took his measure in seconds and dismissed him as insignificant. When they looked back at Janey, however, their expressions were reverent.
“Everybody, I’d like you to meet Mal Laughlin. He’s the new investigator at my family’s firm. He’s going to hang out until the end of class. Just ignore him.” She flashed him a sharp look and nodded toward a desk at the front of the room. He sat.
And watched her work.
She and the kids were building a website. He couldn’t really see what they were working on, but he caught enough of their conversation to know they were working well ahead of their age level.
Janey let them do the work, didn’t jump in to do things for them. She let them fight about a few things, let them work it out, even let them make a few mistakes.
She was damn good with them and they adored her. He could see it in the kids’ smiles. From the gangly boy with his hair dyed white, black and purple to the blonde girl with tattoos running up both arms and across her back, bared by a halter top.
At precisely 9:00 p.m., she said, “All right, guys. Time’s up.”
The kids groaned but started back to their seats
, all except for a short pregnant girl, who was shutting down the main computer.
“Don’t forget, your projects are due next week and I will only accept them when you walk through the door, not at the end of class.”
There were no grumbles from the kids, just a few nods, a few “Yes, ma’ams.”
As the students began shuffling toward the door, Mal realized other people had arrived and were standing at the back of the room, obviously waiting for the kids to be released.
Janey spoke to each of the adults in turn, shaking hands and smiling, even at those who didn’t return it. And there were one or two of them.
When all of the students had left, Janey walked back to her desk and started to gather her materials.
Since he was sitting there already, he let himself watch her walk toward him. “So, what is this place?”
“The Benjamin Overton Institute. Among other things, it serves as an alternative learning center for the city school district.”
After she’d packed everything into her oversized tote bag and backpack, she wheeled the computer cart into a closet near the back of the room and locked it with a state-of-the-art magnetic lock he was pretty sure Jimmy had made.
“What do you teach?”
“Well, the official name of the class is Advanced At-Risk Recovery. But that’s just a title. My kids have been kicked out of school for one reason or another, but they all test in the genius range.”
Just like she had at their age. He moved the chair back when she shooed him with her hands so she could get to her purse under the desk.
Then she hopped up onto the desk right in front of him, primly crossing her legs, the swish of her silk stockings making his mouth dry.
He swallowed before he asked, “How long have you been teaching here?”
“Since I graduated from college and came back to work with Mom and Dad.”
“Those kids love you.”
There, now she looked flustered. “No. They’re just eager to learn and I don’t talk to them like they’re crazed delinquents.”
“You’re good with them.”
Her mouth curved. “I could have been one of them.”
His face must have shown his disbelief, because she laughed. “I was just smart enough to be completely bored. The fact that I went to an all-girl high school didn’t help. I was constantly in trouble for pulling pranks. I hacked the school records a couple of times, made a mess of everyone’s grades. Of course, I kept a copy of the originals because I knew my parents would figure out I’d done it. One year, I reconfigured the security system so my friends and I could sneak in and use the pool at night.”
She gazed down at him, dark hair falling over her shoulder, bright eyes sparkling, and his stomach twisted. He knew exactly why her parents had put her in an all-girls school. She would have caused riots among teenage boys.
“Sounds like you were too smart for your own good.”
She laughed again but shook her head as she slid off the desk, grabbed her bags from the desk and headed for the door. “At least I never really screwed up anything so badly I couldn’t fix it.”
Mal followed on her heels, silent. He wanted her so badly his fingers ached to touch her. He was so screwed. This whole case was so screwed.
And, goddamn it, there was Bennett, waiting on the other side of the street with his limo and his bodyguard.
Client or not, Mal was going to beat him into the ground for disobeying him. The bastard’s smug grin nudged Mal over into complete fury.
“That son-of-a-bitch—”
He started across the street, Janey behind him now. Bennett pushed away from the car, probably gaining courage from the bodyguard at his back.
Mal didn’t care. He was gonna—
The squeal of tires from up the street barely registered until Mal realized the car was speeding up and headed straight for them.
Chapter Fifteen
Mal caught a blinding flash of headlights and squinted against the glare.
Instinct had him hurling himself at Janey, scooping her up and rolling with her out of the path of the car, which came close enough to brush his calf.
Janey’s short scream ended in a groan as they slammed into concrete. He tried to cushion their fall as much as possible, then rose to his knees in a split second, pulling his gun from the back of his pants and sighting at fast-disappearing taillights.
Through the roaring in his ears and the pounding of his heart, he listened for any distinctive sounds the car made, anything that would help him identify it later.
There was nothing. Nothing except Janey drawing in a sharp breath as she lay on the ground behind him.
“Shit, are you okay?”
He shoved the gun back into the holster and knelt beside her. When he reached for her, fear clutched at his stomach when she flinched away from him. He started running his hands over her arms and legs, testing for broken bones or wounds.
“Jesus, Janey. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. Just a…just a little scraped up.”
Mal sat back on his heels. He could see fear in her eyes and something else. Something he didn’t understand. Shutting it out, he stood and held out his hand.
“Come on. We gotta get off the street.”
Rising, she brushed herself off with trembling hands, ignoring his outstretched one. He swore and felt his body go hot, then cold with fear and adrenaline.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” he asked.
She didn’t look at him. “I’m fine. It never touched me. But it hit you, didn’t it?”
“Christ, Laughlin, that car could have killed me. Why aren’t you going after it?”
Mal barely spared a glance for Bennett, whose bodyguard had pulled him to safety behind the limo.
“Chris—” he spoke to the bodyguard, “—take him back to the hotel. If he tries to leave his room, handcuff him to a chair. Or shoot his knees out. I don’t care which. I’ll be in touch tomorrow. Come on, Janey.”
Bennett sputtered but finally the bodyguard got him in the car. Mal couldn’t care less. He was only worried about getting Janey off the street.
“Mal, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I think it just grazed my leg.” He looked down and realized he was bleeding. Then it started to hurt. Shit. “I want you off the street. That car wasn’t aiming for Bennett, goddamn it. We’re taking the cab back to your place.”
For a second, she just stared at him
Then she nodded, gathered her bags, surprisingly unscathed from the accident, and hurried across the street to the cab. His hand on her elbow, Mal cursed himself the whole way. Damn it, this was his fault.
You’re losing it, son. Getting sloppy. If you get sloppy now, something might happen to Janey. Just like Dev.
***
The trip back to her home was silent, except for the steady chatter the driver provided.
“Damn, secret agent man, that car came out of nowhere. Must have been doing forty or fifty by the time it almost ran you down. Must have pissed off someone good.”
Janey couldn’t think straight, not through her constant shaking.
“Did you get a look at the car?” Mal asked the driver.
And she couldn’t get warm. Her body shook, even in the warmth of the taxi. Her teeth started to chatter when they pulled up to her building, but she quieted them through sheer willpower.
“Nah. It was all over by the time I realized what was going down.”
She’d nearly been run over by that car.
In all the years with her parents, she’d never been the target of outright violence. Her parents had enemies, some who’d tried to harm them. Nic had been in any number of close calls and he’d nearly died in the Middle East.
Even Jimmy had been targeted for a hit a few years ago. Some nutcase had decided he was too much competition. Luckily, the guy didn’t have the brainpower to carry out his threats. His homemade bomb had lacked a few key ingredients, like a fuse. The man now
had a nice white room in a state facility.
She had no memory of her kidnapping as a child, no memory of the woman who’d taken her. Her parents didn’t tell her about it until she’d been fifteen and stupid enough to believe she could sneak off to the Jersey Shore with Annie for a weekend. Then her mom had sat her down and scared the living hell out of her.
Grace had explained how being a DeMarco meant having to take precautions other children didn’t have to take. How a stolen weekend at the shore with a friend put not only herself but Annie at risk. How any number of cretins could be watching and waiting for their opportunity to steal her away, to use her as a bargaining chip or worse.
Until that moment, she hadn’t truly understood how being her parents’ daughter made her the target of some very nasty people.
For a week, she’d been terrified to leave the house, to be away from her parents or her brothers. Terrified someone would take her.
Her parents had freaked. Her mom blamed herself for giving Janey nightmares—and a possible ulcer—while her dad blamed himself for just about everything else.
And then Nic had come home on leave and taken her to the gym. Nic didn’t belong to one of those chains that served wheatgrass juice and organic smoothies. He trained in a gym that looked like the one used in the first Rocky movie. Grungy. Smelly. Hot as hell.
The men there all had at least one tattoo and enough muscle to bench a car. For an entire week, Nic trained her in self-defense with the help of those guys, who turned out to be military, cops and firefighters.
They hadn’t talked about her feelings, about how scared she was. He’d thrown her around like a rag doll without ever hurting her. He showed her how to street fight, how to break holds and to use her smaller size to greater advantage. He taught her how to break a guy’s nose with the back of her head and where to bite someone and make it hurt like hell.
And by the time he had to return to his unit, she’d no longer been having nightmares.
So why the hell was she falling apart now?
Because she’d become complacent, that was why.
Sex, Lies and Surveillance Page 17
