Puppeteer

by Schultz, Tamsen

  It was possible that Drew and Spanky and all the others didn't think she had it in her to be emotional over anything or anyone for one simple reason. Up until now, she never had.

  Chapter 8

  TY WATCHED DANI JOG down the front stairs of the house. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, her fists jammed into her pockets. Her expression was closed. She looked damn good in her leather jacket, but judging by the way she moved, he would guess she was pissed at something.

  Good, he thought, as he smiled to himself. She was too pragmatic to hold a grudge so, when he pushed her, and he intended to push her, if she exploded on him, which he hoped she would, she wouldn't stay mad at him for too long.

  It wasn't a very nice plan but he was tired of her ignoring him, ignoring what had happened last night. He wanted more than her professional persona. He wasn't sure how much more. Oh, he wouldn't turn down another night like the one they'd spent together, but he would settle for at least blowing through her professional cool. He didn't think he was asking much, he just wanted her to see him as a person, maybe even a friend—hell, anything other than a cog in her investigation.

  “Have you ridden a bike before?” he asked as she came to a stop a few feet away. She fixed him with a look.

  “Right, of course you have.” He tossed her a helmet. “There's a voice activated radio system so we can talk during ride,” he explained.

  “Great.” She slid the helmet on. Ignoring her mumbled sarcasm, he straddled the bike and she climbed on behind him. He almost laughed when she put her hands behind her rather than wrap her arms around him. Shaking his head, he started the bike up and headed down the drive.

  “So what are you so pissed about?” he asked, knowing it would get her back up even more. He shouldn't have fun doing this, but he was. He knew how she reacted physically to him—which was a stark contrast to how she reacted professionally. And the contradiction was intriguing. He wasn't the kind of guy that was interested in being a woman's doormat, but he sensed her quasi-split personality was more a result of the case they were working than a reflection of her. And given how she had responded physically to him, he couldn't help but wonder what might unfold if they actually got to know one another.

  “Nothing,” she replied.

  “Liar.”

  “I wouldn't push if I were you, Detective,” she snapped. “Where are we going?”

  Ty weighed whether or not to answer or keep pushing. He opted for playing nice, at least for the moment. “Your team is high tech and good, but there are a few things we locals can contribute,” he started explaining. “Getz's peninsula is located in a bay. It's about a mile and a half from the northern tip to the southern tip, and hard to see, but it is a bay. There are a couple of spots where, with a pair of high powered glasses, you should be able to get a good view of Getz's compound.” He leaned into a curve, her body moving with his.

  “So what's the deal with you and Drew?” He knew he'd caught her off guard when he heard her let out a little huff. She didn't answer for a long minute and then her voice came through.

  “Nothing is going on with me and Drew. Though he does think you want to kick his ass,” she answered. “So what makes you think we haven't already checked out the spots you're taking me to?”

  “Because one is on private property and the other is a spot only the locals know, trust me. So you two aren't sleeping together?” he asked, taking heart from the fact that she answered his first question. He didn't think she was the type of woman who would have done the things they'd done last night if she was seeing someone else, but wanted to hear it from her.

  She paused again before answering. “That's rather personal, Detective,” she drawled.

  “And yet, I ask.”

  “No we are not, have never, and never will sleep together,” she answered. “How do you know we haven't been on the private property?”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. Not that he and Dani were going anywhere, but if they did, it was nice to know Drew wouldn't be an obstacle.

  “Because in order to go on it, you'd have to ask permission from the owner. You haven't done that. Besides, I was up there today after doing a little rock climbing. I'd have known if you were there. So, if you aren't sleeping together, what's the story? You're obviously close.”

  “I've known Drew all my life. How do you know we haven't asked permission?”

  “Because it's my land, and what do you mean you've known him all your life?”

  “I mean just that. Our parents were best friends. When we were born, Drew and his brother were almost the next people to hold us. I told you, his brother and my sister are married. We couldn't get away from each other if we tried. Are you on the take?”

  Ty almost lost his grip on the bike. “Why would you ask that? And who is ‘we’?”

  “You have an amazing loft and own a tract of waterfront land. It's not something your average cop could do.”

  Her failure to answer his second question didn't go unnoticed, but Ty decided to come back to that. After all, she'd admitted to liking his apartment—it was a start wasn't it?

  “So you like my place?” he couldn't help the teasing tone.

  She sighed. “Answer the question.”

  “No,” he laughed. “I'm not on the take, and I wouldn't tell you even if I was. I own a couple of patents that don't bring a ton of money but did give me enough to buy my place.”

  “What kind of patents?” she asked.

  “So suspicious, Agent,” he clucked at her tone. “Mostly gun safety advances. Some patents that relate to the way a clip moves inside a handgun and a couple that apply only to rifles. Now tell me who ‘we’ is?”

  Dani didn't speak for a while and he sensed she was letting this new information sink in. A lot of people were surprised to hear he owned a few patents, not that he talked about it a lot. But during his time in the Navy, he developed a lot of opinions on what would make a gun better, safer. When he got out, he played around with a couple of ideas, patented them, and then, before he knew it, a couple of gun companies bought licenses. It wasn't big money by any stretch, but having enough to outright buy a place to live was nothing to scoff at, and it made living on a cop's salary a little easier.

  “Okay,” she said, almost to herself.

  “So who is ‘we’?” he prompted again.

  “We?”

  “You said ‘when we were born.’ I assume you mean your sister?”

  “I do mean my sister, but I'm not going to say anything else about her,” Dani replied.

  Her answer was final but it seemed more protective of her sister than dismissive of him. He could live with that, god knows he knew what it was like to feel protective of family.

  “We're here,” he said, pulling onto a gravel drive and maneuvering around the side of a closed and locked gate that was meant to keep cars—not motorcycles—out. He shifted down as they headed up a hill. The driveway was lined with trees and other brush. It was getting cool and the air was crisp.

  “It's beautiful,” Dani sighed. Ty had the distinct impression she'd forgotten he could hear her so he didn't respond.

  They pulled to a stop and both climbed off the bike. Dani looked around, curious, but Ty knew she would never ask. So he offered.

  “I bought it about ten years ago. I was in the military and was deployed so often that I could never spend the money and combat pay I made, so I bought this, thinking I might settle down here. Turns out that didn't work out. If you go another little bit up the road, you'll see a small house. My folks stay there when they're in town.”

  Dani glanced up the road and stared for a while before turning back to study him. “So why did you decide not to settle here?”

  The question was expected, but still he was surprised Dani ventured into the personal. “Long story,” he replied with what he hoped was a careless shrug.

  “Let me guess,” she half smiled at him. “Some girl broke your heart? Shattered your dreams of settling down?” s
he teased. As cliché as it was, it was also the truth.

  “More or less,” he responded.

  Her eyes studied his face. Then her eyebrows raised in curiosity, prompting him.

  “I was engaged to a woman I grew up with,” he complied. “We planned to marry when I discharged. A couple of months after I got out, she died.”

  Dani's head drew back in surprise and, for the first time, he saw her expression soften.

  “I'm sorry…I didn't,” she paused, shook her head and gave a small, self-deprecating smile. “I was going to say I didn't know, but that's a pretty dumb thing to say. Of course I didn't know,” she paused again and Ty sensed that her statement meant more than what she was saying. “I am sorry though, Ty. It must have been difficult.”

  Ty hadn't come here to rehash the events of five years ago, but he found himself wanting to talk about it. He wasn't sure if it was because it had been a while since he had done that or because he and Dani were actually talking. Her dark eyes fixed on him and he held her gaze as he continued.

  “It was. It's not uncommon for military spouses and significant others to need a stress outlet. The leaves are so long, the tension is always high. Many turn to people outside of the relationship to make things better.

  “She sought out distractions and entertainment from her friends. She looked to them to help her deal with the stress. I didn't even know the crowd she was spending time with,” he turned away from Dani and stared out toward the trees, which were starting to bud in the mid-May weather.

  “I don't know that it would have made much of a difference even if I did know them. I think, by that point, she probably wouldn't have listened to me anyway.” He glanced back at Dani who was standing with her hands resting in the pockets of her jacket, her expression thoughtful, not pitying.

  “Anyway,” he sighed, turned, and continued. “One night she got in a car with a couple of friends who were both drunk and high. I don't know if Carrie ever partook of the drugs, but I do know that the night she died, she didn't have a thing in her system that would have impaired her. A couple minutes after leaving a bar, the driver wrapped the car around a tree. No one survived.”

  “Jesus, Ty. I'm sorry,” Dani said. They were quiet for a few minutes and then Dani asked, “Is that why you went into vice?”

  He shook his head. “No, I'd planned that long before coming here. I'd seen enough dead bodies during my tours that I knew I didn't want to go into homicide. I figured vice was the best way to try and help save people.” He knew his grin was an uncomfortable one, but he'd never admitted this to anyone before. Not even his parents. “I figured if I could help keep the drugs off the street, then maybe that would mean one less OD, one less body, one less family with one less member.”

  “I like that reason,” she replied. Her voice was soft and personal.

  Ty felt a wave of tension leave his body and his breath fall back into rhythm. After such a short time, not even twenty-four hours, her acceptance, her approval shouldn't mean much. But it did.

  They were quiet for a few more minutes and then Dani asked, “You don't blame yourself do you?”

  Surprised at the question, Ty turned and searched her eyes. There was an odd expression on her face, maybe a little sympathetic, maybe a little worried, and maybe a little something like curiosity. Ty frowned and shook his head.

  “I did, but I got over it.”

  Dani muttered something that sounded like “good for you,” but she wasn't looking at him so it was hard to tell.

  “Strange enough,” he continued, his brow furrowed in thought. “It was her parents who absolved me. For a long time I wondered if there was something I could have done to change things, or if there was something I should be doing to fix things. What I could ‘fix,’ wasn't ever really clear even in my own mind. But it seemed like I should have been doing something to make things right.” His voice trailed off remembering the pain of doubt in those first few years after Carrie's death. He looked down at his feet as the sounds of the ocean nearby filtered through the trees.

  “But,” he continued. “Carrie's parents helped me remember that she was an adult and she made an adult decision. Granted, we all wished like hell it hadn't happened, it was such a waste of life, but the truth is, Carrie could have made a different decision that night. She could have made a whole lot of different choices. She didn't and she paid the ultimate price. It wasn't my decision or her parents' or her friends' to make for her, but hers alone.”

  Ty looked up at Dani again, standing there, in her jeans and black leather jacket. The end of her ponytail was lifting with the breeze and she looked nothing like the woman he'd seen all day. Gone was the trained agent, gone was the intense passion and focus. Standing there, with her hands hanging loose in her pockets, her head cocked to the side, she looked almost like a lost child, confused and scared.

  Ty didn't take his eyes off of her. Whether she sensed his thoughts or not, she turned and made a pretense of looking up the road, toward where the house lay, unseen from where they stood.

  “Want to go see the site?” he asked. His heart was pounding and, even though he had bared his soul, he felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and comfort her. To run his fingers down her cheek and pull her close. But whatever it was that was going through her mind, he sensed she needed to let it settle before she would let him near her personal side again. He was beginning to realize that Dani was not a woman comfortable with emotions. And he'd just laid a lot on her.

  When she nodded, he grabbed a bag from his bike and motioned toward a small path in the woods. They walked in silence for about ten minutes and then, as they neared the edge of the woods, he held an arm out to stop her.

  “The view is from the cliff. If we walk out there, we might as well have a flare and a homing beacon. We can either crawl on our bellies to the edge or climb the tree and get a little higher. Both work.”

  Dani scanned the landscape then nodded toward the tree. Then she surprised him with a little smile. “I haven't climbed a tree since I was twelve.” And she was off.

  Before he could offer to help, she'd swung up, hooked her legs, and pulled herself into a sitting position. Her butt planted on a lower branch while her arms hooked over a branch above her.

  Ty chuckled and, not quite as gracefully, clamored up a branch on the other side. Once they were both seated, he pulled out two pairs of high powered glasses and handed one to her. She took them without a word. For a few minutes they absorbed the view.

  Dani let out a low whistle. “It's gorgeous, Ty.” And they both knew she wasn't talking about the house. The view from the tree was a clutch recon position. From their perch they could see the entire south side of the house and all the south-facing windows. The windows were mirrored which made things a little more difficult, but they had a clear view of the pool, the terraced yard, and most of this side of the peninsula.

  “With the equipment you guys brought, we should be able to get some prime photos. Confirm who's in the compound with him, and how many guards.”

  “You do know how to make a girl's heart go aflutter,” Dani murmured from behind her glasses.

  Ty chuckled, if she thought this was good, he couldn't wait to show her the next site. And then he laughed out loud. It was a sad day when he was wooing a woman by showing her surveillance locations.

  “You can't see the boathouse from here,” Dani commented, ignoring his laughter.

  “No, it's on the north side of the peninsula. But, we've got it covered,” he answered. Dani lowered her glasses and looked at him from around the tree's trunk.

  “You have a location where we can watch the boathouse?” she asked, her voice as close to incredulous as it probably ever got.

  Ty grinned. “Stick with me kid, I'll show you places.”

  “I will truly love you forever if you can get us good surveillance of the boathouse. It's our weakest point.”

  “Then I hope you're ready to commit,” he teased. “I think you're going to
like what you see.”

  Dani swung down from the tree and surveyed the surrounding area. “We'll have better visibility of the water from here, too,” she noted.

  Ty nodded. “It should be pretty good, and could be very good, depending on the equipment Cotter has.”

  “He has the best,” Dani said.

  “The recon team will have to watch each other's sixes, but other than that, it should be a good spot,” he commented. It was true, whoever took recon on the south end of the bay would have to watch the back of the man, or woman, on the north side, and vice versa. But it wasn't anything anyone hadn't done before, so it would be duly noted, but not a concern.

  “This is great, Ty,” Dani smiled as she took her GPS unit out of her pocket and noted the location. “When we get back, I'll give this info to Cotter and walk through the locale with him. So, I take it you're granting us permission to use your land?”

  He made a grand gesture with his arms that encompassed the woods and water. “It's all yours, but try to be kind to the trees. My mom likes to gather the sap from the maples in early spring.” Dani smiled at the comment and glanced around. “The picture is more charming than the reality,” Ty continued, “though I can't complain with the results; there's nothing quite like the taste of homemade maple syrup. Come on, we've got one more place to go and it's getting late.”

  They'd just turned onto the road when Dani surprised Ty once again. “Do you have any siblings?” she asked through the radio headset.

  Ty paused, wondering if he'd heard right—if he'd really just heard her ask another personal question. “Yes. I have a brother who is three years older than me and a sister who is a year older.”

  “So you're the baby.”

  “Yes, but I'm the biggest.” He could almost feel her smile.

  “Do you see them often?” she asked.