Closer Than You Think

by Karen Rose

  ‘What time is it?’ she asked, raising her seat upright. ‘He doesn’t usually wake up till after . . .’ She frowned, distracted by their surroundings. They were in the suburbs, not the city. ‘This isn’t the way to my hotel. Where are we going?’

  ‘Safe house.’ He looked at her from the corner of his eye. ‘You can’t stay in your hotel. Not after last night. Even if he doesn’t try for you again there, the media will swarm you.’

  ‘What about my stuff?’

  ‘Bishop should have moved it all by now, except for what’s in your safe.’

  Her frown deepened. ‘I don’t like people touching my things.’

  His mouth tightened. ‘I don’t like people shooting at you.’

  She sighed, knowing she’d been churlish. ‘Thank you. For everything you’ve done for me.’

  He let a beat of silence pass. ‘Everything?’ he asked softly.

  She knew he meant that kiss in the kitchen, and for a moment she let herself remember being held in his arms. How good he’d felt . . . all over. ‘Yes, everything. But we can’t do that again.’

  White brows lifted. ‘And why would that be?’

  ‘Because I’m still a witness, Deacon. You said yourself that it’s not ethical.’

  ‘I also said I changed my mind.’

  ‘About passing me to Bishop. Maybe you should do that, then you won’t get distracted.’

  ‘I’m not distracted.’

  ‘Yes, you are. You’re chauffeuring me again,’ she pointed out. ‘Don’t tell me that you don’t have anywhere else to be. You’ve got three active crime scenes.’

  ‘Five active crime scenes, actually. Yes, I am supposed to be somewhere else. I have an appointment with my brother’s principal in a few hours, so I’m killing two birds with one stone. I can get you settled while I shower and change my clothes.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘I can’t meet my brother’s principal smelling like a crime scene. Although it might make the meeting shorter,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘That’s not a bad idea, actually.’

  ‘Don’t try to be cute, Deacon. Exactly whose safe house is this?’

  ‘Mine.’

  She stared at him. ‘You’re taking me to your house? Isenberg approved this?’

  ‘Just until we set up something better, which should be later this morning. My place has a good security system. I installed it myself, so I know it works.’ He angled her a sly grin, waggling his eyebrows. ‘It also has a sixty-five-inch flat screen you can connect to your Xbox.’

  She found herself chuckling. ‘You’re nervy, Novak. I’ll give you that. Who’s going to guard me while you’re off dealing with your delinquent brother?’

  His smile dimmed and she wanted to kick herself for her phrasing. ‘I’ve requested two agents from the field office. You’ll be in good hands.’

  Of that she had no doubt. He’d promised he wouldn’t let anything happen to her, and Deacon Novak seemed to be a man of his word. It was the loss of his smile that worried her.

  ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have talked about your brother that way.’

  ‘No, you’re right. He’s well on his way to being a delinquent and I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, giving his forearm a light squeeze, feeling his muscles flex beneath her palm. And that fast, she wished they were back in her hotel room, kissing like there was no tomorrow. Touching him, even platonically, was dangerous.

  She pulled her arm away, but he caught her hand. Threaded their fingers together and rested their joined hands on his powerful thigh. All the while he kept his eyes focused straight ahead.

  ‘Not yet,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t pull away yet.’

  There was a vulnerability in his voice that she hadn’t heard before. It made him even more dangerous because she didn’t want to hurt him.

  ‘Do you change your mind with all your witnesses, Deacon?’ she asked, hoping he could hear that she was vulnerable too.

  He released her hand as if she’d burned him. ‘You should try to get a little more sleep while I’m gone,’ he said tersely. ‘And should you experience any issues with what you saw, the department can recommend a counselor.’

  She folded her hands in her lap, feeling bereft. And guilty, like she’d kicked his puppy or something. Unsettled, she lashed out. ‘With what I saw? Which thing, Deacon? Arianna lying in the road, a bellman gunned down in front of me, or the remains of that poor woman under the floor of my grandmother’s house? Which thing that I saw might give me “issues”?’

  ‘All of them,’ he said angrily. ‘All of them are going to give you nightmares. Not like you didn’t have enough already. And no, I’ve never changed my mind with any other witness.’

  Her heart skittered. ‘Thank you for that,’ she said quietly, then attempted a smile. ‘But I’ll pass on the counselor, if you don’t mind. I’ve managed on my own this long. I’ll be all right.’

  He didn’t smile with her. He didn’t even answer her. Instead, he turned on to a tree-lined street and hit a button above his head. Faith got only a glimpse of a large, two-story Tudor-style house before closing her eyes in a moment of startled panic when he gunned the engine and took a hard right into a driveway, heading for an open garage door. He braked hard, and when she opened her eyes, they were in the garage, the door beginning its descent.

  He was out of the car before she caught her breath, looking menacing, furious even, as he helped her from her seat, but she wasn’t afraid. And when he hauled her into his arms, she wasn’t surprised. She was relieved, welcoming the feel of his arms tight around her, of his mouth hot and hard and demanding.

  He needed her. Needed this. Which was good, because she needed it too.

  ‘You are not all right,’ he whispered fiercely against her lips. ‘And neither am I.’

  ‘Why aren’t you all right?’

  He lifted his head, staring down at her in the darkness. ‘You have a serial killer after you and I don’t want to let you out of my sight. But I have to. I have to let someone else keep you safe while I stop him or you will never be safe again.’

  Her heart skipped a beat. Then pounded so hard that the room spun. Serial killer. In my grandmother’s house. ‘How many are there?’ she whispered. ‘How many bodies?’

  ‘Three in the first room. So far.’

  ‘Three? So far?’ An awful understanding descended, threatening to choke her. ‘It’s not Combs, is it?’ Someone else is trying to kill me.

  ‘Not only him, anyway. Not unless he knew you before he was assigned to your program.’

  ‘No, he didn’t. Sergeant Tanaka said the torture room windows had been covered ten years ago. Whoever this is has been killing that long, hasn’t he?’

  ‘I don’t know, Faith. I truly don’t know. We’ll know more when the ME examines the bodies. Didn’t any of your family go out there, ever? In the last twenty-three years?’

  ‘My father went every few years on the anniversary of my mother’s death.’

  ‘In a car accident,’ he said carefully. ‘Even though it’s the basement that frightens you, the stairs you count. The height of the ceiling you remember.’

  He knew. Of course he did. Of course he’d figured it out. On some level she’d known he would. She went silent, pressing her cheek into his chest as he stroked her hair so tenderly it made her want to cry.

  ‘Why won’t you tell me the truth, Faith?’ he whispered.

  ‘I can’t. Please don’t ask me.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because we were more Catholic than the Pope,’ she whispered bitterly and felt him sigh.

  ‘And suicide is a sin.’

  ‘Not just any sin. It’s the big sin.’

  He kept on stroking her hair, holding her tight. ‘You saw her?’

  She nodded, her throat too thick to speak. It was a nightmare she’d never, ever forget, but she couldn’t talk about it. Not to him. Not to anyone. Now or ever.
<
br />   ‘All right, honey,’ he murmured. ‘I won’t ask anymore. But I do need to know if your father noticed the change to the outside of the house – the windows being covered.’

  ‘He wouldn’t have noticed. The cemetery is on the other side of the house.’

  ‘He might have seen it from the road when he was driving up.’

  ‘He wouldn’t have noticed,’ she repeated firmly. ‘He didn’t know the house like I did. He didn’t come with us when we visited. He dropped us off and picked us up later.’ The only time she could remember him staying for more than an hour was in the days following her grandfather’s death. And her mother’s. ‘He and my grandmother didn’t get along too well.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because he left the priesthood to marry my mother,’ she said, and felt his jerk of surprise.

  ‘Okay,’ he said slowly. ‘I can honestly say I did not expect that answer.’

  Faith sighed. ‘He was still in the seminary and hadn’t taken his vows yet, but Gran didn’t think that made a difference. So he didn’t know the house,’ she repeated, rubbing her cheek against Novak’s chest. He felt good. Hard. Solid. Safe. ‘You can’t ask him, Deacon. My dad is sick. He had a stroke last year. The worry of all this is going to kill him.’

  He kissed the top of her head and made her heart melt all over again. ‘Then call him and tell him you’re safe. And then keep yourself out of harm’s way as best you can.’

  ‘So no going to work for me today,’ she said with a sigh, knowing he was right.

  ‘Y’think?’ he asked dryly, making her smile again.

  ‘I’ve also got to call my boss then. What am I allowed to say?’

  ‘That you were in a car accident last night and had some complications,’ he said blandly.

  Faith almost laughed. ‘Complications?’

  ‘It’s not a lie.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’ Reluctantly she stepped out of his arms. ‘Lead the way to my safe house.’

  He opened the door into the house and the smell of fresh paint made her sneeze. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m camping out here while I get the place ready for us to move in.’

  ‘Us?’

  ‘Dani and Greg and I.’

  She stopped in the laundry room to look up at him warily. ‘You’re moving in with your sister and brother?’

  ‘More like they’re moving in with me. I bought this place last summer and started fixing it up when I moved back a month ago. Dani’s moving in at the end of the week. So is Greg. If he keeps himself out of juvie, that is.’

  Her heart softened. ‘You moved back here for him, didn’t you?’

  He nodded. ‘He’s been living with my aunt and uncle his whole life, but he’s gotten to be too much for them to control and my aunt’s health is fragile. Greg got thrown out of his last school and Dani couldn’t handle him alone so I decided to come home. I wanted a place in a good school system, big enough that we wouldn’t trip over each other. We lived in this same neighborhood after my mother married my stepfather, just a few streets over. I wanted to settle here, and this fixer-upper was all I could afford.’

  ‘That’s why Greg attends the school you and Dani attended before your mother and stepfather died,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Did both Dani and Greg go to live with your aunt and uncle afterward?’

  He nodded once. ‘They let me finish out the year at our old school because I was a senior, but the school system made Dani change schools because my aunt and uncle live in a different district. It was hard on her, losing Mom and Bruce and her friends all at once. Greg’s had to change schools too, but only because he was thrown out of the last two.’ He shook his head a little. ‘Let me give you the nickel tour.’ He led her into the kitchen, flicking on the lights. ‘I finished this first. Figured we’d need to eat.’

  Faith looked around, impressed. ‘You do good work.’ The cabinets were new, as were the appliances. And the flooring. She jerked her eyes up from the pretty tile, unwilling to think of the tile in her grandmother’s basement.

  She found herself looking into his eyes, and her already warm cheeks started to burn. Along with the rest of her body. Because he was looking at her too. Like he was starving and she was food. Alarmed that she might have the same expression on her face, she took a giant step back, holding up her hand like a traffic cop. ‘This is crazy, Deacon. No.’

  He flashed a grin that was both mocking and wicked, making him the sexiest man she’d ever seen. ‘All right,’ he said smoothly. ‘Let me show you where you’ll . . . sleep.’

  Everything inside her clenched and she swallowed a groan, laughing instead. ‘You’re incorrigible, Agent Novak.’

  ‘I know,’ he said with satisfaction, making her laugh again.

  ‘You said you were camping out.’ She winced, thinking about all the places her body ached after wrecking her car and surviving a murder attempt. ‘Do I have to sleep on the floor?’

  ‘Hardly. I believe in creature comforts. Like a big-ass flat screen connected to my Xbox, which you can use,’ he said, pointing as he walked her through the living room. The television screen dominated the wall, but the rest of the room was bare, save two folding chairs. ‘Folding chairs is enough camping for me. Most of my furniture’s still in storage.’

  He led her up a flight of stairs to an open, sunlit second floor. She glanced up, the skylights bringing a smile to her face. It was warm here, even though it was cold outside. He opened a door to a room that was empty except for her boxes and a few unopened paint cans.

  ‘Your stuff. This will be Dani’s when it’s done.’

  She followed him down the hall, to the master bedroom. It held a king-sized bed with rumpled sheets, a beat-up chest of drawers and not much else in the way of furniture. Her suitcase sat next to the bed.

  ‘The sheets are clean,’ he said, using that same smooth voice that was like velvet over her skin. ‘I only slept on them once. But I can change them if you want.’

  ‘No, it’s okay.’ She wanted to smell him on the pillows, she thought, her heart beating so hard she was surprised he didn’t hear it. ‘I’ll only be here till late morning, right?’

  He nodded firmly. ‘Bathroom’s in there. Let me pull a few things from my closet and I’ll leave you to rest.’

  Faith pointed at the master bath. ‘If you need the shower, I’ll wait in the kitchen.’

  He gave her another wicked grin that said he knew she was thinking of him in the shower, which of course she was. ‘I’ll use the one off of Dani’s room. Oh, and Dani’s coming by at some point this morning to re-glue your head. I’ll ask her to push it until after lunch so that you can sleep a little more.’

  ‘It’s stopped bleeding, so I think it’s okay,’ Faith said. ‘She doesn’t need to.’

  ‘Isenberg’s orders.’ He took another suit, shirt and tie from his closet, his mouth drooping into a slight pout. ‘I miss my coat.’

  Faith laughed. ‘Don’t be such a baby. You’ll get it back.’

  He smiled at her. ‘I know. I just wanted to hear you laugh. You should do that more often.’

  All the reasons why she hadn’t laughed in the last twenty-three years came rushing in. ‘I’ll try,’ she said quietly. ‘When this is all over.’

  His smile faded. ‘I’ll make that happen. I’ll get back to the case as soon as I’ve changed. I’m going to King’s College first, to check out the scene of the abduction.’

  He’d get no rest, she realized. ‘If you have any food, I can make us some breakfast,’ she offered. ‘That way you can use your own shower.’

  ‘That would be easier. If you truly don’t mind cooking, I just stocked the fridge two days ago. You should find everything you need. I like my eggs over-easy.’ His phone buzzed and he read the text, then looked back up at her. ‘Don’t worry about the sedan that will be pulling up out front in about a minute. That’s your security detail, courtesy of the Bureau. Agents Colby and Pope. There’s a landline in the kitchen if you want to call yo
ur father. And keep the shades drawn, please. I don’t want you to be lying to him when you tell him you’re safe.’

  Faith rolled her eyes. ‘Over-easy, Fed detail, shades drawn. I think I can remember all of that.’ She left him chuckling as she went back to the kitchen to use his phone.

  She dialed with leaden fingers, dreading having to tell her father what was going on, unsurprised when Lily answered on the first ring. ‘Hi, Lily. It’s me.’

  ‘I am so mad at you,’ Lily hissed. ‘Your hotel is on the news. There was a shooting. Where are you? Why didn’t you call us? Your father has worried himself sick.’

  Faith closed her eyes. ‘I’m with the FBI agent who’s working the case. I’m sorry, Lily. I really am. My new phone got damaged last night in the shooting.’

  Dead silence. Then, ‘You were in the shooting?’

  Faith let out a breath. ‘Well, yes. Actually I was the target.’

  ‘Oh dear Lord,’ Lily wailed quietly. ‘This is terrible.’

  ‘I know. Look, Gran’s house seems to be at the center of it. It was the scene of a murder.’ Or three. So far. ‘The police think I’m a target because my name is on the deed. Truly, Lily, that’s all I know. Last night was insane. Oh, and I wrecked my car.’

  ‘Your Prius?’ Lily’s voice was barely a peep. ‘Were you hurt?’

  Faith sighed again. ‘Well, no and no. I sold the Prius in Miami. I bought a used Jeep and ran it off the road last night. Right after I hung up with you guys.’

  ‘On those curves your father hates so much. Because of what happened to your mother.’

  Because Faith’s mother’s body had been found in a burned-out car at the base of an embankment not too far from the one Faith had gone over last night. ‘Right about there, yes.’

  ‘You were driving too fast again, weren’t you?’

  ‘No,’ Faith said patiently. ‘I saw a girl lying in the road and I swerved to avoid her.’

  ‘You what? And that’s all you know? Care to add any more?’ Lily asked acidly.

  She was more scared than angry, Faith knew. ‘Well, I changed my name.’

  ‘Back to Sullivan. It’s about time you threw away any ties to that Charlie Frye.’