Dangerous Times

by Moira Callahan

  Another nod, then she downed the last of her drink and passed off the glass.

  Chapter Nine

  Snapping awake, Tamara stared around the unfamiliar room. Pushing at her hair, she frowned. No. It wasn’t unfamiliar, it was Shawn’s.

  That’s when the previous night came rushing back to her. Sucking in a deep breath, Tamara looked around for a clock. Ten-thirty. Staring in disbelief she shook her head. “Impossible.”

  Throwing off the blankets, she padded to the bathroom, still unable to comprehend actually sleeping in so late. Not once in the last three years had she ever made it past seven. And that was always the absolute latest.

  Ten minutes later, wrapped in Shawn’s robe, she moved down the hallway toward the sound of his voice. Pausing outside the kitchen when she heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice, Tamara frowned.

  “Good morning,” Shawn said.

  Damn it. Spotted.

  Sighing, she stepped into the kitchen and moved closer to where he leaned on the counter. The woman, brunette with short and bouncy curls, chocolate brown eyes and some serious muscle for a woman, nodded to her.

  Tucking her against his side, Shawn gave her a squeeze. “Tamara, this is Robyn, Rob this is Tamara,” he said.

  Ah, the partner and co-owner of C&M Security. The “M” of C&M, if she remembered right. “Nice to meet you,” she said with a smile.

  “You, too,” Robyn said, her gaze hard and focused.

  “Don’t make me smack you, Rob,” Shawn said.

  The woman blinked and shot him a smirk. “Try it, bubba.”

  Okay… “Coffee?” Tamara asked, hopeful.

  “Yup, coming right up. Refill?” he asked, his attention on Robyn.

  “Nope, I’m at my forty-cup limit already,” she said, pushing her cup away.

  Snorting, Shawn gave Tamara another squeeze and then went to pour some coffee. Coming back, he handed her a cup and she smiled up at him. “Thank you for letting me sleep so late.”

  “You were exhausted and you looked like you needed it. Besides, you smacked me when I dared to suggest you get up.”

  Nearly choking on her first mouthful of coffee, she shot him a look. “Excuse me?”

  “You smacked me,” he said. Then he pointed to his left cheek. “Right here, knuckles and all,” he said.

  Frowning, she lifted a hand to stroke his skin. “I’m sorry,”. She wasn’t a violent person, normally.

  “Don’t worry about it. Stunned the shit out of me more than anything. But I took it as a sign to just let sleeping women lie.”

  Robyn was either laughing or having some sort of convulsive fit. Shooting her a look, Tamara lifted a brow. “You okay?”

  “Good,” the other woman choked out.

  “Ignore her, she’s just playing for attention,” Shawn said.

  “Takes one to know one,” Robyn retorted in a sing-song tone.

  Which earned her a glare of serious promise from Shawn. At a guess, likely a promise of bodily harm giving the slight curl to his lip.

  Hiding a grin in her mug, Tamara leaned against him. Which is when she noticed the folders on the counter between them. “What’s all this?” she asked.

  Robyn shot Shawn a look before meeting her gaze again. “Police reports from last night’s break in, as well as our own reports on the same scene.”

  Swallowing her mouthful of coffee hard, the lump in her throat nearly making it impossible, she set the cup down. Shawn, bless his heart, wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tightly to him. Likely a good thing, given how hard her knees were rattling.

  “Okay,” she said when she had her voice back. “What did you all find?”

  For a while, she wasn’t sure that Robyn would answer. Finally, the woman leaned forward. “Not much of anything. Your prints, Shawn’s and a few smudges. While the destruction was fairly complete, all we can say for sure is that a blade was used on any soft surfaces and a bat or pipe, maybe, on the furniture. Might have been a crowbar but there’s really nothing pointing one way or another.”

  Tamara’s heart sank. Of course it would have been too easy to get proof from a bit of DNA or a fingerprint.

  “On the plus side, whoever did it has a personal grudge. Since we know of only one person in your life that would hold a grudge we’re, C&M I mean, focusing on him and his band of idiots. The cops can’t go in biased like we can, so they are working the other angles.”

  Nodding, Tamara leaned her cheek to Shawn’s chest. It really wasn’t fair they couldn’t just go and break Damien’s legs. They all knew who’d done it, or had one of his friends do it, but without proof, the cops were bound by the law and couldn’t do shit.

  “Vincent tore apart your alarm system, went through the coding and has been making the alarm company’s life a living hell. But he got their attention when he started with promises of lawsuits and shit.”

  “What?” she asked, staring at Robyn in shock.

  “The company should have sent out an alert that the system was disabled. Not shut off, disabled,” Shawn said. “Police officers should have been immediately dispatched, as per the company’s own protocols, to investigate. Even if it had been a power outage, your system should never have blinked for more than fifteen to twenty seconds before the backup batteries kicked in. Had you gone in alone and someone had been waiting, a good lawyer could have had them up on liability charges. Our lawyers would have had them up on accessory charges.”

  “Oh.” Sighing, Tamara rubbed her cheek to his chest and squeezed his waist tighter.

  “Vincent said that, from what he and the security company tech-guru can figure out, someone hacked it. But they screwed up on the part that would make the security monitoring end of things think it was still functional. The hacker was working on outdated information. Like six months outdated. Apparently, the monitoring company had done some upgrades and were rebooting systems one at a time whenever they could get the owners on the line. It’s a simple thing, but makes a huge difference.”

  Lifting her head, Tamara frowned. “I remember something about that. About four months ago,” she said, looking to Shawn.

  “Your name was on the list, which is why they screwed up. They didn’t realize there was an update or that you’d have had it. It’s nothing that would set off the system, but should have been caught by the monitoring company,” Shawn said.

  “Right.” Robyn jumped in. “So Vinny’s working on figuring out who the hacker is. According to him, each hacker has a signature. He’s pulled in a couple of our own hacker geniuses, since his end of things is more tech than code. They were beating the bushes pretty hard, to hear him tell it.”

  “Well, it won’t be Damien,” Tamara said quietly. “He’s got the smarts, but he never had an interest in that stuff. He had people do that for him. He could barely operate his phone on a good day.”

  “Which is quite possible, or he was faking it,” Robyn pointed out. “Even if it wasn’t him, which it likely won’t be, he probably hired it out. Just like he hired out someone wrecking your room. Now, one of the tech geeks had a question for you,” she said. “Where the hell was that?” she muttered pawing through little slips of paper.

  “She’s so organized,” Shawn murmured.

  Robyn flipped him the middle finger before she whipped up a piece of paper. “Ah-ha! Here it is. Tech geeky number one asked if you have wifi or not.”

  “Uh, yes. I rarely use my computer, but my phone, when I’m home, runs off the wifi of the house,” she nodded.

  “Okay, good, what’s the password?” Robyn asked.

  “Seriously?” Tamara stared at her. At the woman’s nod, she huffed out a breath. “Hell if I know. It’s on the bottom of the box that’s in my office at the condo. It’s tucked in behind the tower of my desktop computer.”

  “Okay, I’ll let them know. Geeky number two wanted to know, have you noticed any strange activity with the system? Any odd beeps, or weird surges of power, flashing messages, that sort of thing?”r />
  “Why?” Shawn asked the question in her head.

  “Because it could show that someone was messing with it ahead of time, trying to play with it and learn it.”

  “Not that I can think of,” Tamara said. “No, wait.” She frowned. There had been that one day.

  “What is it?” Robyn prodded.

  “About two weeks ago, I got home from the store and disarmed the system. A series of numbers popped up on the screen, real quick and then disappeared to the normal message. I didn’t think anything of it, because it was maybe a second or two only.”

  “Do you remember when exactly it happened?” Shawn asked.

  Nodding slowly she snapped her fingers. Dashing off she went to get her phone and then jogged back to the kitchen. “Let me see,” she scrolled through her phone. “All right, here it is. Sixteen days ago, around two-fifteen to two-thirty p.m. I unloaded the groceries, I didn’t have many, grabbed a juice and was up in my office looking at prints by three so that’s the best I can do for a time.”

  “Better than we had. They were all panicky they would have to go through everything since Damien got out of jail,” Robyn said. Smiling, she gathered up all the files and notes. “All right, I’m out of here. I’ll let the geeky wonders know and then ride their asses until they give us something concrete.”

  “Call me if you get anything,” Shawn said.

  Wait, why wasn’t he going into work?

  “Later!” Robyn called, the front door slamming a couple minutes later.

  Turning, Tamara looked up at Shawn and cocked her head. “So, why aren’t you going to work today?” she asked.

  “Because, my dearest, we are going clothes shopping. And then, after that, you and I are going to your place to get all your stuff so you can move in here and still keep working.”

  “What?” she asked stunned.

  “I know I should ask, but I’m not going to. I need to know you’re safe. I need you to be here,” he said.

  “Okay,” she shrugged.

  His brows went down hard and his eyes narrowed. “Say again?”

  “I said, okay,” she smiled.

  He looked so confused, baffled even, and suspicious. God love the man, but he had no clue what she felt for him. She really would have to tell him eventually.

  “Okay,” he nodded, slowly. “Good. Glad we’re on the same page.” He nodded a couple more times before shooting her another wary look. “Why are you being so agreeable?”

  Shrugging she picked up her coffee cup and sipped slowly. “Just one of the mysteries of the universe.” Let him ponder that for a while.

  Chapter Ten

  “She just agreed,” Shawn said, pacing around his office.

  “You figured she’d refuse after your so lovely demand?” Vincent asked.

  Shooting the man a dirty look, completely wasted, really, Shawn sighed. Vincent was lounging on the sofa, booted feet up on the coffee table as he worked on a datapad.

  “It wasn’t a demand,” he muttered.

  “No, that’s right, it was pretty much an order.” Vincent nodded.

  Still wasn’t looking at him either, bastard. Shawn started to pace again.

  “So, what’s the problem?” Vincent asked, his tone distracted.

  And there was the issue. Shawn didn’t know what the problem was. “I don’t know. She agreed way too easily. Way too easily. It’s not like her. She’s independent, which is what I love about her. She doesn’t expect others to help her, but she’s always gracious when they do. She does not take orders or demands well. It’s not her.”

  “Maybe she gave in for the same reason you spouted your half-assed order.”

  Frowning, he stopped pacing again. “And what exactly would that reason be?”

  Vincent finally lifted his head and shot him a disbelieving look. “Seriously? You honestly don’t see it?”

  “See what? And I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known the fucking answer,” he snapped.

  “Maybe she’s in love with you, just like you’re definitely in love with her.”

  Well, that deflated his balloon. Collapsing into a chair, Shawn stared at Vincent, his head spinning at the idea. And yet, it felt right. He was in love with Tamara Phillips. Blinking, he pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m in love with her.”

  “That’s what I said. And, given the looks she shoots your way, I’m betting it’s mutual. Or she’s just lusting after your body.”

  Glaring at him again, Shawn picked up a pillow from one of the chairs and hurled it at the man.

  Vincent, as sharp as ever, caught it.

  “You are a grade-A asshole.”

  Grinning, Vincent lobbed the pillow back at him. “Yup, but I’m also right.”

  He was right, not that Shawn would admit it to the cocky fuck. Sighing, he pushed a hand through his hair and tugged on the strands before letting his hands drop to his lap.

  “Where is the woman in question, anyway? I figured you’d have her glued to your hip.”

  Shrugging, Shawn slouched in the chair. “Rhonda’s keeping watch over her. She had a portrait session to do today. And Rhonda felt a need to have a ‘girl talk’ with her.”

  “Oh.” Vincent shook his head and cringed. “Dude, that’s never a good thing. Women should never have an undetermined amount of time to just chat. That’s when shit happens and they come up with their evil plots against the male population.”

  Frowning at his friend, Shawn shook his head. “Do you even listen to the shit you spout?”

  “Of course, I’m fucking brilliant.” Vincent grinned.

  Rolling his eyes, Shawn let his head drop onto the back of the chair. “So, what exactly do they plot during these chats?” Despite himself, he was curious to hear whatever Vincent came up with. He was a conspiracy nut. But, in this case, it was about women instead of the government.

  “It’s obvious. How you can’t see it, I just don’t understand. They know ways to put a man on his knees. To make his mind complete and total mush. And, of course, the big one, getting him to agree to anything they say or want. All stuff a guy wouldn’t normally agree to. It’s a conspiracy, man,” Vincent said, in not quite a whisper.

  “Right,” he said, drawing the word out. “And how do they go about this exactly?”

  “Seriously?” Vincent huffed out a breath. “Sex, my man, sex. They know that when they have a guy by the balls, he’s not thinking with his big brain. You know, the one that keeps him from agreeing with her insanity? They know that if you’re thinking with your dick, then they’ve got you.”

  “Ah, I see,” he said, rolling his eyes when Vincent wasn’t looking. Sometimes, he really worried about the man.

  “You don’t believe me, but you will, you’ll see.” Grinning, Vincent let out a cackle and shook his head. “You’re doomed, doomed,” he said, his voice deepening and making the word pretty damned creepy.

  ****

  “Where is she?” he asked. Drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair, he squinted at the screen.

  “Inside, somewhere in the back. I tried to get a look but they were in session, so I didn’t have much of a shot. And she’s got the pit bull with her today,” Collin reported. The pit bull he referred to was that bitch, Rhonda Delacour. A hanger-on that used Tamara for her own purposes. The bitch had also kept Tamara from him. Unacceptable.

  “Son of a bitch.”. Pounding his fist down on the chair, he got up and began to pace around the room. “Have you even managed to get a look at her? Any idea where she’s been holed up?”

  “Got a quick glance when she went in, it was by the back door and the pit bull was keeping watch, so I couldn’t get close. And no, Marty was trying to follow them from her place last night, but an accident a few blocks over screwed him up. Everyone had to get down to one lane and by the time he’d crawled through, they were long gone.”

  “Has Jason managed to find anything out on the plate yet?” he demanded.

  “He’s got his guy at the DMV wo
rking on it. His guy said he would likely had to wait until after hours, when the supervisors logged on so he could use one of their ID’s to hide what he was doing. We should know around five or so,” Collin told him.

  “Good, good,” he nodded, stopping his pacing. “All right, stay at the studio until they leave and follow them. Maybe you’ll get lucky and that bitch will take you to where they are stashing Tamara.”

  “Copy that. I’ll check in when I have movement on my end.”

  Hitting the release button on his phone, he collapsed back into his chair. This whole thing should have been over already. Instead, he was being kept from her. Again, unacceptable. Picking up the framed picture, he traced a finger down the glass. “Soon, my love. Soon we’ll be together forever.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Why do you keep checking the mirrors, Rhonda?” Tamara asked. She’d been watching her friend for a while now and noticed the very specific pattern.

  “Because, I’m nearly a hundred percent sure we have a tail.”

  “Seriously? I thought that shit only happened in movies.”

  The look Rhonda shot her spoke volumes. None of them very complimentary. “Where the hell do you think they get the crap that they blow out of proportions for movies?”

  Shrugging, Tamara grinned. “I dunno. Overactive imaginations and too many late nights running on energy drinks and junk food, maybe?”

  Rhonda barked out a laugh. “That too, but from real life was the actual answer, smart ass.”

  “Sorry,” she said, not sorry at all. “So, we have a tail. Is it one of the C&M guys?”

  “Doubtful. They would have told me if they were giving us a tail. Professional courtesy and all that. No, I think this is something nefarious.”

  Tamara stared at her. “Seriously? Nefarious? Who the fuck uses that word?”

  “Obviously, I just did. Didn’t you hear me?” Rhonda had a definite smirk on her face. Hitting a button on her steering column, she spoke when the system asked her what it wanted. “Call Shawn Camden.”