Trust No One

by Velvet Vaughn

  He grabbed her hand again and she gritted her teeth. "We have something special, Kendall. Surely you can find time to squeeze me in your busy schedule."

  She jerked her hand away this time. "I was trying to let you down easy, Gray, but I'll just come out and say it. I don't feel any chemistry between us, so there's no reason to keep seeing each other."

  "That's because we haven't spent much time together. But I felt a spark the moment I met you."

  Funny, since he'd been dismissing her in favor of Olivia. "Gray—"

  A strong hand gripped her arm and tugged her away. "We need to leave, Ms. Buckley."

  "Get your hands off her," Gray protested.

  "Gray, you remember…er…my bodyguard. The station sent him over to escort me to the meeting." She reached into her bag and pulled out some bills to cover her part of the meal. She didn't want to owe him anything. "That should cover my part."

  "But I was going to—"

  "Nice to meet you, Gray." Kendall called over her shoulder as Dorian towed her through the restaurant. Gray took two steps forward and she was afraid he would follow and make a scene. Thankfully, he didn't pursue, he just stood with a frown on his face and his arms crossed.

  Could he be a cold-blooded killer? Did he have it in him to gun down three innocent women?

  "That man has definite stalker tendencies," Dorian remarked as soon as they stepped outside.

  "Yeah, and now I'll have to worry about him when I go home."

  He jerked to a stop, forcing her to stop, too. "Want me to talk to him? Set him straight?"

  Kendall's heart lurched at his offer. She'd never really had a champion before. Her father passed away when she was young and it was just her and her mom against the world. When her mother remarried when she was twelve, Kendall was happy for her. She loved her step-father. But she felt a little lost and alone, not that her mom made her feel that way. She went out of her way to be both a mother and best friend to Kendall, but she now had someone else to share her life with. Kendall focused on being strong and independent. She had plenty of friends, but when it came down to it, she solved her problems by herself. Having Dorian offer to step in on her behalf was heartwarming. She would take him up on it but she was a little afraid what he would do to "set him straight". Not that she thought he would hurt Gray. Much.

  "No, I'm sure he got the message."

  He snorted. "Don't count on it. That guy's clueless."

  "Do you think he could be the killer?"

  "He's definitely on the suspect list."

  #

  Dorian held the door for Kendall as she climbed in the truck. Once she was buckled in, he closed the door and jogged around to the driver's side.

  "It's a shame we didn’t get off the boat with that key last night," she said as he started the engine.

  Dorian fished in his pocket and held up a shiny object. "You mean this one?"

  Kendall gaped at him. "How did you manage to hold on to it after the explosion?"

  He shrugged. "I stuck it in my wetsuit. Unfortunately we weren't as lucky with the picture. It got a little ruined."

  "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

  "Honestly? I forgot. After the blast and then you patching me up, Olivia and Alex came back with news about Steph. I put it on the dresser and it slipped my mind."

  "What do you think it opens?"

  He flipped it over in his palm. "It's a generic key so it could be anything from a safe deposit box to a bike lock."

  "How will we ever find out?" she asked with a dejected sigh.

  "I’ve been thinking…the man lived on a houseboat year around. But most people don’t get to that age without accruing other possessions, valuables."

  "If he is anything like his crusty neighbor, his wife probably took him for everything when she divorced him," she grumbled.

  He smirked at her. "I was thinking more along the lines of a storage unit."

  Kendall instantly perked up but then her shoulders slumped. "There are storage units every freakin' where. How will we know where to begin?"

  Dorian didn’t respond, instead he punched a number on his cell. "Hey, Mags. Yes, darlin', I know I promised to check in sooner." He rolled his eyes indulgently at Kendall. She narrowed hers at him. He fought the smile at her obvious jealousy. "Look sweetheart," he added for Kendall's benefit. As he hoped, her eyes narrowed more. "I need you to do something for me. Can you pull up bank records for a Hank Colbert? I don’t have any information on him except that he lived at Ferrington Marina on Pine Lake and was murdered in Chicago last week."

  While he waited, he lifted the phone from his mouth and turned to Kendall. "You aren’t hearing any of this." She mocked covering her ears and he nodded approvingly before turning his attention back to the conversation. "Great. Look at his checking account, see what bills he paid. I’m looking for a monthly payment, maybe a once-a-year to some kind of storage facility." After a short pause, he met Kendall’s gaze. "U-Store-It, that’s got to be it. Okay, give me the location. That’s exactly what I needed. You are wonderful, darling. Thanks. I know, I know, I'll check in soon. Promise."

  "Girlfriend?" Kendall's tone was icy.

  He hid the smile threatening to break free. "Co-worker. Runs the office, hacks into computers, fights like a soldier and shoots like a sniper."

  "She sounds perfect."

  He did chuckle this time. "Glad she's on our side," was all he said. He punched the address Maggie provided into the GPS.

  "How will we know which unit is his?"

  Dorian flashed a smile before glancing over his shoulder and pulling onto the road. "Trial and error."

  His cell rang and he answered. A huge weight lifted off his shoulders. Dante and Hillary arrived. "I'll meet you there as soon as I can," he said. "I need to make a quick stop."

  As they drove by the storage buildings, he was happy to note that it apparently lacked security. Except for a chain link fence surrounding the perimeter and a battered automatic gate—with half of the wood barrier missing—in front of a dilapidated guard shack, there wasn’t any other type of monitoring device. No cameras or guards on duty, no attack dogs or razor wire fence. They could easily slip under the barrier. The buildings were older with rusted metal doors that each individual locked themselves. Although security was lax, it appeared that most units were occupied.

  Kendall glanced around the buildings and sighed. "We’ll have to come back after dark, won’t we?" At Dorian’s nod, she mumbled, "I need to find a washing machine. I’m running out of black clothes."

  #

  Daphne barreled into Dorian as soon as he opened the door. "Mama decided to take a trip to Greece," she informed him with a squeal. "I'm going to Greece! I'm going to Greece!" She happy danced around him, her pigtails flying around her head as she flailed her arms. Dorian smiled and picked her up for a big bear hug, enjoying her shriek. He was so damned relieved. Not having to worry about his mom and sister would be a huge burden lifted.

  "I'm taking the Prada bag…that is, if it's okay?" Her eyes were wide and questioning as she looked at Kendall.

  Kendall hugged her. "Of course it's okay. It's yours now."

  "Yay! Come help me pack." She clamped a hand around Kendall's arm and towed her to her room without waiting for a response.

  Kendall glanced back at Dorian, the smile on her face slamming into his gut. God, she was amazing. And his hard-to-please sister adored her. He feared he was coming to adore her, too. He didn't want to end up like his buddy Alex, who would be pining away for the woman who got away. He thought Alex would put a hole in the wall when he informed him Olivia had to head back to New York.

  "Hey, Dorian," Hillary Billings greeted him as she clicked off her cell phone. "You heard?"

  "Yeah, and I'm so relieved."

  "We decided it would be a girls' trip and Dante would stay here to help you. I just made reservations for the three of us."

  "That's perfect. Have you been to Greece before?"

 
She shook her head with a smile. "First time."

  He smiled with her. Then a thought struck. "What about weapons?"

  "Dante has a contact who'll hook me up with what I need."

  "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this, Hillary. My mom and sister mean the world to me."

  "Hey, you're doing me a favor," she insisted. "Visit the Parthenon, Acropolis…I'll be checking items off my bucket list on COBRA's dime."

  "I wish I could go with you guys. I've never seen Greece through my mom's eyes."

  "Having a native as a guide will be amazing. Her sister is going to join us as well."

  "Enjoy yourself. You shouldn't have any trouble. Honestly, you'd probably be fine staying here, but the last murder hit too close to home. Better to be thousands of miles away in a different country."

  "I'll keep them safe," she promised.

  #

  Kendall listened as Daphne gushed about her upcoming trip and wished she could go with her. She'd always wanted to visit Greece. Daphne asked her opinion on outfits to take and shoes to pack. Her exuberance was infectious.

  Once Daphne was finished packing, Kendall went to find Dorian and paused. He was talking to a gorgeous blond, her hair pulled into a high ponytail. She had the toned, fit body of an athlete and her smile was radiant. This was Hillbilly? She wasn't at all what Kendall had pictured in her mind. Her mental image was a masculine-looking Amazon with bulging muscles and a short, boyish haircut. This woman didn't look like she could hurt a fly, but from what Dorian had told her, she was as deadly as any of the men at the agency.

  The door opened and a man as tall as Dorian walked in. They did a bro hug, tapping each other on the shoulder. When Dorian stepped back, he noticed her and motioned her forward.

  "Kendall, this is Hillary Billings."

  Kendall shook the other woman's hand and offered a genuine smile.

  "And Dante Costa."

  Goodness, Dante was gorgeous. Tall, dark and Italian. His smile was charming, and oh my, dimples. More than one woman had fallen under his spell, she was sure. Had it not been for the man beside her, she would've been one of them.

  "Nice to meet you," he said taking her hand in both of his and smiling wide.

  She smiled back.

  Dorian growled.

  Dante smiled wider.

  Dorian tugged her away. "That's enough," he barked. "I'll check in later."

  Dante's hearty laugh and Hillary's higher-pitched one followed them out the door.

  #

  Ron Daulton glanced around the room at the group assembled in Senator Hofstra's home office. Pitbull, aka Constance Hofstra, sat regally on the sofa perusing a book and generally ignoring everyone else. Governor Denton held up one end of the wet bar, nursing his second drink in the ten minutes since Ron and Cory arrived. Vivian Mathison perched on a chair in front of the senator's desk filing her nails. Byron Wilks chatted on his cell phone on one side of the room while Gray Posten texted on the other. They were all waiting for the senator to return.

  Ron's ulcer burned, aggravated by anger. One of the secret service officers charged with guarding the senator called an hour ago to let him know that the senator had snuck out of the house. Apparently he'd received a ransom note and had left to pay the outrageous sum. Ron was peeved that they neglected to notify the FBI.

  The note arrived on Sunday to the senator's office but no one knew when or how it arrived. If his staff were to be believed, it just appeared out of thin air. Pitbull claimed she found it on the floor on the way to the senator's television interview. There was a footprint on the envelope, so apparently someone walked right over it without even noticing it. No telling how long it'd been there.

  He found it hard to believe the senator could be so dense as to pay a hefty amount of money with no guarantees that the ransom came from the people who kidnapped his wife, or that his wife was still alive. After questioning everyone in the room, it was apparent they felt the same way and tried talking Hofstra out of paying, but he was determined. Anyone could have sent the note, hoping for a huge payoff and then hit the jackpot when the senator fell for it hook, line and sinker. If it had been a real kidnaping for ransom, the demand would've come much sooner. Hofstra was either too blinded by grief to see reason, or he was in on the kidnapping…it was the only two scenarios that made sense.

  All heads swiveled when the door slammed open and Hofstra rushed inside winded and disheveled. His eyes were wild as he scanned the room. "Did they call yet?" No one met his gaze and his shoulders slumped in defeat. His mother hurried to his side, guiding him to the sofa. "Don't give up hope, darling. There's still time."

  Ron strode forward. "Senator, we need to ask you some questions."

  He looked up as if just noticing them for the first time. His eyes bugged and he levered forward. "Agents? What are you doing here? No, this is all wrong. You have to leave. They said no cops."

  "Senator, with all due respect, our presence here has no bearing on the outcome." Cory's tone was authoritative and controlled. Ron wanted to smile. His protégé was rapidly developing into a top-notch agent. "The drop has already been made. It would be in your best interest…and your wife's…if you gave us all the information you can so that we can focus our efforts into finding her."

  The senator slumped back against the couch. "Yes, you're right. I'm sorry. It's just…I thought they'd call by now, tell me where to find Pamela."

  Vivian scurried over and wedged herself on the other side of the senator. She clutched his hand and murmured softly to him. Ron barely managed to not roll his eyes. "They called you at the pay phone with instructions," he prompted, repeating what they'd already been told. "We'll pull the records but I'd bet it was a burner phone. Untraceable. Where did you go from there?"

  "I had to drive to the rail yard and toss the bag into an open car on a slow moving train."

  "How did you know which train?"

  "They said it didn't matter."

  "So they had someone watching you," Ron deduced. "We'll see if we can pull security video." It was a long-shot at best.

  Ron and Cory retreated to the back of the room and set up their computers to work. After two hours passed, it was apparent that the kidnappers weren't going to call.

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Please tell me it fits that one," Kendall grumbled, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

  "It does…not," Dorian sighed. He dropped the lock and pushed to his feet.

  Kendall glanced around the dark buildings and hugged herself. She wasn’t wearing a coat and the nip in the air penetrated down to the bone. "It’s not here. Surely by now we've checked every single one," she muttered, pacing back and forth to circulate the blood in her body.

  Dorian ignored her ranting and proceeded to the adjoining unit. She froze at the telltale click. "Bingo."

  She spun around, her arms dropping. "You found it?"

  "Yep." He detached the padlock, checked around the area and hoisted the handle as he stood. The rusted metal door creaked ominously in the still night air. The interior was compact, shadowy and damp, reeking of old paper and mildew. Dorian flashed his light around the space. Dust mites danced in the beam and spider webs hung from the ceiling. Worn furniture and moldy boxes were stuffed haphazardly, leaving a small aisle that ran the length of the room.

  "It doesn’t look like the police have been here," she remarked.

  "Or anyone else." Dorian swiped a finger across a box leaving a trail in the dust. "That means for once, we're a step ahead of the killers."

  Kendall couldn’t stop the chill that raced down her spine. She snapped on her light and moved forward. "Let’s hurry. With our luck, tonight will be the night they discover he had a storage unit." She stopped in the tiny aisle and turned in a circle. "We’ll be here for hours. We don’t even know what we're looking for."

  Dorian swung the beam across the unorganized piles. "We can assume pictures but we don't know for sure he even put a copy here. He could've had a
safe deposit box."

  Kendall shot him a look. "Are you always this optimistic?"

  "Just being realistic."

  Dorian handed her a pair of latex gloves like the ones crime scene investigators used so they wouldn't leave fingerprints. "Look for areas where the dust has been disturbed," he advised. They worked their way inside, sifting through water-stained boxes and musty plastic containers.

  "Someone's been here recently." At her questioning look, Dorian pointed out cobwebs in the back of the unit. "They'd be along here too, but they've been cleaned off. We should concentrate in this area." He indicated a wall of overstuffed bookshelves.

  "I had a great-uncle," Kendall said conversationally as she searched a shelf, "who loved his bourbon. My great-aunt used to drag him to church every Sunday." She lifted a figurine of a big-breasted naked woman and winced in disgust, dropping it back on the shelf. "He always grumbled and complained until one day, he was the one rushing my aunt out of the house. From that day on, he couldn’t wait to get to church, even carrying his own Bible."

  "Does this story have a point?" His voice sounded amused.

  "I’m getting there." She gave him a stern look and continued searching. "Everything was fine until one day, my great-uncle fell asleep in the pew, snoring so loudly, he drowned out the minister. It had been a really long sermon. Anyway, my great- aunt couldn’t wake him. She shook and shook until his Bible fell out of his lap and onto the floor, and the reason for my uncle’s turnaround became obvious."

  She glanced at Dorian to find him staring at her, waiting for her to continue. "He'd glued all the pages of the Bible together and then cut a hole out in the middle, the perfect size for his sterling silver flask."

  Dorian’s laughter lit his whole face and Kendall was struck dumb, mesmerized. Had she really thought him not handsome? With laughter crinkling his eyes and dimples carved into his lean cheeks, he was breathtaking. "Your great-uncle sounds like a character," he said once the laughter died down.

  Kendall shook her head to clear her wayward thoughts and turned back around to continue searching. "Yeah well, after that episode, my great-aunt told him to either quit drinking or she was getting a divorce."