“Why are we here?” Ross asked and looked from Emily to Tara. “These two could solve the whole damn case without our lazy butts in the way.”
“Ah, but you all have cute butts, so you’re needed. Trust me,” Tara countered and sent him a saucy wink.
Ethan frowned at Ross and the expression wasn’t missed by a soul in the room. Ross’s eyebrow quirked up as did his lips. He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the counter. He settled himself there to truly observe Ethan’s interactions with the fiery little redhead who was a force of nature all her own. Ethan knew exactly what he was doing and he shook his head in warning, but Ross’s smile only grew.
“Tara, tell me about Heather’s relationship with Eric,” Noah said, hoping to stop the silent war of wills between Ross and Ethan, and refocus their attention on more important matters.
She snorted and looked at Emily first, then at Noah. “What relationship? Heather is a nasty thing, and she’s also a bald-faced liar. She exaggerates half of her one-night stands, and she expounds on the actual sex she does have so she sounds like a worldly, sophisticated woman.”
“Do you mean that they didn’t hook-up?” Noah asked.
“Ugh, there’s that term again,” Emily said in exasperation. “I hate that expression.”
“I know,” he chuckled. “You’re still working on using all the words. We’ll get there.”
“Noah, hush!” Emily blushed from head to toe, and Tara laughed over her predictable dilemma.
“What I mean, Noah,” Tara chuckled, “is that if Eric did have sex with Heather, it probably wasn’t nearly with the frequency she alluded to. If you want my honest take on the whole thing, I think Eric might have indulged a few times with her, as in ‘any old port in a storm’, but he set her to the side pretty darn quick. She acted like it went on far longer than it did, but I think Eric was glad to disentangle himself from that tar baby. Now, Ryan is another story.”
“Ryan, too?” Emily asked in disbelief.
“Em, I love you, but you’ve always had blinders on where this kind of stuff was concerned,” Tara said and gave her a sympathetic shrug. “It’s not a bad thing, because you only had eyes for Noah and Gabriel, and that kept you out of the crap that goes on here. But honestly, most of our neighbors aren’t nearly as wholesome as you might think.”
Emily chuckled and drew in a deep breath. Noah laughed with her. He pulled her closer to him and let his fingers wander down her side, making Emily flinch.
“I’m glad you were oblivious,” Noah said in praise.
“Obviously,” Emily said dryly. He just kissed her forehead in answer.
“So back to this Heather and Ryan,” Kaden prompted her as he spoke up for the first time.
Tara began to place all of the food she had prepared on the island as she nodded at him. She bumped Ethan out of her way with her hip so she could reach the oven, and snagged a towel to take out a large pan of biscuits. Once those were added to the fare, she told everyone to fix themselves a plate and dig in.
“To answer your question, Kaden,” Tara began, “Heather was the one who made a play for Ryan. He’s a few years younger than she is, and I think she was trying to make Eric jealous. Eric and Jasper, that is, because she likes him too. But Ryan didn’t realize he was being played, because he’s… Well, he’s just like a puppy that’ll follow you around and not realize he’s clinging too close. You know what I mean?” Tara asked, scrunching up her nose.
“I do,” Kaden smiled. “So why do you think Heather brought food here?”
“I don’t really know,” Tara sighed and looked from Kaden to Emily. “Could be, she was really trying to get them to notice her. She’s been very vocal about her fantasies regarding both men. But even if she had her moment in the sun with Noah and Gabe, she would probably be using that to make her next conquest jealous.”
Ross grimaced in disgust and scooped up another biscuit. No one said anything more for a few minutes as they let Tara’s words sink in. Emily found that the biscuit she was trying to eat grew thicker and thicker in her mouth, until it seemed almost too dense to swallow. Damn, but she hated this feeling of the walls closing in on her.
“Noah, I’m going to step to the bathroom. I’ll be right back,” she said, but he put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
“No, ma’am. Remember what I told you before we came home. You don’t go anywhere without me or Gabe by you. So, lead the way and I’ll follow.”
“Okay,” she whispered. Emily slid off of her chair and then walked out of the kitchen with Noah right by her side.
“Tara, eat your breakfast.” Ethan prodded her gently with his elbow and she nodded as she realized she’d been staring after her best friend and worrying for her.
“Kinda hard to do when you’re so angry you want to tear someone limb from limb,” she mumbled.
“I know. We feel the same way,” Ethan sighed and settled a hand on her shoulder. “But she’ll need you to be strong for her, because this will all get worse before it gets any better. Lawton and I talked with you about this before we told you they were coming home.”
Tara made a little sound of resignation, but she looked back down at her food and tried to resume eating. They strayed to safer topics when Emily and Noah rejoined them. Emily seemed to have the same struggle as Tara, and the men started talking about sports to completely change the subject so the ladies would eat.
Emily was giving the counter a final wipe down when she heard the back door open. She tensed, but looked up as Gabriel and those who had gone into town with him returned. His eyes sought her out, and once he spotted her tucked next to Noah, he walked in a direct line towards them. Emily dried her hands on a dishtowel and opened her arms to him. Gabriel swept her into a tight hug without delay and she could feel the tension radiating through his large body.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked and snuggled a little closer.
“Yes and no,” he sighed. Gabriel propped his chin atop her head and stared at Noah.
“Went that good, did it?” Noah asked resignedly. He settled his hands on his waist and stared back at him.
“Oh, yeah,” Gabe drawled. “But at least we learned about the additional information he’d gathered, and we were able to help Strauss see that it wasn’t the slam dunk he thought it was. It didn’t begin well, but it ended on a civil note.”
“Well, that’s something at least,” Noah agreed. “And he understands we’re in charge of any arrests made?”
“Yes,” Gabriel replied.
“I’ve just started a second round of breakfast, so I’ll have you guys some food in about fifteen minutes,” Tara cut in. “Get comfortable and have something to drink until the biscuits are ready.”
“Thanks, Tara,” Gabe said and glanced at her over his shoulder.
“You’re welcome,” she smiled.
No one talked about the case or anything remotely applicable to stalkers while the meal was prepared. Emily finally pulled away from Gabriel to make him a cup of coffee, then she offered to help Tara. She needed something to take her away from it all, keep her distracted; and sensing that, Tara put her straight to work without a single comment.
CHAPTER 30
Gabriel asked everyone to meet in the den once breakfast had officially come to an end. The team gathered around with the two ladies, each person sitting on a comfortable chair or sofa. Noah placed Emily between Gabe and himself on one of their sofas, and he noted that Ethan and Lawton did the same with Tara. He was so looking forward to pulling Ethan to the side and finding out what was going on there, if anything.
Braden and Ross placed a few laptops on a coffee table and started them up, ready to get the discussion underway. Emily smiled when Ross kicked back and propped his feet a little too close to Braden’s computer, and Braden immediately scowled at him. Ross knew exactly what he was doing and he winked at Emily as he watched her grin at him.
She slipped her feet out of her shoes an
d laid her head against Noah’s arm. Her toes curled into Gabriel’s thigh and she waited to hear what the men would share. And more importantly, why Strauss thought Andrew was targeting her all this time.
Gabriel wrapped his fingers around Emily’s sock-covered toes and he massaged her gently. He felt her flinch when he hit a sensitive spot, and he smiled as he glanced down at her.
“We have a lot to go over,” he began, then turned his eyes back to those around them, “but let’s start with what happened in town. Strauss was sure that Andrew was his culprit, but Braden helped to convince him otherwise. It would seem that his rudimentary computer knowledge painted the case a little too black and white, and made him assume more than he should.”
“In laymen’s terms, please?” Tara drawled out. Gabriel arched an eyebrow at her, but she didn’t flinch. “Hey, if I’m here, you know I’m gonna ask if I don’t understand.”
“I do.” Gabriel nodded slightly. “But know that you and Emily are the only two who get to hear this. No one else.”
“I’m going to ignore the insinuation there, Gabe,” Tara countered. “’Cause if you think for one minute that I would ever…”
“Stop!” Emily said and sat up. She shook her head at them both, daring either of them to utter another heated word.
Emily had hoped that Tara would bite her tongue just a little and be civil about her need for information, now that she knew what had really been going on the last two months. But the investigative journalist in Tara was coming to the surface as her mind sought answers, and Gabriel wasn’t going to like that one bit. Still, they had to get along, because Emily wouldn’t accept the alternative.
“Tara, I appreciate your loyalty and your determination to see me through this; and Gabriel, I know that you are following not only your training, but your heart and gut at the same time. So, knowing each other as you do, you can understand why you each have your own unique perspective about all of this. We’re not going to be divided here. In other words, respect that, and move on. Now,” Emily added firmly.
“Dayum,” Ross chuckled. “Get ‘em, Miss Emily.”
“And you - take your feet off of that coffee table and behave,” she warned him. “Stop picking on Braden.”
“Aw, that’s part of my job,” Ross pretended to whine, though he sat up and let his feet drop to the floor. “Besides, if I didn’t keep him on his toes, who would?”
“Behave,” Emily said again.
“Yes, ma’am,” he smiled, happy to play along with her.
“Now, back to what Strauss thought,” she said and turned her eyes up to Gabriel. “Go on and tell us, love.”
Garrett smiled over the stunned look on Gabriel’s face and he cut his eyes to Lawton, seeing that he was humored as well. It was rare to see Gabriel speechless, yet Emily seemed to be able to render him incapable of uttering a word at the drop of a hat. Amazing, he thought, what love could do to a man.
Gabriel coughed into his fist, trying hard to stifle the sudden laughter that wanted to come forth. Emily narrowed her eyes, daring him to laugh at her. He tamped it back and then tried to continue his train of thought.
“Right. First, we asked Strauss the eyewitness’s name who placed Andrew outside your home. It was Mr. Reiter.”
“Nearly deaf and can’t see a thing, Mr. Reiter?” Emily asked warily.
“One and the same. The man is eighty-four, and his senses are undoubtedly impaired. Though he’s also an honest man and he wouldn’t lie to Strauss or anyone else. He did see Andrew. We looked at his formal statement, and noticed that he cited four distinct times he witnessed Andrew outside your house. When we asked Strauss for the dates Andrew and Ryan helped the security company set up your new system, they coincided with Mr. Reiter’s version of events. Andrew had a reason to be outside, and so he was.”
“And I remember overhearing that Andrew was supposedly accessing surveillance footage during off hours?” Emily laced her fingers through one of Noah’s hands and one of Gabriel’s as she considered such a thing. That someone truly had watched her walk around within her own home, at times in a state of undress. It was sickening, to say the very least.
“Yes, and someone was, Emily. But we don’t believe it was Andrew. Not at this point. Once we were physically in the building, Braden had a look at Andrew’s computer. As he suspected, someone had plugged a small flash drive into the back and they were running a keystroke logger. With it, they easily captured Andrew’s passwords. And with those passwords in hand, this person was able to access all of Andrew’s files and he was never aware that another user was there, sniffing around in the background. Made it look like Andrew was logged in and looking, when he really wasn’t.”
“Would that person need to be inside the building or outside, to see it all?” she asked quietly.
“Either,” Braden answered. “Public IP addresses make that possible, Emily. And Andrew’s computer would have that, so he could receive the back-up copy of your surveillance video from the monitoring company.”
She stared at Braden and swallowed hard. “How long?”
“Weeks, dear. Someone’s been watching for weeks.”
Emily launched herself off of the sofa before Gabriel or Noah could stop her and she held up a hand to make them stay put. “I just need to move. Let me.”
“Okay, baby,” Noah said and gave her a quick nod.
She nodded back and then walked to the end of the sofa so she could pace out of the men’s reach. Emily worried her bottom lip with her teeth as her mind tried to come to terms with the bomb Braden had just dropped in her lap.
Tara moved to get up, hoping to help Emily in some way, but Ethan and Lawton put a hand on her shoulders and slowly shook their heads. She couldn’t hide her disgruntled expression, but Tara managed to stay on the sofa between the two men.
“What was the last thing Strauss had against Andrew?” Emily remembered to ask as she made a slow circuit across the floor.
“Yeah, I want to know too,” said Noah, though his eyes tracked Emily’s every movement. Everyone else was doing the same.
“Strauss inspected Andrew’s desk and patrol car when he wasn’t at the station. He found two photos of Emily in the trunk of the car and one in the back of his bottom file drawer. All three were of her with her family, taken from what Strauss believed were the albums she kept in that cedar chest,” Garrett said steadily.
“We asked if they’d been fingerprinted and he said that they were, though like the other photos, no prints were found. We even dusted the flash drive we found in Andrew’s computer, but it was clean too. Those pictures could have easily been planted, however, because all of the deputies have access to the cars. The keys hang right inside the station on pegs. And none of their desk drawers lock at all,” Braden pointed out.
“This person is good,” he conceded, “but we’re better. I have enough now to find out who’s been remotely looking in on Emily through her cameras, and with that, we’ll figure out who’s also worked to set Andrew up as the fall guy.”
“Which means, we are within days of interrogating a subject or two,” Gabriel stated. “We need to use today to delve into each person of interest and tighten up loose ends. We have fellow agents in Virginia checking in on Jonathan, and we need to talk to them – get their report on his recent online activities and days spent away from work. Days he might have traveled here.”
“Though this is all far more rushed than we’re accustomed to, ideally, I’d like to start questioning people tomorrow morning,” Gabriel went on to say. “Because even though we stopped Strauss from hauling Andrew in, plenty of people saw us walk into that station. And if our suspect is truly on staff there, then we’ve just let them know that we’re circling.”
“Em,” Gabe paused and called softly to her. She glanced his way, though she continued to pace. He rose from his cushion and walked slowly over to intercept her. She stopped right in front of him and waited for him to move.
“Honey, things are a
bout to come to head. All of my years of training tell me that, scream it, in fact. Your safety and Tara’s is our primary concern, and we won’t risk either of you. But know that we’re going to seem pushy when it comes to your protection and you’ve got to do exactly as we say until this is resolved.”
“Of course. You already have my promise that I’ll do as you ask. Don’t worry about me leaving whatever post you give me, Gabe.” Emily gave him a quick nod and then turned her eyes to Lawton. “Where is my cedar chest right now, Lawton? You and Ethan were going to look it over, dust it for prints, and catalog its contents. Did you leave it at my home?”
“No, Emily, we didn’t. We brought it here, actually. Why?” Lawton asked.
“Where? I want to look at it. Now.” Her foot began to tap, her nervous energy spiking. If she could just go for a run, she wished, but Emily knew the guys would never let her out of the house right now.
“It’s in the guys’ study,” Lawton told her as he also gained his feet. “Something specific you’re looking for?”
“Won’t know until I look,” she said and ran a hand over her forehead.
“You’ll need gloves.” Lawton gave her a sympathetic look after he added that last bit in.
“Lovely,” Emily muttered. “Give me a pair, please?”
“Em,” Gabriel said again and she looked back up into his blue eyes, seeing them narrow during his close scrutiny of her.
“Don’t,” she said, shaking her head as tears pooled in her eyes. “Not right now, Gabe. I’m too angry. I hid in that damn house for months! Months! Do you understand?!” she questioned through clenched teeth, her volume rising. “And for what?” Emily shrugged. A little hysterical laughter escaped her, as the cracks in her armor started showing again.
“They still got inside. Inside my home, inside my belongings, inside my head.” She grimaced and placed a hand against the side of her temple, as if that alone would serve as a barrier now. “And I let them. Hell, I opened the front door and said ‘Sure, come on in and install cameras for me.’ I made them iced tea that day, for God’s sake! And I thanked them.”
Theirs To Claim (Predatory Desires Book 1) Page 29
