Ethan didn’t like Russell badgering her.
Hayden shot an accusing glance at him, then at Brent, before standing up to face off with Agent Russell. “I guess it’s just a coincidence that Saul Raymond, your other witness by the way, just happened to conveniently take two bullets to the head, execution-style, the day before that thug showed up in the parking garage after me. I didn’t even know about his murder until my mother told me about it a week later.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, defiant now. “You guys are unbelievable! You demand cooperation, but then won’t take any responsibility when things go horribly wrong and people get killed. Where was Saul Raymond’s protection? Where was mine?”
She paced two feet toward the door and then back again, chewed on a thumb nail, thinking.
“You will testify to what you know though, correct? You will testify that you saw Dochenko falsify financials, testify you overheard him make false statements about the financial condition of the company to the bank?”
“That and a few other things about Jeremy that might hold your interest for longer than five minutes, things I’ve remembered over the last few months, things the agents back in Chicago didn’t ask me about. Yes, I’ll tell them everything. But first I want to talk to my mother and my sister. I’m not saying another word until I get to talk to my family, a long conversation at that where they take the time to assure me they’re safe and doing just fine.”
She pointed a finger at Russell’s chest. “And I want round-the-clock protection for Sydney Reed in St. Louis. I want the same for my mother Laura Trenton and my stepfather, Rob in New York. Without that, we have nothing to discuss. You might as well lock me up right now, throw away the key because I’m not saying another word until I know my family is protected.”
The swagger seemed to go out of Agent Russell.
Ethan knew she was pissed at him for putting her through this. He could see it in those green eyes that seemed to flame gold around the edges each time she shot a daggered look his way.
As he watched her in Brent’s office, standing almost toe to toe with the brash federal agent, he couldn’t have been more proud of the woman he intended to make his wife. It didn’t go unnoticed by him that she asked nothing for herself. She simply wanted to make sure her sister and mother would be safe.
Five and a half hours later though, Emile-slash-Hayden emerged from an interrogation room, exhausted. After answering questions, after giving them every tidbit of information she could drag out of her brain, she wasn’t just tired, but furious.
How had her life gone so horribly wrong?
When she looked up and spotted Ethan waiting for her on a bench in the hallway, she resolved to close this chapter of her life once and for all. The minute she saw him heading toward her, she dragged in a breath and prepared to wage a different kind of battle.
Like she had earlier with Agent Russell, Hayden pointed a finger at Ethan’s chest. “Get away from me, Ethan Cody. I want you to get away from me now. Go home and box up all my stuff from your house. Pack it up! It won’t be that difficult, there’s not that much to bring back. But I want what few things I’ve managed to scrape together over these last few miserable months on the run. I want you to bring it back to me before I leave. I’ll be staying in a hotel tonight under lock and key with a guard posted outside the door.”
Ethan let her rant, even knew he deserved some portion of it. But after she finally wound down, he said quietly, “They aren’t taking you anywhere. You’re coming back to Pelican Pointe with me. Tonight.”
“Oh, really? Is that what you thought would happen when you dragged me in here today, Ethan? You might want to check with the agent in charge of this case now. That would be Matt Russell, the man calling all the shots.”
“I know you’re upset. You have every right to be. But think of it this way, that initial questioning, that part is over.”
“Are you really that naïve? They’re taking me to San Francisco first thing in the morning, Ethan.”
“They aren’t taking you anywhere. I’m taking you back to Pelican Pointe―with me.”
Hearing the argument, Agent Russell swept out into the hallway looking as energized as he had when he’d first arrived hours earlier. “She’s right, Deputy Cody. I’m afraid her cell phone usage has compromised her safety. I’ve just learned that the other day, her sister, Sydney, had an encounter with a man in the hospital parking lot where she works. Might’ve been random, but…” He shot a glance at Hayden. After spending so many hours with her, his opinion of the woman had changed. “And her mother thinks someone got in the house and messed with her cell phone. From here on out, we take no chances.”
Ethan ran his fingers through his hair. This time it was Ethan who stepped into Agent Russell’s personal space. “I can protect Hayden. There’s no need for you to take her to the Bay or anywhere else for that matter. I’m a trained member of law enforcement. And whether or not you think this is Bumfuck, California, or not, she stays with me where I know she’s safe.”
“You can’t possibly watch her round the clock.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Bring your guards and put them outside my house.” He grabbed Hayden’s hand. “Because that’s where she’ll be staying until you guys find Dochenko.”
Once they got to his county vehicle, Ethan turned a pissed off Hayden around to face him. “I’m sorry. You have every right to be mad at me but remember I’m on your side. I’m not the one who got you into this mess.”
Knowing that was true, some of the fury drained out of her. “Thanks so much, Deputy. But I tried to explain what I went through back in Chicago. You members of law enforcement think you know so much more than the rest of us. They could have killed Sydney in that parking lot. They could have killed my mother and stepfather in their own home in their sleep. And what did any of you do about it?”
The tears started to come for real. After a long miserable day, the waterworks opened up and allowed the frustration of the past few months to pour out of her.
Because she needed the contact, she let him put his arms around her, nuzzle her neck, run his hands up and down her back.
“I know you’re scared. You’d be crazy not to be. But sitting down with the feds was the right thing to do.”
He rested his forehead on hers. “I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my life than today when you stood up to that asshole Russell. I love you whether your name’s Emile Reed, or Hayden-no-middle-initial-Ryan. It doesn’t matter much to me because…” He put his hand over her heart. “I know what’s real in here.”
It took a couple of seconds for those words to pierce her tired psyche and find their way to her heart. She sniffled. Her arms stretched around his neck. “You love me? Say it again.”
“I love you.” He covered her mouth with his.
After the kind of day she’d had, it didn’t take much for her to sink into the kiss. “Mmmm, I love you, too.”
“Still want to move out?”
“Oh, shut up. You might’ve mentioned you loved me before today. I felt like you were throwing me to the wolves to further your career, get that pat on the head from the director.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that. But I’m new at this being in love with someone thing.”
“Then you need to get better at it―and fast—because from here on out this is going to be a rough ride.”
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
“Your mother doesn’t like me.”
He opened her car door, gave her another hard kiss. “That’s okay. I have every belief in your ability to break down her resistance the same way you did mine.”
She grabbed a fistful of his shirt. “What are you talking about, Ethan Cody? Once I made up my mind, you were mush in my hands.”
He grinned. “That’s exactly right. And I’ve no doubt my mom will fall the same way I did. But remember the woman desperately wants grandchildren. If I were you, I’d use that to your advantage.”
Hayden laughed. “I guess I could handle a couple of little brown-eyed toddlers that look exactly like their father.”
Ethan’s breath hitched. He picked up her hand and kissed the palm. “A couple? I was right there when you promised her six.”
She looked over at him sitting behind the wheel of the car and got that familiar tug in the belly. “Suggested six, not promised, there’s a huge difference. I guess I’ll just have to work on bargaining her down to four.”
“See, that’s how much you know. I’m pretty sure she’d easily settle for three.”
Chapter 20 Book 2
Over the next several days, Hayden insisted on returning to her schedule. Despite a federal agent tagging after her wherever she went to keep her safe, she refused to disappoint Nick and Jordan and give up her duties out at the farm. Nor did she intend to quit on Margie at the Diner, either. She’d made a commitment to people that counted on her each and every day and she intended to follow through. No amount of Ethan’s pestering or arguing could change her mind or make her alter her routine or her duties.
Once she’d tallied the day’s receipts, caught up on her bookkeeping, and paid invoices she wandered down to the roadside fruit stand to help out the new girl Nick had hired, Mona Bingham, Max’s eighteen-year-old daughter from Texas.
While she’d been grilled by the feds, it seemed life had gone on in Pelican Pointe. Mona had needed a job and Nick had provided one.
In between waiting on customers, Hayden found out Mona had come to California from Texas to reconnect with her father, whom she hadn’t seen in five years. She’d also been persuaded to help out at the Diner this past weekend when Abby Pointer’s little girl had become ill and had to be rushed over to see Doc Prescott.
As Hayden and Mona worked together replacing the fruit and vegetable baskets and pumpkins as customers purchased them, Mona went on about how she’d only been in town since last Thursday. “My relationship with Max has always been rocky at best. But after I lost my job at the Dairy Queen a week ago, I decided I needed a change of scenery, a new start in a new state.”
“There’s a lot of that going around,” Hayden said with a smile. “Besides, being here will give you an opportunity to get to know Margie, as well as, Max. Margie’s not as brusque as she lets on. Beneath that rough exterior is a good person who knows what it’s like to struggle.”
“She’s been nice enough, I guess. But I’m already missing my friends back in Texas.”
Uh-oh, thought Hayden, another restless soul.
That opened the door for Mona to expound on her take on Margie. Listening to Mona gave Hayden the distraction she needed to finish out her day before heading over to the B & B where she planned to meet Ethan for dinner.
An hour later she glanced over at her bodyguard, Agent Troy Dawson, who looked bored out of his mind. Studying the six-foot-tall man with toffee colored skin and deep chocolate eyes and just out of the Academy, Hayden said, “You know, Pelican Pointe isn’t as out of step as it seems.”
In a soft-spoken voice, Troy said, “Are you kidding? I grew up in a tiny little town of less than two thousand people in eastern Alabama. That’s why they gave me this assignment. Well, one of the reasons. The other being I’m low man on the seniority pole.”
“Really? So that southern accent is real?”
He grinned. “Yes, ma’am. Genuine southern-speak as my mother would say.”
“So you aren’t missing having a slew of fast food joints around here and no pesky urban noise at night?”
“Let’s put it this way,” he said patting his stomach. “I can do without the high-calorie fast food, although Max’s cooking is giving me cause to take up jogging again. His food’s addictive. That chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes he serves up are damn close to what my grandmamma used to make. As far as I’m concerned he’s a genius in the kitchen.”
“He is that. Let me guess. Meat and potatoes man? Am I right?”
Troy grinned. “And the rural setting is fine by me, reminds me a lot of the countryside where I grew up.”
“Good. Because you’re about to spend the evening with two of the best people on the planet. One of whom just happens to make terrific meat and potatoes that melt in your mouth.”
The next day Nick and Jordan sat at the kitchen table eating leftover roast beef sandwiches when the phone rang. Nick got up from his lunch with his mouth still full and glanced at the digital readout on the desk phone in the corner. It told Nick it was his old Guard buddy Ben Latham calling. He swallowed his food and picked up the phone. “Hey Ben, I’ve been meaning to call you and tell you voice-to-voice, Jordan’s pregnant.”
“What? That’s great. How far along?”
“Eight weeks now.”
“Congratulations, buddy. It didn’t take you guys long to go on stork watch, did it?”
Nick laughed. “Hey, I kept giving it my best shot.” He looked over at Jordan and winked.
“How’s she feeling?” Ben asked.
“Tired mostly, but we just got back from a three-day trip to the Bay for her birthday where she got in some serious R & R, away from the grind of running this place. And the last couple of weeks have been considerably rough since Edmund Taggert passed away and left us his organic farm, the adjoining piece of property. The whole thing’s been stressful for both of us.”
“Geez. Well, I hate to add to what sounds like a bad time, but we’ve got us a problem, Nick. I just got off the phone with Colonel Marks.” Marks had been their commanding officer in the National Guard unit in which they’d served together for years. “Remember Cord Bennett and what happened to him back in Leesburg last year? To say the guy’s having a tough time is an understatement. Right now, he’s locked up in a Houston jail for drunk and disorderly and misdemeanor assault. Bar fight. I don’t doubt he’s guilty as hell but I think he needs someone to go down there and get him, bring him back to California.”
“What about the assault?”
“He’ll probably get off with a fine, probation maybe, as long as someone is there to speak up for him.”
“What do you want me to do, Ben?”
“Go down and get him out of jail. I’d go, Nick, but Sheryl is about ready to pop any day.”
“You can’t leave Sheryl now to go to Houston.”
“I know, but it sounds like you have your hands full there, too.”
“I won’t lie to you, inheriting the farm has been a major headache. Taking three days off was a godsend but I’m not sure I can be gone from Jordan and Hutton long enough to jump a plane to Houston and sit around waiting for Cord to get his act together.”
It occurred to Nick then he didn’t want to leave home right now when Hayden had God knows who out there looking for her. He couldn’t very well ask Ethan to park himself here at the B & B for who knew how long either until Cord got squared away in Houston. It might be days before his hearing came up.
“Look, if it were a simple twenty-four-hour turnaround trip to get him out of jail, I’d do that in a heartbeat. But you and I know there’s more involved here. We don’t know what Cord’s situation is like. We know for a fact he’s had a drinking problem the past year. I’m not judging him after what happened, but I’m just telling you, it’s gonna take more than twenty-four hours to sort out Cord’s situation and get him on a plane and back to California.”
Nick glanced over at Jordan. “Look, I don’t mind giving him a place to stay once he gets out of jail, once he gets back here. How about if I call Jarrod Collins? The last time I talked to him he hadn’t been able to find work. If he has time on his hands, he could catch a flight to Houston out of L.A., be there to post Cord’s bail, and then bring him back here. I’ll pay for the airfare to and from Texas. But I don’t feel comfortable leaving Jordan and Hutton here alone just now.”
“There’s something else you aren’t telling me.”
Leave it to Ben to pick up on his hesitation. “Suffice it to say, I have my reasons. We were able to
leave for three days because a friend was generous enough to babysit Hutton for us. But the friend is having some problems of her own right now. I don’t think it’s a good idea to tempt fate and take off for Houston and leave Jordan and Hutton alone.”
“If you can talk Collins into it, I’ll go half with you on the roundtrip tickets. Someone’s got to go help Cord, Nick. He’s self-destructing and if something doesn’t change in his life pretty soon, he’s going to end up in jail for worse than drunk and disorderly. That guy is a ticking time bomb. He hasn’t had a break in over a year.”
“Okay, I’ll call Jarrod and get back to you.”
Thirty minutes later, after talking to Jarrod, it was agreed that Nick and Ben would split the cost of the airline tickets so that their fellow Guard buddy, Jarrod Collins, could fly down to Houston, pack up Cord and his things and drive him back to California in Cord’s pickup.
What San Diego native Cord Bennett had been doing in Houston all the way from Leesburg, Virginia, was a mystery in itself. Since Cord was the only one with the answers, they would have to wait until he arrived in Pelican Pointe to find out.
The very afternoon Nick had contemplated leaving for Houston, Luka Radovan arrived in Hicksville. That was the kindest thing he could say about the pathetic excuse for the little town known as Pelican Pointe. There wasn’t a fast-food chain within fifty miles of the place he had quickly deemed, ‘the bird sanctuary.’ The tallest building was a three-story house. The town itself looked as if it had dried up in the ’80s and someone forgot to tell the residents life had bypassed them for a real city.
The pings from Emile Reed’s cell phone had brought him here. Thus, he was determined to find out which part of town had been her haven for the past five months. But first he had to get his bearings. Driving up and down each street searching for a BMW 323 might not prove resourceful. More than likely she no longer owned the vehicle. But scanning the streets gave him an opportunity to look for anyone who resembled the woman’s features, a description he had branded on his brain.
Pelican Pointe Boxed Set Books 1 - 3 (A Pelican Pointe Novel) Page 57
