“Are you asking about Hayden?”
He cocked his head slightly. “I think I am.”
“Are you asking if I still have feelings for him?”
“You do. I know that. Your eyes … they light up every time you hear his voice.”
“Because he’s familiar. Because he means help.”
His eyes came up to mine. “What else does it mean?”
I shook my head. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not throwing away my career and my future for him. I’m doing it for you.”
“I didn’t—”
“You didn’t ask me to. You didn’t ask that I go against what my boss told me to do. I did it because you saved my life. Because you could have left me alone in that empty house, but you didn’t.”
“You would have died. I couldn’t have lived with that.”
“Exactly. You’re a good man.”
He nodded, something like disappointment flooding his eyes.
“You helped me because I’m a good man.”
“I helped you because I’ve only known you a short time, but I already can’t imagine my life without you in it. Maybe it’s the circumstances or the sense of danger … I don’t know. I’ve been on cases that were almost this intense, though not quite like this. And I didn’t feel like this for the client. I didn’t fall into bed with a man I barely knew, compromising all the morals I’ve worked so hard to create and to follow since leaving my father’s house. I did it with you.”
“Why?”
I sighed, rolling my eyes to the ceiling as I tried to keep from indulging the tears that were forming in my eyes.
“I don’t know. Because I have all these feelings … I don’t like feelings. I don’t like messy. I like my life ordered.” I laughed a little. “You were right when you said I had a crush on Hayden because it was safe. I knew he’d never look twice at me. I knew he was still in love with his fiancée and that he had this unnatural obsession with Waverly. I knew he would never hurt me because he would never be what I wanted him to be. And that was good. But you … you’re fucking all that up!”
“I’m sorry.” He reached over and took my hand. “I’m sorry for what your father did to you. I’m sorry for upsetting the order in your life. But I’m not sorry for caring about you.”
I looked him in the eye. “I think I’m falling for you, and that scares the crap out of me.”
“It’s not very convenient for me, either.”
I laughed, tears rolling down my cheeks. “What are we going to do about this?”
“Well, first we’re going to go out on a proper date once all this craziness is straightened out.”
“I’d like that.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
We stared at each other for a long moment, both of us lost in our own thoughts and in each other’s gaze. And then someone cleared his throat, drawing our attention to the fact that we were no longer alone.
“Hey, boys and girls,” Kasey said, sliding onto the bench beside me. “How’s it hanging?”
I groaned as I lay my head on his shoulder. “Never thought I’d be quite this happy to see you, Kase.”
“Me too, kid.” He slid his arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “That was one hell of a disappearing act you pulled. Had everyone freaked out, the boss man included.”
“She had me a little worried, too,” Rowan said.
Kasey just nodded, holding out his hand. “Kasey Thomasson. I’m an operative with Dragon.”
“Rowan McGregor.”
“There are a lot of people looking for you, Mr. McGregor. We’ve got a private plane to take you back to Houston so that you can make a statement to the police.” Kasey glanced at me as I stiffened against him. “They want to know what you know about the CEO of Johnston Robotics. Seems they arrested him twenty minutes ago for corporate espionage, conspiracy to sell military secrets to a foreign government, and murder in the death of Rachel O’Bannon.”
Relief rushed across Rowan’s face.
“I’d be happy to give them whatever they require.”
Chapter 20
Hayden
I was reading a text on my phone as Peter came out of the delivery room, a huge, goofy grin on his face.
“It’s a girl!”
He was immediately surrounded by family, his parents, Cole and Amber, and Megan, a deliciously delighted expression on her pretty face. I stepped back, a little happiness of my own sailing through my body as I read Kasey’s text for the second time.
Gorgon in custody.
It would be a long couple of days while the police, the CIA, and everyone else debriefed Amelia and Rowan, but it was over. And everyone was safe. This was a good day.
“Hayden,” Peter said, coming over to clap me on the back. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”
“For signing yourself up to eighteen years of misery?” I laughed. “Of course, man.”
I slapped him on the back and joked about the trouble he was about to get himself into with a daughter to chase around and future teenage boys to keep at bay. He laughed like my every word was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Happiness was a funny creature that way.
But then he grew serious.
“I think this was meant for you.” He pressed a zip drive into my palm. “Tell McGregor it almost makes me want to get back into writing code.”
Code. It was McGregor’s work.
Damn smart guy!
Exhaustion was like a heavy burden on my shoulders, holding my limbs hostage as I climbed into my car. I drove slowly, thinking of everything that had been accomplished today. Today was one of those rare days where everything had actually gone right.
Waverly was waiting when I arrived, not even surprised to see my face at her door anymore. I was so tired that the words slipped out before I had a chance to catch them.
“I need you.”
“You have me. You always do, Hayden.”
Waverly took my hand and drew me into the house, slowly unbuttoning the front of my shirt without demanding. She always seemed to know exactly what I needed without asking. Folding her arms around me, Waverly gave me everything without question, hesitation, or recrimination. What a woman.
Why the hell had she decided to love me?
***
We lay in the dark sometime later, nothing but the sound of silence weighing heavy between us. She rolled into me and ran her hand slowly over my chest, her touch too familiar to my exhausted mind. I closed my eyes, ready to fall into oblivion, when her sweet voice shattered the peace.
“I was doing more research on your murders,” she said softly. “And I came across a reference to a woman named Claire Dubois. Does that name sound familiar to you?”
Of course it did. It was my grandmother.
“Where did you see that?”
She kissed the center of my chest lightly. “There was a series of articles done in the local paper where the first murder took place. In one of them the writer mentioned a murder that took place over thirty years ago that changed the life of a woman name Claire Dubois. But she didn’t go into detail. I guess she thought the readers who cared already knew what she was talking about.”
“Was there anything else?”
“Not really. It just mentioned that this Claire Dubois had moved her family out of one town and ended up in the same town the second murder had taken place in.”
“Did the writer make that connection?”
“No. The article was printed before the second murder took place. And I guess the writer had lost interest by the time it did.”
A passing reference. Did no one realize how deadly something like that had the potential to be?
“But you know the name?”
“There’s no such thing as coincidences, Waverly.”
She kissed my chest again, a heavy sigh slipping from her full lips.
It was time for honesty. Time to warn her what I’d just gotten her into.
For better … for worse.
Chapter 21
The Watcher
They were laughing as they stepped out of the car, a private joke that only they understood hanging in the air between them. Dragon Security had offered to put them up in a hotel until the one’s house was cleared as a crime scene and the other’s was repaired from the bullets that tore it up.
They were carefree now that the charges had been dropped against the man. He would soon be freed of the bogus contract he’d signed with Johnson Robotics—as would most of his colleagues—because Johnson Robotics would soon be defunct, their contracts null and void because of the illegal activities of their CEO. Only the weapons guidance system would be obligated to fulfill its contract because it was made with the federal government and nothing could break such a thing.
They knew now that his employer had been behind the murder of a not so innocent woman, a woman who’d manipulated him through his greed in order to do the same thing the corrupt CEO was doing, only under the guise of good. They also knew that the shooting that sent them running was an act of heartsick revenge on the part of a brokenhearted man, and the bus accident had been a miscalculated attempt by another of the woman’s friends to inform the man of the scheme being perpetrated against him. The last attack had been all Johnson, though, causing the CEO to reveal the truth unwittingly to the man’s lawyer.
It was all over now. They would live happily ever after.
It was convenient that they were in a hotel. Convenient that they were close to Hayden Dubois. It was convenient that they had played into the hands of the watcher. The watcher had been searching for a couple who could be used in the game. Someone close to Dubois, someone it would hurt him to see murdered as his parents had been murdered. People didn’t often stay in a hotel in the same city where they lived. And he had no close friends who would come to town for a visit, no one he cared enough about to invite to his fair city.
But this … this was convenient. This was the answer to the watcher’s prayers.
It was time to go to work.
HAYDEN
Prologue
Thirty Years Ago …
He was watching from behind the couch. His father whispered something in his mother’s ear as he held her close to him and ran his hand slowly down the length of her bare back. He couldn’t hear what his father said, but it must have been funny because his mother threw her head back, her long, blonde hair flowing down her back, covering his hand, laughter flowing from her lips like music. They were beautiful, his parents. He found himself wishing he was older so that he could go to the play with them, so that he could dance with his mother like that.
The boy didn’t even realize what was happening at first. The beep of the door should have alerted him. It alerted his father. He had already pulled Mother behind him by the time the two men came around the corner.
“What are you doing in here?”
The man paused, clearly surprised to find them there. The boy recognized him. He was the creepy man who’d brought their bags to their room the day before.
“We came to check out what you left in the safe. It’s a pity you didn’t leave when you said you would.”
“Get out!”
The man just laughed. “We were hoping to find the nanny up here. Maybe the boy.” He gestured to his companion. “Willard here likes little boys. But I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see your missus still here. And all dressed up for me, too.”
The boy saw the panic on his parents’ faces. He saw his father turn and whisper something to his mother that didn’t make her laugh. That made her whisper no in a voice that frightened the boy. Then he saw his father spin on his heel, but he hadn’t seen the man come up behind him. The bad man. And he had a gun.
The bad man hit the boy’s father over the head with the butt of the gun. The father fell hard to the floor, his eyes closed and blood seeping from his hair onto his forehead. His mother screamed as the bad man grabbed her arms and slammed her down onto the couch right in front of the boy. She saw him, her eyes widening in fear.
She nodded subtly, gesturing with her head toward the cupboard behind him that he’d hidden inside of during a riotous game of hide and seek the day before. His father had taken a long time to find him there. The boy thought it was hilarious that he’d fooled his father so easily.
He slipped in there then while the bad man ripped at his mother’s clothes, ruining her pretty new dress. The boy didn’t understand what was happening or the noises he was hearing, but he hid, his head buried against his knees.
He heard the bad man asking about him, about the boy. And he heard the lie leave his mother’s lips. She’d told him it was important to always tell the truth, so he didn’t understand. But he was afraid to call her out on it or to come out of the cupboard and prove her a liar.
There were lots of noises that night. He sat there for a long time, just listening. He didn’t know what to do. He knew this was bad, but his mother had told him to hide. So he hid until it was quiet for a very long time.
When he finally came out of the cupboard and crawled around the couch to where his mother lay, he pulled her dress up over her bare breasts, aware that it wasn’t proper for her to be like that. Then he lay his head against her chest, waiting for the sound of her heartbeat to soothe his fear. But it didn’t.
It wasn’t there.
Chapter 1
Hayden
My life had taken a few interesting turns these last few months. I thought I knew what I was doing and where my life was headed I had my great love and my chance at happiness. That happiness died the day my love died five years ago. So I decided to devote myself to my work and live life alone for the next thirty, forty years. And it wasn’t a sad thought. I had good friends. I had people in my life whom I loved and who loved me. I’d be okay.
And then Waverly Cooper walked into my life a little more than four years ago. She was everything Sam could never believe she was: strong, confident, beautiful. Sam was conservative; Waverly was adventurous. Sam was quiet, almost timid. Waverly was assertive. Sam was brilliant and Waverly … well, she was pretty brilliant, too. They were both whizzes with any electronic device you set in front of them, able to extract any information you could possibly need. Dragon couldn’t have functioned properly without either of them.
Waverly awoke in me everything I thought had gone dormant when Sam died. I tried to ignore my needs and pretend she didn’t satisfy something inside of me. But it was hard to ignore once we became lovers.
Not that I treated her like a lover. I treated her like an object, something I used to satisfy a need. And then I ended it, dropping her as spontaneously as I’d taken her the first time. But that didn’t last long. I couldn’t stay away from her.
Not even after I got her fired.
I didn’t want to care about her. Especially in light of the murders that had been taking place around me. Four sets of murders. Two in the towns I lived in as a child in Louisiana. One in Coronado where I’d done my training for the Navy SEALs.
And one that made no sense in combination with the others, a woman from here in Houston who had a depressive disorder, who was killed in a different manner than the other murders. Her body was covered in fresh tattoos that the cops still hadn’t identified. But I did, the moment I saw them.
It was a message to me.
Someone knew about my past. Someone was killing innocent people to make a statement to me. And the cops had no clue.
I didn’t want to care about anyone because I didn’t want to put another person in danger, nor sit back and watch a second time as a woman I cared deeply for was murdered. But I couldn’t seem to stay away from Waverly, either.
We’d finished a complicated case today. My good friend, Peter Bradford, had celebrated the birth of his first child tonight. It was a good night. But my heart was heavy with the mystery of these murders.
The killer was following my movements, moving from one place where I lived to another. The next logical locatio
n for the killer to hit was right here in Houston. I suspected he would go after someone close to me and that scared the shit out of me.
I lay in bed beside Waverly now, trying not to dwell too much on the darkness before going to sleep. Her body was warm and soft beside mine, her breath dancing against my bare skin. I hadn’t realized how much I missed these small moments in a relationship. I still thought about Sam often and the short time we had together. And I desperately missed the big moments we’d shared. But Waverly reminded me of the small moments that I didn’t know I’d missed until her touch.
Would I ever stop missing things about Sam?
“I was doing more research on your murders,” Waverly suddenly said, her voice low and soft. She’d been helping me gather information on the murders—though whoever was behind it was smart enough to make it hard for even her, with her amazing skills, to find anything. “I came across a reference to a woman named Claire Dubois. Does that name sound familiar to you?”
“Where did you see that?”
She kissed the center of my chest lightly. “There was a series of articles done in the local paper where the first murder took place. In one of them, the writer mentioned a murder that took place 30 years ago that changed the life of a woman name Claire Dubois. But she didn’t go into detail. I guess she thought the readers who cared already knew what she was talking about.”
“Was there anything else?”
“Not really. It mentioned that this Claire Dubois had moved her family out of that town and ended up in the same town the second murder took place in.”
“Did the writer make that connection?”
“No. The article was printed before the second murder took place. And, I guess, the writer had lost interest by the time it did.”
She pulled back slightly, her warm hazel eyes moving over my face. When she looked at me like that, I imagined that she could see all the way to my soul. I touched her face, moving it so that the intensity of her gaze fell more to my chest.
DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 77
