by Debra Webb
The last of the lights went out in Sullivan’s house. Eventually Jess would have to admit defeat on this surveillance gig.
“My turn.” There he went again, treading into personal territory.
“For what?” She leaned forward, close enough for him to smell the jasmine scent of her shampoo. “Seems the docs going to bed.”
“We’ll give her a little more time,” he offered, “just to be certain.” Now why the hell had he done that? Maybe because his brain had stopped functioning properly with her so close.
And he wanted to know…a whole lot more.
She resettled in her seat. “Maybe she has a reason for waiting.” She grabbed her Pepsi can again, shook it, then stuffed it back into the cup holder.
To avoid the silence and because the suspense of all he didn’t know was killing him, he resumed his turn at the business of profiling. “I kept up with you for a long time.”
Maybe it was that damned moonlight, the proximity or a combination of both. The confession wasn’t planned but it needed to be said. Too many things hadn’t been said for too long. If this case wasn’t enough to make a man realize that life was entirely too short and fragile, that man was an idiot. Dan had made his share of dumb moves in his life, but he wasn’t stupid.
Gave credibility to his unprofessional curiosity.
“My career, you mean,” she countered.
He shook his head, kept his gaze on the house. “All of you.”
The little catch in her breath disrupted the rhythm of his.
“From the time you graduated from the academy, all the way through your last promotion. My liaison at the local Bureau office kept tabs on you for me.”
“You kept tabs on me until two years ago?”
“That’s right.”
She faced forward. “Two years ago, I got married.”
“Yeah, I know.” That was when he’d stopped asking and started moving on. He resisted the impulse to shake his head. Stellar job, Burnett.
“Things didn’t work out with that.”
There was a distinct sadness in her words. Not that tortured, rip-your-heart-out sort, but the regrettable acceptance-of-fact kind.
“You still wear the band?” He glanced at her, kept it brief. Was she saying that the marriage was over? Why the hell did he feel relieved?
“Habit.”
He laughed. “Now that’s a good one, Agent Harris.”
“At first I assumed we would work things out.”
She didn’t say anything for a bit.
“Eventually I realized it wasn’t going to happen. Funny thing is, I could never figure out why. He asked me to marry him and two months later he accepted the assignments that would take him the farthest away for the longest periods. It was only a matter of time until he accepted a permanent assignment on the west coast. One day I got home and the divorce papers waited in my mailbox. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Ouch.” What a heartless bastard. She made the statements with little or no emotion. Did that mean she was over the guy? Not in Dan’s estimation. She still wore the ring he’d given her.
“There’s a shop downtown that’ll pay you top dollar for gold.” He tapped his left ring finger. “I’ve used it more than once.”
“The ring comes in handy.” She held up her hand and considered the plain gold band. “No one asks what went wrong until the band disappears. No unwanted advances. Makes life simple.”
Sounded like BS to Dan. But that was as far into personal territory as he intended to go. That she was no longer in a relationship changed the mental boundaries he had unconsciously set. Which meant he really had to get a grip on this need-to-know compulsion before he made a mistake.
“She’s not coming out, Jess.”
“Let’s give it another hour just to be sure.”
He’d made it this long. Surely another hour cramped up in here with her like this wouldn’t kill him.
~*~
Friday, July 16th, 1:48 a.m.
The girls in the five photos spread across the sleek surface of the coffee table stared back at Jess.
“What’re you trying to tell me?” she muttered.
She had gone over the statements, the photos. Every detail. If these young women had been abducted by the same unsub there had to be a connection that linked their lives. A common thread existed. No link through the schools they had attended or the neighborhoods where they grew up. No church associations or clubs or sororities in common. No related work history or volunteer involvements.
Since they were in the same age group, it was likely that they shopped in some of the same stores. Music, movies, books…leisure activities…all those near impossible to trace categories. Jess made a note to look into shopping habits and leisure time hangouts. That aspect had been looked at already but a second, closer look couldn’t hurt.
Dan had gone to bed, finally, half an hour ago. She had no desire to venture into that wing of the house until she was certain he was asleep. Those three hours in the Mercedes with him had drained her emotionally.
She rubbed at her blurry eyes, threw down her pencil. Exhaustion pulled at her. Sleep was what she needed. She shuffled the photos back into a stack and stuffed them into the file. Her attention stumbled on the band encircling her left ring finger. She hadn’t intended to be so honest with him about that. There was no reason to. Once she got started talking she hadn’t been able to shut up. Never a good thing.
He’d kept up with her all that time. That part startled her. Didn’t make sense. He was the one who made the decision not to follow her to Quantico, maintaining that he had commitments at home. Lies.
They had planned their futures for years. The plan always included the Bureau. But Dan had gotten passed over for an internship that first summer after undergrad school. He could have worked anywhere in DC or the surrounding area and tried again, but he’d turned his back on their plans and walked away with his ego dragging behind him.
The ache was still raw. It shouldn’t have been. All these years she had scarcely noticed it, buried it deep in rarely visited regions of gray matter, until that encounter ten years ago. Apparently, she hadn’t been as successful at burying it after that. Not even taking a husband had gotten the job done completely.
What was she doing?
Jess braced her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her hands. Her legs had gone to sleep she’d been sitting cross-legged for so long. But that didn’t explain the sudden numbness in her brain.
She had a degree in psychology. The answer to her self-analyzing question was easy. She’d suffered a tremendous blow to her career. Her career defined her since she didn’t have a husband or kids or a life, frankly. The decision had been made her senior year of high school that career would come first. But she’d had Dan then. He’d more than made her career-oriented plan enough.
Twenty years. Two decades. She had pretended her career was enough. An internship each summer for two years, then a full-fledged agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She had worked any available temporary jobs with local law enforcement while getting her graduate degree and waiting to reach the Bureau’s age requirement.
Was the reason she’d gotten too close on that last case because her life was unbalanced? Her sister swore she was proud of Jess. And if their parents were still alive, they would be, too. No matter what she did. Even when Jess had married a man her sister had never met until the evening before the wedding, her sister had been okay with it. Even when she confessed her decision not to permit children to interfere with her career. Her sister, her only family, loved her anyway.
Why was it no one else had loved her enough? Not Dan and not Wesley.
Now here she was. Forty-two and alone.
Jess rolled her eyes and pushed up from the floor. She winced as she walked around the room until the feeling returned to her legs. Any time she started self-analyzing this deep, it was time to go to bed.
The facts were simple. She was
alone because no man wanted to take second billing to her career. She had no kids because her career came first and she’d spent more than half that career studying the faces of evil. Eventually her motive for remaining childless had become more about her experience than climbing the career ladder. How could anyone bring a child into this world knowing all that she knew? How could she put a child at risk because of her work? She could not.
She would not.
It was bad enough that with Spears a free man she had to worry about her sister and her family.
And Dan.
Jess gathered her notes and the file, stuffed all into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Maybe she would take one of those posh bottles of water from the fridge to her room again.
Padding quietly through the massive house, she decided this wasn’t a home. It was a museum.
The Katherine Burnett museum.
She snagged a bottle of water from the fridge that looked exactly like Dan’s, only larger. The kitchen was a monstrosity with acres of cabinetry and granite. No one needed a kitchen this huge.
She wandered through the keeping room, a fancy name for a den off the kitchen. She hesitated at the fireplace adorned with its marble and granite embellishments. Rows of photographs lined the mantel. Dan. His parents. Grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Oh, and one with Annette and Andrea. My. My. Jess switched the framed photos around like pieces on a chest board. She tucked some of the shorter ones in the back.
Feeling wicked, she moved around the room, displacing and replacing small items. She stood back and surveyed her handiwork. “Better.”
Katherine would blow a gasket when she came home.
Jess practically tiptoed down the big main hall. The house was only one floor but it sprawled over the massive treed lot. The bedrooms were in the east wing. The entertaining rooms in the west. With a cavernous foyer and parlor in the middle at the front of the house. The kitchen, keeping and dining rooms held center stage at the rear, opening onto grand gardens and patio venues. Katherine had designed the layout herself.
The Burnetts had built this mansion Dan’s graduation year. It dwarfed their previous home. Funny how a lucky streak in the stock market could change one’s status in life. And how swift maneuvering into more stable options could keep it that way. The Burnetts had always been comfortably wealthy but that year had changed everything…except Katherine’s low opinion of Jess.
Jess took no offense. The feeling was mutual.
Dan had taken his old room to get some sleep. She had used the guest room across the hall the night before. Now, however, she stood outside the door for a long minute, contemplating the proximity. The idea of being this close disturbed her. Had her feeling restless and too warm. She refused to allow a repeat of ten years ago.
The tension had been thick in the car tonight. Didn’t help that she’d allowed herself a stroll down memory lane just now.
Decision made, Jess retrieved her wheeled bag and headed for the master suite. There were three other bedrooms. But she figured the last place he would consider crawling into bed with her was in his parents’ room.
She opened the towering French doors and stepped inside. The room even smelled like Katherine. Rose. That was her signature scent.
Jess dug out her pajamas and headed for the bathroom. She’d take a shower in the morning. No way was she drying her hair tonight. She brushed her teeth, washed her face and changed into her pajamas. She’d stopped wearing skimpy nighties months ago. What was the point? There was no one to impress. Besides, with PJ’s, if an emergency came up in the middle of the night all she needed was her shoes and a coat.
Had she known all the work she would have to do to unmake the big four-poster bed, she might have picked another room. Mountains of pillows now sat on the richly carpeted floor. She peeled back the comforter and slid beneath it. Her body sighed with relief. It felt amazing to lie down.
She switched off the bedside lamp and tried to turn off her brain.
Her cell chirped.
For a long time she lay there, warring with herself about checking it. She reached over and touched the screen. She ruthlessly squashed the niggling idea that it could be him again. She absolutely would not waste her energy worrying about that twisted chain of useless DNA. This case had to be her top priority. Spears was the Bureau’s problem now.
Another persistent chirp.
Damn it. She rolled over and snatched up her phone, yanking it loose from the charger.
New text message.
She put on her glasses, slid her fingertip across the screen and the text message appeared. Private number.
It was him.
Goodnight, Agent Harris.
Jess bolted to a sitting position. How could he know to send that message at this exact moment?
The drapes were pulled. Her car was in the garage.
Another chirp. Then another.
Five pretty girls.
I hope you’ll be able to help those girls better than you did the last ones.
Jess scrambled out of bed, grabbed her weapon from her bag and rushed to the window overlooking the front of the property. She edged the drapes aside and scanned the yard. The landscape lighting provided ample illumination to get a good visual.
Unless someone hovered in the bushes, there was nothing out there. No vehicles on the street.
A couple of slow, deep breaths to lower her heart rate, she moved to the window facing the back of the property. Nothing. She started to draw away then stalled.
The wind chime hanging from a decorative iron post swayed. With the windows shut tight she couldn’t hear the sound it made but she watched the rods and tubes swirl in the dead air. She surveyed the trees and shrubs. Nothing else moved. There was no breeze. Her heart rate picked up with equal measures fear and fury.
The security system was set. The doors were locked.
Still, she made her way through the house, checking each room and window.
When she reached Dan’s room, she hesitated. If she walked in he might wake up. She didn’t want to have to explain this to him. Spears was most likely playing a game with her. He’d made a good guess, that’s all. He’d have to be an idiot to show up down here. Birmingham, Alabama, would be unknown territory to him, putting him at a disadvantage.
After a moment to steady herself, she padded silently into Dan’s room. She’d checked all the others, if she skipped this one she’d only lie in bed wondering if she’d missed anything.
The curtains were open, allowing the moon and the landscape lighting to filter through the gauzy sheers. His clothes were draped over a chair. He lay on his back, one arm resting on the pillow above his head, the other at his side. The comforter partially covered his long legs and little else. He slept in his boxers, like before.
The urge to cover him almost had her reaching for the comforter. But the need to take in every detail prevented her from following through. He’d kept in good shape. Nicely rounded biceps, well defined pecs and abdominals. His hair was sleep rumpled and instead of looking unkempt, looked sexy. His face was relaxed. She knew every angle and plane of that face, each chiseled detail. The square jaw…the classic Greek nose…the dimples when he smiled.
No wonder all these gorgeous women around here flocked to him like he was the last loaf of bread on the shelf before an unexpected winter snow.
Would she be lying beside him, wrapped in those strong arms, if she hadn’t been so stubborn twenty years ago and had come back here with him? Would they have children?
An uncharacteristic wave of regret washed over her.
She would never know the answer to that question.
That bridge had been burned a long time ago.
Deep breath.
She had made the right choice.
She turned away, slipped quietly to the door.
“Jess.”
Shit. Careful to keep her weapon behind her, she turned to face him. Spears and his stupid messages along with her even stupider response s
uddenly made her feel like a complete fool.
He was up and walking toward her.
Whatever gasp of air was in her lungs promptly evacuated.
“Are you all right?”
He stood over her, strong and beautiful, with the concern in his voice cloaking her in a warmth that felt familiar and safe. It was the middle of the night and she was weak.
Deep down she was terrified.
Her life was upside down…everything was wrong.
“I’m fine.” She backed up a step. “I…was about to go to bed and I thought I’d check on you.”
He must have heard the sham in her voice because suddenly his arms went around her and one hand smoothly slipped the weapon from her grasp.
“Is that why you’re wandering around the house with this?” He held the weapon up as if it confirmed his suspicions that she was lying.
Problem was, it did.
“I left it in the living room. I went back to get it,” she improvised.
“Liar.”
That his face was suddenly nearer…that he held her tucked against him as if she were the missing piece of the puzzle that made him whole and he wasn’t about to let go confused her. She couldn’t think straight with his warm, hard body sending all kinds of wild signals to hers.
“I don’t want you making a move without my knowledge,” he said fiercely, his lips way, way too close. “I don’t want you…” He seemed abruptly preoccupied with her mouth. “…out of my sight.”
Before she could answer, his lips brushed across hers and a fire ignited so deep inside her that it felt too far away. The yearning to be consumed by those flames made her ache. She leaned into the invitation of his mouth…dared to touch his naked skin with trembling fingers…smoothed her palms upward until her arms entwined around his neck.
The need to lose herself to the wondrous sensations…to reacquaint herself with him in the most intimate ways almost swept her away but then the memories from ten years ago gathered like storm clouds…showering the chill of reality over her…extinguishing the flames.
