DEFENDING TIERNY (Gray Wolf Security, Texas Book 1)

by Glenna Sinclair

  The conversation only lasted a moment. David glanced at me.

  “The cell phone Knox has is the one issued to her through the company, right?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “It has a tracking device in it that Ricki should be able to use to pinpoint her location. As long as she has the phone on her, we should be able to find her very soon.”

  I nodded. “Good.”

  I began to pace again, staring at the poster boards. I knew the answer was there, right in front of my face, I just couldn’t see it. And then…

  “Damn! It’s right there! The residential development project!”

  Even as I said it, David got a call from Ricki telling him the same thing.

  ***

  The real estate development was eerie. It was unnatural for such a place to be so empty and devoid of activity. But, according to what David had gotten from Ricki on the way over, the construction had been shut down because of financial problems. Peterman Construction apparently needed a huge influx of cash in order to continue operating.

  That was not something I was expecting to learn. They appeared to be in good shape. They appeared to be one of those places that had always been there and would always be there. It was odd to realize there was something of that magnitude going on with them.

  David drove, and I sat forward in the passenger seat. I felt like I should be doing something, that I should be the one in charge. We drove into the development, and I spotted Knox’s SUV almost right away. One of these big, black SUVs stuck out like a sore thumb in the empty, debris-dotted landscape.

  David pulled to a stop beside the SUV. I jumped out before the vehicle had stopped moving, slapping my hand against the window as I looked inside, searching for any signs of life. There weren’t any. In fact, Knox’s cell phone was still sitting in the console.

  “Fuck!”

  David came up behind me and said something, but I didn’t quite catch it. My attention had already moved to the houses that were in various degrees of finished. It was dusk, the sun about to go down behind the structures. Only one of the houses had lights on inside.

  Bingo.

  I slipped the gun I was so grateful I’d chosen to wear today out of the holster under my jacket and ran toward the side of the house. The front door was ajar, suggesting someone had recently been coming and going. I was careful to stay out of the line of sight of the windows as best as I could, making my way along the southern edge. I wasn’t sure what David had done, but I saw him out of the corner of my eye going around the far side of the house. I wasn’t sure David had ever done any fieldwork in the past. I’d heard he was just a technical guy. I hoped he knew how to stay out of the way.

  I ran around to the back of the house and found another open door. I held my gun off to the side of my body and peeked around. It opened into a kitchen, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. I stepped inside, moving as cautiously as I could. The kitchen was one of those open designs that flowed directly into the living room. It made me nervous, all that open space around me, but I managed to get to the corner of the stairs without running into anyone.

  David came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder just as I was about to go up. I glanced back at him and he gestured toward the other side of the living room where we could see lights coming from a side room. I nodded, assuming he meant he was going to go check it out. I began to climb the stairs as silently as I could.

  Almost immediately upon reaching the top of the stairs, I heard muffled noises coming from several of the bedrooms down the hall. I hesitated, not sure which direction to go. The house was fairly large with three branches of the hallway cutting off from this point. I decided to go forward first, but found myself simply standing outside the master bedroom which was filled with temporary bedding for as many as five people, but was currently empty. I backtracked, carefully making my way to the branch again.

  I went left this time. There were three bedrooms down this direction. The first door on my right was open. I peeked inside and saw the little girl whose face was all over the news these last few weeks. Alicia Peterman. She was dressed in a frilly little pink dress, sitting in the center of a bed with a doll on her lap. She didn’t see me, and I didn’t draw attention to myself because I didn’t want her to alert a nearby guard who could give my position away. I quickly passed the room and headed toward the other two doorways. They were both closed. I paused outside the first, silently turned the knob, and pushed the door open. The room was empty.

  My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I was afraid someone could actually hear it. I almost felt as though I was back in Afghanistan, working my way through an insurgent infested building. I approached the last door in this hall, my gun at my side. I pushed the door open and waited for gunfire to ensue. Nothing. I peeked around the corner and saw Knox, sitting on the floor, furiously working to get the cable ties off her wrists.

  “Hey,” I whispered, quickly moving behind her as I tugged a knife from my pocket. “Where’s Tierney?”

  “He just came and took her.”

  I cut her wrists free and then moved to her ankles.

  “How many?”

  She shook her head. “He caught me by surprise. I was standing out by the truck, watching the house. And he clocked me from behind.”

  “Why were you outside?”

  She just shook her head, climbing to her feet. “We should go find her and talk about it afterward.”

  She led the way out of the room, walking low and to the side as she had been trained. I followed, my gun ready to protect not only myself, but her, too. She didn’t have a weapon, but she had no problem charging ahead unprotected.

  We crossed the head of the stairs and made our way down the other hallway. It was designed just like the last, with three doorways. The first two were closed. Knox opened each and jumped out of the way so that I could cover her. They were both empty. Just as we turned out attention to the last, I heard Tierney’s voice.

  Without thinking, I charged forward. I paused just inside the doorway, taking in the scene unfolding in front of me. Tierney was on her back, kicking at the man leaning over her. As I watched, she jabbed her fingers into his eyes. He cried out and wrapped his hands around her throat. They were struggling, moving around so much I was afraid to use my weapon. And I was determined to use my weapon. I found myself imagining the same scene I’d seen in my head a million times since Vanessa’s attack, since reading through the file the prosecutor had assembled and stupidly left out on her desk. Instead of firing, I approached the bed, turned my gun around, and slammed the butt into the back of his head. He immediately stiffened and fell to the side, unconscious.

  “Tierney!”

  I gathered her up in my arms. She was stiff at first, but when she realized it was me, she softened, a little moan escaping her lips.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I thought I could find her.”

  “You did, baby. You did good.”

  I picked her up, handing the gun to Knox. She guided us down the hallway to the room where I’d seen the little girl. David was there, quietly coaxing the child off the bed. We headed toward the stairs. Halfway down, we heard the front door slam and a voice call out.

  “Hey, Brendan! Where the fuck are you?”

  We stopped where we stood. Knox gestured for David and me to retreat back up the stairs, but I wasn’t about to leave Knox—already wounded—alone with the unknown perp. I handed Tierney to David and gestured for him to go back up the stairs. He gave me his gun and silently encouraged the little girl to follow him. Tierney was on her feet now, so David scooped the girl up into his arms.

  I gestured for Knox to take one side of the stairs while I took the other. We descended together, side by side. The guy came around the corner just as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The look of surprise on his face was almost comical. Then Knox swung her gun and connected with the temple on the right side of his head. He went down like a block of wood.<
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  I dragged him into the living room and tied him up with the cord from a nearby lamp. Then Knox and I cleared the rest of the house, not really in the mood for any more surprises. David, Alicia, and Tierney came downstairs.

  “The police are one the way,” David announced.

  They arrived not five minutes later, led by Detective Snider. He immediately took charge, barking orders to the uniformed officers around him. Then he came up to me.

  “I guess thanks are in order,” he said.

  “Not to me. Tierney did all the work.”

  The detective looked her over. “It was a pleasure working with you, Ms. Michaels. Nice to be on the same side for a change.”

  “It was.”

  An ambulance arrived and the attendants checked out Knox, Tierney, and Alicia. I stood out in front of the house with David as we waited, reluctant to take my eyes off of Tierney any more tonight.

  “Good work, Alexander,” David said. “I hope you understand why I had to take you off this case.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I assume it won’t be an issue in the future.”

  I studied Tierney’s face and inclined my head in the positive. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

  I was a one-woman man—and Tierney was about all I could take at the moment.

  Jack and Leslie Peterman arrived a few minutes later. I watched as they made a fuss over the little girl, taking in the grief and the relief I saw on both their faces. But then Detective Snider approached them.

  “Your daughter appears to be in good health,” he assured them both.

  “Thank God!” Mrs. Peterman cried.

  A couple of uniformed officers chose that moment to bring Brendan Harmon out of the house. Mrs. Peterman caught sight of him and I saw—quite clearly—the fear and anger that crossed her eyes. Detective Snider must have seen it, too. He gestured to two uniformed cops, who were sitting nearby. They walked over and took Mrs. Peterman by the arm.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “We are placing you under arrest for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, and extortion.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “What’s going on?” Jack Peterman demanded, lifting his little girl into his arms.

  “Your daughter informed us that her mother came to visit her multiple times during her stay in this house,” Detective Snider said, “and we have other evidence that suggests Mrs. Peterman and Brendan Harmon were working together.”

  “What? Why?” Jack Peterman demanded.

  His wife refused to look him in the eye.

  Over the next couple of days, it would be revealed that Mrs. Peterman had been having an affair with Brendan Harmon. The two of them hatched the plan of kidnapping her daughter in order to create sympathy for her campaign and to make it appear that her husband, caught up in a financial disaster with his business, had concocted the kidnapping to put his creditors off long enough for him to find another way to get the money needed to fix his situation. The plan had been for Leslie Peterman to take the little girl and flee the country with Brendan Harmon, but he’d been arrested much quicker than they’d expected. That was why it was so important to Brendan to be freed on bond. But then he was rearrested before Mrs. Peterman could get up the capital they needed, further hampering their plans. That was why there were death threats against Tierney and why the drug cohort had come to the safe house and threatened her. They needed Brendan out of jail.

  I couldn’t help but think about Jack Peterman. I felt for the man. His whole world was crumbling around him and he hadn’t seen it coming. At least he got his little girl back.

  Chapter 19

  Tierney

  Alexander and I were tangled together in his bed. He lived in a cute little cottage on the grounds of the Grayson mansion, a cozy little place that always smelled heavenly thanks to his culinary skills. We’d shared chicken piccata tonight with a decadent chocolate mousse for dessert. He was right about one thing. If I kept eating his food, I would surely gain a hundred pounds by the end of the year!

  We had sort of, kind of, moved in together without really making it official. The thing was, I was not excited to go back to my place after seeing that woman vandalizing my living room. It made me wonder how Vanessa survived day in and day out with all the fears that plagued her world. I didn’t think I could.

  And Alexander…he needed to be here, on the compound, in order to make himself available for his work. He assured me that it wouldn’t be a forever sort of thing, just until David got the company off the ground and figured out how to make things work a little easier. Alexander had great respect for David, and I found that I really liked him and his wife, Ricki. They were a cute couple, and they were clearly very fond of all the people who worked for them.

  I was actually thinking of a career change myself. I wasn’t satisfied getting the bad guys off anymore. David had mentioned something about needing someone on staff who could help them walk the fine line between law, order, and its opposites. I don’t know if he was serious or not, but I liked the idea of a change of pace.

  I was discovering that I wasn’t quite the straight arrow I’d always assumed I was.

  “Do you feel guilty?” Alexander asked, as if he could read the direction of my thoughts.

  “Not at all. You?”

  “Not really.”

  He rolled over and pulled his laptop onto the bed. We’d been looking at a webpage a while ago that showed arrest warrants issued in Nepal. They weren’t a very internet savvy country, but there were some things that they were up on. Law enforcement was one of them. And a name that stuck out to us both was Justin Fuller.

  A friend of mine had always wanted to go to Nepal. She wanted to climb Everest. When I found out she was headed there, I pulled her aside and asked her to do me a little favor. She didn’t even bat an eye.

  This morning, Justin Fuller had been arrested for possession of cocaine. They took that sort of thing very seriously in that part of the world. He would be going to jail for a very, very long time. And I was pretty sure his parents wouldn’t be able to get him out of this one since the court system was very slow and very archaic over in that part of the world.

  Finally, some justice would be served.

  Alexander tugged me underneath him, his hand moving slowly over my breast.

  “We should make this official,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Us living together. You’re here most of the time, anyway.”

  “I was wondering if you’d noticed that.”

  “Of course I noticed. And I like it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I think Ricki and Annie do too. They like having more female company in this male-dominated business.”

  “What about Knox?”

  “Knox will forever be one of the guys.”

  I smiled. He was right about that. In the weeks since Alicia Peterman had been rescued, I’d gotten to know Knox a little better. And she was, despite her cover-model looks, definitely one of the boys.

  “Do you think David was serious about that job offer?”

  “I think so.”

  I nodded. “I might put in my notice at the firm tomorrow. Do you think we could handle the pay cut?”

  “You never know…David might be willing to pay you more than you think.”

  “They were paying me well at the firm.”

  He cocked his head slightly. I could see curiosity in his eyes, but he didn’t ask. “Well, the rent is impossibly high,” he joked. I knew the rent was free. “But I think we can survive.”

  He kissed me, his lips lingering, even as I felt his cock begin to stiffen against my thigh. I moved my hips, opening to him as I ran my hands over his ass.

  “Do you think we’ll ever get our fill of this?”

  “You have years to make up for, my love.”

  “And you? What’s your excuse?”

  “I’m Latin. It’s in my blood to always be at the ready to
fulfill my woman’s needs.”

  “Is that what I am? Your woman?”

  “For now.”

  There was promise in those words. And that promise made my heart soar.

  ***

  I walked into Ashley Simon’s office a few days later—I didn’t think I’d ever come to a point where I could think of him as anything but Ashley Simon—at the appointed time and took a seat in one of the chairs situated in front of his desk to wait for him to end a phone call and pay attention to me. It struck me as funny that I was still waiting for his attention. It seemed like I’d always been waiting for his attention.

  He finally set the phone down and looked at me.

  “You wanted this meeting. Speak.”

  I sat up a little straighter, my hands clasped on my knee. “I wanted to inform you—personally—that I’ve decided to take another job. I’ll be leaving the firm as soon as my cases can be assigned elsewhere.”

  He sat back, his eyes moving critically over me. “Is that right?”

  “It is.”

  “You screwed up the Harmon case and now you’re leaving? Don’t you think you owe us more than that?”

  His words cut. I found myself retreating like I had always done as a child, hiding behind the shell I’d developed around myself. But then I realized I wasn’t that child anymore.

  I stood.

  “I didn’t screw up the Harmon case. I solved a kidnapping. And I’ve done more for this firm that any other junior partner you’ve employed. You didn’t even want me here. I’m surprised you even noticed I was around, or that you would have noticed if I left. You’ve never noticed me.”

  “Tierney!”

  “I’m done trying to get your attention, trying to get you to love me. I don’t need the love of a father who was never interested in me from the very beginning.”

  I spun on my heel, feeling both elated and frightened by my outburst. I was nearly there, nearly had my hand on the knob, when he came up behind me and grabbed my arm.