Her sudden movement put pressure on the thumb she had on the side button of her phone and it came to life.
“Forget about the phone,” he murmured, trailing kisses all over her neck.
Janey agreed with him, but then her phone began to beep. It beeped and beeped and she must have counted at least twenty text messages before it stopped.
“What on earth?” She swiped the phone and saw that there were several voice messages as well as text messages. She read the text messages first. They were from her brothers back home. They’d been trying to reach her and needed her to call back immediately.
“Let’s call,” Drew said. He’d been reading the messages over her shoulder.
Janey nodded and placed a call to her oldest brother, Connor.
“Connor, hi.”
“Are you okay, Janey?”
She heard the worry in his voice and frowned. “I’m fine. Is everything alright?”
There was a pause, then, “Is Drew there?”
“Yeah, he’s right here,” she said, slightly bewildered.
“Let me speak with him.”
Confused, she held the phone out to Drew who had been listening intently to the conversation. He took the phone from her.
“Hi Connor,” he said, keeping his gaze on Janey. “Yeah, we’re good…Right.” He was silent for a while and she could not tell anything from his expression. “I see…Hell…Definitely. I’ll keep her here and make sure she’s safe. You have my word.”
Janey was suddenly very cold. She knew something bad had happened. Could Riley have broken out of jail? Was the crazy woman after her? Whatever it was, she knew she was not going to like it.
She kept her attention on Drew, trying to read his expression, but it was hopeless. He ended the call and his gaze held hers.
Janey felt her heart drop to her shoes as she waited for him to speak.
Drew took her hand and led her to the bed. Then he sat down and pulled her down beside him.
“Just tell me, Drew. The suspense is killing me.”
“Honey, there was an accident,” he began, his eyes never leaving her. “Your parents’ home caught fire.”
She felt dread crawl all over her body, “Dad…Mom…are they…?” She took a deep breath as she felt bile rise up in her throat.
“They were badly burned and inhaled a lot of smoke, but they’re going to be okay.” He held on to her arms.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” She was afraid to find out.
Drew nodded.
She tried to bring her racing heart under control. “Tell me.”
“Your house was burned down. Your shop as well.”
Janey gasped, then went still as the implication slowly settled on her. “This wasn’t an accident, was it?”
Slowly, he shook his head. “No, darling, it wasn’t.”
“Riley…”
But he shook his head. “Riley is still in custody. This was darker, more sinister. It was also the work of professionals. According to what your brother told me, they left no clue.”
Janey got up and Drew’s hands dropped to his side. She looked dazed.
“I need to go back home,” she said, heading to the closet where her luggage was stored.
Drew stood, blocking her path. He’d moved so quickly she hadn’t even seen him get up.
“You can’t go home, Janey.”
Her head reared up. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You can’t go home,” he said in a voice that brooked no argument.
“Get out of my way, Campbell.”
“Damn it, Janey! Those people are after you, don’t you get it.”
“I get it. But I’m not going to hide while they kill of every member of my family. If they want me, then I’ll make sure they get me.”
“Over my dead body!”
She eyed him. “That can be arranged.”
They stood glaring at each other. Then Drew sighed, “You are so stubborn. But your family asked that I keep you away.”
“Tough.”
“Don’t you get it? They don’t want you there!”
Janey flinched as though she’d been struck. She felt the pain in a place so deep, she could not begin to describe it. Suddenly, it burst all over her and she sank to the floor in distress. She felt Drew’s arms around her as he joined her on the floor, but she was past caring as she wept.
Once again, her family had rejected her, and it hurt. The pain was visceral, devastating. Why was she never good enough for them?
She felt Drew carry her in his arms. Then they were on the bed and he held on tightly to her, whispering endearments as he tried to comfort her. She held on to him like she was sinking and he was the only solid thing around. She felt his love in his touch, in his words…it flowed over her and gradually began to soothe her broken heart.
Eventually, she stopped crying and began to feel drowsy. She wanted to sleep, and sleep. She wished she could keep sleeping for the next year. As her eyes closed, she murmured something and fell asleep.
Chapter Nineteen
Drew went still. His heart raced as he held her in his arms and watched her sleep. The feeling began somewhere inside his chest and kept growing until he thought he was going to explode from it.
He hadn’t imagined it. He knew that he’d heard her clearly, just before she nodded off. Janey had said that she loved him.
He lay on the bed next to her and stared up at the ceiling. He wanted to process this. It was not the first time a woman was declaring love to him, but it was the first time since his brief marriage that he hadn’t wanted to run away in panic. More than that, it was also the first time he felt like he could walk on water because of her love.
Janey Moore loved him. She loved him, Drew Campbell. He wanted to whoop with joy. The feeling was exhilarating.
He knew that he loved her as well. Hell, what he felt for Janey was so deep and so intense that it seemed something of an understatement to call it love. He would rather die than let any harm come to her. She completed him in a way he’d never felt before.
He thought back to Lucille. He had thought then that he loved her. He had asked her to marry him and had taken her home with him. When he’d found her in bed with his brother, he had been heartbroken, at least he’d thought so.
He realized now that it had mostly been his pride. His hurt had been more for his brother’s betrayal than Lucille’s faithlessness. Whatever he’d felt for Lucille paled in comparison to this all-encompassing need for Janey that gnawed inside him.
He’d married Ann-Marie more out of guilt. She had seemed so emotionally fragile and she’d been desperately in love with him. He’d loved her as well, they had been best friends from childhood, but he had not loved her the way she’d loved him.
So when he’d been home on Rest and Recuperation from an overseas mission in the Middle East, and she’d proposed to him, he had said yes.
The experience had scarred him for life. He had sworn off love because of the fiasco with Lucille. Then when Ann-Marie killed herself, he’d sworn off personal involvement with women. And he’d kept to his word, until he met Janey.
Drew turned his head to look at her. She had fallen into a deep sleep, and it was not a peaceful one. He could see the tears that had dried on her face. She looked troubled, even in her sleep. His heart clenched.
Gently so as not to disturb her, he pulled his arm from beneath her and shifted his weight. She whimpered in protest. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and caressed her hair, trying to soothe her. She sighed and settled down.
When he was sure she was once more asleep, he stood up, pausing to pull the sheets over her first. Next he walked to the other side of the bed where he’d dropped his phone. Ryan and Tamika were still in DC, they were slated to fly out that night. He placed a call to Tamika.
“What’s your room number?” he asked without preamble and nodded when she reeled out the numbers. “I’ll meet you there in five.”
Next h
e called Ryan and asked him to meet up in Tamika’s room.
**
“We have a situation,” he said when they all met up. Tamika was sitting on one of the arm chairs in the room. Drew had the other. Ryan stood by the window.
They all watched him without saying a word. After a pause, he filled them in on what had taken place in Broken Arrow.
“I need to figure out who is behind this and how to keep Janey safe.”
“Call Emily,” Tamika said.
Drew hesitated. He knew that was the thing to do, but he did not want to drag his friends into this. It was a personal thing and they had already done so much for him.
So he shook his head. “I will tell her, but I can take care of this.”
“You’re making a goddamn mistake, man.” Ryan spoke for the first time. “You all helped me get my sister out of that hell hole and I was not even one of you. Hell, I was a damn liability to you. There’s no way in hell Emily will let you handle this alone.”
“He’s right,” Tamika said.
Ryan looked at her in surprise.
“What? I don’t have to like your ass to admit when you’re right.”
He snorted.
Drew knew they were right. He did not want to call in Silver Shield to handle this for him, however he knew that if he was not able to sort it out quickly, he would have no choice.
“I’m taking her home.”
Tamika met his gaze and held it. He saw the questions in her eyes, and knew the source. He had not been home in more than five years. Sure, he visited New Orleans, he went once a year to Ann-Marie’s grave and then left. He had not seen his family since Ann-Marie died. But Janey would be safe there until he figured out who was after her life.
**
In the end, Drew had not needed to call Emily. She called him just before they left the hotel room the next morning.
“Are you guys alright?” she asked as soon as he picked up the phone.
“Yeah.”
“We caught some activity on the camera feed before it went blank. There were several men in ski masks. We don’t know who they are and haven’t discovered anything about them yet, but we’re working on it. We’ll send someone over and hook up the security cams before you return.”
“Ah, about that. Janey’s home was burned down.” He briefly updated her on what had happened in Broken Arrow. When he was done, there was silence on the other end.
“This is bullshit. How the hell did this happen?”
Drew could imagine her pacing in frustration. Before he could reply, she went on.
“You can’t go back to Broken Arrow, not yet.”
“I’m going to New Orleans.”
She was silent for several minutes. He was beginning to think she’d hung up when she spoke, “Are you sure about this?”
He shrugged, though he knew she couldn’t see him. “My father’s house is like a fortress, you know how paranoid he is, so I figure Janey will be safe there.”
That was what he kept telling himself, but he knew there were other places Janey would be safe…like any one of Silver Shield’s safe houses, or even the HQ itself. It was almost like something was drawing him to his boyhood city and he had no idea what it was.
“You keep Janey safe. We’ll comb through the feed and get back to you. I’m officially calling this in.”
That meant that this was now an official Silver Shield case. It was going to cost the firm some good money, but he would make sure they did not run at a loss. He made a mental note to get to the bank and wire over some money first chance he got.
**
Drew glanced at Janey from the corner of his eyes. He was worried about her. She seemed to have lost the warm glow in her eyes. Her eyes were flat and dull. They had been to see her sister. She still was not saying a word, but when Janey hugged her, there had been a brief pause and then she’d returned the hug, holding on tightly.
Drew had explained the situation to Abe and he had promised to look after Diane and keep them updated. They were still on the hospital grounds when her phone rang.
“Hello?”
She put the phone back in her pocket, shaking her head.
“What’s up?” Drew asked.
“I’m not sure. Once I speak, the person just hangs up.”
“It’s happened before?”
“Yeah, when you were out of the room last night. I woke up to use the toilet and the phone rang.”
Drew was uneasy. He could not explain why, but he could feel the hairs on his nape standing on end. His gut never led him wrong.
“C’mon. We should get going.”
They were going to the airport. He had booked a charter flight to take them straight to New Orleans Lakefront Airport. From there, a vehicle would be waiting to take them to his parents’ home.
They stepped out into the sun and Drew pulled out his sunglasses. Just before he slipped it on, he caught the glint of something metal from the side of his eye. He knew exactly what it was. It was the muzzle of a gun and it was pointed at them. Without hesitation, he grabbed Janey in his arms and went down on the ground, rolling a bit till he was hidden behind a car. Just as they hit the ground, the gun went off. He did not hear the sound, but the windscreen of the car they were hiding behind shattered into a million pieces.
There was a nanosecond of complete and utter silence, then chaos broke out. People began to scream, the car alarm started wailing. In the ensuing chaos, Drew managed to get Janey back into the hospital.
They met Abe in the lobby.
“What happened?” he asked with concern.
“Someone shot at us,” Drew said.
Abe’s eyes shot to the door and nodded curtly at Drew. “Come with me.”
He turned and walked briskly further into the hospital and they followed him. At the back, he located an elevator.
Drew wondered briefly why he was blindly following a man he did not know, when their lives were in danger. But something about Abe made him trust the man.
Inside the elevator, he finally spoke. “Where are you taking us?”
“You need to get to the airport, right?”
Drew nodded.
“There’s a helicopter landing on the roof. Technically, it’s for an air ambulance, but I have my chopper up there.”
Drew cocked his head to the side in a silent question.
Abe smiled and shrugged. “Yeah, my family owns the hospital.”
Drew flashed him a grin. “Lucky for us.”
“Lucky for you,” Abe repeated with a grin of his own.
Abe flew them himself to the airport. They got out and waved as he took off again. They already had clearance so they moved quickly from the spot he left them to where the chartered plane was waiting.
“Everything okay, Mr. Campbell?” the pilot asked.
“I’m good, Ted. Thanks. How’s the new baby?”
“Eating us out of house and home,” he said with a laugh. There was no mistaking the pride in his voice. “We’ll leave in a few minutes, sir.”
At Drew’s nod, he went back to the cockpit.
Drew took out his phone and quickly filed in a report on the shooting outside the hospital.
Drew felt Janey’s glance on him. She hadn’t spoken since the shooting incident. He reached out and slipped his fingers through hers.
“Are you okay?”
She sighed, “I don’t know, Drew. My life is suddenly one crazy freak show.”
“This will be over soon,” he said.
“You don’t know that for sure.”
He met her gaze unwaveringly. “I will make sure of it.”
She held his gaze for a moment, then squeezed his hand.
“Wanna tell me about this?” She waved the other hand around the plane.
Drew shrugged. “A friend owns a charter service. I make use of it when I need to.” What he did not tell her was that it was another business he had invested in. He was not keeping the information from her exactly, but he did n
ot feel the need to mention it.
She nodded slowly, like she was processing something.
He noticed that she was chewing on her lip. There was a deep frown on her face.
“What’s the matter, baby?”
She blinked once. “Something is bothering me, Drew. Who is doing this and how did they get to us in DC?”
The thought had bugged the hell out of Drew. He knew the futility of fighting an invisible enemy. How was he going to keep Janey safe if he did not know who was after them or how they found them? He hoped Rusty was able to get them something they could work with.
“Drew?” Janey’s voice pulled him out. Her eyes were large in her face and she looked terrified. “I’m scared.”
He let go of her hand and took off his seat belt. They were already cruising at a steady altitude so he knew it was safe. He took hers off as well, lifted the armrest between them and hauled her unto his laps. She immediately melted into him, his arms going around her waist.
“We’ll get through this, baby. And I’m going to make damn sure that you’re safe.”
“Are your parents expecting me?”
The complete change in subject almost threw him off guard, but he managed to keep pace.
“Yeah, I told them you were coming.”
She lifted her head. “You told them you were bringing your lover?”
He saw the faint teasing light in her eyes and the tightness in his chest eased. If she could tease him, he knew she would be okay.
He flicked a finger on her nose. “No silly. I told them I’m bringing my girlfriend.”
The light faded from her eyes. She looked solemnly at him. “Is that what I am?”
Not for much longer, if he had his way. But he didn’t tell her that. He leaned forward and kissed her. He teased her lips, enjoying the way she tasted. The way she felt in his arms. He deliberately did not use his tongue, he just wanted to savor her. He pulled back slightly.
“Yes, Janey. Are you okay with that?”
She kissed him. A quick, brief kiss. Then rested her head on his chest.
“Janey?”
“Hmmm?”
“You are my girlfriend.”
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 38
