by Terry Spear
He continued to look at her and said, “Yes, sir. I understand.”
Then he handed the phone back to her and said to the police, “After you.”
They went back inside and the police took her statement. She’d have to call her renter’s insurance to help pay for the damages. She continued to pack while the agents looked around, but Dan followed them everywhere. He wouldn’t let the men out of his sight. He didn’t trust them.
The film crew came inside to take pictures.
The police looked around too, asking Addie if she knew if anything had been stolen. “I had my gun with me, and that was stolen, along with my badge when I was hospitalized. That’s all I had that would have been too important to lose.”
“We’ll file a report,” the agents said, acting annoyed that Dan had been following them all over the place. The police said the same and the news crew thanked them and they all left.
“Okay, good, I can file with my insurance. Let’s get packed up. I thought we’d stay the night, but I just want to pack up your SUV and head out of here.”
“Sounds good to me.” He began to straighten up what he could. And taped up the rest of the boxes. When she was done with a box, he’d carry it out to the car and pack it in. “Nothing but clothes and…?”
“Toiletries in the bathroom. If you don’t mind getting them.”
“Will do.” He grabbed a box and grabbed up her makeup, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste. “Towels?”
“Yes, mine. Toilet paper, box of tissues, bath rug. Anything not nailed down.”
He finished with that and went into the bedroom. She’d already pulled all her clothes out of the dresser drawers that were lying in a jumble on the floor. He put the drawers back into the dresser. Luckily, they hadn’t been damaged. “Pillows? Sheets? Pictures?”
“Pillows, sheets, comforter. No pictures. They belong to the apartment. Same with dishes and silverware. Food is mine. Oh, antique clock is mine.”
He had packed her sheets in with the bathroom items, but the comforter and pillows could just lie on top of the boxes. They would take up too much room.
“On the wall over my dresser.”
The pictures were all on the floor. He looked under the bed and found the chiming clock kicked underneath the box springs. He was glad it hadn’t been damaged. At least he hoped not. It looked okay, no damaged or missing pieces. He carefully wrapped it in a bath towel and put it in with the other bedding. Then he labeled the box, taped it up, and carried it out to the car.
They packed up her food that they could take. And she told her manager she could keep the food in the fridge and freezer and the cleaning supplies. She turned in her keys, thanked the manager, and accepted the check for her deposit. “Insurance should cover any costs related to the break-in.” She gave a copy of the police report to the manager.
Then Dan drove, while Addie deposited the check in her bank account before the manager changed her mind.
They hadn’t driven very far when she asked, “Did you get my clock?”
“Yeah. I packed it in the box with your bedding. It looked good, no damage that I could see.”
“Good. It was my dad’s father’s. And I always loved that clock.”
“Does it chime?” Dan asked, hoping it wouldn’t keep him awake at night, but truly he’d do anything for Addie, even listen to a chiming clock.
She smiled. “We don’t have to wind it up if it bothers you. It took me a while to get used to it chiming in the middle of the night. It has sentimental value, so I don’t mind if it doesn’t really tell time.”
“We can see if I can get used to it. I’m a light sleeper. I thought we’d drive as far as we could tonight, and stop somewhere for the night.”
“All right. I’m serving as lookout.”
“Think someone will still come after us?”
“I sure hope not. I’m still watching, just in case.”
They drove for six hours, Dan three and Addie the next three, and then they stopped at a hotel. “Too bad the pool is closed at this hour.”
“That would have been a nice way to unwind, but I have another way.”
They got their room key, and with bags in hand, went to their room. Dan called Stryker to let him know they were stopping for the night and should get in at midnight the next evening if everything went well, allowing for meals, bathroom breaks, and gas fill-ups.
“Any trouble along the way?” Stryker asked.
Dan explained about her place being all torn up.
“Did they get anything?”
“Nothing that she could see. We’ll call sometime tomorrow to let you know we’re still fine.”
“All right. Nothing going on much here.”
“Good. We’ll be home soon.” Dan smiled as he ended the call and saw his already naked mate stretched out under the sheets.
“Done with business?” She ran her hand over her breasts, her nipples peaking under the sheets.
“Hell, yes.”
“You sure your arm’s all right?”
“Been all right since yesterday.” He couldn’t believe she’d been postponing his making love to her until she was assured he was healed all the way and that he’d gone along with it to appease her.
He stripped off all his clothes. “You saw me lifting all those boxes. No grunts. No grimaces. No crying out in pain.”
She smiled.
He yanked aside the sheet and settled on top of her. “When are we going to get married? The whole town is waiting to hear when we’re going to set the big day.”
“I guess this business is taken care of as much as it can be until everyone indicted goes to trial.”
“Yeah. No more stalling.”
“Let’s set it for a month from now so everyone who wants to participate can.”
Dan yanked his phone off the bedside table. She groaned. “I thought we were done with business.” She raked her nails down his sides to his buttocks and smiled wickedly.
He quickly called Stryker back. “Tell everyone the wedding’s a month from today. Hell, I don’t know what day that falls on. Just do it.”
Stryker laughed out loud. “Will do.”
Then they ended the call and Dan began kissing Addie’s lips, his hands on hers, resting against the pillow, rubbing his body against hers. “I want to make love to you all night long.”
“What”—she licked his nose—“are you waiting for?”
He rubbed his whiskery chin against her breast, then licked and suckled one. She ran her nails through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp. He was in heaven with the she-cat. She was beautiful and just perfect for him.
She groaned and held onto his hair as her pheromones kicked into play.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathed out against her other nipple, and licked and suckled.
“You are too…uhh…”
He moved off her and slid his hand down her silky stomach and lower until he brushed her curly hairs and reached her feminine folds. He wanted to make love to her all night long, but they needed to sleep and be well-rested for the long drive ahead of them tomorrow. Still, he tried to draw this out, to help her come before he entered her. As soon as he slid his finger into her creamy center, he knew she was already ready for him. He began to stroke her, to make her come. She grabbed his shoulders and hung on.
He kept working her, kissing her belly, licking her naval, and her hands tightened on his shoulders and suddenly she cried out. “Oh, Dan, yes!”
Then he was joining her, sliding in and out, thrusting deeply. He wrapped his arms around her knees pressing them higher so that he could thrust deeper. He was consumed by her, surrounded by her wet heat, the sexy she-cat smell of her, the musky smell of her sex, and the headiness of their pheromones dancing around each other.
“Hurry,” she said, as if she’d die if he didn’t press harder, if he didn’t rub her into oblivion again.
He was only too eager to oblige and continued to rub against her, and thrust,
finally finding release deep inside her. And she growled out a satisfied, “I love you.”
“God, I love you too, Addie. With all my heart.”
And then they were kissing and snuggling and continued to cuddle, until around three in the morning when his car alarm went off, waking them at once.
18
Hearing his car alarm go off, Dan jumped out of bed and dressed in jeans, and grabbed his gun. “You stay here. You don’t have your gun with you to protect you.”
“All right.” She got on the hotel phone and called hotel security. “Someone is trying to break into our SUV.”
Dan hurried out of the room and raced for the elevator. He was glad she didn’t come with him.
Standing near his vehicle, a man dressed in a security uniform greeted Dan. “Is this your car?”
“Yeah, I’m Sheriff Dan Steinacker.” He offered his hand to the man and the guard shook it.
“I saw a man approach your car and try to unlock it when I was making rounds outside. Since he was wearing all black, I was suspicious. As soon as the alarm went off, I headed in the direction of the vehicle and then got a call from your missus.”
“Thanks,” Dan said. “Can I give you something for your trouble?”
“That’s what I’m paid for. I see you have a lot of boxes in there.”
“Yeah, my new wife is moving with me to Yuma Town. It’s just clothes and stuff like that. Nothing valuable, but no one knows that.”
“I’ll keep an eye on it for you until you leave.”
“Thanks, appreciate it.” Dan headed back up the elevator to their room. He entered the room and saw Addie watching out the window.
“Our personal security guard is going to watch it because of all the boxes we have out there. He said the guy was dressed all in black.”
“And he only targeted our car.”
“Because of all the boxes. Nothing to worry about.” Because Dan would do all the worrying. “Let’s go back to bed. We can get up in a couple of hours and take off.”
Neither of them could sleep though, so at four-thirty, they got up, took showers, had a complimentary breakfast, and thanked the security guard.
“Congratulations to the both of you.”
“I mentioned we were newlyweds,” Dan said to Addie.
“Oh.” She smiled. “Thanks. And thanks for earlier this morning. We might not have anything that valuable in the car, but it’s all I’ve got right now.”
“I understand completely,” the guard said.
Then Dan said good-bye again and they drove off.
“Another eight hours and we should be in Yuma Town.”
“I’ll be glad for it,” Addie said. “And I really am glad to have my clothes too. Otherwise it’s like living out of a suitcase on a permanent basis. I never thought my life would change so much that I’d actually move in with you.”
“And be my mate.”
She smiled. “Best thing I ever did.” They drove for a while longer and she said, “I keep thinking about that man dressed in black who tried to break into the car early this morning.”
“I keep thinking about our bed at our home and how I can’t wait to make love to you there. When I go to the office, everyone will know why I’m wearing the biggest smile no matter what business comes up during the day.”
Addie laughed. “Glad to know you have your priorities straight—me. You don’t mind if I take off a couple of weeks before I begin working for you, do you?”
He pumped his fist. “Yes! You’re working for me and not with the others. Unless we do some joint missions, which often happens.”
She smiled. “Did you think otherwise?”
“The way Bridget was pushing you to join them, yes.”
“We’ve functioned well together so far, so I’m willing to try it. I can always take another job if it doesn’t pan out for us.”
“It will work for us.”
She smiled. “About the two weeks?”
“You don’t have to work at all, if you don’t want.”
“That would drive me crazy. At least until we have kids. I just want to take off some time, to…decompress after all that’s happened and settle in a bit. And make the wedding plans too, with the help of all the ladies who want to pitch in.”
“That will be a ton of them.”
“Good.”
“Sure thing, honey. Whatever you want.”
She smiled. “I like this arrangement.” Then she frowned. “Are you really glad that Dottie found Jack again?”
“Yeah, I am. They were meant to be together. I just worried the guy might be like the other man she’d married, so I might have given Jack a hard time over it until I was sure he was good for her. I offered him a job too. I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t like him. He’s a decent mate and father to their kids. It worked out perfectly for them.”
“Okay, I thought so, but was just making sure.”
Dan drove for about an hour, thinking on the business with the break-in at her apartment again. “About the break-in, they had to have been looking for all that stuff at your apartment when it was actually at the storage facility, but they didn’t know that.”
“I agree. When you were packing boxes, did you find any paperwork? I had some files of receipts, insurance paperwork, utility bills, stuff like that, in one of those manila expandable files. I didn’t pack it and just wondered if you had.”
“No, I didn’t see anything like that.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well, damn. Okay, so they stole the set of old keys that didn’t belong to anything any longer and all my paperwork—”
“Looking for what the keys might go to, maybe to see if you were paying for a storage facility.”
“That was under our dummy corporation’s name. And it was owned outright, so no monthly payments.”
“Except you’d have to pay the taxes.”
“Right, and I paid that and never kept any evidence of it around the apartment.”
“I would think with the tons of information we found and shared, they’d know their gooses were already cooked.”
“I agree.” Addie sat in silence for another hour while Dan tried to think of another reason they might still be targeting Addie’s possessions.
“Unless someone is still worried we’ll find more information that would blame someone else,” Dan said.
“Like my boss? He was promoted when Alicia died. Briggs has been the only other person who has been in the know all this time. Besides the other team members, but they were never where I was when I had all the trouble.”
“Yeah. Like him.”
“I didn’t find him mentioned in any of the documents. I looked through every one of them.”
“We don’t wear jewelry very often because of the problem with shifting and worrying about losing it. You don’t have any jewelry keepsakes, do you? Your clothes are probably fairly new and not what you would have had before your dad died. What else did you have from when your dad was still alive?”
“The antique clock. It’s something I’d never get rid of. I always loved it. It was my dad’s father’s clock. Unlike clothes or anything else I might own, he knew that was the one thing I’d keep forever.”
“Let’s check it out then.” Dan pulled into the next travel center a mile up the road and parked in front of a pump.
“If you know where the clock is packed, you can get it out while I pump some gas.”
“Okay.” Dan moved several boxes before he found the one with the linens and clock in it. He ripped off the tape and carefully unwrapped the clock.
Addie finished pumping the gas and put the nozzle back and closed the cap on the gas tank.
“It looks all right.” Dan turned the clock over and opened the back. “If I’m not mistaken, this looks like it could have a secret compartment at the bottom inside.” He pushed and poked and prodded, but nothing happened.
She pulled a fingernail file from her backpack and used it
as leverage. A little lid snapped off and inside the hidden nook was another flash drive. She dug around in her bag and pulled out the cord to attach the flash drive to her phone. “Do you mind driving some more? I’ll read what’s on the flash drive and see if there’s anything new on there.”
“Good idea. I’ll drive for however long it takes you to get through it. With being a speed reader and having a photographic memory, you’ll get through it faster than I will.”
“Okay.” Addie hadn’t taken long before she said, “Holy crap. We were right. Briggs was involved in this all along. I’m sending these files to Stryker and Carl, as insurance, in case anyone tries to stop us and search for this evidence.”
“That’s why they were still looking for any other evidence. Briggs is up to his eyebrows in it, and he might assume you did know it too.”
“Why didn’t my dad ever tell anyone about it?”
“Both your dad and mom did and you see where they ended up. With you, you were lucky and had me.”
“Boy, was I ever.” Addie sighed. “Stryker’s sharing it with everyone. Carl’s contacting the news media about the latest development. I can’t believe he’s working for Hal’s parents’ paper now and loving it. And having to bake on the side under Mrs. Fitz’s tutelage.”
“I think she was just lonely.”
“I think Carl needed some real friends too. I’m glad she wasn’t too upset about what happened to Alicia since they’d been friends.”
“She was furious to learn of Alicia’s involvement in the murder of your parents and the attempts on your life. She said it had served Alicia right to have contracted me to protect you. That was the only good thing she’d done, but it had backfired on her.”
19
It was midnight when they arrived at Dan’s house, though it was Addie’s now too, after the long drive from Portland, Oregon, and she couldn’t wait to climb into bed with Dan, make love, and sleep for hours the next day. Though she was certain, Dan would want to run into work so everyone remembered he was still the sheriff.
