All Due Respect (25 page)

Seth caressed her face, cupped her chin in his palm, and softened his voice. “Honey, you can’t run. There’s nowhere to hide.” He circled her back with his arms, pulled her close to absorb some of the sting of his words. “But it’s going to be okay. You won’t have to hide. You’re not facing him alone anymore.”

She pulled back, her eyes glossy with tears. “I can’t involve you more than you already are. I can’t—”

“Julia.” Seth stroked her cheek, lightly touched her bruise. “Haven’t you realized yet that wherever you are, I am?” Seth smiled into her solemn brown eyes. It was all so clear now. She wasn’t a traitor. She’d just been afraid of telling him the truth. Afraid he would blame her for what Karl had done to her. Understandable, but she should have known better. And soon she would know better. He pulled

her back into his arms, felt her trembling, and slid on the bed until she lay beside him, cradled in his arms.

They didn’t talk. Didn’t move. Just lay there, drawing strength and comfort from each other, until finally, Julia’s trembling eased and she slept.

Seth rubbed little circles on her back, swearing she would have her peace. Her serenity. And she would feel safe.

With what Karl had done to her and what he had threatened to do to Jeff—the only two people in the world that the adult Seth had dared to love—Karl Hyde had sealed his fate.

Once, Seth had failed to protect a woman he loved. He wouldn’t fail again.

IN his estate office, Benedetto read the profile on Dr. Julia Warner-Hyde and wanted to weep. How could a man do to a woman what her husband had done to her?

Roger shifted on his seat. “The council will never accept this man being an employee of Two West, much less a loyalist.”

“Would I employ a man who does not revere women?”

“Not normally, sir, but to solidify your position with the council, and with this woman scientist playing such a key role, I thought—”

“Wrong. Never. He doesn’t work for Two West.” The pages shook, revealing Anthony’s inner turmoil. He set the report down on his desk. “He works for our friend at Grayton.”

“But he’s still been given loyalist status. That will be a problem with the council.”

“No it won’t.” Anthony glanced over at his father’s photograph, remembered the three concepts for ruling. “Mr. Hyde is unfit for coalition association.” His wife had nearly died three times. Three times. At his hands. “He’s unfit to breathe.”

“I wholeheartedly agree, sir.” Roger straightened his tie.

“I assume you want to wait until we get all we need on the project.”

Torn, Anthony debated and then nodded. “Unfortunately, yes.” If the scientist resisted, they had to have leverage. Karl Hyde could provide it; she feared him. “We do what we must to preserve the coalition, Roger. Without hesitation, if not occasionally without regret.”

“Of course, sir.” Roger stood up. “Will you be advising the council on this matter?”

“No.” Anthony’s father had died for less than Hyde had already done. “We can’t risk any association whatsoever.”

Nodding, Roger left the office.

Watching him go, an uneasy feeling came over Anthony. He lifted his father’s photo and stared at it, long and hard. You did not die in vain. You did not.

At the house in town, Seth pulled the Lexus into his garage. “I just want to check to see if Matthew’s left any messages. Then I’ll take you over to the apartment to get some things.”

“Get some things?” Julia pushed at the sleeve of the flannel shirt she was wearing. The cuffs hung over the tips of her fingers.

Seth cut the engine. “You need to stay with me until Karl is contained.”

She put a hand on his thigh. “Seth, I really appreciate everything, but Karl will never be contained. Not as long as there’s a breath in his body.”

Seth stared through the windshield at the door to the house and debated responding. He agreed with her, yet telling her he intended to kill the man would only upset her. To Seth’s way of thinking, she had spent more than enough time being upset already, so he settled for an alternate truth. “Matthew’s concerned.”

She groaned and swiped her hair back behind her ear. “He isn’t alone.”

Seth swerved his gaze to her. “I’m concerned, too.”

“I know you are.” Her voice went soft. “But you’ve done so much to help me already. I can’t ask you to take on even more risks for me.”

“You can ask me for anything, Julia. Anything, any

time.” He cupped her hand on his thigh. “If I can give it to you, I will.”

Her gaze went molten, then speculative. “Why haven’t you ever married?”

Karl had found her first. But this wasn’t the time, and sitting in the car in his garage certainly wasn’t the place, for a declaration. “Bad timing.” Seth reached for the handle and cranked opened the door.

Julia got out and walked toward the door leading into the house. “What do you mean, ‘bad timing”?”

At the front of the Lexus, Seth again debated. Heat radiated off the car’s hood. “The woman I wanted was already married.”

Julia stepped up behind him, her expression guarded. “That must have been rough.”

“At times.” She had no idea she was that woman; the disappointment flickering through her eyes proved it. How could a woman so smart miss a truth so simple and obvious? He opened the door, and stepped into the house.

“Oh, dear, God.” Julia gasped.

Seth came to a dead halt. His home had been ransacked, ceiling to floor. The light fixture in the den dangled. Sofa cushions lay tossed, bookshelves dumped, paintings that had been hanging on the wall had been slashed and now lay ruined on the floor. “Stay here,” he told Julia, then walked through the house.

The kitchen was a disaster area: Pots and pans strewn on the floor, boxes of cereal sliced open and dumped, macaroni crunching under his shoes. Even the refrigerator had been emptied. Cracked jars of mayonnaise, mustard, and sweet pickles littered the floor.

The bedrooms and baths were no better. Every single thing in his home had been methodically damaged or destroyed.

Outrage at the invasion, the violation, pumped through his veins. Bury it, Holt. Emotions get you killed.

Detaching, he looked at the damage through the eyes of a Special Forces soldier. Systematic. Methodical. Definitely

done by a pro, but too thorough for Karl to have pulled off alone, unless he felt certain he had plenty of time. “Looks like Benedetto’s loyalists paid me a call.”

“It’s all ruined.” Julia’s voice trembled, thready and weak. “Everything’s ruined.”

“It’s all right, Julia,” he said. “It’s insured, and it’s just stuff.”

“Yes, but it’s your stuff.”

Her indignance charmed him as much as everything else about her. He smiled. “It’s okay.” He rubbed at his neck. “Actually, it’s not. It’s damned confusing. Anyone involved in Project Home Base knows everything on it stays in the vault.”

“Maybe Benedetto’s loyalists didn’t do this.”

Seth turned to look at her. “What other professional would go to this much trouble? It had to be Benedetto’s men,” he said, certain odds were fifty-fifty it had been Karl, but not wanting to worry Julia even more, or for her to feel more guilt. And she would. Unjust, but she would. If there was one thing Seth Holt understood, it was guilt.

Julia wanted to look away. Resentment and guilt and regret seethed inside her and she didn’t want to battle them. Convincing Seth would take all she could manage. Maybe more than she could manage. How could she trust him with more? She’d given him the truth, if only the bare bones of it. But to take this leap of faith, to trust that he could know everything, understand, and still care for her…

He did care for her. She felt it in the warm way he looked at her, heard it in his voice, felt it in his touch. Damn it, she didn’t want to lose him, too.

You can’t lose what you never had, Julia. Truth omitted is a lie. How can the seeds of anything good grow in a bed of lies? Seth is Seth. Seth is not Karl.

Faith. One more time, this was all about faith. She’d had faith and told him about Karl. Seth hadn’t run. He hadn’t turned morose, or looked at her with pity. She couldn’t blame him for Karl’s sins, and she couldn’t compare them as if they were the same. They weren’t. Quickly, before she

could turn coward, she blurted out, “I think Karl did this.”

Seth frowned, rubbed at his neck. “Honey, I know the man has earned his black marks, but what would he gain by doing this?”

Julia’s mouth went dry. What if she was wrong? What if Karl hadn’t done this? Oh, but it felt as if he had. She could almost smell him, among the cinnamon and pickle brine dumped in the kitchen floor. “He still has connections. He used them when he was still in jail to get my new phone numbers. He traced my car through three registrations in three different states and got my address. He found the apartment here and the phone number and the cell phone number, though all of those things were in your name.”

“And he thinks we’re having an affair,” Seth added. “So you’re telling me that he went into some insane jealous rage and did this?”

“Seth, don’t make light of this. He’s a skilled professional. You don’t really know what he’s like. Not really. He’s capable of anything.” She willed Seth to believe her, to realize she wasn’t just a terrified woman demonizing a man who had terrorized her. “When Karl broke into my apartment, he knew I’d gone back to work in the Black World.” She held up a hand. “Don’t glare at me, Seth. I never, not once ever, told him I worked there.”

“Then how did he know it?”

“I told you, he has connections.” She leaned back against the hallway wall. “All kinds of connections. A cop working the street doesn’t exactly deal with the cream of society, you know?”

Understanding lit Seth’s eyes. “You think Karl is somehow connected to Benedetto, or to his project mole.”

“I don’t know what to think, Seth,” she answered honestly. “Karl claimed you were setting me up to take the fall for the security breach. That you’re the project mole working for Benedetto. He knew Benedetto’s name.”

Seth didn’t say a word, but he’d definitely picked up on her doubt. His mouth flattened to a thin line.

She stepped closer, hating to hurt him this way, but un

able not to do it. She had to know the truth and to put this matter to bed. She had to ask him, straight-out.

Touching a hand to his chest, she looked up into his eyes. “Acting on faith alone is really hard for me. You know why. But I’m asking you for the truth, Seth.”

Go on, Julia. Take that leap of faith. He’s a good man. You know he is. You love him. Do it!

Julia leapt. “Whatever you tell me, I will believe you. But I need to hear you say it. I need for you to tell me Karl lied and that you have nothing to do with any of this.”

“I didn’t steal the sensor codes.” Seth loosely gripped her arms. “I didn’t attempt the specific sweep on the vault’s computer system. And I’m not Benedetto’s mole.”

That cost him a lot of pride. His honor being questioned hurt him; she could see that it did, and she hated it. But she had to hear it from him, firsthand. “Neither am I, Seth. I swear it.”

He looked down at her. His eyes flashed fury and then regret. “I know.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I had doubts. You were acting strangely. No one under ten tons of pressure acts calm, Julia. But now that I know about Karl and what stress does to you, I know why you acted strangely.” Seth. hugged her. “I won’t doubt you again.”

“Me, either.” She hugged him back, relieved and so damn grateful she had taken the risk and leapt. “Who do you think is Benedetto’s mole?”

“Dempsey Morse.”

She looked up, confused. “But you said he wasn’t a logical candidate. He does have millions invested in Home Base, Seth.”

In the living room, he closely surveyed the damage. He had been collecting oil paintings all of his adult life. The bastard had slashed through every single one of them. “True, but Dempsey Morse is the only candidate who makes sense.”

“Sense?” Julia started to pull the trash bin out from under the sink.

Seth stopped her. “Don’t touch anything, honey. You could destroy evidence.”

Honey. Soft and endearing. Her heart skipped a little beat every time she heard it. She liked the feeling. Maybe even she could heal. Seth made trying worth it. “Sorry.” She let go of the bin, scanned the living room. “I don’t see Morse doing this damage. We failed to find a motive. So did Matthew.”

“We weren’t looking in the right direction.”

“Oh?”

“Grimm ran a check. The blue truck in the lab’s parking lot the night I got stuck in the transporter is registered to Morse.”

“He could have lifted my badge,” Julia said. “He came out of his hermit hole for a chat earlier that day.”

“In your office?”

She nodded.

“Bingo. Access to the badge and to the flashlight.”

Probable, with him having that master key. “But why would he risk a lifetime in Leavenworth for treason and losing the millions he’s got invested in Slicer Industries? And isn’t it a little obvious for him to use his own truck?”

A broken bottle of ketchup had splattered on the pickled cabinets, the once-white wall. “Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. It has to be Morse. Aside from you and me, he’s the only other person in the inner lab with full-project access. Someone without full access would have considered that and not raised a red flag. Morse had to have copied the sensor codes, which means he has nearly everything.”

“He couldn’t download anything to a declassified area.” The lab’s computers were on a closed system.

“Right. But he could copy almost everything if the system was diverted, performing a specific sweep. That’s how Cracker broke the CIA’s system.”

“Did Morse know that?”

Seth nodded and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets. “So Morse has most of Home Base, and Benedetto has the Rogue.”

Julia aligned things. “All they need is the tracking sequence and they’ll have everything necessary to develop Home Base. Morse has access to everything else. Designs. Specs. Schematics. Intel.” The only reason Morse didn’t have the tracking sequence was because Seth was still refining it and hadn’t yet approved it being included in the project.