All Due Respect (3 page)

“Of course not,” he said. “You’ve got a week, maybe two. I’ll get you set up and find you an apartment near Grayton.”

“Grayton?” Her confusion carried in her tone.

“Grayton Air Force Base,” he said. “It’s about thirty miles north of Hurlburt Field, on the Florida gulf coast.”

“You mean, I don’t have to go back to New Orleans?”

“No.” He blinked hard, then grunted. “I guess I forgot to mention I’d transferred.”

“Yes, you did.” No New Orleans. No demonic memories to confront. No new demons. She smiled her relief when she really wanted to weep it. “What brought that on? The transfer, I mean.” He was king of the lab; well treated, and seldom questioned.

The smile left his face and his eyes clouded. “I could say I transferred to pursue other professional endeavors.”

Her official reason for leaving. The barb hit its mark.

“But the fact is,” he went on, “Grayton’s the new location of the Battle Management Center. Its lab is under the direct command of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.”

“I see.” Still stinging from his “professional endeavor” remark, Julia scooted off the table, down to the sand, and dusted her backside with her hand. “I’d better get back to school.”

He looked down at her. “Thanks for bailing me out on this.”

How could she refuse? That she didn’t want to refuse him concerned her. “You present a compelling case.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I do.” Seth sighed. “I’ve missed working with you, Julia.”

They’d worked together like hand to glove, finishing each other’s thoughts and sentences, instinctively agreeing on what to test next in their designs, on which battles to fight with the honchos and which ones to postpone. They had shared a unique relationship, based on trust and steeped in mutual respect. Neither intruded, but both were there if needed and called on. She’d hated losing that, resented losing him, and, for once, she let down her guard and admitted it openly. “I’ve missed you, too, Seth.”

Sand lifted by the wind stung her foot. Julia swiped at it. “Is Home Base the sensor design you were working on privately before I left the lab?”

“No. Different systems, different tasking. But mine can piggyback on Home Base. At least, I hope one day it will.”

“So it hasn’t been funded.”

“Not yet.”

That had to be disappointing for him. To invest that much into something, to know it would work, and to have it put on permanent hold for a lack of money had to gnaw at him. It gnawed at her for him. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.” He let out a sigh. “I’m still perfecting it on my own. Who knows? Maybe its time will come.” He shrugged, then stilled, staring at her key chain. “You’ll need to get rid of that before you come to the lab.” He nodded at the miniature black flashlight dangling from her key chain. “They’ve become terrorists’ new weapon of choice.”

Julia methodically challenged its potential uses. Only one”passed her barrage of tests. “Scanners mistake explosives for batteries?”

“For the moment.” Seth nodded.

Meaning, scanner modifications in progress had a solution on the near horizon. Thank God. Having to fear every flashlight in the country incited nightmares, and she already had all of those she could handle.

Sometimes, knowing these little tidbits could drive a person to paranoia. Unfortunately, if you knew them, odds were it wasn’t paranoia but a clear and present danger routinely encountered by service members in the field.

. “Julia.” Seth sounded hesitant. “Your coming to Grayton will be okay with Karl, won’t it?”

The question caught her off guard. Was it a deliberate second chance to confess about Karl? Even if it was, she couldn’t do it. Doing her best to cover, act nonchalant, she smiled. “No problem at all.” It wouldn’t be, since Karl wouldn’t know it.

“Good. I’ll be in touch.” Seth turned and walked toward the parking lot.

Julia watched him go, unsure if his asking twice about Karl meant Seth knew what happened or he was fishing to find out. If she asked, he would tell her. Seth never lied. But she didn’t want that Pandora’s box opened. And maybe that wasn’t what had her uneasy. Maybe it was the angle

of his head or the stillness in him, getting to her. Maybe it was because he had delivered the news about the Rogue she had helped design now being in hostile hands or the possible corruption on Home Base, a project not yet even developed. Or it could be that tidbit about terrorists using flashlights to house explosives.

Or it could be just the man himself.

Damn it, it could be. He was special. He always had been special, and that made him dangerous.

In the last three years, she had come a long way on the road back to becoming more of her old self. A very long way. But she hadn’t come far enough, or remained innocent or unchanged by her experiences enough, to risk trusting another man.

Not even Seth.

Men with good intentions could get you killed just as fast as those with bad intentions. And it was all but impossible to tell the difference between them. Hadn’t she married Karl Hyde believing he was a good man? A really good man? Hadn’t he seemed kind and gentle and loving— all the things she wanted in a husband? And hadn’t her experience with him proven that any man could deceive any woman he chose to deceive?

It had. Karl had seemed all those good things and more, and he had ended up being a heartless bastard with a black soul. He’d ended up in jail. And, thanks to him, she had barely escaped with her life, and she was still being threatened.

Those truths made the bottom line with any man the same. Give him your trust and odds are good you’ll end up dead.

That was a lesson learned she would never forget. And it applied even to Seth Holt.

A week later, Seth sat in his office as perplexed about what had triggered the massive changes in Julia’s life as he had been before he had gone to Grace.

All his life, he had done his damnedest to avoid asking for favors, but he had searched for her on his own since she’d left, and he had failed to find her. When he had noted irregularities on the project, he’d had no choice but to go to the OSI, meet with Agent 12, and ask for his help to locate her.

Though neither publicly acknowledged it, Seth and Agent 12 had a history. Before Seth had left active duty in the Air Force and had gone civilian to work in the lab, he and Agent 12, who had been Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Grant back then, had worked in Special Forces together. Because the Rogue was loose and in hostile hands, and because Seth had invoked the crunch-time code they had used on convert operations in critical circumstances, Matthew had agreed that Julia could be trusted and they needed her to help Seth save their asses, and he had told Seth where to find her: Grace, Alabama.

Julia, teaching first grade in a tiny gulf coast town that didn’t warrant a pinprick on most maps and could never offer her the opportunities she’d had in his lab.

Seth cranked back in his chair and lifted his feet to the corner of his desk. She had often surprised him, but this

move confounded him. Julia was bright; a genius gifted with common sense and vision. Reserved, in a way, and beautiful, though she had never been a wrench-your-neck-looking-at-her kind of woman. She was too serious, smiled too seldom for that. But she had this way of making a man feel important, strong and weak at the same time. By the time he figured out she was strong and vulnerable, she’d snagged him. And she’d snagged plenty. Half his engineers, contractors, and all of the guys in the lab had been crazy about her. Oddly enough, the other women hadn’t seemed envious. They had been protective of her. Seth never had figured that out.

Now, she had the same somber brown eyes. The same sleek, stubborn chin, and chestnut-brown hair the sun streaked gold—every bit as beautiful as the day she had last walked out of his lab—but for someone miserable enough to leave the research-and-development work she loved to “pursue other professional endeavors,” she hadn’t seemed a damn bit happier. Less rigid, but no happier. And if she wasn’t happier, then why had she left?

And why had she nearly gone into cardiac arrest when she had seen him on the beach? She’d looked… haunted.

Too much just didn’t make sense. Matthew had access to Julia’s Intel reports and would have enlightened Seth, but his commander nixed that by reclassifying her file Eyes Only. Seth couldn’t slot the logic for that smooth move, and Matthew couldn’t explain, but Julia had been distant and secretive at Grace. Actually, she had been damn scared. She had never been afraid of Seth, and he didn’t like her being afraid of him now. What triggered her fear?

One thing was clear. Speculating wouldn’t give him any answers … but talking to her might. It was worth a shot. He lifted the phone and dialed her number.

She answered on the third ring. “Hello.”

“Julia, it’s me, Seth.” He thumbed the pages of a magazine. “Notification came in today. The contract has been awarded.”

“That’s terrific.”

She sounded down. Julia didn’t get down, except maybe when alone. “The realtor’s ready to hang me, but I finally found the right apartment for you. It’s ready and waiting.”

“When do I need to be there?”

Worried. Definitely worried. He tossed the copy of Scientific American onto his desk and frowned at the cover. “What’s wrong, Julia?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

Right words, wrong tone. The woman was anything but fine. “Is it Jeff?” She had said that student was special to her. Whether or not she knew it, she loved the boy; Seth had heard it in her voice. And even knowing Jeff had been abused and needed loving, Seth envied Jeff Julia’s love, and condemned himself for the envy.

“I’m worried about him,” she said. “He’s not supposed to stay alone after school.”

A latchkey kid? In first grade? “Isn’t that against the law?”

“Yes. He has to be twelve,” she said. “I wrote his father a note about it, but Jeff came to school again today with his BAMA key ring. William Camden ignored the note.”

So Jeff was a fan of the Alabama ball team, too. Seth mentally stored that detail. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“An observer joined us on the playground and Jeff said some crazy-sounding things. Until this incident, I thought it was part of the grief. His mother died a few months ago.”

“What did he say?”

He asked the observer if he was mad at me. The man said no. Jeff looked at me and said, ‘If he gets mad, just yell. I’ve got my listening ears on.’ “

“Nothing crazy about it,” Seth said. “Grief-stricken kids don’t think mad men hit. Abused kids do.”

“You’re right. I talked to Jeff for a long time.” Strain muted her voice. “He is being emotionally abused.”

Curious about Jeff’s special-to-Julia status, Seth had done some checking on the boy and had sensed abuse— he’d seen shades of himself in Jeff—but the confirmation, still made him sick. “What have you done about it?”

“Reported it to the school counselor, who reported it to the authorities. Now Camden’s out for my blood and my job. I’d give him both, if he’d just stop hurting Jeff.”

She would. Jeff was lucky to have an ally. Seth hadn’t, and making his way on his own had been hell.

“Now Camden’s really ticked off and he knows I’m Heaving. What if he takes out his anger at me on Jeff?”

“He won’t.” Seth stared across his office at the glass panel wall. The inner lab was dark; the glass reflective. Cold determination lined his face. “Call Jeff for me, Julia. I’m going to see him.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Of course I can,” Seth said. “I am.”

“But you don’t have any authority—”

“I don’t need any,” Seth interrupted. “Jeff needs a friend. I’m going to be one.”

“Camden will have a fit. He’ll blame Jeff for your interfering, and things will get worse.”

“I’ll handle Camden. You just prepare the way for me with Jeff, so I’m not a stranger. He’ll be nervous around me.”

“You’re a big man, and Jeff is tiny. He thinks all men get mad, and mad men hit.”

“Then don’t you think the sooner he learns different, the better?”

She hesitated, then said, “Okay, I’ll call. But be careful. I don’t want Camden coming after you, too.”

Julia’s concern felt good. Too good. “I will.” Seth beat down the hope that Camden would come after him. He’d welcome any excuse to give the man an attitude adjustment.

“You’re special for caring, Seth.” Her voice dropped low, husky. “You’ve always been special.”

Seth started to respond, then thought better of it. For five years, he had loved this woman and never had said a word because she was happily married. From his parents, Seth knew happy marriages were a rare and special thing. The world already had too much ugliness in it for a man to deliberately ugly up a rare and special thing. Still, he

would remember her “you’re special” for a long time to come.

ONLY on the gulf coast could a kid play shirtless in his front yard in November.

Seth leaned against the Lexus and glanced away from Jeff down the oak-lined street. Nice neighborhood. Pretty two-story, white clapboard house with a wide front porch and a hurricane fence enclosing the yard. At least Jeff wasn’t going home alone after school to a rough neighborhood. Not that his safety was assured here, but his odds seemed better.

Jeff tossed the football up in the air and then caught it. He hadn’t yet noticed Seth, and that worried him. The boy could be taken by surprise. But Seth liked seeing him play as if he didn’t have a worry in the world and he wished down to his bones that was true.

Julia had been damn upset, scared Camden would lash out at Jeff over her report. Seth had calmed her down but, during every minute of their conversation, he had gotten more and more angry at Camden. For hurting a defenseless kid, and for upsetting Julia.

Jeff dropped the ball. When he picked it up, he saw Seth and grinned from ear to ear. “You’re Dr. Seth,” he said, running up to the fence. “Dr. Julia told me you were coming to see me.”

“Dr. Julia?”

Jeff nodded. “So we don’t get her and Mr. Warner mixed up. He’s a teacher, too.”

“.. . Ah, I see.” Julia had paved the way, all right, including a photo or Jeff wouldn’t have recognized him on sight. Where had she gotten one? Regardless, Jeff didn’t seem at all wary of Seth and for that he felt grateful. “I wanted to talk with you. Dr. Julia was a little worried about you bringing your house key to school.”