Armed With Steele (42 page)

Nate muttered something under his breath and retrieved his cell phone. “Did anyone call her kids?”

“I don’t know, I—” I looked over at Nate. “Wait. How do you know she’s got kids?”

Nate didn’t answer. Instead, he dialed his phone. “Chaz? It’s Nate. Have you heard from your mom today?”

Nate had Lauren’s home number in his phone?

“Okay. I’m headed over there now, just found out.” He cursed under his breath. “You and Marney going to be alright? ...Yeah, I’ll swing by your place after that. Keep the doors locked and call me if you need anything … Love you, too.”

I watched him hang up, completely flabbergasted. “You…her…kids…wha?”

Nate pulled to a stop at a red light, and turned to face me. “Yes, I know she’s got kids. Lauren’s my cousin.”

I sat there, trying to process what he’d just said. “But Nate—you, you have a cousin that works in the mailroom? Why on Earth did you need to send me into Maxwell?”

He swiveled away from me in his seat. “I told you. We needed you to be the bait. You’ve seen Lauren, heard about the reputation she’s earned there as a trouble-maker. All her attempts at whistle-blowing never amounted to a damn thing. After a while, even I stopped believing her stories about harassment and corruption behind those walls. And when she started telling me someone was leaving her threatening notes, taunting her that he was the one who’d blown away her husband, Joe, well, I thought those were just stories too.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “But after what happened to Grace, and the clues you came up with, I knew there had to be some truth behind what she’d been saying.” The light turned green, and Nate’s cruiser sped from the intersection.

“You…you sent me undercover…to find your cousin’s
murderer
?”

“No. I mean, I asked for your help for Grace’s sake. And if we found out the guy responsible was in fact the one who—”

“
Killed
somebody, Nate? You sent me in, clueless as hell, to track down a murderer?”

“You’re not listening to me, Jess. I did this for Grace.
We
are doing this for Grace.”

I shook my head. No longer able to believe anything coming from his mouth. How could he have so recklessly, so carelessly, set me in the direct path of a murderous psychopath?

“I… But Lauren’s supposedly got connections.” The puzzle pieces slowly began to fall into place in my brain. “That means
you’ve
got connections as well!”

“Not enough to make a damn bit of difference. Our uncle is a Councilman. Likes to butt heads with the Administration. Every time we get a case built against Maxwell, the politicos downtown storm in and put the kibosh on it.”

Another red light. The cruiser came to a screeching stop.

Nate slammed a hand down on his steering wheel. “Dammit! I bring you in to keep her out of the fire and she
still
gets burned.”

Heat flared on my cheeks again. “Well, excuse the hell out of me. You know, had you just told me all this up front, I would have known to stay away from her.” I glared out the passenger window. “Would have known to stay away from all of it.”

“No, that would have jeopardized everything. And this hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for me, either. I’ve been busting my ass to keep you safe.”

The light turned green and Nate punched it. I clutched the edge of my seat as he wove in and out of traffic. Blinked back tears of anger and betrayal.

Is that all he’d been worried about? Keeping me safe? A viable option?

Nate spared a quick glance in my direction. “Look, I don’t want to fight. You mean the world to me, Jess, but right now I need to take care of Lauren and the kids. “

I tried to take the high road, focus on her instead of me. “Is she alright?”

“She will be. Broke her ankle in two places and bruised a few ribs. She’s over at Glenview. Sounds like they’re getting ready to release her.”

“So we’re headed to the hospital?”

“No. You can’t go there. Whoever did this to her—they’ll be expecting that.”

“Why? She wasn’t their intended target… Wait. Are you telling me the bad guys know you and Lauren are related, too?” My voice rose well above the roar of his engine. “Hell, am I the
only
one in this damned city that didn’t?”

Nate said nothing.

I threw my hands in the air. “Unbelievable. So what, you gonna stuff me in the trunk while you go in and check on her?”

Nate’s jaw tightened. “Don’t tempt me.”

I snorted. Crossed my arms.

“No, I’m taking you to my house. Where you’ll stay until I get back. My security system’s on—if an intruder shows up, I’ll be alerted before they ever make it inside. And you’ve got Brutus there to protect you, too.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, that makes me feel better.”

Another red light. Nate turned to me, eyes pleading. “Mad at me or not, I need you to stay in that house. Do you hear me? It’s the only way I can keep you safe.”

“Loud and clear.”
Wouldn’t want to lose your prized bait, now would you?

He watched my face a moment more. “Good. If you hear any strange noises or see anything unusual, you call me.”

I agreed, but only to silence him, not because I planned on following any of his damned instructions. This decoy was
done
.

* * * *

“Thanks for coming to pick me up, Charlie,” I said, climbing down out of his Hummer.

I hadn’t told Charlie that having him pick me up was the exact opposite of what Nate had told me to do. But what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, I had better things to do than sit trapped in that traitor’s house. Like coming home to bury myself in work on my real job so I could stop beating myself up for actually believing Nate cared about me.

I should never have stopped with my business-only plan. Hell, I never should have agreed to partnering up with him in the first place. Stupid, stupid,
stupid
.

“No prob. And thanks for letting me know about Lauren. Don’t know why Nate didn’t call.”

I looked away. Kicked at a pebble near the curb. “Oh, you know Nate. Probably all distracted with concern and forgot to call you.”

Charlie shrugged. “Nate’s a good guy. If there’s anyone I trust to take care of my friends and family, it’s him.”

Guilt jabbed at my subconscious. If Charlie trusted him so much, why had I found it so difficult? It didn’t matter, though. After tonight, I was done.

Done with Charlie. Done with Maxwell Office Solutions. And definitely done with Nate.

“Thanks again.” I headed toward the house, climbed the steps of my front porch, and unlocked the door. Then I offered him one last wave and stepped inside.

The Hummer pulled away from the curb, and I actually felt a little safer. Emotionally, anyway. I wasn’t sure how I’d break the news to Nate. Over the phone? A simple text message? Something along the lines of “your bait decided she wanted her life back,” or maybe “you can take this tracking device of yours and shove it up your @$$.”

I tossed my purse down, and made for the kitchen. Rummaged through the pantry for something to eat. Unfortunately, it was nearly as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s, what with me having to hide out at Charlie and Nate’s half the week. I couldn’t wait to get my life back to normal.

I settled for a bowl of cereal—my favorite meal, anyway—and set it on the table. Then I headed back to my room to retrieve my laptop. During the day, I liked to work at my desk. But at night, I found more comfort in our bright, yellow kitchen.

When I walked into my room, I found an even better reason not to work at my desk. Nate’s cologne still clung to some random piece of my clothing in the room, tickling more than just my sense of smell.

No, I refused to think about him. I was done.

So I held my breath. Snatched up my laptop, mouse and power cord and raced for the kitchen. Made a mental note along the way to spritz an entire bottle of Febreeze in my room before bedtime.

I got everything set up at the table and wolfed down my cereal before it had a chance to get soggy. Nothing worse than soggy cereal. Except maybe soggy cereal eaten alone. By someone depressed because they found out their boyfriend was using them.

Once my bowl was empty and cleared, I pushed the whole undercover debacle from my mind and began work on my real job. Responded to emails, immersed myself in programming code. It was there, in my element, hidden from the world behind an illuminated screen, I ever truly felt safe.

I’d only surfaced from that world twice in the time since high school. Once last summer with Daniel, and once this fall for Nate. Both times I’d been burned. Made me want to move to Alaska, so I could write code and live far enough away from the rest of civilization so as
not
to be tempted to surface ever again.

A knock at the front door finally broke my concentration. I glanced at the clock on the lower right on my computer screen. 8:00. Nate must be back. With a sigh, I rose from my chair and headed for the door. And all along the way, I tried to prep myself for The Talk.
Sorry, but it’s over. I can’t do this anymore. It’s not you, it’s me.

I swung the door open. Found not Nate, but Vanessa standing on my porch.

“Hey, Vanessa. W-what’s up?”

“Hi Jessica.” She offered me a timid smile. “I was hoping this was your place.”

Worry buzzed in the back of my mind. “Um, yeah, it is. How did you—”

“Milo,” she cut in. “I…I needed to talk to you about something. So he pulled your address for me.”

“Oh.” I swallowed the excess saliva now flooding my mouth.
So much for confidentiality.

“Plus, there was this nice gal jogging down the street.” Vanessa laughed. “She could tell I was lost. Said she knew you and thought this was your place. Was where she usually saw your boyfriend park his car.”

Katie. I mentally cursed. Out of habit, I reached up and touched my nose. “Lovely.”

“Can I…can I come in?”

Whatever it was she wanted to discuss, it had her pretty upset. She trembled like a leaf, and her hands clutched her purse like it was her only worldly possession. I thought about letting her in, then stopped. Warning alarms began to sound in my head. Why was she here? Couldn’t Milo have just given Vanessa my phone number?

And why had she made up all those lies about poor Frank Pitzen? I’d walked into his office that afternoon, fearing for my life. Discovered Frank was not only
not
a sexual predator, but a local minister who was happily married. Had pictures of their charity work and mission trips plastered all over his office.

But beyond all that, there was a much bigger reason not to let her in—I had photos of Grace everywhere in the room behind me. Definitely something I couldn’t let her see. So I tried to think up a quick excuse to get her off my porch.

“Sorry, Vanessa. I’ve…I’ve got company.”

“Yes, you do.” A deep voice came from directly behind me. Before I could turn around, a hand holding some kind of cloth clamped over my mouth. I tried to scratch and claw my way free from his grip, but I was no match for my intruder.

A second later, everything went black.

Chapter 32

I had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually I began to drift back toward consciousness. Wherever I was, it was dark. I couldn’t see anything, and seemed to be lying on my side. Felt vibration below me, followed by sporadic jostling that clipped my head each time.

The sound of voices reached my ears. Partially muted at first, like they were coming from the other end of a long hallway. Then I heard crying. And shouting.

“I told you I wanted out.” It was Vanessa’s voice. She sniffled. “First you hurt poor Grace. And now Jessica. It’s got to stop, Marcus.”

“Shut up,” my assailant snapped. Hearing him speak sent ice through my veins. “You never complained about your role before. You leave now, and you’ll lose everything. Your condo, that Mercedes…”

“I don’t care.” Vanessa began crying in force now. “I want out. I don’t want your damn money anymore. J-just let me out. It’s got to stop!”

Crack! Someone’s face got open-palmed. From the whimpering that followed, I could only guess it was Vanessa.