Breath of Malice (4 page)

Paige stared at the screen. She’d been expecting this, but still, hearing her worst fear confirmed made her insides quiver.

On the screen, Thames emerged from the courthouse. A reporter stuck a mic in his face. Thames’s lips moved, but Paige couldn’t hear what he was saying over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. Her stomach pitched. She was going to be sick. She plopped her coffee on the counter, then whirled away from Sam and left the break room.

She reached the ladies’ room in time to empty her stomach. Afterward, she rinsed her mouth, then splashed cold water on her face. When she lifted her head from the sink and gazed into her reflection, her face was corpse pale. Her stomach knotted with the worry of how Thames had tracked her to Denver, as if he’d seen inside her head when she’d made those plans. Ridiculous, she knew that. And yet, he’d found her. She closed her eyes, fighting back fear.

She patted her face dry with paper towels, then left the restroom. Sam was waiting for her outside.

He pushed off the wall. His gaze probed hers. “You okay?”

Paige cleared her throat. “Just a little stomach upset. Looks like the fish I had for lunch didn’t agree with me. That restaurant we stopped at did look iffy.”

“You sure that’s all it is?”

Paige’s body tensed. “What else would it be?” She tried a smile and hoped Sam didn’t notice how her lips trembled. “I won’t keep you any longer. You have a meeting.” She rushed on. “Mike and Riley are waiting for you.”

Before Sam could question her further, Paige brushed by him and went to her desk.

CHAPTER SIX

Paige woke up early the morning of the fund raiser. Showered and dressed, she left her bedroom. Ivy was already up. She was in the kitchen, reaching into the fridge.

The TV was on in the living room, tuned to what looked like a talk show, Paige saw as she walked by.

“And our guest today is human rights activist Dr. Gerald Prudence. Welcome, Doctor.”

“Thank you.”

“Dr. Prudence, you’ve been observing the Todd Thames proceedings. You’ve been very vocal in your support of Mr. Thames. How do you feel now, knowing that you were right about Mr. Thames’s innocence?”

Paige’s skin chilled. She stopped and turned to face the TV. Prudence’s pinched mouth pinched further, giving him the appearance of not having any lips.

“It’s shameful,”
Prudence said,
“and a miscarriage of justice that tainted evidence was what won a guilty verdict against Mr. Thames. I have a message for our exalted Federal Bureau of Investigation: Do your job. If the FBI had done its job, there would have been no need to manufacture evidence in a half-baked attempt to convict an innocent man. This was all about law enforcement wanting to close the books on these heinous crimes. The FBI buckled under the weight of public pressure and didn’t care if they had the right man. Any man would do, just as long as they could deliver a body, and even entering unlawfully obtained evidence wasn’t off the table. Evidence that may have been planted. Mr. Thames has the makings of a civil suit that would dent the government’s coffers. New York is a death penalty state. Had Mr. Thames’s sentence been carried out, an innocent man would have been put to death. Mr. Thames should now turn the tables and file criminal charges against the perpetrator or perpetrators who prejudiced these proceedings against him. We all need to get behind this cause. Raise our voices in protest. Make our presence known by marching at every FBI office in this country. We can’t allow law enforcement to run roughshod over innocent people. If it happened once, it can happen again. Be afraid, people. Be very afraid.”

Paige switched off the television. Thames was being made a martyr for wrongful convictions. More goose flesh sprang on her arms.

With her head inside the fridge, Ivy said quietly, “Last can of soda.”

Paige was still staring at the now dark television screen. She swallowed to get her throat to work. “Okay. Grocery run. Let’s go.”

“Now?”

Paige rubbed her hands down her face and scooped up her purse before she had a chance to change her mind and let thoughts of Thames keep her inside these walls. “At some point, you’re going to want another soda.”

Twenty minutes later, Paige pushed a cart through the double glass doors of the nearest grocery store. Saturday was their day for errands, and that was no different here in Kirk County than it had been in Denver or New York City. Paige found it necessary to negotiate the cart through the aisles carefully, mindful of children running up and down them and harried parents chasing after their offspring.

If Paige hadn’t been so distracted by thoughts of Thames, she would have noticed that Ivy became somber once inside the grocery store, more so than she had been in the apartment.

They went about adding items to the cart in silence. When Ivy stopped selecting things and moving along the aisle, it didn’t strike Paige right away, but the movement all around her brought Ivy’s stillness home to Paige.

“You okay?” Paige asked her sister. When Ivy gave her a look as if Paige were the biggest moron, Paige added, “I’ll clarify. Are you less okay at this moment?”

Ivy’s gaze darted up, then down, and her hands balled into fists on the arms of her wheelchair. Paige saw where Ivy had been looking. Two girls were at the end of the aisle tossing potato chips and assorted snacks into their baskets.

“What’s going on there?” Paige asked.

Ivy gave Paige a mutinous look. “If you want to know, there’s a party happening tonight, and everyone in the class was invited—everyone but me. I’m the new girl at school. Again.”

Paige’s attempt to ask Ivy about her first week at school had been met with silence. Paige closed her eyes briefly, hurting for Ivy.

Ivy said, “And if I had been invited, it isn’t as if I could have gone anyway. You would have said no.” Ivy’s chin lifted in challenge. “Would you have let me go, Paige?”

Not knowing if Thames had someone tailing her had made Paige wary and kept her on guard. Since she’d left New York, she made sure not to get to know anyone and not to let anyone know her. As a result, Ivy lived in isolation as well. Now Paige couldn’t deny that Ivy was right.

Ivy’s features tightened. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Ivy moved away from Paige as quickly as she could and joined a checkout line.

The drive back to the apartment was another silent one. Ivy kept her head turned to the window. Not wanting to hear any more endorsements of Thames, Paige left the radio off.

Back in the apartment, Ivy maintained her silence as she and Paige put away the groceries.

Paige wanted to make up for the loss of the party, and the best she could do was offer her an alternative where Paige could be present at all times. Other than school, where Ivy was in a closed, monitored environment among many people, Paige was always with her sister.

Paige shelved a box of Ivy’s favorite candy bars. “My office is helping out at a fund raiser in Kirk County Park today. My shift ends at three. When I’m done, I can pick you up and we can go back there and hang out. Go on a few rides. Eat too much junk food. It’ll be fun.”

“Not interested.”

Paige felt her temper spark and her heart squeeze. “Ivy, I know things aren’t ideal, but I’m really trying here. I’m trying to do what’s best for us.”

Ivy’s lower lip quivered. “If you really wanted what was best for me, we would still be in New York.”

Ivy abandoned the ice cream she was about to put in the freezer and left the kitchen.

Paige bowed her head, feeling the weight of her failures with Ivy like an anvil on her chest. Again, Paige felt a deep sorrow over that and a sense of helplessness about how to close the ever-widening gap between her and her sister. Rubbing her eyes against the sting of useless tears, she stuck the ice cream in the freezer. The rest of the groceries weren’t perishable and were going to have to wait to be put away. She needed to leave for the park.

Mrs. Hendershot’s directions were precise, and Paige found the park easily. Sam’s truck was in the lot. She noted the many open spaces before parking beside his vehicle. Pocketing her keys, she tucked her handbag under her seat, then got out and locked the doors.

Wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Paige looped her ponytail through the back of the Kirk County General Hospital ball cap she’d bought to support the cause and to keep the sun off her head. Over her T-shirt, she’d added a button-down shirt to conceal the holster clipped to her waistband that held her Glock.

The day was already in full swing with parents and grandparents being towed by children. There were more people than she’d expected given the number of cars in the parking lot.

As she made her way to the grill area, Paige scanned the faces in the crowd, looking for anyone who appeared out of place or who might be watching her. She was terrified that the next face in the crowd she saw would be Thames’s.

She had no reason to suspect Thames had found her, no reason to jump at shadows, but even telling herself that didn’t combat the fear brought on by the fact that he’d found her twice already. Her fingers twitched above her Glock.

A trio of excited preteens ran into her path. Paige dodged them and moved on. The atmosphere was festive and loud. Music came from the midway. The scents of cotton candy and popcorn wafted on the air.

Paige reached the grilling station. Sam was at one of the two grills and dressed casually as well in a T-shirt and jeans. If her life wasn’t what it was, she would have been able to appreciate that he looked as good dressed down as he did in his work clothes. The T-shirt and jeans defined the hard, muscled body his suits had hinted at. He hadn’t shaved, and the scruff made him look sexier. His looks, Paige noted, would speed up the heart rate of any breathing woman.

Sam’s gaze settled on her face. “Feeling okay today?”

Paige’s brow knotted. “Sorry?”

“The fish yesterday.”

She remembered the excuse she’d given Sam for racing to the ladies’ room after hearing that Thames was free. “Fine now.”

“Good. Grab an apron. Burgers are in the cooler behind the table. I have your grill going.”

Sam stepped aside for her to walk past him. Paige eased in behind the grill, approaching it warily. “This one’s mine?” The grill looked older than Paige. Plumes of smoke spiraled into the air.

Sam’s lips curved in a smile. “Don’t let the old girl intimidate you. She’s all bluster.”

While Paige donned an apron, Sam placed burgers on the grill. Mrs. Hendershot strode up to them. She was wearing dark shorts and a long cotton top.

Mrs. Hendershot shook out an apron with a loud snap. “Good afternoon, sir. Agent Carson.”

Before Paige or Sam could offer a greeting in return, Mrs. Hendershot went to a table that had been set up with a cash register.

A family of five ambled up to the grills. Sam faced them. “What can I get you?”

Paige quickly lost count of the number of burgers she served. The grills were doing a swift business. Mrs. Hendershot managed the cash and kept the coolers stocked and the line moving at a fast clip. The woman was a whirlwind of organization.

Sam introduced Paige to the people he knew. She would have preferred to remain faceless and nameless in the background, but there wasn’t any way to do that, she found. She nodded and commented appropriately after each greeting. The one good thing about Sam identifying the people he knew was that Paige could dismiss them as threats.

But Kirk was a large county, and Sam didn’t know all of the residents or those who’d come over for the day from neighboring counties. It was those unknowns who made Paige tense. She could have come face-to-face with someone dispatched to watch her and never have known it.

“Paige?”

Paige startled at Sam’s voice. “Sorry, what?”

Sam pointed to the burgers. “They’re burning.”

“Oh!” Paige turned the patties.

Sam turned away from the grill and gave Paige his full attention. “Something on your mind? You’re quiet. More quiet than usual.”

Since coming to Kirk, Paige mainly spoke to Sam, and everyone else for that matter, only when spoken to. It caught her off guard that he’d noticed. “Nothing important,” she lied.

At three o’clock, Harry showed up along with Dom to relieve Paige and Sam. Despite the hot day and the heat coming off the grills, Harry wore a Shakespearean hat with a feather sticking out of it and a long, flowing robe that looked like a costume from
Julius Caesar
. He was a walking advertisement for the production, which was likely the idea.

“Relief’s here!” Harry called out, throwing his arms up and grinning.

Sam set his spatula on a tray on the table, then stepped out from behind the grill. “All yours.”

“Now why can’t that be said of some gorgeous brunette?” Harry heaved a sigh. “Paige?”

“Be careful, Harry,” Sam tossed back. “She carries a gun.”

Harry rolled his eyes as far back in his head as he could and splayed his hand across his chest. “Be still, my heart. I think I’m in love.”

Harry’s easygoing nature and harmless teasing had made Paige smile in her week with this team, but just now, she had to work up that smile. She was glad to see her shift come to an end. She was wired tight from being on for the last few hours, putting on a show of normalcy for Sam and everyone she’d come into contact with, and from her constant vigilance.

Dom greeted Paige, then took her spot. As he faced the next person in line, Paige took her keys from her pocket and made her way toward the parking lot. Sam walked by her side. Unlike when she’d arrived, the lot was now filled with vehicles. It was impossible to take in the entire area at a glance. Her tensed shoulders didn’t relax until she reached her van.

Paige turned to Sam. “See you Monday.”

“Monday.”

But when Paige pressed her key fob, the van doors remained locked. Frowning, she used the key to open the door, got in, and stuck her key in the ignition, but the engine wouldn’t start. She tried again. After the third time, Sam appeared at her window. Without power, she couldn’t lower the window. She opened the door.

“Pop the hood,” he said.

Paige did so, then joined him outside.

He bent over the engine. “See this?” Sam pointed. “It’s your alternator. That black stuff around it shows that your fan belt is burning. The alternator must have seized. You’ll need a new one.”

“How do you know that’s what it is?” Paige’s palms went damp. Was an alternator something that could be tampered with?

“I worked my way through college fixing cars at a service station.”

But she had to know if anyone could have caused the alternator to seize. “What makes an alternator seize?”

The van had a few years and miles on it. Sam explained that what had happened had likely resulted from normal wear and tear.

On her own since she was a teenager, she’d become self-reliant. She’d taken a basic automotive course that included quick, temporary fixes, and she had some knowledge of how things worked in a vehicle. With Thames dogging her, she could not allow herself to become stranded anywhere. But her knowledge about cars in no way came close to Sam’s. “That puts you a million steps above me in automotive knowledge.” Paige felt relieved that it was nothing more than a random occurrence. “Can you recommend a service station?”

Sam rubbed his chin with the pad of his thumb, and the stubble rasped, the sound as sexy as the look.

“There’s one off Main,” Sam said. “I’ll take you there.”

“I can just give them a call rather than take you out of your way.”

“It’s not far.”

She’d always been averse to accepting help of any kind. Before Thames, being self-sufficient had been a matter of pride and arrogance. But now, not relying on anyone but herself had become a matter of survival. “I’ll grab my bag.”