Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (16 page)

"Not exactly.
He surfaced from the East River with a .44 caliber slug in the back of his head.
Forensics placed his time of death at about twenty four hours after the Harrison murder."

"
Which means he wasn’t the one stalking her?
She’s still in danger."

Martinez shuffled the papers around his desk.
“The captain feels differently.
She wasn’t sure herself if the guy in the library threatened her or if she just got spooked.”

Wolf raked an angry hand through his hair.
“And the note?”

“Coincidence?” Martinez said with a shrug.
“Taken alone, there wasn’t anything threatening in the message.
A statement of historical fact.”

“So we walk away and see if history repeats itself?”

“Looks that way.
Once we finish up with the paper work, we’ll be reassigned.”
His partner seemed resigned but not any more confident in the orders than Wolf.

“Great.
Our case is closed, so we leave her without any protection?"
Cold anger washed over him.
He broke a pencil between his fingers with a violent snap.

Martinez grinned.
“For someone who didn’t want the
babysitting
job, you seem a little ticked off by the opportunity to get back out on the streets."

Granted, Wolf hadn’t wanted the assignment, but neither could he walk away now when he felt in his gut that she was still in danger.
Very likely, from someone she knew.
He’d already failed one person who had trusted him.
He wasn’t going to screw up again.

"We’re still on the case until the end of the day.
Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Yeah.
Keep digging into her fam
ily. Her ex-husband, her cousin
, her mother, her half-brother and even her uncle.
What are their finances like, any bad habits that might make them hungry for
money?
And check with her father's lawyer.
See if Kelsey has a will and who would benefit if she were to meet with an accident."

Martinez shrugged. "Why don't you just ask her?"

"Tell her I’m investigating her family?”
Wolf imagined how that might go over.
He liked the current arrangement of his body parts so he wasn’t about to tick off the petite black belt with the lethal snap-kick.
She might see her family’s faults, but she was not ready to accept any of them as a threat.
Hell!
She had spent half her time in the mall yesterday, Christmas shopping for them.
“Did they turn up anything on that doll?"

"Nope.
No clue as to where it came from or who purchased it.
With luck, we’ll be able to turn up something by the end of the day.
Otherwise, she’ll be on her own."

“The hell she will.”

Martinez cocked his eyebrow in question.
“Are you getting a little personal with this?”

Wolf took it personally when a thug decided to terrorize a woman.
And he took it personally when that culprit flaunted his crimes under the nose of the NYPD. More than anything, he took it damned personally that Kelsey had put her faith in him.
He wasn’t going to walk away now, even if it meant going on leave or using his vacation time.

“It’s purely professional,” he lied to his partner.

"Yeah, right.
You could do worse, you know.”

“And she could do a lot better.”
The words came out without thinking, but only because the truth had never been far from his thoughts.
He knew Kelsey felt something for him.
Witnesses often became attached to the person protecting them.
When the case ended and she was safe again, the differences in their worlds would become obvious to her. They couldn’t sustain a relationship for the long haul when they had no common ground to stand on.

* * *

Kelsey pushed her glasses back on her nose and glanced at her watch.
Where was Wolf?
His note had said he would be gone a couple of hours.
He had been gone five.
She tried to concentrate on the contracts before her.
She was tempted to sign without reading the documents first.

Daniel hovered in the corner, making her even more anxious.
She’d been awakened by her uncle's arrival two hours earlier.
He apologized for the inexcusable scene with her mother the day before.
He had better sense than to try to change her mind about the condo.
She generally let him handle the properties, however, when she did make a decision, she stood her ground.

"Kelsey, I have other business to attend to today," Daniel reminded her.

This wasn't how she planned to spend her morning either.
Her night hadn't gone much better.
The closer she tried to get, the more
Wolf kept
her at a distance.
She thought about the irony of her current situation.
For the past few years, she had shied away from intimate relationships.
She’d finally come to terms with her fears, and she was ready to trust her heart again.
Unfortunately, the object of her affections couldn’t trust her with his heart.

Daniel cleared his throat to get her wandering attention.

"I'm sorry.
Leave the papers and I'll messenger them over later this afternoon."

"I can stay a few more minutes."

"I can't finish in a few minutes.
Did you bring the applications for the scholarship?"

Daniel joined her at the roll-top desk.
"I wanted to speak to you about that.
In the past few years the foundation awarded four scholarships a year.
I think with the rising cost of colleges you should cut it down to two."

"No.
Dad left the trust for four scholarships a year and that's what we'll do."

"Kelsey.
You don't understand business."

"It has nothing to do with the business.
The foundation money is separate. The matter isn't open for discussion.”
The scholarship program had been her father’s pet project and she continued the tradition in his name.

"All right.
About your
farmhouse
.
Two of the tenants dropped out of school and the other two can’t afford the rent.
Of course, they understand they must forgo the security if they break the lease."

“If they left the place in decent shape, I’ll give it back anyway.”

“You’re losing money.
It might take a while to rent it out again.
Unless you would consider selling.”

“Never.”
She tipped back in the chair and rested her feet on the edge of the desk.
"Actually, I plan to move back there, Uncle Daniel.
When the semester is over, I'll be leaving the city."

“You can’t be serious,” her uncle muttered in disgust.

Nothing held her here except a lot of sad memories. Her farm was home.
The place where she had gone to heal after her marriage.
Her turn-of-the-century
farmhouse
, with its colonial charm offered a peace she had never found in the city. She would need that comfort once again when her time with Wolf came to an end.

“I am serious, Uncle.
As a matter of fact, I’ve decided to sell off all the properties.
I don’t want to handle it.
You should be getting ready to retire and enjoy the rest of your life, not running yourself crazy handling all the different concerns for me.”
Ever since Wolf had made the off-handed suggestion, Kelsey had been thinking about the idea.
Why drive herself and her uncle crazy?
She hoped to simplify her life.

“Have I ever complained?”

“No.
But it’s not the same as when my father was alive. It’s too much for either of us.”

Daniel puffed up indignantly.
“No it’s not.”

Kelsey had unintentionally insulted him by comparing her father to her uncle and felt immediately guilty.
“I’m sorry, but it’s too much for me.
I want out of it.”

He opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut again when Wolf returned to the condo and headed towards the study.
Daniel never discussed business in front of outsiders.

He glanced at his watch. "We’ll discuss this later, Kelsey.
I have to be leaving.
You send those papers over as soon as you're finished."

Wolf’s timely return spared her further arguments with her uncle.
Her mood lifted and her energy returned.
Now she could spend her afternoon on a more enticing battle of wills with the stubborn detective.

* * *

Wolf strode into the living room as Daniel Carlyle stormed out without a word.
What was his problem?
Kelsey looked much happier as she sat in a wing chair with her head resting against the back.
He flopped down on a sofa. "Was it something I said?"

She met his gaze and grinned. "No.
Something I said.
I told him I
wanted to sell off everything and move back to my farm.
He didn't take it well."

"You're leaving the city?" he repeated.
His stomach knotted.
Why did he care?
Wasn’t he the one who had said she'd be better off without him?

"I told you I was only here for school."

"What are you going to do on a farm by yourself?"

“First thing I’ll do is get a dog to keep me company.”
She removed her glasses and sat on the sofa next to him.
The familiar vanilla scent of her perfume lingered in the air, wreaking havoc with his concentration. "And maybe I'll raise cows."

"Cows?
Do a lot of cows need the services of a social worker?”

“Probably not.
They pretty much know their purpose in life and usually don’t have a difficult time dealing with the day to day stress.”

“You can’t run away from life and bury yourself on a farm.”

She tucked her denim clad legs beneath her, Indian style.
Her teal sweater outlined the full swells of her breasts as she rolled her shoulders in a shrug.
“Why not?
We all bury our pain in something.
Some people even bury it in denial.”

“Are you referring to anyone in particular?”