Intrusion (7 page)

With one small gesture Cameron had made her feel human and in control of her own life again.

Chapter Five

Russ’s thigh brushed against Margaret’s as she sat next to him on the plum sofa in Dr. Henning’s office. Two days ago, at Russ’s insistence, she’d allowed Noelle to be transferred here from St. Joseph’s. It was a good move, she knew it, but she still couldn’t help wondering if she’d done the right thing.

She’d never be able to repay Russ—and he insisted he wouldn’t let her. Yet, instead of feeling grateful, she worried her daughter was slipping further out of her grasp. As if Russ was going to snatch Noelle and carry her off to his mansion nestled against the foothills of Camelback Mountain.

She swallowed hard, fixed her watery eyes on the pastel handprint artwork hanging on the wall, and said nothing until Dr. Henning entered the room, settling his thin frame behind his desk.

“How is she?” The words had difficulty moving past her throat.

Dr. Henning’s angular cheekbones softened from the small smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth. “The MRI showed a large increase in Noelle’s brain activity. We’ve removed the ventilator and she’s been breathing fine on her own for the past twenty-four hours. It’s my belief that the coma is allowing her brain as well as her body to heal. I don’t see any evidence of irreversible brain trauma, and it’s my hope she’ll come out of it when her body is ready.”

“Thank God.” Russ found her hand and squeezed, his fingers brushing her palm. “That’s good news, Mags.”

Yes, it was. But she was almost afraid to hope.

“What if she doesn’t regain consciousness?”

Dr. Henning leaned forward in his chair. “Brain injuries are tricky, Ms. Stanton. Nothing is one hundred percent. There’s always a chance Noelle could stay in a coma indefinitely, but I see no medical evidence to support that scenario. Rest assured, we will closely monitor her and do everything we can for her.”

Russ grinned down at her and her heart flip-flopped. She reached for him, her fingers fisting in the front of his polo shirt. Realizing what she’d done, she let go immediately and scooted away from him.

“I—I’m sorry.”

His brown eyes roved over her face in that tender, intimate way she remembered so well. “Mags…” He touched her cheek with his knuckle. “Don’t be uncomfortable with me, okay?”

She nodded and his warmth enveloped her in a gentle, familiar embrace.

His breath stirred the hair near her ear. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

Dr. Henning cleared his throat and she pulled away from Russ, heat streaking across her cheeks. A few nice words, a little sincere comfort and she wanted to believe in Russ again. How did he always manage to do that to her?

“Given Noelle’s prognosis,” Russ continued, “maybe you should start resuming some of your normal activities.”

Fear gripped her heart. “What? No! I want to be with Noelle—in case she wakes up.”

Russ frowned. “Margaret. You need adequate rest—”

“I’m fine. I get plenty of sleep—”

“Sleeping in a chair next to Noelle’s bed is not quality sleep. Everything that can be done for our daughter is being done right here by the doctors and nurses. No one’s saying you can’t see her every day. But for your own health, you need to take care of yourself.” Russ stroked a hand across her shoulder. “Come on, Honey. You’re exhausted.”

Honey.

Her belly fluttered at the endearment. It amazed her how easily she’d let Russ back in her life. Sixteen years of bitterness, of struggle, and suddenly here he was, as if they’d never been separated.

Stupidity? Maybe. But she needed to believe in this. In them. She needed to trust that Russ really had a change of heart and wanted a place in his daughter’s life.

“We’re happy to continue providing you with a rollaway bed, Ms. Stanton. But it’s understandable that you may need time away from the hospital.” Dr. Henning slid a small black beeper across his desk. “If anything happens with Noelle—she wakes up, or there’s an emergency—you’ll be paged immediately. That’s my promise to you.”

Russ plucked the pager off the table and held it out to her. “I couldn’t bear it if you collapsed from exhaustion. It will do you good to get some rest, maybe even go back to work part-time.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss against her cheek. “Noelle is going to need you more than ever when she wakes up.”

She slid her fingers against her skin. Her cheek was still warm from his lips and she wanted to hold the tender moment close to her heart. Except she’d been here before. Experienced Russ’s gentleness and love only to have him break her heart. She had to remember he was here for Noelle. Not for her.

She straightened and tugged the beeper from his hand. It slipped into her palm. “You’re right. What good will I be to Noelle when she wakes up if I don’t take care of myself.”

***

Her backyard looked exactly as she’d left it. Audra stared at the golden blooms on her sweet acacia tree from her vantage point inside the pickup truck. How could everything still look so normal when her life was in turmoil? If she stepped under that tree would time cease long enough for her to remember what normal felt like?

It might be her last chance to experience it.

“I don’t like this.” Cameron leaned across her to peer out the window, his sandalwood scent catching her breath every bit as much as the press of his hard body against her. “Let’s get in and get out. Fast.”

She reached around him for the door handle. “Do you want the research or not? It’ll just take a minute for me to grab it.”

The door emitted a soft creak when she opened it. Cameron made no attempt to move, forcing her to brush against him as she slipped out of the truck. She tamped down her body’s tingling response. Lifting the latch on her gate, she ducked into the yard. In ten steps she was to the door—with Cameron at her back.

She spun around. “What are you doing?”

“You didn’t really expect me to let you go in there by yourself, did you?”

“No, I don’t mean that.” She pressed herself against the door but could still feel the heat of him closing in on her. “You’re…hovering.”

Laughter rumbled from his chest. “I’m hovering?” He took the smallest step backward, so small it couldn’t even be counted as a step. “Better?”

“Much.”

Damn it, he had the tenacity of a pit bull mixed with the irritating tendencies of a hyperactive poodle. Why did she find that unusual combination intriguing? And unsettling.

She flushed. “I don’t have my keys.”

“Of course you don’t. The cops weren’t going to take the chance you’d stab them through the eye with it. You being a dangerous criminal and all.”

He slipped the leather pouch back out of his pocket and withdrew the pick. In seconds he had the lock popped. The door sprang open and she stepped inside. Sunlight streamed through the window, bouncing off the bright colors of her Mediterranean style kitchen. The doors on the cherry cabinets hung drunkenly from their hinges, broken dishes crunched under her feet as she stepped around the breakfast bar and into the living room.

She attempted a gasp, but somehow a shriek tumbled from her mouth instead. All the books in her bookcase lay in a heap on the floor. Her throw pillows littered the carpet and the doors on her entertainment center had been ripped off, the contents of the cabinets strewn about her living room.

“Oh, my God.” She pressed her hand to her mouth.

Strong hands gripped at her arms to steady her. Cameron drew her body against the solid wall of his chest.

“Jeez.” His whisper blew against her ear and he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Stay here. Don’t move until I get back.”

She nodded. Her stomach heaved and her legs shook. He released her, picked his way around the living room and disappeared down the hall.

Someone had broken into her house. Her lovely, beautiful house that she’d taken great pains to decorate in a way that radiated happy and positive vibes. Her throat constricted and her breath couldn’t find its way up from her lungs. Whoever did this had destroyed the one place she’d finally called home.

Cameron returned, jaw rigid and brows drawn into a frown. “They hit every room. But they’re long gone.”

She tried to nod, to respond, but spots swam in front of her vision.

Rough hands gripped hers. “Hey, look at me.”

The tightness in her chest squeezed itself into an iron fist. She forced her gaze to meet his and blinked his features back into focus.

He cupped her jaw. His thumb brushed across her cheek. “Breathe. Come on, Audra, give it up.”

A great gulp of air quivered up from her toes and rushed past her dry lips. “The cops?”

His hand dropped away from her face. He moved farther into her living room and bent down to sift through a pile of organic chemistry texts. “No, the cops wouldn’t do this. Did anyone know you kept a copy of your research here?”

“No. Charlie is real prickly about taking data out of the lab. But I didn’t feel comfortable with having only a single backup copy at Nanodyne.” She stepped around a pile of papers and moved to her trashed brocade sofa with its lively floral print. The cushions had been stripped. Exposed. Just like her. “It’s the one thing I kept from Charlie.”

The slap of a book against the carpet echoed behind her. “Where?”

“In—in that drawer.” She pointed to the cracked bookcase. “Top left.”

He yanked it open. The empty drawer came out in his hands. “It’s long gone.” He dropped the drawer to the carpet. It hit the floor with a loud crack. “Damn it!”

“No.” Her heart sank. “They’ve taken everything from me!”

He grabbed the back of his neck. “You know what I don’t get? If the surveillance images caught you and I together, did they also show the security guard who was in your lab that night?”

“You saw a security guard in my lab?” Her pulse jumped, but she forced it back to its normal rhythm with one deep breath. “He may have been caught on camera, but it wouldn’t raise any red flags. He’s paid to do rounds.”

“Even if he was lifting fingerprints off your mug, messing with your computers and sniffing your hairbrush?”

She turned, shock dropping her jaw. “Sniff—”

Cam cut her off with a wave of his hand. “He had to have been after the armor.”

Why?
That seemed to be the question of the day. It clambered through her brain in an endless rhythm.
Why, Why, Why?

“But it was still in the vault when I came in.”

He shrugged. “Then he must have gone back for it later. Could he have been tipped off about your arrival?”

“I don’t see how. I hadn’t planned on going in.” She shook her head in confusion. “What did he look like?”

“Black hair, bulky build, kind of a cross between Brad Pitt and Frankenstein. Ring any bells?”

Brad Pitt and...Frankenstein?

Tension sprouted along her temple and she reached up to rub the throbbing spot. Now that he mentioned it...

“I...It could’ve been Joe Walker. He’s been a guard at Nanodyne since before I started there. But why would he want to steal my prototype?”

“For the hefty sum it would acquire on the black market.”

She frowned and caught a glint of something shiny in her peripheral vision. Stepping over the cushions and a book on molecular properties, she sank to her knees. Shattered glass littered the floor. Beneath a heavy marble bookend a simple silver picture frame lay with a large dent at one of the corners.

Her mother.

The photo was the only one Audra owned—and a large shard of glass had lanced her mother’s face. Brushing away the broken fragments, she slid the image free of its frame and clutched it to her chest.

She bit the inside of her lip to hold back the cry that threatened to erupt from her throat. “Do you think Joe...did he do this?”

The muscles in Cameron’s face softened, one of his strong hands touched her chin and nudged it up. “I’m sorry, Audra, but I just don’t know.”

She tightened her mouth at his gentle voice. He treated her with such compassion, as if she could rely on him to solve this mess. Dangerous thinking. Her heart took up a panicked flight and she barely suppressed her legs from following suit.

He took hold of her shoulders, his grip firm yet tender, and guided her to her feet. His eyes wouldn’t leave hers, and his face grew serious in a way she hadn’t seen before, all rough angles and taut energy.

If she’d thought her heart was pounding wildly before, it was nothing compared to the way it thumped in her chest now. Fear, longing, anticipation, all of them fought to take root—but she couldn’t let them.

“We’ll figure out who did this. We have to. My reputation is on the line here, and I’m not going down for this.”

“You’re not going down for this?” She shrugged out of his hold and moved away from him. “What happened to your liberal use of the word ‘we’?”

“Audra, that’s not what I meant.”

He reached for her but she dodged him, scooting around the piles of her trashed stuff and slipping into her bedroom. He didn’t care about helping her. This was all about him. His reputation. His hide.

Her drawers had been yanked out of her dresser and overturned. Clothes were strewn all over the floor and the mattress had been shoved off the bed. She needed to get changed and get the heck out of here. This place was no longer home to her.

She drew in a shaky breath and stripped off her suit jacket to reveal the lacy white camisole beneath. “That’s exactly what you meant.
Cameron.
”

And she wasn’t going to stick around and let him use her just so he could keep out of jail.

“It’s Cam.” He filled her doorway, his gray eyes narrowed. “My mother was the only one who could get away with calling me Cameron, and—” His gaze slid down her body, halting at her breasts before veering back up to her face. “—you sure as hell aren’t her.”

Her nipples tightened under his stare, and she fought to ignore the clenching low in her belly. “If I was, I’d remind you it’s not polite to use people.” She gripped the edge of the door. “Unless you want to lose your toes, I suggest you step back.”

He leapt away from the door as she slammed it and clicked the lock. “What—”