Secret Agent Boyfriend (11 page)

Carson stood on the far side of the kitchen with Derek, their heads bent now that an ambulance had been called. Landry knew without being told that their little powwow was because neither thought the blackout was an accident.

There was no bad weather, and the house had a backup generator that kicked in when they did lose power. The pitch black that had descended over Adair Acres was immediate and absolute.

And it put them in jeopardy.

With no backup generator, the house alarm and every bit of security was turned off.

* * *

Carson swung the beam of his flashlight across the wall of the security center. The panel that was perpetually lit with blinking lights was dark, snuffed out by their latest power problem.

“There’s no way this is a fluke. Someone did this.”

“The security center
and
the generator.” Derek swung his own beam of light, searching for the circuit breaker he’d seen earlier. “Yeah. Someone’s behind this.”

“But who? I know we’ve not been as on top of the employees coming and going, but the security here’s good. Top-of-the-line. My father would expect nothing less.”

“You and Whit have both dealt with problems in the last few months.” Derek found the panel on the far wall and unhooked the thin metal door. “Is it possible they’ve come back to roost?”

“I find that hard to believe. My mother was behind the danger to Elizabeth, and I took care of the bastard who was after Georgia.”

Derek digested Carson’s words as he examined the circuit breaker. Even though he wanted to find some other answer for what was happening, Carson wasn’t off the mark. The recent threats felt new—and different—from what the Adairs had been living with since Reginald’s murder.

It was possible Patsy Adair could have hired someone again, but he had a hard time believing she’d threaten her own daughter. And while obviously scary when they were happening, the threats on Elizabeth and Georgia had been dealt with.

Which left Landry as the current target.

“Only a few people know the reason why you’re here,” Carson said. “Whit and Elizabeth, Landry, our aunt Kate, and me and Georgia.”

“Yet none of this started happening until I got here. Why?”

“I have no idea. You’ve done a convincing job of making everyone think you’re my sister’s new boyfriend.”

Derek didn’t miss the slightly disgruntled tones in Carson’s voice but ignored them. Instead, the heated moments in Landry’s room came flooding back, filling his thoughts with vivid, erotic images of them together. His already-heated body responded and Derek was grateful for the dark.

He went back to work on the breaker panel, willing his body to calm. But the woman had him in knots.

“I want to go out and look at the generator.” Carson disappeared and Derek let out a raw breath. It was only when he turned back toward the unit that he saw a set of lights flash on the server panel connected to the security center. Light illuminated the hallway, and Derek reached for the room switch they hadn’t bothered to turn on when they arrived.

Overhead light flooded the darkness, and several beeps echoed from the computer monitors as they rebooted.

Although he’d taken all the requisite training in cybercrime and basic technology courses, he was still out of his depth when it came to all the ins and outs of computer forensics. Mark was a whiz, and he’d depended on him for the heavy lifting when necessary.

Even with his limited knowledge, he knew enough to know the wavy lines growing brighter on the screens were a bad sign. The whirling of sirens dragged his attention from the immediate problem and he vowed to return after they got Kathleen safely to the hospital. He’d give Mark a call and ask him to walk them through correcting it if need be.

He’d nearly left when Noah came barreling through the door, his breathing heavy. “What the hell is going on around here? I heard the ambulance and just saw the sirens. Who’s hurt?”

“Kathleen. She tripped when the lights went off. It looks like she broke her leg.”

“When did the lights go off?” A puzzled frown crossed Noah’s face, his hands on his hips. “I’ve been down in the stable for the last two hours doing some paperwork and had power the whole time.”

“Nothing went out?”

“Nope. I’d still be down there if I hadn’t heard the sirens.”

Derek’s knowledge of electricity was even less developed than his computer skills, but even he knew that was odd. “The power went off up here, along with the backup generator. Doesn’t that power the stables, too?”

“Nope. We have a separate generator down there.” Noah shook his head but a heightened sense of awareness sparked in his eyes as he let out a sharp expletive. “This isn’t an act of Mother Nature. Someone did this.”

“On that we’re in agreement.”

“Just like a snake doesn’t magically get into a sealed feed bin.”

“No. But like leaving the snake’s canvas bag behind, whoever did this left us a clue.”

“I don’t think I follow.”

“The bastard wasn’t aware of a backup generator in the stables. Which means we should be able to backtrack through the security feeds from the barn and find out what he did.”

“You can do that?”

“I can’t. But I think I know someone who can.”

Chapter 11

L
andry fought the urge to lay her head on Derek’s shoulder and instead watched the strange ballet that was a hospital waiting room. Doctors or nurses came in frequently to provide updates to loved ones. She’d watched through the night—had seen the look of hope cross each face, followed by sobering relief or the heartbreaking reality of grief—and had wondered how those kindly souls could keep doing it.

Day after day, caring for those who’d been hurt, sometimes beyond repair.

They’d been fortunate to receive good news of their own—Kathleen was in surgery now to repair her broken leg—but even knowing she’d recover, things had irrevocably changed for their cook.

“She’ll be okay. It’s a bad break, that’s all. They’ll fix her up.”

Derek had tried repeatedly to reassure her, but Landry couldn’t stop worrying. Kathleen was seventy-one. A break like this would be hard for anyone to recover from, but a woman of her age wasn’t going to simply bounce back.

Whit had taken Elizabeth home earlier to rest, and Carson and Georgia had gone off to fetch bad coffee from the vending machine. There had been one other couple in the waiting room who finally left, and she and Derek had the room to themselves.

Tabling her worries about Kathleen, Landry focused on the bigger picture. “The house power and the generator? There’s no way both went out at the same time. It smacks of sabotage.”

She appreciated when Derek only nodded his agreement with her assessment. Maybe they really had become partners.

In name only
, her still-bruised ego bandied back at her.

But partners all the same.

“Noah was down at the stables when it happened. The generator there was untouched.”

A renewed wave of panic swamped her as she thought about Pete, Diego and the other occupants of the barn. “What is wrong with me? I didn’t even think about the horses.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you and there was nothing to think about. Noah was with them the entire time and they’re safe. And possibly sitting on the clues we need.”

“What clues?”

He walked her through his theory—how the fact that the security wasn’t breached in the stable meant they might be able to electronically backtrack to the person trying to do them harm. “You know how to do that? Work your way through reams of computer code?”

“No, but Mark does. I’ll call him in the morning.”

A wholly unreasonable shot of alarm clenched her stomach in a hard knot. Unable to stem the rising panic, she fought to keep her voice calm. “Are you sure about that?”

“Of course. He’s good at it, too. It’s how he ended up in missing persons.”

“Computers?”

“He cracked a major drug ring in the Pacific Northwest, tracking it back to a series of cyberattacks they’d perpetrated.”

“That group a few years back? The Rainier Cartel?”

That sting had made the evening news, and Landry recalled the importance of the bust and the positive effect it would have on crime as far south as San Diego.

“Mark did that? The man I met the other day?”

“That was his case. Or he was part of the team on that case. It’s how he ended up getting his transfer to Los Angeles.”

Landry tried to assimilate an agent capable of cracking down on a problem that large and the man she’d met at the FBI offices the other day and found herself unable to reconcile the two.

The man she’d met had seemed soft and deeply lazy. And not because of hours spent behind a computer, working through layer upon layer of code. No, it was something else.

She respected Derek’s opinion, but no matter how hard she’d tried to reframe her image of Mark, her first impression had been of a man who was jealous of those around him.

Perpetually overlooked by the brass and forever angry, convinced it was someone else’s fault.

“You don’t think all that well of him, do you?”

“I didn’t get a good vibe off of him. So. Well. No, I don’t.”

She saw Derek nod, his gaze considering. “Would you feel better if I called someone else at the Bureau to help?”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course. I trust Mark but I trust you, too. And I’ve got a few other team members I can call. I’ll get one of them to look into this for me.”

“Thank you.”

The sexual disappointment she’d felt earlier came back in full force, tinged with a layer of sadness.

The two of them were good together.

Their chemistry was explosive, yes, but it was something more. Something that went far deeper than simple attraction. And she’d sensed it from their very first morning ride on the horses.

She and Derek Winchester clicked.

Over the past few months, she’d observed the same sort of chemistry when she watched her brothers and their new wives. She’d been unable to put the sense into words, but it was fascinating to now realize she understood it on a personal level.

“Miss Adair?” Landry was pulled from her musings by the nurse who’d been giving them updates all evening. “Kathleen’s out of recovery and in her room. You can go in and see her now.”

“Thank you.”

“Go ahead in. I’ll wait for Carson and Georgia to get back and then we’ll join you.”

Landry nodded and followed the nurse. The private room they’d requested for Kathleen was only a short way down the hall, and in moments the nurse had ushered her through.

Their sturdy cook, a fixture at Adair Acres since Landry and her brothers had been small, smiled back at her from the bed. “All this trouble.”

“Nonsense. It’s no trouble at all.” Landry picked up the older woman’s hand and squeezed it tight. “All we need to focus on now is getting you well.”

Kathleen’s tremulous smile fell, tears welling in her eyes. “There’s so much to do. So much to be done. Miss Elizabeth’s baby shower and keeping everyone in line for when your mother returns.”

“Shhh, now.” Landry pulled a chair toward the bed, then settled Kathleen’s blankets more firmly around her. “You’re not to worry about any of this. Georgia and I can finish up the details for the shower, and I know Rachel will be happy to help, too. You’re going to focus on getting well and enjoy being a guest. The doctor said you only need to stay for a day and then you should be ready to go home.”

Kathleen greeted her with sleepy protests, and Landry could only be grateful the woman would likely remember nothing of the conversation. They’d focus on pampering her for the next few days and getting her settled at home. Whit had already sent her a text saying that he was looking into home health care, and they’d make sure she was taken care of to the best of their abilities.

“How’s she doing?” Derek stepped into the room, Carson and Georgia in his wake.

“As well as can be expected. And very upset she hasn’t finished all the details for Elizabeth’s shower.”

“That’s the least of her worries.” Georgia moved to the other side of the bed and patted a now-sleeping Kathleen’s shoulder. “She needs to focus on getting well.”

Landry couldn’t quite hold back the rueful smile. “I think that will be easier said than done.”

“Unless...” Carson moved around to stand next to his wife.

When they all only stared at him, Carson gestured them back toward the lobby. “I’ve got an idea.”

* * *

“You’re up early.” Derek reached for an empty coffee mug off the sideboard in the dining room. Landry sat, pert and perky as a daisy at the table. That delicious honeysuckle scent of hers drifted his way and went a long way toward clearing the early-morning cobwebs from his mind.

They’d finally arrived home at four and said goodbye at the entrance to her room. He’d wanted nothing more than to come in and finish what they’d started earlier, but had gone on to his room after saying good-night, well aware he had no right to finish anything.

Another hour of tossing and turning in bed, thinking about Landry, hadn’t gotten him any closer to deciphering his sudden attack of nerves about the shoddy state of his life. Instead, he’d cursed himself for walking away from the woman he was fast coming to believe was the best thing that had ever walked into his life.

“What are you working on?” He pointed toward the tablet at her elbow.

“I’m reviewing the notes I’ve taken so far from our trip to LA. I want to get your take on them.”

“I’ve got my own notes, but I think I can remember most of them. Let’s compare.”

She shifted her chair closer to his and another wave of honeysuckle washed over him. Without giving himself time to check the impulse, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her ear, inhaling deeply.

“You’re beautiful.”

She stilled, her blue eyes going as soft as a field of bluebonnets. “Thank you.”

“I meant what I said last night. I want you. And I spent what was left of last night cursing myself and my damned conscience.”

“Would it make you feel better if I told you I lay awake cursing your damned conscience, too?”

A heavy laugh hit him and he couldn’t hold it back, the sheer joy of being with her replacing whatever lingering frustration he might have had. Her laughter joined his, quickly capturing both of them in the moment.

Still grinning, he couldn’t resist placing another kiss against her ear as their laughter quieted. “Maybe you’ll give me another chance.”

“Maybe I just will.” She pressed a lingering kiss against his lips, the light coffee-flavored taste of her going to his head like the most potent whiskey.

In spite of all that was going on, nothing mattered but being in her orbit. Power outages and snakes and kidnapped babies simply faded away in the reality of her.

“Derek.” Her voice pulled him back to the present.

“Hmmm?”

She laid a hand on his shoulder, holding him still. “We need to go through this.”

“Maybe you can sit on my lap when we do.”

He was rewarded with another giggle before she tossed her napkin at him. “As I was saying.”

And then she had the tablet, her tone all business, even if she did keep a hand over his as she spoke. “The first place I started was the immigration records you pulled. My aunt Emmaline was in Europe when my father’s son was born. She was pregnant with Noah at the time and on bed rest.”

Although he wanted nothing more than to find someplace secluded and finish what they’d started, Derek had to admit she had him at the details. Years of training and natural curiosity had his gaze drifting off her lush mouth and toward the screen of her tablet. “Your aunt never traveled at all?”

“No.” Landry tapped on the screen, then pointed toward a section of notes. “Right there. Between the death of her husband and her difficult pregnancy, she didn’t travel at all for almost a two-year period, both before and after Noah was born. And even for years after that, her travel was sporadic.”

“She was widowed? That long ago? That never made it into Kate’s briefing.”

“About six months into her pregnancy.”

Derek considered that tidbit. On one hand, he could understand leaving it out. The notes had said Emmaline was widowed young. But something in the fact that it happened while pregnant struck Derek as important. Poignant, somehow. “What does that do to a person?”

Landry’s eyes narrowed as she considered his question. “Grief is a horrible thing, and it’s not logical when it comes.”

“No, but to lose your spouse—your support system—at the very moment you need it most?” Derek took a sip of his coffee. “That must have been horrible for her.”

“I’d say so.” Landry scrolled a bit further in her notes. “It’s also another reason why the idea that Noah is Jackson seems so off. Emmaline couldn’t have taken Jackson. She was nowhere near him.”

“True.” Derek reached for her tablet again and scanned the meticulous accounting of dates and had to concede her point. They could have as many suspicions as they wanted, but none of it changed the fact that by all accounts, Emmaline Adair Scott was living a life in Europe, content to stay there and raise her own family. “What else?”

“I also scanned the investigation records quickly. It was almost four decades ago and I didn’t spend much time with them, but I’m surprised the police records from North Carolina are so spotty.”

“I noticed that, too.” Derek had thought the records inconclusive, as well, but he’d taken it a step further and questioned the overall investigative skills of those assigned. It might have been nearly forty years ago, but good investigative technique wasn’t only in the purview of those who had computers and smartphones at their disposal.

The cops on the Adair kidnapping had done a terrible job. In one report they have neighbors claiming a car had circled the block several times the day the baby was taken, but no one had followed up on the make or model.

And yet another report had said there was a statewide search, yet Derek hadn’t found any proof of much beyond a few door-to-door checks of known offenders out on parole.

None of it made much sense. A child goes missing and the cops do everything they can to bring the child home. The child of a wealthy family goes missing and no one in law enforcement sleeps until they have answers.

Yet Jackson Adair vanished from almost right beneath his mother’s nose, never to be seen again, and the case seemed flubbed or misguided every step of the way.

Curious, he waited to see Landry’s take.

“I know this isn’t my expertise, but the police records seem awfully incomplete.”

“Because they are.”

Landry was prevented from replying when Noah walked into the room. She recovered quickly, leaning forward and giggling against his cheek, looking for all the world like a woman in a heated flirtation with her boyfriend.

The quick thinking had obviously worked when Noah wiggled his eyebrows in Derek’s direction from the spread set out on the sideboard. “I’d ask what you two are up to but I think I can guess.”

Landry stood to refresh her coffee and pressed a kiss to her cousin’s cheek. “Mind, gutter, Noah. Disengage the two.”

He pulled her close in a side-armed hug and dropped a big smacking kiss on her cheek. “You know no one’s good enough for my little baby cousin.”

Derek fought the wince at Noah’s loaded words, especially since the man was oblivious to the conversation he’d interrupted. While Noah fixed his breakfast, Landry flitted around the dining room like a queen bee, keeping things light and easy.