Snapped (28 page)

She scoffed. “How would you know? You don’t know anything about me.”

“You’re wrong about that. I know you have a degree in fine art. I know you’d rather be working for that gallery still, instead of cleaning bedpans at that nursing home. I know you care about your daughters and you knew your husband had a drinking problem and you knew to get your kids away from him before he dislocated
their
shoulders.”

Her gaze flashed to his. That part hadn’t been in the
police report, but Sean knew it anyway because he was thorough.

The defensiveness seemed to seep out of her. She rested her elbows on her knees and cradled her head in her hands.

“I don’t know why he did this to us. The girls will have to live with this always.” She looked up, tormented now. “It’s one thing to have a father who’s a mean drunk. It’s another to have one who’s a murderer. They’re never going to get past this.”

He waited for her to calm down. She looked at her hands and took a deep breath.

“You were his wife. You knew things. You still know things.”

She didn’t look up.

“Who was it, Gretchen? You’re not the only one who might be in danger here. Anyone who knows there was a conspiracy is at risk.”

She squinted her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t have a name for you.”

“What do you have?” His pulse quickened, because he could tell she had something.

“There was this guy.” She heaved a sigh. “A couple years back. I don’t know his name. Jim never said.”

“An army guy? Who?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe.” She glanced up guiltily. She should have told him this last time. “I’m fairly sure he and Jim went back pretty far, but that’s just a guess. I got the feeling this man had done more, though, career-wise. Based on the way Jim talked about him, I figured he was Special Operations. ‘Shadow Warriors,’ Jim called them.”

Jonah had researched Jim’s career. He’d wanted to be a Ranger but hadn’t made the cut. Not because of his shooting ability, but because he wasn’t a team player.

Gretchen shook her head. “Anyway, after Jim got discharged, the guy showed up one weekend.”

Sean leaned forward. “You met him?”

“I didn’t, no. But Jim went out for beers with him.” She rolled her eyes. “Or at least that’s what he said. For all I know, they were picking up hookers or something. Anyway, I think this man wanted to recruit him into some kind of private security company.”

“What was it called?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. But I know my husband, all right? He was an adrenaline junkie. He worshipped all that covert operations stuff. When this guy contacted him, I could tell he was thinking about a change. He started talking about ‘contracting out,’ whatever that meant.”

“What happened?”

“Well, that was about the same time he got drunk and yanked my arm out of the socket.” Her tone was brittle now. “I moved out with the girls the next weekend, while he was off on one of his binges. Stopped asking about his career plans at that point.”

The rest was pretty well documented. She’d filed for a restraining order, then filed for a divorce. And as she’d said, over and over, she hadn’t seen him since then.

She was looking down now, at her hands. Her shoulders were slumped forward.

“I’m scared of these people,” she said quietly. “If I had a name, I’d give it to you.”

Sean believed her. He wasn’t sure why, but he did. He’d gotten everything he was going to get tonight, and now it was time to go. He stood up, and she looked at him with somber brown eyes as he took a business card out of his pocket.

“My number’s on the back. Home, cell, everything.”

She stood up and turned the card over.

“If you think of anything else, call me.”

She nodded.

“I also want you to call me if you feel threatened. If something feels off. If you feel like someone’s following you, or watching you, or if you’re worried about your kids.” He paused to let it sink in. He didn’t discount her fear. These people
were
dangerous. And they’d already killed a student, not to mention a pregnant woman and a grandfather. Why not a mom and kids?

“Are they somewhere safe?”

She nodded again.

“Good. I’ll call you when we get this resolved. Until then, be careful.”

“But … when will that be?”

“I don’t know.” He moved for the door. “I hope soon.”

“Jonah?”

“Hmm?”

A naked breast pressed against his side. “Are you hungry?”

He opened his eyes and gazed at the woman lying next to him in the dark. The neon light from the parking lot seeped through the shade, giving her skin and everything else in the room a pale red hue.

“Like, for food?”

“Yes.” She popped up onto her knees and sat back, looking at him.

Jonah’s brain and his body kicked into gear. He slid his hand up her thigh. “I could eat.”

“I’m serious.”

He tugged her down on top of him and nibbled her neck. “Me, too.”

She sat back again, scooting out of reach. “Jonah, I’m famished. When was the last time you ate?”

He sighed and took an inventory of his body. He felt worn out. He chalked it up to a combination of too much driving, not near enough sleep, and some of the most athletic sex he’d had in his life.

Come to think of it, he was starving.

Sophie hopped off the bed, and he watched her stumble around in the dark, picking up stuff off the floor.

“Let’s go get dinner. It’s probably not too late yet.”

Jonah grabbed his jeans off the floor and dug his cell phone out. It was 9:25. And he’d missed two calls.

“Fuck,” he muttered. He was pretty much AWOL right now. He’d left Reynolds a vague “following up on a lead” message today, which had bothered him some on the way down here. He usually showed more professionalism than that.

He glanced over at Sophie, who was shimmying her body into a pair of jeans. She grabbed a bra off the dresser and he watched, transfixed, as she scooped her breasts into it.

Jonah decided he didn’t give a rat’s ass about Reynolds right now because this was where he needed to be. And—despite Sophie’s earlier protests—he fully intended to be
back on the job tomorrow morning, with Sophie tucked safely away nearby.

He heaved himself out of the sorry excuse for a bed and got dressed.

“There’s this
great
shrimp place,” Sophie said. “I think they’re open until ten. Let’s hurry.”

He grabbed his gun off the dresser and slid it into the back of his jeans, then left his shirt untucked over it.

He picked up his keys. “My car or Scott’s?”

She froze.

“How did you …? Forget it. We can walk.”

Damn right they’d walk. He wasn’t taking her out to dinner in some other man’s truck. He’d said that just to needle her.

Jonah tugged her aside and stepped out of the room first, to check things out. He was reasonably sure they were safe down here. He doubted she’d been followed, and he knew for a fact that he hadn’t.

“One block off the beach and three blocks that way,” she said.

He fell into step beside her, taking in their surroundings. It was hot and humid. The air smelled briny, with a hint of car exhaust from the traffic cruising up and down the main drag. It was early still for a Friday night. Tourists filled the sidewalks, licking ice-cream cones and stopping to window-shop, just like Sophie had been doing when he’d spotted her earlier that afternoon.

His gut tightened with anger. He’d worked some of it off in bed with her, but a lot of it was still there. He couldn’t believe she’d taken off like that. He couldn’t believe she’d run away from him. He’d known she was scared, but he’d also thought she trusted him.

She shot him a sideways glance. “You realize what this is, don’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a coping mechanism.”

“What is?”

“Your coming all the way down here to have sex with me. It’s your response to trauma.” She caught his hand in hers and squeezed it. “You’re hardwired for it: Near-death experience, must nail someone.”

He scowled. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“I’m just making an observation.”

“It ever occur to you that I hauled my ass all the way down here to protect you?”

“Hmm.” She seemed to consider it. “So, the jumping in bed part was just, what? A diversion?”

It was way more than a diversion. It was a release of more than six months’ worth of stockpiled lust, and frustration, and—

He realized what she was doing. She was downplaying everything so no one would have to admit it mattered—including her.

She looked at him. “Well?”

“Well, I just figured out
your
coping mechanism.”

Her gaze narrowed and he could see her replaying the conversation, looking for what she’d revealed. It was like a game with her, this male-female banter she was so good at. And she always wanted the upper hand.

“Whatever.” She shrugged, a little too casually. “And I appreciate the thought, but I didn’t actually
need
you to come here to take care of me.”

He snorted.

“did you forget I used to work for a private investigator?”
she asked. “This is a woman who basically ran her own witness protection program. She made a living helping people in trouble disappear.”

The smell of fried seafood told Jonah they were nearing their destination, and he glanced around. He spotted it on the next corner.

Sophie was looking at him as if expecting him to say something.

“So, that’s what this is?” he asked. “You’re trying to disappear? I thought you were here for some R and R.”

“I am, but you underestimate the planning that went into this.”

“Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

She squeezed around a trio of teenage girls who were giggling and looked like they’d had too much to drink. She halted in front of a weathered wooden building: Tony’s Shrimp Shack. It was a walk-up place, with a cluster of umbrella tables out front where people were eating food out of cardboard baskets.

“Let’s eat on the beach,” Sophie said.

He slid his arm around her waist. “I watched you get dressed,” he murmured in her ear.

“Yeah?”

“And I happen to know what you’re not wearing under these jeans.” He tucked a finger in the waistband. “Let’s eat back in the room.”

“Tempting.” She smiled. “But I’d hate to spill crumbs and create an attraction for the local rodent population.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting on a sand dune, facing the moonlit surf. Sophie had kicked off her sandals and arranged their food baskets side by side.

She chomped into her po’boy and made a moan of pleasure. She was right about the food, and it didn’t take him long to make a pretty good dent.

“You were saying?” He finished off his fries. “About all the planning you put into this trip during your two-hour ER visit?”

Sophie took a sip of the beer she’d smuggled out here in Styrofoam cups. He’d told her she was wasting her time—any cop on this beach could spot a disguised beverage a mile away—but the woman had a stubborn streak.

“What I was
saying
,” she told him now, “is that I know how to cover my tracks. I know how to stay off the radar. And I know I’m much safer here than I would be at my apartment, or your house, or some deer lease, because I’m next to invisible.” She popped a fry into her mouth.

“If you’re so invisible, how’d I find you?”

“You knew something about me that I never told anyone else.”

Now, that surprised him.

“You never told anyone you like to come down here?”

“I don’t.” She looked down and fidgeted with her cup. “I only came here that one time, last winter.”

He frowned at her, not sure he believed her. “You didn’t tell anyone besides me?”

“I needed to be alone.” She glanced up, and there was that sadness again. It was only a flicker, but he hated seeing it. “I kind of went to pieces, I guess you’d say. And then I pulled it together and got back to my life.”

“Just like that, huh?”

She looked at him.

Maybe he shouldn’t press the point, but he happened to know that was bullshit. It hadn’t been “just like that.”

“So, why’d you tell me?” he asked.

“You were worried about me. I could tell.” She shrugged. “I wanted you to know I was taking care of myself. And I also knew you’d leave me alone and not crowd me. You’re good at leaving me alone.”

She was dead wrong. He wasn’t good at leaving her alone. He was amazingly
not
good at it. He’d tried to do it for months, and he’d blown it, and now he doubted he’d be able to leave her alone for a very long time.

She glanced up at him. “How’d you know about Scott’s truck?”

“I’ve seen it before, in the lot at delphi. When I saw it here, I ran the plate.”

“And what’s with the sedan?”

“It’s a rental,” he said. “didn’t want you spotting me before I got a chance to spot you.”

Sophie didn’t look at him, and Jonah knew that if she
had
spotted him first, she would have made a run for it.

“He lend you a pistol, too?”

She looked up, startled.

“He’s a weapons guy. I know he at least offered.”

She glanced at her tote bag, and Jonah dragged it across the sand. He poked through it and saw the Beretta.

“Is it loaded?”

“Yes.”

Jonah looked out at the waves and tried to lose the jealousy. Was she involved with the guy? First Mark, now Scott. She seemed to be pretty friendly with the men at her job, and the knowledge didn’t sit well with him. He wasn’t sure why he cared. It wasn’t as if he was
looking for a big relationship or anything. At least he hadn’t been. He wasn’t sure what he wanted now, but he knew the thought of her with someone else made him crazy.

Sophie dusted the sand off her knees, and he looked at her bare arms. He could still taste her skin. He could still feel the squeeze of her thighs. He wanted her all over again, right here on this beach.

And she knew what she did to him, because she leaned against him and rested her hand on his knee. She looked at him with that slow burn in her eyes.