Yuletide Fugitive Threat
Yuletide Fugitive Threat
Sandra Robbins
PERILOUS REUNIONThe man who killed Mia Fletcher's husband is stalking her—he's dangerously intent on searching for something in her possession. But Mia doesn't know what he wants or how to stop him, so she turns to Lucas Knight, fugitive hunter extraordinaire—and her former college boyfriend. When Lucas is pulled from sleep by a pounding on his door, Mia is the last person he expects to see. But after he hears about the killer who jumped bail, he has to help her…even if it means risking falling for her all over again. Can the bounty hunter capture the fugitive—and Mia's heart—in time for Christmas?Bounty Hunters: Finding justice one fugitive at a time
PERILOUS REUNION
The man who killed Mia Fletcher’s husband is stalking her—he’s dangerously intent on searching for something in her possession. But Mia doesn’t know what he wants or how to stop him, so she turns to Lucas Knight, fugitive hunter extraordinaire—and her former college boyfriend. When Lucas is pulled from sleep by a pounding on his door, Mia is the last person he expects to see. But after he hears about the killer who jumped bail, he has to help her…even if it means risking falling for her all over again. Can the bounty hunter capture the fugitive—and Mia’s heart—in time for Christmas?
Bounty Hunters: Finding justice one fugitive at a time
“Lucas, please, I need to talk to you.”
His hand tightened on the door. “We have nothing to talk about, Mia.”
She glanced over her shoulder as if checking to see who might be behind her and turned back to face him. Tears stood in her eyes. “I’m in trouble, Lucas, and I have no one to turn to. Just give me five minutes of your time. That’s all I’m asking.”
Against his better judgment, he stepped aside and nodded. “All right. Five minutes.”
He closed the door behind them and turned the thermostat up before ushering her into the living room. “Have a seat. I can see you’re upset about something. So tell me about it.”
Mia rubbed her hand across her eyes and sighed. “I hardly know where to start.” After a moment she took a deep breath. “Did you know that Kyle was murdered?”
Lucas exhaled a deep breath. “Yes. It’s been covered enough by the local media. I’m sorry, Mia. You have my condolences.”
She looked up at him, and he recoiled from the anger that lined her face. “I don’t need your pity, Lucas. Not now. I need help to find his killer. That’s what I want you to do.”
SANDRA ROBBINS is an award-winning, multipublished author of Christian fiction who lives with her husband in Tennessee. Without the support of her wonderful husband, four children and five grandchildren, it would be impossible for her to write. It is her prayer that God will use her words to plant seeds of hope in the lives of her readers so they may come to know the peace she draws from her life.
Yuletide
Fugitive
Threat
Sandra Robbins
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
—Proverbs 31:30
To the memory of the 18,000 women in the United States who have been killed by men in domestic violence disputes since 2003.
Contents
Cover (#u93caef53-2ed6-58a2-9fe9-49066f64e978)
Back Cover Text (#uf3d5c93f-4ce9-54cc-a871-d4bbfe06c6ce)
Introduction (#uf328db41-2d2c-5af8-9b9b-f15bdc298724)
About the Author (#u60e6978b-bd18-51e1-8746-12bf31d383bd)
Title Page (#ua42c7d41-8e89-5fe1-b59b-93d75c94aa52)
Bible Verse (#ud86878b2-ecd8-585f-b04d-34a14219e7fa)
Dedication (#ue5567fd0-5867-55d3-a97e-145e5e4e3973)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dear Reader
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#uc0fee459-51c7-5b68-aa7d-56da1e54ffed)
Mia Lockhart closed her eyes as she stood on the deck of her waterfront house and listened for sounds in the dark night. The only noise that reached her ears was the soft lap of the lake as its gentle waves rippled over the rocky shoreline.
She hugged her arms around her body and shivered in the December cold. Don’t let the quiet night lull you into a false sense of security, she said to herself. You’re not safe. Not yet. But would she ever be? That was the question that was causing one sleepless night after another.
Try as she might, she couldn’t make herself grieve over the murder of her husband a month ago. Grieving was for those with good memories of a deceased spouse, not for those who were lucky to have survived being married to a monster.
Her left hand clenched into a fist, and she flexed the arm with the broken bone that had taken so long to mend. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled. A slight smile flitted across her mouth at how much easier it was to breathe now that her ribs had healed.
No wonder she had felt no shock or sorrow when the police arrived at her door with the news of Kyle’s murder. Relief, that’s what had washed over her. She was finally free of the man who had controlled her life for the past seven years. Free from his possessiveness, his anger and his fists.
But she’d only been deluding herself, thinking that she’d never have to fear a man again. Freedom didn’t mean she was safe, not when the accused murderer had been able to make bail and had promptly disappeared to become a fugitive from justice. Now Kyle’s killer was somewhere out there, and he knew where she lived.
A gust of wind blew across the deck, and she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket, smiling as her fingers brushed the cell phone she’d tucked inside. Kyle had forbidden her to have a cell phone and even a landline to the house. It only made sense that her first act of freedom was to enter the digital age with a phone and a computer.
Suddenly the phone vibrated, and she tightened her grip on it. Her lips trembled as she pulled it from her pocket. An unknown number glowed on the caller ID. She knew before she answered what the voice on the line would say, but it was as if some unknown force commanded her to answer.
“H-hello,” she stammered.
“Hello, Mia. It’s me again.”
She closed her eyes and swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. “Tony Chapman.” The man who killed her husband. There was no reason to deny it. She’d known the first time he phoned right after he jumped bail.
“Why do you keep calling me? I just want to be left alone.”
“I’m sure you do, and I’ll be glad to do that when you give me the answers I want.”
Mia’s hand shook, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t have any answers.”
“What did you think? That you could keep it to yourself for a Christmas present from your dearly departed husband?” he growled. “If that’s what you thought, then you’re wrong. Dead or alive, he still owes me, and I intend to collect. So if you think you’re going to keep it to yourself, you have another think coming.”
“Keep what for myself?” she screamed into the phone.
“Calm down, Mia. All you have to do is tell me where it is, and you’ll never hear from me again.”
Her body was shaking with sobs by this time. “I don’t know what it is. And even if I did, Kyle would never have told me anything about his business. Now, please, leave me alone.”
“Dream on!” he shouted. “I’m through being nice. Tell me what I want to know, or you’re going to be sorry.”
“I’m sorry already! Sorry I ever met Kyle Lockhart and sorry I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I did, I’d give it to you.”
Tony was quiet for a moment. “Maybe you don’t know what he did with it. But if you think very carefully, you might be able to remember something he said or did. Maybe he had a place where he kept his secrets.”
“Kyle had lots of secrets, but he never shared them with me. Now I’m warning you. I’ve had all of these phone calls I can stand. I’m going to the police to turn this matter over to them. Maybe they know where Kyle hid whatever it is you’re looking for.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from the police, or you’ll end up like Kyle, with three bullet holes in your head.”
Mia shook so badly she could hardly hold the phone to her ear. “Leave me alone!” she screamed.
“Not until I get what’s mine. So you’d better watch out, lady. I’m coming after you.”
The call ended, and she pulled the phone away from her ear. What was this all about? It wouldn’t surprise her if Kyle had been involved in something illegal that had gotten him killed, but she knew nothing about it. In fact, she knew next to nothing about his life outside of this house that he’d made her prison.
Sliding the phone back into her pocket, she turned to go back inside but stopped, her eyes growing wide. A light like a tiny flame flared at the edge of the tree line near the lake and then disappeared, to be replaced by a small red glow. She squinted into the darkness and then backed away, shaking her head in denial.
She’d seen a flicker of fire that had lit a cigarette, and now whoever was smoking it stood just a few feet away as he watched her on the deck. A mewling sound of distress erupted from her mouth, and she dashed back into the house, locking the door behind her.
As she ran into the bedroom, she glanced at the clock on the bedside table: 2:30 a.m. It would be hours before the sun was up, and she couldn’t stay here until then. She didn’t know where she could go, but she had to get out of this house. Get away from the nightmare that had taken over her life.
She jerked a pair of jeans and a sweater from the closet and dressed as quickly as she could. Then, pulling on her coat and grabbing her purse and cell phone, she headed to the kitchen where she always hung the car keys on the hook by the door.
As she stepped into the kitchen, her gaze lit on the rack, and her stomach did a somersault. No key ring. She came to an abrupt halt and frowned. Where was it?
A sickening feeling washed over her as the answer came to her. The keys weren’t on the hook because they were in her purse, where she’d placed them after a trip to the grocery store. She hadn’t hung the key ring back in place because she hadn’t come in through the garage. The automatic garage door opener wasn’t working, so she’d left the car in the driveway.
And that’s where it was now. Sitting in the driveway. In the dark. Where someone was watching from the shadows of the woods. Did she dare go outside and face being attacked? Or did she stay inside and hope he didn’t decide to break in? Either choice left a lot to be desired.
Every nerve ending in her body screamed that she had to do something, and before she even realized it, the decision had been made. She jerked the key ring from her purse, opened the front door and ran for the car.
She’d just grabbed the door handle when an arm circled her neck, and the tip of the knife in her attacker’s other hand pressed against her carotid artery. The smell of cigarette smoke filled her nostrils. She held her breath and tried to pull free, but the arm tightened.
A soft chuckle drifted to her ear as a warm breath fanned the side of her face. “Don’t waste your energy, sweetheart. You’re not getting away from me.”
His voice sounded deeper than it had on the phone, more sinister and full of evil. She tried to suppress the whimper rising in her throat, but it was no use. He knew how scared she was, and that was his advantage over her.
“Let me go!” she begged. “I can’t give you what you want because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’ll see about that. I think by the time I get through with you, you’ll be begging to tell me all of your secrets.”
The tone of his voice had grown harder, just like Kyle’s used to when he told her he would never have hurt her if she hadn’t provoked him into doing it. After a while she had come to believe him. She’d given in, gone along with whatever he wanted—even when all he seemed to want was a punching bag. But she would not give in to this man, nor would she let him take her anywhere. If she did, she had no doubt she would end up dead just like Kyle.
If she had never been strong in her life, she had to be now. Only a desperate move could get her out of this killer’s clutches. Thankfully she hadn’t dropped her car keys when she’d been attacked, and she tightened her grip on them. If she could free herself of Tony’s arm around her throat, she might be able to jump in the car and drive away.
Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she closed her fingers around the small canister of pepper spray dangling from the key ring she’d bought after he’d called her the first time. In a few moments she would either be free or stabbed to death in her driveway.
In one quick motion she raised the canister and sprayed the contents over her shoulder into Tony Chapman’s face. His agonized cry split the night air, and his grip on her loosened as he stumbled backward.
Those few seconds were enough time for her to pull the car door open, jump inside and roar down the driveway. As she raced down the road leading to the main highway, she kept a watch in the rearview mirror, but no one followed her.
She didn’t slow down until she turned onto I-240 for the short drive into Memphis. Her mind whirled with questions about what she was going to do. She had no friends. Nowhere to turn. Where could she go?
And then she straightened in her seat as the answer popped into her head. A bounty hunter, that’s what she needed. Someone who could track Tony Chapman down and return him to custody. And it so happened she had once known someone who now did that for a living. Lucas Knight. But she hadn’t seen Lucas in seven years. And the last time she’d seen him, he’d said he never wanted to lay eyes on her again.
A lot of time had passed, she reasoned with herself. He’d moved on. She’d seen him on TV just a few weeks ago, giving an interview with his brother and sister about the Knight Fugitive Recovery Agency, the family’s bounty hunter business. He’d looked good—great, actually. The interviewer had said their agency had the best reputation for bringing in bail jumpers of any group in the city. But would Lucas help her?
The lights of an all-night diner off the highway caught her attention, and she exited and pulled to a stop near the front entrance. Only three other cars sat in the parking lot at 3:00 a.m. Evidently someone else had trouble sleeping at night.
She had a few hours before she could go see Lucas, and she needed to use that time to decide how she was going to persuade him to help a woman whom he had once said he would hate until the day he died. This diner offered the perfect place for her to sit and ponder how in the world she was ever going to convince Lucas to track down Tony Chapman and return him to custody.
She took a deep breath, stepped from the car and walked toward the diner’s entrance.
* * *
Lucas Knight woke to a pounding at his front door. He sat up in bed, glanced at the bedside clock and groaned: 6:00 a.m. His brother, Adam, had said he’d be by early to pick him up for the trip they were taking to Nashville, but he hadn’t thought he meant this early.
Muttering to himself, Lucas climbed out of bed and jerked on his jeans and the sweatshirt he’d draped across the bedroom chair before going to bed last night. If Adam thought he was going to hurry him into going before he’d had his coffee and showered, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.
The pounding increased, and he stormed across the living room floor and jerked the front door open. “Adam, what do you mean...”
His words died in his throat, and all he could do was stare in surprise at Mia Fletcher standing in front of him. He shook his head. No, Mia Lockhart. That had become her name after she’d walked out on him for the man her daddy had picked for her.
He grabbed the side of the door and hung on so that he didn’t collapse right in front of her. What was she doing standing on his porch at six o’clock in the morning?
His gaze swept her, and he swallowed the tiny glimmer of pleasure at seeing her. She was just as beautiful as ever. Even though she wore no makeup and her long blond hair was pulled up in a practical ponytail, she had that fresh-scrubbed look he’d always liked. What he didn’t like was the hint of fear in her blue eyes. She stared at him apprehensively, as if to say she had no idea how he would react at her sudden appearance.
He wouldn’t allow himself to be glad to see her. Couldn’t allow it. It had taken too long to get over her, and he wasn’t about to revisit those old memories and the scars they had left deep inside of him. He should slam the door in her face and forget she’d ever come here. He started to do that, but she spoke before he could.
“Lucas, please, I need to talk to you.”
His hand tightened on the door. “We have nothing to talk about, Mia.”
She glanced over her shoulder, as if checking to see who might be behind her, and turned back to face him. Tears stood in her eyes. “I’m in trouble, Lucas, and I have no one to turn to. Just give me five minutes of your time. After that, if you won’t help me, I’ll go away and never bother you again. Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
She shivered and clutched her jacket tighter around her. For the first time he noticed the chill in the air. The temperature had to be in the thirties, and she looked as if she was chilled to the bone. Against his better judgment, he stepped aside and nodded.
“All right. Five minutes. I’ll give you that.”
She brushed past him, and the scent of the fruity shampoo she’d always used filled his nostrils. The memory of that smell had kept him awake many nights when he was still a navy SEAL, but he’d never thought he’d experience it firsthand again.
He closed the door behind them and turned the thermostat up before ushering her into the living room. “Have a seat.”
She sank down on the sofa and rubbed her hands together before she offered him a weak smile. “It feels good in here. I must have stood on your porch for fifteen minutes trying to get up my nerve to knock. It was colder than I thought.”
He pressed his lips together and didn’t say anything, but his gaze drifted down to her hands, which she was still rubbing together. No sign of a wedding ring.
She shivered again, and he refocused his thoughts. A good host would offer her a cup of coffee, but he was in no mood to make this any easier. The quicker he could get Mia out of here, the better off he’d be.
He took a deep breath. “Five minutes, you said. So, what has brought you to my door so early in the morning?” He paused for a moment and frowned. “Wait a minute. I haven’t seen or heard from you in seven years. How did you know where I live? I bought this house after I got out of the navy. You’ve never been here before.”
Her cheeks flushed even more. “I was going to come to your office, but I decided I couldn’t wait that long to see you. I had to leave home quickly in the middle of the night, and I’ve spent the last three hours in an all-night diner. I used my phone to look up your address online.”
For the first time he noticed her red-streaked eyes and the dark circles underneath on her skin. “Have you been up all night?”
She nodded.
Lucas sat down in a chair facing the sofa and placed his hands on his knees. “Okay. I can see you’re upset about something. So tell me about it.”
Mia rubbed her hand across her eyes and sighed. “I hardly know where to start.” After a moment she took a deep breath. “Did you know that Kyle was murdered?”
Lucas exhaled a deep breath. “Yes. It’s been covered enough by the local media. ‘Kyle Lockhart, respected antiques authority and honored young leader in the local arts community, found brutally murdered in an apparent burglary of his office at Shackleford’s Imports,’ I believe is how the newscasters on TV stated it.” He regretted his mocking words when he saw her eyes fill again. He swallowed and spoke in a gentler tone. “I’m sorry, Mia. You have my condolences.”
She looked up at him, and he recoiled from the anger that lined her face. “I don’t need your pity, Lucas. Not now. I need help to find his killer. That’s what I want you to do.”
He shook his head and stood up. “The paper said the police had arrested somebody. If it’s true that they have enough evidence for a conviction, then the case is closed. The killer will be found guilty, and you can move on, living the life of a rich widow.”
“Rich widow? Is that what you think of me?” she screamed as she jumped to her feet. “I would love to get on with my life, but, unfortunately, I can’t. Tony Chapman, who was arrested for killing Kyle, was able to make bail, after which he ran. As far as the authorities are concerned, he’s disappeared. But he hasn’t. He’s terrorizing me and making my life miserable.”
Her outburst stunned Lucas, and he frowned. “What do you mean he’s terrorizing you?”
She sank back to the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. “A few days after Tony jumped bail, I began getting phone calls from him demanding to know where Kyle had hidden it. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, but he didn’t believe me. The phone calls have gotten worse, and tonight he came to my house and attacked me. I only got away because I had a canister of pepper spray on my key ring.”
Lucas stared at Mia and tried to process what she’d just told him. “Mia, I don’t know what to say.”
She scooted to the edge of the sofa and stared at him, her eyes pleading with him for help. “I need help, Lucas. I want to hire you to find him. He’s a fugitive, and you’re a bounty hunter. If you can bring him in, then maybe I can put this whole crazy ordeal behind me.”
Work for her? She wanted that after everything that had happened between them? He pushed to his feet, walked over to the window and stared outside. He couldn’t help her. It would stir up too many memories that he had safely stored away, and he didn’t need to be reminded. But he had to admit, she needed help.
Finally he turned back to her and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mia. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to work for you. But I’m sure Adam would be glad to do it.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Adam?”
“Yes. You remember my older brother. He takes cases like this all the time. Why don’t you come by our office later today...?” A sudden thought hit him, and he shook his head. “No, he won’t be in today. We’re going to Nashville. Maybe you could come tomorrow.”
She stared at him for a moment before she slowly rose to her feet. “No. I can’t wait that long.”
“Then what about Jessica? She’s going to be in the office today. I’m sure she would be glad to help you.”
She shook her head. “That’s all right, Lucas. If you won’t help me, I’ll have to figure out another way to get through this.”
The words, spoken without any emotion, hit Lucas as if his heart was being ripped from his body. He watched as she took a step to leave, but he felt powerless to stop her. She had almost reached the front door into the entryway when her cell phone rang. She stopped and pulled it from her pocket. Her eyes grew wide, and she began to shake.
“He’s calling again!” she moaned. “Why won’t he leave me alone?”
Lucas was at her side in two strides and jerked the phone from her hand. “Hello! Who is this?” he yelled into the phone.
There was a short pause before a soft chuckle sounded. “Hello. Mr. Knight, I assume. Tell Mia that running to you isn’t going to help her any. You can’t be with her every minute, and the next time I get my hands on her, I’ll gladly cut her throat without hesitation.”
“You’ll what?” But there was no answer. The man had already disconnected the call. Lucas handed the phone back to Mia. “He’ll cut your throat? What’s that about? You didn’t say anything about a knife.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I didn’t? That was when he caught me trying to get in my car. He was holding a knife to my throat when I sprayed him with the pepper spray.”
Lucas’s mouth dropped open. “Do you realize that his reflex action could have left you stabbed and bleeding to death?”
She nodded. “I did. But doing nothing would have been worse. I knew I couldn’t be his victim.” She clenched her fists and pounded them against the sides of her legs. “I don’t want to be anybody’s victim anymore.”
Something in the way she said it sent warning signals flashing in his mind. Maybe there was more to Mia’s situation than she was telling. If so, he wanted to find out what it was. He stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and rocked back on his heels.
“Are you hungry, Mia?”
“Yeah, a little. I think I drank about five cups of coffee while I was in that diner, but I couldn’t eat anything.”
He smiled. “Would you like some breakfast? I still know my way around the kitchen.”
Her body relaxed, and she smiled the first real smile he’d seen since she arrived. “You always were the best cook I’d ever known.”
His skin warmed, and he couldn’t help but grin at the compliment. “It was one of my many talents,” he joked. “If I’m going to take your case, I need to find out all the details, and I always work better on a full stomach. Go on in the kitchen. I need to call Adam and leave a message for him. Then I’ll see what I can rustle up for us to eat.”
He swept his arm in the direction of the kitchen, and she smiled before she headed there. He closed his eyes for a moment and bit down on his lip. What would Adam say when he told him why he was canceling on their trip to Nashville? Especially when his brother found out that Lucas had just accepted Mia Lockhart as a new client at the Knight Agency. After a moment he shrugged. It didn’t matter.
Mia had shown up on his doorstep looking like a lost waif. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was in a lot of trouble and needed help. If he could help her, that’s what he needed to do. He’d never forgive himself if he sent her away and then learned from the news that she’d been hurt, or killed.
But finding the bail jumper was all this was going to be. She was hiring him for a job. After it was over, she would pay him, and he’d never have to see her again. That’s the way he wanted it, and that’s the way it was going to be.
TWO (#uc0fee459-51c7-5b68-aa7d-56da1e54ffed)
Thirty minutes later Mia sat across the kitchen table from Lucas and stared down at the plate in front of her. “This is delicious. I haven’t had an omelet in a long time, and you always made the best,” she said.
He nodded and finished chewing his last bite before he spoke. “I still like to cook, but I don’t advertise it to any of the guys in my biker club. I don’t think I could take the jokes they’d make about me in the kitchen.”
She laughed and arched an eyebrow. “So you’re still riding a motorcycle?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. It gives me something to do when I’m off work, which isn’t very often.”
“I suppose your mother is still as concerned about your dangerous hobby as ever,” she said as she scooped another bite onto her fork. “By the way, how are your parents? I always liked them.”
She sensed a sudden chill in the friendly atmosphere and sat back in her chair. “Is something wrong, Lucas?”
He raised his head and stared at her, his eyes dark and foreboding. “If I’m going to take your case, I think we need to get something straight right off.”
She laced her fingers together in her lap and gripped them tightly. “A-all r-right. What is it?”
He leaned forward, a frown creasing his forehead. “I think it would be better if we don’t mention our past relationship. There’s no need to revisit ancient history, whether it’s talking about what I used to cook, my parents or whatever. This is strictly business. You’re hiring me to do a job for you. I’ll do it, and you’ll pay me when it’s over. Can you agree to that?”
She struggled to keep her voice steady as she answered him. “I can, but if you’re going to take my case, then there’s something I need to tell you.”
He tilted his head to one side and eyed her suspiciously. “What is it?”
“I know your services don’t come cheap, and I will pay you. It just may take some time. Kyle’s lawyer is in the process of untangling all his business dealings. I’ve been allowed to stay in the house for a while. Although it’s the last place I want to be, I don’t have anywhere else to go until the estate is settled. I have very little money. I thought you should know.”
Lucas stared at her for a moment before he set his coffee cup down and leaned toward her. “I can understand about the will not being settled. But what about your money?”
Her eyes grew wide. “What money?”
“That you make from your job.”
“I don’t have a job. I’ve never had one.”
His mouth gaped open, and he blinked his eyes. “All you ever wanted to do was to own a dance studio and teach children ballet. You studied for years. What happened?”
Her stomach was beginning to roil at all his questions, and she jumped to her feet and grabbed her plate. She walked to the garbage disposal and shoveled her leftover food into the sink before she turned back around. “I thought this was going to be strictly business,” she retorted. “Do you need to know to solve the case? The studio never happened—end of story.”
He stepped closer to her. “Fine, then. What about your father? If you don’t have enough money to live on until the estate is settled, couldn’t he help you?”
She shook her head but didn’t turn around to face him. “My father died three years ago. He and Kyle got along great.” Much better than she had ever gotten along with her distant, disapproving father. “So much so that he made Kyle the executor of his estate. My lawyer told me I’ll be able to get that inheritance back, but it’s going to take a while.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your father. But what about friends? Could they help you?”
Mia clenched her fists and gritted her teeth before she whirled and faced Lucas. “No! Don’t you understand? I’m not like you, Lucas. I don’t have a family that cares what happens to me, and I don’t have friends who want to help me.” Tears welled in her eyes. “When I was racking my brain trying to think who I could go to for help, you were the only one who came to mind. A college boyfriend that I hadn’t seen in seven years. You probably haven’t given me a thought in years, and yet you were the only one I felt like I could turn to for help.”
She covered her face with her hands and began to sob. After a few moments, Lucas reached out and patted her arm. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
He reached for her napkin and stuck it in her hand. She began to wipe the tears from her face and shake her head. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have gone to pieces like that, but I’ve been so scared ever since those phone calls started. I knew you were my only hope of getting anything done. Will you please help me, Lucas?”
The look on his face told her he still wasn’t pleased about the prospect. “I’ll take the job of tracking Tony Chapman. After all, that’s what we’re in business for, bringing in fugitives from justice. But I can’t guarantee how long it will take me.”
Mia wiped her eyes again. “It can’t be soon enough for me. I want to try and get on with my life.”
“I hope it won’t take long either. But for now, I need some information from you. Why don’t we take our coffee in the living room, and you can fill me in on all the details about Kyle?”
She blew her nose and smiled through her tears. “Okay.”
They walked back to the living room and settled on the sofa, their cups in their hands. Mia pulled her knees up and curled into the corner of the sofa, so she could sit facing him. He reached for a notebook that was lying on the coffee table, flipped it open and pulled a pen out. “Now, tell me about Kyle’s job.”
She wrapped her hand around the mug and thought for a moment before she answered. “Kyle went to work at Shackleford Imports right after we were married. They sell antiques and antiquities in their showroom, as well as working with clients on arranging special purchases. Kyle was the import/export manager. It was his job to oversee the paperwork and the monetary transactions on all the international acquisitions, as well as working with customs agents on all items coming into or leaving the country. He also handled special clients for the company.”
Lucas wrote as she talked and didn’t look up as he asked his next question. “It sounds like an important job. I assume he was paid well.”
“He was. I don’t really know how much—he handled all our finances—but he told me once it was in the six figures.”
Lucas gave a low whistle. “The owner must have thought he did a good job to pay that well.”
Mia shrugged. “I suppose so. Mr. Shackleford has been ill for the past year and a half, and Kyle was basically running the business.”
“Did the other employees like him?”
“I don’t know.”
He glanced up at her answer and then directed his gaze back to his note-taking. “And why is that?”
“Because I never got to know any of them very well.”
Lucas slowly raised his head to stare at her, a frown wrinkling his forehead. “Shackleford’s is well-known in the city. There are stories in the paper all the time about events they’re having to show a new acquisition or the opening of some exhibit they’ve come up with. He worked there for seven years, Mia. Didn’t you go with him to any of the events?”
She shook her head. “A few times when we first married, but that soon ended. He thought I couldn’t hold my own in conversation with the intellectual people who frequented the events. So he quit taking me.”
He opened his mouth to speak but then seemed to think better of it. He cleared his throat and looked back down at the notebook. “The police arrested Tony Chapman for Kyle’s murder. Did you know him?”
“No, I’d never heard of him, until he was arrested. Then a few days later I was notified he had made bail. And soon after that, he disappeared. Except he started calling me all the time.”
“And you have no idea what it is he thinks Kyle has hidden from him?”
She shook her head and frowned. “I can’t imagine what it is. Kyle never talked to me about his business dealings in any kind of detail. Everything he told me was very general. I don’t even know if he and Tony had business dealings. I’m beginning to wonder if it wasn’t something illegal. And if there was a falling-out with them, and that’s why Tony killed him.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s a logical explanation, but I don’t guess we’ll know for sure until I can find Tony.” He paused a moment and then looked at her again. “There are lots of unanswered questions about this whole case.”
“I know.”
“One of them is, how did Tony know you had come to see me today? When I answered the phone, he called me by name—he knew you were with me. Did you see a car following you when you drove here? Or did one drive by after you parked in front of my house?”
She shook her head and yawned. “No. I checked all the way. And when I left the diner, I took a lot of back streets to get here. It was so late, the streets were empty—I’d have noticed if someone was following me. There was no one behind me, and no one drove by after I arrived here.”
Lucas closed the notebook and reached for her coffee cup. “Would you like a refill?”
“That would be nice.”
He laid the notebook on the coffee table and walked from the room. Mia scooted down on the couch, stretched her legs out and snuggled into the soft cushions. The stress of the past few weeks had left her tense and wary, but for some reason she felt safer now than she had in years.
She’d made the right decision. If anyone could help her, Lucas could, and he’d seemed understanding about her lack of funds at the present time. She had no illusions about how he felt about her. He still hated her. She could see it in his eyes. But he was willing to help her, and that was all she needed. Someone she trusted who could put a stop to the terror in her life.
With a sigh she closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
* * *
Lucas walked back into the living room and stopped at the door. A soft snore came from Mia’s prone figure sprawled on the couch. She had to be dead on her feet after the night she’d had. He set the cup of coffee down and reached for an afghan draped across a chair next to the sofa.
As he covered her with the colorful blanket, he thought of his mother and the hours she’d spent crocheting this beautiful afghan and how thrilled she’d been when she saw how he liked it. He spread it over Mia’s body and pulled it up around her shoulders.
Then he stepped back and stared down at her. He still couldn’t believe she was here. Asleep on his sofa. And just as attractive as she’d been when they were in college.
He shook his head and took a step back. No use thinking that way. What was between them had died seven years ago when she chose Kyle instead of him. And nothing was going to change that.
He turned around and strode again to the kitchen, where he began to put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. As he worked, he recalled all the things Mia had said while they were eating. Some things didn’t make sense.
Mia had always been vivacious and energetic and enjoyed being with people. How had she ended up with no friends? Less surprising was that she had no family. When they’d been dating, her father was all the family she had, and their relationship had always been tense.
It hadn’t taken him long when they were in college to find out how her father controlled her life, from what she wore to the friends she had. Her one attempt at rebelling against her father’s authority had been when she’d told him she was going to marry Lucas. But that resolve hadn’t lasted very long. She and Lucas had had a fight over the fact that he wanted to wait until he’d finished his SEAL training before marrying her. Lucas had thought that they’d be able to work things out once he got back from basic training...but by then, she’d already married another man—one who had her father’s stamp of approval.
Lucas closed the dishwasher, sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in the number for Scottie Murray, the computer whiz they used at the agency, and waited for him to answer. Lucas had no idea how Scottie could find even the deepest buried items on the internet with little effort. But then again, he didn’t ask. It was better if he didn’t know some of Scottie’s secrets.
Scottie connected on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Scottie, Lucas Knight here.”
“Hey, man. What’s up?”
“I have a new client. I need you to do some digging for me.”
“Sure. What do you want?”
“I want you to find me everything you can on a man named Kyle Lockhart and his wife, Mia. Lockhart was murdered about a month ago, and I need a full background search on him. Let me know the minute you find out anything.”
“Okay, dude. You got it. I’ll get to work right away.”
Lucas disconnected the call and sat at the table, thinking for a few minutes. If there was more to Mia’s story than what she was telling him, Scottie would find it. He glanced at the clock on the wall: 8:00 a.m. Scottie might not call back for several hours. That gave him time to take care of other things.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Adam’s number. It went to voice mail right away. Without giving details, he left a short message that he wouldn’t be able to go to Nashville and would explain later. Then he headed to the shower.
An hour later he walked back into the living room to check on Mia. She still lay there sound asleep but had pulled the cover up around her neck more. He watched her even breathing for a moment, before he turned and walked back to the kitchen.
He’d just entered the room when his phone rang. He pulled the phone from his pocket and smiled at Scottie’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Scottie. Did you find something for me?”
“Yeah, I did. And some of it’s very interesting. This Lockhart guy was quite a character. I have everything in a file that I just emailed to you. There’s probably more, but I thought this would give you something to study while I keep digging into his life.”
“Thanks, Scottie. Let me know when you have more.”
As he disconnected the call, Lucas strode toward his office to turn on his computer. Within seconds he had opened his email and found the file Scottie had sent.
Carefully, he began to read through the pages contained in the report. The first ones dealt with Kyle’s job at the import business. There was a job description, some evaluations filled out by the owner and some letters of commendation from community leaders.
Those were followed by newspaper articles reporting Kyle’s important acquisitions and pictures of him at events, a wineglass in his hand, and surrounded by beautiful women, smiling for the cameras. As Lucas studied picture after picture, he discovered the same woman was in each one. The captions underneath identified her as Christine Abbott, heiress to her family’s hotel chain.
Was it coincidence that Christine was in all the photos? He doubted it, but that was something Lucas could pursue later.
He scrolled to the next page of the file. His eyes grew wide as a police report came into view. Lucas leaned closer to the computer screen and read, his stomach churning as he realized what he was looking at. A report of Kyle Lockhart’s arrest, six months before his death, for domestic abuse.
Lucas’s fingers shook as he read the account. Teenagers having a party on the shore of the lake near Mia’s house had called the police to report hearing screams. The police had arrived to find Mia Lockhart severely injured. She had been transported to a hospital where it was determined she had a broken arm and several broken ribs, along with cuts and bruises over most of her face.
Lucas scrolled down further and gasped aloud when a picture of a bruised and battered Mia appeared on the screen. He clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from crying out as he read that Mia had refused to press charges.
Before he knew what he was doing, he had dialed Scottie’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“Scottie, did you see the picture of Lockhart’s wife?”
“Yeah, man. I saw it. But that’s just one of many.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The investigating cop is a guy I know, so I called him and asked him about Lockhart. He said that everybody at the precinct knew Mia Lockhart was a victim of repeated domestic abuse. They tried to get her to press charges every time he put her in the hospital, but she never would. My friend said that’s the way victims are. Their abuser convinces them that they deserve what they’re getting. Most of them have nowhere else to go, so they stay. It’s sad, isn’t it?”
Lucas’s breath hitched in his throat. “Yeah. Real sad. Thanks, Scottie.”
For a few minutes after disconnecting the call Lucas sat still and thought about what he’d discovered. No wonder Mia had no one to turn to. She’d been the victim of the one person who was supposed to take care of her.
He stood and walked back into the living room where she still lay sleeping. She moaned and clenched her fingers around the top of the afghan as she pulled it tighter around her neck. “No,” she murmured as her body twitched. “I’m sorry.”
He had no idea what she was dreaming, but he knew for a certainty now that her life had been a nightmare. And when her husband was killed, she’d ended up in a new nightmare, threatened and eventually assaulted by the man who’d murdered Kyle. She had come to him for help, and he would do everything he could to find the man who’d terrorized her for the past few weeks.
As for Kyle Lockhart, there was nothing Lucas could do about him now. But just maybe he could bring some closure to Mia for what she had experienced at her husband’s hands. If he could do that, maybe he, too, could at last put some closure to the most painful period of his life.
* * *
Mia slowly opened her eyes and stretched her arms over her head. She didn’t know when she’d slept so soundly. Her fingers brushed against the soft yarn at her neck, and she looked down at the afghan covering her from her shoulders to her toes. She trailed her fingers down the crocheted diagonal lines of muted shades of green, brown and gray that blended in with the earthy tones of Lucas’s house. Her eyes flew open wide at the thought of his name.
Lucas! She was in his house. Asleep on his sofa.
“Are you finally awake?”
His voice came from the direction to her left. She bolted upright on the sofa and jerked her head around to stare at him. The sun shone through the window behind him and cast shadows across the chair where he sat. He had his ankle propped on the opposite leg and sat there staring at her, the expression on his face unreadable.
She clutched the afghan tighter around her neck and swallowed. “Lucas. You scared me.”
His hands clenched around the arms of the chair, but he didn’t rise. “Did I? I’m sorry. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up.”
She swiveled her body around until her feet were on the floor, and she sat facing him. “I guess I was more tired than I thought. I’m sorry if I inconvenienced you by sleeping here. What time is it?”
“It’s close to three o’clock. You must have been really tired.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “I’m so sorry, Lucas. I hope I didn’t keep you from going to work.”
“I have an office here. I had some paperwork I took care of, so it was no problem.”
She pushed to her feet and busied herself folding the afghan. “I’ll get out of here. Thank you for everything today. I’ll give you my cell phone number so you can contact me when you have any news about Tony Chapman.”
She reached to put the afghan on the back of the sofa, but she froze at the sharp words he uttered. “And where are you going?”
His voice had a hoarse rasp to it. Was that anger she heard? Or was she so used to hearing Kyle’s harsh tone that she looked for it in everyone she encountered? She bit her lip and laid the afghan down before she turned to face him. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know when I get settled, maybe in a hotel.”
“I thought you didn’t have any money.”
She frowned. What was with the interrogation? She swallowed hard and tried to remain calm. “I have a little. I think I can afford a cheap motel.”
He pushed to his feet and took a step toward her. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared at her without blinking. “I have a few questions before you leave.”
“Okay.”
He advanced, and she inched backward until her legs bumped the sofa, and she sank onto it. Lucas took a deep breath as he towered over her. “I need to know more about Kyle, so I can figure out what might have made someone want to kill him. You said he isolated you from friends, he wouldn’t let you work, and in the past few years, he never took you with him to business events. Other than that, how did he treat you?”
Her fingers shook, and she laced them together to hold them still. “H-he was my husband. H-he treated me like I was his wife.”
Lucas’s steel blue eyes bored into hers, and she dropped her gaze. “And what does that mean? Was he kind? Did he make you happy? Did he love you?”
Her face burned from his intense gaze, and she cast a furtive glance down at her hands. “Lucas, I don’t see what this has to do with finding the man who killed him.”
With a sigh, he sat on the sofa next to her. When she peeked over at him, she saw him staring down at his feet for a moment before he reached over, pulled one of her hands loose from the other and wrapped his fingers around hers. She started to draw away from him, but he tightened his grip. She opened her mouth to protest, but the sad look in his eyes stopped her. “It’s all right, Mia,” he said, his gentle tone piercing the barricades around her heart. “I know what kind of love he gave you. So tell me the truth.”
For a moment she couldn’t respond. Her mouth trembled as she realized that for years, there’d been nobody she could tell. Now a man who had been kinder to her than any other in her entire life was asking for the truth. She couldn’t refuse, but when she opened her mouth to speak, the words wouldn’t come. A keening wail drifted from her throat, and she closed her eyes as the tears began to stream down her face. She took a deep breath.
“All right!” she sobbed. “My marriage was a nightmare. Kyle was a monster, and I lived in fear that every day would be the one when he would finally go too far and kill me.”
She felt him move closer, and she glanced up just as he reached out and patted her shoulder. That only produced more tears. “Why didn’t you come to me?” he whispered. “I would have helped you.”
The sorrow in his eyes pierced her heart, and she pulled free of him and turned her face into the soft afghan she’d just folded minutes before. He didn’t say anything as she sobbed but patted her shoulder from time to time and uttered some soothing words.
After several minutes she sat up and wiped at her eyes. Her pulse was still racing, but it was freeing to finally admit to someone what her life had been like. And she was glad Lucas was the one she could tell.
“After Kyle and I were married, I discovered very quickly why my father had wanted me to marry him. He was like my father, but worse. He didn’t allow me to make any decisions, not even about the clothes I wore. He picked out everything, provided everything and wanted me at home when he got there. The abuse wasn’t too bad at first. If I displeased him, didn’t cook a meal the way he liked it, he would slap me. Then one night things escalated.”
“What happened?”
“He was watching the news, and the reporter did a story about your brother, Adam, bringing in a fugitive wanted in a high-profile case. Adam told about the Knight Agency, and he mentioned that his younger brother was serving in the navy SEALs but was arriving home on leave soon. I made the mistake of saying that I was glad you had pursued your goal, and Kyle went wild. He accused me of still being in love with you and of plotting to meet you when you came home on leave. That’s the first night I had to go to the hospital.”
Lucas’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She waved her hand in dismissal. “It wasn’t your fault. I’d made the mistake of marrying him. After that, though, things got worse.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
She shrugged. “I tried to once, but he found me and brought me back. That was one of the worst beatings. He told me if I ever left again, he’d kill me. He hired a maid after that to keep tabs on me. She reported every little thing I did to Kyle.”
Lucas squeezed her hand tighter and then released it. “I’m so sorry you had to endure this. I wish I could have helped you.”
“It’s okay, Lucas. I’ve been alone for so long that I don’t expect much from anybody anymore.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she could barely make out his image even though he sat next to her. “But, please, help me now. I’m never going to be free of Kyle and the life he made me live until his killer is caught.”
He smiled at her, and for the first time in years she felt some hope. Maybe she could overcome the fear she’d lived in for so long.
“Don’t worry, Mia. I’ll help you, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find this guy and keep you safe from him.”
Her eyes filled with tears again. “I was so afraid to come here. I didn’t know if you’d even listen to me. I can never tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
Telling Lucas about her life hadn’t been easy, but she felt better, almost as if a dam had burst and all the memories that threatened her sanity had poured out. Maybe this was the beginning of a new life for her. She hoped so.
She had no idea what she’d do once Tony Chapman was back in jail where he belonged, but at least she’d be free. Free to go and do as she pleased. And free of everything that tied her to the past. And Lucas was going to make that happen.
THREE (#ulink_17a8b7db-8f83-5b71-8d5d-558b87629577)
Lucas walked to the window in the living room and stared outside. The discovery of what Mia’s marriage had been like had almost sucked the breath out of him. He raked his hand through his hair and groaned. Even if he had spent the past seven years trying to come to grips with the anger he’d felt for her, he would never have wanted her to endure what she’d had to go through.
He glanced around. She still sat on the sofa, her eyes downcast and her hands clasped in her lap. He’d thought she looked like a waif when she’d arrived. Now he realized she was a battered woman. Not only had Kyle hurt her physically, he had hurt her emotionally, and Lucas had no idea how to deal with it.
However, he did know how to deal with danger, and, from what Mia had told him, she was in a lot of danger right now. The one thing he still hadn’t figured out was how Mia’s caller had known she was at his house. If he hadn’t followed her here, he had to have some way of keeping tabs on her. The answer hit him, and he groaned again.
“Of course. The car.” He whirled around from the window and ran to the door. “I’ll be right back,” he called over his shoulder to a startled Mia.
Once outside he headed straight to Mia’s car. It took only a few minutes to find the GPS tracker attached by a magnet to the inside fender of the back left tire. He pulled the tracker out, and an uneasy fear slowly curled through his body. When Mia had first begun to tell her story, he hadn’t believed the threat to her to be that severe. Now, with Mia’s account of the attack at her home, the threatening phone calls and a GPS tracker on her car, he knew it was serious. Deadly serious.
He stared down at the device in his hand before turning it off. Then he closed his fingers around it as he reentered the house. Mia stood just inside the front door, waiting for his return. When he walked in, her eyes grew wide. He motioned toward the living room. “Let’s go back in there.”
He followed her into the room and stopped when she turned to face him. A puzzled expression flickered in her eyes. “Why did you go to my car?”
Lucas opened his hand. “To look for this.”
She took one glance at what he held and frowned. “Wh-what is that thing?”
“It’s a GPS device that was attached to your car. That’s how your caller knew where you’d gone. As long as you kept using your car, he’d have known where you were at all times if I hadn’t found it. I think we need to go to the police and tell them Chapman is stalking and threatening you.”
“No!” A panicked look flashed across her face, and she glanced around as if in search of an escape route. “I can’t go to the police. He said if I did, I’d end up with three bullet holes in my head.”
Lucas reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to an abrupt stop. “We have to, Mia. My brother-in-law, Ryan Spencer, is a detective on the force. You don’t have to go to the police station. I’ll call him and have him come over here.”
Mia tried to pull away from him. “I can’t. I’m afraid,” she cried out.
Lucas clamped his hands on her shoulders and stared down into her eyes. “I know you’re afraid, and I understand. You’ve been through things in the past seven years that would have destroyed a weaker woman. But you’re not weak, Mia. And you’re not alone anymore. I’ll help you face this.”
She shook her head. “I’m not the same woman you once knew, Lucas. I can’t do this. Maybe it’s better if I just let Tony Chapman finish what Kyle tried to do many times—kill me.”
A lock of hair had fallen across her forehead, and he reached up and gently smoothed it back into place. “You don’t mean that.”
She closed her eyes, and a tear ran down her cheek. “I do. I’m tired and scared, and I just want this to be over.”
Lucas put his finger tip under her chin and tilted her face up. “Look at me, Mia.” When she didn’t respond, he nudged her again. “Please look at me.”
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes and swallowed as she stared up into his face. “What?”
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
She gave a slight nod. “Yes.”
“Then you need to do exactly as I say. I’m going to keep you safe from Tony Chapman, but we have to report this to the police. Now, I want you to sit back down on the couch while I call Ryan. When he arrives, you can tell him your story. Then we’ll figure out where we go from here. Okay?”
After a moment she nodded, and he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stepped back into the hallway to make the call. His brother-in-law answered right away. “Ryan,” Lucas said, “I need to ask a favor of you.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“I have a new client who’s in trouble, and she needs to talk to the police but doesn’t want to come to the station. Can you come over to my house?”
“I can. I’m on my way home now and can stop by, if that’s okay.”
“That’s great. We’ll see you soon.”
He ended the call and walked back into the living room where Mia sat on the couch again. “Did you talk with Ryan?”
“I did. He’s on his way. Would you like something to eat while we’re waiting?”
She shook her head. “No. I just want to get this over with.”
Lucas sat down beside her on the sofa. Mia shivered, and she reached for the afghan once more. “Are you cold?” Lucas asked. “Do I need to turn up the thermostat?”
“No. I think it’s just nerves,” she said as she wrapped the afghan around her.
There had to be some way to make her relax. He said the only thing he could think of. “Mia, I’m sorry I was curt with you earlier when you asked about my parents. They’re doing well.”
She turned her head toward him and smiled. “Really? That’s good to know.”
“In fact, they’re doing great. Dad’s enjoying retirement, but Mom still works part-time as a nurse. We all had dinner together at their house last night.”
“All?”
“Yeah. Adam got married about a year and a half ago. His wife, Claire, works as the receptionist at the agency for us. They’re expecting their first child in a few weeks. My sister, Jessica, married Ryan Spencer, the guy we’re waiting for, about six months ago. She works with us, but she was Ryan’s partner before she left the police force.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Mia’s lips. “That sounds like a wonderful family group.” She hesitated a moment before she spoke again. “And what about you? Is there someone special in your life?”
Lucas chuckled and shook his head. “If you mean a woman, then the answer is no. If, on the other hand, you meant to say something special, then you must be referring to my motorcycle, and the answer is yes.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners the way he remembered as she giggled. “Oh, Lucas, you always could make me laugh.”
The chiming of the doorbell sounded before he could reply, and he jumped to his feet. “That must be Ryan.”
When he opened the front door, Ryan hurried into the house. “It’s getting colder by the minute. I hope I don’t get called out on a case tonight. I’m looking forward to spending a quiet night at home.”
“I’d like to do that myself,” Lucas said, “but I don’t know about that at the moment.”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow as he shrugged out of his coat. “You said you have a new client? What’s going on?”
Lucas hesitated a few seconds as Ryan hung his coat on the hall tree. “It’s kind of complicated,” he said.
Ryan glanced toward the living room and then back to Lucas. “How?”
Lucas cleared his throat. “Has Jessica ever said anything to you about Mia Lockhart?”
Ryan nodded. “She’s mentioned her. She was your girlfriend in college. Right?”
“Yeah. Well, she’s in trouble, and I think the police need to know about it.”
He led Ryan into the living room where Mia sat on the couch, her hands clasped in her lap. A worried expression covered her face, and her fingers trembled. She glanced from Ryan to Lucas as they entered. Ryan stepped over to the couch and held his hand out.
She reached up and shook his hand, and he settled on the couch next to her. “Mia, I’m Ryan Spencer, Lucas’s brother-in-law. I’m a detective with the police department. Lucas said you’re in trouble. Do you want to tell me about it?”
Her gaze darted to Lucas and then back to Ryan as she grasped the edge of the afghan and pulled it up to her neck. “Are you familiar with the Kyle Lockhart murder case?” she asked.
Ryan nodded. “I am. I know the detectives working the case against Tony Chapman. He must have some friends in high places if they were willing to post such a high bail. It didn’t surprise us when he jumped bail.”
“Kyle was my husband, but I never met Tony Chapman until after Kyle was killed,” she said.
Lucas settled back and listened as Mia began to tell her story to Ryan, who made notes on a pad while she talked. From time to time he would ask a question, and she would respond. When she finished, Mia leaned back against the cushions of the sofa as if she was exhausted. Throughout her story, she hadn’t mentioned anything about the abuse she had suffered from her husband. Maybe she thought the police already knew, since it was a matter of public record.
Ryan glanced over the notes he’d taken before he looked back at Mia. “And you have no idea what Chapman wants from you?”
“No.” Her eyes grew wide, and the muscles in her throat rippled as she swallowed. “If I knew, I’d give it to him just to get rid of him. But I have no idea what it is.”
Ryan flipped the notebook closed and inhaled. “It seems that he’s determined to get whatever it is. Lucas did the right thing in getting you to talk to me. The police have been looking for Chapman, and we have some leads we’re checking out. With Lucas on the case, too, hopefully it won’t be long until he’s caught. Until that time you need to be in a safe place. It doesn’t sound like you should go home. Are there any family members you can stay with?”
Mia shook her head. “No. I told Lucas I could go to a hotel.”
Ryan glanced at Lucas. “That’s probably best. Maybe it will only take a few days for us to have him back in custody. Why don’t you check into a hotel but stay in close touch with Lucas? We’ll keep you posted on developments.”
Lucas frowned. “Do you really think a hotel is a good idea?”
“There’s nowhere else I can go, Lucas,” Mia interrupted as she rose to her feet. “I’ve taken up too much of your time today. I’ll find a hotel and let you know where I’m staying.”
Lucas jumped to his feet, too, and shook his head. “No, I don’t want you to go alone. I’ll go with you and get you settled somewhere.”
“Lucas, you don’t have to—” she began.
“I think he should go with you, Mia,” Ryan interrupted as he rose. “It’s always better to be safe.”
She shrugged. “Okay. If you think that’s best.”
Ryan turned to Lucas. “I’ll check with you in the morning, but let me know if you need anything else tonight.”
“I will,” Lucas said as he ushered Ryan toward the door. “Tell Jessica I may be late getting to the office in the morning. I’ll make sure Mia’s okay before I come in.”
“Will do.”
Lucas closed the door behind Ryan and turned back to the living room. Mia still stood in front of the couch, her hands clasped in front of her. Her lips trembled as a slight shiver rippled through her body. Lucas stopped in front of her and frowned. “Are you okay?”
She sucked in her breath and blinked. “Yeah, just tired. Except for my nap earlier, I haven’t slept much in the last few days.”
“Then let’s get you to a hotel. You can order some room service and get settled for the night. I think we should leave your car here. If Chapman comes by to check on it after he realizes his tracker has been turned off, he’ll see it and think you’re still here.”
“Okay.” Her purse lay on the coffee table, and she reached for it just as a chime alerted her from the phone inside that a text had arrived. She looked up at him, a startled expression on her face, before she pulled the phone out. She stared down at the text, and then her body began to shake.
“What is it?” Lucas asked.
The phone slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor. Lucas reached down, picked it up and read the words of the message. I told you not to talk to the police.
Mia’s hand clutched at her throat, and her head shook from side to side in denial. “How does he know I talked to the police?”
“I don’t know,” Lucas muttered, “but he does. We need to get you out of here right away.”
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the kitchen and out the door into the enclosed garage. Opening the back door of his car, he pushed Mia inside. “Lie down on the seat and don’t sit up until we get to the hotel.”
Then he jumped in the driver’s seat, started the engine and raised the automatic garage door. As he backed out to the street, he scanned both ways in hopes of seeing a car where Chapman might be hiding, but he saw nothing unusual along either side of the street. A movement caught his eye as he shifted gears, and he glanced around to see the automatic garage door opening at the house of Mrs. Peterson, his elderly neighbor across the street. Where could she be going at this time of day? But sometimes when her daughter got off work, they met for dinner. She was probably headed to a restaurant right now to do that.
He dismissed the thought and turned his attention back to Mia, who lay in the backseat of his car. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ll be at the hotel in a few minutes.” He glanced in the rearview mirror once more as he turned the corner and pulled into the heavy afternoon traffic.
She didn’t say anything, and he sighed as he rubbed his hand across his eyes. Hopefully, he was doing the right thing in putting Mia in a hotel. It didn’t seem completely safe, but he didn’t know what else he could do. This had certainly turned out to be the most surprising day he’d spent in a long time, and it had brought up too many memories he’d tried to ignore for years.
Maybe Chapman would be caught soon, and Mia could return home. Then he could put her out of his mind again and get on with the life he’d built for himself.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later Lucas unlocked the door to a room on the second floor of a midtown hotel and held it open for Mia to walk past him. She stopped just inside the door and turned to him. “Thank you, Lucas, for getting this room for me. I’ll repay you.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. The agency will put it on your bill. For the time being, order your food from room service, and don’t leave this room.”
Her eyes blinked, and her breath hitched in her throat. For a moment she had almost forgotten that this was a business arrangement. Of course Lucas wasn’t helping her out of the kindness of his heart. She’d hired him to do a job for her, and this was just part of the services his agency supplied. His concern for her safety was no different than it would have been for any stranger who came to him for help.
She took a deep breath as a wobbly smile pulled at her lips. “I won’t leave the room.” She looked down at the jeans she’d been wearing since she left home. “Do you think it might be safe enough for me to go home tomorrow and get some clothes? If I’m going to be here for a while, I need to get some things.”
He pursed his lips and frowned. “I don’t know. We’ll talk again tomorrow. For now, call the concierge downstairs, and he’ll have anything you need sent up from the hotel’s shop. You can charge those to the room, also.”
“And you’ll add them to my bill?”
His face flushed, but he nodded. “Yes.”
She reached for the door handle and smiled again. “Thank you, Lucas, for all you’ve done for me today. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
A frown pulled at his brow. “Don’t you want me to come in and check out your room?”
“There’s no need in that. I’m sure it’s fine.”
He took a step back. “Then I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll come by before I go to the office.”
Mia nodded. “I’ll see you then.”
Without waiting for him to reply, she closed the door and stood staring at it, her hands clenched to her side. Should she have asked him to come in? After all, he’d opened his home to her today and tried to make her feel safe.
After a moment she shook her head. Keeping her safe was his job. He’d already told her that their relationship would be purely business. She and Lucas had taken different paths, and they were no longer that young boy and girl who’d once loved each other. She’d seen to that, and she didn’t think she would ever forgive herself for the choice she’d made.
With a sigh she walked over to the bed, sat down on the side and switched on the television with the remote. After a few minutes, she grew restless and wandered over to the window to look outside. The view of the parking lot behind the hotel left something to be desired.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything since Lucas had fixed her breakfast. She glanced at the desk in the room and spied a coffeepot. A cup of coffee and a sandwich was just what she needed. Once she had the coffee brewing, she called room service and sat down on the bed to flip through the channels to find something to watch. She’d just settled on a public television documentary when a knock sounded at the door. She glanced at her watch. No way could room service already be here.
She eased off the bed, tiptoed to the door, and leaned against it in hopes of hearing movement in the hall. When she heard nothing, she called out. “Who is it?”
“Maid service, ma’am. I need to put some clean towels in the bathroom,” a man’s voice called out.
Mia glanced at the closed door to the bathroom and frowned. She hadn’t looked in there yet. Maybe the maids were behind schedule today and hadn’t left towels earlier. She remembered seeing a man cleaning a room down the hall when she and Lucas had arrived earlier. Still, Lucas had told her to be careful before opening the door.
She took a deep breath. “Just leave them outside the door,” she said.
“I can’t do that, ma’am. The manager would fire me if he found out. I’ll only be a minute. Quick in and out.”
Mia reached for the doorknob and then pulled her hand away. She leaned forward and peered through the peephole into the hallway. A maid’s cart piled high with clean towels and linens sat in front of her door. She couldn’t see the man, but she caught a glimpse of his arm with towels draped over it. Underneath the towels she noticed a jacket like the one she’d seen on the hotel employee earlier.
She grasped the knob again and pulled the door open a few inches. “Okay, come on...”
Before she could finish her sentence, the door flew open, striking her in the chest with such a force that it knocked her backward where she landed like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Shaking her head to dispel her blurred vision, she scrambled backward as she stared up into the angry face of Tony Chapman. He slammed the door behind him and took a menacing step toward her.
“We meet again, Mrs. Lockhart,” he snarled as he came nearer. “You went to the police after I warned you not to. I hope you remember what I told you.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she shook her head. “Please, leave me alone. I’ve told you I don’t know what you want.”
A sinister smirk creased his mouth. “I think you do. Maybe you just need a reminder. Get up.”
“P-please,” she begged. “I don’t know...”
“Get up! Don’t make me kill you right here.”
Mia pushed to her feet and held a hand out in front of her as she backed farther away from him. “You need to get out of here before I scream for help.”
He laughed and took another step. “Scream and it’ll be the last sound to come out of your mouth.” He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a gun and aimed it at her. “Now do as I say. We’re going to walk downstairs and out of this hotel. I will be right beside you with a gun in your ribs, and if you so much as raise an eyebrow to anybody, I’ll kill you and whoever you try to alert. Do you understand?”
Mia’s wide eyes stared down at the gun in Tony’s hand, and she believed him. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill her or anybody they came in contact with. She took a step backward and stopped as she bumped into the desk. “I’m not going with you.”
“Oh, yes, you are.”
She shook her head. “If I leave with you, I’ll just be putting other people in danger. And if you kill me now, you’ll never find out what you want to know. I can’t very well tell you anything if I’m dead.”
His eyes sparkled, and he took a step nearer. “So you do know where it is.”
She lifted her chin and stared at him. “I didn’t say that. But you don’t know whether I do or not. If you kill me, you’ll always wonder if I did.”
An angry scowl covered his face, and he stormed toward her. “Tell me what you know right now, or I’m pulling this trigger.”
He raised the gun, and she took a deep breath as she stared at the barrel pointed at her head. Taking another deep breath, she reached behind her, her fingers groping across the surface of the desk. He took one more step, and she clamped her fingers around the handle of the coffeepot.
“You’re going to be sorry you messed with me,” he muttered as he racked the first bullet into the semiautomatic gun’s chamber.
“No, you’re the one who’s going to be sorry,” she snarled.
Her hand whipped around as she hurled the scalding contents of the coffeepot at his face. A howl of pain rumbled from his throat, and his hands grabbed at his face. The gun tumbled to the floor.
Mia didn’t hesitate but pushed past him and ran for the door. “Come back here!” he screamed as she ran into the hall.
The linen cart still sat outside her door, and she pushed it closer to the entrance to her room in hopes of delaying him. Behind her she could hear him yelling obscenities at her as he tried to follow.
She looked down the hall and decided her best avenue of escape was down the steps. She ran toward the stairs as fast as she could go. The sound of the door to her room crashing against the wall sent a wave of terror through her, but she didn’t look back. At the end of the hall an exit sign above a door blinked its welcome to her, and she pushed through it like a speeding rocket. Her foot slipped as she hit the first step going down, and she stumbled, barely managing to grab the handrail.
Pain shot up her leg from her ankle, but she couldn’t slow down. Escape was just a few feet away. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach when the door at the top of the stairs crashed open, and a man’s footsteps echoed on the first steps.
She staggered down the last two steps and launched herself at the door leading into the lobby. The security officer near the hotel’s front door looked around in surprise as she plowed into the room. She stumbled toward him.
“Help me!” she cried. “There’s a man trying to kill me!”
The officer’s eyebrows arched as he stared past her. Before he could get his gun from the holster, a shot rang out, and he toppled to the floor. Mia glanced over her shoulder and screamed at the sight of Tony behind her, rage on his face evident under the red burn marks. He glared and pointed his gun at her.
Mia put up her hands and glanced around the lobby. Scared guests sat huddled in chairs and on the floor as they watched Tony stride closer to her. She backed away until she was beside the concierge’s desk. His muffled voice drifted up from beneath the desk where he crouched on the floor. Her heartbeat quickened as she realized he was on the phone with the police.
Tony must have heard him, too, because he fired one shot at the desk. A groan followed by silence sent chills racing up Mia’s spine. A woman across the lobby screamed, and Tony turned the gun in her direction.
Mia knew it was now or never. The front door was only a few feet away. If she ran, Tony might follow her and leave the others in the lobby alone. And she might be able to evade capture until the police arrived. She had only a split second to decide before he shot the woman who had yelled.
Breathing a quick prayer for God to watch over all of them, she turned and bolted for the front door.
FOUR (#ulink_5d8cb2d4-21d0-5326-a07b-b48afc8e9007)
Lucas pocketed the receipt for the gasoline he’d just purchased, climbed back in the car and turned the key in the ignition. Good thing he’d noticed the gas gauge had been nearing empty when he left the hotel. He felt more comfortable knowing his vehicle was ready to go if he received an urgent call in the middle of the night.
He’d just put the car in gear when his cell phone rang. Ryan’s name and number flashed on the caller ID on the vehicle’s dashboard screen. With a frown he connected the call.
“Hey, Ryan. What’s up?”
“Where are you, Lucas?”
Lucas stiffened at the curt tone. “I left Mia at the hotel, and now I’m headed home. I stopped for gas. Why?”
“Because I’m at the house of Mrs. Peterson, who lives across the street from you. Her daughter came home from work and found her mother tied to a chair in the living room. She’s been held prisoner in her home all day by a man who’s been watching your house from her front window.”
“What?” Lucas shouted.
“Yeah, he stole her car and left nearly an hour ago. The EMTs are getting ready to take her to the hospital, but I pulled up Tony Chapman’s picture on my cell phone. She identified him as the man.”
Lucas’s stomach clenched. This explained how Chapman knew Ryan had come to his house. The memory of seeing Mrs. Peterson’s car pulling out of her garage flashed into Lucas’s mind, and he sucked in his breath. How could he have dismissed what he’d seen without checking on it? He hadn’t even looked to see if Mrs. Peterson’s car had followed him to the hotel. He had to get to Mia right away. But he might already be too late. If his negligence had caused anything to happen to her, he would never forgive himself.
“I’m heading back to the hotel,” he yelled as he floored the accelerator and did a quick turn onto the street from where he had just come.
Swerving in and out of traffic, his hand pressed to the car’s horn and his caution lights blinking, he drove like a madman toward the hotel. Behind him he could hear sirens. The police had to be after him for speeding. Good. He increased his speed. Now to lead them right to the hotel.
He roared into the hotel driveway and screeched to a stop at the front door. He was out of the car by the time the engine died. Suddenly the front door of the hotel swung open, and Mia ran outside, her face a mask of terror.
Her eyes grew wide when she saw him. “Lucas!” she screamed. “Tony Chapman’s after me.”
He reached her in two steps, grabbed her by the arm and propelled her behind him. He held her with one arm protectively as he shielded her with his body and pulled his gun from its holster with his other hand. Behind him three police cars and two ambulances came to a halt, and suddenly officers swarmed around them.
“Where is the shooter, ma’am?” one of the men asked.
Mia raised a shaking hand and pointed toward the hotel entrance. “Inside.”
Lucas glanced at the door, and the image of a man holding a gun was visible through the glass. A surprised look flashed on his face before he turned and disappeared from sight.
Mia had seen the same thing. “That’s him!” she screamed.
The police officers fanned out, some going around the side of the hotel and others toward the door. As they moved forward, their guns drawn, Lucas pulled Mia back toward his car. Two EMTs jumped from each of the ambulances, and the four crouched low as they followed the lawmen to the door. Evidently they expected a large number of injuries and had come prepared. Within minutes all of them disappeared into the building.
Lucas pulled Mia around to the far side of his car, using the vehicle as somewhat of a shield for them. He stopped beside the car’s back door, shoved his gun in its holster and grasped her by both arms. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, and then it was as if the fight went out of her body. She sagged and would have dropped to the ground if he hadn’t been holding her. His grip on her tightened, and he pulled her to him. She clutched his jacket with both hands and buried her face in his chest as she sobbed. He wrapped one arm around her waist and held her as his other hand stroked the back of her head. She’d taken her hair down from its earlier ponytail, and the strands felt like silk slipping through his fingers. He swallowed at the memory that hit him in the pit of his stomach, but he couldn’t pull his hand away.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered. “It’s over now. The police will catch him.”
“H-he shot two people inside, and he was going to kill me.”
A shiver went through her, and her fingers tightened on his coat. After a moment she quieted, and he loosened his hold on her. “Tell me what happened.”
She took a deep breath and pulled away. Another tear trickled from her eye, and she swiped at it with her fingers. “I shouldn’t have opened the door,” she said.
He listened as she told him what had transpired in her room after he had left. When she’d finished, he shook his head in regret. “I shouldn’t have brought you here and left you alone. I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I didn’t think it would be so easy for him to find me.”
Lucas exhaled. “I’m afraid that’s my fault, too.”
Her eyes grew wide as he related what Ryan had told him on the phone. “So, I made a mistake, and you almost died because of it,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Mia, but I promise you it won’t happen again. I’m going to protect you until this guy is caught.”
At that moment the hotel door opened, and one of the policemen walked outside. Mia straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Maybe they already have captured him.”
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Sandra Robbins
PERILOUS REUNIONThe man who killed Mia Fletcher's husband is stalking her—he's dangerously intent on searching for something in her possession. But Mia doesn't know what he wants or how to stop him, so she turns to Lucas Knight, fugitive hunter extraordinaire—and her former college boyfriend. When Lucas is pulled from sleep by a pounding on his door, Mia is the last person he expects to see. But after he hears about the killer who jumped bail, he has to help her…even if it means risking falling for her all over again. Can the bounty hunter capture the fugitive—and Mia's heart—in time for Christmas?Bounty Hunters: Finding justice one fugitive at a time
PERILOUS REUNION
The man who killed Mia Fletcher’s husband is stalking her—he’s dangerously intent on searching for something in her possession. But Mia doesn’t know what he wants or how to stop him, so she turns to Lucas Knight, fugitive hunter extraordinaire—and her former college boyfriend. When Lucas is pulled from sleep by a pounding on his door, Mia is the last person he expects to see. But after he hears about the killer who jumped bail, he has to help her…even if it means risking falling for her all over again. Can the bounty hunter capture the fugitive—and Mia’s heart—in time for Christmas?
Bounty Hunters: Finding justice one fugitive at a time
“Lucas, please, I need to talk to you.”
His hand tightened on the door. “We have nothing to talk about, Mia.”
She glanced over her shoulder as if checking to see who might be behind her and turned back to face him. Tears stood in her eyes. “I’m in trouble, Lucas, and I have no one to turn to. Just give me five minutes of your time. That’s all I’m asking.”
Against his better judgment, he stepped aside and nodded. “All right. Five minutes.”
He closed the door behind them and turned the thermostat up before ushering her into the living room. “Have a seat. I can see you’re upset about something. So tell me about it.”
Mia rubbed her hand across her eyes and sighed. “I hardly know where to start.” After a moment she took a deep breath. “Did you know that Kyle was murdered?”
Lucas exhaled a deep breath. “Yes. It’s been covered enough by the local media. I’m sorry, Mia. You have my condolences.”
She looked up at him, and he recoiled from the anger that lined her face. “I don’t need your pity, Lucas. Not now. I need help to find his killer. That’s what I want you to do.”
SANDRA ROBBINS is an award-winning, multipublished author of Christian fiction who lives with her husband in Tennessee. Without the support of her wonderful husband, four children and five grandchildren, it would be impossible for her to write. It is her prayer that God will use her words to plant seeds of hope in the lives of her readers so they may come to know the peace she draws from her life.
Yuletide
Fugitive
Threat
Sandra Robbins
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
—Proverbs 31:30
To the memory of the 18,000 women in the United States who have been killed by men in domestic violence disputes since 2003.
Contents
Cover (#u93caef53-2ed6-58a2-9fe9-49066f64e978)
Back Cover Text (#uf3d5c93f-4ce9-54cc-a871-d4bbfe06c6ce)
Introduction (#uf328db41-2d2c-5af8-9b9b-f15bdc298724)
About the Author (#u60e6978b-bd18-51e1-8746-12bf31d383bd)
Title Page (#ua42c7d41-8e89-5fe1-b59b-93d75c94aa52)
Bible Verse (#ud86878b2-ecd8-585f-b04d-34a14219e7fa)
Dedication (#ue5567fd0-5867-55d3-a97e-145e5e4e3973)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dear Reader
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#uc0fee459-51c7-5b68-aa7d-56da1e54ffed)
Mia Lockhart closed her eyes as she stood on the deck of her waterfront house and listened for sounds in the dark night. The only noise that reached her ears was the soft lap of the lake as its gentle waves rippled over the rocky shoreline.
She hugged her arms around her body and shivered in the December cold. Don’t let the quiet night lull you into a false sense of security, she said to herself. You’re not safe. Not yet. But would she ever be? That was the question that was causing one sleepless night after another.
Try as she might, she couldn’t make herself grieve over the murder of her husband a month ago. Grieving was for those with good memories of a deceased spouse, not for those who were lucky to have survived being married to a monster.
Her left hand clenched into a fist, and she flexed the arm with the broken bone that had taken so long to mend. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled. A slight smile flitted across her mouth at how much easier it was to breathe now that her ribs had healed.
No wonder she had felt no shock or sorrow when the police arrived at her door with the news of Kyle’s murder. Relief, that’s what had washed over her. She was finally free of the man who had controlled her life for the past seven years. Free from his possessiveness, his anger and his fists.
But she’d only been deluding herself, thinking that she’d never have to fear a man again. Freedom didn’t mean she was safe, not when the accused murderer had been able to make bail and had promptly disappeared to become a fugitive from justice. Now Kyle’s killer was somewhere out there, and he knew where she lived.
A gust of wind blew across the deck, and she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket, smiling as her fingers brushed the cell phone she’d tucked inside. Kyle had forbidden her to have a cell phone and even a landline to the house. It only made sense that her first act of freedom was to enter the digital age with a phone and a computer.
Suddenly the phone vibrated, and she tightened her grip on it. Her lips trembled as she pulled it from her pocket. An unknown number glowed on the caller ID. She knew before she answered what the voice on the line would say, but it was as if some unknown force commanded her to answer.
“H-hello,” she stammered.
“Hello, Mia. It’s me again.”
She closed her eyes and swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. “Tony Chapman.” The man who killed her husband. There was no reason to deny it. She’d known the first time he phoned right after he jumped bail.
“Why do you keep calling me? I just want to be left alone.”
“I’m sure you do, and I’ll be glad to do that when you give me the answers I want.”
Mia’s hand shook, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t have any answers.”
“What did you think? That you could keep it to yourself for a Christmas present from your dearly departed husband?” he growled. “If that’s what you thought, then you’re wrong. Dead or alive, he still owes me, and I intend to collect. So if you think you’re going to keep it to yourself, you have another think coming.”
“Keep what for myself?” she screamed into the phone.
“Calm down, Mia. All you have to do is tell me where it is, and you’ll never hear from me again.”
Her body was shaking with sobs by this time. “I don’t know what it is. And even if I did, Kyle would never have told me anything about his business. Now, please, leave me alone.”
“Dream on!” he shouted. “I’m through being nice. Tell me what I want to know, or you’re going to be sorry.”
“I’m sorry already! Sorry I ever met Kyle Lockhart and sorry I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I did, I’d give it to you.”
Tony was quiet for a moment. “Maybe you don’t know what he did with it. But if you think very carefully, you might be able to remember something he said or did. Maybe he had a place where he kept his secrets.”
“Kyle had lots of secrets, but he never shared them with me. Now I’m warning you. I’ve had all of these phone calls I can stand. I’m going to the police to turn this matter over to them. Maybe they know where Kyle hid whatever it is you’re looking for.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from the police, or you’ll end up like Kyle, with three bullet holes in your head.”
Mia shook so badly she could hardly hold the phone to her ear. “Leave me alone!” she screamed.
“Not until I get what’s mine. So you’d better watch out, lady. I’m coming after you.”
The call ended, and she pulled the phone away from her ear. What was this all about? It wouldn’t surprise her if Kyle had been involved in something illegal that had gotten him killed, but she knew nothing about it. In fact, she knew next to nothing about his life outside of this house that he’d made her prison.
Sliding the phone back into her pocket, she turned to go back inside but stopped, her eyes growing wide. A light like a tiny flame flared at the edge of the tree line near the lake and then disappeared, to be replaced by a small red glow. She squinted into the darkness and then backed away, shaking her head in denial.
She’d seen a flicker of fire that had lit a cigarette, and now whoever was smoking it stood just a few feet away as he watched her on the deck. A mewling sound of distress erupted from her mouth, and she dashed back into the house, locking the door behind her.
As she ran into the bedroom, she glanced at the clock on the bedside table: 2:30 a.m. It would be hours before the sun was up, and she couldn’t stay here until then. She didn’t know where she could go, but she had to get out of this house. Get away from the nightmare that had taken over her life.
She jerked a pair of jeans and a sweater from the closet and dressed as quickly as she could. Then, pulling on her coat and grabbing her purse and cell phone, she headed to the kitchen where she always hung the car keys on the hook by the door.
As she stepped into the kitchen, her gaze lit on the rack, and her stomach did a somersault. No key ring. She came to an abrupt halt and frowned. Where was it?
A sickening feeling washed over her as the answer came to her. The keys weren’t on the hook because they were in her purse, where she’d placed them after a trip to the grocery store. She hadn’t hung the key ring back in place because she hadn’t come in through the garage. The automatic garage door opener wasn’t working, so she’d left the car in the driveway.
And that’s where it was now. Sitting in the driveway. In the dark. Where someone was watching from the shadows of the woods. Did she dare go outside and face being attacked? Or did she stay inside and hope he didn’t decide to break in? Either choice left a lot to be desired.
Every nerve ending in her body screamed that she had to do something, and before she even realized it, the decision had been made. She jerked the key ring from her purse, opened the front door and ran for the car.
She’d just grabbed the door handle when an arm circled her neck, and the tip of the knife in her attacker’s other hand pressed against her carotid artery. The smell of cigarette smoke filled her nostrils. She held her breath and tried to pull free, but the arm tightened.
A soft chuckle drifted to her ear as a warm breath fanned the side of her face. “Don’t waste your energy, sweetheart. You’re not getting away from me.”
His voice sounded deeper than it had on the phone, more sinister and full of evil. She tried to suppress the whimper rising in her throat, but it was no use. He knew how scared she was, and that was his advantage over her.
“Let me go!” she begged. “I can’t give you what you want because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’ll see about that. I think by the time I get through with you, you’ll be begging to tell me all of your secrets.”
The tone of his voice had grown harder, just like Kyle’s used to when he told her he would never have hurt her if she hadn’t provoked him into doing it. After a while she had come to believe him. She’d given in, gone along with whatever he wanted—even when all he seemed to want was a punching bag. But she would not give in to this man, nor would she let him take her anywhere. If she did, she had no doubt she would end up dead just like Kyle.
If she had never been strong in her life, she had to be now. Only a desperate move could get her out of this killer’s clutches. Thankfully she hadn’t dropped her car keys when she’d been attacked, and she tightened her grip on them. If she could free herself of Tony’s arm around her throat, she might be able to jump in the car and drive away.
Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she closed her fingers around the small canister of pepper spray dangling from the key ring she’d bought after he’d called her the first time. In a few moments she would either be free or stabbed to death in her driveway.
In one quick motion she raised the canister and sprayed the contents over her shoulder into Tony Chapman’s face. His agonized cry split the night air, and his grip on her loosened as he stumbled backward.
Those few seconds were enough time for her to pull the car door open, jump inside and roar down the driveway. As she raced down the road leading to the main highway, she kept a watch in the rearview mirror, but no one followed her.
She didn’t slow down until she turned onto I-240 for the short drive into Memphis. Her mind whirled with questions about what she was going to do. She had no friends. Nowhere to turn. Where could she go?
And then she straightened in her seat as the answer popped into her head. A bounty hunter, that’s what she needed. Someone who could track Tony Chapman down and return him to custody. And it so happened she had once known someone who now did that for a living. Lucas Knight. But she hadn’t seen Lucas in seven years. And the last time she’d seen him, he’d said he never wanted to lay eyes on her again.
A lot of time had passed, she reasoned with herself. He’d moved on. She’d seen him on TV just a few weeks ago, giving an interview with his brother and sister about the Knight Fugitive Recovery Agency, the family’s bounty hunter business. He’d looked good—great, actually. The interviewer had said their agency had the best reputation for bringing in bail jumpers of any group in the city. But would Lucas help her?
The lights of an all-night diner off the highway caught her attention, and she exited and pulled to a stop near the front entrance. Only three other cars sat in the parking lot at 3:00 a.m. Evidently someone else had trouble sleeping at night.
She had a few hours before she could go see Lucas, and she needed to use that time to decide how she was going to persuade him to help a woman whom he had once said he would hate until the day he died. This diner offered the perfect place for her to sit and ponder how in the world she was ever going to convince Lucas to track down Tony Chapman and return him to custody.
She took a deep breath, stepped from the car and walked toward the diner’s entrance.
* * *
Lucas Knight woke to a pounding at his front door. He sat up in bed, glanced at the bedside clock and groaned: 6:00 a.m. His brother, Adam, had said he’d be by early to pick him up for the trip they were taking to Nashville, but he hadn’t thought he meant this early.
Muttering to himself, Lucas climbed out of bed and jerked on his jeans and the sweatshirt he’d draped across the bedroom chair before going to bed last night. If Adam thought he was going to hurry him into going before he’d had his coffee and showered, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.
The pounding increased, and he stormed across the living room floor and jerked the front door open. “Adam, what do you mean...”
His words died in his throat, and all he could do was stare in surprise at Mia Fletcher standing in front of him. He shook his head. No, Mia Lockhart. That had become her name after she’d walked out on him for the man her daddy had picked for her.
He grabbed the side of the door and hung on so that he didn’t collapse right in front of her. What was she doing standing on his porch at six o’clock in the morning?
His gaze swept her, and he swallowed the tiny glimmer of pleasure at seeing her. She was just as beautiful as ever. Even though she wore no makeup and her long blond hair was pulled up in a practical ponytail, she had that fresh-scrubbed look he’d always liked. What he didn’t like was the hint of fear in her blue eyes. She stared at him apprehensively, as if to say she had no idea how he would react at her sudden appearance.
He wouldn’t allow himself to be glad to see her. Couldn’t allow it. It had taken too long to get over her, and he wasn’t about to revisit those old memories and the scars they had left deep inside of him. He should slam the door in her face and forget she’d ever come here. He started to do that, but she spoke before he could.
“Lucas, please, I need to talk to you.”
His hand tightened on the door. “We have nothing to talk about, Mia.”
She glanced over her shoulder, as if checking to see who might be behind her, and turned back to face him. Tears stood in her eyes. “I’m in trouble, Lucas, and I have no one to turn to. Just give me five minutes of your time. After that, if you won’t help me, I’ll go away and never bother you again. Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
She shivered and clutched her jacket tighter around her. For the first time he noticed the chill in the air. The temperature had to be in the thirties, and she looked as if she was chilled to the bone. Against his better judgment, he stepped aside and nodded.
“All right. Five minutes. I’ll give you that.”
She brushed past him, and the scent of the fruity shampoo she’d always used filled his nostrils. The memory of that smell had kept him awake many nights when he was still a navy SEAL, but he’d never thought he’d experience it firsthand again.
He closed the door behind them and turned the thermostat up before ushering her into the living room. “Have a seat.”
She sank down on the sofa and rubbed her hands together before she offered him a weak smile. “It feels good in here. I must have stood on your porch for fifteen minutes trying to get up my nerve to knock. It was colder than I thought.”
He pressed his lips together and didn’t say anything, but his gaze drifted down to her hands, which she was still rubbing together. No sign of a wedding ring.
She shivered again, and he refocused his thoughts. A good host would offer her a cup of coffee, but he was in no mood to make this any easier. The quicker he could get Mia out of here, the better off he’d be.
He took a deep breath. “Five minutes, you said. So, what has brought you to my door so early in the morning?” He paused for a moment and frowned. “Wait a minute. I haven’t seen or heard from you in seven years. How did you know where I live? I bought this house after I got out of the navy. You’ve never been here before.”
Her cheeks flushed even more. “I was going to come to your office, but I decided I couldn’t wait that long to see you. I had to leave home quickly in the middle of the night, and I’ve spent the last three hours in an all-night diner. I used my phone to look up your address online.”
For the first time he noticed her red-streaked eyes and the dark circles underneath on her skin. “Have you been up all night?”
She nodded.
Lucas sat down in a chair facing the sofa and placed his hands on his knees. “Okay. I can see you’re upset about something. So tell me about it.”
Mia rubbed her hand across her eyes and sighed. “I hardly know where to start.” After a moment she took a deep breath. “Did you know that Kyle was murdered?”
Lucas exhaled a deep breath. “Yes. It’s been covered enough by the local media. ‘Kyle Lockhart, respected antiques authority and honored young leader in the local arts community, found brutally murdered in an apparent burglary of his office at Shackleford’s Imports,’ I believe is how the newscasters on TV stated it.” He regretted his mocking words when he saw her eyes fill again. He swallowed and spoke in a gentler tone. “I’m sorry, Mia. You have my condolences.”
She looked up at him, and he recoiled from the anger that lined her face. “I don’t need your pity, Lucas. Not now. I need help to find his killer. That’s what I want you to do.”
He shook his head and stood up. “The paper said the police had arrested somebody. If it’s true that they have enough evidence for a conviction, then the case is closed. The killer will be found guilty, and you can move on, living the life of a rich widow.”
“Rich widow? Is that what you think of me?” she screamed as she jumped to her feet. “I would love to get on with my life, but, unfortunately, I can’t. Tony Chapman, who was arrested for killing Kyle, was able to make bail, after which he ran. As far as the authorities are concerned, he’s disappeared. But he hasn’t. He’s terrorizing me and making my life miserable.”
Her outburst stunned Lucas, and he frowned. “What do you mean he’s terrorizing you?”
She sank back to the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. “A few days after Tony jumped bail, I began getting phone calls from him demanding to know where Kyle had hidden it. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, but he didn’t believe me. The phone calls have gotten worse, and tonight he came to my house and attacked me. I only got away because I had a canister of pepper spray on my key ring.”
Lucas stared at Mia and tried to process what she’d just told him. “Mia, I don’t know what to say.”
She scooted to the edge of the sofa and stared at him, her eyes pleading with him for help. “I need help, Lucas. I want to hire you to find him. He’s a fugitive, and you’re a bounty hunter. If you can bring him in, then maybe I can put this whole crazy ordeal behind me.”
Work for her? She wanted that after everything that had happened between them? He pushed to his feet, walked over to the window and stared outside. He couldn’t help her. It would stir up too many memories that he had safely stored away, and he didn’t need to be reminded. But he had to admit, she needed help.
Finally he turned back to her and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mia. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to work for you. But I’m sure Adam would be glad to do it.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Adam?”
“Yes. You remember my older brother. He takes cases like this all the time. Why don’t you come by our office later today...?” A sudden thought hit him, and he shook his head. “No, he won’t be in today. We’re going to Nashville. Maybe you could come tomorrow.”
She stared at him for a moment before she slowly rose to her feet. “No. I can’t wait that long.”
“Then what about Jessica? She’s going to be in the office today. I’m sure she would be glad to help you.”
She shook her head. “That’s all right, Lucas. If you won’t help me, I’ll have to figure out another way to get through this.”
The words, spoken without any emotion, hit Lucas as if his heart was being ripped from his body. He watched as she took a step to leave, but he felt powerless to stop her. She had almost reached the front door into the entryway when her cell phone rang. She stopped and pulled it from her pocket. Her eyes grew wide, and she began to shake.
“He’s calling again!” she moaned. “Why won’t he leave me alone?”
Lucas was at her side in two strides and jerked the phone from her hand. “Hello! Who is this?” he yelled into the phone.
There was a short pause before a soft chuckle sounded. “Hello. Mr. Knight, I assume. Tell Mia that running to you isn’t going to help her any. You can’t be with her every minute, and the next time I get my hands on her, I’ll gladly cut her throat without hesitation.”
“You’ll what?” But there was no answer. The man had already disconnected the call. Lucas handed the phone back to Mia. “He’ll cut your throat? What’s that about? You didn’t say anything about a knife.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I didn’t? That was when he caught me trying to get in my car. He was holding a knife to my throat when I sprayed him with the pepper spray.”
Lucas’s mouth dropped open. “Do you realize that his reflex action could have left you stabbed and bleeding to death?”
She nodded. “I did. But doing nothing would have been worse. I knew I couldn’t be his victim.” She clenched her fists and pounded them against the sides of her legs. “I don’t want to be anybody’s victim anymore.”
Something in the way she said it sent warning signals flashing in his mind. Maybe there was more to Mia’s situation than she was telling. If so, he wanted to find out what it was. He stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and rocked back on his heels.
“Are you hungry, Mia?”
“Yeah, a little. I think I drank about five cups of coffee while I was in that diner, but I couldn’t eat anything.”
He smiled. “Would you like some breakfast? I still know my way around the kitchen.”
Her body relaxed, and she smiled the first real smile he’d seen since she arrived. “You always were the best cook I’d ever known.”
His skin warmed, and he couldn’t help but grin at the compliment. “It was one of my many talents,” he joked. “If I’m going to take your case, I need to find out all the details, and I always work better on a full stomach. Go on in the kitchen. I need to call Adam and leave a message for him. Then I’ll see what I can rustle up for us to eat.”
He swept his arm in the direction of the kitchen, and she smiled before she headed there. He closed his eyes for a moment and bit down on his lip. What would Adam say when he told him why he was canceling on their trip to Nashville? Especially when his brother found out that Lucas had just accepted Mia Lockhart as a new client at the Knight Agency. After a moment he shrugged. It didn’t matter.
Mia had shown up on his doorstep looking like a lost waif. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was in a lot of trouble and needed help. If he could help her, that’s what he needed to do. He’d never forgive himself if he sent her away and then learned from the news that she’d been hurt, or killed.
But finding the bail jumper was all this was going to be. She was hiring him for a job. After it was over, she would pay him, and he’d never have to see her again. That’s the way he wanted it, and that’s the way it was going to be.
TWO (#uc0fee459-51c7-5b68-aa7d-56da1e54ffed)
Thirty minutes later Mia sat across the kitchen table from Lucas and stared down at the plate in front of her. “This is delicious. I haven’t had an omelet in a long time, and you always made the best,” she said.
He nodded and finished chewing his last bite before he spoke. “I still like to cook, but I don’t advertise it to any of the guys in my biker club. I don’t think I could take the jokes they’d make about me in the kitchen.”
She laughed and arched an eyebrow. “So you’re still riding a motorcycle?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. It gives me something to do when I’m off work, which isn’t very often.”
“I suppose your mother is still as concerned about your dangerous hobby as ever,” she said as she scooped another bite onto her fork. “By the way, how are your parents? I always liked them.”
She sensed a sudden chill in the friendly atmosphere and sat back in her chair. “Is something wrong, Lucas?”
He raised his head and stared at her, his eyes dark and foreboding. “If I’m going to take your case, I think we need to get something straight right off.”
She laced her fingers together in her lap and gripped them tightly. “A-all r-right. What is it?”
He leaned forward, a frown creasing his forehead. “I think it would be better if we don’t mention our past relationship. There’s no need to revisit ancient history, whether it’s talking about what I used to cook, my parents or whatever. This is strictly business. You’re hiring me to do a job for you. I’ll do it, and you’ll pay me when it’s over. Can you agree to that?”
She struggled to keep her voice steady as she answered him. “I can, but if you’re going to take my case, then there’s something I need to tell you.”
He tilted his head to one side and eyed her suspiciously. “What is it?”
“I know your services don’t come cheap, and I will pay you. It just may take some time. Kyle’s lawyer is in the process of untangling all his business dealings. I’ve been allowed to stay in the house for a while. Although it’s the last place I want to be, I don’t have anywhere else to go until the estate is settled. I have very little money. I thought you should know.”
Lucas stared at her for a moment before he set his coffee cup down and leaned toward her. “I can understand about the will not being settled. But what about your money?”
Her eyes grew wide. “What money?”
“That you make from your job.”
“I don’t have a job. I’ve never had one.”
His mouth gaped open, and he blinked his eyes. “All you ever wanted to do was to own a dance studio and teach children ballet. You studied for years. What happened?”
Her stomach was beginning to roil at all his questions, and she jumped to her feet and grabbed her plate. She walked to the garbage disposal and shoveled her leftover food into the sink before she turned back around. “I thought this was going to be strictly business,” she retorted. “Do you need to know to solve the case? The studio never happened—end of story.”
He stepped closer to her. “Fine, then. What about your father? If you don’t have enough money to live on until the estate is settled, couldn’t he help you?”
She shook her head but didn’t turn around to face him. “My father died three years ago. He and Kyle got along great.” Much better than she had ever gotten along with her distant, disapproving father. “So much so that he made Kyle the executor of his estate. My lawyer told me I’ll be able to get that inheritance back, but it’s going to take a while.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your father. But what about friends? Could they help you?”
Mia clenched her fists and gritted her teeth before she whirled and faced Lucas. “No! Don’t you understand? I’m not like you, Lucas. I don’t have a family that cares what happens to me, and I don’t have friends who want to help me.” Tears welled in her eyes. “When I was racking my brain trying to think who I could go to for help, you were the only one who came to mind. A college boyfriend that I hadn’t seen in seven years. You probably haven’t given me a thought in years, and yet you were the only one I felt like I could turn to for help.”
She covered her face with her hands and began to sob. After a few moments, Lucas reached out and patted her arm. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
He reached for her napkin and stuck it in her hand. She began to wipe the tears from her face and shake her head. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have gone to pieces like that, but I’ve been so scared ever since those phone calls started. I knew you were my only hope of getting anything done. Will you please help me, Lucas?”
The look on his face told her he still wasn’t pleased about the prospect. “I’ll take the job of tracking Tony Chapman. After all, that’s what we’re in business for, bringing in fugitives from justice. But I can’t guarantee how long it will take me.”
Mia wiped her eyes again. “It can’t be soon enough for me. I want to try and get on with my life.”
“I hope it won’t take long either. But for now, I need some information from you. Why don’t we take our coffee in the living room, and you can fill me in on all the details about Kyle?”
She blew her nose and smiled through her tears. “Okay.”
They walked back to the living room and settled on the sofa, their cups in their hands. Mia pulled her knees up and curled into the corner of the sofa, so she could sit facing him. He reached for a notebook that was lying on the coffee table, flipped it open and pulled a pen out. “Now, tell me about Kyle’s job.”
She wrapped her hand around the mug and thought for a moment before she answered. “Kyle went to work at Shackleford Imports right after we were married. They sell antiques and antiquities in their showroom, as well as working with clients on arranging special purchases. Kyle was the import/export manager. It was his job to oversee the paperwork and the monetary transactions on all the international acquisitions, as well as working with customs agents on all items coming into or leaving the country. He also handled special clients for the company.”
Lucas wrote as she talked and didn’t look up as he asked his next question. “It sounds like an important job. I assume he was paid well.”
“He was. I don’t really know how much—he handled all our finances—but he told me once it was in the six figures.”
Lucas gave a low whistle. “The owner must have thought he did a good job to pay that well.”
Mia shrugged. “I suppose so. Mr. Shackleford has been ill for the past year and a half, and Kyle was basically running the business.”
“Did the other employees like him?”
“I don’t know.”
He glanced up at her answer and then directed his gaze back to his note-taking. “And why is that?”
“Because I never got to know any of them very well.”
Lucas slowly raised his head to stare at her, a frown wrinkling his forehead. “Shackleford’s is well-known in the city. There are stories in the paper all the time about events they’re having to show a new acquisition or the opening of some exhibit they’ve come up with. He worked there for seven years, Mia. Didn’t you go with him to any of the events?”
She shook her head. “A few times when we first married, but that soon ended. He thought I couldn’t hold my own in conversation with the intellectual people who frequented the events. So he quit taking me.”
He opened his mouth to speak but then seemed to think better of it. He cleared his throat and looked back down at the notebook. “The police arrested Tony Chapman for Kyle’s murder. Did you know him?”
“No, I’d never heard of him, until he was arrested. Then a few days later I was notified he had made bail. And soon after that, he disappeared. Except he started calling me all the time.”
“And you have no idea what it is he thinks Kyle has hidden from him?”
She shook her head and frowned. “I can’t imagine what it is. Kyle never talked to me about his business dealings in any kind of detail. Everything he told me was very general. I don’t even know if he and Tony had business dealings. I’m beginning to wonder if it wasn’t something illegal. And if there was a falling-out with them, and that’s why Tony killed him.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s a logical explanation, but I don’t guess we’ll know for sure until I can find Tony.” He paused a moment and then looked at her again. “There are lots of unanswered questions about this whole case.”
“I know.”
“One of them is, how did Tony know you had come to see me today? When I answered the phone, he called me by name—he knew you were with me. Did you see a car following you when you drove here? Or did one drive by after you parked in front of my house?”
She shook her head and yawned. “No. I checked all the way. And when I left the diner, I took a lot of back streets to get here. It was so late, the streets were empty—I’d have noticed if someone was following me. There was no one behind me, and no one drove by after I arrived here.”
Lucas closed the notebook and reached for her coffee cup. “Would you like a refill?”
“That would be nice.”
He laid the notebook on the coffee table and walked from the room. Mia scooted down on the couch, stretched her legs out and snuggled into the soft cushions. The stress of the past few weeks had left her tense and wary, but for some reason she felt safer now than she had in years.
She’d made the right decision. If anyone could help her, Lucas could, and he’d seemed understanding about her lack of funds at the present time. She had no illusions about how he felt about her. He still hated her. She could see it in his eyes. But he was willing to help her, and that was all she needed. Someone she trusted who could put a stop to the terror in her life.
With a sigh she closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
* * *
Lucas walked back into the living room and stopped at the door. A soft snore came from Mia’s prone figure sprawled on the couch. She had to be dead on her feet after the night she’d had. He set the cup of coffee down and reached for an afghan draped across a chair next to the sofa.
As he covered her with the colorful blanket, he thought of his mother and the hours she’d spent crocheting this beautiful afghan and how thrilled she’d been when she saw how he liked it. He spread it over Mia’s body and pulled it up around her shoulders.
Then he stepped back and stared down at her. He still couldn’t believe she was here. Asleep on his sofa. And just as attractive as she’d been when they were in college.
He shook his head and took a step back. No use thinking that way. What was between them had died seven years ago when she chose Kyle instead of him. And nothing was going to change that.
He turned around and strode again to the kitchen, where he began to put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. As he worked, he recalled all the things Mia had said while they were eating. Some things didn’t make sense.
Mia had always been vivacious and energetic and enjoyed being with people. How had she ended up with no friends? Less surprising was that she had no family. When they’d been dating, her father was all the family she had, and their relationship had always been tense.
It hadn’t taken him long when they were in college to find out how her father controlled her life, from what she wore to the friends she had. Her one attempt at rebelling against her father’s authority had been when she’d told him she was going to marry Lucas. But that resolve hadn’t lasted very long. She and Lucas had had a fight over the fact that he wanted to wait until he’d finished his SEAL training before marrying her. Lucas had thought that they’d be able to work things out once he got back from basic training...but by then, she’d already married another man—one who had her father’s stamp of approval.
Lucas closed the dishwasher, sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in the number for Scottie Murray, the computer whiz they used at the agency, and waited for him to answer. Lucas had no idea how Scottie could find even the deepest buried items on the internet with little effort. But then again, he didn’t ask. It was better if he didn’t know some of Scottie’s secrets.
Scottie connected on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Scottie, Lucas Knight here.”
“Hey, man. What’s up?”
“I have a new client. I need you to do some digging for me.”
“Sure. What do you want?”
“I want you to find me everything you can on a man named Kyle Lockhart and his wife, Mia. Lockhart was murdered about a month ago, and I need a full background search on him. Let me know the minute you find out anything.”
“Okay, dude. You got it. I’ll get to work right away.”
Lucas disconnected the call and sat at the table, thinking for a few minutes. If there was more to Mia’s story than what she was telling him, Scottie would find it. He glanced at the clock on the wall: 8:00 a.m. Scottie might not call back for several hours. That gave him time to take care of other things.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Adam’s number. It went to voice mail right away. Without giving details, he left a short message that he wouldn’t be able to go to Nashville and would explain later. Then he headed to the shower.
An hour later he walked back into the living room to check on Mia. She still lay there sound asleep but had pulled the cover up around her neck more. He watched her even breathing for a moment, before he turned and walked back to the kitchen.
He’d just entered the room when his phone rang. He pulled the phone from his pocket and smiled at Scottie’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Scottie. Did you find something for me?”
“Yeah, I did. And some of it’s very interesting. This Lockhart guy was quite a character. I have everything in a file that I just emailed to you. There’s probably more, but I thought this would give you something to study while I keep digging into his life.”
“Thanks, Scottie. Let me know when you have more.”
As he disconnected the call, Lucas strode toward his office to turn on his computer. Within seconds he had opened his email and found the file Scottie had sent.
Carefully, he began to read through the pages contained in the report. The first ones dealt with Kyle’s job at the import business. There was a job description, some evaluations filled out by the owner and some letters of commendation from community leaders.
Those were followed by newspaper articles reporting Kyle’s important acquisitions and pictures of him at events, a wineglass in his hand, and surrounded by beautiful women, smiling for the cameras. As Lucas studied picture after picture, he discovered the same woman was in each one. The captions underneath identified her as Christine Abbott, heiress to her family’s hotel chain.
Was it coincidence that Christine was in all the photos? He doubted it, but that was something Lucas could pursue later.
He scrolled to the next page of the file. His eyes grew wide as a police report came into view. Lucas leaned closer to the computer screen and read, his stomach churning as he realized what he was looking at. A report of Kyle Lockhart’s arrest, six months before his death, for domestic abuse.
Lucas’s fingers shook as he read the account. Teenagers having a party on the shore of the lake near Mia’s house had called the police to report hearing screams. The police had arrived to find Mia Lockhart severely injured. She had been transported to a hospital where it was determined she had a broken arm and several broken ribs, along with cuts and bruises over most of her face.
Lucas scrolled down further and gasped aloud when a picture of a bruised and battered Mia appeared on the screen. He clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from crying out as he read that Mia had refused to press charges.
Before he knew what he was doing, he had dialed Scottie’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“Scottie, did you see the picture of Lockhart’s wife?”
“Yeah, man. I saw it. But that’s just one of many.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The investigating cop is a guy I know, so I called him and asked him about Lockhart. He said that everybody at the precinct knew Mia Lockhart was a victim of repeated domestic abuse. They tried to get her to press charges every time he put her in the hospital, but she never would. My friend said that’s the way victims are. Their abuser convinces them that they deserve what they’re getting. Most of them have nowhere else to go, so they stay. It’s sad, isn’t it?”
Lucas’s breath hitched in his throat. “Yeah. Real sad. Thanks, Scottie.”
For a few minutes after disconnecting the call Lucas sat still and thought about what he’d discovered. No wonder Mia had no one to turn to. She’d been the victim of the one person who was supposed to take care of her.
He stood and walked back into the living room where she still lay sleeping. She moaned and clenched her fingers around the top of the afghan as she pulled it tighter around her neck. “No,” she murmured as her body twitched. “I’m sorry.”
He had no idea what she was dreaming, but he knew for a certainty now that her life had been a nightmare. And when her husband was killed, she’d ended up in a new nightmare, threatened and eventually assaulted by the man who’d murdered Kyle. She had come to him for help, and he would do everything he could to find the man who’d terrorized her for the past few weeks.
As for Kyle Lockhart, there was nothing Lucas could do about him now. But just maybe he could bring some closure to Mia for what she had experienced at her husband’s hands. If he could do that, maybe he, too, could at last put some closure to the most painful period of his life.
* * *
Mia slowly opened her eyes and stretched her arms over her head. She didn’t know when she’d slept so soundly. Her fingers brushed against the soft yarn at her neck, and she looked down at the afghan covering her from her shoulders to her toes. She trailed her fingers down the crocheted diagonal lines of muted shades of green, brown and gray that blended in with the earthy tones of Lucas’s house. Her eyes flew open wide at the thought of his name.
Lucas! She was in his house. Asleep on his sofa.
“Are you finally awake?”
His voice came from the direction to her left. She bolted upright on the sofa and jerked her head around to stare at him. The sun shone through the window behind him and cast shadows across the chair where he sat. He had his ankle propped on the opposite leg and sat there staring at her, the expression on his face unreadable.
She clutched the afghan tighter around her neck and swallowed. “Lucas. You scared me.”
His hands clenched around the arms of the chair, but he didn’t rise. “Did I? I’m sorry. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up.”
She swiveled her body around until her feet were on the floor, and she sat facing him. “I guess I was more tired than I thought. I’m sorry if I inconvenienced you by sleeping here. What time is it?”
“It’s close to three o’clock. You must have been really tired.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “I’m so sorry, Lucas. I hope I didn’t keep you from going to work.”
“I have an office here. I had some paperwork I took care of, so it was no problem.”
She pushed to her feet and busied herself folding the afghan. “I’ll get out of here. Thank you for everything today. I’ll give you my cell phone number so you can contact me when you have any news about Tony Chapman.”
She reached to put the afghan on the back of the sofa, but she froze at the sharp words he uttered. “And where are you going?”
His voice had a hoarse rasp to it. Was that anger she heard? Or was she so used to hearing Kyle’s harsh tone that she looked for it in everyone she encountered? She bit her lip and laid the afghan down before she turned to face him. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know when I get settled, maybe in a hotel.”
“I thought you didn’t have any money.”
She frowned. What was with the interrogation? She swallowed hard and tried to remain calm. “I have a little. I think I can afford a cheap motel.”
He pushed to his feet and took a step toward her. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared at her without blinking. “I have a few questions before you leave.”
“Okay.”
He advanced, and she inched backward until her legs bumped the sofa, and she sank onto it. Lucas took a deep breath as he towered over her. “I need to know more about Kyle, so I can figure out what might have made someone want to kill him. You said he isolated you from friends, he wouldn’t let you work, and in the past few years, he never took you with him to business events. Other than that, how did he treat you?”
Her fingers shook, and she laced them together to hold them still. “H-he was my husband. H-he treated me like I was his wife.”
Lucas’s steel blue eyes bored into hers, and she dropped her gaze. “And what does that mean? Was he kind? Did he make you happy? Did he love you?”
Her face burned from his intense gaze, and she cast a furtive glance down at her hands. “Lucas, I don’t see what this has to do with finding the man who killed him.”
With a sigh, he sat on the sofa next to her. When she peeked over at him, she saw him staring down at his feet for a moment before he reached over, pulled one of her hands loose from the other and wrapped his fingers around hers. She started to draw away from him, but he tightened his grip. She opened her mouth to protest, but the sad look in his eyes stopped her. “It’s all right, Mia,” he said, his gentle tone piercing the barricades around her heart. “I know what kind of love he gave you. So tell me the truth.”
For a moment she couldn’t respond. Her mouth trembled as she realized that for years, there’d been nobody she could tell. Now a man who had been kinder to her than any other in her entire life was asking for the truth. She couldn’t refuse, but when she opened her mouth to speak, the words wouldn’t come. A keening wail drifted from her throat, and she closed her eyes as the tears began to stream down her face. She took a deep breath.
“All right!” she sobbed. “My marriage was a nightmare. Kyle was a monster, and I lived in fear that every day would be the one when he would finally go too far and kill me.”
She felt him move closer, and she glanced up just as he reached out and patted her shoulder. That only produced more tears. “Why didn’t you come to me?” he whispered. “I would have helped you.”
The sorrow in his eyes pierced her heart, and she pulled free of him and turned her face into the soft afghan she’d just folded minutes before. He didn’t say anything as she sobbed but patted her shoulder from time to time and uttered some soothing words.
After several minutes she sat up and wiped at her eyes. Her pulse was still racing, but it was freeing to finally admit to someone what her life had been like. And she was glad Lucas was the one she could tell.
“After Kyle and I were married, I discovered very quickly why my father had wanted me to marry him. He was like my father, but worse. He didn’t allow me to make any decisions, not even about the clothes I wore. He picked out everything, provided everything and wanted me at home when he got there. The abuse wasn’t too bad at first. If I displeased him, didn’t cook a meal the way he liked it, he would slap me. Then one night things escalated.”
“What happened?”
“He was watching the news, and the reporter did a story about your brother, Adam, bringing in a fugitive wanted in a high-profile case. Adam told about the Knight Agency, and he mentioned that his younger brother was serving in the navy SEALs but was arriving home on leave soon. I made the mistake of saying that I was glad you had pursued your goal, and Kyle went wild. He accused me of still being in love with you and of plotting to meet you when you came home on leave. That’s the first night I had to go to the hospital.”
Lucas’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She waved her hand in dismissal. “It wasn’t your fault. I’d made the mistake of marrying him. After that, though, things got worse.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
She shrugged. “I tried to once, but he found me and brought me back. That was one of the worst beatings. He told me if I ever left again, he’d kill me. He hired a maid after that to keep tabs on me. She reported every little thing I did to Kyle.”
Lucas squeezed her hand tighter and then released it. “I’m so sorry you had to endure this. I wish I could have helped you.”
“It’s okay, Lucas. I’ve been alone for so long that I don’t expect much from anybody anymore.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she could barely make out his image even though he sat next to her. “But, please, help me now. I’m never going to be free of Kyle and the life he made me live until his killer is caught.”
He smiled at her, and for the first time in years she felt some hope. Maybe she could overcome the fear she’d lived in for so long.
“Don’t worry, Mia. I’ll help you, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find this guy and keep you safe from him.”
Her eyes filled with tears again. “I was so afraid to come here. I didn’t know if you’d even listen to me. I can never tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
Telling Lucas about her life hadn’t been easy, but she felt better, almost as if a dam had burst and all the memories that threatened her sanity had poured out. Maybe this was the beginning of a new life for her. She hoped so.
She had no idea what she’d do once Tony Chapman was back in jail where he belonged, but at least she’d be free. Free to go and do as she pleased. And free of everything that tied her to the past. And Lucas was going to make that happen.
THREE (#ulink_17a8b7db-8f83-5b71-8d5d-558b87629577)
Lucas walked to the window in the living room and stared outside. The discovery of what Mia’s marriage had been like had almost sucked the breath out of him. He raked his hand through his hair and groaned. Even if he had spent the past seven years trying to come to grips with the anger he’d felt for her, he would never have wanted her to endure what she’d had to go through.
He glanced around. She still sat on the sofa, her eyes downcast and her hands clasped in her lap. He’d thought she looked like a waif when she’d arrived. Now he realized she was a battered woman. Not only had Kyle hurt her physically, he had hurt her emotionally, and Lucas had no idea how to deal with it.
However, he did know how to deal with danger, and, from what Mia had told him, she was in a lot of danger right now. The one thing he still hadn’t figured out was how Mia’s caller had known she was at his house. If he hadn’t followed her here, he had to have some way of keeping tabs on her. The answer hit him, and he groaned again.
“Of course. The car.” He whirled around from the window and ran to the door. “I’ll be right back,” he called over his shoulder to a startled Mia.
Once outside he headed straight to Mia’s car. It took only a few minutes to find the GPS tracker attached by a magnet to the inside fender of the back left tire. He pulled the tracker out, and an uneasy fear slowly curled through his body. When Mia had first begun to tell her story, he hadn’t believed the threat to her to be that severe. Now, with Mia’s account of the attack at her home, the threatening phone calls and a GPS tracker on her car, he knew it was serious. Deadly serious.
He stared down at the device in his hand before turning it off. Then he closed his fingers around it as he reentered the house. Mia stood just inside the front door, waiting for his return. When he walked in, her eyes grew wide. He motioned toward the living room. “Let’s go back in there.”
He followed her into the room and stopped when she turned to face him. A puzzled expression flickered in her eyes. “Why did you go to my car?”
Lucas opened his hand. “To look for this.”
She took one glance at what he held and frowned. “Wh-what is that thing?”
“It’s a GPS device that was attached to your car. That’s how your caller knew where you’d gone. As long as you kept using your car, he’d have known where you were at all times if I hadn’t found it. I think we need to go to the police and tell them Chapman is stalking and threatening you.”
“No!” A panicked look flashed across her face, and she glanced around as if in search of an escape route. “I can’t go to the police. He said if I did, I’d end up with three bullet holes in my head.”
Lucas reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to an abrupt stop. “We have to, Mia. My brother-in-law, Ryan Spencer, is a detective on the force. You don’t have to go to the police station. I’ll call him and have him come over here.”
Mia tried to pull away from him. “I can’t. I’m afraid,” she cried out.
Lucas clamped his hands on her shoulders and stared down into her eyes. “I know you’re afraid, and I understand. You’ve been through things in the past seven years that would have destroyed a weaker woman. But you’re not weak, Mia. And you’re not alone anymore. I’ll help you face this.”
She shook her head. “I’m not the same woman you once knew, Lucas. I can’t do this. Maybe it’s better if I just let Tony Chapman finish what Kyle tried to do many times—kill me.”
A lock of hair had fallen across her forehead, and he reached up and gently smoothed it back into place. “You don’t mean that.”
She closed her eyes, and a tear ran down her cheek. “I do. I’m tired and scared, and I just want this to be over.”
Lucas put his finger tip under her chin and tilted her face up. “Look at me, Mia.” When she didn’t respond, he nudged her again. “Please look at me.”
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes and swallowed as she stared up into his face. “What?”
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
She gave a slight nod. “Yes.”
“Then you need to do exactly as I say. I’m going to keep you safe from Tony Chapman, but we have to report this to the police. Now, I want you to sit back down on the couch while I call Ryan. When he arrives, you can tell him your story. Then we’ll figure out where we go from here. Okay?”
After a moment she nodded, and he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stepped back into the hallway to make the call. His brother-in-law answered right away. “Ryan,” Lucas said, “I need to ask a favor of you.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“I have a new client who’s in trouble, and she needs to talk to the police but doesn’t want to come to the station. Can you come over to my house?”
“I can. I’m on my way home now and can stop by, if that’s okay.”
“That’s great. We’ll see you soon.”
He ended the call and walked back into the living room where Mia sat on the couch again. “Did you talk with Ryan?”
“I did. He’s on his way. Would you like something to eat while we’re waiting?”
She shook her head. “No. I just want to get this over with.”
Lucas sat down beside her on the sofa. Mia shivered, and she reached for the afghan once more. “Are you cold?” Lucas asked. “Do I need to turn up the thermostat?”
“No. I think it’s just nerves,” she said as she wrapped the afghan around her.
There had to be some way to make her relax. He said the only thing he could think of. “Mia, I’m sorry I was curt with you earlier when you asked about my parents. They’re doing well.”
She turned her head toward him and smiled. “Really? That’s good to know.”
“In fact, they’re doing great. Dad’s enjoying retirement, but Mom still works part-time as a nurse. We all had dinner together at their house last night.”
“All?”
“Yeah. Adam got married about a year and a half ago. His wife, Claire, works as the receptionist at the agency for us. They’re expecting their first child in a few weeks. My sister, Jessica, married Ryan Spencer, the guy we’re waiting for, about six months ago. She works with us, but she was Ryan’s partner before she left the police force.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Mia’s lips. “That sounds like a wonderful family group.” She hesitated a moment before she spoke again. “And what about you? Is there someone special in your life?”
Lucas chuckled and shook his head. “If you mean a woman, then the answer is no. If, on the other hand, you meant to say something special, then you must be referring to my motorcycle, and the answer is yes.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners the way he remembered as she giggled. “Oh, Lucas, you always could make me laugh.”
The chiming of the doorbell sounded before he could reply, and he jumped to his feet. “That must be Ryan.”
When he opened the front door, Ryan hurried into the house. “It’s getting colder by the minute. I hope I don’t get called out on a case tonight. I’m looking forward to spending a quiet night at home.”
“I’d like to do that myself,” Lucas said, “but I don’t know about that at the moment.”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow as he shrugged out of his coat. “You said you have a new client? What’s going on?”
Lucas hesitated a few seconds as Ryan hung his coat on the hall tree. “It’s kind of complicated,” he said.
Ryan glanced toward the living room and then back to Lucas. “How?”
Lucas cleared his throat. “Has Jessica ever said anything to you about Mia Lockhart?”
Ryan nodded. “She’s mentioned her. She was your girlfriend in college. Right?”
“Yeah. Well, she’s in trouble, and I think the police need to know about it.”
He led Ryan into the living room where Mia sat on the couch, her hands clasped in her lap. A worried expression covered her face, and her fingers trembled. She glanced from Ryan to Lucas as they entered. Ryan stepped over to the couch and held his hand out.
She reached up and shook his hand, and he settled on the couch next to her. “Mia, I’m Ryan Spencer, Lucas’s brother-in-law. I’m a detective with the police department. Lucas said you’re in trouble. Do you want to tell me about it?”
Her gaze darted to Lucas and then back to Ryan as she grasped the edge of the afghan and pulled it up to her neck. “Are you familiar with the Kyle Lockhart murder case?” she asked.
Ryan nodded. “I am. I know the detectives working the case against Tony Chapman. He must have some friends in high places if they were willing to post such a high bail. It didn’t surprise us when he jumped bail.”
“Kyle was my husband, but I never met Tony Chapman until after Kyle was killed,” she said.
Lucas settled back and listened as Mia began to tell her story to Ryan, who made notes on a pad while she talked. From time to time he would ask a question, and she would respond. When she finished, Mia leaned back against the cushions of the sofa as if she was exhausted. Throughout her story, she hadn’t mentioned anything about the abuse she had suffered from her husband. Maybe she thought the police already knew, since it was a matter of public record.
Ryan glanced over the notes he’d taken before he looked back at Mia. “And you have no idea what Chapman wants from you?”
“No.” Her eyes grew wide, and the muscles in her throat rippled as she swallowed. “If I knew, I’d give it to him just to get rid of him. But I have no idea what it is.”
Ryan flipped the notebook closed and inhaled. “It seems that he’s determined to get whatever it is. Lucas did the right thing in getting you to talk to me. The police have been looking for Chapman, and we have some leads we’re checking out. With Lucas on the case, too, hopefully it won’t be long until he’s caught. Until that time you need to be in a safe place. It doesn’t sound like you should go home. Are there any family members you can stay with?”
Mia shook her head. “No. I told Lucas I could go to a hotel.”
Ryan glanced at Lucas. “That’s probably best. Maybe it will only take a few days for us to have him back in custody. Why don’t you check into a hotel but stay in close touch with Lucas? We’ll keep you posted on developments.”
Lucas frowned. “Do you really think a hotel is a good idea?”
“There’s nowhere else I can go, Lucas,” Mia interrupted as she rose to her feet. “I’ve taken up too much of your time today. I’ll find a hotel and let you know where I’m staying.”
Lucas jumped to his feet, too, and shook his head. “No, I don’t want you to go alone. I’ll go with you and get you settled somewhere.”
“Lucas, you don’t have to—” she began.
“I think he should go with you, Mia,” Ryan interrupted as he rose. “It’s always better to be safe.”
She shrugged. “Okay. If you think that’s best.”
Ryan turned to Lucas. “I’ll check with you in the morning, but let me know if you need anything else tonight.”
“I will,” Lucas said as he ushered Ryan toward the door. “Tell Jessica I may be late getting to the office in the morning. I’ll make sure Mia’s okay before I come in.”
“Will do.”
Lucas closed the door behind Ryan and turned back to the living room. Mia still stood in front of the couch, her hands clasped in front of her. Her lips trembled as a slight shiver rippled through her body. Lucas stopped in front of her and frowned. “Are you okay?”
She sucked in her breath and blinked. “Yeah, just tired. Except for my nap earlier, I haven’t slept much in the last few days.”
“Then let’s get you to a hotel. You can order some room service and get settled for the night. I think we should leave your car here. If Chapman comes by to check on it after he realizes his tracker has been turned off, he’ll see it and think you’re still here.”
“Okay.” Her purse lay on the coffee table, and she reached for it just as a chime alerted her from the phone inside that a text had arrived. She looked up at him, a startled expression on her face, before she pulled the phone out. She stared down at the text, and then her body began to shake.
“What is it?” Lucas asked.
The phone slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor. Lucas reached down, picked it up and read the words of the message. I told you not to talk to the police.
Mia’s hand clutched at her throat, and her head shook from side to side in denial. “How does he know I talked to the police?”
“I don’t know,” Lucas muttered, “but he does. We need to get you out of here right away.”
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the kitchen and out the door into the enclosed garage. Opening the back door of his car, he pushed Mia inside. “Lie down on the seat and don’t sit up until we get to the hotel.”
Then he jumped in the driver’s seat, started the engine and raised the automatic garage door. As he backed out to the street, he scanned both ways in hopes of seeing a car where Chapman might be hiding, but he saw nothing unusual along either side of the street. A movement caught his eye as he shifted gears, and he glanced around to see the automatic garage door opening at the house of Mrs. Peterson, his elderly neighbor across the street. Where could she be going at this time of day? But sometimes when her daughter got off work, they met for dinner. She was probably headed to a restaurant right now to do that.
He dismissed the thought and turned his attention back to Mia, who lay in the backseat of his car. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ll be at the hotel in a few minutes.” He glanced in the rearview mirror once more as he turned the corner and pulled into the heavy afternoon traffic.
She didn’t say anything, and he sighed as he rubbed his hand across his eyes. Hopefully, he was doing the right thing in putting Mia in a hotel. It didn’t seem completely safe, but he didn’t know what else he could do. This had certainly turned out to be the most surprising day he’d spent in a long time, and it had brought up too many memories he’d tried to ignore for years.
Maybe Chapman would be caught soon, and Mia could return home. Then he could put her out of his mind again and get on with the life he’d built for himself.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later Lucas unlocked the door to a room on the second floor of a midtown hotel and held it open for Mia to walk past him. She stopped just inside the door and turned to him. “Thank you, Lucas, for getting this room for me. I’ll repay you.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. The agency will put it on your bill. For the time being, order your food from room service, and don’t leave this room.”
Her eyes blinked, and her breath hitched in her throat. For a moment she had almost forgotten that this was a business arrangement. Of course Lucas wasn’t helping her out of the kindness of his heart. She’d hired him to do a job for her, and this was just part of the services his agency supplied. His concern for her safety was no different than it would have been for any stranger who came to him for help.
She took a deep breath as a wobbly smile pulled at her lips. “I won’t leave the room.” She looked down at the jeans she’d been wearing since she left home. “Do you think it might be safe enough for me to go home tomorrow and get some clothes? If I’m going to be here for a while, I need to get some things.”
He pursed his lips and frowned. “I don’t know. We’ll talk again tomorrow. For now, call the concierge downstairs, and he’ll have anything you need sent up from the hotel’s shop. You can charge those to the room, also.”
“And you’ll add them to my bill?”
His face flushed, but he nodded. “Yes.”
She reached for the door handle and smiled again. “Thank you, Lucas, for all you’ve done for me today. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
A frown pulled at his brow. “Don’t you want me to come in and check out your room?”
“There’s no need in that. I’m sure it’s fine.”
He took a step back. “Then I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll come by before I go to the office.”
Mia nodded. “I’ll see you then.”
Without waiting for him to reply, she closed the door and stood staring at it, her hands clenched to her side. Should she have asked him to come in? After all, he’d opened his home to her today and tried to make her feel safe.
After a moment she shook her head. Keeping her safe was his job. He’d already told her that their relationship would be purely business. She and Lucas had taken different paths, and they were no longer that young boy and girl who’d once loved each other. She’d seen to that, and she didn’t think she would ever forgive herself for the choice she’d made.
With a sigh she walked over to the bed, sat down on the side and switched on the television with the remote. After a few minutes, she grew restless and wandered over to the window to look outside. The view of the parking lot behind the hotel left something to be desired.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything since Lucas had fixed her breakfast. She glanced at the desk in the room and spied a coffeepot. A cup of coffee and a sandwich was just what she needed. Once she had the coffee brewing, she called room service and sat down on the bed to flip through the channels to find something to watch. She’d just settled on a public television documentary when a knock sounded at the door. She glanced at her watch. No way could room service already be here.
She eased off the bed, tiptoed to the door, and leaned against it in hopes of hearing movement in the hall. When she heard nothing, she called out. “Who is it?”
“Maid service, ma’am. I need to put some clean towels in the bathroom,” a man’s voice called out.
Mia glanced at the closed door to the bathroom and frowned. She hadn’t looked in there yet. Maybe the maids were behind schedule today and hadn’t left towels earlier. She remembered seeing a man cleaning a room down the hall when she and Lucas had arrived earlier. Still, Lucas had told her to be careful before opening the door.
She took a deep breath. “Just leave them outside the door,” she said.
“I can’t do that, ma’am. The manager would fire me if he found out. I’ll only be a minute. Quick in and out.”
Mia reached for the doorknob and then pulled her hand away. She leaned forward and peered through the peephole into the hallway. A maid’s cart piled high with clean towels and linens sat in front of her door. She couldn’t see the man, but she caught a glimpse of his arm with towels draped over it. Underneath the towels she noticed a jacket like the one she’d seen on the hotel employee earlier.
She grasped the knob again and pulled the door open a few inches. “Okay, come on...”
Before she could finish her sentence, the door flew open, striking her in the chest with such a force that it knocked her backward where she landed like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Shaking her head to dispel her blurred vision, she scrambled backward as she stared up into the angry face of Tony Chapman. He slammed the door behind him and took a menacing step toward her.
“We meet again, Mrs. Lockhart,” he snarled as he came nearer. “You went to the police after I warned you not to. I hope you remember what I told you.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she shook her head. “Please, leave me alone. I’ve told you I don’t know what you want.”
A sinister smirk creased his mouth. “I think you do. Maybe you just need a reminder. Get up.”
“P-please,” she begged. “I don’t know...”
“Get up! Don’t make me kill you right here.”
Mia pushed to her feet and held a hand out in front of her as she backed farther away from him. “You need to get out of here before I scream for help.”
He laughed and took another step. “Scream and it’ll be the last sound to come out of your mouth.” He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a gun and aimed it at her. “Now do as I say. We’re going to walk downstairs and out of this hotel. I will be right beside you with a gun in your ribs, and if you so much as raise an eyebrow to anybody, I’ll kill you and whoever you try to alert. Do you understand?”
Mia’s wide eyes stared down at the gun in Tony’s hand, and she believed him. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill her or anybody they came in contact with. She took a step backward and stopped as she bumped into the desk. “I’m not going with you.”
“Oh, yes, you are.”
She shook her head. “If I leave with you, I’ll just be putting other people in danger. And if you kill me now, you’ll never find out what you want to know. I can’t very well tell you anything if I’m dead.”
His eyes sparkled, and he took a step nearer. “So you do know where it is.”
She lifted her chin and stared at him. “I didn’t say that. But you don’t know whether I do or not. If you kill me, you’ll always wonder if I did.”
An angry scowl covered his face, and he stormed toward her. “Tell me what you know right now, or I’m pulling this trigger.”
He raised the gun, and she took a deep breath as she stared at the barrel pointed at her head. Taking another deep breath, she reached behind her, her fingers groping across the surface of the desk. He took one more step, and she clamped her fingers around the handle of the coffeepot.
“You’re going to be sorry you messed with me,” he muttered as he racked the first bullet into the semiautomatic gun’s chamber.
“No, you’re the one who’s going to be sorry,” she snarled.
Her hand whipped around as she hurled the scalding contents of the coffeepot at his face. A howl of pain rumbled from his throat, and his hands grabbed at his face. The gun tumbled to the floor.
Mia didn’t hesitate but pushed past him and ran for the door. “Come back here!” he screamed as she ran into the hall.
The linen cart still sat outside her door, and she pushed it closer to the entrance to her room in hopes of delaying him. Behind her she could hear him yelling obscenities at her as he tried to follow.
She looked down the hall and decided her best avenue of escape was down the steps. She ran toward the stairs as fast as she could go. The sound of the door to her room crashing against the wall sent a wave of terror through her, but she didn’t look back. At the end of the hall an exit sign above a door blinked its welcome to her, and she pushed through it like a speeding rocket. Her foot slipped as she hit the first step going down, and she stumbled, barely managing to grab the handrail.
Pain shot up her leg from her ankle, but she couldn’t slow down. Escape was just a few feet away. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach when the door at the top of the stairs crashed open, and a man’s footsteps echoed on the first steps.
She staggered down the last two steps and launched herself at the door leading into the lobby. The security officer near the hotel’s front door looked around in surprise as she plowed into the room. She stumbled toward him.
“Help me!” she cried. “There’s a man trying to kill me!”
The officer’s eyebrows arched as he stared past her. Before he could get his gun from the holster, a shot rang out, and he toppled to the floor. Mia glanced over her shoulder and screamed at the sight of Tony behind her, rage on his face evident under the red burn marks. He glared and pointed his gun at her.
Mia put up her hands and glanced around the lobby. Scared guests sat huddled in chairs and on the floor as they watched Tony stride closer to her. She backed away until she was beside the concierge’s desk. His muffled voice drifted up from beneath the desk where he crouched on the floor. Her heartbeat quickened as she realized he was on the phone with the police.
Tony must have heard him, too, because he fired one shot at the desk. A groan followed by silence sent chills racing up Mia’s spine. A woman across the lobby screamed, and Tony turned the gun in her direction.
Mia knew it was now or never. The front door was only a few feet away. If she ran, Tony might follow her and leave the others in the lobby alone. And she might be able to evade capture until the police arrived. She had only a split second to decide before he shot the woman who had yelled.
Breathing a quick prayer for God to watch over all of them, she turned and bolted for the front door.
FOUR (#ulink_5d8cb2d4-21d0-5326-a07b-b48afc8e9007)
Lucas pocketed the receipt for the gasoline he’d just purchased, climbed back in the car and turned the key in the ignition. Good thing he’d noticed the gas gauge had been nearing empty when he left the hotel. He felt more comfortable knowing his vehicle was ready to go if he received an urgent call in the middle of the night.
He’d just put the car in gear when his cell phone rang. Ryan’s name and number flashed on the caller ID on the vehicle’s dashboard screen. With a frown he connected the call.
“Hey, Ryan. What’s up?”
“Where are you, Lucas?”
Lucas stiffened at the curt tone. “I left Mia at the hotel, and now I’m headed home. I stopped for gas. Why?”
“Because I’m at the house of Mrs. Peterson, who lives across the street from you. Her daughter came home from work and found her mother tied to a chair in the living room. She’s been held prisoner in her home all day by a man who’s been watching your house from her front window.”
“What?” Lucas shouted.
“Yeah, he stole her car and left nearly an hour ago. The EMTs are getting ready to take her to the hospital, but I pulled up Tony Chapman’s picture on my cell phone. She identified him as the man.”
Lucas’s stomach clenched. This explained how Chapman knew Ryan had come to his house. The memory of seeing Mrs. Peterson’s car pulling out of her garage flashed into Lucas’s mind, and he sucked in his breath. How could he have dismissed what he’d seen without checking on it? He hadn’t even looked to see if Mrs. Peterson’s car had followed him to the hotel. He had to get to Mia right away. But he might already be too late. If his negligence had caused anything to happen to her, he would never forgive himself.
“I’m heading back to the hotel,” he yelled as he floored the accelerator and did a quick turn onto the street from where he had just come.
Swerving in and out of traffic, his hand pressed to the car’s horn and his caution lights blinking, he drove like a madman toward the hotel. Behind him he could hear sirens. The police had to be after him for speeding. Good. He increased his speed. Now to lead them right to the hotel.
He roared into the hotel driveway and screeched to a stop at the front door. He was out of the car by the time the engine died. Suddenly the front door of the hotel swung open, and Mia ran outside, her face a mask of terror.
Her eyes grew wide when she saw him. “Lucas!” she screamed. “Tony Chapman’s after me.”
He reached her in two steps, grabbed her by the arm and propelled her behind him. He held her with one arm protectively as he shielded her with his body and pulled his gun from its holster with his other hand. Behind him three police cars and two ambulances came to a halt, and suddenly officers swarmed around them.
“Where is the shooter, ma’am?” one of the men asked.
Mia raised a shaking hand and pointed toward the hotel entrance. “Inside.”
Lucas glanced at the door, and the image of a man holding a gun was visible through the glass. A surprised look flashed on his face before he turned and disappeared from sight.
Mia had seen the same thing. “That’s him!” she screamed.
The police officers fanned out, some going around the side of the hotel and others toward the door. As they moved forward, their guns drawn, Lucas pulled Mia back toward his car. Two EMTs jumped from each of the ambulances, and the four crouched low as they followed the lawmen to the door. Evidently they expected a large number of injuries and had come prepared. Within minutes all of them disappeared into the building.
Lucas pulled Mia around to the far side of his car, using the vehicle as somewhat of a shield for them. He stopped beside the car’s back door, shoved his gun in its holster and grasped her by both arms. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, and then it was as if the fight went out of her body. She sagged and would have dropped to the ground if he hadn’t been holding her. His grip on her tightened, and he pulled her to him. She clutched his jacket with both hands and buried her face in his chest as she sobbed. He wrapped one arm around her waist and held her as his other hand stroked the back of her head. She’d taken her hair down from its earlier ponytail, and the strands felt like silk slipping through his fingers. He swallowed at the memory that hit him in the pit of his stomach, but he couldn’t pull his hand away.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered. “It’s over now. The police will catch him.”
“H-he shot two people inside, and he was going to kill me.”
A shiver went through her, and her fingers tightened on his coat. After a moment she quieted, and he loosened his hold on her. “Tell me what happened.”
She took a deep breath and pulled away. Another tear trickled from her eye, and she swiped at it with her fingers. “I shouldn’t have opened the door,” she said.
He listened as she told him what had transpired in her room after he had left. When she’d finished, he shook his head in regret. “I shouldn’t have brought you here and left you alone. I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I didn’t think it would be so easy for him to find me.”
Lucas exhaled. “I’m afraid that’s my fault, too.”
Her eyes grew wide as he related what Ryan had told him on the phone. “So, I made a mistake, and you almost died because of it,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Mia, but I promise you it won’t happen again. I’m going to protect you until this guy is caught.”
At that moment the hotel door opened, and one of the policemen walked outside. Mia straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Maybe they already have captured him.”
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Sandra Robbins
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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